What We’re Working On

 We have a couple more quilts on the go for our Prayers and Squares group. I finished a nice bright baby quilt. It has a bright and fun backing too which used up a couple of partial yards of fabric. I then started a pinwheel quilt using up strips from the 3 1/2 inch bin here at home. The blocks will be sashed in black with yellow cornerstones which will go nicely with the controlled scrappy colour scheme of red/yellow/grey. The black sashings will tone down the squares that have a wilder background on them. I will also be quilting this one quilt as you go style. 

I’ll link up to Mid Week Makers

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I won the game of chicken I was playing between myself and the yarns for my sweater. I finished the body and the short sleeves with just the smallest little balls left of each colour. Whew!! I have one more round of the green to do on the second sleeve and the I can go and start to pick up the stitches around the bottom of the sweater for the green contrast band. Maybe after this sweater is done I’ll go back to my cross stitching. Or maybe, since I’ve enjoyed doing this sweater so much, I’ll dig around in my yarn tote and find some yarn to make another. I’ll have to wait and see. Sometime soon, I hope, the warm weather will get here. We have ordered a small screen shelter that can be set up on our deck. Hopefully it will provide protection from those nasty black fly bitting critters so I can spend the nice days outdoors. It should arrive sometime this week. Hopefully there will be a nice day where we can set it up and try it out before those nasty critters arrive to drive us nuts. They are the only down side to living up here in lovely Muskoka. Thankfully, their season only lasts for about 6 weeks, May into June, and the rest of the time is pure beauty. 

Anyhow, I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then perhaps put on an audiobook and take some stitches in the quilting of My Tweets.

What we’re working on

 I have a couple of more quilts to show from our Prayers and Squares group. There is a quarter square log cabin style quilt. We had a new lady come and join us. She is very quiet and focused. She put this quilt together over the course of 2 weeks. 

I finished the second of the flying geese quilts, but I don’t have a picture of the finished quilt. Here’s a teaser. 

And then I’ve started another one, using bright and fun colours out of the bin of 3 1/2 inch strips. I’m in the process of doing the quilt as I go on the blocks and then using narrow strips to put it together. It is going to need a border. It’s only 39 inches wide right now. The back is going to be as fun and bright as the front. More on that maybe by next week.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I finished the body of my sweater using the two skeins of yarn last evening. So far I am winning the game of yarn chicken, but I still have the short sleeves to finish. It’s going to be close. It also still has a band of the contrasting green that needs to be added to the bottom to bring it up to a wearable length. Aside from this sweater, there hasn’t been a lot of slow stitching happening here. My Tweets needs some attention before I can add another picture of it since it looks much the same as the last time. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I had forgotten from many years ago, how much I enjoy the hand quilting process. It is slow and steady, just the quiet of the rocking needle. Sometimes it is accompanied only by the quiet around me, sometimes by watching something on the computer, sometimes by listening to a good audiobook. I would say that I have at least a quarter of the centre block finished now. The callus on the finger that I use on the underside of the quilt to feel the needle come through is getting thicker, so I can quilt for longer. I am quilting in the ditch around the appliqué shapes, which doesn’t show up on the photo, and then the background lines approximately 1 inch apart.

Later on in the evenings I am still working on my sweater. I may end up with a game of chicken between the amount of yarn I have left and the end of the sweater. I hope I don’t have to order more yarn because I have lost or thrown out the identifying tags for the colours, although I do know the brand. I could always do a fade type thing if I had to, I suppose. I’ll do a few more inches on it and then make a decision to order more yarn.

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

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What we are working on

 We have been very productive at Prayers and Squares lately. However I haven’t been very good at getting pictures of what we’ve been doing. We’ve gotten a couple of 3 years quilts done. One using a very pretty floral fabric with some coordinates. Pat’s face can be seen peeking over the top of that one.

And another using a panel of butterfly squares also using some coordinating fabrics. We also finished the star quilt using up some wildlife fabrics. The centre of the stars have moose and bears and Canada geese in them There is more of this fabric left, so I have plans for it.While browsing on pattern websites I found a pattern that I absolutely love which uses multiple sizes of flying geese.  The pattern is called Got Geese. 
I love making flying geese units, so I found some odds and ends of earth tone fabrics and started in on the making a couple of weeks ago. It grabbed my attention so strongly that I now have it done, other than an outer border. And that new one using up the wildlife fabrics, I have an Electric quilt mock up for it. The geese are almost all made and ready to sew into the blocks. That’s all the news I have from our group. I’ll link up to Mid Week Makers

Slow Sunday Stitching

 My sweater continues to grow. I’ve separated off the sleeves and have about 2 inches of the body done. But the really exciting piece of slow stitching is the start of the background quilting on My Tweets. It is going faster than I thought it would. The amount here was done in an afternoon. I don’t have any calluses built up on my fingers yet, so I had to quit as the finger under the quilt was getting quite sore, as was my wrist. I haven’t been able to get back to it, due to our grand daughter being off for March break and also the now almost finished reno of my room. The ceiling is in and the baseboards are going in today. There is still all the tapeing and mudding and sanding of the drywall seams in the ceiling, but I suspect that is not going to happen for quite a while yet.

I’ll link up to Kathy'sSlow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Most of my slow stitching this past week has been knitting. I’m making really good progress on my Walk Along T-shirt/sweater. The helical knitting technique that blends the two different skeins of yarn is working beautifully. It’s not even noticeable that the light colours are two different yarns in there. They are close enough in colours that they blend quite nicely. I am getting so close to the dividing point of taking the sleeve stitches off the needles. After that it will go even faster.

I also have taken just a few hand quilting stitches into My Tweets. It is in a new hoop and stand that is quite comfortable to use. I’m still trying to decide what I am going to do in the backgrounds. I have a few ideas and I picked up some painters tape to help with the straight lines I am thing of. But until I have a firm idea I don’t want to do too much on it only to maybe have to take it out. I just realized that I never posted a picture of the finished top. Here it is. It was difficult to get the whole thing into a picture, so it is slightly crooked.

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching.

 My main focus this past week, besides finishing up some Prayers and Squares quilts, has been getting My Tweets  ready for the basting and hand quilting stage. I got all the missing leaves added to the centre block and last evening started putting it all together with the sashing fabric I purchased a couple of weeks ago. Oh how I am loving this!! I took it with me to the Prayers and Squares group on Thursday so that I could lay it out and get an idea of placement of the blocks and distribution of colours. I took a picture to remind myself of the decision. I would love to be able to get the rest of this sewn together today. After that I’ll have to get a big table set up so I can layer and baste it ready for hand quilting. I bought myself a new stand and hoop from Amazon - this one here. It is currently still in its box waiting assembly. If I get as far as getting this layered today, that will have to be the next step. It is all very exciting.

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

What we are working on.

 This past week for Prayers and squares saw 3 quilt as you go tops finished and ready for binding. The two Baby Bently quilts are done. And then another quilt made with a forest animal themed border print is done as well. I’ve made a start on another one that is using a fabric in the centre of the stars that also has forest animals in it. However, I've run out of batting so I can’t go any further on this one. I’ve used up every small scrap I had here. I’m hoping to pick up more batting off the roll at the church tomorrow, providing we are able to get together then. The weather here has taken a really nasty turn, from spring pouring rain this morning to flash freezing temperatures and snow tonight.  We’ll make a decision tomorrow.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I finished my Frankensocks this past week, and even got the toes grafted and all the ends woven in. That is the step that usually just sits and ends up procrastinated. So that’s done and I can even wear them today.  I’ve had a couple of coordinating skeins of Alegria fingering yarn sitting here for quite a while. There was enough to do a scarf or shawl, but I don’t really need another scarf or shawl and there wasn’t enough to do a sweater and matching either of the skeins was going to be difficult. My dear friend Gail, aka The Cozy Quilter, gave me a gift certificate to a local yarn store here in Huntsville, just 5 minutes down the road, so I got the idea to see if there was anything there that would coordinate that I could use to do alternate rounds in a sweater to make a combined fabric. It turns out that there was. So I got the skeins wound up into cakes and started on the sweater yesterday. I think it is going to work really well. I already had the green and the light yarn with the greens and orange in it. The skein I picked up has all the colours of the top skein, minus the green. While I was in the yarn shop, because I had explained to her what I was planning on doing, the sales lady mentioned a technique called Helical knitting that seamlessly blends alternating yarns together. I did a you tube search and the technique works really well.

I also had big plans this past week to take the centre block of My Tweets to the church where there are large cutting matts that I could use to trim it up to the right size. It occurred to me that I should check the block against the picture of the pattern just to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. It turns out that it is missing quite a few leaves. So those will have to be done before I can trim it and start adding on the sashing and the other blocks. Getting the leaves traced and ready for appliqué is going to be part of today’s slow stitching. 

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

What we are working on

 As usual, our Prayers and Squares group is busy. It seems as soon as we get a quilt done there is a recipient for it. So for the past 3 meetings 2 of us have been going through our fabrics and cutting for kits. I think we now have about 8 kits fully cut and ready for assembly. That should help with getting them quickly sewn together. In the past it has always been a challenge to pull together something for everyone to work on. Hopefully this will help. We had a few more quilts go out this week. Two quilts for little toddlers and 2 adult lap quilts.

In the meantime I brought home some of the kits so I could work on them here, I found a cute, but simple to sew together quilt called Baby Bently. It actually took longer to cut out than to sew. We had some of the Forest animals border panels left and they fit perfectly into this design. I also had some cat border panel fabrics here that worked well for this design. There are side borders of migrating geese to add to the woodland panels and then it will be ready to hand off to someone else for binding. It was done in the quilt as you go method which makes quilting these on domestic machines much easier. 

I’m linking up to Mid Week Makers

Slow Sunday Stitching

 What is the saying about the best laid plans? I had plans to get all the hand stitching done on My Tweets. Some friends and I went fabric shopping last Wednesday and I bought the fabrics for the sashing and backing for My Tweets. I had wanted to get the stitching finished and get a start on trimming up the blocks and adding the sashing to them. Not a stitch was done. Of course, I could blame it on the continuing renovations and the necessity of getting all my stuff out of the bedroom in order to lay the new floor which left very little time and no energy at the end of the day for anything except mindless sock knitting. Yep, that sounds good. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. So, one “frankensock" is done and the second one started. I’m almost to the second colour on the second sock.

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I haven’t made any further progress on the My Tweets block. I’ve stalled out for some reason, although I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s just I’ve been too tired in the evenings, which is when I do most of my hand stitching. I made a small start on my new cross stitch project, only to stall out on that as well. The chart is difficult to see and difficult to hold onto while stitching. I usually scan the charts into my computer and then import them into a knitting program I have called knit companion. However, the printer was unplugged, waiting for a place to put it; renovations you know, affect the most mundane things. However, the printer now has a place to live and I was able to get that chart uploaded. So I can perhaps do more on that in the days to come.

So what is a lady to do when there is nothing else to occupy her hands..... start a new pair of socks. I had some leftovers from various previous pairs of socks, all having shades of grey in them. So I got out my digital scale and divided them up into equal amounts for a pair of “frankensocks”. I don’t really need any more socks, although the ones I made when I first started into socks are getting thin at the toes and heels. I did do some research a while back on how to replace worn spots in socks, but I think I’d rather just make new ones. 

I’ll link up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 A finish for the My Tweets quilt blocks is so close. I prepped all the leaves for this last block and glue basted them into place. A few days of stitching shall finish it and then I can go fabric shopping for the sashing and backing. Then I will have to decided how to quilt it, since I know it is going to have to be done by hand. Perhaps a very simple cross hatch so the quilting won’t take away from the appliqué. The hand quilting means that this project will be in my Slow Sunday posts for quite some time to come yet.

Our kitchen renovations are now finished.....woohoo!! But, now the renovations are moving into the bedroom/sewing room. Which means emptying it out and getting it organized and doing some more purging. It will be lovely when it is done, but it is a bit of a nuisance getting there. I have 2 weeks before it needs to be empty for the floor to be done. I’m assigning myself a small section of the room every day or two so that I don’t end up feeling overwhelmed. And in the meantime I remind myself that the end is in sight.

I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

What we are working on

 Our little Prayers and Squares group continues to be quite busy. We have so many requests for quilts. As soon as we get one done it seems to have a person who needs it and out they go. It  is such a great ministry and such a marvellous way to be able to share this quilting addiction/obsession thing. We have 3 finishes, or near finishes this past week. There is a motorcycle themed quilt, a Maple Leaf quilt and a scrap happy quilt. The Maple leaf quilt is going to a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team fan. And the scrap quilt, which is from a Moda Pattern called Half Step. 

We meet again tomorrow, and I think the Maple leaf quilt will be getting its binding and then there is another top that needs layering and quilting. We are very busy and enjoy every minute of it.

I’ll link up to Mid week Makers

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I have made great progress with the 12th and last block of the My Tweets block of the month by Erin Russek. All the pieces, except the leaves are prepped and glue basted in place and the stitching is started. I’m hoping to have all of the appliqué sewn in place by the end of February. Then I can go shopping for sashing and backing. I suspect that this is going to end up hand quilted since I no longer have my long arm. It would need custom quilting to do it justice and there is no way I can afford to pay someone else to do it. Nor can I afford to rent time on a machine to do it. So hand quilting it is. The only other hand stitching I have done is to finish gridding my linen for my next cross stitch piece. But that is totally boring, so I won’t bother with a picture of the gridded fabric. I may get some actual cross stitching done this week and if I do I will post a picture of it next week.

I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I am almost finished block 11 of My Tweets, a block of the month quilt that dates all the way back to 2011, designed by Erin Russek. I picked this back up sometime back in December, so it’s taken a bit more than a month to get this block almost finished. There are just three circles left to stitch down up in the right hand corner and this one will go into the finished box of finished blocks. I’ve started gridding a new piece of linen for a new cross stitch piece. But I won’t bother with a picture of that since it’s not very interesting or exciting. 

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching in the morning.