Design Wall Monday, Sept. 30, 2013

Well, today turned out a little differently than I had planned first thing this morning. I had a sewing day planned. I was going to put the last border on Orca Bay, and then lay it out on the lawn for pictures. But, sometime around noon, my husband had the weather network on, saw how beautiful it is supposed to be for the next few days, and suggested a day trip out to the Pinery Provincial Park to scope out and choose a campsite. I very enthusiastically agreed and off we went, and found a lovely campsite that we have booked for the next 4 days. We'll go up Tuesday morning, and come back Saturday. It's supposed to be warm and sunny all those days, and then turn wet and cooler Sunday.
So, all this means that, instead of a design wall, or a design lawn, I have a design ironing board.

I'm planning one more border for this, of about 4 inches, in the red.
Then, the other plan I had for today, was to start working on another UFO. I couldn't decide if I wanted to work on

Great Granny Squares,

Thanksgiving Leaves or

Meteor Showers.

So, I took my indecision, and texted Gail and asked her to choose one for me. This was before Scott turned on the Weather Network which prompted the impulsive trip to the Pinery. Her choice was Great Granny Squares. I was all prepared to go searching for it and start working on it, after I got those other borders sewn on.

Plan B for the next 4 days is to take the Thanksgiving leaves with me while camping. The only reason this one is going with me is because it as all together in one tote. I don't have to go looking for anything in order to work on it. (I really need to do this with all of my projects. It makes life so much easier) However, I will pull out the Great Granny Squares when we get home, and assign it as the next to be worked on until finished project. And somehow, it seems rather appropriate to take a project with fall leaf colours out camping in the fall leaf coloured campground. Although, truth be told, the leaves are just at the very beginning of changing. Everything out there is still mostly green, except for the sumac and the poison ivy, which are turning bright red. I had also hoped to be taking some new wool and a new sweater pattern called Pinery with me. But the new wool hasn't arrived yet, and that's probably a good thing. This way I will be forced to finish a couple of things before starting something else. Highly sensible, but no where near as much fun.
And now, I'm going to finish getting my sewing and knitting stuff together for leaving tomorrow, after I link up to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Stash Report week 39, 2013

This day has just flown by. I've spent it partly in the kitchen, using some of the tomatoes I canned earlier this summer for spaghetti sauce, and partly at the computer, blog surfing, and partly at the sewing machine putting borders onto Orca Bay. The last of the pieced borders is done and ready to go on. Then there will be 2 more borders added to it. It's going to be going to a new home for Christmas, and they need it for a bigger bed. The last of the pieced borders will go on tonight, or at least that's the plan. The other borders will go on in the next day or two. There will be progress pictures, maybe on the design lawn again, tomorrow. It's been warm enough today to have the windows open, and it's been lightly raining on and off. I love the sound of the rain in the leaves in the trees.

Used this week:                                           2.8 yards
Used this year:                                          104.45 yards
Added this week:                                          0 yards
Added this year:                                         163.55 yards
Balance:                                                        59.1 more yards in than out.

Yep, I think, to answer last week's question about whether I can get under 50 yards as a balance, that it is definitely do-able, as long as I don't rashly punch any buttons and order anything in the next little while. And, since Orca Bay should be finished this week, I need to think about which one should go on the finish list next.
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report.

On the needles.

This post was supposed to have been written yesterday. I had every intention of writing it yesterday. But, it was a gorgeous day outside, and I wanted to take advantage of it. So, I sat outside and knitted. I told myself that I'd do this after I came in from outside. When I came in, it was time for something to eat, so I said to myself, I'll write it after I have something to eat, after all, who can think when they are hungry. Then the pieces for the border of Orca Bay caught my eye, and I said to myself, I'll write the past after I do a few of the border sections. Next thing I knew, all the border pieces were done, which is great, and it was 11:30 at night. And this is how days go by without anything getting written here. So, today, before I do anything else, I will write this post.

 In my knitting, I am focusing on working on Dreambird. I did end up having to go out and buy another 50 gram skein of the grey for the feathers. I will keep going until I run out of either the pink or the grey. It's going faster now that I'm really familiar with the pattern, and there are too many hours invested in this thing to quit now, when it is over halfway done.

These pieces of a quilt to the left here are the culprits that distracted me last night, the border units for Orca Bay. Today, in addition to doing another feather or 2 on Dreambird, I'm going to start sewing these together and getting the borders onto that quilt.
I'm linking up to Judy's On the needles one day late.

A couple of customer quilts

I've been really remiss lately in sharing completed customer quilts. Some of them, I've even missed getting pictures. But I can share a couple here. Maureen brought me this lovely sampler to do.

 I did a light custom on it, with continuous curves in the piecing.

 Here's a close up of the center area. I just noticed that it is upside down. The stars in the center are inside hearts.

 Here's a closer view of the applique corners. The applique was stitched in the ditch and then echoed. This is a lovely quilt. It was a pleasure working on it.

 The other one I have to show right now, is Gail's Nine Patch Mystery, made from a pattern that I designed, from the guild's swap and mystery last year. This is the third one of these I've done. I love how they are all the same pattern, but they all look so different.

This is a closer view of the quilting. I used a pantograph called Fossil by Lorien quilting. I love the borders on Gail's version of this quilt, and the way she put left over nine patches in the corners of the borders.

Design Wall Monday, Sept. 23, 2013

Well, it really isn't a design wall. It's more like a design lawn? The lighting was good, and it was dry and sunny, so I got the pictures I wanted outside. Here is the Road to Brenham quilt in all it's wonderful finished-ness.

 I really enjoyed making this quilt. The instructions were clear, and in small enough doses to be able to finish each step in one day. I started this quilt around August 12th, and finished it yesterday, September 22. That's the fastest I've done a quilt in a long time, without getting sidetracked and putting it aside and starting something new. I think I like it. I wonder if I'll keep this up, finishing something before starting something else?




                                                                            Also on the design lawn this afternoon, is my version of Bonnie Hunter's Orca Bay. This one is going to get its borders on and finished in the next month. And I even know where the pieces are for the triangle borders, as well as the rest of the fabrics I need for finishing this one.
Unfortunately, this is as far as I've gotten today. Some very kind and generous person shared their cold germs with me about a week ago, and it's still hanging on and making me feel ready wrung out, with no energy. Even worse, it seems to be scrambling my thought processes. My brain feels like it's made of mush, not a great way to feel when using  sharp and pointy instruments, so I've spent today knitting. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday. I must say that I've spent a lot of time browsing the fun eye candy over there today.

Stash Report, week 38, 2013

I spent today finishing up this quilt. It is now done, with all nine borders added. I'll get a better picture of it tomorrow, when it's light out, and I can either hang it from the deck or spread it out on the grass. There simply isn't the space down here to spread it out, let alone good enough light to take a picture with. It feels god to have this done. This quilt generated the usage numbers this past week. For this coming week, I think I am going to dig out a UFO, and get it's borders made and on. Pics of it tomorrow as well.







Used this week:                               1.6 yards
Used this year:                             101.65 yards
Added this week:                              0 yards
Added this year:                           163.55 yards
Balance:                                         61.9 more yards in than out. I wonder if I can get that number down to 50 before the end of the year? I wonder if I should make that a goal?
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report

Dreambird Progress

I haven't made a lot more progress, but some. I'm up to 7 feathers. I have no idea how many more feathers I'll get out of this yarn. The ball of grey seems to be going down fast, but it might get twice as big as this. And, I suppose if I have lots of the fuschia left, I could always go get another ball or 2 of the grey, and use whatever is left for socks. The bigger this gets, the more I'm liking it.
I made the mistake yesterday of clicking on a link while reading this post , which makes it all Judy's fault. I ended up buying 12 skeins of this yarn, 6 each of 2 different colours, a green and a rusty red. I have plans for this yarn, because, it's impossible to look at yarn without looking at patterns. I have 2 sweaters that I really want to do. One is called Pinery, which is appropriate, since it is named after the park we go camping at a lot. We might be going there at the end of the month. If the yarn is here by then, wouldn't it be cool to be working on a sweater called Pinery at the Pinery? The second sweater is called Central Park Hoodie. I'm beginning to think I'm getting as bad with too many knitting projects as I am with quilting projects. I have a really bad case of start-itis. I need to get some finishes to go with it.

On the finish subject, I did get border number 1 onto Road to Brenham. Only 8 more to go.
I'm linking up to Judy's Dreambird Progress Report