Design Wall Monday

I’m continuing to work on my quilt using large scale floral fabrics. It is now about 2/3 of the way done. I posted a picture of this to Susan’s Facebook page and she asked me if it had a name and said that she thought it looked like flower boxes. Up until then it didn’t have a name. Now it does: Flower Boxes.



The next picture of it will have to be done after it is finished. Our couch and my sewing table block the bottom of my design wall from the camera. When the centre of the quilt is finished it will measure about 70x70. It’s going to need at least one border in order to tame all the outer bias edges. My inclination at the moment is to use the solid light blue. But that will depend on if I have enough of it left.
I’m not sure yet whether I’m going to stay indoors and sew or go outside and enjoy the glorious summer weather. Right now, summer is edging out the staying inside. I just might wind a hank of yarn that came in the mail today and then go outside and knit. Yep, that’s it, decision made. I’m linking up to Design Wall Monday.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I’m moving very slowly today. On Friday we picked up our annuals for the open area under one of the trees in the back yard. Yesterday was the day to start planting them. We got about half of them in before it was time to call it a day. Or to put it more accurately, until my body told me very loudly that it was time to call it a day. Well today that same body is making all kinds of nasty remarks, mostly referring to my lack of brain to think that it was a good idea to spend hours digging in the garden under the tree that was full of non yielding tree roots in order to plant the flowers. My recliner rocking chair, tylenol and heating pad are keeping me quite close company at the moment.

I’ve made considerable progress on my Grenadine Sweater. I’ve divided off for the sleeves and also changed yarn colours. The photo shoot location for the sweater is proof that I’m not moving too far. A great shot of the sweater on my lap top on my lap. (grin)

I’ll publish this post and link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then go back to more knitting.

Slow Sunday Stitching

What a weird Mother’s Day this is. No one seeing anyone outside of our homes. Added to that it feels like it is still winter. I’m pretty sure I saw some snow flakes drifting down earlier this afternoon. But still, I’d like to say Happy Mother’s Day to everyone in spite of everything.
I’m continuing on with knitting for my slow stitching. I’ve finished a third pair of socks for Abbie, our grand daughter. They work up really quickly. I can do a pair for her in the space of three or four days, depending on how long I work at it. And they have the added bonus of being fairly mindless to work on, not needing a whole lot of concentration. These still need the ends sewn in.
After I finished those socks I gave myself permission to start a new sweater from the fade sets of yarns I purchased not long ago. I did up a tension swatch. I love this yarn colour and the flecks in  it. The pattern I  am doing is called Grenadine. It is emphatically not a mindless knit. It had a new to me cast on for the neck ribbing which I really like and will probably use from now on. It also has cable stitching and increases in various rounds. I got involved in watching a program last night and forgot to do the increases in the round I was working on. So now I am in the tedious process of unknitting single cable stitches. This is what it looks like so far. Not much to see just yet. Slow stitching goes even slower when unstitching of the stitching is required. I’m going to link to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then finish the unstitching required.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I’ve finished the Open Skies sweater, although it still needs the ends sewn in and blocking. The i-cord bind off on the bottom of the sweater is curling a bit. I hope blocking will fix that. I wasn’t able to do as much lace on the bottom of the sweater as the pattern called for since I ran out of yarn and there is no more of it  to be had in our area. It’s a good length as it is even without the extra inch or two of lace at the bottom. Here’s the front,



 the  back,



and a close up of the lace detail on the sleeve.

 I haven’t got any  further yarn wound up so I’m doing an almost instant gratification thing of making socks for our grand daughter. She saw me give a pair to her mom and requested some of her own. I’ve done a pair of red ones for her, but gave them to her before getting a picture. I started this one last evening and got  this far in a couple of hours.



Self striping yarn is fun.
We picked up a couple  of flats of pansies yesterday from the garden centre and it’s a lovely afternoon, so I think I’m going to spend a little time digging in the dirt getting some of them into pots. I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

A finish....

According to this blog, I started the Stay at Home Round Robin at the end of March when I first saw the posting about it. I put the final border onto it on Tuesday. I think this is probably the fastest that I have ever made a bed sized quilt. It measures 75 x 75 inches.



All fabric used in it came from my stash. Some of it has been residing there for many many years. After finishing the last border I went looking for backing fabrics that fit the mood of the top. I found these two fabrics. I had enough of them to make the backing. The floral fabric has a copyright date of 2005 on the selvage. I suspect the one with the butterflies is even older than that. I’m so glad that fabric doesn’t have an expiration date. The long arm machine is currently without a quilt on it, so I’ll load this one today and get a start on it.
I’m linking up with Mid Week Makers and the Canadian Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday. I just discovered that the link to  the blog actually hosting the Round Robin is still live so I’ll link there too. Quilting Gail.

What I’m working on

I’ve got a couple of things going at the same time..... don’t we all? I’ve finished the “squares” round of the Stay at Home Round Robin.



 It now measures 60x60 inches. The next round assigned is stars. I know what I want to do so I’m hoping to get it started this afternoon.

I’m also working on getting all my old UFO quilt tops onto the long arm and quilted up. This one is a 36 patch quilt.



According to my history here on the blog it has been a finished top since July 2013. I’m doing a greek key type thing in each of the squares, so it is fairly dense quilting but it really doesn’t take all that long to go across the quilt.



It should be done by this time next week. By that time I’m hoping to have this Round Robin done and it can go on next for quilting.

I’m linking up to Mid Week Makers and to the Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday.

Slow Sunday Stitching

What’s a girl to do while staying home, not going anywhere or even venturing outside because it’s too cold and damp....... knit of course. Consequently I’ve gotten lots done on my Open Skies sweater. Here’s the front.



And the back.



 I love the lace and moss stitch on the back. It’s one of the things that attracted me to this particular pattern.

My new yarns arrived this week and with the exception of one skein, they all work together. I now have four blues that work together.
And three yellows that work together. Three skeins will do a sweater so I’m good with that. And I think I may have a little bit of yarn left from another project that might work with the yellows to stretch it a bit further. Of course, the other option, now that I have the yarns in my possession to see the colours would be to order one that I know would go. I’ll decide later.
In the meantime, I’ll post this, link to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then go get some lunch,