It’s a plus....

I’m continuing to work on my class sample for a plus sign quilt. It’s about 2/3 done now. I’m hoping to have it finished in the next day or three or four so that I can get it to the store and she can start to advertise it. I’m taking pictures of the steps as I go for an instruction sheet. This is all I’ve done this past week, plus a bit of knitting. I finished off the fade Jacinta Shawl I was doing and also got it blocked. I’m much happier with the way it looks after blocking. I’m going to link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then get back to more plus signs.

Multiple stitcheries continue

So I’m continuing with my multiple stitchery disorder this week. But it seems to be a good thing because I’m getting lots accomplished. In fact I have a couple of finishes. First the Leo’s Ring class sample is done and ready to be delivered to the store hosting the class. 

The second finish is the embroidery I started last week. I’m enjoying doing these so much that I’ve started the second block in the series and am well on the way to having it finished. I just have to do the flower shapes. But they are going to take a while since there are a lot of sharp curves that will need very tiny stitches.

I was approached last week by yet another store in the area about doing a class. I don’t want to do duplicate classes since I don’t think that would be fair to the stores. Plus the stores are of a different feel, one being more “modern” focused than the other. With that in mind I’m in the process of designing and stitching yet another new English Paper Piecing sample. This one is using house shapes to achieve a plus sign. 

I’m also making good progress on my two “fade" knitting projects. I’m not completely thrilled with the fade transition in colours in the shawl. There is now too much of a contrast between the two yarns, but it is going to stay this way. The hank of yarn that is as yet unwound is the third colour. Once it is finished and blocked I think it will be OK. Certainly good enough to wear next winter under a coat as a very cozy scarf/shawl.

On the flip side, I am thrilled with the way the colours in my blue sweater are blending. This one is on the home stretch. I’m done with the medium blue on the body and will be going straight ahead with the dark until the body is done. I love this sweater design. I can see me making multiples of this one. This is the second I’ve started. I also rather enjoy the whole fade/transition thing using different yarns in the same sweater. This could become a trend in my knitting for the next while if for no other reason than to use up all the single hanks of yarn that I ordered in order to try and make the fade in the shawl work. I have four more different pinks now to use up.

I’m heading off now to do some more knitting. I’m linking up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching. I hope that all who celebrate Easter will have a wonderful day. We will be spending the morning with our Church family and then the afternoon and evening with family at home.

Multiple stitching personality disorder

I really do need to stop adding in new stitching projects. I definitely have a disorder of some sort. Some call it “startitis” which fits. But so does the title of this post..... multiple stitching personality disorder. Why do you ask???? Because I’ve started yet another hand stitching project. In my touring around blog land I came across this post from Jenny of Elefantz. In it she mentioned a friend of hers named Allie and provided a link to Allie’s blog which took me here which was a post about the final block in her series called Grow in Grace. That then took me to Allie's facebook page which I requested to join because Allie provides free embroidery patterns there.  I printed the pattern today



and got started with the stitching. 

I’m also continuing to work on the class sample that I started last week. All the components are made and just need to be stitched together. Another day or two should finish it.



And finally the other thing I’ve been working on fairly steadily is my EatSleepKnit second quarter fade sweater. It’s a pattern from Joji Locatelli called Spector. The colours in the picture aren’t quite right. The fade from the one colour to the other is actually more gradual than it seems in the picture. I love this pattern!!



So, after I finish writing this I have a decision to make.... what shall I work on for the rest of the evening? I’ll be linking up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching in the morning.

Edit: Last night I decided to keep on with the embroidery for a while before picking the knitting up again. The planter is done and I can move on to the greenery now. I’d forgotten just how much I enjoy doing the embroidery. It was actually the very first stitching I learned as a child. I remember my Mum getting a scrap of fabric and drawing a house on it and teaching me how to do the stem stitch. I used to take my allowance and buy the heat transfer patterns from the dime store..... Kresges if I remember correctly.... along with floss and pillow cases. Then I’d sit on our old front porch in the summer and stitch away. For that matter, it was my Mum who taught me to knit and to sew. I don’t have a lot of pleasant childhood memories, so these are precious. Does anyone else remember Kresges? They used to have the best hamburgers and cokes at the lunch counters.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I’ve had a slight change of plans as far as my knitting goes. I wanted to do the shawl Jacinta as a fade design as part of the Eat Sleep Knit second quarter challenge. I cast it on and started knitting away on the first of the month. I’ve gotten as far as changing to the second colour and that’s where the plans sort of fell apart. There isn’t enough of a contrast between the two yarns to show up as a fade from one colour to the next. And I think the third yarn I chose has too much of a contrast to fade properly. I think it will stripe rather than fade.  This is as far as I’ve gotten.  I kept on knitting for a couple of inches with the second yarn just to make sure that my suspicions that it wasn’t working were correct. Now I have to decide whether to rip back to the first colour. So, there may have been three more skeins of yarn ordered today that might work better......




In the meantime while I wait for the new yarn to arrive, I’ve chosen some different yarns for a different fade project. I’m going to make the sweater Spector out of these three blues. I’ve also been doing a bit of hand stitching on a new project. Judy has reopened her store Cornerstone Quilts and More and has asked if I’d be interested in teaching an English Paper Piecing class. I’m making up a class sample using some of the fabrics she has in her shop. I love the print on the white background. It’s very spring like. As soon as I have more information about times and dates, I’ll post them here and also my Facebook page. I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Connections

I’ve been working on my Connections project this past week and am making good progress. I’ve almost double the size of it. Or at least, I have the pieces made to double the size of it but they aren’t all sewn together yet. I’m hoping to get a good way towards that today. That should bring it up to measuring about 24 x 24 inches. The pieces are 1 1/4 inch hexagons, squares and 60 degree triangles. I have no idea how big this is going to get. I have lots of the 2 inch squares left that were gifted to me from friends, so I might just continue until those are gone.
I’ve been having lots of fun this year knitting as well as working on quilts. The store Eat Sleep Knit hosts quarterly knit alongs. The  next quarter challenge which starts tomorrow is to knit a Fade project. I have a couple I want to do. One is a sweater by Joji Locatelli called Spector. And the other is a shawl by Ambah O’Brien called Jacinta. I have one of the hanks of yarn for the Jacinta shawl wound already. I still have to do up the other 2, but I can at least get started on it tomorrow using the yarns shown in this picture. As far as the Spector Sweater, it will be from these colours starting with the lightest at the top of the sweater and progressing to the darkest at the bottom. These fade projects are rather addicting, I think. I have 3 months together them both done.

Of course by then it will be mid summer and way too warm to actually use them, but that is totally beside the point. As in quilting, the fun and challenge are in the making not the using.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Battle of the Stars and Connections

Things have been very slow here in the hand stitching realms. I’ve been doing a lot of knitting.. mindless and repetitive and relaxing. Just what my overwhelmed mind needed this past month. I have made a bit of progress on Battle of the Stars. I went to a hand sewing get together with three friends on Thursday afternoon and got quite a bit accomplished. Unfortunately I left the pieces for the last two units behind, so I can’t finish off this centre. I think I’ll use that as an excuse to go and work on Connections. I have a lot of partial units ready for this one so I may be able to show significant progress by this time next week. It’s quite a lot of fun to work on and requires not a lot of concentration so it should suit my frame of mind these days. I’ll be linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Battle of the Stars

If you recall, back in January I decided that I wanted to schedule a time period for each of the hand piecing projects I have on the go. Two weeks for Willyne Hammerstein projects, one week for Connections and one week for the pieced hexagon sampler. We are at the beginning of the month which means it is back to my Willyne Hammerstein projects. This one is Battle of the Stars from her third Millefiori book. I have half of the centre sewn together. Now comes the hard part of choosing the rest of the fabrics to complete it. I think this is what I’m going with. The small stars around the centre will continue to be alternating pink and light green.
So today’s job is going to be cutting the pieces I need out of those fabrics and then continue sewing more together. I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching before getting back to these fun fabrics.