Thursday 2 May 2013

2013: The Year of the Finished Project – May edition

Never Too Hot to Stitch!
Here I am; a little bit late given that it’s already evening here in eastern Australia but it’s still the first Thursday in May – so really, I’m right on time! Open-mouthed smile

How did you go in April? What are your plans for May?

The work at the “renovator’s delight” (DD’s former home) is slowly being done, and soon I hope to have more time to get more done on my crafting projects.

WM and I are going away for our annual vacation on 25 May Airplane, plus we are taking a weekend off to travel 538km (335 miles) to my mum’s for Mother’s Day (the second Sunday in May) Red rose so this will be a short month for me in many ways! However, the travel may give me a little more hand-stitching time!

But first, let’s have a look at how I went in April.

This was the month where DD and family moved away Broken heart and I lost my desire to craft, instead I lost myself in reading fiction for a few weeks! Then I got sick with an upper respiratory tract infection! Thumbs down

WM and I have also spent much of our free time at DD’s former home working to turn it from a “renovator’s delight” to rentable accommodation, however we took a day off to celebrate my birthday in style. Therefore April, like February and March, is not looking too good. Perhaps I’d better only have one project a month in future! LOL

This is my April list:
  1. Earth and Sky quilt – finish
    It's nearly finished; it just needs the binding done. Of course that means pressing the fabric, cutting and joining the binding before I can attach it to the quilt!
  2. Scrappy Log Cabin quilt – at this stage, an unfinished flimsy
    This project remains untouched as yet, I really can’t decide what to do about the border. I think I’ll leave this for another post and maybe seek some advice!
  3. Scrappy Strings II quilt – finished 11 April 2013; you can read the post about this quilt here
  4. at least one quilt for Gift of Hope
    This one didn’t get very far: I joined four blocks (made by someone else) into a flimsy and that’s as far as I got. But there is a reason – the Big Box Store had no white or cream flannelette (for wadding) when I went there so I was stalled until I could get some. That happened on Monday this week but I haven’t had a chance to work on it since then.
  5. Westall cardigan – WIP – finish ribbing, knit sleeves
    I finally finished the ribbing on 5 April but just haven’t been in the mood for the concentration needed to pick up stitches around each armhole to commence the sleeves!  Instead I broke my own rules and started a new knitting project – but that’s a whole other post!
  6. hexagon project bag – WIP – my “slow stitching” project
    I have done a little work on this project. WM and I worked both days of last weekend at DD’s house and we were extremely tired; too tired in fact for me to lift my sewing machine in and out of the car so I took this project to class on Monday – and now I find it hard to put it down!
2013-05-02 progress
Sorry about the shadow over the photo - I had to take it at night under fluorescent light, using my iPad -- but at least you can see there has been some change since this post. And yes, it does curve up like that -- it will be a bag so it needs shaping! See those yellow star pieces: pentagons, not hexagons -- that's where the bag gets it's shape. What you're looking at now is the base of a drawstring bag turned inside out!

So, what do I plan for May? Well firstly, ease up and take some pressure off myself! The list is the same length (six items) but the goals are not so ambitious!
  1. Blanket for Emily
    I had hoped to get this finished in time to deliver it in person when we see her for the first time on 10 May but there’s no way I could do it! I estimated that if I knitted for six hours every day until 9 May it would get done – but I don’t have that kind of knitting time, nor do my hands like knitting with cotton for long periods of time! So Emily will have to patient! (That’s a big ask for someone who’s just nine days old! LOL)
  2. Westall cardigan – WIP – sleeves?
    This should be my #1 priority this month, it’s been hanging around for too long. It’s a cotton/acrylic blend so if I don’t get it done soon I’ll have to wait until spring to wear it. But Emily’s blanket somehow seems more important!
  3. Earth and Sky quilt – finish including label!
  4. Scrappy Log Cabin quilt – finish the flimsy!
  5. hexagon project bag – again, my “slow stitching” project for the month.
    This project will go with me on my travels so hopefully the end of June will see it done!
  6. Gift of Hope quilt #2: Now that I have the flannelette there can be no more excuses! 
Nothing But UFOs in 2013
Projects 3, 4 and 6 are my goals to be included in Nothing But UFOs in 2013 (although we all know that I will work on things that are not UFOs, right?) which is hosted by Carrie over at A Passion for Appliqué.
    So, how about you?

    Write a blog post detailing your progress (or not) in April and your plans for May. You can be working in any craft – please don’t feel it has to be quilting, knitting or hand-piecing; they are just the crafts on my list at the moment (later there could be cross-stitching, embroidery or even crochet!) .

    You can make your own rules or follow mine, it doesn’t matter: what is important is getting those UFOs out of the pile/closet/basket and getting them finished!

    You don’t even have to have a blog to join in – post your photos to Facebook or Flickr or Picassa or Pinterest – wherever. Just come back here and link up so we can visit and see what you’ve been up to and what your plans are!

    Good luck with deceasing the number of UFOs/WIPs at your place during May.
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    17 comments:

    1. You've had a rough month, with lots of stuff going on. Still you finished a few goals and every little bit helps. Good luck with this month's goals. Love your hexi project, it's very cute.

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      1. Thanks! I love my hexie project too -- I just want to sit and sew but there are machine projects screaming for my attention before I go away next week!

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    2. Great list. I try not to make mine too ambitious since I will never get it all done :)

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      1. Thanks! I love my hexie project too -- I just want to sit and sew but there are machine projects screaming for my attention before I go away next week!

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    3. Your blog is looking different friend. Took me a moment to realize who I was visiting with.

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      1. Really? I haven't changed anything -- just the comments are now embedded instead of a pop-up window to enable me to copy my email replies under the comments left (as a social experiment).

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    4. You accomplished quite a lot!

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      1. Thank you! Not as much as I might have done if I had pushed myself a little harder but I just couldn't do it!

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    5. Sounds like you did well to make the progress you did. I hope this month goes better for you. Just getting away a couple times should help, I imagine.

      I'm so happy to join you. I listed a couple goals in my post so I have a chance to finishing. However, the goal list for May on my blog's left sidebar is much more ambitious. I really hope to achieve them all.

      I followed the Mr. Linky directions and I show up in the list, but for some reason my project picture doesn't show. I don't know why - when I entered it into the Mr. Linky box the picture showed there, but it doesn't show above. Any idea what I might have done wrong?

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      1. Thank you -- we really need to get away for WM's sake. He works full time and has been working very hard on DD's house. He has the handyman skills that I certainly don't have (I'm the labourer) and which SIL never acquired hence the house being in need of quite a bit of maintenance/repair work.

        I am so happy to have you join the linky party -- it's great fun visiting other people's blogs, seeing what they're working on and what progress is being made, and perhaps making new friends along the way!

        It takes a little while for the picture to show up in the linky but it's fine now!

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    6. Never mind - I refreshed the page, and my project picture appeared. Thank goodness!

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    7. Hopefully life will settle a bit and you'll find a new routine... major changes take time to adjust to and I don't think it can be rushed. Love the term "Renovator's Delight"!

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    8. Good work-I am glad you are cutting yourself some slack on your goals, too!

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    9. Congratulations on your birthday. It has been a while since I have been able to sew or use the computer. My daughter had a baby and we have been helping her. Finally things were getting back to normal some, and I had a visitor from Adelaide who stayed for 4 weeks. It was a pleasure to see her but she needed my time which I was extremely glad to give her. She is a great friend. She has increasing health problems and as long as I could make her a little happier, it made me happy as well. I was reading your last post and as hoping that you are receiving my notes. I use wordpress. I thought there was a box to check so you the person who wrote a comment on my blog would receive the reply. Guess I had better check it out.

      Happy Stitching Kathleen

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    10. So many finishes!Fantastic. I love your hexi project. It's looking great.

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    11. looks like you will be very busy this month like me! good luck.

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    12. You have a long list to-do for May...

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    Hi. Thanks for dropping in. I look forward to reading your comment.
    I like to answer comments; if you are "no-reply blogger" I will try my best to get back to you on your blog! I'm not on FaceBook so I can't contact you there!