slow stitching on the first finish of February

I’m linking this post with Slow Sunday Stitching over on Kathy’s Quilts blog when it goes live later today (it's 7pm Sunday here in Sydney, Australia).

This afternoon, I hand-stitched the two sides of the label that weren’t held down by the binding – a ten minute stitching project that saw my Green Scrappy Strippy quilt completed and become my first finish for February!

This project, started in July last year, was obviously inspired by the Jelly Roll Race quilts. However, this quilt is more thought out – all the fabrics used were graded from light to darkest and the lightest strip is one third from the top of the quilt.

Some of the fabrics, such as the ‘red’ strip at the bottom, don’t even read as green and yet, to my eye, they said ‘green’! Perhaps next time I’d better take a photograph of the fabrics to see what the camera sees!

There are thirty-two rows of 2” strips in this quilt – and I’ve barely made a dent in my green scraps! I wonder what month will be green over on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge which is hosted by Angela at SoScrappy blog.

I quilted this about every four and a half inches apart, with two horizontal rows of quilting, about half an inch apart. I say ‘about’ because, to me, quilting is an art as well as a science and imperfections show that it is made by hand not produced by machine! You can see the quilting better from the back, which also shows my quilting ‘signature’: a pieced panel to widen the fabric to the needed width; in this case the gingham fabric was only 36” so I added a 20” panel giving 56” before trimming. (Yes, those light strips truly are green!)

Although the three layers of the quilt sandwich are well-and-truly joined, I wonder whether I should have added vertical quilting to stop the batting from doing whatever wadding does when there isn’t enough quilting. Please feel free to offer a constructive opinion!

I made eight nearly-WOF lengths into binding and should have realised I had a problem when the base of my Teflon-plated iron gripped the fabric instead of sliding over it. But no – sometimes I miss the obvious! I tried to sew the binding onto the quilt – got about a quarter of the way around (about nineteen inches) when the whole quilt slipped and instead of stitching 1/4 - 3/8 inch from the edge, I was suddenly stitching at about 1/16” for about four inches (slow down driver!)! Of course, that meant some unpicking. In the end, I decided to remove the binding completely – I just didn’t feel right about it.

The following day, not being able to find enough of another fabric to make binding, I decided to go with it. My iron stuck to it again and it smelt awful. Obviously it was a polyester blend and something that felt like plastic doesn’t belong on the bound edge of a lovely soft cotton quilt! In the end, I used three different, similarly-coloured, green fabrics that read as the same tone – look closely, you may be able to see them! (probably not!! LOL)

Here’s a close up of one of the fabrics, I’m getting better with my mitred corners! It’s actually much darker than this photo shows – I like dark bindings – but the mitre wouldn’t show when I darkened the photo!

So that’s it! My first finish for February and my second personal finish for 2015 (sixth if you count the four projects I completed in January that were other people’s starts!)

I'm also linking this post with Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (I'm a little late) which is being co-hosted at Quokka Quilts and A Quarter Inch from the Edge (I've linked at the latter).

So, what do you think? Should I go back and add some vertical quilting? (I’m not taking the binding off!)
What would you do?

works in progress

A couple of days ago I was working in my sewing room and thinking about all the different projects I had going on so it seemed time to share them.

I describe a WIP as anything I have worked on in the last three months. With the exception of the Hearts quilt,  every project I will share with you today has been worked on in the last four weeks.

Why don't I start with my knitting projects? That is how this blog started after all!

The older of the two knitting WiPs is a pair of socks I cast on in October. I knitted the first sock to the heel turning then stopped -- turning heels requires concentration which, for me, means solitude. Last weekend, as I waited for the workshop I was tutoring to start, I began turning the heels (and put them away when I got to the part where concentration was really needed). For those who care about such things, I use an hourglass heel (from Lynne Vogel's Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook) as my "go to" heel. It was the first heel I learned to make and, even though it was difficult to teach in my workshop in 2012, is still the heel I prefer to knit.

 

My other knitting project, which was started on Christmas Eve and is now too big to work on in the current hot, humid weather, is my own design. I've called it Nouveaux Log Cabin. It was inspired by the Moderne Baby Blanket (from "Mason-Dixon Knitting" by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne). It is based on Fibonacci numbers, given that each section is based on the numbers 1, 2 or 3 -- 1 being fifteen garter stitch ridges. The finished blanket should be approximately 72" x 42". I have worked the sections out to get these dimensions and have the same number of sections across the blanket as down its length.  I particularly like the look of the one garter ridge done in white at the beginning of each section.

I have worked on three different quilting projects in the past four weeks; four in the past three months.

The Hearts quilt is the only project in this post that I haven't touched in the last four weeks. I need to make a decision about how I'm going to quilt it and get to it! It remains 30 disconnected blocks.

The project that has had the most attention this week is Violet and Friends quilt. I made the crumb blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (SoScrappy blog) during 2011 and 2012 but only started putting the blocks together into a quilt top last month.

This week I have been working on making the backing. It never ceases to amaze me how much time it takes to press fabric, cut strips, join strips, press seams, pin strips to blocks, sew strips to blocks and press seams. It took me all my sewing time on Tuesday (several hours) to do the above (and press the whole flimsy now that I have a new iron which gets hot enough to do the job properly!) and all I added were four 2” white borders to the flimsy seen above, and two long strips to the backing panel.

In class last week, I finished a block for the Sampler Quilt I've been making (on and off) for a year. It took me the better part of three hours to finish about half a block! I'm not the world's fastest patch-worker, that's for sure! This block is called Weathervane. It looks very tricky but really, it's just a fancy nine-patch (as are all the blocks in the sampler some of which you can see here).

My newest project in terms of deciding what to do is really the first of these four to have got started. Back in 2011, before I started classes with my current teacher, DD and I used to attend all-day Saturday classes once a month. At one of these workshops, I learned several ways to make half square triangles (I documented it here and here). when I read about the Relaxing Robin (SewUQuilt2 blog), I decided to make one of these orphan blocks my Relaxing Robin project. I won't go into too much detail here, this will get its own post later this month.

I have one hand-stitching WiP – my Dutch Cap Hexies. This is a very long term project given these are 1.5” hexies and diamonds I’m sewing together. This is what I’ve done so far (not the final layout):

 

I have a pile of “hexie triads” ready to go, and over the last few days have basted all these diamonds (I’ve run out of papers so I have to wait for LQS to get some more). Plenty of sewing to be going on with.

Finally, my newest baby, brought into the world on 12 February: when finished it will be a large pin cushion done in candlewicking using colonial knots and some stem stitch on homespun with perle cotton.

What about you?

What projects are you working on?

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced blog and Yarn Along at Small Things blog.

Edited to add that I am also linking up to Hexie Weekend at a Quilting Reader's Garden blog.

I have also joined the EPP QAL group on Flickr. 

still working on those blankets for fire survivors

I'm still here. My plans for finishing my own projects are well and truly on hold as I use every available minute to work towards completing more blankets to be given to survivors of the recent devastating bush fires in the Blue Mountains.

Both fires are still burning but they are contained and, as far as I'm aware, there is no threat to life or property. But 200 homes were lost and 200 more were damaged, probably irreparably.  So blankets and other household items are needed.

After a suggestion was made to the president of the NSW Knitters' Guild, donations of squares have started trickling in. I have the feeling that this is just the beginning of what might be a flood! 

I was naive! I had no idea how long it takes to put 28 squares into an acceptable layout, then seam all those square together -- 1,125cm (450") of seaming per blanket, in fact! Oh, yes, and then there are ends to be sewn in...

That's assuming that the squares are all the same size to begin with! Most of what has been donated so far, while very much appreciated, is far from being a standard 25cm (10") square! And that means additional work of knitting or crocheting to increase size; or blocking for a bit of extra stretch (a waste of time since most of the donated squares so far are acrylic and will not retain their blocking!).

Beside my knitting chair, I have one blanket on the needles. It is being knitted in one piece, based on the "Moderne Baby Blanket" (found in Mason-Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne). I knit on this while WM and I are watching television; it has nice long rows of garter stitch which is just perfect in this situation. (I can't sew seams while watching TV).

Also beside my knitting chair (in the background of the photo) are some squares I am knitting for Knitted Patchwork II. 

It's just as well WM is very forgiving and compassionate -- the living areas of our house are slowly being overrun by knitted/crocheted squares.

This is a corner of my living room floor, where I have laid out the remaining thirty five pieces of knitting left over after I completed the "Knitted Patchwork" Blanket. I am adding more by knitting on to these pieces and joining them using the garter stitch no-sew joining method taught by Ghalena Khmeleva. 

My dining table looks like this. It contains all the squares I collected form my LYS last week plus three completed blankets all knitted by one person; hurrah for such kind knitters who donate full blankets so that my only task is to deliver to the local charity!

In the corner of the dining room, on the floor, are three bags of squares delivered to me by the Guild president yesterday. I haven't even opened them -- it will probably be weeks before I even get to them. 

Maybe it's time to hold a sewing bee. Anyone want to come and sew squares with me? Pleeeeeez?

knitted patchwork

Late last night, I finished the blanket (afghan) made from seventy smallish rectangles. It took me the better part of three days to stitch them all together into long strips then join the strips together. At 9:45 last night, I began stitching a border around it. Crochet is not my forté and it took me nearly an hour to go all around the 232" perimeter using double (US single) crochet.

The Knitted Patchwork blanket, along with my Intarsia Blanket (seen below) were taken to church this morning and will be given to two victims of the terrible bushfire which is still burning not far from here.

Now I'd better get back to knitting my Winmalee Blanket -- so called in honour of the village where the fire took so many houses.

still here, still searching, still crafting (a little) – only a little doped!

Family history research is a very absorbing hobby – absorbing of one’s time, that is!

In the past couple of months, I have added over 400 people to my extended family. I try to include the parents and siblings of all my blood relatives’ spouses. Families with ten or more children are not uncommon among the working class from which my ancestors come so the numbers add up quickly.

So, if you’ve been wondering why I’m not reading and commenting on your blog – or writing my own – my computer time is almost totally devoted to family history research these days!

I’m not one for resolutions (and it’s not New Year) but some self-discipline is called for and I am now going to limit my time spent on family history research each day. I have friends who deserve my attention, followers that expect somewhat regular posts and craft projects that need my attention.
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There are photos coming but they have all been taken with my iPad so I apologise in advance for the quality!

Ah, shingles; yes, I was diagnosed with that mysterious virus four weeks ago. I spent the first week doped up so high I couldn’t walk a straight line. I was taking anti-viral medication and a daily dose of125mg of heavy-duty pain-killers (pregabalin for those who need to know such things) for post-herpetic neuralgia. But the good news is that the rash has almost completely disappeared and I am down to 25mg (one capsule) of the pain-killer a day so I’m thinking relatively clearly and almost ready to drive my sewing machine again!

I have been doing some crafting. A week after I was diagnosed I was supposed to teach a workshop on knitting with variegated and hand-painted yarns. I worked diligently through my fog to prepare for that workshop but, alas, it didn't happen; there's no way that I could get my befuddled mind into gear and teach! But samples were made, ripped out and made again.

Why do my mitred squares never come out square? This one will be ripped out!

I even managed to knit a whole dropped-stitch scarf in a commercial variegated acrylic yarn that I’ve dubbed the “brussell sprout” scarf because of the colouring.

In theory, knitting this scarf should have made the blotchy tendencies of this yarn less obvious but, unfortunately, this scarf is still so blotchy the pattern is almost completely obliterated!
 
If it wasn’t acrylic, I’d consider over-dyeing it. I’ve been successful in dying white acrylic yarn but I’m not confident that I can get colours dark enough to overdye this one!  Never mind, the scarf will still make the journey west to Mudgee next week when I tutor a workshop on “knitting with dropped stitches”.

A new project, called the “Mudgee Wrap”, has also been started for the same workshop but there isn’t much to show yet.

I haven’t been courageous (or foolish) enough to use my sewing machine while taking painkillers with that famous warning: “This drug may cause drowsiness. Do not operate machinery.” The idea of sewing through my finger is not at all appealing! But I have paid for classes so attendance is “mandatory”. Bring on the hand stitching…

In the past month I have made quite a few hexagon “triads” from scratch (the photo shows my intended layout although not the final position of the “blocks”)

– which basically means I have drawn and cut hexagons from 4” fabric squares, basted those hexagons and joined them in sets of three to create thirty of these:
  
There has been some humming and hawing over setting these triads but in the end I have decided to go with my original plan and have stuck with my “Dutch cap” shapes which I talked about in this post. In reality, there is quite a lot of fiddling around to create these shapes because each diamond is added separately to the triad then the diamonds are joined together.

So far I have made only one. I hope it will get easier with experience, otherwise I’ll be ripping them all out and looking for an easier setting!

So that’s my last four weeks summed up. Not much to show for it but I am supposed to be taking it easy and concentrating on getting better. The thing is that I just don’t feel “sick” and most of the time forget that I have been ill.

Onwards and upwards, as they say! In other words, back to my Mudgee Wrap which I ambitiously hope to finish in one week!

What a week it was!

Last Monday, 1 July, DD and Younger Grandson had to come to “the big smoke” to see a cardiac specialist.Tests were done and the all clear was given! Hurrah!

On Wednesday, after seeing the specialist, WM, DD, YG and I headed north for a few days with the family to celebrate YG’s birthday. Little did we know the trip would take nine long hours – we arrived just before 1:30am! Just as well I had thought to ask SIL to collect our room key for the motel so we wouldn’t disturb the owners with our late arrival!

Thursday is the day the boys attend Day Care, so we three adults spent the day near the beach. The sun was shining but it was very windy. This is a view of Back Beach from the headland.

We saw some dolphins playing near these rocks but WM was unable to get a photo.

We tried to spot whales but we just didn’t see any. DD and I had almost given up and taken shelter in the warmth of the car when WM informed us that a whale had been sighted by a local who had told him where to look.

With renewed enthusiasm, we braved the cold – I wore WM’s fleece pullover which was in the car and DD wrapped herself in a small quilt (as best she could). At first we thought we were just imagining things but then we saw a whale breach! Wow! How exciting! WM wasn’t fast enough with the camera for that event but he did manage a couple of photos.

What do you mean you can’t see anything? How about this then?

We spent Friday with DD and the boys. We had a picnic lunch in the park near the playground. In the evening we went to SIL’s parents’ place to celebrate Younger Grandson’s birthday. There was food and drink and conversation but the most important thing to the little guys was this (made by their other grandmother):

YG wouldn’t blow his candle out so OG lovingly obliged!

On Saturday, WM and I went whale-spotting before heading out to DD’s again. Much to our surprise and delight, a humpback whale swam in much close than the ones we had seen two days previously. Taking photos is always a challenge – especially with a big lens and no tripod – but the memory of that whale just a few hundred metres away will stay with us for a long time!

In the early afternoon, WM and I had some one-on-one time with OG while YG had a nap.

Later WM took YG to the playground near the beach for some one-on-one time.

OG was given the chance to go too but he chose to stay at home! He likes to play games on the iPad, especially if it’s Grandmum’s iPad not mummy’s!

While DD was preparing dinner, OG helped Grandmum with her hand-stitching. Just look at that concentration!

All too soon our wonderful few days were over and it was time to make the long trip home.

Roll on October – I miss my grandsons already!

away from home

WM and I will be away for a few days.

This afternoon we will drive to Quirindi where we stay in a motel tonight and meet baby Emily (my great-niece) tomorrow morning -- and wish my niece a happy day for her first Mothers' Day.

my niece, my great-niece and my former brother-in-law, Emily's grandfather (taken from niece's Facebook page)

 Then we will travel to Tamworth to take my sister (the new grandmother) to brunch before she starts work at 2pm. I'm sure Mother's Day is extra exciting for her too as Emily is her first grand-child!

After that we will travel to the small town of Bingara to stay with my mum. We will take her to lunch on Sunday then make the long trek home again -- all in all over 1,100 kilometres (688 miles)!

I have knitting and a hand-stitching project so I'll be okay. Most of the journey (both ways) will be in the dark anyway!

I'm also taking my iPad with me but mum doesn't have a wireless router and I can't very well spend hours on a desktop computer in another room while I'm visiting my mum, can I?

So, I'll be way behind in reading blogs... again. But I'll catch up with you next week.

In the meantime, Happy Mothers' Day to all you mums and grand-mums out there.

And, if you're a grandmother and you see your grandchildren this weekend, give them an extra big hug from me -- I miss mine so much!

taken in January before I knew I'd be "losing" them!