Friday, November 29, 2013

Did I Say Limiting to Four Projects?

Shortly after my last post, I found myself without any sort of mindless sewing to do.  I've finished the wedding top and am waiting for the backing I ordered to arrive.  I've finished the latest Scrapitude clue and won't get another until January.  I have a few blocks to make to keep up with my guild's block of the month and 9-patch exchange, but they will only take an hour or two to complete both.  I wanted something I could pick up and sew on without much thought.


My only complaint about this quilt is that either the person who marked the quilt has much better eyesight or lighting than I do.  I have to darken all the markings before stitching because I can barely see them.  but, remarking is easier than doing it the first time.

So, My current project list has been increased to 5, and we'll see if I can hold there.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Productivity

My quilty life has been pretty productive lately.  This is what I've been working on ...

Wedding Quilt for John and Regina



They were married last year the weekend between Christmas and New Year.  I offered to make them a quilt and asked for a general color scheme and a mattress size.  Since they were 'savoring' opening their gifts, I didn't hear anything from either of them until August.  She wanted something very neutral, leaning towards sage green.  It took me another month or so to get my head around what I wanted to do with these colors (not my normal palate).  Since this photo I've put on three plain borders and ordered a solid backing material. Once that arrives, I'll machine quilt it.  I think I have a good idea for the borders, but not the body of the quilt yet.  I may just go with something geometric.

Socks for DD



My daughter made some suggestion that she may like some hand knit socks at some point.  I've been knitting socks for me, but haven't ventured out to give as gifts because not all people like hand knit socks.  This was a pattern that looked interesting to me, would be a bit of a challenge and came from a book that DD gave me as a gift.  They were turning out OK until I got to 1 row before the heel gusset.  I somehow lost a stitch.  I figured out where the mistake was and carefully ripped back, tried a repair and started back with the pattern.  Then I found there were 3 missing stitches.  I tried to fix it a number of times and eventually frogged the whole thing and started over.  Two rows into the pattern I found that I was missing a stitch somewhere.  I decided to just create a new stitch and be done with it.  I can't find the extra increase in the pattern.  Lesson learned ...

New Summer Purse



This little tea leaf pattern are made from Ardco aluminum patterns that I found at the Vermont Quilt Festival.  I made one flower and thought that was too difficult, so put it away.  I've been wanting a summery purse and have a pattern.  I think I have to make 10 complete flowers and some fill-ins around the edges to make the front and back panels.  One panel in nearly complete and the other has most of it's components done.  This is all hand sewn.  This is what one panel looks like so far:


Scrapitude



This is part 3 of the Scrapitude project going on in Sandy's Blog .  I still need to trim the blocks.  I'm enjoying pressing blocks more (it was job I never used to enjoy and skipped) but I still dislike the trimming part.  I know I get better results when things are nicely trimmed and I try to make the process more enjoyable by listening to podcasts.  Perhaps I will tackle that this afternoon.

Well, there they are - two machine projects and two hand projects.  I've got a bunch more things lined up to do, but I am limiting myself to these four projects at the moment. When one finishes I will pick up the next thing that strikes my fancy.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Scrapitude Part 2

I had been anxiously awaiting the next part of the scrapitude instructions and completed it quickly.  




It's not terribly exciting to look at the pieces so far.  I think I have a lot of red and blue in this quilt.  I'm hoping that everything just blends once all the pieces are put together into a top.