Back some time ago, there was a group of quilters who worked on hand piecing and applique and created a mailing list (did it start out as a Yahoo group? I can't remember) that eventually morphed into a Facebook group then fizzled out. These things happen, but I do miss the chat of those ladies. But, before we went on to other interests and groups, we made blocks and swapped them with a small subset of the original group. This was done in 2015 and I was inspired by Linda, who dragged out her blocks over a year ago, to do something with these blocks. I received 8 blocks from the other members and had intended to make one for myself using the pattern I used to make my submission to the other members. However, I really like this lay out using only 8 blocks, so 8 blocks it is! My intention is to have this quilt on my off-white living room couch, and this is a good lap sized quilt.
I'm not a very practiced knitter. I have knit one lacy baby blanket over 30 years ago that is long since gone. I've been itching to try something that is more open-knit (not necessarily a big lace project) and this single skein shawl fit the bill. This is one of the skeins that I got from a friend who is clearing out her stash of yarns and other crafty supplies in preparation to down-sizing into a smaller home for their retirement. This skein is one that she spun herself. This pattern (Lionberry) is one that I started one other time, but got confused and frogged the project. I didn't follow the pattern exactly because I got lost somewhere towards the end plus I added some extra rows at the end to use as much of the yarn as possible. I won at yarn chicken! I had less than a yard of left over yarn after doing one lace repeat one extra time before binding off. I like shawls that are relatively shallow and
I finished the first of the quilts from DH's maternal grandmother's UFO blocks. I have a the second basted. They're not large quilts, but there are 9 (or is it 10?) of them, so I'm just trying to work through them between other, more interesting projects.
I've been itching to do some needlepoint lately. I had a project in mind - a chair seat or something. Not that I have a chair to put anything on, but I thought it would be a great idea. I even went as far as to start looking for needlepoint canvases on Ebay, but didn't see anything I liked. This is a piece that was started by a friend. She gave me over a dozen boxes of craft supplies and projects cleared out of her stash in preparation to moving to a smaller house for their retirement. I chose a few projects and some yarn before offering it up to friends, the quilt guild and friends of friends. This piece is probably 9" square - too small for a chair seat, but like the colors and pattern. So, I guess it goes into my stash until I find an appropriate use for it.
The next thing I picked up is a small cross stitch project of a Patchwork Cat. This shouldn't take too long to do. Mostly I'm procrastinating on starting the next Ladies of the Sea block because I don't really like this block. I know, I could skip it and do another, but I want to have this block in the finished quilt. So, I will do this next, after this adorable little cat.
That's it for now. Next time there will be more progress on Ladies of the Sea!
