Stitching Wrap Up For March

Blimey, March seems to have vanished in the blink of an eye.  Time to see what I managed to get up to.

I’ll start with  my one completed project for the month.  The knitted scarf, that I started so that I would have something to work on in the train coming home from Sydney at the start of the month, is now completed and ready to wear once the weather turns cold, which will happen before we know it.  That is now four I have knitted using this pattern.  I think I need to find some other simple project to knit in future, as I really don’t need any more of these.  However, they are lovely and snuggly and I wear my others frequently.

This is how much wool I had left at the end of the casting off row.  Phew!  That was close.

This time I decided to model the scarf on Victoria, rather than me.  The colour of this yarn is rather lovely.  It is a Patons Patonyle sock wool.  Maybe I should knit some socks to match?

My Rainbow Scrap Challenge was a couple of simple blocks, so took no time.  Now to wait for April’s colour.

The Chookshed Challenge was to work on the fish blocks and although I haven’t completed a quilt, the next batch of appliqué is all ready to stitch down at Scrub Stitchin’.

Speaking of Scrub Stitchin’, I have kitted up three other quilts to work on up there, if the mood takes me.

Oh, and Raewyn has requested we make a couple of blocks to contribute to a Scrub Stitchin’ charity quilt.  These are my two.

The project that was on my wish list, but not expected to be worked on, was to finish the Blue/Hope Quilt top.  I am so very happy to have managed to get it done.

I’m not sure if I’ve shared this Sashiko panel that I started working on a couple of months ago, as a fill in project for my stitching group days.  Well, I’ve continued to make a little progress this month.  There is no plan for it, but it will be good to have it completed and then work out what I will do with it.

In addition to these, there has been a little secret stitching going on.  

Also, just one solitary cotton reel was emptied, although there are some more that are oh, so close.  It’s going to take a while to fill my big jar at this rate.

As for my 15 minutes a day.  I am still keeping track, but not worrying about it too much.  I managed to meet the goal on 25 days, so not too bad. That works out at 69 days out of 90 with a success rate of 76.67%.  Considering everything else we have been up to, I am happy enough with that.

I must say, that on looking at the month as a whole, I am somewhat surprised about how much I have achieved.  Let’s hope next month is as fruitful.

February Wrap Up

As predicted, February wasn’t the month to get a lot of stitching done.  However, having said that, I did achieve a little bit.

The blue RSC blocks were completed.

The thing I am most pleased with is the Sea Glass Mini Quilt that I completed as my Chookshed Stitchers Challenge for the month.

I’m also very happy to have completed my latest knitted scarf.

I didn’t get very far with my Anni Downs Pouch, just managing to stitch a few of the labels.  Something to aim for next month.

When I went to my patchwork day one Wednesday I took along my Blue/Hope Quilt and unpicked the two offending borders.  It feels good to have at least made a start on fixing the wavy border problem.  Now I just have to give them a good press and a very accurate measure before dismantling the checkerboard/applique border to tweak it to fit properly.  I’m not really looking forward to that, but needs must.

Oh, and in my “I don’t know where to start or what to take along to stitching” I ended up starting work on another Sashiko panel that was lurking in a tub.  Just the mindless stitching I needed at the time.  There is no deadline or anything on this one, so it was nice and relaxing to work on.

And……. you know how I said I didn’t need any more of those knitted scarves………

Well, I just happened to be in a shop and this just happened to fall into my basket………  No, it actually was an intentional purchase.  I will be sitting on a train for a few hours on the weekend and wanted something easy and portable to work on, without having to worry about needles and scissors etc.  Another scarf fitted the bill, so I have now started Number 4.

As for my 15minutes a day.  Not so good, but that was also expected.  Remember, I am being more lenient on myself this year.

February = 17/28

Year to Date = 44/59

Success Rate = 74.58%

And to finish off, no cotton spools were emptied this month.

Hopefully, March will be a bit more organised and productive.

The First Two Weeks of Stitching

Now that it is already halfway through the month it is time to see what I have managed on the stitiching front during the first two weeks.

My aim for January was to make some crumb blocks for the Chookshed Challenge and to finish appliquéing the remaining 40 hexy flowers.

In the first week I managed to appliqué a whole two hexy flowers.  Big effort…..not.

One day I decided to have a play with my crumbs.  The result was two red blocks.  Hopefully, I will manage to make some more, but if it doesn’t happen, at least I have something to show for the month.

I did get the twelve inch block completed for our patchwork group’s group quilt.  I’m pleased with how it turned out.  This was achieved during a Zoom sewing session.

In the second week I was somewhat more productive, partly due to the fact that my patchwork group met for the first time in the New Year.

I have made good progress with appliquéing my hexy flowers.  At the end of the second week I had a total of twenty completed.  I have my patchwork group again today, so should be able to get quit a few more stitched.  The goal to get them all done by the end of January is looking very promising.

So far, I have already missed three days of stitching for fifteen minutes.  I’m not worried.  It is what it is.

Despite only minimal machine stitching on the crumb blocks, there is already one empty spool to add to the jar at the end of the month.  That’s a good start.

Cricket, Jigsaw and Left Overs

We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Day with family, friends and too much food.

Our perfect way to spend Boxing Day is for Mick to watch the Boxing Day Test Cricket, me to work on a jigsaw and to eat left overs.

Mick was quite settled in front of the tele, enjoying seeing the nineteen year old opening batter, on debut, take on the best bowler in the world.

I pulled out the jigsaw that I purchased at Vinnies in Braidwood and made a start on it……and finished it.  It seems that my binge reading style carries over to jigsaws.  I was rather relieved to see that there were no missing pieces.  

My Mum, who is not in the least bit sporty used to spend her summer watching the cricket and tennis on the tele and doing large jigsaws.  I can see the attraction.  I have all her trays that she used to lay our her jigsaw pieces and it is quite a trip down memory lane as I continue to use them for the same purpose.

Today has also been a rather quiet day at home.  Mick had planned to go fishing with his brother, but the weather was really stormy early on and has continued to be rather blustery, so not conducive to fishing.  Therefore, he is enjoying another day in front of the cricket.

Me.  Well, the other thing I was looking forward to was making up the kit for the patchwork basket that I bought last time I was at Baradine.

I have pieced the patchwork and that is as far as I will go today.  Fingers crossed there is no wind early in the morning and I will have a go at spray basting the layers together to quilt.  Not something I have ever attempted before.  Wish me luck.

My Goals for December

Here we are, in the final month of the year and well and truly in “The Silly Season.”  Like the last couple of months, we have a fair bit on, so I don’t want to burden myself with too many goals that become unattainable. 

ONE MONTHLY GOAL    

This month’s goal is to complete the Three Yard Dog Quilt that I started in September as part of the Chookshed Stitchers’ Challenge.  

Once this quilt is completed I will have achieved all of my goals set for the challenge.

The quilt was removed from Monique’s frame when she started to play up, so the challenge will be to reload it, considering I had already commenced a bit of the quilting.  Not something I have attempted as yet.  I’m sure it won’t be too hard, once I get going.

I’m linking up over at Stories From the Sewing Room.  Pop over to see what the others are planning for the month.

HEXY FLOWER QUILT    

The only other goal I have is to finish piecing the hexy flowers.  There are only seven small and four large to do.  

Of course, I still intend to work on something for 15 minutes a day.

Anything else is a bonus.  It would be nice if I did achieve some bonus further stitching.

Once again, I’m not setting any other goals.  Hopefully, when we start the New Year I will get back into it.

November Stitching Wrap Up

 My goals for November were rather minimal.

My One Monthly Goal to complete the Koala baby quilts was met, once Monique was back up and running, which was also a catch up for the Chookshed Stitchers’ Challenge.

I did manage a little secret stitching, so no photos to share at this point.

Other than that, all I have worked on is my hand pieced hexy flowers.  I prepped all the remaining hexies and have been stitching away at them.  All that remains is to piece seven more one inch flowers and four more two inch flowers.  Then it will be time to glue baste them all to their backgrounds and hand appliqué them down, before piecing the blocks together by machine into a quilt top.  It doesn’t sound much when reading it here, but it will still take a little while.

Joining in on Zoom sessions last night and all of today really helped achieve this much.  I pieced eleven hexy flowers today.

I’m feeling rather pleased with my progress and, fingers crossed, I will have it for show and tell at Scrub Stitchin’ next year.

That’s all I did.  Everything else is sitting there, patiently waiting its turn to be worked on.  It was a busy month for both of us, so this is about all I expected to achieve.

Other than one day, I still managed my 15 minutes of crafting each day - the beauty of hand stitched hexies.

November = 29/30

Year to date = 310/335

Success rate = 92.54%

Now to start thinking about December.

My Goals For November

I’ve been umming and aahing about what goals to set this month.  So much depends on how Monique plays.  She has been to the doctor and I think she is going to play nicely from now on……..fingers crossed.  Also, this will be another month with commitments that take me away from my sewing room.

This is what I have come up with.

ONE MONTHLY GOAL

This has been the hard one.  In the end I’ve decided that my goal will be to complete the two little koala quilts that I pieced at Baradine in September.  They were also my Chookshed Stitchers’ Challenge for June.  It will be good to have them completed this calendar year.

FISHY BUSINESS QUILTS

I haven’t made any progress on either of these quilts in the last couple of months.  Maybe I will get to it this month, maybe not.  We’ll see.

HEXY FLOWER QUILT

This will definitely move forward.  It is my go to portable project.

USE MONIQUE

It would be nice to quilt at least one other quilt this month, but we will see how things progress.

15 MINUTES A DAY

I will endeavour to keep this up.  The hexy flowers help on this front.

Everything else will be a bonus.

NON STITCHING GOALS

I’m not setting any goals here.  Life is a bit too busy at the moment.

Sometimes life is like that.

October Stitching Wrap Up

When I set my goals at the start of the month I took into consideration the fact that we had quite a bit planned for October.  As a result, my goals were rather simple and should have been quite achievable.  Well, maybe, my enthusiasm wasn’t what it usually is and not a real lot was achieved.  Here is what did happen.

ONE MONTHLY GOAL and CHOOKSHED STITCHERS’S CHALLENGE

I made a concerted effort at the start of the month and had these completed fairly quickly.  I blogged about them here.

FISHY BUSINESS

The only other real goal that I set was to catch up my Rainbow Scrap Challenge Fish and my Batik Fish blocks. Nope, nothing was achieved other than printing out October’s pattern.  My head wasn’t in the right space to work on it, as my cutting table seemed to be buried for most of the month.  I’ll explain in a minute.  Needless to say, I now have an even bigger task ahead of me to catch up.  It will happen.

MY WISH LIST

USE MONIQUE

The first item on my wish list was to use Monique to get a few quilts over the finish line, or at least quite a bit closer.  

I posted at the end of September that there was an issue with the thread that was tension related.  

After discussions with the technician, a new improved tension assembly was sent to us.  The result wasn’t any different, so we tried various other things.  I thought it was a bit better, but after doing a bit of quilting on a scrap piece it became evident that it is still not right.  I have not looked at it for a couple of weeks, but went back to it on Wednesday.  I give up!  We will now be travelling to the Southern Highlands for it to get a spa treatment on Monday.  Our plan is to leave on Sunday afternoon and stay overnight in a country pub on the way down, so that we don’t have to leave at sparrow fart and drive through lots of scrub in that roo time.  The technician will do the service on that day, so we can drive home on Monday afternoon/evening.  Fingers crossed that I will finally be able to make some progress on some quilts.

That is why my cutting table has been buried.  I usually have some “stuff” sitting on the long arm table.

DR SEUSS QUILT

I had wished to get the top completed with a couple of borders.  All that I have done is select the fabric for the two borders.  

HEXY FLOWER QUILT

I have made quite a bit of progress on this one.  Realistically, other than the first two goals, this is all I have worked on.  Who’d have thought my go to project would be hand stitching.

I have the first 57 blocks appliquéd.  

I have two of the large 2” hexy flowers appliquéd and one more pieced.  Just five more large flowers to piece and then appliqué. A few more flowers are stitched and, in addition to this photo, I have quite a lot more prepped, ready to just pick up and stitch into flowers.  

I have all the grey background fabrics cut.  I have to piece some of the large grey squares into four patches for the 2” flowers and to use up off cuts, created quite a few small four patches for backgrounds.  That will add a bit more interest to the quilt.  No, this isn’t a a black and white photo.  It just looks very monochromatic on my new cutting mat.

I’m really enjoying the process of this one and was so happy to be able to add some random scrap fabrics into the mix.  The fact that each hexy is appliquéd  onto a separate block means it continues to be a very portable project - perfect for taking to stitching mornings.

15 MINUTES A DAY 

I’m happy to report that I have worked on something every day, despite the Monique issue and consequent  lack of inspiration to work on anything sewing machine or sewing room related.

October = 31/31

Year to date = 281/305

Success rate = 92.13%

So, that is what I achieved this month.  Not as much as I had hoped, but it is what it is.  Now to start thinking about November.