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.

Ticking Some Boxes

As we are now half way through the month it is time to show what I have been up to.

ONE MONTHLY GOAL

My goal was to complete the Sashiko table runner.  

I am happy to report that it is completed.

You may notice that the dragonfly and flower panels have not been included.  They didn’t fit very well.  I then thought to make them into coasters, but they still don’t fit as well as I’d like.  I’m still pondering on how I will use them, but for now, I consider this goal to be ticked off the list.

CHOOKSHED STITCHERS’ CHALLENGE

The next goal to tick off the list was to complete the Anni Downs Christmas redwork stitchery.

Ta da!

This was completed on Sunday.  I did quite a bit while watching the Bathurst 1000 car race on the tele.

It’s funny watching the big race on the tele when you can see Mount Panorama out the window, especially when the F35 fighter jet is doing its fly overs.

There was a short Chookshed Zoom session late that afternoon, so I finished the stitchery while chatting away to the girls.

The other stitching update I have to share is the progress on my hexy flowers.

These thirty blocks are completed.  I’m really happy with how they are looking and now see that I have to add more mid greys to the mix.

I’ve been making more flowers from the scraps that came to our patchwork group and today had a big effort as I collected all the flowers I had completed and the backgrounds that had been cut and removed papers and glue basted ready to appliqué them all down.   There is an uneven range of colours here, but that will all come out in the wash as I make the remaining blocks.  It also reinforces the need for more mid grey backgrounds.  Don’t worry, I have plenty in the stash to work with.  Once these are appliquéd, I will have 57 blocks completed.  That is just over half way.  Happy dance!…….But there is still a long way to go. I can cut quite a few more hexies from the scrap bag fabrics, which is a good thing.  I’m also starting to cut some of the big 2 inch hexies. Before I can progress, I need to stitch another block so that I can reuse the templates I have cut out.

Now, for progress on Monique.  The new tension unit turned up.  However, after installation things were still pretty much the same.  To get the tension right (the bottom tension is too tight),  the top tension was so tight it was unravelling the thread.  Oh well, it isn’t a bad thing to have the newer version installed.  We then started to play with the bobbin tension, although it was acting like it should.  We backed it way off and the bobbin thread was still reading as a bit too tight.  We were getting the tension pretty good, but still not quite right and are starting to wonder if the spring in the bobbin case may be the issue.  I then tried using a pre wound bobbin, that doesn’t require the spring, and it is pretty good.  I’m even game enough to have another go at quilting the quilt, rather than just on some scrap fabric. We will try a new bobbin spring soon to see if that makes a difference.  Wish me luck.

In other happenings, Mick participated in a “Rookies Pairs” bowls comp up at Orange. It was on an artificial surface, which they aren’t use to, so took a while to settle in.  They lost their first two games, while winning their last, or as one fellow said “they had one first and two seconds.”  He still had a great day and is enjoying getting more experience and meeting other bowlers.

Our garden is providing a few pops of colour.  Another lovely iris has bloomed.

The bees are loving our edging of ajuga.

We had our first thunder storm of the season last night, giving 10mm of rain.  There were some interesting clouds in the lead up.

Yesterday we spied three little baby blue wrens.  They were all bunched up together in the crepe myrtle, not far from their nest in our back yard.  By the time I fetched my phone, one had moved away.  They are so sweet.  In addition to these, we think there are two more nests in the front yard, in a couple of bottle brushes.  They are rather prolific breeders, often having two lots of babies during the warmer half of the year.  We always enjoy watching these busy little birds flitting around the garden.

And that about wraps up what we have been up to.  This coming week I do hope to have at least one quilt completed (fingers and toes crossed) and maybe even start on my fish blocks (fingers and toes crossed on that one too).

A Stitching Update - May

As you can imagine, our little impromptu trip to the UK meant that my stitching goals for the month of May were thrown out the window.  You can see what my goals were back here.

Despite our trip, I was already way behind the eight ball.  I just hadn’t really been feeling very motivated.  Having said that, when I look back through my little diary, I had done lots of little bits and pieces.  This is how I went.

The Chookshed Challenge to quilt the half square triangle baby quilt hadn’t been started.

My One Monthly Goal was to applique all the fish I had prepped, as well as those for May.  It turns out that I had appliquéd all the fish that I had prepped in April, except for their eyes. I just haven’t taken an updated photo.  This is my one from the start of the month.  All I had done towards the May blocks was to print out the pattern.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour of pink wasn’t progressed very far either.  No fish had been made and I had only cut out a couple of fabrics towards the split nine patches.

My granny square rug progressed no further.

So, what did I do?

I did complete the last of the three sashiko panels for the table runner. Now I have to find a suitable fabric for the sashings, border, binding and backing.

As I didn’t seem to have much in the way of hand stitching to take to my two stitching mornings, I made a small start on a counted cross stitch.  It is a little kit that would have come with a magazine or something.

I then decided that I would make some one inch hexy flowers, using RSC colours.  I have no plans on what I will do with them, but they are something to pick up and work on when I am at stitching, or I just want to work on something mindless.  I have prepped a few, using what I have in my small scraps tubs.  I will have to now dive into my other fabrics to cut more.  I have stitched a red and pink flower, so I suppose I did in fact make something towards the RSC for May.

I had hoped to make a start on knitting a jumper using some wool I purchased at an op shop in Yeppoon last year.  The pattern I have chosen is Salty Air Sweater, which is knit in the round, from the top down and has a lace work yoke.  I haven’t knitted a jumper for maybe 30 years, have never knitted an entire jumper in the round, (I have knitted a fair isle circular yoke many years ago), let alone from the top down and haven’t done much lace work.  The pattern has lot of terms I am unfamiliar with, so this will be a great learning exercise.  Thank goodness for YouTube tutorials.

I treated myself to some interchangeable circular needles, rather than buying multiple ones for this project.  I looked on line and to my surprise and delight, our local craft store had the ones I wanted in stock and a heck of a lot cheaper than those on line.  I hopped straight in the car and went and bought them and they only had one set, so I’m one very happy little Vegemite.

I did manage to make a start……..twice……. You know they say to be very careful not to twist the cast on row when knitting in the round, well I only noticed that I had indeed twisted it after I had knitted a few rows.  Blast!!!  Second time around I checked, had Mick check and then double checked and managed to get it right.

I am currently halfway through the lacework yoke.  It is going well, so far.  (For once, the photo is showing the true colour of this wool, normally it is photographing as more like a brown.)  I am taking my time and really concentrating on what I am doing.  Once the yoke is finished it will be a good project to take to my stitching mornings.  I’m looking forward to getting back into it, but first I will need to do another YouTube refresher on some of the terms.

I knew that I would want some stitching to take away with my, but it needed to be compact and mindless.  Previously, I have taken redwork and that seems to be a good option, but what to take?  I started looking through some of my books and ended up prepping three projects.

Firstly, the stitching on a small pincushion by Natalie Bird that has been on my wish list for many a year.  

It didn’t take long to get it stitched while waiting in airports etc.

The next project is a Gail Pan bag.

I managed to get it stitched while on the Isle of Man, some of it sitting beside the race course, waiting for proceedings to start.  I can’t say that this was a project that was on my radar, but it will be a nice addition to my bag collection, once I make it.

Finally, another Gail Pan project, from the same book.  This wasn’t started in May. Once again, not a project that was on my radar, but it is definitely one that I like and will be happy to have made.

One other thing I did in May was finally donate the quilts that I had been making for that purpose.  I have previously donated to Ronald McDonald House in Orange, but this time wanted to donate closer to home.  I approached the local organisation that looks after foster children, but they said “Thanks, but no thanks, they have plenty already”.  I then approached Wattle Tree House who support victims of domestic violence and they were more than happy to accept them, as they were currently putting together packages to give people who needed support.  I think I will donate to them again in the future.

So, it seems that despite a trip to Canberra and travelling to the UK, I did in fact achieve quite a bit, although nothing was completed.

How did I go with my 15 minutes a day?  Surprisingly, I only missed one day, the day after we had been on the go for 41 hours.  I’ll excuse myself for that.

May = 30/31

Year to date = 151/152

Success rate = 99.34%

Overall, I’m very happy with what I achieved in the month, despite not ticking everything off the list.  Let’s face it, it doesn’t matter one way or the other.  I’ll get them done at some stage.

It’s Done.

Once again I have left my One Monthly Goal until the last moment.  This was also my Chookshed Challenge Number 9, so doubly important to get it achieved.

You may recall that my goal was to complete the Harry Potter donation quilt that had been sitting, cut out, for over twelve months.  I had the flimsy pieced at Scrub Stitchin’.

I’m happy to report today I have found some backing and batting pieces that will work, joined the backing, quilted and bound it.

I used the stars pantograph, as I did in the first version of this quilt that I made last year.

What made me very happy was that I won the bobbin lottery, not once, but twice during the quilting process.  Firstly, I used the last little bit on a bobbin to bast the top of the quilt and ended up with a couple of inches of thread left over.  Then, I was watching my first bobbin, and it ended up stitching right to the end of a row, to the very last stitch, so there was nothing on the bobbin when I ended off.  Phew!

While I’m going, let’s do a round up of this month’s stitching.

My Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks were completed.

The Split nine patch while at Scrub Stitchin’.

The fish after I returned home.

Now to wait for a week or so until the next pattern is released.  I believe the colour is pink, so some pretty fish next time.

My spiked granny rug has the squares joined together, awaiting the ends to be woven in and the border to be added.

I have stitched some of the appliqué on the batik fish.  Five done, except for the eyes.  They will gradually be caught up when I want something simple to sew.

My Sashiko panels have once again seen the light of day.  The first and second panels are now complete and the third half done.

I progressed my Laundry Basket Spring Mystery Quilt.

The Half Square Triangle Baby Quilt also reached the flimsy stage.

Add to this the swap gift I made for Scrub Stitchin’.

There weren’t many finishes for the month, but several projects have been moved along.

I’ll link up with Deana for the Chookshed Stitchers Challenge, So Scrappy for Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Stories From the Sewing Room for One Monthly Goal.

I know I’m jumping the gun by a day, but I am confident that I will have achieved  my 15 minutes each day.  Some days that was all I did. I’ll be linking at Life in Pieces.

April = 30/30

Year to date = 121/121

Success Rate - 100%

All in all, I'm happy with the month.