Here’s my wish list for today:
Civil War Diary Quilt
Alarming Conditions
Block 1
5/14/17
Have a great crafty day!
~Melanie
I started knitting again…
Here’s how my sock looks like now:
my right sock
10/2/2016
My first sock project
… I realized after I was working on this project that I need to document how I modified the pattern to fit my feet. I started with the Craftsy “My First Socks” with Lucy Neatby. But once I got past the heel I realized that I needed to modify the sock pattern. I have small feet (5-5.5 shoe size) with wide chunky feet and calves. I will need this write up as I do more socks. Especially if I want to do the second sock.
Anyway, I didn’t start documenting it until after I got past the heel so it’s really a draft until I do another and can document better next time. Here goes –
Remember… this starts after the heel… Lucy, the instructor in the class said to decrease every other or every round. I found that it was decreasing too much, too quickly. I’m also using really thick yarn and size 9 needles my first time around. I think its supposed to make these knit up easier and faster for the first time sock knitter. So… this may all change when I switch to proper sock yarn and use the right size needles. I started with DPNs and later switched to circulars to make it easier.
Have a great quilty Saturday!
~Melanie
Provence
The beginnings of the alternating blocks
6/11/2016
Sometimes I’m just not in the mood to do any of the things I set out to do. I’m sure none of you are like this but I looked at all the things I set out to do last week and I just didn’t want to do any of it. I tried to quilt Moon Glow but Bailey was fighting with me. I got halfway through 1 pass and my shoulders and hands hurt so much that I decided to put it in “time out”.
I didn’t want to hand quilt… It was 85 degrees so that was out of the question. I’m going to be gone soon and parting ways with my domestic machine so I wanted to spend as much time with it as possible. The problem is that I didn’t have much on this week’s to do list to work on the machine. I pieced the rows so that they are ready to be put together for Missing Ivy and actually started to put the rows together. But I got tired of that really fast. I’ve been working on Celtic Solstice as my leader/enders project so while I’m not working on it solely I’ve been making progress on it. So what to do????
I almost pulled out a new project. I didn’t. I pulled out Provence. I’ve already finished doing my goal for this project for this month so it wasn’t on my list for this week. My goal was to finish a block. I have only 1 block left to do. I didn’t have the brainpower to actually do the last block so I reviewed the instructions for the alternating blocks. I reacquainted myself with the fabric and which was for which – dark, background, and center. I discovered that I had already started the center pieces. It’s a square with corner triangles. I had all the required 20 squares with 2 opposite corners pieced and trimmed. Half were pressed and the other half were not pressed. I finished pressing them. I had all the remaining squares (for the corner triangles) already cut AND I had already drawn the diagonal sewing line on the back. So all I had to do was sew the corners on. And that’s what I did. I even trimmed off the extra fabric. All I have to do is press them.
Provence
The beginnings of the alternating blocks that need to be pressed
6/11/2016
Here’s my crafty plan for the next few days:
Have a great quilty Saturday!
~Melanie
Here’s my crafty plan for the next few days:
Have a great quilty Saturday!
~Melanie
Here’s my crafty plan for the next few days:
Spooky Halloween
Row 1, Block 2
… work in progress…
5/27/2016
Spooky Halloween
Row 1, Block 3
… work in progress…
5/27/2016
Missing Ivy
Step 10 finished
5/11/2016
Have a great quilty Saturday!
~Melanie
Here’s my crafty plan for the next few days:
Spooky Halloween
Row 1, Block 1
In progress
5/9/2016
Missing Ivy
Step 10 finished
5/11/2016
Have a great quilty Saturday!
~Melanie
Happy Mother’s Day Weekend!
Woohoo! I love special weekends like this because I get to do what I want and this year I get to spend ALL weekend in my sewing room guilt free. Of course, we are planning on having dinner somewhere nice tonight. But we avoid crowds so tomorrow I’ll be home avoiding people who are not my family or online friends. 🙂 Maybe I can convince the girl to sew with me. 🙂
Here’s my crafty plan for the next few days:
Missing Ivy
through step 9
4/23/16
A Rainbow Garden
Block 4 in progress
4/19/2016
And because I’m me and I’ve been working on the same current projects over and over, I’m bored now. If Spooky Halloween doesn’t inspire me, I may have to do something different this weekend. I’m thinking a bag since it’s a small project. In fact, I may do that before anything else. I do want a small finish for this weekend.
Have a great quilty Saturday!
~Melanie
Nothing on the docket this weekend because I’ve got a calendar full of family activities. Can’t go into details now because there are surprises in store. ;0
No new crafty pics so here’s a pic of the kiddos…
Have a great quilty Saturday!
~Melanie
Wow! What is the plan this weekend? This week flew by fast and I’m just happy to have a day.
Here’s my crafty plan for the day:
Missing Ivy
Step 9
4/20/2016
I pieced the right sides together but when I started piecing the left side found that I pressed the middle pieces the wrong way so my seam is not nesting properly. I need to do some pressing magic before I can finish piecing the left side.
A Rainbow Garden
Block 4 in progress
4/19/2016
Have a great quilty Saturday!
~Melanie
4/9/2016
My focus will be a little different this weekend. I’m bored with my current projects and I need to rejuvenate some stuff to get my sewjo back.
I did get Scrapitude done so no more binding! yay! I do want to take another finished picture though. The one I took was washed out and I want a better one. I believe the forecast today in LA is rain so it will have to wait until the sun comes back out. I’m not complaining about the weather though. We need as much rain as we could get!
I have some non-quilty stuff to do this weekend that will intrude upon my crafting time. I have a big project at work and I promised my team that my part of it will be done by Monday so they can start their part when they come in on Monday. And this morning, I’ve got a hair appointment to go to. So first, my hair, then my work. And … AND… I almost forgot about it but my favorite LQS, The Quilt Emporium, is having their annual anniversary sale. Everything in the store is 30% off! I’m going to be having a dip in my stash and in my budget. I usually try to buy backing during this time and the next quilt I will need backing for is Celtic Solstice. I have backing for my next few quilts already. But, I don’t want to buy backing for Celtic Solstice. It’s a scrappy quilt and I think I’m going to pull fabric from my stash to make a scrappy pieced back. So, I’m going to take advantage of this opportunity to buy something at 30% off. I’m not sure what. I may mix it up a bit. A bit of yardage and maybe a ruler, and maybe a spool of a neutral Aurifil.
So that’s the plan today and when I get home, I’m not sure I’ll have time to actually do anything quilty. But if I do … here’s the plan:
Last night, I when through my scrap bin. As you may recall, I’ve got a bunch of different bins. Here’s how they are sorted:
Bin #1 – scraps I can no longer use. They are so tiny and are used to stuff pet beds or mailing stuff.
Bin #2 – Scraps I can use but cannot cut pieces out of. They’re bigger than 1/2 an inch and I use them for relaxing piecing when I don’t want to work on an actual project. This is the bin my girl has free reign to use whenever she gets in the mood to piece fabric together.
Bin #3 – Scraps that I can cut into pieces but are not large enough to fold. So nothing bigger than a 5×7 or 8×10 depending on my mood.
Bin #4 – Scraps that are large enough to fold. These are fabric from quilt projects I’ve completed and have enough fabric left over to fold up. or are fat quarters I have on hand. I don’t generally buy fat quarters but they still end up in my stash.
Yards of fabric – these are kept in 4-5 separate large tote bins. The bins above are small.
I went through Bin #3 and last fall, I pulled fabric out for Scrapitude 2016 (which I haven’t started piecing) and that helped use up a lot. But with finishing Tell It To The Stars and Scrapitude 2015, I stuffed the bin full again with the excess material from these projects. So last night I took out the Accuquilt I purchased at QuiltCon and used it to go through the bin and cut 2.5″ squares. I should have taken pictures of the process but was engrossed in actually doing it that I forgot to. Here’s the finished set of squares:
4 stacks of squares
4/9/2016
Each of them are about 2.5″ tall
I don’t know what I’m going to do with them. I’m thinking I’m going to use them as leaders and enders and piece them together. We’ll see. I’m really happy that my bin #3 is half full now. 🙂
Have a great quilty Saturday!
~Melanie