Category Archives: weekend line up

Happy Mother’s Day!

happy-mothers-day

 

 

Here’s my wish list for today:

  1. Finish piecing the first block of the Civil War Diary Block: Alarming Conditions
    1. Civil War Diary Quilt
      Alarming Conditions
      Block 1
      5/14/17

  2. Finish knitting the second heel of my Union Square socks.
    • Take a picture to post for you all!
  3. Whatever takes my fancy.  ;0

Have a great crafty day!

~Melanie

My knitting adventure

I started knitting again…

Here’s how my sock looks like now:

my right sock 10/8/2016

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.

  1. Round – decrease – k, ssk, k rest of the way (total 11 stitches on DPN), knit all for 10 stitches for the bottom of my foot, decrease – knit until the last 3 stitches, k2o, k (total 11 stitches on DPN), top of foot – knit all for 12 stitches.
  2. Round – knit all around
  3. Round – decrease
  4. Round – knit all around
  5. Round – knit all around – try it on. 🙂
  6. Round – knit all around
  7. Round – knit all around
  8. Round – knit all around – try it on. 🙂
  9. Round – decrease
  10. Round – knit all around
  11. Round – knit all around – try it on. 🙂
  12. Round – knit all around
  13. Round – knit all around -switched to circulars.
  14. Round – knit all around
  15. Round – knit all around
  16. Round – knit all around – try it on. 🙂
  17. Round – decrease
  18. Round – knit all around
  19. Round – knit all around – try it on. 🙂
  20. Round – knit all around
  21. Round – decrease

Have a great quilty Saturday!

~Melanie

This week’s line up, Week 24

Provence The beginnings of the alternating blocks 6/11/2016

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

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:

  1. Moon Glow – Finish quilting the inner part with Bailey
  2. Raining Cats and Dogs – continue hand quilting as I have the time and can stand to have the quilt on me.
  3. Spooky Halloween – get the fabric for row 2, block 1 put together and all the applique pieces traced.  If I get it together I can take this block with me to hand applique while traveling.
  4. Missing Ivy – step 11 – piece all the rows together to finish the inner top!
  5. Celtic Solstice – work on these as Leaders/Enders while I’m doing other projects.
  6. cross stitch a bit
  7. knit a bit
  8. work on my wool project a bit

Have a great quilty Saturday!

~Melanie

This week’s line up, Week 23

Here’s my crafty plan for the next few days:

  1. Moon Glow – Get a couple of rows quilted
  2. Raining Cats and Dogs – continue hand quilting every day
  3. Spooky Halloween – prep row 1 for hand work so I can take the blocks to FL.  This is specifically for Block 2 and Block 4.  If I have time, I think I’ll do block 2 because there’s not much left.  I picked up Row 2 last Thursday from my LQS, so if I have time, I’d like to get some of it prepped for FL.
  4. Missing Ivy – step 11 – get the rows together.
  5. Celtic Solstice – work on these as Leaders/Enders while I’m doing other projects.
  6. cross stitch a bit
  7. knit a bit
  8. work on my wool project a bit

Have a great quilty Saturday!

~Melanie

This week’s line up, Week 22

Here’s my crafty plan for the next few days:

  1. Moon Glow – Get a couple of rows quilted
  2. Raining Cats and Dogs – continue hand quilting every day
  3. Spooky Halloween – finish Block #2 and 3
    1. Spooky Halloween Row 1, Block 2 ... work in progress... 5/27/2016

      Spooky Halloween
      Row 1, Block 2
      … work in progress…
      5/27/2016

      Spooky Halloween Row 1, Block 3 ... work in progress... 5/27/2016

      Spooky Halloween
      Row 1, Block 3
      … work in progress…
      5/27/2016

  4. Missing Ivy – step 11
    1. Missing Ivy Step 10 finished 5/11/2016

      Missing Ivy
      Step 10 finished
      5/11/2016

  5. Celtic Solstice – work on these as Leaders/Enders while I’m doing other projects.
  6. cross stitch a bit
  7. knit a bit
  8. work on my wool project a bit

Have a great quilty Saturday!

~Melanie

This week’s line up, Week 20

Here’s my crafty plan for the next few days:

  1. Raining Cats and Dogs – get started with the hand quilting
  2. Spooky Halloween – finish Block #1
    1. Spooky Halloween Row 1, Block 1 In progress 5/9/2016

      Spooky Halloween
      Row 1, Block 1
      In progress
      5/9/2016

  3. Missing Ivy – step 11
    1. Missing Ivy Step 10 finished 5/11/2016

      Missing Ivy
      Step 10 finished
      5/11/2016

  4. Celtic Solstice – work on these as Leaders/Enders while I’m doing other projects.
  5. cross stitch a bit
  6. knit a bit
  7. work on my wool project a bit

Have a great quilty Saturday!

~Melanie

This week’s line up, Week 19

happy-mothers-day

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:

  1. Finish machine quilting Raining Cats and Dogs.  And get started with the hand quilting.
  2. Start on the new ROM Spooky Halloween.
    1. spooky_halloween
  3. Step 10 on Missing Ivy.

    Missing Ivy through step 9 4/23/16

    Missing Ivy
    through step 9
    4/23/16

  4. Work on Block B’s for Celtic Solstice.  everything is organized so my plan is to put these together as Leaders/Enders while I’m doing other projects.
  5. And if I have time…
    1. put together the new hand quilting frame I bought from DezertSuz’ friend.  I wonder if I can throw Raining Cats and Dogs on it even though I’ve already machine pieced parts of it? hmmm….
    2. cross stitch a bit
    3. knit a bit
    4. work on my wool project a bit
A Rainbow Garden Block 4 in progress 4/19/2016

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

This week’s line up, Week 17

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:

  1. Get started on quilting Raining Cats and Dogs.
  2. Finish Step 9 on Missing Ivy. I’m almost done.
    1. Missing Ivy Step 9 4/20/2016

      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.

  3. I need to finish pressing Block A’s for Celtic Solstice.  Right now Block A’s are taking up two bins because the pressed set are in 1 bin and the to-be-pressed set are in a 2nd bin.  I need the 2nd bin to put my in progress Block B’s for proper organization.  Right now they’re just dumped in the same bin as all the pieces and it’s driving my OCD mind crazy.  So I had to put it away for now.  In order for me to start working on it again, I need to organize it better and the first part of that organization is to press the remaining Block A’s so I can free up the 2nd bin. 🙂
  4. And if I have time…
    1. cross stitch a bit
    2. knit a bit
    3. work on my wool project a bit
A Rainbow Garden Block 4 in progress 4/19/2016

A Rainbow Garden
Block 4 in progress
4/19/2016

Have a great quilty Saturday!

~Melanie

This week’s line up, Week 15

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:

  1. I have to cut 31 strips of the yellow fabric I bought a few weeks ago for the strip club at my quilt guild.  The meeting is Monday and I’ve procrastinated enough!
  2. Raining Cats and Dogs – get Border #2 done.  I’m tired of Celtic Solstice.  It’s been on my sewing table these last few weeks and I finally cleaned it all up, put it in it’s bin and decided that I’m going to work on something different for a change.

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

4 stacks of squares
4/9/2016

Each of them are about 2.5" tall

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