Tag Archives: 2012 Area One

A Quilt Top is finished

Area One Mystery quilt. Celestial something or other

I’ve had the inner top done for a while and all I needed to do was add the borders. I emailed my LQS during our shelter in place and with their help picked three options. I narrowed it down to two once I laid them down together physically. I love it. I am not sure how many tops I have in my quilt queue now but it’s getting up there. I think I’m at 6… three of which have backings already and all I have to do is prep the batting. I know I still need to piece the backing for this one but this is the last one in queue so I have time. I need to get going on quilting them but haven’t the desire. I may not have the desire to quilt quilt for awhile. With everything going on I just don’t have the mental capacity for the Q20 right now. I hope it changes soon. I know that my creative flows change through time and when the desire hits me I’ll ride that wave.

Always, stay safe,

Melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: Quilting. Tags: 2012 Area One, Area One, mystery. 2 Comments

Mar. ’20

Day 17 at home

Today is day 17 and I’m finding it difficult to stick with a schedule. I normally work from home so that’s not my problem. My kids are home all the time but they are older and do not require as much from me as they would if they were younger. Last week I was supposed to be on vacation. But with everything going on with the stock market I worked for most of it. I was able to get off early in the day and do various things but not nearly as much as I wanted to. I’m okay with it. But life will be more hectic next week as we finish up one quarter and start another. So I need to figure out how I want things to be.

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been working on:

Knitting – I’m still knitting on my morning socks and almost daily I’m able to knit a couple of rows on Ricky’s Weasley Sweater. But those pictures are no fun. Just a little bit longer and bigger than the last picture. I will try to take pics this week since the month is ending and I want to take end of Month pictures. My real knitting love is this hat:

Harriet’s Hat
3/29/2020

I ran out of the white yarn and luckily I have a friend who’s knitting the same hat with me. As soon as she is done, she will be dropping off (social distancing being kept) her leftover white. In the meantime, I just love looking at it. I am still working on my mix wave cowl, water lily top, etc. Basically I’m doing my daily and weekly knitting. Mostly.

For cross stitch, since I finished Mama’s Bukid I started working on Titania by Mirabilia. I started this a long time ago – 2018 – and only did a bit on it. I hated working on it. Really hated it. I had never worked on linen before. Before this, I didn’t realize that there were different fabrics and every Flosstube I watched was talking about how great linen was. So I kitted this project up with linen and did not like it. I couldn’t see the holes and they were uneven. It was awful and sat in a box for 2 years. Every once in awhile early on I would take it out and try for a bit but it’s been in complete timeout this last year. This time I started working on it again and while I can’t say I love working on it, I am better at it and it is now doable. I am loving what I’m seeing and it was my focus xstitch project for this week:

Titania
Mirabilia
3/29/2020

Here’s what it will grow up to be:

I finally finished this dress:

LAFS: Megan Dress

I’m not totally in love with it but it makes a great house dress. This is my second real dress but the first time with set in sleeve, gathers, my first time with darts, and a bunch of other things, I am really happy with how it turned out and how I can wear it. I plan to make skirts and other dresses one of these days.

On the quilting front: It’s harder to take pictures. I finished putting together this inner top –

2012 Southern CA
Quilt Run
Area One
Mystery quilt

I know the picture is not the finished top. It was harder to take a picture it because it is just too big.

2012 Southern CA
Quilt Run
Area One
Mystery quilt
3/29/2020

Here it is on my bed. I plan to do a small border – maybe about 5 inches all around. I am loving it but put it away for now.

Here are some other things I’ve been working on here and there…

I bound a few mats that I had practiced quilting on the Q20. Here’s a table runner. I picked up the top at one of our guild’s treasure hunts for, quilted and bound it. Now it’s gracing my table.

More practice on the Q20

Fun stuff.

Hope you are doing well during this time. I’m up and down and tend to stay offline when I’m not doing so well. I also try to remember that things are not so bad, people experience and survive much worse than being stuck at home with all the crafts, and I try to be very grateful for what I have and where I am. It’s still hard and there are a lot of sad things going on. Stay strong, friends.

Love always,

Melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: 2020 Crafty Goals, Cross Stitch, Knitting, Quilting. Tags: 2012 Area One, cross stitch, harriet's hat; titania; mirabilia, knitting, LAFS, Megan Dress. Leave a comment

Jan. ’20

2020 Crafty Plans

Over the last 3-4 years I’ve added more crafts to my crafty life and I only have so much time for crafts. Time is a fixed element. There is only so much time and I love to do all the things. I quilt, knit, cross stitch and now I’m learning to sew and make project bags, and on and on and on. Over the holiday break I used my gifted Christmas money to get a bobbin lacemaking kit. I’ve got a ton of half done projects and plans for other projects but not enough time to do everything I want to do. So rather than have goals each month of making progress on certain things I’ve decided to dedicate time to different crafts.

To summarize my crazy, I knit on my socks for 15 minutes every morning and 1-2 rows on my high priority knitting project every evening Monday thru Friday. I cross stitch on my projects every evening Monday thru Friday. I quilt on Saturdays and I sew on Sundays. Obviously if something comes up like an event or party or meeting, I will not be crafting. As a result, I like to avoid attending events and tend to stay home or hang out with like minded crafty people (just kidding – I still go out and see friends and family, I’m not totally crazy…. yet).

So here is a list of projects I will be working on during the craft times:

Quilting: So even though I’ve added new crafts to my life I still consider myself a Quilter with a capital Q. And over the next year I want to learn to use my new machine (*more on that later when it arrives). I want to learn how to service my featherweight, I’m taking a year long Judy Niemeyer class, take the monthly workshops offered by my quilt guild, take the embroidery class offered at my local sewing machine shop, do more hand work, and finish more of my WIPs.

My current WIPs:

Staycation

This is not really a WIP because the top is done. I just need to quilt it. I actually have this and possibly two other tops and a multitude of smaller projects ready to be quilted. Those are top on my list to finish and will be done when my new machine arrives*.

Good Fortune

Good Fortune
1/1/2020

I am currently finished with Border #3. I’m working on the 4th and final border.

Glam Clam

I’ve been doing a row at a time at the various retreats I’ve gone to over the last 2 years and I only have about 3 rows left.

Scrappy Stars – I do not have a good picture of this because this was a mystery quilt from a few years ago and I’m currently on step 4 or something. I believe that I’m at the point where I start putting the pieces together to make blocks. But right now, there are just a bunch of pieces…

Area One Mystery Quilt –

This is another project I’ve been working on primarily at retreats. I actually have two more sets of blocks done and I only have another 2 sets of blocks left before I can start piecing the blocks together. I know that doesn’t make any sense but I’m getting so close to a finish. Here’s how the center looks which I got done after the above picture was taken.

Craftsy Mystery quilt from a long time ago by Kimberly Einmo. I cannot remember where I am with this project but I started it at the last retreat I went to.

Area Two Mystery quilt – I finished all the blocks that I have but apparently I do not have the finishing instructions! So now I have a bunch of blocks that I have to figure out how to put together. I will work on this at a retreat because I need a big design space and fellow retreat attendees’ help to decide how to move forward.

Dancing with the Stars by Linda Ballard – I pulled this out and started working on it again at the last retreat I went to and the last time I worked on this was in 2013.

Dancing With the Stars
2-Block A and Snowball

I get a lot of work done at retreats I attend throughout the year. These are formal retreats for my guild, and various retreats offered by shops but I also plan personal retreats with friends and with my family. I generally work on one project at home and that is currently Good Fortune and when that is done I’ll work through this list in order.

This is a lot for one post so I’m putting my other crafts for other days.

Happy new year!

Melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: 2020 Crafty Goals, Quilting. Tags: 2012 Area One, 2020 Crafty Plans, 2020 Goals, are two 2012, dancing with the stars, Glam Clam, Good Fortune, kimberly einmo, linda ballard, quilting, Scrappy Stars, staycation quilt. 9 Comments

Oct. ’16

Fabric Tuesday, 10/25/16

Happy Tuesday!

I started a new project! I went through my UFO bin and my kit bin and decided to get going on the mystery quilt from the 2012 SoCal Quilters Run. This one is from Area One. I discovered when I went through the bag that I didn’t have all the kits for all the shops. I believe I have all the blocks just not all the fabric. 🙁 I’m kind of sad about this but what can you do. I figure I’ll just work on all the blocks where I have fabric and then when I get to the point I don’t have the kits I’ll use whatever fabric I have left. If I still need more I’ll just have to go shopping. 🙂