Tag Archives: mama’s bukid

Back from the framers

I heard from my framer yesterday that my pieces were done so I ran over and picked them up.

Here is Mama’s Bukid – finished in March, 2020 right at the start of Covid. Thank goodness for this blog because if I relied on memory I would have thought I finished this a long time ago. And while it has been 2 years and for some that is a long time ago, my thoughts were more like 2018 not 2020. Anyway, I gave this to my mom that fall for her birthday unframed. My thought was that she would have it framed. But I know my mom would cheap out on a frame so I took it back in 2021 with the intention of framing it. I didn’t get to that task until last month. I chose a really good quality plexiglass because with real glass it would be really heavy. We didn’t want it to be heavy. And by really good, it is supposed to prevent 80% of UV rays from getting to the piece. There is museum quality glass (plexi?) that would prevent 100% but that would cause the price to skyrocket and while I think my piece is awesome, I don’t think it’s that awesome. 🙂

Mama’s Bukid – Framed

I’m sorry for the picture quality but the reflection of the light cannot be helped at this point. You’ll find better pictures on it’s personal page when it was not framed. Anyway, this is a finish and for that I’m thrilled. Can I count it as a finish for 2022 even though I counted it in 2020 as well? I will because I’m the boss of my blog. 🙂

I do plan to put a label on the back. While I’ve been very good at putting labels on my quilts, I’ve not labeled any of my cross stitch pieces and I’m planning to be better on that end going forward.

Inherited Piece – Save the stitches 2022

The picture really is bad here and I apologize. I was gifted on 2 occasions a number of UFOs from recently deceased crafters needlepoint projects. This one, while not complete, was practically finished. And without the pattern I could not do more unless I did more research. And with my own projects who has the time for that? I decided it was good enough and had it framed. I plan to give this to my mom who is bemoaning all her empty wall spaces that I am happy to fill. I will also put a label on the back with the stitcher’s name.

Happy stitching!

Melanie

I’m alive and healthy

Just wanted to drop by and let you know, I’m okay and my family is okay.  I’m not part of a high risk category but my family and I are self-quarantining because we can. I work from home mostly and the 2-day a week job I was commuting to before was moved to virtual support which is what I do normally.  Today is day 11 for me and it’s helpful to take the dog on walks and say hello to the sun every day.  For awhile, it was raining and every time it stopped I would rush outside to breathe fresh air and take the dog out.  It’s no fun taking her out when it is raining.  I can say yesterday was a difficult day. It was my son’s 15th birthday and he was happy to stay in his room and play on his computer. The rest of us got on each other’s nerves. I isolated myself from the rest of the family in my office/craft room to avoid tensions rising higher.  Today is a much better day.

Since last I posted, I got this done!

Mama’s Bukid – Farmland 2
It’s finish!
3/22/2020

 

Hope you are staying safe and keeping your sanity!

Always,

Melanie

 

 

Cross Stitch: Mama’s Bukid, an update

Mama’s Bukid
2/15/2020

Here is where I’m at with Mama’s Bukid.  When I finish this set of columns, I will be finished with this project.  I’m so excited I can hardly stand it.  But I’m putting it away.  I can almost taste the finish that’s how close I am. I’ve been working on this project for a week and it’s not my favorite project. If I force myself to keep working on it, I will not pick it up at all.  I know myself.  So, I will work on “A Stitch in Time” this week and next week… I will stitch a bit more on this project and maybe, I’ll have a finish.  There’s a lot of full coverage as I get to the bottom of these columns and as a result, I’m not certain I’ll be able to finish in a week.  It may take another 2 weeks of stitching.  Either way, I’m okay with taking a break on this and moving onto one of my favorite stitchy projects.

 

My weekly update, 2/01/2020

So much has happened in the last 2 weeks. First I wasn’t able to post because of Road to California and all the shenanigans that happen there. I was exhausted on Sunday and spent the day resting. And that morning, Kobe Bryant and his daughter passed away in a helicopter crash. It’s heartbreaking and I continue to cry every day.  I cannot imagine what his wife and family are going through and I offer my prayers and hugs to them.

And here’s my update…

First, the week before Road:

I didn’t cross stitch at all that week, I did some knitting and that was it.  I went to yoga once.  That’s it. I played on the Bernina Q20 that Friday and quilted on practice sandwiches. At the end, I took out this table runner and quilted it. Now it’s done and all I have to do is bind it.

I also went to a featherweight maintenance class and now I have the knowledge I need to oil and service my featherweight!

On Sunday, I spent the day finishing up clue 3 on my scrappy quilt (no pictures because I was so busy sewing).  Time just goes by so fast. Then the week started up again.

So this past week, I was a bit more productive.  I cross stitched 4 of the 5 days and I finished the columns I was working on last time and now I’m on the next set of columns.

Mama’s Bukid
1/31/2020

I went to yoga once so I’m averaging about once a week.  Much better than not going at all but I’m striving for twice a week.

Next I accomplished my morning knitting on socks for 15 minutes every Monday – Friday.

1/18/2020

These babies are now done!

knit picks
scrappy socks
2/1/2020

All the ends are woven in and I started on my next monday morning socks:

Pattern: Jo’s perfect slipper socks
2/1/2020

 

Second, my evening knitting on Ricky’s Weasley Sweater every Monday through Friday.

Ricky’s Weasley Sweater
1/11/2020

I checked this off for 6 of 10 days.  Here’s an updated picture:

Ricky’s Weasley Sweater
about 14″
2/1/2020

It’s hard to see the green stripe but it’s still there.

I only worked on the Fairy Hill Shawl during knit night but that’s okay. I have about 7 rows left to do.

Fairy Hill Shawl
2/1/2020

I hope you all have a happy crafty week!

Melanie

To see the full 2020 crafty plan, click for quilting, knitting, cross stitch, and everything else.

My weekly update, 1/18/2020

I’ve done very little this past week.  It seems to have gone in a blur.  Last Saturday’s post I complained about being sick and not getting as much done as I wanted to and this week I do not even have the excuse of being sick.  I just had a lot of family and other obligations that kept me from crafting to my heart’s content.

Monday was my quilt guild meeting and it was a good meeting. I’m co-membership chair so I have a bunch of duties I needed to do to prepare for the meeting.  At least I was able to knit on my socks during the meeting.

On Tuesday, we went to the Los Angeles Clipper game and had a blast.

Wednesday, I was in Century City, and went with a friend to a yoga class.  Which was awesome!  I haven’t gone to yoga for almost a month and while the class kicked my butt I was very glad to go.

Thursday was knit night and it was my daughter’s last night with us before she headed off to college. So I went to knit night for a couple of hours before the family and I went to sushi for the girl’s last night.

And on Friday, we woke super early to get the girl to the airport for her early flight.  It was fine and at 1pm my parent’s called to say they were on their way to visit for the weekend.  I love that they are here visiting but my plan was to spend Friday sitting on my butt stitching.  Instead I had to run around getting them dinner.  I’m okay with it.

Anyway, that’s my busy week.  So what was I able to actually do?

First up – morning knitting on my socks for 15 minutes every Monday – Friday.

last week – 1/11/2020

 

I checked this off for 5 of 5 days.

1/18/2020

The cuffs are done and I’m working on the heels.  I have about 2 or 3 more rows on the heels and then I can kitchener it and call it a finish!  woohoo…

Second, my evening knitting on Ricky’s Weasley Sweater every Monday through Friday.

Ricky’s Weasley Sweater
1/11/2020

I checked this off for 1 of 5 days.  I only did about 2 – maybe 3 rows during knit night so any picture I take today will not be much different than what I showed last week.

I had dropped a stitch on my Fairy Hill Shawl and spent some time trying to fix it. Mindy spent more time on it but I didn’t get anymore done on it than that.  And I got another small blip done on my mix wave cowl.

Mix Wave Cowl
1/11/2020

For Cross Stitch, my goal is to work on it every evening Monday – Friday.

Mama’s Bukid
1/11/2020

I did nothing on this project all week.  🙁  So it looks the same. I wanted to finish up those columns last night but it will have to wait until my next free xstitch moment.

And finally Quilting! I was able to finish Glam Clam last weekend and posted about it during the week. But here it is again!

Glam Clam
Finished Top
1/13/2020

And finally for Sewing, the top and bottom of my Megan dress is put together and my next class is tomorrow. I’m excited to get that to the next step.

Megan Dress
1/11/2020

I guess I made small progress on some projects and no progress on others.  That’s okay. And I have a finished top so that is reason to celebrate.  I hope life calms down a bit over the next few months so I can get back into the rhythm of crafting, creating, and relaxing.

I hope you all have a happy crafty week!

Melanie

To see the full 2020 crafty plan, click for quilting, knitting, cross stitch, and everything else.

My weekly update, 1/11/2020

Now that the first full week is almost done, let’s do a quick check in to see my progress. To see the full 2020 crafty plan, click for quilting, knitting, cross stitch, and everything else.

To summarize, I have no specific goals other than to carve out time to craft on particular projects. This week, the first full week basically blew me out of the water because I got sick. So sick that I missed my minigroup get together on Monday, worked only part time Monday – Wednesday, and barely made it to knit night on Thursday.  I was able to do some things but not all things every day.

Monday – In addition to minigroup, I was supposed to go to yoga. I didn’t go. I also didn’t go on Wednesday or Friday.  🙁  I hope to change that next week.  I know yoga is not a craft but I need it to stay healthy and enjoy crafting.  So it’s part of my weekly “must do’s”.

First up – morning knitting on my socks for 15 minutes every Monday – Friday.

I checked this off for 4 of 5 days.  It doesn’t look it, but those tubes are about 15 inches long and I’m just starting the cuff.  There is no heel yet but I’ll be adding those on using the afterthought heel method when the cuffs are done.  I smell a finish coming…

Second, my evening knitting on Ricky’s Weasley Sweater every Monday through Friday.

Ricky’s Weasley Sweater
1/11/2020

I checked this off for 3 of 5 days.  It’s really hard to take a picture because it keeps rolling on itself and it’s on cables.  I did my best above and hopefully the colors come out right on your end.  It looks fine on my monitor.  His sweater is Slytherin but he did not like the idea of a green sweater so I made it gray with green.  It originally was supposed to just be a Green R but I wanted there to represent more green so included striping at the bottom of the sweater. I hope to also have stripes on the sleeves but that will depend on whether I have enough of the green.

I also did a couple of rows on my Fairy Hill Shawl which I still do not have a picture of. It’s because it’s all bunched up on cables and any picture I take will just be a jumbled mess.  And I did another blip on my mix wave cowl.

Mix Wave Cowl
1/11/2020

For Cross Stitch, my goal is to work on it every evening Monday – Friday.

Mama’s Bukid
1/11/2020

I checked this off for 4 of the 5 days and I’m almost done with the first 2.5 columns of these last 2 pages. There are 2 pages (a top and a bottom) and I want to finish 2 columns per month so I can get this long time project done and framed sooner rather than later.  I’m in the home stretch now because once I finish these columns I will only have 4 columns left!  And if I am on pace this will be done in March.  The problem as I’ve said in previous posts is that I’m not loving working on this project right now so it’s super hard to get myself to work on it.  I started these columns in December and didn’t even get halfway through the column.  Now, these are made up deadlines so if I take a month or two longer, it’s not a big deal.  🙂

And finally Quilting! My only schedule for quilting is to quilt all day Saturday but sometimes I work it in during the week.  So I was able to finish my Good Fortune Quilt!   I posted this picture recently but here it is again in all it’s glory.

Good Fortune
1/6/2020

It’s hard to see but the top is done and I have already put it away in my quilt queue.  Next up is Glam Clam and I’ve already started working on it today.  In fact, I finished another row.  I only have 1 row left and if I buckle down I might be able to get that one done today and have a second quilt top finished in January!  It’s stuck up under my sewing machine until I finish typing up today’s post so you get a picture of it “under the needle”.

Glam Clam
under the needle
1/11/2020

I do not actually have all day today as we are expecting friends for dinner this evening so I will need to end early to get ready for the socializing.

For Sewing, I just posted about this yesterday so it’s the same status.  But tomorrow is Sunday and normally Sunday is sew day.  Unfortunately, but fortunately, instead of sewing, I’ll be taking a quilting workshop with Mike McNamara offered through my quilt guild.  So I’ll be quilting tomorrow as well.  More on that later.

I hope you all have a happy crafty week!

Melanie

 

2020 Crafty Plans: Cross Stitch

Last year I didn’t finish any of my cross stitch goals but I made a lot of progress on everything. So I moved my projects over to this year and added new ones.  Because I’m crazy and I am loving my stitching right now.

Mama’s Bukid – Cross Stitch Priority Project #1

Mama’s Bukid
12/24/2019

My goal for December was to finish 2.5 columns and I only got halfway.  So I do not think I’ll be finishing this in February as I had intended.  I am struggling hard with finishing this project.  Part of it was that December had a lot of events and family and friend time.  All of it was wonderful and time well spent but my cross stitch time was hurt.  And I am totally unmotivated with this project.  I have had to force myself to work on this.  It is really hard but it’s so close to finishing that I can’t stop, it’s just taking me longer.

Gamer Nouveau – Cross Stitch Project priority #2

My goal for 2019 was to finish 6 pages but I only got 2.5 pages done.  I will work on this one week a month until Bukid is done and then I can work on this two weeks a month.  I hope that this year I will be able to get 6 pages done. There are a ton of pages and I do want to get this done sooner rather than later. I started using a new app called Pattern Keeper and it has changed my stitchy life.  It has taken a lot of the struggles I’ve had working on full coverage pieces. I’m currently at 20% completed on this project.

And because I like big projects (or BAPs – Big A$$ Projects), the new cross stitch project – priority #3 is a HAED (Heaven And Earth Design) which is a full coverage piece also.  Here’s my current spot:

And here’s what it will grow up to be:

Each of those gridlines marks a page and I’m still only on page 2. I do not have a goal for this year other than working on it each month.

I’m also working on a smaller project: A kiss for Snowman

This is only about 6″ square but I’m not enjoying this project at all. I only work on it when I’m travelling. On my personal retreats I may take this with me to do some stitching.  Hopefully, this will be done soon and I can start a new small project.  I am currently in love with full coverage projects and I’ve got another one started but I rarely work on it.  I do have a lot of projects kitted up and I plan to start another 2 or 3 over the course of this year.  But, the 4 projects shown above are my top priority projects for now.

Happy new year!

Melanie

Update on February Plans and this week’s POA, week 7, 2019

Good morning my friends,

It was a productive week.

For quilting:

Celtic Solstice – Goal for February is to have this bound and labeled.

Celtic Solstice
2/9/19
Binding in process

Good Fortune – Goal is to finish Clue 2 and start on Clue 3. I normally work on this on Sunday’s with a friend and yesterday was our guild’s workshop so we didn’t get together. Next Sunday I will be out of town so the next time I will be getting together at Tova’s will be Sunday, 2/24.  You’ll be happy to know that I did finish Clue 2. and all I need to do is to start on Clue 3.  Which I’ll be able to do when we next get together.

Good Fortune Mystery Quilt
Clue Two
Finished
2/3/19

 

Provence – Goal is to piece the border. – not yet done… And with the next 2 weekends filled with activities, not sure if I’ll be able to get this done.

For Knitting:

January Socks – Finished one sock!

January Socks
just one
2/5/19
Honey Bees Dance
by Helen Stewart

 

February Sock – I’m working on Mercury socks by Kim McKenzie/Drotrar using Hypnotic Yarn’s Grinchmas.  I love the colorway but the yarn is too plum for socks for me.  I would probably love a hat or gloves with this yarn.  While it’s cold now, it doesn’t get cold often enough in Los Angeles to warrant making a lot of wool plump socks.  The yarn is 80% SW Merino, 20% Nylon and at first my knitting friend who is much more accomplished than I thought it might be the 80/20 blend that I don’t like.  But after a few days thought that that’s probably not it as I’ve been knitting with similar yarn compositions in the past.  So then we realized that there are only 400 yards in this 100 grams and I’ve been knitting with yardage around 430’s and up.  Which is why this particular yarn is plumper than the yarn I normally work with.  The yarn is lovely, don’t get me wrong, just not something I want to use in socks again. Anyway, I’m almost through the foot and will be working on the heel before the weeks ends.

Jacob’s Weasley Sweater – This sweater is in time out.  I can’t even talk about it at the moment.

Featherweight cardigan – I am finished blending out yarn 1 on one sleeve. I have to work on blending out yarn 1 on the second sleeve and finish blending it out of the body.  Then I’ll be working solely with yarn 2 for a little bit while I think about when to blend in yarn 3. I’ll get a picture once Yarn 1 is blended out completely. Right now there are so many yarn bits hanging out it’s difficult to try on let alone to take a pic with it.

For Cross Stitching:

  • Mama’s Bukid- Goal is to finish column 1 and 2 on page 3 and 6.

Mama’s Bukid
2/10/19
almost done with columns 1 and 2 on pages 3 and 6

  • Gamer – Goal is to finish page 6. I have about 2 more columns to do so I’m pretty close to this goal.  I just need to finish my goal for Mama’s Bukid, then I can work on this project. The only thing is that I am out of town this coming weekend so I will not be able to stitch a lot. I think that that is okay but it does mean I have to rush, which I hate doing. 🙂
  • Snowman – Goal is to finish stitching the perimeter of this WIP. I have worked on this a bit and I have about 1 side left to finish in order to have the perimeter completely stitched on this project. This is my traveling piece so I’ll be working on this a lot this weekend.

This coming weekend I’ll be out of town so I may not be able to get a post out. I plan to not visit any shops (quilt shops, yarn shops, needlepoint shops) as I need to not spend money on anything other than food and gas and possibly parking, if necessary.  My daughter was just accepted to Boston University and I need to watch my pennies.  Of course, we’re still waiting to hear back in regards to her financial aid package and depending on what they give her will determine whether she will go there or not.  Instead, the daughter and I will be visiting San Francisco State just in case the financial aid package at BU is unacceptable.

Keep crafting and love on!

xoxo,

Melanie

 

 

 

Saturday Musings, quilt on!

My major project over the next couple weeks is this skirt:

Delphine Skirt
by Tilly and the Buttons

 

I hope it’s cute on me.  But if it’s not – well, I am taking this opportunity to practice sewing.  It’s fun and right now I have the pieces cut up. Tomorrow, I plan to cut some interface for the band and to start sewing all the pieces together.  Oh and I need to buy a zipper.  So we’ll see how far I get tomorrow. I’ve been wanting to sew skirts for a long time and I hope that this will help me learn to do more.

I did a bit of unplanned crafting today.  I took my daughter to a school tour to see if it’s one of the places she might attend for college. It was not as far as I had thought and we spent about 30 minutes when she decided it wasn’t the right place for her.  So we returned home much sooner than I had thought and was able to get some things done.

1st, I was able to get part of my sleeve done on my featherweight cardigan.  I am having some yarn management issues as I transition from yarn 1 to yarn 2 so I finished yarn 1’s part on sleeve 1 and now just need to do the same on sleeve 2. Then I can continue on the body and get to the point where I start adding yarn 3.  I love how it’s turning out and I’m sorry I cannot get a very good picture of it.  Here’s the last time I was able to take a pick:

Then I was able to work on Mama’s Bukid.  My goal for February is column 1 and 2 and I’ve been stitching 1 box per day.  So today’s the 9th and since I was a little behind I stitched both box 8 and box 9.  I have 3 more boxes and I will be done with column 1 and 2 for the month. I don’t really like stitching on Mama’s Bukid but it’s my focus WIP for this year. I’ve discovered since I started stitching more that I like to stitch 18 or 25 count. As Gamer is on 18 and A Stitch In Time is on 25. Mama’s Bukid is on 14 count and I feel like it’s so big.  I need to use 4 flosses to get the right coverage I like.  But I’m persisting and I’m on track to get this done this year.

And Finally, as of this moment of writing, I measured the perimeter of Celtic Solstice and pulled fabric from the stash bins to start cutting for the binding.  I hope to cut and piece the binding tonight before I move on to my next project.

And since I pulled fabric and went through the bins in my closet, I started looking at the projects that I’ve got going.  I’m going to 2 retreats at the end of March.  It just kind of happened.  One of the retreats is with a friend and we will be up in the mountains in a cabin.  We’re both excited for that one as it sounds really nice to be up in the mountains near LA in spring.  This one runs Monday through Thursday and the second retreat is near Santa Maria, CA the following Saturday through Monday.  I will be taking my work laptop and I hope they have internet in the mountains so I can stay connected and take care of anything if necessary. So I looked at some longstanding WIPs and I’m starting to plan which projects I will take with me.  I’ve got 2 quilts ready to be quilted and those are not going to go with me to the retreat.  The 3rd quilt I’ve been working on, Provence, will probably be done before the retreats and will be in the quilting queue with the others. So I have to look at what I will take. I am still working on my Civil War Diary quilt but I generally only do a block or two at a time. My computer crashed a couple of months ago and I still haven’t re-installed EQ7 so I can print more of the block instructions.  But I think I have 2 blocks printed and ready to use from the last time I printed block instructions.  And I’ve got Area One Mystery Quilt from 2012.  I have quite a few blocks finished from previous retreats and that will be a good #1 project.  I also have Bonnie’s Good Fortune quilt that I can continue working on.  So that’s 3 projects.  I pulled a Glam Clam quilt that I started a few years ago and I don’t think it ever made it onto the blog. I also pulled “Dancing with the Stars” which is an old Linda Ballard pattern I started at a class I took with her at PIQF many years ago.  I love how my quilts are slowly getting done and I’m starting to go into my old WIPs.  At some point, I’ll be going through my new fabric and making stuff with them.  I took this opportunity to pet some of them. 🙂  I have quite a few that I purchased specifically to make skirts or to make bags.  So, one of these days, I will jump on that.  But I currently have 2 totes in process so I want to finish those before I start any new bags.

Happy crafting friends!

I will go back to my cutting table and start cutting the pieces for my binding.

Happy quilting!

Hugs,

Melanie

 

 

January’s Update and February’s Plans

For quilting:

Celtic Solstice – I have all the quilting done!  To be fair, I had 2 of the sides left to quilt at the end of January and just finished quilting the other two sides today. And, I have it all trimmed and ready for binding.  So my goal for February is to get it bound and labeled.

Celtic Solstice
All quilted
2/2/2019

Good Fortune – In January I finished Clue 1 and got through most of Clue 2.  I just need to finish trimming my HSTs for Clue 2, which I plan to do in February and work on Clue 3.

Good Fortune Mystery Quilt
Clue Two
In process
1/20/19

Provence – My goal for February is to piece the border. I’m still deciding if I should go with just 1 border or find a second border to add to it.

Provence
9/22/18

For Knitting:

I generally work on my knitting during the week and when I’m out and about.  So my focus knitting is on my monthly socks. Right now they are my February socks. Because it’s February. 🙂 In January, I was working on Helen Stewart’s Honey Bees Dance Socks and they are not done. I’m using a sock blank so I can only do 1 sock at a time (I dislike doing 1 sock at a time!).  And I’m still on my first sock. I have one last pattern repeat and then I can do the toes.  This is almost done. But it’s February now so these socks are not the socks I’m focusing on. I will try to finish these as I’m almost done… My February socks are Kim Drotar’s Mercury Socks using Hypnotic Yarns “Grinchmas” colorway.  I’m doing these toe up and I finished the first pattern repeat. I plan to do a pattern repeat a day so I should be at the heel in about 2 weeks. I work on these daily. On most Tuesdays and Thursday evenings I meet with some knitting friends at our LYS – A Major Knitwork in Van Nuys, CA.  There I work first on Jacob’s Weasley Sweater.  I finished the front and I’m currently working on the neck shaping. My goal for February is to be working on the sleeves.  And when I get to a good stopping point, my favorite piece to work on is my Featherweight Cardigan.  I love working on this and right now I’m finishing Yarn 1 and moving in Yarn 2. In February I want to be working in Yarn 3.

Honey Bees Dance Socks
January, 2019

For Cross Stitching:

  • Mama’s Bukid- I was able to finish the pages in January and every month from now until it’s finished my plan is to finish 2 columns per month.

Mama’s Bukid
January 31, 2019

  • Gamer – I was able to get halfway through page 6 so in February my goal is to finish page 6.

Gamer
1/31/2019

  • Snowman – My February goal is to finish stitching the perimeter of this WIP.

Have a Happy Saturday Night!

Keep crafting and love on!

xoxo,

Melanie