What the heck???

I've been sewing a bit here and there on my Snowflake quilt as it is my One Monthly Goal for October, to have the top completed.

It's a pretty easy pattern and is going together rather quickly. It's put together in panels of squares and HSTs...

 Here was the the first row of panels up on the design wall...

...and here are a few of that row's panels sewn together...so far, so good...

Last year at a retreat I learned a method of taking all of the pieces of the panel to the sewing machine in one, nice organised pile to sew together. It was similar to what I've previously done, with a wonderful tweak. 

On to the second row of panels...

This is when I say, "What the heck???" (although I may have actually said something else, lol)

Something is just not right! How on earth did I do that???

I guess at some point in the sewing-together method my little pile of squares and HSTs got turned around somehow. It's too big a mistake to ignore....so a date with the seam ripper is in the cards today.

Something new I wanted to try the other day was dyeing a skein of yarn.

I soaked the yarn in some water and a bit of vinegar like I saw on YouTube. I wanted to try the method using the little Kool-aid packets for dye.

I went into my small town where we do have 2 grocery stores...no Kool-aid to be found. I haven't looked for it for probably 2 decades, so I don't even know if you can buy it any more.

I looked for food dye....both stores don't carry it.

I was a little peeved because I had already started the process by soaking my yarn. I don't know how it came to me, but I decided to use some spices I have in the house...I remember the first time I did something with turmeric and had yellow hands for a couple of days!...so why not!

I used turmeric, dry mustard, paprika, and powdered bay leaf. Coincidentally I was cooking beets in the Instant Pot that day and saved some beet water to use also, which is what you see in this picture...

After the yarn was dry, I did find that I had food dye tucked way back in the corner of my baking cupboard, so I wet the yarn again and sprinkled a bit of the red dye randomly.

Here is my result, I'm quite happy with it. I'll let it dry even longer before I wind it into a ball...it feels dry, but I want to be sure...

I want to start knitting with it right away, but there are Christmas gifts that need to be knitted first.

I did do some knitting this week. I've had a pattern for Mermaid socks for a while now and finally had to try it. I finished the first sock this morning...

I really like the picot edge, and I like the stitch that is used. I'm really going to like the asymmetry of the pair of socks. 

I used a yarn by West Highland Spinners which I've never used before....I liked it so much that I've gone online and ordered some more!

I will share with you that this has been a particularly difficult week. I'm sure I'm not alone in this....feeling like it's a bit hard to cope after all these months of Covid. 

Yesterday I took some time to get out into nature for a nice long walk. Man, did that ever improve my mood! I encourage anyone who is feeling blue, weepy, anxious, to get some fresh air....it really does work wonders. Even if it means just sitting outside on your front stoop. 

Mother Nature makes good medicine!

Today I am linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

One Monthly Goal - October

I think I have lofty goals for October....but why not try???

I will have two goals for October. The first one is to finish hand-quilting my Shimmer quilt. 

I was poking along quite nicely on this quilt pre-Covid, as I had hoped to have it done in time for the Norfolk County Fair....but when that got cancelled this quilt was quietly forgotten.

I've picked it up again this past month and have made some good progress...and now I just want to make it a One Monthly Goal so it can be done.

 I've been quilting with my favourite thread, YLI, in Coral. I think I was always one to use white or cream thread back in the day. About 15 years ago I attended a lovely quilt display at a local historical house, Cottonwood Mansion. I was surprised to see some of the vintage quilts quilted in bold-coloured thread....dark brown and red are what I specifically remember. Those quilts really made an impact on me, and I think I've used colourful threads ever since.

I've also been using an air-erasable marker to mark the quilting design....love it! The only problem is that the more humidity is in the air, the quicker the mark disappears! At this time of year the mark disappears almost before I can get the motif quilted. When I use the same marker in the dry air of Winter, the mark may last the whole day.

So that's my first goal....to have this quilted and bound by the end of October.

I'm not sure about accomplishing my second goal, as I do seem to have more time to spend on hand-work than piecing by machine. 

I'm just starting a Snowflake quilt, using the fabrics I won during last month's One Monthly Goal.

I didn't make a photo-copy of the first page of the pattern, but this picture may give you an idea of the quilt...

Mine will be a scrappy version, not the 4-colour version. I did take a bit of a sew-therapy afternoon to get a start on this quilt.

Here is the first row of blocks laid out on the design wall...

....and I couldn't resist sewing a few blocks together. They went together surprisingly quickly...

I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal. Hopefully I can reach my lofty goals for October. It would be great to have the Snowflake quilt ready for use in December!