Sunday morning....time to enjoy a little extra slow stitching time.
It's a dull, dreary start to the day here, I hope it clears up a bit because it certainly can affect one's mood.
I've been trying, slowly but surely, to become a slightly more organised person. This week I had help in this endeavour from an unlikely source...Cooper, one of my dogs.
I have a spot in the living room that I have always done my handwork, like many of us I'm sure. And on the table at my side there is always an assortment of threads, scissors, etc that I'm using on a regular basis. Never been a problem, until this week.
I came home one day to find Cooper had chewed up a spool of thread...so dangerous for dogs. I really believed that it must have rolled onto the floor, as he is not one to go up on that chair and bother with my sewing stuff.
A few days later, we were sitting in the dining room...I look up and see Cooper chewing on something....yes, another spool of thread. I can't believe another one had been on the floor, he must have jumped up to help himself, so time to clean up my act.
Probably 35 years ago (or more), my mother gave me this as a gift...
I'm sure many of you have the exact same one! Well, it's probably been 25 years since I've actually used it...in fact, last month I had thought to put it in the donate pile. Now I'm glad I didn't....all of my daily supplies are now in this storage box (what are they actually called???) and the table beside my chair is nice and neat. Thanks go to Cooper for the motivation...although in a dangerous way :(
In my last post, which you can read HERE, I mentioned that I'd be meeting with a friend to do some wet felting...that we would be making "cat caves".
It was a lot of physical work, due to the size of the piece. Here is how it looked when I got home...not very pretty, really...
...but then I crammed more stuffing in to hold the shape, and I beat it into submission with a wooden spoon.
Much better...
Not technically great work, but I am still a beginner at this, so I'm pretty happy with the result. Now to get the cat to accept it!
I put a couple of treats inside to lure her in...
She's still not going in just for the sheer pleasure of it. When I get up in the morning I can tell that she does like laying on top of it though, lol.
I wanted to add a couple of words of advice to those of you who are doing an temperature quilt this year.
1. Keep your design choice simple so you don't lose interest through the year because it may be too much work.
2. You don't have to actually "do" it every day. You do have to record the temperature each day, but if your design choice is simple enough you can pick it up just a couple of times a week to quickly get it done.
Here is mine after 4 days of January...
I probably won't have time to do today's bit, but I have recorded today's forecast high on my calendar.
You'll notice that I'm still old-school when it comes to EPP, but basting the segments to the paper instead of using glue. Nothing wrong with the glue method, I just find I don't get the same results and it really doesn't take me long to thread-baste.
It's not too late to start your own temperature quilt since we are just a few days into the new year :)
I also stitched this morning on the next block of my Over The Hill...
This is another instance of how I prefer to take a slower method. I do like to do a whipstitch around all the wool pieces with fine thread before beginning the decorative stitches with perle cotton. Perhaps not necessary, but I do like the stability. And, as a longarm quilter who has worked on quilts with wool applique that hasn't been whipstitched, I do see a difference. Again...personal choice.
Here's a reminder of the first block of Over The Hill...
Thankfully, not all the blocks have quite as much work as the first one!
How about that...by the time I've gotten to this point of the post the sun has come out....what a wonderful mood-booster!!
I'll be going out shortly to enjoy some of this beautiful sunshine, but will take a bit of time to visit with other slow-stitchers, as I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching.
A whole new year, a whole new decade!
I'm sure you are the same as me, in that you think ahead to which quilts you'd like to complete, continue, or, dare I say, begin.
I have an actual finish this past week...my Temperature Quilt for 2019.
Well...the top is finished. I hope to have it quilted up very soon, though. We have visitors next week from Alberta, so quilting will have to be put hold for a bit.
I learned that I need to make sure there is a bit more contrast in my colours for a Temperature Quilt...way too many similar reds, I think. On the other hand, you can't really plan ahead too much, as the temperatures dictate how the quilt will play out, right?
I hope you will consider a Temperature Quilt....I thoroughly enjoyed doing mine. I had thought to put off doing another one until 2021, but didn't I come across a beautiful bundle of fabric, on sale, that would be perfect for a Temperature Quilt....and I came across a pattern that called out to me.
Here is my layout for 2020...
It's not a very big quilt and it done with English Paper Piecing. Each star represents one week of the year. I will only be using the high forecast for each day, but there is an option using highs and lows. If you google Fiona Sandwich I'm sure you can find the pattern if you want to play along.
Here are January 1 and 2...with my thimble so you can see the scale of the blocks...
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This year I am motivated to get back into participating in the One Monthly Challenge hosted by Patty at Elm Street Quilts.
For January I'd really like to have to blocks completed for my Farm Girl Vintage quilt. This has been a UFO for much too long now and I still love it, so would like to see it graduate into becoming an actual quilt!
Here are the blocks I have done so far...
I have to give a shout-out to Karen Z for designing the Canada flag block to use instead of the American flag....awesome!
They aren't in their proper layout yet. I think I have 8 more to go, so it's definitely an achievable goal. There are a couple of blocks that I was going to replace...
....they are the ones with the red "cheerio's" in the background fabric. I thought it would be nice to introduce a second background (maybe 2 years ago, lol) and it wasn't until I put them with the others that I noticed that it isn't a white fabric like the original background fabric. They look dirty to me. Actually, today they don't look as bad as I'd thought....but I think I still have to replace them :(
I did manage to do a block on Tuesday morning...to get the ball rolling. Well, I'll have to call this my "humility" block, if you get my meaning...
I do like it though...it uses a few of the new fat quarters I've picked up lately.
One of the "pushes" to get this one done is that Santa brought me a new book for Christmas, Farm Girl Vintage 2...
....and I really shouldn't start this one until the original Farm Girl is done!!!
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Now I'll confess to the new quilt that I will start this year. It's a Jen Kingwell pattern called Halo. I've had the pattern now for a couple of years and I think I've put it off as it's a bit intimidating to me.
I don't have a picture to share yet as I've just started a bit of cutting and don't have any blocks done yet.
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Another finish this week is my first pair of knitted socks in a very long time....
I am very happy with how they turned out and happy to get back to knitting, especially socks. I learned three techniques on this pair, one of them being knitting them from the toe up, which I really liked.
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I usually have a two-week break from longarming at the end of each year, but I'm extending it a bit this year as we have house guests arriving next week for 5 days.
I'm taking advantage of this time off to get one of my own quilts quilted, my Queen's Garden quilt.
As always, I started with doing the Stitch in the Ditch work...especially so since I wasn't sure what I'd do in the borders. All I knew is that it would be some sort of feathering, reason being...I just really feel like doing some feathers, lol.
I looked back at notes from some longarm classes I've taken in the past years. I did a bit of doodling the other day to try to get some creative juices going.
I'm always so nervous to get started, but then I start and it becomes lots of fun.
I'm liking the first bit of stitching...
I only did a bit more before the lighting started to make it difficult to go on. For this picture, I actually shut the light off hoping to see the effect of the quilting a bit better...
I like it, and it's turned out to be a lot of fun to execute. I will try to fill the space more as I progress. It would really "pop" with some pebbling in the negative space, but this quilt will not be so heavily quilted.
I wish I had time to do more today, but I'll be going out soon to a friend's house to do a bit of "wet felting"...we'll be making cat caves!
Today I am linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal, and with Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Fridays.
