A Stitching Wrap Up of August

This is rather late, but I wanted to get our trip posted first up.

Let’s see how I went with my wishes for the month…..

My main wish was to have the Batik Fish Quilt finished.  I’m very happy to report that it was done.  A full post coming soon.

Then I finished off the Strippy Rainbow Quilt.

Elly May was used on both of these quilts, as well as Jo’s.

In amongst all that, I helped a friend with a baby quilt.  She purchased the kit about 20 years ago and was finally wanting to make it as a gift.  I helped her cut it out, she then pieced it.  An afternoon at our house saw it quilted with a cute butterfly pantograph.  Then I showed her how to add the binding.  

Once that was done, she used all the scraps to make two cushion fronts, which I also quilted for her.  I didn’t get a chance to see the two completed before gifting but they would have been lovely.  She is an experienced seamstress, so did precise stitching and the cute Peter Rabbit fabrics hadn’t dated at all.  A lovely gift to give.

The next thing to work on was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.

Of course, Betty’s blocks had to be made as well.

My Corner to Corner crochet squares progressed nicely, with ten squares being completed.

My knitting didn’t fare so well, with no progress being made.

An August Escape was a driver during the month, with four quilts being prepped.

The Jelly Roll Quilt, which was pieced at Baradine.

The Aeroplane Quilt, which was appliqued and pieced at Baradine.

A Farmyard Quilt, that still has to be pieced.  I did work out the layout on the design curtain, but have since cut a golden yellow for the sashings instead of the blue.  It won’t take long to make, once I get to it.  There is no rush.  It may even be next year at Scrub Stitchin’.

Finally an easy strippy quilt, which will also get stitched at some stage.  No rush.

So, all in all, not a bad month.

The other thing that I did during the month was donate a pile of quilts to the domestic violence support organisation here in town.

15 MINUES A DAY

I stitched on 30 of the 31 days.  The best for the year.

YTD = 201/243 - 82.72%

While piecing the Batik Fish Quilt I managed to empty lots of bobbins and a couple of spools of thread.  It was great to be able to use up some odds and ends that were darker colours, as most quilts require something lighter.

Now, even though it is half way through the next month, I will get down my wishes for September.

Stitching Wrap Up for July

It’s amazing what you can achieve when you are not travelling all over the countryside, although I did have some fun days out.  Let’s see how I went.

Firstly, my Main Monthly Wish was to complete the Simply Serene Quilt.  I’m pleased that it was done well before the deadline.  

Then it was Rainbow Scrap Challenge time.  That too was achieved easily.

The other main thing was to complete the Corner to Corner Rug for Wrap With Love.  Another one ticked off the list.

Then it was time to play.

I did make some good progress with my knitted alpaca jumper and have exceeded my wish of having it knitted up to the armholes.  I’m well on my way up the back. It is knitting up quicker than I expected.  I just need to get back to it. Yes, it will look wonky until it gets blocked at the end.

At the Wrap With Love Knit In Day I started another C2C Rug, this time making 10 inch squares to sew together at the end.  I’m using lots of variagated yarn.  It works well with the C2C stitch, as there are no lines, just a nice all over mottled effect.  There will be plain blocks in the rug as well.  I have four blocks completed so far.  There is no time frame for this one and it is a nice and easy thing to take along to my stitching days.

Betty sent out her July block details for us to make.  It was a challenge, but the completed block has been posted back to her.

Meanwhile, the rainbow strips needed to be pieced together into a quilt top.  I took the very simple option of just adding black sashing between the strips.  Not terribly creative, but still effective.  It is now in the quilting queue.  I hope to have it completed before our Zoom get together next Saturday.  It should be quite achievable.

Finally, I quilted and bound the quilt for my friend in Queensland.  

Oh, and at the last minute on the 31st I pulled out the batik fish blocks ready to advance that project.  It is about time to get it finished.

15 MINUTES A DAY

I did rather well this month.

July = 28/31

Year to date = 171/212  = 80.66%

Not too bad.

As it turns out, most of my stitching has been donation projects, being the Simply Serene Quilt, both C2C rugs, the rainbow strip quilt, Betty’s block and probably the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts when they are completed.  That is a good feeling.

My Wishes for July

Now that we are back home it is time to have a look at what I can achieve this month.

MY MAIN WISH

This has been a hard choice to make.  There are lots of things I want to work on, but where does one start?  I had one idea, but for what should be the cold, quiet time of the year, my calendar seems to be rather full, so I don’t want anything too time consuming.  As I type this I’m still trying to decide……..

…… OK, I’ve written the rest of the post, so time to make that decision ……. 

It will be to finish the Simply Serene Quilt.  That way it will be finished for Show and Tell when we return to Baradine in August.  So far, I have made and trimmed the HST and cut the plaid squares.  Time to play on the design curtain and then cut out the setting triangles, before stitching the rows together.  I'm looking forward to seeing this one come together.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

The colour selected this month is Aqua.  Well, as I used that colour last month I have to make another substitution.  I’ve decided to go with DARK BLUE.  That is sort of related and I don’t think it is a colour that will come up……I hope.

BETTY’S GROUP PROJECT

I haven’t made a start on piecing the rainbow strips together as yet.  I still have to come up with a plan.  Let’s keep the goal simple, by just coming up with a plan.  If I can get the quilt top together, that will be a bonus.

A new block pattern has been released by Betty, so that will be made and posted to her.

USING ELLY MAY

Poor Elly May has been under her cover since the middle of May.  There is no definite plan to for her at the moment, but I do hope to get her up and running this month . . . . . . . . . .Now that has changed, since I finally made my Main Wish decision.

CROCHET

The Corner to Corner rug should have been completed last month, but I got side tracked with my red scarf.  In theory, I just needed to do a couple more rounds of half trebles to have it done…….then I layed it out on the floor and could see that it was still too narrow for Wraps With Love, so a few more rounds are required.  It should be finished in the next couple of days, ready to donate at the Knit In in the middle of the month.

I will have to find something to work on at the Knit In, so will probably start another C2C rug.  This time I will make four 10 inch strips to the length of the rug, as it will be more portable, and then stitch the strips together.  That’s the plan anyway.

KNITTING

I NEED to get a wriggle on with my alpaca knitted jumper.  My wish is to have the body knitted up to the armholes by the end of the month.  Surely, I can knit a 100g ball of yarn a week?

STITCHING DAYS

Now that I have pretty much completed the C2C rug, I need to come up with a new project.  There is a fair chance that will be the alpaca jumper, but there may end up being something else.

SASHIKO

I am going to attend a Sashiko workshop on Sunday.  I have completed a few panels now, and have said I’m not going  to do more, but this little workshop is working from marking out the project on the fabric, rather than using preprinted panels, so should be interesting.  The plan in the back of my head is to make a little four sided bag with whatever I create.  Watch this space.

15 MINUTES A DAY

That’s the aim….

OTHER WISHES

1.    Try a new recipe

2.    Read (or listen to) a book.

3.    Have a fun day out - there are couple in the pipe line.

4.    Finish writing up our Queensland holiday.

It will be interesting to see what I manage.

My Wishes for June

I’m starting to sound like a cracked record when I announce that my goals this month will be minimal.  The excuse reason this time is that we are still on the road and we aren’t too sure when we will get back home.  We are making it all up as we go along.

MY MAIN GOAL

My main goal this month is to complete the red scarf that I am knitting.  That should be rather easy.  I’m enjoying knitting a few rows most days.  I will just keep going until I run out of wool and then weave in the ends.  It will be blocked when I get home.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

In anticipation of this month’s colour announcement I packed the pre cut blocks I have prepared and brought them with me.  The crumb blocks will have to wait until I get home.  The colour for June is PASTEL.  Well, that has thrown me, as I don’t have any pastel colours pre cut and therefore none are planned for the finished quilts.  The closest I have is AQUA, so that is what I will make.  Hopefully, I will get the potato chip blocks and the solid cross blocks completed while we are on the road.  Time will tell.

CROCHET

It would be nice to do some more work on the Corner to Corner rug.  I do have a deadline of mid July for this project, which is a good incentive.  The red scarf will take precedence, so once again, time will tell how I go.

OTHER WISHES

Depending on when we get home, I would like to finish the Solid Fat Quarter quilt that I started at Scrub Stitchin’ and quilted last month.  All I need to do is trim it back and add the binding by machine.  It will take all of one day.

As you can see, I still haven’t made a start on the Alpaca jumper I want to knit.  It would be nice to make a start when we get home, if time allows.  We’ll see……I really NEED to get cracking on this one.

15 MINUTES A DAY

I’ll try, really I will.

NON STITCHING WISHES

There really aren’t any.  I’m guessing we will probably listen to an audio book as we drive along.  I have to download a new one.  That’s about it.

As always, it will be interesting to check in at the end of the month.

My May Wishes

This is to be another month with minimal wishes, as we will be heading off again, all things being equal.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

The “easy, obvious” thing to work on is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  The colour this month is orange,  The plus blocks and potato chip blocks are prepped ready to go.  I’m not sure how I will go with the two orange crumb blocks I need to make, as the scrap tub is rather bare after making the rainbow strip.  Bonus points if I get the shadows attached to the crumb blocks.  I had them prepped and took them to Scrub Stitchin’, but promptly forgot to work on them.  If it doesn’t happen, there is always another day. 

MY MAIN GOAL

Having pieced together the Solid Fat Quarter Quilt top at Scrub Stitchin’, my goal is to get the backing made and the quilt completed.  The backing will have to be pieced, so some decisions to be made there.  It should be achievable.

ELLY MAY

The only quilt that I can realistically see being quilted is the Solid Fat Quarter Quilt.  At least that is something for the month.

KNITTING A CROCHET

My Corner to Corner Rug is gradually growing.  As there is no deadline for it, this will probably just be worked on at my stitching days, of which there won’t be many this month.

However, I am keen to get a start on the Long Paddock Jumper.  You can read about it here, where I talked about it at the start of last month.

15 MINUTES A DAY

After this kind of going out the window in April, I would dearly like to be a bit more disciplined in achieving a little each day, as it really does mount up.  As I’ve said before, 15 minutes a day for 30 days adds up to seven and half hours.

NEW STARTS

Having completed lots of projects already this year, I am now quite eager to start some new ones.  One that I should be able to start this month is the Apple Pincushion by Craftapalooza.  She is having a stitch along later in the month.  I will hopefully be away then, so the main construction will probably have to wait till I come home, but one panel can be made from half inch hexies.  I’d like to at least get that panel made.

I have plans for a few more quilts, but will just have to be patient before I can make a start on those.

NON STITCHING GOALS

There aren’t many.

1.  Try a new recipe.  I really should make an effort.

2.  Read a book.  I have an audio book on reserve, so I should at least get that devoured.

3.  Try to keep up with blog posts.  It makes life so much easier.

I’ll check back with it all at the end of the month.  

Stitching Recap For March

I seem to have had a rather productive month in March this year.  I managed to complete five UFOs and three projects that were started this year. My goal this year was to completed twelve UFOs and I have already completed eleven.  I’m pretty happy with that.

Let’s have a look at what I did.

Firstly, I completed the three RSC project sections in the colour red.  I only had to make one crumb block, which speeded things up.

Next, I completed the final two coloured strips for Betty’s rainbow quilts.  They will be delivered to her at Baradine.

My next project was the little quilt in a day to try out a new level of the quilting program on Elly May.

It was then time to work on some hand stitching and I managed to complete the little slow stitching pouch. 

Back to Elly May, I quilted the two bright fish quilts. 

While playing with fish, it was time to prep the remainder of the batik fish blocks to take to Baradine to work on.

I needed more prep to take to Baradine, so cut out the quilt using the solid fat quarters I bought from a market stall late last year.

Back to Elly May, I bit the bullet and quilted my hexy flower quilt.  I’m so happy with how it turned out.

In the background, I had started knitting the second cabled beanie, this time in blue for Mick.  It was finished in the last week of the month.

On a stitching day, when I had nothing ready to work on, I pulled out the donation rug and found yarn to complete the final three squares.  They are now completed up to the last round, which is joined to the rest of the rug as you go.  I have to learn how to do that, so it will be a home job at some time in the near future.  Then it will just be the final border to add to finish it off.

My main monthly goal was to finish the little pouch designed by Anni Downs that was our Scrub Stitchin’ project from 2024.  I kept putting it off, but managed to finish it on the last day of the month.  Phew!

Towards the end of the month I had nothing ready to take to my stitching morning, so started another Corner to Corner rug.  That was opportune, as it was the perfect thing to work on during two Chookshed Zoom mornings last weekend.  It is such a brain dead thing to work on while chatting away.  It will probably be my stitching days project for the next little while.

Also, in the background, I have completed a secret project, which was a lot of fun.  All will be revealed before too long.

And that about sums it up.  Phew.  I don’t think the next month will be quite as productive, but I must say I am really enjoying getting projects finished and working on others.

In all of that, I only managed to empty two spools of thread.

The pretty jar is still looking rather empty.

So, how did I go with my 15 minutes a day?  So, so!

March =  26/31

Year to date =   77/90 = 85.56%

I’m now looking forward to seeing what I can get done in April.