Last Week

Last week was a bit of this, that and the other.

On the stitching front I have made slow progress on my Blue Quilt.  

Firstly, the EPP units have been sewn into rows.  As soon as I took the photo, I noticed a boo boo.  In the second top row there are two dark blues next to each other.  It didn’t take much to put things right.

The next section to work on is the outer border of EPP half dresdens.  Select fabrics, cut them out, then glue baste, before sorting into the individual half dresdens, ready to sew……..all 192 of the little suckers, which will become 32 half circles.  That should keep me going for a few stitching mornings.

Back in October I had a chance meeting with a lady who is a social worker at the local hospital.  I enquired if they take quilts for the little babies.  She said she would get back to me……which she did on Tuesday.  Yes, they would.  Their preferred size is eighteen inches square.  I can do that.

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So, that afternoon I pulled out a couple of small jelly rolls that I have had for a very long time, like about fifteen years or more, and had a little play.

I made a very simple little quilt.  It has no batting, just nice soft flannelette on the back and just turned through, rather than using a binding.  Some simple cross hatch quilting was used to finish it off.   I had it made in the afternoon and evening.  I think it is rather cute.  Now to make a couple more, before I take them up.

I had a bit more of a fiddle with the crochet I started last week, making two more test blocks.  I’m still not completely sold on it, so will leave it for now and continue to have a think.

In the meantime one of those blasted squirrels that seem to be rather prevalent around the place has got me.

I had grand plans on buying some nice 4-ply wool in New Zealand on our trip and using it to knit another small shawl, the same as the one I made just before Christmas.  So much for that.

Well, back at the end of 2021 I bought some wool from a destash.  One of the yarns looked like it would be very pretty in that pattern, so I decided to start knitting. It had already been wound into a cake and had no label.  Once I looked closer, it was obvious that it is finer than 4-ply.  Therefore, it would not have played nice with the other yarns, but will make a lovely light weight shawl.  

I made a nice start on it yesterday.  The colours in this photo are much more grey than in reality.

This is much closer.  It is a mauve with hints of pink, blue and gold.  I may be a little obsessed with knitting it at the moment.  There is a lot of yardage in that ball, so it will take me a while.

I finished off a reel of cotton this week.  I have a silly thing that I do, putting all the empty reels in jars.  

Well, they are full.  So, I emptied them into the garbage, ready to start again.  I’ve no idea how long they took to fill, but it was a few years.  I should put a start date on the bottom of a jar this time.

So, how did I go with my 15 Minutes of Stitching each day?  So, so.  I missed Monday. So my tally to date is:

15 minutes days/week = 6/7

15 minutes days/February = 10/11

15 minute days in 2023 = 40/42

Success rate = 95.24%

I’m linking up with Kate at Life in Pieces

We also did a couple of fun things this week.

Tuesday morning was nice and calm, so we got up early and headed out to Oberon Dam for Mick to have a fish from his kayak.

It was while he was on the water that I played with the crochet blocks.  He just caught one decent sized fish.

On Wednesday, we were privileged to have a short tour of the Logan Brae house, where we have our patchwork group in a side wing. Come along for a quick walk.  Just to recap, this was a convent and is currently being sold. 

There is also an adjoining chapel.

We all hope that the buildings are treated with respect in their new life, whatever that may be.

On Saturday we were back out at Oberon.  This time it was to attend their annual Show.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that we like to attend small country shows.

There wasn’t a lot on show in the craft or cooking sections, but there were some lovely flowers.

The old pavilions have so much character.

As it was rather a hot day, an ice cream, complete with sprinkles, was required.

The usual events were there, including the wood chop.

There was a nice display put on by the local penny farthing pushbike maker and quite a group dressed in their steam punk attire.  They looked fabulous, but would have been melting in their heavy garments in the heat.

We were both really impressed with this steam punk inspired push bike.  It turns out that it is an e-bike.

What really took my eye was the panniers.  What a creative way to upcycle Singer sewing machine drawers.  Too clever.

After the show, we visited some friends who live down a delightful country lane.  I so like little dirt tracks where the trees meet over the road.  There aren’t all that many left.  It was a lovely way to finish the day.

Finally, maybe the fact that we cancelled our New Zealand trip was meant to be, as a cyclone hit just where we were supposed to be on Sunday and Monday.  I hope that there wasn’t too much damage and disruption to people in the area.