Stash Report - Sept 9

Lots and lots of sewing went on this week.  I finished 2 tops and loaded one on the long arm.

I decided earlier this week to make a quick twister top, to get a break from my checkerboard quilt.  Of course, picking a new quilt which was made up of a bunch of 5" squares did not exactly make a big change from sewing a bunch of 6" squares together :)

Apparently I should have take a photo earlier, because I see now areas where I would have liked to swap some blocks around.  Oh well.  I managed to use up a pile of 5" charm squares I've had sitting around for 2 years.

In any event, I did it.  I pulled out my new (well, bought in February but never used) Twister ruler and made myself a Christmas quilt.  One more white border to put on and it is done.

Used this week:

2 yards - baby quilt
11 yards - checkerboard
1 3/4 yards - christmas wreath
Total: 14 3/4 yards out

Stash usage this year: 134 3/4 yards out

Hop over to Patchwork Times to see what everyone else has been up to. 

Disappointment Brewing

On my needles today, and for the past week is a pair of socks. When I saw this yarn, I thought I would love it - it looked like it would knit up mostly cream, with dots of red/blue in it.  Not even close.  First, the two socks don't look like the even belong to the same pair.  Apparently the yarn is much darker at one end of the skein than it is at the other.  My only hope that this will be a useable pair of socks is that I am working towards the middle - so at some point they have to end up with a reasonably balanced amount of colour between the 2 socks.  I'm hoping that with shoes on, they'll look like they go together.

The other disappointment is the pattern. I decided to do cables, because I've never done that before.  I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, or knitting too tightly, or if it's just supposed to be this way.  But passing the cables is *really* hard.  Especially the center cable, which is 4 stitches on the cable needle.  I can barely make the sock stretch to pick up the stitches when I switch.  And of course I should have realized - the guage on the cables is smaller than stocking stitch.  So I'm not even sure I'll be able to wear these when they are done.

Oh well, chalk it up to a learning experience.  I'm not one to give up, and I have no other use for this yarn anyway, so these socks will get completed.

New project

Well, that didn't last too long.  Just the other day I said that I wanted to finish my brown & cream checkerboard before I started a new quilt.  Then, mid-afternoon as I put together more of the 225 blocks for this quilt, I got bored.  And I started a new quilt.

I bought a L'il Twister ruler several months ago, and still haven't used it.  So this quilt will be a twister.  And if I'm really lucky, it will be a green wreath in a red background when I'm done.

I am using it as a leader/ender for the brown quilt, so it's not *really* a new project, right?  And it's not the one I really want to start - I'm still restraining myself on that, because if I pull it out I suspect the brown quilt will find itself piled in a corner being ignored.  Want I really wanted was quick quilt I could put together and load on the longarm, for when I need a break from assembling blocks. But that's not working out, because this new one will be barely 2 feet across - not big enough to bother long arming.

However, a bit later I found my next long arm project.  This backing fabric was originally bought for another quilt, but I decided I didn't like it.  It has all the right colours for this lone star quilt, and is big enough, so it will become the backing for this one. And because it's 108" fabric, I don't have to sew anything and I can just load it up.

Now, to get over my nervousness about loading my first quilt with a significant amount of empty space that I need to fill up with nice quilting.  Ideas?  Freehand feathers are probably out, although if I mark them I might be able to pull it off.

I'm linking up at Freshly Pieced and The Needle and Thread Network today.  Drop by to see what everyone's up to.

Hand Stitching

Bonnie has challenged us to get caught up on our handwork projects, by spending 1 hour a day with just a needle and thread - no sewing machine, just handwork.  I don't do a lot of handwork stitchery (hmm, knitting uses needles and "thread" - I wonder if that counts?  :) ), but as I contemplated my binding pile tonight I decided that maybe I should join in the party.

At a quick count, I have 3 quilts in my bin ready to hand stitch the binding.  2 upstairs waiting for binding to be attached, which I can then stitch down.  And if I keep at my long arm work, I have 5 more quilts ready to quilt, which will then need binding.  In just the 5 I have at the binding stage now, I figure I have at least 12 hours of handwork waiting for me.  Sounds about right for jumping on board Bonnie's handwork train.

Here is my sewing corner.  I do my handwork in the living room, so that I can watch TV while I do it.  In my sewing room I only have a DVD player so I can watch/listen to movies while I sew, but for handwork I prefer to be in front of live TV. If you look closely you can see my shelf of thread.  I have a bad habit of bringing a spool downstairs to do a binding and then never carrying it back upstairs.  So my collection grows :)

I'm not setting deadlines, I will just work on my binding as I generally try to do - a little bit every time I sit down in front of the TV.  About an hour a night is reasonable, but it will likely be 3 or 4 nights a week in reality, given other commitments and work (which I have to go back to today, after a 10 day vacation).

To start my first "simply needle and thread" episode, I sat down last night and stitched for about 45 minutes (watching part of the Big Bang Theory marathon).  For me, 1 length of thread takes about 1/2 hour to stitch - so 1.5 thread pieces done, which amounts to about 1/4 of the binding on the current baby quilt.  Like I said - 12 hours of work in front of me, on 5 small-ish quilts.  Is that fast or slow?  I don't know, and it's not a race so I just plug along at my own speed and hope to finish eventually :)

See who else is spending time with their needle and thread this month, over on Bonnie's blog.

Design Wall Monday - Sept 3

Wow, Sept 3.  Time flies.  My oldest is off at university now, and my youngest starts grade 11 tomorrow.  Things have been busy this week getting everyone ready for September, but I've managed some sewing in the midst of it all.

On my design wall this morning is a mistake :(  I was working this quilt over the week.  I had to do a redesign mid-way because it wasn't working out. Then I finally got to assembling it and as I was ironing the second section I noticed the glaring error.  So, 2 rows to unsew, so that I can turn that row around.  Note to self - be more careful with the rest of these.

Now to go get back to work.  There is lots more to do on this quilt - 225 6" squares to assemble into a quilt.  And I am already eagerly anticipating the next quilt, so I need to keep moving.  Must finish this before I start another.

Check out Judy's blog for more design walls today.

Stash Report - Sept 2

My current quilt is using a lot of fabric - but again I'm going to wait until it's done and count the whole thing at once, because I've lost track of strips cut.  So once again, nothing out this week.  But that's OK, because I know there's a pile to report soon.

Stash usage this year: 120 yards out

I looked at the colour palette from Judy and Vicki yesterday, and immediately decided to go find some fabric for it.  Silly idea - no quilt plan so I had no idea how much of anything I would buy, but I loved the colours so I headed out.  My LQS did not disappoint. I found a perfect set of fabrics for this month.  I guess I went a little more blue than teal on the bottom one, but it was the right match for the set  and it is more teal in person.

In addition, my lack of a plan has been fixed.  While I was there, I picked up a new book that I just couldn't resist.  This month's quilt will be done from a pattern (did I just say that?).

Hop over to Patchwork Times to see what everyone else has been up to. 

September colour challenge

It's September 1st, and that means it's time for another colour challenge.  This month is really interesting, and I can't wait to see what I can come up with for this.

Last month, the palette was a little more muted.  And here is the quilt that I created from this palette.  All done and ready for quilting - as soon as I figure out how I'm going to quilt it.  It needs something custom I think, so I'll have to ponder this for a while.

Check out more August finishes over at Judy's blog.