Dreambird progress

Most of my weekend was spent on this project, and it's probably the reason I have no idea what day it is.  I've done flooring before, but I must have been younger then :)  I ache everywhere now.  But my son no longer has carpet in his room, and hopefully will get some relief from his allergy situation.

As you can see in this photo, we cleared out most of his room, and then shuffled all the furniture to one side.  When that part of the floor was laid, we moved everything over, and started on the second half.  Just a bit more trim to finish now, and he can move back in.

I did manage to get a lot of knitting done, in between rounds with the flooring.  I found that I needed a break now and then, and sitting down with knitting was just about the right speed.  I just started on feather #9. I don't know how many feathers there are going to be, so no idea how much knitting is left (maybe I should look at one of the project pictures and count them).  I'm just watching the balls get smaller as I knit 70 rows, repeat....

Linking up on Judy's progress report today.

Design Wall Monday - Sept 2

I don't know what happened.  I was sure there was one more week of August left.  Which is odd, because I knew school was starting on Tuesday.  Whatever happened, I'm a bit behind on my "end of month" activities here on the blog.  So, we'll combine a Back to Square One mystery update, with design wall Monday today.  Suitable, because that is exactly what is on my design wall.

Here is the mystery quilt, as of the August clue.  We won't discuss exactly when this step was finished :)  The new clue is out - more log cabin blocks.  Hopefully I can get them done before the end of the month.

I am loving the look of this quilt - it might actually end up being one of the first mystery quilts I do that I actually love the end result. Usually my colour choices let me down, but I'm really liking the way this one is coming together.  I think Judy did a great job of explaining the colour choices (what fabrics needed to pop, which ones should be in the same family, etc) and made it easy to make good choices.

Weekend projects

I traded sewing for sawing this weekend.  I found out recently that my son has a dust allergy, so I promised to replace the carpets in his room, in order to try to alleviate some of the symptoms.  So, that's on the agenda for this weekend, and the sewing machine is going to have to wait a bit longer for attention.

Flooring is turning out to be a lot more work than I thought.  His room is a simple rectangle, nothing fancy, so I thought this would go pretty quickly. But it turns out that when you trek up and down (or down and up) 2 flights of stairs every time you have to cut a board, you make a lot of trips. And it takes a lot of energy.  Just about 1/2 done now, but it's time to tackle the closet so taking a break for a while.  Besides, it's way too late (and dark) to be working on flooring.

During rest periods, I have been picking up my dreambird knitting.  It is coming along really nicely, although there's a long way to go before it feels like a shawl.  7 feathers done, and it's starting to get to that awkward stage where the body of the shawl gets in the way every time I turn a row.  I'm glad I jumped on board this project though - it is turning out to be a lot of fun, even if the 22 pages of the pattern were a bit intimidating at the start.

I'm linking up (a day or two late) with Judy's Dreambird progress.

Dreambird

Today's the first linkup for the Dreambird knit-a-long.  I don't think I'll be linking up quite as frequently as Judy is posting (3 times a week), but I'll try to keep up and keep you all posted on my progress. This pattern is turning out to be fun, and actually pretty simple once you get started on it.  The keys seem to be following the directions carefully, and following the directions carefully :)

I do highly recommend a bias bind-off for this, as Denise mentioned in one of her posts - it is going to make a much nicer neck edge than the stair-step bind off that the directions produce (ok, so in this case I didn't follow the directions).  I found a good link for the bind off here

Stash Report

It's a good thing I was energetic earlier this week and got some quilting done, because I have been less than productive this weekend.  I wish whatever bug it is that caught me would just be done.  However, I have found that knitting is a great project when I'm under the weather.  Lot of progres on my dreambird shawl this weekend.

As for quilting, my efforts earlier in the week did produce some numbers to share.

2 yards backing for placements
3/4 yards binding

Total stash usage this year: 182 1/4 yards out


Drop by Judy's blog for more stash reports. And if you're a knitter, check out the Dreambird knit-a-long which is starting today.

On the needles

Since I'm joining Judy's Dreambird knit along, I now have something to post for "On the needles" Friday.  It doesn't look like much, but here is the first part of the first feather for my dreambird.  I've been feeling under the weather the past couple of days, and not interested in quilting.  This knitting project is just the thing to keep me occupied.

I've already knit 2 feathers and ripped them both out.  One, I didn't like the colour. This yarn seems to be a much better choice.  The second, I didn't like the tension, so I ripped it out and grabbed a set of smaller needles.

Now, I'm afraid the shawl will be too small, so I spent some time recalculating and rewriting the pattern for a larger size.  Hopefully I got it right, and the ratios will still work out.

New Toy

When I was at a quilt show the other weekend, I saw an absolutely stunning quilt.  This photo doesn' tdo it justice - the quilting is amazing. And when someone told me that the quilter did not have a computerized machined, I was in awe.

The circles on this quilt are absolutely perfect.

I managed to chat with the quilter, and when I asked how she did it, she told me her machine came with a circle maker.  I decided right then that I had to have one.  Of course, my machine *doesn't* come with a circle maker, but I knew there had to be other options.

I found exactly what I wanted, at Loricles Quilting, and it arrived today!  The Circle Lord is going to be so much fun to play with.

I put together a really quick quiltie, just so I could try this out.  4 quick squares, and now I have 4 circle medallions.

They are easier to see from the back.  The tool makes perfect circles, spaces the medallions around a circle, and pretty much makes this whole thing fool-proof.

I think this is going to be the perfect tool for quilting a dresden plate quilt that is waiting a turn on the long arm..