My Ta-Da Moment

 i don't usually use the phrase ta-da moment when referring to a finished project. Lucy, from Attic 24 uses that phrase for her finished crochet projects. Since that is exactly what this is, ant the pattern is hers, I felt it was appropriate. I have finally finished my Flora Granny Square blanket!

I started this project as a way to keep busy creatively during our move. I knew that any kind of hand work was the answer. After several false starts with using up leftover yarn from other projects, I landed on this one. I made the first squares in late August 2021.

Each granny square was made by choosing the colors for that one, then making it before moving on to the next one. I wanted to focus on, and enjoy each beautiful flower.

When I started the process, I had no idea how many I would make or what they would become.

Once I had about a dozen of them, I decided that my goal would be to make 100 of them and join them in 10x10 rows. I also decided to give each one another row of a neutral color yarn to bring them all together.

That worked really well. It calms things down a bit and you can see the individual blocks and colors. My original thought was to lay the whole thing out into an arrangement so the colors didn't bunch up, but in the end, I decided to just go rogue.

I grabbed whatever square was on top of the stack and just joined them up. And I find that I really don't care about the placement so much after all.

Lucy also has a great tutorial for Joining Granny Squares. I used that for putting it all together.

And since I got my second shingles vaccine yesterday and am feeling pretty puny, I used this happy little blanket to cover me up while I napped. So nice and just the right size too.

Hard to believe that just a couple of weeks ago they looked like this! So happy to have this project finished. Just one more hand project to go from before the move, and that is my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. The flowers are done, but now I have to make all the hexies it will take to join them together. Maybe when I feel better, but not today. 

Talk to you soon.

Hand Work

 So, since the advent of the knee issue, I have been working on lots of hand projects. I always have some going on for sitting and slow stitching or crocheting. I have made great strides in my hand work and now that I am able to sew again, I need to keep up on the hand work too.

First, there is this long term crochet project. I started it last year before our move. Last weekend I was down to needing 13 more blocks.

I had been making one complete block at a time up until now. I decided to go ahead and make all 13 flowers first, assembly line style. Here they are.

I usually weave in the ends of my crochet work as I go. I learned that from Lucy at Attic 24, whose pattern this is. It keeps you from losing momentum at the end of a project if all the ends have to be done.

I have no idea why I never did that with these blocks. But once all the blocks were made, I found that I had to weave in two ends on 100 blocks. That's 200 ends. I made myself sit there over 2 days and do it.

And now, here they are all neat and tidy. I can assure you this will never happen again. I have learned my lesson. Weave in as you go.

And now the next step is to slip stitch them all together in rows to make the throw. this is the first four rows all done. You slip stitch the vertical rows in a chain fashion, and then go back and slip stitch the long horizontal rows.

This is gonna take some time, but I will keep plugging away and be back to show it off, hopefully soon.

Last hand work to share is this cute little stitchery from Kirkiri Press. There is a series of these little animals that you embroider and embellish and then stuff into little hand size stuffed animals. This one is Fiesta Cat. I bought the kit from Snuggly Monkey. You can find them lots of places on the internet.

Okay, that's all for now. Have a great day.

An Interesting Thing

 So, we have been in our place for almost 3 weeks now. We are happy with our choice of this place to live and are settling in. For much of January I was chomping at the bit to sew on my machine. I could not wait to get set up somewhere. I now have the almost perfect set up. (almost because nothing is ever perfect) But...I am having trouble finding my groove. I feel so much more drawn to the hand works I have been doing these last couple of months.

Mostly I am stitching on this Dropcloth Sampler. I have really been enjoying learning, or in some cases relearning these stitches.

This is the Schoolhouse Sampler from Dropcloth Samplers. It's getting close to finished now and I do have another one already to go when I finish this.

I also signed up for Rachel Hauser's Pas de Deux block of the month for 2022. I knew I would be starting it late, but I am almost done with January and I am hoping to get February done this week. Just in time for March's release. Lol

I taught my 14 year old grandson how to bake muffins last week. He did a great job! They were very tasty.

And of course I promised the littles some pink marshmallows for Valentine's day. Heart shaped of course.

I also signed up for Gigi's Thimble Perfect Pineapple block. We are supposed to be making a block a week for 36 weeks. I need to get two more done to be caught up on this one. Here's hoping.

And of course this crocheted blanket is still going on. I only need 17 more blocks to have enough to put it all together. So very close. 

So the plan is, to start sewing today and see how much I can get done. I am hoping that if I plan this as a sewing only day, I will get in gear and maybe start to get back in the groove. I also am hoping that I can get back to blogging, especially since there are so many projects to talk about.

See you soon.

January Chilling

 So, here we are, two thirds of the way through January. We still have not made much progress with finding a place to live. So much of living life is getting in the way of the search. Weather related delays and children out of school for various reasons. We will get there, though. Not to worry. So then you might wonder what am I up to creatively. Well, mostly hand work still. I did take my machine out a couple of times last week. I did some much needed mending and put together a couple of my plus blocks that I had cut out an pressed before I left California.

Here are some of the things I have been working on recently:

First of all, I signed up to be in this Stitched in Color quilt Along for this year. It is a monthly block program, and while I can't get started just yet, I know I will have time to catch up eventually. I am going to spend some time planning while I don't have access to my stash right now.

I am still working on crocheting these beautiful Flora Granny squares designed by Lucy at Attic 24. I only have 23 more to go and I will have 100 of them. They will be joined to make a 10 x 10 block square throw. This is a great project to pick up and put down as needed. I am using all my scrap yarn from other blanket projects for this one. It's the quilter in me.

I have several other long term projects lined up. I am doing the pineapple  quilt along with Gigi's Thimble which begins at the end of January and I have saved all the clues to do Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt as soon as I have access to my scraps for that one.

I am also working on some embroidery. This is Rebecca Ringquist's Schoolhouse Sampler.

It is her newest release and I am having so much fun with it. I check Instagram often to see what everyone else is doing with theirs.

There are so many different and fun elements in this sampler. I am going slow and choosing my colors carefully.

I don't think I have ever done quite so many colonial knots in one piece.

I am really enjoying the pace and doing all this embroidery. It is a skill I learned as a child and I am so happy I did. I have definitely improved since then. Lol

I bought these fun butterflies on Amazon. They are magnetic and so it the chalkboard in my daughter's kitchen. You get about 80 butterflies in a pack and they are beautiful. We put some on the refrigerator as well.

And this little cutie turned 6 this week. It was a week of threatening winter weather and of germs.

We ended up getting a bunch of these because the little cutie pie above was diagnosed positive on Tuesday. So far, all is well and no one else has gotten sick. Yay for vaccines and boosters. Hoping to make it a few more days to be out of the woods. 

Have a great week, stay warm if you are in the cold winter weather. Talk to you soon.

Hurry Up and Wait

Getting ready to move is tough. You have your list of things to do, and your timeline for getting them done. But when you don't work, it's hard to pace yourself. The sense of urgency isn't quite the same. That's kind of where I am right now. Some things are packed, that won't be needed until well after the move. Some things can't be packed until closer to the move.

This is the beginning of the packing in my sewing room. These boxes are all full of fabric and scraps. I started packing in there to have something to do that felt like moving forward. I wanted to take my time and pack things logically as well. I also wanted to keep myself from starting any more projects before the move. But let's be honest, my mind is in such a dither, I couldn't concentrate on sewing right now if I had to.

So, instead I am working on hand projects and reading and watching HGTV a lot. If I go ahead and pack quickly now, I will be sitting in a sea of boxes, just waiting. That doesn't sound like fun to me.

 

                           So I work on my hexie project...

And I work on my crochet project...getting quite a stack for both of them.

I have 15 of the crocheted blocks with their outside neutral part on them. Waiting for more yarn to arrive so I can do the other 30. Not sure how many blocks I will do, but once I run out of enough of my scrap yarns, I will probably stop. That's about all that's going on here right now. I hope you all are well and keeping busy crafting. That's really what life is all about :)

I hope to talk to you again soon.