The crochet continues, we are now onto week 2, I was a bit late starting.
I am finding lots of odd balls of wool around the house now that I am looking for them.
A bit of Kogin. Because of 'habit' I always write an evaluation of each class I teach with the aim of improving it. I think I have another project here.
So, all the chock blocks are (nearly) finished, Ta Da!! I just have to finish the eyes and I have half of those done.
And I have finished Mr Fox. I don't like the shadow of the darker fabric under his chops but think that might get lost in the whole quilt.
I found the white fabric didn't show the definition of his face so I added a light shadow with some ink intense pencils.
Now I have to cut them to size and stitch them together, do the borders and then it will go off to the quilter.
A bit more on the cross stitch,
and not a lot more.
I'm not up to doing anything much at the moment but I have been working on the cross stitch. I have to make some corrections to my previous report.
I find that I have to use the magnifier. I nearly went cross eyed trying to see the fabric. It didn't happen all at once but once it started I just couldn't see anything.
That thread is old. You only get one shot at getting it right, no unpicking, it just shreds.
I can only stitch for a limited time and then my hand says "NO MORE!"
Still it keeps me occupied.
Chooks and more chooks, just a bit of stitching each day. Very do-able.
It is all the details that are taking my time. I have finished all the feet, beaks and eyes in a satin stitch zig zag. I am leaving the iris of the eyes until they are all finished. This feature will give each animal their own personality. The combs and tail feathers, along with the decoration on each choock has been stitched in a blanket stitch, some are in a single stitch some in a double.
I decided that I would use a 25 count fabric for the Cross Stitch and stitch over 1 thread. I am only going to use threads that I have to hand and have selected Danish Flower thread to stitch this.
I don't have enough of any one coloured thread to stitch the whole piece so have started the vine in dark green. If there is enough of this coloured thread I will go back and stitch the leaves, if not, I will use the lighter green for these. I have this thread prepared in lengths for stitching. The thread is at least 20 years old so I took it apart and checked that it was perfect and it was. (The same can not be said for all old cottons.)
Stitching over 2 threads would have made the piece too big. I like this compact version, I just hope the colours of the threads work.
I am surprised that I can see my work. I don't even have to use a magnifyer.
I am still working on preparing my applique blocks for my hen quilt. This is the slow part but once this is done the stitching will be straight forward.
The problem has been thinking in reverse, again, and every so often I find I have fused the Steam-a seam to the wrong side of the fabric or haven't reversed the pattern.
I am stitching out ideas for another "Children's Class". This will be for someone else to teach not me. I do enjoy the mental challenge of designing classes, especially for children. The age span is some times from 4 to 14 years of age, male and female, and coming up with a design that cover that scope is a challenge. I have put quite a few techniques into the design and the idea is that they can be cut back or expanded to suit the student's experience and skill.
The finished item is based on necklaces that I have seen in other countries, like this one from Asia.
I have based the design on the "sacred heart" which is a common theme in South America. Lillys are an important design element in this region so I think they need to be added to the design. I am using a button hole stitch to make these.
This could be cut back to get a small spray for beginners.
If there are advanced stitchers, or boys, I thought the Mexican Eye motive might be good. (I will put this on the back or the other embroidery.) This could be made into a key holder or a charm for a back pack. I might even add a few beads to this.
I can't remember how to make a 4 strand cord to hang the piece using cardboard templates but have a friend who says she will show me. (How can I forget this after making it for years on end?)
My hand is still painful so all my stitching is slow.
I have started the preparations to make a new quilt for my grand-neice. The theme is Chooks.
When she was younger she used to keep chooks and a number were taken by a fox. (Her thing is now rabbits.) But, I thought this would make a nice memory for her. I only want to use fabrics I have in my stash for this one. As usual I found that the instructions didn't match the illustration exactly. I took a photo of the chooks , put them into catagories and worked out what had to be changed before I got to tracing every pattern.
Tracing them onto the steam a seam took nearly a whole week.
As I am using fabrics from my stash I then had to work out what the backgrounds would be. I quite like the fabrics I have choosen, so the next step it to get them all cut. After that I have to chose the fabrics for the chooks and get them assembled ready for sewing.
I want this all prepared for the end of the month when I have a sewing weekend with friends in Toowoomba.
I have also been designing a quilt for my quilt group and as part of this I wanted a star. Well drawing a paper pieced star was really testing my hand so I went onto Etsy and bought one, printed pattern and all instructions, for $7.00. Money well spent I think.
And I was asked about ideas for some Children's Classes. Once I start putting down ideas I can't stop. I just have to see how this will look stitched out.
Where has the year gone? I haven't done all the things on my "to do list" for this year and it doesn't look like I will at this stage. On top of that there is Xmas on the horizon. Time to panic, or maybe revise all my stitching plans? My right wrist and arm are still not back in service and in fact are a bit worse.
I feel 'just panic' is how I feel at the moment.
But, I have reorganised my bedroom. I find it too difficult because of the pain in my arm, to make by king sized bed so I have made it into 2 king sized singles. I have put the colourful Indian cotton bed spreads on the beds, taken down the South American Indian blouses and put up some Quaker cross stitch on the wall that I did a few years ago. (The back of my cupboards are full of paintings and embroideries.)
It took days to get the paper pieced butterfly stitched for the pocket of the machine cover I am making.
But, I can actually see the end in sight for this piece, through all the mess.
I have a retreat coming up at the end of this month so I will try and prepare stitching that I can take to this. I bought a shop made blouse that other day so I am busy with a bit of embroidery on this to make it look a bit different.
And I have to return to my tea cosies this month.
But having said that, my garden is looking lovely.
I haven't been at home to do much work but I am working on quilting this piece of fabric. Just a half an hour here and there. It is a labour intensive process.
And I am driving myself crazy with Paper piecing. So much of this has ended up in the bin. There is a difference between the pattern and the size of the block in the illustration. I should have checked first.
I became so upset with myself I am now drawing up this design. You watch, I will mess this up as well.
I am also doing concept drawings for a quilt which will be 1 metre X 1 metre finished.
I have a super full week this week, so not too much on the go.
I did finish the last applique block and took them all up to Toowoomba yesterday.
I have started to get the fabric for my daughters quilt and have made a trial block, this is going to be some time in the making.
And that is it!
I am working on getting these blocks finished, for the Toowoomba Quilters . They had been donated and they want to make a raffle quilt. The box didn't seem to have a bottom. I thought I would start with..., I just didn't know where to start. So I pinned them on my work board and realised that there were 3 blocks that were missing. I have the pattern for one and will have to recreate the patterns for the other 2 blocks. I have since finished drawning one and still have another to do.
Then for the blocks I did have I am in the process of making sure each one is complete. Lots of little things have not been done.
I stopped and drew a plan of the quilt, numbered all the blocks, and tried to match fabrics. There definately isn't enough fabric. I only have enough to finish the 13 main blocks and 4 corners. What will be missing is all the inset blocks, 8 in total, and the borders. I should have done all that before I started but I believed what I was told "all the materials are in the box". NO THEY ARE NOT.
Then I decided to just get all the scraps out of the bags and organise them into colours to see if I had enough fabric to finish the missing main blocks. I might be able to suppliment this from my stash so those should be alright.
I have had the flu for the last month and it has left me with serious brain fog. Along with this I have a big problem with my sore arm, it really limits what I am able to do. The wrist is inflammed, no one knows why, and I have to keep it splinted most of the time to ease the pain. It has no strength in it at all and I have rested it for 8 weeks with no improvement.
But I keep stitching embellishments on the seams of these blocks. I now realise that I am down to the last two rows but then I have to join them all together so I expect this to be a work in progress for some time. Still, they are a great project to take to meetings with me.
Summer is nearly here and I need to start some dressmaking as well!
Maybe I will just read a book.
I am finding it hard to do anything very much, still. The virus has just about finished but has left me with fatigue, so I sit and read or sleep.
I have set myself the task of making some more bowl cosies. These are for my cleaning lady, who is a real friend. She has a non verbal autistic daughter, along with two teenage sons. She has to watch Amy, her daughter, with her food, so being able to give her food she can hold without burning herself on the plates or the food, is essential.
I am going to quilt them using my walking foot on my machine. On second thought, these are about the right size that I could practice with my quilting templates. I don't have to think, just follow the template. Problem is I will have to re-learn how to use them all over again.
I think I threw my learning piece away!
But I have been looking for an excuse to buy some of Pauline Rogers quilting templates.
These you just sew with your feed dogs up and follow the line. AND she has a You Tube channel where you can watch and then sew. I have known Pauline for over 30 years and know that these things will work just as she says. (I now have to wait for the post for them to arrive.) I might just stay with what I know for the time being. These are the fabrics I intend to use.
I am struggling along with my knitting but a little each day will see me get there, I hope.