It’s been a while but I finally made it to stitch night with my friends last night and stitch I did! It’s coming along slowly but there’s a bit more progress on Autumn in my garden!
And tonight is a date night – a date to install baseboards – can’t wait! In the meanwhile I’m working from home while I hide from the snow. At some point I’ll go out and do some snow cleanup but for now it’s cozy warm in my office 🙂
I went over to my aunt’s house last night after work and we had the evening to ourselves so we decided to work on one of the many project kits we have purchased at quilt shows over the years together. This one is all Japanese fabrics and it’s a very simple, small and elegant quilt that we both loved. We pulled out the kit to discover it was actually paper piecing which was pretty new, at least for me. It took a while to figure out and get the first block done but after that we were on a roll and we got 3/4 of the blocks finished last night. Probably one more evening like that and we’ll have the top all put together.
And we’re finally past the halfway point this week – getting towards the weekend! Lots of house work planned and family to visit and come visit – can’t wait!
Well this weekend went by pretty quickly. Since we’re on hold with the insulation we have to keep the livingroom/diningroom empty. This meant my plans to move the tables out of the gym to start crown molding did not happen (no place to put the tables until we can use the diningroom again). However Ryan had to work all weekend any how so we wouldn’t have gotten much done. He stayed home Friday to clear snow off the many lower roofs but had work to make up the rest of the weekend. The snow clearing on Friday went well though and the warm spell we had really cleared things up even more.
So I mostly relaxed, did some stitching and some sewing. Sunday I got started on the curtains for my sister. I’m making lined tab-top curtains with a white/green polka dot fabric. Then I’ll make a solid green shade that matches and a cute valance. First up was the curtains and I got one panel finished, the second one close to finished. There are 2 windows in the room so I still have 2 (and a half) more panels to finish up before I can start the valance or shades.
Anyway, here are my progress pictures from this weekend:
The curtains so far have been easy and fun. I haven’t decided on the style shade yet but I did decide I don’t need blackout lining or anything. If I hold the lining, curtain fabric, lining, shade fabric all up together they definitely block out the light. So I can use the regular lining I have for both curtains and shades.
This week – friday probably – we’ll get the insulation finished hopefully and next weekend resume work on the house. I’m looking forward to it!
No house progress this weekend as we were back in NY visiting family however we did get a date for insulation – this coming friday! Which means I’m going to have some busy evenings getting this ready (need to move things out of the way, need to get all the nails out of the wall, need to make sure wiring is out of the way and need to run one last switch).
It’s very exciting and I do hope it does not get delayed!
On the quilting front, I got mom’s quilt all quilted and gave it to her this weekend, I did not do the binding because after talking to her she said she could do that part. I have some curtains to make for my sister up next, then some shades and a valance. It’s good practice for my own house which isn’t quite ready for shades/curtains but I do plan to make them eventually!
I’ve post dated this so it posts after Mom has gotten her quilt so it’s a bit of a surprise, she knows I’m quilting it but doesn’t know I plan to have it done by the weekend I see her so I can give this to her. So pretend this is a Friday morning post.
Thursday night I finished up quilting the last 3 blocks on Mom’s quilt and then quickly quilted the inner border with just a wandering loopy design. I’m actually not sure what to quilt in the outer border, maybe a loopy design with some snowflakes mixed in if I’m feeling adventurous. Maybe the word snowflake and winter mixed in as well.
So here’s the quilt so far:
I’m hoping tonight (Friday night) I can finish up the border, and sew on the binding. Then during the drive Saturday I will whip stitch the binding down so it’s ready for her!
2 weeks in a row now I’ve gotten a little stitching time while over visiting Uncle Mark and Aunt Mo. Autumn in my Garden is coming along. I started this piece a while back. It’s on 40 count fabric and I knew I should use one strand of thread however there are blended colors so I tried 2 strands for a bit to see how I liked it – i hated it – it was tough to stitch (too dense) on the 40 count. So i pulled it all out (except for the word Autumn which is still 2 strands right now). I started over with 1 strand, the blended parts I use one color for one leg and the second color for the top leg of each stitch. I’m loving it now.
I think I want to get some scroll rods for this piece. I enjoy using them on Celtic Banner (which I haven’t stitched on in years!) and I didn’t like using the q-snaps on this piece. So I think Joann’s will be a trip I made in a night or 2. Holding this much fabric in hand is difficult and I think I’ll stitch faster with scroll rods.
Quite a snow day we had today, I made it in to work though so I must get back to it. Tonight I plan to finish quilting the snow flake blocks and tomorrow finish up the border!
I’m not great at machine quilting but I’ve definitely gotten better than my first few tries! And only having to do 9 of these snow flake patterns is very doable. I’ll do some swirly/snowy type continuous pattern in the border when I’m done with the main blocks. This is a stencil that I’m tracing using a washable pencil.
It takes a bit of turning the quilt to make this single pattern, luckily the quilt is wall size, not bed size so I just start with the “hardest” side of each snow flake (with the most fabric folded) and move it around to the easier sides as I go along. I figure I can do a block a night next week and get this done by next weekend!
I’ve gotten a few nights now of working on crafts! It sure has been a while. Wednesday night over at Uncle Mark and Aunt Mo’s I worked on my cross stitch project while Aunt Mo quilted. Then last night I started quilting Mom’s quilt for her. I’m using my own machine and it’s not going too badly at all. I got 1 of the 9 blocks quilted 🙂
I’ll probably do a bit more quilting tonight but this weekend we’re headed down to my sister’s in CT to help paint a spare room they’ve been refinishing. I plan to hit Joann’s down there and get some new fabric too! I am definitely in a quilting/sewing mood!
And the snow is still coming down. We cleaned up the first 6 inches that hit this morning but it hasn’t stopped coming down yet. I’ll probably have to do another round of shoveling myself before Ryan gets home 🙂
It was a 3 nighter – and a good one, it was actually hard to choose where to start but I chose to start with the orange face. I left the pink face/flowers for last.
It’s been a long time since I did a puzzle, i rarely take the time to do them but I do enjoy them!
It’s been a slow 2 days around here this vacation. Wednesday started out strong with some electrical work, we finished the outlet circuit in the livingroom. I then planned out the lighting circuit for the front hall which is pretty complicated because it goes up the stairs with a 4 way switch.
Ryan’s cold was hitting him hard so we took the rest of Wednesday to watch movies and relax. Today we finished up some shopping for Groudas Family Christmas this weekend. Then Ryan made his router table while I baked some cookies for the neighbors that plowed our driveway while we were back home for Christmas.
Tomorrow we will work on the electric some more and I’ll get the house cleaned up a bit. Saturday is our extended family christmas and then we have Sunday and Monday free to work on the house and relax before it’s back to work!