Friday Finishes - 2 Quilts!

Finished the two Scrappy Bento Box quilts I was making for charity. Took some pictures of them this week off my parents backyard deck. Glad to have them done. Now mom can donate them.

Here's the first one. I started doing free-motion stippling on this one when my sewing machine decided it didn't want to do that anymore. Couldn't get the tension right and spent a couple hours ripping out the quilting I had done. Parts of the quilting weren't too bad but when I discovered I could keep tension with straight-line quilting, I ripped out all the free-motion quilting and did diagonal lines across the whole quilt.

A closer picture of the quilting - and all those quilt pieces! There are 700 pieces in each quilt.

Another detail shot.

I'm running out of yardage to make scrappy backs.

Here's the second quilt.

Did horizontal and vertical straight lines on this one. Much quicker.

Slightly closer look.

And the scrappy back.

Did you have any finishes this week? Linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday and Kat & Cat Quilts.

WIP Wednesday

A few WIP's to share this Wednesday, a couple almost done and one little finish.

I've spent the past few days quilting and quilting and was able to finish quilting the two Scrappy Bento Box quilts. Above they are trimmed and awaiting binding, which I hope to attach this afternoon.

Finished 4 spools of thread doing all that quilting. Time to go buy some more.

I started a sock almost 2 weeks ago. Getting ready to do the heel in a couple rows. 

And I hope you can tell this has grown. It's the Hello, Hello shawl and I'm halfway done the eyelet section (it's doubled in size since the last time I showed it). Hope to make more progress on it this week.

And I've slowly been plugging away at my Sarah Fielke, 2017 BOM, Down the Rabbit Hole. Since the last time it was on the blog, I have sewn down the green bias around the centre and sewed down the brown circle in the middle. I have also cut out and glued down all the leaves and have started to stitch them down. I think I slowed down on this project when the April clue came out - paper-piecing! My plan is to face my fear next month and get the paper-pieced houses done. 

Yarn ready for July Camp Loopy project. It will become an Old Growth cardigan. 

And my one little finish is this Sashiko embroidery that was part of the Studio MME's Super Stitcher's Club. I don't remember which month this was from. It came with white floss but I changed it up a bit and added some pink. I had it done in four different colours but decided I didn't like it and ripped it all out. Think I like this better.

What have you been working on this week?

WIP Wednesday

Last Wednesday I had WIP pictures taken but ran out of hours in the day to post them. So today you get double the WIP's. A nice comparison of what I was actually able to get done in a week. 

Last week's progress of my Salita shrug. This is after one pattern repeat.

And here it is this week, with another pattern repeat done. There are suppose to be five pattern repeats, each 40 rows.  It's a surprisingly fun, quick, addictive knit.

Close-up of the lace pattern.

This is the only WIP from last week that I haven't worked on at all this week, so it hasn't changed. This is the beginning of a Hello, Hello shawl.

My daughter really liked the brain hats we saw at the March for Science in April. I finally started making her one, aiming for her birthday (which is tomorrow) but won't get it done in time. Here's where I was last Wednesday.

My I-cord Brains.

Made some progress this week.

Last week I had 26 Scrappy Bento Blocks done.

This week, I have all 70 done. Time to start putting them into rows. They will become 2 quilts for charity.

Last week I had ironed and cut fabrics for my Rin quilt. Since I was using fabrics from stash, I didn't have enough of some and cut smaller squares and discovered I can still use the templates. The brown cut is from a 12 inch square.

This week I've folded and ironed all the squares. Still need to decide what shapes I'm going to cut. Maybe this week. There is a Rin quilt-along going on which you can read about here and here.

However, this week I got distracted and cut some other fabrics to make some single Rin blocks. This one uses a Canada themed fabric for the background. And I hand-basted for the first time. Not too shabby.

I hand appliqued the inside edge and my circle was a little off. Undid the stitching and the basting and redid it.

Much better. And if you can't notice the difference, please don't tell me.

I'll be adding a circle to the middle. I'm almost done appliquéing the outer edge on the big circle.

And I cut this very Canadian themed block, as well. I'll be tackling it next. Something to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday on July 1st.

I think that's everything. The youngest is now on summer vacation and we have 3 weeks to get into a routine before the older kids join us. Hoping my crafty time doesn't suffer too much this summer.

Tomorrow is the beginning of Camp Loopy. I'll be joining in the fun again this year. Tomorrow I'll share my yarn and the pattern I'll be knitting. 

WIP Wednesday - 5 Quilts and a bit of Knitting

It's been almost a month since my last WIP post and some of those WIP's don't look much different. I blame Camp NaNoWriMo for stopping my WIP's from becoming Friday Finishes. Now that my brain can fit something other than my novel into it, it is quickly filling up with all the crafts I want to make, and surprisingly a lot of those are quilts. 

I finished making the Spin Cycle quilt earlier this year. I picked the backing fabric which I need to cut and piece to fit (doing that today). I'd love to baste this today but making cookies for teacher appreciation week comes first. It wasn't until I looked at the selvedge of the backing fabric that I realized I am using Cluck Cluck Sew fabric, too. Fabric on the front is an assortment of fabrics that aren't Cluck Cluck Sew. Really dropped the ball there. This quilt is a gift for my son's preschool teacher. She also taught my two older children when they were preschoolers. She deserves a quilt. Her birthday is Sunday, but I'm aiming to gift her the quilt when preschool finishes at the end of this month. Have no idea how I'm going to quilt it. Ideas? ( I had one leftover block, which you can see. Using it on the back as a label and have all three kids sign their names, and maybe a little message, too.)

This fabric is for another Cluck Cluck Sew quilt pattern. My daughter and I fell in love with her Basketcase pattern. I bought it and some fabric and plan on making it for my daughter's birthday next month. Need to get busy cutting and sewing this one.

My Bento blocks have been ignored for weeks. I still need to iron these block halves. I think I got a little depressed about this project when I recounted and discovered I need to make 5 more block halves. It's hard keeping track of so many pieces - there are over 1,000 pieces cut - but in the end they will become 2 quilts for charity. Need to refocus and finish them.

This crazy collection of fabrics is for the Sarah Fielke 2017 BOM. I'm behind on this one too. Need to iron some fabric and then do some paper-piecing this month. I'm a little scared.

And this was a quick fabric pull this morning to make a Rin quilt. There's a QAL going on for this one that I saw on Instagram. And there was something about the pattern I couldn't resist. Not sure when I'll make time for this but the QAL doesn't start until May 17th, so I have time to finish up some other WIP's before then.

And here's the little bit of knitting that's keeping me busy. I'm about to start another test knit for Sarah of Imagined Landscapes.

And I've been working on my Duvessa cowlette. Above I am 2 rows shy of finishing chart B, with only chart C and the border left. The KAL ends on Friday but something was bothering me about the design.

The bump down from the garter section to the lace section. I didn't like it. I want to keep and wear this but that little design element had me thinking I was going to give it away. And that kind of pissed me off. There must be something I can do?

So I started over, working the first part in stockinette instead of garter.

But since I'm not sure I'll like it, or if it will even work this way, I haven't frogged the original. They're both still connected. Not sure I'll get either of them finished by Friday, but I'm going to try.

What have you been working on?

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WIP Wednesday

Another week has flown by. This week is crazy busy here with meetings and assisting (twice) at my youngest's preschool. But I've been pretty good at resisting Spring Startitis and focusing on WIP's instead. There are about 4 things I want to start knitting NOW but so far... I haven't. I even went to a meeting with sock yarn and needles in purse, planning to start a pair of socks but didn't. I need to finish some projects before I even let myself start a pair of socks.

Saturday evening I started the right sleeve of my Cocoa cardigan. Finished it Monday and started the second sleeve later that day. Making good progress on them. Just have button bands to add and then it will be blocked. The knitting doesn't look great due to the yarn being frogged yarn. It had been my Beacon Hill cardigan that I just didn't love. I should have washed the yarn to unkink it before knitting this cardigan but I didn't. This will block out, right? And the armholes were on waste yarn for so long, it left a kink  that you can kind of see, especially on the left sleeve. This cardigan will need 16 buttons (there's four on each cuff) and I'm thinking of treating myself to these lovely buttons.

On the weekend I finished making the Scrappy Bento Box block quarters and starting sewing those quarters into halves. Still have to sew over 100 more halves together but I'm trying not to think about how many steps are left to get these charity quilts finished. There will be enough blocks to make two twin size quilts.

And I finished the Branching Out shawl. It is currently soaking in it's bath while I type this and will be blocked this afternoon. Hope to have modeled shots to share on Friday.

What have you been up to this week?

WIP Wednesday and the Women's March

A couple WIP's to share today. And in honor of International Women's Day, I'm finally sharing pictures from the Women's March in January. 

Last Thursday I started the Branching Out shawl by Tin Can Knits. I was on row 33 when I realized my stitch count was wrong because I forgot to knit row 15. Time for a little frogging. I was able to pick the stitches back up at row 14 and didn't have to start from the beginning, which was nice.

It is kind of addictive. You can see with the lace design why I didn't notice until row 33 that I was missing a row. 

Slightly closer look. 

I'm still a little stuffed up from the cold I had last week, but I had a burst of energy Friday and sewed up this little pile. Part of some Scrappy Bento Box blocks. Aiming to make 2 twin size quilts. I need 280 block pieces to be combined into 70 blocks. I counted after sewing the above and realized I needed to cut a lot more pieces. This weekend I cut over 200 more squares and rectangles.

Yesterday, I was able to sew together some more. All 280 three piece blocks have been sewn together (on the right) and I started adding the next size (sewing on 3.5 inch squares, on the left). After the kids went to bed last night, the iron and I enjoyed some tv and the blocks were ironed. I admit, I don't often iron quilt blocks until they are complete, but I think it's easier with scrap quilts to iron each step so I can see what fabrics I've used at a glance.

Spent some time at my sewing machine this morning. This is how I left it when I went to pick the youngest up from preschool. Hoping to get some more piecing done this afternoon/evening.

And FINALLY, some pictures from the Women's March on January 21st. Not sure how I didn't post these earlier but today seems like a good day to post them. 

One of four hats done.

All four.

Ready to March. (Complete sidenote - It was so hot for a January day!)

Meeting up with the group. There were over 11,000 of us. Some Marchers were already at the University (the end point) before some even started marching. Great turn out. I know several people who attended but didn't see any of them, there was just so many.

Man in a pussyhat serving free hotdogs and water. 

I loved this sign - especially since it was the day after the inauguration.

On campus.

Walking towards the Diag, where the speeches were. 

It was really amazing to March that day with my daughter. We aren't American and he truly isn't our president, but we felt it was necessary to March. Maybe I didn't post the pictures before because I have struggled to find the words to describe that day and what it meant. Like many, it was my first real protest, and after, I struggled to return to normal life, to just make, blog, write. It all seemed incredibly pointless. Some days, I still feel that way. What is the point of blogging? knitting? quilting? writing? when there is a much bigger need to fight in this country. To stand up against what some of those in power are trying to do or have done. For a while, I felt sad. But I have come to a sort of balance. I can only do so much. I have a family that needs me to be get off the couch and cook dinner, but also to talk at the dinner table about what is going on and why it's wrong. Or where there is hope. Because there is hope. There will always be hope. Which is why we will win. Eventually. Persist. Resist.