Friday, January 29, 2021

Today was a scrappy day and I’ve certainly made a mess – but enjoyed every minute of it.

I put together 13 more blocks for the scrappy quilt I’m making with my Leaders and Enders. I’m more than half-way done which was a surprise when I counted things because they are getting done quite quickly.

Next up was a string project and that is where the mess comes in. I have a drawer full of strings – strips that are of any length and less than one-and-a-half inches wide. I’m using a thin piece of fabric as my foundation and both the foundation and the strips have bits of threads attached. When I sew the strips into the block I’m not careful about cutting off the threads at the beginning or the end of the seam so when I trim them off I end up with quite a mess.

I’m going to try to make it up to the library this afternoon to pick up the book I ordered. I’m not quite done my current book but the library isn’t open on weekends and I expect I’ll need a new book before Monday. Besides, it’s a good idea to run the car a bit.

Thursday, January 28, 2021

I’ve always had this problem. Even before I’ve finished one project I’ve thought of several more I’d like to do. It happened when I was knitting (hence all my yarn), it happened with cross stitching (hence all my floss and patterns) and it happens with quilting (hence all my fabric and patterns).

Today I was working on my Valentine cards; I’m on my third one and although I have to think about what I’m doing I can also let my mind wander from time to time. While I’ve stitched I’ve decided how these particular cards will be quilted and I’ve settled on my next two card patterns.

We watched the movie Shirley on Prime last night and I did some research on the author the movie is based on. I took a short break to place one of her books on hold at the library.

I’ve been knitting a scarf in the evenings; I didn’t have much mohair yarn but I thought I might get a decent-sized scarf. After knitting for one evening I took it all apart and made it a bit skinnier so I could get a little more length. But I still didn’t feel like it was going to work so I took another break from my stitching and found a scrap afghan pattern that I will use it in. I have an entire bin of “odd balls” and I’ll use all of them up in the pattern I found. I’ve crocheted a very similar afghan several times (in fact I have one on the go now) but this pattern is knitted and will suit the yarns I have better. Some of those novelty yarns are difficult to crochet with.

So I’m not sure that having my mind wander is such a good thing. The ideas I came up with just today will take me months to accomplish.

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Today was a Guild Zoom sewing bee; I often just sign on to say hello and then sign off again until lunch and Show and Tell. That was my original plan but since I needed to have my laptop open to see my pattern I stayed in the Zoom meeting all morning. I only had one issue. I had my laptop charging and was being very careful not to cut the cord while I was using my rotary cutter. All was good with my first project but when I was cutting binding for a second project I sliced into the cord just a wee bit; fortunately the computer is still working and charging!

I had so many choices for a Guild sewing day – my Guild Challenge, the January Block of the Month or the new Log Cabin Project we are working on. Since the Guild Challenge was close to being finished (well the top anyway) I decided to concentrate on that. By the time I had the top together I didn’t have time to start another project and there were a couple of things I wanted to get ready for the mail tomorrow so I concentrated on them. A couple of the ladies were working on their log cabin blocks; I thought I had planned mine out correctly but after chatting about the blocks I think the fabric I picked for the outer dark row has to move to the second last dark row. I’ll study the pattern more closely when I’m ready to start it.

I’ve just finished hand stitching some binding and I think I’ll call it a day. I have a label to attach to a project and I’ll dig out some yarn for another knitting project but after that I’m going to read until supper time.