Spring Cleaning - Week 2

I put in my 30 minutes, yesterday, and I found a long forgotten project.

I started this quilt longer ago than I can remember. My memory said that I set it aside because it was too "Christmas". Why would I put a lot of work into a Christmas quilt?

I pulled it out and looked at it, yesterday. I realized that I had done a good job on the piecing, and if you take away the green border, it doesn't  look very "Christmas" at all. The fabric is actually much more cream than the picture shows. It was a very grey day when I took the pictures. I can replace the green border, with a red, tone on tone border. Best of all, someone has asked for the finished quilt.

So it has moved from the give away pile to the "to be finished" pile.

I purchased some "mini bolt boards" also known as comic book boards, to wrap my fabric around and make it tidy. Some ironing may be required. I bought 100, I wonder if that is enough.

I see that my toss toward the wastebasket missed and you can see a discarded envelope in the background. I've since picked that up.

I am test knitting a shawl for a designer, more on that later, but this is the start.

Winter just keeps hanging on. Apparently we are on day 157 of discernable snow on the ground. So brightness is required.

 Currently blooming in my kitchen! I am also forcing some forsythia so it can grace our dining room table, on Easter.

Spring Cleaning Begins

My sewing studio (sounds better than kid's former bedroom) will never grace the pages of a magazine, but when I lost my straight pins, something had to be done.

So, yesterday, I started on the 30 minutes to tidy project. Nancy Zieman taught me about 10, 20, or 30 minutes to sew, and I thought that could apply to this project.

Two days in and I have made significant improvement to my space.

The cutting table is clear. My current project is piled on one corner. Like the neon green zipper? I have room to move.

This is the right end of the  serger "table" (a board om two file cabinets). I was embarrassed by how old some of the stuff on there was. I found two notebooks, that I am sure I have been missing for months. The rubber glove is the best thing I have found for clearing the lint out of my cutting mat. The bag is filled with selvage edges, that I am waiting for the perfect project. I see I set my camera case down and forgot to move it as I took the picture.

Left end of the serger table, with my tablet stand, my tool bag, some thread and my coaster for my coffee cup. Might still need a bit of work but it is much better.

The best part is that there isn't any stray fabric. Big pieces are in one place. Smaller pieces are in another. The pieces that are small enough that I won't use them are here.

They are packed up and ready to go to the local kindergarten for their art projects. I asked the teacher if she would like them and she was thrilled.

My serger table had 5 coasters on it. Why?

These three I made, and have never used. So, they are just sitting on my table, cluttering up the space. Obviously a new home is required.

The treasure of the day is this.

A package of barrette backs from a store that went out of business in the 1990's, I think. The only time I pin my hair back is at yoga and I use bobby pins. I have started a collection of things for the give away table at quilting.

In case you are wondering, Mysti has decided to be a bit more social. Still very cautious, but she has started to play and get in touch with her inner kitten.

Just A Quick Post

I am trying to post once a week, in order to see some progress. So, here is a summary of the past week.

The baby set got finished and delivered. Bear wanted to model it before it left. I didn't get a closeup of the buttons, but they are tiny hearts.

Bear is playing hide and seek, and is "It" so is counting to 100. I took the opportunity to take a picture of the back of the sweater.

The sweater is Another 5-Hour Baby Sweater. I made a couple of modifications and knit the sleeves in the round.

Since I had yarn left over, and the DPN's were already out, I made a seriously modified version of a ruffle baby hat. The original pattern was done on 2 needles and always needed some elastic thread to keep it on. I checked my gauge, and it was dead on, so the problem is the pattern. I started again, my own way, and came up with a result I liked better. I will have to wait for a report on whether it fits.

I was asked for a copy of the pattern. I may write it up and post it here, but I will need to knit another one or two, maybe in bigger sizes. I need to make sure my sizing works.

The yarn is King Cole Cherish DK, a gift from a friend, a couple of years ago, so I don't know if it is still available.

I made a sock, back in October, and needed some TV knitting. So I decided it was time to make the mate.

The Pattern is Crazy.  The yarn is a cotton/wool blend with a bit of elastic for stretch. You will notice I am intentionally making fraternal twins.

We got a new foster, this week. She is a bit shy, so our pictures aren't great, yet.

That is the back of my dryer. Yesterday, we pulled out the dryer, cleaned back there, and worked on a way to keep her out of there while still allowing her to hide. The current arrangement is working better, and I will try to get better pictures. She was named Mystique, but I am calling her Mysti.

Though you can't really tell, she is a brown tabby.

Disappearing Pinwheels

On Friday, the church quilting group is going to make Disappearing Pinwheel blocks. A kindly unknown quilter was cleaning out her stash and gave us, among other things, a package of 10" squares. So we are going to use those with some contrasting fabric to make these blocks.

If you look on line you can find more than one explanation on how to make them. Last week, I created a sample and we spent the morning arranging the blocks in a way that we liked. I believe that there are at least 11 arrangements of the blocks that produce something pleasing.

So I sewed around the edges of 2 squares from my stash, and cut them on the diagonal.

I cut the pinwheel block (after sewing) into 9 blocks.

After we played with them, we ended up with this.

Yesterday, I took the good fabric and made 2 more.

My camera was not doing what I wanted. The dark fabric is royal blue with dots of shades lighter blues and turquoise. The precut blocks are yellows greens and blues.

I see a seam I think I need to straighten, a bit.

I still see snow everywhere. I am tired of boots and heavy coats so I invited some spring in.

Amazing how much pleasure $3.99 can bring.

A friend asked if I could make a sweater for a baby girl arriving in her world, soon.

This is the 5 hour Baby Sweater. I have no idea how long it actually took, because I wasn't knitting continually on it until it was finished, but it was pretty quick. I need to steam it a little to get the button bands to behave. Then I will add buttons, and it will be ready.

The foster cat is learning how to live the good life. I found him stretched out in a sunbeam, this morning.

I hope you find a sunbeam, this week.

Knitting in Hope of Spring

After a hint of spring, we were back in the freezer, last week. My sewing consisted of working on the church quilt.  However, chilly afternoons are perfect for spring knitting by the fire.

First up are some fingerless mitts. It may be spring, but it morning walks will still require a little warmth for hands.

They still need blocking and their ends woven in, but they are wonderfully soft. The pattern is Barn Swallow Fingerless Mitts by Cheryl Toy.  The yarn is Drops Baby Alpaca Silk. It is always fun to make a project from one ball of luxury yarn. This yarn is very soft.

This spring, there will be lots of water as all our snow melts. Little boys need to wear rubber boots, and rubber boots need warm boot socks.

I should have them finished, today. The pattern is Purl Soho Toddler Socks. The yarn is Opal Sock Yarn, left over from some big boy socks. I am currently playing yarn chicken to finish, but I have some similar yarn I can use to finish the toe. I need a second pair for when the first pair gets wet.

I have returned to my Wild Swan Shawl.  I made a mistake and I didn't have the brain power to find it, previously.  I recently pulled it out, and found the mistake, fixed it, and it is proceeding, slowly.

I am hoping the yarn will show the pattern better, after it is blocked. However, you can kind of see the feathers starting to form.

I should have chosen something lighter in colour, but this was in my stash. I am trying to knit down my stash and use all the lovely yarns I have. My bins seem to be full, so I shouldn't need much for a while.

I Should Have Known Better

This is the outside of my new bag. It just has a small problem. The fold is suppose to be where the cut edge is. This piece will have to be used to make the base of some future bag, because it won't work for this bag. As I was cutting it, I was thinking about which side the fold was suppose to be on, so I have no idea how I managed to cut it backwards.

The good news is that I have more of the black twill. The other good news is that I cut the pockets exactly correct. That's a good thing, because I only have half a metre of this fabric.

Because I wanted to fussy cut the fabric, to make sure I got the cats on the pockets, I made a full pattern piece, and cut it flat.

The second pocket, which seems to be almost exactly the same, is cut properly, too. I have full cats for both sides.

This is Tula Pink Tabby Lane that I have been hoarding for awhile. I had a hard time finding it because nobody around here seemed to be selling it. I found it while I was on a shop hop, at a shop out of town.

My incremental bag making continues. These will have their interfacings fused, and then I will attach the lining, before I go back to the outer pieces, which have to be recut.

Last week, I made a pieced binding, for the church quilt. There wasn't enough of the jelly roll the top was made from to make the full binding, so I took some scraps from my stash and some from a friend's stash

The pieces at the top are from the quilt and the pieces at the bottom are the volunteers. I used pieces 8" or longer, and cut the full width of fabric pieces in half.

It is surprising how long it takes to sew little pieces of binding together to make about 300 inches.

This is the end of a morning's sewing. The binding is now trimmed, folded in half and rolled, to go onto the quilt, tomorrow. I will post a picture of the completed quilt.

One Day Only!

I have started sewing my new bag, and today I have pictures of the part that will not normally be seen.

The bag is The Ring Sling, and is the January bag for the Bag of The Month Club.

The pattern has you make the lining first. I am trying something new, for me. I usually cut out all the pieces, including the stabilizers, then do the fusing, then, finally sew. I find this method to be tedious. I spend a lot of time not sewing, then I just sew. So this time, I prepared just the lining pieces, and sewed the lining. Yesterday, I cut the main fabric and started attaching the zipper. Today, I finished the lining.

The lining is ready for the rest of the bag.

However, to admire it properly, I turned it around.

See, doesn't the lining look nice.

This is the slip pocket side.

A closeup of the pocket, that shows the sections for my phone, my pen, and my business cards.

And the zipper pocket side, with both the pocket zipper and the outer zipper going in the same direction! I usually manage to get the zippers going in opposite directions.

The weather has been dreadful, with rain, freezing rain, snow, wind. This gives me lots of time to sew.

My amaryllis has been giving me a break from the weather.

More flowers have appeared and there are still more to come.

Meanwhile, while I was admiring the flowers, I noticed this in a pot that was brought in to overwinter.

One tiny Sweet William flower, just the thing I need to make me smile.