I knitted 2 inches of ribbing for these unknown socks and then decided the yarn is too heavy for the pattern I chose, so will look on Ravelry to find a different pattern. There are plenty of socks patterns that use a size 2 needle. See the shadows, even the weather person didn’t forecast sun for today, so it was a big, happy surprise.
Today was productive, but so much was background work, like cutting and washing the batting and backing for the next quilt to be quilted, choosing fabrics for a quilt for my neighbors 90th birthday next month, and cutting the blocks which will be embroidered.
I did a bit more practice on the digitizing and this is the result stitched out. All these things are done in the background and there isn’t much to take a photo of until things come together. Then there are the normal living things, like getting up, dressed and walking the 10,000 steps. meals. I try to get half the steps done before lunch. It seems if I fail that, the steps don’t get done.
I started reading the time management book last night and one thing I picked up was to not only make a list – which I do, but to put times beside each item so you know how long it really takes as so often we under guess. That was interesting. I found that a 2.5″ sock cuff (cast on 3 times) took me 3 hours with a 10 minute break each hour for walking. Some things took longer than anticipated and some took less. Some things didn’t get done, which is okay. I also only allowed 30 minutes of computer reading time until late afternoon. I realize when I don’t really want to do something, I’m very entertained by reading email instead.
Tonight, I will put together a list for tomorrow, which will include grocery shopping. I am hoping 90 minutes will be okay for that. And I need to chose a design for the quilt that is now mounted on the machine and threads for the neighbors quilt.
The flower quilt flimsy is now done. The pattern called it “rose” but Sally said it looked like crocus and I agreed. I cleared off the ironing board and the cutting table to get the room that I needed to cut the boards. I have no idea why I made this queen size, but it is. I had no plan when I started, I just wanted to make the pretty flowers. And so piecing happens.
Once again, I am reminded of how frustrating and difficult learning a new skill is. I don’t wonder why children get tired and balk . I’m ready to throw up my hands and scream. Their whole early life seems to be learning new skills. I think I understand and have the concept learned, and then, I mess up. It is very frustrating and exhausting. And if I keep at it without taking a break, I start making all types of stupid mistakes. So tonight I have only my first attempts at digitizing applique to show you. I was going to do the owl quilt in the conventional way and got “smart” and decided it would look nicer if the applique was embroidered on. Yes, it does look much nicer, but the learning will make the quilt take me longer.
I took this photo for the beginners in this group. If you have a place where directions call for you to sew across the diagonal, then trim. I like to sew a second line a machine foot away into the discard area. Then I have many little squares to trim which I can make into something else (very small) The white squares here were 2″ and the discard triangle netted 1 3/8″ squares. I wouldn’t want to sew those little squares, but this way they are easy and after several quilts, I have a good number of them. Yes, I suppose all in different places, but maybe I could find them and put them in one place and do something with them
12 More roses are now up on the board. I think I may be half done. I need to dive into my scraps and even whole pieces for more colors. But it is looking so much better.
I had some crazy idea that I was going to make placemats out of this cute pattern. However, after doing this piece, which is paper pieced and the leaves are hand quilted, I decided that I would not want to soil anything that takes this long to make. The hand quilting was difficult as I was going through unwashed fabric and an iron on interfacing.
I cannot trace this quilt pattern as I started it several years ago. I had some of the red blocks done and now am adding more colors. I think it will take at least 40 blocks which means there is room for many more colors, but I will be deciding as I go.
On my original pattern it says “Friendship Quilt for Carolyn in Colorado” and the bottom left rectangle is intended to have the name of the maker and in the right side triangle the city, state where that person lived.
I tried something new today, which was using fleece on the back of this quilt. It is very cuddly which I’m hoping makes up for the “issues” I had. It quilted beautifully, but I must have stretched the fleece, so it doesn’t lie flat. Another factor was that I wanted to do it freehand which is not something I’m good at. I like how that part turned out, but it distracted me to the point that I didn’t keep all the quilt tension bars at the proper tension. So this also affected the overall look. I’m going to put it through a wash and see if that relaxes it more together. I am pleased with most of it and I think the soft cuddly”ness” of it will override the beginner look. I’m always learning, but I also see where I’ve made progress.