Summer Interrupted Me!

I've been busy enjoying summer pursuits...gardening and margarita's! (Not together!) I finally decided to take some time and get back to working on my wagon wheel quilt.

This morning I was back into my sewing room for a while at least. The heat drove me out of my attic space by early afternoon. It was almost 31 degrees C (close to 90 degrees F) when I finally took refuge in the air-conditioned downstairs!

Despite the heat, I managed to get 3 more blocks done today, making it 9 more blocks since I last blogged!

I have 15 blocks out of 25 completed! I am loving this quilt and I find myself really thinking about how I would like to quilt it. All I've decided for sure is that it will hand quilted.

In the evenings, I have been knitting socks...I have no idea why since I can't wear them in the summer. (I know this for sure because I tried one on to take a picture and it was HOT!)

This is Dead Simple Lace Socks from the book Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy D. Johnson.

I really enjoy toe up socks, especially when I am using smaller balls of wool like the Kroy Socks FX. It has a lot less yardage than many sock wools and I find it preferable to run out of wool on the leg rather than half way down the foot.

Here is a bit of a close up..

Hopefully I'll back up to my sewing room again soon....

Happy Stitching!

Inspired!

I finished 4 more blocks this week for my Wagon Wheel quilt! I am up to 6 blocks! Just 19 more to make enough blocks to make this quilt big enough for my bed!

After becoming smitten with this quilt I decided to cut out all my pieces I needed to make all my blocks.

Now I am ready to sew!

At night, in front of the TV, I have been mostly knitting. I finished another pair of socks this week.

These Hedgerow Socks are a pattern I have been wanting to knit for quite a while. They fit great but I'll have to wait for several months before it is cold enough to actually wear them!

One great feature that I love in this pattern is that the pattern goes straight down to the bottom of the heel!

I'll have to get another pair of socks started this week so I can use up a bit more of my stash!

But for today I am hoping to get a couple of more blocks done for my quilt!

Happy Stitching!

I've Been Uninspired

I have been completely uninspired with ALL my projects lately. I have been just going through the motions of working on these projects without my usual passion. My thoughts on quilting are that if I am not enjoying it anymore then it is time for it to be put aside for a while. Sometimes those projects never get finished but sometimes I find I am wanting to work on them again at a later date. I figured it was time for a fresh start. I packed up everything I have been working on and everything in my want to do pile and put it away where I can't see it. I know it's there and maybe one day I will want to play with it again but not for a while.



So I started something completely new! I cut out my test block yesterday and ta-da!

It all went together without a problem so I made a second block today and starting cutting a third block out.

I am loving this scrappy quilt!

The pattern is called Wagon Wheels and is from Quiltmania issue #78.

I am so happy to have my quilting mojo back!

Happy Stitching!

Testing a Block!

I finally started a test block using the John Flynn Miniature Double Wedding Ring template set. 6" double wedding ring blocks are small! Once I decided to actually follow the instructions (!) it went together very nicely. It was a good thing I still had the smallest rotary cutter size to get around the templates!

I did notice that the templates fit nicely on a charm pack so I picked one out to make a very scrappy mini. Now I have to get sorting the charms into lights, mediums and darks. After that I will start cutting!

After testing that, I thought I would work on some more Farmers Wife blocks. Six more done!

I am still trying to figure out what size of quilt I want to make with these. I am now thinking I may make a lap size quilt. That would mean I have about half the blocks made that I will need to finish the quilt!

 I also finished the shawl I have been knitting in the evenings. It was actually quite an easy patterrn and I was very able to do it in front of the tv without getting too lost. It is the Meandering Vines Shawl found on Ravelry. I did mine with Alpaca Cloud. It is so soft!

Here is a close up!

My sewing room is a MESS so the next thing I am doing is a good cleanup!

Happy Stitching!

A day in my sewing room but first...

I spent a whole day in my sewing room yesterday! What fun...but before I could get started I cleaned up a bit and while I was putting things away I found a few UFO's!

Some I will probably never do anything with but some I really want to finish.

This is a quilt (just 36" x 48") that I made from scraps left over from a kit. It just needs a border but I keep forgetting to bring it to the quilt shop with me.

Then I have these two sashiko panels to use. I am still undecided whether to frame them one day or use them for a front panel in a tote bag.

Then I have this double stitch project from Mountain Patchwork . It is an interesting technique where you stitch your pieces together with a running stitch and then again through the seam allowance.

Here is a close up of the front and back.

Finally here is another quilt to hand quilt. I have had this top done for many years but could never decide how to quilt it. I absolutely love it so it is staying out to inspire me to get it finished!

Next time, I'll show you what I worked on yesterday after cleaning up!

Happy Stitching!