Some Cross Stitch

Is cross stitch one word or two words? I’m not sure….. Anyway, I haven’t done any in a while. I don’t do as much hand work in the summer as we are outside more. Wintertime is when I do more crochet, cross stitch, and embroidery. Do you remember this one I started earlier in the year? 

The last update I posted was in June, and I had gotten this far:

Not bad, but that was probably the last time I worked on it. Jo Kramer is hosting a stitch along at the first of the year, and she announced it Friday. I thought about it, and decided maybe not, but……I’m such a sucker for stitch alongs, quilt alongs, all those sort of things. Then I saw the name of the chart is “Black Dog Sampler”. I have three black dogs. Is that a sign I should do it? I know, another rabbit hole.

You guessed it—I ordered the chart, and the fabric, and the thread. Jo said she was using 40 count fabric. Not me—I ordered the 16 count. In the meantime, I decided I needed to work on the one I have started and maybe get it finished by the end of the year. I worked Saturday evening and Sunday evening and got this far:

It’s not a lot, but it’s something. I really only have the vase and alphabet to do once I get the flower on the right completed. Oh, and a bunch of backstitching in the border. I’m not sure I can finish this year, but I am going to try. I am trying so hard to not do what I did with quilting and start a bunch of things that don’t get finished. It takes a lot of discipline, which does not come natural to me.

Progress

It doesn't look like progress when few things were actually finished, but they are moving along pretty well. I was able to spend some time on my Kaffe top and got this far:

It's taking a little longer than I would like, but I am trying to keep the momentum going on it. The sashing with no cornerstones is never a favorite of mine as I spend lots of extra time getting it lined up perfectly--or as perfect as I can get it. I'm pretty sure we've all seen quilts where the vertical sashing doesn't line up from row to row. That is something that would make me crazy. 😒 I'm also putting black thread on the machine when I work on it, so that means I have to change thread and bobbin if I've been working on something else. 

I also finished the quilt that was on the frame 

and got a lot of binding made.

I know what I will be working on Monday......putting the binding on the quilts! I got another quilt loaded, but didn't take any pictures of it. It is one of mine; I think it was my October goal quilt, so I will get it knocked out, hopefully, while I am binding.

We finally got some cold weather. It was in the forties all day yesterday, and it is forecasted to stay cool all week. I made a big pot of chili--that is always what I get hungry for when the first good cold front comes through. 

Sew Much Fun

Yesterday was full of fun and productivity. Serenity (granddaughter) has been wanting to learn to crochet, and she didn't have school yesterday, so......

I know it feels really awkward when you first learn, but she stuck with it for a few hours and can now do a row of chain stitches, then turn and do single crochet across the chain. She is going to practice this week, and then next week I'll show her how to do a double crochet.

While she was crocheting, I got a customer quilt done.

It may look familiar--I did two for her from the same fabrics, and I have another yet to do. I also got the binding on another one.

It's charm squares with a border. Sometimes the simple ones are very effective. I got some more binding cut for the ones I am finishing. I will try and get it all sewn together today. It doesn't look like I will get to have my road trip today. It's taking Bill longer than expected to recover from whatever he had a few weeks ago. He said it was a head cold, but more likely bronchitis. Of course, he refused to go to the doctor so who knows. He is not feeling bad and not coughing any more, but his energy level is still really low, and he tires out pretty quickly. I think the trip to Houston last weekend may have been too much, but I didn't realize it at the time. We will most likely hang out at home all weekend so he can get some rest.

Happy Friday!

 

I am seriously thinking of talking Bill into a taking a road trip tomorrow. I haven’t mentioned it yet because I am not sure I want to go. He’s still getting over whatever crud he had a few weeks ago, and he’s been more tired than usual, and I think we are both still tired from Quilt Festival. We’ll see how it goes. 

I have been moving my projects along in small spurts. I have almost all of the Kaffe blocks sewn and pressed and started putting them together.

I don’t think it is 100% what I was visualizing, but it’s not bad. I’m going to keep on working on it and see how far I get.

I got the binding on a couple of customer quilts. This is the only one I have a picture of (so far).

It's a sweet baby quilt made from a Penny Rose fabric line. Unfortunately, my photography is never really good--this is so much prettier in person. I also took a close up of the quilting design because I thought it was pretty on this one. I used a design called Climbing Rose.

I have another one loaded on the frame to quilt, and one I just took off the frame which I will need to trim and get the binding made. There is always plenty to do, and I think that is a good thing.

Quilt Festival Part 4

I really wanted to make sure I posted pictures so some of the winning entries…I’m not sure I saw all of them, but here is what I have.

So it turns out beauty is in the eye of the beholder, because none of these were my favorites. These are the ones I liked the best:

Aren’t they just amazing? I can’t even imagine being able to make something so beautiful.

Abstract Pinwheel Baby Quilt

I actually found this quilt while I was searching for something else, but it definitely caught my attention. With all the scrap cutting I have been doing lately, I am all about the 2-1/2" squares.

There is also lot of white background, but that could be changed to a soft gray or something. What colors are the new moms into now? I made several baby quilts a few years ago, and gray and navy was popular as well as navy and aqua. I really think I would just do what I wanted and hope it would be liked and used. Anyway, the pattern is here. The quilt is around 40” square, but I think I would be tempted to use a wider border, but that’s just me—I like a little wider border.

To Do List Tuesday 11-8-22

I haven’t done a lot this past week….we were in Houston Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so I wasn’t expecting any great progress on anything. My list from last week:

1) Get some more done with the scraps....as in every day that I am in town. I’m not sure what my problem is with this one. I was doing so well….until I wasn’t. I need to keep working on it though.

2) Get two customer quilts done. I actually did okay on this. In fact, I got three done. 

3) Get the binding done on customer quilts. Nope. I got one of the bindings made, but I never found the time to put it on the quilt.

This week’s list:

1) bind the three customer quilts I did last week.

2) Keep cutting scraps.

3) Sashing for Kaffe design roll. I won’t finish this one, but I would like to keep making forward progress.

4) Finish the sewing machine cover I started last week.

5) Crochet some more dish cloths.

I truly need to get my head back in the game and get some things done. Wish me luck. I am linking this post to TexasQuiltGal.