June Finishes

I had two goals I wanted to work on in June: to assemble my crochet blanket, and to sew a piece up on my long arm.  And I was able to check off both!


The piece that I worked on the machine ended up not being the the runner I had intended, but a piece of strawberry fabric destined to be cut up for some pot holders.  The choice was ultimately dictated by a lack of free bobbins on which I could load the grey thread, so I quickly fired off an order for a dozen more bobbins and stitched up some yummy berries in the meantime.

Stitching on the last square!

And in slow stitching, I successfully finished my first crochet blanket!  In part because of how long it took, I feel a huge sense of accomplishment just for making it to the end!  I just attached the last square, tied off the remaining threads, and gave it a good cuddle test.  It passes!  I think I'll just hang out under here until dinner!

Linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday.

June Goals

I have been pretty scattered lately, so I decided to choose two sewing goals that I would like to focus on for the rest of June.

First, I would like to graduate from muslin test pieces and stitch up a small quilt piece using my new long arm.  To this end, I started my thread stash with a silver to use on this holiday runner.

Several Superior thread cards also arrived today so I can choose some more thread to coordinate with other unfinished projects!

Second, I would like to progress my very long running granny square piece as far as possible; maybe even to finish it. The longevity of this small project has gotten a little ridiculous, so it's time to get it done!
 

Last night I attached row four and started on row five.  The end of row five is the halfway point and I think that if I concentrate I can get most of the blanket done this month!
 

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Giving Thanks and Productivity

What a productive holiday I've had.  In between long bouts of relaxing, eating, and the occasional walk, I've made some granny squares...

...and after people threatened to use them for coasters several times, I made some actual coasters for my parents' new house.

I worked on quilting a certain wall hanging.  Two sets of trees down, but there's still a long way to go.  I sure hope I can have this done in three weeks.  I have to get a serious move on!

And last but not least, my little scorpion was given a tail!  I've started a couple of cross-stitches but have never finished one.  Finishing a cross-stitch is on my bucket list, and there's no time like the present to start working towards it!

(Before and After)

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday and WiP Wednesday.

Labor Day Progress

I hope everyone had a nice long weekend!  We had some unexpected sun and so there was a lot of hiking, kayaking, and swimming going on around here but I did make some progress none-the-less.

Here's a little sneak peak at what's going on over here these days...

Penguins in Progress

After a long, hard day of crocheting at the ski mountain (resulting in 3 new squares), I returned home and cut out pieces for the remaining 7 penguins.

Six of the penguins will be mottled black, and six will be solid black.  When I had been considering a much, much larger quilt design, I hadn't been able to find enough of the mottled black to make 30 penguins, so I was going to make some solid black and mix them up.  Even though I'm only making 12 penguins now, I decided to continue with mixing the fabrics.  Hopefully they'll work well together.

Penguin Block

Also, one more mountain under my belt.  That brings me up to 15 High Peaks.  No pictures this time, unfortunately.  It was a grey and windy day up at the top and we didn't want to stay exposed on the summit for very long!

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday and W.i.P Wednesday.

Leveling Up

Here it is!  My original plan in all it's glory.  I was hoping to have all the blocks finished by last Wednesday but alas, it was not meant to be.

Granny Squares (next to a 24 inch ruler)

Right now I have 56 squares making a layout approximately 33 x 37 inches.  I am trying to make a small blanket, but I'm pretty sure my baby quilts are larger than that - which makes this blanket too small!

My new plan is to continue crocheting squares until I've run out of yarn.  First up is one more row and one more column; six more pinks, and five more each of black and teal.

I'd love to hear your opinions on how big this blanket should become!

Making Strides

Six new granny squares.

Phew, what a week.  There hasn't been too much time for quilting lately, but I hope that will change soon!

I've continued work on my granny square blanket.  I'm almost to my previously defined evaluation point, only two "blue mint" squares to go, but I've already decided to crochet squares until I reach the end of my skeins.  The current size just seems unusably small.  We'll see where my new path takes me.

On the non-crafting front, I was out of town this weekend making strides on another work in progress: hiking all 46 of the NY high peaks.  This past weekend I got my 14th high peak overall, and my first winter high peak.  It was a gorgeous sunny day, and much much warmer than it could have been.  We couldn't have asked for more.

The view from the top.

Linking up with W.i.P. Wednesday.

In The Background

This week I've needed a quick and portable project so I rustled up my crochet hook.

Four new granny squares

I must have started making granny squares about 5 or 6 years ago now.  A friend had decided to make a granny square blanket for her sister and it seemed like just the thing to add to my compendium of projects.  So I (ambitiously) purchased 6 or 7 skeins of yarn and over the years I've slowly been adding to my collection of squares.

But this year I've finally given myself a goal.  I've been aiming for a trial layout 7 squares by 8 squares to see what it looks like.  I've laid out what I have, and my ruler claims it will be about 33x37.  That seems small for a blanket, so there will probably be some revaluation of my plan...


  



On the quilting front, I'll offer up this new little guy.

In the midst of reorganizing my fabric space and trying to intersperse small projects in the midst of the monsters, I have come to the realization that I need to interact with my fabric more.  How else will inspiration know where to strike?

Linking up with Lee at W.i.P. Wednesday.