Quilty Day

Bear with me, I'm feeling a little bit proud at the moment!

Thank-you, Snowstorm, for making me stay at home today.  I am finished the quilt.  Finished.  Fin.  Finito.  Wow, this one has been a long time in the works.  I think at least five years.  Not because it was hard, but because I get bored easily;  and I learned how to crochet; and I got a paid job; then I left paid job.  It's just one of those things - I know I'm not alone out there.

Part of the reason it took so long to do was that I did not want to quilt it on my machine with a regular presser foot.  I coughed up to buy real cotton batting (love!), so I did not want all those nasty puckers at the back that even shrunken cotton batting could not hide.  Last fall I finally broke down and ordered a walking foot, and I have to say it was well worth the investment.  I am a walking foot convert.

I said in my last post that I was getting tired of this and did not like it anymore.  Well, I changed my mind.  I love it.  The colours have been a real treat to work with these past few days when I look outside and know that Spring is a long, long way off yet.  Throughout all the quilting I imagined this in our someday lake cottage.  Lots of good energy went into this for sure.

It is almost the right size for a twin sized bed; a single would be just perfect.  I photographed it on a double bed just to be able to see everything.  The backing is a pretty pink I bought a whole year or more after I bought the other fabric.  I think I was very lucky to find such a good match.

I was originally going to make binding out of the pink floral; but when I finished quilting the top everything was so flat I could just fold the backing fabric over and sew it to the front.  Easy, peasy.

Someone else likes it too; or perhaps she's just trying to get my attention because I have been devoting my time to this and not her.

Here are all of my quilts together. Stacked so neatly I feel more proud of my efforts than ready to point out all their flaws.  I thought this would be my last bigger quilt, but I have a feeling there are more to come.  Just not too soon:)

Stitch From Stash Update

February turned out to be a really busy month for me, but the downside was less stitching than I would have liked.  I am grateful I finished my ripple blanket, so perhaps with that off my my plate March will be a little more productive!

I already showed you my 'Bakery' and 'Be Mine' finishes:  the only other cross stitching I have done is to start a series of three smalls which I have not finished yet.  They are from a pretty French book I got in France last Spring, so I am excited to have them finished soon and up in my sewing space.  Here's a tiny sneek-peak of the first one:

I did not spend any money on cross stitching this month - not even for the Nashville Needlework Show exemption which I am really proud about!

As for crochet, it seems I suffered a bit after the completion of the Lake Erie Ripple.  I started at least two projects and then had to rip them out.  I wanted to get through some of my stash yarn before getting new yarn, but last weekend I broke down and went to the yarn shop.  I bought myself some bright wool for a little furniture re-hab project, and some delicious spring cottons for a little kitchen kitsch.  The store owner talked My Favourite Girl into knitting socks, so two balls of sock wool came home with us too.  Hopefully these new yarns will break the start-frog-put away cycle that seems to be going on here.

I pulled out a long suffering sewing UFO and have gotten to work on it as well.  Because I have to complete most of it on the dining room table I am hoping the pressure to get it off the table will kick me in the rear to finish it.  It has sat for so long that I am not so crazy about it anymore.  Sad how that happens.

So that's my crafty February.  Let's hope March fares better!

Thanks for visiting and your sweet comments.  I love reading every one!
Jenn

Weekend Work

I have two finishes to show today!!  I stayed up late all weekend just so I could turn these WIP's into gold stars.
First up is my Ripple Blanket!  Yay!!  A whole year later I have a blanket sized, edged, ripple blanket.  I still love the colours as much today as I did when I started back in January 2013.

My little product model:

She makes the colours really pop!

I am soooo happy to be finished this.  I have quite a bit of yarn left over, so some stash busting will be in order.  Not yet though, I want to move on to other yarn for a while!

Second up is my CCN 'Bakery' cross stitch.  I started this in January with great gusto but admittedly did get a bit bored with it by the end.  I think it is such a cute design, but I am much better stitching smaller pieces that only take me a few weeks tops.  

For now it's hanging in my kitchen, only because I hate to put it away so soon after stitching it.  Such a bummer to not be completely in love with something you spent so much time on, no?

So now I have two voids to fill:  what to choose?  Another blanket?  Which cross stitch chart? Something new?  A long overdue UFO? 

What are you working on?

Jenn

Today I'm linking up with Chrissie Crafts Stitching Sundays

Happy Heart Day

 Thank you for your visits and taking the time to leave me a nice word or two.  It just makes my day to see your mail in my Inbox.  Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

xoxo  Jenn

Stitching Sunday

I don't have too much to show for my Stitching Sunday this week.  As Valentine's Day is Friday I thought I should start on something related to the day!  This is a Lizzie Kate Snippet; nice and easy to stitch and will hopefully be done by Friday!

I fear I feel Valentine's Day has snuck up on me quickly, despite my enthusiasm last weekend for it's arrival.  This past week I was so busy that the week just zipped by and now I only have a few days left!  Tonight I am hoping My Favourite Girl and I can make some little treats and perhaps I will be able to pull off some heart shaped cookies before the weekend too.  Oh, wouldn't it be nice to get a few "Stop Time" passes every year?

Flower Pot Holder

Well it certainly has been a hooky weekend for me!  I spent all day yesterday working on this potholder.

I used up quite a bit of left-over cotton yarn from my stash so that feels good.  Because this isn't the thin cotton yarn, this pot holder is BIG:  ten inches across the middle so it will protect the counter from a large pot!

I got the first bit of inspiration on Pinterest, where I found these pot holders in two lovely colour ways from this blog.  She used this pattern from Crochet With Raymond.  I have been spending far too much time on Pinterest lately, but it's so hard to stay away when there's so many great ideas out there!

Today I am hoping to put out a few little decorations for Valentine's Day.  It snowed so much yesterday and is quite gloomy again today so I feel a little colour is needed around here.  I would have loved to make this pot holder with different shades of pink, but I don't have any left.  I think I'll put this one away for now and bring it out closer to Spring.  Now I'm going to put my crochet hooks away for a bit and switch to some cross stitching I think.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Jenn

I Couldn't Wait

I was bound and determined to wait until Feb. 1 to start anything Valentine-ish.  However, after seeing this beautiful doily at HaakKamer7 I was all aflutter to stitch it in pinks and reds.  Yesterday I pulled the junkiest yarn I have out of storage (100% acrylic and murder on my left index finger as I was hooking) and got to it.  I hooked like a madwoman, almost forgetting to pick up the kids from school.  I would have posted a photo last night but the lighting was bad, so at least it makes it's debut in February!

I can be truthful in saying it's not the prettiest thing in the world; in fact, a couple of years ago I would have cited this as the perfect reason not to take up crochet.  It's thick, and uses gross acrylic yarn; the colours clash and it's totally like something from a 1970's bad church bazaar.

 However, I love it.

I love that crochet has given me another way to play with colour in a way that cross stitch doesn't so much.  I love that my sense of sight and touch are both fulfilled at the same time when I'm doing it.  I love that I can sit down and bang out a project in a few hours.  I love crochet so much that the time spent ripping out stitches - and believe me there is a lot of that, even with this project - is perfectly OK with me.  This doily is a perfect example of all the above, and that's why I am still swooning over it.

Thanks for visiting and your sweet comments:)

Jenn