The quilt, it has thwarted me.

Well, I had high hopes of having a megasquare by today, but I didn't make it. Somehow everything takes longer than you think.

I did work for 1:40 yesterday (sorry to hoard, but I did text sister to warn her), and 3:45 today. Doesn't that seem like a long time to do just 5 lousy seams? But, in fact, I spent a lot of time marking the lines where the seam should go, and then 5 (so far) squares didn't have enough hem allowance, so I had to detach them to some extent from the 12x2 blocks to lengthen them. Then it took FOREVER to pin up one of the seams. Fortunately, it was worth it, because the seam is beautiful and I do have one 12x4 block to show for my efforts. Evil twin was very impressed. And I've got another two of the 12x2 blocks totally ready to go (marked up, etc), so I just need to finish marking up the last blocks (one is ~half done) and then sew the seams. Maybe another 5 hours??

So close!!

All told, I'm at 45:10 this time.
Catherine

Fie you, seam!

Still on the quilt... Today I decided to face down the evil seam that had so discouraged me some weeks ago, along with 8 of its friends. That one darn seam still isn't perfectly perfect, but it was close enough and it was the worst one of the day, so I'm counting it a success. I also did some fixes to two squares that weren't long enough (there's one more that will be close, but it might be ok; will ponder). So I have 5 strips of 2x12 squares, one piece that's 2x4, and 4 that are 2x2. Only 9 more seams until I have a megasquare!!

2:20 today, 39:45 total.
Catherine

Pig Butts

Just another quick post.  While Smallest was either dancing or at an appointment, I can't remember which, I was able to get another 45 minutes working.  This time it was on a knit pig from a cute book called Spud and Chloe at the Farm which I bought some time ago.
 
Smallest picked out the yard a while back also, but finally it's time to get to work.  It requires double pointed needles, which I haven't used a lot, and I submitted to the Evil that is Etsy and bought a whole bunch of DPNs, because I never seem to have the size I should.

Anyhow, I have started and did a few rows, then left it for a couple of days before working on it more. Unfortunately, I didn't think about which orientation was knit and which was purl when I picked it back up, and the farther I worked, the more this became apparent.  The start is at the pig's end, and then you make the body from there working towards the front.  So our poor little piggy has rather a rough bottom, followed by his smooth body.  I am sure Smallest will never notice.  The next one will be better.

More dancing this afternoon in preparation for the Texas Ballroom Challenge this weekend.  Smallest is very excited.  After this weekend, she'll start preparing for the Emerald Ball, held in LA in May.  Sounds like Dancing With The Stars pros turn out for that one, which would be a thrill for her (and me too!)

There are plans underway to crochet Middle a cute summer top.  That should be fun, and hopefully quick.  Crochet always seems so much faster than knitting.

.75 hours for me, 12.50 total.

Margie

A visit!

We had a super fun sister visit this weekend, with lots of salsa, games, tex-mex and more salsa.  It was lots of fun, and I even managed to squeeze in a little crocheting work while Catherine was here.  I finished some fingerless, fuzzy purple yarn gloves for middle.  Yay!

.75 hours for me, 11.75 total.

Margie

Sewing without sewing

Just a little update today - I ironed all of the squares I made last week, and then marked them up at 7 inches so I can assemble them next time. In doing that, I discovered one square that was too short (only 7 inches itself), so I took apart a couple of seams so I can lengthen it. There were ~2 more that don't have a lot of room (the seam allowance will be 1/8" or 1/16"); depending on how easy it is to fix those, I might do that as well. Or I can sew a second seam to stabilize them, though that mean it won't lie flat nicely. Hmm...

Anyway, no actual new stitches this time, but I was wary to dive in as my seam ripper is still elsewhere. Still, 1:15, so I'm up to 37:25 total.

Catherine

Four is the loveliest number...

Thanks in part to evil twin's encouragement, I got reinvigorated to work on the quilt yesterday. The extra challenge for the day is that my seam ripper was at another location, so any stitching that went awry would have to be fixed with scissors, pins, teeth, etc. I still haven't worked up my courage to go back to the seam that was defying me (connecting some of the blocks of 4 together), so I turned to the final pairs of blocks that needed to be sewed up into blocks of 4. Happily, during 12 seams, I only needed to redo one seam in full and two in part. I did also pull apart one seam within a block when I realized that the width of the block was way too short (almost 1/2 inch short, which is my seam allowance!), and would cause problems later. I need to iron those, but otherwise I'm ready to turn back to assembling them into larger pieces. Actually, there are only 18 seams left before I have a complete 12 x 12 grid. Very exciting! My new goal is to finish before my birthday (only 5 weeks away), so I'll have to keep moving.

The only other thing worth reporting is that I didn't have to change my bobbin thread the whole time, and as I was doing the last seam I thought, surely I will have to run out of luck and the thread will end at any moment. But, it held! However, I then noticed the thread on the spool is down to about 10 wraps around the spool, so I was certainly cutting it close. Phew!

Altogether a very satisfying day. 2.5 hours; 36:10 total.

Catherine

Finito!

Success!  I worked on the fluffy scarf some at Smallest's dance lessons a little bit ago, and then perhaps some more unrecorded time, but then I got in a good 30 minutes while waiting for my doctor's appointment (which I ended up rescheduling, because I was there on time at 3, and at 3:35, when they called me back, I reminded them that I had to leave near 3:45, and I didn't think there was time for my appointment, and I was right).  I worked on it more tonight while Smallest, and then Middle too, watched Mulan 2 (not bad for a sequel).  So now I am done.  Yay!

Here is Bear, the dog, modeling the scarf.  Doesn't he look handsome?

I like the new length much better.  I can wrap it around my neck and still have plenty dangling down to tuck into a jacket, or just look spiffy.  I think the six stitches instead of eight was the right call.

Anyhow, this is one of my few soccer-less weekends until the middle of May, so I'm trying to think of things that I need to get finished up.
I took the other baby log cabin quilt to be silent auctioned at church for Shrove Tuesday, but the only person bidding put in a bid $25, and I found that unacceptable so I bid on it myself.  I hope I won, I didn't go back to check.  I didn't have a chance to finish it before taking it in, so I need to get that back.

Middle and I need to finish a very cute bag that she started as a Christmas present for her terrific Aunt Catherine, so maybe that will be the plan for tomorrow, somewhere in the mix of art class, guitar class, girl scouts, 2 ballroom classes and a birthday party.  Oh, and delivering Girl Scout cookies too.  Good thing there's no soccer tomorrow!

I'm knitting a pig for Smallest, but now I can't find my book with the directions.  I hope it didn't get lost somewhere.  That would be no fun.

I'm off to bed.  I can sleep in tomorrow, what a treat!

1.5 hours for me, 11 hours total.
Margie