Quilt oddity

24... 23... 22... 21...

For some reason I feel like it's time to start a countdown, even though there are still so many flowers to make! I hope Major Tom would approve. 

I finished the nearly-done flower, and have made good progress on the others already underway & a new one. See?

The clumpy bits at the bottom are two different red flowers, demarcated by the three-hexagon bits in the center, in case that's not obvious.

There are now 9 weeks left in the year, so I would have to complete 2.66 flowers each week in order to finish. I'm torn between "Yay, that's an ambitious but achievable goal - I will dedicate the time to make it happen!" and "Oof, that is ridiculous, and I shouldn't set unrealistic expectations that will just depress me when I don't finish on time." I also have two other goals (related to reading and walking) that could work in my favor (audiobooks) or against (hard to walk and sew)... we shall see!!

Full flowers: 40/64 (3 started)

- Catherine

Pushing 40

My flowers must be facing a midlife crisis, because we are only one seam away from 40 complete flowers! Very exciting. 

I went to a charity quilt sale recently and was reminded how cool quilts can be when they are actually quilted properly. I think I will plan to get this one done on a long-arm machine, if I can find a pattern that will play well with the flowers - I've certainly invested enough time already to make it worth doing nicely. 

That also suggests to me that I will need to pause on this quilt at some point and work on another one - I have never used one of those machines before (or had someone use it on my work) and need to test out the process in case the person/place I find makes a mess of it, or if I make a mess of it - there are a lot of specific instructions about how wide the edge fabric needs to be, etc. I will try to keep my momentum on the flowers and then we can pause during the endless white hexagons in the middle!

Ta ta for now!

Full flowers: 39/64 (3 started)

- Catherine

Nails + tires

Look at you!  You're over halfway on all your flowers!  Good job.

I love web meetings where I don't need to take notes.  We have a weekly seminar on Tuesdays that I need to observe for trouble, but I don't need to pay attention, so that's knitting time.  I am also recently took an Excel class at work that was online that I decided to screen record so that I could refer back when I needed help, so that was also knitting time.  I have an in-person training currently that is mostly stuff I don't need to take notes on, so I sit in the back row and knit then also.  It's been very helpful!

As a result, I'm almost done with the festive socks, and just this morning I've reached halfway on the blanket for Carroll's grandbaby.  I did finish Jeff's scarf and he received it for his birthday.  We talked about various ways he can wear it, which was fun.

Once I finish, I have some Xmas mittens to make for Jeff's older daughter and her husband.  They want mittens that will allow them to hold hands with mittens on.  Ravelry has several patterns for "Lover's mittens" that are exactly that!  So, it's about to be mitten time.  And I think I need to make her a new hat.  The one I made her last year seems too small.  And then there are some other socks I want to make, and your sweater to return to.  I still need to do some math.

Jeff is currently making some shelves for the closet in the front room, that is Sarah and Lauren's room, but also just a room with a closet full of stuff.  Adding shelves will help make it more functional.  Yay!  The Boy and I have had colds, I think because of allergies.  We are almost done, but they are lingering.  Boo.

Oh - Smallest and dance!  We headed up to Virginia the second weekend of August and she decided that she didn't want to take a large amount of stuff because she didn't like driving with the UHaul trailer.  So we were zippy and got there in two days.  The drive up was nice, and uneventful.  We did notice that the tire light was on the second day, so we put more air in the tire.  Once there, we ran some errands and then made a plan for Ikea.  On the way to Ikea, we noticed the tire light was on again, and when I went to put air in, I saw a nail in the tire.  No bueno!  There was a tire place right next to Ikea, so we headed in with the car.  Long story short, there were nails in two tires, and chunks missing out of the third tire and they were all pretty worn, so Smallest got new tires.  Her dad paid for them, which I appreciate.

Ikea haul went well, we assembled lots of furniture, and she is happy with her space.  She has nice windows that make her plants happy.  She was missing some boxes from storage, including the one that had all her bakeware in it, but we replaced the essentials when we got there, and her dad sent her a new set to replace the one he had given her before.  That was very nice.

I think that's pretty much it.  Things here are slow, we're trying to decide what we want to do for our anniversary.  This year would have been #30 if Ex and I had stayed together.  While I'm glad we didn't, seeing other friends share anniversaries stings a bit.  It's definitely possible to get there with Jeff, if we both stay healthy!

Do you have a favorite flower color to make?

Margie

See Cat sew

 My sewing break has paid off - I am reinvigorated to work on my flowers! I have finished three more, and am 5 seams away from having 4 more complete. See? The first photo is from a week ago, and the second is from just now, to capture more progress. 

The first push came courtesy of sewing in the car on our way to/from western Colorado, where we stayed in a cute campground along the Colorado river, visited Colorado National Monument (why that isn't a national park is beyond me), and attempted to go on a winery/bike tour, only to be stymied by some very pokey plants that gave me two (!!!) flat tires. 

The second push came courtesy of a 6 hour training at work (which unfortunately turned out to be partially redundant with another training we'd had in July, which I just caught up with the night before) and some other meetings where my presence was necessary, but there weren't a lot of notes to take.

As a result of all this forward progress, I've had to pull out some new sets of hexagons to start on; when I get to the end of the longer seams and have short threads left over, it's nice to use them for shorter joining-of-individual-hexagons rather than starting a new long seam and having to knot off/start over partway through. 

Very exciting! I also have some events coming up that should lend themselves to sewing; let's see what happens. :)

Full flowers: 35/64 (5 started)

- Catherine

She's going the distance

Whenever I hear the phrase "going the distance," I think of the band Cake, which was a very divisive topic among my graduate school colleagues - one guy in particular LOVED them, and most others who had any opinion HATED them. I fell in the "HATED them" camp, but I've mellowed over time. :) And it seems an appropriate title for the second half of the full flower efforts!

It's been a month with no posts, and almost no sewing, sadly! 

Margie, congrats on all your projects, including the Spanish! I decided to take a break from my language learning in ~August 2023, and have yet to regain momentum. The stripey shawl is beautiful! The scarf is so fun! The socks are fabulous! I like your plants, too. Hope Ginny's allergies are under control. 

I do have some progress to report: The green (top left) bits are the one that was in progress a month ago (not much changed there), but I have had a few others join the party, including another discovery of a flower "core" (like in July). I actually discovered at the time that having the core was almost more annoying than not having it, since the way that the inner hexagons were joined together made it extra difficult to move from one seam to the next (which is not a problem with my updated joining-of-strips strategy). However, it's certainly not annoying enough to actually take the seams out!

I've promised myself that I'll refresh my knowledge of other ongoing projects today, and I've realized today that I am WAY BEHIND on my reading challenge for the year (which could work in favor of flowers, if I'm listening to audiobooks, or against, as I have many physical books I am excited to read), so who knows what the next few months will hold! If I did try to get through all of the flowers before the end of the year, I would need to complete 2.06/week from here on out. Hmm.

Full flowers: 32/64 (4 started)

- Catherine

Quilt like the wind!

 You are doing such a good job of quilting and posting!  Maybe I need to set a time on my calendar to post...

So I last posted in April.  

I finished Spanish 2 and have been using DuoLingo instead.  It has helped with my vocabulary, but I really need to be around people who speak it.  I might go back to class, but I really like having my free evenings.  Decisions, decisions...

I finished the stripey shawl, and I have knit, unknit, and knit more on Catherine's sweater.  There is a current delay while I need to do some math.

Ginny's issues seem to be environmental allergies.  We have spent many dollars to find this out.

I finished the knit along socks, and am making progress on Jeff's scarf.  I think I only have a quarter left to go.  Let me go find pictures!

The completed stripey shawl!

The violets! Still happy, although not much blooming this summer.

Sock 1

Sock 2

Catherine's sweater!

Birthday yarn from Germany (yes?) I am thinking I might be able to make several pairs of short socks out of the two balls I received.

Jeff's scarf.

So that's all for now.  I'm probably going to make some basic socks in a crazy yarn and work on the sweater (and some other things) for the next couple of months.  I don't think anyone needs Xmas knitting.  We'll see if anyone asks.

I'll post again soon with the details of the departure of Smallest to her new place and dance company!

Margie

Halfway there!

This post is coming a week late (the photo is from Aug 11), but there has been a lot of work stuff to do. Meaning! I almost met my goal of getting to halfway by Aug 9, and anyway am done and slightly past that now. See?

I am at a science thing now, and have brought my sewing in case there's a good opportunity to get in some hexagons. We shall see. :) I'll also have a fair amount of time on planes in September and October, so I may make some progress there. This is definitely a big project!! 

I did also pull out some of my other projects in progress, and will have to remind myself where they're at. More on that next time!

Full flowers: 32/64 (1 started)

- Catherine