Getting it together

 When we moved into our current house, one of the perks was the large closet in the ground floor bedroom.  Initially, it was pretty tidy.  Jeff had some tools in there, I had a lot of craft stuff in there, and The Boy also had stuff in there, as it is his bedroom.

Over time, things have accumulated in there.  We've collected stuff from both childhood homes, there are old computers, dance costume parts, and other bits and pieces.  Storage space was limited, not many shelves, and it's really been bugging me (and apparently Jeff too) so a couple of weeks ago, we measured and ordered some sturdy shelves.  Jeff put them together on Saturday and took out two shelves for hanging clothes (There is still one area, more than enough for The Boy) and picked up some storage bins to put things in.  It has made a huge difference already!  It's made the closet much tidier, and we're getting rid of stuff that we don't need anymore.  It's also easy to see what's inside the boxes now.  I did some photo sorting and came across lots of things that should go to my ex, so that should be fun for him as well.  Lots of pictures of his parents.  

Other than that, I've been working on the new cowl.  It's fun, I might make it larger than intended, if I can do the math to add increase rows.  I think there will be a lot of yarn left over and it would be nice to use up more of it.

I did discover some old projects that were completed, and also lots to work on.  So many projects, so little time!  Time for a new list, I think?  Here's one of the old projects.  They were intended to be doilies.  One was worked when I was in Elementary school, and the other I probably worked on in the last ten years.  I don't know what to do with them, they're not something I see a need for.

Anyhow, that's about what I know.  Trying to figure out what to do with All The Things.  I also discovered I have lots of fabric purchased to make specific quilts, so I might delve back into quilting at some point, clear out those bins!  

I like the purple border, Catherine!  The size looks okay to me?  You could always put another border around that one too?

Margie

A border blunder

Well, I was all excited to dive into the border today, but didn't stop to plan it very well. I had originally thought I might do a diagonal edge at the corner where the border strips intersect (I know there is a name for that style, but I forget), but decided to make it simpler and just have each strip flow into the next one. But, I forgot to leave extra width on the first one and then cut the fabric before I got around and realized my mistake. 

I decided to finish the last seam to see how it looks and... yep, it's lame (compare the top right corner vs the rest). I don't have a lot of the purple left, so the only solution available is to truncate all of the strips and make the corners into separate squares. The rest of the purple fabric was also in the pile where Nairo was sleeping, so I'll throw that in the wash today and hope to rectify this tomorrow!

In good news, I think the plain purple border does make the chaotic interior feel a bit less chaotic, so I'm making some forward progress. :P

- Catherine

Bugs and borders

Last Sunday I finished cutting all the napkin squares for my friend - I decided on 6 in each pattern because they have a family of 5, and then they can have a friend over. I also cut the border pieces for the fish quilt, so next time I am with my sewing machine, I will sew all of those up!

Nairo was a very good supervisor. He also (on Monday) decided that the perfect place for a nap was on the backing fabric for the quilt, and of course the child's grandmother is allergic to cats, so now I have to wash it again. My fault for leaving it out in such a welcoming comfy way. :P

Today I am not with my sewing machine, so I will work on the final bug for our brother - all that's left is adding the sparkly thread around the edges, but I had misplaced the thread, so that makes things difficult. I don't think I can finish today, but will prioritize until it's done (as the relevant birthday was a couple of days ago). Photos to come! 

- Catherine

Welcome back!

Hooray for Catherine and Quilts!  Nairo is indeed the Most Helpful Boy.

So...

My last post was pre-Xmas, so here's what's happened since then.  I finished all the hats!  After I finished Middle's hat, we decided it was too small (I dropped down a needle size for the brown portion) and they wanted a longer brim, so the hat was unraveled back to the green edge and corrected.  It's been completed and that's downstairs waiting to be mailed off.

I started a cowl with some lovely Road to China Light yarn from a company I can't recall the name of, but the RtCL is the yarn name.  It's very soft and was a present to me from Jeff.  He got it in August when we went to New Orleans after I dropped Smallest off at Balletland.

I had some surgery to remove naughty parts, and am currently recovering from said surgery.  I finished the cowl and have started on another cowl (Aurelia Cowl) with yarn I got while dropping Smallest off.  It's Blue Sky Fibers Skyland yarn in a lovely green color.  The colorway is called Comet, and I'm a little baffled by that.  Not what I would have expected of a Comet color.  Ah well.

This is the finished cowl, not a complicated pattern.

This is the swatch for the Aurelia Cowl, for which I got gauge on the first try!

After this, I'll probably return to finishing the purple top that I started a while back.  Then, who knows!  There is a lot of yarn waiting to become things.  I did start some Xmas socks for Middle and Smallest, so that might become my TV knitting for a while.  There are some sweaters for Smallest on the list as well.

Oh! And I finished the bug too.  I clearly had gotten the missing gold thread at some point, so it was just a short job to finish it all up.  Catherine, were the bugs presented to him?

Also, what may be one of the best parts is that we got to see Catherine here in Houston during a LONG layover!  We had to go to Pappasitos and eat tasty food!  Here she is with Jeff and The Boy, and then getting some lap cat time with Ginny, Lover of Laps.

I think that's it for now, looking forward to a fun weekend, we are going to see Women & Juliet performed by an amazing British company.  There are 4-5 people and they play multiple parts and perform beautifully.  We've seen them do other Shakespeare plays in the past.  In fact, one of my early dates with Jeff was to see them, as he's a fan of theatre.  

Margie

The 34 days of Christmas...

This weekend is theoretically meant to be focused on the quilt, but I have two other updates for today:

1. I cleaned/ironed the herb garden cross-stitch and took it to be framed! My first time doing the prep work, and it was very straightforward. Actually, the hardest part was finding a container that could (almost) let the fabric lie flat. And, the frame shop had this perfect little blue frame - I can't wait to see it!!

2. As I was looking through my list of Christmas presents, I was reminded that I wanted to make some cloth napkins for a college friend, who had been admiring those of my other college friend. I had a brief hallucination that I could make those today and get them to the post office before it closed, so I started working on them. So far I have chosen fabrics (which were already washed, yay), ironed them, and started cutting. Nairo is helping so much, see? 

I got most of my errands out of the way today, so tomorrow should be good sewing time! Will report back.

- Catherine

Fsh

So, quilt #1 for the year:

Many years ago, I made a quilt for a friend's new baby. Then she had another baby. I am less prompt with this quilt, as I think the baby is now ~5. However, still a child, so that's promising...

The child has expressed a preference for purple + sea creatures, so I found some fun paper piecing templates of fish. I have never done paper piecing before, and it was simultaneously very easy and very frustrating, as I didn't want to make the pieces of fabric SO BIG that it would be too wasteful but also kept forgetting to make the mirror image of the weird shapes. Sigh. 

Anyway, I finished the fish back in December - see?

There were 9 different patterns in the template, but I wanted a slightly bigger quilt, so did 2x8 of them. I already regret how busy the fabrics are, but not enough to stop/redo it. Hopefully it will be a fun cacophony for the child and not just weird. :P

This weekend and yesterday I sewed them together and removed all the paper from the back, which was easier than expected - the instructions had made me think that I was likely to tear out some stitches, yikes! Here is the school:

I am planning to sew buttons on a few to make their faces clearer, which prompted the title of this post (what do you call a fish with no eyes, ha ha). Then I need to make decisions about the border, assemble, quilt and finish off! Exciting.

- Catherine

2023: the year of quilts

Hello blog!! I have been so delinquent. 

In 2022, I finished several projects that Mom had started - this one pictured was the most fun and is due to become a (belated) Christmas present once I get it framed. It's about 2 feet tall.

For 2023, my main goal is to get some of the fabric out of my house. I have two quilts that are in progress, one completed quilt that needs extensive repairs, and fabric for several others. I have a few side projects as well. I’ll keep you posted!

- Catherine