Friday, February 3, 2012

Happy February!

The groundhogs saw their shadows so it's 6 more weeks of winter... but if the next 6 weeks are going to be like the last 6 weeks.... i'll take it!! temps in the 50's and 60s' cold in the morning... sunny and crisp in the afternoon... oh yes!!!

I finished quilting the Island Chain Quilt... it's not ready for trimming and binding along with the trip around the world quilt........

Three more UFO's have advanced.... 3 table runners that were cut last summer have been pieced... backed and batted and are up for quilting....... one thing about trying to piece stuff that was cut a long time ago.... apparently I did some adjusting... but didn't note it... and one has some extra pieces so I don't know what I was thinking when I cut it out... unless they were just extras incase I screwed up... dunno.... but I'll have three new table runners soon.......

So far I'm staying on track.... totally completing what I start new....... and filling in with UFO's....... I've been using up stash and had batting pieces in the batting bag that worked fine for the runners.......

I got a new sewing machine which is wonderful! A Janome 6600.... what a dream! The accufeed foot is incredible! I did some of the quilting on the Island Chain with it and it just rocks!!! I also did freemotion on two more fat quarter sandwiches and that is really nice also! It has a big table that comes with it but I haven't used that yet.......maybe on the smaller stuff......

I've got 4 pennie pockets ( from Moda Bake Shop and Happie Zombie) cut and ready to sew up.......and I'll make a few more humbug bags and tissue covers from the now quilted fat quarter sandwiches.... they aren't really UFO's.... they just needed to be quilted so I can proceed with some other projects.

I think I'm finally healthy again too! It took 4 rounds of increasingly stronger antibiotics over 3 months to knock out a UTI.... then I got a case of intestinal flu...what a joy that was.......but now I think I'm finally over it all! Energy is coming back and I'm feeling fine!

On the knitting front I'm working on a pair of fingerless mitts.... I have one mitt almost completed.. just need to finish the top ribbing and pickup and knit the thumb... I'm using leftover yarn from the first pair of socks I did last year... the next set of mitts will use some pretty yarn from my stash... if I can find my angora I'd like to add a bit of that in with it also..... I have one UFO scarf on the needles that needs to be done... perhaps after this pair of mitts is completed... we'll see......

I did one really challenging project this past month... I have a pattern called Itty Bitty Primitive .... it's one of the twister patterns... I started with 81 2 1/2" squares... 9 x 9 then added a 2" border....... then you take this itty bitty 1 1/2" square tool... and line up the lines and cut out pieces... then resew these pieces back together....... you have to use a small rotary cutter.....and trust me... if you put in a new blade... you will bleed! 4 bandaids later I had this thing put together....it is now a 10" square........ made up of 100 1" blocks..... there wasn't near enough contrast in the blocks that I used... it looks ok... but not like I would have hoped... but I seriously doubt there will be another one! geeeze... lol but it's done...and quilted and on the WOB pile......

Pictures of everything.. except the mitts.... are out on flickr...... I hope to have more progress this weekend and more pictures up....

Have a wonderful week!

Lish