My Finish A Long (sort of)

Back at the beginning of this month I listed my finishes and unfinishes for the end of Quarter 4 of the 2017 Finish A Long.  I have well and truly missed the boat for joining in the 2018 listing of finishes for the first quarter of this year, but still want to aim to get some things finished if I can so I will list my targets for this quarter up to the end of March which I will put in the side bar.

So here goes

That Frivols Quilt - has been quilted and only the binding left to do. I got the binding fabric in a sale which arrived really quickly so no excuses, this must be finished!

Hexie runner - quilting needs to be finished and trimmed and bound.

Pouches - Earlier this month I used my scrappy strips and made some square to become pouches like this one

 There are 4 squares here, about 9.5" - 10" which some long zips which were passed on to me.  They will go to charity sales to raise funds for either Project Hope or Project Linus.  I'm going to look for small charms to add to the zip pulls.

I am sort of continuing with my Stitch Sewing Organizers makes but not following the Instagram prompts.  I made a tape measure cover to go over a plain round Janome tape measure.  I looked at the instructions which seemed more complex so what I did in the end was to draw around the measure and cut out circles of pelmet Vilene and measured the circumference and made another Vilene strips for that.  Cutting the fabric 3/8ths" bigger all round to cover the pieces and putting together English Patchwork style.

A nice addition to my sewing equipment.

I've already mentioned in my last post about the crochet blanket so I'm guessing this will take up most of this quarter too.  

I've also got the embroidery to finish and also see how I'm going to display this.

And Jack and the Beanstalk mini quilt - must sort that one...

I think that's it.  Given myself plenty to do.  Got to keep busy!

Sock Knitting

Recently I've taken to knitting socks as I suffer cold feet in the evenings and hand knitted socks keep my feet comfortably warm.  Some years ago I used a set of double pointed needles (DPNs) but then discovered circular knitting needles and bought two, one a short pair for knitting completely in the round and another pair with a longer cable so I could knit two sets of stitches with a loop of cable between, called Magic Loop.  The last method I was more comfortable with and has really helped with my knitting.

The most common type of sock knitting is knitting from the ribbed cuff down to the toe.  There is heel shaping that requires picking up of stitches and at the toe there are decreases finishing with grafting the stitches (Kitchener Stitch) at the end.  But seeing more on Instagram, You Tube, Ravelry, etc found there is "more than one way to skin a rabbit", like different types of heels and toes and even knitting from toe to cuff!

I've knitted socks for my sister in Stylecraft Head Over Heels sock yarn in Olympus colourway and I used Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder.

And then there were my pumpkin inspired socks, I could not resist this yarn, which was King Cole Zigzag in New York colour way and I used Christine of Winwick Mum's Easy Lace Socks pattern.

So after finishing my pumpkin inspired socks and the jumpers for Christmas, late on Christmas Day I tried a toe up sock!  There is a You Tube video of Judy's Easy Cast On which 'weaves' the working and long tail yarn over the two needles of a pair of circulars, then knitting these stitches and you can't see the join.  I used a pattern called Have Fun Toe Up Socks and I used Stylecraft Head Over Heels yarn in Eiger, which is my favourite sock yarn, a third pair I've knitted up.  Here's a pic below of the toe start, on which I put a stitch marker to mark the front of the sock as the yarn tail is inside the toe.

The first sock took quite a bit of 'un-knitting' to get the length of the foot right before the heel shaping as it came out too long even though I followed the instructions. This pattern was called Have Fun Socks by Louise Tilbrook.

I used the stitch pattern from Hermione's Everyday Socks which I'd used on the pink socks for Wendy's a few month's back.  I eventually got the heel sorted out and then onto the leg and cuff.  Before long I was onto the second sock.  The yarn colouring was in exactly the right place for starting and keeping count of the pattern repeats which made things easier second time around.

I completed a pair now, ready to wash and block.

I enjoyed this foray into toe up socks,  as there's no picking up of stitches around the heel, though now I want to try a Fish Lips Kiss heel with has a more angled heel instead of a heel flap, but that's for another time.

Meanwhile I've taken up my crochet hook and started on the Attic 24 Crochet Along Woodland Blanket, which will be a housewarming present for my sister when she moves house later this year.  The link above is for Part 4 of the CAL but the links for the Introduction and parts 1 - 3 are listed at the bottom of the blog post.

I have progressed a bit further than the pic above, where I've draped the beginning of the blanket around my shoulders.  It is a ripple pattern and the CAL lists two different types of colour arrangement, either in sequence or random and I'm working in the random colour changes.

I've found lately that knitting or crochet has had a calming effect on what has been a stressful beginning of the year.

FAL Quarter 4 Finishes (and unfinishes!)

These were the 4 finishes for this Quarter and end of 2017.  I have to admit more unfinishes than finished.  Here's the list from October

Frivols Quilt

Hexies
House Wallhanging

Christmas knitting

Free machine stitching

Kantha stitching

I have finished the Christmas knitting, which I have posted about here

I have also finished off the Kantha stitching and mounted the picture but I haven't said much about this, so here are a few details

I went to a workshop tutored by Angela Raymond of Fenland Textile Studio following a Quilters' Guild meeting back in October.  I thoroughly enjoyed this hand stitched piece.  The fabric pieces were sewn onto a backing of 2 layers of muslin, which also provided the quilting.  The fabrics were dyed in natural dyes, which are also Angela's speciality and the stitching was sewn in Perle thread.

To finish this I picked out the yellow on the right of the picture I painted the edges of the canvas in pale yellow and mounted this with PVA glue.  I waited until the glue was tacky before mounting so it would not seep through and I have tested that it will remove from the canvas and all is ok.  I've now put the picture in my room. so this is a second finish!

Free machine stitching project is in progress, I think that this might need mounting before I can say it's finished.  I'm not sure at this point how I'll do this.

This is a kit that I bought at Festival of Quilts from embroiderer Wendy Dolan.  After FoQ I then went and bought her book.  Anyway having sewn that fabric background and painted it languished for a while until I stitched during the Christmas holidays.  To loosen up with free machining its always good to get some practice so I sewed my name and a couple of doodles. I then had a go at stitching the doorway on plain calico

This is the stitched doorway

But it does need something else before I can say its a finish.

The Frivols quilt has progressed with more stitching but is currently waiting for fabric for the binding which has been ordered and should arrive soon.   I would like to get that finished off this month, so it goes into the Quarter 1 of 2018.

I've done a bit more stitching to the Hexie runner but that's not finished either!  So that's another contender.

House wallhanging is still the same so I can class that as a finish either, indecisive about what to do with this - it still looks ridiculous with it's giant beanstalk, especially when past pantomime season!

All in all a partial success for the last quarter of 2017.  Lets see what 2018 brings.

Linking to 2017 FAL