End of April

 April seems to have gone by in a flash and there have been finishes, together with donations, a secret finish that I can’t reveal yet, a start that I’ve not progressed and an almost finish 🙃.  Let’s go on and see where I get to.

First finish is the jumper for my granddaughter in Stylecraft Colourburst.  Really lovely soft yarn to work with in soft colours that suit her. I added a pattern to the front. More detail in my previous post.

I finished a gnome that is still a mystery, but I have finished mine and can’t yet show for  another week.  The character is Professor Fungi, pattern by Sarah Scherer of Imagined Landscapes .  I enjoy the mysteries as they teach some techniques on a small scale and the characters come out as they are knitted,

An almost finish is my purple jumper, which is a pattern by JST Desgins, called Seashore Stroll, which I started earlier this year. The purple yarn is by Attic Spin Dye.  I’m at the point of the pattern at the bottom of the body. After then I’ll pick up the stitches at the arm holes for the sleeves.  I’m pleased how good it looks as I’ve tried it on along the way.

I’m plodding along with 2 lap blankets to get ahead of (“ahem”) Christmas.  These are using the Canalboat pattern, designed by Lucy of Attic 24 and Stylecraft yarn pack from Wool Warehouse. 

I was able to finish a quilt for Project Linus, which was from a kit supplied by the group.  It was fun putting these assorted charm squares together. This went to the last meeting.

I’m now working on this Dolly Dress up Quilt. I’ve put borders around the squares and quilting them.  I found some flying geese blocks which I’ve put together. 

I’ve got to work out how I put this quilt together and if I need more blocks to make a decent size quilt. This will be put together in the quilt as you go method.

Another long term project is another quilt ad you go using the Daisy May 2.5” hexagon set.  So far I have 31 hexagons and growing. A nice little project to pick up as and when.

The project at Dorset Creative Embroiderers is this needle cast (can’t have too many) with a hare in the flowers.  This is where I’ve got to so far. 

I took part in the ATC swap and the theme was Easter.  I had some spring flowery fabric which I glued onto card and decorated with padded stickers from Easter last year.

And lastly, I indulged in a bit of fabric shopping as I went to the Brockenhurst Needlework Fiesta.  I am trying to make the most of my stash, but sometimes it has to be done.

A magnetic needle minder, printed sheep to embroider, quilting fabric - the yellow will be border fabric for the Dolly quilt (see above), blue fabrics to make a project bag and some linen fabric. 

So that was April. Plenty to keep me busy in May! 

Mid-ish April

 I started this post last week, so a bit of catching up to do….

April is flying by and Easter is over. I’ve been keeping busy with some starts and finishes and one start I’ve been working on is a mystery gnome.  This is from Sarah Schira of Imagined Landscapes, who has declared this year the Year of Gnomes. I’ve done a few of her gnome mysteries before and this one has been enjoyable (though I can’t show here until the end of the month). I’ve just finished Professor Fungi and it really has been a lot of fun.

I have a finished and gifted jumper, which I’ve written about before, the school jumper pattern with a cable and bobble pattern in Stylecraft Colourburst and my granddaughter is really pleased with it.

Above is the back view with the smidgeons of yarn that I had left when finished. I think I said it was touch and go whether I’d get it out of two balls of yarn! 

I’ve sewn 2 bed runners to give to the housing association along with the first one I made last month.  I backed with fleece which gives a bit of grip and won’t slide off the bedding. So they will go at the end of this week. They are 18” high x 50” wide.  They were from a quilt top I made years ago that was never made into a quilt and I think they look really jazzy on plain bed linen.

I looked out another project to work on and I came across these Dolly Dress Up squares.  I’ve made a quilt previously using these squares. Somehow I never labelled the quilt or photographed it. So I’ve taken a photo today.

I bought these a long time ago at one of the quilt shows, possibly Sandown and I shared the panels with my Mum, who was quilting at the time.  She never made a quilt from these so I got these to make another quilt. There was also some pink and peach fabrics and a few flying geese, so I made those into two blocks to use all bar one of those flying geese. 

It turned out to be an enjoyable way of spending a rainy Good Friday.

Over the Easter weekend I’ve been cutting out hexagons, large ones, and layering up and hand sewing..

The pile above is just a few as I have over 25 of them.  Goodness knows how big the quilt will be.  I’ve got a Daisy and Grace 2.5” hexagon set and just got going with them.  The set is the smaller hexagon for the inside shapes and wadding, with a larger frame template for the backing fabric to fold over and provide a frame for the top fabric.

On Wednesday last week was my youngest son’s 40th birthday and on the Thursday got together for a family celebration. It’s hard to believe that all three of my children are in their 40’s!  Ah well, can’t stop the march of time. He and his wife have been on holiday this week in Majorca, after their short cruise was cancelled at short notice. There’s been some lovely pictures and wishing we were on holiday, but it’s not long now.

I’ve been writing through the month and today is now Saturday 26 April and I think I ought to wrap up this blog post.  I have been working on layering up the Dolly Dress Up blocks with backings, wadding (as I bought some wadding yesterday) and the tops ready to quilt. They will be quilted as individual blocks and joined together.  After the Bourne Quilters meeting yesterday I gained a cushion cover to quilt and put together (I offered to take one home with me) so that is now being quilted and will be completed next week. More hexagons have gone together and the pile has grown bigger - 31 hexies!! 

 

As for knitting and crochet, I have got out my purple jumper, which has been knitted in a top down, all in one pattern.  I tried it on this morning and have got to the length where I can do a patterned border to finish the body of jumper.   It’s good to know that I’m making progress with this. The yarn is from Attic Spin Dye (on Etsy) and the pattern is by JST Designs.

As you can see, although the blog seems quiet I am still keeping busy.

April

 Its the beginning of April and I've started on two new projects.

First is a new pair of socks.  I'm using an old King Cole Zig Zag yarn, with a shade number, no name, which almost resembles the colours of a Creme Egg wrapper (well it will be Easter this month, so that justifies my cast on!). Theyre going to be plain vanilla socks.

My next start is a quilt as you go project.  Just over a month ago I purchased a Daisy and Grace hexagon template set with a few piece of ready cut wadding on a sales table at the Project Linus meeting. I started cutting fabrics and sewing the units. The templates have a smaller solid hexagon and a larger one with the hexagon 'window' in which to place the wadding and cut fabric centrally inside it.  I decided on using novelty fabrics for the small hexies and blender/semi solid fabric for the larger ones.  I quite like how they look.  I'm not sure what this project will turn into but see how this develops.

I’ve still got some things which I hope to finish which is a jumper and after finishing the back and two sleeves, I’m now on the front.  I’ve got a stitch pattern from an old Family Circle magazine from many years ago. I’m at the point of starting the raglan shaping.  It’s going to be touch and go as the whether I need a third ball of yarn…

And there’s still work to be done on the two lap blankets, which at present are hibernating. The pattern is the Canalboat on Attic 24. 

As for sewing I have a Project Linus kit to make and 2 bed runners to make with fleece backings and binding to sew on.

I think I’ll have plenty to keep me busy this month.

 

End of March

 A quarter of the way through this year and it’s good to see Spring has started.  Today has seen David and I doing some Spring cleaning and making things in the house a bit fresher.

In addition I made this one that my friend is getting for her future great grandson. This was a panel that my Mum had in her fabric stash, so it was nice to put this to good use.

I’ve had a quilt top that I’ve now repurposed into 3 bed runners for the local housing association (to which the cushion cover went last month.

I backed with fleece and bound the edge.  This is the first of 3 bed runners and I hope to get the other 2 done during April.

So it was another friend’s birthday and I made a small project bag, just right for a bit of sock knitting.

You might have seen from my last post a venture into Dorset Feather Embroidery.  I haven’t taken it any further this month though.

For knitting/crochet I’ve made progress on Flo’s jumper, as I’ve made the back and 2 sleeves. I’ve started on the front to which I’ll add a pattern panel.  I’ve used an old Family Circle magazine pattern with bobbles and cabling.  The yarn is Stylecraft Colour Burst in Catherine Wheel Colourway, which looks like the colours of Mini Eggs.  I’m using the knitting photo as my marker for April.

Lately I have been subscribing to a mini skein yarn club by Blue Fern Yarns.  I was impressed by their mini skein collection at Yarndale last year.  The theme is Sun, Skies and Starlit Nights. It’s lovely to have the surprise and new yarn each month.  Not sure what I’m going to do yet but enjoying the collecting. Below are the skein collections for February, March and April.  

So that’s been my March.  For April I hope to get another quilt finish, a finished jumper (and hope I don’t need more yarn.  Ooh, maybe more progress on crocheted blankets. 

Stitching the Past.

 Last Monday at Dorset Creative Embroiderers group we had a go at Dorset Feather Stitching.  A few of us in the group have an old book called Dorset Feather Stitchery by Olivia Pass which was printed locally by The Friary Press in Dorchester.  It was first printed in 1957, with reprints up to 1984. This was published by the Dorset Federation of Women’s Institutes, which was then based in the town, but the office has since moved to Poundbury. I have the last reprint, which was in 1984, which I bought at  a charity shop when I worked in Dorchester over 13 years ago, more as a reference book than to make anything from.

There are no colour pictures in the book and there are hand drawn diagrams and the language is a bit old fashioned to our eyes now. It has influences from old English smocks, from Dorset, Wales and Staffordshire and uses ‘pine cones’ the tear shapes from the Peacock’s Eye of Persia for example.  In the book is a Trial and Error sampler to try out the different stitches.

Here are a few pages from the book

The Trial and Error sampler 

A corner design, for which there was a template for. 

A couple of aprons (remember the pinnies that tied at the waist?) along with a needlecase and (I think) an embroidered tea cosy.

We made bookmarks with some fine cotton cloth, backed with wadding to provide stability. One of the group demonstrated and had samples and some templates from a lady she knew who sadly passed away last year (although the workshop was already on the list for the group).

Below is my practice piece. I didn’t have my blanket stitch going on the outside of the curve so clashed with the blanket stitch around two of the pine cones.  I also had a go at couching the ricrac, which is another feature of the embroidery as well as chain stitch with a ‘tip’. It was enjoyable way to spend the time with hand stitching and chatting.

Below are a few more samples

It would be good if this bit of the past carried on.

March 🌼

 Here’s my monthly marker for this month

On the last day of February I visited Kingston Lacy with my daughter and spotted a camellia with a bee (the black spot in the pic), which stayed on the flower for some time collecting nectar.  A sign that things are getting a bit warmer (even though the temperature drops at night).  

I’m still sewing using up orphan blocks and have made 2 Cushion covers with a couple of hand appliqué blocks from several years ago.  I had visions of making a Baltimore Album quilt, but I only got as far as 3 blocks, the third left in progress.  I’m now wondering what to do with them as they look to good to give away.

Another item in production is to make bed runners, which I’m making from an unfinished quilt top. This is version of Delectable Mountains block. Below is the quilt top.

I’ve taken apart 3 sets of 2 rows and used the blocks from the bottom row to add to the sets to add to the width.  Instead of wadding I will back with fleece and found enough fabric to made biding.  These will fit 3 foot wide beds.

In my sorting out I found pieces cut out and ready to make up a zippy pouch with a vinyl front.  I’m sure this will come in useful. I must have wanted to make this for sewing projects as it’s the theme of the fabrics. 

During this week we had an overnight stay in Exeter.  We had a chance to go into the City Centre and while waiting for the bus to take us back to the car park, spied this enormous gull marching up and down the road as if he was waiting for the bus! 

That was February

 It now seems Spring - like but it has been a cold and grey month, so there has been quite a bit of sewing, knitting and crochet going on.

In the evenings I’m working on the Canalboat Blanket. A bit late joining in the CAL (crochet a long), design by Lucy of Attic 24, I’ve got as far as week 3, so it’s coming along.  I’m making the lap blanket size and may stop around week 4’s colour guide.  I will be making another which will use up the yarn pack (that’s from Wool Warehouse). The crochet is quite a relaxing project in the evenings.

The pick up/put down knitting project is the Colour Burst jumper using the yarn by Stylecraft. I’m using a school jumper pattern to provide the basic pattern and am looking at using a cable pattern on the front, but I’m currently working on the back.  It’s been good to take to the weekly Knit and Natter group. The colourway, Catherine Wheel, is really pretty. 

Also on the needles is a top down jumper for me with short sleeves. The yoke pattern has been done and I’ve just split for the sleeves and work on the body. The pattern is by JST Designs on Ravelry and the yarn by Attic Spin Dye (on Etsy) in Plum. I purchased the yarn at Yarndale last year. It looks a little dark as the light is beginning to go this evening.

For the sewing I’ve been making cushion covers and table mats from orphan blocks for the local housing association, which will help brighten up living spaces.  I’ve passed these onto the housing association who are pleased with the items.

I’ve also picked up a couple of Project Linus quilt kits to sew together. So far the tops are joined and I’ve got to layer and quilt.  

Still enjoying shiny new things, last month I subscribed to a monthly mini skein collection and I’ve received February’s last month and March’s just this month from Blue Fern Yarns.  Mainly in blues but now going into beiges.  I was impressed by the mini skein set that I bought at Yarndale last year and I’m sure I will make use of them. I will probably look at Advent projects which use a lot of mini skeins. 

I haven’t done any paper crafting except for this ATC, for which the theme was birds and I made this quirky blackbird one on a paper patchwork background.

Today I’ve spent time with my daughter at Kingston Lacy near Wimborne.  It’s noted for lovely spring flowers and the snowdrops are just passing over but daffodils are now starting to flower.  It was lovely to see camellias with a couple of bees buzzing around.

So that was my February and looking forward to March, with Spring well on the way and hopefully getting more out and about.