March Projects

[shortcake2675]

I hate dress up weeks, but then I get something like this sewn and I’m happy I pulled an all nighter. I’m a far less productive seamstress the older I get. We had both a Dr Suess dress up day and a Bruce Hale dress up day today, which is why my kids were Things and Clark the Shark and the Big Bad Wolf Detective. I may sleep all day tomorrow.

[Captain Catnip]

Those all look awesome! I have a sewing machine but am so, so bad at it. I can't even cut a straight line, let alone sew. I'll stick with knitting.

I am working on a year long mystery knit along that I still have to finish the first clue of and then knit the second clue that came yesterday,but I am also working on a shawl/knit along on another pattern I was really excited about and am planning on entering in the fair in May. I'm trying to get that one done first, even though I know that I will want to wear it and not just stare at it.

[winecat]

I need to finish the brioche hat I started. It looks like I should be able to figure out the decreases.

We started a cardigan in the last class. I have to miss the next class so I'm hoping that I can figure out the next steps on my own.

[winecat]

I'm also working on a 12 Days of Christmas color work mitten garland. Hopefully I can get it done by Christmas.

[aprilsails]

I’ve been working on a basement renovation for the past six weeks and as of yesterday it is finished! Now I need to clean up my guest/sewing room and move everything down into my new sewing space! That is going to be a project and a half in and of itself.

I bought special thread (Madeira Polyneon) from a distributor to quilt a project for myself. I didn’t have the quilt with me and guessed the colours and the turquoise is a terrible match. The distributor hasn’t gotten back to me and her website doesn’t show that she carries the thread anymore. I cannot find any method of getting the colour I need to Canada! It’s absurd! I would have to place a $50 bulk order plus shipping to get a $4 spool of thread. Gah! I’ve got all other parts of the quilt done except the turquoise and I want to finish it before the designer comes to town for a workshop/speaker event in April.

I started a pair of socks on Sunday in honour of sock madness. I would never participate (usually takes me a month to get though a pair of socks) but I can at least be inspired. I basically knit the exact same pair of socks every time and I love them. These ones are a really vibrant green. Maybe they will be done by St. Patty’s. maybe.

[Captain Catnip]

aprilsails if it comes down to it we can ship it here if they'll get it to the US or are usa based and I'll forward it on to you.

[aprilsails]

Mar 3, 2018 11:29:43 GMT -5 Captain Catnip said:

aprilsails if it comes down to it we can ship it here if they'll get it to the US or are usa based and I'll forward it on to you.

Thanks for the offer. I am going to call their uS customer service and see if there is any way they can ship to Canada. There are only two Canadian stores listed and they both only distribute by wholesale. So dumb.

[oregonpachey]

I went on a yarn crawl today and here is what I got. The purple on the far right is going to be a baby sweater. The other stuff is probably going to end up as socks. 

I am not allowed to buy any more yarn for a while. Between Flock and Fiber, a yarn store when I was travelling and this, I have probably bought 30 skeins since September. NO MORE. 

[2curlydogs]

I am still working away at my massive cross stitch project.

This was back in February:



Then 2 weekends ago I went gangbusters on it. It was actually kinda cool to snap photos as the shading took place.

Outline of the eyes, nose and mouth are largely done here in a medium dark gold:


Then filling in some highlight with a light yellow on the cheeks, plus the rest of the color with my medium gold


Finished sun and then I did all the backstitching on that area.


I have since finished up the golden corona around the central sun/moon piece and added another waxing moon to the top left part of the wider reddish-pink corona. No pic though. 

ETA: Here's what the full chart looks like...

[msn06]

Mostly a lurker but wanted to share.

I've sewed four dresses for Hope for Haiti

I'm using my lunch hour to work on a felt appliqué tree skirt. There is a lot of beading that isn't showing up in the pics.

I need to sew DDs Easter dress still this month.

My to be crafted list also includes Bridal shower invites and decor, 40th anniversary invites, 2 no sew blankets, burp cloths, & a quilt. This is an over arching 2018 list but it keeps getting longer.

[mrspez07]

2curlydogs
It looks great! Are you stitching it that way because there are so many big chunks of color or do you do that on all your cross-stitching projects? I’m trying To wrap my head around how that might work on the something like a vase of flowers type ones I work on. I usually hop 1 color all over in one area and move to another area then repeat. I don’t think I’ve ever completed whole sections and then moved on, even on something more dense than flowers. I’m wondering if I’ve been doing it wrong or how I can incorporate your method. Hmmm.

[aprilsails]

Mar 13, 2018 22:00:17 GMT -5 mrspez07 said:

2curlydogs
It looks great! Are you stitching it that way because there are so many big chunks of color or do you do that on all your cross-stitching projects? I’m trying To wrap my head around how that might work on the something like a vase of flowers type ones I work on. I usually hop 1 color all over in one area and move to another area then repeat. I don’t think I’ve ever completed whole sections and then moved on, even on something more dense than flowers. I’m wondering if I’ve been doing it wrong or how I can incorporate your method. Hmmm.

I can’t speak for @2curly dogs but my cross stitch projects are usually fuzzier than hers and I work in the same blocks. I am right handed and usually start in the upper left corner and work my way diagonally down to the bottom right since that way I don’t drag my arm/hand across the stitches as much. I photocopy my patterns onto single pages and basically work on a 40x40 section at a time (I’ve damaged patterns really badly by folding them in the past). Most of my cross stitch projects are 150+ stitches in each direction and are multi year projects (current one is on year 5). I am terribly inconsistent though and will put them down for a year or more if I’m working on something smaller, knitting, quilting, etc. Cross stitch was my entry point to crafting and I love it, but I find the scale of the projects I take on, and the costs of proper framing daunting.

[2curlydogs]

Mar 13, 2018 22:00:17 GMT -5 mrspez07 said:

2curlydogs
It looks great! Are you stitching it that way because there are so many big chunks of color or do you do that on all your cross-stitching projects? I’m trying To wrap my head around how that might work on the something like a vase of flowers type ones I work on. I usually hop 1 color all over in one area and move to another area then repeat. I don’t think I’ve ever completed whole sections and then moved on, even on something more dense than flowers. I’m wondering if I’ve been doing it wrong or how I can incorporate your method. Hmmm.

I usually do it by whole section. If I do it by color, I find I end up counting wrong as I move around and having to tear out a bunch of stitches. But I'm usually working on tiny tiny count fabric. Like, 28 count Aida or 32 count linen. This is I think 14, but because it's so dark it can be hard to see the holes.

I also find it a lot more rewarding to work by section. You can see the pattern coming together faster. I like tangible results when working on massive projects. This is 136w X 184h. It's ridiculous and has taken years, on and off.

[mrspez07]

2curlydogs and aprilsails
Thanks for the insight. I have kind of fallen off cross stitch since having kids. I have 2 framed and 1 that is nearly done but I’ve been working on it for at least 10 years, I picked it back up a bit during the olympics. Seeing the pics and talking about it makes me want to start a new one.

[audette]

I've been working on tests and swatches for a knitting project I'm working on.

[redheadk]

The pear dress is for the VFT sew-a-long this month. The top/shorts I finally finished! They were easy sews, we were just out of town. The shorts are a little big so I need to take them in; I always forget to size down on width.

[audette]

Update on my crazy knitting project:



It will eventually be a sock, with an afterthought heel. I'm almost at the point where I can use some waste yarn to designate where the heel will go in, and then I can start the leg. 14 stitches per inch, and size 1.25mm needles.

[cmeon]

It's 11:31 as I start this post- I have been trying to upload photos to share for 3 hours now. Just a comedy of errors and bad luck.

Anyway, here's my glaze load from yesterday (minus  few things because really, the universe was just not going to let this happen).


























I eventually used my blog to host these- my not used in 3 years and 1 day (ouch) blog- and I had to resort to my phone (which, TBF, has a really nice camera) to take them- I was going to work on more today, but, clearly that was not in the cards- LOL. I have another glaze load to run tomorrow (I get 2-3 glaze loads per bisque load). I didn't photograph a big plate that took up an entire shelf, a few owls that rolled somewhere in the garage, and another plate that went into rotation immediately- the plates take up a ton of room in the kiln, so it was great to have all these little owls to pack around the sides!

ETA: These are huge and there are so many- I should have just linked my blog- ha! sorry.

[shortcake2675]

My yoga teacher turned 50 today and was kind of bummed about it Friday, so I made her a gift for class this morning. I couldn’t decide between her two loves, so she got two. My card making skills are improving. The sketch fonts on my Cameo are helping, but they are finicky. I had to retrace a couple of letters by hand.

[Captain Catnip]

cmeon After that message I sent you the other day, I showed some pics to H of what you post around Valentine's day and he LOVES those little owls.

[cmeon]

A few more little things out of the kiln:








And more of the little owlets- this time with a clear glaze. I have another dozen in a white clay to glaze, too- I think I'll donate these to my kids' school, too. They're such a quick little project.

[ellebebold]

Great job guys...these all look amazing. Not a crafty bone in my body ahaha

[mrspez07]

I’m going to squeak in to the end of March with a quilt update...

This is DS2’s quilt that I started in January 2017. He helped pick out the fabric. Unfortunately we didn’t buy enough and I just couldn’t find enough to match so I went from plans to sew the larger blocks together to using sashing instead. It was a tricky choice between lighter dashing and dark, but went with the light. Should I do smaller pieces around each large block or one larger strip between two blocks? Either way they’ll be the same width.


12 larger blocks


Sashing fabric