I am alive

I had a very stressful summer with work and I didn't enjoy it at all. I read somewhere that a sign that your emotional health is not good, is lack of participation in hobbies that used to bring you joy. I felt that way this summer. I didn't do any crafting because I was so drained physically and emotionally.

Well, it is fall/winter now and there is time to do things! Emily and I have been squeezing time in, usually on a Friday afternoon to get some sewing done. We started these embroidery samplers and it is going pretty well. I will post pictures on a later post. Embroidery isn't my strength though. I am not that familiar with stitches and so I keep defaulting to satin stitches.

Last night I started a new cross stitch project. It was a free DMC chart for a snowflake sampler. I love the symmetry of the pattern. I ran to the quirky cross stitch store after work and was looking for some overdyed floss. I considered opalescent fabric, but I think that would have overwhelmed the pattern. It is too 'clean' for opalescent and variegated  floss. Well, I was looking at embroidery floss when the one of the owners came over and pointed out this other kind of cotton thread I'd never heard of before. Caron Wildflowers described as "a single stranded hand-dyed cotton in variegated colors. It has more of a matte finish when stitched. Use one or more strands as required by the ground fabric. It is between a #8 and #12 pearl cotton in weight." I am really enjoying it and I did some reading from the company's website and it is a nice tale.

I figured out why not since this is just a pattern that you can use any colour. I really like the finish. It is more raised in my opinion and I love to run my fingers over the top of stitches. Gives a bit more dimension and while the Xs are clear, they fill out nicely.

Long time no blog

Yikes! It was January the last time I blogged. I haven't been blogging, but I have been cross stitching. I started the Quilty Stitches cross stitch which is a nice combination of cross stitch and quilting. The blocks come together pretty fast, but my colour choices were mocked by my friend, Emily. Looking at it again, yes it is pretty hideous. I used this image as inspiration, but it just didn't translate. I think the problem was using a flat fabric. After using the sparkly hand dyed fabric for the 12 Days of Christmas pattern, regular fabric just won't do.

Oh, and I got a needleminder. It is a tree frog and I love it. I should have put something by it to show the scale and the colours don't show up very well, but it is about an inch and a half and the rhinestones are amber/brown.

Speaking of Emily, we had a craft day on Saturday with another friend. It ended up being one long chat and a Netflix marathon. I didn't do any sewing, but it was a lovely day. Here is an update of Emily's deer cross stitch. You can see her progress as well her needle minder and a cat! The last update was from well over a year ago, but there hasn't been much stitching going on since for various reasons. We both need to have more sewing evenings.

Sewing circle

My friends Emily, Amy and I had a fun sewing evening Thursday night. I crocheted with yarn from Fiberpalooza. It is a silk/cormo blend from Esther Purl Fibers. The pattern I am using is from the Fiber Flux Crochet Along. I made a bit  mistake by just starting to crochet from the hank. I didn't know I was supposed to turn it into a ball. I googled and found out after the fact that it is just ridiculous to crochet straight from the hank. I didn't even know what a hank was! I am used to yarn from Hobby Lobby where you just pull from the center. I could kick myself because the Des Moines Knitting Guild was winding for free at Fiberpalooza. I am really not bright sometimes. Anyway, Fiberpalooza was awesome!!! I learned A LOT about how yarn is produced and how blends are made. Emily picked up a drop spindle to learn how to spin. This may lead to alpacas for her.

Emily has made decent progress on her deer. You can now see antlers. The purple-y bit of it's  body is really pretty in person.

Machine binding?!

I'd promised Emily a Nook holder for years now, but finally got around to it this week. She loves camo and pink. The sequins are because I like shiny things.  I used the Moda Bake Shop 'Bookkeeper' tutorial, but rotated it so that it was longer than wider and added the sequined elastic.

I used flannel on the inside so the screen wouldn't scratch. I even used my machine to sew on the sequined elastic. Everything went great till it was time to put on the 'binding'. I decided to machine bind it. I should have hand stitched; it wasn't a lot and I should have sucked it up. NIGHTMARE! I have a tendency to have wider binding on one side; I pull further over one side to hide the sew-on-the-binding stitching. That doesn't work for machine binding. I ended up using a zig-zag and turning it into kind of a flange by stitching in the middle of the front binding so it stayed on the edge of the back binding. This is my second time with machine binding and my corners turned out a bit better than last time. I used a suggestion from a blog that said when you stop a quarter inch from the corner, sew off the edge. That helped get beautiful mitered corners on the back which means it would work great when hand sewing. The other problem I ran into is since the binding didn't run all the way around, I had to start at the end of one strip. I couldn't get it started. I kept getting caught and stitching in place. There was also differences in bulk through the project so my zig-zag is of inconsistent length. Any suggestions on what to do? 

Seems like I didn't enjoy the process, but I did. Again, it is because it is going to a friend. I hope she likes it. 

Community sewing

Emily and I have been hanging out a lot lately and sewing. The accountability has been good for us. We are actually making progress; Emily more than me. The cross stitching has proved contagious and I am working on a project right now. It combines my love for Masterpiece Theatre and cross stitch. How awesome is this?!

I bought the pattern off Craftsy. It is a super simple pattern and well written. I am going to drop the 'I'm down with'  and possibly the 'Downtown Abbey' part as well. I think it is going to end up being a throw pillow. I wanted to turn it into a wood box top to store tea, but those things are crazy expensive. It is supposed to be a gift so I really need to stay on pace. I have finished up the windows (just the darkened panes) and working on the rest of the house. I will post pictures in my next post.

Emily has made much progress with her deer. It may not look so but she has. She is trying to figure out the boundaries so she keeps moving in different directions to see how bit it truly is going to be. More like how much do I have to fill in, in my opinion.

I did get distracted from quilting with another purchase. Winterset has a lovely yarn store called Heartland Fiber.They had an open house this weekend and had a trunk show for Esther Purl Fibers. I bought some yarn. It is pretty! The sheep were raised locally and it is hand painted. All the colours have different people names and are specific sheep varieties. Mine is from a California Red sheep. I plan on crocheting a scarf. Let's see when I start on that! I bought beautiful alpaca almost 10 years ago that I still haven't touched. 

Updates with pictures

Here is the promised picture of the Giant Granny Block. I think it turned out well. It calls for a sashing border, but I think I am going to leave it as is. I think I may quilt it myself.

I finished my mug rug for the quilt guild swap. I am really nervous. I am a beginner quilter and so I veered off on a couple occasions. I also hope I interpreted my partner's likes appropriately.

Yesterday Emily and I hung out and did some cross stitching again. She has made progress on her project. I never knew I was filled with wisdom, but my tip about stitching the borders of a solid section and then stitching in the 'filling'. The last picture I have is from September 2011. It is fun to see the progress that has been made and more importantly, to be made.

I have tomorrow off again so I may have more pictures at the end of the day. I need to try the paper piecing again.

No pictures, but randomness

I hadn't blogged, but I have been keeping up with sewing hobbies. Emily has come over one evening for the last two weeks to work on her cross stitch. We both work crazy hard during the summer so we are milking the cooler, less busy fall. I worked on my Last Supper cross stitch. Last weekend was the AQS show and I went to that with a fellow quilter. That made for a fun (EXHAUSTING) day. I picked up some dupioni silk and Fassett fabrics. The tide is starting to turn in the main stream quilting community in my opinion. I noticed a few more modern fabric vendors and a couple more negative space/minimalist quilts.

I took today off and had a 'Karen Day'. Lounged and did some sewing. I finished up the Giant Granny Square Quilt Along top. I ordered the kit using Flea Market Fancy. I wasn't sold on the line when it was re-released and when my kit arrived I wasn't sure. It grows on you and I like the way the top turned out. I will take pictures tomorrow and post.

This evening I worked on some paper piecing. I took a class last fall, but had never worked on anything. It took some trial and error, but my block was coming along nicely until I had to tear away the paper. I hadn't shortened my stitch length so the stitching came apart. Oops. Tomorrow I will try again.

I was catching up on my blog reading and caught this. Robert Kaufman is coming out with precut hexies. Last month at the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild meeting, Emily V presented about English Paper Piecing. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

One more thing- Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery is having a winter themed calendar of sorts. I haven't decided if I am going to or not. It may be too cutesy for my liking.

Second half of the weekend

I blogged about the first half of the weekend and the second half was just as enjoyable! Emily came over yesterday and today to work on her deer project. We both cross stitched and talked and enjoyed the lovely weather. We both work in the same field and our summers are very, very hectic. Things have slowed down for her as well and we are taking advantage of the free time. So here are our updates.

  

Emily's deer- progress update 1

Pretty decent progress

Projects that go on forever

So in my previous post I mentioned my friend Emily. She does counted cross stitch as well. She just finished a project and decided to start a new one. Oh and it is a big one! Emily is outdoorsy and was looking for something in that vein. She found a website and found a pattern with deer. It is a painting that was turned into cross stitch.

It is HUGE. She is using 18 count Aida and it is still going to be almost 2 feet both ways. There are 24 pages of pattern. That's Emily in the background.

So to keep her motivated, I am blogging her progress. Emily colours in the sections she has done to keep track of where she is at. You can see the small patch of colour in the middle. Hopefully that grows rapidly. Estimated date of completion: 2013. Seriously.

I have my own project that needs to be kept accountable. I will get around to talking about that.