Christmas Crafted Gifts

I'm not sure how it happened but I ended up crafting four Xmas gifts this year, three quilts and a shawl. I don't really like the pressure of a deadline and have previously managed to gift a quilt top as I ran out of time to finish (I did finish the quilt a little while after). There of the items I started in the summer and one was an autumn, relative last minute idea. Amazingly all four were finished by the 20th (if I can call an unblocked shawl finished) and one even made it into the post a day before last posting date. This has surprised me as much as anyone.

And so to record this momentous achievement for posterity here are my first presents finished in advance of gifting date...

A Crochet Between the lines shawl designed by Tammy Canavan-Soldaat in Scheepjes Whirls.

Sundial by from Jelly Roll Quilts in a Weekend in Sweetwater's The Cookie Exchange for Moda

Simple Bento Boxes found at Making Scrap Quilts From Stash in Lewis and Irene's Small Things at Christmas

And finally... 

Slam Dunk by Cluck Cluck Sew in random fabrics. 

Really chuffed but must try to avoid doing so much again in future. 

November FNSI

A short report on my FNSI progress for this month due to a 50% success rate. 

I planned to start my FNSI early by quilting my second Xmas quilt on my Cotton Orchard frame. 

Unfortunately I instead found out what happens when you thread you machine slightly incorrectly and ignore the odd noise it's making instead. Lots of loopy thread on the back meant that my quilting afternoon changed into an unpicking afternoon. 

A break for dinner and then onto my second planned project (ignoring the remaining unpicked stitches in my Xmas quilt for a while). 

Second project was a quilt for my brother in law for Xmas. This has been causing me a few snags due to some inaccuracy early on. Luckily, except for having to reinforce some very skimpy seam allowances, this one behaved beautifully.

The blocks went from... 

to... 

I also got white borders on two other blocks and the green borders on the remaining 4 blocks. 
Pleasing for three hours work and no sign of a quick unpick! 

Thanks to Wendy for hosting, if you want to see what everyone else got up to visit her blog HERE

12 Things - October Update

It's odd I feel like I'm making good progress on my projects and the I do a monthly review and I don't seem to have got far. Not helped by working on some additional Xmas presents (probably shouldn't be) and my crafting time in October being limited by trips away and work events taking up a lot of my free time. 

Anyway enough of the excuses on with the progress. 

The second quadrant of the Hue Shift Afghan was completed. I really love the colours in this, I wasn't sure when I first got the kit but I've changed my mind. The third quarter is blues and greens so different again. 

Floozy almost has a second sleeve. Just the body to go, although as its all plain stocking stitch it may drag. 

The second Xmas quilt was loaded onto the frame. The first one just needs its binding hand stitched but I haven't managed to get a photo of it. 

The Frame

I don't know what's more amazing that I've finally used my Cotton Orchard quilting frame in anger (after having it well over a year) or that I'm actually blogging about it!

First challenge was to set it up. When I'd last taken it down I'd deconstructed everything, and those side panels were fiddly to put back together with no instructions (a sure sign they shouldn't be taken apart). 

Embarrassingly getting to the point where the quilt was loaded and ready to go took me all afternoon and into the evening. 

Nerves and a few failed test runs meant that it was then a few days before I got the courage to actually quilt. 

But with the right thread and a bit of care I was off. 

The actual quilting was quick, easier than wrangling the quilt through the sewing machine and satisfying. The end result is a little lumpy due to not always remembering where the limits of the quilting area was, but I'm happy. Just the binding to go. 

You'll be pleased to hear that loading the second quilt, including building the frame and pressing the backing, took less than two hours. 

12 Things - September Update

Still plodding away on my 12 Things projects, avoiding the temptation to start any more just so I can say I did!

A definite move forward on the Hue Shift Afghan. Loving the colours in this quadrant. I was supposed to put this on the back burner but the temptation of being able to finish a square in an evening and still have time to put some serious work into the Floozy is too much. 

Speaking of the Floozy it now has a significant chunk of sleeve. There's a couple of holes where I failed repeatedly at picking up stitches but I'm optimistically hoping they can be fixed.

And finally, as noted earlier in this blog, the second Xmas quilt is now a complete quilt top. I really need to start quilting these tops. 

A yarn expedition

Just over a week ago my sister and I took advantage of a free Saturday coinciding with an indie yarn dyer's pop up in a local ish (just over an hour away so slightly more ish than local) yarn shop. I'd been wanting to visit the shop and had been admiring Pixie Yarn for a while so it was a fortuitous (thank goodness for autocorrect!) turn of events.

Alterknit Universe is located in the, what seemed to be with our minimal exploration, small village of Cleeve near Clevedon. The shop is small but perfectly stuffed with eye catching and wallet tempting items.

But we kept focused, mostly, on what we came for... Pixie Yarn. 

A small selection of the yarn available; this was the vegan yarn, a blend of bamboo and linen. 

After a lot of umming, ahhing and resisting I selected a speckled sock yarn and a sparkly sock yarn with coordinating mini.

There were plenty of others I could have chosen. My sister also selected some lovely yarns, including a vegan one for a gift and some that will hopefully become her first pair of socks (she's a good knitter who's tried various techniques but yet to do socks). We then got the fun of watching the yarn being wound into cakes, something I've never seen before. A fun expedition and if we'd brought some knitting we'd have happily spent longer there. 

FNSI Results - September

I was actually free to join in with FNSI, kindly hosted by Wendy of Sugarlane Designs and  I had the perfect project to work on - my second Xmas quilt.

I had left it as a collection of various sized component blocks so my first aim for the evening was to get them all sewn into big squares and plan a layout.

As I started my FNSI in the late afternoon I finished the block sewing quite early and so onto the layout. 

Which is where the 'fun' started, the picture above shows just some of the combos I tried. It took at least 2 hours to find one I was okay with. It wasn't just a case of matching the colours as the fabric also has mini Xmas characters on it. The quilt only uses 36 strips of a jelly roll, and if I went back in time I think I would have removed a different 4 strips!

Any after driving myself almost to distraction with the layout the top flew together. 

A surprising number of the seams matched up, a real shock as I didn't nest seams or use pins. I even had a little time for crocheting before bed!

Now off to find out what everyone else got up to on Friday Night. 

12 Things in 2019 - August Progess

I should really try and write these updates on the last day of the month, I always find myself trying to put the wrong month in the title. 

I wasn't expecting much progress to be made in August due to long weekends away and general summer stuff. But looking back I'm quite pleased.

A small start was made on Xmas quilt no. 2... 

 I continued doing bits and pieces on the Hue Shift Afghan...

Second quarter underway even though I said I'd stop and focus on some other projects. A square takes me just over an hour so it's too tempting to try and do one a night. 

And finally my Floozy cardigan went from skeins of yarn to... 

This is the colourwork pretty much complete so I'm not sure if the sleeves and body will drag now or whether the desire to wear it (and start something else) will drive me on. 

So far 2 projects completed and 5 underway,  which includes two quilt tops awaiting quilting. The stats still have time to improve! 

Racing the Train

In mid August I took part in a slightly unusual running race - Race the Train in Tywyn.

It's a trail run in mid Wales with varying distances available. I opted for the 10k as I can't run 14 miles on roads let alone over Welsh hills.

A narrow gauge train, liked the one photoed, sets off at the same time as the runners and the aim is to beat it. 

With a predicted train arrival time of 55 minutes I didn't think I'd have a chance to beat it and I was right, finishing almost 25 minutes after the train. So I'm running it again next year to see if I can get closer! There are definitely areas where I could have gone quicker or at least got through the crowd faster and with a bit more training (!) who knows. 

View over a small piece of the mid Wales coastline just because. 

Beginnings of a Floozy

Don't panic I haven't changed the purpose of this blog - Floozy is a cute cardigan designed by Truly Myrtle Designs. 

I got fascinated by it towards the end of last year but have waited a while to start it as I have been losing weight and didn't want to knit it and then find it was too baggy. 

The cardigan is knitted in 4 ply, the recommended yarn was something beautiful from Nez Zealand but as I haven't knitted an item of clothing (excluding socks) in forever I thought I'd go for something a bit cheaper. I could always try again in a more luxurious yarn if it all went well, you can't have too many cardis! Almost forgot, the yarn I'm using is Cascade Heritage.

After being very good and making a swatch, and after tracking down the right sized needles (Knit Pro Zings, if you're wondering) I cast on.  The cardigan is knit top down so the photo above is of the yoke. 

After two weeks this is what I have. In reality this is probably about 5 evenings of knitting as its my weekday project and I've been away during the last fortnight. The true colour is probably closer to this photo. I did have a wobble about my colour choices as the dark purple is supposed to be a pop of colour, but I think they work. The next one can be in more poppy colours! 

12 Things in 2019 - July Progress

Yet more steady, though not particularly quick progress in July on my 12 Things.

The CBTL shawl has been successfully blocked, at least to my mind. I need to get an action photo but otherwise it is complete.

The first quarter of the Hue Shift Afghan is complete. I wasn't sure about it when I started but now I'm enjoying it and love the way it looks. A really simple technique but so effective.

The afghan is taking longer than I thought so I've decided to do another 12 Things yarn project alongside it. So my final achievement for the month is hand winding the yarn for my Floozy.

The photo's a bit washed out but it's a nice sage green.

In an ideal world 7 months through the year I should be over halfway through my list, I'm not. Having said that, in an ideal world I wouldn't keep on doing other projects alongside, I am! Maybe next year I'll be more strict about sticking to the list, more likely I won't. 

And if you'd like a reminder of the original list it's HERE.

Crafty Saturday

After a highly enjoyable Friday evening watching Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat starring Sheridan Smith and Jason Donovan at the London Palladium, me and my sisters of what to do with a Saturday spent together.

It didn't take much figuring out and we all settled down to our various craft projects. 

In what turned out to be a bit of a mistake later on I started off by getting a bit more of my Alice in Wonderland EPP done. 

I had been using the flat back stitch on the Christmas Stars EPP but for this one I've gon with the whip stitch which I am definitely finding faster and less fiddly. Though that's probably because it was the only stitch I knew when I last did EPP. 

My sisters decided to work on some time critical ish projects. 

R wants to get two of these cowls finished by November, I think she's got a good chance seeing how this one's growing. I really like this pattern and the baa ram ewe yarn is so soft. 

B decided to get another item of clothing made for a dress up doll destined for her friend's children. Hopefully she'll get it done before they out grow the doll, it's been a WIP for 3 years so far. 

After a bit of EPP I gathered my nerve and made a start on my Jessa shorts. If I'd had any idea how long tracing a pattern and cutting out fabric takes me I'd have skipped the morning EPP session!

But the pieces for my practice pair are all cut out now and ready for me to underestimate how long the sewing will take!

All in all a highly productive Saturday. 

And in case you were wondering, Joseph was excellent. I've seen it once before but forgotten how much fun it is. 

Even more crafting

I've set myself the challenge of completing 12 crafty projects in 2019 and they are by no means all small projects, so that should be enough to keep me busy and focused. 

Of course not!

As well as the 12 Things here are some other bits I've been working on in the last few weeks...

A baby quilt that's taken way too long to finish!... 

Some insanely bright socks... 

Another CBTL for a Xmas present... 

The start of a small EPP project to use some long term stash. 

You could say I've got to many WIPs or you could say I like variety in my crafting options. I'm not saying anything! 

12 Things in 2019 - June Progress

It felt like I got heaps of crafting done this month but when I review my actual progress on the 12 Things it doesn't seem so much!

Blocks were finished and layout finalised for the first Xmas quilt. 

A few blocks were knitted fot the Hue Shift Afghan... 

I am getting quicker at these so hopefully it won't take forever, although with 100 blocks and a border who am I kidding? 

I also finished the CBTL, but I haven't blocked it yet so no photos. I definitely think I'll get more wear out of it than the knitted version. 

July's plans are the Hue Shift Afghan and another Xmas top, if I can remain focused on specific projects! 

FNSI Results - June

It looks like last night was my first FNSI since June, I think I made the most of it but don't have many photos.

I spent the whole evening working on my first Xmas quilt. First steps was to get the blocks arranged in a pleasing way and remove the dog ears. 

From there on in it was chain piecing interspersed with pressing to eventually achieve 18 blocks. 

I'm really pleased with how they've come together. Now all I have to do is arrange 16 of the blocks ready for making the top. Not much actual sewing left but plenty of head scratching first!

FNSI is kindly hosted monthly by Wendy of Sugarlane Designs, pop over to her blog to see what everyone else got up to and, if you're free the third Friday of the month join in with the virtual quilt along.