The Continuing Tale of the Mystery Blanket

I finally bit the bullet a few days ago and attempted my second square for the DA MB 2012.  The intarsia had been scaring me but the realisation that if I didn't get a move on this would quickly become a large, and expensive, UFO spurred me on.

I picked an easy intarsia square to start on and it quickly and satisfyingly came together well.  I then had a bit of a pause when faced with the challenge of how to pick up the stitches to start the orange square, but as you can see I have overcome this too.  The third square in this strip shouldn't cause me any pauses (fingers crossed!).


2 and a half squares out of 49 completed! (I don't actually have the materials or instructions for all 49 squares yet so its not quite as bad as it sounds)

For Japan - A Year On (Link Up)

Borrowed from Nellie's Niceties

As a follower of Nellie's Niceties I have just seen her post about two quilts she is selling to raise money for the International Rescue Committee's ongoing work in Japan.  Please go and visit her blog and read all about it and then share all about it on your blog, facebook or twitter, or even better by far place a bid on one of the quilts!

Borrowed from Nellie's Niceties

Bath Half Marathon

Sunday saw me travelling into Bath to participate in my first ever half marathon.  There was a party atmosphere in the sunny town and the 12000 runners seemed to be the entertainment for the partying spectators.  The payback for providing this entertainment was the amount of support the spectators (and the already finished runners) gave those on the course.


My time wasn't spectacular but that wasn't the aim, the aim this time was to see if I could do it and enjoy it.  And I can say yes on both counts, I especially enjoyed jogging up the hills! I though the fact that you did two laps of the course to achieve the 13.1 miles would make it more difficult but I actually quite liked knowing what to expect during the second half.


Will I do another?  Ask again in couple of days once the aches have worn off...but at the moment I think the answer is yes, but faster next time. 

Landscape Quilt

On Saturday, after a significant diversion round the Somerset countryside (read getting lost for over an hour) I attended, for the first time, a quilting course at Midsomer Quilting.  A lovely LQS between Bath and Bristol where the kettle seems to be permanently on to keep the husbands' creche happy!


The course I'd decided to attend was Landscape Quilts taught by Effie Galletly. When I eventually found the shop I found the course in full swing transferring landscape photos to patterns, a fairly time consuming process.  I eventually settled on a photo I'd taken in Skye a few years ago as my quilt subject (I'd brought a good selection of pictures as I didn't know what'd work and dithered a lot over which to use).

The next few hours were busily consumed converting this picture to a set of fabric templates.

We then got to rummage through Effie's extensive landscape themed scraps box.  Very kindly she supplemented the fabrics we had brought along meaning that we got the best effect without having to buy lot of bits of fabrics when we only needed a small square.

By the end of the class I'd managed to find all the pieces of fabric I needed (the water sections proved to be a persistent problem even when I'd found the perfect fabric) and had manage to cut some out using the templates.

I've got some days off coming up visiting my family, I may find some time during the holiday to do a little more on this - maybe even attempt the scary sewing up!

Colours

Double headed daffs

A (rather dark) friendship bracelet destined to be a camera wrist strap one day

Running gear (from which I need to select something to wear for a 1/2 marathon on Sun)

A new lace knitting project (with a lot of stitch markers)

Slow Knitted Socks

Optimistically I think I started these socks during Xmas 2010, although I have a niggling feeling they may actually have been in progress since 2008!
Anyway either way I have finally finished my Pomatomus socks found in a 2005 issue of Knitty.com.

(Since taking the photo I have sewn in the ends and grafted the toe)


The photo isn't the best (maybe I'll display finished socks on my feet in future) but there is a pattern of ribbed fans and lace all over the socks, which I found surprisingly easy to do and absorbing.  The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Peacock.  Both socks were knitted from one skein of yarn so the differing stripe pattern is a bit unexpected but I love them anyway.

Hen Party

Slightly less crafting than usual took place this weekend as I spent Saturday at my friend's Hen Party.  There was a twist on the traditional going out pubbing and clubbing and instead we attended a cookery class for the day.


First up was cupcake (fairy cake) decorating...

All enhanced with edible glitter!


And then we set about cooking a 3 course Caribbean themed meal...

This was the coconut and bean soup simmering nicely.  We also made jerk seasoned quorn pasties (using really simple flaky type pastry) with jerk peppers and tomatoes.  Followed by milk chocolate ganache tart.  I had intended to take photos of the finished items but I was so hungry and they were so nice that I had eaten my meal before I remembered (imagine an embarrassed face here). 


All in all it was a good way to spend a day.

And Finally A Start

The first installment of Debbie Abrahams Mystery Blanket 2012 (DA MB 2012) was sent out at the start of Jan, with 9 squares to knit and the arrival of the March package imminent I have finally made a start on the squares.

This is one of the easier ones, next I'm going to attempt some intarsia.  Debbie's designs are stunning and they definitely help you develop new skills (the festive mitts in my previous post are a Debbie Abrahams design).

First Finishes of 2012

I've finished off both the projects I worked on during the FNSI, which is a nice feeling.


Both finishes were destined for my sewing slave so she got fair recompense for her excellent prepping efforts (and her useful suggestions as to how I could comfortably spend longer pressing on my mini ironing board).

This was a trial run for a wonky star quilt I am planning to make and the first time I have ever sewn a cushion cover.

It is destined to eventually have a twin with a reverse colourway on the front and hopefully a slightly better fitting back.


The second finish was a pair of festive mitts, which knit up quickly and sew together slowly!

February FNSI Results

I had a very successful FNSI helped by my FNSI slave (otherwise known as my sister!) who cut...

And pressed...

Allowing me to knit...

And sew...

Don't feel too sorry for my 'slave' thought the sewing is destined to be a cushion cover for her and is the practice run for her starry quilt too.

It's that time of month again...

That's right February's Friday Night Sew In is happening on Feb 17 and you can find out more and sign up for the virtual sewing group at Heidi's Blog


I've got the whole day off work and a plasterer in (hopefully) repairing my wall so absolutely no excuse not to spend the whole day sewing.  I've also got my sister visiting so she'll probably have something to share too.  Plans are to put together a couple of cushion covers for said sister, make a serious dent in the batik quilt and perhaps try and teach my sister some sewing skills through the making of a mug rug or two (I've never made one either).  There's also one or two other new skills I want to try out but Friday is only 24 hours long!

More Winter

I had to leave home before 8am this morning to attend an Open University tutorial (the tutorial was actually at a reasonable hour it was just the bus to get there that wasn't).  I wasn't up as early as I'd planned to be and so didn't get time to dry my hair after my shower.  Normally this isn't really an issue, but we've had snow again here and the temperatures have dropped so after about 3 minutes outside my hair had begun to freeze!


This somewhat odd experience was overridden by the gorgeous views at that time in the morning with mist hovering over the remaining icy snow as the sun rose.

 My hair defrosted okay too.

Ramblings

- Its finally snowed here and has appeared to stuck.

Although I am quite pleased by the sound of dripping indicating some sort of melt as I need to drive south to work tonight, but it would give me an excuse for a day off.


- Found another two fairly local to me quilt shops, that makes four within a fairly close distance and they seem to all stock different ranges.  Considering I'd never even seen a quilt fabric shop until two years ago I'm impressed (my wallet isn't!). I was restrained and didn't buy any fabric, but one of the shops had an amazing range of books on sale and I couldn't resist a copy of Tonya Ricucci's Word Play Quilts.  Having to stay down south for a tutorial next weekend and am planning to visit another two quilt shops.


- Just seen an advert on TV for frozen ready to cook baked potatoes - apparently oven baked potatoes in just 5 minutes.  Think I'll stick to the fresh ones.


- And now I can no longer avoid the mega seam pressing session - 190 seams need to be pressed before I can get any further with my sister's quilt.