Quilts are like buses...

...you wait ages and then three come along at once .

I can't believe I haven't blogged in almost a month. A combination of a holiday, family stuff, DIY and not taking photos has led to the break. I have been knitting and sewing when I can though. Still working my way through the RBTL wrap, still enjoying it luckily.

I have also been sewing and failed miserably to keep my self imposed one project at a time rule.

The Sparkle Punch quilt is coming on well, Elizabeth Hartman's construction instructions limit the number of seams to be matched in one go (lucky asvseam matching is a skill I don't really have yet). Ordered some quite loud backing fabric for this from Quilt Sandwich in hopes of finishing it soon.

I have also been commissioned to make a baby quilt for my partner's great niece

Not the best photo but fortunately I had these blocks already lurking in my stash so this will be a quick finish, hopefully next weekend.

And finally if I hadn't got enough to do I decided I needed to make a jelly roll race quilt.

I can't say too much about this, as it's meant as a surprise gift. I was a bit optimistic about how long the top takes to construct and then panicked slightly just before the last join that the top was going to be a funny size, but all seems well so far.

Pre-emptive buying!

I was going to title this post something along the lines of "oops I've bought more craft supplies" but I've decided to think of it more as saving money, through buying during sales, and being prepared so I have a project ready to go when I've finished all the others (written with a straight face).

Anyway it isn't like I've bought much...

Just a jelly roll and two more whirls. 

The jelly roll is for a jelly roll race quilt which I've actually started as it'll be a quick finish and I'd like to get it to the intended recipient as soon as possible. The whirls are for a crochet version of the RBTL and will probably be waiting to be used for quite a while as once I've finished the RBTL I must do a few more squares for an Arab blanket I'm making with my mum (it's been in progress for ages but also takes up a lot of room in my yarn drawer!).

Now all I have to do is stop looking at blogs, magazines, Ravelry, shops and the like so I don't find anymore things I have to make...

...yeah I don't think that's going to happen either.

An attempt at grow your own

As seen in a previous post I haven't managed to resist the temptation to try and grow things in the glass lean to of our house.  Two things I'm attempting to grow from seed are tomatoes and broad beans.

The taller plants were started in the lean to, the smaller ones were speculatively planted directly in the ground (I'd thought they'd died but apparently not as I've now got too many plants for the space.

These are half of the tomato plants. Although I think I started them a little late they seem to be doing okay. Hopefully they'll start to get chunkier soon, at the moment they appear to be engaged in some sort of who can grow tallest competition.

There's definitely still a long way to go but I'm hoping we'll have a few home gown tomatoes and broad beans by the end.

Gloucester Cathedral

I've visited Gloucester Cathedral several times and whilst always very interesting (the tomb of a king and a king's brother is there) and beautiful I've never taken any pictures before, although I often (including this visit) say I will bring my big camera with me next time for a proper photography session.

East window started in 1350s

I think two things inspired me this time, the mention of the cathedral in a recent history program and the fact the upper galleries and Lady Chapel were open and I'd never seen them before.

It's always cool finding new bits of a place you've visited before and this was no exception, the galleries give a different view on the cathedral, the Lady Chapel is beautiful and the whispering gallery is a little mind blowing.

Add to that cloisters, sunshine, good company, a musical concert warming up and a 14th century peasant playing golf and it all made for a pleasant way to pass a couple of hours.

And for those interested in such things bits of the Harry Potter films were filmed at the cathedral, I think in the cloisters.

RBTL - 3 months on

Still going. I think I'm about two thirds done, with about half the yarn left. Still enjoying it but seriously hoping it's not going to take me another six months...I've got plenty more things to do!

We have quilt off...

To be more accurate I should probably say "we have flimsy off" but it doesn't seem to sound right.

Anyway...

I have finally started sewing together the Sparkle Punch squares

First row, lots of concentration and double checking and I still managed to sew the first square on the wrong way round!

After some unpicking, a lot more concentration and a near miss with my finger and the needle I have two sections complete...

First square now the right way round

I am really liking how this is coming together, it's a little fiddly but definitely worth it and so far it seems very forgiving of seams not lining up exactly.

A little gardening

Our newish house has a nice flat garden that I'd love to get looking beautiful (with minimal gardening experience).

With the intention of making a start this year I've bought some vegetable and flower seeds, some bulbs and some mini plants.

As yet I've made no progress with the seeds or bulbs (this week definitely!) but I have potted on the mini plants so that they can gain some size before going into the garden.

Fingers crossed they all survive.

Read Between the Lines - Week ???

I'm still going with my knitted Read Between the Lines shawl. The make-a-long started on Jan 31st and Scheepjes have now started another crochet-a-long to mark he upcoming wedding.

I won't be joining in with the new project, I'm just about halfway through the original one...

I think the colour change is getting more visible although this does seem to be one of the more subtle combinations.

Definitely more obvious when heaped in its storage box!

Still a significant amount of the whirls left, and some good colour changes to come.

Quilt in waiting

I've finally finished laying out the Sparkle Punch Quilt.

Took about 3 hours all in all and it's lucky we have a large living room.

The next step was to break it down into manageable sections for sewing up.

Plenty of photos were taken during the bagging up process so hopefully it should all go together the right way.

There is likely to be little sewing going on at my house for a few weeks due to a break out of social events, but as soon as I can I will get back to this quilt.

Snowy Sunday

Even though it was freezing cold and gently snowing last night I hadn't expected to wake up to this ...

Luckily we hadn't got any outdoor activities planned for the day (although some serious pruning and a little planting is on the list of garden jobs) so snow didn't stop play.

In fact it seemed to make us more productive. As well as helping to strip most of the wallpaper in the dining room I also managed to start the layout for the Sparkle Punch Quilt.

I managed to get a little more done by the end of the day but it does take a surprisingly long time and it's amazingly easy to put a square in the wrong way round. I am loving the way it's coming together though, I may even get chance to sew some of it together this week.

The end is in sight!

At least the end of the prep work is in sight.  I have less than 20 sets of squares (five per set but who's really counting) to press and square up (and a few to unpick a little and re-sew but let's brush over that) and then I can figure out the lay out and start sewing the squares together (all 480 ish of them).

I wouldn't say the end is particularly near but at least it's in sight and there's a chance that this quilt will be finished this year!

Read Between the Lines - Week 4

This feels like it's becoming a yarn centric blog; I am still working on the Sparkle Punch Quilt but it's at the trimming and pressing stage so not particularly photogenic!

I'm continuing with the RBTL shawl as it gets wider it grows more slowly.

I was also starting to doubt any colour change was happening but I saw a tip on the make-a-long Facebook page to fold the bottom up to the top...

And hopefully you can see a very subtle change.

New skill - New year aims

I haven't even finished the RBTL yet but I'm making plans to make the crochet version (CBTL). The first step in those plans is to learn how to crochet (luckily that was already one of my aims for the year). In actuality, the first step has been choosing which colour combination to use for another shawl, which I think I've nearly done.

It's not likely that I'll be finishing the RBTL any time soon but I'm not sure how long it'll take me to get good enough at crochet to want to own a shawl I've crocheted so I've started learning now.

With a combination of a nice, clear DK crochet book, YouTube videos and hints from my sister I managed a crochet chain.

It was then suggested, before I tried anything more complex, that starting with sock wool may not be my best move. So some acrylic yarn and larger hooks were purchased and I've continued practising...

...and continued practising...

The increases are intentional

I think I now understand all the stitches I need to make the shawl I just need to continue practising and try using finer yarn.  So far so good and it's quite enjoyable (until the fiddly final stitch), fingers crossed it's still enjoyable when I start a large shawl!