Sewing Update, March

 All my sewing was done before the end of February.  So far in March, I haven't even touched fabric.  I will, as I still intend to participate in the UFO challenge I mentioned last month.  It's just that this month's number corresponds with a 'I want to make this, but haven't actually started yet or even have a specific design to use' entry on my list of UFO's to work from this year.

Combine that with a sudden and tragic death in the extended family (one of DH's nephews) at the end of February, and I've just kind of lost my enthusiasm temporarily.  I did do some fabric shopping in recent days, so hopefully that will kick start my sewing mojo back into gear.

For February, though, I feel like I accomplished a good thing: I finished my UFO for that month!  It's not just a bunch of blocks from an 8 year old swap anymore.  It's a totally completed quilt.  Yay, me!

I wanted to use those blocks to make a throw sized quilt that would be functional as a picnic blanket, beach blanket, play blanket for using with the grandkids.  I decided not to be super picky about color coordination, or evenness of the quilting.  For the quilting, I went totally freehand but kept a somewhat diamond design as that is what the very center of the quilt told me the quilting should be.  In the border, however, I just echoed the seamline at roughly 1" intervals. As a result of being freehand and me being fairly new at anything other than stitching in the ditch, the quilting isn't totally symmetrical, or even parallel, but that's okay.  This is a quilt to be used more than a quilt to be admired for it's craftsmanship.

Keeping in mind the contact with the ground that this quilt will definitely see during it's lifetime, I used a grunge style fabric for the backing. It looks like it all ready has dirt and grease stains on it.  Not at all my typical type of design, but it's what this quilt told me it needed.

photo op in the sun

grungy backing

this pic is more representative of the true greenish color of the backing

A few days after the quilt was finished, Faline ended up at this little place here during the day while her parents were at work.  Her other grandma (the morning babysitting shift) had come down with a cold and was unavailable to babysit.  Since DH is still working from home and had a couple gaps between scheduled teleconferences that were big enough for me to run off to work and get my own job done, Faline came to us so DH could do the tag-team babysitting with me around his meeting schedule instead of me going to her house to babysit in the afternoons.  

She got to be the first grandchild to use the new quilt, as both a playmat--she loved looking at all the colors--and as a sleep mat for naps.  It has now been officially broken in, baby spit-up and all.

Knitting Update, March

 Happy March!  So far, we're 3 for 3 on sunny days this month.  Almost all the snow melted last weekend, and things look a whole lot browner than they did in the pictures from my Feb. 25th blog post.

There's been a decent amount of knitting going on. Last month, I started taking care of Faline in the afternoons, sharing time with her other grandma now that both of her parents have exhausted their family leave time.  That has cut into my knitting time somewhat, although I do take my Vertex socks to work on while I'm with Faline. Sometimes I get a chance to knit a few rows while she's napping, sometimes I don't.

This is the current state of those:

One sock is completely done, the other is nearing the halfway point on the leg.

I have been spending alot of my at-home knitting time in the evenings on a new project.  Last Fall, I was asked to knit matching Christmas stockings for DD1, Honorary Son and Faline in time to be used for Christmas 2021.  After showing them a variety of patterns, DD1 chose one and I ordered yarn. Once the yarn came in, in early February, I got started on the first one.

Christmas stockings, some assembly required.

As of today, I am probably within a couple inches of dividing off for the heel. I am really liking the challenge of both all the Fair Isle knitting, and the having to draft my own charts for several sections of the pattern.   The general direction and provided charts come from the Trees and Candles pattern found on Ravelry.

I read three fiction books in the past month, and about half of the Dressage Riding book I talked about last month (which I'm still reading when I have thinking time).  The fiction books were

• Happiness For Beginners by Katherine Center, which I enjoyed much more than the previous novel I'd read by her.
• Betty by Tiffany McDaniel. This is a very gritty book, with tough life situations, yet I found it nearly impossible to put down.  I highly recommend it.
• Prairie Evers by Ellen Airgood, is a children's novel that I read to see if K3 might enjoy the subject matter. While I think she would like the story, I don't think her reading level is quite up to chapter books without pictures.  Maybe in another six months or so.

Currently I am reading Down a Dark Road, another Kate Burkholder mystery by Linda Castillo.  Captivating!

February Doings

February has been a beautiful month, for the most part.  We've had more sunny blue sky days than I can count.  Some of them were below-zero cold, like the morning this picture was taken of the trees shrouded in hoar frost.  The last several, however, have been above the 40-degree mark and still sunny; which is pretty unusual for this time of year.  Warm days in February are typically cloudy ones.

The first Saturday, we had a full house.  DH, DS1, DS2 and Honorary Son made about 45 pounds of sausage--breakfast, chorizo and Italian--while all the grandkids played together.  During the couple hour break while the sausage meat soaked in its seasonings before grinding, the guys got out the snowmobiles and ran them around the field.  The grandkids got to go sledding behind the 4-Wheeler.  Even Faline bundled up and went for her first sled ride, securely held by K3!

My mudroom was full of boots, coats, and cold-weather gear.  Overwhelming, but also a good full-heart feeling.

Some of the Italian sausage was made into links.  About half was packaged in bulk, for using in spaghetti sauce and on pizza.

With all the sunlight, my chickens are cranking out the eggs.  They're averaging 8-9 a day, but I've had as many as 11 in one day this week.  They are keeping the whole family well supplied, and I think I'll even have enough to sell a few dozen a week this Spring and early Summer.

Over several weekends, DH and I pruned all the fruit trees in our little orchard, as well as the trees in the yard (any low-hanging branches that were nuisances while mowing the lawn), the bushes around the house, and a large majority of the wild apples and crabapples along the north fence line and where the field meets the woods.  

I found some grapevine growing in one of the lilac bushes near the house, and pulled it out. As I was winding it to better be able to throw it onto the brush pile, I had the thought to try to make a wreath out of it.  Twisting and turning the length of the vines around the original loop I made was incredibly easier than I'd thought it would be.  And just like that, I have a free grapevine wreath to decorate with!

On Wednesday this week, I went out and tapped some of the maples in our woods.  The extended forecast is for just right temperatures for the sap to begin running.  I hereby declare maple syrup season to be underway!

Next comes Mud Month (March), and you can tell that Mother Nature is getting ready to transition to Spring.  In the last week we've seen many robins and bluebirds, as well as flocks of starlings (DH's nemesis).  We've also, in the last two days, lost the majority of the nice snow that had finally built up to a useful (ie sledding, skiing, snowmobiling) amount.  Our driveway and all the plowed areas around this little place here are down to bare earth; bare muddy earth.  

Time for me to get my tender veggie and flower seeds started indoors!
 

February Sewing Update

 I'm going to try something new, and on the second Wednesday of each month, post about what I've been sewing lately.  I joined a group doing a quilting UFO challenge this year, where each group member makes a list of 12 unfinished projects or projects they've been wanting to sew, at the beginning of each month a number is drawn, and you work on whatever is on your list under that number.  So, hopefully, I will be doing more sewing than I have in a few years, and therefore, have something new to talk about here on a regular basis.

For January, my project was a paper pieced wall hanging that I'd bought the pattern for at least 5 years ago.  At that time, I didn't realize how tiny the pattern pieces were, and I got rather overwhelmed at the thought of tackling a paper piecing project that was so intricate.  Add in chaotic family changes over the next few years, and this became a UFO that was never even started.  

As fate would have it, the number drawn for January coordinated on my list with this fearsome little wall hanging. This year, however, I was determined to get it not just started, but also finished.  After making photocopies of the paper pieces in case I really messed up, I jumped into sewing little pieces of fabric to little pieces of paper in numerical order.

I messed up alot.  As I kept sewing, I eventually got the hang of lining up my fabrics with the lines on the paper in the correct manner.  However, every time I took a break, say from one day to the next, I had to teach my brain all over again.  There was lots of seam ripping, repositioning, and resewing just to get the first little section done.  The next section was a repeat of the learning process.  And the next, and the next. . . 

As you can see, my stitching didn't always make the colors join smoothly.  But, for a first (and second and third and tenth. . . ) attempt at paper piecing on such an intricate scale, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

This little guy wasn't too bad.

It took me probably close to two hours to do each of the three penguins.  And they are small.  The tallest one is about 6" tall. 

This was totally a love-hate kind of thing.  I love the end result, but the process itself I rather hate.  Yet, as a perfectionist, I know that this probably won't be the last paper piecing project I ever do. It's challenging, and the end result is rather pride-inducing.

Speaking on end result, this is the completed wall hanging.  It is slated to be given later this year as a birthday present to my penguin loving daughter.

There was also some embroidery involved (French knots for the eyes, back stitching for the skate blades), which has me itching to do some sort of needlework--either embroidery or counted cross stitch--in the near future.

February's official UFO number matched a bunch of blocks from a 'south-west color' Jacob's Ladder swap I did back in 2013.  I had 14 blocks from that, and had decided last summer that I wanted to use them to make a throw-sized blanket to have picnics with the grandkids or to take to the beach. I would need 2 more blocks in order to make a layout of 4 blocks by 4 blocks.  Those, I whipped up a week ago.  A few days later, I came up with a layout that was not perfect, but would do.  Interpretation of 'south-west colors' kind of varied from block maker to block maker, so it's kind of a mish mash quilt. 

 As I write this, the quilt is a completed flimsy, awaiting sandwiching and quilting (hopefully this coming weekend).

February Knitting Update

 Sadly, Ginny is not doing the Yarn Along this year.  She has an excellent reason for that decision, but I'll definitely miss the monthly link ups.

I've decided that I will continue to post the first Wednesday of each month with an update on what I've been knitting and reading.  Mainly because I love a schedule, and the Yarn Along has been one of the few scheduled things I've been able to keep up with in the last couple years despite all the twists and turns that life and family have thrown my way.  I need to be able to keep to a schedule and cross things off my to-do list.

So, for February's knitting post, here's what I'm currently working on:

The pattern is Vertex by my favorite sock designer verybusymonkey.  The yarn is Knit Picks Chroma fingering in the coloryway GoGo Boots.  I do have to say, as far as the yarn goes, I like the in-your-face brightness, but it is definitely not (so far) producing the color changes shown on the website. Disappointed about that.  The pattern, I love! It is super simple to follow, yet like so many of verybusymonkey's designs, looks very intricate.

Completed knitting since January's post: 

Elevation socks for my Mom. 

Two dishcloths, which, like the ones I knit in December, were made with scrap yarn.

Icicles

Michigan

I managed to read two books (woo hoo!  My reading has been much less than I'd like).  

The Stone Wall by Beverly Lewis is her latest novel.  I'd been waiting quite a while to get it from the library, and I did like reading it once I got my hands on it, although I have to admit it seemed a little predictable.

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel was tough for me to put down.  I'll be seeking out more by this author.

Currently I am reading Dressage Riding by Richard Watjen. While I've had this book for years I've never actually read it.  So, this year is the year I'm going to read it cover to cover.

A Quilt For The Quilter

 I think the very first homemade pieced (versus stamped, embroidered) quilt I ever had was made by my Mother-In-Law.  Waaayyyy back, more than 29 years ago now (this past week was the 30th anniversary of the night DH and I met), she gave me/us a quilt that she had made.

Since then, I've received a couple more quilts from her, as well as quilts from two other people, before I started quilting myself.  She has made quilts for each of my kids when they were little, when they graduated from high school, and when they got married (for the two that are married, that is).  She has also made quilts for other members of her family, as well as for family friends.  As far as I know, however, she hasn't made herself a quilt in a long, long time. And I don't think she's received a quilt from anyone else (afterall, she's a quilter, why would someone make her a quilt?) since her own mother got too old and gave up quilting.

At family Christmas in 2019, as I watched 4 members of our extended family unwrap quilts from her in varying sizes, I had an idea.  I would make a quilt for the quilter.  A lap quilt that Mother-In-Law could have for herself, because I knew that she would never think to make such a thing to keep.  Not only would I make her a lap quilt, I would make a lap quilt about her.

Using the books Farm Girl Vintage and Farm Girl Vintage 2, I made a list of blocks that represented facets of Mother-In-Law.  From that list, I made a preliminary sketch of a layout of the blocks into quilt, using both 12" blocks and 6" blocks.

An idea

I ended up changing a few of the 6" blocks that were traditional quilt patterns (meant to represent quilts that she's made for others), moved the row of chicks and eggs down closer to the hen block, and I adjusted colors on pretty much all the blocks to fit her.

A black and white cow to represent all the Holstein cattle she's worked with on the dairy farm.

A red tractor to represent her Farmall (little) A and (Big) H tractors

 

A pink pig, in the back of a black truck, 

for all the piglets she's hauled in that old truck

 and raised into pork for our freezers

Skeins of yarn and a crochet hook,

reminding us of all the afghans

 and baby clothes/blankets she's crocheted.

Hard to see, but the chick blocks have embroidered legs and eyes.

When my kids were little, there were always new spring chicks at her house.

Ta-Da!  A Quilt for The Quilter

The blocks, from upper left corner:

• the family cabin, in the blue my children remember (before a bunkroom addition was put on in the late 2000's and the cabin was re-sided in vinyl.
• Old Glory
• (Holstein) cow
• Sawtooth Star
• Pinwheels
• 9-Patch
• Churn Dash
• Maple Leaf
• Haystack
• Spools (of quilting thread!)
• Pickup with pig
• Yarn Skeins
• Chicks
• Eggs
• (More) Chicks
• Red Barn (in her backyard)
• Hen (For the 1-3 chickens she's always seemed to have)
• Tractor

I bordered the top in X's representative of the many cross stitched designs she's done on quilts and pillow cases for others. For the backing, a farm themed print fabric I found at Hobby Lobby last winter. For the binding, a red and white checked fabric (I think from Lori Holt's Farm Girl collection) from my local quilt shop this past summer that makes me think of plastic table cloths on picnic tables used by Mother-In-Law.

Backing and checkered binding

Due to Covid precautions, Mother-In-Law wanted to space out visits from each of her children this past Christmas. DH & I were finally able to get together with her last weekend, so it wasn't until Saturday that she received her quilt.

She loves it.  And, as DH was told in a phone call on Thursday evening, it works very well--she sat down in her chair Thursday afternoon 'for a minute', and ended up falling asleep under the quilt!!  I take that as a huge compliment.  A nap-inducing quilt is a cozy thing indeed. 

Yarn Along: January '21

 It's a new year, new month, and the first Wednesday.  Time for a Yarn Along post!!

Hoping to join with Ginny for the Yarn Along; I see that she doesn't have it posted on her site yet, so I will go ahead and link in later once hers is up.

There are some December projects to show, all of which were finished in time for Christmas, as well as some January knits all ready.

These socks went to Surprise for Christmas

The pattern is Branching on Ravelry.

I also made, but didn't get a picture of, a pair of Lego man mitts for Toad in the 6-9yr size.

Once the Christmas knits were wrapped up (pun intended, LOL), I made another dish cloth for myself using scrap cotton yarns.  This one is much prettier in real life.  It's the Copycat pattern that I made another scrap yarn dish cloth out of on last month's yarn along.

Right before Christmas, my Mom asked me if I would  to knit her a pair of socks, using yarn she'd bought for that purpose,hopefully in time for her birthday in February.  She dropped off the yarn to me, and I started them on Dec. 30th.  I am using the pattern Elevation, and making the leg the usual length rather than as a short sock.  I think it shows off the color changes of the yarn really well.  Currently, the first sock is knit through the heel turn and ready to pick up the gusset stitches.

Also in the above photo, you see a very purple dish cloth done in the Honeycomb pattern, as well as a light blue dish cloth that is using the Michigan pattern.  Both are using leftover cotton yarn.  I'm hoping to use up my stash of scrap cotton yarns this month.

Reading in December was squeezed in around work, holiday prep, and making presents. According to my reading log, I read the newest Sloan Krause mystery, Without a Brew, by Ellie Alexander, and that was it.  After waiting a long, long time to get my hands on this through the local library, I read it way too fast for the hectic time that is late December.  It was a 7-day checkout through the library so I had to churn through it and finish it on time.  Even so, I really enjoyed the story and can't wait for the next one in the series--which apparently is in the work but not due to be published until October 2021.