Monday, April 26, 2021

Another week with some progress

 
Here it is another Monday morning and another week of being in lock down.  It is now going to be until at least the middle of May before we can start to do things again.

We continue to work remotely, so that is one good thing.  Now to see when things start to improve, and we can do some things outside.  It would be so nice to be able to sit on a patio again.

Mini Forget Me Not - I have once again been able to get some stitches in on this project.  I have now at least reached the top right corner of the pattern and will see how it goes from here.  I have been working on some bigger areas as I wanted areas where I can secure the odd stitches in the back. I am now sure what I will work on this week, but I think it will be to continue to add in some of the colours that make up the background.

In Our Garden - I have once again been able to spend a bit of time working on In Our Garden Many Flowers Bloom.  I am happy to see that the words are starting to appear, and I have got the outline of the middle section done. This week I wanted to get more of the words added but also change to a different colour for a while.

It is nice to see the start of the middle section as that is where all the different colours get added.  I still need to finish up with the words on the top of the piece, but they will be added when I am in the mood to work on letters instead of the other section. I will try and work on this piece again later this week as it is nice to see a bit of progress on something that is smaller than the pieces I have been working on.

English Paper piecing - what can I say about this project other than it is getting bigger and closer to being done.  When I say done it means all the motifs will have been added. I now have 14 motifs to add to this piece and then the next challenge will happen and that will be quilting and finishing it up.

This last week I ended up working on one section that I hadn't meant on doing right away.  I normally sit with the throw on my lap when I am adding the motifs.  Early last week I was sitting and working on a section and I thought I was working across the throw, and instead I ended up adding the rest of the motifs down the right side.  It has meant that it is a bit more of a challenge to add the rest of the motifs but at least I can still do it. 

This project will continue to get my attention as I would like to get the rest of the motifs added and then figure out what are the next steps in finishing it up.

Socks - my socks are slowly getting attention, but again the two socks are still waiting to be finished up.  I still need to decrease for the toe on both of them and will see when that happens.

Other projects - I am always working on a bunch of things and one of the other projects that I am working on will get a picture taken when it is finished.  I am having some fun with it and that is what is important right now.  I know that if I can spend some time working on all of my projects I will see some good progress.

I hope everyone continues to find a bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy.  We are all continuing to deal with the challenges of the pandemic, so we need to ensure that we take some time for ourselves.  Hope everyone has a good week and stay safe and follow all the guidelines that you are given as we all want to get back to seeing friends and family again.

Take care of yourself and find that bit of time to relax and enjoy the time for yourself.




Monday, April 19, 2021

Progress on some items this week

Here it is the start of another week and another week of working remotely and dealing with the various Covid-19 restrictions.  If you are in Ontario you know that instead of a 4-week lockdown it has now been changed to 6 weeks, so now it lasts until the middle of May. Stores have more restrictions on capacity but other than that things are about the same for all of us that work remotely.

Mini Forget Me Not - this project got some attention this week, and I am happy with the progress that I was able to make on it.  I did finish another one of the small pages, so now I have four pages to finish and three of them are full pages.  I am looking forward to seeing how much more of this I can get done as over the weekend I surpassed the 60% completed. 

On the weekend I decided that instead of working in the area where there was a lot of colour changes that I would see if I can make some progress on the top section of the piece. With a bit of effort I was able to get at least a few stitches closer to the top of the design.  I am one row short of the top of the pattern on the corner right-hand side.  Maybe this week I can get that row done, and then I will truly know the side of the design. I will see what stitching I can get done this week as I do have other projects that I need to do.

In Our Garden Many Flowers Bloom - I am happy to see that this weekend I got the border of the design finally stitched.  I am going to see if I can spend some time through this week working on this piece as I would like to move this forward as well.  I am loving how quickly I can see results on this piece so now to see how things go.

There is lots of this one colour in the piece, so I am thinking that I might try and add a bit of a different colour just to give myself a bit of a change. I will see what I feel like when I pick this piece up again as getting more of the words added would also be nice, so I will see what I do.

This continues to be the piece that I try and work on a bit each weekend so let's see what happens this coming weekend.

English Paper Piecing - this week I decided it was time to put some good effort into getting the throw for my mom moved forward.  I didn't get a lot of the motifs added but at least I have been able to get more of the edges sewn together. I am now at a good level because I only have 34 motifs to add to this piece, and then it will be time to figure out how to quilt it and get it all finished up.

Once this throw is finished up it will be time to start to work on the other versions of this throw so will see how things go.  I am thinking that once I have got this one done I will know some of the challenges that something this size has.  I am still going to continue to get the other three done as it will be nice to have all of them done before it is time to curl up with something like this in the fall.

Other projects - I continue to work on my socks a bit each time, but I still haven't finished up the two socks that I have sitting and waiting for the toe decrease. I will see how that goes this week as I am also working on a couple of other projects so will see what happens.

I hope everyone continues to find a bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy doing.  Making sure that we all find that time is important for ourselves, but it is also important so that we have the energy to help others as well.  Please continue to stay safe and know that if we all continue to follow the various rules and restrictions we can get back to a normal and start to see friends and family again.



 


Monday, April 12, 2021

Where did the week go?

Mini Forget Me Not
Here it is the start of another week and yes another week in lockdown for us.  It will be nice when we can get back to normal but until our number of Covid-19 cases goes down we aren't going to be seeing any change here.

We continue to work remotely which is good and at least we have continued to be able to assist our clients.  It will be nice when we can do some things away from home for a change but will see how things go in the next couple of months.

Mini Forget Me Not Apr 6
Mini Forget Me Not - here is the project that got most of the attention this week.  I was able to finally get that one page finished that I wanted to do.  It felt nice seeing that the entire bottom of the pattern is now done.  I have complete 4 out of the 9 pages so am not working to see when I can get another page done.  I am currently working on one of the smaller pages, so hopefully I can get that done before too long.

Mini Forget Me Not Apr 11
I am happy with the progress that I have been able to make this week, and I am looking forward to seeing when this piece will actually be finished.  I continue to try and put at least a few stitches in each day as it does make me happy to see the progress at the end of each week on it.

I will continue to work on this piece and will see what if the fairy will start to appear this week.

In Our Garden
In Our Garden Many Flowers Bloom - here is a new start for me, and I am excited with the progress that I was able to make on it.  I started this Wednesday and only worked on it a couple of days this week.  I am loving the border, and I am trying to work on getting it done as well as getting some more of the words added.

This piece doesn't have a lot of colours, so it is making it a lot of fun to work on as well as see the progress on it quickly.  I am thinking that this will probably get attention each weekend as I would really like to see this piece finished up quickly.  I know that I have other pieces that I should also be working on but right now this is the piece that I am loving.

Mary Jane Fry - there is no picture of Mary Jane Fry this week as it has gone into hiding for a bit.  Last week while working on it, I discovered that I had made an error in counting, so one side of the border needs to be taken out. Once all the side border has been taken out it will come back out, and I will continue to work on it but for ow it needs a bit of time away.

Socks - I haven't worked on my socks at all in the last week, so there is no change in them either.   I still have two socks that I need to finish and one sock that needs the ribbing done, so maybe those are things that might get attention this week.

I am going to be trying to make some progress on a few things this week once I have got all the work that needs my attention done.  I know that I have quite a few projects that I can work on so will see which ones get the attention this week.

I hope everyone is staying safe and finding some time each day to do something for yourself.  It is important that we make sure that we take care of ourselves so that we have the energy to take care of others.  Have a good week and hopefully the weather will start to improve, and we will be able to star to enjoy the outdoors a little more.


 

Monday, April 5, 2021

Another week and some progress

Here it is the start of another week. It is still the same around here as Ontario has once again been put into a version of lockdown.  Yes, retail stores can be open but with very limited capacity.  It does make it a challenge when you want to go grocery shopping or to the pharmacy.
 
We continue to work remotely which is something that we have been doing for a while even before Covid-19.  A lot of our work doesn't need us to be at a client site, so that helps a lot. 

Mini Forget Me Not - here is a piece that got some attention this week as I decided that I was going to see how long it would take me to finish another page. I haven't finished the page yet, but I am getting closer to having it finished so that I s what I have been focusing on.  I also did a bit on the next page because I wanted some change in areas, so that helped as well.

This week I am going to continue to work on getting the page finished as it would be nice to get that done.  I am thinking that if I just focus on all the confetti stitches that are involved on this page then I will get it done.  Once this page is done I will be roller up and working on the rest of the design as I will only have five pages left.  I am now over 50% stitched, so that is also a motivating factor with this piece.

Mary Jane Fry - this piece got some attention on Saturday as it was time to see if I could get it moved forward.  I didn't get a lot of stitching done on her but at least her name is now complete, and I have moved the vine up a bit.  I will see how much attention she gets this week as I know that there might be another project added this week.

Mary continues to be a lot of fun to work on because it is a lot different from always working on a full coverage.  It does feel nice when you can see progress when you haven't spent a lot of time on the piece. I will see what I can do on this piece this week as it would be nice to continue to see bits of this design done.

English Paper Piecing - this week I have been able to move my mom's throw forward a bit.  It is now to the point that it is easier to have my DH fold it up so that I can take a picture of it.  I love how it is turning out, and I am looking forward to getting to the point that it will be ready to put together.  I still have around 50 motifs to add to it but at least it is moving forward even if it is only a bit at a time.  There are a lot of seams that need sewing together when each motif is added, so sometimes it doesn't look like I have done much but there has been quite a bit of sewing done.

Another project was added to my English Paper piecing list and that was a set of place mats that I wanted to make.  These place mats are also going to be used for me to learn how to do binding on a piece like this.  I figured it would be a good idea to have something smaller to learn how to do binding on before I attempt to do it on the throw which is a lot bigger.

Socks - I am continuing to work on my socks, but they have been slow moving in the last couple of weeks.  One of my projects is two of the socks need the toe decrease done on them and another sock needs the ribbing done.  Both of these sections are the sections that I don't like doing as much as the rest of the sock, so it means that they end up waiting a bit before they are moved forward.

I hope everyone continues to stay safe, and you find some time each day to do something for yourself.  We continue to try and stay safe, and yesterday we were able to get our first vaccine so now to wait and see when we can get our second vaccine. We know that we have to wait at least three weeks, but we are thankful that we have started that progress.

Hope everyone has a good week and you find some time for yourself.