A bit of progress

 It is hard to believe it is Monday already.  I am not sure where the last week went but now to see how this week goes.  

Covid-19 is still resulting in our lockdown, but it sounds like things might start to open up by the middle of June as case numbers are finally starting to go down.

Mini Forget Me Not - this past week I decided to work on one area of the piece so that I could see how much of it I could get done.  I decided to pick one colour and then see how far it went and am very happy with the progress that I was able to make.

I continue to work on this piece each day and being able to do that means that I have been able to make some good progress on it. I have passed the 85% complete on the piece and now have just under 6,000 stitches to go.  Yes, that is still a lot of stitching, but I am enjoying how it is turning out.  This week I will continue to work on sections of the piece at a time so that I can see how much more of it I can see completed.

I am looking forward to seeing this piece finished and now to see if I can get it done before it's anniversary of when I started it.  I think I can but will have to see how it goes.

Emily Ann Foster - this piece got some more attention as well this week, and it was a lot of fun stitching on it.  After I finished the second row of the motifs I decided that I was going to work one thread on each row until I got to where the bottom section starts.  It has been a lot of fun working that way because it means that I am seeing what each motif section looks like as well as getting some alphabets done.  I am now at the point where I have the numbers and one more motifs row because I stop and work on these sections until they are done.  

I am going to continue to work one thread at a time on each of these rows as it is a lot of run seeing the progress that way.  I would like to see how much of this I can get done, but I won't be focusing on it until Mini Forget Me Not is done. This piece is stitching up pretty quickly, so that makes me feel good.  I am looking forward to seeing it done as well, but it is going to have to wait for a bit.

Other stuff - I am working on a few other projects but a lot of them are in more of the planning and starting stages.  I know that once I have finished Mini Forget Me Not I want to have some other projects to work on, so that is part of what the planning is about.

We continue to work remotely and are now waiting to hear when it is time for us to get our second vaccine.  Have to admit that I can't wait to hear that it is our turn so will see when that happens.  I hope everyone continues to find a bit of time to do the things that you enjoy each day.  I am going to continue to work on Mini Forget Me Not each day and will see what it looks like next week. 

Stay safe and remember even a few minutes each day of doing things you enjoy is good for you. 

Some good progress this week

 Here it is the start of another week and I have to say that I was able to get some things moved forward in the last week so yes a little more to talk about than normal. It felt good seeing some good progress on things this week and now to continue to move everything forward.

We are still in lockdown but at least some outdoor activities are now available, and they are saying that if everything continues to go like it is we should be able to start to reopen around June 14th, but it is going to be a very slow process once it starts to happen.

Mini Forget Me Not - this piece continues to get some attention every day, and I am happy that I have been able to continue to do that. It means that at the end of the week I can see some progress on the piece which makes me feel very good. I have reached 82.96% done, and I am looking forward to seeing what it looks like when it is finished.  

I think I am now at the point where I will be starting to fill in more of the flowers and the fairy as I don't have a lot more of the big sections of colour to do.  Right now I am trying to get a bit more of the top areas done so that I can work on the lower sections all at once, but will see if that really happens.

 This week I will continue to work on this piece and see how much more I can get done as it would be nice to see that I have started to get the flowers stitched.

Emily Ann Foster - this is a piece that I just recently started as the pattern was a gift for my birthday. This piece is stitched in just two shades of red and so far I have been enjoying it, and I am looking forward to seeing how quickly it can stitch up.

English paper piecing - I am happy to say that I finished sewing all the motifs onto mom's throw last week.  It made me happy to see that I was able to get them added and now to start the next part of the project which is the quilting of the piece.

I have a good friend that has been helping me figure out how I want to quilt the throw as well as how to add binding.  I have never quilted before, so this is a big project for me, but I am loving how it is turning out.  I know that the quilting is going to take me some time but at least it is slowing started to take shade, so that is great.

This week I hope to be able to start the quilting on the throw as it would be nice to see this piece done.  Besides working on mom's throw last week I have been working on making a placemat using some other motifs that I have.  The placemat is all joined, so it just needs to be quilted and the binding added.  The placemat is actually what I am going to be using as a practice piece for the binding so that I have a bit more confidence on how to do it before doing it on the throw, The second placemat is just about finished as well, so that will be nice, so I will have two placemats finished soon as well as the throw.

I have been having a lot of fun working on these projects and am now starting to get the fabrics organized for the other three throws that I will be making.  It is going to take me some time to get all the motifs done even for one of them but at least I am starting to feel better about them now.

Other stuff - I continue to work on a few other projects but nothing gets a lot of attention as I am trying to focus on getting some of these projects moved forward.  I will see once the weather warms up somewhat I work on as I love having projects that I can work on while sitting on the balcony and I think I may have some of those already on the go.

We continue to work remotely for our clients and that won't be changing for a long time because we did it even before Covid-19.  

I hope everyone has been having a great week and if you are enjoying a long weekend like I am hope you are having a great one. Please try and find a few minutes each day to do the things you enjoy doing as it does help you be able to focus on all the other things going on around you.  We continue to stay safe and will be looking forward to when we can get our second vaccine which hopefully will be sometime next month.

Have a great week and enjoy your bits of time when you can do the things that you love.

A bit more progress

 Here it is the start of another week and another week of being in lockdown.  We had hoped to be out of lockdown by the end of this week, but it has now been extended until at least June 2nd. I totally understand keeping us in lockdown as the case numbers are still high enough in Ontario.

We continue to work remotely, so that hasn't changed at all, and we will be doing that even after lockdown as that is how we work most of the time. The weather is at least getting warmer out so that means we can spend some time sitting on the balcony.

Mini Forget Me Not - this past week I was able to make some good progress on this piece and am now looking forward to seeing more of it done.  I still have quite a bit of the background to work on but will see if I can get a bit of the details of the flowers done this week.  I think a lot of that will depend on how much time I have to work on this piece.

I am very happy with where I am on the piece as I am just about 80% finished, so it means that once I can start to work on the details the entire picture will start to come alive.  I will see what I actually get done this week as my schedule is a little busier with a bunch of virtual conferences that are all being held this week.

English paper piecing - the throw got a bit of attention this week as I was sewing a lot of the seams together that I needed to do. I am now just about finished attaching all the motifs as I have three more to go as well as finish the rest of the seams.

I had hoped to have all the motifs added before the end of the weekend, but that didn't happen given all the other stuff that needed to be done.  I will try and get these motifs added in soon so that I can then figure out how to quilt this throw and get it finished up. I am excited to see it completed and hope that my mom likes it when she gets it.  I have enjoyed working on it and look forward to knowing that she will be able to use it and hopefully feel that popsy is still near her.

With the weather warmer up we decided it was time to try and plant some different flowers and items in containers on the balcony, so that is one of the things that we did this weekend.  I will take some pictures of the various containers once the plants have had a bit of time to get established.

I hope everyone continues to find the time to do something that you enjoy doing each day.  I continue to spend bits of time each day doing what I love doing, and it makes everything else seem not so bad.  With the weather warmer up it means that there will be more chances of going for walks and just getting out which is always good.

Have a good week, and please remember to stay safe.

Some slow progress

Here it is the start of another week and yes we are still in lockdown which may get extended again. Remote working is still going strong so that is one of the good things about this.

Mini Forget Me Not - this week I once again worked on this piece each day, and it is making me happy to see that I am slowly making progress on it. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked on this piece but at least I have been able to move it forward.  I am working on the very top section of the piece, and I am loving how it is something together.  It would like to see if I can get right across the top before too long. 

It has been interesting watching the colours come together on the top section and I can't wait to start to fill in the rest of the colour on this piece.  I am going to be added some more forget-me-nots before too long, so that will add some night colour to the top of the piece. I will see what I work on this week as I would like to see more of this design completed before too long.  My goal this week is to reach over 75% completed on the piece and then will see what else I can achieve.

English Paper Piecing - the throw is getting closer and closer to having all the motifs attached.  I now have 8 motifs to attached, and then it will be time to figure out the quilting of the piece as well as the binding of the entire piece.  It is making me happy seeing that I am getting so much closer to having a finish on this quilt top.  

This weekend I started to work on making sure that I will have some fabric ready to start to work on the other throws that I am planning on making with this fabric.  I have learned a lot about English paper piecing through doing this quilt top, and I am looking forward to seeing if the other ones are a bit easier to manage.

Over the last little while I have been trying to figure out how to quilt this throw and have been watching lots of videos and I think I have finally figured out how to do it.  I hope that once the piece is all attached I can then talk to a friend about my idea, and then I can start with the quilting and binding of this piece.  

My goal now is to get the eight motifs added to the throw and then continue to work to get this throw completed and given to my mom.

Socks - I am happy to say that I finally sat down and worked on getting these two socks finished up.  It didn't take me long to get them finished.  Now to figure out which socks I will be starting so that I can have a bunch of socks on the go again.  I currently have one sock started and now to work on making sure that I can get these two circular needles filed again before too long.

I continue to work on some other projects and will be taking pictures of them soon.  My goal this year is to have fun with my projects and not stress about any of them.  I have some projects that need a lot more attention and some that don't so will see what happens in the next while.  While we remain in lockdown I will continue to see which projects get the most attention as I know that my crafts have helped me through this last year and will continue to help.

I hope everyone has a good week, and you continue to find a bit of time each day to do the things that you enjoy doing.  I will see what I do this week as I know finding some time each day is also important to me so hopefully next week I will have more progress to show you.

 

Some progress this week

Here it is the start of another week and yes I think things are slowly starting to improve, but it is going to be taking a while.  We continue to be in lockdown and will be for another three weeks so will see how things go.

Working remotely continues and that is something that for us, we have done even before the pandemic, so things haven't changed much.  The being able to go to a coffee shop or sit on a patio that is what has changed and hopefully that will start to open up again soon. Vaccinations continue to be administered and currently just over 40% of all Ontario adults have their first dose.  Now we just wait to hear when we can start to get our second dose.

In Our Garden Many Flowers Bloom - this piece once again got a bit of attention and I have finished one colour of the flower stems.  I love how quickly this piece is stitching up, and I am looking forward to seeing if I can get more of it done this week.  It is fun to see all the bright colours because that isn't something that I normally stitch with.

This week I hope to continue to add a bit more to this piece as it would be nice to see this project completed soon.  I do have a few other projects that I would like to work on, so I need to get this piece done before the other ones can be added.

Mini Forget Me Not - I continue to work on this piece each day, and I am making progress on it.  I continue to work on some larger areas of colour, but I have also started to fill in some other colours as well.

This week I decided to see if I could get part of the fairy added, so I got most of her hair done, and I have also worked on both her arm and face.  The arm is just below the bottom of the picture.

If things go well this week I will continue to add more colours to her as well as some bigger sections.  I love how more and more of the design is starting to appear, and I can't wait until I start to add the flowers that are at the top. This piece has been very enjoyable to work on especially with it having the larger sections of colour as well as the little bits of colour in various areas.  I know that before long I will be working on just the top section of the piece but until then I will continue to bounce down and see if I can get rest of her finished up so that I can have a picture of her.

English Paper Piecing - I didn't get any motifs added to the throw in the last week as I was working on getting some other things done.  I will see what I can get done this week as it would be nice to see the entire throw attached, and then I can work on the quilting of it. 

Socks - once again I haven't finished knitting the two socks that I just need to finish up, but I have been able to make a bit of progress on another one.  I love having a sock on the go for when I am attending a webinar or a social via the computer. Now to see if I can finally get those two socks finished up as with all the webinars coming up I think I better make sure that I have more socks available to work on.

Of course, I have other projects on the go but will be taking pictures of them once they are at a point where you can see some detail.  I am happy being able to spend a bit of time each day doing something that I love as it makes handling everything else just a bit easier.

I hope you find some time each day to do something that you love doing.  It doesn't matter how long you spend but at least taking that bit of time for yourself ensures that you have the energy to help others around you.  Continue to stay safe and take care of yourself and others around you and then hopefully before too long we will all be able to get back to doing all the things that we miss.