Another week and three finishes

Here it is the start of another week, and I was able to make a little bit of progress on things last week. Now to see if I can continue to make progress on things this week. It is going to be a busy week so will have to see what I can get done when I have the bits of time to myself.

I have been working on getting a bunch of things organized so I didn't spend as much time working on my crafting but that didn't bother me as I was able to at least get progress on things.

Star Touch Meadows - November - here is the cross stitch that got some attention as I wanted to see how much of it, I could get done before the end of the month.

I was trying to make some progress on it as the next section of the stitch along comes out this coming Friday. It would be nice to see more of this done otherwise I am going to feel way behind on this project. I know that each of these sections are a full coverage piece so they aren't going to be something that I will get done in the month unless I just focus on doing this project.

It does feel good seeing that I am getting some of the colours completed and that is what I have been trying to focus on for a while. I was going to work in sections of the piece but decided to try and work on a colour at a time and see if I could get it done on the entire piece and it has been helping. I have finished three of the colours so far and now to work on getting more done.

Holiday Cardinal - here is a project that worked up nice and quickly this week. I wanted to make some Christmas ornaments so found this pattern. It is Holiday Cardinal by Pigeon Coop Designs. It was a fun piece to do and instead of the French knots that the pattern called for I put beads in instead. It didn't take me long to stitch this ornament up and get it into the frame. Now to see if I can get the rest of the ornaments completed before too long. I hope to be able to focus on getting the other ornaments completed in the next couple of weeks so that they are finished.

Scissor fob - here is another quick project that I got done this past week. I had decided that I wanted a scissor fob for my cross stitch scissors that I use so made this in the past week. It was fun to work on and something that doesn't take a lot of materials to do.

Curling Mist Shawl - this has been my knitting focus piece as I wanted to see if I could get it completed by the end of November. The last set of rows were taking a long time to complete, but I was determined to see if I could get this shawl off the needles in the last week. 

Last week I decided to focus on this for a couple of days to see if I could get it finished and by Wednesday it was finally off the needles. It has felt really good getting this project completed as it was getting very long. I still have to sew in the ends but at least it is off the needle and hopefully before the end of the month the ends will also be sewn in.

After finishing this shawl, I haven't picked up any knitting since as I have been trying to figure out what I am going to work on next.

Other projects - I haven't worked on any other projects in the last week but that doesn't bother me as I was able to get a few things achieved.

This week I will see what I can get done as I know that there are lots of things on my schedule, so it is going to be a busy week. I do hope that I can pick up my English Paper Piecing as that hasn't got a lot of attention this month.

I hope everyone continues to find that little bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy. Making sure that we can recharge our own personal batteries is important especially this time of year. 

Have a good week and I hope to have something to show next week.

Again, made some progress

 Here it is the start of another week and I week that I think is going to be pretty busy. I am not certain what I will get done this week with regards to crafting, but we will just have to wait and see.

I have been able to spend some time in the last week getting some crafting done so that has made me a little happier. This coming week I will see what time I have, and which project or projects get the attention.

Star Touched Meadows - November - here is the cross stitch piece that got my attention in the last week. This is a stitch along hosted by Carolyn Manning called Star Touched Meadows. It is a twelve-month stitch along and each month you get a new design that is 77 x 77 stitches but full coverage.

This is the November piece as the stitch along just started. I am going to be trying to make some more progress on this piece as it would be nice to have it closer to a finish before the next piece comes out on December 1st. What I have been trying to do is get some of the diamonds stitched, so that I can work on filling in some of the other colours and have places where I can secure my threads.

This week I would like to see if I can move this forward a bit more, but I also have a couple of Christmas ornaments that I should try and get done. What I may try and do if my schedule allows is work on the ornaments for part of the week and then work on this project for a bit as well.

Curling Mist Shawl - here is the knitting project that I have been working on and trying to get it closer to a finish. Last week I decided that I was going to try and focus on this knitting for a little while and see how much of it I could get done. At the end of last week, I had the cable section and the garter section to do as well as finish a garter section. 

In the last week I focused on getting some of the knitting done and I finished the one section of garter and then I worked on the cable section and got it completed as well. It was nice to get that much of the shawl moved forward. I have also been working on the final garter section and how have 14 rows to go to finish the shawl.

This project is enjoyable to work on, but the rows do take quite a while to get done. I finished out that each row takes about 10 minutes to complete so I don't get a lot of progress during my 30 minutes of knitting that I try and do each day. At least I am moving the project forward. This week I am going to try and find some time to work on this shawl and maybe even get it off the needles.

Other projects - as you can imagine I didn't get much progress on anything else. I have been working on getting progress on the shawl so that took most of my time. This week I am not certain what will get my attention, but I do know that I would like to see some progress on things.

I hope everyone is finding that little bit of time each day to make progress on something. The progress may be reading a few pages of a book or spending that bit of time just sitting and recharging. Progress doesn't have to be something that you can see. Spending time planning a vacation in y our head is also progress.

Next week I hope to have a bit of progress to show you on something that I have been doing. I am not certain what is going to get my attention other than the shawl. Have a good week and remember that we all need to take that little bit of time for ourselves each day.

More progress on both projects

Here it is the start of another week and yes, I was able to find some time and energy to work on both projects that have been my focus for the last little while. It was nice to get more progress on projects even with being busy with work and other things. We will see what I end up working on this week.

Pandemic - here is the cross stitch project that got some more attention this week. I am happy with how much I was able o get done on it. I think Pandemic is going to be put aside for a little bit as I have some other projects that I need to get done. I don't think it will be far, but getting some of the other things done like some Christmas ornaments are now on the calendar.

Curling Mist Shawl - here is the knitting project that I have been working on and am happy with the progress that I made again in the last week. I have been able to get another one of the cable sections completed and am now working on another garter section.  With this project I have two sections to complete after the garter section that I am currently working on. There are still around 70 rows to go on the shawl, so it isn't going to be happening this week, but I hope to have a finish on this shawl before too long. 

This shawl has been a lot of fun to work on even with-it having cable in the design. I am not someone that has ever liked working on cable but at least I have been able to get this shawl moved forward and maybe cable isn't so bad. This is only 2 stitches for the cable so I can do it without a cable needle so that is probably why I haven't minded doing it. The cable sections do take longer to do but at least I have been getting them done. I didn't realize when I picked up this pattern that there was cable in it, but I have been able to get it done so that helps.

Other projects - I haven't worked on any other projects in the past week as I have been trying to focus on just getting these done. I am thinking that I may be working on some other projects this coming week especially now that I am putting Pandemic to the side for a little bit.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to do something for yourself. I know even the days that I don't get any crafting done I make sure I take a few minutes to myself to help recharge my personal batteries.

I hope everyone has a good week and next week I will see what projects I have picked up. There are a couple of cross stitch projects that need some attention so those might be what I end up working on. Time will tell and I will show you what I ended up working on. Have a good week and I will see you next Monday.

More progress on at least one project

Here it is the start of another week and I hope to be able to spend a bit of time this week working on both my knitting and cross stitch projects. 

Pandemic - here is the cross stitch project that got the attention again this week and I am happy with the progress that I was able to make on it. I didn't work on this every day last week, but I was able to get a couple of good stitching times which helped move this project forward.

Now that I have figured out how I am going to be working on this piece it has helped me see more progress on it. When I was working on this before I was bouncing all over and now, I am working on small sections at a time, and I feel like I am getting more of it done than I was doing before.

Curling Mist Shawl - this project didn't get much attention at all this past week. I know that I did pick it up a couple of times but not as often as I would have liked.

I am thinking that this coming week I will try and see if I can make some more progress on this project as I am trying to get it finished before too long. Just seeing it completed would make me happy and the only way I am going to be able to do that is to work on it again. I am now going to try and focus on getting more rows done on this shawl this coming week as it would be nice to see it closer to being finished. 

Other projects - I haven't had a lot of time to work on other projects so now to figure out just how to get back to seeing progress on a lot of the different things that I would like to finish up. I do have three Christmas ornaments that I need to make so that means that I am going to have to work on them before long. I don't think they are going to take me too long to make but I still need to get them done.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to do something for yourself. On the days when I wasn't crafting I sill was able to mind a bit of time where I could do something for myself. Being able to recharge your personal battery is important and it helps you have the energy and focus so that you can help those around you.

Hopefully next week I will have some more progress to show you on a couple of projects. I hope to pick up my knitting a bit more as well as add few stitches into Pandemic. May you have a week where you can get things done and enjoy yourself. I hope to see you again next week.



 

English Paper Piecing - October progress

Here it is the start of another month, and it is time to show some of the progress that I have been able to  \make on the different English Paper Piecing projects that I have been working on. This past month I focused on just two of the projects and I am happy with the progress that I was able to make on both.

Table Runner - here is the piece that I decided that I wanted to try and get moved forward some so that meant sitting and working on getting more of the motifs added to the actual runner. It does make me happy to see that I was able to make a bit of progress on it.

This project is now at the point that if I could focus on it I would be able to get the top of the runner completed before too long. I still need to figure out the number of motifs I have left to add to this project and then maybe I can work on just getting it done. It would be nice to see this runner closer to a finish so that might be something that I try and focus on in the next couple of months, but we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Scrap Throw - here is the project that seems to have got the most attention and part of that is because it was easy to work on when I was trying to juggle a lot of other things. It was nice to have a project that I could work on a little bit at a time and see progress on it.

What I decided to do with this project was to work on joining sections of motifs together so that it might be easier to get them attached to the overall scrap throw. Having these little pieces with me makes it easier to work on and it means that I am not carrying around the big throw when I don't have a lot of time to work on it.

Now that I have a bunch of groups/flowers completed I hope that I can start to add them to the scrap throw and maybe see how quickly that goes. I hope that doing the piecing this way will also help more the project forward a little quicker.

The other thing that I did in October was to continue to make some of the denim motifs that I need for this throw as they are going to be part of the border. I know that being able to get these motifs made would be great, but I need to get more of the inside of the throw put together because a lot of denim motifs will come in happy.

Other projects - I didn't work on any of the other EPP projects that I have on the go as I was trying to just focus on moving a couple of them forward instead of trying to work on too many at once. Now that it is November, I will see what projects I work on.

I am really enjoying working on the different projects and I know that there are a couple that I haven't touched for a while and maybe it's time for me to pull them out and see what I can get done on them. I have 30 days to work on my projects again this month and I will see what happens. 

If things go well, I should have some more progress to show you at the end of November. I am not certain which projects will get my attention, but I hope that at least a couple of them do get a bit of time this month. Have a great month and I will see you for another EPP update on December 1st.

 

Making some good progress

Here it is the start of another week and I know that I have lots of things that need my attention this week. I hope that I can continue to move things forward a little bit at a time.

Pandemic - here is the cross stitch piece that got some attention in the last week. I am very happy with the progress that I have been able to make on this piece since I picked it up a couple of weeks ago.

I am trying to work on small sections of the piece at a time and it seems to be helping. What I have been doing is picking one small area and then work on it. It seems to be helping me move this project froward as I am seeing more of it done each time, I put it down. I didn't have a lot of time this past week to work on Pandemic, but I am happy with what I was able to get done.

Curling Mist Shawl - here is the knitting project that I have been working on. It makes me happy to see that I have been able to continue to move this project forward. I didn't have a lot of time to knit last week so i didn't get as much progress done as I would have liked. Now to see what this week is like and maybe I will be able to spend some time working on the shawl.

I have at least been able to finish the first ball of yarn on this project and I am just about at 40% complete for the stitching on this shawl. It makes me happy to see how it is coming along. Of course, there is still a long way to go because I am at 169 stitches, and I need to get to 268 stitches. Lots more knitting to go on this project but I am enjoying it and look forward to continuing to move it forward.

Other projects - I haven't had a lot of time in the last week to work on things so no other project has been touched. Hopefully this week I will be able to see a bit more progress on different projects, but I will have to wait and see. I do know that given that I didn't have a lot of time last week I am happy with what I did get done. 

I hope everyone continues to find that little bit of time each day to do something for yourself. It doesn't have to be a lot of time but even those few minutes of sitting quietly and doing nothing is good. It gives us the time to relax and recharge our personal battery. Last week I was at a conference for two days and just finding that quiet spot and doing nothing felt so good.

If things go well this week, I hope to have some more progress to show you next week. I will also have an English Paper piecing blog up later this week to show you the progress that I have made on these projects. Have a good week and enjoy that time that you take for yourself.

Another finish and more progress

Here it is the start of another week and a week that is going to be very busy for me. I am looking forward to this week as I know it will be a lot different than most of my weeks so I will just have to see what crafting I can get done. 

The weather is currently crazy here as we had a frost warning last night and tomorrow the temperature is going to be back around 20C. No wonder people don't know how to dress at this time of the year.

Jolly Squirrel - here is a project that did come out this past week and I am very happy with what I was able to get done on it. I made a couple of little changes to the piece because I didn't want it to look Christmassy, so I didn't do all the snowflakes that were around the squirrel.

What does make me happy is I have been able to finish this piece and it is now ready to be fully finished. I haven't decided how I am going to finish it yet, but I am looking forward to seeing it done.

This piece was a lot of fun to work on and something a little different for me. The finished piece measures 3.5 inches square so it isn't very big at all which is nice.

Now that this piece is done, I have some small Christmas ornaments that I would like to work on but I am going to leave them for a couple weeks before I pick them up and start working on them.

Pandemic - here is a piece that I haven't worked on since June and I figured it needed a bit of attention.  What I decided to do was to work on one small section and see how it went. 

What is nice about this piece is there are a lot of little areas that you can work on and get them completed and then move onto another section. This time I worked on a small section and then started working on one of the larger sections.

It didn't take me too long to see some good progress on this piece given I only worked on it over the weekend. I hope to be able to continue to move this project forward a little bit more before I decide to work on something else.

Curling Mist Shawl - here is the knitting project that I have been working on and love how it is turning out. I still have a long way to go before it's finished but I do enjoy picking it up and working on it.

The pattern section is a cable pattern, but it isn't too difficult to do and it is something that now that I have completed it a couple of times has become a section that I enjoy working on. I am still trying to pick this project up some days, so it gets attention as I am looking forward to seeing what this shawl looks like once it is completed. I think I am about a third of the way through the actual knitting so will see what it looks like when it is finished and off the needles.

Other projects - I was able to work on my English Paper piecing for a little while this week so when I write that blog at the end of the month, I will have stuff to show.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to do things that you enjoy doing. This week is going to be busy for us, but I will still try and find those little bits of time to at least sit and relax and do nothing. I hope everyone has a good week and if things go well, I should have a bit of progress on something to show you next week.

A finish and some progress

Here it is the start of another week and a week where I know that there are going to be some busy days. The fall weather has also arrived here so that means that there probably won't be any more days of sitting on the balcony and watching the neighbourhood.

Jolly Squirrel - this project finally got a bit of attention on Sunday. It had been sitting looking the same until finally I decided it was time to pick it up and see how much of it, I could get done. It really didn't take me too long to get most of the squirrel completed. It is a lot of fun to work on but given the number of little colour changes it does take some time to get it done.

This coming week I will see if I can spend a bit more time on this piece because I don't think it should take me that much longer to get it finished. I just have the tail to finish and if I can focus on the tail, it should go relatively quickly or at least I hope it does. The pattern does have some snowflakes around the squirrel, but I will be leaving them off as I don't want the piece to look like a Christmas ornament.

Getting this project completed will make me happy as I do want to get it fully finished before too long as well. I haven't decided how I am going to finish it, but as it isn't very big it won't take long to finish no matter what I decided to do. 

Preemie blanket - this project has been the 30 minutes of knitting most days project. This week I was able to spend some time most days working on it and by the end of Thursday all of the knitting was completed, and the blanket is now off the needles. I haven't sewn all the ends in on the blanket yet but that won't take me long and then the project will be finished.

It is always nice when I can focus on getting a project finished and it works out like I wanted it too. This project was something that I enjoyed working on because it was something that didn't require a pattern and I could just pick it up and work on it when I had a few minutes.

This blanket was done following the pattern, so I only increased up to 170 stitches and then it was time to decrease and finish the blanket. It was easy and something that I could get done quickly. Given I didn't knit on it everyday I was able to get this all knit in one month.

There is still some of this yarn still left so I will be trying to figure out another project that I can work on and finish up the rest of this yarn. I have enjoying working on the preemie blankets, but it is now time to work on something else for a while and move it forward.

Curling Mist Shawl - after I finished the Preemie blanket, I decided to pull out this project that I started in early September. I had put this down while I focused on the smaller preemie blanket. This shawl is a lot of fun to work on because there is plan garter sections and then there are cable sections that are done. 

Of course, this one I need to look at the pattern to ensure that I am on the correct row but again it isn't that hard a pattern to follow which is nice. This shawl got three days of attention this past week and I am happy with the progress that I made on it. Now the rows are getting longer so it will take longer to get each row done but hopefully I will be able to focus on this shawl as my knitting project this week.

Other projects - over the last week my English Paper piecing also got quite a bit of attention. I had wanted to work on it for a while so that is what I did. I do know that I have made some good progress on one of those projects so will have something to show when I write that blog at the end of the month.

I hope everyone is continuing to find that bit of time each day to do something for yourself. Making sure that you have recharged your personal batteries is very important. This week I will see what I work on and hopefully will have some progress on things to show you next week. Have a good week and remember to take some time for yourself.

Progress, and a new start

Here it is the start of another week and hopefully a week where I can get things moved foreword. It is going to be a busy week, so will see what I can get done.

Last week we had temperatures in the high 20Cs with a humidex into the low 30Cs and this week the fall weather has returned, and we are back to temperatures in the mid teens. I think fall has officially arrived here now. 

Jolly Squirrel - I was able to make a bit of progress on this piece over the last week but not as much as I would have liked. I at least have been able to figure out the width of the piece so will see how it goes now that I have done that. 

This week I am going to continue to try and make a bit more progress on this piece as I would like to see it completed soon. I am liking how the colours are working together so will see how things go and how quickly I can get it done.

The total design is under 4 inches square when it's done so it should work up quickly when I can sit and focus on it instead of trying to do all the other things that I have been doing. It is different working on this project because it is smaller than a lot of the other things that I have been working on so even with just a little bit of time I can see progress on it which is great.

Star Touched Meadow SAL - here is a project that I started this weekend, and it is going to be a while before it is all completed. This is a 12-month stitch-along and the pattern comes out once a month and it officially runs from November 2023 - October 2024. Each of these projects are small full coverage pieces and are around 4 inches square once completed. I just started the November block after getting all of the threads and fabric ready. I will see how quickly this piece gets completed, but I would like to have it done before the next piece is released on December 1st.

Preemie blanket - this project has continued to get attention most days and I am happy with how much of it I have been able to get done. Now that the rows are getting shorter it seems to go so much faster. 

This week I hope that I can continue to work on this piece and see how much of it I can get done. It would be nice to see this blanket done before long and given it isn't very large, I hope to have it completed before I write my next blog next weekend.

Other projects - this past week I was able to pick up and work on my English Paper piecing for a little while and am happy with the progress that I made on it. Now to see how much more attention I can give those projects through the rest of the month so that I can have some good progress on them.

I hope everyone continues to find that bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy doing. It doesn't matter how long you spend but taking that bit of time to yourself is what is important.

Next week I hope to have some more progress to show you. I know that this week I have lots of different things that need my attention, but I will continue to try and ensure I take that little bit of time each day to do something for myself and recharge my personal battery.

If you are in Canada, I would like to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving Day and if you down in the states Happy Columbus Day. I will see you next week with hopefully some more progress on my projects.

A finish, a start and some progress

 Here it is the start of another week, and it looks like it could be a rather busy with for me. I guess I am just going to have to wait and see how things go. The warm weather is back at least for the start of the week, so it feels more like August then October.

Summer is Coming - this is the project that I have been working on for a while and working on each of the motifs was a lot of fun.

This past week I set myself a goal and it was to have it finished by the end of September. Once I set that goal, I was able to focus on the piece and yes, get it completed. It feels good having this project done and now I just have two more of the "Is Coming" series to complete but they are going to have to wait for a little while. I have other projects that I would like to work on first.

Jolly Squirrel - this is a piece that I found while watching some cross stitch videos and I immediately needed it. The piece is called Jolly Squirrel and it is by Pigeon Coop Designs. I started this piece yesterday and I don't think it is going to take me long to finish it if I can focus on it. The design is only 64x61 stitches so it will be around 4 inches in size once it is done.

This is one of those projects that I will see how quickly I can get it done and not put it down for days at a time. The piece difference with this project is I am using a paper pattern and I don't have it on my tablet. It does seem to go a little slower but given it isn't a big pattern I am just going to work on it like I did yesterday. 

Preemie blanket - I am continuing to work on the blanket a bit most days. I love being able to sit and knit for 30 minutes at a time and it does help me move a project forward. The good news with this project is this last week I got to the point where I could start decreasing. 

This blanket hopefully now will go a little faster given I am on the decrease rows, but I will just have to wait and see. I know that being able to get more of this blanket done this coming week would be nice so I will see how it goes. I am trying to use up this colour of yarn so after this project is finished, I will have to figure out what else I am going to make with this yarn.

Other projects - lately I haven't been working on multiple projects at a time. It has felt great being able to focus on projects and see progress on a couple of them instead of very little progress on lots of projects.

One thing that I haven't been working on lately is my English Paper piecing, so I am going to need to pick that up again and hopefully move at lease one of those projects forward.

I hope everyone is finding that little bit of time each day to recharge your personal batteries. I know how important it is to take that bit of time and relax. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you take that little bit of time to yourself.

This coming week I hope that I can continue to work on both my cross stitch and knitting but will see how the week goes. Hopefully next week I will be back and have a bit of progress to show you on at least a couple of projects.

English Paper Piecing - September progress

This last month I can honestly say that I didn't get much English Paper piecing done. Life got pretty busy which meant that having time to do stuff like this was impacted.

Table Runner - here is the project that got the attention this month. I was able to move it forward some and am hoping to be able to get more of the motifs added in October. 

I haven't picked this project up very much lately so hopefully I will be able to get at it so that I can continue to move it forward. It would be nice to see more of the motifs added to the piece so that I can get this project done.

Other projects - I haven't worked on any of the other projects in the last month. I hope that this coming month I can get to focusing on some of the different projects that I have on the go.  

One thing that I have been working on is figuring out the fabric that I would like to use for a throw that will be using my favourite colours (blue and teal). This project is a long way from getting done as I have just got the fabrics that I want to use.

So, this coming month I hope to be able to make some progress on some of my English Paper piecing projects. It would be nice to see at least one of the projects moved forward so I will just have to see how October goes and what I can get done. I hope to have at last some progress to show you at the end of the month when I post another update on my English Paper Piecing projects.