Monday, February 10, 2025

Moving projects forward

Here it is the start of another week, and it is interesting to see what projects I worked on in the last week. Of course, there was also work things that needs my attention, so I did spend some time working on those things before was able to focus on moving some of my crafting forward.

This week was a focus week so there aren't a lot of projects to talk about. I decided to try and only work on one cross stitch and one knitting project. 

Mini The Forgotten - here is the cross stitch project that I picked up and worked on this past week and I am very happy with the progress that I was able to make on it.

The goal for this project was to get at least 500 stitches on it was it is one of my WIPGO calls for February. Of course, I was able to get the 500 stitches done without an issue, so I decided to continue to work on it for the rest of the week. By the time I put it down I had completed over 1,600 stitches and I finished another page on the project. 

It feels so good working on this piece and seeing the progress that I am able to make on it. It is now going to be put down for at least this next week as I have the other WIPGO project that I need to work on as well as I have a new start coming up as well.

Turkish Delight Shawl - I have been trying to get some knitting done each day and that means that this shawl did get some attention, and I am happy with where it is right now. I am currently working on the last lace section of the pattern and then I have one more garter section and then the shawl is finished.

I was able to focus on this knitting a little more this week and that helped me at least get the rows done that I wanted to do. Seeing how much I could get done this last week made me happy because now I am seeing that with some effort, I should be able to get this shawl done before long. It is different working with double weight yarn because most of the shawls that I have been knitting use fingering weight yarn, so the overall project ends up a lot lighter.

I do have the next project already figured out that I want to work on so that means that I better continue to focus on this shawl so that I can get it finished. We will see when it gets completed but I hope it will be soon.

Other projects - this past week there were no other projects worked on as I just focused on these two and it felt good. I do need to pick up my English Paper Piecing soon because it hasn't got any attention yet this month. 

This coming week I do have a new cross stitch project start so that is going to be fun but I still need to pick the fabric and get it ready so that is something else on the list for this week. I am also going to try and get the 500 stitches in on the other WIPGO project, so it is going to be a busy week ahead.

I hope everyone continues to find that bit of time each day to do something for yourself and recharge your personal battery. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you take a few minutes for yourself.

Hopefully this week I will be able to get everything done that I would like to do, and I will have some progress to show you next week.

Monday, February 3, 2025

Two finishes and some progress

Here it is the start of another week and another month. It is hard to believe that January is over, and we are now onto a new month. I was busy last week, but I can also say that I have been able to get some crafting in and that makes me happy.

It was a good week for me as I was able to spend some time working on projects and seeing progress on things. Hopefully this week I can have some good progress as well as I have a couple of things that I would like to move forward.

2019 Mystery Stitch-along - here is the first project that got some attention this past week. I knew that I didn't have a lot more of this piece to do so I decided that it was going to be my focus until it was completed. The butterflies had more stitches than I thought it them, but I was able to focus and get them all done.

It did feel good to finally see this project finished and it is one project that has been sitting around for too long but now all the butterflies are completed and the year has been put on it. Now that I have completed this piece, I can mark it as done on my list of projects to work on and I can figure out what the next project is going to be that comes out of the pile.

Pandemic - this is one of the large projects that I am going to be focusing on this year. I have four large projects that I hope to give lots of attention to over this year.

I am feeling good about the progress that I was able to make in the last week as I focused on one section instead of bouncing all over which I had a habit of doing in the past. Seeing a section come to life is nice.

Being able to stick to one area also meant that I was able to get a page of the pattern finished so I now have 6 of the 20 pages completed. I haven't done any of the backstitch that is needed on these pages but at least all the cross stitches have been done. Hopefully when I get the other four pages of this row done, I will work on getting some of the backstitch completed so that I don't have it all to do at the very end.

Welsh Dragon - after I finished the Mystery stitch-along I decided to pull out another project and get it finished. This project wasn't too hard to finish once I picked it up.

When I picked it up this past week, I only had the border stitched so the dragon needed to be stitched. It was easy to work on and before long I was able to get the dragon stitched and the backstitch completed so this is another project off the list of things to complete that I have started in the past.

It feels good starting to get projects that have been around for quite a few years done. Now to figure out the next project that is coming out to get completed.

Turkish Delight Shawl - this is the knitting project that I have been trying to focus on and move it forward. I am happy with the progress that I have been able to make on this shawl and am looking forward to picking it up again this week and seeing how much more of it I can get done.

There are four lace sections in the shawl, and I am now working on the third of those sections so hopefully I will be able to continue to move this piece forward and get it finished before too long. The pattern is relatively easy to do, and the lace section does look really nice when it is done.

Of course, I have already figured out at least one shawl that I will be knitting after I finish this one so that has been a lot of fun and it also helps keep me motivated to get this shawl done.

Other projects - given everything that I worked on in the last week I haven't worked on anything else. Being able to focus on just a couple of things at a time does make a big difference and I am seeing results of doing that.

I hope you are being able to see progress on the stuff that you are working on. It can be a challenge sometimes to see much progress but when you step back and look at a project you can see it has moved forward even a little bit. For me taking a picture at the end of each week that I have worked on a project helps me see the amount of progress that I made.

Hopefully you are finding a bit of time each day to recharge your personal battery by doing something that you enjoy doing. This week I will be picking up a different cross stitch project to focus on and we will see how much of it I can get done.




 

Saturday, February 1, 2025

English Paper Piecing - January progress

Here it is the first day of a new month and it is time to update you on how the English Paper Piecing projects are going.

Popsy's throw - I am continuing to try and spend a little bit of time working on this throw each month so that I can continue to get the motifs made. This month it was time to cut some more squares so that I can continue to get the motifs done. 

I was able to get one flower joined together and I have been thinking that I should start join the flowers that I have completed to the throw so that I can start to see what the throw is going to look like. Being able to see how the throw is coming along would be good because right now I have lots of motifs made, some flowers made and a very small start at joining the flowers together.

Other projects - I haven't worked on any of the other projects that I have one the go. I did look at the table runner as I need to get that ready for quilting so we will see what February is like. Hopefully I will be able to spend some time this month working on moving something forward. but time will tell. 

Have a good month and I will be back at the beginning of March to show you what I was able to get done in February.