Some progress in the last week.

Here it is the start of another week and yes we are still in the same position as we have been in for far too long.  We are still working remotely and the number of cases in Ontario has started to go back up again.  Vaccinations are rolling out, and I am looking forward to when it is our turn to get it.

Mini Forget Me Not - this week I was able to make some progress on this piece, and I am feeling very good about it.  The first thing I did this week was finish another page, so that means out of the nine pages I have three of them finished.  Once the page was finished I decided that I was going to work on the page beside it and see how much of it I could get done.  No I didn't get another page finish but at least I have started to see the fairy start to appear.  I have her feet and legs started, so that is making me feel very good.

I am now just over 47% finished and maybe this week I can reach the 50% done as that would make me see that I am getting this piece done. I will try and focus on this page as well to see if I can get another page finished before too long.  Just seeing the page finished makes me want to work harder so that I can get another one done. I will see what I can get done this week as it would be nice to have some more results before the end of this coming week.

Mary Jane Fry 1861 - now this piece once again got a bit of attention over the weekend.  I am working on this piece normally just on the weekend, so it doesn't get as much attention but at least it does get some.

I didn't spend a lot of time on this piece this weekend but at least I was able to get the vase finished and have continued to work on the vine a bit.  I am going to try and work on the vine some more as it would be nice to have larger sections where I can add the leaves all at once.

This coming week I hope that I can get some more of the vine done, and maybe I will even try and get some more of her name completed.  I seem to be bouncing around on this piece so that I can see the different sections start to appear.  Now that I have some new areas done maybe I can focus on getting some motifs finished and then start working onto the next ones.

English Paper Piecing - I have been able to get some more work done on the throw that I have been doing.  This week I was able to get the side motif added, so I am now at the point that I have three of the corners reached, so it is just a matter of filling in the rest of the areas.  I am looking forward to seeing what it will look like when all the motifs have been added. I now have 56 more motifs to add to this throw, and hopefully I can add some more of them this week.  It makes me happy to see that I have been able to move this forward even if it is only a few motifs at a time.

I am going to see this week how much more I can get done on this as I am looking forward to seeing all the motifs added, and then I can work on getting it finished so that my mom can enjoy it.  I have never done anything like this before, so I am learning as I go and the putting it all together will be another lesson that I will be learning.

Socks - I have been able to continue to get some more knitting on my socks but again haven't been focusing on them as much this week. Most days I can add a couple of rounds to one of the socks, but that is about it.  This week I would like to see if I can get two socks finished a couple more started but will see what happens.

I hope everyone continues to find a bit of time each day to do something that you love.  It doesn't matter how much time you spend as long as you take those few minutes to yourself. Stay safe and hopefully soon the number of people vaccinated will go up, and then we can get back to doing some of the other things that we love doing.  Hopefully next week I will have some progress on at least a couple of these projects to show you.  Have a great week and stay safe.
 

Progress on projects this week

Here it is the start of another week and Covid-19 is still making the news way too much.  We are continuing to be able to work remotely so that is good and now to see how this week goes.  Vaccinations continue to roll out in Ontario, but it will be awhile before we get ours. 

Hopefully the numbers will start to go down and stay home instead of the roller coaster which we are currently dealing with.

Mini Forget Me Not - this week I worked on moving this piece forward, and I am happy with the progress that I made.  I was able to finish the page that I was working on and then decided it was time to go back down to the bottom of the design and see how much of that I could get done.

This weekend I have been working on getting the flowers at least moved forward and am happy with the progress that I made.  I would like to see how much more of this bottom section that I can get done by the end of the month but will see how the rest of life goes.

To finish the bottom page I have lots of odd bits of colour to add, so that is going to take some time but at least I know that I have been able to make some good progress overall.  I am currently at 44.91% finished and moving forward on this piece would be great.

Mary Jane Fry 1861 - I didn't get a lot of time to work on this but at least I got to add a few more stitches.  I have been bouncing around on this piece so of course it is looking extremely odd right now.  I figure just seeing that I have been able to get some different items started makes me happy.  I am currently working on getting the vase done, and then I will see what I work on.

This project normally gets a bit of progress on it on the weekend, so that is after the other things get done that I need or want to get done over the weekend. I now have all the colours for this pattern so many now I can start to work on filling in some other colours and then see what it really looks like.

I am enjoying working on this piece as it doesn't take too long to see progress on it and given that I am working on full coverage pieces other than this one it is nice to see that I am getting progress on at least one of the pieces that I have on the go.

I continue to have a pile of other cross stitch projects that I would like to work on, so that means that I need to move these two projects forward so that I can work on some other projects as well. I am working on making sure that I don't have a lot of projects on the go at once so that I can see progress on the ones that I have out each week.

Land of Sweets Cowl - my knitting continues to get done a bit at a time and just seeing that I have been able to move this project forward again this week is nice.   I finished another two patterns, and I am working on the third pattern so will see what I can get done this coming week.  

This pattern is very easy to work on as after I finish the pattern that I am working on it repeats a couple more times up through the cowl.  It is nice having a project that doesn't take long to see progress, and it is also something that I am enjoying working on. I am now 25% through this project, so maybe I will see if I can get some more of it done through this coming week.

English Paper piecing - I continue to work on this piece a bit at a time and am slowly starting to see what it is going to look like when it is finished.  I keep adding a few motifs at a time, and now I am starting see that I am getting to the point on this throw that it should be showing results a little quicker now.

I am still enjoying working on this and a looking forward to getting the throw as wide as it is going to be.  I haven't added those motifs yet, and I am thinking that I should try and get them added before too long.  If I can add more motifs this week I may try and see if I can at least get to the point that I can see how wide it is as I already know how long it is going to be.

I hope everyone is still taking time for themselves each day as it is important to even spend a few minutes doing something that you love doing. I know that even after days when I don't feel like I have the time to sit and relax I take that 10 minutes to myself and do something that I enjoy.

Life is slowly starting to get back to some sort of normal which is good, but I think it is still going to be some time before all of us get vaccinated.  I know that we are just waiting to hear when it is our turn.

Have a great week and hopefully next week I will once again have some progress to show you. Enjoy doing what you love doing and know that even a few minutes each day does help.

Another week of some progress

 It is hard to believe that another week has gone and here I am writing to let you know that I was able to accomplish in the last week. We are still in grey lockdown, so that means that some stores have opened to limited capacity but working from home is still something that most of us do.

Mini Forget Me Not - I was able to make some more progress on this piece in the last week.  It feels good seeing that I am very close to having another page finished, so that will mean two out of the 9 done.  One was a small page and this one that I am currently working on is one of the full pages. Yesterday instead of working on finishing the page I decided to work on some brighter blue, so that is what I did.  Maybe this week I will see a page finish on this project.

I am not sure what page I am going to work on next because part of me wants to work on the top page and then another part of me would like to get the bottom pages finished up before too long.  I know that I still have a long way to go on this piece as I just reached the 40% done on it.  The bottom two pages have the flower so part of me is thinking I would like to do them closer to the end of this piece, so that might be what I do.

Mary Jane Fry 1861 - This piece is other one that I work on during the weekend sometimes, so it doesn't get a lot of attention each week.  This week I decided it was time to get the two parts of the border complete.  What you don't see in these pictures is the two borders are finished all the way around the design, so now I just have the middle section to fill in.

Yesterday afternoon after looking through some of my floss I found two of the colours that I was missing for this piece.  This design only takes 6 colours and in my stash I thought I only have two of them, but I did find some floss that I could use in another design, so I started adding those colours to the bottom of the design.

This week I am going to try and add a bit more of the vine to the design so that I can get more leaves and maybe some flowers added.  I am looking forward to seeing how quickly this design now works up given the border is all done.

English Paper Piecing - This past week I picked up my mom's throw and decided it was time to get more of the motifs added.  It does take some time working through all the piece, but I am slowly getting there.  After adding a bunch more motifs I now have 71 out of the 144 motifs added.

This project is something that I have been enjoying doing in a lot of ways because I can remember a lot of the fabrics from shirts that my dad wore quite a bit.  Some of the fabrics I don't remember as well but at least we are going to have some nice memories of him when this is done.  I hope that this week I can continue to add more motifs to this throw so that I can get it closer to being ready to be quilted.

The assembly of this throw will be another challenge, but I will deal with that once all the motifs have been added.  I have now reached the bottom of the throw on one row, so that is good as the overall piece is going to be 12 x 12 motifs wide.

I have a lot more fabric ready to be made into various projects, so that means that I need to get moving on this throw so that more of the projects that get moving as well.  I have a friend that is going to help me figure out how to do the quilting and border of this throw and I appreciate that as she quilts, and I don't.

Land of Sweets Cowl - this past week I was able to get a few rounds knit on my cowl, so that was good.  I finished up the first three patterns and am now working on the fourth section. I first thought that I was going to get this cowl finished up by the end of March but unless I can sit and focus on this for a bit I don't think that is going to happen now.  I am going to enjoy knitting this cowl and am not going to put the pressure on myself to get it done by a certain time.

 

I continue to work on a few other projects a little at a time but don't have anything to show on those.  My socks continue to be working on at least a couple of rounds each day, but it takes a long time that way to see any results, but that doesn't bother me.  I am enjoying working on socks a bit at a time and will see when the next one is finished.

I hope everyone is staying safe, and you are finding some time each day to do something for yourself.  It doesn't matter how long you spend doing that thing, but it is just spending that bit of time doing something that makes you happy.    Please continue to take care of yourself and hopefully next week I will have more progress on some of my projects.

Where did the week go?

It is hard to believe that another week has come and gone.  I know that a lot of that has to do with how things have been for all of us for almost the last year.  One day seems to be like the next without much of a difference. Lockdown is finally being lifted here but there still doesn't mean much change, so we will continue how we have been working for the next while.

Mini Forget Me Not - once again this week I was able to spend some time working on Mini Forget Me Not and have seen more progress on the left side of the design.  I would like to see this section finished before the end of March, so that is going to be my focus.  I am looking forward to seeing how much I can get done as just sitting and working on it a bit each day really helps me see the progress.

I still have the bottom section of the design to fill in, but I am happy seeing that I am able to get some larger sections of colour filled in, and it will make adding the other colours so much easier when I get to them.

Mary Jane Fry 1861 - I decided this weekend that I need to spend some time working on getting the border moved forward.  I wanted to make sure that the border matches up before I started working on the rest of the design.  Yes the border is a simple pattern, so it is pretty quick to stitch when you can sit and focus on it.

Yesterday, I sat down and decided that at least getting more of the outer border done would make me happy, so that is what I focused on, and I am pretty close and the good news is it matches up. I will now finish up this outer boarder and I think I will get the next border section done as well because that is a fast border as well.  I know that seeing some good progress on this piece over the next little while would make me feel very good.

After I get the two outer borders complete I will then start at the bottom of the design and start to fill in all the other motifs and such.  I don't think this design will take long to stitch but once again it just means sitting and working on it for a while.

English Paper Piecing - I continue to work on adding more motifs to this throw but this past week it didn't get a lot of attention.  I would like to see if this week I can focus on getting a few more motifs added to this.

I know that after getting this throw done I will still have three more to make, so that means that sitting and focusing on getting this one moved forward quickly would be a good idea.  I know that it doesn't take long to attach each of the motifs.

Of course, while I am sitting and working on this project I am thinking of all the other projects that I can work on later.  I have a pile of fabric that is going to be turned into motifs, and it makes me happy to know that I have lots of ideas that will help use up a lot of the bits of fabric that I have.

The purpose of English Paper piecing was a means of using up small bits of fabric easily, and I have to admit that I am enjoying this method of using the remnants that I have left after making all the items for our ETSY shop.  This project is using my dad's shirts and I know that there will be additional items made even after the four throws have been completed.

Socks - I continue to work on the socks that I would like to have finished and this week I was able to get one sock finished up.  It is always nice when I can finish up another sock and especially when it means that I have another pair of socks to wear.  This sock is the second of the pair, so it is now ready to be worn.  I still have two socks on the needles and a trying to figure out which colour will go onto the third circular needle that I have.

Land of Sweets Cowl - last weekend I started this cowl and I figured it would work up quickly and be something that I enjoyed working on with the yarn that I had chosen. I had picked a variegated yarn which I thought would work nicely but after working on it for a couple of days I found that I wasn't loving it anymore and something was wrong.  I knew that the pattern was really nice, and I wanted to knit it, but this yarn wasn't making me happy.

The funny thing was that even when I wasn't sure if I liked the pattern with the yarn I continued to knit and figured maybe it would work out if I just kept knitting on the cowl. This second picture is after I had completed two different patterns on the cowl and had just started the third pattern.  Yes there are three different patterns, but you couldn't see much of a difference.  After taking this picture and talking it over with both my husband and mom, I decided that the yarn wasn't for this cowl and there was no point continuing to knit it if I wasn't going to like it in the end.

I was able to find another ball of yarn that I thought might work well for this cowl and have started to knit it.  I think that the patterns are going to show up a lot better with this yarn, but I haven't got very far.  I have just about finished the first section of the pattern and now to see what the next two look like.  I hope that this time I will be happier with the outcome.

Yes, my crafting is helping me deal with the lockdown and all the different challenges that we have been facing.  I would like to say that things are getting better quickly but until we get a lot of people vaccinated we are still going to be dealing with some sort of restriction.

I hope everyone finds a bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy doing.  It can be only for a few minutes or longer but making sure that you do something that makes you happy each day is very important.  Stay safe and remember that we are going to get through this challenging time, and hopefully we can start to get back to some sort of normal again soon.  Take care and have a great week and I will see what I have to show next week.

Progress, new start and close to a finish

Here it is the start of another week and hopefully after this week we will be moving out of lockdown due to Covid-19 but will find out later this week.

We continue to work remotely and that is good and now to see what changes will happen once we are able to move around a little  more.  The vaccine are finally starting to be given to the public in parts of Ontario, so that is good.

Mini Forget Me Not - I have been working on getting more of this piece done and each day I am getting bits of it done.  I am working on the two sides of the design right now and will see when I actually get back to adding more of the brighter colours.  I am enjoying working on the outside of the design as it gives me an idea of how big this piece is, and it also means that I am getting areas filled in quickly.

I am not sure which area I will be working on this week, but I know that I have been enjoying seeing the progress on this piece each week.  I hope to continue to see the good progress and maybe that is what I need.  I will see what I can get done this week, and maybe I will get closer to having another page finished, but that will all depend on how things go.

Socks - finally there is a picture of one of my socks and that is because it is now close to a finish.  I have been working on this sock as well as another sock a bit at a time, but finally I just need to decrease for the toe of this sock, and it will be done.  I hope to have this finished up in the next couple of days, and then I will have another pair of fun socks that I can wear.  

I did start the ribbing on another sock, but there isn't much to show for that sock.  I am going to try and continue to move all of my socks forward as I would like to have more of them finished up quickly.   This year is so nice to work with and as always I love seeing how each of the socks may be the same in some ways but the white and black areas are always different.

Land of Sweets Cowl - well I had been doing very good and not starting new projects and just working on things that I had on the go until this past week.  I have been watching a lot of people knit this advent cowl called Lands of Sweets and after avoiding it for a while I finally gave in and went onto Ravelry and purchased the pattern.  Yes, it is a pattern that can be done using mini skeins of yarn, but I currently don't have any of those.  I know that I will be getting some soon, but I just couldn't wait.  I guess after DH helping me get the needles and yarn out I just couldn't help but start it late last night.  This pattern is 192 rows, so I will see how quickly I can get this done.  I would like to have most of this cowl knit before my mini skeins arrive, so I better get knitting.

English Paper Piecing - I am continuing to work on this throw a bit each week and this week I hit a milestone.  The milestone was getting all the motifs finished.  Yes, 144 motifs have now been basted, and now they just need to be added to the throw.  It feels good seeing that I have been able to move some of this throw forward as well and now that the motifs are finished I hope to move it forward a little quicker.

I am really enjoying working on motifs and I have a bunch more fabric that will be going into various projects hopefully soon.  First this throw needs to get completed, so I am going to be trying to focus on getting more of the motifs added.  This project is now something that I can't be taking with me very much any longer as it is just getting too big and awkward for that.  I can't fold this piece up any longer, so that means it is going to be staying home until it is done now.

I still have a lot of other projects that are slowly getting worked on when I find I have a bit of time.  The lockdown does mean that there is more time to do various projects but after almost a year of dealing with Covid-19 I think I am like most people, and I am getting very tired of the same routine most days.

I hope everyone continues to find the bits of time each day to do the things that you love doing. I hope to see some more progress on my projects this week, but only time will tell.  No matter where you are please stay safe and take care of yourself and your loved ones.  Life is slowly starting to return to what is going to be our new normal, but it is still going to take a few more months.

Take care and hope you have a great week and find some joy each day.



 

Progress

Here it is the start of another week and now to see how things go.  We continue to be in lockdown here in Toronto but at least with the weather that we have been having makes it a little easier.  We are still working remotely most of the time with our clients.  Our lockdown is scheduled to last at least another two weeks, but we will see if that changes.

Mini Forget Me Not - I continue to work on this piece a bit each day and am happy with the progress that I have been able to achieve. I am still working on completing some larger sections of colour.  

 

I am now almost 30% finished this piece but still have a lot of large blocks of colour to complete, but I think it is time to continue to work on getting some smaller colours added into the design. Not only that, but I am looking forward to seeing more of the overall design appear, so that is one of the reasons why I would like to start adding some other colours.

Mary Jane Fry 1861 - here is a piece that got some attention last weekend and hasn't got any attention since then.  I am still working on the border.  I started to add a bit of the inside design, but I will want to make sure that the border meets up before I do too much of the overall design.  I would like to get back to working on the border so that I know everything will work out on the overall design.  

If I can spend some time on this piece this week I might be able to get more of the border done, and then I will be able to focus on getting the inside of the design stitched.  I don't think the border will take me much longer to do.  It just means that I need to focus on doing it instead of working on other projects.

I like this piece as it only have 6 colours in it, so there isn't a lot of colour changes which makes it a nice piece to sit and work on. The border is two colours so that works up relatively quickly and after that the inside doesn't look too hard.

English Paper Piecing - here is a project that got some good attention over the weekend.  I didn't get a lot more motifs added to the overall throw, but I did get a lot of the other motifs made.  I decided that I was going to focus on getting most of the motifs made so that I can just sit and work on adding them to the throw.  I still have another 38 motifs to make, but at least now when I sit down to sew the motifs on I can just work on that.

I am hoping to be able to get a lot of these motifs added to the throw before too long but will see how things go. If I can get back to adding the motifs I think I might be able to get this done quickly, but I seem to keep getting distracted with other projects, so that doesn't help.

Socks - there is no picture of the socks this week as I didn't get a lot done on either of them.  I continue to try and work on them a bit each day but haven't got much completed.  I hope this week I can find some time to work on at least one of the socks and get it closer to being finished.  I love working on my socks when I have a webinar that I need to watch and this week I know of at least one that I will be watching, so that should help move the sock forward a bit.

Please stay safe and remember to take care of yourself and those that you love.  Find a bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy doing as it does help a little.  If you are in the areas that are having crazy weather please take care and stay warm.  

I will see what I can get done this week and maybe there will be some more progress next week on some of these projects.  Until then have a good week and find some crafting time.

Progress and a new start

Here it is the start of another week, and it is cold here in Ontario.  I am glad that we are able to work remotely as it means that we don't have to go out in this weather.  At least, we aren't currently getting the snow like they are in Texas, but it looks like we will get some later this week.

Covid-19 is still impacting us, and we continue to be in lockdown, but that could be changing next Monday but will see what really happens.

Mini Forget Me Not - here is the project that I worked on again this week.  What I decided to try and do was to work on some larger sections of colour and see how much of it I could get done.  I am liking the progress that I have been able to make and think I will be continuing to work up the side of the pattern for a while.  I know that there is going to be a lot of sections that I need to do later but at least getting some larger sections done and some the areas that aren't as interesting does help some. There are some colours that when you are siting you can't see much of a difference so that doesn't help.

I am going to continue to work on this piece each day as it makes me feel good to see that even with just trying to put in a few stitches each day that I am able to get the progress in that I want. I would like to see that I have been able to continue to move this piece forward and maybe after a couple more weeks of working on the bigger sections I will go back to filling in some other smaller sections of colour again.

Mary Jane Fry - this weekend I decided it was time to start something that wasn't full coverage.  I have a few projects like this, so I picked up Mary Jane Fry and started in on the border.  It doesn't look like much yet and considering it will be 8 x 12 when it is finished it is going to take some time.  I wanted to see if I could get some border done because then just knowing that I have that correct means that I can get the rest of it done without too much trouble.  The border is two different sections, and I am currently just working on the outer border now to see what I get done this week.

English Paper Piecing - this weekend I decided it was time to work on getting more of the motifs added to the throw, so I sat down yesterday and continued to make some progress on it.  I am looking forward to seeing what it looks like once all the motifs have been added.

I don't have all the motifs made yet, so I bounce between making more of the motifs and adding them to the throw.  I am just over 25% complete, and it is making me feel very good.  I have had to remember that given the colours of shirts that I have it isn't going to be perfect and that doesn't bother me.  I have also had to remember that as long as two of the same colour aren't beside each other that is all that really matters.  I was overthinking this project for a while so now that I have changed my thinking it is starting to move forward a little quicker.

Socks - I continue to move a couple of my socks forward and that is making me happy as well.  I don't have a lot of progress on either of the socks but at least they are slowly moving forward.  I love having projects that I can pick up and work on while I am relaxing in the evening.

I hope everyone is staying safe and if you are in lockdown like we are you follow all the rules.  If your area is opened up a bit please also remember to be extremely careful as we all would like to get back to doing the things that we did in the past.

This week I hope that you will find a bit of time each day to do the things that you love doing.  It doesn't matter how much time you can find it is just important that you remember that you need to ensure that you take a bit of time for yourself each day.