3 posts in 6 days

 Oh my gosh - 3 posts in 6 days. This is unheard of in my life this past year. I'm trying very hard to get my life as close to normal as it can possibly be. 

Here is the quilt I started working on the other day. The center square is a printed panel, the rest is pieced. It's 30" x 40". It's really not wonky shaped, that was the way I hung it on the pretend design board and the angle I was at taking the photo.  I've found some fun sheep fabric in my stash to use for the backing, it's all ready to go as is the batting. I don't like doing the actual quilting but for something this size that may hang on my studio wall or be gifted as a baby quilt (if I ever know anyone having a baby) I can manage to do simple quilting on my machine. 

I've now pulled out another wallhanging quilt with seashells that I think I bought 9 or 10 years ago. I may start that after I get this one quilted..........or who knows, maybe I'll get inspired to weave first. 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. I finished up gifts a bit ago but now I need to go deliver them all.  It was so much easier when I was seeing friends at guild meetings and my spinning group but I'm still not attending either in my effort to stay safe. 

Piecing the bits & bobs......

 

I'm having trouble getting motivated to start on a new project in spite of the very long list of projects I have to choose from. A couple weeks ago I saw this quilt kit on the shelf, it was bought a number of years ago as a pure impulse buy because the sheep and fabrics were just so danged cute.  It's a wallhanging or baby blanket size. I don't know yet if I'll have enough wall space in the loom room or sewing room and I don't know of anyone having a baby so it may be put aside for a future gift or it may be donated. In the meantime it's the perfect project for me, no designing or thinking required just cut the fabric and sew according to the directions. 

The last month or so I've been spinning and finally spun up my 12 Days of Christmas fiber from Inglenook Fibers from last year. Rather than spin it all as one project I've spun them separately. I used 5 of the 12 fibers for the above skein, it flows from light to dark. There's a picture of a braid that was a companion roving so I plied with that and then spun the extra skein of just companion roving. I haven't measured the yardage yet to know what it will grow up to be. 

And then with 6 of the 12 fibers I spun this skein and plied it with a companion roving and spun the remainder of the companion roving to make another small skein. Once again, I haven't counted up the yardage so not sure what it become.  If you were paying attention you would say, wait a minute, she only spun 11 of the 12, yep, that's right, there was one that just didn't fit in with either grouping so it will get added to a blending board project someday in the future.  I didn't sign up for the 12 Days of Christmas spin-a-long for this year, figured since it took me a year to spin these I'd skip this year.

This and that......

Yes, been gone from my blog for quite a while again. I mean, what do I have to say, not much done around here unless I count the major time sucker of working on my cousin's house (he passed away this past January).  It has just gone on the market, hoping someone wants to buy it because it's almost brand new again and is move in ready.  And no, I didn't do all the work by myself, my hubby did the bulk of it. Hoping this frees up more time in 2022 to spend on being creative. 

Just in the past 2 months I started spinning again occasionally in the evenings.  I spun up this luscious silk/yak blend.  It hasn't been washed yet and I haven't counted up the yards so have no clue what it will grow up to be. Right now I just keep petting it as I walk by.  It was a little hard on my arthritic hands to spin as it was so slippery. What has happened with that anyhow, arthritis has been gradually affecting my hands the past couple of years, feel like I'm moving toward getting old - yikes. I have some other skeins to share in my next post that were spun recently. 

Since I'll be having a bit more free time (at least assuming so) I pulled out what I got in the ASG (American Sewing Guild) neighborhood group's brown bag challenge.  This is what I got in my bag.  I'm starting to brainstorm on what I can create. Looks kind of beachy, doesn't it? Brainstorming seems hard these days, anyone else experiencing that? I've been having such problems all year focusing on being creative......or maybe it's just focusing in general.....yep, that's it. 

The past few weeks I've been collecting fabrics in grays and teals for a quilt for the guest room trundle bed. I'm going to make it big enough to cover both mattresses when opened up. A few more fabrics and I may be ready to start cutting and sewing. 

I'm hoping to get back to weaving in the near future, like not long after the holidays. I've focused on weaving to sell for over 30 years and now have decided to retire from selling - it's hard to make that transition.......but I'll eventually figure it out. 

Even though I've been in a funk for well over a year due to family issues I'm convinced 2022 is going to be better and am looking forward to spending time in the studio again.