A lot has been happening since my last post. My two sons came to visit for a week, its the first time they have been home since 12/2019. They live on the east coast, Boston and NY, and see each other quite often. The dogs were excited to see them too, it was a grand reunion.
I started a new quilt, a pineapple block quilt. I bought it as a kit from Craftsy, a few years ago and figured it had sat long enough on the shelf. It is purple, pink and off-white, I think I have a picture of it. There are 16 regular pineapple blocks and 5 large ones, I think the blocks finish at 24 inches or so. After reading through the directions, I quickly came to the conclusion that there was an easier and more accurate way to make them.
The pattern has you cutting all kinds of strips and width and cutting squares in half. Makes for too much bias edge sewing and wonky blocks. Creative Grids Pineapple ruler to the rescue. All the strips are the same width and only vary be length when using the ruler. Also it is much easier to chainstitch the blocks after cutting all the pieces for the round. After stitching and then ironing the 16 blocks, I square them up with the CG ruler. My blocks are a bit smaller than those of the pattern, but I am sure I will have enough fabric, and my version will be square and true.
Since my sons were here, I took advantage of the “free” labor and moved the long arm yesterday. It took all day, with a few breaks in between, to partially disassemble the frame and move it into its new location, the former TV room/ den. I was able to reassemble the frame, but left the computer and automation stuff for today. I may get some new lighting, or maybe just brighter bulbs in the ceiling cans will do. There is a bit of furniture re-arranging left to do too. I am also contemplating whether or not to move the sewing room to the adjacent bedroom. I would be nice to be able to have everything within sight/hearing range. I would like to be able to sew and have the longarm working at the same time. In its former location I could do hand work while it was stitching, but all my cross stitch is in another room in my sewing corner. I just moved the sewing room last year too, it might be too soon, the thought of going through all my stuff again, no, not yet.
I have had a bit more progress on the Newcastle Bouquet and Changed World stitcheries. I was watching a floss tube yesterday and Craftie Emily was showing her progress on her many lovely projects. She was also talking about a challenge that she was doing, and keeping track of how many stitches per day she was sewing. I think she was aiming for 1000 a day, not much for a sewing machine, but a good chunk of little X’s. The brown box at the bottom of Changed World has about 4500 stitches in it (yikes) and I’m about 1/3 way done. Its pretty mindless stitching, especially since I have the border box done. I worked on the wording last night and filled in a little too. With the Newcastle Bouquet, I made a few more leaves and a white flower, I have been resisting the border for a few weeks now, but I am going to try a bit this coming week. I got the scroll frame holder for my Lowery frame a few days ago. This makes the Edmunds wooden frame go into retirement, as now I can stitch on both pieces with a simple switch. I would like to get a few pieces of moleskin to put on the metal holders, as they leave a bit of residue on the linen.
I have been watching a few Floss Tubes on the Needlework Expo (that starts today) new releases. I haven’t added anything to my queue yet, but I have seen lots of interesting prospects. Just not enough time in the day to do all the ones I have/want.
We are having a bit of an Air Quality Alert in our area, due to the wild fires and changing wind patterns. Our AQI this morning is around 165, unhealthy for prolonged exposure. Looks like it’ll be a stay in and sew weekend for me.
Be Kind.
Touch of Grey 