Its not really a new BOM, but a new start. I bought this BOM “Reflected Harmony” as kit, all at once, a few months ago, or maybe last year, it’s a bit of a blur. The fabrics a very pretty, a line from Kaye England called Rhapsody in Red. I initially thought I could do one part a day, until I started the third one. Lots of little pieces (49) in these blocks, flying geese that finish at 2 x 1 inch, and making twelve of them slowed me down a bit. Thankfully the fabric provided is plentiful, I am pretty sure its discontinued and unavailable. Still I check and recheck my measurements and cutting, just to be on the safe side.

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I made more progress on the Curling mist shawl, I am at 50 percent done. I decided to gift this to someone whose birthday is coming up. Which means I need to get it done in the next two weeks. The final stitches per row will be 270, and I have about 120 more rows. There are sections of garter stitch in-between the cabled sections, they go pretty fast. I have learned how to do the cable on the working needles, which is a game changer. Not having to use a separate cable needle to hold the stitches while making the cables is easier than I thought. Although these are simple single cross one cables, I don’t think I am ready to try a larger, say an 8 stitch cable. There is a point in working it that you have live stitches off the needle, very easy to drop and loose.

My stitching on the Newcastle bouquet is continuing, I am making progress on the basket and I got a few more leaves started. I would like to start on the lower border, but I think I need to do it in the morning when I am a bit more focused. My before bed stitching time is more for mindless filling in and not serious counting to make it fit.

Be Kind.

Yesterday I worked on all four of my current projects, Hampton Square quilting, Halloween Figs, Curling Mists Shawl and Newcastle cross stitch. I also did four loads of laundry, not as fun, but productive. I felt like I had a lot of time yesterday, it was like one of those never-ending days, except that I did things I wanted to. I am at a point where I don’t have any deadlines, challenges, or commitments hanging around. It’s a nice way to start the month of June.

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Today I want to wash the windows on my house, maybe just the outsides. It’s about time too, our rainy season is over, well it won’t rain until September anyway. The windows are mostly dusty from the smoke of last years fires, oak tree pollen, and the general dusty-ness of this climate. What I really want to do is start a new project ;). I have a bunch of quilt kits that I bought from various people on ‘Sew Its For Sale’ the old Craftsy site, and other sale places. I feel the need for some mindless chain piecing. I did a bit of it this past weekend, I made 64 “scallop” blocks for the Halloween Figs quilt border. They were stitch and flip style, two different color combos and two sizes. The interesting part is that half were 4 3/8s inches and half were 4 ½ inches, this is so the border will fit better. Supposedly no stretching or smooching needed. We shall see. I have been working diligently on finishing the appliqué blocks for this top too, so its a “sort of goal” to have it done for this October.

Be Kind.

In an effort to use up more of my Julie Paschkis fabric collection, I have been working on this. It started with a panel of the animal prints. They were not a regular size, I ended up settling on 10 1/4 inch square. That made the alternating blocks a bit difficult. I made them 10 ½ square and cut slivers of the edges to make them fit. A few points were lost, but not too noticeably. I want to get the outer border on later today. It will be the white and red floral, 5 inch wide, I struggled with the two inner borders, but chose the black because it needed to be held together a bit. The orange was put in because I still have a lot of it and it brought out the colors from the inner top.

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I still have quite a bit more of Catkin and Folkloria left and a panel and borders of Chickadee. I might just squeeze out one more and let it rest a bit. I have a few other quilts I want to make in the queue.

I worked on the Halloween Fig appliqué last night. I received month 12 in the mail on Monday, the final fabric pack of the BOM. Sort of a kick or impetus to get me going on finishing this project.

I made a little more progress on the Curling Mist shawl, I’m about 120 rows in. The rows at this point go fairly quickly as they are only about a hundred stitches long.

I would like to get to quilting the Hampton Square quilt. I have it all set to go on the frame, but I can’t seem to choose a quilting design. I don’t want to do feathers, I thought maybe some kind of vine or leaves, or geometric. The geo design is problematic as the quilt it already linear, I’m feeling it may conflict or not add anything to it. Part of the problem is that I have hundreds of digital files and they aren’t really organized. There are 6 years worth, most are on the Dell computer that runs the robotics, some are on USB sticks and some are on my MacBook. Just getting to see them is a pain, I dislike Windows explorer to begin with, but getting to see what each design looks like requires at least three clicks. Maybe I could pay some one to do it LOL. This reminds me of when my DH decided to put all his CDs on a server. He had to do them one at a time, he has a lot of music, more than a thousand CDs, back then. He came up with an idea to pay my son to do it. Even with payment, he wouldn’t do it, too boring. The CDs did get transferred eventually, DH would do them a little at a time. Now most of the music is directly downloaded to the server via internet. I should just suck it up and start, my wrist is starting to ache just thinking about it.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese today, It is the 100th posting for the Put your Foot Down Thursday Link up.

I had the best intentions of completing the ten pumpkin seed blocks for the Halloween figs quilt. I got two done on the plane ride, one half way done on the way there and one fully done on the way back. A whole lot of reunion-ing and fun happened in between, so its okay. My eldest son got married this past weekend in Plymouth MA. It was wonderful and so GOOD to see and be with my tribe.

I feel like I accomplished something. All the build up to the event, planning and doing, now I am feeling like a new start is going to happen. I had been putting off starting anything large, or multi-parted for about a month. Now I feel free to do/start new things. It may be a subconscious thing with me, but I end up doing this kind of “limiting” behavior before major events, like holidays and vacations. It’s a good thing I don’t hibernate, as I would never get anything done. I now feel like I have a huge chunk of time to do things.

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One of those things is the Curious Handmade Shawl Society Knit Along 5. I have not picked up knitting needles in months. Cross stitching has taken over that time, and I sort of lost interest in the white shawl I started. I may even frog it, as I think I have a major error in it. Anyway, the first (of 6) patterns is called Curling mist Shawl, and I needed just over 900 yards of yarn. Last night I was shuffling through the yarn bags and baskets and found a package of Madeleine Tosh yarns. Remember a few years ago when they had an inventory reduction sale? I bought a bunch, and this one, called Patagonia, will work well for this shawl. I am thinking that I will have to use two skeins at a time, since the MT colors/shading can differ slightly from skein to skein. I should add a project to my neglected Ravelry page, but that can wait.

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I finished the Happy Cat quilt top, by adding borders. I had enough yardage to use this cat print border, its from the Folkloria line, not the Catkin line, but it’s not that noticeably different. The pieced center of the quilt was about 60 inches square, I needed to add corner blocks. I had one extra star block from it too, three more made it work. That was my goal for today, to finish this project. Maybe I’ll make it over to start the Hampton Square quilting too, it is all set up on the frame. I need to decide on an appropriate quilting motif though, too many options. I want to do something that will add texture, maybe an ivy or leafy panto. Although a geometric could work too, due to the top’s brick like pattern.

Be Kind.

Last week I made some progress on my Cats in the Stars quilt. Yep, I named it too, my DH commented that the cats all look happy, and thought Happy Cats was a good name, but then said “When have you ever seen a happy cat?” true. I have 7 more green chain blocks to make to get this in the to-be-quilted pile as a top. The chain blocks take a bit longer to make than the star ones, but I am developing a chain piecing rhythm. I am hopeful that I have enough black yardage to finish them. I have about an half yard left, with all the triangles and long rectangles cut for the remaining blocks.

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This weekend was exciting around here too. Exciting in that it became quiet. For the past two weeks I had been watching my friends dog, Layla (she’s a Havanese). Along with my two dogs and my DD’s dog, we’ve been out numbered by dogs. My DD and her dog moved out on Saturday, and Layla went home on Sunday. It is a very peaceful Monday morning here, Ahhhh.

With the new vacancy in my home, a new possibility opens for sewing studio expansion. I am thinking of moving my Longarm to the room (den TV room) adjacent to DD’s former bedroom and making the bedroom my new sewing studio. I keep thinking how great it would be to have the Longarm in the same area as my sewing room/stash/stuff. I could sew and quilt at the same time, productivity would increase! Currently my Longarm is in a different area of my house, far from the sewing room. The only thing that is stopping me is the daunting task of disassembling the frame and computer system. When I bought my set up, the dealer sent his technician to deliver and set it all up. When I got the robotics, I did the switchover myself. It took me two days, as there was a modification that had to be made to the frame to hold the machine that drives the belts and machine head. I think the hardest part was getting the tension on the belts correct, and mounting the computer screen (insert expletive). My DS and his wife are coming to visit later this summer, they would be the perfect helpers too. The wheels are turning…

I have been dedicating hours to the Newcastle Bouquet cross stitch project. I have had to use the magnifier for all the stitching on this as it is forty count linen. I can honestly say that in the future, I will not attempt anything this small. While I stitch, I feel like I’m accomplishing so much, the stitches look like they are 1/4 inch in size, then I move the magnifier and they are so tiny, 1/32″. It looks so pretty though, the shading of the over-dyed thread really gives the design depth.

I have made a bit of progress on the Tulip block for the Halloween Figs BOM too. I need to get the pumpkin seed blocks prepped for an upcoming trip. They will be busy work on the plane ride east.

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Off to piece in the ☮️ today.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.

Be Kind.