Moving At Reduced Speed

I'm finding it difficult to get moving these days. It's partly because it's winter and I want to hibernate, partly because I have very low energy. I recently had some comprehensive blood tests (7 vials of blood!) and consequently discovered that I have hypothyroidism, and very low Vit. D  levels. So I have another medication to add to the daily intake, and I have to take 5 times the usual dose of Vit. D for the next 3 months and then be tested again.  My doctor breezily stated that I would start to have more energy in about 2 weeks, but I'm not there yet, possibly because I have another beastly cold. One interesting thing is that the cold temperatures have stopped bothering me; low thyroid levels apparently make one sensitive to cold. So that's a positive sign that I'm improving.

I'm doing a little bit of sewing here and there. I pulled out the blocks for the Fancy 4-Patch, and started working on them again. I'm pretty sure I have most of the HSTs done, I'll have to take a count later on.

I sewed quite a few of the 4Patch units, and bagged them to complete later. When I'm ready to complete the block it's a simple 9patch to put together, because I've already done all the fiddly bits.

I'm thinking about what I will work on when I have a couple more things crossed off the UFO list. These blocks caught my attention; Bonnie showed a vintage quilt in this pattern last year, and I made a few blocks to see if I liked sewing them. I do like them, and I think I'll cut and kit a heap of blocks. They're made with 2" strips, which will help clear out that drawer.

Last night I was feeling a bit dreary and incapable of creative thought, so I resorted to more Half Log Cabins.  I ran out of pieces again, so today I'll replenish the stacks. 

I've been spinning quite a bit, trying to work through my stash of ready-to-spin fibre.

This was Shetland wool roving, and has been hanging around for about 5 years. I had so much fun when I first got back into spinning, going to Fibre Fests and buying up braids and roving and bags of fluff. It was easier to buy it than spin it though, so I have many things still waiting.

The colours are captivating!

My main love is natural coloured fleece though, and I have a mountain of fleeces that I can't bear to part with. 

At nights I've been working on this chocolate coloured Corriedale. Once I've combed it it turns into luscious little nests of beautiful fibre.

It's so time intensive to prepare raw fleece for spinning; sorting out the best bits, washing the fleece, carding or combing it, spinning it and then washing the finished yarn. And then it's ready to be knitted, or crocheted, or woven. It's the perfect meditative past time for winter days and nights. But it's not quick! 

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What's Next

I seem to have lost focus after the finishing spree of May. The cold weather hasn't helped my energy levels, but I figure it's time to get over that and make some more progress. 

I sewed a lot of triangles together for the Dear Jane borders; if I concentrate it doesn't take long to make decent progress. I sat on a hard chair the night I sewed these, and when I got up my back complained a lot.  I need to find a comfy chair for my hand sewing sessions.

I spent another week in Adelaide with the family; it was school holidays so I could at least spend time with the kids. I mostly knitted socks, and finished off several pairs that just needed to have the toes grafted. Maybe after doing 5 pairs one after the other I will remember how to do it.

Once I came back from that trip I really had no idea what I was doing when I left, and I had no idea what to work on first. So I picked up a couple of easy things to finish off.

I made 7 Half Log Cabin blocks, so now I have the full 120 I need.

I played around with the Spinning Rectangles to see if I liked them sewn into set of four.

Not bad, but I'll just keep on adding to the box for now, there's no hurry to decide what I'll eventually make.

I have moved my blue/green scrap top further towards a finish. It's in one piece now, and I just need to decide on how I want to border it.

 I still have some scraps left, and it would be nice to use them up, because heavens almighty, they just won't give up and disappear! I'm even considering some string blocks, just to deal with them.

A little Finn story from our last visit; I was explaining how people shrink in height as they get older, and he said "Oh I get it. As they get shorter, they get wider". No Finn, it's not like playdough! It's not like that at all. But he does have a point.

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Catch Up

I spent a week in Adelaide with the family, a very rainy, cold week. The boys and Seonaid had to brave the weather for their soccer games, and Isla and I watched Friends episodes at home in the warmth. Pays to be a girl sometimes.

I did some hand piecing while I was down there; I'm just sewing a light triangle to a printed one at the moment, and later I'll arrange the borders so they will look balanced, and then I can sew them all together. It takes no time at all; the only stumbling block is my hands seizing up because of the cold.

It will take me a day or two to work out where I was in the sewing room, and what projects need attention the most. I'm up to 113 of the Half Log Cabin blocks, so I will probably do the 7 required to get to 120, and then start putting them together.  I used to instructions from this book;

But I don't think I'll use that setting. 

I'm far more likely to put them together as blocks.

Then I'll start amassing enough blocks for another quilt. I do like having them as an ongoing project. I wonder what Bonnie's Leader-Ender block will be this year? We'll find out some time in July.

The last thing I did before leaving Adelaide was visit Spotlight. I had a request from Mereth for more of a backing fabric she liked, and of course I had to rummage through the FQs. Only 10 or so came home with me, but I do like to see what is available.

I'm planning a blue and green quilt, and a purple quilt, so I picked up a few of those colours, plus some random neutrals that took my fancy. Here's hoping I cut them up straight away and don't hoard them.

Yesterday it was lunch with a friend in Jamestown (and picking up more tops to quilt), and then the obligatory visit to the patchwork shop. 

I found more half price fabric, and a couple of longtime favourites that I needed more of. My browns are seriously depleted; no one seems to have repro browns  anymore, so I have to buy them when I find them.

I f I wanted to be truly horrified I would total up the amount of fabric I've bought this year, but it's better that I don't know. That way I can't feel guilty, and I just get to enjoy my new fabric.

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Lots of Log Cabins

 Mindless sewing was the aim of the day yesterday, and I certainly achieved that.

A couple of sessions saw another 30 blocks added to the pile. I'm over 100 now, but that is only a 60" square quilt. I'll make another 20, but even when I've finished this top I'll go on making more. They are so easy.

I'd cut stacks of pieces for the blocks, and assembly line pieced them.  I thought I'd cut more than enough, but I ran out of 5.5" light strips towards the end. I had to cut 4 more to finish the amount of blocks I'd done, and now I'm back to having none that size.

Better get busy. I think I need to weed all the light scraps out of the scrap drawers, because there aren't many more in the strip drawer. I have drawers of strips up to 4.5" wide, but no 5.5" strips. That means I can cut pieces for the rest of the blocks from wider strips if I need to. I'm not about to add another strip drawer, so it looks like I will have to get the Accuquilt strip die and restock  the 1.5" drawer.  That's fine, it's good to add new prints to my blocks.

I was absolutely determined to finish a couple more blocks on my blue/green scrap quilt, which I did. 

I've used up all the scraps I had, so I have to decide whether to cut more for the 1.5" strips, or just let them accumulate over time. I think I'm too impatient to wait for more scraps, so I will be weeding out some bits in these colours so that I can make 4 more blocks. I still have no idea about the border, but I don't have to make a decision anytime soon. I love making these blocks, they are fun to do, so I can see me starting another one when I finish this. One with a pink or yellow background with bright scrap strips would look lovely. There really aren't enough hours in the day to work on all the good ideas for pretty quilts.

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Little Blocks Progress

I have 147 of these Spinning Rectangles, and many more ready to sew. I really should start thinking about what sort of quilt I can make with them. So my goal for June is to spend some time with EQ8, working out plans for block collections.

I have 84 of these little cross blocks, and more kitted. They are my fallback block to use up nice 2" strips, but I still need a plan for them. 

I'm thinking a medallion quilt would be a good place to use them, either as a straight border, or as a frame for an on point centre. I'm not keen on joining them to each other and having to press those seam intersections into submission, so maybe a little sash between them all? 

My other thought is to turn them into blocks, which I quite like, but I'm not committing to anything just yet.

The 1.5" strip drawer was uncomfortably full, so I got busy and cut a heap of pieces for my Half Log Cabins. Of course they are actually quarter log cabins, to be exact.

I only have 72 of these 6.5" blocks, and I would need a minimum of 120 to make a decent size quilt, so there's plenty of pieces still needed.

It's so easy to cut for these blocks, 1.5" squares to start with, and each subsequent row increases by an inch. I spent a couple of nights cutting, and then sewing new blocks. I have about 30 in stacks next to the sewing machine, and it's mindless enough for me to just send them through. I've used up nearly all the cut pieces again, so I will have to devote myself to cutting the 5.5 and 6.5" pieces needed to finish the blocks. That will whittle the drawers down; so far I've been using up the offcuts in those drawers, but now I need longer strips. It's very satisfying to see the level in the drawer fall quite dramatically.

I also find it amusing that I am adding to my Spinning Rectangle stash as I find little pieces unsuitable for the Log Cabin blocks. One project is directly channeling pieces into another; no scrap left behind.

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Brrrrr!

 We're having a bit of a cold snap here, and my energy levels have plummeted. I'm spending a lot of time wrapped in multiple layers of wool clothing, resting on the  couch. My hands are so cold that I can't hold a needle, so no hand sewing. The bed of the machine is so cold I have to wear fingerless gloves to sew. 

 I have picked up a sock I was knitting a couple of years ago, and that is progressing slowly.

The obvious solution is to hibernate in the shed, which has heating, but no cooking facilities; I prefer not to get warm, then cold, then warm again as I emerge for meals, so I'm holding off as long as I can. I don't mind the cold, but this year my hands are really feeling it. I must make some more rice bags to warm up in the microwave; if I have one in each pocket of my coat that will help keep my hands warm.

I did achieve a bit of cleaning up of the cutting table, and got several projects organised so I know where I'm going with them. I cut enough repro triangles for 2 sides of the Dear Jane, and picked out a heap of scraps to cut the rest. The top needs to come off the design wall so I can work on a machine pieced project.

I did do a bit of mindless sewing, putting together a whole heap of Spinning Rectangle blocks. 

To save myself the agonies of decision making I've paired up the pieces for each one, so all I have to do is send them through the machine. I've cut up a pile of 1.5" strips, and a few 2.5" strips, in an attempt to weed the unlovely pieces out of the strip drawers. 

I'm still having trouble letting go of the lovely repro strips though. I keep saying they are too good for this project, so they sit there untouched. I must change my attitude.

I'm having trouble choosing what the repro project should be. It's tempting to start something new, but I can't choose. I should be sewing on a current UFO while I puzzle over what to start.  I also want to tackle the mountain of modern fabric that I seem to have accumulated in recent sales; I'm such a pack rat, I can't pass up a good deal, and now I have to face the consequences. 

Half metre cuts. In my defense I thought I was getting FQs. I'm pleased that I was wrong!

Can one ever have too many neutrals?

I really need to stop buying on Facebook groups, sigh.

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I know Bitcoin wasn't designed to have a border, and I've loved everybody elses, but mine just looked unfinished to me.

Now it looks finished. I took a victory lap around the edges, stay stitching them so those seams didn't pop apart, and then got it up on the design wall for a photo. I'm happy with it (and happy that I can cross it off the list).

Then it was on to those pesky green borders.

It's been waiting patiently for me to get to them, but I've been involved in something else all week. Finally I got to sit down and stitch this one to a finish.

I love these blocks, I used some of my favourite fabrics, ones that are perilously close to being entirely used up, and it's wonderful to see them preserved in this quilt.

May was a busy month! And that's not all of the finishes, just what was down the shop.

I pulled out some bolts of fabric to see if I could decided on backings. There are more to consider. Fabrics that I once had grand plans for are now possibilities for the backs of precious tops, because I'm adjusting my expectations. If I have a wonderful fabric I'd rather see it on the back of a wonderful top, than have it sit in my stash for another decade. It's quite freeing in a way, because I won't have to chop up some stunning fabric for patchwork, and I can make both sides of a quilt beautiful.

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