Progress Report

One UFO has made it to finished top stage.

This took a few hours while I fiddled with how to finish the edges, trying to be fancy, but ultimately I was limited by the amount of fabric I had. I love how it turned out, and I love how vibrant it is with  the black linking the autumn colours, but I think I'm over using black for a while.     And I'm never going to start another black project without ensuring I have more than enough fabric.

Onward to another on the WIP list. I finished 2 more blocks on this scrappy project. It's called Scrappy Dappy Do on the YouTube video, but I refuse to use that name. I'll call it Strippy Diamonds I think.

I'm sewing this on my dear little Pfaff, which is just the sweetest machine. I think she has a touch of dementia though; when I turn her on she takes a lot of fiddling to make her sew normally. She responds with a gathering stitch no matter how many buttons I push, until I'm ready to give up, and then she relents and gives me a normal stitch length. I thought, at least she's a later model, I can have her serviced, but then I find that she's actually 24 years old. So almost vintage. A motherboard fix might be expensive or not even possible. 

I got busy and sewed up all but 5 of the little cross blocks that were my leader enders. I have 76 now, I will do some experimenting and see what they might become. I'm thinking a border in a medallion quilt. And yes, there are some blocks in that photo that are a new start.

My 2.5" repro strips were bugging me, so I cut out a pile of these blocks to get rid of them. I don't like 1800s blocks with that size strip, so I cut these blocks from any that were long enough. They're fun to piece, so I'll make up what I've cut out and then see what I can do with them.

My other leader ender is the Spinning Rectangle.  I now have 55, but I will need hundreds of these 4" blocks, so a long way to go yet.

I'm actually cutting pieces for them as I go through the 2.5" strip drawer, and making kits. I'm really terrible at the whole random thing, so having them all bagged up is a time saver. No trying to find the perfect bit to use, and wasting time that I could spend sewing.

There was another trip to the craft shop sale. More $11 fabric, and the floral was $6 a metre. The sale is only for another 3 weeks, so we're excusing our purchases on the grounds that in 3 weeks he'll have shut up shop for good.

I have seen bloggers post about pretty granny square blankets they've found in the op-shop and I must admit I've been a bit jealous. Yesterday I found one of my own, in a bin marked Dog Blankets.

Sometimes these crocheted rugs are covered in pet hair, old lady hair, dirt, holes and stains, and yes they should be used for pets. But this is perfectly clean and undamaged, so I rescued it.

I will use it to keep warm while I crochet my own version this winter.

Mothers Day, and my favourite flowers are in full bloom. One of my favourite flowers, I have so many. I appreciate chrysanthemums so much more because they are a once a year treat. Such a generous display of beautiful flowers!