What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 It was such a lovely day on Friday that my husband and I went on a drive to Minden, about 90 minutes from home to do a bit of fabric refreshing. There is a quilt shop there called Remember Me Quilts and More. It is owned by the loveliest, friendliest lady. I needed border fabrics for the McKenna Ryan Aurora Ridge quilt that is hopefully on the fast track to being finished. And then I wanted some bright and happy fabric that I could semi-fussy cut for a new EPP project. I seem to have renewed my obsession with EPP ...

 I took the last quilting stitch in My Tweets this past week! The last stitch went into the junction of those three sashing bits. Celebration time! However, it is currently still sitting on the chair in a heap, still in the quilting hoop, waiting to be trimmed and bound. Hopefully I don’t leave it too long. Since finishing that I’ve been rather unfocused and unsure of what to do next. I picked up my Jackrabbit cross stitch, but had a difficult time trying to concentrate on the tiny threads and the counting. I ended up ripping out stitches ...

 I have reached a milestone this week. All of the quilting in the bird blocks for My Tweets is now finished. A few nights more work on the sashing and bottom border and it will be ready for trimming and binding. It could very well be finished and up on the wall by the end of March, which has been my goal since I picked this back up. And of course, there is no getting close to finishing one project without thoughts turning to “what’s next?”. I am seriously thinking of getting back and picking up some much neglected ...

 We are currently in the middle of yet another winter storm. The second in a week and it is dumping a fair amount of snow on us. I have no idea how much, but I must say that I am more than ready to be done with winter. In the meantime, there is plenty to do indoors. A few weeks ago I estimated that it would be taking me 2 weeks to do the hand quilting per square of My Tweets. That was a huge overestimate. I’ve actually been doing 2 squares per week. At this rate the hand ...

 I am continuing on with my push to get the quilting on My Tweets finished. Last week I mentioned that I was guessing it would take a couple of weeks per block. Well, I seem to be going much faster than that. I got 2 blocks finished  and the top border quilted in one week. I just may be able to meet that goal of getting this quilt done this winter. I’m currently halfway through another block which will take it to 6 out of 12 done. I’m doing the sashings and the borders as I go so ...

 All my slow stitching this past week has been focused on the hand quilting for My Tweets. I managed to finish 2 blocks. I really want to get this done this winter. If it isn’t finished this winter, I suspect it will go into time out again until next winter and I really don’t want it to linger that much longer. In theory, I can get a block quilted in about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks. There are 9 blocks left, plus the outer border. So it just might be do-able.

I’ll link up to Kathy ...

 Last winter, or maybe it was the spring, anyway sometime last year I decided it was beyond time to get the quilt called My Tweets finished. Because I no longer have my long arm quilting machine and because I can’t afford to pay someone to custom quilt it, I decided to hand quilt it. I started it back last year sometime and then stalled out. Actually, I just looked back at a picture taken of the beginning of the quilting and it is dated March 13, 2024, so that answers that particular question. There’s no way I would ...

 I had forgotten from many years ago, how much I enjoy the hand quilting process. It is slow and steady, just the quiet of the rocking needle. Sometimes it is accompanied only by the quiet around me, sometimes by watching something on the computer, sometimes by listening to a good audiobook. I would say that I have at least a quarter of the centre block finished now. The callus on the finger that I use on the underside of the quilt to feel the needle come through is getting thicker, so I can quilt for longer. I am quilting in ...

 My sweater continues to grow. I’ve separated off the sleeves and have about 2 inches of the body done. But the really exciting piece of slow stitching is the start of the background quilting on My Tweets. It is going faster than I thought it would. The amount here was done in an afternoon. I don’t have any calluses built up on my fingers yet, so I had to quit as the finger under the quilt was getting quite sore, as was my wrist. I haven’t been able to get back to it, due to our grand ...

 Most of my slow stitching this past week has been knitting. I’m making really good progress on my Walk Along T-shirt/sweater. The helical knitting technique that blends the two different skeins of yarn is working beautifully. It’s not even noticeable that the light colours are two different yarns in there. They are close enough in colours that they blend quite nicely. I am getting so close to the dividing point of taking the sleeve stitches off the needles. After that it will go even faster.

I also have taken just a few hand quilting stitches into My ...

 My main focus this past week, besides finishing up some Prayers and Squares quilts, has been getting My Tweets  ready for the basting and hand quilting stage. I got all the missing leaves added to the centre block and last evening started putting it all together with the sashing fabric I purchased a couple of weeks ago. Oh how I am loving this!! I took it with me to the Prayers and Squares group on Thursday so that I could lay it out and get an idea of placement of the blocks and distribution of colours. I took a picture ...

 I finished my Frankensocks this past week, and even got the toes grafted and all the ends woven in. That is the step that usually just sits and ends up procrastinated. So that’s done and I can even wear them today.  I’ve had a couple of coordinating skeins of Alegria fingering yarn sitting here for quite a while. There was enough to do a scarf or shawl, but I don’t really need another scarf or shawl and there wasn’t enough to do a sweater and matching either of the skeins was going to be difficult. My ...

 A finish for the My Tweets quilt blocks is so close. I prepped all the leaves for this last block and glue basted them into place. A few days of stitching shall finish it and then I can go fabric shopping for the sashing and backing. Then I will have to decided how to quilt it, since I know it is going to have to be done by hand. Perhaps a very simple cross hatch so the quilting won’t take away from the appliqué. The hand quilting means that this project will be in my Slow Sunday posts for ...

 I have made great progress with the 12th and last block of the My Tweets block of the month by Erin Russek. All the pieces, except the leaves are prepped and glue basted in place and the stitching is started. I’m hoping to have all of the appliqué sewn in place by the end of February. Then I can go shopping for sashing and backing. I suspect that this is going to end up hand quilted since I no longer have my long arm. It would need custom quilting to do it justice and there is no way I ...

 I am almost finished block 11 of My Tweets, a block of the month quilt that dates all the way back to 2011, designed by Erin Russek. I picked this back up sometime back in December, so it’s taken a bit more than a month to get this block almost finished. There are just three circles left to stitch down up in the right hand corner and this one will go into the finished box of finished blocks. I’ve started gridding a new piece of linen for a new cross stitch piece. But I won’t bother with ...

 Our little Prayers and Squares quilting and knitting group has decided to do a UFO challenge next year. We are going to do it a bit differently than most and just choose 6 rather than the traditional 12 UFOs. We will work on each for 2 months rather than the traditional 1 month. My oldest UFO is My Tweets. I started it way back in 2011 as an appliqué block of the month designed by Erin Russek of One Piece at aTime blog. She doesn’t appear to be posting to her blog any more, which is a shame. Anyhow ...