feb 26 to mar 4
Welcome to week nine.
Be a Maker:
I had a swap due this week. Shipping on the first of the month my Statbuck's Mini Quilt Swap went to it's new home. In swaps you let your partner's information sheet guide your making, and this time I got a partner so much in alignment with my style and taste it was almost too easy.
I chose Carolyn Friedlander's wall-hanging Scales featured in the second issue of Making magazine as my mini for this swap. The colors and design of her piece felt right to me but instead of the little school of fish I free-handed a mermaid.
I first drew her on paper, then using that paper as a guide, stitched her into the top quilt. I used a very short stitch length on the parts of her I wanted to appear smooth and the lifted the presser foot while I "free-handed" her hair. This created a tension imbalance and cause the thread on top to loop and pull. I exaggerated some of the loops to make them more even and achieved an overall curly, free flowing look to her hair. It was a shot in the dark and not at all anything I have tried or seen before, but for this it worked brilliantly!
I have been working on making hexies for a second round of Pick Your Theme Hexies swap. I have 80 1" hexagons to make and send in by month's end. These go quick, like a few hours of work and you're done, but they also make a great little project to have on my counter and do now and then through a day. I can even manage to do them with a sick toddler in my lap, so that's a plus.
All week I have been seeing Mischief Quilt by The DIY Crafter on IG. This is an EPP quilt that you can buy as a basic kit all the way up to a kit with all the paper pieces pre-cut. Now, I HATE cutting EPP pieces, but it's super fun to make these projects, so I have employed my Silhouette cutting machine to do the work. Using the templates I draw out the shapes, load them into my computer, trace in the software and arrange so I get the most per page, and begin cutting. Last night in an hour I cut enough for a quarter of the quilt... that's like 20 rosettes worth of shapes. Even when I was 14 and had nimble hands I couldn't have cut that many pieces in an hour. It is another great now and then project that can live in the same project bag as my other EPP items.
Lastly, I have been trudging along in my Fade. We had a tiny mishap tonight when the lil'little pulled it out of my hands and I dropped like a dozen stitches a couple rows down, which if I wasn't 70% into it I would frog to the last joined ball, but was corrected with about 45 minutes of tense knitting... I may have said some words that are not safe for work, but no one was around to hear so no harm. I want to finish that soon and then a cardigan I have been working on for years and years, so I can move on to some socks.
Use the Stash:
Practice my Craft:
Knitting repair, hand stitching on the mini, free-hand drawing, and then picture stitching for the mini. It was a good week of techniques and craft!
I ordered an Erin Condren planner. It's a 2017 planner that started in January, it was on sale like 60% off, and it should be to me by the end of next week. My Get to Work Book will be done at the end of June, and I plan to use it until then. Once June comes in I'll switch to the EC and over the new year to 2018, I will just use date cover stickers. Then in March next year, when the EC are on sale again, boom, I will get the next planner.
Until June then I am practicing my layout technique. There is an element of design and layout planning that goes into putting stickers on a spread. If you're interested in seeing what it is all about search on YouTube for "Plan With Me" and watch some of these ladies make magic on a weekly basis. It's also a great way to see who makes what stickers and the best places to get washi, tools, and of course the planners. I am trying really hard NOT to fall into the rabbit hole of midori, faux-dori, traveler's notebooks, and field notes but it is a very slippery slope.
Later this month:
Sarah Fielke is doing a BOM called Down the Rabbit Hole. The this month's instructions were released on the 28th. I am a month behind now though I do have my fabric selected.
On to week ten...
You're doing great!!
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