A finish on one and substantial progress on another

Time to rotate projects again. I've made big progress on the second house of Cottages II starting it from scratch this rotation and getting it about 2/3 complete. Hopefully that means I can finish it the next rotation?

I also finally finished sewing Jade's flannel quilt and she's thrilled about that. I also made and finished a matching pillow to go with it.



I am so close to finishing so many projects that I'm going to go through them and give an indication of the stage each is in.

1. Cottages at Oak Bluffs (2 houses) 60% complete, 2 rotations to finish
2. Verandas of South Battery 90% complete, 4 rotations to finish (there is a lot of back stitching)
3. Chinese II 25% complete, 2 rotations to finish
4. New England Sampler 60% complete, 6+ rotations to finish
5. LaTrobe Terrace 95% complete, 1 rotation or less to finish

So with so many finishes in sight I'm considering which projects to begin in their places. I've already started The Rocks in place of LaTrobe Terrace so that's a lock. Cottages will become Jade's baby sampler and I'll start another Barbara & Cheryl possibly in place of Chinese II.

Here are some other happenings around our place:



Jade dressed for communion with her stole. She is just gorgeous in her dress!



Cat condo being constructed by the boys.



And finally our own home-grown Master Chef!

Working on 5 projects now!

I'm spreading myself thinner and thinner as I continue to work on a range of projects. Many are well underway and nearing completion so I should soon have several finishes to report.

Firstly there is the rug hooking which I continue to nibble away at. I have about 20 rows on that to finish.

Then last weekend I began to miss cross-stitching so I got out the Chinese themed project which has been in my rotation list but which I've skipped over a few times and not started. It's a small quick project and I finished one of the two designs--ie. half of it--in two days.



Then I went back to quilting Jade's flannel quilt on Monday but quickly ran out of thread so had to stop.

I'd had to stop working on the houses wall-hanging 'Our Street' the week before when the iron broke because I needed it to iron the seams as I sewed. As I'd bought a new iron just before the weekend I decided to go back to sewing the houses rather than rushing off to buy thread to continue with the quilting.



All of the houses finished and laid out in 3 rows.

I've been pushing through that project during the day and finished all the houses last evening. Today I've been putting them together. I've just about got the centre of the wall-hanging finished with only the borders to do. I may buy different fabric to what I have for the borders as I'm not happy with the colours anymore.



You may just be able to see the gold flecked brown fabric I've chosen to be the 'ground' in between the rows of houses.

I did say five projects. Well a few evenings I've been working on my Charleston, South Carolina project Verandas. I've nearly finished House #2. I should finish it in one or two more sittings then will be on to the last house--House #1. That's a large house so it will take a while. But I plan to have this cross-stitch finished this year.

Does that make 5? Two quilts, two cross-stitches and a rug hooking. I've actually got another small cross-stitch that I carry around in my handbag and work on whenever I have a few minutes. I haven't even counted that.

Will I go back to rotations? Or will I rotate my cross-stitches as I was doing but work on quilting during the day? I'll see how I feel after I finish the two quilts I've got going now.

Quilting projects!

It's still too hot to do rug hooking so I am working on a couple of quilting projects. Yesterday I had a huge day and completed the top and back of my daughter's flannel quilt. The quilt's looking really good and I didn't think it would piece together so quickly. Now I'm up to the layering step. With the other flannel quilts I've made I've used polar fleece as the middle layer. I haven't bought any for this quilt yet so I'm at a standstill until I can get to a fabric store.



That's fine as this allows me to work on another UFO--the foundation paper wall-hanging kit called 'Our Street'. I bought this probably about 7 or 8 years ago and made up one house back then. All the fabric pieces for it have been stored in zip lock bags separated by colour since that time. I got it out over the weekend and made up a second house. I'm kind of cheating as I'm following the colours from the example photo on the kit. The interesting thing is there are three additional buildings in the kit that aren't pictured in the photo. I thought I would make these up as well.



Here are the two houses I've made up so far. The red one I did on Sunday and the blue one I made several years ago. The foundation papers are still attached to the back of the houses. I'll tear these off when I'm ready to square the blocks up and piece them together.

Another Finish!

My second finish for 2010--the Japanese fabric necklace. The glue is still drying but it looks good. It was a quick project admittedly but it's great to check another one off the list!



The flannel quilt is finally laid out now. It's going to stay on the floor so people can swap squares around over the weekend. I guess I'll start sewing it on Monday.



I need to look through my stash for another small project to work on in the meantime.