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.

Update on 3 craft projects

Rather than rotate projects I'm working on three at the same time--just doing which ever one I feel like.

For the most part this has been the 'Our Street' quilted wall hanging. I've completed seven of the houses now. There are four left to go plus one pine tree. I'm making all of the pieces available in the kit rather than copying the photo on the kit which leaves some of the elements out. Not sure how it's all going to work out in the end. The two rows won't come out exactly the same size.

I've also laid out Jade's flannel quilt and layered it and pinned the layers together. It's ready for quilting and is sitting near the sewing machine ready to go.

This week the weather has been cooler so I've picked up the rug hooking again and am getting near the end of the lighthouse. Only 30 rows to go. I may work on Jarrah's rug hooking when I finish this one because he just hasn't managed to get his really going.

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.

Working on a number of projects

In keeping with my plans to finish off a few non-cross stitch projects this year and because it's been too hot to work on the rug hooking I've been working on a few other things this past week.

And I have my first finish for the year--a lovely green summer dress for my daughter Jade!



I bought the fabric for this dress, which came on the bolt with a gathered top, two years ago at Joanne's Fabrics in Connecticut. I thought it would make up into a lovely cool dress and my daughter would love it because her favourite colour is green. This has been such a hot summer I thought now's the time. I've got to do this while she's still young otherwise it won't suit her. Well it's come out beautifully! She has a school ball coming up so if it's still hot then this may be her ball dress.

Jade has also wanted a flannel quilt since I made one for myself a few years ago. My sister had sent me some fat quarters so also in 2008 I bought additional fabric, again at Joanne's, so I could make the quilt. There just isn't nice flannel fabric for quilting in Australia. What there is is in designs suitable for kid's pajamas. So I've worked out a pattern and have cut out my squares. It's just going to be done in simple squares. Jade is currently laying out the squares the way she wants them on the kitchen floor so I can't go on with this until she finishes this and everything is decided. The colors are all bright and cheerful. I love the yellow fabric with the ladybugs and also the green fabric with bamboo leaves. This latter one is also going to be the backing for the quilt.



So since the quilt has come to a temporary halt I've started working on a necklace kit I bought years ago at a quilt show which uses lovely Japanese indigo fabric. I did attend a workshop then to see how it was made but that must have been in about 2002 or 2003 and I've forgotten. Unfortunately, the instructions aren't really clear.

It's a new year and time to start blogging again!

Happy New Year! We had a fabulous Christmas and trip to the US. Now we're back in Australia and the kids went back to school this week so I'm starting up my blog again.

It's wonderful having a fresh start to things. It gives you the freedom to re-examine where you are and how you've been going and to make changes to the way you've been doing things. That's where I am now. Not only in relation to crafts but also in relation to general household organisation (which is a constant uphill battle) and other personal goals.

So I took a piece of paper and wrote '2010 goals' on the top of it and started a list. Some of the things on the list are going to be hard such as putting photos in albums (there is a 10 year backlog of these), learning how to use new video-making software and making a movie out of our holiday videos, and figuring out what's wrong with the stereo and fixing it or getting it fixed. Maybe that last one won't be so hard because I just have to find someone else to do it.

Crafts are on the list and this year I'd like to work on and finish 2-4 non cross-stitch projects that I have on hand. I've already made my daughter's just completed 12 x 12 rug hooking into a pillow for her. That wasn't really my craft but I guess it was my first 'finish' for 2010. I'm also going to go through the craft cupboard and straighten it out and re-organise it. I'm looking forward to doing a couple of smaller quilt projects this year. I know I have a bunch of bright flannels to make a flannel quilt for my daughter Jade. There's also a summer dress for her with a gathered bodice which only needs a back seam and spaghetti straps to finish it. That should take hardly any time to finish and I should do it soon while the weather is warm. I'll list and prioritise these things over the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime I've also been rug hooking. The kids and I all bought rug hook kits at Michael's in the US. They are so cheap there. My kit is 16 x 32". It's of a lighthouse. I've done over half of it since we came home in early January. I haven't worked on it for a week or so because it's just too hot to be handling wool and having a hot wool rug on my legs. But I also haven't been doing any other crafting either so I have to get back into the swing of things.

Anyway, here is the project:



and here is how it will look when finished:



I'm going to make it into a wall-hanging.

End of Latrobe Tce Rotation

Considering the amount of time I've been out these past two weeks I haven't done too bad on this rotation. I'm probably about half way through the Queenslander house on the left of the centre of the pattern. Had I had fewer distrations I would have been aiming to finish it in the two weeks. But that just wasn't possible so I figure any progress is good progress. I've also had a tickle in my throat for over a week and I've been coughing more and more to the point where I just feel drained of energy. I'm taking anti-biotics now and hoping that will bring me back to life.

I know this isn't a reading blog but I've reported from time to time how I'm going with Diana Gabaldon's Voyager series. Well yesterday I finished the 6th book in the series called A Breath of Snow and Ashes which goes up to December 1776. It was a really good book and I'm so glad I kept with this series through the more gory bits in the earlier books. I am really looking forward to reading the latest book An Echo in the Bone which was just published in September. I've put a reserve on it at my library. The new book is going to cover at least part of the American Revolution so that should be quite exciting. Right now though I'm taking a break from Diana Gabaldon and trying a new author Di Morrissey. (What is this with all the Dianas and Dis?)

The other cross-stitchy news is that I had my two Xmas presents framed. Here they are still with the protective packing around them. They look great.





So I'm now back to the beginning of my rotations and on Verandas again. Worked on it last night and it's going well.