COMPLETING THE QUILTS. aka Carry On Quilting.

     I finished a few sashiko projects and ran out of the real thread so decided to experiment with some Perle #8 thread.      I made a  totally hand stitched tote bag featuring the Perle thread experiment.  I'll wait till the thread I've ordered comes before I continue my sashiko stitching journey. Perle really doesnt work very well, especially on the bigger stitch designs.      The star stencil is repeated four times. It is a remarkably longer stitch than any of the pre-printed designs in the kits I've recently finished.      I intend to turn all the previous sashiko projects into bags of some sort.      I'm waiting on some medium weight fusible stiffening to iron on over the back of the stitching to stop the possibility of items in the bag getting tangled up in the thread.  I've ordered some more of the varigated thread because I ran out before I'd finished th...

Finished !     It was a challenge. Front side doesn't look too bad if you don't look to close. The stitches could be more even. I tried, I really did. I thought getting stitches even size would be a riddle because I'm hand stitching  patchwork all the time, but those stitches aren't the focus  are they.  The back side is not as messy as I thought it was going to be.     I should have chosen something simpler for my first big project. But it's done now and I'll have to figure out what I'm going to do with it. It's described as a tote bag, but the fabrics is far to fine for that.      Now starting on a sampler that is printed on much heavier fabric. The stitches are bigger too. They are all dark blue. 

   I'm back doing some sashiko while I let a few February days slip by for the Temperature Quilt, which will henceforth be referred to as TQ22. I'll catch up with that again in a few days.     So, the first big sashiko project I have chosen to do is a tote bag featuring the rounded 'Bishamon' pattern. Holy cow!!! Did I pick a complicated one to start with? No obvious continuous path to easily stitch along and then wander on back the other way with little or no skipping across gaps behind the scenes. And the instructions that came with the kit are not much help. I've had to figure out some sort of continuity myself, and with no 'practice' stitching leading up to it, this Bishamon pattern has nearly done my head in. Oh well, anything after this will be easy, eh?     Skipping across, with a long stitch on the back, from the end of one lot of stitches to start another line of stitches increases the risk of tightening the stitches up.  Being a beg...

   Well, it's just after lunch on Saturday and I've finished the construction of the first month of my TQ22. It looks like a place mat at this point. It's 15.5 inches wide and 13.5 inches high.     I'll do some quilting on it and embroider the month on it to finish it off. I'm going to indicate significant dates like birthdays and anniversaries with a bead.     The blocks are going to be joined together 3 across and 4 down. It's going to turn out bigger than I would would like for a wall hanging but I'm sure I'll find somewhere to hang it eventually. When I get the furniture moved back to where I originally had it, there might be space big enough on one wall.  We moved the furniture and took up the rug when My Darling became disabled so it was safer for him to move about. It's a big job for me to put it all back.   11 more to go. Better get going on February now.

I'm back at it.  This time its KISS. Using my Baby GoCutter.  2" Half square triangles cause I just happened to have that die. Did another colour run set out slightly different than before but I forgot to take a photo.  I'm pinning them to paper as I go. The final layout will be as the calendar page is arranged with selected print fabrics to fill in the blanks.  This is flying along now.  Easy Peasy!!! See that odd one out in there. The blue/blue.  That day was a 'cold snap' in the middle of our summer. It went from 12c° to 15c°. Most unusual. There allways days that start out low but they usually manage to get over that 20s mark. Of course this set the 'winter haters' off moaning and groaning.  There's a couple more low low morning temps coming up in Feb. 9s and 10s but the days then warmed up nicely.  All in all, it's not been the stinking hot summer that we usually have. At least not here in New South Wales. Western Australia has been havi...