Spring Blocks

The blocks I made last week make me think about spring time - blues and yellows remind me of hyacinths and daffodils.  A bit of brightness amidst the winter weather!

(Broken Dishes - block 11)

(Honeycomb - block 49)

I found Honeycomb much harder to pull off than the Broken Dishes block, despite the larger pieces.  I used the half square triangle method for the first block which meant I had less of a margin for error when putting it all together, so I am happy with Broken Dishes.

The Honeycomb block above is my second attempt to be perfectly honest.  The first one was a big mess - firstly I wasn't happy with the background fabric (pink and spotty with some cherries) which made the block too busy and too fruity and secondly, pretty much none of the seams came together.  Even with remedial work I could not make it look better, and when your pink loving 7 year old tells you it looks bad, it's time to cut the losses and scrap it.  Last night I cut out new templates and and fabric and took my time piecing it together.  The strawberry Cath Kidston print stands out much better against the white background and the the whole thing is constructed a whole lot better.

I've started cutting out this week's two blocks already but I am itching to finish a baby quilt as well as start two Very Important Projects!!!  I am trying so hard to be disciplined.

Dydd Santes Dwynwen Hapus

Today, January 25th, is Dydd Santes Dwynwen.  Dwynwen is the Welsh saint of love - our equivalent of Valentine's day if you like. I made some heart shaped Welsh cakes in her honour - just the thing with a cup of tea on this day of typically wet Welsh weather!

Snawheid

We had unexpected snowfall sometime between midnight and 6 am today and thus a bonus snow day!

This was the picture I took through the window this morning:

The snow has provided a perfect backdrop for my Snawheid hat:

This is only my second piece of 'proper' colourwork and I am so pleased with the end result :-) I highly recommend the pattern if you are looking to knit a hat.  Patterns written with a grid or chart seem to grow much faster in my opinion and accessories are lovely portable projects to be getting on with.  My project notes can be found on my Ravelry page should anyone be interested!

Now back to my cosy fire for more crafting - it is too cold for absolutely anything else!

Headache

I have a medical degree, so does my husband.  My next statement holds no medical water whatsoever, but, I never should have gone out in the snow on Friday! We are a sick household.  The two little ones are OK but the two adults have fared badly.  Last night, the little ones went to bed at 6,30pm (!) while the adults, wiped out, shivering and snotty, sat in bed watching episodes of Babylon 5.  A certain Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper would not be impressed.

I thought I would drop in quickly to share the two blocks I accomplished this week.  If I'm completely honest I confess to making three.  One of the two blocks I decided to make was a big disaster so I chose an extra, backup, one just in case I was defeated.  I'm pleased to say, I triumphed!

All the blocks had some pale background fabric in them so I've taken the liberty of photographing them on a brighter background.  I must say I quite like the results!

 This is 'Maple Leaf', a quick and straightforward block

Oops, there it a giant white thread resting on it.  I am a very thready quilter - I am very bad at remembering to trim my long threads after piecing.  I often end up with a bird's nest effect on the back of my blocks and if I do remember to trim the excess thread I usually go on the school run covered in them...

Now for 'Farmer's Daughter':

Oh my, this gave me a headache.  I was pretty daunted by all the little pieces and I was very surprised when it went together in an acceptable fashion.  However, when I measured my block against the others it was nowhere near the unfinished 6.5" square required.  It was just shy of 6 inches!!  I undid and redid the block, paying close attention to my seams but still it finished small.  Then I had a brainwave - my busy little boy has a fondness for sitting at the computer and pressing various combinations of keys and mouse buttons.  On further investigation I discovered that the printer settings had been changed.  The templates for this block were very slightly off but enough to cause me a serious headache.  A little printer adjustment later and all was well.

I so nearly threw in the towel, which is why I made the (much easier) backup block that follows.  I'm so glad I persevered because I don't want lots of difficult blocks to complete at the end!

'Windows'

I wonder if this block is a bit bland.  It doesn't really have that 'jumping out' factor as the colours are calm and understated.  However, I have plenty of other bright blocks made and I probably need a bit of muted in the mix.  If it really doesn't work with the other blocks, then it's simple enough to redo without much of a headache!!

Snow Day

We woke this morning to complete stillness and silence.  Usually you start hearing cars driving up and down our hill from about 6 am but today not so as a blanket of snow had fallen.

School was cancelled and the husband couldn't make it to work initially - he later managed to get in for a couple of hours.

We popped over to the park for a little while before our feet and hands were frozen.

I managed a bit of my current knitting project too:

This is Snawheid, a beautiful hat design by Kate Davies.  I just had to photograph the work in progress on a bed of snow given the snowflake detail.  I'm knitting this on a 40cm circular needle and shockingly I am using a metal circular needle.  As a general rule I prefer wooden or bamboo needles but I had heard great reviews about the Nova KnitPro range.  I was already a fan of their wooden interchangeable circular needles as well as their double pointed ones.  The Nova circular needle has proved  a delight to knit with - the highly shiny metal surface allows the yarn to glide over the pins.  As they are hollow they are very light to use and the cable incredibly flexible, so all in all, quite fabulous :-)

Honey Cowl

There is something about cold weather that brings out the knitter.  I am a knitter in all weather conditions but during this present cold snap I would say I am more prolific.

Behold the Honey Cowl:

This free pattern is available from the Madelinetosh website and it has been doing the rounds on Ravelry with over 9,000 projects listed!  It is a simple slip stitch pattern, knitted in the round and relatively quick knit too.  I knitted mine using some lovely Malabrigo Silky Merino yarn and the result is soft and warm.  The cowl, however, is no longer in my possession as a certain 7 year old seems to have 'borrowed it'.  Might have to knit another if this cold snap continues.  Preferably in front of the fire.

Cushion Love

I'm finding a new love in making cushions.  There is something very satisfying about a project that can be started and completed during naptime :-). 

This is another simple envelope back cushion made to fit a 12" cushion pad.  I think the fabrics are all from a Michael Miller collection of yesteryear - I loved the bright colours and the bold prints.  Turns out these sorts of fabrics are perfect for little boys and this cushion was a birthday gift for my friend's two year old.

I started with a central 10" square of the digger fabric and framed it with fabric strips to make the front cover 12.5 inch square.

I didn't add any quilting to the cushion front this time as I thought the diggers probably provided enough interest!

The fabric at the back compliments the cushion front.  These were 12.5" x 9" pieces - I turned down a half inch seam and pressed it before folding it over another half inch and sewing along the seam.  The front and backs were then pinned together and the whole thing sewn up with a quarter inch seam.

The finished article was well received and I am contemplating more cushion projects.  My house could certainly do with a few more scattered around and as long as I don't have thirteen cushions in one room as my Aunt Vera once had, all will be well.

Back to Work

I love that January feeling - the start of a brand new year with so many possibilities, I find it quite inspiring!  The Farmer's Wife quilt project is back at work this week and I'm happy to say the first two blocks of 2013 are completed.  In fact I have a new love of the project after my Christmas hiatus.

My plan for these two blocks was to use more white as background fabric so as to make the blocks a little less busy.  I've also decided that red is pretty much going to be the unifying colour throughout the project so I am just going to run with it rather than justify it's use. 

Here are the two blocks:

Firstly, End of Day

I like this block :-), I love the shapes of the individual pieces and how striking it looks with just the three fabric choices.  The aqua and red look lovely together I think.

Secondly, Old Windmill, which was the more challenging of this week's blocks - 32 mini triangles to cut and piece!  Overall I'm happy with it:

If you look at the very top left unit, something went a bit awry with the seam allowance so the corners don't align, but nothing that can't be corrected.  After sewing it all together I didn't have the heart to get the seam ripper out as the overall block looked so pretty.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but in 'The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt' book, there is a choice when it comes to the size of the finished quilt: lap-size (50 blocks), Twin-size (83 blocks), Queen-size (110 blocks) or King-size (a whopping 145 blocks).  As it's an American book I'm not entirely sure how this relates to British bed sizes but I shall definitely NOT be making the king-size!  At the moment I'm setting my sights on the twin-size quilt and with 22 blocks now made I am a quarter of the way towards the goal.  Part of me thins that 110 blocks isn't a lot (?) more so I may push myself that little bit further - time will only tell!

Blue

The title of this blog post is not a reference to how some people feel at the start of January - thankfully I am not one of these and actually prefer the colder, darker months!  Rather it is an allusion to my favourite colour.  Since I was a little girl, I have always loved the colour blue.  Apart from a brief flirtation with purple whilst at university my loyalty has always been truly blue ;-).  Green comes pretty close but let's leave that for another day.

I pretty much like all shades of blue - teal and turquoise are particularly good colours for redheads like myself -  and now in my mid-thirties I have a particular fondness for navy.  When I was growing up I always teased my mother about having mostly navy clothes but it seems I am tarred with the same brush as it is now true of me too!

I've never been much of a fan of baby blue as a colour for clothing, my little boy never wore it as a baby, but for accessories, home decor and kitchen ware, baby blue is just perfect :-)

Observe my number one Christmas gift from the recent festivities:

Oh my, what a wonderful specimen of a baby blue leather satchel that is!  Hand crafted by the Leather Satchel Company especially for me.  It's 11" across and is big enough to hold all my essentials including my kindle!  This was my Christmas present from my Dr Husband and I LOVE it.

I also got some lovely blue kitchenware in various shades as gifts:

I've always loved these mini cocottes from Le Creuset and I'm now the proud owner of eight of them!  They've already been trialled for chicken pot pies and this week I'm going to experiment with mini fish pies and mini veggie Shepherd's pies.

We've just returned from a lovely weekend at Bluestone which has relaxed us all no end and I'm ready for the onslaught of back to school tomorrow.

I'm planning on getting back on the Farmer's Wife Quilt wagon this week and I've already chosen the first two blocks of 2013!

Happy New Year!

It's the first day of 2013, and would you believe it, a dry and sunny day.  Having had rain constantly for about 3 weeks, what a lovely surprise when I got up this morning.  I can't say we're making the most of it given that the three of us that are home today, are a tad snotty, but it is making me feel cheery none-the-less.

Christmas was quiet and lovely despite the hammering our rugby team took at the local derby on Boxing Day.  It was the first time in my life that I have left a match before the final whistle.

Between Christmas and New Year I did a teeny bit of sewing, producing this cushion based on this tutorial.

I really love the result and it fits in really well with my living room.  Great for using up those scraps so I may make a few more in differing designs.  The cushion is a bit over-stuffed at present as I didn't have the correct size cushion pad in the house, so I ended up stuffing it with two pads for the time being!  A shopping trip beckons.

Much knitting has been done, but not necessarily completed, over the festive period which will be shared soon.  We have a family weekend away this coming Friday so perfect for finishing knitting projects ;-) Not to mention this afternoon - husband is golfing, little boy will be napping and my Big Girl and I can knit and watch Little House on the Prairie.