One more

 

One more bookmark is finished from my stash of UFOs. I'm not sure what this thread is, but I know it's not Lizbeth. It's kind of fuzzy, which made it a little more difficult to close the rings. My bookmark stash is growing!

The middle school production of Descendants is coming up soon, October 17 and 18. Daughter Carol (aka Madame Director) asked if I could do some costume alterations today. Luckily, they were fairly easy and it only took me about an hour.

Daughter Joanne and I have been discussing Christmas quilts. We have fabric chosen. Now will come the hard part... deciding which pattern to use!

Bookmark day

 

Angela and I managed to do quite a bit of reorganization yesterday, and while working I found a bag with unfinished bookmarks. So, today I finished tatting bookmarks!

This one is in size 20 hand-dyed thread "Sky and Field". I'm pretty sure it's one of Marilee Rockley's threads. The tag looks like her hand writing.

I think this one might be size 20 Lizbeth #127 Butterfly Breeze. I'm not positive, because I only had the thread on the shuttle, no ball.

Yesterday was a great mail day! These two beauties are from Rita Richmond of Shuttle by Design. 

I also received Martha Ess's two latest books. I'm eager to get started!

Finished!

I am so happy with this quilt! Actually, I finished it Thursday evening right before heading off to bed, but I forgot to post yesterday.

This pot holder method really works for me. I think I may return to machine stitching the blocks together so that I can work through all of my ideas more quickly.

Today will be organizing day. Angela and I are making great progress upstairs, but there is still a lot that I would like to sort through before the holidays. I think my family will be very surprised to find fewer craft items taking up space!

Time flies

 

Another week seems to be getting away from me, and I don't have much to show in the way of crafting. I did manage to finish one front of my patchwork jacket. I took a different approach and pieced the section before sewing it on. I'm not sure which approach is better, but this was definitely an easier way to align the pieces. 

I realized I didn't have enough of this jelly roll fabric to finish the jacket, so I ordered another. If I like the way the jacket fits, I plan to hand quilt, embroider, and/or add embellishments after it's finished. If I don't like the way it fits, I will donate it... I think!

Busy weekend

This was a very busy weekend, but lots of fun. My sister and brother were both here for the weekend. We had lots of fun reminiscing, laughing, and eating good food... maybe a little too much food!

I did take time to attend our Tollway Tatters meeting Saturday morning. We spent quite a bit of time trying to track down a vintage edging pattern. Although we did not find what we were looking for, we did enjoy the search.

My goal for the weekend was to finish the fabric strips for the patchwork jacked I want to make. Mission accomplished!

Next on my to-do list was to finish sewing together a strip for my quilt. I only have one strip left to go!

This afternoon I decided to start adding the strips of fabric to my jacket sleeves.

I think the second one turned out better than the first, but I don't think it really matters. I'm not going to set any goals for tomorrow, but I am hoping to finish my jacket this week. I already have ideas for another jacket!

Eight weeks!

 

It's true. I checked my blog. It has taken me eight weeks to successfully tat Robin Perfetti's Criss Cross pattern from Four Dozen Tatted Bookmarks.

Now that I have completed it, I can't believe it took me so long. The problem? I was looking at the wrong spot on the diagram, so I didn't realize that when I reached the bottom portion of the bookmark I should have had one more pattern repeat on the second side than I had on the first side.

When did I come to this realization? It was right before I headed off to bed Tuesday evening. Of course, it took me all day Wednesday to un-tat my precious hand-dyed thread (size 20m Hakelgarn, Buttercup, from LadyShuttleMaker). I was able to finish the bookmark in about an hour this morning. 

Yes, I have made myself a note so that when I tat this beautiful pattern again, I will not have the same problem!

I can now move on to the next bookmark!

Multi-crafting

Today I finished binding all of the blocks for my quilt. Now I can concentrate on joining them together and finishing up the quilt.

I crocheted another ornament. It would be nice to figure out why mine doesn't look as crisp as the one in the video. I'm beginning to think I didn't follow the directions correctly.

Instead of exploring the crocheted version further, I went back to knitting on my circular knitting machine. I think I may stick with these. I have a lot of ornaments to cover, and I can complete six ornaments in about an hour. I'm pretty sure the crocheted ornaments take me about two hours to make one. I think I'll go with faster!