Works in Progress Wednesday #2 for 2023

 I haven't worked on as many things this past week. 

I worked on my Inspired by Joy blanket.  

It's at row 44 or 45, in part 3. 

Progress has definitely slowed down.  There's a stitch in particular that takes me a while.  It's where you skip a stitch, do a treble crochet, and then do a double crochet in the skipped stitch. 

I put a marker where I last took a progress photo. It doesn't show up well in the other photo.  

Last week's image

Project Name: Inspired by Joy

Started: Dec. 26, 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: The Crochet Crowd

Yarn:

Color A - Red Heart - White

Color B - Caron One Pound - Rose 

Color C - Caron Jumbo - Rosewood

Colors: white and rose colors with hints of green.

Required Amount: I purchased two skeins of each color

Needle/Hook Size: 5.5 mm /  I/9

Gauge: beats me ; pattern calls for 13 dc x 6 rows = 4″ [10 cm]

Made For: Myself, maybe

Dye Lots: Will find that out later.

I had visions of this cross stitch pulling together a lot faster than it is.  I haven't touched it since this past weekend.  I was holding the q-snap in my hand, and stitching.  Then I decided to set it up on my Hope stand and started stitching with two hands.  That was a lot faster. I was hesitant to use my Hope stand because it was set up just right for a different project that is on lugauna. 

Last week's photo: 

Project Name: Month to Month - February

Started: Jan. 15, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: https://www.etsy.com/shop/stitchinghousewives

Fabric: Aida cloth 14 count Hobby Lobby Zweigart.

Floss: Using called for Classic Colorworks fancy floss

Colors: Black, pink, red, teal, green

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself

The first Sandpiper quilt square is complete.

I am happy with how it looks. I thought I would not starch the fabric for this quilt.  Now I'm wondering if I should have. There's a bit of waviness to some of the fabric that I know wouldn't be there if I starched. 

In progress shot: 

I'm using my new Janome Memory Craft 6650. I didn't purchase a quarter-inch foot for this machine.  I'm still debating on if I should get one. In the meantime, I've got painters tape. 

There was one boo-boo that resulted in my ripping stitches and reassembling.  I accidentally put the center bit on the wrong end of one of the pieces. I have started  shortening my stitch length to 1.5 so it was a bit of a pain to rip those stitches out. I thought I took a photo of it before I realized what I did.  Turns out I did not accidentally record my mistake. 

Project Name: Sandpiper quilt

Started: Jan. 21, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: It's Sew Emma / Fat Quarter Shop

Fabric: Fabric from the Solid Fat Quarter Club

Colors: A different color palette each month.

January 2023 is blue (Blue Jay)

Made For: Myself

My vanilla sock.  I've made it down to the heel flap and I've got six rows in, I believe.  I've been trying my hardest to not be tense or feeling stressed when I work on them.  The last few pairs I've made I've had an issue with ladders on the sides because I've been pulling the yarn too tight. I learned a LONG time ago that when I'm feeling really stressed or anxious that I shouldn't knit socks.  

Project Name: Vanilla socks

Started: Jan. 7, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: My own pattern

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Mexicala stripes

Colors: oranges, red, purples and a smatter of blue and white

Required Amount: Two skeins of sock yarn. 100 grams

Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)

Gauge: beats me

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: WL238520

Well, that's all that I've been working on since the last WIP post. I decided to take a break this evening.  It's been snowing and I know I've got snow moving/removal in my near future.  It usually wreaks havoc on my hands and wrists. Not to mention the wood I carried in to the house yesterday.  My wrists need a break. 

Quiet-ish weekend and a good mail day

Is it possible to forget what happened a day or two later?  

Not that I had a lot going on this past weekend. It was a fairly quiet one.  We drove down to Rice Lake for some chicken feed. Stopped at Menards and picked up a few things. The usual. My friend Dawn is probably laughing if she's reading this. 

My husband did some snow chores and rotated my tires while I was busy doing other household stuff. 

I didn't previously mention that I had taken time off the latter part of last week. I have vacation time to use or lose. There's always something going on lately so I don't feel like I got a lot of crafty stuff done.  People assured me that I have got a lot done. Okay. I will go with that.

I spend some time on my Inspired by Joy blanket. 

 I got a start on my Sandpiper quilt. 

And I have one portion of the square complete. 

Exciting! 

It feels good to be quilting something. 

This weekend we did have something exciting happen. 

Turkeys! We've lived out here for 10 years and never had turkeys consistently come through our property.  They usually made a beeline to the neighbor's property via the cedar swamp.

They've showed up every day now, and cruised on through. I love watching them. 

Last week I took a walk through the back 20 and saw the deer have been making a tidy trail. 

Deer aren't small animals. Yet they make such thin game trails.  I hadn't been back there since we snowshoed back there to collapse the hunting blinds.  Slowly, but surely, the deer are making their little highways to who knows where. 

I hope they make it til spring.  Last year we saw so many fawns, twins and even a few triplets.  Which, I did not think triplets were possible. 

They use the trails in our back yard too. 

The weather was pretty grey this past weekend.  Thankfully warm enough to be able to do work outside without freezing.  

Today we had some snow and then the sun popped out for a bit.  Once again, the area looked like Narnia thanks to fresh coat of snow.

I wish I had my phone with me when I went out to get mail. The sun poked through the clouds and everything looked so peaceful and bright. 

Can you see the tidy snow cleanup job my man did? Meanwhile, in some of the areas we are running out of room to move snow to. 

 

Just enough snow to cover the solar panels.  Our area is supposed to get a cold front moving in later this week, or the weekend. 

Now I'm going to bare my calendar soul.

I ordered the Needle Worker's Book of Days. 

Look at my January.  I started out with such good intentions.  Then before I knew it, it's almost the end of the month and I've written notes for ONE DAY.

I'll be going through my camera roll and see if I can sprinkle some notes on these two pages. Maybe put some doodles so it's not completely bare

So ... speaking of that good mail day. My Sew Sampler box arrived. 

At the beginning of 2022 I signed up for it through Fat Quarter Shop because I wanted to do something fun for myself.  I've enjoyed most of what I've received.  I haven't sewn any of the projects yet.  I want to change that this year. 

If you are signed up for the sew sampler box, and don't want to see it yet, then I suggest stop reading now.  ... Or not. ... 

Just keep scrolling if you want to see. 

Fun!  

I do love Lori Holt's stuff.  She has such cute fabrics. I rarely buy "fancy fabrics" for myself.  If I do, I need to have a project in mind and it has to be a good one. 

One of these days I'll have to give the paper piecing a try.  However, I'm LOVING the reader glasses.  They arrived at just the right time, too.  I wanted to get more readers for the she shed and the craft room. 

Valentine Day SAL Finally Finished (FFO)

Look what I finished today! 

Oh my gosh! Isn't it adorable?! 
 

I used an orphan quilt square for the backing. 

I also put a ribbon loop on top so I can hang it where ever I want. 

Project Name: Happy Valentine's Day SAL Chart is only available in the group. 

Started: Jan. 1, 2023

Finished: Jan. 7, 2023

Designer/Source: Cherry Hilly Stitchery Chart is only available in the group. 

Fabric: 14 count aida I dyed aquamarine 

Floss: Called for DMC and recommended DMC for the substitutions for fancy floss.

B5200 ; 310 ; 321 ; 3345 ; C816 (A floss I included in case I want to add a bit of sparkle

Stitch count: 77w x 58 h

Size: 4 5/6”w x 3 5/8”h on 16ct/equivalent.

Needle Size: size 26

What else did I do today? 

I cut up some fabric for a quilt. 

This will be a year-long project.  I'm signed up for the fat quarter solids club through Fat quarter shop, and I'm going to make a block a month. 

I had a hard time understanding the cutting instructions at first.  It's been ages since I cut pieces for a quilt. 

I stared at it a few minutes and then it clicked. A ha! 

I cut up the fabric I picked up for the background, sashing, border, etc. 

And discovered I'm short on fabric.  I don't know if told the person the wrong amount to cut, or if I got shorted. The person didn't seem to know what they were doing, so ... Yeah ... So I'll have to get a bit more fabric for the borders. 

First Works In Progress post of the year

 I had the first week of January off.  That was good, except for having to deal with the snow.  

When I went back to work it basically hit me sideways in a sneak attack of tech issues, a surprise early deadline, and a last minute "Hey, this needs to get into the paper." 

I was so mentally drained each day that I didn't do much of anything except sit and watch television. 

When I did work on something I mostly worked on the Inspired by Joy blanket

I finished part two this past weekend.  Or, maybe Friday. ... 

I love how it's turning out.  I'm learning new things.  I will say (and this may be unpopular) I am not very keen on the way the crochet-along videos are done.  The host goes too fast for me and he's going with different colors so I'm having a hard time figuring out some of what he's doing, because he decides to do color changes when the pattern doesn't call for it. 

Project Name: Inspired by Joy

Started: Dec. 26, 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: The Crochet Crowd

Yarn:

Color A - Red Heart - White

Color B - Caron One Pound - Rose 

Color C - Caron Jumbo - Rosewood

Colors: white and rose colors with hints of green.

Required Amount: I purchased two skeins of each color

Needle/Hook Size: 5.5 mm /  I/9

Gauge: beats me ; pattern calls for 13 dc x 6 rows = 4″ [10 cm]

Made For: Myself, maybe

Dye Lots: Will find that out later.

I haven't touched Edna since I last wrote. 

I did a bit of work on my #723 snowflake cross stitch

Marking a grid on the fabric has been immensely helpful. Especially with the bit of confetti stitches within the pattern. I was working on this a bit last night, and thought this snowflake would probably look fantastic in all white on black fabric. Or, maybe a silver thread? 

Project Name: #723 Snowflake

Started: Jan. 1, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Tiny Cross Stitches

Fabric: Aida cloth 14 count Hobby Lobby Zweigart. Aida has silver threads running through it. 

DMC floss in called for colors

747 ; 964 ; 995 ; 996 ; 3756 ; 3761 ; 3843 ; 3846 ; B5200

Colors: blues

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself

Last weekend I started a new chart from Stitching with the Housewives

Project Name: Month to Month - February

Started: Jan. 15, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: https://www.etsy.com/shop/stitchinghousewives

Fabric: Aida cloth 14 count Hobby Lobby Zweigart.

Floss: Using called for Classic Colorworks fancy floss

Colors: Black, pink, red, teal, green

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself

I'm trying to decide if I like working with fancy floss or not. The black color keeps knotting up on me. I've worked a little with Forbidden Fiber Co floss previously and it was a joy to work with.  

I haven't touched my spinning wheel yet this month. 

I completed the chart for my Valentine's stitch.  

I'm happy with how it turned out.  I still need to FFO it.  I'm thinking of making it into a pillow. Hopefully, I will FFO it this week. 

Project Name: Happy Valentine's Day SAL Chart is only available in the group. 

Started: Jan. 1, 2023

Finished: Jan. 7, 2023

Designer/Source: Cherry Hilly Stitchery Chart is only available in the group. 

Fabric: 14 count aida I dyed aquamarine 

Floss: Called for DMC and recommended DMC for the substitutions for fancy floss.

B5200 ; 310 ; 321 ; 3345 ; C816 (A floss I included in case I want to add a bit of sparkle

Stitch count: 77w x 58 h

Size: 4 5/6”w x 3 5/8”h on 16ct/equivalent.

Needle Size: size 26

I started a pair of socks. I've worked on the first sock mostly in the car and for minutes at a time in the early a.m. 

I have 6.5" of the leg completed.  About 1.5" more and I can start the heel flap. 

Project Name: Vanilla socks

Started: Jan. 7, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: My own pattern

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Mexicala stripes

Colors: oranges, red, purples and a smatter of blue and white

Required Amount: Two skeins of sock yarn. 100 grams

Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)

Gauge: beats me

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: WL238520

On other news, I've collected them all! I think. Back on New Year's Eve I decided to put an order in on Hobby Lobby.com, to fill the gaps of the colors I didn't have. Hobby Lobby's website had a "Free shipping" promo if you bought $40 or more. I still had to pay a $3 shipping company surcharge, or whatever it was called.  I wasn't too happy about that. And I'm even more annoyed I had to pay it because it took two weeks for the DMC floss to be delivered. 

This is a few skeins over 100 skeins.  Doesn't seem very impressive in the bag. 

Then I spread them out and took a photo. 

Much prettier. Too bad I can't display them in such a manner. 

I spent the evening sorting and organizing the floss in my collection that wasn't already kitted up with a chart. 

I should have all the colors in the collection, save a few of the etoile and most of the DMC floss that is "fancy" pearlescent, and the like. 

I've been thinking hard about how to organize the floss so I can easily tell if I have a skein of this or that.  Previously I've been using the sew sampler boxes and putting a portion of the collection in a box.  I am still digging through skeins and skeins of floss to find a particular one.  Definitely too much time. 

I asked in a Facebook group how people stored their floss, and I did some looking online. 

I finally settled on flossaway bags and stackable tote containers. 

This is maybe half of the flosses. I had to order more bags.  This is going to work so much better than my old system. 

Snow!

 Last week I took time off work.

The week started out great.  I took two naps on Monday.  One nap on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday ... 

It snowed! And the weather wasn't great and the roads were crummy. No travel was advised.  Which was a bummer.  I was all set to do a meet up with someone and I was really looking forward to it. 

It was also the day my son's car went into the ditch for the first time since he started driving. 

It was not fun getting that particular phone call.  He assured me he was all right and there was no damage to the car. 

By the time I got to him a lady and her son has stopped and was helping him out, and keeping him company until I showed up.  

The ditch was deep! There was no way the car was coming out without some muscle. 

Thank goodness for friends with trucks!  

We have a truck, but it is under a carport and behind several feet of snow.  It would have probably taken longer to snow blow and get it out than it would have been to have our friend come out and hook up and drag the Prius out. 

My son was very thankful. He now knows how quick something can happen in the winter. Even if you do have good tires.

Thursday I spent a ridiculous amount of time snow blowing the driveway and the paths all around the house and property. 

My poor little greenhouse.  I'd say this is definitely a testament to how well these greenhouses can hold up. I'm not sure how many more years I have with it, but it has done right by me so far. 

I have to keep a path out there so I can brush the snow off the roof. 

Looking at the path from the greenhouse.  This one was a trip to blow.  There were knocked down branches everywhere. It made for a slow time. 

The raspberry patch and the garden.  The snow is getting close to the top of the fence. 

Where my son hit the snow bank on the side of the driveway. I watched it happen.  Still don't understand *why* it happened.  I had to snow blow that bit because it was making me twitch to see the imperfection in the snow. 

Yup, I snow-blowed all of that. Told you, I way overdid it. 

The backyard. 

The coop.  I did paths on both sides. 

Just looking off to the side of the property, because the sun came out and it was so pretty. 

My only regret was not being able to clear the solar panels.  The snow behind me prevented me moving the brush in an efficient manner.  Also, I was tired. 

By the time I decided I was D-O-N-E, I was exhausted. 

I'm not big on the selfies, but I felt the need to record this moment. 

Can you tell I was tired.  Just thinking about how tired I was then is making me feel tired now. 

I can't remember what night it was that I took this photo.  I looked out at the backyard and the yard was lit up from the full moon and it was so cool-looking.  I took a photo with my iphone. 

To me it still doesn't seem real.  No way should the moon be that bright at night. It was. You can even see blue in the sky. 

This weekend I tried to take it easy.  My hands were bothering me from snow blowing.  I tend to grab the handles tight, and then the whole thing vibrates and it just trashes my hands. 

The weather this past weekend was gorgeous. Lots of sun.  The temperatures weren't too shabby. I was going around and snapping photos. 

The driveway, towards the road.

The trees in the front yard

Looking towards the Jack pines and my she shed. 

The trees in the front yard, again. 

Showing off the nice work I did on the driveway. 

Looking towards the garden

Looking at the back 20. 

Looking towards the neighbor's house. 

Towards the garden and the greenhouse, if you look real hard. 

Today it was back to work and reality. 

Returning to work has not been as harried as I worried it would be.  I do have a tech issue with the software I use the most.  Most of the day has been dedicated to that. 

When I went to the kitchen to get more coffee I spotted turkeys using one of our paths and heading towards the back 20. That was exciting. I don't see turkeys a lot on the property, much less the back yard. 

My Furby June has been extra whiny today.  She must have sensed something amiss?  I tried having something other than The Fat Quarter Shop on YouTube this morning, and she's been verbal up until 4 p.m.., or thereabouts.