Storm Preparations

The forecast for Orlena is..... 100% chance of making a mini quilt top....

 

.......100% chance of a new cross stitch start.....

....... and 100% chance of sock knitting.

 

A scrap of yellow fabric was just the right size for a needlecase for doll making needles.  The longest is 12 inches.   A scrap of bamboo batting holds them all.

It may not be fancy, but it works!

Hugs and  Kisses has been started.  Changed the four patches to nine.  

Thinking about seeing if I can work out a feather patteen for inside the hearts and echoing it in the nine patches when it's quilted.

The hand quilting on this one is ticking along.  One thread a day is just enough to be enjoyable and leave me looking forward to more.

30 minutes a day is helping Crow Berry Sampler grow.  Playing a game of floss chicken with the red.  If necessary, I'll dye some more.

Love by Hands On Designs was a 2017 Valentine freebie.  It's a sweet, fun stitch.  

The top trim will be used on the love cross stitch.  The bottom trim is for the next Valentine cross stitch. 

The fabric from the never ending scrap box is cut up.  Next up is going through fabric tubs and cutting up scraps that are lurking in there.  Plus, refolding fabric.  Any excuse to pet fabric, right?  lol. Some of it just needs wobbly edges trimmed where it's been used for appliqué. 

It needs a bag.  This fabric jumped out, screaming "pick me!"  How could I say no?  Haha!

 

It all started with picking out a different color set of stitch markers to differentiate between increases.  I saw something that needed to be put away.  One thing led to another and it snowballed (in a good way).  

Scraps have been sorted.  The ones that were too small to be useful have been binned, as BEB found out long ago that crumb quilts bring her out in a rash and she has no idea why there were there.

Anything worth keeping is being cut up and a scrap project has been repurposed.  More on both next week.

  

There were 10 balls of newly caked up yarn sitting all forlorn without a home, which led to a bit of reorganizing.  More on that next week, too.

That led to some other things becoming homeless.  One of them is an Amish style yarn swift.  It pulls apart into about eight pieces, so a bag was made for it from some "how the heck did that ever get in my stash?" fabric.  There's a few more things needing bags now.  (The lighting was horrible.  The fabric isn't that dark.)

An small orphan block was made into a drink coaster for The Void (craft room).  

This cross stitch finish was made into a little pillow...minus the embroidery border.

The stitching on this one was finished and made into another pillow.  Both have been tucked away until summer.  Newly made ornies are kept in the same place, until they're ready to go out.  They joined a recently finished Halloween ornie, which I'd forgotten had been finished.

All four sides are sewn together and a slit is cut in the back of ornies for turning out and stuffing.  The fabrics for these two I made yesterday all came from the scrap box.  The more that's used, the less that needs to be trimmed. 😉  The holes were ladder stitched, flowers and leaves were cut out from dies.  Fusible webbing is ironed on before cutting.  A quick way to cover up the stitching.

A pouch for my Addi Turbo interchangeable needles and cords was made using another couple of scraps.  The zipper needs some bling.  

The inside.  

Some quilting projects were unkitted.  This one was started.  Four hearts have been traced onto fusible webbing.  No idea how big it will be.  It depends on when the fabric runs out.

The buttons for Miss Mary Mack arrived.  Which have given me an idea for another (totally unconnected) project.  

This is just the tip of the squirrelberg.   I have no idea what will be next. 

The stitching is finished on Miss Mary Mack by La-D-Da.  A pack of 50 silver buttons will be arriving tomorrow to use as a border.   The last time I sewed on 50 buttons I swore I'd never do it again.  lol  Never say never, right?

I thought about starting a new project, but am having fun with WIPs.  There's a couple that are going to be binned, then I'll be down to about six, not counting the one I'm stitching for Grey.

 

This morning, I sorted through the last of the fabric scraps and binned the pieces that are too small to use. The crate is in the basement for Grey to use. Next step is to press (BEB says REAL pressing, not ironing and calling it pressing) the fabric and play with the die cutter.  All that's left is weird shaped small pieces, mostly left over from appliqué.

I may be able to find enough bits and pieces for a practice block before sewing the next mini quilt.  Squirrel!  lol

The one thread a day hand quilting project is still puttering along.  I'd forgotten how much I enjoy hand quilting.  The needle broke in half this morning.  Gotta hate hearing that SNAP! Fortunately, there's almost a whole packet left.

We made another icicle on Thursday.  It was gloomy yesterday when I took the photo, but you get the idea.  I forgot how I'd sewn the bag, so went through most of the "this is not working" process again.  lol

While Grey was forging it and another piece, Bailey sat on my lap and we kept him company as I crocheted a couple of flower centers.

 

 My word for 2021 is....

*drumroll".....

SQUIRREL!!!!

I know that comes as no great shock.

I missed not keeping notes last year on what I worked on each day.  I was just fun to do, so have revived it for this year. It's just for fun.  I wrote the acronyms up the top so I don't forget what they are.  They're for the gunna projects that tend to get neglected.  

The 30 minutes of quilting went out the window, as Ares dropped his tail yesterday.  One thing led to another and I cleaned out both enclosures a day early.  The only tail I found was Athena's.  She had buried herself under the moss, with just her tail sticking out.  We were both surprised when I started to lift it.  lol I assume one of them ate the tail.  Gross, but makes sense,   They eat their skin when they shed, as it gives them nutrients and doesn't leave anything for predators to find.

Anyway, that means I'll just have to do extra on that project to play catch up.  Sad, I know.  Haha!

 Wishing you a year filled with frog free creativity!

New Years Resolutions are not my thing.  I find it much more fun to be squirrelish.

This is much more my style.