Progress on Pint Size by Kim Diehl from the book Simple Whatnots III.  

The quilt ruler and rotary cutter combo that I'd been using since the days of the dinosaurs finally gave up the ghost on Thursday last week....right in the middle of cutting strips for Pint Size. BEB was quite disgusted at the timing, as I'd made finishing this quilt top my project of the day.  

It's a handy tool that had a lot of use over the years.  The new one I ordered is from Fiskars.  I've not used it yet, as I only took it out of the box when I got home from work yesterday morning.  There will be pics and what I think about it on the next post.

I didn't fancy any other sewing machine project, so pulled out the oldest WIP.  There's less than 20 sides to stitch down on this project.  It got bogged down on the last round when I used thicker than normal junk mail to cut out the hexies.  This project is glue basted (I swing between glue and thread basting depending on what I feel like doing at the time) and it was only after finishing basting ALL the hexies (with not spare fabric) that I realized the card was too thick to fold in half properly.  So, progress has been slow, as I get sick of working on it after battling with a few hexies.

Aurifil Makeo 80wt is my new favorite thead for hand stitching English Paper Piecing.  It's very fine and just sinks in between the hexies.  It breaks fairly easily with being a fine thread, but that's an easy fix.....be gentle!

I feel like I'm beginning to get the hang of very basic crochet skills.  This book has been an enormous help in keeping me motivated.  For a few months, I've been cranking out crochet body parts for different animals from this book.  

This is the pic from the book of the first animal.  The difficulty level of the patterns develop as the book progresses.  As a beginner, something I really liked and found helful, is the body and legs follow the same pattern for each animal.  The patterns are written and very easy to follow.  

These are the stuffed body parts for Lucy Hare (first project in the book).  I'm hoping to get it together this week.  The yarn is Mainstay from Walmart.  

It's starting to get light outside, so I think a bit more hand quilting on Cutting by Sarah Fielke and Amy Lobsiger is in order and bird watching at the feeder outside the window.  There's a male cardinal and a couple of purple finches just now....add a cup of tea to the mix and I'll be happy for quite a while!

  

Things are pretty much back to normal for us after the storm.  Cable was reconnected on Wednesday and it was Friday before I knew it.  Grey and I both work 3x 12 hour night shifts Friday to Sunday at hospitals in the big smoke and this is the first chance I've had to blog.  

One of the first things I did when cable was reconnected, was to go on the National Weather Service website to get some information about the storm.  It was a thunderstorm with straight winds and a tornado.  We were very fortunate to have minimal damage.  There's still a lot of clean up and repairs going on in our neighborhood.  

The cutting station.   The pieces for Half Pint are on the cutting mat to the left.  The last of the scraps are piled up on the Big Shot ready to be cut out.  Batting etc and boxes for finishing cross stitch smalls are on the bottom shelf.  

When I was looking, Grey suggested I might want two.  He's right.  There's less room here than on the kitchen bench for using the cutting mat.  The extra storage shelf will be a bonus.

All the applique for Father Christmas blocks have been ironed down.  

Swapped the Sack for a gingerbread man.

The wreath and tree fabric has little flowers.   

Swapped the book for a star.  Managed to squeak it out of the tiny last scrap of the first fabric I dyed.....over 20 years ago.

This is the color of the background fabric.

All the blocks for Kim Diehl's Half Pint have been trimmed.  The colors are a bit washed out in the pic, but you get the idea.

Back to hand quilting Cutting by Sarah Fielke and Amy Lobsiger.  Poke and stab is my favorite method with perle cotton.  I like the unevenness of the stitches with whimsical designs.

Which Witch by La-D-Da is finished.  Leaving off the borders, as I know if I keep going it will end up in the UFO pile.

The good witch and bad witch charms will go on Which Witch above the flowers.

I'm doing quality control this morning as Grey makes a new ring.

PSA for sticky scissors.  We've started using this at work (sterile processing) when cleaning adhesives off instruments.  I've ordered a bottle from Amazon.  It works really well and the orange scent is much more pleasant than Goo Gone.  

 This is a quick post to let you know I might not be online for a while.  An EF-0 tornado went through our neighborhood on Friday.  We are ok and counting our blessings that the only damage we had no serious damage.  The roads out were blocked for two days and we were without power for 3 days.  

I'll be back to blogging when we have wifi connection, as the connection without it very slow.  Plus, I'd rather blog on the computer than on the phone!