Tuesday, March 31, 2015

March's Finish

So, today is the last day of March 2015, which means that I can't wait any longer to post my "A Lovely Year of Finishes" project.  It's been done for a few days, but I've been hard-pressed to find computer time lately, and this is one of the casualties.  I won't go into details, but between hubby and I both being caught off-guard by the nasty cold virus that's going around, having significant repairs to complete at one of our rental units, and hubby suddenly having to fill in on the farm, leaving me to pick up the slack here, have all made for a crazy-busy month here.  We're both still trying to get rid of this bug; maybe having the repairs (mostly) done at the apartment will give us the time we need to just take it easy for a day or two.
But, back to my quilty project.  I had completed a number of disappearing 4-patch blocks using 2 "Wishes" charm packs, and I really needed to have a baby boy quilt on hand.  I was hoping that this quilt would fill the bill for that - but, as the saying goes, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" - and so did this quilt.  Not that things went wrong - they just didn't go the way I had planned!  I love the quilt, but it's not as boy-ish as I hoped for, and it's actually larger than I wanted.  I realize that I could make it smaller, but what would I do with the leftover blocks?
I've since decided to use it for one of my donation quilts for the Hands2Help charity quilt challenge (check out the link in my sidebar).  This quilt will be just the right size for a young boy or girl, and I hope that the bright colours and cheerful prints will make someone's day just a bit brighter (these quilts will be donated to a child in foster care).  Because it's already large enough, I'm not going to put a border on it.  I picked up a great turquoise print for the backing last week, so now it just needs to be sandwiched and quilted.  I just may make that my May goal!
Oops! almost forgot to show you the picture!  Here it is:
Thanks for stopping by for a look!

Friday, March 20, 2015

On the Needles Fri. Mar. 20, 2015 and a quilt challenge!

It's been a little while since I posted an "On the Needles" post - not because I don't have any knitting on the go (far from it!), but because some days, it feels like I don't have time to brush my teeth, leave alone blog about something that I have to take a picture of, and explain.  Don't go thinking that today isn't one of those days, because it sure was, but I have ulterior motives!
First though, is one of my "excuses" for failing to blog - we have a house guest!  Isn't she adorable? Try to ignore my hubby in the background...
This little girl was born a few days ago, and it was a pretty tough experience for her mom - a first-timer.  By the time Lambie was born, her mom basically decided that her part in this drama was over - which means that we are, for the time being, her foster parents.  Hubby brought her home from the farm, and we bottle feed her 4 times a day.  She's in a pen in our family room.  It sometimes freaks me out in the morning - I get up, usually not quite ready to be awake and up-an-at-'em, and I hear a plaintive little voice from downstairs, announcing that she's awake and wants us to do something for her - and really, could you resist that adorable little face?  I can't!
Anyway, I do have a knitting project to share - it's the Boreas Infinity Scarf, a free pattern on Ravelry.  I recently got this beautiful sock yarn online from KnitPicks, and decided to knit something other than socks with it.  I'm not a big fan of scarves - usually having something around my neck drives me crazy, but this scarf looks promising!  I try to work at least 2 rounds every day (that's 480 stitches!)

And finally, I came across a quilt challenge the other day - Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict is hosting the 5th annual "Hands2Help" charity quilt challenge, and this year, she has a Canadian site to donate our quilts to!  I also found a few new quilt ideas online, so I'm signing up so I'll have an excuse to make those quilts!  You'll have to check in regularly to see what I'm making.  Plus I still have my "ALYoF" project to finish by month's end - yikes!  I'd best get sewing!

Saturday, March 7, 2015

March's goal setting

It's the last day to link up my project for the "Lovely Year of Finishes" challenge.  I'm trying to NOT post in the last hour - I just checked, and there are 10 hours left, so I'm getting a little better...  I knew 2 or 3 days ago what my project was going to be - just didn't have time to blog about it.
So, without further ado, I give you: Disappearing 4-patch baby quilt!  I've had the blocks for this quilt cut for a few months - I left them beside my machine, and have been using them as leaders and enders.  When they were all done, I did the cutting (I only cut one set wrong!) and reassembling, and now have to make this quilt.  I'm hoping that it will at the very least look gender-neutral - I have baby girl quilts made up, but nothing for a baby boy, and I need one right away.  I don't care if it doesn't scream "baby boy", just as long as it doesn't say "little girl".  I used 2 "Wishes" charm packs, and cut Kona "Snow" yardage for the other blocks.  Here's a look at a few of the blocks:
A few of the blocks have an off-white background, but I used them if I thought that the print had enough colour to work.  I'm not sure if I'll actually need them, so I'll just hold onto them for now...
One other project that I've completed in the past week is a set of four quilts for our local NICU - they needed 24" quilts, with flannel on one side and fleece on the other side.  I had found some fun fabrics a few weeks ago, and I whipped these quilts up in a few hours.  They're just stitched all the way around the edges, then flipped inside-out, and top-stitched, so they're really easy to do.  I made 2 of each of the flannel prints, for a total of 4 quilts.  I may be able to make more another time, but just wanted to get these delivered at our guild meeting next week - and here's the pic of them: 
I also have my my completely finished Scrappy TAtW quilt - but I don't have a way to display it right now, so the pic will have to wait for another post.