Friday 29 May 2009

MORE ... OF EVERYTHING!

I am very glad this week is over. I am working more than usual at the moment and that involves getting up early ( between 5.00 and 6.00 PM) which makes me tired for the rest of the day.
But I am glad of the extra money of course!

Anyway, in between I sewed some more " confetti" blocks. I like very much sewing those. It is fun mixing scraps and seeing the effect. As usual I try adding some "difficult" fabrics to make it more interesting.
Yesterday I bought a new cutting mat, so the 40 blocks left to sew should go in a breeze!

Of course I spun some more yarn too. This skein is a 3-ply of Blue-faced Leicester mixed with some local breed and bits of colour wool. The BFL makes it very soft and fluffy. I have to fondle it every time I walk by!


And that is what I am spinning now. The roving was given to me by Selana (thanks a lot again!).
It is merino (I think) and I am trying to spin wool for socks out of it. It feels very soft and it easy to spin.

I can´t wait to finish it.
But at the week-end I plan to dye some yarn and cook some strawberry jam so I don´t know how far I will come.

I wish you a wonderful week-end too with nice weather (that we are having at the moment).


Wednesday 13 May 2009

BACK TO SEWING

I am back to my sewing machine and I can say that it feels good. I started a new scrap quilt after seeing some similar ones on some blogs. I devised a way of cutting and sewing stripes (probably not new to everybody else but me!) and it means that I can cut and piece a block in 30 minutes.
The squares are 1" finished. I don´t know how many I will make. When the top is big enough I will stop!

Of course I did not give up totally on wool! I dyed one roving and I finished plying the first yarn I am satisfied with. I got 370 meters out of 80 grams. That should be enough for a lacy scarf or something like that. My DH even found the perfect fitting name "Rhubarb"!
If only I had a spinning wheel....
Well in the meantime I will go back to my scrappy blocks and to my knitting.

I wish you a nice time with a lot of new projects.



Saturday 2 May 2009

TWO WEEKS!

The time has been spinning around!
And spinning with a spindle takes its time too, I can tell you.
The two skeins are my first attempt at Navajo plying. Its is a three ply yarn, 60 gr of it for over 200 meters. It is much less itchy than my first yarn and fine enough to be included into some socks.


We are having an ideal weather for dyeing yarn so I enjoyed myself and mixed some more colours for yet some more sock yarn!



And because this blog is supposed to be about quilting too, I unearthed a UFO from at least 7 years ago which is waiting for some appliqué and machine quilting. As I looked at it again, I had the idea with the appliqué. I will add ragged edge flowers on the border. They will be out of the same fabric I used for the bricks: a brushed cotton maded in Germany. To make the patches I sewed samples from samples booklets I had bought at their factory outlet.


I don´t know yet when I will finish this UFO though as I have two knitting projects on the go and my DH made me a spindle which I have to try very soon!

I wish you a nice sunday and a healthy week.