Dragon Rambles

I’ve been expecting a parcel since last Friday, but every day I looked, it never showed up. Finally, yesterday I started a real hunt outside in a what-the-hell? moment. Because if it hadn’t shown up by then, it probably wasn’t going to.

And sure enough, I found it. In a really odd spot and nowhere the postie has left it before. No wonder I hadn’t seen it before. For all I know it had been there since Friday.

This was my mother of all packages from Old Maiden Aunt and why I was waiting for it so much. It was originally supposed to just be my custom order for Hourglass throw.

But then I got sucked in to the idea of doing a colourwork knit-a-long with the OMA group on ravelry. I just wasn’t sure what colour to order to go with the natural. So got 3. Oops

That should keep me busy this month. Which is good, because no more yarn for me this year.

I haven’t been quilting for a couple of weeks, and it’ll be sparse the next couple of months too. This is mostly because I have some winter knitting to do. I have a couple of cardigans, a throw, some mitts and some socks that I really want to make before we hit the cold months of jan and feb. No idea if I’ll get all that done (probably not), but I’m going to give it a shot anyway. So for those of you who are more interested in my quilting than my knitting, I thought I’d show you my first 5 (and only, so far) quilts.

1. Moonglow

I started this quilt back in 2002. I found a photo of it in a McCalls Quilting mag, along with the website to go and buy the kit. This quilt is by Jinny Beyer and she originally designed it as a block of the month project to teach new quilters. The plan for this was to completely hand sew it while doing my PhD. Well, I got the first three blocks done in 2002 then no more. Life and my PhD got in the way. I picked it up again last year, and decided to redo those first blocks if I had enough fabric. I did, so I did. Since then, this seems to be something I’ve only really worked on when I’ve been on holiday, so I still haven’t finished all the blocks. But I did do all of “month 12″

And during my last holidays, “month 1″ to “month 8″.

I have to do two each of “month 9″ and “month 10″, then one of “month 11″ – the mother of all star blocks: mariners compass. So far I’ve mostly done those first two.

Maybe I’ll finally get these finished and the next ones done while on my xmas break.

2. Bear Paw

Somewhere between 2003 and 2005, I started a classic Bear Paw quilt. I decided this one was going to be done on the machine, so spent a large time cutting out the hundreds of pieces. I even started sewing some of them. I probably could have gotten this progressing nicely, if I didn’t keep losing the bags with all those pieces. I’ve since decided that I’d rather hand sew my quilts, so will continue by hand. Maybe even redo some of what I did by machine, depends if I like how it looks. I’d show you a pic of what I have gotten done, but I’ve lost it again. I know that some time in the last year I’ve seen the bags with their pieces all cut ready to sew, and the printed pattern, but I currently have no idea where that is. I looked in a few most likely places this morning, but nope, it’s vanished back into the twilight zone. So instead, here’s a pic of the fabric I’m using. A nice deep blue batik and solid white.

3. Blue-Green Dino Quilt

Early 2009, I decided to make a quilt that I could raffle off for charity. I had some great dino fabric that had originally been purchased at the Brisbane quilting show to make a cot quilt for my niece’s first baby. It never happened, but I loved the fabric so went hunting for more to make a full quilt. This one was whipped up by machine. I don’t have a photo of the back, but it’s the same fabric I used for my dinoPad.

And as I write this I’ve just remembered that I used left over fabric to make a cot quilt for my boss’s new baby. But as I have no photographic proof of this, and this post is called first 5 quilts, not first 6, lets just keep forgetting about that one

4. Orange Dino Quilt

At the time I was hunting up more dino fabric for quilt number 3, I discovered it came in another colourway. So I bought enough of it to make a quilt too. Also whipped together by machine.

This one I didn’t end up raffling off, so it’s still sitting in my closet waiting for a good home. But it does mean I could take a photo of the back.

5. Farmer’s Wife Quilt

And that brings us to the most recent quilt I’ve started, my Get a life Farmer’s Wife. This is being done by hand as I’ve decided that’s my preferred method. I’m doing this with a friend and we’ve both been distracted with winter knitting lately, so this may not get another look in this year. I decided to limit my fabric selection to less than 10 colours of a batik from the same fabric line (I wanted the same shading effect in the fabric and only the colour to change). Here are my first 22 blocks.

Despite thoughts of “ooh, I should have done them all like this” as I complete the blocks, I think I’ll like how this will turn up. And as I still have 89 blocks to go, I’ve got plenty of time to balance out the colours.

So there you have it. My first 5(ish) quilts. And now you see why I still very much class myself a beginner.

Every year I buy myself a christmas present. The guidelines are the same as buying gifts for other people: what I’d like to have but haven’t budgeted money to buy. My gifting day is fluid though, and I allow myself to get it any time from the beginning of November. Last year, it was a Le Creuset casserole dish. This year, it was the Ghastlies fabric. I had never heard of this until I stumbled across a blog hop celebrating the fabric a few weeks ago. After much internet hunting and waiting (not so) patiently for it to arrive from the states, the parcel faeries kindly visited yesterday.

I’d still like to get some of that top one in smoke, but the shop I bought this at didn’t have it in stock. They did however have it priced very nicely, and the customs people passed it through without extra charges, so it came out to a very bargain buy.

Which is probably good, since I put an order in to Old Maiden Aunt for yarn to knit Anne Hanson’s Hourglass throw. Handpainted alpaca/silk may be a bit decadent, but it’ll make a beautiful throw and the day I placed the order, I just felt the need to be bad. Besides, since I’ve been feeling a tad antisocial this month, I was able to combine my spending money and my socialising money to pay for it without blowing the budget. Win, win

So yesterday I settled in to a day of knitting because I really want to get my cardy done and I know I’ll want to ignore it once my shiny new yarn arrives. I’m still not quite up to starting the sleeves, but I’m only 12 rows on one of the front pieces away. As this photo clearly shows.

It was a great day. What could beat snuggling up to knitting, catching up with this season’s House and the latest (pretty awesome) episode of Private Practice. I even had company: Santa! But, he lost his head in all the excitement. I really don’t think he’ll be the same again.

As promised, here’s my update on my yummy winter warmer cardy that I’ve been working on lately. Looks like I’ll be up to the sleeves by the weekend.

You know what I love so much about knitting, quilting, stitching, sewing…? It’s all great therapy! Feeling down? Buy that pattern, yarn, fabric that you have had your eye on. Feeling depressed, annoyed or anti-social? Get comfy with a project and let the calm productiveness soothe you. Feeling bored with work or life? Start a new project.

There are so many ways our craft work can make us feel good. Whether it’s the repetitive nature of the work that helps bring down stress levels, working with the “arty” side of the brain to get you to stop thinking/obsessing about work, that naughty feeling of buying/starting something new, the wickedness of gifting something to a fellow craft friend that you know will make them just have to start a new project immediately when they’re resolved to be strong, or just the beautiful homemade gifts you can give to someone, whether for an occasion or just because. These are just some of the reasons I craft and they probably sound familiar to you guys too.

All of these reasons are why I notice the difference in my stress levels when I allow myself to get too busy to spend time on these things that I love. And it’s also why I came back to crafting, and blogging, with a vengence a few months ago.

I finally admitted to myself that I haven’t been happy for a while. I’d grown bored with my job, felt overwhelmed by the amount I had to do, and dreaded going in every day. I made the decision to spend time every day, even if for just 30 min, on whatever craft project took my fancy. I even juggled the budget to give myself a monthly allowance for buying yarn and fabric. Then came my month off work which I spent mostly at home quilting. And every weekend since I came back to work I’ve been enjoying letting myself fall into these addictive hobbies. And while this means that most of my socialising has been via blogs, email and ravelry, that’s ok, because that’s what I’ve needed.

And all this quiet knitting and sewing time has allowed me to really clear my head and think. I’ve made some big decisions and feel happy and (mostly) calm about them.

I told my boss today that my mind was set. I’m leaving my job and academia, and will start applying for jobs in Dec. We will have our first meeting next week to prioritise what I need to do before I go. There will need to be a few, and I’m going to be busy. I told him that I will try to finish out my contract (which runs until the end of June) or get as close to it as I can.

I have no idea what comes next for me. Luckily I’m happy to move anywhere in the UK, so all that remains is to find a job I’ll enjoy. Thankfully a friend has given me a list of websites to find private sector science jobs. So a new chapter will begin. Hopefully one that will make me happy, and one where I can put down roots and make a home, while trying to get a good work-life balance. And, of course, maximising my craft time

So tonight, I’m happily settling in to a night of knitting. Decision made and I’ll start dealing with the outcome at work tomorrow, so a peaceful evening for me. Tomorrow I’ll show you just how much progress I’ve made on my blanket-style cardy while all this thinking has been going on.

Happy crafting everyone!

This week I was in the mood for jewels twinkling on a dark background. And I really like how my FWQ blocks turned out. I really need to use this theme in a full size quilt.

First up, corn and beans. Lots of pieces, so this one took ages to do. My blocks are just finger pressed, so although it looks like it in the photo, none of the points are cut off. This is one of my favourite blocks so far.

Followed by country farm. I’m not completely happy with my points in this one, but I’m not redoing any of my blocks, even if I make really messy ones.

This puts me past 20 blocks in total, but I can’t think of the exact number. Will count and post a pic of them all together next weekend.

After not doing any sewing for the last three weeks, I decided to put down the knitting needles this weekend and pick up a sewing needle.

First job, another dinoPad. This one is for a friend and will be popped in the post tomorrow.

Then I thought I should finally get back to my farmer’s wife quilt. This week, my blocks were all about subtlety. For each I picked a contrasting background, but the two colour forground pieces were chosen from fabrics that are clse to each other in colour. You really have to look for the difference.

Last night, I made churn dash.

And this morning, contrary wife.

I was feeling a bit grumpy Fri evening so looked through my small fabric stash. I found these red and purple sparkles from Timeless Treasures that I forgot I had (not the best photo).

I’ve washed it ready to start, but I couldn’t start the new project today as planned, as I need to shrink the templates.