Dragon Rambles

Yesterday I summed up life in 2012. Today I thought I’d look back at my sewing and knitting progress in 2012.

First up: knitting!

I made my first pair of socks (thanks Granny)

And my second.

A shawl

Or three

A throw (though it’s STILL waiting for me to block it)

Some lace. One of which I can’t show you yet.

And two cardis that are just waiting for me to finish the sleeves (no recent pics of these).

In sewing, I started learning to make clothes using a sewing machine (It’s progressed beyound here but I haven’t hemmed it yet)

And continued piecing quilts by hand. I didn’t do much on my farmer’s wife sampler, but I managed to bring the total of blocks up over 30.

Instead I focused on finishing moonglow. Well, at least the piecing.

Oh, and I made a cushion for Macros

Hmm. That really was a lot. Especially for me. Can’t wait to see what I can accomplish this year

With one thing and another going on, I haven’t done a monthly recap since the beginning of the year. Thought it was time I started it again. Especially as I completed a milestone this month. So once again, I’m linking up with fresh sewing day over at Lily’s Quilts.

November was a great month for sewing, seeing me finally complete my moonglow quilt top, just over two years after I started it. I am so proud of this, my learning-to-quilt quilt.

For new visitors, this quilt top was hand sewn. Yes, even the long border strips. It’s now waiting for me to buy some batting and a hoop then I’ll start hand quilting it.

I also took part in the Travelling Pic-Stitch bloghop. And made two mariners compass blocks based on photos from Iceland.

Well, ok, ALMOST two mariners compass blocks. You can see the details, including the photos I used as a colour palette, in my post here.

Plus, yes there’s a plus, I managed to knit an entire shawl ready to wear to the work xmas ball next weekend. No photo yet though as I had to wait until today to pick up the crochet hook I need to cast off. And as it’s a circular shawl knit in the round, it currently looks like a very uninteresting knitted bag. Will post a reveal tomorrow.

Yes, you read correctly, now wasn’t that worth the quietness around here lately?

I cut most of the block pieces and put my first stitches into this quilt in Sept 2010 (we won’t count the first start back in 2001 because I only did three blocks and restarted completely in 2010, making much nicer looking blocks).

This was my project to learn how to quilt. Yes, I have made three very quick kids quilts between buying this kit 11 years ago and restarting it, but those were sewn entirely by machine and were based around fabric panels, so I don’t count them. So THIS quilt, I consider my first.

It has been entirely hand pieced and even though a little over two years elapsed since I started, there was A LOT of months in there where no sewing was done, so it didn’t really take that long to make. I think if I’d been sewing on it a little here and there, I could’ve easily done it in less than a year.

I didn’t really have anywhere suitable to take pics, so this is all you get. For now. I’ll take it along to my next make and meet and see if the girls can help me take a decent full shot photo.

Now to wait til payday, then I’ll order the batting and a quilting hoop. I read the quilting chapter of my quilting bible (aka Quiltmaking by Hand) and think I’m going to stick with outline quilting for this quilt. I can’t wait to learn the next stages. I’m sure my stitches will start off being neither small nor even but hopefully by the end of the quilt I’ll have figured it out.

I thought I’d be finished with this huge (in terms of sewing) border by now. But this week I turned into a rather social butterfly, which meant almost no sewing time last weekend, through the week or this coming weekend. So I’m still on the fifth border strip. I’ve attached it to one side, am in the process of doing the second and have the other two cut ready to attach.

After this there are still two more strips to attach. At the rate I’m going, it’ll be well into October by the time I finally have a finished quilt top.

Linking up again with Katie’s handmade parade.

I got a lot done this month on the craft front. There was the mad rush of knitting during the olympics and the skirt I’m learning to make. But the real star of this month was completing all my moonglow blocks and sewing them together.

I’m still plugging away on the borders, hopefully I’ll have them finished this coming week.

Since this quilt is completely hand sewn, I’m linking this up with Katie’s handmade parade

I’ll also be linking up on Sat with Fresh Sewing day over at Lily’s quilts.

I finished sewing together my moonglow blocks on Sunday. They came together so quickly, I started to have delusions of grandeur: that I’d have a finished quilt top to show off come Friday.

Then I started the border. Three strips down…

Four to go.

These are a lot slower to sew together than I expected. The cutting of the strips, the pinning and then the long seams. Of course, I also have to make four sides. So if I think about it, I’ve already sewed (in seam length) almost the same as assembling the blocks. So I guess it hasn’t gone that slowly. I just grossly underestimated the amount of sewing.

But while I won’t have an assembled quilt top this week, I should do for the following.

For tonight, I’m giving my fingertips a break and am starting Laura’s scarf.

I’m a firm believer of there being multiple finishes for a quilt. The first is finishing all the blocks. I am very happy to say that with the completion of my mariners compass block on Monday, I’ve now finished all the blocks for Moonglow. They have been ironed and ordered ready for assembly.

This finish has been almost two years in the making. I bought this kit when it was released over a decade ago. I made the first three blocks, but then PhD and life took over and it was packed away. Almost two years ago, I had three weeks off work. I was so burnt out that I decided I wanted to spend my holidays sewing. I dug out my kit and started again. I think I spent one week just cutting out all the pieces. Well, all the coloured pieces, I’ve been cutting the black as I go. I then did more in my xmas holidays that year but otherwise didn’t really work on it again until my next holidays a year after I’d restarted. These holidays saw me again completely burnt out and sick, so perfect time for sewing. I also made the decision then to leave my job when my contract ended, which also meant I took my foot off the pedal and gave me more sewing time. Allowing me to steadily plod through these blocks. To this finish. And I’m happy to say that I’m still as much in love with this project as I was when I bought it so very long ago.

As it’s friday, I’m linking up this very proud moment with Katie’s handmade parade.

And, for the very first time ever, I’m able to join in TGIFF. It’s hosted over here this week.

I’d love to say that I’ll reach the next finish (the completion of the quilt top) by the end of the month. But as well as sewing all those blocks together, there are five or six borders to attach. And remember, this is all being sewn by hand.

I haven’t had a lot of sewing time lately, first with the knitting olympics, then with summer and socialising. But it was too hot yesterday to do much, so I spent the afternoon sewing. And finished the last block of Moonglow! Here it is in it’s unironed splendour

I have lots of progress to show you this week. I decided to give Moonglow more attention. It really has been waiting long enough. So I finished those two blocks I showed you pieces for last week.

These aren’t ironed so don’t look their best, but the centre actually is an octagon. I dudn’t completely mess up

Then I started on the final (yes, final!) block. But it’s a mariners compass so takes a while.

Alas, this now needs to be ignored for a couple of weeks. Tonight I’ll be casting on a cardigan at the start of the opening ceremony and will be attempting to complete it by the end of the closing ceremony. Delusional? Only slightly

Hooking up again with Katie’s handmade parade.

Or at least I will. Once it’s Friday in her part of the world too

I’ve been sewing this week. I picked up Moonglow last Sun when I had a nasty headache and needed to just sit and chill. Fabric cut, pieces pieced, add a another couple of nights with some sewing time and…

Nope sorry, not two finished Block 10 stars. But getting close. Here are the pieces I made this week to go with the anirexic starfish I showed you last week.

And since, shock horror, this is Friday. I’m linking up with Katey’s Handmade Parade.