Back to Quilting

I've been hearing the siren call of quilting again lately, and, as it happens, there is an unfinished quilt under my machine needle.  (Well, there are many unfinished quilts in my life, but this one is actually in the process of being quilted.)

This is a true scrap quilt, and contains many pieces from clothing I made long ago.  Clothing that is now but a distant memory...  And I hesitate to tell you how many years this quilt has been in the making.  Suffice it to say that I started on these 9-patch blocks when my son was just a baby (or was it even before that--hard to remember at this remove) and he is now a grown young man of 20.  So there you have it, my shameful secret of how long it really takes me to finish a quilt is out!

Anyhoo, I started quilting on this again tonight, on my Bernina home sewing machine.  I would love to have a longarm quilting machine, but for now I have to make do with my home machine.  I am far from being the greatest quilter ever, but I persevere, and I am getting better.  And after all, as quilters say, "Finished is better than perfect!"

I have about one quarter of the quilt's surface left to quilt--do-able in two or three quilting sessions, I think.  That is, if I don't get distracted by something shiny--focus, Sarah, focus!

I also worked on my painting last night and the night before, adding a retro woman image (a digi stamp--I didn't draw it myself!), and some stencilled flowers.  I think I'm going to go back in with some darks and lights on the flowers and punch them up a bit.  

I'm liking the direction this is headed now, but it's still a work in progress.

Blocking A Shawlette

Today I blocked a shawlette that I made for the Red Barn Yarn Farm.  This is made in a 100% linen yarn from Schoppel Wolle called El Linio, using a pattern designed by Sara Gresbach, La Playa.

This piece has been finished for awhile now, but I've been dragging my feet on blocking.  I thought 

I would go ahead and get it done today, so I can deliver it to Jenny tomorrow at Red Barn Yarn Farm.

In other crafty news, I've been working slowly on the Blossom Towel, doing the backstitching on the motifs.

I also added color (with Stabilo CarbOthello pastel pencils) to my elegant lady in this art journal spread.

Today's Bits

A few photos from this evening's play time in my studio.

I covered this awful thrift store find with gesso the other day and then started some collage on it tonight.

I wasn't too happy with the way this canvas was shaping up, so I added some collage elements and a white glaze, along with some scratching into the surface of the white paint.

An art journal spread.  I like this vintage drawing of a woman, and thought it would look good in my art journal.  This image came from Create with TLC.

I think I'll add some color to her, once the gel medium I used to apply her is dry.

A Few Days Work

 I've been doing some work in my studio over the last few days, working on paintings and art journal spreads.

A painting in progress.

Another small painting, seen here in stages.  I think this one is finished.

 

Some art journal pages, some in early stages and some nearly finished.

 Hope everyone is having a lovely evening!

Progress is Slow

I've made some progress on several projects over the last couple of days.  I finished my spinning project; now I have two skeins of beautiful dark-brown wool.  I'm not sure of the yardage on this--I'm a little lazy when it comes to calculating yardage on handspun.  I know that it's about 8 oz.

I've gotten a bit farther on my original design, Blossom Towel.  I finished all the actual cross stitches and have begun on the backstitching.

 

And I crocheted a bit on the "Chicken Wire" segment I am working on for the Mr. Ghan.

And, last but not least, I began today on a top-down sweater I am making for a class I'm teaching at the Red Barn Yarn Farm.  (The class starts tomorrow and runs all month, in case anyone would like to come knit with us!)  It's not much to look at yet, but it's a start.  This is the back neckline area.  I guess, technically, this too will be an original design.

 

A little bit of progress on several different fronts--when you work on several different projects at once, as I tend to, progress on any one thing tends to be slow.  But a little progress is better than nothing, right?!

Tonight I feel like doing a little painting.  Off to my studio I go!

The Urge to Spin

Yesterday I suddenly got the urge to do some spinning, so I dug this pretty natural dark-brown roving out of my stash.  There was about 8 oz. of it.

And here's my kitty Hilda doing a little investigating of said roving, on what was a beautiful spring day here in northwest Missouri.

Lately I've been mostly trying to deliberately spin a singles, so I set up my wheel for that purpose, and set to.

I'm really happy with the way this is spinning up; I have about half the roving spun and will start on the remainder either tonight or tomorrow.  I just love naturally colored wools--the color variation is so beautiful and lends so much depth to the finished yarn.

Progress on Blossom Towel

I made some progress on my blossom towel cross stitch design today.

I'm really happy with how this is shaping up.  It's been instructive to actually stitch up a design and make changes to my original chart as I go, as I've found areas and colors that need to be changed.  I hope to have this finished in a few days and offer it as a free chart here on the blog.

In other fiber news, I worked a little bit today on an installment of the "Mr. Ghan," a Mystery Crochet-A-Long that I'm a part of on Ravelry.  I'm a bit behind on my clues--I think this is the 10th clue out of 13; the 12th clue was posted today, so I'm lagging a bit.  So far, this installment, "Chicken Wire," isn't my favorite--it's a little less intuitive than some of the others.

My progress so far:

I'm feeling the itch to do a little spinning--maybe I'll tackle that tomorrow!