Fiber Arts & Furry Critters

Sunday, January 25, 2004

Long time no post! It's been bitterly cold here in the northeast, and I've been in deep hibernation mode. Next week it may get up to the 20's! Enough of this... I'm ready for spring!

In typical fashion, my attention has once again been drawn away from the cross stitch I was working, and I've been quilting. I finished three miniature (6") applique blocks, which can be seen in one of my Webshots albums (link to the right). It's in the one named "DH & DJAS", and they're the last 3 blocks on the page. I also started one of the Fancy Cutwork blocks from the Potpourri Pieces book I got as a Christmas gift. This is the block I'm currently doing (this is the designer's image, not mine), and the 18 blocks on this page are the ones included in the book.

I've also been working on my Double Wedding Ring quilt. The four-block square I've finished is in the "Other Quilts" Webshots album. This quilt is being hand-pieced, and has been hanging around for a long time - long enough that I just found a 29-cent stamp in the box where I keep the pieces! I think it's been in progress for about 10 years. I have enough arcs done to finish this to a 9-block square at this point, although I believe I have enough pieces already cut and marked to do the whole quilt. It stalled after I pieced a bunch of arcs (and before I had actually assembled any blocks) because the large center piece I had was not symmetrical. This was a commercial pattern already printed on plastic templates, too! A few months ago I re-drafted the center piece so that it is symmetrical - these are the first blocks I've assembled with the re-drafted center, and I'm quite happy with them!

I'm almost done with the Storm at Sea quilt, too, which would certainly be welcome on my bed considering the current weather! I've finished machine quilting it in a grid pattern, and I'm currently attaching the binding (again, pics in the "Other Quilts" Webshots album, along with a close-up of one block). I may go back once the binding is done, though, and add more machine quilting in the large squares, and around the dark blue diamonds. I would really like to call this one finished, but I'd feel better if those big blocks had more quilting in them.

Today is going to be a cleaning day, though, and after that I may actually pick up some knitting. After all the applique and quilting I've been doing, my left hand is bothering me quite a bit. That's the beauty of having multiple crafts to choose from, though - if one thing bothers me (usually from overuse! VBG!) I can just pick up something else!

In other news, the dogs have been spending a lot of time in the house lately, due to the extreme cold. When you have six dogs this can get a little crowded! I really enjoy having them in, although DH says he feels like he's always tripping over one or another of them.

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