Quilt

Progress Not Perfection

by CZeitler

I have made some progress in warping up my loom. The threads are all through the front reed, I know that the weave is unbalanced because I did not measure it to begin with. At present I am working on getting all of the threads through the heddles in a twill pattern, straight 1-16 then 1-16 again. At the time of writing this I think I have the first 50 threads through heddles, wish me luck getting the rest set up.

This is not the only craft I have going on, is it ever just one craft? I have also been taking part of the Stitch Camp through TextileArtist.org. This is quite a bit of fun, and since it only takes about 30 minutes a day, lasting just 5 days, I find it to be a reasonable goal to maintain. The first step is to use a limited palette of 3 colors and make marks on your lightest fabric, then cut them apart, reassemble in a way that you like, and now on the third day I added in some stitching. I am not certain if I am finished stitching or if I will give it a little more jazz.

You didn’t think I was done did you? Two projects, pfft. I am also working on a pair of quilts. One was discovered when a friend of mine wanted me to make them rice packs was looking for the skull fabric I had mentioned. The other quilt I am working on turning into a tactile quilt or fidget quilt for the father of a friend of mine, he is having trouble with ‘Sundowner’s’ in the facility he is currently living. For the Halloween Quilt I need to add a label, since I was unable to catch one border in the binding of my quilt. For the Fidget Quilt I need to redo a couple of small sections of quilting, I had caught the side of the backing in the quilting, so I had to pick out the quilting. Once I have the quilting done I need to carefully trim the batting, and turn the backing over to bind the quilt. If I can get away with not having to trim the edges of the quilt and make a traditional binding I am going to take that and run with it.

For the fidget quilt I have added on a rough ribbon, soft fleece, and a changeable sequin patch. The sequin patch, much to my shock, was easy enough to sew on and did not break a needle.

Okay, that is it for today. I hope to have an actual update ready for you on Sunday, but until then Live Life a Little More Abstract

Libraries & Seasons

by CZeitler

Active Crafting Content will start after the ***********.

I still need to get my new flooring installed, however I did manage to create a mini-Library in my home. I adore how this has turned out. The plastic and wood bookshelves were a quarter of the price of a standard shelf from Amazon, so I bought four. They are not ‘amazing’ quality, one of the plastic pieces did shear off, however they are working for what I need them. This is a great way for me to get out of my living room, it gives me an excuse/routine for me to begin using the rest of my home. A couple of weird things have come up that are setting me back, however I will persevere.

Upon installing daylight lights in my half-bath on the first floor I then tried to run my dryer…and the lights dimmed…and haven’t come back properly since. The, amazing, person that does things for me around the house is going to try to look at this next week to see if it is something to panic about. Yay, something else to worry about. The second thing is that I was a guide for the haunted house in my library last night…and I discovered that stretching shoes is not a substitute for breaking the shoes in. I now have a blister on the balls of both of my feet as well as 3 scraped up toes. To fix this I’ve put neosporin and bandaids on the scrapes and I have ordered some blister pads from door dash, along with soft socks I am hoping that these feel better tomorrow.

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The lace knitting class went…about as well as I expected. Some patrons were interested however they had either not knit before or didn’t like the look of the lace, though one has continued looking into making the regular pattern without any of the lace flares. The Bengala Mud Dye class I taught went much better. Everyone enjoyed quite a bit, a few had even mentioned continuing to do this in the future and possibly use this in their business. I tried to use up the dyes on the scraps I had left over, then I took those scraps to turn them into a bit of a mini-quilt/mug rug type thing.

Despite spending time trying to square my blocks, this did not turn out correctly, however I am very pleased with how it looks. I will bring that along with my dyed squares to the quilt meeting tomorrow. I have also made significant progress on my halloween quilt/wall hanging thing, however with the blisters on both of my feet getting around is not easy. Since I cannot get around easily I find myself unwilling to mess around with pulling out the devices that I would need to properly finish the quilt. I am also re-thinking why I am quilting. Right now I like getting the finished project, however I also find myself rushing through the process to get an end project, which I not what I am hoping for from this craft. I also think that is why a couple of seams have broken on my first finished quilt, I do not want that to happen with my sister’s quilt, I am already a little embarrassed about how my first efforts turned out.

I think that is everything for right now, I will give more progress as things occur. I am teaching a crewel embroidery class this week, possibly getting my floors completed, and perhaps getting my leaves raked.

Until next time Live Life a Little More Abstract!