Sashiko Coaster Kit

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!  It was my husband's birthday this past Wednesday so today's celebration is for both events! We're getting takeout soon. My kids will be here with their significant others soon. We were going to grill but just felt it was too hot. It's more enjoyable this way. I bought this cute little Sashiko Coaster Kit. I think I need a break between knitting projects once I'm done my Brioche Shawl. I've never done Sashiko before but I thought it would be fun to try!

It comes with thread and needle.  The only problem with this kit is that the instructions are written in Japanese! I better find a good website with good directions! I'll do some research before I start! 

Enjoy the day!

Stitching Star Storm

I've been stitching in the ditch throughout Star Storm. I'm just a little bit over half way done. I don't do too much at once. I end up getting sloppy. I do like the effect so far. The quilt lies nice and flat. I'm looking forward to filling in between the lines with my quilting! As tedious as this is, I think it's the best way for me to go forward to quilt this on the longarm. My quilting is not perfect but I do think I'm improving the more I quilt. I'm also hoping that the quilting will look better after washing the quilt! Hopefully, my wanderings from the seam line will not be as noticeable!

I just received this in the mail. They have a very cute pouch that uses orphan pieced blocks. I love using up old blocks! I think we all have them. There are some great quilts in there too. This is one of my favorite quilt magazines. There aren't too many left, unfortunately.

Stitch in the Ditch - UGH

I've had the Star Storm quilt loaded for a little while but I just haven't been able to work on it. I did start the first few rows that were easy to access. I did some wishbone in the tiny little area at the top of the picture. I then made lines that were 1/4" inch apart alternating with 1 inch. I did some ribbon candy on the third area. And then I stopped!

The next section is more difficult since I can't get to the whole area I need to quilt. I was marking diamonds and realized my longarm isn't wide enough so I can't mark the diamonds continuously.  That's when I decided to quilt in the ditch for the entire quilt. I'll be able to more back and forth and not have to worry about not accessing any areas. It's tedious but worth it. 

I'm about 1/3 done the stitching in the ditch. I'm not that good at it so I'm hoping I get a little better at it now that I'm having all this practice. I did look up to see my help showed up! I'm not sure if she was there to help or yell at me. Either way, she made me smile!

Star Storm Quilt/Line Minder

I loaded my Star Storm quilt and was all set to start quilting. I made a little quilt motif map to follow since the middle star is echoed throughout the quilt. I wanted all the "echoes" that were radiating out from the star to have the same quilting motif since they all meet. However, we've had thunderstorms with lightning all afternoon and I was afraid to plug in my longarm. I'm going to wait until tomorrow to start quilting.

 I just got this in the mail. It's just a bungee cord with moving toggles. You can mark your quilt center, edges, etc.  It's a nice way to keep the quilt straight and even.

You can see a portion of it in this picture. That white toggle is the center of my quilt. The far left toggle is the end of the quilt. That middle toggle is the midpoint of that side. It's a nice way of keeping the quilt nice and even. I'll let you know if it works!

Color My World BOM Month 6 - Tall Houses

This month, Color My World, introduced us to tall houses. They were very similar to the smaller houses we made a few months ago. They didn't take me very long to make. I had to make 8 total. However, 4 houses have shadows on the left, and 4 houses have shadows on the right. They're to be placed around the large corner buildings that we'll be making soon. I wish I could tell you the size of these houses but they're difficult to measure. I think they're about 9 inches tall. The width increases from top to bottom. The bottom width is about 3 inches. 

This is what I have so far, halfway through this Block of the Month. I really love how it looks! I was a little nervous to make this since I don't have a whole lot of experience with curved piecing. The directions are so thorough and detailed that I haven't had any trouble so far. 

Moving into June

I hope you all had a nice Memorial Day. I had to work today but that's okay with me. The weather wasn't the best and my day wasn't too busy. I wanted to show off my brioche shawl now that it's  getting a little bigger! Each row takes a while so it's slow but I'm keeping at it. I really love the look of brioche knitting. I'm still using a lifeline which has proved to be a real help. I've had to use it quite a few times!

The June directions for Color my World came out one day early! As you can see, these are the tall buildings. I have to make 4 houses from each pattern.

I copied the pattern onto the paper side of freezer paper. I made 2 copies of one of the houses. I think it's so much faster to work on 2 at a time. We were told that this part of the quilt is much easier than the previous section. I hope they're right!

Finished Scrap Quilt

 

I've been working on my Scrap Log Cabin for the last 2 days and I finally finished it this afternoon! It measures 80" X 80". As each side got longer, it took more time to get that side done. I'm so happy to have it done and I feel I used a good amount of scraps. I'll be getting the June directions for the Color My World BOM in a few days and wanted to have this quilt top completed. This is one more project I can check off my list!

I just got this book last week. I can't wait to pick a pattern to knit. I'm still working on my brioche shawl so it will take a little while. It's still fun to look through. So many great shawls!

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!