Learning to Quilt Again

 The weather has been dull, grey, wet, and ugly. We had freezing rain and ice pellets on Easter Sunday which turned into rain. Monday was warmer but there were a couple of good rain storms. Yesterday started out with fog and ended up with sunshine. This morning it was 3C at 6 a.m. and cloudy. 

Lifestyle

We have been tired lately due to the weather and worked our way through the depression we were feeling. We did enjoy the sunshine yesterday afternoon and felt very happy while it shone. 

I have most of the kitchen cleaned and the floor washed for the first round. After I clean the fridge and pantry I will scrub the floor again. The area looks so much better after all the scrubbing I've done. 

The Spousal Unit was out and uncovered the rose bushes and garlic yesterday morning. Next step is to prune the roses. We feel spring is coming.

There were 6 cases of the virus reported yesterday. All but one are related to travel or previous cases.  Restrictions are being eased as the cases numbers remain low but will be put back in place if numbers go up.

Sewing

I started to make potholders on Monday and hit the wall head on. Lack of research so I may have trivets rather than potholders. Instead of using only Insulbrite as the batting, I also added a layer of batting. Lesson learned and I will try again.

On the upside of this, I followed the rules for cutting and pressing and everything was great. I got out the Shorty ruler to quilt with. 

I got the quilting foot on the machine and played with the settings. Got them right. But, I had a lot of drag while quilting resulting in uneven stitches.

Some of it was being a beginner, but most was having a layer of Insulbrite and batting to quilt through. Some was thinking I didn't need to use this -

Once I put it on, it made a huge difference in quilting. I even played on my sampler.

I'll be playing on the sampler more and will be making a new one as this one is almost filled with wandering stitches. 

No matter what the quilting looks like, I'll have new trivets for the kitchen. I've started the binding and hope to finish them shortly.

Knitting

I finished knitting both of the sleeves, adding 4 more rows to the length. I started the body and by the time I got to the 2nd eyelet row of the pattern I had 1 extra stitch. I unknit 5 rows and will start again with more focus on the pattern rows.

I got a ball of variegated yarn to knit this pattern again. The bottom part of the sweater will not have the eyelet pattern or button holes, just plain knitting. I want to make a long skirt and blouse to go with it and use it as part of an Edwardian outfit for the dolls.

Today

I'm doing housework this morning, working on the potholders this afternoon, and knitting tonight.

Until the next time......................................................