I know you’ve all been waiting to see this finished. Adding those words did not take very long.
I just love these “subversive” cross stitch patterns that marry a pretty, traditional pattern with a snarky, sarcastic phrase. And I just love how it looks against the “antique” wallpaper on my studio wall.
But of course, this one is for my sister-in-law Jenn, so it won’t be staying on my wall.
Paisley helped me pick the pattern out. Jenn works at a pharmacy, and had a very sarcastic sense of humour, so we figured she’d appreciate this one.
I got the pattern on Etsy, and there are tonnes of them out there. And very reasonably priced. This one came with two different size charts, which made it nice and easy to read while stitching.
This past weekend I was headed to Mom’s for some quality time with the long arm. But before I got there, I made a short detour to my old stomping grounds and had a little visit with Neighbour Krista and Miss Wren.
Miss Wren turn five at the end of the month, so I wanted to make sure she got her present in plenty of time.
We had a wonderful visit, and I also got to give ol’ Bowie a snuggle.
Though he was more interested snuggling himself. Still – I think he’s the prettiest snake ever.
And I got to visit with Krista’s newest family members.
She created the most beautiful terrarium for three of these little guys (poison dart frogs). Sadly, I neglected to take any pictures of their home, but I got some great shots of this little guy when she brougt him out for inspection.
Sadly, I couldn’t stay long. I was getting late, and I still had a 30 minute drive to Mom’s. But the next day Krista sent me this.
As you can see, I did get the strawberry dress to go with her bolero, and both are a perfect fit!
There hasn’t been a lot of action at my office window feeder. They pop around in the Maple, but none are really brave enough to come get food lately.
However, the other day, I noticed something fly down and land on the branches just out of my sitting view (blocked by the awning over the window).
I grabbed my camera, and placed it against the bottom of the window, and angled it until I could get the visitor in view.
they aren’t great pics because they are zoomed in. But its good enough that you can see it’s a hawk! I’m 95% sure that it’s a Sharp-shinned Hawk (5% chance that it’s a Cooper’s Hawk, but I don’t think so based on the shape of the head and tail)
He sat there for about five minutes and calmly flew off – probably in search of a snack. This place is Raptor heaven. On the 25 minute drive to Strathroy, it’s not unusual to see more than a dozen Raptors on telephone poles, signs, fence posts, whatever. Most are small hawks, like Sharpies and Coopers, or Red Tails, but we have see a couple juvenile Bald Eagles, and one Osprey. I also had barn owl swoop right down in front of the truck coming home from groceries one night.
It really makes me want to get my digital SLR fixed and get a telephoto lens!
A short while ago, Samantha commissioned me for another quilt. She wanted a motorcyle quilt for her husband, Michael. But NOT a Harley motorcycle quilt… and not sport bikes, but Yamaha blue if I could manage it.
It took some doing, but I found some fabric with generic, classic-style motorcycles. Samantha approved.
I love commissions from her because she’s generally easy to please. I suggested a dissapearing nine-patch for the pattern, showed her some examples and she said go for it.
The other day, I finally got around to cutting up all the fabrics, and decided I had time to put just one block together. Of course, it’s starts with a plain-ole nine patch”
The D9P can look very different, depending on how you place your fabric. My favourite way to do it is as you see here. A big print in the corners, a neutral or solid (where I have the white), and a simple, or small print for the centre.
Once the nine-patch is together, it’s time to cut.
Just a simple slice, up the middle, both ways. Then you turn two of the blocks around:
And sew it all back together
Easy peasy. Of course, there are more blocks to come, but I’ll chain piece them one day when I have a chunk of time to sew.
After complaining about how cold it’s been, we got one amazingly warm day on Sunday. I think it got up to about 16C/60F.
Relic was absolutely THRILLED!
All it takes is a little sun and warmth and he’s just gotta roll! It doesn’t matter that the catio lawn is an absolute mudhole right now.
While he was rolling and soaking up some rays, I cleaned my truck out, and then took a poke around the garden. I’m happy to say, there is signs of life in the bulb box.
They are very small signs (less than half and inch) but I’ll take them!
What’s really exciting…
Remember the pussywillows I bought last year? Well as you can see, the pink and black ones have catkins. (the white one is in a shadier spot, so nothing on her yet). The plants are still quite small, so no big show, but one day… they are going to be amazing!
It’s been a while since you’ve seen my Leader/Ender quilt. In fact, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it. I’ve been busy making the blocks, but I haven’t laid them out in a while.
So I decided to do just that.
There’s only 80 on the bed, but I actually have 97 in total. I was aiming for 100, so I’ve only got three more to make. Then I’ve got to start sewing them all together.
Happily, Hemlock Ring only took two days to dry, and I was able to unpin her and get some beauty shots.
Here on the corner of the couch, you can get a much better idea of her size. She’s almost 60 inches across, which is perfect for draping across my lap in my office chair. It’s long enough to keep me warm, but not so long that I have to worry about it getting caught in the wheels of my office chair. As I mentioned the other day, it’s still quite cold here, and the office is one of the coldest rooms in the house, so I’ve already gotten some good use out of her.
It’s a surprisingly simple pattern. That centre flower isn’t hard if you take it round by round. And the the rest is just feather and fan, with the lace part worked only once every five rounds. You do need to pay attention to your stitches on that round (or you end up with the mess I had at first), but using markers on each pattern repeat, and counting stitches as soon as you’ve completed the repeat keeps problems from happening and then growing exponentially.
The cast off was a killer – again not hard once you got the rhythm of it.. but time consuming. It took me a couple nights to get it all cast off, but in the end, I have this lovely loopy, lacey edge.
The yarn I used was Alpaca with a Twist Highlander. It’s an Alpaca/Wool/Microfiber blend. It’s listed as an Aran weight, but it’s pretty darn close to a bulky. The pattern actually calls for a bulky yarn, so it was a decent substitute. And of course, the Alpaca makes it extra warm and fluffy. I ended up using just over 8 balls of it (approx. 1192 yards). I have almost one full ball left and I’m thinking it will make a nice hat.
The colour is Braeberry, and you can see it’s a nice dark, dusty blue. Blue is not a colour I would normally pick. This actually came from Mom’s stash. She gave it to me ages ago. And when I decided I was finally going to knit Hemlock (it’s been in my queue since the pattern first came out!), it was really the only thing heavy enough in the right quantity I had for it.
And since I was focused more on the warmth, I wasn’t really going to be picky about colour. But in the end, it really was perfect for it. The shade just helps to show off the stitches so nicely.
It’s definitely a knit that’s going to get a lot of use.
…and the floral wreath is complete! All that’s left are the words in the centre, and I’ll finish them up this week! This one will be in the bag in plenty of time for Jenn’s birthday.
Some of my quilting readers may be familiar with Pat Sloan. She’s a bit of quilting celebrity. Mom and I spend a fair amount of time in her facebook group.
She runs a lot of quilt-alongs, and when this one came up, I thought it would be fun and quick. It’s a free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop, called Flapjacks.
It uses fat eighths, and I just happened to have a bundle that would be perfect for it.
Last week, Burton and got them all cut up. And this weekend, we finally took the time to put them all together.
With chain piecing, they go together pretty quick. And because I was making the crib size, it wasn’t long before I had them all done.
Burton helped my find the perfect layout, trying to distribute the colours as evenly as possible.
Then a little seaming, and a plain border later…
Burton was pretty darn happy about the final result! I’ve got to admit, it’s pretty darn cute.
But then, I love a good farmyard!
I have some fun cow fabric for the back, but I forgot to take a picture, so you’ll just have to wait for the finished quilt to see it!
Wandering Cat Studio 