# 9

Pheasant tapestry cushion - complete at last

OK here is something which is not a knitted square!  These beautiful birds have been waiting patiently for a long time!!    Here is the story.

Slightly irregular shape required

Tapestry rescued from the Hospice garage sale a while back.  Then my friend Karen loving filled in some holes.  This girl is an experienced stitcher, with a collection of beautiful cushions she has created, and a sharp eye - I confess I did not even know you held the tapestry up to the light to see the missed stitches.  Then it rested in the pile for a while.  Backed with a piece of stretch cotton velvet, left over from a top a decade back!

The shape of this cushion is a parallelogram I guess.  And as often happens it was not my best ever zip.  I must say that usually the best cushions covers I make are the 2nd or 3rd in the row.  By then I can remember the steps for inserting the zip.  Anyway as with many things I make it is an exercise in self acceptance, and relish that although it was not my best sewing ever it is done and already much admired!

Tricky fraction to simplify but this is 9/26 on my project target.  Already I can say that making things has been re-prioritized in an easy way.  And even when I needed to undo the cushion and add more stuffing today it really was not a big deal!

Helps that Monday is a home day - nothing like a little time on the sewing machine to motivate me through the household chores!

# 8

Divine Sock Wool! Love the stripes.

Yes, yes another Barn Square.  But I tell you these squares are a delight, and so portable.  It is amazing what can happen with a row, well in the case a round, here and there.  That spell in the car waiting for soccer practice to start has become an opportunity.

My eldest son asked if I would finish this rug by Christmas - hell no.  But at the moment this project has good momentum.  I am also discovering how my knitting develops as I repeat this square, around and around.  Plus there is the fun of using up bits and pieces of wool

There is other work happening, but some things require more time.  And such projects are helped by a wet weekend when everyone here has colds. . . .

Something in the make . . . 

# 7

The newest square: centre left

Yes another square!!  This one is knitted out of some wool from my stash.  Curiously the origins of this wool is a bit vague.  I do have a modest stash and can only recall purchasing wool new on a handful of occasions. So, that my stash can produce enough bits and pieces to keep this pile of bard squares growing is quite something!

I found three balls which I deemed too fine to knit by themselves.  The fun was the three different squares produced from the possible colour combinations.  (My craft mate Lisa appropriately called it camo.)

The brought the count to 13 out of 42 squares needed.  The resident 10 year old is practising fractions, unfortunately 13/42 was impossible to simplify!

# 6

Today's count is 12 complete Barn Squares, all trimmed and blocked up.  30 squares to go.
This is sock wool from the local wool shop closing down sale.  Emerged as stripes which were not so defined as I like.  I bought two more balls, which once home I realise are very similar colours!! Watch out for these in  a while.
If I was to look at patterns which appeal to my creative self, squares and linear projects emerge, stripes too.
Also it seems I love to number things, and there is nothing like a good list.
Which is what this is about after all.

# 5

Wrist Pincushion - with well padded base

What I discovered is that there are some things so close to being complete a project like this is a joy.  A pincushion for the wrist, started for my friend Wendy 2+ years ago.  And this month is her birthday - perfect.

Made from two squares offset, such a fun project.

CM

# 4

Well this is not actually what I made, and finished.  Because item 4, well although it was finished, the original measurements were wrong, so it is back in the fabric drawer!!!!  

But that happens, and I still figure it counts!  So instead here is a photo of the pile of already completed bard squares - fun.

CM

# 3

The original cover

New cover - recycled curtain (there is going to be more of this pattern in my life courtesy of large curtains)

This one needed a before and after photo.  The before looks better in the photos than real life; but in fact was an old faded sofa cushion which I kept back from the dump, in order to re-cover.  Always need something comfy to lie on for board games on the lounge floor. Roll forward a year or 4 and voila, it’s done.  

Felt so good!!!

# 2

#2

Another Barn Square - there are more of these to come, easy it turns out to churn along on a portable project like this one, you can even do a little knitting at lunch time.

Wool for this one bought on holiday recently, loved the colours, and the surprise stripes which appeared.

# 1

A beginning,  Well actually just a point at which to begin.

The goal is to re-prioritze creative time; and also to actually finish some things.. Believe it or not there are a few projects around the place which have been started . ..ahem!

So there is the audacious goal - put one of those projects out each week til the end of the year. Hmmm, a tough call perhaps.  However with something on the needles when the starting gun sounded it seems manageable enough, so I rounded the count of the number of weeks between now and Christmas out to 26 - half a year.

So here goes.

#1  This is a barn square.  The pattern is for a barn-raising quilt, and the author of the pattern author solicited many helpers via the net.  There are 42 squares, I have already had some squares gifted to me. This is the 10th square completed.