Trying to catch up with bits and pieces. At least I FINALLY got the Jumbleberry jam remade today so can take it down to my friend who ordered it.
I began to add another row to the sashing strip on the wretched crawler quilt and it's shot - too long. I have really and truly screwed up with the whole thing and have just been unpicking that offensive row. Back to it in the morning. I unpicked and reset two central motifs too as they looked not 100% square. Mind you, as Danny said today, any slight OCD tendencies I may have developed over the years have brass knobs on nowadays! Stress I guess. Concentration in my brain seems to have Gone Missing.
I watched the jumps racing with Keith this afternoon and actually go my head around the Elderberry Bunny increases in the pattern (literally from the get-go). With little "I" here, prattling on beside me last week, I stood no chance as you have to count stitches for the increases (8 stitches with increase 1, knit 1 in a block etc). Now I've done the foot and have started on the leg and am enjoying it. It's for Rosie-Posie, as I call her, hoping she will be Rosina as there are nearly a dozen who went before her. I will make another for "I" but it won't be in time for Easter as I'm SUCH a slow knitter. I won't give her this one as she loves pink and this is creamy white with understated ashes-of-roses pink feet (this from two skeins of tapestry wool. I didn't want baby pink). I will do a brighter pink for "I" and may even do the whole bunny pink. Like her mum, it's their favourite colour.
We have a quiet household as "I" went to stay with her father yesterday, and D&E are off to a music gig tonight, staying over with friends. I am praying Keith and I will have no problems getting him to bed, but I can tell you now, he's going up straight after our evening meal, just in case! T&J arrive tomorrow with a riser-chair so that should be a game-changer for us, as getting him out of his current chair and into the wheelchair at night can be challenging sometimes.
Back to my knitting this evening, and I may have a Brew Dog IPA as it's the weekend, and hopefully I am on the mend now. Have a good weekend.
I hope you are feeling better!? The quilt--you do know once it is quilted, washed, loved, no one will notice tiny out of square-ness. It's not the Mona Lisa! "Done and loved is better than perfect". Pls tape this somewhere where you sew. And darling knitted Bunnies, so hard! btw no one knits slower than me, took me 5 years to knit Mo a doggy sweater.
ReplyDeleteI love the rock garden w the alpines. Also maybe hen-n-chicks and sedum would do well in the rocky wall/ steps? Pinks too.
The summerhouse is looking so fine. Might it be a work space for Emma someday?
Good luck tonight, hope it is quiet and restful for you.
love,
lizzy
Feeling better each day and haven't needed any Ibuprofen for 2 days now. "Done and loved is better than perfect" - so true. I am a perfectionist though, and there are SO MANY faults on this quilt. Anyone who isn't blind would notice half a dozen at a glance! I am too ashamed to do a show and tell.
DeleteKnitting went well last night. First bit done and relegated to left side of needle and it's pair (foot) been cast on. I'm enjoying it now I remember how to knit (it's been years).
Pinks would be lovely there and anything that doesn't mind it dry!
Summerhouse is where Emma will do massages, transferring her holistic business here.
I am glad that you are feeling better. The summerhouse is looking quite chipper.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
It looks 100 times better in green, than the dark blue it was before. Fits in nicely to the scenery now. E is going to paint the fence panels to the right too.
Deleteoh dear. your heart and soul have been in that quilt, but understandably your focus is elsewhere. unfortunately, my experience is that once you start to go wrong it just snowballs. fingers crossed it's rectified now.
ReplyDeleteYup, it snowballed alright! I want to make something else afterwards just to show I can do patchwork properly!
DeleteAs your friend Lizzie D. has commented, any wonkiness in the quilt will be hard to spot once it is finished, but--I quite understand the mindset that wants to have it properly squared and the borders/sashing fitting neatly. Minor discrepancies can usually be eased in. I've found that picking out a row of stitching sometimes stretches the fabric just enough to add to the problem. I wish I could pop in to help and encourage you--not because I'm 'better' at this, but I know from experience that often another 'stitcher' can spot a problem and its solution when one's own eyes and brain have gone out of focus. Sometimes I can fit a difficult sashing strip by pinning at both ends, then in the middle, then at the quarters and easing any fullness gently into each area. It is a pain, but it can help. When applying outer borders I measure the quilt edge, cut and join my strips of border fabric and mark with a pin at the measurement of the quilt edge. However, I always leave an inch or so as 'insurance rather than cutting the strip exactly. [Not sure that description is making sense!]
ReplyDeleteThe stone wrapped 'pocket' of small plants beside the steps is an addition to a garden space, not showy, but one that delights. I have grown pinks/dianthus from seed to tuck along the wall of my difficult west garden--they have spread into hardy creeping mats that bloom in spring and, if sheared back, put on a fall show.
I'm wondering why former owners put the summer house so perilously near the pond. A clumsy move would land one in the water!
Oh my goodness, it had better! If only you were here you'd have spotted the flaws from day 1 and saved me a lot of angst :) Will try the "pin both ends and middle" for sashing, but alas much unpicking and resetting needed first!
DeleteWill try the Dianthus from seed and also some Aubretia from seed to go into corners and between plants.
Haha - Tam had an Italian lad who had really fallen for her. He came from "off" (Bristol) so stayed overnight - wandered out in the night for a pee and straight in the pond, above his knees in pondwater!!!
I have several quilts in my 'collection' to remind me that I don't always catch the flaws in time to prevent their becoming a permanent fixture!
DeleteThat makes me feel so much better Sharon!
DeleteGood to hear things are improving. The summer house already looks great. I wonder if you have any waterlilies. Easter is a good time to get them started in pond baskets. They like still water and as they grow they will shade and oxygenate the water thus slowing down algal growth. A white water Lily would look really lovely I think, although there are lots of pink-flowered water lilies too! What can I say about the quilt BB. Short of teleporting MM to Powys to sort it out I would just get it finished asap and out of your hair. I still think those appliquéd Peter Rabbits are to blame! Is it not too late to remove the appliqué, unpick and square up each block accurately (even if they reduce in overall size somewhat at least you will have cut off the old stitch lines which as MM points out will have a distorting effect on the fabric) and then very carefully and accurately and slowly piece them together (no sashing required which let’s face it just ends up with another layer to go wrong) so you end up with a standard log cabin top. I cannot begin to foresee the problems you will have with binding if the top itself isn’t accurately squared at the corners. You could make some baby bunting with the Peter Rabbits perhaps? Do you know the plant Mexican Fleabane or Erigeron Karvinskianus? It is now naturalised in Cornish and Devon stone granite walls and I introduced a piece from my old garden to the base of my old greensand stone wall when we arrived and it is now slowly colonising along with ivy-leafed toadflax and primroses and looks so pretty. It has pretty green foliage and white daisy flowers which turn pink as summer progresses. It gets mowed down at the end of the summer but in a mild winter like this one soon puts on new green growth and will be in flower again very soon. It seeds itself readily into any crack and is a bee magnet and a very good doer. We had our first cycle of the year yesterday and my bottom coming up the last gentle hill to home felt so sore. But no pain no gain and it felt brilliant to be cycling in the sunshine to our favourite little church at Barlavington and home again along the lanes. It was about 13km (we’ve now gone metric with our Speedo) so a good workout. There were lots of cyclists and we passed several horse riders and walkers too so it was a very sociable ride. I really feel spring has sprung this week. I have done my yoga class, swum 84 lengths or over 2km at SwimFit, enjoyed an afternoon in the garden while S mowed the meadow, driven into Petworth with friends for book group and to see the film The Holdovers, been to the dental hygienist (£95 for an extremely thorough 30 minute appointment - our dental practice is now part of the Waley-Cohen Empire) and to top a very nice week our young grass cutter came yesterday and did the most fantastic job. S is much improved too. This has been a horrid winter for him with his hernia operation on the 30th October, not being able to cycle, being poorly with the horrid Covid Cold we both had in January/February, the endless wet weather, but we are emerging into the light and are giving ourselves a big pat on the back for surviving. I think you should be doing the same too. Take good care of yourself. Sarah x
ReplyDeleteYes, there are water lilies, but they don't thrive as the pond is too choked with the flag irises. You have led me astray and I've ordered Mexican Fleabane seeds, so will strew those down the steps with some compost in the angles, and hope for the best. You have more energy than me right now - coming down with a chest infection and feeling lousy. Glad you and S are enjoying life again anyway.
DeleteThe summerhouse is looking promising...ready in time for summer hopefully!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that you are feeling better