ALQS

Two posts in a few days - what's happening ? lol

Well my little quilt from the swap organised by Kate has arrived and here it is

I know - it is gorgeous ! I am delighted I am it's new owner. Such lovely colours and great workmanship. It is from Rebecca in New Zealand. Rebecca doesn't have a blog which is a shame if she is making little beauties like this - I for one would love to see more of her work. How about it Rebecca ? lol .

She was very kind to add a few extras in the parcel

Thanks so much Rebecca - you are a star !!

And here's the one I made which went to Val. I nearly didn't get this done as it was when my back pain was at it's worst but with a bit of effort and a few painkillers I got it finished - hurray!

One last thing - I bought this earlier in the week

My first layer cake. I never really enjoyed using the one jelly roll I had ( I bought 2 but sold one on Ebay ) so decided to get a layer cake to see how I get on with this. I have a few ideas but will need to dig out some extra fabrics from my stash to pad it out and not have it looking too matchy.

A quiet afternoon planned - a few episodes of Gilmore Girls whilst doing some cross stitch. Wonder if I can persuade Jason to nip to the shops to get me some chocolate ? lol

Enjoy your weekend xx

What I've been up to !!

Still unable to use sewing machine much due to ongoing back problems - have a few new blocks to show you next time though.

So lots of hand sewing going on. I am currently hand quilting my log cabin sampler which now looks like this.




Sneaky shot of Patrick holding it up. Newly tidied noticeboard in the background - was a real mess before.




Also been working on my 3D hexie quilt which is growing nicely.


I am thinking of a new English Paper Piecing project but really want this together first. I am being quite good about not starting anything new although a couple of friends are expecting babies and we all know what that means :-)

And as promised here are the instructions for the little knitted squares.





I use Double Knitting wool for these and 4.5mm needles but as long as you use a correct needle this pattern will work with any type of wool. Maybe just make one for sizing purposes. I use two colours.

Cast on 89 stitches with colour 1

1st row (colour 1) - Knit

2nd row (colour 1) - K2tog, ( K19, K3tog ) 3 times, K19, K2tog. 81 sts

3rd row + every following alternate row using colour from previous row - Knit row.

4th row (colour 1) - K2tog, (K17, K3tog ) 3 times, K17, K2tog. 73 sts

6th row (colour 2) - K2tog, (K15, K3tog ) 3 times, K15, K2tog. 65 sts

8th row (colour 2) - K2tog, (K13, K3tog ) 3 times, K13, K2tog. 57 sts

10th row ( colour 1) - K2tog, (K11, K3tog ) 3 times, K11, K2tog. 49 sts

12th row ( colour 1 ) - K2tog, (K9, K3tog ) 3 times, K9, K2tog. 41 sts

14th row ( colour 2 ) - K2tog, (K7, K3tog ) 3 times, K7, K2tog. 33 sts

16th row ( colour 2 ) - K2tog, (K5, K3tog ) 3 times, K5, K2tog. 25 sts

18th row ( colour 1 ) - K2tog, (K3, K3tog ) 3 times, K3, K2tog. 17 sts

20th row ( colour 1 ) - K2tog, (K1, K3tog ) 3 times, K1, K2tog. 9 sts

22th row ( colour 1 ) - ( K3tog ) 3 times. 3 sts

23rd row ( colour 1 ) - K3tog and fasten off.





They will look like this and then you simply sew up the row edges.


Have fun - I have made a good few of these and will probably do more during the Winter months.

I have also been working on my cross stitch but have forgotten to take pictures and it is late now so that's something else for again xxxx