What the fade !? Clue five

Happy dance! My huge what the fade shawl is finished. When I say finished I mean I have bound off and will block it on my return from Spain. I have loaned my blocking mats, wires and pins to a friend so I need to get those back first. I'm delighted with the change I made in the colour order and will now have more confidence in choosing yarns for the faded sweater.

I didn't immediately start clue five on Thursday as I was a little unsure about the I cord binding. However I am really pleased with it and happy that I decided to do as the pattern instructed.

Time now to cast on my holiday socks!

Butterfly quilt along

After the disappointment of not getting the Butterfly kit on my birthday due to the incompetence of the shop and their computer system, I have been waiting for the release of Alison Glass's fabric line called diving board. This was released at the end of September and I received a fat quarter stack last week. I dived into the stack and started with some easier blocks as the sew along started on 1 August.

I a, already out of some fabrics as I haven't realised that fat quarters wouldn't suffice. So I have to reorder some fabrics and others I have changed to similar fat quarters from my stash. I hope this gives it an eclectic look rather than a messy look.

Block one called intersection and I included a screen printed fabric from Helen Steele which I purchased at Festival of quilts.

Block 2 is called Chunky cross and I have finished eight of the 10 blocks. Again I need to order some more fabric to finish these blocks.

And finally block 11 called flying geese #1. I love the neon pink on cream background fabric for this block and I am sure I will order more of this one even if I don't need it for this quilt. It comes in a couple of other variations.

One tree Heel socks

As the end of the month of September approached I decided to focus on finishing one pair of socks this month. I had already cast on the one tree heel socks as a toe up sock. I did five repeats of the tree branches in a yarn by fondant fibre called dook dook dook. It's amazing what you can achieve when you focus on only one project. I used this yarn for my first pair of socks which had sat at the back of a cupboard for a year or two and I decided to rip them back and remake them into a pair of socks but I would use (and fit).

These socks have now been soaked and are blocking on my sock blockers. I think my next job is to choose a pattern for my October socks, ready to take on holiday in a weeks time. Then I am going to spend some one day on the what the fade?! Clue five. I'm not sure about the find of used at the end of crew five so I'm going to wait and see what other peoples sure Space look like.

Q4 Finish along

Well Q3 finishes from this list were sparce and I missed the link up deadline again. Never mind, Q3 is upon us and I am going to list those items that I will definitely work on and should get near to finishing:

Quilts

1. It's a small world 4 out of six panels are complete apart from some appliqué. This progressed a little in in quarter 3 and I should at least get it pieced this quarter.

2. Lion abstractions quilt - all of the foundation piecing is done, so I need to sew it all together, order some threads and quilt it.

3. The Thread House retreat quilt which is over half way quilted but I need to do some unpicking first.

4. Tula Pink butterfly quilt which I have just started for the sewalong in Alison Glass fabrics.

5. Everything in its place bag for which I have all of the supplies.

6. Retreat tote as we are doing a Sewalong at JMQG in November.

Knitting

7. October socks which are ready for our holiday in Spain

8. Mini mania scarf which just needs the ends of the rows tidied and the fringe trimmed. This stalled as I had no recipient in mind, but a friend has asked for scarves for shoe boxes for Romania so I will finish it and pass it on.

9. What the Fade shawl which I am on the final clue for and working on it today.

Cross Stitch

10. Once Upon a Time sampler which I am doing one block a month and have three months to go. Once finished I will get out another cross stitch UFO and do the same in 2018.

11. 12 days of Christmas sampler which is progressing well and the border is finished, so again I plan to do one square per week which should see it framed in time for Xmas.

Mini quilts

I'm sharing two mini quilts that I finished at Simply Solids retreat back in July. The first was a planned ginger sh and was cut out ready for the retreat. Bjorn Bear by Elizabeth Hartman is a cute pattern which with an extra border to bring it up to 18" square is perfect for the Chez Soi Christmas challenge. Our challenge is to make an incubator quilt for SCBU. As my son was in SCBU almost 22 years ago, it is a challenge that is close to my heart.

The day I left for retreat, a new subscription box dropped through my letter box with this guts pattern. However I was not piecing thin strips of fabric to make the ball of wool so I dove into my stash to find someone me suitable striped fabric and I am pleased with how it turned out.

This is also the right size for the SVBU challenge and also completed on retreat. Time now to list  my UFOs for the next quarter as Q3 had more starts than finishes.

12 days of Christmas border

Again I'd decided to focus on one project or more specifically one part of one project. I have been working on the 12 days of Christmas sampler by the frosted pumpkin stitchery and had got to a stage where I had completed two sides of the border and two half's half sides of the bowl order. I then decided to focus on only the border. I managed to finish it in one day and it matched up once the two sides met! What a relief. Working over two threads of linen it is very easy to be one thread out. But not this time!

I reckon that if I work one block a week between now and the end of November, the sampler can be framed and ready to display for Christmas.

Block six is almost complete so I will work on that first for an easy finish. I already have five blocks complete as well as the border and the bottom title. The borders dividing the blocks are also finished.

What the fade!? Clue four

Clue four was published last Thursday and I got straight on to knitting the clue. I finished half of the clue on the day of release. I was busy on Friday and Saturday so planned to finish the reminder on Sunday. I managed to knit a few extra rows than planned on both Friday and Saturday so only had six rows left too knit on Sunday morning.

The rows are now getting very long with almost 500 stitches in each row. The next clue is released on Thursday with a bonus clue the following week. We are off to Spain the first weekend in October so I would like to finish the shawl before going on holiday. The shawl is a bit big to fit into my hand luggage. I think a pair of socks would be a better holiday knit.

Time to get out my 12 days of Christmas cross stitch again!