walking, stitching, knitting and making mistakes

Let's start with the mistakes...no, let's start with the date. How in the world did it get to be March 10th already. I knew it had been a few days since I blogged, but NINE days! Wow! Where does the time go?
Okay...back to the mistakes thing. On Saturday I decided to trim all my stitched redwork blocks and piece them together to get them ready for the feather stitching that has to be done on all the block joining seams. I trimmed them all up and placed them on "a design wall over my design wall". As I assembled the pieces I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. That, however didn't last very long.

Can you see why? See that gaping hole on the middle right hand side? I was missing a block!!! Not sure how I did that, but I got right down to business and traced it on some fabric and proceeded to stitch. I am pleased to say it is done and ready to be trimmed and put in place.

OK the next mistake is not mine, but it still has to be dealt with. Did you notice the long thin strip of a block that has a garland of holly on it? Did you notice that the holly cluster is not centered? Well neither did I until a day or so ago. It really bugs me. I traced it the way it was on the pattern, but I don't like it like that. I started to pick it out, but that is not going to work, because then you can see the holes and traced pattern' so I am scrapping that piece and making another one...at this rate it may be awhile before I get this quilt finished. I washed all my reds and checked them for "bleeding dyes" and I am happy to report  that all is well in that department, so I am at least ready to start my star blocks.

Okay! On to my next project mistake. sometime last fall I mentioned that I was knitting myself a shawl. I finished it in December and actually wore it quite a few times. One day while looking at it I noticed that I had dropped a stitch very near the beginning. ( that is very easy to do when travelling, because it gets taken in and out of my knitting bag so often) Because of the distance and type of stitch I really could not pick up the dropped stitch all the way to the top of the shawl. The only thing to do was unravel it...I was advised very strongly not to do that because it would be a nightmare unravelling mohair, but I did it anyway.(we won't go there!) I am happy to report I have finished knitting my shawl AGAIN! There is something to be said for this you know...I kept my hands busy and made 2 shawls for the cost of 1. Now, I know I only have one shawl to show for it, but I'm just saying....

 

Isn't it pretty? It is so soft and cosy, and light as a feather. I love it!

That's it for the mistakes. Well for this week anyway...

 

 While I was at Mom's during Christmas, my sister said "Oh Wen, I love your shawl...(she obviously didn't notice the dropped stitch) ...my birthday is coming up you know, hint hint."

 This one is for her. It is a lovely mohair blend yarn in a blonde color, almost the same as her hair. I should be able to get it done by the end of the week.

On Tuesday past at our monthly guild meeting a wonderful thing happened; I won a Dandielion Girl charm pack! Exciting eh? Yeah I thought so too; so I put it together in a disappearing nine patch pattern and made a table topper for a friend who will be celebrating her 92nd birthday tomorrow. It is almost finished being quilted and then I hope to bind it today. It will look lovely on her table, and I know she will be so pleased to receive something hand made.

I also took a drive to Campbellton last week, to the Janome dealer and bought a new needle threader for my machine. It's amazing how attached we get to the little extras on our machine eh? On the way back home I stopped at Chaleur Quilting (our very own Local Quilt Shop)

Treated myself to a few new tools, some lovely threads, a new hoop, and some cuddly soft flannel to back the baby quilt I hope to finish next week.

Below you can see my new hoop. I have a large wooden oval hoop, and some Q snap rectangular ones and a floor model Q Snap frame, but this lovely little number is by far the most comfortable one to use. Just for the record Cynthia, I love it!

OK, let's see...what else have I been doing? Oh yeah! Walking...I have printed myself a walking journal/calendar. So far since the beginning of March I have only missed one day. Yesterday I walked 6.8 km.

 I think I mentioned that I am registered to walk the 10km race in the Ottawa race weekend at the end of May. I was/am not in very good walking shape and thought I better do someting about it; after all I don't want to be dragged across the finish line. That would be embarrassing...

My legs and back are stiff and achey, but it is so encouraging to see the numbers add up (30km so far), and to know I am taking a step ( no pun intended) in the right direction to making myself a little healthier. Oh yeah; I weighed in last night and lost another pound, which brings my total up to 10.2. Yay me!