2013 - First Quarter - Jan-Mar

OK, I am going to take a photo every day for 2013 to see the progress of my craft works this year.  Let's see how many UnFinished Objects I can complete in the first quarter.

UFO's include:

• Steve/Elanda's wedding cross stitch - only needs names and dates
• Amanda's Fairy - needs one wing beaded
• Kurt's Egyptian Frieze - is about 50% completed - 80%
• Sarah/Mel's African theme, only has about 1 inch to be done.
• The water lilies and carp cross stitch - about 70% done
• Many monkeys/toys - bits and pieces to be completed and assembled. 1.75 Monkeys completed
• One knitting rug in assembly. DONE
• Sandra's cross stitch doggie - simply needs a frame
• One crocheted coloured squares in assembly. DONE
• One red/white/blue crochet rug, 50% done- DONE
• William's Blanket -  DONE
• Debbie's pink/purple rug - 40% completed - DONE

1st Jan 2013 - the WWL knitted rug is being crocheted together.  I will add another photo in a couple of hours and hopefully it will be finished, nearly!  This image shows two long strips joined.

And now all strips are joined and the edge is half finished. Off to bed, happy with Day 1 of this project.  By the way, patterns for the wraps can be found at http://knitwiki.westernsydneyinstitute.wikispaces.net/Patterns

2nd Jan 2013
This blanket is finished now, with the edge all round.









3rd Jan 2013
The next blanket is a fun crocheted one, of solid colours with the burgundy edge.  I have been making these squares for a few months now.  As you can see I still have to finish making the Yellow Kangaroo.  I am doing this in tricot, also known as Afghan Crochet. 



4th Jan 2013
I am about half way through the yellow kangaroo square, and you can see the pile of red and navy squares starting to accumulate at the top of the bed.  This will be my next rug.  Assembly can only be done at home, but squares can be done anywhere.



5th Jan 2013
Today Sandra came around and showed me how to complete the edge of the baby blanket for William. To date we have put a backing on it and hand stitched it to keep it in place.  The edge is to cover the sharp bits between the stripes.  It was harder than I thought as I had to cut off the hard parts and stitch them in place and then hand sew the final strip.

 This is making the outside strip









 Stitch it diagonally,



Trim it

Then iron it and stitch the cut edge to the blanket.

Once the edge is stitched, and remember the tricky bit to get it together at the end, the whole thing has to be hand stitched.  Shown here with part of the red square I started at the movies on 3rd Jan.  This is just a random square.














6th Jan 2013
Today was meant to finish the rug, but instead I finished another square and did a little more of the yellow kangaroo.  Tomorrow night I must sit and finish the rug.

Happy days, so far so good.



 7th Jan 2013







It is good to have an unstructured approach to life I feel.  Today was my first day back at work this year, so of course limited time.  I worked from Penrith so only half an hour on the train.  I did a little crocheting on the station, the good old red and blue square, not pictured here, then once on board I focused on Kurt's cross stitch.  At night I struggled to get the yellow kangaroo finished but with a couple of phone calls, it is still only partially done.  But as you can see an eclectic mixture.And the kangaroo pattern is complete, just have to finish the yellow top.

Isn't the cross stitch looking good?

8th Jan 2013
Part of my crafting includes sewing labels on the wraps.

There are five wraps ready to be dropped off to the pick up centre next week.

So today on the train I managed to finish another navy/red square and did a bit more on the cross stitch.









9th January 2013

What a lovely day I spent on the train today with Lesley.  We chatted from Springwood to Strathfield non-stop and found we have quite a few things in common.  Both attended a  prestigious business college, we both love our jobs and family are very important to us.  I did more of the cross stitch and finished a red/blue/white square.  The journey home was spent with Sandra, much laughter ensued.  BTW, still haven't finished the yellow kangaroo square or the edge of the baby blanket.  Am I bad?


 10th January 2013

Can you imagine my disappointment this morning when I realised I had not put the cross stitch back in my craft bag, instead left it on the bed at home.  Hahaha .  But don't worry I always have the crocheting at hand.  So today saw the completion of the yellow kangaroo square, still have to do the edge and the finishing of 3 more red and navy squares.  This will be a beaut rug, it is currently 15 squares down, 13 to go.  I will be able to make 9 of each in the variegated yarn and the rest will be blue and white stripes or something.  Each square will have the navy centre and edge.  I am off to Qld tomorrow for the weekend, to see mum and Michelle, so hope to have lots of bits and pieces done.  Both on the plane and on the ground.

11th January 2013

Crocheting was done on the plane.  Glad they let me take my crochet hook, as I finished one large square and got two middles done.  This is waiting at Gold Coast airport for Amanda and Phoebe to arrive, their flight was 40 minutes after mine.



12th January 2013
Michelle  lives 10 minutes from mum and has a magical house, with a beautiful swimming pool. I managed to fit in a bit more crocheting, not quite by the pool but nearly.  I had a bird's eye view of the pool and the Samoyeds as I sat and crocheted.  Two more large squares and another middle.








I managed to get some more of Kurt's cross stitch done.  I know it is upside down, not sure what happened here ... makes it a bit more of a challenge really.






13th January 2013As you can see by now I have run out of the variegated blue and white yarn and am striping it in White and Royal Blue.  Had to make a quick trip to Spotlight to replenish my supply of Royal Blue.  Well that's my excuse anyway, mum and I had a lovely time poking around Spotlight and buying a few extra treasures.  Along the way I bought a metre of OWL fabric that will make something fun at a later date.  More finished squares done at mum's place.

14th January 2013

Left mum's, after a great weekend. Wasn't so fussed on the 5 hour flight delay so crocheting was done, ran out of red wool, had to start the blue and white tricot kangaroo and yay finally finished the yellow kangaroo.  somehow managed to get these pics on their side ... hmm :-(

15th January 2013
Back to the train, lots of cross stitching done, you can see her feet now.  BTW Happy Birthday Michelle. Big 50 today.








 
16th January 2013
More cross stitching, finished the white lady and just started the feet of the next figure








 

17th January 2013
Got the feet and beginning of black skirt done today on the train today.











I have finally finished all the squares for this rug, I am just loving it.  Note I have assembled the front strip.  I am joining it with black as the edges are done in a polyester mohair and too hard to use this to assemble.  This is a beautiful rug.



 
18th January 2013
Today was a busy one, I did lots more cross stitch on the train, finished the white lady and have started on the next figure on the right.  She is mainly black.

And tonight I sat with Andy and watched a bit of tele and put together three more rug strips. Now just have to join all the long strips.  This rug will not require an edge.

19th January 2013

Today's craft was a bit bigger than most.  Debbie and I went to a workshop today and we built a piece of furniture.  How clever am I feeling, I made this bench seat, it is from old fence palings, I removed the nails, used a drop saw, and a nail gun, liquid nails, clamps, T/Squares and it doesn't even wobble.  I am going to paint it the same colour as our fence - a sage green.

And I finished off the Navy and White kangaroo tricot square.










And while I was at it finished putting the coloured square rug together. I really do like this rug.












20th January 2013

I thought it timely to start to look at the navy, red and white squares.  There are six gaps before this one can be assembled.


21st January 2013

Tonight was spent finishing off some cot sheets.  Phoebe starts pre-school today and she needs to take a cot sheet every day.  She will sleep peacefully on these gorgeous colours I think.But I did find the green hat I am crocheting for Phoebe.  Somehow though I think it will fit Amanda.  :-)

  



22nd January 2013

A bit more work done on the red and navy squares.  I drove today so not much progress.

Finished two of the squares tonight, the rug only needs four more squares and then assembly can begin.

23rd January 2013
Slowly finishing the navy/red/white squares. Busy day today, was driven to Castle Hill for a meeting, managed a couple of squares. Only one more required.






 

24th January 2013

Drove to Castle Hill and Penrith today, managed a little bit of a square only.  Had to deliver two workshops.  Very tiring.  This looks orange in the picture but it is the final navy/red square.









25th January 2013
Very productive day today, finished the final square, and did a considerable amount of cross stitch.  And started to piece together the rug.

26th January 2013

Australia Day, spent quite a bit of time in the car today.  Drove to the city, parked and met Kris at the Art Gallery.  Andy spent much time amusing Kris.  We wandered around the usual exhibits and then we went to the Francis Bacon Exhibition.  Kris and I enjoyed it, Andy said it wasn't his cup of tea.  Never mind.  We had lunch in the park and left Kris.  Andy and I then went to the Alexander the Great exhibit at the Australian Museum, this was awesome.  Visited Ada on the way home.  Have started to work again on Debbie's pink and purple rug.  This one has quite a way to go, but I have added it to the list of UFO's.  These squares are a little smaller and there is a definite "cat" theme here.  And of course a little more work got done on Kurt's cross stitch.

















27th January 2013

WOW, this month is coming to an end soon, and I can see so much progress. Today was a delightful day, spent at Judith's at our regular girls lunch get together.  It was lovely to see Lyn, Janet, Rocky, Monica and Carol.  Many photos of new grandchildren were shared, and weddings that have happened.  Much talk of upcoming holidays including Janet's cruise.  I crocheted another pink square but most importantly when I got home I continue to assembly of the navy/red blanket while watching Jokovich and Murray in the finals of the Aus Open Tennis.  I couldn't watch the entire match, got a bit tired.  Have almost finished the edge on this one.






28th January 2013

 Sandra came around this afternoon and we sat at knitted and nattered and spent a lovely afternoon.  Andy made yummy date scones which went down well with a couple of cups of tea.  Sandra is working on her beautiful oriental quilt and is doing some Sashiko stitching.  I am thinking what a lovely thing it would be to do.  But yes I know I have UFOs to finish first.


 

Ticking two off my list today, finally finished the green striped blanket and the edging on the navy/red blanket.  Happy Days!  The green striped blanket was made by my daughter in law,  she  messed up the joins, rather than weaving in the loose ends between colour changes she burnt them with a cig lighter and they turned into very sharp shards.  I cut this out and overstitched them and put a backing and an edge on the rug with Sandra's guidance.


29th January 2013
Blue Mountains college today, so had to drive both ways, not much time for craft.  Managed one more square on Debbie's run, introducing some white ones to the project.







 30th January 2013

Back on the train today, did a lot more of the Egyptian cross stitch and one more square for Debbie's blanket. The cross stitch is looking really good I managed to do a whole arm today and start on the bodice.



Was very tired this morning, did not want to get out of bed.  Managed it OK though, but had a quiet day on the train both ways.











31st January 2013

Wow the first month of the year and I have lots to show for it.  Possibly the process of blogging every few days and taking the daily photo has been a greater incentive.  It is certainly good to see some of those UFOs finished.  Of course there are lots more in the cupboard that have not made it to my list - hehehehe
Today was a busy day at work, but again a quiet day on the train going in, I finished the black figure in Kurt's cross stitch.  It is his birthday on 2nd Feb, must ring him (note to self!).  I am going to put his cross stitch down for a little while and finish some of the smaller pieces. But I would like it be to done by end of Feb.

Have started a new post page for February.  January has been fun!