February and March have been a little more eventful than usual around here. We actually took a little trip. (Head to my Flickr page if you'd like to see some Vegas pics!) Despite that, I've finished a couple of items on my WIP tracker here on the blog!
First up, the 2021 Tea Towel calendar from September House. I was happy to kick my stitching off this year with another of her great patterns and I'm happy with the way my color choices worked out:
Next up - the gradient half pi shawl. I had a much more complex pattern for this, but it was really too much for my skill level so I ended up just searching out a basic half pi pattern online. I think the yarn itself really elevated the basic pattern though and I'm love the result. I used a Cashmere Lace weight yarn from Pepperberry Knits in "Kitten", "Tahiti", "Mrs. Smith" and "Smoke". Because of how light weight the yarn is I had to knit with double strands which was new for me, but it's such a smooth, soft result I'll probably try something similar again.
Unfortunately I haven't made much progress on the quilt squares. I've cut out a couple test squares, but I keep going back and forth on the pattern that I want to use so I'm still experimenting. Hopefully I'll have more on that project soon!
In the mean time, it's onto a couple new projects. The first is my "travel project". This is fairly small so it's what I stick in my "carry-on" to stitch on the plane or during down time at the hotel. As we traveled recently I had some time to work on it and I'm getting close to finishing it up, so I'm going to knock it out.
I think this pattern is from the Colonial Patterns Wild Wild West , but I really have been carrying this around for awhile so I won't swear to it. The plan was to use it as part of "Cowgirl Quilt" I have planned - it could still be a part of that, but it would also make a nice patch so we'll see!
The next project I'm going add to my WIPs is my Ida Tunnell sampler:
As I understand it, the saying "It'll Never Be Seen On A Galloping Horse was a fairly well used saying back in the day, but it was one my great grandma liked and used regularly so I'm attributing it to her for this sampler. I'm back and forth on filling in the horse with stitches. I'll decide after I finish the florals on the side.
One of my goals this year was to blog about what is inspiring me and use that to help focus in on what really resonates with me and my stitching. Since I haven't blogged for a bit, I decided to combine my recent inspiration with my WIPs for this post.
My current inspiration has been a really fun and eye opening project I've been doing with my friends. Each week, one of us picks a few pages from the book Journal Sparks for everyone to work on and then we are sharing what we've come up with in a google doc.
Much like the Spoonflower Challenge I did with my friend in January, this is really getting me out of my safe space and offering the opportunity to work in different mediums. It's also making me dig a little deeper into how I see myself, my future and the world around me. It's a great book and fun if you want something to kind of shake up your creativity. It's also showing me some new sides to my girlfriends which is especially wild. I've known these women for 40+ years and yet they still surprise me with their talent, sensitivity, humor and depth. A few of the things I've made that were inspired by the journal prompts:
I think we'll keep finding ways to inspire each other even when we're done with this journal project. These ladies really are stabilizing and motivational for me and I'm grateful every day that they are my friends.
I hope everyone is finding inspiration in the beautiful Spring weather, the new blooms, and the new optimism that things will be returning to normal. Happy stitching!
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