January bleahs

I survived my first week back at work and now contemplate without enthusiasm the weeks to come. I don't think I was the only one feeling grumpy - there is a general air of depressed drudgery amongst my colleagues  and the overcast rainy weather isn't helping.

I haven't done much craftwise this week because I've spent/wasted so much time cutting up fabric scraps.  DH has now heroically ironed everything that was in the crate but I am far behind on cutting it up into shapes despite several hours of work. I still feel very ambivalent about the task- am I really going to piece scrap quilts from these cuttings when I could be using my limited sewing time to play with my nice fabric??  Maybe when I retire.  After it's all cut up, I will group the strips and squares into colour families and see what I've got.

This is what's left to cut, plus another pile on my cutting board.

Part of the ironing pile were several 1.25 inch white strips plus some 2 inch strips.  I was sort of vaguely wondering what they were from, and I threw out the 1.25 inch strips because the smallest I am cutting is 1.5 inch.  I kept cutting for about another 15 minutes before I put 2 and 2 together, and realised that the reason the white fabric looked familar is because it is the binding fabric I will use for my 25 block applique quilt that I'm handquilting.  I always cut the binding strips when I finish the top, since it could be years before the quilting is done.  Obviously the binding strips fell off the hanger where they were stored and ended up in the scrap box.  So I had to rescue them out of the bin and hope that I've still got enough.

I have set the 25 block applique quilt back up in the living room and am back at the job of hand quilting it.  I'm almost to the end of my second pass which is halfway up the second row of blocks, so ages to go yet. My reach with my right arm lets me easily quilt half of the 18 inch blocks at a time, so two more passes until I reach the halfway mark.

I caught up on the rest of the Janet Clare BOM blocks although I've left one applique block blank as I didn't like the proposed design.  I will wait to see what the rest of the blocks look like at the end before deciding what to do with the blank. This represents the first three chapters.

I've started making a plan for what accessories will go into the rooms of my Japanese dollshouse, starting by looking at the inspiration photos I took in Japan and at what the other blogger/builders chose to do. I've been feeling guilty about neglecting the house since I finished the main build, it would be good to get it 'finished'.

In the evenings I've been making a push on my giant granny square crochet afghan which is still only about pram-quilt size. I'd like to get it done and out of the living room. My crochet tension remains terrible.  I've also been stitching another free cross-stitch kit, this one for little gift tags that I will use next Christmas (if I remember I've got them).  Not sure where they get the 'luxury' from.  What is a luxury gift tag anyway?  Perhaps Tiffany's do gold plated tags encrusted with diamonds?

And I've done some more on my bobbin lace bauble wrap, taking it out to lace gatherings last weekend and this weekend.  I think it is going to look nice on a bright red bauble. I'm over the halfway point now. This is Bucks Point lace, with an interesting double gimp that splits up to make the green cloth stitch features before recombining for the next ring. I've used some clear/silver beads instead of tallies.

I've actually been machine knitting.  I pulled out my next handknitting project which is a Sublime pattern for a multi-colour waistcoat and realised that it was basically made up of simple stocking stitch rectangles.  This type of project is why I keep the machines, instead of wasting ages on boring knitting where my purl rows would show as ridges due to my tension.  So I worked three tension swatches on my Brother 260 until I got close to the required DK tension, and I've knit the back and a front so far.  I'm having trouble with the cast on and may have to re-do it by hand.  The waistcoat is supposed to have a simple rolled hem but the machine cast on is flaring instead of rolling.  I'll see how it looks after blocking.  It hasn't been straightforward even though the pattern is so simple, partly user error and partly fighting the yarn which is a wool/cotton blend that wants to snap if it snags. I'm hoping I might be able to wear the waistcoat to work if it looks alright.