It's been a long time since I've posted to this blog. Life has kept me busy.
After 3 years I have cycled out of my knitting and crocheting phase and back into my first love -- quilting. Using the sewing machine doesn't seem to bother my hand as much. I've even been able to do some embroidery but not for long periods of time. A lot of it depends on how much time my hand has spent on a computer mouse.
I finally finished my grandson's quilt. I just have the binding to sew on and it's done. After all these years in quilting, I've never sewn on a separate binding. I've always folded the back over the front. Hopefully I won't have too much trouble.
I'm making a quilt for my daughter for Christmas. I'm even hand quilting it. I'm only quilting on the weekends after my hand has had a chance to rest. Thank goodness I'm not doing an intricate design. I'd never get it done in time. I'll have photos to post next time.
Well, I'm cycling out of knitting & crocheting. They're just not holding my interest like they did. Plus it's difficult to knit or crochet for any length of time with the carpal tunnel especially after work. I've gone back to sewing and quilting. I joined a quilt guild in Ft White and went to my first meeting last Saturday. They seem like really nice ladies. It was through them that I found out about the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge for charity. I started on my first pillowcase the other day. I haven't finished it yet. The instructions want me to sew wrong sides together and then do a french seam on the outside. I haven't wrapped my brain around that yet. I'm sure it's much simpler than I'm making. I'm very tempted to just use an overlocking stitch on my sewing machine and not mess with the french seams.
Some updates -- the Glenn Beck afghan was sent off. We have not received an acknowledgment that he received the box. I'm really disappointed. I would have expected at least a form letter thanking us. I won't participate in another afghan of that type. I donated squares to the Sarah Palin afghan and we didn't receive an acknowledgment on that one either.
In September I had thumb joint replacement surgery so it was really, really hard to do any type of crafting. I'm just now getting back to doing a little knitting. I'm working on the Sock Blankie until the Winter Term of the Harry Potter House Cup begins.
The pain of the carpal tunnel finally went away after 4-5 months. However, because of the carpal tunnel, I'm finding that I can only knit a few rows at a time and then I have to stop for the evening. Crocheting is only one or two rows before I have to stop. I can't just sit down and knit or crochet for the evening while I "watch" TV. I can't even spend time on the computer because my hand can't stay on the mouse for very long. This is all really frustrating. Hopefully the next time I post, I'll have better news that I can knit or crochet for longer periods of time.
I spent January finishing off some quilt tops I hadn't finished - Churn Dash, Double Pinwheel, Dragonfly, and Santa's Ride. They still need to be quilted. I'm going to eventually have them machine quilted.
