Posting after an absence

I haven’t posted in a long while. Not because I haven’t crafted…I’ve definitely crafted. It’s been a busy few weeks at work and personally as I’ve been adjusting to some work changes (My first project failure. In fact, my first professional failure of any kind. Ever.  So that kind of sucked.) and trying to maintain my independent scholar profile in my trained field (Theatre/Performance Studies). There’s been some stress and more than a few nights of coming home and collapsing on the couch in a heap. But there has been crafting, because crafting is my primary coping mechanism.

I’ve been diligently working through my Christmas gift list, creating the hats and scarves that comprise the bulk of my extended family’s gifts. I also finished a couple of afghans, embroidered a bird, and started on my husband’s gift (an embroidered scene from Calvin and Hobbes, his long-time favorite thing ever).

So first up! The African Flower scrapghan that I started many moons ago.  I finally slayed the beast. Final hex total: 95.

The woman I made this for requested that I not put a squared border on it (she likes the irregularity of the dips formed by the hexes), but I did smooth out some of those dips by gathering the corners together. I’m pleased with the result. The blanket isn’t technically a Christmas gift–it’s a “hey, you’re almost done with your dissertation!” gift for a friend from my grad program. We live in Minnesota, so warm blankets are always a happy thing.

Next up: C2C blanket for my parents.

I started this back in June and, true to form, got bored with it a couple of times before finally coming back to finish the blanket.

This is actually two C2C blankets whip-stitched together and with a basic border added. My mother went through chemo a few years back and it kind of destroyed her body’s ability to regulate her temperature, so blankets are a happy thing in her house too. I worked this up in Lion Brand Fisherman’s wool, so it’s surprisingly lightweight.

Third: My first attempt at needle painting.

This is a Kingfisher worked from a tutorial posted on Trish Burr’s Etsy site. While this exact pattern doesn’t seem to exist there at the moment, there are other patterns there that are available.

The Kingfisher worked up very quickly–soup to nuts in 3 days. It doesn’t look quite as nice as Burr’s, but I’m pretty happy with this first attempt. This is going to my uncle for Christmas because he’s IMPOSSIBLE to shop for.

Fourth: Another C2C blanket. I didn’t make this for anything specific, though it is baby-sized. I wanted to experiment with sewing smaller C2C swatches together to create new patterns, and this is the result. It still needs to be blocked.

Last: The only work-in-progress I’ve got to show at the moment. This is going to eventually be my husband’s Christmas gift. I might’ve waited too long to start it. I’m worried I won’t finish it in time to get it framed before the big day. (I’ve since finished the left side of the fireplace and outlined the rest of the fireplace and window area.)

There are still other projects in process (no pics of those yet), but I should probably save some stuff for the next blog post. Until next time, happy crafting!