Rollie Pollies or Alien Pods, You Be The Judge

Hello friends, I hope you're all healthy and happy.  I know social distancing is probably hard for a lot of you.  Not so much for me.  It's me, being me, only a little more hard core than usual.  I've been laid off now for 3 full weeks and have kept myself very, very busy.  

One thing that I've been having fun with is Sue Spargo's stitch along.  You can find it on her FB group Sue Spargo Folk Art Quilts.  They are doing her Toned-Down Sampler.  It consists of 1" circles in wool.  Every day they are posting a new design with instructions.  So, basically, 90 days of stitching.  Is this snail, not the cutest!?

I don't know if this whole lay off thing is going to last the full 90 days but hopefully, it's something I will continue even when life goes back to normal.

I'm up to 16 now, and have learned a few new stitches.  The frame around my daisy circle is the Crested Chain Stitch.  Had never heard of it before.

I think I'd done a Double Cast On Stitch before but I needed a refresher.  Tete de Bouf was a new one for me as well.  Basically, a fly stitch that ends in a chain.  My Double Cast On Stitches look like little bugs trying to crawl off my circle.

I used what ever scraps of wool I had left over from previous projects.  Then, I decided I would use whatever color was next, chronologically.  So, the Easter Basket arrived on a red circle... I should have made an exception.  The ones done on light wool were so much cuter than mine.  I think I'd done an Open Button Hole for the basket weave before but needed the tutorial for this one as well.

They love a Bullion Stitch.  These are all fabulous to do while you're solving crimes with NCIS and Miss Marple.

And, Cast On Stitches.

Needed a refresher on the Pekenese Stitch.

I thought this was so sweet.  One of the first circles on the list.  It was good to start off simple.  I might not have kept going otherwise.

Rosette Chain was new for me.  I struggle with the Double Cast On.  I think it looks like a Rollie Pollie bug or Silver Fish and I'm not comfortable with it at all.  Maybe if I changed the color?

I'd done a Palestrina Knot before but didn't remember it being so simple.

This one is very sweet, but I feel a very alien pod vibe from the Double Cast On flowers.  Guardians of the Galaxy 2, the pod thing that Ego was growing on Earth.  Just saying...

Some of the designs are more abstract than my usual taste.  This is a seed pod.  The non-symmetrical design has me a bit twitchy.   It's good to stretch my interests now and then.  

During the Great Room Swap of 2020, I've had to make some heavy decisions.  I'm not good at letting go of my things.  As quilters go, I am in NO WAY considered a hoarder.  I have a stash but I know many, many quilters with TONS more stuff than I have.   That being said, my stuff now dwarfs my space in some uncomfortable ways.  I have some really cool things and I don't want to get rid of any of it.  The struggle is real.

Solving that problem has taken up 80% of the last 3 weeks of my life.  That's a lot, right?  One solution is to finish my UFOs.  Generally speaking, I only have a few projects going at once.  This won't solve all my problems but it will help.  So, I finished the top to Bonny Hunter's Provence.  No idea why I thought doing this would be a good idea for me.  I am NOT a great piecer.  The long armer that I send this to for quilting is going to be cussing me 6 ways to Sunday.

This has been sitting for a few years.  At one point, I had the main blocks made.  I miss laid them and then forgot they existed.  So, I started making more HST, thinking I must have skipped a step.  Then, it sat some more and I found the missing blocks.  These are all my "extras".

Then, I finally get it all pieced, putting on the last pieced border...only to discover I was missing 2 of the 4 square cream blocks.  There was NO WAY in Heaven or Hell that I was making more blocks for this darn thing, so I added some random HSTs to the corner and told myself I was creating a mystery for future generations.  You know, when the ladies are all gathered around my quilt, 100 years from now, they'll be all "WTH?"

One of the first things I finished was this Broderie Perse wall hanging.  Which, I spell differently every time.  My apologies to anyone I've freaked out over that.  I'll save you the whole sob story on this one.  I think I went through it all in a previous post.  The important thing is that it's done and hanging on Melissa's wall.  She's happy with it, so I guess I will be too.  I do love the colors.  I'll have to remember them in the future.

We've painted my room.  I've put up tons of shelves.  I dare say, my new set up might end up better than the old.  Smaller, but I'm trying for a better use of space.  More on that later.

Stay safe my lovelies.  I'll see you soon.