Jungle Magnolia Month 2 Started

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! It's hard to believe, buy my great niece had her six-month birthday last weekend. She's getting bigger and bigger each day. I wasn't able to make it to the party, but they sent me some wonderful pictures. What a cutie!!

We got our second fabric packet for the Jungle Magnolia BOM designed by Judy Niemeyer this week. This month we are working on the G units and then attaching them to the H units from last month. I was able to finish my G units. 

Jungle Magnolia - Individual G unit

Jungle Magnolia - All of the G1 Units

Jungle Magnolia - All of the G2 Units

Then I started attaching the G units to the H units from last month. I started with the smaller H units since I figured they would be easier. Most of the time was spent in removing the papers before attaching the units!

Jungle Magnolia - H3/G1 Units

Jungle Magnolia - H2/G2 Units

I also got one of the larger units attached.

Jungle Magnolia - First H4/G2 Unit

I'm making this project my highest priority so that it doesn't become another lingering WIP (Work In Progress) making me feel guilty! I should be able to finish attaching these pieces by tomorrow. I think you can probably tell from the pictures that one of the hardest part of this project is keeping all of the units organized so that you don't accidentally sew the wrong pieces together. I'm getting to understand the pattern better so this is becoming easier for me. Pink Door is starting to do better on the support end, too. The support video was available around the time the new fabric arrived (I live near the shop so my fabric arrives the day after it is shipped). And we also had our first Q&A zoom session.

I've also continued to make progress on my Fading Stripes shawl designed by Beata Jezek.

Fading Stripes

I made some good progress on this project and might have it finished by next week. I added a couple of repeats to my Peach Sorbet Throw designed by Janine Myska.

Peach Sorbet Throw

Not as much progress here, but it does keep moving along. I really do enjoy working on this blanket!

I was feeling the need to do some more embroidery, so I started working on this little kit:

Daisy Flower

Sorry the picture is so bad! The background is actually pure black, but the light caused some flaring in the camera lens. This will be another quick little project, but it will be fun to do.

Nancy

Jungle Magnolia Month 1 Finished

 Hi all -

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I didn't do anything to celebrate, but Grace did get some pretty cute pictures taken at doggy daycare last week!

Easter Grace

Easter Grace

They take some pretty great pictures at daycare! We continue to move into spring in the Rockies. We had about a foot of much-needed snow over the weekend and today is bright and sunny and it's already 50 degrees out (at 10:30 am). Looks like we'll have rain and snow off and on for the rest of the week. I think things will start looking green after that!

I had some marathon sewing days this week and was able to finish the first month's units for my Jungle Magnolia BOM designed by Judy Niemeyer. We're working from the outside in so these are the units for the outside border.

Jungle Magnolia - H1 Units

Jungle Magnolia - H2 Units

Jungle Magnolia - H3 Units

Jungle Magnolia - H4 Units

Everything in this pattern is foundation paper pieced, including the checkerboard pieces.

Jungle Magnolia - Making Checkerboard Units

It was time-consuming, but the checkerboard is perfect. The narrow dark curved pieces are also paper pieced and this was a new technique for me. Judy has you sew basting stitches on the curved piece and on the base unit as match points. You then remove the paper from the curved piece and pin the pieces together at the match points. You glue the seams between the pins, and then you turn it over and sew on the line on the paper on the base unit. You hold the pieces up a little right in front of the presser foot while you're sewing to keep the bottom fabric from shifting. I tried doing this with the first couple of units, but I got tiny puckers in the seams at the roundest part of the curve. These were small enough that I could have left them in, but I knew they would bother me so I picked out those stitches and resewed them. For the rest of my curves, I followed the above steps but then also added pins to keep the bulk of the fabric from shifting before doing the sewing:

Jungle Magnolia - Pinning Fabric Bulk On Curves

This took a little extra time, but all of my curved seams turned out perfectly after that. When I finished the units and was trimming them up, I got a little crazy with the rotary cutter and started cutting on the wrong line of one of the units:

Jungle Magnolia - Bad Trimming

Oops!! At first I thought I would have to replace this piece. This would be difficult because there aren't any extra templates in the pattern so I would have had to use the template I had used before to cut a new piece. Since the template had already been glued to the previous piece and was ripped where the basting stitches had been made for matching the seams, this was going to be a bit of a pain. But then I realized that this was so small that I could just sew a small patch over the cut and most of it will end up in the seam allowances as the units are put together:

Jungle Magnolia - Repair

I'm really happy to have finished this part! We still haven't gotten the videos about cutting the fabric for the checkerboard or for any of the sewing, but the instructions in the pattern are good once you start to understand the different options and which one you are working on. The next fabric packet is supposed to ship at the end of this week. I look forward to moving on to the other units!!

Since I got my Jungle Magnolia units finished, I looked for another sewing project to work on this weekend. I've been thinking about making another tortilla warmer since the one I made doesn't fit the larger tortillas that I've been getting lately. Now seemed to be the perfect time!

Tortilla Warmer

Tortilla Warmer - Inside

I used the instructions from Bernina's We All Sew project blog. The important thing to remember when making one of these is that you have to make sure you use only cotton supplies since this will go in the microwave. This includes the batting, where you have to use a batting specifically designed for going into the microwave because regular cotton battings have a plastic scrim that holds the cotton in place. I also have a collection of premade bias tape that I thought I could use on the project, but then I checked the label and the bias tape was 50% polyester so I had to make my own bias tape. When I use the tortilla warmer, what I do is pour some water into the warmer and squish it a bit to get the water into the batting. Then I pour out any excess, put in the tortillas and microwave on high for 60 seconds. This warms up the tortillas without drying them out. I look forward to trying out my new one! I used some glue when sewing on the binding so I need to wash it before I can put it in the microwave.

I continue to also make progress on my Peach Sorbet Throw designed by Janine Myska.

Peach Sorbet Throw

I've made it to the halfway point in the body, so I'm on the downhill side now. This is my favorite crochet blanket so far.

I've also made some progress on my Fading Stripes shawl designed by Beata Jezek.

Fading Stripes Shawl

I'm almost to the halfway point on this one, too.

Nancy

Started Sewing Jungle Magnolia

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! I always start with a little weather report because that's something we all have in common. We had a nice, warm week here but a front came in last night to drop the temperatures and give us a little snow. It was only about 6", but every bit helps!

This week I started the sewing on my Jungle Magnolia BOM (Block of the Month) designed by Judy Niemeyer. Last week I had done the rough cutting where we cut the needed strips from the fabric yardage. This week I took those strips and cut the needed pieces. 

Jungle Magnolia - Prepared Pieces

These are all of the pieces for Chapter H of the quilt instructions, except for the parts that I started sewing.

Jungle Magnolia - Beginning of Checkerboard Sewing

This quilt is designed to be constructed from the outside in. It'll be interesting to see how that works! There are several alternatives for some parts of the quilt. My version has a checkerboard in the border. These are the pieces that will be sewn into the checkerboard. We're still having problems with the video classes. They did post some more classes about cutting out the pieces, but the teacher mentioned having a video about cutting out the pieces for the checkerboard, but that still hasn't appeared and any questions about it got unanswered, as do my questions about when we will have the promised Q&A zoom session. I decided that I would just go ahead and follow the directions in the pattern and will watch the videos as they appear to look for any hints or shortcuts that I didn't figure out myself. It's really exciting to finally get started sewing on this project!

I also met with my English Paper Piecing group last week so I made a little progress on my La Passacaglia quilt designed by Willyne Hammerstein.

La Passacaglia

I'm still working on my first rosette, which will be Rosette #2 in the pattern. I just have four more pieces to baste to the papers and I will be ready to sew on the next two rounds of the rosette. Work is slow on this, but it's really fun to get back to it every once in a while!

I also continue to make progress on my Peach Sorbet Throw designed by Janine Myska. 

Peach Sorbet Throw

I just love the colors!

I definitely don't need another project, but I had this set of yarn that's been staring at me for a while so I decided to use it. I had bought a mystery project a year and a half ago, but I ended up not liking the project so I still had the yarn sitting around. I decided that I really wanted to knit it up so I found a free pattern that would work for the yarn. This is the Fading Strips shawl designed by Beata Jezek.

Fading Stripes

This is a simple garter stitch shawl with narrow alternating stripes. The perfect vehicle for a skein of yarn and some minis. I'm using the minis from lightest to darkest. I've already used up the first nini, which was a light green. I'll knit until I run out of yarn. I think it'll be cute.

Nancy

First Jungle Magnolia Fabric Pack Received

 Hi all -

Spring continues to move in here. We had a cold, snowy week last week although we didn't get much snow on the ground. I'll continue to hope for more! This week promises to be warm and sunny. I will certainly enjoy it!

We got our first fabric pack for the Jungle Magnolia BOM designed by Judy Niemeyer.

Jungle Magnolia - Month 1 Fabric

The pack included all of the fabric for this month along with another little Judy Niemeyer pattern that we can use for learning the technique. I'm a jump in kinda gal so I put the little pattern aside and did the set up cutting for our BOM.

Jungle Magnolia - Fabric Prep

There is a video class that goes along with the BOM and we haven't gotten the first sewing video yet so I stopped here for now. The beginning of this BOM has been a bit frustrating. The first fabric pack was sent out a week late because some of the fabric was late getting to the shop. This I completely understand. When they announced that the fabric would be a bit late, they also said that the video would also be late. But since then, there has been no communication about when the video will become available. We were also supposed to have our first Q&A zoom session last Saturday according to the initial schedule, without a time specified. But that was presumably delayed also (although they never said that) and, again, there has been no word about when it will happen. So it's really hard to plan! I also noticed when I was doing the initial cutting that there was an error in the instructions included with the fabric. I posted a question about that on the BOM forum asking the store to verify that it was a mistake and that my fix was correct, but they have never responded to that. I'm getting afraid that this BOM is a bit too much for the shop, but I'm going to try to be patient. Hopefully they'll get it together for the rest of the project! I'll probably go ahead and start working on the sewing using the pattern instructions since I want to get moving on this.

I also continue to make progress on. my Peach Sorbet Throw designed by Janine Myska.

Peach Sorbet Throw

I'm making good progress on this project! It's a nice, mindless project to do while watching TV in the evening.

This weekend I decided to finish up a couple of projects that have been languishing. The first was my Verba Top designed by Victoria Chaplina. For this top, I just needed to pick up stitches around the neckline and the armholes and finish them off with an I-cord bind off. 

Verba Top

I was dreading doing this part because I'm not good at picking up stitches yet and this yarn is really hard to manipulate. The yarn is actually made of paper, cotton and silk. It has no stretch and does not slide smoothly against itself. The yarn is also flat with a thin string wound around it. Very weird! Bit I did it! I look forward to wearing this this summer! The yarn should make it really cool and it's very light. I think it'll be wonderfully soft after it's washed, but I'll wait on the washing until I wear it a couple of times, just in case....

Finally, I picked up my Festival of Stitches shawl designed by Lisa Hannes. I had finished the knitting on this shawl and just needed to sew in the ends, block it and add a tassel. I had set it aside and completely forgotten about it. I found it again this weekend while looking through projects and was able to finish it up.

Festival of Stitches

This is my first tassel and I'll have to see how I like it. If it gets in the way I'll just remove it, but I do think it's kind of fun.

Nancy