Whatcha Working on Wednesday

Today I am joining Leslie at My Country Home for Whatch Working on Wednesday.

Thank you Leslie for hosting this. It really does inspire me to work on my projects.

Today I was off work for a change during the week. Hooray! Been working Saturdays. So today is sort of my Saturday.

Here is what I have been up to lately in my crafting and such.

This is the progress picture I posted on the Step by Step Stitchalong blog.
Participating in this blog is definitely keeping me on my toes to finally finish this cross stitch project.

I am actually farther along than it shows here. I will post another progress picture on Sunday.

I definitely hope to have even more done than I do now. And yes I did do some stitching this morning on it.

I posted these fabrics earlier. This week I have been doing laundry and included these fabrics to prewash them. So one of my projects today has been ironing the never ending pile I can't seem to get rid of. That included ironing these fabrics to prepare them for my projects.

I have decided to partipate in the Block of Month project from Gail Pan Designs.

The same one our host Leslie is doing.

Here Helmi is helping me hold on to the muslin squares as I cut them.

Then I show her the red and green fabrics I am using for this project.

Note: not the same fabrics in the earlier picture.

Although I may be using them for this also. Because......

I am thinking of trying to make 8 sets. eeek!

Don't know if I am trying to bite off more than I can chew, but I want to do this idea as gifts for Christmas. So starting this early, hey, it is only March, I am off to a good start so far.

I show Helmi the first design I will be stitching on the muslin blocks.

But first I need to prepare the blocks. My machine does not have very good markings for the seam allowances. Cindy at Just Another Day in Paradise (her blog is private right now) had talked about this gadget for helping with sewing quilting blocks and getting the accurate seam allowance. I thought "How cool." At the same time I kind of thought I had seen it before. One day while searching for something else (isn't that the way it always is?) I came across this one. I had forgotten I had the same exact thing Cindy had. What a surprise that was!!

I show Helmi how it works on the sewing machine.

And now she is watching me stitch the strips to the muslin blocks.

Boy!! That gadget works really good for keeping the seam allowances to 1/4".

I love it! Thanks Cindy for showing it!!

Now I am doing some green blocks. Helmi really likes to get into the midst of things when I am crafting. Notice she is still wearing that purse I made her. She loves it!!

Here are the nine blocks I will need for the first quilt.

Now I need to start the embroidery part.

I checked and I have all the floss colors I need.

I guess I will do the stitching in 3 strands. The instructions don't really specify how many strands to use. So I guess it is up to each person's preference on that part.

I have also started a new PLARN project.

Helmi is checking it out here. She notices it is kind of big.

Yep it is kind of big. She can sit on it and it is still big.

Look at the size of the crochet hook I am using for this project.

Biggest one I have ever used. This is size "N".

Notice I ran out of PLARN there?

Helmi is going to help me add some more so I can continue to crochet.

I decided to just start crocheting instead of trying to make this huge ball.

This kind of project you can add as you go. Unlike with yarn.

Okay, Helmi, hand me another strip out of the bag.

See my angel peeking over Helmi's shoulder back there?

She is probably making sure Helmi is behaving herself.

So that is what I have been up to this past week or so.

Tonight our church has a soup supper then a service.

We do this during Lent every year.

I have not made it to a service yet due to getting home from work too late to make it for soup.

Plus being just plain too tired to be driving as well.

But today I am contributing one of the soups.

I will be making a Zesty Potato Soup I got from Jennifer over at Smelling Coffee.

I have made it once so far and it is yummy.

I will be taking my stock pot and the ingredients to my mom's and making it there.

That way it will be just a short drive to take the hot soup to the church instead of a 35 minute drive from our house.

Gotta pay attention to the time so I leave myself enough time to make the soup and get it to the church on time.

Happy Wednesday everyone!!

~Linnea~