The flu sucks!

I had every intention of posting my update for WIPocalypse on February 14th, but I finally succumbed to the crud that has been going around (and that my poor husband has had for over six weeks).

Luckily, I had a lovely knitting project that took only the amount of energy I had. I participated in this year's Ravellenic Winter Games, and just finished my shawl yesterday afternoon.  It's had its bath and is drying right now- just in time to cross the finish line!  

Here it is pre-bath.  

And here it is on the blocking mats.

The pattern is On The Bias by Dutch Knitting Design.  I used some of my hand spun that I spun in last summer's Tour de Fleece.  I can't wait for it to be dry so I can wear it!

Anyway, back to stitching and my February WIPocolypce update.  

I was on a roll before I got derailed by the flu - I finished two projects since the last post!

Bent Creek Snowglobe Mantel

And Country Cottage Needleworks Forest Snowfall 

And I made good progress on my Little House Needlework Family Sampler - I just need to finish the boarder and I can go back and fill in the family. 

Now that I've finished two of my WIP's, I'll have to pull out some more to focus on. I've been going through my HUGE pile of UFO's and making a list to post here (I'm not even half done). Hopefully if I can see them all in one place, it will keep me more motivated to make progress on them all. 

I suppose that's as good a segue as any to this month's discussion question: How many projects do you generally feel comfortable having in progress at a time?  Tell us about your one-at-a-time or rotation habits!

I don't know if you could tell, but I don't really worry about how many projects I have going at one time.  Every once in a while, I feel bad that I have so much unfinished, but that doesn't seem to last for long.  The ones that I feel the worst about are the class pieces - I have taken so many wonderful classes, and I rarely finish the pieces.  I'd like to get some of those done.

As far as a rotation, I usually use the "screaming rotation" method.  Which ever piece is screaming the loudest at me, I'll work on. :)

Right now I have some quilting projects screaming at me, so I think I'll go work on those...

Keep on Sewin'

I was able to spend the last two weeks working on some more projects.

Last Thursday I took another class at My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe - this time it was for The Beatle Bag by Abby Lane Quilts.

I had the fabric in my stash (yay for stash!) - it's from the Max and Whiskers line by Basic Grey. I picked it up during a shop hop a few years ago to make an apron, but it made a great bag!

This is the second class project I've been able to finish within the week of taking the class - yay me!

After I finished this bag last Saturday, I really a should have started in on the next quilt on my UFO list, but I wanted to do something quick and new, so I pulled out an apron kit I won when I took the Sew She Did class from Lori Holt a few years ago. The pattern is the One Yard Apron, and the fabric is from her Sew Cherry line. I decided to use some double ruffle ribbon that I bought in a grab bag from The Ribbon Retreat (purchased during another shop hop almost two years ago).

I've wanted an apron to use when I long-arm ever since I bought my machine, and this fits the bill perfectly.

And since I was on a roll, I also pulled out the cute tomato pin cushion kit Lori gave each of us during that same class.

It feels great to get some of these older projects finished!  THEN I worked on my Valentine's Day Mystery quilt. I'm up to the boarders and I hope to finish it up next weekend.

This weekend I finished my Be My Valentine Bench Pillow by Kimberbell.  Now we'll see how long it takes for the kitties to chew off those bows!  LOL

Now on to the stitching front....

Last week I was able to quickly finish my Bent Creek Snowglobe Mantel by sewing on the beads.

And last night I finished up my Country Cottage Needleworks Forest Snowfall!  That's two WIPs off my list.

And here's another gratuitous kitty picture featuring my almost-ever-present stitching buddy, Elspeth! :)

Speaking of cats...  I needed to add my final quilt from my Great Grandma to my glass chest - it's been in storage in the basement, and I was just able to find it last week and wash it.  This is our Wedding Quilt and it's hand appliqued and hand quilted.  It joins my childhood scrap quilt and my mother's quilt.  Sometime I should take all three out and photograph them.

As soon as I put it on the floor to fold it up, Korben jumped on.  As soon as we got him off, Elspeth and Elora jumped on, then Triana joined them!  Cats LOVE quilts!  LOL  I finally got it folded up and in the chest.