Home Projects

While we are all staying at home I've got plenty to keep myself occupied. The ABC news website a few days ago had this article: "Coronavirus quarantine fine time to get out sewing machine and indulge in new hobby". Not a new hobby for me, but I will definitely be getting some sewing done. Maybe I'll even sew up some t-shirts I cut out months ago!

One member of my quilting group came up with a "Super, scrap-using, stay at home sew-along", making X-plus blocks. The blocks can be assembled into donation quilts, or used for ourselves. The point is to do something and keep in touch while we can't have our regular meetings and sit and sew days. Someone else came up with the idea of a WhatsApp group so we can share progress. That was a bit of a challenge for me as I've never used that app before.

Anyway, here's my test block made this afternoon:

I think the aqua I used is too light - it gets lost against the background. But maybe among a bunch of other blocks it will be fine.

Another new challenge is making a crochet pattern I bought after seeing pictures of the "Rainbow Barf Cat Scarf" online. Of course I don't have the yarn that the pattern calls for, or anything like it. Apparently the standard yarn in North America is similar to 10-ply in our system. All I have is 8-ply, so I will have to see if I can make it work somehow. I've also never done the stitch the scarf uses, so this was my test piece:

I wasn't sure that was how it was meant to look, so fortunately with a bit of googling I found that the stitch in the pattern is called "Cable stitch", and I found clearer pictures and instructions here. Both the pattern and that page are written using American rather than British stitch names, so that just adds to the fun. Anyway, I will try another sample before I tackle the scarf.

Out in the garden there is lots to be done. Today I made a start on cutting back the lambs ears dead flower stems, so that the plants go from this:

 to this:

Much neater! I got two clumps done, and there are quite a few to go. There are several other plants that will benefit from dead-heading, as well as lots of weeding to do, so I don't think I'll be running out of things to do in the garden for quite a while.

Hope you are managing to be productive while not going out!