I thought I might not have much to talk about this week. Work has been really hectic. (We were already down 1 person from my small department, and another person left suddenly a week ago, so now it’s just me, my boss and one part-time contractor and we’re all just trying to keep things afloat right now.) However, I have a mixed bag of some progress and some stalled progress to share.

First, I managed to finish quilting my Leaf Pile table runner AND got the binding put on. I absolutely love how this turned out with the fun prints against the dark background.

I did a trial of “big stitch quilting” on this and I don’t think I would do that again. It looks fine but it was really hard on my hands and I think I prefer smaller, more subtle stitches. Regardless of that, I still love how it turned out and I’m ready for fall now! Here’s the fun backing with all sorts of adorable forest friends.

I also made good progress on piecing the summer bees and blooms table runner I’m making for my mum. Her birthday is in late June so I am going to push on and try to get the half-square triangle borders sewn and attached next week in the hopes I could have this quilted and finished and ready to send to her as a birthday gift in June. This pattern is FIDDLY. The pieces are small (a lot of 1” squares) and tons of places where my points are definitely not perfect, but it is cheerful and I love the little bees.

I pulled out my Book Club Cardigan, designed by Sari Norrland, to start working on again. I have the fronts and back joined, so I’m working back and forth on the body right now.

I had hoped to have my Graerup Slipover finished this week. You might remember I found it too short, so I ripped back the knitting I had done to finish the back, and added in 2” of length. Now… the pattern calls for 1 skein of each of the 3 colors for all the sizes except the largest 2, and I have oodles of the 2 colorwork colors left over, so I thought I would be okay with this mod, but very much NOT the case. And I’m not sure I can get more of this color/yarn base. The dyer is kindly checking to see if she has a leftover base skein she could dye for me, but she is no longer carrying this sportweight. She’s out of town this weekend so this one is on hold while I wait to see if she might be able to get me that extra skein.

I am still plodding along on my 100-day project. Here’s day 65 of hexi stars completed.

And lastly, I got the fabric for the next set of appliqué blocks for the Jane Austen 250th anniversary quilt. I’ve gotten the shapes ready to stitch down and I plan to work on those this week.

That’s all for me this week YOP’ers!