Check-In Post May 7th 2022

[badly_knitted]

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.
Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


Today's Question: No question today.


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Comments

[badly_knitted]

Spent an hour and a half in the garden clearing weeds off my patch of ground where I've been scattering old seeds for the past few years, hoping something might grow from them. I've only cleared about a third of it and I'll still have to dig it over thoroughly to get the roots out, so I'm not particularly pleased with progress. I was hoping to have it ready in a week *sighs*

I also stitched the third colour on my long eared owl. You can see it's an owl now, and he's already looking quite fierce.

[darkcedars]

I think it's a law of the universe that all garden and house projects take 4 times longer than you expect.

[badly_knitted]

My garden got very little attention during the years I was mum's carer, I didn't have the time or the energy, so now I'm trying to wrest it back from overgrown shrubs and hedges, masses of weeds, brambles, and ivy. I've made a lot of progress, but there's so much still to do, in part because the brambles, ivy, and weeds keep growing back =/

The delightful surprise is that where I cut back shrubs and cleared weeds two years ago, I now have a host of foxgloves that will be flowering soon, growing from seeds that must have been in the ground for 15 years or more. I'm so excited to see what colours they'll be. I love foxgloves.

[darkcedars]

Foxgloves sound nice, you'll have to let us know what they do. I have two colors of prairie coneflower (purple and yellow) from today.

[badly_knitted]

I've seen the purple coneflower but never the yellow variety!

I'll try to remember to say something when they come into bloom. The flower spikes are forming... The bees will be happy when the buds open.

[celli]

that's so much work, I'm so impressed!

[badly_knitted]

A lot of work for not much progress, sadly, but I hope to get more done tomorrow...

[wiseheart]

That gardening sounds like a hard long-time project. Good luck!
But at least the owl is taking shape.

[badly_knitted]

All my gardening is like that *grins* The faster I clear, the faster things grow back.

Thanks, yes, he's coming on well.

[darkcedars]

Mom & I went to the native plant sale at the zoo, and I now have 4 plants that I don't have a plan for. Plus 3 my parents brought, which includes some seedlings from flower seeds I gave them for Christmas (they sprouted better than expected). Soooo I will be wandering around thinking of what I should do.

Today is in between mom's and my birthdays, so my brother & dad cooked us lunch and made brownies. I didn't even have to do dishes!

Here's the stars I made for the birthday cards. Mom picked a pale blue ribbon for hers, they can be bookmarks.

[badly_knitted]

I'm sure you'll find somewhere for your new native plants. Got to preserve native species!

The stars are beautiful! Wonderful idea using them as bookmarks!

[darkcedars]

I wandered outside a couple times and made a decision. There's an awkward patch off the north west corner of the house that is mostly white clover and common violets already. I'll dig out the few tufts of plain grass and put plants there. Just a little work and that patch doesn't need mowing anymore.

[wiseheart]

Sounds like a win-win situation. :)

[badly_knitted]

That sounds perfect, a mini wildflower meadow! I have violets at one end on my lawn, where there's not much grass.

[celli]

so pretty!

[annofowlshire]

There has been so much gardening.

Also, I started a new cross stitch tonight. Not because I have finished any of the big ones, but because I wanted something a bit smaller and simpler to work on in hopes that maybe I’ll actually finish one someday…? XD (Listen, it makes sense to me!)

A while ago I picked up a set of “teapot” cross stitch patterns themed around the neo-pagan Wheel of the Year. Since Litha (Midsummer) is coming next, I’ve decided to do that one. I probably won’t finish it in time, but hey, I’ll still have it for next year…

I’m thinking about changing the label on it to “Midsummer” or “Summer Solstice” as that’s more how I refer to them, but we’ll see how adventurous I’m feeling by the time I get to that stage…

(Here’s a link to the set (although not where I got it from) to illustrate what I’m talking about https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002698458395.html )

[badly_knitted]

It is the time for gardening! I hope yours is progressing faster than mine!

Oh, I know what you mean. Sometimes you just need something that you feel you have a realistic chance of finishing. The big designs just seem neverending and it gets demoralising when there doesn't seem to be much progress being made.

The teapot designs are gorgeous! Have you got all of them? They'll make a wonderful display on a wall.

[celli]

agreed, sometimes you just want to see an endpoint.

[annofowlshire]

It is totally the time for gardening! Ours is doing better than last year so far (which was a disaster)… I put a post on gardening yesterday about it.

It’s true - sometimes you need to be able to finish things to motivate you to keep on the bigger things. It’s true with my writing, too!

I’ve got all 8 of the designs in the set. I was just going to get the 4 that correspond to equinoxes and solstices, but then I really liked the Imbolc one and I have special feelings for Beltane (accidentally me and my husband’s first date anniversary), and by then I just decided if i was going to get 6, I might as well just get the complete 8 XD (It helps they were relatively inexpensive, too.)

My plan is either to seasonally put them up on craft room altars, or use them as a centerpiece for a more general seasonal decorations in the house.

[badly_knitted]

I'll have to take a look in a minute.

Staying motivated on big projects can be difficult. I mostly only write short stuff because otherwise I forget what I've written and spend half my time re-reading, but with craft projects if I'm doing something big, it's good to have side projects.

Both ideas sound great. You probably would have regretted only getting part of the set.

[wiseheart]

The big designs just seem neverending and it gets demoralising when there doesn't seem to be much progress being made.

Sounds like my writing, really!

[badly_knitted]

And my gardening, now I think about it!

[celli]

oh, so pretty! that's exciting!

[darkcedars]

Those are pretty! I generally use either summer solstice or midsummer as well.

I have two long term WIPs that take a lot more focus than other projects, so I do easier/smaller things a lot.

[celli]

I had a webinar today which was great, but I could also stitch through large parts of it, and I am making incremental progress - it feels like it's going so so slowly, but what can you do?

[darkcedars]

OH you're at a stage of filling in - that does feel slow. Your needle minder is adorable.

[badly_knitted]

Excellent! The end result will be worth the time and effort. Large patches of one colour might get a bit tedious, but the black background really makes the lettering stand out.

[annofowlshire]

I love things like that for crafting. A pair stockinette socks, a cross stitch in big blocks - perfect!

[wiseheart]

Slow but steady will bring you to your destination eventually. :)

[wiseheart]

I'm working on the last page of the twin quiet books and am currently trying to reproduce this page:



I've first made it a few years ago for Theo, the recipient of my very first quiet book. The new ones will be quite similar, only with slightly different colours and I've used flower-shaped beads instead of sequins. I hope they'll turn out well - those flower-shaped beads look great indeed and are surprisingly easy to work with. I'll try to buy some more at Kik on Monday, but with my luck they might be already sold out. *sigh*

[badly_knitted]

I'm sure they'll be wonderful! The little jellyfish is sweet!

[wiseheart]

Thanks. I'm planning to add one to each of the new pages, too. It has such a funny face.