Check-In Post - September 17th 2024

[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.


This Week's Question: What piece of advice would you give someone interested in trying your favourite craft?


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]

Another gloriously sunny afternoon out in the garden. I've cleared away so many buckets full of long grass and other weeds you'd think this patch of garden would be clear by now, but I'm barely over halfway. Still, I enjoyed being outside where it was warm =)

[wiseheart]

Motivation is everything, isn't it? ;))

[badly_knitted]

Really is. I'm so enjoying the sunshine, making the most of it while it lasts.

[darkcedars]

Sounds nice! I hope to do some yard work soon.

[badly_knitted]

Considering next week we're supposed to get hit with severe storms, I want to make the most of the good weather while it lasts. Hope you can get outside soon.

[fred_mouse]

oh, I hear you on the garden. Weeds in our front garden are all going to seed and we have no chance of getting them all.

[badly_knitted]

It's a nightmare when that happens! I've got seeding weeds everywhere too, and more weeds in the lawn than grass. The last two summers have been so wet I haven't managed to get outside anywhere near as much as I would have liked. The lawn was under water most of last winter, which didn't help.

[fred_mouse]

In our case, we went away for six weeks over winter (our growing season), and then another week, and then another trip this weekend. We did have the offspring promise they would weed, but ah, I reckon they pulled one up each. At least the chickens keep the back yarn under control!

Having the lawn under water sounds a bit worrying.

[badly_knitted]

Ah, well, even a couple of weeds less is something I guess.

Yay, chickens! My neighbours have some =)

My lawn area is lower than all the surrounding gardens and it rained so much over winter that everyone else's garden drained into mine before the water would drain away. At one point, parts of the garden were under five inches. It wasn't fun. Not that the lawn seems to have suffered.

[fred_mouse]

5" of water!!!!!

[badly_knitted]

Only in a few places, it's not exactly level down there, mostly it was less, but I had to paddle down the garden to check that water wasn't getting into the shed, and in places the water was well over my ankles. Thank goodness for knee-length welly boots! Really hope it doesn't rain so much this winter. It hardly seemed to stop for months.

[wiseheart]

Me-time was sparse today, but I did a tiny bit of crafting. I've cut out the basic parts for six more lavender sachets, selected the appliqués and the thread for them and did a bit of detail work on three of them. I call that success.

[badly_knitted]

Definitely a success on such a busy Tuesday!

[wiseheart]

Chores are such a bother!

[darkcedars]

Glad you had some time to craft.

My two little lavender plants are looking nice, I hope to have some flowers off them next year.

[wiseheart]

I'll have to cheat a bit; I don't have enough lavender to fill two sachets, let alone six, but there's always cotton wool to fill up the empty spaces. ;))

[darkcedars]

I finally finished the last petals on the trivet today (it's a flower).

House projects not going very well. I'm starting to get nervous because it's nearly the equinox, and sometimes materials are temp dependent.

[wiseheart]

*crossing fingers that you won't run out of time*

[badly_knitted]

Yay, floral trivet!

Good luck with finishing the house projects before the temperature drops!

[fred_mouse]

So, a couple of weeks ago, I was watching these daily posts go past and feeling bad about my inability to craft, and contemplating quitting the comm. And then today the post came up, and I was 'what can I progress'? And it has been very motivating. So very much appreciating having these posts!

Today I have: decided to finish a lap quilt. It was at 8*8 squares (plan: 10*10). I've found the remaining squares, cut the additional seven I needed (ah, but not tidied up, will do that next), made a layout, set up the iron and sewing machine, ironed what I had, and sewn one of four sides. I'm suddenly attempting to get the top finished, the quilt sandwiched, the quilting, and the first pass on the binding done by Friday 3pm, so that I can take it as my hand craft activity on the weekend.

[badly_knitted]

Woohoo! Sometimes just lurking in the background provides inspiration. Good luck with achieving your goal and completing your lap quilt!

You should never feel bad about when you don't manage to craft, we all have days, weeks, months, even years when crafting gets pushed aside for one reason or another. Members are equally welcome to post about their woes of not getting to do any crafting, the whole idea is to celebrate, commiserate, encourage, and support each other in all the ups and downs of crafting, as well as sharing advice, and pictures of finished projects, or even WiPs. Just have fun, comment when you feel like it, join in or start conversations, whatever you feel like. Glad that you're sticking with us =)

[fred_mouse]

It wasn't the doing the craft, I'm used to that as a cycle. But when I'm low in energy I often want to find things to get rid of in the hope that that will help, and reading the posts was something I thought 'well, I'm not getting involved, I should leave rather than lurk'. Brain weasels, etc. Made myself go and sit in the sun today, which I'm hoping will help

[badly_knitted]

Brain weasels are insidious *nods* I hope sitting in the sun proved beneficial.

You can always skip posts if you don't feel in the mood to read them, no pressure here. We appreciate those who lurk as much as those who participate =)