Cross Stitch, a Knitting Lesson and Some Binding

First things first...I found the hoop for my embroidery project!  I had put it somewhere for "safe-keeping" and then had forgotten where that was...until this week, when I was doing some fabric cutting and I looked up...My hoop was on the shelf at eye level.

Now, I can get my embroidery framed and hanging on the wall.  I wondered if anyone has any ideas for finishing the back of the embroidery...do you cut off all the excess fabric and leave it that way or do you cover up the back?  I put a piece of white material behind the embroidery as the fabric that came with the kit is a bit thin.  Just leave a comment if you have some ideas for this. 

I finished off the Linens and Thread January cross stitch ornament this week.  I'm not sure what I am going to do with these yet so I am just going to store them for a while.  I have the pattern and Aida cloth ready for the February pattern.  I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with the same colour scheme or not.

My friend, Pat, came over and gave me my first knitting lesson this week. She brought over some needles for me to use and I found a bin of yarn in the basement which I had used for crafts back in the day.  We decided this lovely red yarn would be perfect for practicing.  I must have purchased this when I was a teenager at the Zellers store near where I grew up.  Check out the bargain price--regular $1.29 but I bought it on sale for 75 cents!  I sent a message out to my family members, offering homemade red scarves to all of them but I did not have any takers!

Pat taught me how to cast on and how to knit and pearl.  I am trying to do a bit of knitting everyday so that I can get better at this.  I did some knitting when I was 8 --I set out to make myself a yellow scarf--I'm pretty sure it was never finished.  I did remember how to do the knit part but had never done the pearl before.  I am getting faster and my tension is getting more even as I go along. The tension was a bit uneven at first, as you can see above. I think I will practice some more before I tackle a real project!

If you read my previous post, you will see that I have been working on a baby quilt this past week--not for any baby in particular...I just like to have a baby quilt or two on hand in case I need a gift in a hurry. I decided that 20 blocks made a nice sized baby quilt so I have put the blocks together.  I have my backing picked out and just need to get the batting pieced before I can quilt it.

The Elgin Piecemakers had a sewing day today.  I spent a couple of hours cleaning out my sewing storage room yesterday and found some old UFO's.  I had participated in a row robin years ago and had never put my quilt together.  I had put the rows aside and found them in a pile so I decided to bring them to the sewing day and make them into table runners.  My row was the one shown above.  The batik with the circles on it was one piece of fabric.   I added the binding to each runner as soon as I finished the quilting.

I now have three runners quilted and binding machine sewn on, ready for hand stitching tomorrow for slow Sunday stitching.  These will likely be donated to the church Christmas bazaar.  I am just glad to have them just about finished and off of my UFO list.