Week 6 | Bavarian Beauty + Hidden Star

Week 6 | Bavarian Beauty + Hidden Star

Annetta | This week was crazy busy! We had Dr appointments,  extracurricular activities, meetings and so on this week. I kind thought it would be like last week and I would end up with an unfinished square, but luckily I made it! Most of my Saturday was spent working on the project as 'you gotta do whatcha gotta do'. I loved this weeks square. The design of the granny square is very unique, but I did find it so time-consuming. There were so many of those stars that required many trebles and I don't like those one bit. I made two adjustments in my project. For the last two rows, I did double crochets instead of the single crochets the patterns calls for. I noticed my square was going to be on the smaller side so making the adjustment was a really good call.

Favorite moment from the week:  It's been a while since my husband had gotten me 'just because' flowers. I'm a flower lover and need them in my life. So I decided to gently tell my husband that it's been a while and I would like some now. Well, he listened! He brought me the prettiest colored roses ever. I would say that was a favorite moment for sure.

Stephanie | So this Hidden Star pattern had this new block piece called the house square. This is where the block resembles a house because it has contrasting corners on a rectangle block. I was a little intimidated, but after a closer look, its basically the Flying Geese block from last week but on a larger contrasting main block. So it was simple to figure out once I put my anxiety away. Once the pattern comes together, there is a Hidden Star that emerges from those contrasting corners of the house blocks. I was ready to put this creamy tan print in a block and I felt this was a good one to let it shine. The red ties into the flowers from the main print, but gives a more striking star versus a hidden one.

Favorite moment from the week: This was a pretty lousy week for me. Ive been dealing with a lot of issues lately and they really took hold of me this week leaving me pretty grouchy and blah. The weather hasn't helped much either, its been cold and wet. I attempted to cheer myself up with a good podcast the other day, and I didn't want to just stare at my phone, so I pulled out some watercolors to attempt some painting. My two girls noticed and took over, creating quite the mess, but many-MANY painting, they had a blast.....and I let it happen.We also painted and assembled little bedside book shelves from the IKEA Spice Rack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5 | Sunburst + Rachel

Week 5 | Sunburst + Rachel

Stephanie | I liked this pattern, but man I had some issues with it. First I was going to do a different pattern, and use all solids. But Since I have so many print fabrics, I chose not to use all my solids on 1 block and instead use them sparingly with high print blocks. So then I chose this Sunburst block, which the pattern used yellow prints (hence the name Sunburst). I don't have any yellow prints, but this teal floral one popped out at me, so I made a contrasting teal block instead. This pattern called for HST-easy peasy, but also the Flying Geese block I haven't done before, so I was a bit intimidated. But luckily they are simple to assemble. I did, however, struggle with cutting my fabrics to the correct size and made several errors there, I also cut my finger on my rotary cutter AND cut some of my squares out in the wrong fabric! But in the end, I like how this block looks and the colors I ended up using.

Favorite moment from the week: My favorite moment of this week was having a really good phone conversation with Annetta. We talked about some exciting things, and she inspired me to take more photos. I haven't had a desire for a while to photograph anything, I have been very discouraged with how my photos turn out and I basically gave up on it for a while. After our talk, I saw a beautiful sunset and wanted to capture it, this led to a little photo session around the property and the kids played and hubby dug holes for some blueberry plants. 

Annetta | If off, how cute and gorgeous is Stephanie's block and her pictures?! Back to our regular programming. This has been a saga of sorts. I started my crochet square super late this week. I didn't get to it until Wednesday and knocked out 8 rows in one session. I usually like to start on Monday and have the square done by Friday the latest. When I first read the instructions they advised to get a size larger hook which I didn't own. That meant I needed to buy a new hook on Tuesday just to start the project. Luckily I managed to get those 8 rows in because the saga continues. On Friday, my son had a school break so we took that time to visit family across the country for the weekend. I packed my yarn, hook and all the tools I needed to get the square done on the train ride. On the train ride, I discovered that I took everything BUT the project itself. Like really?! Sigh... What are you gonna do? To top off the great trip my son had a fever the whole time and recovered just in time to take the long train ride back home. Now I play catchup. On the bright side, I really enjoyed this square. It has been a pleasure to crochet and I love the pattern too. I think that helps the whole drama because if the square wasn't a favorite well... I'm just happy it was. Our Year to Inspire journey is never easy, we come across too many challenges along the way, but it is always worth it. Plus, I get to do this with my favorite person, Stephanie (worth it)!

Favorite moment from the week: I have so many! This week my time with my friends really stood out to me. My chat on the phone with Stephanie and then this weekend I got to spend with a dear friend of mine in her own city Kosice, Slovakia. We went out for brunch and did something I don't get to do, go shopping on Saturday! We also took the train to Kosice together and had some nice time to chat in the dining car. I don't have too many friends here in Slovakia so I am very thankful to have her.

Week 4 | Le Vesinet + Cogwheel

Week 4 | Le Vesinet + Cogwheel

Annetta | So... About my square this week, I hate it. It was my fastest and easiest square to crochet thus far, but it really was not a favorite. I had to make so many of those triple trebles or whatever they are called and making more then 5 in a row is a big no no for me. For one reason or another, they turn out very floppy at the top of the stitch and it's just painful for me to make them. There came a point in my week where I need to work on the square, but after only a few stitches I threw the project aside and picked up my beloved knitting. Also, the last square I crochet was my favorite so far and this one was nowhere near as beautiful. I also found out I added the wrong shade of color that I had for another project. Somehow I mixed the colors and projects up, but I'm sure I can work that minor detail out. I really hope that my square next week will be a good one, one that I will actually really enjoy spending three hours a day crocheting.

Favorite moment of the week: This week was a tough one for me. I didn't really have a favorite moment, but the moments where I got to sit down in a quiet house to work on my Springtime Bandit shawl that I'm knitting with the local Slovak knitters. Those moments were also made better with a cup of tea or my coffee.

Stephanie | This week has been something else. The days just got away from me and now I am sitting here fighting a cold--thank you public school germs. So I wanted an easier block for this week as I have tons of sinus pressure, just picking out a block became quite the chore. I felt this Cogwheel (also known as Prairie Queen) block seemed simple enough. The example in the book showed a white fabric with a contrasting watercolor-ish print. I thought my floral on white would blend nicely. Now that the block is together, I wish I had picked something with more of a contrast, the pattern just doesn't show through as sharply as it should. Oh well, I really loved the floral fabric though, so pretty! The block came together pretty easy, but took longer that I had anticipated. Trying to square up the 4-square blocks while keeping the seam centered was quite the struggle for me, but once I was able to get my head around the problem, it all made sense. My tiny girl has loved helping me with my sewing, and Kitton loves to sleep on all my supplies. I think my favorite block from January was the Octagon.

Favorite moment of the week: My favorite thing about this week has been getting plans together for our garden. We moved 1 greenhouse around the property and set up another little one for seed starts. We planned out which crops we want to grow this season and have mapped out where they each will grow in the fields. I am currently pricing out different seed companies and the materials needed. We also bought some toy storage from Ikea for the kids, we finally were able to unpack some of their boxes from the move and get their rooms all organized. We also got a new bunk-bed and took down the baby crib for the last time.

Week 3 | Denna + Octagon

Week 3 |  Octagon and Denna

Stephanie | My pattern this week is called Octagon. I really liked this pattern and it was easy to put together as it consists of a few half square triangles (HST). The description of this pattern says to keep with the same color family, and the example used pink/red/purple hues. I liked that combination and keep with that same look. Making HST is simple, this pattern however said to make the original square an inch larger than the completed triangle square, and I had to trim off nearly an inch of extra fabric to keep with proper sizing. This made me a bit irritated as that led to a lot of wasted fabric. Now I know to change my original cuts when making other HST in the future. I guess this would be fine when trying out HST for the first time, so you have enough wiggle room when you trim them to size, but since I have tried making them once before, I knew what to expect and kept my seam allowance tight, so cutting lots of pretty and expensive fabric was painful. Luckily this was just 1 block and not an entire quilt top.

Favorite part of the week: This week was a bit harder for me. We've hit the 2nd week of school and we are not bouncing happily out of bed when the alarms go off...at least I am not. I'm tired! There was not enough coffee for this week and nothing real exciting happened. We all have gotten a kick out of watching the new show The Masked Singer, we each have our favorites and have fun trying to guess who each singer is. This is the reward after getting all homework done. 

Annetta | After working on two other squares I would have to say that the week 3 square Denna has been my favorite pattern so far. This pattern isn't as busy as the other two but uses all the colors almost equally. I loved how the square was constructed. To me, it wasn't difficult at all, but it does look harder then it really is. It's got a perfect play with squares and circles all in one. Working on the crochet squares it takes me a while because I am making this huge 10" square with just a single string of yarn and a hook. On average I spend about 5-10 hrs on each square a week. After three weeks though I can see how I am getting a little bit faster and am able to manage my time between work, family and my other projects. What has been your favorite square? 

Favorite part of the week: This one is easy because since my son has started school we haven't had much time together as a family expect on the weekends. This time, my favorite part was going on a long family walk in the woods. It was pretty icy while we climbed up the forest and even one time my son went sliding down the hill on his bottom. At first, it was an accident, but the next 5 times after that were not. Our walk/hike was only 2 miles, but in the ice and snow that was enough to last us all day. Like always I added a couple of images from my favorite part of the week at the bottom.