Mead Dragon Milestone - the first zero

 

I have my first finished color on the Mead Dragon project!!!   I love that the Pattern Keeper app tracks the remaining stitches by DMC number.   I actually only have three colors with more than 1000 stitches left, but one of the three is over 5,000.   So a long way to go yet, but I just had to mark the milestone!

Binding Strips done for "It was the 80s"

 

Making bias binding, especially scrappy style like this quilt, is always a bit of a pain.  I always struggle with making sure all the joins go in one direction and line up right.  Some of these had to be pieced so not perfect on the join direction within a fabric, but I think I got all the intersections between fabrics correct.

All wound up and ready to go.  I put the solid mid blue on all the ends to be sure there would be a nice transition on every corner.   I'm doing full sewn miter corners - so there are four equal lengths of binding ready to go. 

Slow Sunday Stitching - December 14, 2025 AND starting the pieced back for the 80s quilt

It's been a busy week; this coming week is finals for my homeschooled grandson and then winter break starts Friday.   End of term assignments - ugh.  I thought I was done with those twenty plus years ago when my son finished school!  I am keeping up with the last month of the Daily Temperature Log as we bounce back and forth between an extended Autumn and full-on Winter!   We had our first snow, though it didn't stick around for long.  Then Tuesday, it got up to 62 degrees F / 16.6 C.   

I'm also keeping up with the 100 stitches per day on the Mead Dragon, but the rest of the crafting time this last week went into quilting.   I'm still working on "It was the 80s" (pictures of the finished top here).  The plan was always to do an improv style pieced back for this one to use up all of the blocks from the original sampler quilt.   

So, using the tutorial on making an "After-Quilt" from Karen Brown "Just Get It Done Quilts" (link to her YouTube channel), I laid out the remaining materials and took inventory.  I started with identifiable blocks and components of blocks.

There are eight large blocks (finished size is 12 inches) remaining from the original top, some mini 9-patch blocks (3 inch finished size) and four patches / pinwheels (finished size 5.5 inches).  Plus there's an extra strip of 2.5 squares (2 inches finished) and the chunk I cut off the side of a 12-inch crumb block to replace an area of unassuming plain squares in the original "Solstice" layout from Pat Slone.   When I made the EPP section of the top, I made an extra rosette (and a random extra background hexi for some reason).

design wall is just tacked up, my son needs to mount the frame

As far as materials I can use for the backing, this is the remaining yardage; size is from a full yard WOF down to a scant fat eighth.   I really want all of the bright rose and pink out of the stash, so using all of that up is a priority.   So the plaid and everything in front of it needs used first.

There were lots of extra strips cut for this quilt and there's a stack of all of the mitered sashing from the original quilt, so I divided that up into three piles - strips 3 inches and up, strips approximately 2.5 inches, strips approximately 1.5 inches.   There's a small stack of squares ranging from 2.5 to 4 inches and a couple stacks of half square triangles (mostly the offcuts from the miters on the original sashing and not all the same size!)

And finally, there's a bunch of true scraps.  Strings less than 1.5 inches or wonky, small squares and potato chip rectangles (2 inches and less), little HSTs from 'stitch and flip' corners and some random tiny or odd shaped 'crumbs'.   Plue the rest of the old sashing and a couple of false starts of backings when I thought I might hand quilt this in the 'quilt as you go' style.  

What a mess - but at least it's a somewhat organized mess LOL.   The next step is to take all the bias strips I cut this week and make the binding.   I like to make the binding right after I get the top done to be sure I use up the larger bits of remaining yardage.  In this case, I used up almost all of the blues for a scrappy but color-controlled binding.  You can see up in the yardage picture that there's not a lot of blue yardage left!  

I'm having a lot of fun puttering around with fabric again. Linking up with the SSS crew (this week's roundup) - inspiration and accountability!

Slow Sunday Stitching - December 7 AND 2025 Rotation #7, Slot #3 (Not Counted Thread) Changeover

Let's get the leftover stuff from last week out of the way first.

The November section of the Daily Temperature Log was done in "Norwich Stitch".   This is a specialty stitch that I'd never come across before.  

 It builds up from a 6 x 6 cross in layers to make a sort of basket weave effect.   Very interesting texture and easy to do.   Plus the stitches were arranged in a regular grid last month, which made it an easy to memorize and execute section.

And the entire thing prior to starting the December section - which is large Octagonal Eyelets.  You'll see that section (and a finish) on New Years Day!

I did post the Mead Dragon last Sunday when I finished working on it, but here it is again with a link to the stats post for November.  She's coming along.  Currently (after another week of work) at just over 85%.

In addition to the daily stitch on the Temp Log and at least 100 stitches on the Mead Dragon, I have been working away at the vintage needlepoint from Germany.  I got the materials to extend the sky and figured out places and a technique of 'speckling' the two colors to keep from having a harsh line between them.   You can see that the new yarn is just slightly brighter blue, but within the variation of a summer sky.   And since there's no harsh edges, it looks acceptably deliberate.

Working ten hours got me halfway across the sky and clouds that take up approximately the top quarter of the piece.   When this comes up again in the rotation, I'll be working on the cloud areas on the left side and the sky areas around them. 

And the back so you can see the progress: I've been working this piece in hand because I don't have appropriately sized stretcher bars, but I am not loving it.  It's hard on the hands and I can't use my floor stand to stitch two handed.  

also fixed the place where I'd carried a thread across the tower by mistake

Plans for the rest of December until I restart the rotation on New Year's Eve.

• Finish December section of the Daily Temperature Log.   Measure it for a frame.
• Continue the daily progress on the Mead Dragon. (This is slot #4 on the last rotation of the year)
• Frame the Majestic Eagle crewel piece to give to my grandson for Christmas
• Make the Unicorn needlepoint into a box pillow for my granddaughter for Christmas
• Get the design wall set up in my new sewing room (!!!!!)
• Piece quilt backing for "It was the 80's.   I finally have my sewing room set up!!
• My son's dog got ahold of Carl's stocking - it needs a MAJOR repair (pictures to come).  Don't worry, the destructive canine was not Della. She only carries around plushies, socks and other fabric things and stashes them in her bedding undamaged.  I think she remembers having puppies.

Quilts Ahoy.  I'm feeling the urge to sew for the first time in years. Here's the finished top for "It was the 80s".   I haven't worked on it for five years.  But eventually everything gets their turn.

Linking up with the SSS crew where you can see some amazing quilts and needlework!  They keep me motivated.

FINISHED QUILT TOP - It was the 80s

colors truer on this picture

 It took me FIVE years to finish that last "Y" seam on the bottom right.  Why?   But it's done now.   I'm working on getting the bias strips for the binding all cut, then I'll get the back pieced.   I have half a dozen left over blocks and strips of squares and some mini blocks that weren't used on the front and several fabrics that need to be used up because I don't want them in my stash.  (Looking at you, bright neon rose!)

you can see the lower corners here

The idea was a mostly blue and white sampler quilt with bits of pink/rose.   I'm pretty happy with how the top looks.   I need to figure out a better display solution, though.  (The photobomb by Della is pretty cute!)

Full Coverage Month End Report - November 2025

 

About the same number of stitches on the Mead Dragon in November as there were in the last couple of months.   I'm continuing on the 100 stitches a day plan.

I finished 3,463 stitches in November for a yearly total to date of 43,645 stitches and a project total of 79,738 stitches of 94,500 or 84.38%.  Currently working on row 287 of 350.

And where I was this time last month for comparison.  What I accomplished was just tons of confetti - in the background, in the drinking horn, everywhere.  That's pretty much going to be the story for the rest of this piece, TBH.  But seeing the percent inch up is still motivating.   I'm going to continue with at least 100 stitches a day for December, continuing to fight the confetti fight all the way LOL.   It would be nice to get to row 300 by the end of the year, but I'm not going to stress too much over the holiday season if I can't get that many stitches in.   I know I'll have a bunch of church and family responsibilities over the next few weeks.

Slow Sunday Stitching - November 30, 2025

End of the month (almost).  But I didn't stay up late to do my 100 stitches on the Mead Dragon after midnight last night, and I won't know what the high temp for today is until midnight tonight.   So you'll get the end of November report next week; though I'll post the month end stats on the Dragon later today when I finish working on it.  (ETA:  That post is here.)

What I CAN talk about right now is the vintage needlepoint.    I've put in just short of 5 hours on it so far - all in the sky area.   As I reported, the kit is short on materials for the Continental Basketweave technique that I chose.   So I've been jumping around working on 'puddle / cloud' shapes to work in some replacement materials in different shades or dyelots of blue (still waiting on my order from 123 Stitch). 

On a high-quality painted canvas like this, the paint color is closely matched to the yarn and it's hard to tell where the stitching is actually completed.  Here's a shot of the back of the canvas for reference.  The rightmost quarter of the sky is completed, and I've moved over to the center clouds, leaving a large gap just above the tower for the replacement color to fill in.

Notice that I've only used three colors so far.  I'm glad I decided to start at the top, though.   Best to get that unwelcome revelation about the material shortage when I still have time to course correct.

Linking up with the SSS crew - they get me through the rough patches! (Current roundup is here.)