Mini Archie's July Furtle Around The Blogosphere

Hello! I have no idea where the months keep going - I thought that writing a blog post at the end of each month would mean that I was more aware of the days/weeks passing, but each month I suddenly realise it's almost the last day of the month and Furtle Day has once again crept up on me. How does it do that?!  Although I can't say that last week passed particularly quickly - all that heat and sun isn't conducive to a pleasant life when you're ginger (well, 'strawberry blonde') with fair freckly skin and an absolute horror of being too warm or getting sunburnt...

I have, however, managed quite a bit of hand piecing this month, mainly because I abandoned sock knitting (I tend to veer between the two but never manage to do both in the same day, for some reason) to give my shoulder and wrists a break.  Up until the end of April, I made an LV scrappy trip block a month and realised that if I could carry on at that rate, I would have made all the blocks by the end of 2022, which was fine by me, but then I got carried away by sock knitting and didn't touch the project for May and June and so was falling behind my already slow schedule. I had ambitions to catch up in July and see if I could make three blocks in one month.  I didn't.  I made four! *does a little jig of joy*

Here they are, not necessarily in the order I made them in:

This is the second time I've taken a photo of this block and both looked fine until I put them on the computer and then I discovered they were, um, odd. I am not attempting a third because it's the evening before this post is published and the light is fading. Oh, and mainly because I can't be ar*ed.

And here are all eight together:

I think my mix of LV backgrounds (sent to me by friends, which means I have a wonderful mix) is going to work and I do enjoy laying them all out each time I've made a batch of four and seeing them all together for their family photo.

I've prepped the next four:

I think I'm going to go back to the silver-grey ink for the next batch as the light tan has shown through some of these a bit more than I'd like.  It's not a problem as it'll be hidden by the ditch, but I'd rather not have to think about it at all!

While I was prepping the pieces (which involves choosing the fabrics and their position in the block and stamping the sewing lines on the back - I've already cut hundreds, if not thousands, of 2.5" squares so the prepping can be done entirely while sitting on the settee, which is my ideal way of prepping anything!), I picked up the socks I've got in progress and knit round and round and round while watching episodes of 'Suits' (I've never seen it before and so am watching from the beginning (on Paramount on Freeview).  I think I'm somewhere near the end of series two.) and have made good progress, going from being at the start of the heel flap on one (and about fifteen rounds behind on the other) to at the start of the toe decreases on one and about twenty rounds behind on the other. And yes, my shoulder, elbows and wrists are complaining!

There was also great excitement this month as Mini Archie turned three and one of his chums Mini Edward organised a surprise party for him.  Here he is discovering that I hadn't forgotten after all:

A box of Teacayks for every year I has beed alive AND birthday parcels to open!!!

And here he is with one of his presents, this one is from Lock:

Isn't mine pin banner and bee pin from Lock magnificent?

To see more birthday party pictures, see #miniarchie3 (you don't need to have an instagram account to see them).



Linking up to the July Furtle

If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosaic of all you've made in the month, something you've made/started/worked on, a goal which you'd like to achieve in the next month (and then in next month's post you can reflect on that goal and set yourself another one - I find this particularly handy if I'm in the midst of a big project and finding the making of hundreds of blocks to be interminable), anything crafty you'd like to share.  This isn't just for sewing or quilting, but is for all crafts so if you knit, make lace, make clothes, do anything which could come under the heading of 'craft', then please link up.

Please visit the link immediately before and after you and leave an encouraging comment, and more if you can manage it - we all know that comments create joy, so let's spread some around. Also, please treat all the linked posts and their authors with respect - I want this to be an inclusive space for all crafters and crafts and all are welcome.  If you're not sure if you're welcome or you belong, you do - this is by no means a closed space and if you want to join, then you are most welcome. If you need help linking up, please leave a comment and I will do my best to help.

Please add the Furtling button to your blog post, please copy the code below and paste it into your blog post - it should then magically appear when you publish your blog post (I'll do my best to help if you have any problems) and it will help people find the Furtling page with all the details of the link up.

<p style="text-align:center"><a href="https://archiethewonderdog.blogspot.com/p/furtling.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTXDD7-BYr5nXJtGn7HIFUcDUZfLGBTpazWKP8TCUWdkA6zd2285lbJX4aoMug6QyKDdxtxA-njWnhvf0GugU-An4z5lTFcqmYnae0Gb68FR0ZmydWYETGSa2oF1NeQDMVNwZBnUHTpsD7/s200/textgram_1548790799.png" alt="Archie The Wonder Dog" /></a></p>

To link up, go to the link at the bottom of this page and click on 'link up' (it's a blue button) and then add your link (website URL), a title (this could be your blog name but could also be something interesting to draw people to it (keep it clean!) if you prefer), and your email.  This last one doesn't appear on the link (I will have access to it - I won't use it unless there's a problem and I need to contact you) so don't worry that you're about to share your email address with the world (or the handful of people who find this link), you're not! The link will remain open until 11pm (GMT) on 8th August; if you're seeing this post after this date, I'm afraid you can't link up to the July Furtle, but you can link next month if you like.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter