September 2026 UFO challenge

 

This is probably my UFO challenge piece with the most work to be done and what I had done, I soon found was one stitch out. It is summer by Barbara Ana ddesigns. My counting is not the best. I decided that I needed to focus on this piece as daily goals were not working for me. On Saturday I worked across the bottom of the piece to the base of the neck It is not quite complete, but I am added to it whilst working on the face when I had half a thread left.

On Sunday I worked on the face and hair and some thread colours are complete which is exciting. Once this summer lady is finished, the four seasons will be complete and ready for framing. I am planning to start on the strawberries on top of the head. I have two customer quilts ready to be quilted this week and I can put some more stitches in whilst the computerised machine does it thing.

Stash Bee Bock of the Month

 

August is definitely over and it's much cooler, allowing us to get back to our sewing rooms. I've had three lovely packages this week. Three more are in the post with one more to follow. I love all of the fabrics - Karen Lewis, Lizzy's House and Alison Glass seem popular choices to us.

Don't the blocks received so far look great together. I think I'll have enough to make a ladder quilt and perhaps two quilts to donate for Quilts for Care Leavers.

I received two customer quilts on Monday and will start working on them today, then I have two more to call in. I don't like too many piling up as it makes me anxious. I also have a table runner to quilt for Lizzie and then my star quilts towards the end of the month.

A small forest for Anne

 

It' bad news for my Atelier 7, it can't be fixed locally so needs to be sent to England for repair. I need to review my options and decide what to do. In the meantime, I have used my Siger featherweight to make these blocks for the Stash Bee for Anne. I have made this block before so spent two hours making five pairs of blocks for Anne which were posted yesterday.

The tutorial for the block can be found here.

Liminal quilt month 3

 

I am very pleased that my attempt to stitch month 3 of the Liminal Quilt by Jo Averry for Love Patchwork and Quilting on my Singer Featherweight was successful. When my Atelier 7 comes back from the spa, I'd like to stitch the three parts together.  I am using the kit from A Beautiful Thing. There is insufficient fabric to stitch long borders to one element of month 2 so I will have to accept that I will have to put a seam in the border.

I have packed everything away in the box again, putting aside any scrap that I think will be too small for the project, ready to pass to a friend in November.

When life gives you lemons ...

 I had just started stitching month 3 of Liminal quilt on Tuesday when I couldn't raise the needle. Very annoying. Lizzie was visiting for a few days so she dropped me at the opticians and then dropped off my Atelier 7 to our local dealer for a service. I am going to have to be patient as Rachel has six machines to service before the school term starts and she is closed for two days this bank holiday weekend.

I relayed the news to my husband and suggested that this would be the perfect time to paint the skirting boards in my sewing room. He applied the first coat yesterday whilst waiting to collect me from the hospital and hopefully it will be finished this weekend. In the meantime, my singer featherweight has come out of storage so that I can finish the Liminal borders for month three.

Take a stand bag

Lizzie booked a last minute short trip back to Jersey and arrived last Thursday. I should have been having some procedures done at our local hospital on Thursday, but they cancelled with ninety minutes notice, as someone hadn't signed a form!! I now have that to look forward to this Thursday and I checked - the form has been signed.

We cut out most of our pieces on Wednesday and it was more straight forward than the Running with Scissors case which goes with this bag. Fewer thick layers to negotiate.

I need to order some more fold over elastic as I only have a small amount of the fuchsia pink left and Lizzie needs some too. Lizzie leaves tomorrow so I'm not sure what she's leaving behind for Nick to take in the car in October.

Stash bee BOM - every day is like Christmas

After returning my my third hospital appointment of the week on Friday, I was delighted to receive Gill’s two blocks. They are all going to look so fabulous together.

I was on cake duty at our guild on Saturday, so I took some fabrics to cut out some flying geese units to pair with the four 6” blocks Jane has sewn for me. It didn’t take long to sew these up on Saturday evening.

Only two hospital appointments this week, one of which will be far from stress free!