Riley Blake

Go over to Riley Blake to see their current contest.

Hexagon progress

I demoed the stitchery hexagons at our May CQ meeting, in preparation for the July meeting where we're going to put together some hexagons. They really are addictive and quick to sew together. I have prepped all the hexagons I'm going to do but have left one to do as a demo example. A friend has one for her holiday to Switzerland as an aide memoire, so I will have made eight of the 150 needed for a single bed quilt. I think this is going to be a fun summer sewing project for members and they won't get bored of them as they only have to do a few.

Just two more groupings of four flowers to sew together and a couple of stitcheries to do. I want to include the year 2011 and our name into the two blank cream hexagons. The fabric is all Thimbleberries scraps from the four Blocks of the Month I've completed.

July's ready

My July hanging is now complete with it's new unchipped red buttons. Maybe I should try and start June next or perhaps August?



I also finished a Scrapbook Generation sketch kit layout this morning. I started this on Friday evening when scrapping with my sister, Joanne. Just four more layouts to complete. The layouts have gone together quickly as I did most of three other kit layouts in the same evening. Now I just need to print out some photos to the right sizes.

Almost finished

Today is a busy day with a troll bead event which is must do, helping at the Itex walk, a new tap class for Lizzie and Zumbaparty, so I'm not going to have time to finish this today. All I have to do is finish quilting and buttonhole stitching the Y. Also one of the pink buttons is chipped so I will try and buy a replacement pair.

June FNSI

Well it hasn't been as good a sewing week as I had hoped for as my sewing machine is still not working as I'd hoped, despite being serviced. So I did some piecing and applique this week.

Pieicing - I started another new project. I saw the Farmer's Wife Quilt a long on a friend's blog, had a look, no too like Dear Jane (another WIP) and passed. Unfortunately Camille also posted about it on her blog. The blocks in her modern fabrics, a whole different look. I'm on board. I've ordered the book, made two blocks, joined the Flickr group and the yahoo group. Oh and I may have ordered some fabric too.

Applique - I didn't get my June calendar block made in time for June so I thought I'd make a start on the July block. I have pieced and appliqued the block but forgot to do the inside of the Y. It's now ready to be put together, embellished with buttons and quilted for the Friday Night Sew in (FNSI)

Posie's Patch

My sewing machine is back from being serviced at bernina's London office, so I've celebrated by doing some button hole applique on this second quilt from Modern Basics for month 2 of Quilting Book Club This is made with Wing It by Momo from Moda.

Now that I've caught up on this month's quilt, I'm quickly going to piece a quilt backing for this quilt and then work on quilting last month's quilt which I abandoned due to my machine playing up.

You need to hurry over to sketch support

If you want to see their latest guest designer !!! Only this morning I was looking for jumbo ric rac for a quilt. I thought the red would be the best but there was less of the red than the navy and black. Strange? Now I know why, I used 24" of red ric rac on a double page.

Into town this morning to see if can buy any more jumbo ric rac, Needle Treasures or Fabric Factory, I guess. I also need to pick up my sewing machine which has been serviced and return the one I had on loan.

Vignette hexagons

My very first quilt was made when I was a teenager, using fabric from Mum's stash and following instructions from a part work called Golden Hands. The quilt is still going strong but would offend the quilt police I'm sure. Fast forward thirty years and Issue 2 of Vignette showed a hexagon project. I knew I wanted to revisit hexagons, but not do a whole project so I have introduced it to our group - Caesarea Quilters as a summer project. I can confirm it's a perfect carry along project as we travelled to France last weekend and I worked on it on the boat. Ideal.

How did the techniques differ over 30 years? This quilt has embroidered hexagons scattered among the flowers. I decided to substitute the flower from the Block of the Month pattern as it is simplerer but the right size. I used a number of different threads but like the variegated green I bought in France the best. The hand sewing of the hexagons is still quick and therapeutic.

No laborious cutting and tacking of papers this time:
* The paper hexagons were cut using Sizzix die 656664 - 50 at a time
* I used freezer paper instead of scrap paper so I could iron the shapes to the fabric temporarily and then cut around leaving about a quarter of an inch
* I used the Sewline glue pen to stick down the seam allowance as suggested by Leanne. So quick.

In less than a week I have put together 1 block 2 and two blocks 1 with a few spare flowers and hexagons. I have shown Lorraine what to do and she is prepping for her trip to France. She is hoping her daughter will also help. A few CQ ladies are busy sewing the stitchery cream hexagons, so I hope we can make this a successful group project. All done using my Thimbleberries scrap basket so far.



Now I need to make progress on the Vignette BOM as I still have block 2 and 3 in progress and the latest magazine is out with three more blocks!!

Jazz Festival and shopping

I'm not the world's greatest shopper, but I do indulge from time to time, so here are a few purchases from our weekend trip to France. On the way to Coutances we decided to stop in nearby Granville that I've only visited once before. After lunch we went strolling, bought a few macarons in a patisserie and returned to "En peu de ci, un peu do ca". The shop had lots of Tilda products in the window and was in an artisans area with sculptures.



I indulged in a few My Minds Eye papers and some of the hard to find washi tape. They also had some sweet little bracelets to make or buy from liberty print bias binding.




Whilst in Coutances we did watch a little jazz, ate in the food village and generally mooched around.



On the Sunday we came across this bunch having a photo taken on the carousel!!




Monday saw us return to St Malo for the boat trip home. First stop Decathlon, then the Madeleine Centre. We found a few newer shops there including the one where I bought some of these wire storage baskets. The corrugated card and variegated thread were from Cultura, a regular haunt of ours. Oh and some more washi tape.



Whilst on our trip I had a little bit of hand sewing to keep me occupied. I managed quite a few hexagons and now need to do some of the embroideries to go with them. The hexagons are quick and easy to make and very portable. I'm off to Lorraine's soon for a tutorial for her holiday. I used the new Sewline glue pens instead of tacking down the fabric and the Sissix one inch hexagons and freezer paper so as to make the paper cutting quick and easy. You can cut 50 hexagons in a matter of minutes and then you iron them on to the fabric and the wax adheres the paper to the fabric temporarily.