Tuesday, July 31, 2012

August UFO

Judy has picked project 7 out of the bag for August and it should be achievable even with being away for two weeks as it's pieced and part quilted on my Bernina. Project 7 is Modern V meets Thimbleberries scraps.



I have made significant progress on my July project which is almost finished being quilted, then needs to be trimmed and bound. Should be mostly finished by Friday with picture to follow.

Monday, July 30, 2012

A lovely bundle from the postman this morning:

A England nail polishes from their recent sale. Which one shall I try first?
Fabric postcard for my birthday in my favourite sweet water fabrics
From OPAM Peg, a prize for participating in May - a lovely mini quilt and a pre printed stitchery panel and a bag pattern. I may pack the stitchery to take with me on holiday.





Location:Red letter day

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

WIP Wednesday

Matthew has been away since last Saturday so the house is much quieter. It was an early start as he had to be at the airport for 6 am. I have got back to my long arm quilting and finished quilting Cynthia's building blocks quilt. Next up is Val's pair of appliquéd quilts.


New Projects:
The fabric arrived from the FQR Kinky bee Miss July - Linda. It's a Denise Schmidt selection. I've never seen this range before as it's mainly been available from Joann's, a US Store. Linda asked for two 12.5" freestyle square in a square blocks. Initially Linda thought she might like  a bit of wonk in the blocks, but she changed her mind. I finished both blocks and they are ready to be posted along with the August fabric as I am Miss August.

Finished projects
I finished Linda's bee blocks






I also sewed down the binding on my July Schnibble - Reveille from "another bite of Schnibbles". The backing is some hand dyed fabric found in my pile and the navy binding is left over from the backing of last month's Schnibble.

Fabric is Reunion by Sweetwater for Moda


Ongoing Projects:
I have also been working on my Farmer's Wife Quilt - I finished three blocks. Just 10 to do to complete all 111 blocks and I have now completed over 100 of the blocks. The end is in sight but progress is slower.

110 wood lily

62 Peace & Plenty

76 sawtooth


Back-Burner:
Hopscotch
Christmas stars
Hope Love and Friendship by Rosalie Quinlan
Hexy MF
Rainbow stars

This week's stats:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 2
Currently in progress - 6

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Finally a winner

It's taken me six weeks to pick a winner from four entries, so don't expect me to work out how to post a picture of the random.org number picker too. So the winner is Liz Dandelion. I'll send you an e-mail Liz and get your book in the post.


Monday, July 23, 2012

Nails - a new obsession

I recently came across a British nail blog - Nailasaurus on Kristina Werner's Blog. What I like about nailasaurus is that she uses products available on the Uk High Street - of course many are not available in Jersey as we don't have Superdrug, H&M etc. However whilst in town on Saturday we spotted a salon that stocks OPI near to Bean around the Wolrd.

I digress, through Nailasaurus' British Blog list, I came across Cutetickle Nails. There is a fabulous giveaway on the blog for some lovely goodies. As a newbie to nail art, I don't recognise all of the brands so I would love to win and try them out. Looking at the list of prizes and the following photo from the blog, I realise that all of the items pictured are in the prize. I like the look of the Boho set.




I may have ordered a few polishes this week from QVC who had a Nails Inc TSV, A England who had 50% off and Ebay - to get the Technic Carnival. I blame Nic for sharing a photo of the carnival glitter polish on Facebook.


Seal on the right

Dolphins
And what do the random photos of sea life have to do with nails? We went on a rib trip to the Ecrehos yesterday and I took the photos. On our way back the lady next to me asked me about my nails. I was so chuffed.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Farmer's Wife Friday


Three more blocks finished. 13 to go until I have completed all of the blocks. 2 to go until 100 are made.







Can I finish these before we go on our cruise? Perhaps not but I'll have a go sewing them alongside other ongoing projects.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

WIP Wednesday


A little progress since last week and a new project. One that I knew that was due to be started - my July Schnibble. However I was cutting early in the morning, not concentrating, and I made a mistake. Unfortunately that meant a little online shopping trip to buy a replacement charm pack and whilst there I bought some Kona white for signature blocks for the Kinky bee swap.

New Projects:
My July Schnibble which was own choice and I'm using Reunion by Sweetwater.




Ongoing Projects:
I have been working on several projects this week:
Farmer's Wife Quilt - I finished block 87 star gardener. Only 14 blocks left to make. The last few blocks have so many more pieces than the first blocks, funny that. And as I'm gettingg to the ends of my fabrics, my favourites have gone and I'm having to use up my not so favourites.
Hopscotch - bunnies ears have been trimmed and it needs to be pressed and basted on the long arm ready for some straight line quilting on my Bernina.
I have also packed my Rosalie Quinlan stitchery to play with whilst in Liverpool. I took it to my Wednesday group and realised I had no thimble and the part I was stitching should have been chain stitch and not back stitch so all I achieved was some unpicking and lots of chatting.

Back-Burner:
Christmas stars
Hope Love and Friendship by Rosalie Quinlan
Hexy MF

This week's stats:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 0
Currently in progress - 7

Saturday, July 14, 2012

FNSI progress

I worked on two of my projects last night.




One more block completed. Not completely happy with the scrappy fabric choice. I shouldn't have taken inspiration from the book. Two more blocks are printed and ready to choose some fabrics. Shall I slip in some Vintage Modern along with the Bliss and Ruby?



Just a white border and a pieced border to add to my July Schnibble made with Moda's Reunion. Saved by Tracey of http://www.quiltmhappy.co.uk/ when I cut some peices worngly and needed an extra charm pack.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Hexy MF Friday 2

As probably predicted by Jenny, I have finished my 25 hexagon flowers.





Lorraine has also finished hers. Also quickly as we expected.





So I will have to take at least one embroidery on holiday with me and to Wednesdays at the Mill. Next job is to finish unpicking my rainbow squares.

FNSI July 2012



Handmade by Heidi


I almost missed it this month as it's a week earlier than usual.What to work on. I could load a quilt on my long arm with Matthew's help. My back has been playing up and the stretch to the back bar is not good for someone as vertically challeged as me. Or I could sew the Farmer's Wife block I've prepared. I now have only 14 blocks to go until I've finished all 111 blocks. If my replacement Reunion charm pack arrived, I could possibly finish piecing my July Schnibble.

Decisions decisions.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Wordless Wednesday - vintage modern


WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

I have too many projects on the go to list and be accountable for so I thought I would report progress on the projects I'm currently working on and that are on my quarterly commitment list. That should focus me better on what needs doing first.

New Projects:
None this week but there will be at least one next week.


Ongoing Projects:
I have been working on several projects this week:
Farmer's Wife Quilt - I finished block 47 Homemaker which has been part done for months and in the end only took 20 minutes to complete by hand. Only 15  blocks left to make. So near and yet so far.


Hexy MF - I finished my 25 blocks and they're now with Lorraine's 24 and will hopefully be arranged ready for the sewing together of rows whilst I'm on holiday in August.

Hopscotch - top finished and needs a second pressing having trimmed lots of bunnies ears


Rainbow squares - unpicked and ready to load on the long arm


Back-Burner:
Christmas stars
Hope Love and Friendship by Rosalie Quinlan

This week's stats:

New projects - 0

Completed projects - 0

Currently in progress - 6



 

Friday, July 06, 2012

Hexy MF Friday

It sounded like a good idea to post my progress every Friday as the progress on the Farmer's wife quilt has slowed down, but at this rate the hexagons will all soon be finished. This week I have completed fifteen out of twenty five hexagons. We met yesterday to compare hexagons and they are going to look great together.




I particularly love the fussy cut guards and London cab.

Thursday, July 05, 2012

2012 finish along third quarter

Despite finishing lots of projects over the last three months and in particular June, only my Swoon quilt was on my list for the second quarter. Many of the projects from last quarter will appear again along with the Schnibbles for the next three months.

2012 Finish-A-Long



1. July Schnibble - July is your own choice so I have ordered the two Schnibble books to see what in the books inspires me otherwise it'll be Paganini. I have a number of double charm packs in stock to use for this purpose.
2. August Schnibble
3. September Schnibble
4. Hope Love and Friendship by Rosalie Quinlan as I'm taking this on holiday with me in August.



5. Hopscotch Quilt a long which needs the blocks to be sewn together. I have four rows sewn together so far.



6. Christmas stars for which I still need to make some spacer blocks. The spacer blocks have been designed and some have been sewn together.


7. Almost forgot rainbow squares which is project 12 selected by Judy to be finished this month.

As well as these I will be working on my Hexy MF with Lorraine and Jenny (nine out of 24 flowers done so far) and my Kinky Bee blocks.

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Christopher Robin would love these

I was going to wait until Friday to share my hexagon progress, but I love the fussy cut guards so I thought I would share today. I love the stripe that surrounds the guard and the secondary pattern it makes around the central cream hexagon.




Lorraine has her hexagons ready to take on holiday with her. I admire her ability to resist temptation and starting sewing them together. My holiday isn't until August so I will probably have finished these before then and I will take some stitcheries away with me instead.

Now I must start doing some freehand machine quilting on my TQS 2010 BOM after getting ready for the day. This afternoon there is an impromptu Big Band performance at Rozel harbour on a concrete bunker on the small pier. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. However the nearby Hungry Man cafe serves lovely bacon rolls for after the performance.