This and That - Brit Link Thursday

 

Since the mammoth amount of sewing I did on Sunday at our Guild UFO day, I seem to have lost my mojo - along with my Oyster card, UK data sim card for my ipad and worse still my glasses. Surprisingly I ordered a replacement Oyster card (thank goodness I registered it) and it arrived in less than 24 hours. I won't need it until July but I thought it best to replace it now.

 



 

Over the last few days, I have been quilting a customer quilt ready for delivery to Guernsey on Tuesday. We bagged ourselves a cheap day trip so I can deliver the quilt in person as well as cache around the town and meet Terry and Sandy for lunch. No pressure but this quilt has been entered into the Festival of Quilts. I believe our group Farmer's Wife quilt is also being entered. Eek.

 

I have also started catching up on my Once Upon a Time cross stitch as June will be released on Sunday. I'm hoping to get Jack completed today as I'm then away for the next three days.

 

What have you been working on this week? 

An InLinkz Link-up

Peacock jelly roll quilt

A customer is making a quilt for every grandchild. The recipient of this quilt arrives from Belgium on Wednesday, so it jumped to the front of the queue. It's a lovely jelly roll that I haven't seen before.

 

 

I love the bright burnt orange backing and you can really see the Peacock pantograph clearly. It's definitely my new favourite.

Successful weekend

Yesterday I posted that I wanted to work on the following at our group UFO day today:

• Aviatrix border 3
• Wishes block 9 Dove in Window
• Wishes block 7 Court house Lawn
• Wishes Bear Paw
• Wishes Country Road
• ST 1 Rocky mountain puzzle block
• Aviatrix Border 4 - sew the strips together
• Mani pouch

 

I completed all of the items either yesterday or today. The customer quilt was finished yesterday, trimmed and ready for collection and the second quilt is loaded ready to start on Tuesday. Both Jane and I worked on our Siblings Together blocks today so that they can be posted to Jojo on Tuesday.

My blocks

Jane's blocks

 



Both lots together.

Tomorrow I think I'll work on the mani pouch and then the rest of the week on my Once Upon a Time cross stitch project which is looking woefully incomplete.

I have a plan

 

 

 

But I don't promise to keep to my plan. It is a horrible rainy day so perfect for some prepping and sewing. Firstly I will finish quilting this customer quilt, which will then need trimming, billing and photographing. I'll also load the next quilt which is for Leila in Guernsey.

 

 

I have made a list and checked it twice of items I want to progress at our UFO day tomorrow:

• Aviatrix border 3
• Wishes block 9 Dove in Window
• Wishes block 7 Court house Lawn
• Wishes Bear Paw
• Wishes Country Road
• ST 1 Rocky mountain puzzle block - I have divided this into  doing the inner square as that's a partial seam
• ST1 HSTs
• Aviatrix Border 4 - sew the strips together
• Mani pouch

The first six items are prepped and as I complete the prep of another block, I'll allow myself a bit of stitching time too. I find prep tedious which is why I'm doing it today

 

 

As I've cut each block, I have pinned step one and bagged the rest of the pieces with the instructions.

 

we are going to see Yolanda Brown - Jazz saxophonist perform at the Jersey Arts Centre tonight and plan to eat out before the performance, so no meal prep either.

Confession time - Brit Thursday linky

 

 

This confession will not come as a surprise to many of you, but I may have made more than five blocks for this quilt. When I was waiting for May to be published, I wondered if you changed the month number in the link for the pdf would you gain access to the next pdf. Turns out you do.

 



 

So as I'm piecing together my Aviatrix, I've also been sewing some Wishes blocks. I particularly like this star block for October. When I say some - I have three extras finished. September is almost finished and July has been started but not completely cut out. I should also confess that two of the blocks I wont' be making:

 

* August looks like strips but is made out of half square triangles, so I will make a different block

* December - I can't abide basket blocks on their side so I am going to make a bear's paw block - inspired by my friend Jane's recent makes.

 

 

 

I don't think I'll get much done today as I have a nutrition talk at the gym, followed ironically by afternoon tea this afternoon and a WI event - Dance with a difference this evening. Additionally a client picked up a quilt yesterday and left another the recipient for which arrives on Wednesday. It is loaded on the machine so I just need to make time to quilt it. I think I'll cut out the bear's paw and block seven - Court House Lawn whilst I supervise the machine. Then I can put away the blocks to complete at our UFO day on Sunday along with the binding of my social tote and putting on the third border of my Aviatrix quilt. I always pack too much for our UFO day and I don't think this one will be any different.

 

What have you been working on?

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Denyse Schmidt - social tote

This is starting to look seriously cute.



I couldn't resist starting to sew this before finishing the cutting out. Nothing much changes here!!

Spring flowers

This quilt was bigger than I expected and I had put it off as none of the seams had been pressed and I didn't fancy tackling it. Eventually I pulled out my bottle of Flatten and went to work. Forty minutes later and it looked much nicer and smelt divine!!  The quilt is hand pieced and you may be able to see that it still had a few wrinkles in places.

 

 

Can you see the wrinkles have now gone and I am so pleased with how the quilt looks. I hope my customer is too.

 

 

When I came to measure the quilt to prepare the bill, it was almost 80" square. My model told me she'd hold it up as she's taller than I am.

 

 

And the back looks pretty good too and is a civil war reproduction print.

 

 

 

I didn't find the time to cut out the pieces of my social tote yesterday as I forgot that I was playing canasta yesterday afternoon. That reminds me I'd better check Matthew's flight times for Friday as I may have to skip canasta (and cake). Phew he's coming back via Guernsey so he arrives back later than the direct flight usually arrives. That also means he doesn't miss any lessons. Only six weeks until he finishes all of his a levels and we go for the Annual General inspection which marks the end of the year.

 

So social tote cutting and mani pouch sewing are on the list for today along with taking the parents to the airport.

Aviatrix border 2

 

This my aviatrix medallion quilt after border 1.

 

 

And here it is with border 2. Border 2 is the only border to be pure colour, so it really draws the eye in. I plan to attach border 3 at our group UFO day on Sunday as well as work on a social tote. I plan to cut my pieces today ready for Sunday.

ST2 blocks so far

We are only half way through May but I have already received 10 blocks including my own. I love Thing 1 and 2 in particular.

Fat Quarter Shop BOM 2012

I used the packs for this Block of the Month which I bought on sale as the bee project for my month in the Bumbling Honeys Bee. I sewed on the binding during FNSI last night. I was determined to finish it and stayed up later than usual. This was my May project for A Lovely Year of Finishes Too.

 

I'm loving the interlocking feathers pantograph. The pink backing was something I bought when my LQS had  30% off in their 2012 sale and I bought the entire bolt.

 

 

 

The red fabric of the flying geese is what I used for binding. I didn't buy the finishing kit for this quilt as it was out of stock so I made do with what I had of the background fabric

 

 

Here it is beautiful and finished. :)

 

Linking to:

 

 

FNSI May 2014

 

Tonight it's Friday Night Sew In over at Sugarlane Quilts and I plan to stitch down some of the binding on my Bumbling Honeys bee quilt. I thought I'd ordered some fabric for the binding ten days ago and when I contacted the shop enquiring whether my order had been despatched, it turned out I hadn't submitted an order. Money saved as I found enough of a matching red to cut the binding on Wednesday.

 

 

Brit Thursday - bee blocks for Kate

Thank you to MW who told me that my Schnibble was made from California Girl by Fig Tree. Again I don't know whose fabric we've used for Kate's blocks, I'm guessing it might be Amy Butler? The colour reproduction is poor as the green like a Granny Smith apple. My blocks have now gone in the post so I think that's all of my commitments for May completed.

Yesterday was busy with quilting in the morning, where I just prepped blocks, bindings and sashings for various projects. The a quick dash home to pick up Lizzie for lunch with Mum & Dad at the Dolphin at Gorey. Shame they don't have windows onto the beach as it was a beautiful. The day finished with a long game of canasta. Today I have the gym planned first.

 

 

What have you been doing, please link up below:

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

May 2014 Schnibble - X rated

 

For our May Schnibble it was announced that we will be making the cover quilt, "X-Rated," from Carrie's book Schnibbles Times Two: Quilts from 5" or 10" Squares.  (This pattern is also available individually). Hooray I have that book. I dug in my stash and pulled out and unlabelled pair of charm packs. I thought these were by Fig tree but I can't see them on the Fig Tree website.

 

 This quilt definitely benefits from being laid out on a design wall as it is pieced in diagonal rows.

 

 

My daughter asked me to show her how to use the Pro stitcher on my Avante so she picked this quilting pattern called Peacock and stitched out two of the three rows including securing the sides of the quilt.

Aviatrix border 1

After the centre block, this was a nice and easy border of half square triangles. I dived into my grey scrap bag to select all grey prints that I had a large enough square of and then cut squares from the five greys used in the pattern to top up the numbers.

The next border is Japanese X and +s which I will start at our all day session tomorrow along with samples for Saturday's bag workshop.

Aviatrix centre block amended

Thank you to Pippa for pointing out two of my diamonds were the wrong way around. I appreciate the pointer as it would have annoyed me to spot my mistake once it was finished and quilted.

Liberation Day 2014

Today is the 69th anniversary of the liberation of the island from the occupied forces and our second public holiday of the month. This morning I took a break from quilting Jane's beautiful spring fresh quilt to go caching with the other Jane above Beauport. It was very windy but looking down at the bay, where dogs were playing in the water contrasts with 69 years ago when the beach would have been covered with barbed wire to prevent islanders escaping.

 

 

After a lovely lunch and cake at the Wayside in St Brelade's Bay I returned home to finish Jane's quilt. It is quilted with the peacock pantograph with Superior Thread in Reed.

 

It looks great on the back which is a green and cream stripe.

 

I love the little hearts Jane has appliqued and also the name of the recipient in the bottom border. Those rabbits are so cute. The whole quilt says Spring to me.

 

 

Tomorrow amongst other things, I will correct the placement of two diamonds in my aviatrix centre block. Thanks to Pippa for pointing it out. It would have annoyed me even more if someone had pointed it out when my quilt was finished. Now is perfect before I add more borders.

 

Brit Sewing Thursday linky - 8 May 2014

 

 

At the beginning of each month, I try and fulfil all of my commitments, especially if they need to be posted to the US. In the Stash Bee, everyone is in North America apart from Maria in Malta and myself.

 



 

For May, Heather has chosen a block by Wombat Quilts called Icky Thump. I thought Icky Thump was a northern expression but apparently it's a song title.

 

 

 

 

I chose to make two blocks for Heather and love the disco balls fabric in this block. In both blocks I've used one fabric for the dark feature colour and a variety for the lighter shades.

 



 

 

I think I need to hand sew the binding on my May Schnibble next. It's only 30" square so shouldn't take too long.

 

What have you been working on this week?

 

 



An InLinkz Link-up

Aviatrix centre block

 

 

This week is the first week of sewing for the Aviatrix sew along. The background fabric is Essex linen and it's the first time I've used it. I have used copious amounts of Best Press to give it more body as we were cutting triangles and I think I was successful. This is the hardest block in the medallion quilt so it should be easy sailing from now on.

Do you have miscellaneous rulers that you've bought over the years and rarely us? I have a small ruler for marking 45 degree angles which I bought at a Jan Krentz workshop. that quilt is still a UFO, but the ruler proved to be invaluable for putting together the centre block and there wasn't much unpicking either.

 

 

ALYOF May 2014

 

The end of the month came around quickly again and even though I finished my Hugs & Kisses quilt in April, I forgot to link up to the giveaway. Never mind, it's a project finished.  This month I will quilt and bind my FQS BOM 2012 which is pressed and ready to be quilted.

 

I have been dithering about backing. I didn't have enough white on white in stock, the Ikea red and pink spotted fabric, wasn't quite the right shade. I've now found a tone on tone pink rose fabric which will do very nicely.

Today I'm working on my Stash Bee blocks ready to post on Wednesday.