Sew Together bag

I started making this bag as a present over a month ago on my return from Berlin. I purchased the bee linen fabric in Berlin at Frau Tulpe. I've learnt a lot making this bag, including remembering to add interfacing where it tells you to. This would have made the interior pockets firmer. Buying the right sort of zip and also not cutting off the stopper, which resulted in me having to take out the long zip, which I had almost finished. Next time I would also sew the bottom binding to the exterior first rather than the interior.

 

And what I haven't shown you is the aqua Cotton & Steel on the inside of the zippered pockets.



I hope that the recipient of this make likes it.

Black and white Perkiomen

This is Jenny's quilt that I finished this week. My last customer quilt for 2014. I noticed a block was wrong after I quilted the first row, but Jenny took it away to rotate the block by 180 degrees. It looks much better for the alteration.

 

 

This was from a workshop with Carolyn Forster.

Mr Snowman

Having finished Lori Holt's Quilty Xmas sewalong on Instagram, I started some of the snowman blocks which are so cute. And I've made four blocks into a seasonal cushion. Having asked friends for suitable buttons, I decided to use some crystals to emulate coal.

 

And here's the cushion along with the Quilty Christmas quilt.

Unless I manage to sew a Christmas present today, this will be my last finish for 2014. I am taking away my knitted Christmas bunting and my London cross stitch on holiday. That's about all that's ready to pack. Eek. Leaving it late as usual.

Have yourself a quilty little Christmas - finished

And it's finished. I finished the binding at our guild morning meeting last week, just in time to enter it into our annual challenge that lunchtime. And I won. What did I win? A lovely Clover combined cutting, pressing and tracing mat.

 

My bows didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, so I added three buttons to the centres and I was happy. These buttons are definitely vintage as they came from Esther's Mum's button tin which Esther gave me a few years ago. There were three perfect red buttons still stitched to the card they were bought on.

 

 

And the lovely Riley Blake backing. You can't beat a good dotty fabric. The binding was from my stash. I assume I bought it from Pink Castle, but I have no recollection of buying it. Oops.

 

I have about half a yard left of the spot which I hope is enough to back and bind my snowman cushion. My plan is to prepare it ready to stitch on Wednesday morning again at our Guild meeting. I plan to get at least two rows of stitching done on my last client quilt. Progress has been delayed as I decided to pick out a whole row. An hour to stitch a row and more than a few hours to unpick it. I should only manage two rows as I have two hospital appointments (one this morning and of course, one this afternoon), I'm helping to get a hall ready for a party this evening and the party this evening.

Siblings Together - December

Fortunately, I only had one bee commitment for December. Having sewn my binding on my Xmas Quilty Fun project at my Wednesday morning group, I cut and pinned these blocks ready to sew.  We're making 4 patch snowball blocks measuring 16.5" unfinished. It's the snowball block from Hannah's Christmas quilt pattern in Fat Quarterly this month but we're skipping the stars and the blocks will be sewn together to make a big simple snowball quilt. Limited colour palette please of aquas, greens and blues.

 

 

Here's my block - a combination of Carolyn Friedlander, Bonnie & Camille and Grunge from Basic Grey.

 

And here is my block alongside Jane's block and they will both be posted to Hannah this week. If I don't get to the Post Office before Saturday, I can post from the airport.

Have yourself a quilty little Christmas - binding buttons and bows

I have made good progress on my little Christmas sewalong quilt. I have gone from the thirteen completed blocks to

 

All of the blocks put together, borders added and quilted.  On a couple of blocks I had not added the right size borders or missed borders, so there was a little remedial work before I could sew the blocks together. I had hoped to put the quilt top together yesterday at our Guild UFO day, but as I hadn't taken any background fabric, I only finished piecing the borders. The borders are simpler than Lori's but I managed to sue up most of three mini charm packs as they were the correct size (2.5"). I combined stash, Simply Colour, Joy and Daysail.

 

I was particularly pleased that the 3D tab on the stocking wasn't in the way of the quilting - a complete fluke. I now just have to add the buttons, bows and binding. Though I may have to ask friends for mini buttons for the tummy of the gingerbread man. I know I have some red ones, but I think they'd look better if they were multi-coloured.

 

I was hoping to get a client's quilt substantially finished today, but I spotted a block that was wrongly orientated, so have let the client know so she can undo it if she wants and turn the block 180 degrees.

As I failed to complete my November goal of finishing my Wishes quilt, I think completing this will be my December goal.