Sunday, August 30, 2015

Sunday stash - modern minis

Molli Sparkles
 
As you know, I have been piecing the blocks from Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage book. Justine of Simply Solids posted a photo of some of the fabric panels on Instagram and free post too. I was quick to reply and I paid the invoice the following day and the fabric was with me by the following morning.

 
I love a good text print and the typewriters are so cute. I have cut apart the four fat quarters in each panel and they have been put away as part of my plan to clean up my craft room. So far the table is tidy.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Tula Pink project bag




I haven't done much sewing this month so to get back into the swing of things, I decided to do a quick project. 

I cut into the Elizabeth Selfie by Tula Pink and paired it with some Essex linen from I want her stash. Add some Kam press stubs bought from Amazon and it was finished. There are some changes I would make when I make a blue version, but overall it was a success.


I also made a DPN cover in the leftover fabric. I added iron on interfacing to both projects to give them some extra body.


Ready to add my new 3S shawl started at the Fig Tree yarns knitting group that I went to on Friday for the second time.


Don't these stitch markers match the project bag beautifully.

Friday, August 28, 2015

Farm girl Friday week 28 strawberry and maple leaf



Wow, where have the weeks gone, only ten more blocks to go and I have made none of them. august continues to be busy and September looks much the same with two trips planned.
 
The first block this week is a scrappy maple leaf with fabrics straight out of my scrap bag. I'm not sure about the Cotton & Steel arrows but as the quilt will have 100s of different fabrics I'm hoping it won't stand out too much. This is a six inch block. There's only one more block I want to make in the six inch size so I may have to make some more canning blocks to fill spaces.
 
 
And another scrappy block - this time a giant strawberry. It looks little unripe. Having used so many fabrics from my scrap bags, how come they aren't looking any less full?
 
 
And another group photo. It's amazing how many different fabrics can look good together linked by the white and low volume backgrounds.
 



Thursday, August 27, 2015

Beachside quilt

 
 
Doesn't this pretty quilt remind you of all the good things about living by the sea. I have been on an Angela Walters course recently at The Cotton Patch in Birmingham. I was planning to put the classes into practise, but Anne wanted a quilt for a gift quilted and slipped this one in the bag too. So I was very bold and have tried out two of Angela's designs on this quilt.


I did have issues with thread snapping, but thanks to lots of hand holding from the Longarm learning FB group, I got is sussed for the larger quilt. Here you can see the back and forth lines that I thought looked like either the sea or wind. I also did a square design in the borders and sashing and treated the yellow and green outer borders as one.
 

Friday, August 21, 2015

Farm girl Friday week 17 pinwheel and postage



 
I must start sewing some more blocks as these were sewn several weeks ago and August has been full of short trips. Again I made a six inch and a twelve inch block this week.
 
First the six inch postage stamp block which is from my scrap bags and is a little bit not square. However once it's in the quilt, I hope it looks better.
 
 
I'm loving this block with it's cheery colours, full of dots in every fabric. The turquoise is from the last I Want Her Stash bundle that I received.
 
 
And here's a colourful group shot.
 


Monday, August 17, 2015

Siblings Together August blocks

Nice simple disappearing nine patch using 7 inch squares for Mary. Finished just in time to post at the airport on Saturday.


Saturday, August 15, 2015

Sunday stash - I knit London edition

Molli Sparkles

Lizzie and I were in London for two days last week to enable her to go to GOSH for an injection. Whilst we were there we did a spot of shopping and also went to see the play 1984. Very disturbing and not recommended for young children. we also tried for tickets for Hamlet but weren't prepared to queue all day.
 
 
We shopped at Westfield Stratford where we also had lunch at Wagamama. There I bought some disposable piping bags from Lakeland - what a spend thrift I am. Even Lizzie was restrained. Lizzie was ahead of me in developing a sinus infection and I blame that for my errors of our trip - losing my boarding card and taking a wrong turning to get to the theatre.
 
Any how, I had researched the locations of all the stops on the London Yarn walk in September and found I Knit London near Waterloo. So off we toddled. With directions from the shops owner we were soon there. I was like a woman possessed. I bought two balls of mass produced sock wool - Regia stripe mania in colour 06371. I want to try out a recipe for Vanilla bean striped socks by Emily O'Grady so this wool will be caked up ready to put in my suitcase for my trip to Birmingham in a couple of hours. That's if I can buy some smaller needles at John Lewis as my order hasn't yet come. Whilst packing this morning, I've realised that not only did I leave my row counter on the plane ten days ago but also my tin of stitch markers. Double damn.
 
The other ball is Austermann self patterning wool in colour 257 with no plan.
 
 
The next three beauties were dyed by the shop owner. I've just realised there are no names on the wools and they are all on a  Ziggy Stardust base which is 75% superwash merino, 20% nylon and 5% stellina. From the website the middle colourway is moonage daydream.
 
Time to go and finish packing. I only have hand luggage for five days so I need to choose what to pack very carefully.

Friday, August 14, 2015

Farm Girl Friday week 16 peas and carrots and pie cherries






I'm keeping up with these blocks and this week I have made one six inch and one twelve inch block. First is the 12 inch block called peas and carrots. I've kept to the them with my colour choice using mini pearl bracelets and some Carolyn Friedlander.

 
 
For the six inch pie cherries block I used another piece of the Carolyn Friedlander green with some hexagon low volume for the background and then raided my scrap bags for everything else.
 
 
And here the two blocks are in a group shot. I'm loving how they're coming together.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Hap Bee birthday



 
I had hoped to see the recipient of this needle case last week, but our paths crossed over the English Channel. I thought I'd share it today before I forgot to take a photo.
 
The pattern is by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and is called bee keeper. I used the bee linen which I bought at Frau Tulpe in Berlin. The spotted binding is a premade binding.
 


On the inside I picked out the bright green from the linen and the brown of the bee hive for the felt.

Saturday, August 08, 2015

ALYOF August 2015

 
Well July was a bust, I can't even remember what my plan was, but not much got done. This month I plan to quilt my Moda Building Blocks quilt once I have finished a customer quilt which arrives tomorrow. There are lots of new Prostitcher block patterns in the recent update so I plan to try some of those out.
 
This isn't the best of photos, but it does illustrate a good use of some temporary scaffolding that my DH has erected. This is a big quilt and I plan to ditch around each block and then work on the blocks one at a time. The biggest blocks might have feathers in the setting triangles and then ruler work elsewhere.

Friday, August 07, 2015

Farm Girl friday - Out to Pasture and Patchwork Pumpkin


And I'm still keeping up on week 15. Wish I could say the same about the My Small World sewalong.
 
 
And first we have Out to Pasture in 6" from my scrap bag - I see some vintage Sweetwater and Summerville.
 
 
I don't have many oranges in my orange scrap bag so I had to chop into some FQs. Lots of favourites here including pearl bracelets, Zen Chic and Carolyn Friedlander.


And here is how the blocks might look together with Old Glory from last week.