Cross stitch progress for February 2017

Having had four pieces framed during February, it was time to move onto the Once Upon a Yime sampler by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  The February block looked almost complete but there were lots of details to add. I finished the February block today and will spend the rest of the afternoon working on the September block.

I also finished the frame around the whole piece in February. I had visions of getting around the piece and being a half a stitch put, but it worked out perfectly. 

March is already complete so I will work on either April or December and perhaps stitch all the names of the months too. Thinking about it, perhaps December would be the better choice. Off to workon September   now.

Wonderland Bag

As a treat, after finishing my Dear Jane quilt, I took a break and made myself a project bag. I used :

Sotak Handmade's Lola pouch pattern

Wonderland charm pack by Katarina Roccella

Sparkly Essex dyed linen

Corduroy bias binding from Beyond Measure

I love the corduroy binding which I hand sewed to the front.

Cross stitch progress

I have just collected four cross stitch pieces from the framer, so I have mostly Christmas pieces to finish now. I need to also finish the February block of the Once Upon a Time sampler, also by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

Merry & Bright a 2016 pattern which I made a lot of progress on during our cruise in November.

The Woodland Sampler, a much older pattern.

The Autumn sampler which has no glass on as I will enter it in our local Eisteddfod next month.

The Spring Sampler to finish the four seasons of samplers. Now I need to work on the February Once Upon a Time block and finish the border too.

Sewcial Bee Sampler

As you know I love a good sew along. I resisted thus one for several weeks, but two weeks ago I caved and sewed up the first three blocks.

I am starting in the top left with pink as you can see. Then I am moving onto red and pink.

Then onto red. I am loving my text fabrics.

And then onto red orange. No text fabric but I also love the Carolyn Friedlander screen in orange.

Then orange and I chose my border fabric for each block but I am missing a few colours.

This week it's another red and pink block.

And I am up to date with the blocks but need more of the colours of mini pearl bracelets.

Dear Jane finish after 17 years

It's finished. I hand sewed the binding down on Sunday having taken it to Jersey Modern Quilt Guild on Saturday. As I was getting ready on Saturday to go to our meeting and found the missing corner. Damn. Too late, never mind. That will teach me that I need to be tidier.

I used a swirly pantograph in with thread top and bottom. I took it off the machine early on Saturday morning and quickly did a rough trim of the excess backing and wadding. On Sunday I trimmed the quilt, machine stitched on the binding to the front and hand stitched 240 inches of binding to the back.

I am pleased with how it looks and will celebrate by stitching up a project bag for myself.

February knitting

This month I decided to work on one pair of socks and the Snowmelt shawl by Helen Stewart.

I finished the socks quickly, which I knit two at a time. They have a small mock cable up the side of each sock. The wool is by Vickevira.

The Snowmelt shawl is a mystery knit along and I chose three turquoise / grey yarns from Life in the Long a Grass, The Knitting Goddess and Kate Selene.

There are five clues spread over five weeks. So far three clues have been released and I gave kept up so far. I find with knit alongside and sew alongside, that if I don't keep up, the projects get shelved. I need to insert a lifeline before starting clue four on Thursday.

I also need to block my January shawl now that I have finished all of my Eisteddfod entries.

Progress on my oldest WIP

According to one of the blocks in my Dear Jane quilt, this UFO dates back to October 200. I guess I should be relieved that it is from this millennium and not the 1990s.

I applied the last border at the last Jersey modern quilt guild meeting and realised that I was missing one corner block. Oops. All of the blocks in this quilt are made from Christmas fabrics. In particular the corners are made with a gold fabric. Of course I had destashed all my gold fabrics and the Dear Jane book was sold long ago. Time for some procrastination. I searched for images of the quilt on the Internet and enlarged a photo of the corner block but I still need to make. This required two stars in the star bloke with a border and when I came to sewthe block I decided to simplify the block and remove one of the stalls. Fortunately a friend had the perfect fabric for the block.

The quilt has now been quilted with a large all over pantograph and is ready to be trimmed and the binding applied. I am entering this quilt into the eisteddfod so I need to complete it this month. I have various projects that I'm working on but I need to focus on just one project at a time. Not my usual modus operandi.

The Eisteddfod is in March and entries need to be handed in on 4 March so I have just two weeks to get this finished. Wish me luck.