Retreat quilt

I attended the Thread House retreat exactly a year ago. I decided I wanted to put the pieces that I had made in classes together as a retreat QUI LT. I noticed that this year the class samples are being used to make a medallion quilt but I have not gone to the retreat this year.

The blocks from top left to bottom right are as follows:

Appliqué tree was a class with Lynne Goldsworthy

The Just Sew Sue block block is my own design

The improv self-portrait was a class with Jo Avery

On The bottom row the foundation pieced star was a class with Lynne Goldsworthy again

The curved block was from a block of the month in which both Lynne and Karen were designers. So I thought that using up this block along with the final block in the quilt worked well as both Lynne and Karen are owners of the thread house retreat along with Jo.

Finally the appliqué vase of flowers was a class with Jo Avery. I added a button to the centre of several flowers as I was too lazy to appliqué small circles.

I then free machine quoted fee quote on my long arm "machine. And found it in the same fabric as I had used on the reverse of the quote.

This is another UFO finally shed and was my number 12 for the APQ 2018 challenge.

Celebration sampler progress

I have finished my #12 UFO for the January APQS challenge so I have retrieved my Christmas celebration sampler again. I am working on it this morning and have three blocks out of nine to complete. 

One side of the border is still to be stitched too. As you may be able to see from the picture, I am about to run out of the Weeks Dye Works thread in Snowflake. I have just realised that I ordered another skein this morning in icicle and not snowflake. Damn, I hope they see my email when they open again on Monday.

Sterntaler socks

They are finished and need blocking before being entered in our local Eisteddfod in March. I am now waiting for the first pattern of the Curious Handmade sock club to be released on 5 February. I hope some yarn hints come before we go on holiday.

Morning Joe II

This quilt may look familiar. The original which I made three years ago has been for sale in a local high end store for about two years. A member of staff purchased it and wanted a matching sister quilt. It's not a match but it is also from a Bonnie & Camille charm pack,

I was also able to use the same quilting pattern and the quilt will be delivered next week.

Sterntaler socks

When I got my socks out that I had knitted in 2017 for Voolenvine yarns' knitalong to knit 12 pairs of socks in a year, I was very disappointed that I had only knit 11 pairs of socks. Other than the cowl by Curious Handmade I didn't knit much in December. So I have chosen yarn  from Devon Sun yarns and the sterntaler socks by soprano knits which is a free pattern on rivalry and I am ready to go.

I have already got as far as the heel turn. Hopefully I can finish this before the end of the month to participate in the grocery girls' sockalong.

I have signed up for curious handmade's monthly sock pattern so come February I won't have to choose a pattern. I will be away from early February so I hope that the pattern is released early in the month or there is an indication of what yarn will suit the pattern so I can cake up some yarn to pack for my holiday.

Tidying up wadding

I am surprised with myself, but I have managed to keep my sewing table clear this week. It isn't that I haven't been sewing, but having a clear desk every morning means that I have been tidying up every evening. 

I'm putting my works in progress in the top of my IKEA cart.

As wadding is bulky, I thought that tidying that element this week would have the greatest impact on my mess. My roll of wadding is kept permanently in the same room as my long arm and usually my bag of wadding scraps is kept in the 

same room.

I store my scraps in a zippered bag in which new bedding is sold. Small scraps get passed to a friend for stuffing, bigger scraps I use to clean the rails of my machine and large scraps are then easily found for bags or small quilts.

All I had to do was unpick some quilting on scraps to liberate the wadding from the backing and the backing has been added to the pile of fabric to be sorted. I think my IKEA cart needs tidying next.

Christmas Celebration Sampler - January

I planned to finish one extra segment of the sampler in January. I have now completed block T as it had a small section of border.

That brings the number of blocks completed song with their borders to three. Though blocks R and A are almost complete too. I will now work on some other UFOs and put thus project away until February when I plan to complete another block. However we are away for two weeks in February so I may take this prject with me and get a more substantial amount complete. It would be great to finish the fancy border but I imagine that will be almost the last thing finshed on this project.

Stitched sewing organisers

I am valiantly trying to get all of the projects from Aneela Hoey's book completed for the sewalong so I can return to only participating in two sewalongs at any one time. Yesterday I completed the book and tool Folio. This project is due to be completed by 11 February when we will be in the Caribbean. I hope to be able to post the photograph to Instagram during that week as I am sure there'll be free Wi-Fi somewhere during our trip. I think I only now have the covered tape measure to complete to finish this sewalong.

I have enjoyed using my stash of Alison Glass fabrics and although the turquoise zips don't match the chosen fabrics, I like the pop of floor they give.

Next I need to bind a couple of quilts.

Planning for 2018

I was lucky enough to win a copy of the 2018 Quilter's Planner and one of my big plans for 2018 is to tidy my work room. I am going to do it step by step. I am destashing as I come across items that I nolonger  want in my life. Perhaps they were gifts, prizes or rash purchases. I also have a lot of scrapbooking tools that I need to review.

My first task this month was to clear my desk so I am just left with my most used tools. Next I am going tidy my Ikea cart to house my current WIPs in the top and I am not sure what else. I also want to tidy my cutting station and wadding too.

I need to unpick wadding from quilt backing which is an easy and portable project to take to my Wednesday morning quilt group or when I have a spare ten minutes.

Christmas celebration sampler

Having scrapped my first attempt at this pattern in 2017, although my crafting Mojo seemed to leave me in December, I had this sampler permanently by my side. I have made a decent amount of progress, however the amount of white in the border does intimidate me. I have now completed the inner border and all of the letters. Once I have finished the block T, I will put it away and attempt to complete one block per month. Otherwise I will work on the UFO selected by the American patchwork and quilting magazine UFO challenge.

I have already completed two out of the nine blocks including the border adjacent to the block. I find that when I cross stitch with white thread that I am not completely satisfied with the look I achieve so any white sections are always the last to be completed. I am sure that I will get this one finished by Christmas 2018. I still have another Christmas Crosstitch UFO to complete in addition to this one.

2018 plans

I won a copy of the fabulous Quilter's Planner in a #missingmarket giveaway on Instagram. I have set my goals for the year and almost immediately realised one of my goals would be a challenge - to only participate in two sewalongs at a time. Oops, I am already participating in two and the QP BOM starts this month. My plan is to try and complete all of my Sew Stitched projects over the next two weeks. Here is my completed 2 in 1 pouch for next week as it looked easier than this week's project!

And the inside.

Today I need to start the triple pouch.