Round peg square hole cushion

I have finished the class project from the Krista Hennebury class I attended ten days ago with Oxfordshire Modern Quilt Guild. Having decided on the binding fabric, I was able to also pull out the piece that was in my scrap bags which had been pressed a few days earlier. I had just enough fabric for the binding which I cut at 3.25" wide so I could machine stitch the binding.

This is ready to join my Christmas cross stitch for next year's Eisteddfod.

I used snaps to finish the back, but prefer the Kam snaps to these Prym snaps.

Three weeks into #100daysofufosewing

I havehad to pack my Pretty Little London cross stitch four our trip later his week to France otherwise I would have finished it before our trip. Three weeks ago I had barely done a quarter of this pattern, but by stitching for at least 30 minutes a day, in three weeks I gave progressed to three quarters complete.

We are away for four days so I hope to finish at least Buckingham Palace and St Paul's Cathedral. The end is in sight.

Even though we are taking the car, I am still packing light with my small suitcase and this project in a plastic bag.

JMQG inspiration

Here are all of our Jersey MQG entries for the Jersey Eisteddfod needlework section including the group trophy that we won for the second time. It is inspiring to see the work done by members over the previous year displayed in one place. Though pulling together the display by myself almost killed me.

The room was very hot yesterday and three of us sat chatting about scrap management. Sue had taken my system of zip lick bags for each colour a step further and pressed the scraps at one of our meetings. Gisele decided to do the same yesterday evening and payed the results on Instagram.

This morning I did the same whilst starting a new bag for linen scraps and Sweetwater HSTs which I am sure could be made into a quilt. Once pressed the scraps take about a third of the room than before pressing. I need to take this system further and add your Bonnie and Camille scraps which occupy one basket with only a small amount of FQs and yardage.

Pretty little London progress

Today is my first day in London and I am meeting up with friends to go to some craft shops and lunch, before heading to Gatwick airport to go home. I brought along my #100DayProject to work on as it is very portable. I am pleased with the progress I have made in two weeks on this project and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I may even finish this one this month.

Each day I have worked on one element of the picture. Yesterday I finished the clouds and the Sun and progress to working on St Paul's Cathedral in the bottom right hand corner. I have only realised recently that the building in the left-hand corner must be Buckingham Palace.

#100days week 1 check in

It feels like I have abandoned all other projects to work on my Pretty Little London cross stitch this week. 

I finished the tower of the bridge of the left side as well as the Shard and Gherkin. I love the look of the Gherkin building as it has been represented in the pattern.

I tentatively completed the blue border under the tower to see if both sides would meet. Hooray, success. I feel the project is half complete though there are big portions on the left and bottom still to be completed.

And yesterday I completed the second tower along with a customer quilt. A big customer quilt.

Today I need to prep for two workshops I am attending in the UK as well as finish the blue supports to the bridge. I am also focussing on finishing customer quilts so that I can work on my own projects over the next three months. The first project requiring attention is my lion which needs to be quilted.

Sweet tea and green beans

I finished my Bumbling Honeys quilt bee homage to sweet tea and green beans. Hooray.

I long armed quilted some areas using rulers and free motion and then in my their areas I hand quilted circles and cross hatching.

I like the variety of low volume backgrounds that my bee friends used.

#100days

I have recently become aware of the #100days and it got me thinking. I have several UFOs that need a lot of work on them and if I worked on them for 30 minutes a day for 100 days, I should make significant inroads into them. That should also mean that when it is chosen as my UFO to complete for the APQS challenge, I might actually finish them.

My biggest UFO is the Sedona star BOM which has a lot of appliqué to complete. Fortunately this UFO has been kept in one drawer for several years so is at hand and I have kept the thread in one box with a note of the settings for the blanket stitch on my Bernina. I will at some point have to work out how to resolve that I used the wrong fabric for one of the colours so I need to find a suitable replacement  / substitute.

I am away a few times in April so have chosen my Pretty Little London cross stitch to work on too. I have already worked on this for the first few days of the challenge and I can see progress. However with 21 colours in the pattern, I am not being systematic in my stitching. I want to work the first big tower as well as finish the left hand side. I may be more successful though if I worked bottom up. Working just one colour at a time is too boring. A plan needs to be formulated.

Q2 finish along

In some ways my list is getting shorter but I have just added two retreat projects from last weekend's Jersey Modern Quilt Guild rainbow retreat and I am taking two classes with poppyprint in April. Let's see what's still on the to do list.

1. Jan Krentz star from 2010

2. TQS BOM Sedona Star from Jan 2012

3. Lion from 2017, I plan to complete this project in April and I first need to stay stitch the edges, remove the papers and give it a good press before loading it on my long arm.

4. Tula Pink butterfly from October 2017. I need to move a few blocks and then quilt it.

5. Christmas on Gingerbread Lane

6. It's a small world from 2016 2/3 pieced

7. Pretty London

8. Hugs cushion

And I have added:

9. Five impossible things

10. Slalom pouch

I also need to make a jet set sewing station for a retreat gift which is number 11. I have the pattern printed out and a friend has the fabrics I need. First I plan to quilt a piece of the fabric from which I can cut my panels, then I will buy ready made bias binding, I think and prep the project for our Jersey MQG April meeting.

April plans

I am not sure what happened to February and March, but here we are at the beginning of April and the last day of the Easter holiday weekend. Our daughter comes back from university for ten days today, so I am sure we will be busy with appointments.

I almost finished this cross stitch on our Caribbean cruise at the beginning of February and it has sat impatiently waiting to be finished. I completed it on Saturday and immediately pressed it and took it to the framers.

I then sorted out my floss for my last two cross stitch UFOs. I have just one skein to purchase. I then sorted out my drawer of cross stitch equipment and sold the extras on Facebook. That felt good. I am going to work on the pattern called Pretty Little London next.