Freebie Friday - Durene Jones

I am not sure how I found Durene Jones' work but I fell in love with her Garden SAL pattern which was being released one section at a time once a week. Naturally I found it just as the stitch along was finishing so I have saved the pictures by right clicking on the photo in the free charts album on her Facebook page.

It is the perfect pattern to use up your stash and substitute for similar colours rather than having to go and buy the exact DMC shade. I have started working on this project every Saturday so I should soon see some progress.

WI Wednesday - Five Impossible things

This project was chosen as the MAY UFO to work on for Jersey Modern Quilt Group UFO challenge. The project was started at the group's retreat in 2018 with the designer Pappersaxsten. 

It started the month very creased and with stitching to unpick as I had a change of plan. It has been unpicked and pressed and loaded onto my long arm. I am not an experienced free motion quilter on my long arm so I am just working an hour a day on it. I should finish the cream section tomorrow and then my plan is to stitch in the ditch on my Bernina and then do organic curves along the length of each curved piece.

I will then need to focus to get it finished by the end of the month, so four days by my calculation. then I need to load a customer quilt to baste ready for handquilting, then I want to finish my #miniseriessal.

Monday make - kit supply tote

Shockingly I left the house last weekend to do something other than food shopping. The National Trust for Jersey have two wild flower meadows and now is the time to visit as they are home to the slipper orchids. It was lovely to stroll, admire the flowers and chat to friends whilst socially distancing.

Looking back at some of my April finishes and I don't appear to have shared the kit supply tote - pattern by Aneela Hoey

The outside fabric came from SewHot.co.uk and the lining was from Pink Door fabrics. I hadn't realised how much fabric the pockets took so there's only one pocket. I much prefer a zippered pocket, so I am happy with the result. It is a lovely sized bag which will be useful for travelling some time in the future.

In other news, Easyjet has just listed flights from / to Manchester starting 3 July, which is entirely speculative as there are no passenger ferries nor flights at the moment. A one way ticket was £21so I booked a seat for our daughter as she needs to come back for a missed hospital appointment but is being kept busy in Manchester with University exams which finished ten days ago. Lizzie is now working on assignments and has four to do spread over four Wednesdays so has three to go.

Freebie Friday - FPP offset flying geese

I am working slowly on finishing my #miniseriessal by the end of the month. I designed a Foundation Paper piecing pattern for a border as I am making a rectangular mini quilt for the top of a bedside cabinet. Several people asked for the pattern so I am sharing it here.

I have used Alison Glass fabrics from my scrap basket along with Oakshott fabrics in vintage silver. The patterns are by Guicy Guice for alisonglass.com

You can download the pattern from Google Drive here

Wednesday WIP - Bonnie and Camille stars

I have continued to tidy my sewing space for at least ten minutes a day and have moved onto sorting out my baskets of FQs and this week I am tackling the basket of Bonnie and Camille scraps. Firstly I sorted the scraps into colours and then I am pressing one bag of the scraps each day. It is lovely to look at your stash and remember earlier projects made. Some scraps have been segregated to send to a friend and some have been thrown out a too small to be useable.

 My sorting ha coincided with Bonnie and Camille unveiling the two quilt that they made with 3" blocks donated by quilters. A perfect use for my scraps. Initially I thought that I would make bigger blocks but soon realised that leftover jelly roll pieces, charm squares and the odd layer cake were perfect for the 12" block. I made a test block and have realised that some of my low volume backgrounds are a bit busy so I am going to add miscellaneous low volume scraps of which I have a whole basket! They have yet to be pressed.

During my tidying I found this Omnigrid project bag so have used it to keep this project together. It is intended to be a longer term project and my aim is to stitch one block per week using it as a leader and ender project. The finished blocks fit perfectly in the bottom of the bag covered by a mesh pocket into which I have slipped a design board with any completed 3" blocks.

 Then on top of this divider I have bags with cut 2" and 2.5" squares Half Square Triangles (HSTs) waiting to be trimmed and another bag with trimmed HSTs ready to be made into blocks.

I have two bag of scraps still left to be pressed but I already have room in that basket for most of my stash of Tula Pink fabrics. Progress is slow but satisfying.

Monday Make - Quilters Planner BOM v2

The blocks for this quilt are a quick make, when you have the fabric. Once I had more of the Kona peony, I soon had the quilt top made. Loaded on my long arm, I used a pattern by Anne Bright called CIRCUITS which I used on the original version of the BOM. It is a simple pattern which is quickly quilted and doesn't detract from the piecing. 

I am very grateful that Sew Hot is still dispatching orders at this difficult time as I hadn't planed to start this quilt until the end of the year but it is now finished. I used scrappy binding made from the leftover fabrics from this project and I am pleased with how it turned out.

freebie Friday - magazine sharing

I don't have any regular magazine subscriptions but my pile of unread magazine had mounted up. Once again I added to my Todoist list to read and pass on one magazine a week. My pile is now gone and I passed them onto a Jersey Modern member / customer and she was delighted.

Joe had lent me a magazine in January so I could foundation piece the puffin as a thank you gift for our next Jersey retreat in October. Once again, this WIP wasn't on my quarter 2 to do list but I did plan to work on it at last weekend's retreat. so I just needed to turn the panel into a cushion which took a morning, I am pleased with how it turned out. I had also recently sorted my basket of yellow, orange, red and pink Fat quarters and went looking for a fabric for the border of this piece. I was delighted to immediately find this print which picked out the orange in the puffin's beak and I had sufficient quantity to make the back of the cushion too.

Share magazines with friends and you might find a pattern in a magazine they pass to you. That's a freebie to me. And I used up deep stash, so that's also a win.

Work in Progress Wednesday - Tula Pink butterfly

You might be forgiven for not having seen this WIP before as I completed it during a sewalong in 2016 and then packed it away. This is my UFO #3 for our group UFO challenge and even though the number hasn't yet been chosen, I think it's a good idea to get ahead whilst I have all the time in the world.

I had made a mental note that I needed to swap some blocks around, however when I looked at it a few days ago, nothing was obvious other than two of the blue striped blocks had the stripes going horizontally and the other two vertically. I couldn't have that so I unpicked the blocks and sewed them with all of the stripes going vertically. 

On Monday I pressed and loaded the backing and then the wadding. I had forgotten how big this quilt is. Fortunately the pattern was in the bag with the top, backing and two spare blocks, so I referred to the pattern when cutting my wadding. I hope I didn't go off piste and make the quilt longer than the pattern. I love the Ex Libris fabric that I used for the top and bottom borders, but I hope it isn't my undoing!

The reason which this has languished so long is I wanted to custom quilt this quilt as the pattern is magnificent but I haven't yet developed my free motion quilting skills. I decided a couple of months ago that I would do an edge 2 edge design of curves and butterflies. Theoretically the quilting shouldn't take too long to finish. I haven't installed my new tablet yet on my long arm as I think that's better done when I have a small quilt to practise on. The next quandary is what binding to use?

Monday make - Quilters Planner BOM version 2

Last weekend we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of our Islands from German Occupation. This is a photo of my parents who were here for the liberation and now they are on shut down because of my mother's health. My father who is 92 is still managing to get in an early morning walk and we chat most days. Monday is when we shop and deliver their groceries but after a double bank holiday weekend, the shops were less well stocked, so my mother feels I should shop on a Tuesday instead!! I will try that next week, but will revert to Monday if there are bigger queues.

I was thrilled to help my WI group to distribute afternoon tea for two to all of our members. We dressed in patriotic colours and socially distanced. Everyone was thrilled with the delivery.

I should have been at a retreat last weekend and the organiser not only sent us goody bags but also set up a three hour Zoom session on both Saturday and Sunday with bingo and a raffle. On Saturday I bound 3/4 of this quilt and finished it in the evening. It was one of the projects I had planned to work on at the retreat. I finished a second project which I will share with you on Friday.

I used the same quilting pattern for this version of the Quilters Planner Block of the Month as my original version This is for my Wednesday morning quilt group challenge due in January 2021. So not on this quarter's to do list, but it's complete and I'm pleased.

I ordered the backing from Sew Hot and have enough left for a similar sized quilt. Measuring up my leftover backings is another job for my to do list!! This week I am not planning a project a day. I a going to progress my Alice in wonderland cross stitch, unpick my Five Impossible Things quilt and make a few extra blocks for my Hex on the Beach quilt.

Friday freebie - motivation

This choice may surprise you but with some of us all having more spare time than we might know what to do with, it is easy to let the days blend into one. PSA - today's Friday. My sewing room was a disaster zone a month ago and it is looking much better now, but I could still do better. My hubby is decorating the bedrooms and has almost completed three rooms and the hall so it looks like my sewing room could be next. 

Today many across Europe are celebrating VE day but tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of the Channel Islands and both of my parents lived here during the Occupation. Tomorrow I will be celebrating with WI friends as we are delivering a homemade afternoon tea to our 27 members. We are all looking forward to Michelle's delicious baking. 

Today's task is to clean a surface which I expect to be a quick task, better suited for tomorrow, so today I organised my basket containing the general green fabrics. Those who know me well know that I am not a lover of brown and green fabric, so they, like me, are going to be surprised at how much green fabric I have. I need to increase my purchases of red and purple fabrics and larger yardage too as I mainly have FQs.

As I have been tidying, it is focussing my mind as to what projects I should be thinking about once my UFO list is more under control. I have quite a few linen scraps which I'm thinking would make a nice improv cushion or two, a lot of black and white fabric, two layer cakes, lots of charm packs and screen printed fabric.

Whilst looking for some thread to quilt a WIP, I was overcome with the need to organise my cones of thread for my long arm. I thought I didn't have many colours in multiple cones for big quilts. Another surprise as I bagged up and labelled those with multiple cones of the same colour and I have just two boxes of single cones by Superior Threads. This was a useful task as I will focus on using up the single cones and then decide what I need to order more of. I think at the moment, I just need more prewound bobbins which I will order on Sunday.

I have mentioned previously that I use todoist to keep me on track with projects and last month I added in one extra task - "tidy sewing room for ten minutes". Simple and effective. when I saw the 30 day challenge pop up in my Instagram feed, it was just what I needed to give me extra focus.

So pop over to Gigi's Thimble and download the list - it isn't exhaustive, but it is a great start to my organising journey.

WIP Wednesday - Quilter's Planner BOM II

  

Whilst placing an order with Sew Hot for fixings for the Mister Domestic bag and the Aneela Hoey bag, I did some advanced planning and ordered some Kona solids in pastels for my Chez Soi group challenge. This is due in January 2021 and I hadn't planned to work on it until quarter 3 of 2020. However the blocks are relatively simple so I diarised to cut out at least one block a day and I cut the borders first from each fabric  as that required three 3.5" strips to frame two blocks in each colour.

I started with the April block as it could be posted on Instagram on the sewalong hashtag. And then started working through the blocks alongside other sewing.

However I soon found that I didn't have enough of the colour Peony as I was using the leftovers from my first version of this pattern. There was a lot of fabric leftover from that version and I used big strip to piece the entire backing and still had leftovers. So another Sew Hot order was needed and again I tried to be organised and ordered backings for this quilt, my Tula Pink Hex on the Beach EPP quilt and the grey dots to add to my stash.

I have now completed all of the blocks and plan to quilt it on my long arm before upgrading the tablet. I like an easy life!

Today I'm going to work on my #miniseriessal as that deadline is fast advancing and finished projects have to be shared by 31 May.

Monday make - pocket bag

A friend gave me this pattern by Mister Domestic and it was just what I wanted to make a bag to go with some dark turquoise outfits and silver flat shoes. It has been on my to make list for six months and I thought I had purchased all of the hardware from Sew Hot two weeks ago. When I checked the pattern I needed two magnetic clasps. I found some, or so I thought, but I have five female clasp parts and no corresponding male parts. Fortunately our local fabric shop is open so I made a quick trip down on Saturday morning.

For once I cut all of the pieces out and labelled them on Friday evening and I even got half of the inset zipper done too. Once I had the magnetic clasps it was a quick make and goes very nicely with the outfit as I had hoped. The silver Essex dyed linen was leftover from another project so that was pleasing.

The project is on my 2020 UFO list but isn't our group's pick for this month, but I am ahead should it be picked any time soon.

Plans for this week:

Saturday I made this bag and on Sunday I made some more masks for WI members to be delivered along with an afternoon tea for two on Saturday to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Jersey from German occupation. I am looking forward to the cake as it is being made by Michelle who also caters for our retreats.

Today is Monday and I plan to make the Aneela Hoey bag. I should have all of the necessary fabric and zip ready to go.

Tuesday - I am going to work on my February monthly cottage as the day will have less available time as I will be food shopping for three households.

Wednesday - The end of the #miniseriessal is coming to an end and I need to make up my final project. I have sketched up my plan but need to make some more blocks and thee ae not quick block to foundation piece.

Thursday - I have received my new Acer tablet for my long arm but I have a dilemma, do I install it and then quilt the second Quilter's Planner BOM quilt or do I install it after quilting this quilt?

Friday - The final installment of the Alice in Wonderland is released so I hope to work on it throughout the day. Not that I have finished chapters 1, 2 or 4 yet. I'm working on it an hour a day.

We have two bank holidays this week, today and Friday, not that it makes any difference to me other than my husband will take the two days off from working from home to continue decorating. A thank you gift is being sent to all staff members on Wednesday but I am expecting our afternoon tea on Saturday will be the more enjoyable delivery.

Freebie Friday - YouTube video for rope bowls

I am just a little bit addicted to YouTube instructional, Flosstube and knitting videos. I have wanted to make a rope bowl since seeing the lovely ones made by Instagrammers Sewsweetviolet and Stitchmischief. I did a search on YouTube and found these tutorials  Very clear and I am happy with my first basket. However the clothesline that I bought in Akureyri in Iceland is made by Dritz and described as Premium Clothesline. Hmm. I was not impressed with the quality.

Through researching the subject and trial and error, I found out the following:

* You need 3/16" x 100ft cotton covered rope. I will be googling more supplies today.

* Use up your random bobbins of thread if you like the random rainbow look.

* My tab was 1" by 2" and I used my seam ripper to put the holes in the pleather and then I handstitched it with Aurifil Mako 12 in colour 4660

* I wanted straight sides and started curving at 8" but the basket ended up being 12" in diameter. And to get the straight sides I elevated my machine so as to be able to have the sides flat on the bed of the machine.  Sew slowly. Holding the basket upwards didn't achieve the straight sides I wanted.