WIP Wednesday - cross stitch

 

This morning I've been working on block 5 of the Spring Garden by Durene Jones. There are just a few details to add to the hedgehog but I'll do that when I'm stitching the second half of block 5. It seems a waste to throw away strands of thread when you only need a few stitches in a block. I'm looking forward to block 6 which has a cute gnome. At this stage I wouldn't be disappointed if this project was chosen for the May UFO challenge for our quilt group, but I'd prefer if it was my Ultimate Travel bag.

I am making progress on the April cottage by Country Cottage Needleworks. I plan to finish the house today and then the grass under the house so I can stitch the tree tomorrow. Fingers crossed I should be able to finish this by the end of the month.

I have a hospital telephone appointment any moment soon and a hair cut after lunch. whilst I'm in town, I need to visit Matalan where I've seen a cute bird house which might work to mount my monthly pieces from Hands on Design. I should have bought it when I saw it last week so I hope they still have one left this afternoon.

Monday Make - April cross stitch

 

Only a few days left of April and I only finished the small April project from A Year of Celebrations from Hands on Design. I finished it in the morning, so whilst  still had the bag out for this ongoing project, I made a start on May and made good progress.

This project has now been put away until next month so I can focus on my April Cottage which I also worked on during March. Tomorrow looks free of commitments and appointments so perhaps I should focus on the April Cottage rather than playing with new fabric. 

Friday finish - clue 6 of Christmas wreath

  

I was very excited to see what was in store for clue 6 of the sewalong with The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery as it takes us to the top of the wreath and we are both visually and actually over half way complete. Would the stitch count line up was my big concern?

Oh happy days, the edge of clue 6 lines up with the house of clue 1. I love the peppermint swirls in the wreath and the vintage ornaments. This has now been put away until next month when clue 7 is released on 14 May. 

Now I need to get back to my April - A year of celebrations by Hands on Design. My to do list has been abandoned this weekend to work on the Christmas Wreath so I hope in a few days I will be caught up.

WIP Wednesday - Block 3 Spring Garden

 

My plan last Wednesday was to work on the easy block 3 of this free pattern by Durene Jones, unfortunately I forgot that this block is smaller than the adjoining block. I worked from the bottom up so ended u with a large blank space.  I finished this block last night.

Block 4 is next and it is almost finished already and just needs a back stitched border and the butterfly to be finished.

So today I'm planning to finish block 4 and perhaps even the border surrounding the six blocks whilst I watch episode 2 of the Great British Sewing Bee. It would be lovely to finish the six central blocks before this project is picked as for our UFO challenge. I'd like either this project or the Ultimate travel bag to be selected for May as both projects are part complete.

The weather this week has been lovely and on Sunday, I joined WI friends for a walk along the north coast from Sorel Point to revisit the chough project. The birds were swooping all around us as we left the car park. The project appears to have been a success but they now need to start another project with the puffins as they are down to only four breeding pairs.

You can see how clear the sky was and we had all brought too many layers with us as the north coast can be windy, but not on Sunday!! My husband and I are planning to restart our regular Friday morning walks, even though Nick loves maps, he doesn't like written directions so we often take the wrong turn.

Pattern: Spring Garden by Durene Jones 

Fabric: Zweigart 28 count Britney in light grey

Monday make - 2007 Santa

 

This is my only finish so far in April. What have I been up to? This is the 2007 Priairie Schooler Santa. This annual release started in 1984 and I started stitching these in 2020. So far I have completed eight of the patterns and I need to order the 2021 pattern and some of the Belfast Vintage grey linen too but it's out of stock at Peakside Needleworks.

Friday freebie - By Annie

 

Do you follow By Annie on Facebook? You should as there are weekly videos released. Unfortunately the live video now clashes with The Great British Sewing Bee, so I have to catch the video on Youtube. I found this week's video particularly inspiring. Annie has often said that they get two yards of fabric long arm quilted and after cutting the pieces for your current project, you can make other projects with the leftovers.

Pictured above is the "Easy does it" which is a free By Annie pattern. I thought it was perfect to pair with my Ultimate Travel bag. Yesterday I cut all of the pieces from the already quilted fabric and I'm ready to go. I even found enough zipper tape left in a packet to use for the project too. After cutting this project I still have a sizeable piece for several other small projects.

I have already sealed the edges and made the handles so I can stitch on this project alongside my bigger project and without changing thread colour.

WIP Wednesday - Hocus Pocus

 

Last week I kitted up Christmas Cheer by Corinne Sovey and am waiting for a few fabrics I ordered from Sew Hot to arrive. This week I kitted up Hocus Pocus also by Corinne Sovey and surprised myself by finding enough fabrics in my stash. 

I plan to work on these quilts at retreats and sew days but in the mean time I have scheduled in Todoist to work on two block every weekend. This weekend I sewed up three simple striped blocks using fabric from Alison Glass and Cotton and Steel. I think I will cut out the next two blocks during the week ready to sew next Saturday and I'm thinking I will make the two pumpkin blocks. I love the witch's legs with striped stockings.

The sixth clue of the Christmas Wreath by The Frosted pumpkin Stitchery is released on Friday and I'm keen to work on that too this weekend.

Monday make - By Annie Ultimate travel bag

 

Celebrating progress this morning and I have quilted a two yard piece of Tula Pink Hexy rainbow ready to make an By Annie ultimate travel bag. I love this new digital pantograph from Christy Dillon of My Creative Stitches and the texture when combined with the Bosal is just perfect for my project.

I have cut out the quilted pieces and contrasting fabric. It took me 90 minutes to cut out and stabilised the edges of the quilted fabric.

Unusually for me I'm working through the steps in the intended order!! You start with the straps cut from the contrasting fabric and then you insert webbing in any colour, I went for the cheapest option available, top stitch the edges and add the hardware. It's good to start with the straps as that uses a number of the pieces which can be overwhelming.

I've pinned all of the pieces to my design wall and grouped them by type with the description pinned to them. Next were the pockets for the outside from quilted fabric and mesh pockets for the inside. It was at this stage that I realised that I should have purchased two lengths of zipper and not one in purple so I have substituted a fuchsia continuous zipper tape instead. I could have ordered more or used silver, but I was in the zone and wanting to make more progress.

Next was adding the side pockets and the strap anchors to the side strip and I drew up the grid for the buttons used as feet on the bottom of the bag. I don't have any buttons and I also need to cut out the sleeve for the bottom of the bag which I'm going to cut out of the fairy dust rather than the grunge to keep the inside of the bag lighter.

Until I source some purple buttons, my pieces are pinned in an orderly manner to my design board ready for the next step. In the mean time I should probably cut the sleeve and bias binding. Though we are going to look at overlockers later so I might be lucky and find some ready made bias instead.

Thread: glide in colour grape from pinholequilting
Fabric: hexy rainbow and fairy dust by Tula Pink

Contrast fabric: Basic Grey grunge 108" wide in eggplant
Pantograph: don quixote by Christy Dillon

Bosal from @empressmills

Friday finish - Block 2 Spring Garden

 On Wednesday, I took my sewing machine in for a service and enjoyed an afternoon of card playing and delicious scones. I also worked on block 2 of this UFO exclusively. And I finished the block. I have scheduled into my todoist app to work on either the next block or the border every Wednesday to make progress on this project before it's picked as the monthly UFO to work on.

Block 3 is  a rabbit so should be fairly quick as it's mostly one colour. I will also try and get more of the thin green frame around the whole piece. I am definitely going to finish the six blocks and the thin border before starting on the outside border. I need to pick up another skein of green 988 when I collect my sewing machine after its service.

Pattern: Spring Garden by Durene Jones 

Fabric: Zweigart 28 count Britney in light grey

WIP Wednesday - Christmas cheer

 

I love the graphic lines of Corinne Sovey's patterns and waited until the Black Friday sale to purchase Christmas Cheer. My son also bought Hocus Pocus for me for Christmas. On Monday I decided to put all of the pattern pages into a binder and then printed the 31 template pages. I then got out my box of Christmas fabrics and started to pull for the pattern. I have only recently started buying more than Fat Quarters and the minimum needed for most of the fabrics is half a yard, so I have ordered some fabric from Sew Hot and hope that it arrives soon as I plan to make two blocks a week.

First I need to finish my Economy blocks which I started as a leader and ender project. I now have 81 blocks completed out of the 100 I plan to make. I have now cut most if not all of the pieces for the last 19 blocks.

Today I'm playing canasta this afternoon with friends but this morning, I'm going to sew block 2 of the spring Sampler cross stitch.

Monday Make - Spring garden block 1

 

At the end of march, I decided that this project needed some attention as spring is here again. My threads were already in the project bag but I hadn't printed out the patterns. The free pattern is by Durene Jones and comprises six sections in the central panel and a border of flowers and leaves. 

At the end of March I completed block 1 surprisingly quickly as it had some quick blocks of colour and today I felt like working on the border and I have made some progress.

I have been dithering about how to proceed but I have now decided to work on block 2 next which is of a bee hive so a nice block of colour again. Then I will work on the top border again before tackling block 3 - which is an Easter rabbit. By the time this UFO is selected for our group challenge, I hope that all I'll need to work on is the outer border. It's great to see progress happening and I have scheduled into my weekly to do list to work on this on a Wednesday so I can alternate between a block one week and the border the next week.

Finish it Friday - improv coin purse

 

At the end of March I joined in a sewalong for the Improv coin purse, a pattern by Sarah Ashford Studios. I was gifted the pattern by Sarah as a winner of a giveaway. My daughter had asked for a pouch for her external hard drive but unfortunately it wasn't quite big enough, but it was a fun project using up some small scraps of hand printed fabrics from Karen Lewis and Lou Orth.

April plans

1. The April UFO for our group challenge is number 2 which I have already completed so I'm
going to focus on finishing the economy bock quilt in pinks and reds. I probably have about 70 blocks already made and plan to make a total of 100 for a 60" square quilt.

2. April mini for A Year of Celebrations (kitted up)

3. April monthly cottage from a Country Cottage Needleworks. Started but not finished last month

4. April block for Around the World BOM

5. Month 6 of Christmas Wreath by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery - exciting as we get to the top of the wreath and are more than half completed.

6. #Summersamplerturns10 sewalong blocks to make. Six have been released and made, so I should have four to make this month as they are released weekly.

The optional extras will probably include:

7. By Annie travel bag. I still need to source the contrasting fabric which is 108" Basic Grey in eggplant. I have some but not enough.

8. Sew in ends on dish cloths which I knit in March.

9. 2007 Prairie schooler Santa 

10. I think my UFO that will need the most work is the Spring Sampler cross stitch so I will start working on one block a month to make some progress.