April 2002 plans

Allowing for four days away in France, these are my plans for April:

1. 1988 Prairie Schooler Santa

2. UFO challenge - let's hope it's another quick make this month. If it's not chosen, I should make the Christmas sweater tub for a quick finish.

3. One branch of Christmas Tree by Barbara Ana. I am behind by my March branch so I should aim to do half of one more branch.

4. Free block Friday - ten blocks made and I have found a fun setting so no need to make two more blocks

5. A Ziggy stardust inspired cushion for Lizzie. I have drawn up a pattern in EQ8 so it would be a quick make.

6. One block a day on my Karlee Porter class from 2021.

Plans for Pour l'Amour du Fil

I am still hand stitching the binding on my feathers quilt, which I'm hoping to finish this month. However one thing we have done is book our trip to Nantes next month which is in three weeks time. 

The ferry from Jersey takes about 90 minutes but the timetable is based on the French travellers coming to Jersey and there is a return evening boat only on a Sunday and we left it too long to book this sailing. Never mind we have tweaked our plans and we will get to France on Easter Monday at about 10.30pm. Everything would be closed during the day so arriving at night, having eaten dinner at home, works for us. 

We will then travel down to Nantes which takes about 2.5 hours. we stayed in two Ibis hotels previously, one near the exhibition centre and one near the station. My father is coming with us again and he would prefer a Mercure level hotel and in the town centre, so we're trying a different hotel this time but Dad has already expressed a desire to go to the Neapolitan restaurant near where we stayed last time as we couldn't get a table reservation in November. I hope it's as good as it smells. We stick wit Ibis as apart from the Mercure in Aberdeen, they tend to be reliable and we are now gold members after last year's trip as we stayed in France for a week.

The exhibition has free entry from 4 until 6 each evening so I think Dad and Nick will come for a potter one evening. I am uncertain whether to take a class, but I am tempted by the improv class with Australian Jessica Wheelahan. There is a materials charge of 15 euros to pay on arrival. I was also interested in a class with Brigitte Heitland but a materials charge of 25 euros seemed a little high.

We have no other plans for our stay as we did Machines des Iles last time, so any recommendations would be appreciated.

Friday finish - project organiser bag

I have at last finished my Project Organiser bag using the spool block designed by Quietplay. The block was my March UFO challenge. I used 2.5" squares of hand printed fabrics by Karen Lewis and Lou Orth. There is one random square which was printed using two screens designed by Lu Summers.

I used Bosal between the lining and patchwork and did a simple criss cross and stitch in the ditch quilting. The lining is a favourite Tula Pink fabric.

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The binding is premade and perfect for the project. Now I need to get on with some other March projects so a Prairie Schooler Santa and my Feathers SAL quilt are next inline to be worked on.

 

Christmas Wishes

 

Less than a month ago, I received an unloved UFO from YouTuber BumbleStitches. It feels like this is all I have stitched in this month. Nichola had stitched most of the first three blocks and I completed the rest. I am pleased to have finished it and plan to take it to the framers tomorrow. I am thinking of a fancy red frame but I will see what is recommended.

Monday make - project organiser bag

 

Eisteddfod closed at 4pm yesterday and most entries have been returned to their makers. I’m not sure how the people who didn’t collect thought that their entries were being returned? DHL?

I did sew yesterday morning and added the binding and zip to the Project Organiser bag by Minki Kim.

The front of the bag uses an orphan block designed by @quietplay and the reverse is a checkerboard of screen printed fabrics. Just the binding to hand sew now. That will probably wait until Wednesday stitch day.

Friday finish -1984 prairie schooler Santa

 

Last week was very busy with judging the needlework section of the Jersey Eisteddfod.

It’s a long time since I’ve worked a 9 to 5 job for five days of the week. I was absolutely shattered every evening but having had Saturday off I am feeling a bit more like myself. So on Sunday I broke out the 1984 Priory School of Santa and spent an hour finishing it.

I'm now going to start one of the Santas I should be working on. I'm also waiting for the delivery of some mesh to finish my March UFO challenge.

Friday finish - Casserole Quilt

 

Pattern by Elizabeth Hartman

Background is Robert Kaufman dyed metallic linen in colour Fog from Sew Hot

Flowers are made using Luminance by Alison Glass from Olive & Flo Handcraft

Xs are fabric by Karen Lewis

Backing from Sew Hot

Classic Baptist fan stitched in Superior Threads Granite

Note to self, use a 2.25" binding when machine stitching your binding down. 2" is just a bit too small.

WIP Wednesday - Christmas wishes

 

There's no crafting going on here this week. I've given myself permission to take it easy as I'm working at our local eisteddfod 9 to 5 this week and I'm just not used to that anymore. The junior needlecraft section was completed yesterday so onto the adults today.

Last Sunday I just cross stitched the day away after spending Saturday taking in the 400 entries for the exhibition. I am pleased with the progress I've made on Christmas Wishes by Little Dove Designs. Nicola sent me the UFO with three blocks out of six mainly complete. Now I have worked my way to the bottom of the piece and the red and white border is complete. I have also partly stitched the other three blocks. Unfortunately I'm missing one of the greens so I need to purchase that. I'm not sure what is the most efficient way to proceed? Start at the top and compete each block in order or work more on the bottom three blocks. 

Monday Make - otterly adorable

The pattern for Otterly Adorable is in the book Applique - the Sew Quirky Way. You may remember the other Sew Quirky pattern that I've sewn which was the cow on the recycled jacket. I hadn't planned to work on this in February but I did some prep at retreat. On Monday, I started picking fabrics which is the hardest part of these projects. 

Once pieces had been prepped and ironed onto the aqua speckled linen by Robert Kaufman purchased from Sew Hot, it was time to get out the Aurifil stash and start testing out some of the new stitch patterns on my Janome Atelier 7.

I was surprised at how quickly the project came together. Instead of using small slivers of felt for the claws, I used a satin stitch. I trimmed the project to 16.5" square and stitched it onto a matching square of navy fabric to cover the stitching.

Of course I used poppers on the back!! Hopefully this cushion will look great in my daughter's new apartment. But first I'm entering it into our local Creative Arts Eisteddfod.

March 2022 plans

March is a busy month with the Jersey Eisteddfod Festival of Creative Arts starting on 5 March with taking in work and putting up the stands. Then the adjudicator arrives on 6 March and we work flat out for four days. On the Friday we display the entries ready for prize giving the following Wednesday. The exhibition then opens for four days and gets taken down on the Sunday. There is a great team for the Needlework section which makes it go quickly.

I might finish some of the following in March:

1. 1988 Prairie Schooler Santa

2. 1999 Prairie Schooler Santa

3. UFO challenge - let's hope it's a quick make this month.

4. One branch of Christmas Tree by Barbara Ana.

5. Free block Friday - ten blocks made and I have found a fun setting so no need to make two more blocks

6. I've now received the UFO from Youtuber, Bumblestitches so only a little progress was made on that project in February. The project is Christmas wishes by Little Dove Designs and Nicola has stitched three out of six blocks. This is going to be my Wednesday morning project. However I am now waiting for the flosses I ordered last week.

7. Feathers SAL. The top was completed at retreat but still needs to be quilted and bound.