January 2024 achievements

 January has been busier than I had anticipated with a taster day to organise, a day in London and generally getting back to normal after Christmas. However, I do have a few finishes to share.

A layer cake pattern sample which will be called the Twixtmas quilt.

My guild ufo challenge piece - October cottage by Country Cottage Needleworks

Panda clam shells mini quilt which was a make and take from the Modern Quilt Club retreat in October.

Upcycled Jersey dress which was a group project with Lizzie and Laura.

A pig block for a secret squirrel project.

Monday Make - Quilt sampler 2024

Belatedly I have made a start on the Folk Art Sampler dealing with Art East Quilting Co. I am once again diving into my Ruby Star Society stash. I am all set to take this to my local retreat on Friday. Looking at the blocks, they are all quite fiddly with small pieces. The centre star is 18” square for comparison. I must also pack my design boards to coracle the pieces for each block.

Friday finish - partly

 

Hopefully you can see that this is a pig and not a camel as suggested by my husband! This is for a surprise quilt which I have been asked to contribute to. This is the first time I have incorporated a selvedge in a block and I like how it turned out. I adapted a Lori Holt pattern to reduce the amount of background in the block. I haven’t added an eye as that might get in the way when the quilt is being quilted.

It’s now ready to post when I am in London on Tuesday, though time is going to be tight as there is a train strike so I am going to my appointment by taxi. Not looking forward to a two hour journey into the city and then two hours back later on.

WIP Wednesday - retreat planning

I have been getting ready for a taster day for my evening Guild. It's a one-day event with four activities:

Hand stitched EPP hexagons - I have 240 paper hexagons and fabric cut and ready for Ros. I was fortunate that a friend is often given hexagons that people no longer want so the fabric was already cut, but most of the fabric is very retro!!

Bowl cosy - 19 pairs of 10" squares ready for the teacher, who bailed on me this week and can only do two hours and not the whole event. Thanks!

Scrap block - I have redrafted a hand written block and cutting diagram, printed it and laminated it. I'm also taking all of my scraps for people to use and hopefully reduce my scraps.

Double rings block which I'm teaching and my sample is ready with the rulers. I just need to double check I have everything.

Then on Friday I need to collect the hall keys and load my car with all of the above, fabric, cutting mats, rulers, ironing board etc. I am looking forward to Sunday!!

In ten days we have our local retreat, so I have started to plan what I'm taking with me. First, I need to make the first four blocks for the Folk Sampler which I am going to make from my stash of Ruby Star Society fabrics. The instructions are printed ready to start cutting and sewing. I plan to start with these blocks on the Friday. I hate being behind on a sewalong. I also need to pack my design boards to help me organise my blocks as there are multiple blocks each week if you want to do the 26 week and not the 52 week schedule.

On the Saturday I'm all set to sew the sewjo banner by Happy Sew Lucky. I even have some silver linen for the needle picked out and a jumbo knitting needle to hang the banner from. I must remember to pack wadding, just in case I finish the piecing.

I belong to Hel's Belles WI and we have an upcoming competition to fill a shoe box for Rotary International for a 12 to 16 year old girl. I think we've decided on a rainbow theme and I dug these products out this morning. I plan to make an Aneela Hoey pattern which I had forgotten that I own, and which came to light during a destash of books.

Roll on Sunday, when I can actually sew for myself, which will include more items for my Easter tiered tray.

Monday make - Easter tiered tray

 

Last Friday and Saturday I attended this event on Zoom.  As a beginner machine embroiderer, it was a steep learning curve but one of the lady's had the same machine as me and helped me out a couple of times.

The kits are very comprehensive with a beautiful booklet with detailed instructions and pictures for the pieces being stitched over the two days - eight in all.

I haven't finished any of Friay's projects yet, but I finished the four from Saturday during the class - one quilted carrot, carrot coop frame, bunny kisses pillow and the bunny basket.

An in person class was being run at the same time as the virtual class and I found Friday very tiring due to the level of noise being picked up from the in person class. They sounded like they were having fun. On Saturday, the host turned herself to mute, which was a great improvement.

On Sunday, I finished two further carrots and a mug rug. The mug rug wasn't in the kit, but I purchased it after the class as a digital dealer download. I was chuffed to include a scrap of pleather for the middle bunny, and it stitched out brilliantly.

I even remembered to add a little tag to the tiny basket. This was the last project I did on Saturday and attendees had complained about turning it the right way out, and they were right, it was fiddly.

The tray is definitely a work in progress. I have purchased and downloaded another digital dealer exclusive and plan to work on that today. I am busy prepping for a Guild taster day that I've organised for this Saturday. Each day, I'm prepping one project for the taster day and making or finishing one item for my tiered tray.

Kimberbell easter event

 

I bought a Janome embroidery machine last autumn and saw this cute tiered tray event announced about a month ago. I signed up for the virtual event through Stitch X Stitch  which starts today. As of last night, my kit was on the way but I did have the necessary threads ordered from Pinhole Quilting in a fancy new box from Cotton Patch.

I headed down to the local sorting office at the crack of dawn this morning and waited in the cold waiting area, but they found my parcel, so I have my ears and I'm ready for the class.

As well as the standard kit, Elaine included some extra goodies for us including the necessary stabilisers. I will admit that one of the chocolates has already been eaten! However, I have sorted the threads, fabrics and tools for the first of three projects today and I may get one of the three projects done today. Now where is my glue gun?

WIP Wednesday - October Cottage

 

October Cottage of the Month by Country Cottage Needleworks  was the UFO 6 chosen as this month’s challenge piece by our group. I am thrilled that I got it finished last night. It is stitched on 32 count permit in the colour lambswool. I don’t like the stiffness of the fabric so I have to push myself to work on these cottages. Now I can pick another piece to work on.

Monday Make - Twixtmas Throw

 

I designed a quick quilt to sew between Christmas and New Year (Twixtmas) based around a layer cake, backing and binding. The design really shows off the fabrics and makes the most of a layer cake with just a few scraps left.

The fabrics are all from Ruby Star Society for Moda Fabrics and are:

Linear Layer Cake by Rashida Coleman-Hale

108" Backing - Reverie in the colour Verdant Sorbet by Melody Miller

Binding - Speckled metallic berry by Rashida Coleman-Hale

I used the digital pantograph Circuits by Anne Bright stitched with Glide in Bone. This is a favourite pantograph that I often use.

The orange, cream and pink of the backing picks out the colours of the layer cake and is the sateen finish which is lovely to touch.

If you'd like to test this patten, do get in touch. I don't expect to release the pattern until at least March. It requires a layer cake or 42 10" squares.

Friday finish - panda clamshells

I was going to work on this project at our group's retreat in early February, but once I'd prepped the clamshells, I decided to stitch the clamshells down and then it was quickly finished. This was a make and take at the Modern Quilt Club October 2023 retreat by Jo Carter (@jo2owls) The clam shells were die cut on a Sizzix machine from Art Gallery charm packs and there are a few double gauzes that I haven't worked with before.

The facial features were quick to stitch and add such character to the pandas, but it took a few days for me to get around to stitching them after I quilt and bound the mini quilt. This is destined to be another SCBU incubator quilt.

 

WIP Wednesday - October Cottage

Our number 6 UFO was chosen for our group challenge this month. I have now fully kitted it up after diving into other projects to find the necessary threads. The cottage is the largest part of these patterns, so I have started from the middle and gone to the left to do the cottage first. Once the cottage is done, I will divide the pattern up into four - top border, month, tree and bottom border and I should be able to do one of the sections a day.

I have decided on a loose plan for my WIPs. Week 1 of the month, I can work on whatever I want and week 2 it is time to start and finish my chosen UFO.  Weeks 3 and 4 are still being thought about and any days left at the end of the month (apart from February) are to start one of the other UFOs. I have learnt from previous mistakes and all of my UFOs for the challenge are small cross stitch patterns and clothes.

I am also going to work on a different cross stitch pattern at my Wednesday morning group and the first one will be Resting Witch Face by Hands on Design. It has blocks of colour so counting should be easy whilst chatting! I made a start on it last week and also worked on it during a LONG Zoom session.

Monday make - Pin display bag

The second joint project for Christmas 2023 was a pin display handbag. Lizzie has made the Eena bag by Studio 7T7 and I chose to mostly follow a free tutorial at Pin Display Handbag Tutorial - WeAllSew. 

I used:

Exterior fabric -  black denim from Guthrie and Ghani purchased in August 2023

Lining fabric - Ruby Star Society from Olive & Flo Handcraft

Thread - Aurifil in black and white

Vinyl - Sew Quirky mystery box

Labels - Kylie and the Machine

Strapping - Zipper Valley

All sewn on my Janome Atelier 7.

The changes I made were:

Narrower flap, due to not checking my seam allowance!!

Magnetic clasps to close instead of Velcro

I trimmed the height of the lining by 1/4" and then machined the lining onto the exterior. I then closed the space used to turn the bag the right side out by top stitching around the bag.

My bag is now ready for Festival of Quilts and I've even put in the roll of Kylie and the Machine tape so we can label our purchases as we go.

Friday finish - sweater dress

My daughter, Lizzie decided to organise a sewing day with our friend Laura. Between themselves, they chose a project - Quilt block your sweatshirt by Fancy That Design House.

The first order of the day was to visit a couple of charity shops for sweatshirts. A second sweep of the two shops provided something to embellish as stock was being put out as we shopped. In the first shop Lizzie was thrilled to find two game controllers with venom packs (??). They need to be checked today as Lizzie returns home tomorrow.

I changed the block in the pattern to be completely symmetrical just by turning four half square triangle blocks. I had decided to do a Xmas block and had recently tidied my box of Xmas fabric, so I was able to search by fabric colour. I started with three penguin fabrics, which we purchased at Gather Here in Boston in Autumn 2019. Little did we realise then what 2020 would look like! I used two of the penguin fabrics and also the white and red by Aneela Hoey and the red fabric from my Xmas box. The red fabric is slightly directional, so I cut the red rectangles carefully - two horizontally and two vertically. Probably I'm the only person it would annoy, but I felt it was worth it.

Once the block was pieced, I carefully considered my options for attaching the block to the sweatshirt dress. First, I cut off the hood to the dress to reduce the bulk. I then added a piece of very thin iron on wadding to the back of the block ensuring it was 12" square. Then I pressed the seam allowances to the back of the block. I then stitched down the seam allowance and quilted the block. Finally, I stitched the piece to the back of the dress and did additional quilting around and across the centre square, so it was secure. 

I added a contrast ribbing at the neckline, but it is too floppy, and I think I will replace it with a shorter grey neck piece. I had thought I would turn the dress into a sweatshirt but it's actually quite a nice length and lovely and warm for the winter. That is definitely our last joint project for now.

December 2023 achievements

I definitely didn't get as much done in December as I'd hoped. I was definitely missing my mojo and even any enthusiasm for Christmas.

With my daughter home for over two weeks, she had two projects planned for us to work on. The first was the Sewing Space Station by Arabesque Scissors which we worked on steadily and completed before Christmas.

I also made a pin pennant for Lizzie as a Christmas present and have a pattern now drafted for release in 2024.

Merry and Bright by Tiny Modernist was an unplanned start and finish and I'm pleased not to be carrying it forward as an unfinished project into 2024.

We finished our second Christmas make which was a pin badge bag. 

My "big" finish for the month was the 2023 mini block Sampler by Art East Quilting and I have signed up for the 2024 sewalong as well. What else will 2024 bring?

January 2024 plans

Looking forward into 2024, my plans are very fluid and vague, which is unlike me. I have two local and three Modern Quilt Club retreats booked as well as a birthday trip to the Festival of Quilts in August. Thos trips will give structure to the year but also, I need to plan what to take to those retreats. I have signed up for the 2024 Folk Sampler with Art East Quilting which is released as one block per week, or you can do two. I assume doing two blocks a week involves doing the mirror image of the released block. Once cut out these make good retreat projects and there's something satisfying in all retreat finishes, however small.

The clam shell quilt I cut at the last retreat needs to be prepped and it will be a good project for the Jersey retreat in February.

I have a lap quilt already pieced from these Ruby Star fabrics and I'm waiting for the backing and binding to arrive from a Christmas sale.

I will have one UFO to finish each month from our Jersey Modern Quilt Group UFO challenge. I'm hoping the sneakers aren't chosen for January. Additionally, I'd like to make one item of clothing and two cross stitches each month. I have lots of cross stitch pieces that are finished but not framed or ready to display so I think three fully finished pieces each month should be achievable.