Plemont Pennant pattern released today

Feeling very nervous as I've published my first pattern this morning. I was very lucky that my friend Kim tested my pattern and I love the stripe she used from Kristy of Quietplay. You can either purchase the pattern here or you can subscribe to my newsletter here for a 20% discount until 17 April 2024.

I made this version of my pattern for my daughter Lizzie's Christmas present using a printed panel from Colette Moscrop.

Lizzie gifted me this cute and useful colour wheel pin last weekend, which is now on my Plemont pennant.

Are you a creature of habit?

I didn't think I was a creature of habit, but I always sit on this sofa with the television on in the background whilst I cross stitch. Last week, we had a quote for sanding and revarnishing the floor and Daniel could start on Monday but wasn't available for the whole of April. We quickly accepted the quote and moved all of the furniture and curtains out last Wednesday. I was leaving for retreat early on Thursday morning and Nick was heading to Gatwick to go to a family party on the Friday. Except I didn't leave the island on Thursday so couldn't stitch when I returned from the airport. 

When I arrived home at 9am on Monday Daniel had already started and had finished by Tuesday lunch time. The floor would be dry by Wednesday afternoon but not fully cured for 12 days. Only furniture with felt on the bottom could be moved in. Eventually we have applied felt feet to all of our furniture thanks to my crafty stash and some gorilla glue. My stitching set up was restored by Thursday afternoon. I hadn't done any cross stitch for a week and I have my March UFO to finish by 31 March.

I stitched a little at the airport but soon realised there was at least one mistake in the outline of the terrarium which wasn't going to match up at the cork. I installed myself in my comfy chair yesterday and caught up on some TV and fixed the terrarium, stitched the orange flowers and the cork. I am feeling more positive about finishing this piece by Sunday. Today I'm going to focus on finishing the contents of the terrarium. My husband suggested we go food shopping today, even though I'm not sure many shops are open on Good Friday, and I am dressed to NOT go out!

 

What do you look for in a retreat?

I have been lucky enough to attend two retreats this year already. The first was in January and organised by Jersey Modern Quilt Group (JMQG) and the second was last weekend and organised by Modern Quilt Club (MQG). There are still a few spaces left for the July Modern Quilt Club retreat - more details here.

The two retreats could not be more different: 

JMQG retreat is local to me, the venue is a youth facility with bunk rooms and communal showers, it is a budget retreat and one of our members provides all of our food.

MQG retreat is in Leeds which means a flight to Liverpool or Manchester and a night in a hotel before and after retreat. There is usually a tutor during the weekend who shares a technique or project and a full menu to chose your food from for dinner.

Having tried a few other retreats, these are my priorities:

1. I don't want to share a room. Often there is a single room supplement which I'm happy to pay and at our local retreat, many chose to sleep at home so there is usually one person per bunk room.

2. I don't want to cook or clean. At our local retreat we have a rota and serve once and wash or dry up once, which is to be expected on a budget retreat. I do like a lunch which isn't carb heavy with a few choices.

3.  I like space and a large table for myself and my mess is perfect. Not all premium retreats have the space.

4. Numbers of attendees - I haven't been to one of the large retreats, mainly US based, but MQG keep to 36 people which means you can get to know new people and renew acquaintances with old friends.

5. Swaps - not compulsory and I have participated before but choose not to participate currently. The gifts are inspiring, and I love a good bag pattern, so have plenty of ideas for future retreats.

6. Freebies - nice but not essential. I love a good game of Aurifil bingo which MQG hold, the JMQG bingo has much smaller prizes but is equally as fun and quicker! A lot of work goes into asking for donations to goody bags and Aurifil and Hantex are always generous to both groups and it's always interesting to try new products.

7. Classes - do you want to learn new techniques or work on your own project? Some retreats only have space for hand sewn projects and I prefer to use my Atelier 7. At MQG you can hire a Janome sewing machine which is handy and £10 for the weekend is a nominal amount. At JMQG attendees unanimously voted to not have a tutor but we often have a small make and take on Friday. 

8. Transport links to retreat - I would prefer to keep extra costs to a minimum so if I can travel on the day of the retreat that is a bonus. Some retreats are not easily accessible by public transport, but most attendees travel by car. 

9. How much are you willing to spend? Travelling to the UK for a retreat is more expensive for me, but living on an island, you have to either fly or take the boat to get anywhere.

It is unlikely that you will find a retreat with everything on your wish list but it's good to define your priorities. What do you look for in a retreat?

Keeping up with sewalongs

 

A few years ago, I signed up to too many sewalongs and they became a stress rather than enjoyable. It is in my nature to want to keep up with the schedule and print out instructions and sew the blocks immediately. If I fall behind there is every chance that I will abandon the project. How do you deal with participating in sewalongs?

I do find sewalongs very enticing and I have to resist the temptation to sign up. Sewing along with my daughter is the same. She proceeds at speed and I hate being left behind, especially as I am usually quick myself, but I do also like to be accurate.

I took my Folk Art Sampler to last weekend's retreat and I am thrilled with my progress. I finished one more rabbit for week 4. I went wrong and the eye was upside down again. 

With week 4 finished, I moved on to week 9 and the dachshund. The block bows a little in the middle so some remedial work will be necessary to add some wider borders and then trim it down.

I needed more yellow fabric to finish the week 11 vertical butterflies. Fortunately, the yellow fabric arrived early last week.

Yesterday saw the release of the Ohio Star II block and the start of week 12. I was keen to get the blocks cut out at retreat, and I managed to cut out all four blocks, even though only two are required for this week. I plan to piece the star blocks this week and then finish all of the acorn and bee blocks.  Excitingly I could then piece some blocks together around the central star. Next week's blocks are the squirrels. I should then be able to keep up until we go to Pour l'Amour du Fil in Nantes at the end of April.

This sewalong was with The Quilt Show in 2014 and still needs to be quilted and I did fall massively behind with this project. The main reason was that I didn't like the technique for the blocks edged in green, but several years later, I decided the designer probably knew best!!

Retreat planning

 

By the time you read this, I hope I will be already at the retreat hotel, having arrived yesterday. My daughter should be here too, but it has been challenging for her as she tore her calf muscle whilst playing dodgeball in Paris two weeks ago.

The first project I will be working on will be no surprise! I really want to catch up with the folk art sampler as we are now on week 11. This relies on my yellow fabric having arrived before I left yesterday.

I spoke to Lizzie last Sunday and she has chosen the Zip n Grip for us both to work on. The designer, Sew yours estimates that you can make this in four hours including the cutting out. Seems a big ask but I hope we can finish it in one day. It was my job to source all of the interfacings, zips and other accessories for us both.

Friends have admired my big tote by Zeriano so I am going to piece the side panels as a leader and ender project over the weekend.

WIP Wednesday - folk art sampler

 

Over the last week I have worked steadily on this project as I was becoming overwhelmed as we were on week 10 and I had only completed two weeks. I have been cutting one or two blocks each day, but have also stitched together all of the blocks cut. I have now run out of the yellow floral which should be here very soon, and I can cut more blocks to sew at retreat.

Week 1 was the flower star, which is a large, simple block.

Week 2 was the fiddlier acorn blocks, and these are repeated in week 25 as well for a total of four blocks. I have two blocks complete and one almost complete and waiting on my delivery of yellow floral fabric.

Week 3 was simpler flower blocks, there are four in total in the quilt, so I also completed the blocks for week 18.

Week 4 was two rabbit blocks. I have completed one which looks odd as the eye unit is the wrong way up, so that will require surgery. I have the fabric to hand to cut the second block for the retreat.

Week 5 was an Ohio Star, but not what I would call an Ohio Star. However, it was a nice large block with very few pieces so quick and easy to piece.

Week 6 was the first of eight bee blocks and two were needed to be completed with three more to be made in weeks 20 and 23, so I may stitch a few more of these in March.

Week 7 was two tulip blocks which are tall but fairly simple to make. I enjoyed stitching these over the weekend. 

Week 8 was also a big and simple block - a pair of ducks. I need the yellow fabric to complete the other duck. week 9 is a dachshund and also needs the yellow fabric.

Week 10 was four leaf blocks which I cut and stitched on the day the pattern was released as it's a straight forward block to cut and piece.

On Sunday the pattern for week 11 was released for three butterfly blocks, but to need that yellow floral fabric! However, I did complete one butterfly.

I've made good progress over the last ten days and if my yellow fabric arrives before I leave for retreat, I may even be caught up by the end of the month. I have seven of the eleven weeks completed in full and have the fabric to cut one more rabbit. I am looking forwrd to piecing the small blocks int bigger sections soon.

Monday makes

Yesterday felt productive even though I don't have much to show you today. I worked on my Folk Art Sampler blocks and made good progress. More on that on Wednesday. I even made the effort to fix the rabbit's eye.

These little foundation pieced blocks from Quietplay have been in progress since the sewalong so it was good to finish them even though I have no plan for how to use them.

Another small job was to replace the mustard neck band on this sweater hoody dress I added a block to in January. whilst the grey isn't a perfect match it is much more wearable, and I can always add a scarf. It is now packed to go to retreat.

One of today's tasks is to work out what interfacing I need to buy for the bag Lizzie and I will be making at retreat. Our local shop stocks Vlieseline so I need to work out what is a suitable replacement for the interfacings specified in the pattern.

Friday finish - dancer

 

Dancer by Barbara Ana from Creative Poppy was my project to complete for February for my Guild's UFO challenge. I completed the stitching and in a rush to take a photograph I used a spray to help eliminate the folds in the linen. BIG MISTAKE!! Of course, this is a hand dyed linen and is not necessarily colour fast which resulted in a water mark on the right hand side of the piece.

I have now added a piece of lace to the piece to cover the stain and framed the piece. The frame was purchased from a charity shop and painted with blackboard paint by my husband. 

WIP Wednesday - folk art flowers

 

I have a little more progress to report on my Folk Art Sampler blocks from the sewalong with Art East Quilting. I have now finished four flower blocks which are from weeks 10 and 18. I know we're only on week 10, but I thought that as these are straight forward blocks, I would stitch them now.

I've also cut out two and a half acorn blocks. Why a half? I found that I didn't have enough of the yellow fabric to complete the block. I like this fabric from Winterglow by Ruby Star Society so I have ordered a whole yard.

I will stitch up the two acorn blocks that are cut and then probably move on to the week 8 ducks as they are large blocks. The ducks are 10" finished blocks so less fiddly than the 6" blocks. I should then ut some of the eight bee blocks as when they're complete, with the other blocks stitched so far, they form a borer around the central star block. I can't resist piecing sections together as I make progress.

It doesn't look very impressive so far, but I have completed four weeks of the ten released so far. Can I catch up by the end of the month? Or will I get tired of cutting out such fiddly blocks!

Monday make - folk sampler leaves

The Festival of Creative Arts finished yesterday, and we dismantled the exhibition in about 90 minutes. I am left with some entries to return to people and some certificates which weren't collected. I was delighted to get home to an ansaphone message that the one trophy I was missing for the prize giving tomorrow will be returned to me today. Such a relief.

It's time now to get back to some stitching and retreat preparation. We are now on week 10 of the Folk Art Sampler with Art East Quilting and the leaf block released yesterday was a good place to restart this project. The fact that it's an easier block made that an easy decision.

I have cut out a few of these blocks ready for retreat but I need to ramp up my cutting schedule and probably tidy my working space to make cutting out easier. But I now have three weeks complete out of ten. I have already started cutting out the week 2 acorns so that should be the next block to tackle.

 

Friday finish - Summer basket

 

I bought this pattern and the baskets for the other three seasons in a destash. I had taken out my Halloween Terrarium to work on but there's unpicking to be done, so it soon went back in its bag. I thought one of these would be a quick and easy stitch. I used floss from my stash and replaced the light red with a pink and went for turquoise flosses rather than the greener aqua flosses suggested.

I watched the video of how to finish the pillows on Youtube and they are bigger than I expected. With my patchwork experience, they should be quick to finish - famous last words. I have pieced and quilted the cushion front so far. The turquoise fabrics are by Alison Glass and the red is by Libs Elliott.

I plan to finish this cushion and the Dancer by Barbara Ana over the next week. I now need to focus on my Challenge UFO for March which is the Halloween Terrarium by Tiny Modernist.

WIP Wednesday - new start

 

I love a good sewalong and I also love foundation piecing so this latest charitable project by @happysewlucky caught my attention. I have always loved a good stripe too. I am planning to do a 1 to 1 swap with UK quilty friends rather than join in with the official swap. 

I made a test block yesterday and was so annoyed with myself with the mistake in the black and white stripe. This is option B in the pattern, and you cut squares on point which I found very wasteful of the fabric. I will be repeating this B block for a friend but planning to sew the A block to swap as it uses straight cut squares.

Jersey Eisteddfod

 

I was busy all last week with taking in 660+ Needlework and Textile Art pieces for our section of the Festival of Creative Arts. I have a great team of helpers who are there for practically six full days and we are not a young team!!

I like to have a Christmas corner and this year we have two Christmas trees, a tree skirt and lots of Christmas cushions. These tables greet you as you enter the hall.

We always have a great display of quilts which starts with this beauty and moves onto a whole wall of quilts. My husband kindly arranged the quilts, and he knows I like to move through the rainbow, and he did a great job.

We have brilliant senior school textile teachers and the students' creations come in on mannequins which shows the creations off to their best. We did have to use some double-sided tape and pins to keep some of them decent! we group them at the back of display to draw visitors in.

Some of the mannequins are heavy and awkward to move so they are delivered direct to the hall.

We had help from two husbands during the week so on Friday we only spent half the day putting out the entries. Large macrame pieces are probably the hardest to display due to the weight.

Unfortunately, I can't show you the winning pieces until after the show closes, but I did win a trophy. I enter under a false name so that the adjudicator is unaware of any entries from the committee.