Friday finish - True Bias Mave skirt

I won the Mave Skirt pattern by True Bias at the recent Modern Quilt Club retreat. The fabric was a purchase at 2023 Festival of Quilts from Rosenbergs. I also have the same fabric with pink hearts.

This was WIP number 2 for our Guild UFO challenge and although the number hasn't been chosen yet, I can make a top to match when it is drawn.

I now need to buy a navy or red summer top to go with the skirt as the only red top I have is a long sleeve shirt and cardigan.

I did add a very small "Not for sale" label by Kylie and the machine on the front of the skirt which was inserted into the seam of the waistband. The lining is heavier than I would have liked but the pattern specified a 60" wide fabric for the lining and actually 45" would have been enough.

WIP Wednesday - how do you store your WIPs?

 

 

I have to admit I'm a lover of the big strong zip bags from Amazon as you can see what's inside the bag. I am planning to do a machine embroidery sewalong in June. I have the CD and have printed out the instructions which are comprehensive. This morning, I started to pull some Christmas fabrics from my stash. I am not following the colours in the pattern as I'm not a fan of plaids, green and brown.

Fortunately, my Christmas fabrics are in one basket, neatly folded in colour order. I wish the rest of my stash was this tidy. I was hoping to be able to use some of my scraps for the project but only two of the many fabrics came from the scrap bag and I also chose several spotted fabrics from my general stash. I id take the opportunity to weed out some 1930s style prints and some smaller scraps.

I haven't yet chosen my feature / backing fabric yet, but I have put some choices in the zip bag. The bench pillow features a ruffle which I'm going to change for some jumbo ric rac which has been in my stash for possibly a decade.

I don't generally label my zipped pouches. The exception to that is my Guild UFO challenge projects which are labelled, numbered and put in a Really Useful Box so they're easy to find.

Monday Make - La Vie en Rose Nantes

La Vie en Rose Nantes is a foundation pieced panel that I started at Pour L'Amour du Fil i Nantes in April. The pattern is by Veruschka Zarate. I focused on finishing this piece on Saturday and I got it finished. The piece was already complete, and I added a small border of the red around the whole piece. 

Included in the class kit was a trio of Wonderfil Decobob threads which coordinated with the project. I used these threads to do some straight line quilting 1/4" apart. I started with red at the top, then teal, then yellow. The quilting finished again with red at the bottom. I transitioned from one colour to another by adding random lines of the new colour.

I put the quilted panel aside and did a stash dive to find something, preferably in red to use on the ack of the cushion. There were slim pickings as I needed more than a half yard of fabric. I did find this ombre fabric which I don't remember purchasing and was surprised to fin chunk o the fabric cut out of the middle of the fabric. However, I did have enough of the fabric, and I closed the cushion with my usual snaps.

I was proud as punch to find this Kyie and the Machine label to put on the back of the cushion and I remembered to sew it on early in the construction of the cushion. I have even found a suitable label for my next project.

Today is the last of three Bank Holidays, so I am going to focus on finishing the Mave Skirt despite only three hours of sleep. How wrong could this turn out? Then tomorrow I must unpick a customer quilt on my longarm a the machine will be going in for a service in ten days' time.

 

Friday finish - 2024 collector's heart

I had made good progress on the 2024 Collector's Heart from Heart in Hand which I purchased from Peakside Needleworks earlier in the year. The pattern came with the required fabric and the butterfly button, but I was surprised that there was no thread. Fortunately, I had all the called for colours apart from one which I substituted with Weeks dye Works merlot. I had to stop my stitching at the end of April as I ran out of Classic Colorworks Licorice Red, Peakside Needleworks to the rescue again after they had a short holiday.

A little bit of focus this week and it was soon complete. However, progress on framing the piece came to an abrupt halt as I have no double-sided tape. Today my car is going in for some work discovered at a recent service so I will have to wait until Saturday to pick some up. Meanwhile, my husband has kindly got out the blackboard paint to paint two finishing pieces. Apparently, it takes three days for it to dry completely so I will have to be patient!!

We have a bank holiday weekend this weekend, so I plan to focus on one WIP per day to make some progress:

Mave skirt - cut out

Snap happy - ready to add sashing and borders

La Vie en Rose Nantes by Veruschka Zarate - extra borders to add perhaps, before quilting.

Customer quilt which needs a row unpicked

 

WIP Wednesday - Snap Happy

This week for the Sewalong of Snap Happy by Pen and Paper Patterns, we should be stitching up photo blocks. I was so excited about all of the Ruby Star Society fabrics that I fussy cut for the blocks, that I immediately stitched ALL of the photo blocks.

There are a lot of strawberry prints, yogurt pots and pink. I decided to clear my design boards of the Folk Art Sampler blocks and lay out the blocks.

I had some spare time one morning and decided to cut the borders next and it is such a simple layout that the rows were soon put together. I then forced myself to put aside this project and focus on the Mave skirt. All is cut out and the top layer of the skirt and pockets are complete but that's as far as I got as my machine just stopped working. The Janome dealer found there was a spring missing so has ordered the part and I hope to get it back this week.

In the meantime, I pressed the rows and cut the sashings ready for when I have my machine back. I anticipate that this will be finished before the true Bias Mave skirt.

Monday make - plaid all year

 

We have been holidaying in Guernsey since last Thursday with my 96 year old father and we are travelling home this afternoon. I brought two projects with me and for once I actually worked on Plaid all year - cast a spell by Hands on Design. This is my Guild UFO project for May.

I like to start in the middle of the project and work down to the bottom, up to the top and then left and right. I am a poor counter so need to constantly check my counting. I have managed during this holiday to reach all of the edges and start one of all of the motifs. Only the row of flasks is complete.

I don’t pack any extra items in my project bags when I travel. We have travelled by boat with my little VW Polo so I left extra patterns in the project bag. I bring with me the fabric, threads on a book ring and a working photocopy of the chart. Other essentials include hand cream, lip slave, thread gloss, my pretty pink cohana snips and my needle case. All of the small items fit nicely into a free Moda zip pouch. I must focus on finishing this piece and a customer quilt this week.

We explored Candie Gardens on our own whilst Dad was at church on Sunday and on Friday we went to Herm by boat. Dad passed on going to Herm which was wise as it was very hard on our legs and at one point I slid and ended on my bottom! I am looking forward to getting home but need to go straight out this evening to a quilt group meeting.

Friday finish - Bee SAL

 

I do enjoy a good Flosstube video on Youtube and one of my Favourites is Helen D who is East Coast Crafter on Instagram. The pattern was purchased from Cobweb Corner and Helen has thoughtfully chosen a chart which the designer was happy to make available in PDF format for overseas stitchers. I believe the PDF of the pattern can now be purchased direct from the designer, Erin Eizabeth Designs.

The threads are all DMC which I can purchase locally, and I chose a 32 count fabric called eureka by Fox and Rabbit instead of the called for 28 Count. 

My sewing machine is being repaired and my long arm is in time out, so I have focused on finishing this project for the last few days. I have a nice black frame from Flying Tiger and some yellow honeycomb fabric somewhere in my stash, so I hope to frame this before the end of the month.

WIP Wednesday - Snap Happy

I'd better be snappy with this quilt along as it finishes on 4 June.  The difficult bit for me for the camera block was choosing colours. I have a lot of turquoise and pink in my photo blocks so started with that and used the same cream as the border for the photo blocks.

There are many different pieces to cut for the block, so I utilised the labels provided in the pattern along with many clips. As the units for the camera block grew, it was easier to find the correct pieces. Not that mistakes weren't made, of course I cut two when I needed only one in two instances. Never mind, the pieces will be added to my Ruby Star Society scrap bag.

I focused on cutting this out and piecing it on Saturday morning as we had no plans for the day. Concentrating on only one project works again. I even had time to cut some of the sashing too. The photo blocks are already pieced, so the next stage is to lay out the blocks and decide on their placement. They include several strawberry, yogurt and Halloween fabrics.

Monday Make and take

It is always difficult to come up with make and takes or tutorials for our monthly guild meetings. Sometimes you don't even need something new. Last month I used Lori Holt's instructions to make a design board. I have done this demo multiple times before but there's always someone new in the group. I made this one with sparkly binding and it will be added to this month's raffle.

I saw that Kylie and The Machine had a free pattern for a scissors case which seemed like another good demo. I definitely need to practise my binding skills on curves. Instead of Velcro I used a snap to close the pouch.

Friday finish - Zip n Grip bag

Lizzie chose the Zip n Grip for us both to work on at the Modern Quilt Club retreat in March. The designer, Sew yours estimates that you can make this in four hours including the cutting out. I have spent mor like fourteen hours on the project and it very nearly defeated me. Lizzie finished hers in a day at retreat, whereas I put mine aside.

I did find the perfect binding in my stash for binding the base. I bought it in Glasgow from Fabric Bazaar because I'd never seen two colour binding before. There were mounted policemen near the store which intrigued us. There was a match that day between the two biggest Glasgow football teams - Rangers and Celtic. The shop was located near the stadium for one of the teams but the game was being played away and the team local to the shop had won. 

I am very pleased to have this finished, now I need to work on quilting a customer quilt.

WIP Wednesday- 2024 Collector’s heart

Tomorrow is our second bank holiday - Liberation Day but today I'm busy with an appointment with the dental hygienist followed by a Covid vaccination and a quiz this evening. Busy busy!

This is how much I'd achieved on the 2024 collector's heart from Heart in Hand before we went to Nantes and it came back without an extra stitch having been added! The 2023 version came with the required thread, linen and button, but there were no threads with the 2024 pattern. However, in my small stash I did find all of the required threads apart from one which I decided to substitute for merlot by Weeks Dye Works.

I have made good progress this week but have now run out of red licorice so I need to place an order so that I can finish the piece this month. I can probably do an evening's more stitching and then it will need to be set aside.

This month's chosen UFO is Cast a Spell by Hands on Design. It will be a quick stitch which I'll start this week but first I need to review the DMC substitutions for the specified Cosmo threads to make sure I like the colour intensity on the black.

 

Monday make - quilter’s tote 3

Today is the first Bank Holiday of three that we have during May in Jersey. We have an extra bank holiday to celebrate the liberation of the islands in 1945 on 9 May.

You'd think I'd be taking it easy today, but this morning we're taking my aunt back to her house for a visit and I hope she decides to put the house on the market. An empty house is an expense for her. This afternoon I have a meeting which I'm told will be quick, I have my doubts!

You might think that you've seen this bag before! This is the third My Quilter's Tote by Zeriano that I've made so far. I quilted the panels for two bags at once which was very efficiently done on my long arm with a digital pantograph called Circuits by Anne Bright.

I even remembered to stitch a label from Sew Anonymous into the binding. I have taken out a monthly subscription to The Label Collective and the first month came with a lovely big sticky label. where to put it? I decided that the Aurifil box that I use to store the feet for my Janome Atelier 7 might be a good place as it might remind me to use a label in every project.

The humper jumper that came with my machine came in very useful with the thickness of the bag seams and binding. I didn't know what it was until someone did a demonstration at a guild meeting.

April 2024 achievements

Another light month for finishes but I have quilted four customer quilts, had a London hospital appointment which was a day trip, six days in France and I published my first pattern.

 

Our April project for our Guild UFO challenge was number 7 which for me was the September Cottage by Country Cottage Needleworks. I completed this early in the month.

I finished a class block from my trip to France into another mini quilt for SCBU. I need to follow up presenting our group's contributions again this week.

And last but by no means least, I finished a second sample of my Corbiere Cushion which will be released in my Payhip store on 1 May. If you sign up to my newsletter there will be a discount code for this pattern for the whole of May,

May 2024 plans

 I definitely achieve more when I focus on one project at a time, so here's what I'm planning to work on this month, allowing for a five day trip to Guernsey with my 96 year old father. There was no way we were allowing him to go by himself.

La Vie en Rose Nantes by Veruschka Zarate is completely pieced, so I just need to decide whether to make it into a wall hanging or a cushion.

I completed one of these Quilter's Totes last month and I have one which is quilted and needs to be put together. 

The Mave skirt which looks like a straight forward pattern which I need to trace first.

I have the Zip and Grip pouch still to finish, should be another quick finish, in theory.

I signed up for another sewalong, I was powerless to resist. The pattern is by Pen and Paper Patterns. I did have a polaroid style camera when I was younger so this spoke to me and it is perfect for featuring some Ruby Star fabrics.