Friday finish - Focus Finder

 

If you love stationery, then you'll love The Focus Finder by Arabesque Scissors. The pattern is available for free here for a short time. A sewalong has been going on these last two weeks and I finished mine this morning.

My version is using Ruby Star Society fabrics throughout. Fortunately, my local fabric store had the petite D rings and lobster clasps. The only thing I would change is the product I used to firm up the whole project, I should have used something even firmer and iron on.

I have one to finish for my daughter and I'm in a quandary whether to stitch it at home where I have all of the equipment for snaps and rivets to hand or whether to add it to my nonexistent retreat pile for next Thursday. I also need to source some cute notepads.

June 2024 achievements

Very few of my finishes this month were on my to do list at the start of the month. What does that say about me? Easily distracted perhaps.

Snap Happy by Pen and Paper Patterns was my largest finish for the month and I love it.

This was my quickest finish as it was an orphan block from someone else's stash which I turned into a mini quilt for SCBU.

A mystery sewalong using my newish embroidery machine to make this Christmas pillow. Patterns by Kimberbell and instructions from Cristin Creates Facebook group.

I finished Halloween Tiny Town which was our Guild's UFO piece for the month. Tomorrow I'm going to take it to the framer as none of the pieces I was thinking of using to finish the piece, quite worked out.

Wrist wraps for my daughter's birthday which she requested. She appreciated the Ruby Star Society canvas that I used.

And I have finished a long standing customer quilt which has troubled me and the original quilting had to be unpicked when the quilt was 60% complete. Hooray.

July 2024 plans

I have a retreat in Leeds this month so I need some achievable projects to take with me. Our guild UFO for this month has been drawn and it is Boo, which I thought about working on last week.

The last block for the 2024 Folk Sampler was released yesterday so I have put the blocks back on my design wall and I will be cutting out one block a day to try and finish it in July.

I started the Kimberbell Lucky Us cushion and I am waiting for some product to arrive to finish the last three blocks. I hope to take this to retreat for an easy finish.

The weather has heated up here in Jersey so I thought I would make some shorts. The fabric is washed and I have had the pattern printed locally which my husband is collecting for me today.

I thought that stitching up a strawberry pattern during Wimbledon would be fun, so have chosen this strawberry jam pattern by Tiny Modernist and will kit this up tomorrow as the specialty threads have arrived.

Another project to make at retreat is this Crafter's Tool Bag by Kandou Crafts. I saw this being made on the Okla Roots YouTube channel so will refer back to that video if necessary. No fabrics have been chosen yet which is the first step so I can cut out the pieces ready for retreat.

My first job this month though, must be finishing a customer quilt that I unpicked whilst my long arm was away being serviced.