Dressmaking pattern tidy up

 

Next on my tidying up schedule was my paper patterns as I had one on the floor that had been printed locally but I was never going to make. Firstly I ordered a triple magazine rack, little did I know that it had to be constructed before use!

I gathered my pattern, books and storage envelopes and have culled a few patterns that I will not make again. Then they all fitted into the magazine holder and are now in my cupboard. I definitely need to sort out my Jersey fabrics soon as I have so much more than I realised and much of that is also on the floor.

Friday finish - TATB shorts

I have made pairs of shorts from this book by Sewing Bee's Tilly and the Buttons several times. One to wear as shorts and two to wear as short pyjamas. I was trying to sort my stretch fabrics last week and came across this print that I'd purchased from By Graziela. Although it is almost too green for my comfort, I made this pair of shorts which are brilliant for wearing around the house in this hot weather. I plan t pair the shorts with wither a navy or pink T-shirt for our holidays.

Although they may not look as if they fit, I have an odd shaped figure and these are very comfortable.

I remembered to include a label and this was from a bag makers box from Studio 7T7.

 

Twice as nice pouch

Yesterday I had a day with no plans or commitments, but I had no yearning to stitch any of my current projects. Do you know that feeling? I moved a few things in my sewing space and found the pattern for this pouch along with the two required zips. I even had a piece of clear vinyl but I would soon realise that it was too small.

I paired a silver waterproof fabric with a dark grey splatter print by Guicy Guice. Even though this is the third version of this pouch that I've sewn mistakes were made! I did however remember to add a small label which I hope is subtle enough for my husband. I plan to give this to my husband, Nick, on his birthday which is the day before we travel to Istanbul. It's a perfect pouch for travelling. Having just pulled out a British passport for this photograph, I realise my new Irish passport isn't where I expected it to be, so finding the passport needs to go on my to do list.

The silver fabric matches the packing pouches that my daughter made for Nick for last Christmas, so this adds to the matching set.

Monday make - Sew and Tell case

In the UK this is the last bank holiday weekend until Christmas. Lizzie was free all weekend, so on Saturday we chatted and sewed over Facebook Messenger. We worked on our joint retreat project. This is the Sew and Tell Case by Rosie Taylor Crafts

I prepped and quilted the outside of the case before retreat and made the tab closure. All of the fabrics are by Ruby Star Society with only a smattering of strawberries. I enjoyed using the Ruby Star selvedges which I cut with one inch of the patterned fabric.

Lizzie and I prepped our vinyl whilst she was at home in July. We now have NO patterned vinyl left in stash so there are all different vinyls throughout the case. I had misread the instructions and thought there were only four pockets but there are four internal pockets and two pockets inside the cover.

We completed all of the pockets at retreat so on Saturday it was just a matter of putting it all together. I may have misread the instructions several times! My outside binding is sewn first to the inside of the case and the internal binding is machined down as I should have sewn it to the side with the vinyl first!

 

Friday Finish - Cassie dress

 

I think this is the third version of the Cassie Dress any Emporia Sewing Patterns that I've finished. The fabric is by Storrs of London which I purchased at Shaukat in London earlier this year. I cut this out last month to take to the Modern Quilt Club retreat whilst I made some progress, it was less than half complete.

I am pleased to have this finished for our trip to Istanbul and cruise next month. I even remembered a sneaky little label on the back of the dress. Just one more retreat make to finish which I will be stitching with Lizzie over Facebook messenger this weekend.

WIP Wednesday - scrap stash plus quilt

National jelly roll day is on the third Saturday of September which happens to coincide with our Guild meeting. We are encouraged to sew a jelly roll on that day. Jelly rolls are not something I purchased so when I saw the scrap stash plus quilt which is a free pattern for subscribing to Emily Denis’s newsletter, I thought I might have a way to participate.

I am planning a rainbow of colours alternated with low volume prints. The notional plan is to cut five pairs of fabrics each week from fabrics to hand. Perfect to combine with Moda Blockheads 6. My only change to the pattern is that I am mixing up the low volume fabrics. I realise that many of my low volume fabrics are directional and need more careful planning when cutting.

I will make this for quilts for care leavers and it will be 42” by 72” or 84 blocks. At ten blocks a week I might finish it for retreat in November when I can donate it.

Wadding tidy up

 

Now that I am feeling more like myself, I have decided to tidy one area of my stash each week. I decided to start with things I’m either working on or which once tidied will have the biggest effect on my very untidy room.

I started with wadding. I have a roll of wadding next to my long arm, a bag of large wadding scraps in the same room, a bag of smaller scraps for when I’m prepping my embroidery projects and leftover backing that needed to be unpicked so as to recycle the wadding attached.

I started by unpicking the Ruby Star backing and wadding. The surplus wadding is just the right size for my embroidery projects. Then I went through the smaller pieces of wadding and pulled out any pieces that were too small and those are bagged and ready to go to a friend. Then the smaller pieces were extracted from the bag of large pieces and rehomed ready for embroidery projects. I recommend the zipper bags that come with new bed pillows for this.

I have reduced the volume a small amount but the benefit is now I have the right sized pieces ready to cut for my embroidery projects.

Next I plan to tackle paper dressmaking patterns, iron on interfacing and my work desk.

Friday Finish - mix it up tee

I'm not sure how my husband always takes my photo when my eyes are closed! This is the Mix It Up Tee by My Handmade Wardrobe which was a free pattern during an online challenge. The biggest challenge for me was choosing the two fabrics.  I also need to challenge myself to put all of my Jersey fabrics away again tidily. I did remember to add a label which I stuck to my sewing machine so there was some chance that it would be remembered before sewing the side seams together.

Hello Summer

This is Hello Summer from Primrose Cottage and was one o their free Friday patterns. I stitched it last month and as summer is coming to an end, I thought that it should be fully finished. 

I backed the piece with iron on interfacing and drew a one-inch margin around the piece. I then basted the mini pom pom trim in four pieces aligning the edge with the drawn margin. I cut off pom poms if they were too close to the corner. i was going to use my zipper foot to stitch the piece into a pillow, but I have mislaid it. I need to tidy my table just in case it's there somewhere!

I think it goes with my summer mug just perfectly. When summer comes I forget the simple joy of feta, water melon and mint salad.

Blockheads 6

 

I wasn't expecting to be back so soon with another Moda Blockheads 6 update, but this block is so large it deserves its own post. Block 11 is designed by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings and is 27! finished. I only have about enough of the black spot that I'm using for the background, to make one more 9" block.

My original plan was for this block to be turquoise, but the other large block is turquoise, so I went with purple instead. I also decided not to worry about the direction of the purple and blue wavy fabric. This took most of Saturday to cut out and complete and I only had to get my seam ripper out twice!

Friday finish - Quilty Wishes

 

MY UFO challenge project for August is Pumpkins and Potions, which I have already completed, so I decided to pull out a Quilty Litte Christmas by Kimberbell Designs. The project is four mini quilts which I plan to make into a Christmas ladder quilt.

My first task was to establish what still needed to be embroidered, find the pattern book and my thread collection I had the blocks for two of the mini quilts completely stitched out. I found both the embellishment kit and the thread collection put away together in a large project bag.

The third mini quilt was stitched out apart from the snowflake and present stamps. My intention was to do a block a day but I was enjoying the process. I had also already combined files in Embrilliance which meant I only had to ut out the fabrics - no computer time.

I might make a few more of the strip of stars from this project as filler strips. 

I then embroidered the whole of the last mini quilt over two days. Those 2" finished blocks are so small.

A ladder quilt is 20" by 60" and these blocks together measure about 20" by 30". I am now going to select some blocks from other projects to add to these. I will definitely be making larger blocks to make quicker progress, but I am thrilled with the progress I've made so far this week.

Moda Blockheads

This week is block 10 of 2025 Moda Blockheads It is designd by Janet Clare, a British designer who was at Festival of Quilts. I had serious FOMO because I didn't go. However, it was the right choice as it took me the week to recover from the retreat. Lizzie went with a new friend, and they had tickets I'd won and had a lovely time.

I am enjoying stash diving and this block uses OG Cotton and Steel on the black background.

I am now just making one block per week and I intend to make it int one or more quilts for Care Leavers. The sewalong continues until November and the blocks are already almost a 36" square. My next block will be turquoise.

July 2025 makes

 July was an odd month with few finishes despite going to the Modern Quilt Club Retreat. I did finish putting the binding on my Folk Art Sampler by Art East Quilting and was able to donate it to Gill for Q4CL.

Olive and Flo Handcraft were the quilt shop at the retreat so I was pleased to be able to tell Saira that my Ruby Star Society Anniversary quilt was complete

I am keeping up with Moda blockheads 6 and it is great to do some deep stash diving or use up scraps combined with the black spotted fabric. I am making only one of each block and will eventually make the blocks into another quilt to donate to Q4CL.

And because no one needs to see me in a pair of shorts, here is the label I added to a pair of Tilly and the Buttons shorts which have kept me cool in July. I think I need another pair.

Folk Sampler

This was an easy finish at the Modern Quilt Club retreat last weekend. I just needed to machine stitch down the binding. Then it was ready to donate to my friend Gill for Quilts for Care leavers.

Hearts of friendship

At Caesarea Quilters on Monday, we were asked to make two hearts to make a lap quilt for a member. I suggested we also add two squares of fabric to alternate with the hearts, so the quilt grows quicker. 

The brief was a blue heart on a white-on-white background. 7" unfinished so they can be trimmed down to 6.5" I almost made the classic mistake and used a white on cream. Fortunately, I spotted my error. I love the combination of the Bonnie & Camille blue fabrics on the Alison Glass background.

I was going to pack this for retreat, but it took less than an hour to complete so it's now ready to be mailed to the organiser.

 

2024 folk sampler

This is the folk sampler 2024 by Art East Quilting. I had fallen out of love with the project and it had been abandoned. I am off to Cleckheaton again for the Modern Quilt Club retreat this weekend so I decided to pull out the project and see how many more blocks would be needed to make it up to the size specified by Quilts 4 Care Leavers.

I laid them out on the bedroom floor and was pleasantly surprised that I had the central medallion pieced as well as a few of the columns. 

The perfect size for Q4CL is 44" x 70" and I was thrilled to realise I just needed on small filler block to bring it up to the right size. I abandoned any other projects and pieced the blocks together.

The top is now pieced together and ready to quilt. I need to find a suitable backing and quilt it over the next two days. Then I will trim it ready to pack for retreat and cut the binding ready to apply at retreat.

 

Rozel quilt

Here are some more details about my project in Make Modern issue 65.  If you're not already a subscriber, you can subscribe here (affiliate link) 

The project uses one layer cake almost completely with just backing, wadding an binding to add.

My 97 year old father accompanied us for a trip to a local beach to take the photographs. He didn't really understand why we were taking photos, but he helped move stones to anchor the quilt as it was very windy and had a hat with a friend of mine who had just finished her morning swim. He enjoyed the trip out but unfortunately passed before I was able to show him the article and project.

Make Modern issue 65

 

Today Make Modern Issue 65 is published, and I have this joyous Ruby Star Society strawberry quilt included as a project. More information about my quilt on Monday. If you're not already a subscriber you can subscribe here (affiliate link)

We'll start at the beginning, given that seems the most logical way to progress. How about this beautiful cover quilt? Shifting Symmetry, designed by Vasudha Govindan features a simple colour scheme and a single block. HSTs and HRTs are all that’s required to make this stunning quilt – proof that sometimes a finished design is much greater than the sum of its parts.​ ​ ​

That's just our cover quilt! Here's a little collage we put together to show you all of the beautiful projects we have just waiting for you in the pages of Issue 65! Quilts Galore!

This issue we meet Makers, Sue Bone and Jennifer Marks, make beautiful and bold quilts, and motivate you to draw inspiration from art into your next quilting project.

Plus ... just by reading this issue, you have a chance to win a fantastic prize! Check out the competition on page 12 and enter for your chance to win for a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of Indelible by Anna Maria Textiles + a $100 Fat Quarter Shop gift card! The competition is open to readers worldwide and the lucky winner will be announced in Make Modern Issue 66.