Friday finish - book sleeve

Making up this book sleeve was not on my bingo card for this week. I honestly planned for it to be a project for the November Modern Quilt Club retreat. However, I received a phone call from our local hospital on Monday, recommending that I cancel my holiday which starts today. That did not put me in a good mood!

I needed a simple project for my sewing session with my daughter over FB messenger. I cut out most of the pieces on Monday ready to sew, which I did on Tuesday morning. I had already sewn the book block from Me Time Delivered, a few weeks ago.

WIP Wednesday - scrap stash plus quilt

This was my jelly roll day project using a jelly roll friendly pattern from Emily Dennis. I have worked on it steadily making ten blocks every week from the fabrics pulled or the Moda blockheads 6 blocks. I started by making a positive and negative block from each fabric, but for the last blocks, I pulled from my scrap bags and did just one block from each fabric.

I still have plenty of yardage of this perfect rainbow striped binding from Quiet Play. I thought this fabric from Rainbow Fabrics was the perfect backing. We bought it at Stitch Festival earlier this year. This quilt will be donated to Quilts for Care Leavers when I'm in the UK in November.

Monday make - Frankie top

 You'd be forgiven for thinking you've seen this top before a I've made the Frankie top by Tilly & the Buttons twice before in the same Chicacheetah fabric from Guthrie and Ghani, but in royal blue and light blue. I need to come up with a plan to use up the scraps of the three colourways.

Having made the top before, you'd think I'd know what to do but I made all the mistakes, lots of unpicking and I even sewed my label into the seam for the sleeve and not the body of the top. However, it is now finished. Disappointingly the fabric is from two print runs so the back has a greyer tinge and the front is pinker. This was highlighted on the website, but I chose to buy just one extra metre.

My resident photographer is back from the UK tonight having visited Matt and Lizzie, so my photos are very basic today. Next project is either trimming and binding a scrappy quilt or making a dress to wear on our forthcoming holiday.

Friday finish - 7t7 autumn challenge

 

This week the autumn challenge with Studio 7T7 has been running on Facebook to make a tote from vide instructions and tips posted daily. The first challenge was to choose fabric for the body and lining. I have been following another challenge with Stash Hub, also this week. This inspired me to look at the leftovers from other projects and I selected these two cotton dressmaking fabrics.

Fortunately, my zippers by the yard are all in one place so I chose this celestial blue zipper but not wish I'd chosen a star zipper pull. The only purchase I made was the iron on fleece for adding to the main fabric.

Emma demonstrated how to add a professional element with rivets on the bag handle. Unfortunately I couldn't in them this week. I will look for them once we are back from holiday in October. The house will be messy before we leave as we are having three floors revarnished whilst we are away, so a lot of things will be temporarily stored in the kitchen and lounge. 

What to work on next? The dress for my holidays, a quilt that is almost complete or my new cross stitch project.

WIP Wednesday - Moda Blockheads 6

 

This is block 14 of Moda Blockheads and was released last week. I am disappointed in my choie of fabrics, which are very pretty but it doesn't fit into the aesthetic of the other blocks as there's so little background in the block. For now, it's gone in my charity donation pile. 

I also made up some scrap stash plus blocks from the fabric that I used and as I only needed six of each colourway, I now need to focus on turquoise. The last Moda blockheads 6 block pattern is released on 19 November so there are plenty of other blocks to be sewn.

Sorting my stash of stretch fabrics

I definitely have more stretch fabrics than I thought!! However, they are now corralled into a tub (must put the lid on) and I went through all of the scraps, and any reasonable sized scraps were bagged up an listed on Ecycle. They were claimed in minutes.

Out of the larger scraps of three fabrics I sewed up a pair of shorts to use as pyjamas.  The pink hearts fabric was made into a dress about two years ago.

I really wish the label said the cat's pyjamas but it looks very cute.

Post finish tidy up

I will admit that usually I am very lazy when I finish a project an the remains of the project remain strewn around my work space. I don't know what came over me when I finished A Quilty Little Xmas, but I tidied up!

I started with my basket of Christmas fabrics and donated many of the scraps to a friend who loves improv. An overflowing basket and two bags of scraps were sorted to half a basket with a part jelly roll cut for a small throw. Perhaps this might become a retreat project. I just need to add a background to the bag. I have also added some Halloween fabrics to the basket and rehomed my low volume fabrics to its own basket.

I also got out all of my Glide threads that I own as well as the ones used in A Quilty Little Xmas and sorted them by colour. Even the bobbins I'd wound for the Easter event last year were tidied away with the correct colour spool. I just need to reorder the colour Linen as its running low.

I had planned to throw away scraps of iron on interfacing, but they came in very useful to glue large scraps of light interfacing together when I finished the bolt of interfacing but still had some blocks to stitch.

A good start to tidying my space, even if I'm the only person who would be able to spot an improvement.

Apple mini quilt

This was meant to be a pallet cleanser after finishing a Quilty Christmas. However, I caused myself more challenges than I planned and the project took longer to complete than I expected. My mistakes included taking my eye off the embroidery machine and then the foot became trapped under the wadding. I also took out a square from the embroidery hoop thinking that it was complete, but it wasn’t, I still had the embroidery of the pips and stalk to do. I managed to get it back on the machine but not quite in the right place. I now know how to reposition the design which would have led to a more accurate finish block.

My mistakes also meant that I ran out of interfacing! My local needlework store was open, but I wanted to purchase another complete bolt of this interfacing. I managed to use scraps of iron on interfacing to glue sufficient numbers of pieces together to make four more blocks. Now I have absolutely no light interfacing left.

Quilty Little Christmas

 

Number 11 was selected for this month's Guild UFO challenge. Fortunately, I had worked steadily on stitching the blocks from the A Quilty Little Christmas by Kimberbell.  I decided to make the four small projects into one ladder quilt. I added embroidered blocks from Jingle All the Way and Cup of Cheer which are also Kimberbell projects.

I love the little details on the project and love how the quilting lines on this star block line up with the V. I couldn't have planned it better had I tried.

The quilt ladder is now on order as it has become available on Amazon UK. I am thrilled to have this finished. Time to put away fabrics etc and tidy my sace.

Friday finish - Q4CL

This pretty pastel work in progress was on offer at a Monday group meeting earlier in the year. As no one else wanted it, I decided to see if I could make it into a quilt to donate to Quilts for Careleavers (Q4CL). It was constructed of 5" pastel squares with a 5" border on two sides.

The original quilt was square, so I got out my trusty tape measure and started to see how to approach the project.  I removed two rows to bring the width of the quilt down to 10 squares deep and I removed the borders. Unpicking is so boring! I was delighted however to find that the two rows could be added to the bottom of the quilt to bring it up to the required height (70").

I didn't have any pastel backings in my stash, so I pieced together two butterfly fabrics that had been donated by Hantex Fabrics for backings for charity quilts. I cut the two 5" border strips into 2.5" strips which was perfect for the binding which I machine stitched down.

 

September plans

I finished more in August than I had expected. My hemoglobin is under better control, so I am not so tired. Nick is away for ten days in September so what can I achieve?

My UFO challenge for September is to make a ladder quilt from the blocks for this project. Fortunately, I have already made good progress with the blocks, and I now need to come up with a firm plan to add more blocks. I have made some extra blocks but without a clear plan.

Side by side with this project I'll work on plus blocks from stash and also the Moda Blockheads 6.

My priority for garment sewing should be the Florence dress by Merchant & Mills. However I have two simple projects cut out ready to overlock, so I will start with some scrappy pyjama shorts and then a Chicacheetah top.

I haven't made much cross-stitch progress, but I plan to work on the Winter Quaker by Primrose Cottage. If I finish that I will work on Frosty Tiny Town by Heart in hand.

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.