Prepping for retreat

 

There's just over a week to go until I'm back at the Modern Quilt Club retreat at the Gomersal Park Hotel. Usually I have lots of projects packed, but this time I am packing fewer projects and acknowledging that I can no longer speed sew with any accuracy all day.

The first project that I've packed is the next border for the Liminal Quilt by Jo Avery for Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I think this would be a good project for Saturday as I should be able to finish it in a day. Soon the borders move into appliqué which will be much slower!

November's Stash Bee mama is Kay and she's trialing this block. Love it! Whatever Kay chooses, I will prep on Sunday and stitch it at retreat on the Friday.

Adamsews was showing off the new Tula Pink Legendary lawns on Instagram this afternoon. I caved and ordered two different fabrics for another Frida Shirt. It has already been despatched and I hope it makes a quick journey across the English Channel so that I can prewash the fabric before retreat.

Christmas progress

Despite a trip to Accident and Emergency on Saturday, I have finished quilting Jingle All the Way and Lizzie’s table runner and placemats. I have also trimmed the pieces ready for binding.

I had prepped the binding earlier from a red and pink dotty fabric. However I think I will change to use the Ruby Star Society starry fabric used for the outside border.

I now need to:

Add binding to the quilt;

Embroider three tags for the presents

Add bows to the three presents. Unfortunately, I think I may have used the fabric needed for the bows for other projects. I have one of the fabrics already to hand.

This is my October UFO for our group’s UFO challenge, so I need to complete this project before binding the placemats and table runner for Lizzie.

Multitasking

I always thought I could muti task but if I sewed leaders and enders, I always ended in a muddle. One place where I can multitask is on my long arm.  I loaded up a red and white backing with scraps of wadding and quilted five of the six place mats for Lizzie's Christmas present. It was tempting to also quilt the table runner at the same time, but I resisted. The scale of the quilting for the runner will be slightly smaller. I may take these to the November retreat to bind them.

Next on my machine will be my October Challenge UFO. Cutting it a little fine! I need to add some borders to the piece and then it can be stitched in the ditch. There are a few decorations to be embroidered but we have a storm threatened tomorrow so I can see a few days spent at home.

Q4CL star quilt

 

I now have all of my Stash Bee blocks and have made them into one ladder quilt and one quilt for Care leavers. I can donate the Q4CL at the retreat in two weeks' time. I used a digital pantograph called Malachite which is quick as there's no overstitching and I used Superior Threads in White Linen.

Net on machine will be some Christmas projects. I have started quilting the table runner and placemats for Lizzie and I will use the same backing to complete a Kimberbell project. First of all, I need to add borders to that quilt.

More Christmas preparations

I have been planning to make these cross-stitch ornaments for my daughter, Lizzie for two years. There are six pieces in the Polar Plunge series and I even have the wooden frames to mount the pieces onto. I made a fatal mistake last year and bought oil paint instead of quick drying acrylic paint.

I got the project out of storage two weeks ago to work on at my Wednesday morning group. I have Penguin Pair completely stitched but decided not to work on Whale Hello There as there were no big blocks of colour to work on, just lots of counting, which I know is not my strong point.

Instead, I started Polar Bear Peek and I have made good progress. I think my plan will be to finish stitching the two pieces that are nearing completion, pick up some scrapbooking paper either here or in Bradford in two weeks' time so that I can complete three to gift this Christmas.

That will leave me Wally the Walrus, Narwhal (PDF pattern) and Puffin Party to complete next year.

Christmas progress

 

Thrilled to have six place mats and one table runner sewn together. Lizzie likes greens, turquoise and blue so I use those colours for the presents.

My dilemma is whether to load this onto my long arm or to wait a few more days to see if my last two stash bee blocks turn up. I have the backing for these blocks already loaded. I know  that the day after I take the fabric off my machine, that the blocks will turn up. :)

Christmas plans

My daughter, Lizzie dropped a very unsubtle hint last week about what she'd like for Christmas - table mats and a table runner. I made four mats for Matt last Christmas as we celebrated at his home, but this year we will be going to Lizzie's home in Bradford.

I have purchased this pattern from Primrose Cottage here. Had I looked at the other options, I could have bought the cheaper table runner pattern instead. Never mind, I'm ready to stash dive into my blues, greens and teals to cut this out tomorrow. I will probably start with the larger presents as I only need to make to blocks.

Stash bee ladder quilt

 

I finished my ladder quilt using some of the stash bee quilt blocks. Had I done some preplanning I would have asked for 9" and 6" blocks instead of 12" blocks! However, it does mean that when the last two blocks arrive, I will have sufficient 12" blocks to make a sunny quilt for Quilts for care leavers.

I used a Karlee Porter star design to do the quilting with a variegated yellow thread from Superior Threads. However, I did lose at thread chicken, so I have a finished cone and substituted a Glide thread for half a row. I am 

October stash bee

 

This morning I retrieved my scrap basket from the cupboard. Lisa had asked for blocks using blues and low volumes. Fortunately, she wanted a scrappy look so I managed to cut all of the pieces from the scrap bags. Very satisfying!

The instructions were very clear and apart from some mistakes that I made in cutting out the thin strips it was an easy make. I could wait until the November retreat to give these blocks to Lisa, however I think I will get them in the post next week.

Next on my to-do list is to quilt my stash bee ladder quilt.

Barbara Ana seasons

 

Delighted to collect this finished piece from the framer this week. My favourite is still summer with the strawberry headdress.

Liminal quilt BOM 4

 

I have had a very productive day and finished month four of the Liminal quilt by Jo Avery. I have had a week of disturbed sleep, but last night I had a full night's sleep and feel much more energised.We have one more pieced border before to applique borders. Those will be slower to complete!

I had to pivot for the corner block as I have no more left of the lighter grey so I substituted the darker grey.

The magazine hasn't given instructions on putting the quilt together yet, but I know that I am better to do that as I go along. All of the blocks are already sashed so have worked it out for myself.

Spooky

 

My daughter, Lizzie, left this quilt behind for me to quilt. Hubby is visiting Matt and Lizzie next Friday in the UK so will be delivering it back to her. I am sure she'll have it bound ready for Halloween. Lizzie has drafted many of the blocks herself and I particularly like the potion bottles and the cauldron.

The backing is from a duvet cover. The quilt is quilted with a digital design called Nightmare by Anne bright in a dark grey thread.

Time to make some plans

 

It is fair to say that the time to plan the size of blocks needed for my ladder quilt would have been before requesting the blocks. I now realise I can only fit a few 12" blocks into the ladder quilt.

I now have a plan and have made two 6" woven stars to add to the blocks sewn by friends, and I need to make four 9" star blocks to complete the project. My plan is to make two Ohio stars and two other stars.

I also have sufficient blocks to make a quilt to donate to Quilts for Care leavers. I have two blocks still to come, and I made one further star to make a 4 by 6 block quilt which fits the charity's guidelines. It would be nice to finish these over the next week, as my next customer quilt is delayed and I'm currently quilting a Halloween quilt for my daughter. Then I might have time to quilt these next. I need to look through my stash of backing fabrics to see if I have anything suitable.

Vesta Quilt

 

The Vesta Quilt pattern by Julia Wachs is a customer's magnum opus. It is 85" square using a combination of foundation piecing and hand applique. The backing is the perfect dark teal grunge fabric. The thread used for the quilting is dark grey and works just perfectly with the quilt

Next on my to do list is to work on piecing my stash bee quilt tops and also load my daughter's Halloween quilt on the long arm. The next customer quilt due in, isn't scheduled to be delivered yet, so time to do Lizzie's quilt before my husband, Nick, goes to see her at the beginning of October.

The seasons by Barbara Ana

 

We are only halfway through September and I have finished my UFO Challenge for this month which was Summer by Barbara Ana. I particularly love summer's strawberry headdress.

I am going to have this professionally framed and dropped it off to the framer's yesterday and it will be ready for collection next Thursday. I love this simple system.

I am not sure what to work on next as I am awaiting blocks for the stash bee from one person and think I will be able to make a ladder quilt and a quilt to donate to Quilts for Care Leavers from the lovely blocks made by quilty friends.

Liminal quilt update

 

I am waiting for some thread to be delivered so that I can complete a customer quilt, so I decided that today, I should unpack my new sewing machine and put together the Liminal quilt so far. I think the next installment in Love Patchwork and Quilting may be sent to subscribers next week.

The instructions for block 2 tell you to cut a 24.5" strip which is impossible from the fat quarter included in the kit. I have reluctantly pieced together the two 1" borders and the join isn't obvious. I am concerned that fabric P may be in a later block but that is a problem for future me. The next border on this medallion quilt looks a little like impro forks.

UFO Challenge September 2026

Summer by Barbara Ana has been my focus over this weekend. I completed the gorgeous strawberry headdress on Saturday and progressed to the fishes on the left-hand side. I have now progressed to the right-hand side and I'm excited to see it finished.

Don't they look great together. A slightly darker fabric might have made the white pop more, but in real life the white is more visible. I plan to continue working on this piece this week, whilst quilting a second quilt for a customer.

 

Customer quilts

I have finished quilting the first of two quilts for a customer. This is a classic spider's web pattern and the customer asked me to choose the pattern and thread. I used a cream thread and a digital pattern called malachite which picks up the print on the dark blue fabric.

My plan is to load the customer's second quilt onto my long arm this weekend, ready to quilt it on Monday. This weekend I will stitch the strawberry section of my UFO challenge cross stitch piece.

September 2026 UFO challenge

 

This is probably my UFO challenge piece with the most work to be done and what I had done, I soon found was one stitch out. It is summer by Barbara Ana ddesigns. My counting is not the best. I decided that I needed to focus on this piece as daily goals were not working for me. On Saturday I worked across the bottom of the piece to the base of the neck It is not quite complete, but I am added to it whilst working on the face when I had half a thread left.

On Sunday I worked on the face and hair and some thread colours are complete which is exciting. Once this summer lady is finished, the four seasons will be complete and ready for framing. I am planning to start on the strawberries on top of the head. I have two customer quilts ready to be quilted this week and I can put some more stitches in whilst the computerised machine does it thing.

Stash Bee Bock of the Month

 

August is definitely over and it's much cooler, allowing us to get back to our sewing rooms. I've had three lovely packages this week. Three more are in the post with one more to follow. I love all of the fabrics - Karen Lewis, Lizzy's House and Alison Glass seem popular choices to us.

Don't the blocks received so far look great together. I think I'll have enough to make a ladder quilt and perhaps two quilts to donate for Quilts for Care Leavers.

I received two customer quilts on Monday and will start working on them today, then I have two more to call in. I don't like too many piling up as it makes me anxious. I also have a table runner to quilt for Lizzie and then my star quilts towards the end of the month.