It's a good day

Thank you to Jenny who helped me make progress with binding my Deckade the Halls quilt at our Guild last night. Many hands do indeed make light work. Ella had also brought her version along with a lovely cream / gold background in more traditional fabrics. Having them side by side illustrated how different fabrics can make the same pattern look so different.

 

The two weekly blocks have been lovely to make and now it's ready for Christmas.

 

All of the blocks are lovely from the mugs of cocoa to the wreaths and presents.

Hanging out the Christmas stockings and decorating the tree with ornaments.

 And eating a delicious gingerbread man. I am delighted with how mine has come out with it's modern choice of fabrics from whatever I had in my stash that I thought would go with the blocks already made. All tied together with the snowflake white on white background from Moda.

Now I'm in the Christmas spirit, I think I'll finish the squares for my knitted Christmas bunting. Just two left to knit, I think. And thank you to Matthew for holding up my quilt. He had just returned from successfully passing his driving theory test, next task is to book some driving lessons.



No sewing at the moment

I am full of a cold and feeling sorry for myself. I hope I am better by tomorrow as I am off to Guernsey for two days of geocaching with Jane. I am doing some knitting and sofa surfing today, so have made a few more squares of bunting.

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Confidence

Thank you to Betty for her unswerving confidence that not only would I be unable to resist starting the bunting (correct) but that I can finish it in one week (LOL). I might have made one more bunting square on Sunday had the electricity not gone off ten minutes before the end of Downton Abbey. Talk about bad timing.

 

 

 

Yesterday I managed to complete one square of week 4 of The Frosted Pumpkin's autumn sampler. It was a busy day with a literary luncheon which took three hours of the day. We were invited onto top table with Lucinda Lambton who talked about lavatories!! The a music lesson but no shape and polish for me as I'd cancelled this week's appointment instead of next week's. Blame my age. Then I was the speaker at St Martin's WI in the evening. I was very nervous but it seemed to go down well.

 

 

Today is a whirl of Zumba and picking up a freezer full of meat from town. I'll also take my Halloween cross stitch to be framed and I need to do some banking. Oh dear, I also need to finish our WI accounts for the auditor tomorrow, I guess there'll be no sewing until this evening at the earliest.

 



I must resist

 

Claire has already finished knitting two of her Christmas bunting squares. I must be strong and resist until I've finished my autumn sampler. However it'll be a good Wednesday morning project as it's small and portable.

 



Autumn sampler week 3

 

You might be asking yourself, I don't remember seeing weeks one and two. And you'd be right. Somehow I didn't buy two of the thread colours so week one's progress stalled which rolled on into week

two. However the good news is that I have completed all of week three and can work on the earlier weeks today before week four is released tomorrow.

Last week's little blocks included sock knitting, an autumnal house, that makes you want to move right in, a girl playing in the leaves, pumpkin cupcakes (what a good idea) and apple pie.

I think I'll go and work on block 8 now which is destined to be a scarecrow in a corn field. Only a week until the Christmas projects are released and although I have won both projects, I will only do one of them.

 

Amanda has shared part of the borders for the twelve days of Christmas on the Facebook group. So cute.

 

Back from Knit & Stitch

Our mini break to Knit & Stitch is over with just a few photos to share. I didn't buy a lot. I went with a list and other than the knitted bunting kit, pretty much kept to plan. On Wednesday we enjoyed watching a taping of loose women at the ITV studios on the south bank and next door we found a lovely handbag shop. Claire was kind enough to buy my Christmas present. Down Regent Street we stopped in Anthropologie where I bought the red and white utensil pot.

 

The magazine subscriptions were a bargain, three issues for £1 and another issue to take with you along with a shopping bag and three balls of wool.

 

Needle threaders, thread magic, sparkly cotton for cross stitching and a few typography fat quarters.

 

 

Lastly, knitted Christmas bunting kit, and Claire has one as her early Christmas gift from me. I have bought the required needles today so I am ready to start but need to get my cross stitching up to date.



Slow progress

Despite Nick having been away for over a week and being free during the day I seem to have got very little accomplished in all aspects of day to day life.



Today I have decided to focus on a client quilt. This belongs to Alvis and is for a granddaughter who has gone off blue and now prefers pink! So Alvis took advantage of this to pink up the quilt with some appliqué flowers to cover a small burn mark.


I sewed on the binding on my Deckade the Halls quilt at our Guild UFO day on Sunday but I was also teaching a complete novice to make some blocks, so the binding was all I achieved. I hope to hand stitch the binding tomorrow evening as part if Friday Night with Friends.

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Halloween sampler week 3

 

So this week, the final three squares of the Halloween sampler have been released and we have eyeballs, eerie and ninja. I fixed the mistake I made last week on one of the lollipops and it's now ready for framing.

 

 

 

The first five blocks of the autumn sampler were also released yesterday so I have something else to occupy me on a Monday. Tomorrow we have an all day sewing session so I plan to restart my quilt as you go bag.



FQR bee for September

 

 

Moira requested the canoe block and kindly provided fabric from the Glimma range by Lotta Jansdotter for Windham fabrics and the printed foundations. There wasn't quite enough fabric to make the stripes go in the same direction, but I think the overall look is good.

 

We got off very lightly this month, next month is going to be more tricky as we have to choose what to make to go with a theme.




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Halloween sampler II

The pattern for week 2 was released yesterday and allowing for three hours of playing canasta in the afternoon, I was pleased to get it all done in one day. It's coming together nicely.




I understand the more elaborate frames will be a feature of the seasonal patterns in 2014. Not that I have finished the 2013 spring sampler yet. Right, time to get moving and work on my Deckade the Halls quilt which just needs putting together as all the blocks are now complete.

September woodland sampler

You would have thought with four child free days, I would have a bit more to show. Nick has been at home ill and I've lost my mojo. However I'm now ready for week two of the Halloween sampler tomorrow.

Calling all honey bees

And it's finished. I was the bee mama for the FQR honey bees in July 2012, not all blocks came in immediately but I have had sufficient blocks made for about six months. I managed to get it quilted in the few days before leaving for the 2013 Fat Quarterly Retreat and zig zagged the edges of the quilt to take it with me.

It is now bound and has one hanging sleeves, one of which incorporated the siggie squares I received.

As I can't count I had some extra blocks and bits which I pieced into the backing. I also hand stitched the writing on a block to make a label.

 

 I love all of the blocks, here you can see the quilting in a design called Japanese clouds.

 

One daughter dropped off at the ferry this morning for a school band trip to Paris and Euro Disney. Unfortunately I have a sick husband at home who is missing a free lunch and the Battle of Britain air display. So I guess he must really be ill. Eight of us are meeting here for a few games of canasta tonight and Lizzie ahs left us some nutella cup cakes.

 

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More frames finished

My plan today including going to my morning quilting group. I had a call yesterday afternoon from a repair garage asking if they could take my car in immediately to replace the wind screen in which a chip had appeared. I immediately agreed and said I didn't need a loan car as it was going to be ready for collection this morning. You can imagine where this is going. it's almost 3 pm and no sign of my car and I need it to go out later this afternoon to play petanque with my WI group. The garage just called - the car will be with me in 20 minutes.

So my day at home has been spent stitching the frames for The Frosted Pumpkin's autumn sampler starting in two weeks time. And I'm pleased to say it's finished. I think next on the list is the hanging sleeve for a quilt whose binding is almost hand stitched on apart from the top where I need to add the hanging sleeve. Then I'll tackle three months of the Woodland Sampler.

I also need to have my car back to take Lizzie to the harbour tomorrow as she is going with the Beaulieu and De la Salle Big Band along with the Beaulieu choir to play in Euro Disney and Le Jardin du Lexembourg in Paris. Four days with no children. What will I do. :)

Speedy stitcher

 

The Frosted Pumpkin's Halloween Sampler started yesterday. We had been provided with the pattern for the frames in advance, which enabled us to get straight into stitching the blocks when the pattern was released yesterday. I made sure not to have anything on yesterday apart from Lizzie's music lesson and WI. I stitched in the car whilst waiting for Lizzie and just finished before Chris picked me up to go to WI. So I get the speedy stitcher award for week one for finishing first. I think the prize may be a future pattern.

 

Today I've been to Zumba and am working hard on finishing the frames for the Autumn Sampler. And the Woodland Sampler is definitely on the back burner for the moment.

Friday Night with Friends September 2013

 

A quiet evening to myself with both Lizzie and Nick out and Matthew is back at school in England. I managed to fit in some pre-dinner sewing and finished the last blocks of the

Deckade the Halls quilt along. This block includes three cocoa mugs combined with a star from an earlier handout. I've combined Simply Style with Moda essential dot in lipstick with Bonnie & Camille.

After dinner I got out my abandoned Autumn sampler frames. I have half done quite a few but now's it's time to knuckle down and just finish them in time for the Halloween Sampler which starts on Monday. I've completed frames 1 and 2 this morning and hope to do some more today after a trip into town for bits and bobs.
 

I don't know if you've tried any Craftsy classes, but I had signed up to one that didn't enthuse me, I dithered and eventually e-mailed them about their refund policy. Damn it turns out you have 30 days to get a refund. They generously offered me another class in exchange and I chose "Quilt as you go patchwork bags". I watched a couple of the episodes in bed last night and I need to stop myself from starting another project. It's improve but with rules which I like. Check out her recent post for a quilt as you go clutch.

 

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Farmer's Wife Progress

 

I spent Monday afternoon sewing with quilty friend Anne. We were trying to get the group Farmer's Wife blocks sewn together. For some reason, no one else has offered to join us for the three sessions we've had over the last few months. We did laugh trying to get a good picture of the quilt top in the strong breeze. Then we found it fit perfectly onto the island in my new kitchen.

 

 

 

We have enjoyed our time putting the top together but will be taking it to our guild meeting in a week's time to get help with removing the foundation paper patterns before applying the borders. We are pleased with how it has come out. It's interesting to see how different people have combined different fabrics from the same box. The blocks were put together as demos by numerous people over more than a year. I can't lie, I will be pleased when this is finished.

Patchwork Please Triangle Patchwork box pouch

Happy dance for several reasons:
1. A project started and finished in the same week
2. Done in the right week for the sew along
3. All scraps used including the zip from the vintage haberdashery I was recently given.

Lori Holt is hosting this week's sew along and I fell in love with her version so I photocopied the foundation piecing pattern and put it on my sewing table. every day I've sewn a little, but on Tuesday I finished a client quilt, so that gave me carte blanche to work on this and a ST2 bee block.

This has turned out well and I sewed it at the same time as some Bee blocks and foundation pieced blocks for Swedish Bloom Time quilt from the same book.

 

If I were to make another of these box pouches, I would use the correct length of zipper and quilt the bottom of the pouch so it's more sturdy.

 

 

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Siblings Together Euro Bee

 

I was delighted to be asked by Betty to make a block for her month in the Siblings Together Euro Bee. She has a clear diagram on her blog with the measurements for each unit and it was a delight to dip into my scrap bag and pull out leftover pieces from lots of other projects from the year. There's some Zen Chic, Bonnie & Camille, Collage and Simply Style. I struggled slightly with the neutrals, but hope my choices

 

I'm still plugging away at the ST2 bee block for July. I have made my pieces too small for improve and it's taking lots of seams to piece together and 18" block. However I have finished my two client quilts, so the ST2 block is the next to be focussed on.