Flower swirls

Nick was kind enough to print out the directory of all the new Prostitcher patterns that came with the recent upgrade. Carole requested a quick easy pattern so I chose Flower Swirls 4. I enlarged the design to fit the space without having to crop it. That was almost a mistake as it just fitted in the throat space which I only realised after I'd started the first row. A bit of jiggery pokery and all was well.

 

 

 

The quilt was delivered early yesterday morning after an e-mail from the client asking if I could fit it into my schedule. A quick phone call from Carole and she was here by 8.30 am. She knows I'm an early riser. It was a bit of a shock for Matthew to see a stranger in the house so early and a bit of a shock to me that he'd gone to the gym so early too.

 

I decided to make the Goody Goody Binding Bag first yesterday before loading this quilt. It was finished the same evening and looks good. I hope the customer is happy with it as it's for an ill friend and she wants to get it in the post as soon as possible.

 

A lovely quilt. I'll share the Goody Goody Binding Bag with you on Saturday.

Practising

Isn't this a cute quilt, made by my friend Val. Val tells me that the pattern is my Bunny Hill designs and the fabric is Winter Wonderland. It is a lovely quilt. The background in the centre is an off white overprinted with cream outlined dots which I particularly love.

 

I quilted it on my HQ Avante using a pantograph called Elegant Stars to pick out the stars from the applique. I used King Tut thread in Canvas. I used several new techniques that I picked up last week - cropping closed and drag and drop.

 

Matthew went to the gym at 7 am so I was able to take a photo nice and early before we headed to the supermarket to buy him some cereal.



Sunday stash - Indelible

 

Last week I was away learning more about the Art N Stitch and Prostitcher software for my Handiquilter Avante at the Cotton Patch in Birmingham with instructor, Lynda Jackson. I picked up lots of information, but it also proved that I know more than I give myself credit for. However I still have loads to learn and put into practise. Over the coming months, I will be working through the twenty sets of tutorials on the Art N Stitch website to improve my skills and add to my knowledge. When the manual for the updated Prostitcher software is released, I'll also work through that. I did learn that I can load the Prostitcher software onto a laptop and run it in simulator mode which is something for this week's to do list.

 

 

My flight was delayed for three hours, so I only had thirty minutes available for shopping before meeting Marjorie to share a taxi to Hall Green where we were staying and a short walk from The Cotton Patch Studio. However I did manage to pop into House of Fraser and purchase a few zips. On Thursday evening, with the courses finished and the teacher was busy finalising some design work, I headed off on the bus to Touchwood shopping centre and bought a few more zips at John Lewis and had dinner at Wagamama.

 

The reason for buying so many zips is that I plan to make at least one Noodlehead Super Tote. I also picked up some Art Gallery fabrics from their Indelible range as well as a linen look cotton as well as some Soft and Stable for the Super Tote. The Soft & Stable was expensive at over £20 a metre, so I hope it works well. It also took up a lot of room in my carry on case. I would have been better to have the Cotton Patch post my purchases home as the postage charge was £5.50 and the fee for processing the VAT form is £5, but at least I could cut into the fabric straight away.

 

Linking to:

 

Farm Girl Friday - week 12 - Kettle's On and Kitchen Window

Over half way through the sew along, and I need to do more 6" blocks or this is going to be a BIG quilt. First we have Kettle's On. The pink handle is by Lori Holt and the two aqua fabrics are from I Want Her Stash. Whilst rifling through my stash to find these fabrics I found some label fabric which might be interesting to fussy cut for a few blocks.

 

 

 

This was a super easy 6" block and I love the tortoises in the border fabric. I hope I don't lose too many when I put the blocks together. this is from Aneela Hoey's range - Little Apples.

 

And here they are all together again. I might make a couple more 6" can blocks using the label fabric.

Work in Progress Wednesday - Pinata Party

Have you missed me? I'm in Birmingham this week learning about the Prostitcher and Art n Stitch software for my Handiquilter machine. This is one of two courses I've booked for this summer. I was looking at booking to go to the Festival of Quilts, but just the return leg of the flight was over £200 and there were no classes that I was desperate to take. Hotels are also over £100 a night and in Birmingham I'm paying just £35 per night, so I made the decision not to go. The only thing I'll miss is not meeting up with stitchy friends.

 

 

 

On Saturday I decided to spent most of the day doing cross stitch. I had lots of other things I could have been doing like loading a customer quilt, tidying my craft room, but no I decided to work on this cross stitch that I planned to take to Birmingham with me. The pattern is by Frosted Pumpkin and is called Piñata Party from their Pen Pals series. There are seven or eight so far, with only six being available online. I believe two were special editions for shows but will be available in the future.

 

And it's finished. I decided to use colours from my stash ad the yellow would have been better in a deeper shade. I substituted the silver too for a grey as I can't work with metallic embroidery threads. I love the turquoise border and will use a coloured border on future items from the series. I have almost finished the Valentine themed Pen Pal and I'm not liking the white border. That's probably why I haven't finished it. However the Valentine Pen Pal is being taken on my trip along with the Ice Cream, You Scream Pen Pal which I also worked on over the weekend.

Sunday Stash - I want her stash May and June 2015

Look what arrived on Friday. No knitting needles to start making some socks, but my May and June bundles from Westwood Acres' I Want Her Stash Club arrived.

 

The fabrics in this bundle are very typical of Kristyne of Pretty by Hand whose blog I have followed for several years. My only disappointment is that there are three FQs of Essex Dyed linen. Lovely fabric but I wouldn't use it in a quilt as it's a different weight to typical quilting fabric and I'd rather have a yard of one colour for bags and similar items. I need to find the yardage I have in grey in my stash for the typewriter bag.

 

 

And June's bundle is by Alison Glass and includes a number of her own beautiful fabrics. As I already have a number of Alison's fabrics, this bundle is a fabulous addition. And I don't have any of them already apart from the text print. I don't think the text print is meant to be printed wonky, but I'm finding the slope on some of the print disconcerting.  

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Farm Girl Friday - week 11 - Haystack and Grandma's Quilt

Firstly we have haystack which is cut from my scrap bags which are sorted by colour. All apart from the small red check which sits in my Farm Girl Vintage project bag. A six inch block which was a quick make.

 

 

The small red check makes an appearance in the corners of this block too. I love the chicken wire / hexagon low volume fabric.

 

 

And all of the blocks together so far. A few more 6" blocks would definitely be a good idea.

Work in Progress Wednesday - The power of Instagram

As planned I beavered away on my Paper Piecing block yesterday. I soon realised that I didn't have enough of the Bonnie & Camille Vintage Modern grey floral fabric for the top border. I shared my dilemma on Instagram. I soon had an offer of fabric from Wendy in the US and Pippa in France said she'd have a look. Late last night, Pippa posted that she thought she might have included the strip in the Fat Quarterly retreat scrap strip swap. My heart leapt, yes I had seen a strip of bonnie & Camille in the swap. Should I get up and have a search?

 

So at 7 o'clock this morning, I pulled out my scrap strip box which was where I expected, nothing leapt out at me, but I rummaged some more and there it was a 2.5" strip -18" long - so it hadn't been cut into. With lizzie away in London, I sewed that strip on straight away. relief, the block is done.

 

 

Now what to use the block for? A mini quilt? It's too big for a lap top bag. Perhaps the side of a big tote? Any suggestions? Thanks Pippa. Another UFO gets closer to being finished.

Q3 2015 -

Some new projects and some left over from last quarter:

CQ hexagons - a hand sewn project for Wednesday mornings, I worked on it a little in Q2 but didn't make any significant progress.

Strip quilt for Siblings Together - Several friends have made me blocks for this and I'm going to try to finish some more blocks to get this out of my WIP pile even though the group I wrote up the instructions for hasn't made my blocks and won't do until October. I should be able to make two quilts for the charity.



 

Typewriter block  Once I've made the block it will either become a cushion, tote bag or laptop bag.

 

 

I need to make a pennant for our WI using our logo. I made this block earlier in the year for a group quilt.

 

Moda Building blocks  - just needs to be quilted but apparently I don't have a photo of the quilt top.


Farm Girl Vintage - should be finished by the end of September and I have over half of the blocks completed.

TB olive and mustard - another old UFO which only needs a bit of quilting on my Bernina.

And last but by no means least I need to make three gifts for the secret sewer swap for the Simply Solids retreat, one of which may feature the typewrite block above.

ALYoF - July 2015 - Typewriter

 

It is fair to say that I have been dithering about what to work on this month. I am away for a week so wanted a smallish project as I also want to finish my cosy blanket. This project which will be familiar to some and which I haven't shared before is a Paper Piecing designed Shapemoth for a Fat Quarterly Retreat class from 2013. All I completed at the retreat was the two pieces which make up the centre with the carriage return bar thing. Fortunately I had put everything together in one project bag and put it all on my WIP shelf.

 

 

So yesterday I worked on the block along with some more Farm Girl Vintage blocks, printed out the instructions from Shapemoth's blog as we weren't given any hand out at the retreat. Then I found a few pieces missing so I printed out those too. So it is all organised on a clipboard and I think another couple of hours and I'll have all of the pieces done and ready to sew into the block. It's a 16" block so I have several options in mind:

 

Cushion

Tote bag

Laptop bag

 

First I'll finish the block.

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Sunday Stash - mix tape and sock yarn again

I know more yarn purchases. What can I say, they're just so pretty. Only one purchase this week from Fondant Fibre again. And if you're tempted, there is a shop update every Monday evening at 7pm.

 

And first the little extras included by Deb. A sample of spangle in the colourway - Don't Mocha Me which has a very pretty gold thread, a lollipop which was delicious, a stitch marker - very useful and the cutest lip balm in a mix tape cassette. That takes me back. I will use the sample to start a sock blanket. Perhaps I might even find the right needles to start before my sock needles arrive.

 

I love pretty wrapping. Heightens the excitement,, even though you know that you bought it for yourself. But you don't know what I ordered, so I should move on to unwrapping it.

Aren't these pretty. The aqua is more green than I was expecting but I'm sure once my needles arrive and I actually start, that it will look very pretty knitted up.

And here are the labels in case you need to know!! I need to go out tomorrow and buy one more ball of yarn for my Cosy Blanket. I am six inches from finishing the last row. I have the wool for the edging so hope to finish it in the next two weeks. I am off to the Cotton Patch in just over a week's time - fortunately they don't stock wool. In preparation for my trip I have downloaded Art n Stitch onto a new laptop kindly loaned to me my Nick.

Linking to:

Farm Girl Friday - week 10 Furrows and Gingham

 

Week 10 of 23 weeks of blocks to sew along with Lori and friends. Not quite half way yet, but the accumulated blocks are filling up my design wall. I needed more 6" blocks to fill in holes and also so that the quilt doesn't continue to grow too big.

 



Furrows was foundation pieced. I drew the block in EQ7 and printed off the pattern onto photocopier paper. All of the patterned fabrics are from my scrap bags and follow the colours Lori used in her blocks.

 

The second block is gingham which is a little wonky, but once paired with all the other blocks and quilted, will look okay. I'm not sure if the background fabric is bike tracks or pearl bracelets. The dark orange is definitely grunge by Basic Grey.

 

ST quilt bee - July 2015 for Jane

 

Jane chose great granny squares for us to make this month for a quilt for the charity - Siblings Together. However it was down to me to do the drawing first. The diagram above is just random colours.

 

I dipped into my box of 2.5" strips which doesn't seem to grow any smaller. And I chose the turquoise spot which is from a riley Blake backing as it was on my table. Less now to put away. Jane has asked us to leave the blocks untrimmed so that it easier for her to make all of our blocks the same size, which is always a challenge with bee quilts.

Friendship star baby quilt

 

I am very lucky to have trusting customer quilts who hand their quilts over to mutual friends ( thanks Jane) to give to me, in the anticipation that I'll choose a suitable pattern and thread and get it back to them. This is a delightful little quilt for Judy's friend's grandchild. Unfortunately the expected girl turned out to be a boy, so it's back to the drawing board.

 

Pantograph is elegant stars