+ TWO extra days!
January 7
January 8
January 9
January 10
January 13
January 14
January 15
January 16
January 17
January 20
January 21
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
Wake up to Kona blog hop
You may already have spotted the Kona button in my side bar, but I am participating in the wake Up to Kona blog hop, starting 7 January (yesterday). Having been away for two days, I'm a bit out of sync, but that's okay as I'm not scheduled to post until 21 January, so I have almost two weeks to finish my project to share.
January 16
January 16
Tuesday, January 07, 2014
Guernsey quilt
I was contacted a few months ago about long arm quilting a quilt for a group in Guernsey, our neighbouring island. I met Leila when she came to Jersey with some friends for a workshop with Philippa Naylor a few years ago. It's funny how things come around as Philippa is back in Jersey in March teaching again.
The Guernsey group were lucky that a geocaching friend, Terry agreed to bring the quilt to Jersey in December and I had a visit planned to Guernsey so they have no postage to pay. It was delivered in person on Sunday.
I love the Kaffe Fasset millefiori backing they chose as it brings out all of the colours from the top and the busy print disguises the seam on the back.
Thread: Cleopatra
Pantograph: Alex
Monday, January 06, 2014
The Sewing Room Swap
Searching for some photos for a e-zine article yesterday, I realised that I'd never shared with you the items that I sent Cindy as part of The Sewing Room Swap.
The large item was a social tote (above) and the small item was the matching pin cushion. I am itching to make another for myself. The extra pink strip you see in the photo is because of a typo in the pattern. I have amended my copy of the pattern for future reference.
I included a few extra goodies, including a big bar of Dairy Milk, a tag I made at FQR with some sewing themed fabric, a lint roller, needles, thread and fabric.
I also included a pack of alphabet pins which I made with some pins, diamond glaze and alphabet beads. I have one more set to share with someone which I'll post next week.
Do pop over to the Flickr group and see the delightful goodies that were sent around the world. Linda is now looking for swappers for the second round of swaps. Do sign up.
Sunday, January 05, 2014
Flying geese border
Having purchased the 2012 block of the month from the Fat Quarter Shop, I subsequently realised I didn't have the pattern for finishing the quilt. Hmm. So each row of three is separated by a row of flying geese. Now I see this pattern again, I realise that each flying geese column is 4 inches by 12 inches not the six inches wide I first thought.
I now have to wait until March to send out the rest of the blocks to the FQR bee participants.
I found the pattern for the six inch wide geese here and for the four inch wide geese here. I printed them off on Carol Doak's foundation piecing paper and then used a glue stick to add two more rows to each pattern.
Here are two sashing units and the first two blocks together.
I now have to wait until March to send out the rest of the blocks to the FQR bee participants.
Saturday, January 04, 2014
A Lovely Year of Finishes 2014
A new year and a fresh start. Let's see if I can make it to the end of 2014 with 12 finishes at least? from the projects I've already posted for January, I've chosen to focus on the Bee in My Bonnet Row along. I mostly kept up with the rows, but the finishing instructions were taken down before I finished and all of the instructions were included in the book "Quilty Fun" by Lori Holt.
Having purchased a copy of the book before Christmas, I just need to put the ends on each row, sash the rows and add the border. The rows of blocks are already completed, the blocks for the border are mostly sewn together and the bee label is even made and embroidered.
Having bust the bag of blocks out of the cupboard and onto my design wall, I'm now ready to go. Having put the blocks on my design wall I now realise that the flying geese units are missing (in my Quilty Fun bag of blocks, I hope, I haven't sashed the butterflies and I have two many four patches, the extras of which I hope I can use for the Quilty Fun Sew along. I have pinned two of the outside borders ready to sew together this afternoon, so I'm already making progress.
Friday, January 03, 2014
UFOs and WIPs to work on
I'm not brave enough to list all of my UFOs and WIPs so I'm just going to list five each month that I hope to work on during the month. So my list for January includes:
- Bee in my Bonnet Row Along
- Farmer's Wife group quilt which I've promised to take along to the January meeting for members to help hand stitch the binding. So it's not officially my WIP!!
- Scrappy scrap baskets which I've worked on and completed today, but I can only show you a hint at the moment.
- London Embroidery
- Japanese X and Os which needs to be completed for a blog hop in two weeks time
- Sweetwater Scrappy Trip Around the World
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
Fabriholics Anonymous
I need to curb my enthusiasm for starting new projects and therefore, I am going to join in with Fabriholics Anonymous!
Hello my name is Sue and I am a Fabriholic! The 12-step Fabric Fast program is outlined over at Making Rebecca Lynn
GOALS:
-
To use the Stash I already have!
-
Finish UFOs without the distraction of new beautiful fabric.
-
Stop the insanity of constantly buying the latest and greatest
fabric.
-
Save the £s I spend on fabric.
-
Destash the fabrics that I realize I am never going to use.
- Tidy the stash I have so I can see what I have and have a comfortable work space to work in.
FABRIC
FAST RULES:
1)
No fabric purchases for 6 months beginning January 9, 2014. Not 1 January like others as Treadles have their sale on 9 January!! And I need some fabric for a specific project.
2)
At 6 months re-evaluate progress and decide whether to keep going for full year.
Evaluation July 1, 2014.
3)
Create a UFO list and complete them!
4)
Exceptions
Backing: purchasing a backing to finish a quilt top is permissible.
However, attempting to use fabric in your possession for a backing is
preferable.
Books and Magazine purchases are allowed as they are not fabric. Notions
acceptable too.
By controlling new fabric in, I hope I can focus on finishing the ever growing UFO list.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Final finish of 2013
I hope everyone enjoys their New Year's Eve celebrations. I have just finished Pippa and can now put on some fancy nail polish and head out to party.
Having gone through the process of writing down all of my UFOs and WIPs over the last week, I thought a sheet of 21 labels would be enough to number and label them all. Excluding three group projects, I think I'm heading towards 30. At least I can now cross one off my list and have now started working on my Sweetwater TATW quilt which I forgot off my original list. I am also sewing up some Bee blocks at the same time, though once the New Year celebrations are over, I need to get a client quilt finished to deliver to Guernsey on 5 January. I have enjoyed just sewing for myself over the last 10 days. Once the client quilt is delivered, it's then time to focus on finishing quilts for the local Eisteddfod including the group Farmer's Wife quilt and my own Bee in my Bonnet row along.
I love the foxy fox with her long eyelashes. I just wished I'd added in a bit of variety in the fabrics as there are only 18 different fabrics in the range and the bottom of the quilt looks a bit pink / red heavy. I followed the pattern and quilted the whole quilt apart from inside the embroidery in almost straight lines 1/2 inch apart. I used a scrap of wadding from my cupboard along with some pink Ikea fabric with small red polka dots for backing which goes really well with the quilt and at £5 a metre, it is a bargain.
I have even started sorting my scraps by colour and the few scraps left from Pippa are already sorted into the respective bags. The pattern is ready to be passed to a friend along with another small pressie in the New Year.
January Siblings Together blocks
Elfin Patch requested two 12.5" blocks in one colour for each block so I grabbed everything I could find in yellows and reds. The quilts will be given to children so I added in some red balloon fabrics and the yellow London fabric.
I'm a little worried that these are more improv log cabin than what Elfin Patch requested but they were fun to make and I revisited some old favourite fabrics.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Siblings Together 2 Quilt bee block instructions
 |
| Copyright Flutter Kat |
I spotted this quilt top by Flutter Kat last year and thought at the time that it would make a lovely child's quilt. I plan to make a quilt that is four 10" blocks wide and long in a rainbow palette. Flutter Kat has a tutorial for 17.5" blocks here. My blocks will start with 2.5" squares rather than 4" squares. The squares can be cut from left over jelly roll strips or scraps. The star points are made from scraps of white or white on white. The centre of the star can be placed in any position in the middle nine squares.
As I had yellow and red scraps out for the January ST2 blocks, I decided to prepare my samples now even though I'm not the Queen Bee until May. I'm pleased with how they've turned out.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Welcome Christmas
I won the pattern for this cushion from OPAM Peg. I decided to change it to be a bit more me and a bit more modern:
- I changed the colours to anything I could find in my Bonnie & Camille basket
- a pom pom trim replaced the piping
- I also did machine applique with Bondaweb instead of needle turn applique
- the holly leaves were cut using a Sizzix die - nice and quick. Thanks Jenny and Lorraine
- The berries are some red buttons I picked up at John Lewis.
- I replaced the red ric rac with some vintage daisy trim from Janine's Mum. I also raided the boxes of haberdashery she gave me for the zip closure on the back.
I like the original but this is more me and sits very nicely on the hall settee. Now I need to find a flying geese unit that I've lost and clean my work table.
Friday, December 27, 2013
Simply solids bee - January
January signals the end of the year long Simply Solids Bee. That is, if I'd finished my quilt and the December block. However in the meantime, here's Lucy's choice.
I was expecting these blocks to be cut at a 45 degree angle on the chevrons but they're not so it's just as well I actually read and followed the instructions. I think next to be done are some more sample blocks and possibly my Christmas cushion as my red pom pom braid has now arrived from the Village Haberdashery. Better late than never. I have just listed some of my UFOs and the cushion didn't even make it to the top 21, so I think I should finish it in December.
Quilty Fun sew along
Already seven weeks of Quilty Fun have passed. So we are more than a third done as there are 20 weeks of pdfs in all. And I am now caught up as I have completed my flying geese units. I used some of the spare units from the row along. I obviously needed my calculator as I still have some units left. Whilst I wait for the next set of instructions to be released, I should progress my row along from the same book.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Stash Bee hive five
I have a few January deadlines looming so I bit the bullet and worked on one of the three deadlines yesterday. Although it was Christmas Day, I did the cutting whilst everyone else was still asleep. The food was all prepped by about 9 and so I amused myself with starting my sample blocks for the Stash Bee. My deadline was to sew up my sample(s) and post the tutorial on the blog by 1 January.
This morning I have photographed and updated the instructions on the blog and scheduled my post for 1 January and it's not even 8 o'clock yet. Today I'm hoping to get another bee commitment completed and in the post tomorrow. I have two January and one December block to complete. I may not necessarily start with the December block.
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Introducing Pippa
You didn't really expect me to resist the lure of a new project, did you? The iron on transfer worked very well after I'd worked out how to turn the steam off. Another time I would do a lighter transfer. I also think this would work nicely as an appliqué with stripes for the stockings.
I actually sewed the quarter square triangle units earlier in the week alongside the other sewing I was doing so it was completed without any extra effort. My only concern is the not regular size of the units made from 5" squares. But the embroidery is an irregular size too so it should all work out in the end.
It's now Christmas Eve and surprise, surprise my DH is ill, so having completed all of the other shopping, it will now fall to me to go to the vintners to buy wine and soft drinks. Let's hope they're open today. First job is to get Matthew up for his ten o'clock driving lesson. At least I don't have to take him on a practice run today.
Wishing you all a Happy Christmas.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
December bumbling honeys block
Due to my poor organising skills we ended up with a bee commitment for December for the FQR bee but Kathie was good to us and gave us a simply stunning block. The tutorial for this gemstone block can be found here.
I'm not sure what to tackle next - I have one more Bee block to be done for December, a bee block to sort out for the Stash Bee as I am Hive Five mama and a quilt to finish for a blog hop. Decisions, decisions.
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