QP BOM Christmas quilt finished

I may have been quiet recently, but that doesn't mean I haven't been crafting. Today I finished the binding on the Quilter's Planner block of the month. Although the sewalong doesn't finish until the end of the year, I decided to finish my blocks and quilt.

Whilst trying to rest up my foot which I injured on the foot of our sofa, I set my HQ18 to quilt this very Christmassy quilt. I have a basket of Christmas fabrics so picked out different combinations to reach block. The holly leaf background fabric came from stash.

This is a different setting than that given in the planner, but I am pleased with my design.

Craftsy offer for US Mother's Day

Despite it not being Mother's Day in the UK, it might be worth checking out this offer of free classes this weekend. I have just been watching one of the classes for the Everything in Its Place bag by Annie Unrein.

Slalom pouch

The bias tape curves technique was taught at our JMQG rainbow retreat in March 2018 by Jenny Haynes (IG Pappersaxsten). Once I got down to unpicking one side of the zip, which was sewn in according to noodlehead's open wide pouch tutorial on her blog, it only took me an hour to finish the project. I wish all UFOs were that easy.

The lining is by Aneela Hoey for Moda, so some vintage stash has been used.

#100days of UFOs pretty Little London

Happy dance. My cross stitch is finished. I stopped working on it for a few days as I had a trip to the UK at the end of last week, for which I needed some hand sewing, but I finished this on Saturday, steamed it to remove the wrinkles and took it straight to the framers.

The yellow and blue of the road was the last part to be finished and I have picked out the pale blue for a mount with a silver frame. 

Round peg square hole cushion

I have finished the class project from the Krista Hennebury class I attended ten days ago with Oxfordshire Modern Quilt Guild. Having decided on the binding fabric, I was able to also pull out the piece that was in my scrap bags which had been pressed a few days earlier. I had just enough fabric for the binding which I cut at 3.25" wide so I could machine stitch the binding.

This is ready to join my Christmas cross stitch for next year's Eisteddfod.

I used snaps to finish the back, but prefer the Kam snaps to these Prym snaps.

Three weeks into #100daysofufosewing

I havehad to pack my Pretty Little London cross stitch four our trip later his week to France otherwise I would have finished it before our trip. Three weeks ago I had barely done a quarter of this pattern, but by stitching for at least 30 minutes a day, in three weeks I gave progressed to three quarters complete.

We are away for four days so I hope to finish at least Buckingham Palace and St Paul's Cathedral. The end is in sight.

Even though we are taking the car, I am still packing light with my small suitcase and this project in a plastic bag.

JMQG inspiration

Here are all of our Jersey MQG entries for the Jersey Eisteddfod needlework section including the group trophy that we won for the second time. It is inspiring to see the work done by members over the previous year displayed in one place. Though pulling together the display by myself almost killed me.

The room was very hot yesterday and three of us sat chatting about scrap management. Sue had taken my system of zip lick bags for each colour a step further and pressed the scraps at one of our meetings. Gisele decided to do the same yesterday evening and payed the results on Instagram.

This morning I did the same whilst starting a new bag for linen scraps and Sweetwater HSTs which I am sure could be made into a quilt. Once pressed the scraps take about a third of the room than before pressing. I need to take this system further and add your Bonnie and Camille scraps which occupy one basket with only a small amount of FQs and yardage.

Pretty little London progress

Today is my first day in London and I am meeting up with friends to go to some craft shops and lunch, before heading to Gatwick airport to go home. I brought along my #100DayProject to work on as it is very portable. I am pleased with the progress I have made in two weeks on this project and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I may even finish this one this month.

Each day I have worked on one element of the picture. Yesterday I finished the clouds and the Sun and progress to working on St Paul's Cathedral in the bottom right hand corner. I have only realised recently that the building in the left-hand corner must be Buckingham Palace.

#100days week 1 check in

It feels like I have abandoned all other projects to work on my Pretty Little London cross stitch this week. 

I finished the tower of the bridge of the left side as well as the Shard and Gherkin. I love the look of the Gherkin building as it has been represented in the pattern.

I tentatively completed the blue border under the tower to see if both sides would meet. Hooray, success. I feel the project is half complete though there are big portions on the left and bottom still to be completed.

And yesterday I completed the second tower along with a customer quilt. A big customer quilt.

Today I need to prep for two workshops I am attending in the UK as well as finish the blue supports to the bridge. I am also focussing on finishing customer quilts so that I can work on my own projects over the next three months. The first project requiring attention is my lion which needs to be quilted.

Sweet tea and green beans

I finished my Bumbling Honeys quilt bee homage to sweet tea and green beans. Hooray.

I long armed quilted some areas using rulers and free motion and then in my their areas I hand quilted circles and cross hatching.

I like the variety of low volume backgrounds that my bee friends used.

#100days

I have recently become aware of the #100days and it got me thinking. I have several UFOs that need a lot of work on them and if I worked on them for 30 minutes a day for 100 days, I should make significant inroads into them. That should also mean that when it is chosen as my UFO to complete for the APQS challenge, I might actually finish them.

My biggest UFO is the Sedona star BOM which has a lot of appliqué to complete. Fortunately this UFO has been kept in one drawer for several years so is at hand and I have kept the thread in one box with a note of the settings for the blanket stitch on my Bernina. I will at some point have to work out how to resolve that I used the wrong fabric for one of the colours so I need to find a suitable replacement  / substitute.

I am away a few times in April so have chosen my Pretty Little London cross stitch to work on too. I have already worked on this for the first few days of the challenge and I can see progress. However with 21 colours in the pattern, I am not being systematic in my stitching. I want to work the first big tower as well as finish the left hand side. I may be more successful though if I worked bottom up. Working just one colour at a time is too boring. A plan needs to be formulated.

Q2 finish along

In some ways my list is getting shorter but I have just added two retreat projects from last weekend's Jersey Modern Quilt Guild rainbow retreat and I am taking two classes with poppyprint in April. Let's see what's still on the to do list.

1. Jan Krentz star from 2010

2. TQS BOM Sedona Star from Jan 2012

3. Lion from 2017, I plan to complete this project in April and I first need to stay stitch the edges, remove the papers and give it a good press before loading it on my long arm.

4. Tula Pink butterfly from October 2017. I need to move a few blocks and then quilt it.

5. Christmas on Gingerbread Lane

6. It's a small world from 2016 2/3 pieced

7. Pretty London

8. Hugs cushion

And I have added:

9. Five impossible things

10. Slalom pouch

I also need to make a jet set sewing station for a retreat gift which is number 11. I have the pattern printed out and a friend has the fabrics I need. First I plan to quilt a piece of the fabric from which I can cut my panels, then I will buy ready made bias binding, I think and prep the project for our Jersey MQG April meeting.

April plans

I am not sure what happened to February and March, but here we are at the beginning of April and the last day of the Easter holiday weekend. Our daughter comes back from university for ten days today, so I am sure we will be busy with appointments.

I almost finished this cross stitch on our Caribbean cruise at the beginning of February and it has sat impatiently waiting to be finished. I completed it on Saturday and immediately pressed it and took it to the framers.

I then sorted out my floss for my last two cross stitch UFOs. I have just one skein to purchase. I then sorted out my drawer of cross stitch equipment and sold the extras on Facebook. That felt good. I am going to work on the pattern called Pretty Little London next.

 

Retreat quilt

I attended the Thread House retreat exactly a year ago. I decided I wanted to put the pieces that I had made in classes together as a retreat QUI LT. I noticed that this year the class samples are being used to make a medallion quilt but I have not gone to the retreat this year.

The blocks from top left to bottom right are as follows:

Appliqué tree was a class with Lynne Goldsworthy

The Just Sew Sue block block is my own design

The improv self-portrait was a class with Jo Avery

On The bottom row the foundation pieced star was a class with Lynne Goldsworthy again

The curved block was from a block of the month in which both Lynne and Karen were designers. So I thought that using up this block along with the final block in the quilt worked well as both Lynne and Karen are owners of the thread house retreat along with Jo.

Finally the appliqué vase of flowers was a class with Jo Avery. I added a button to the centre of several flowers as I was too lazy to appliqué small circles.

I then free machine quoted fee quote on my long arm "machine. And found it in the same fabric as I had used on the reverse of the quote.

This is another UFO finally shed and was my number 12 for the APQ 2018 challenge.

Celebration sampler progress

I have finished my #12 UFO for the January APQS challenge so I have retrieved my Christmas celebration sampler again. I am working on it this morning and have three blocks out of nine to complete. 

One side of the border is still to be stitched too. As you may be able to see from the picture, I am about to run out of the Weeks Dye Works thread in Snowflake. I have just realised that I ordered another skein this morning in icicle and not snowflake. Damn, I hope they see my email when they open again on Monday.

Sterntaler socks

They are finished and need blocking before being entered in our local Eisteddfod in March. I am now waiting for the first pattern of the Curious Handmade sock club to be released on 5 February. I hope some yarn hints come before we go on holiday.

Morning Joe II

This quilt may look familiar. The original which I made three years ago has been for sale in a local high end store for about two years. A member of staff purchased it and wanted a matching sister quilt. It's not a match but it is also from a Bonnie & Camille charm pack,

I was also able to use the same quilting pattern and the quilt will be delivered next week.

Sterntaler socks

When I got my socks out that I had knitted in 2017 for Voolenvine yarns' knitalong to knit 12 pairs of socks in a year, I was very disappointed that I had only knit 11 pairs of socks. Other than the cowl by Curious Handmade I didn't knit much in December. So I have chosen yarn  from Devon Sun yarns and the sterntaler socks by soprano knits which is a free pattern on rivalry and I am ready to go.

I have already got as far as the heel turn. Hopefully I can finish this before the end of the month to participate in the grocery girls' sockalong.

I have signed up for curious handmade's monthly sock pattern so come February I won't have to choose a pattern. I will be away from early February so I hope that the pattern is released early in the month or there is an indication of what yarn will suit the pattern so I can cake up some yarn to pack for my holiday.

Tidying up wadding

I am surprised with myself, but I have managed to keep my sewing table clear this week. It isn't that I haven't been sewing, but having a clear desk every morning means that I have been tidying up every evening. 

I'm putting my works in progress in the top of my IKEA cart.

As wadding is bulky, I thought that tidying that element this week would have the greatest impact on my mess. My roll of wadding is kept permanently in the same room as my long arm and usually my bag of wadding scraps is kept in the 

same room.

I store my scraps in a zippered bag in which new bedding is sold. Small scraps get passed to a friend for stuffing, bigger scraps I use to clean the rails of my machine and large scraps are then easily found for bags or small quilts.

All I had to do was unpick some quilting on scraps to liberate the wadding from the backing and the backing has been added to the pile of fabric to be sorted. I think my IKEA cart needs tidying next.

Christmas Celebration Sampler - January

I planned to finish one extra segment of the sampler in January. I have now completed block T as it had a small section of border.

That brings the number of blocks completed song with their borders to three. Though blocks R and A are almost complete too. I will now work on some other UFOs and put thus project away until February when I plan to complete another block. However we are away for two weeks in February so I may take this prject with me and get a more substantial amount complete. It would be great to finish the fancy border but I imagine that will be almost the last thing finshed on this project.