June 2018 UFO - working on the G

Having finished the letter U ten days ago, I can see the end is in sight. I can fit the remaining stitching area into the working area of my frame and have stitched several of the borders up to the end. I was one stitch short, and I have used all of the tiny scraps of turquoise to make the bottom border he correct length. The kit was full of yarn at the start, but it is now running low. I have no turquoise left and the deep yellow is running out too. 

I was away on retreat from last Thursday, so I worked hard on this before I went. Having worked in this over the last week, I can see the end is in sight. Will it be finished by the end of June?

Retreat plans 3 and 4

My third retreat project is the Lisa the Unicorn pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. All of the pieces have been cut and bagged up with the pattern. The fabrics are all by Karen Lewis from her Blueberry Park ranges except for the Kona grey. 

Kim has my sewing machine in her car along with one design board to keep my pieces in some sort of order. I may piece this on the Saturday with the Trip around the world blocks as a leader and ended project.

I have one more project which is my improv quilt from Poppyprint's class for the London Modern Wuilt Guild which may remain untouched, we'll see.

Retreat plans 2

@pommesdeterre is organising a scrappy trip around the world sewalong on Instagram. So I have jumped down that rabbit hole. I selected green, turquoise, low volume  and navy scraps and fat quarters from my stash. I then cut strips for sixteen blocks and organised them by colour into IKEA ziplock bags.

The plan was to pack these for retreat in the bags but I soon realised that the sewalong timetable meant that I should have put my strips into block sets.

So I drew one strip from each bag at random and put them into 16 bundles ready to sew. You know that it was too tempting, so I did sew a couple of strip sets together and have two finished blocks as well. They are now ready to pack along with thread and my 2.5" wide ruler and the instructions from the Quiltville blog. Two more projects still to prep along with my sewing machine. 

Retreat plans 1

I am going to the Simply Solids retreat with two friends next week. Kim is taking her car whereas I don't use the cross channel ferry and prefer flying. Today we are taking our sewing machines to Kim, so I have been focussing on getting projects together to work on over the two and a half days of retreat.

I had originally planned to work on the Everything in its place bag by Annie Unrein but I finished that project last month as a reward for finishing the appliqué elements of another UFO. so I am going to make a Flora supply case in matching fabrics. I have pulled together a kit for myself in a ziplock bag with the pattern ready to go. I quilted the exterior fabric on my long arm with an area of a graffiti pattern. The only item that I needed to purchase was the folded elastic.

I have also added my rounding template to my kit which is available in my Etsy store. 

June 2018 UFO progress

My plan for this month was to have H and U finished by 8 June. It's the 9 June today and I have just finished the cream around U. I find cream or white backgrounds tedious and slow going. I have to force myself to do one strand of cream, one of the brown and then reward myself with one strand of colour. This is a kit by Emily Peacock.

I have been distracted this week with laser cutting acrylic at our local library. More on that tomorrow. I have opened a little Etsy store. Also our local WI entered a group competition and I spent a day or more making a tablecloth, napkins etc to pull the entry together. I am glad that's now finished.

I can now see the end in sight, literally. I have stitched right to the end of the pattern on the top border as well as working on the final letter - G. I am away for five days this month, but I will also be without my sewing machine from tomorrow so won't be able to sew and will focus on either this project or a shawl which I'm knitting.

June 2018 UFO challenge with APQS

I saw this morning that number 11 had been chosen for June's project by APQS. You can join in on Facebook. I quickly retrieved my Quilyer's Planner to look up my list. And hooray, I am already working on it as part of the #100days challenge.

Here's how it looked on 7 May. Lots of cream to do and H and U have been worked on but to the right of U, nothing.

Here's how it looked earlier today with the folk art hand complete. Mentally I have divided the panel into five areas - two hands and H, U and G.

To complete this by the end of June, allowing for five days at the Simply Solids retreat, I need to get the H and U finished by 8 June. Today I am going to focus on the cream, turquoise and brown around the first two letters, but first I need to wind on the canvas in the frame to the first bullseye in the H. 

At least I have a plan, let's see how I progress before I start getting bored with it.

Everything in its place bag

I have completed my Everything in its place bag this morning. I have used two Tula Pink fabrics from Sewhot.co.uk with an Alison Glas fabric for the lining. I followed the Crafsty class with Annie Unrein which I bought when it was on sale with a 50% discount. It come with the pattern too. You can watch and rewatch the videos as many times as you need. 

My tips are to do exactly as Annie says as otherwise your zipper tags will come off. I used Bosal as my wadding and quilted it on my Handiquilter mid arm. I have some small pieces left so I must use them. 

I ran out of the vinyl so had to wait for an order to complete the project. Do use busy prints so the multiple rows of stitching are less noticeable.

I had the grey mesh left from the makeup bag that I made for my daughter and it matched perfectly with the Alison Glass fabric.

I love how the stripe looks gut straight and on the bias. You can never go wrong with a striped binding.

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.