Monday make - thimble SAL

The Thimbles sewalong with Happy Sew Lucky started a week ago, so when I started sewing the blocks on Saturday, I was already behind. I am combining my Ruby Star stash with Kona solids for the background.

Unfortunately, the first block I sewed was for week 3! Not a good start but i was pleased with my fussy cutting of the word "strawberry".

The week 2 blocks turned out beautifully with records, a tomato, another strawberry, pop, an owl and a skier. Very random!

Yesterday I finished the last of the week 1 blocks too. The blocks look great together so far.

A few months ago, I started tidying up my solids stash and destashed any smaller pieces. I then sorted the remaining solids by colour which made choosing the background fabrics much quicker.

 

Friday finish - Christmas tiny town

 

Christmas Tiny Town by Heart in Hand was the UFO selected for October for our Guild FO Challenge. Fortunately, I had worked on it during September, so I finished it early in the month and it has now been framed.

What to work on next? I have an ultrasound later today after supervising some work at my father's apartment, so a busy day, but I hope to make more progress at the weekend.

WIP Wednesday - bee quilt

 

This is another fabulous quilt made by Gisele, which I quilted with a bee and floral design in medium grey Glide. I am amazed at the variety of yellow bee fabrics used for the pieced hexagon background. Another stunner ready to be returned to its new owner.

Monday Make - medallion quilt

 I have been quite productive over the last few days, but tech seems to be working against me and making progress slower than I had hoped. I loaded a customer quilt on to my long arm last Monday and quilted it yesterday.

All of the floral fabrics were giving off spring vibes as we head into autumn. A central medallion is surrounded by these rectangular floral blocks. The quilt was all hand pieced by our talented friend Gisele and when her stash was sold, this quilt top was purchased by a friend. 

I used Glide thread in the colour bone and the digital pantograph Malachite by Urban Elementz. My next job is to load another customer quilt onto my frame.

Sneakers and September 2024 achievements

I am thrilled to have finished these sneakers purchased from sneaker.eu by my daughter for Christmas 2022. Lizzie finished her sneakers in 2022. My first attempt wasn't successful, so it was added to my Guild UFO challenge for 2024. The Fabric is from Stitch Fabric at the 2024 Festival of Quilts and will become a matching dress.

I unpicked the labels from my first attempt and added it to the tongue. I now need to find a source for shoe laces and wash the shoe laces from my shop bought shoes too.

A stiletto to open up the stitch holes and the big green machine to punch the stitching holes into the fabric uppers and tongues made this project much easier the second time around.

This was my only finish for the month and completed on the last day of the month. I am looking forward to a more productive October.

October 2024 plans

September was a bust, so I need to work on the following still:

Christmas Tiny Town is one of my UFO challenge pieces that I started in August and I did some stitching on during our river cruise. Fingers crossed this is chosen for October as it should be a quick finish and then I can get it framed professionally.

Another small piece that I have started and put to the side is Spring Quaker by Primrose Cottage in a pretty monochromatic lavender thread. 

The Cristin Creates FB group are already on block 7 of the Jingle All the Way quilt so I have some catching up to do. My husband has finished painting the room which contains my long arm and embroidery machine so I should be able to make progress on this. I will use my own choice of fabrics again, but I did purchase the embellishment kit.

I would like to make two versions of the Cassie dress this month. The denim stars fabric is already cut out and I made a toile of the bodice.

The blue and pink floral is prewashed, but I will only cut it out once the denim version is complete.

I also have three customer quilts ready to quilt and I need to catch up on the Karlee Porter Graffiti quilting class. As my husband is away visiting his family for two weeks, in theory, this is all very achievable.

Monday BOGOF

 

I don't know if BOGOF (buy one get one free) is a universally understood phrase but I am feeling the love for these two projects. Whilst on holiday earlier this month, I realised I needed more light cotton summer dresses. A Jersey dress is just much warmer than I needed. 

I purchased this very light denim with stars fabric from Stitch Fabric at the Festival of Quilts 2024 and the Cassie dress from emporia Sewing Patterns at the 2023 show. I hope it's a match made in heaven. I toiled the bodice and altered my paper pattern. The fabric is cut out and ready to be sewn together.  I have not cut the third tier yet as I don't want a long skirt so will adjust the width of the tier accordingly.

Having cut out the dress, I then moved onto cutting out the pieces for my sneaker kit which was a Christmas project with my daughter in 2022. I repurposed the Fabulous! labels from my original attempt and next I need to cut the holes in the uppers and tongues ready to stitch to the base. I will use my Big Green Machine for this and then there are some eyelets to add too. Unfortunately, this is my September UFO so it needs to be finished today!

I am hoping that my October UFO will the Christmas Tiny Town cross stitch which is almost complete. I am also going to load a customer quilt onto my long arm today so I can work on it tomorrow.