Jingle all the way finish

I finished my October UFO challenge piece, just under the wire. Those embellishments took me longer time to embroider (four hours) and attach to the quit. I decided against adding the ribbons to the bows as I couldn't get a neat finish, so I just pleated the bows and stitched the pleats down on my sewing machine before attaching them to the top of the presents.

The lights were added without the string between them for a simpler finish too.

I am delighted with the finished quilt and now need to prioritise what to complete over the next few days before going to retreat. My flight is on Thursday afternoon and I return home on Monday lunch time.

Prepping for retreat

 

There's just over a week to go until I'm back at the Modern Quilt Club retreat at the Gomersal Park Hotel. Usually I have lots of projects packed, but this time I am packing fewer projects and acknowledging that I can no longer speed sew with any accuracy all day.

The first project that I've packed is the next border for the Liminal Quilt by Jo Avery for Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I think this would be a good project for Saturday as I should be able to finish it in a day. Soon the borders move into appliqué which will be much slower!

November's Stash Bee mama is Jane. I will prep on Sunday and stitch it at retreat on the Friday. Jane will be at retreat so won’t have to post the blocks.

Adamsews was showing off the new Tula Pink Legendary lawns on Instagram this afternoon. I caved and ordered two different fabrics for another Frida Shirt. It has already been despatched and I hope it makes a quick journey across the English Channel so that I can prewash the fabric before retreat.

Christmas progress

Despite a trip to Accident and Emergency on Saturday, I have finished quilting Jingle All the Way and Lizzie’s table runner and placemats. I have also trimmed the pieces ready for binding.

I had prepped the binding earlier from a red and pink dotty fabric. However I think I will change to use the Ruby Star Society starry fabric used for the outside border.

I now need to:

Add binding to the quilt;

Embroider three tags for the presents

Add bows to the three presents. Unfortunately, I think I may have used the fabric needed for the bows for other projects. I have one of the fabrics already to hand.

This is my October UFO for our group’s UFO challenge, so I need to complete this project before binding the placemats and table runner for Lizzie.

Multitasking

I always thought I could muti task but if I sewed leaders and enders, I always ended in a muddle. One place where I can multitask is on my long arm.  I loaded up a red and white backing with scraps of wadding and quilted five of the six place mats for Lizzie's Christmas present. It was tempting to also quilt the table runner at the same time, but I resisted. The scale of the quilting for the runner will be slightly smaller. I may take these to the November retreat to bind them.

Next on my machine will be my October Challenge UFO. Cutting it a little fine! I need to add some borders to the piece and then it can be stitched in the ditch. There are a few decorations to be embroidered but we have a storm threatened tomorrow so I can see a few days spent at home.

Q4CL star quilt

 

I now have all of my Stash Bee blocks and have made them into one ladder quilt and one quilt for Care leavers. I can donate the Q4CL at the retreat in two weeks' time. I used a digital pantograph called Malachite which is quick as there's no overstitching and I used Superior Threads in White Linen.

Net on machine will be some Christmas projects. I have started quilting the table runner and placemats for Lizzie and I will use the same backing to complete a Kimberbell project. First of all, I need to add borders to that quilt.

More Christmas preparations

I have been planning to make these cross-stitch ornaments for my daughter, Lizzie for two years. There are six pieces in the Polar Plunge series and I even have the wooden frames to mount the pieces onto. I made a fatal mistake last year and bought oil paint instead of quick drying acrylic paint.

I got the project out of storage two weeks ago to work on at my Wednesday morning group. I have Penguin Pair completely stitched but decided not to work on Whale Hello There as there were no big blocks of colour to work on, just lots of counting, which I know is not my strong point.

Instead, I started Polar Bear Peek and I have made good progress. I think my plan will be to finish stitching the two pieces that are nearing completion, pick up some scrapbooking paper either here or in Bradford in two weeks' time so that I can complete three to gift this Christmas.

That will leave me Wally the Walrus, Narwhal (PDF pattern) and Puffin Party to complete next year.

Christmas progress

 

Thrilled to have six place mats and one table runner sewn together. Lizzie likes greens, turquoise and blue so I use those colours for the presents.

My dilemma is whether to load this onto my long arm or to wait a few more days to see if my last two stash bee blocks turn up. I have the backing for these blocks already loaded. I know  that the day after I take the fabric off my machine, that the blocks will turn up. :)