Moon bunny by Sew Quirky

 

Number 11 was selected as our group UFO challenge number for June and for me that was Moon Bunny by Sew Quirky. A small project but with a lot of details. It was made more difficult by not being able to find my Teflon foot so instead I stuck washi tape to the bottom of my open toed applique foot. I mentioned it in passing to Lizzie when we did sewed together over Facebook messenger a few days ago and lo and behold, she has two! At least I hadn't purchased a replacement.

I used hot fix rhinestones in three places on this piece - one replaced a French knot for the eye on the stork scissors, two for the inner of the eyes and many gold rhinestones to cover the mess that I made of the stars.

Then it was time to put it all together which according to the instructions included a lot of glue and being patient whilst it dried. I didn't gather the zipper tape and I didn't glue it down either. It's not perfect but it's finished ready for our July UFO which I hope is something simpler.

Stash bee July blocks

 

We received our instructions for the July block early, so instead of finishing the project with a deadline, I decided to have a play with this block. We were do use cool fabrics on one side and warm fabrics on the other side. I raided my bags of predominantly orange and turquoise scraps and pieced the scraps together as I went. I love the pear print which I think was from a Sew Hot scrap pack in a retreat goody bag.

I now need to work on my deadline project!

Primrose Cottage winter quaker

Having finished A Honey of a Tiny Town, it was time to release another WIP from the box. I grabbed this project which was a Freebie Friday chart. I have made a decent start but not a big start so I will work on it during June and July. I should probably chose some ric rac to finish it or purchase some if necessary, so that I'm ready to go.

Honey of a Tiny Town

 

This is another in the Tiny Town series by Heart in Hand. This is not a big piece, but I have taken my time to finish it. I just need to finish the bees, press the piece and add the buttons. I hope to be able to take it to the framers tomorrow.

I have two customer quilts to complete this week and will load one today and forward suggested floral patterns to the customer for the second quilt.

Nightingale pouch progress

 

Lizzie and I stitched together over Facebook Messenger on Monday for two hours and completed most of the vinyl pocket units. On Tuesday morning I was keen to make some more progress so I made the strap and handle as I am slow turning the tubes the right way out. 

Lizzie contacted me yesterday to schedule some more sewing time, so two more hours and we had everything done apart from the binding. I machine stitched down both sides of the binding as I wasn't in the mood for hand stitching.

Having the fabric prequilted and everything else precut made this a fairly quick make. Now I must start on this month's UFO which is the Moon Bunny needlecase by Sew Quirky.

Florence dress

 

I purchased the pattern, fabric and buttons for the Merchant and Mills Florence dress from a shop at Sunny Bank Mills where the Great British Sewing Bee is filmed. The dress is voluminous and I measured as a 16. I had initially decided to go for the size 12 but chickened out when getting ready to cut out the dress and traced size 14 instead.

I think this is a perfect summer dress and should be cool as temperatures start to rise. I had finished everything except the buttons before I tried on the dress and realised that the buttons went at the back as the back hem was 12" lower than the front hem. I spent about 45 minutes unpicking the seam, overlocking and gathers. Annoying but it had to be done.

I love the vintage buttons and only one needs to be undone to get the dress on. I think I'll be wearing this a lot this summer.

Nightingale pouch

 

We were impressed by the array of Nightingale Pouches by Centre Street Quilts  so having purchased the pattern, Lizzie decided we would do another sewalong over Facebook Messenger. She works a nine day fortnight so has every other Monday off. Lizzie received her bundle of prequilted fabrics last weekend when her Dad visited her and Matt in the UK, so it's time for me to starting prepping ready to sew on Monday.

Whilst browsing my Tula Pink stash I came across a forgotten scrap bag of Tula Pink from Olive & Flo Handcraft. I marked out the correct size for the quilted panel with washi tape on my cutting mat as a guide.

I was surprised that the scrap pack yielded a large enough panel for the outside of the pouch. Most of the fabrics are not ones I have in fat quarters so it is very varied. I quilted the panel using a Karlee Porter Graffitti quilting digital design called pearls and feathers. I am now ready to sewalong with hardware and binding in black and white. This weekend I need to clear the decks and finish the dress I am amking.