Barbara Ana - Spring

Having completed winter, I decided to finish Spring too. This is number 1 of our UFO challenge 2026but the number hasn't yet been called. As you can see I had made good progress already with Spring.

I did make a counting mistake on the bird on the right-hand side but decided that it didn't offend me, and I added an extra blue cross to that side for balance. I have decided to put away this project until number 2 is called which is summer. However, I have updated my floss ring to include only the summer colours.

I spy quilt complete

 

I finished piecing this quilt top at retreat, so it was a priority to quilt it on my return. The quilt is for a Christmas challenge for the Wednesday group that I attend, but it's good to get ahead.

I used the digital pantograph Malachite and a multicoloured thread to quilt the top. I used the backing that was already loaded on my long arm from the Tula Pink Roar which I quilted with car interlining instead of Bosal in the middle for Lizzie. There was no black or white in the quilt top, but a black and white stripe for the binding is often a good choice.

I even remembered to add a small rainbow label on the back of the quilt and there is a rainbow block in the quit top.

Frida dress

Do you end up with lots of off cuts of dressmaking fabrics? I made the Aspen dress in a seersucker from Fabric Godmother in March 20205. I parceled the leftover fabric neatly in an Ikea Ziploc bag and it has lurked with many other off cuts. 

Last week I used the Frida dress pattern from two stitches to make this pretty dress in size T2 as a gift for a friend whose daughter is having a second baby this summer. I am surprised how much fabric that I have left and can probably make at least one, if not two dresses more. I think that these dresses could be a good retreat make if precut ready to sew. 

Retreat purchases

Just a few purchases from retreat. I bought the two stitches girls dress pattern as I thought that it would be a good way to use up scraps from the clothes I've made. The Oliver + S pattern was my raffle prize with the same thought in mind.

From A Beautiful Thing I bought two charm packs and a strawberry print to add to my strawberry stash. I also bought some magic pins which I left behind with my daughter, Lizzie. I left some other things that I didn't immediately need as my husband, Nick will collect my goodies when he visits the children and his family at the end of the month.

Also not pictured is the small stripology ruler that I bought to try out. I will report back.

I spy quilt progress

 

On the Saturday of my retreat weekend at Gomersal Park, I pieced the 81 5" blocks into a quilt top. Fortunately, I had a large bed in my room, so I laid all of the blocks out and then stacked them ready to piece together. This is now ready to quilt and perhaps bind, this weekend.

Still getting ready for retreat

Our Wednesday group Xmas challenge is to make an eye spy quilt for donation to a charity. I have taken the easy route and pulled out two Ruby Star panels. I thought it was going to take some time to find them, but they were actually in my Ruby Star box!

I also plundered my box of Moda solids for colours that toned with the squares in the panel. I was surprised not to have more dark blue fabrics. I have added a 1.75" border around the fussy cut squares and then trimmed the squares to 5". I find that the squares are a bit smaller than 3" square so i would prefer to trim them down for accuracy. 

I am stitching about ten blocks per day which takes about an hour and I hope then to be able to put the quilt top together at retreat.

 

Winter by Barbara Ana

Number 4 was chosen as our group's UFO challenge this month. Another of the seasons by Barbara Ana which I hadn't started.

I finished the piece on Saturday. There was a lot of white to stitch which doesn't really show up in photos. I now have Autumn and Winter complete. Spring is started and I may work on that in May to make progress.

Meanwhile, I have been doing tax returns for myself and my father's estate whilst also quilting metres of Roar by Tula Pink for Lizzie, so the fabric is prequilted for bag making. I should finish this job today.