June Schnibble

I completed this quilt three weeks ago but have waited until now to share the full photo. This month's pattern is called Dulcinae. The fabric is Joy by Kate Spain, it's nice to channel some Christmas spirit in June!! I was able to buy the dotty binding on the first day of Fiona's new quilt shop journey in her new Kabin.

Visit Sinta and Sherri's blogs to see all of the Schnibbles made from this pattern this month.

Today I'm going to our Guild's UFO day with step 3 of the Deckade the Halls quilt along and two Zakka projects. My sewing machine never made it up the stairs from my all day sewing on Wednesday and two projects are also still bagged up from Wednesday too. I'm just going to add one more simple project - just in case.

 

 



 

In my old kitchen today

After a couple of days of non activity, this morning I went for a walk in St Ouen with other WI members from across the island. I was running late due to answering the phone when I know I shouldn't have, but Gloria was kind enough to wait for me about five minutes from the start and we chatted as we walked briskly and soon caught up the group. A perfect day for a walk. This evening we are taking part in a WI quiz but we are one short of a full team, so I don't expect we'll perform as well as we would with a full team. Yesterday we participated in the Island darts semi finals. We were knocked out in the semi finals, but it was not a bad performance for complete novices.

Lizzie has a half day off from school today and is busy making cake pops and cup cakes ready for school, Big Band and JACY tomorrow to celebrate her birthday. She has had the help of three friends. She has made Ferrero Rocher cupcakes with chopped hazelnut decoration, chocolate orange with orange Aero decoration, vanilla cupcakes with marshmallows and cake pops in vanilla and chocolate variations.

I wonder how long it will take to clean the kitchen after they've finished.

I am pleased to report that both of my projects for Fat Quarterly have been completed, written up, photographed at St Ouen's community park and e-mailed to the editors. I hope the projects pass muster.

These flowers were a thank you from a local builder's merchants. When we visited their showroom about six weeks ago, we were completely ignored. Someone asked on the Facebook group called "Bad and good businesses in Jersey" about who to go to for a kitchen and I posted that we'd been ignored at two local showrooms. Well one of the businesses contacted me yesterday to get feedback on our experience and as a thank you sent me this lovely bouquet. A lovely surprise.

 

Working away quietly

I know you've seen this mini quilt before but it makes a good backdrop to my spool of binding. I have been working quietly on my two pieces for Fat Quarterly magazine. I stitched on the binding on the big piece on Sunday and hand stitched the majority of the binding to the back yesterday morning before anyone else was up. Inspired by an idea I'd seen online to stitch pieces of binding together to make a ready to go scrappy binding, I wound the remainder of the binding from my "One Swallow" quilt onto my vintage bobbin. I then worked on my 3D Dresden project and decided to make it into a mini quilt rather than a cushion and my eyes travelled to my bobbin. Serendipity, the turquoise binding also worked for the mini quilt, so it was a quick job to sew on the binding ready for hand stitching. I have now finished both pieces and the next job is to take some photos of the finished items and then write up the instructions. I have taken photos as I've put the projects together so that should not take me too long. Famous last words.

 

Another good technique I've recently come across was how to make up a cushion with a hidden zip using 1/4" steam a seam, which I happen to have in my stash already. You can see the tutorial for yourself at Chrissie D's blog.

Week one finished

Hooray. It's finished ad packed away for week 2 to be released on Friday. I love the Ferris wheel. The patterns are so clever to convey the item in a 30 by 30 square. I have left out the Kwai faces from my version as well as the numbers. This week I need to focus on two projects for Fat Quarterly e-zine as I need to both finish the projects and write up the pattern.

 

 

  

In other news, Nick and I have taken a gamble and booked ourselves a summer holiday - just the two of us. We were tired of waiting for the details of Matthew's gliding course to be confirmed so we have booked ourselves on a bargain Fjord cruise for just a week. if Matthew's course shouldn't happen for some reason, we'll book him a separate cabin and he can bring a friend for the same price as if we'd waited and booked one room for the three of us. The prices are so good, we've gone for a Superior deluxe balcony cabin. Sounds posher than it is. I've even found a quilt shop in our first port of call Bergen which I found through a blog called Nicola Foreman Quilts. Off to do some holiday planning and download some geocaches.

 

 

FNSI June 2013

There was no official FNSI but I still sewed last night as I was home alone. I finished two of the five blocks of the summer sampler by The Frosted Pumpkin which was released yesterday and I am home alone again tonight as Lizzie is at a BBQ and ATC are having a mess dinner at the Field Squadron. Once I've finished this week's assignment I will work on my project for Fat Quarterly which is on the frame and I have quilted about 10% so far.

Monster migrating geese

It's finished and ready for Anne to collect, I hope she's pleased with it. It is 110" wide by 120" long. quilted with King Tut in Temple with Alex pantograph. I had to lay the quilt out on the lawn and take a photo from an upstairs window to be able to get a decent photo.

And I'm not planning to offer to trim this or help bind it. It's for a wedding which I think is in August, so that allows at least six weeks to get it finished. Now it's time to update the software on my machine and centre the leaders. anything to get out of starting the next task I need to do. :)

Running Out

Having run out of the thread to finish quilting Anne's mammoth quilt on Friday, yesterday I ran out of both the peach and yellow threads for the Spring Sampler frames. The reason for that would be too many mistakes to unpick. However it's not even 6 am and I've been up for over an hour, but I have finished stitching my Summer Sampler frames. Just in time as the first week of instructions is released tomorrow . Hopefully they'll be released in the morning so I can get on with them.
 

 

 For the moment, my cross stitch is packed away neatly until tomorrow. It may be FNSI tomorrow night, so I know what I'll be working on whether it's on or not. But for today I will be finishing Anne's quilt. You can see that I don't have too much wadding left hanging down, so there must be about four rows left to quilt I guess.

I also need to call the supplier of the radiator Nick wants in our new kitchen which I spotted yesterday has a four week delivery. I will have to see if we can get it delivered a bit quicker. I also have to go to the kitchen showroom to select a work top for the rented house, but that won't be happening this week. I must be mad to have two kitchens installed at once.
 

Mammoth task

I have been putting off quilting Anne's quilt as I knew it was a biggie. Not even the widest backing is big enough!! I should have known I'd need more thread but the penny only dropped yesterday. I have one more bobbin filled and I will be approximately half way through the quilt.





Whilst my machine does its stuff I have sewn a few frames of the summer sampler. With the embroidery frame propped up on the table it is much quicker than propped up on my knees on the sofa.

A productive day

I've had a great day and finished not only the second set of blocks for the Deckade the Halls quilt but I've also started and finished sewing the top for the Fat Quarterly e-zine (no photos yet). And the ironing is done and the laundry's put away. Not much else has been done today though. :)

 

And yes those gingerbread men are large and the stars are small (and fiddly). For the stars I used some Simply Style by V and Co and the red is a Bonnie & Camille fabric.

 

I think my plan for tomorrow, allowing for not much to be done in the afternoon as we are going out for afternoon tea, is to load Ann's quilt onto my machine. Then once her quilt is quilted I can practise some freehand feathers and quilt my piece for the magazine as the deadline is the end of June.

More happy stuff

 

And here's a fat eighth bundle of Simply Style by V and Co which arrived from Moda yesterday.  This is destined for a project for Fat Quarterly with a deadline of the end of June. Eek. I think today will be spent cutting it up. Fortunately I already have the quilt drawn up and the cutting plan written for the background fabric.

I also received my June Glossy Box. The box has already been recycled and contains my woodland sampler bits.

Happy stuff

I received two lovely parcels last week. The first was a mini quilt from the Mother's Day mini swap. Mine was a little delayed, but as we celebrate Mother's Day in March rather than May, it will be put away for enxt year. I particularly love the buttons that are the middles of each flower.


Peeking out from behind the mini, you might just spot a new steam iron, that I won from a local store, which will find its own space in my sewing room in due course. I used to have a travel iron which was 25 years old but solidly built, I had to replace it and the new style travel irons are lovely and light but not much good for lots of seam pressing.

I also won this delightful pattern for participating in One Project a Month (OPAM) from Peg. I want to make the cushion in some Bonnie & Camille but I am being strong and resisting it's allure. Not much sewing to show you as I've been cross stitching and unpicking in the main. I hope to have a lovely parcel from Moda to share with you tomorrow. I am stalking the UPS website but as I have to be at the Trinity house this morning to meet with the carpet man and the insulation man, I hope I'm not out when the brown van calls.

Linking up to:

I have left colours in these first four blocks that only require a few stitches until I stitch a bigger block of that colour. So I am going to cross the four blocks of the winter wonderland sampler as done. I will return to this in July and complete four more blocks.




Next to do are the summer sampler frames but for this month the winter wonderland sampler has been packed away.





This afternoon we have a geocaching called Let them eat Cake so I need to make some cake.

June 2013 FNwF

I started sewing on the binding on my June Schnibble last night and have finished it today.




The white spot on red by Deb Strain for Moda is a good match for the Joy charm pack by Kate Spain.

Winter wonderland progress

Another project on my June to do list is to make progress on my Christmas cross stitch. I worked out that if I stitch four motifs per month, I should finish by December. I have been working on this for the past few days.





I am using a navy linen purchased in the haberdashery at Denman in February. I have three motifs almost finished, but each of the motifs have just one or two stitches in a few different colours. I have left these until I have a large area to stitch later in that colour.



My linen was starting to fray so I took some pretty bias tape from my work table and bound the edges. It looks so pretty and is now easier to work on.

I must go and check if there's Friday night stitching tonight and I can get out the binding of my Schnibble to sew along.

A visit to the Log Cabin

Fiona's quilt shop opened today at The Log Cabin in St Lawrence so I went along to support her in her new venture. I met up with Sarah of Quilt Candy and passed her copies of both Gallery and the Jersey Evening Post, both of which have a feature on her.

The class room area has lovely stations for people to work at and a lovely view down the valley below Fiona's home. Fiona has a few charm packs in so I bought a few for future Schnibbles projects. I am lending last month's Schnibbles project to Fiona as she currently has the Mama Said Sew range in the shop. I also bought a red spotty fabric for binding my June Schnibble which I will work on tomorrow.

Fiona is operating a lucky dip system for purchases over £20 and I picked out a pack of needles which is always useful. I also purchased a pair of embroidery scissors to keep in my cross stitch box so I can return the other pair of scissors to my long arm equipment box.

June Schnibble

A good start to the day as I have quilted my June Schnibble. This month's pattern is called Dulcinae. I like that you can purchase the PDF and ten minutes later, it arrives in your in box, it's printed and you're ready to go. I did check first that the pattern wasn't in one of the two Schnibbles books I own.



I used a white thread to match the backing and let the windmill blocks shine through. The quilting pattern was also a new download called Japanese clouds.


The quilt is trimmed and ready to bind. You Neek Quilting's new studio opens on Thursday so I will try to find something suitable for the binding. Otherwise I will use some red essential dots from Moda.

June Sugar Block Club

Apparently it'll be worthwhile finishing our block early this month. Dangle a carrot like that and I'm sure to get it finished. So that's another item crossed off my to do list. I used more Bonnie & Camille fabric and a Kona grey.

First June success

 

The first item on my June to do list can be crossed off. Woot woot. Having finished the June square, I decided to plough on and finish the January, February and April squares. Not that there was a lot to do, the blocks were mostly finished. And it was quickly finished and has now been put away in a labelled and repurposed Glossy Box.

 

I then picked up my Winter Wonderland sampler and did the first row of the first motif. Hmm, something wrong with my counting here. Checked a couple of times and then the penny dropped, I had put it down a month ago as one side of my frame had 31 stitches and not 30. I predict some unpicking later in the week.  however I have started the June Schnibble so will return to my samplers next week.

 

 

Linking to:

Hosted by Annabella at Life's Rich Pattern

June firefly

On the first day of each month I receive the Woodland sampler cross stitch chart, Lucky Stars BOM and the Sugar Block Club.

 

I think my mojo is coming back as I have already stitched the Woodland Sampler firefly for June and I'm now planning to catch up on earlier months ready for next month which is a biggie by the size of the frame.

Looking back at May and looking forward to June

In May I hoped to get a few things finished and I didn't do too badly apart from my Bee in my Bonnet row along.

1. BOM commitments: 
Blogger girls (6) Decided not to do
Lucky stars (12) Done
The sugar block club (12) Decided not to do
Sisters ten (10) Done
Woodland sampler (12)  May done but still earlier months to finish
2. Finish Perkiomen quilt  Done
3. Mini quilt for Mother's Day swap Done
4. Bee blocks for Honey Bee and Simply Solids Bee Done along with June
5. Complete the Bee in my Bonnet row along quilt top All blocks finished - this will be listed for June
6. AYOS Done
7. Dye the backing for the Orbit quilt, quilt and bind it  On hold at the moment
8. Complete the Spring sampler One row to complete




In June, I will have lots of cross stitching to do and BOM commitments, but I have all of my June bee commitments done. I also have two items to be completed by the end of the month for Fat Quarterly.

BOM commitments: 
1. Blogger girls (6)
2. Lucky stars (12)
3. The sugar block club (12)
4. Sisters ten (10)
5. Woodland sampler (12) 
6. Deckade the Halls fat quarter shop sew along
Cross stitches:
7. Spring sampler to finish
8. Four Christmas sampler blocks to do in order to have it finished for Xmas
9. Frames for Summer sampler to be completed by 21 June.
10. Designer challenge for Fat Quarterly magazine
11. Flying geese project for Fat Quarterly awaiting fabric
12. Complete the Bee in my Bonnet row along quilt top
13. AYOS - waiting to see what pattern has been chosen
14. Honey Bee star quilt top to piece, quilt and bind
15. Finish Zakka sewing case - I need to identify and order some fabric first
16. Do a sprouts test block from scraps

 

No wonder I get stressed out, there are too many things on my to do list and a cupboard full of other UFOs. :) Today I will work on number 9 along with the blogger girl block for June as I've printed it out. The Fat Quarterly retreat is very soon - mid July so I really need to get at least one bee quilt done for show & tell. The Siblings Together quilt is complete and I have lots of bagged strips for the scrap strip swap as well as my sample swaps done.