Monday Make - February monthly cross stitch

I have another cross stitch finish to cross off my list. However as it's the February Cottage by Country Cottage Needleworks, it highlights how slow I am to cross stitch.  I am gong to put this aside to finish once I have some more in the series completed.

Work in Progress Wednesday - Spellville

By 1 June, which was when the second part of this Halloween pattern was released, I had mostly completed part 1. However as you can see I am not ready for part 2 to be released next week.

Our daughter is coming home on Friday so we will be in isolation together until her Covid test results come back so perhaps I should focus on this project a bit more.

Monday make - Alice in Wonderland

 I have dragged my feet finishing this piece, and even putting it on my to do list every day has seen slow progress. A month ago this was how far I'd progressed. Block 3 to 6 were finished and I just had the corners from part 1 , part 2 in the centre and some of the back stitching to complete.

My favourite block is still the caterpillar with the hookah which seemed quick to finish as it had bigger blocks of colour.

However the piece is now finished and I am going to put it away and will decide on framing options in due course. It is such a relief to be finished.

The pattern is by Satsuma Street and stitched using the called or DMC colours on 28 count Zweigart cashel linen in light blue.

I now want to concentrate on some of my other works in progress and hopefully get a few finished before the end of the quarter. I also want to work on this Spring sampler by Durene Jones so it's ready for 2021

Friday Finish - Foldover stitching case - the Tula edition

You can't say that I didn't warn you that I saw at least one more foldover stitching case in my future. This time I plundered my small stash of Tula Pink with the intention of finding fabric that would go with the turquoise corduroy binding from Beyond Measure.

I am ridiculously pleased with how it came out. I quilted the outside panel with Bosal and a cream fabric from deep stash on my long arm. I wasn't sure about the white fancy bias binding but I do think it works well with the snail print.

The pattern is by @thebobbinjar on Instagram and can be found in here Etsy store here. I used Bosal from empress Mills which gives a lovely firm texture to the bag and the main fabrics are all by Tula Pink.

WIP Wednesday - Rainbow Dreams baby quilt sewalong

It's Wednesday? Really? I am enjoying a day off from swimming with my sister today as the weather forecast wasn't good. Over the last two days we've done the two bays (Portelet and Beauport) that are quite a steep climb back up the footpath to the car. We are so lucky to live on such a beautiful island.

Do you ever buy a book and then make nothing from the book. I bought Paula Steel's book Modern Rainbow Patchwork Quilts soon after it's release. Rainbows - what's not to like! It has been well read and put on my night stand. Paula recently announced a sewalong starting on 26 June for a simple baby quilt. Just what I need during these unsettling times - a simple project.

I decided to pull out the remainder of my Elizabeth Hartman FQ stack as it has yellow, pink, orange, green, blue and turquoise in it. Though I had forgotten that I had used many of the fabrics in my #Scrapbagsampler project.

I did however find a fat eighth of four Elizabeth Hartman fabrics, though some of them won't be suitable for strip piecing the blocks. The red fabric was from my scrap bags and the other three colours were from my prize from Pink Door fabrics.

Next I needed two background fabrics. I have lots of big scraps of the Carolyn Friedlander grey screen as I have had at least two bolts of the extra wide fabric for backings and the rainbow stars I used in my recent Stitch On banner by @happysewlucky.

 Tempting though it was to start cutting and sewing, the book and fabrics have now been put in a bag and stored ready for the start of the sewalong.

Monday make - foldover stitching case

I saw this pattern on Instagram before it was released and knew that I was going to have to buy the pattern and make one. It is a perfect make for these uncertain times as it can be finished in a day and the only time consuming element is the quilting of the outside. 

The pattern is by @thebobbinjar on Instagram and can be found in here Etsy store here. I used Bosal from empress Mills which gives a lovely firm texture to the bag and the main fabrics are by Katarina Rocella for Art Gallery Fabrics and the pink is by Lizzy House.

I know that I will make more versions and next time I will  quilt the outside panel on my longarm. I would also use a narrower binding and probably a bias binding.

Work in progress Wednesday - Alice in Wonderland

I want to finish this project but the body is weak. It is on my to do list to work an hour a day to finish it but it has often been the only item not ticked off every day. I just have two corners, Alice and the back stitching to complete.

I need to focus on this project and finish it this month so I can work on The Frosted Pumpkin Chinese Zodiac stitch along. Two months have been released but I am not even half way through the central motif still.

Today I have been frequenting out of town roadside stalls - known locally as Hedge Veg. I bought flapjacks from the first and strawberries and asparagus from the second. Then I went to our local Organic Cooperative where you can buy as much or as little of dry goods as well as shower gels, cleaning products, fresh veg. We need to support local producers at this time.

Monday make - Tula Pink Butterfly

It wasn't that long ago that this was a languishing UFO awaiting attention. I had made a mental note that I wanted to move a couple of blocks but when I looked at it I just needed to change the orientation of three striped blocks. That was soon achieved and it was loaded ready for an edge to edge pantograph of butterflies and swirls.

It was soon quilted and trimmed ready for binding. Unfortunately the fabric that was best suited for the binding was from 2016 and I could not find any in stock anywhere. Note to self to put aside backing and binding with UFOs. fortunately a friend had the fabric in her stash and sent it to me. I had to buy some screen printed panels from Helen's Etsy shop as fabric likes company for the journey. Ironically the fabrics I used for the quilt were Alison Glass, Kona cotton and one of Helen's screen printed lines in yellow.

The fabric arrived within two days and had been added to the quilt the same morning. I am not a fast binder but having stitched one hour a day for two days, I decided I needed a finish so abandoned all other plans and just finished the binding. I am really pleased with how it turned out. Not a very good photo as we had to use a timer and my husband is considerably taller than me, but it still looks great.

This pattern had been on my radar for some time before the sewalong started, I will be starting the Tattoo quilt by Berne Campbell soon and that's another project that has long been on my radar. The sewalong commences this month and I am looking forward to some foundation paper piecing.

WIP Wednesday - Bonnie and Camille stars

I am making progress on my stars from my Bonnie & Camille scraps. Those scraps are now pressed and sorted by colour and I am working through my low volume scraps. I press them and then sort them as follows:

1. too small to be useful - straight in the bin

2. can be used in this project put in my project bag

3. too small for me but big enough for my friend, put in a bag to drop off very soon

4. Any coloured fabric or Fat Quarter are put in their correct place

5. All other scraps are stacked up waiting for the basket to become empty. 

As you can see there are still quite a few low volume scraps to be sorted. I have also added the excess turquoise Carolyn Friedlander screen backing from my Five Impossible things quilt in my project bag to use for sashing the Bonne & Camille stars.

I have made four stars for this quilt so far and I plan to make one block a week until I feel I have enough blocks. It's nice not to rush this project.

I have also decided to let go of one of my WIPs as I didn't like the contrast between the linen and the ecru border. I will unpick the stitching and then put away the tea dyed linen.

Q2 2020 FAL update

Where did May go? I had fully intended to update my list of UFOs at the beginning of May and we're now at the beginning of June. It's not like I've been busy going out or visiting the UK. So here is an updated list of what I have still on my UFO list. To recap on 1 April, I had 27 UFOs / WIPs, projects planned. I completed 8 projects in April and 5 in May including two last weekend. 

Some of my projects are an easy finish and my Tula Pink Hex on the Beach would be a big finish. I'm hoping that it isn't chosen a our group UFO for June as I am still making progress but it would be too much to finish this month.

1. TQS BOM Sedona Star from Jan 2012. The piecing is finished but removing the foundation papers is taking time so I am doing an hour or two a week.

2. My small world from 2016 which is pieced and partly quilted. 

3. Tate Modern quilt which was our challenge March project which is now ready for quilting.

4. Tula Pink Hex on the beach - about 2/3 of the blocks are finished and most of the fabric I cut out and basted.

5. Hoffman Dream Big Panel - I need to load this and practise my free motion quilting. I have bought the threads and have a backing, so it's ready to go.

6. Bits and bob blanket - pattern by Kay Jones - The I-cord edging is almost finished and then I need to sew in lots and lots of ends.

7. Linen dress

8. Libs Elliott sewalong - quilted and bound but it just needs some ends sewn in.

9. Christmas cross stitch

10. 1985 Prairie Schooler annual Santa

11. The light by Barbara Ana designs

12. Alice in wonderland by Satsuma Street - I need to finish this SAL this month as it is very near to being completed but I am dragging my heels

13. 1987 Prairie Schooler Santa

14 . February monthly cottage

Monday Make - Alison Glass #miniseriessal

 I had sewn all of these fiddly blocks up several months ago and had a plan of what I wanted to use the finish project for - bedside table topper. However the table is not square and measures 18.5" by 24.5" so I knew that I would need borders. I resorted to pencil and paper to work out the maths and it was a quick sew earlier last month to piece the centre of the mini quilt.

Time to double check my maths. Yes it did agree to my scribbles. Now to work on the extra borders. That took some time. I shared the PDF of my border design last month. Unfortunately it's not a design, like regular flying geese, where you can piece it in sections and then sew the border together, so it was a little time consuming.

I was pleased with my choice of borders and made the whole mini quilt slightly bigger than I needed as it tends to shrink once quilted. I tested out the flange to add a bit of interest between the quilt and binding.

I had already submitted my finished quilt top photo for the sewalong but decided yesterday to focus on finishing the project. I was slightly nervous as I have recently upgraded the software for my long arm, but it wasn't too difficult. Trying a new to me thread was a step too far so I reverted to Superior Threads King Tut in the colour granite - a medium grey.

I love the texture that this pantograph gives - Chevron edge to edge by Christy Dillon. The benefit of this pattern is it has eleven rows joined together so there were only three starts and stops.

Patterns by @GuicyGuice for alisonglass.com

Fabric:

Vintage silver from Oakshott Fabrics for the background

Patterned fabric by Alison Glass including this colourful fabric used for the flange