Freebie Friday - bento box

We have been discussing a group project to keep us motivated to sew in lockdown. we have eventually decided on the bento box pattern - good to practise your 1/4" seams and used this tutorial.

 

I had been focusing on finishing my tattoo quilt but I needed some extra Glide thread colours and despite being despatched very promptly on Monday, they haven't yet arrived. Hence I stitched these blocks up toute suite.

I have used up scraps of white on white fabrics from my scrap bags but for the pinks and greys I cut into some fat quarters from Libs Elliott, Lizzy House, Carolyn Freidlander and Kona. Next I'm going to order some hardware and fabrics for two other projects.

Design Wall Wednesday

These economy blocks are about to come down from my design wall as I need more space for my Fraktal quilt. Whilst sewing up my HSTs and flying geese for my Fraktal quilt, I have 22 blocks complete. I also cut into my V & Co ombre metallics last week and my stash of Bonnie & Camille to add more variety to this project. I have fewer reds and pinks than I thought!!

 

During the Zoom call on Saturday for the Fraktal sewalong, I started piecing some of the many HSTs into these corner blocks. I am paranoid that I have used the wrong colour for some of the blocks so I want to get the whole quilt so far on the wall so I can do a visual check of the flow of the colours. Fingers crossed. I think I want to add a narrow border of the background around the quilt and will probably bind the quilt in the same colour. Not sure what to use for backing as I have nothing suitable in stash, so I need to order that soon too.

I was stitching both a small Foundation pieced block this morning along with some pieced blocks and I thought this tip might be useful if you have a similar machine to mine. I programme the zig zag stitch with a width 0 and length 1.5 and switch to this stitch when foundation piecing and then switch back to stitch one when doing regular piecing. The change only lasts until the machine is switched off but it's a useful hack for me.

Monday make - January - A year of Celebrations

One of my objectives this year is to complete the whole year of small pieces from A Year of Celebrations by Hands on Design. I did complete December last month and randomly I have also completed June. I still need to purchase July and it is on my wish list along with four Prairie Schooler Santas that I need to have all of the patterns since they started in 1984.

There is still a week left in January and I have completed both the January Cottage and the January A year of celebrations. Can I make it a hat trick and finish my tattoo quilt?

I have kit up the February project and it's ready to go. I was able to purchase the two skeins of DMC yesterday that I needed for the project. I don't know how I'm going to finish these pieces but I have a frame from a charity shop which is the perfect size for the cottages. Once the non essential shops open again in a week's time, I will buy some chalk paint to update the frame.

Friday finish - January cottage

 

I finished the December cottage from Country Cottage Needleworks which I don't think I've shared with you. I now own all of the patterns for this series apart from July which I need to purchase. My plan is to complete one a month so by the end of the year all twelve will be finished and ready to display in 2022.

I have also completed the snowy January cottage. I am not keen on stitching with white floss so this took longer than it should have. I have already finished the February Cottage so I have kitted up the March Cottage ready to stitch next month. In the meantime I am going to work on the January Hands of Design calendar and quilt my Tattoo quilt.

WIP Wednesday - Fraktal sewalong

 

This kit and sewalong is collaboration between Modern Quilt Club and Paula Steel.  My friend Jane received her kit just before our November retreat and I was able to get a sneaky peek. The pattern is very well laid out and the price was good even including VAT so I made a pre-Christmas purchase. It arrived in a solid cardboard box so I have kept it in the box which makes it easy to see amongst my other WIPS.

I soon realised that there is a lot of cutting for this quilt so I cut the pieces between Christmas and new year whilst waiting for our January UFO to be chosen. I labelled the cut pieces with my alphabet pins and put the box away.

There are also a lot of half square triangles and flying geese units in this quilt so I started doing ten a day and trimming as I went. This week is cutting out week and I notice a lot of participants have started sewing their HSTs. Mine are all done.  Having mixed up two of the fabrics when cutting out I had to lay out the flying geese to check that I had the right numbers and I seem to be okay.

On Monday I decided to start sorting the flying geese units into bags for each steps. I got in such a muddle and appear to have missed cutting some long strips. I hoe I have enough fabric left otherwise I see another order in the near future from Sew Hot. The fabric used is Phospor by Libs Elliott. This morning I have sewn a few of the star blocks (four out of twelve) for which I have all of the pieces and I now need to work methodically through the pattern. I can then work out where I may have gone wrong and what extra fabric, if any, I need to order due to my mistakes.

I have made a nervous start quilting my tattoo quilt but I am only doing a little a day which could mea I don't finish it this month. Focus is what I need.

Monday make - zip around pouch

 

This finish is a bit of an embarrassment. I joined in virtual retreat in mid September #sewingshindigretreat2020 and one of the classes was to make the Zip around pouch - pattern by Bad Bananas available for purchase here with tips and tricks with Tori.

I didn't even have to quilt the fabric as I had some leftover from the All Aboard case I'd made for my daughter. Pattern by Annie Unrein. I bought that pattern from Sew Hot. I used the same zipper tape too. It has sat on my window sill waiting for the binding to be finished since September. It's not like I have left the house much in the intervening three months!! So in anticipation of Lizzie leaving yesterday I decided to just finish it and it had now been gifted. Not a pattern I'll probably make again, too fiddly but cute.

Friday freebie - Lady Skellington

 

A friend sent me a link to this free pattern from Freespirit made using Tula Pink fabrics. Available here. Knowing that I had Accuquilt dies that could be adapted for this project as well as the Linework fabrics which I have been using for my Tattoo Quilt, I forwarded the link to my skull obsessed daughter. The following day she was pulling out all of my black, grey and white scraps of fabric (which are still on my workroom floor). I don't buy a lot of yardage so we were short of fabrics for a background, so Lizzie decided she'd dye her own background in a brilliant red.

Being impatient (no idea where that trait comes from. :) ) she cut the shapes without bondaweb and stuck them down with Elmers glue. She is now quilting the whole top on my long arm and going three times around all of the applique shapes, which really makes them pop. 

Watch this space as Lizzie is returning to Aberdeen University on Sunday (not Tuesday as she thought) so she has several projects to complete in the next two days.

Wednesday WIP - January goals

The UFO chosen for our guild challenge for January was of course the project with the most work that needed doing. My tattoo quilt. I have now finished the central block which I shared on Monday and am ready to piece it together. Fortunately my daughter has decided to go with the option of no extra borders so it will soon be ready to quilt.

I also have two January themed Cross stitch pieces I’d like to finish this month. This is the first - January cottage by Country Cottage Needlework’s. Progress is good but it is mostly white snowflakes which need to be stitched now and I am not keen on stitching white.

I also signed up for a foundation pieced block of the month called “around the world” designed by Whole Circle Studios. Month one was Cairo and a straight forward stitch. I am using the bone background from my tattoo quilt which I didn’t use and the other plains are from stash.  I visited Egypt with the children about ten years ago and my overriding memories of the pyramids was the hawker who wouldn't give me change back. we probably got picked out as we had no man with us. That experience demonstrated that there was no point making eye contact with the vendors and we enjoyed the sights instead. My other mistake was not taking a swimming costume with me and the children's highlight was the swimming pool at the hotel in Luxor. we also went up in a hot air balloon which was another bucket list item.

How are your January stitching plans coming along as we near the middle of the month?

Monday make - open mind open heart

This month's block for the official sew along is Peace which is so relevant, it breaks my heart. This is the full tattoo quit by @happysewlucky and a week ago I shared the finished Respect block. This week I have worked like a Trojan and the central block is now complete apart from the sashing. I have one other block to sash too.

I purchased a complete kit from Sew Hot UK with the Kona colours and on each block I have substituted the background fabric with Tula Pink's fairy dust in whisper and changed a couple of th fabrics in each block for other Tula Pink fabric from my stash.

I went to trim the blocks down on Saturday and found :

1. Some of the block patterns say  20" finished width or length an others say 21". 21" is the correct measurement; and

2. I didn't make the sashing quite big enough so my blocks are smaller than the pattern.

I have plenty of the background fabric and decided to unpick all of the sashings and start again. However having put the project in time out, I am going to figure out the maths to make the locks work as is and hopefully plan to piece the top this week. First I have a customer quilt to put on my long arm today. Threads and pattern have been chosen via FB messenger so I am good to go.

Friday freebie - economy block

 

The economy block have a resurgence in popularity a few years ago and a sewalong. shocking but I didn't join that sewalong!! I saw someone post on Instagram that you could make the block with dies 1, 3, and 4 of any Accuquilt mix and match set. I might have a few different sets of dies, so I did a mock up in EQ8 using low volume centres, red for the second round and pink corners.

I dived into my scrap basket and started cutting.  My plan is to use these as a leader and ender project in 2021 and I bagged up each section which I keep in a wooden trough behind my sewing machine. I have also diarised to cut extra pieces once a month. I am surprised that my scraps didn't yield a lot of pieces, so I have started using up layer cake squares and yardage.

I have been busy stitching the final block on my tattoo quilt which I should finish today so have already made nine blocks. I plan to donate this as a fundraiser for After Breast Cancer as they were thrilled with the previous pink and red quilt that I donated.

WIP Wednesday - 2021 Guild challenge

 Here are the projects I selected for our Guild challenge, mostly small or simple projects so I can work on other projects too. I don't think that will be happening this month as my tattoo quilt #4) wa chosen for January. I shared my progress on this quilt on Monday.

1. Unicorn block - to make into a pillow perhaps?

2. Book block - to make into a book bag perhaps

3. Tea towel from Poppy Treffey to add some machine embroidery

4. Tattoo quilt

5. Travel bag

6. Linen dress

7. 2020 Prairie schooler Santa

8. Minimalist wallet - pattern by Noodlehead

9. La Fin du Monde - just needs the ends sewn in

10. Bonnie & Camille stars - this was my leader and ender project for 2020.

11. Spring Garden by Durene Jones

12. Plaidish in black, red and low volume

Time will tell whether finishing my January UFO will be achievable, but one that quilt is finished, all the other project are much simpler. 

Monday make - Respect

 

Happy New Year to you all. Yesterday I met up with friends for a very quick sea swim. No idea what the water temperature was, but it was shockingly cold. Whilst sorting ourselves out for a socially distanced photograph, I tripped over a very big rock, so today my body and pride are still very battered and bruised. It took me ages to get warm so I didn't get as much sewing done yesterday as I'd hoped.

I have joined in our Guild's UFO challenge again in 2021 but yo would have thought I would have learnt by experience. That would be a definite no. I included one big project on my list and it was drawn for January. So I have a month to complete my tattoo quilt. 

I am making progress already, on Saturday I finished stitching the component parts of RESPECT and yesterday I pieced it together whilst working on the large final block.

I didn't quite get the banner sections of the final block completed yesterday but all of the words are complete as well as a few of the blocks in the central heart motif. Today I will work on completing the banners and start all of the blocks with a leaf in them. By Saturday 16 January, I plan to have all of the blocks completed and perhaps even a quilt top.

Friday finish - Frankie T-shirt

I have had the book Stretch by Tilly Walnes for a while and my Singer overlocker (serger) for even longer. My son purchased me four cones of white and grey thread from Lidl a few years ago too and they have for the most part sat unloved. Not any more!!! My daughter is back from Uni and we needed some projects to keep her busy so we have purchased some knit fabrics locally and I also signed up for the Tilly Walnes "Getting to know your overlocker" course online which was released just after Xmas.

I have now finished the Frankie baseball T-shirt from the book using both my overlocker and my regular sewing machine. Apart from one little pucker in the neckline, the size and length are spot on and I now need to make a pair of shorts to make this in to a set of shortie pyjamas.

What I've learnt from this project and the course which I am only part way through:

• Pre wash your fabric. It's quite clearly stated in the book but I forgot. Fortuitously our fabrics haven't shrunk.
• label your overlocker thread channels to make set up easier. Done
• we should have used a 5/8" seam allowance and I have now marked our machine with tape as a guide.

Now to wait patiently for some more fabric that we ordered on Boxing Day. In the meantime I need to perfect using a twin needle on my Bernina.