Sunday stash - the retreat edition

I haven't shared my purchases with you in a while, but have a few purchases so thought now was the time. I had hoped my order from Sew Hot would arrive in time for the retreat but it didn't, but I now have the first three block pieced for Free Block Friday with @GnomeAngel

I made a couple of purchases from Saira of Olive and Flo Handcraft and the good news for those of outside the UK, Saira is now VAT registered and will take off the VAT, if you email her when ordering. My purchases were a metre of Dream by Quietplay and a fat quarter of a Carolyn Friedlander Orange. My friend Gill beat me to the chase on Sunday and gifted me the two fat quarters of Libs Elliott on the right  and one has already been used to make a minimalist wallet.

My guilty pleasure is watching YouTube craft videos and my TK Maxx purchases were totally inspired by The Real Housewives of Cross Stitch. I did leave some Rae Dunn for others as I knew I was over my suitcase limit. I was so lucky that the check in agent didn't charge me for being over the limit of 15kg as my case weighed in at 16.3kg and I had a LOT of heavy fabric in my hand luggage. I walked to the TK Maxx in Speake but next time I'll be sensible and catch the bus from the airport.

I spotted this kit by Helen Steele on Instagram and asked her to bring one for me. I think it's a bargain at £20 as all the cutting out is done for you and you get the paper templates.

I will do a retreat round up next week if you're interested but it was lovely to see old friends and new and stroke fabric in real life. I must finish unpacking from last weekend's retreat ready for next weekend's Jersey retreat.

 

Friday Finish -2016 Santa

 

I have finished stitching my fifteenth Prairie Schooler Santa with the 2016 edition. There are 38 in the series which started in 1984. I have over a third of the patterns sewn, let's not worry about the two thirds that are still to do! 

I have most of the patterns in my stash and have destashed some of those that I have completed. I will focus on purchasing / sourcing the other patterns when I have over two thirds stitched. I plan to continue to stitch one pattern a month in 2022 and next month I plan to stitch 2013 Santa.

WIP Wednesday - minimalist wallets

 

Two friends had asked for a minimalist wallet so I thought they were a perfect retreat project. They were the first project I pulled out to work on. I had all the right kit and everything was cut out and interfaced but I just couldn't get the snaps to set properly. I struggled for ages before deciding it wasn't going to happen.

I returned to the project on Sunday and set the snaps but in yellow fabric not the outside fabric. Fortunately I had enough fabric to recut the inside pocket for the navy wallet. I love the contrast of the yellow Tilda fabric against the navy fossil fern.

With no remaining contrast yellow for the zipped pocket, I plundered our goody bag and found this perfect turquoise floral from Art Gallery fabrics.

Gill gifted me this Libs Elliott fabric based on the quilt design I'd just completed - La Fin du Monde in all the rainbow colours. I didn't have enough snaps left to finish the project so brought the WIP home with me. I knew I'd bought another pack of snaps in Rennes earlier in the month, so I completed this wallet for myself yesterday evening.

I had planned to make a black wallet for myself so has taken the contrast pink with me, this is Dream by Quietplay. What WIP to work on next? Anything not finished at last weekend's retreat, will probably be packed ready for the Jersey retreat in ten days time. 

Friday Finish - fractured skull

I am on my way to retreat. Very exciting! Yesterday I flew to Liverpool and met Gill in the city for a little shopping and dinner at Leaf. I’ve slept well and once I’m ready for the day I will take a walk to the supermarket and be ready for Gill to pick me up to drive to Yorkshire.

I have caught up on the Fractured Skull sewalong and sewn the four quadrants. Just before leaving for the airport yesterday I had time to sew the quadrants together. No time to press the centre seam but I will do that on my return home on Monday.

WIP Wednesday fractured skull week 5

 

Less than two weeks ago this project was a pile of fabric. Fractured Skull is an FPP pattern by Helen Creasey The sewalong is now on week 4 and I have only just begun stitching. Week 5 started last Friday and as of yesterday I have started the week 5 task which is to sew all of the units into the four quadrants.

As I am stitching the pieces together I am making sure that the right and left sides match. I have had to adjust two blocks where I’d used the wrong shade of pink.

I was very concerned that I was going to run out of fabric but the only finagling that was needed was to make up one section by sewing two pieces of the colour pomegranate together. Once quilted, I don’t think you will see the extra seam.

I am hoping to make good progress today and not take it to retreat with me. So far I have packed the following to work on :

Three minimalist wallets

ATW BOM October block is Seattle

Jarrah sweater to cut out ready to sew

Two more FPP ugly sweater blocks

I’m hoping that’s enough to keep me busy :)

Monday Make - La Fin du Monde

 

This finish has been a  long time coming and was the October pick for our group UFO challenge. I have now finished all of my twelve UFOs for the year. I have just one old UFO now which needs to be quilted but it needs custom quilting and it's big. It really needs to be finished next year. I also need to work on a list of 12 projects for 2022 too.

The pattern is La Fin du Monde by Libs Elliott made in all Alison Glass fabrics. I ordered the fabrics before the sewalong started and even cut my own templates at our local library. The fabric went on a side trip to France for some weeks and I never really caught up. The top was quilted at least two years ago and bound too, all I needed to do was unpick some over stitching and sew in umpteen ends which I did at the October meeting of Jersey Modern Quilt Group. 

I am going to offer this to a local breast cancer charity as a fundraiser. Now I need to focus on the Fractured Skull Sewalong and pack for the retreat I'm attending this weekend in Leeds as I leave on Thursday afternoon.

Friday Finish - Coney Island Quilt

 

I have been testing the Coney Island Quilt for Sally Davies (Chasingtiger on Instagram) using the leftovers from the spooky sampler kit with a black on white spotted print from stash and a black and white stripe purchased at Pour l'Amour du Fils. Even the grey spotted backing was from stash. I recently tidied up and updated the labels for my stash of 108" wide backings, so that process was rewarded by finding this backing quickly.

The binding is the same black and white stripe from Riley Blake Designs and I used a pantograph from Anne Bright Designs called Nightmare which was just perfect. No overstitching and not too dense.

The pattern will be released in a few days so either follow me or Sally on Instagram for the full details. Once again I'm amazed at what I can finish, if I just focus on one project at a time!! Next to be worked on is the Fractured Skull.

WIP Wednesday - Fractured Skull Sewalong

 

Fractured Skull is an FPP pattern by Helen Creasey The sewalong is now on week 4 and I have only just begun stitching. Week 1's objective was to get the pattern printed on A0 sized paper and get your fabrics. I was too slow to get a kit from SewHot but managed to source all but two of the fabrics from them and did my best to substitute two other Kona colours. 

I cut out the pattern pieces  and have laid them out in piles on my daughter's bed. I realise I need to eliminate some of the printed pieces as they are for the larger quit, but that will come later when there are fewer pieces to sort through.

Yesterday I started sewing some of the units. My plan is to stitch ten per day. I have randomly selected ten pieces of skull and you can already see the eye sockets and some of the teeth. Today I have started sewing ten more and been a bit more structured and chosen those that will enable to sew some sections together, at the moment I can't see where the smaller pieces will fit in.

Fortunately Sew Hot label their Kona colours and I am keeping any small pieces together with the yardage in an Ikea box. I have a similar box for the coloured background pieces. I'm hoping to have this mostly done by the time I leave for retreat next Thursday and may take it with me to put it all together. Let's see how I progress with my ten a day plan, but I hope to finish week 2 - the skull, this week and get those sections sewn together.

Monday Make - Coney Island Quilt

 

The fabric that I chose for this pattern test for Chasing Tigers was the leftover fabric from the Spooky Sampler Quilt by Melissa Mortenson. To the mix, I added a Riley Blake Designs black and white stripe and a black on white polka dot.

To add interest to the quilt I used an orange on white fabric for the background of the middle block to draw the eye in. I have a black and white print which I'm hoping to use for the backing and get it all quilted very soon. Then I will have to choose a print for the binding - plain grey from the kit, a white on black polka dot???

We're home

 

Still no sewing going on here but it's only 10am and we were up at 5am UK time to catch the ferry home from France. The stars aligned and the boat left early, arrived early and we had our Covid tests on arrival and left the port at the time the ferry was scheduled to arrive.

I made a few purchases whilst away and thought I'd share them today. Firstly gifts from Pippa. Till roll and US sized paper. I was puzzled by the till roll but apparently I need to look at this video

This was the first of two purchases at Pour l'Amour du Fil, a half yard bundle of 20 fabrics from Alison Glass for 95 Euros (about £80) and I've now put my new sticker to my sewing machine.

I also purchased the black and white striped fabric at the show ready to make my test quilt for Chasing Tigers. The rest of my haul was from Tissus Mondial near the new Leclerc and Lidl in St Gregoire, Rennes. The zips are for another wallet for me as are the snaps.

Time to get some sewing in.

WIP Wednesday - Nantes edition

There’s not a lot of crafting going on here as we are in France for a week but I did start our trip with a quick visit to pour l’Amour du Fil in Nantes.

Wonderfil had a stand and had invited Alison Glass to the show, so I had to take my trinket sewalong quilt to photograph with the original. I was beyond thrilled when Alison approached me and greeted me by name. 

There were lots of displays by other designers but many were unmanned stands. They were inspiring nonetheless.

I also met up with my friend Pippa and her daughter Amelia and we handed over some Uk goodies for her and her family in the car  park. 

I did a little shopping at the show and bought a metre of black and white stripe and 20 half yard cuts of Alison Glass fabric at half price. 

A highlight of our stay was a ride on the mechanical elephant which had been on my bucket list.

October 2021 plans

I have a trip to France and a retreat coming up in October as well as pattern testing for a UK designer, so I'm not sure what I'll achieve this month.

1. Two minimalist wallets for friends. I plan to kit these up ready for retreat

2. Spooky Sampler. This also needs to be prepped for retreat but I have made a few blocks already. 

3. 2016 Prairie Schooler Santa. I will take this to France but don't expect to make much progress until we're back

4. Casserole Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman. another retreat project which has a lot of cutting out. I may do some of the cutting out whilst we're in France as we're taking the car and there will be plenty of room for a mat and fabric.

5. Coney Island Quilt - pattern test and I'm hoping to use the fabrics left over from Spooky Sampler. This has an October deadline

6. Write Go Big Baby Bear pattern

September 2021 achievements

I achieved more in September than August but not necessarily on planned projects. My pattern has still not been finalised, but needs to be with the magazine by mid November so will need to be done this month.

I did finish:

1. 2017 Prairie Schooler Santa 

2. And 2008 Prairie Schooler Santa, bringing my total to 14 out of 38 years stitched. 

3. ATW BOM for September

4. A second pair of shortie pyjamas

5. Christmas Cheer by Corinne Sovey

6. Christmas wreath was made into a cushion. Pattern by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

7. September UFO - Poppy Treffy tea towel

I also started several projects including Christmas Tree by Barbara Ana which is going to be a long term work in progress with  a plan to complete half a layer a month for a Christmas 2022 finish.