WIP Wednesday - Thimble SAL week 4

I am enjoying stitching these small blocks for the Fussy Cut Thimbles Sew along with Happy Sew Lucky. My first block was to celebrate strong women and I love this Ruby Star print.

I would have probably been better using this fabric in the previous block, but I thought this was a good fabric to use as we're so close to Halloween.

I thought this was a sweet fabric to use for this block. I definitely need to purchase some more fabrics for smaller fussy cut blocks.

These are my blocks so far. I only have one block from week 4 that I haven't stitched and will take the week 5 blocks to this weekend's retreat. Though that will require some preplanning and I leave tomorrow afternoon! I need some more green backgrounds and some purples too.

 

Monday make - jingle all the way

I spent two days last week travelling to and from Aberdeen and then three days with Lizzie, getting sorted for her move tomorrow. She has a busy day today and fingers crossed all goes well tomorrow.

I am very pleased to have kept up with the Jingle All the Way sew along on the Cristin Creates Facebook group. The design is by Kimberbell Designs and I am using my own choice of fabrics from my Christmas stash.

This week we stitched two chenille stockings, one of which is for section 3 and two large flying geese units, again one is for section 3. 

Sections 1 and 2 are complete and I have two blocks for section 3. I also have the following blocks ready for later sections:

1 x jingle all the way

4 x peppermint twists

1 x candy cane

1 x Le Moyne star

1 x nine patch

1 x chenille stocking

1 x large flying geese

Friday Finish - Cassie dress

 I wore my finished Cassie dress and matching sneakers to our Jersey Modern Quilt Group meeting last weekend and Kim kindly took a couple of photos for me. The fabric was purchased from Rosenburgs at Festival of Quilts 2024 and the pattern came from the 2023 show.

Everyone was very complimentary about the dress, so I definitely need to make another. It should be a quick make as I have already traced and altered my pattern pieces.

WIP Wednesday Jingle all the Way catch up

 

Last Wednesday I needed to stitch five peppermint twist blocks and three filler blocks to catch up with Cristin Creates’ YouTube sewalong for the Kimberbell Designs - Jingle all the way quilt. After a tricky day on Thursday, it was good to focus on stitching the peppermint twist blocks.

On Saturday I stitched the three filler blocks for section 2 and pieced the section together. However, I was too hasty, and my star block was wrongly orientated and the pink trees were lying on their sides. A quick date with my unpicker and the block was complete. It is now on my design wall with section1 and I am now up to date.

I also have the following blocks ready for later sections:

1 x jingle all the way

4 x peppermint twists

1 x candy cane

1 x Le Moyne star

1 x nine patch

I would guess the next block will be the Christmas stockings with a chenille cuff.

Monday make - Thimble SAL week 3

 

I accidentally made block K above for the Thimble Sal with Happy Sew Lucky a week ago, so when I started sewing the blocks on Saturday. I am combining my Ruby Star stash with Kona solids for the background. This week's assignment is three blocks - K, L and M.

I was particularly pleased with my fussy cutting of the Ruby Star selvedge into the "SPARKLE" banner. 

I was also pleased with how the "connected" from another selvedge fit just perfectly.

Here are all of the week 3 blocks together.  I definitely need to add some red, orange and purple background blocks.

Retreat planning - Go Big Baby Bear

 

In November I will be going to two retreats. The first weekend in November I will be in Leeds at the Modern Quilt Club retreat with my daughter and two weeks later, we have our local retreat. As I am in Aberdeen next week, I really need to plan what projects I will be taking with me. I like to do most of the preparation at home so that I have a productive weekend.

I had wanted to make a baby quilt for a friend's daughter but navy and neutrals just didn't inspire me. Last Friday, Yvonne mentioned that pink had crept into her granddaughter's colour palette. My heart sang.

I found a great dark navy in my stash which will be the perfect background. I pulled out all of my pink and purple fabrics. There are a lot of spotted fabric in my pink fabrics. I need ten different fat quarters for this project which was originally published in Make Modern magazine but will be released as stand along pattern soon.

There's a good mix of favourite fabric designers in my final choice including two fabrics by April Rosenthal from the original rainbow sample, Elizabeth Hartman, Alison Glass, Liberty and more.

I think the result is a nice gradient from a pale pink Kona to a pink / purple fabric for the half square triangle border. Tomorrow is our guild day, so I plan to cut these out tomorrow. we have a busy meeting with a quick AGM followed by our usual sewing and PAT testing of our machines for insurance purposes.

WIP Wednesday - jingle all the way

I have joined in the sewalong for Jingle All the Way by Kimberbell Designs. Cristin Sohm hosts the videos on Youtube and it slowly take you through the blocks for the project section by section. I though I was about ten blocks behind, but it turns out to be fourteen blocks and two filler blocks!

The first block was Jingle all the way and you can either do the one block for section 1 or two blocks for the whole quilt. The benefit of doing all of the identical blocks is the work on later sections becomes lighter.

Next were two nine patch blocks for which I am using grey rather than black. They were quick to piece and then were quilted on my embroidery machine with a plaid pattern.

The three Le Moyne stars were next which was more of a challenge as my hoop is not quite big enough, but I reduced the quilting design from 8" to 7.75" and removed the basting stitches. I like how these turned out.

Next were two border blocks and time to stitch together section 1. I forgot to put stabilizer on the back of the border fabrics and I can see the difference in how they turned out. However, section 1 is complete and I'm starting to catch up! 

Next should have been five peppermint twists but instead I decided to do the simpler candy cane blocks. Watching the embroidery being done is so hypnotic. I am pleased with my choice of background fabric for these two blocks.

 A new video was released this morning, so I now need to stitch:

Three filler blocks for section 2

Five peppermint twists - one of which I need to complete section 2

Stitch together section 2

I'm not doing too badly given I had only started this project this week.

Monday make - thimble SAL

The Thimbles sewalong with Happy Sew Lucky started a week ago, so when I started sewing the blocks on Saturday, I was already behind. I am combining my Ruby Star stash with Kona solids for the background.

Unfortunately, the first block I sewed was for week 3! Not a good start but I was pleased with my fussy cutting of the word "strawberry".

The week 2 blocks turned out beautifully with records, a tomato, another strawberry, pop, an owl and a skier. Very random!

Yesterday I finished the last of the week 1 blocks too. The blocks look great together so far.

A few months ago, I started tidying up my solids stash and destashed any smaller pieces. I then sorted the remaining solids by colour which made choosing the background fabrics much quicker.

 

Friday finish - Christmas tiny town

 

Christmas Tiny Town by Heart in Hand was the UFO selected for October for our Guild FO Challenge. Fortunately, I had worked on it during September, so I finished it early in the month and it has now been framed.

What to work on next? I have an ultrasound later today after supervising some work at my father's apartment, so a busy day, but I hope to make more progress at the weekend.

WIP Wednesday - bee quilt

 

This is another fabulous quilt made by Gisele, which I quilted with a bee and floral design in medium grey Glide. I am amazed at the variety of yellow bee fabrics used for the pieced hexagon background. Another stunner ready to be returned to its new owner.

Monday Make - medallion quilt

 I have been quite productive over the last few days, but tech seems to be working against me and making progress slower than I had hoped. I loaded a customer quilt on to my long arm last Monday and quilted it yesterday.

All of the floral fabrics were giving off spring vibes as we head into autumn. A central medallion is surrounded by these rectangular floral blocks. The quilt was all hand pieced by our talented friend Gisele and when her stash was sold, this quilt top was purchased by a friend. 

I used Glide thread in the colour bone and the digital pantograph Malachite by Urban Elementz. My next job is to load another customer quilt onto my frame.

Sneakers and September 2024 achievements

I am thrilled to have finished these sneakers purchased from sneaker.eu by my daughter for Christmas 2022. Lizzie finished her sneakers in 2022. My first attempt wasn't successful, so it was added to my Guild UFO challenge for 2024. The Fabric is from Stitch Fabric at the 2024 Festival of Quilts and will become a matching dress.

I unpicked the labels from my first attempt and added it to the tongue. I now need to find a source for shoe laces and wash the shoe laces from my shop bought shoes too.

A stiletto to open up the stitch holes and the big green machine to punch the stitching holes into the fabric uppers and tongues made this project much easier the second time around.

This was my only finish for the month and completed on the last day of the month. I am looking forward to a more productive October.

October 2024 plans

September was a bust, so I need to work on the following still:

Christmas Tiny Town is one of my UFO challenge pieces that I started in August and I did some stitching on during our river cruise. Fingers crossed this is chosen for October as it should be a quick finish and then I can get it framed professionally.

Another small piece that I have started and put to the side is Spring Quaker by Primrose Cottage in a pretty monochromatic lavender thread. 

The Cristin Creates FB group are already on block 7 of the Jingle All the Way quilt so I have some catching up to do. My husband has finished painting the room which contains my long arm and embroidery machine so I should be able to make progress on this. I will use my own choice of fabrics again, but I did purchase the embellishment kit.

I would like to make two versions of the Cassie dress this month. The denim stars fabric is already cut out and I made a toile of the bodice.

The blue and pink floral is prewashed, but I will only cut it out once the denim version is complete.

I also have three customer quilts ready to quilt and I need to catch up on the Karlee Porter Graffiti quilting class. As my husband is away visiting his family for two weeks, in theory, this is all very achievable.