WIP Wednesday - Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

 

I know I'm too late for St Patrick' Day 2025, but I thought I'd start another of the free stitch Friday patterns from Primrose Cottage Stitches as the Spring pattern was a quick stitch. What was I thinking! This pattern is stitched on 36 count Platinum Edinburgh with Cottage Graden Threads. I have none of the called for as I generally stitch on 32 or 28 count fabric. I thought I'd use a 40 count fabric instead!! I think this might be a slow stitch one over one on a bright day. 

I also chose the floss from my stash and the Weeks Dye Works green is called Lucky so I think that's a perfect choice. I have a small start so far. I must remember to track where my Irish passport application has got to in the system via the provided QR code.

Monday make - Spring

You really NEED to sign up for the Primrose Cottage newsletter. Once a month they release a free pattern for free stitch Friday. The May pattern is a cutie. I lost my focus and needed an easy stitch to take to group meetings, so I started the project. Not that I got to take it to any group meetings!

I had all of the DMC threads and substituted Weeks Bubble Gum for the called for pink variegated Dinky Dye Works.

I have even finished it into a little pillow for spring decor using a scrap of yellow and Bonnie and Camille white spots on pink. The mini ric rac was from Gisele's sale of stash, but i should really have changed my thread colour to yellow.

Do I kit up another of these patterns for group meetings or get back to Frosty Tiny Town?

Friday finish- pumpkins and potions

 

I have been focusing on section1 of Pumpkins and Potions by Kimberbell. I am using my own choice of fabrics but purchased the embellishment kit. This size of quilt is something different for me and it has my head spinning with options. I have browsed Amazon UK for extra wide quilt ladders but am coming up blank at the moment, I might have to ask Nick to make me something suitable.

So far, I have completed section 1 of 5 together with all of the pieced blocks and the filler blocks. Next is section 2 and I already have four of the eight blocks completed. However, the potion bottle uses water soluble stabiliser which is new to me. I am liking the pop of pink in the quilt too.

WIP Wednesday - Ruby Star Society anniversary quilt

The Ruby Star Anniversary quilt was my second project that I was doing monthly during 2025. I focused on this project over the last few days and especially trimming the flying geese units for block 5. I found the trimming tedious but got there in the end.

I have a design wall in my small sewing space which was not quite big enough to organise the blocks for the project. With a few pins used on each end, I was able to display most of the blocks and whilst stitching up the sawtooth stars, I started to piece the rows together starting top down and left to right.

As well as my design wall, my home-made alphabet pins came into their own and I labelled the rows with a pin in the first block of each row. I love all of the designs in the anniversary panel. Look at this little turnip or is it a radish? 

Monday make - woven stars

 

I started this project in January 2025 as a block of the month by myself. I used foundation papers from Fat Quarter Shop and a fat quarter stack of first light by Ruby Star Society. I planned to make four blocks a month and take it slowly! However, these 6 inch blocks are very addictive and I have now finished the 40 blocks needed for a quilt for the Quilts for Care Leavers charity. 

I used a number of different off white background fabrics from Ruby Star Society for this quilt and my process was simple. I cut strips of fabric for the stars and kept them in a plastic bag and then cut squares for the corners and triangles. I stitched four blocks at a time and cut more strips for the star points as needed.

I used a digital pantograph called Malachite by Urban Elementz combined with a king tut in Grey and Black. The Quilting is quite bold, but I like it.

My usual quilt assistant is away for two weeks visiting family in the UK. So, I have had to improvise for these photographs. The quilt is about 40" x 70" and I used squares of leftover fabric from the fat quarter stack to put the blocks on point. Thus, making it bigger quicker.

I found a perfect black and white spotted fabric for the binding in my stash. This was originally purchased in France a couple of years ago. The backing is a neutral also from my stash. I keep my backing separate to my working stash so it is quick to find something that will fit the brief. This will now be packed away ready to handover to my friend Gill in July as she does a lot of work with this charity.

Friday finish - Guild UFO challenge

 

I was inspired by the border fabric to only make two blocks and make them into a butterfly to match the butterfly border. I then added jumbo ric rac to make the body of the butterfly and embroidered the antennae.

I even remembered to add a tag to the reverse of the quilt in the binding. I was glad to have an easy make for our guild UFO challenge for May but now I need to work on pumpkins and potions as I have a lot of work to do on that UFO. 

April 2025 achievements

April was a busy month with a two-day trip to London, a trip to Nantes for Pour l'Amour du Fil and the Modern Quilt Club retreat at the end of the month. I have no planned trips for May so hope to finish a few projects.

Twice as nice pouch by Aneela Hoey with strawberries.

Easy duffle bag by Sweet Cinnamon Rose with more strawberries!

Spring Quaker by Primrose Cottage. I really need to finish some of these pieces to put on display.

Another mini quilt for SCBU was my Guild UFO challenge for April.   

May 2025 plans

I have no planned trips in May, and my husband is also away for two weeks visiting the children and his family. I have big plans for stitching this month and finishing projects.

Woven stars - I need 40 blocks and have made 38 so far. At the retreat fabric was being offered by Hantex for quilt backings for charity quilts so I now have a peachy backing ready to go.

I haven't progressed much further with the Ruby Star anniversary quilt but only have block five to cut out and complete. I will put it all on my design wall once the woven stars are complete and I can start piecing the blocks together as leader and enders whilst piecing block five.

I was awaiting the announcement of the Guild UFO challenge with some trepidation as none of the larger projects have yet been selected. I had already decided to recommence work on the Kimberbell Pumpkins and Potions ladder quilt in May as that's probably the largest of the projects I've selected for the UFO challenge.

Fortunately, this month's project is another small project which will become another SCBU mini quilt.

I have a small start of one house for the Winter Tiny Town by Heart in Hand but I would hope to finish it this month too.

Retreat make - easy duffle bag

 

More strawberries! I made and quilted the outside panels before leaving for retreat. All I needed to complete my bag was a zipper. I purchased a metre of zipper tape and two zipper pulls from Modern Quilt Club for £2.40 - a bargain. I also purchased pink D rings from Laura of Sweet Cinnamon Roses and will decide at a future date whether to add a long strap.

Jane of Cheshire Designs was selling some of her products and pouches and I thought this cute pom pom decoration was perfect.

I did make the mistake of cutting 3" squares in each corner, which was the size for the smaller version. Never mind, the shape is slightly different but equally as spacious. I did stop another lady from making the same mistake as me.

Retreat make - twice as nice pouch

 

I arrived back home later Monday afternoon from the Modern Quilt Club retreat. Everything went smoothly with my travel arrangements, and I didn't have to spend an extra two days in Liverpool this time.

I planned to work on the twice as nice pouch by Aneela Hoey on Friday. I borrowed Lizzie's Atelier 6 and also took her overlocker with me to the retreat to get it serviced.  The tension on her sewing machine was very poor, but fortunately Michael serviced it straight away and I was back on track. This is the third version of this pouch that I've made and this one was for me.

I bought the zippers from Aneela Hoey at the Stitch Festival in March, so it was a quick job to kit up the project. More strawberries!

This pouch is perfect for travelling to contain your passport. Next week I must apply for my Irish passport. I'm concerned about how long it will take to get the passport back so have waited until after our trip to France before Easter.

Packing for retreat

Fingers crossed I should already be in Leeds for the retreat which starts lunchtime today. I am borrowing Lizzie's Atelier 6 and also getting her overlocker serviced at the retreat. I hope I can get an Uber from Lizzie's flat and not have to venture out by train with two suitcases and two machines. I have five projects that I'm taking.

Twice as Nice pouch in more strawberry fabric, which should be an easy Friday make.

Easy Duffle Bag by retreat teacher Sweet Cinnamon Rose. As the panels are quilted and cut, I'm hoping I can make this on Saturday morning.

I need to make twelve more woven star blocks for my planned layout out. Perhaps a Saturday afternoon and Sunday project to make progress?

My back up project is the Ruby Star Society anniversary quilt, but I haven't cut out all of the fabric for the last blocks yet.

All of the strawberries

I have been working hard over the last few days to complete a magazine project. The piecing and quilting are now done, and I have three sides of binding to hand stitch down. I then took the leftovers from my project to use on a retreat project - Easy Duffle by Sweet Cinnamon Rose.

We have been encouraged to go scrappy for this project, so I pulled out this bag of Ruby Star Society scraps to use along with ALL of the strawberry prints. Improv is out of my comfort zone but I made two panels of 24 blocks from which to construct the duffle bag. At the same time, I used up some scraps and pressed all of the other scraps in the bag and divided them into strawberry fabrics, selvedges and scraps. Some scraps were too small for me, and I have either put them in the bin or put them ready to pass to my friend Jill, who loves scraps!

I particularly like the aubergine and turquoise prints from the new range, so cut up two layer cake squares to make four filler blocks. I made all of the blocks 5" square and pieced them into two panels.

Yesterday I quilted the panels on some car headliner (a cheaper alternative to soft and stable) and this morning I've kitted up the project with everything apart from pink zipper tape. I will add the D rings to each end but may not add a long strap.

That's just one project kitted up so time to work on some other projects ready for retreat as I leave tomorrow afternoon to fly to Manchester and stay overnight with my daughter, Lizzie.

Spring Quaker

 

I took the Spring Quaker by Primrose Cottage with me to France last week and I actually worked on it. Why is the lighting so poor in hotels? We stayed in four hotels and the lighting was only good to stitch in one hotel. I should learn to take my light that goes around my neck.

I finished the bird and bird houses on Saturday at our stitchy day, I had a quilt to cut out and some flying geese units to trim, but I wasn't feeling the love for that task.

Today is a bank holiday in the UK for Easter Monday, so I am going to continue to prepare some projects for next weekend's retreat and finish my project for Make Modern Magazine.

Pour l’Amour du Fil 2025

 

We are back from our little trip to Nantes and Pour l'Amour du Fil. Before booking next year, we'll review the sailing times as we would have preferred to travel on Tuesday or Wednesday instead of Sunday. We have a new ferry operator, DFDS, so they have changed the schedule around totally. We spent two nights in Rennes, two nights in Nantes and last night in St Malo by the beach.

The theme of this year's event was Flower Power and you were greeted by this display as you entered the hall.

Nick joined me for the first day and we employed the Disney method and headed to the back and looked at the galleries first.

The work was exquisite but mainly traditional or incorporating a lot of Kaffe Fassett fabrics, neither of which are my aesthetic.

As in previous years, there were numerous displays from Japan and the Far East as well as shops elling Japanese fabrics and products.

The queues to enter on Wednesday were much longer than on Thursday.

The final gallery we visited before lunch was Sarah Hibbert's gallery and Nick sighed in relief at the gloriousness of her work. I had a quick chat with Sarah as I had a class with her the following morning.

I thoroughly enjoyed Sarah's class on the Thursday, but my piece is a little boring and needs some extra fabrics to add into the mix.

Nick had spent the morning in Nantes and brought back lunch from Mie Caline which we ate on the outside area. I had just one more display of work in sardine tins to look at before leaving the show.

As always, we ate well in Nantes at La Banque and in St Malo at Restaurant 1934. Finding food on Sunday was trickier and many restaurants are also shut on Mondays.