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.

New project

Whenever I go away the first things I pack are medicines, underwear and pyjamas. My next priority is a project or two to work on. I have kitted up Frosty Tiny Town by Heart in Hand and one tree or house a day for our five day trip should be achievable. Or not. I just had to source three thread colours to kit it up fully.

Spring Quaker

 

This project came to London with me for two days this week and sat in my bag untouched. With hospital appointments and an early start on Monday, we were just too tired to do anything more than attend the appointments and find food.

I have however made good progress on the Spring Quaker by Primrose Cottage and it is so nearly complete. If I don't finish it today, it will go with us to France on Sunday.

UFO challenge April 2025

 

I knew we were going to be busy in April, so my Guild's UFO challenge had to be my first priority. I made the four wonky log cabin blocks on my embroidery machine and pieced them together and quilted the border on my sewing machine.

Everything was going swimmingly until I started on the binding, however after cleaning my machine and replacing the needle, order was restored. I even managed to remember to add a fun label. This is another mini quilt to be donated to SCBU.

Monday make - Ruby Star anniversary quilt

 

I have just finished the sixteen kitty paw blocks needed for this quilt. This is the fourth of five blocks which sounds like I'm nearing the end of the stitching of the blocks but there are now 32 sawtooth blocks to complete.

I have eight of the blocks cut out and the flying geese units made, but they now need trimming. For the next two weeks, when I am in Jersey, I want to cut the remaining eight fabrics for the blocks, trim and piece all of the blocks and lay out the blocks ready for piecing into rows. My vague plan is to piece some of the blocks together as I stitch the sawtooth stars. Hopefully all of the blocks will at least be prepped ready to take to Modern Quilt Club retreat on 24 April. 

March 2025 achievements

Apparently, it was all about the clothes in March despite it being a very busy month and April is looking equally busy.

My March Guild UFO was another mini quilt for SCBU using a Me Time Delivered embroidery file.

I finished the Drew sweatshirt by Tilly and the buttons which I started in February. The fabric is Chicacheetah Jersey from Guthrie & Ghani.

I completed the Drew dress by Fabric Godmother in time for our day trip to The Stitch Festival.

I completed the Aspen sweatshirt by Tilly & the buttons in fabric from By Graziela. The ribbing needs replacing as it was too thick. I sized down by a couple of sizes but I still think I could size down more.

April 2025 plans

A busy month is on the horizon with three trips away. I definitely need to finish off some projects this month and hope to get to:

Woven stars - Just a few more blocks to stitch and then I can start laying them out and make into a quilt top.

Ruby Star anniversary quilt - I have half of the penultimate blocks sewn up and some of the final blocks cut out. I might take the blocks to the retreat at the end of the month to finish the quilt top.

Drew sweatshirt in grey - perhaps using the new projector that we've purchased. Affiliate link https://amzn.to/4hzHGbY and there's currently a £30 discount voucher available. The fabric was a gift from a friend who found five metres at a local charity shop.

Spring quaker by Primrose Stitches which has progressed to about half complete.

Guild UFO #7 MeTime delivered September 2024. Instructions are printed out so I need to cut the fabric ready to stitch this weekend.

I purchased three metres of this fabric in Shaukat in London to make either an Aspen dress or another dress.