August UFO challenge

 

I bought this fabric from Rosenbergs in London about four years ago and I have been undecided about what to make with it. Lizzie favours the Oskar top with a zip and more seams than I'd like in a top in this fabric. I am thinking about the Jarrah sweater as I already have the pattern. I just need to measure myself and choose the size.

Running with scissors

 

This is Running with Scissors by By Annie in Tula Pink's grey work. I quilted the fabric on my Janome Atelier 7 with no marking. I just eyeballed the middle of each dot and it has worked out quite well.

This is not a difficult pattern but unusually I didn't precut all of the components and that turned out to be unwise. The stitching of all of the pockets for your tools took longer than expected. I took the project to the Modern Quilt Club July retreat but I wasn't getting along with the machine so it ended up coming home incomplete. 

 

A couple of hours spent sewing and chatting with my daughter, Lizzie and it was ready to bind. There are so many layers to bind that I managed to break a needle and a needle threader, I also mislaid my jar of hand stitching thimbles, needles and scissors. That necessitated buying a metal thimble even though I prefer the Clover silicon thimbles.

 

Just before going on retreat, I noticed that Minki Kim has specific labels for finishing a zipper end. Inspired by this new idea, I sandwiched the zipper end between two identical labels from Sew Quirky. I should have used some basting tape and the stitching could be neater on the label, but finished is better than perfect.

Handmade rocks

 

This was the joint project Lizzie chose for the July MQC retreat. Neither my brain nor the sewing machine were cooperating so I returned home with the applique panel almost complete. I finished the applique whilst on a Facebook video with Lizzie yesterday and then after the call, quickly made the panel into a banner.

I used lots of Aurifil 40 weight threads and Ruby Star Society fabrics. The knuckles and creases are drawn on with a permanent marker and I have omitted the tattoo. Today I need to finish hand stitching binding to another retreat project.

Liminal quilt - month 1

I dislike being behind on a block of the month, so finishing month 1 of the liminal quit medallion BOM by Jo Avery for Love Patchwork and Quilting was a priority this week. It is out of my comfort zone so there was quite a bit of unpicking.

I am pleased with the result but should have chosen a different foot for my machine to stitch the cogs as it dragged due to having been used on vinyl with the addition of some washi tape. I now need to clean that foot and put away the blocks and fabric until next month.

Here are months 1 and 2 together. Month 3 looks like two improv spikey borders, which should be in my comfort zone. 

Liminal quilt BOM

 

I decided to treat myself to an annual subscription to Love Patchwork and Quilting and a kit from A Beautiful Thing to make Jo Avery's Liminal quilt. I had hoped to stitch the first block at the Modern Quilt Club retreat on 17 July but the kit arrived as we pulled out of the garage to head to the airport, so I left it behind.

There was no colour key in either the kit or the magazine, so my first task was to make my own colour key. Then I matched the colour key with the fabric, labelled the fabrics with my homemade alphabet pins and cut a swatch from the fabric which I stuck to the colour key. 

The magazine arrived last week with the instructions for month 2, so I decided to start with month 2 as it looked easier than the block for month 1. I made a couple of cutting mistakes, but I stitched up the blocks this morning. 

Perhaps I'll attempt month 1 this weekend which will be easier now that I have all of the fabrics labelled.

I just couldn’t resist

I saw Sherie of A Quilting Life speaking about the July block for her block of the month and I decided to make it up for my Stash bee quilt. I decided to use all of my chosen colours - red, orange and yellow. There are some oldies in the mix including the grid fabric which I bought in Boston in 2019, the red is by Aneela Hoey and the orange is by Elizabeth Hartman.

I now have three blocks made despite it not yet being my month to be the bee mama.

Long term WIP

 

This foundation pieced skull quilt designed by Helen Creasey has been completed for a few years. It is now out of the drawer and ready to be Graffiti Quilted. My plan is to multiple different pink threads for the background and quilt a different motif in each section. Energy is what I lack to get projects finished, so I plan to quilt two matching sections each day and hope to see some good progress over the next few months.

August #Stash bee blocks

I thought I was the bee mama for July but it turns out my turn is August. I am ready for my turn. I am asking for star blocks in reds, orange and yellows on a low volume background. I plan to make the blocks into an autumnal ladder quilt.

The first sample block that I made was the May Block of the Month pattern from A Quilting Life. The background is by Sally Kelly.

My second block is a simple Ohio Star on an OG Alison Glass text print background, and the centre square is an old Carolyn Friedlander print.

I am looking forward to receiving blocks in August.

Honey of a Tiny Town Framed

 

I picked up Honey of a Tiny Town from the framers on Monday, and I'm really pleased with how it has turned out. I didn't want to pick out the brown or the mustard yellow, so we chose a white painted frame with a blue mount.

Moon bunny by Sew Quirky

 

Number 11 was selected as our group UFO challenge number for June and for me that was Moon Bunny by Sew Quirky. A small project but with a lot of details. It was made more difficult by not being able to find my Teflon foot so instead I stuck washi tape to the bottom of my open toed applique foot. I mentioned it in passing to Lizzie when we did sewed together over Facebook messenger a few days ago and lo and behold, she has two! At least I hadn't purchased a replacement.

I used hot fix rhinestones in three places on this piece - one replaced a French knot for the eye on the stork scissors, two for the inner of the eyes and many gold rhinestones to cover the mess that I made of the stars.

Then it was time to put it all together which according to the instructions included a lot of glue and being patient whilst it dried. I didn't gather the zipper tape and I didn't glue it down either. It's not perfect but it's finished ready for our July UFO which I hope is something simpler.

Stash bee July blocks

 

We received our instructions for the July block early, so instead of finishing the project with a deadline, I decided to have a play with this block. We were do use cool fabrics on one side and warm fabrics on the other side. I raided my bags of predominantly orange and turquoise scraps and pieced the scraps together as I went. I love the pear print which I think was from a Sew Hot scrap pack in a retreat goody bag.

I now need to work on my deadline project!

Primrose Cottage winter quaker

Having finished A Honey of a Tiny Town, it was time to release another WIP from the box. I grabbed this project which was a Freebie Friday chart. I have made a decent start but not a big start so I will work on it during June and July. I should probably chose some ric rac to finish it or purchase some if necessary, so that I'm ready to go.

Honey of a Tiny Town

 

This is another in the Tiny Town series by Heart in Hand. This is not a big piece, but I have taken my time to finish it. I just need to finish the bees, press the piece and add the buttons. I hope to be able to take it to the framers tomorrow.

I have two customer quilts to complete this week and will load one today and forward suggested floral patterns to the customer for the second quilt.

Nightingale pouch progress

 

Lizzie and I stitched together over Facebook Messenger on Monday for two hours and completed most of the vinyl pocket units. On Tuesday morning I was keen to make some more progress so I made the strap and handle as I am slow turning the tubes the right way out. 

Lizzie contacted me yesterday to schedule some more sewing time, so two more hours and we had everything done apart from the binding. I machine stitched down both sides of the binding as I wasn't in the mood for hand stitching.

Having the fabric prequilted and everything else precut made this a fairly quick make. Now I must start on this month's UFO which is the Moon Bunny needlecase by Sew Quirky.

Florence dress

 

I purchased the pattern, fabric and buttons for the Merchant and Mills Florence dress from a shop at Sunny Bank Mills where the Great British Sewing Bee is filmed. The dress is voluminous and I measured as a 16. I had initially decided to go for the size 12 but chickened out when getting ready to cut out the dress and traced size 14 instead.

I think this is a perfect summer dress and should be cool as temperatures start to rise. I had finished everything except the buttons before I tried on the dress and realised that the buttons went at the back as the back hem was 12" lower than the front hem. I spent about 45 minutes unpicking the seam, overlocking and gathers. Annoying but it had to be done.

I love the vintage buttons and only one needs to be undone to get the dress on. I think I'll be wearing this a lot this summer.

Nightingale pouch

 

We were impressed by the array of Nightingale Pouches by Centre Street Quilts  so having purchased the pattern, Lizzie decided we would do another sewalong over Facebook Messenger. She works a nine day fortnight so has every other Monday off. Lizzie received her bundle of prequilted fabrics last weekend when her Dad visited her and Matt in the UK, so it's time for me to starting prepping ready to sew on Monday.

Whilst browsing my Tula Pink stash I came across a forgotten scrap bag of Tula Pink from Olive & Flo Handcraft. I marked out the correct size for the quilted panel with washi tape on my cutting mat as a guide.

I was surprised that the scrap pack yielded a large enough panel for the outside of the pouch. Most of the fabrics are not ones I have in fat quarters so it is very varied. I quilted the panel using a Karlee Porter Graffitti quilting digital design called pearls and feathers. I am now ready to sewalong with hardware and binding in black and white. This weekend I need to clear the decks and finish the dress I am amking.

Sherpa gilet

This is the last make from the May retreat. It's a free pattern from Purl Soho for a quilted vest. I bought the cosy sherpa at Pour l'Amour du Fil and the Liberty bias binding was from Ecolaines in Rennes. I just used one layer of fabric and overlocked the edges. I did seams at the sides and shoulders which I bound with binding. I then bound the armholes and around the gilet. I even remembered to add a label to the back of the gilet. 

I hired a new Atelier 6 at the retreat but I struggled to sew this fabric on it even when I used the walking foot. However, I switched to Lizzie's Atelier 6 and that did a lovely job. I'm looking forward to using this as a layering piece in the autumn.

Hello Autumn

 

I finished stitching this freebie Friday pattern from Primrose Cottage on Saturday, so it was a priority to finish it into a cushion on Sunday. I looked for matching fabrics on Saturday evening, but my stash was not producing anything, fortunately I found this Ruby Star fabric which picked up a number of colours from the stitched piece. I made a simple 6" pillow, and it is ready for autumn.

I have also stitched two rice bags as I mislaid my original rice bag which I rely on every day. The first rice bag was a little small, so I stitched a larger version on Sunday. I was just finishing the stitching ready to take downstairs to fill with rice and lo and behold there was my original rice bag next to my overlocker. We now have a nice collection of rice bags!

Tilly and the Buttons Frida shirt

 

I bought the Tilly and the Buttons new pattern for the Frida shirt at Stitch Festival in March. Lizzie and I started the pattern in April and finished it at retreat in May. The fabric is by Seasalt and could have been bought ten years ago. It was perfect for the shirt apart from the right and wrong sides looking identical which caused me some head scratching when installing the plackets on the sleeve cuffs. This was a new technique to me but after finding a good Youtube video, I was back on track. Lizzie didn't have that trouble as she did the short sleeved version.

We bought some lovely ceramic buttons in Nantes and Lizzie had those, so I had to wait until retreat to add the buttons. The cream buttons on the front were purchased from Fabworks in Yorkshire. A pleasing make.

Summer blessings

 

I am pleased to hae achieved one small goal for this month. I have finished the Summer Blessings Friday freebie from Primrose Cottage. I was pleased to find some of this yellow dot fabric from Moda to finish the piece. I put some crushed walnut shells at the bottom of the pillow and scraps of wadding to fill the top.

I have also found the Sew Quirky Moon Bunny pattern to complete the UFO challenge this month but the pack of fabrics wasn't with it. Today I plan to photocopy the pattern pieces so they can be cut out and look for the fabric pack.