Lots to show you

Unfortunately some work in progress photos will have to suffice. My sewing machine was making funny noises last week so it is headed off to Bernina UK, hopefully today at the latest. I was making good progress with this quilt, but the machine I've been loaned is not playing ball, so I'm going to put this to the side until my machine returns.



I have finished quilting lines in the green striped fabric. Some of the red / blue areas have been stitched with freehand feathers in a variegated green thread. All I have drawn onto the quilt are lines for the veins of the feathers and the corner diagonal for guidance. These lines will wash out once the quilt is completed.

May crop

Yesterday was our May prize crop. The date changed by a week because I had another event last week. This meant some of the regulars were missing, however had I kown in advance, we could have moved the crop forward by a week, if that would have suited more people. We did have a lovely but quiet day with Jennie and Liz winning the top prizes.

Here's one of my layouts from Sketch Support one page sketch 8. Unfortunately I left the sketch at home so had to go by memory and I hadn't uploaded it to my ipad. I replaced the 2 by 2 photos with flowers. The photo is actually a thank you message which is written beautifully on the reverse. I picked out the green from the vegetation and the blue from the girls' clothes.



Time to continue tidying my desk upstairs. Tidying the floor will be for another day. However I did finish the Ferbuary quilted hanging this morning. I've now got a week to complete the one for June. That might be a good project to France this weekend to quilt when we're in the hotel.

May 2011 FNSI

I started this yesterday for the FNSI (Friday night sew in) and have done a bit more of the hand quilting at 6 am this morning. Just need to finish the quilting and sew up the bottom of the piece. This is from a book Claire brought over called "Count on It" by Nancy Halvorsen. I ordered the book on Tuesday and it was delivered on Thursday with the hanger. I also have the June quilt to do next. I think this would be easy to prep at a Wednesday quilt group meeting as I can iron on the Bondaweb and cut the pieces ready for doing the buttonhole stitch on the machine at home.

Another busy weekend

Also a busy week. I haven't watched any television all week until the Great British Menu last night. It's been a good week in parts as Claire visited for a few days, we went to two quiltig groups, ate lunch with Lucy at the new cafe at the zoo. We also did a lot of talking and I was treated to a pedicure at The Spa. On the flip side, Dad is being operated on at the Enfield Hospital at 9 am today.

I finished a needle case I demoed on Monday night as Claire hinted it would be a lovely present for a treasured friend. So it has now left the island in Claire's suitcase.





After a busy week comes another busy weekend:

Today Friday Night Sew In. http://handmadebyheidi.blogspot.com/ I had planned to start on a bag I'd cut out but I was distracted again by a book Claire brought over. well my copy arrived yesterday so I'll work on a June mini quilt instead.

Tomorrow our monthly crop with prizes

Sunday a RIB trip to dolphin watch and go to the Minquiers.

I hope next week is quieter.

Basic Ease week 2

QBC month 1 week 2, a photo by libertyjsy on Flickr.

My book is still on its way, but the preview of the book is of this quilt so I have made a start.

The blocks are sewn, I now need to work out how to place them as I have scrappy reds as well as the blue / cream combination as I realised a stripe wouldn't work for the red.

Confirmed - I have no self control

I was innocently looking at the blogs I regularly read, oh a new post at the Moda Bake Shop, click I wonder who designed that, click Quilt Book Club of the Month, ooh that looks interesting, click through to Amazon, book on order. Oh dear in less than an hour, I've taken on another project when I said I'd finish some that are in progress, ordered the book, chosen the fabrics and uploaded the choices to the Flickr group. At least I have chosen from fabrics I already own and need to use up, but probably only because there are no quilt shops open at 7am. I needed instant gratification so an online purcahse wasn't going to satisfy me either.



The only fabrics I had in sufficient quantities were the green and red stripes so I picked up the floral fabric to go with it. I don't have sufficient of that fabric so have added in the cream floral which will give the quilt a more scrappy look.

My favourite blue Thimbleberries fabric will be used for the binding.



I am using up my stash so will piece my backing from Thimbleberries bieges and browns and I even found a block I can use as a label.

Right, I'd better go and work on my Sketch support guest designer assignments, Sketch support DT call and perhaps put some stitches in the many other projects I have in progress.

NSD challenge on Elle's Studio

Using an old Gogo kit and some Elle's Studio digital tags which I printed onto white cardstock.

Who knew

that sewing was an extreme sport? I spent a lovely day sewing with Lorraine and Jenny yesterday but boy was my neck and back hurting by the end of it. Next week I'll use my proper chair rather than a dining chair. Despite my injuries, my quilt top is pieced and looking good and I will prepare it ready for quilting once it comes back from Lorraine who is using it as her placement guide. Jenny cut her squares yesterday so I'm sure she will be doing some piecing over this third long bank holiday weekend. Many quilting bloggers piece their backings so I will have a go to try and use up some fabrics rather than buying more.

I couldn't help myself

I spotted this quilt over at the Fresh Lemons blog. So simple but so striking. I had promised myself no new project until I'd finished three old projects. Well I've only finished one, another is being professionally quilter, but Mavis is having problems with her machine and my third project is nearing completion. I've also tempted Lorraine to join me so I'm cutting doubles of everything except the background.




I found a white backing fabric in my cupboard, so cut about 100 strips of the 112 background strips. Then started by cutting some Sunkissed fabrics I bought a couple of months ago along my my favourite Moda spots. Then everything has been pulled out of the cupboard to look for the perfect elusive fabrics. I was certain that I had more fabric than this. Then I remembered letting Kathryn have free rein on the bright fabric. Damn. Our local quilt store is only open Fridays and Saturdays or by appointment so I have an appointment tomorrow with Lorraine for us to select some fabrics.

Of course, I couldn't resist sewing up a few blocks!! Just to test out the pattern of course. However this does mean it'll take a little longer to work out what I still need.

Stitcher's keeper finished

The pattern for this is by Leanne Beasley the author of Vignette magazine. Most of the flowers and the threads are the same as Vignette so this has been a good practice piece.



I particularly like the turquoise dotted moda which is the lining fabric for the piece. I may have to buy some more of it. It goes well with the fabrics I've chosen for the Vignette Block of the Month and also the Bliss scrap bag I purchase earlier in the week.

Led astray

I have a number of blogs that I read regularly, many of them in Australia as I'm following the progress and other work by other Vignette sewers. Yesterday I read that Dilly Dimple had ordered some Moda scrap bags from Hulu I clicked through to be surprised to find it's a Uk store, a few clicks later and I ordered two bags. They arrived today in their kraft bags.

The bags are similar to a jelly roll in that they are the ends left over from a jelly roll being cut and are therefore all from one range, but the strips are various widths. The ranges are bliss by Bonnie and Camille (left) and Clermont Farms by Polly Minick and Lauri Simpson.




And yes I do already have loads of fabric but I actually have a project planned for the strips - the hexagon quilt from Leanne Beasley's Vignette magazine issue 2.



And no I haven't lost my marbles. I thought this would be a great summer sewing project and that I could perhaps encourage some other quilting ladies to join me and work it out of my system. Also Sizzix have some dies from their Westminster range which cut 1" hexagons for the papers and 1.25" for the fabric. So that makes it a demo for Caesarea Quilters too. Also Leanne uses a glue pen to save tacking which I will be exploring and Fiona sells the pens so I can pick one up next week.

Finished block 1

And six weeks until magazine 3 comes out with blocks 4 and 5. I don't cope with pressure well and even self inflicted pressure. I know I can do these blocks at my own speed and take more than the two years that this project is released over, but I know that if I take it easy at the beginning, it will get put to the side. A point in case are the two 2009 block of the month quilts, one of which was previewed in the last post. Both still unfinished 18 months after the last block was published and I did keep up right until then end, but the Thimbleberries quilt lies half quilted. The TQS quilt needs the last border adding and then it needs to be pinned and quilted.

I wrote an updated projects in progress list earlier this week which grew to 11 projects. I need to finish at least eight of them this year to regain some control!! In case you're wondering here they are in no particular order:
1. TQS BOM border needs to be added and then quilted
2. Garden angel small project which would take half a day to finish
3. Vignette blocks - ongoing
4. Thimbleberries BOM - needs to be quilted and binding finished this month
5. Dear Jane - needs quilting - do you see a pattern developing
6. Blue and cream - half quilted but rucked on the back so some unpicking needs to be done followed by some quilting
7. Stitchers keeper - a recent start which I will take to Chez Soi on a Wednesday to progress.
8. Pinwheel party - with Mavis for quilting then all I need to do is trim and bind
9. Hug cushion - ongoing
10. Jelly roll quilt - border needed but not yet bought
11. Jan Krentz - loads of foundation pieced blocks need to be sewn so my biggest UFO.

Here's my first block, the second and third blocks are already pieced and the stitchery traced. I am waiting until it's all finished before stitching the grass line to try and keep the size of stitches uniform all the way around as I haven't yet got my stitch size consistent yet.




And here's some lovely Moda spotty goodness to go with my Just a Hoot fabrics for the Vignette BOM and also for the interior of the Stitchers Keeper. The only one I won't be using is the green as it's too bright for these projects.

April progress

Yesterday was our April crop. It was beautiful weather outside and inside was a hive of activity, that is except for me as I seemed to fiddle with lots and only got a couple of layouts finished from the Gogogetaway. Photos next week of those layouts.

I have been busy sewing my Vignette block 1, which is nearly but not quite finished. I finished my Pinwheel Party quilt at least a week ago, made a label from a spare block and only yesterday pieced together the backing. Today I took it to a machine quilter to do a lovely modern feather pattern on it. Then it will just need trimming and binding. This quilt is a pattern I've written for a workshop in September and I decided to ask Mavis to quilt it so that it's ready for the May CQ meeting as a sample. Less stressful for me.




This week I've been working on quilting the border of my 2009 Thimbleberries Block of the Month. I thought a sample was needed to bind for our guild meeting on 18th April, but in the end it wasn't needed. I applied the binding I cut at least six months ago and then added two more strips in accordance with the pattern. Unfortunately I had cut the original strips half an inch bigger, which I didn't discover until the binding was almost finished. Not enough fabric to cut two more strips, so this morning I took apart the binding and this afternoon, I've sewn it back. It's now finished and will need to be hand sewn to the back of the quilt. A perfect job for taking to the Mill every Wednesday. Not that I've finished the quilting of the quilt, but that will be completed after our trip to Liverpool.

Gogogetaway

Another successful event. I liked six out of the seven classes I chose and here's some of what I completed. The rest will follow when finished.

The first layout was by Lorraine and I loved the idea of stripping off the top layer of the die cut and putting chipboard shapes underneath and embossing them. Several classes over the weekend had embossed details.



Probably my favourite layout of the weekend because it involved sewing!! Though the embroidery floss was rubbish and the eye of the needles provided were too large, but I had some sewing in my suitcase so not a problem. Also my photos were right and I was able to finish it all in class and bought myself a new signo white pen to highlight the alphabet stickers.



Kirsty's hybrid class suited my Egypt pictures perfectly and the plane moves across the page. I still need to fire up the A3 printer and get into hybrids more.



And finally the only photo I took all weekend. Fortunately however there is a group photo taken by Kirsty, who we hope will visit Jersey very soon.

Vignette blocks 2 and 3

I'm not sure if I've already posted a photo of this cushion I finished for the Eisteddfod. The cushion top had been finished for a couple of years so I just needed to make it into a cushion with a zip closure. I will be giving this to a friend tonight to go in her topiary inspired kitchen.



Yesterday I did some work on the Vignette block of the month. Issue two arrived over a week ago and contains blocks 2 and 3. I have done all of the piecing apart from the shoo fly blocks around the edge and have started embroidering the middle block alongside block 1 to keep me interested. The original design had the red dot border and the cream pieced as two 18.5 strips, but as the width of fabric is 44", I used one long strip. The other variation is the stripes that I've used which were meant to be 1" finished squares but as there are several large striped fabrics in the "It's a Hoot" collection, I thought it would work well and I'm happy with it. There are no flowers to fussy cut in my fabric so I fussy cut the brown and teal stripes for the 2" squares.



I am also working on block 1 of the BOM too. Issue 3 is out on 1 June so I need to press on, otherwise I'll be three blocks behind.

2011 Eisteddfod

On Friday I visited the Eisteddfod exhibition to see how my entries had fared. This is a walk through of some of the entries.

The prize winners including Astra's Makower butterfly. A worthy winner but Jane would like to know what the tune on the edge played as.




Sue Jones beautiful Hawaiian quilt on the left with lots of hand quilting.



My "Behind the rainbow" quilt from the Jan Krentz workshop which got a platinum. I'll be interested to see the points awarded as platinum is 95 and over.



Janet Grady's Jan Krentz quilt - I call this one the difficult class. Mine is still in pieces as I haven't done the paper piecing. However all my diamonds have been sewn and blocked.




My black white and red quilt got a silver and my topiary tapestry cushion a silver, not surprised with the later as there was a mark on it.



Ella's quilt which won Astra's 20 anniversary challenge.




Alex's four seasons embroidery. Alex has definitely found her voice in embroidery. She has always preferred hand work to machine work.




A scarf which was awarded gold. Pretty but as I've made one of these in two hours I know how easy they are.




The Caesarea Quilters quilt for Trees for Life and a lovely chicken quilt (of which there were two very different versions).




Cath Challinor's lovely Japanese quilt which wasn't given a high enough award IMHO.



Sarah Matlock's cute doll.



Judy Bailey's Jan Krentz quilt. Very different colours and quilting to my version.

Patchwork party progress

I purchased fabric for the border yesterday from Fiona. The red goes well with the fabric but isn't a shade of red I'd usually buy. I now need to calculate how much backing I need using the same red as the border joined with stripes of jelly roll and a label.



Off to Zumbathon this afternoon. It starts at 1pm which means an early lunch.

March 2011 Friday night sew in

Whilst Nick and Matthew went to ATC, I sat to sew on my Vignette block 1.




Elizabeth joined me and subjected me to Comedy Relief on BBC1. I managed a few slow flowers and stems on my block but no great progress, I'm still finding my way on making the stitches all the same size. I'd like to finish this block in March so that I have two months to finish the next two blocks which are even larger, or so it seems, than this block.




One of Moica's button bracelet kits arrived today. That's going to be fun to put together. I might replace the green buttons though as I never wear green.

Pinwheel party centre finished

Now I need some fabric for borders. I had spotted a lovely yellow that Fiona had but now that there is yellow on the outside of some of the blocks. I'm now not so sure. I'm going to see what Fiona has on Saturday and take it from there. I have plenty of jelly roll left to do some scrappy borders so it will grow quite quickly now.

As I can't sew anything more on it today. I've been surfing for machine quilting patterns. I think I've found one called fascination that will suit. What do you think?

Monday finishes

A few easy finishes for a Monday morning. All I needed to do for this scarf which is very chunky was sew the ends in. Easier said than done when the wool is so thick.



Whilst looking in Linnea of Sweden for fabrics, Lizzie and I saw a canvas with coloured mother of pearl buttons spelling out the word love for £55. I had two canvasses from an unsuccessful class so they were painted red and cream buttons stuck on in a heart shape. I have then sewn them on as I like the look and the buttons won't fall off. This is for the Beaulieu Craft stall at the summer fete. How much do you they should ask?



And last but not least, a gorgeous scarf from wool sent to me my Claire as a get well pressie. Just my colours. The weather might be a bit warm to wear it today unfortunately. This only took two hours to knit and I finished it off this morning with the last few rows and sewing in the ends.