A year of Schnibbles - Morning Joe

Finished just in time for Sinta to roll out our finished quilts. The pattern is by Carrie Nelson and is called Morning Joe. I think the colours I've chosen are more spring like than winter.

The charm packs were Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie & Camille. The quilt called for a few more charms than 80 so I added in some other Bonnie & Camille fabrics and some Simply Style by V & Co. The white on white is some scraps from a backing and I had some more left of the same backing which I was able to use as backing too.

 I used a new feather design for the first time and I was pleased with how it looked. My quilt is a little bigger than the pattern as the pattern called for half square triangles made from 5" squares to be trimmed down to 4" but I trimmed mine to 4.5" to cut down the waste. Unfortunately it made it just slightly too big for my stash of Ikea fabric for backings.

Did you enjoy black Friday?

Even though we are nowhere near the USA and didn't celebrate Thanksgiving, I may have made a few purchases on Black Friday. I picked up the free Long arm quilting class at Craftsy.

I also shopped at Fat Quarter Shop where they had 25% off everything. I might have bought myself a copy of Quilty Fun. Then I'll have the measurements for the row along without having to work them out myself.

 

Some Scrumptious by Bonnie and Camille.

 

 

And more Bonnie & Camille. I have seen plenty of finished quilts using this Block of the Month and a 30% discount was too tempting. I think I'll send this out as my next bee assignment as it'll be ready to send out with little more effort, I hope, than addressing the envelopes.

 



 

 

And finally from Simply Solids some bottles of Best Press which is recommended instead of spray starch. Ooh it's now out of stock. I wonder who was greedy and bought all of the available bottles?

Craftsy class sale

 

Now I love a good workshop, but sometimes the dates are just inconvenient or you can't remember what the teacher said when you get to the next stage months later. Have you tried Craftsy? You can even try it for free with some of the free mini classes - I've just spotted "A new look at long arm quilting", there's the free Block of the Month with Laura Nownes and basic quiltmaking skills.

 

Craftsy guarantees:

1. 100% money back guarantee. There was a class I didn't like and they swapped my class for another. See the conditions though
2. Watch classes on your own schedule wherever, whenever you want. Wearing whatever you want too
3. Your access never expires.

A few classes that caught my eye were by Camille Roskelly whose fabrics and patterns I love. I love the Quilt as You go patchwork bags class which demonstrates a technique you'll use time and again and the class includes the pattern for a bag. Don't do like me and put the wrong side of the pattern on the fold. Completely my fault. One day you'll see a finished bag.

 

Affiliate link

Craftsy has brilliant savings for a limited time only! All their online classes are on sale for $19.99 or less. With classes priced up to 66% off, now is a great time to get the classes you've been eyeing all year! Craftsy classes also make a great gift, so do some holiday shopping for the crafter in your life.

Craftsy yarn and fabric sale

Black Friday Sales at Craftsy!

Craftsy Yarn and Fabric sale up to 80% off from 11/27-12/2!
Craftsy has brilliant savings on the craft supplies you want! With up to 80% off yarn and 65% off fabric, get the best prices of the year while you can.

 

Shopping is the best medicine

 

When you're feeling under the weather and full of cold and snuffles for two weeks and it's cold and wet outside, what is a girl to do. :) I love the spotty mailing bags that The Village Haberdashery use. The fabrics were prettily packed but that didn't last very long as you can see.

 

 

Having failed to find more than two text fabrics at Knit & Stitch, that was first on my shopping list. The fabrics on the left are Sun print by Alison Glass and we were given a piece of this in the Foundation Piecing glass at FQR for our typewriter block.

 

 

Next are some feather prints also from the Sun Print range. Not sure how I ordered half yards of two colour ways.

 

 

Then a few basics to add to my stash including four mirror ball fabrics. I made a bee block using a scrap of the skulls fabric which received several favourable comments about the fabric, so I purchased it for a Christmas swap we're doing.

 



Lastly some leaf prints canvas that took my fancy. I panicked when I realised (too late) that I had ordered canvas, but they feel just like regular fabric not thick like canvas. I also asked to buy some scraps from the basket that's always by the desk at The Village Haberdashery and I'm very pleased with the selection which will be added to the scraps being used for the Quilty Fun sampler.

 

I have to say I am now starting to feel a great deal better and perhaps it's because this very pleasing medicine arrived. :)



Christmas Tree festival

 

One of the local parish churches holds a Christmas tree festival with trees decorated by various organisations. One of the quilt groups I attend, decided to aprticpate this eyar. To provide a cohesive look we were each provided with a 4" embroidery hoop and the colour scheme is cream, red, green and possibly gold.

 

November has just rushed by an next week is the deadline for our pieces. Astra has something special in progress for our "tree" which should look amazing. I will visit the church next month and take lots of photos. I bought a copy of the book Hoop-La!: 100 things to do with embroidery hoops by Kirsty Neale and it had this lovely crosss stitched star. I soon realised the star was too small for my hoop, so I enlarged the centre which gave me wider points on my star and then I outlined it in red to make it even bigger. My friend Jenny came to my aid with some cream Aida shot with gold and I used the Weeks Dye Works threads left over from The Frosted Pumpkin projects. I glued everything into the hoop and then realised I'd prefer to have the screw the other way around but it was too late.

 

 

I'm very pleased with how it has turned out and the hand dyed thread is also very effective.



Fat Quarterly Retreat 2014

 

Tickets are already on sale for the 2014 event. I may have bought my ticket. :) Does anyone want to join me?

 

 

Where:

Baden Powell House, Kensington

When:

Friday 18 July 1pm to 9pm,

Saturday 19 July 9am to 11pm, and

Sunday 20 July 9am to 12pm.

 

My plan is to fly over to London City the day before and fly back on the Sunday. It's a shame it's the weekend that the schools break up but I am booking my flights now to get the best price. The Docklands Light Railway only costs £3 to Victoria whereas from Gatwick in the rush hour it's now over £20.

Quilty fun - courthouse steps

It's Monday and that means another Quilt Fun block set. It should also mean our Guild meeting tonight, but my stinking cold is still very much present so I am not going to spread my germs to friends. However I have sewn these cute courthouse steps blocks for the Quilty Fun sew along. It took less than an hour to cut, sew, finger press, a final pressing once complete and blog. My sort of block.

Next week is basket blocks which I know will take longer so I may select the fabrics in advance of Monday.

 

November Schnibble

Last Tuesday I decided to plan a new project for my day of sewing with Chez Soi. The one project I wanted to work on needed some working out of measurements. It has been a couple of months since I participated in the Year of Schnibbles hosted by Sinta and Sherri. I quickly purchased the pdf pattern, printed it off, dug out two charm packs of Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie and Camille, along with some scraps of white on white left over from backing a quilt. I was ready to go. Unfortunately Lizzie had a cold and decided Wednesday was the day she'd stay at home. So I sewed half square triangles alone in the kitchen. 160 of them plus a few extra for luck.

Then to trim them all. Not something I can do at one sitting so I trimmed a few and sewed a few stars together and then trimmed some more. Lizzie went back to school on Thursday but I was distracted by the Sirens WI AGM on Thursday evening so ploughed through the paperwork for that and got myself ready for my last AGM as president.

Fast forward through days of chest infection and cold to today when I have finishing sewing it together ready to quilt whenever I feel better. I had hoped to feel better today but I actually feel worse. So no Chez Soi quilt group again tomorrow. I don't want to pass on my germs.

So it's now ready to quilt and I think I'll use some more numbers fabric from Ikea as backing and hope to quilt it up ready for next Wednesday when I can sew on the binding at my quilt group. Then I'll take a better photo.

Twinkly stars

 

 

 

Today is week 2 of the Quilty Fun sew along. I still haven't touched the row along I have left to complete but at least I know where the rows are now. Another simple strip set which this week is stars. I love the downloadable pdf with the instructions on a clipboard just like in the book.

 

 

This week I chose the fabrics over the weekend so I was ready to cut this morning. I also worked on piecing my November Schnibble at the same time, which I hope to finish piecing tomorrow and share with you.

Quilty fun sewalong

Lori Holt has brought out a book called Quilty Fun using the blocks from the Row along earlier in the year. It took me almost an hour to tidy some stuff up this morning and dig out the rows that I have completed which just need sizing up and putting together. I even have the border pieced ready to finish the quilt.

 

The Fat Quarter Shop are hosting a Sew along for the new book with a sampler  quilt as the end project. Kerry is hosting week 1 of the sew along which is the apple block. The background is leftover backing from another project, so I hope I'll have enough. Next week's blocks are stars. Kerry spent just 15 minutes cutting her fabrics. I spent a lot longer than that. I think I'll chose my fabrics before next Monday to save time. I'm trying to use up my scraps first, but they all seem to be either too small or the wrong colour.

November bee commitments completed

The fabric for Teresa's blocks arrived Monday morning and the blocks were finished by Monday lunch time. Teresa was very good to us and chose a simple block that we had made a few months earlier for another bee. I like this block as the opportunities for setting them are limitless. The fabrics are not ones I've seen before. I think I'm getting into a rut with my fabric choices and need to expand my boundaries. However first I need to tidy up the stuff I already own.

Siblings Together 2 November

 

Sue requested a nit and a bolt as she described it using the tutorial for the funky wrench by Happy Zombie.

 



 

What's clever is you make cut almost the same pieces for both blocks. As I was photographing the blocks, I noticed a mark on one piece of white background which I'll have to replace before posting.

 

 

 

I pinched a piece of the red backing from Jane's quilt to make the block along with a scrap of the skulls fabric purchased at The Village Haberdashery.

Happy Christmas Jane

It started at the Caesarea Quilters UFO day at the end of September. I had agreed to teach Jane to do patchwork and took a couple of book, some equipment, the spotty Riley Blake fabric I'd just used as a backing for a Christmas quilt and my basket of Bonnie & Camille fabrics.

 

At the UFO day Jane finished three blocks and cut another out. I also pointed Jane to Quilter's Cache, a great source of free block patterns. Fast forward a few weeks to a Friday lunch at Classic Herd café. Jane had a new book and fabrics for her second quilt. From the book we chose how to set the sampler blocks and Jane decided to alternate between the multi spot and some blue spot also from Bonnie & Camille.

 

Last Wednesday we popped into the Log Kabin to buy the backing fabric and wadding before I went to London for a short break. Yesterday I quilted it with a Japanese Cloud panto and a variegated pink thread by King Tut.

 

This morning it has been trimmed and is ready for collection. Just the binding to be added and it's finished. I think Jane's first quilt turned out really well. And the reason it's Happy Christmas Jane, I quilted it for her as her Christmas present.

FQR quilt bee October

Yippee the last of my October bee commitments is finished. I think Carol's blocks that I have seen so far are going to make a lovely quilt. Carol's brief was it was to be two blocks - one of the theme of "It's a Wonderful World" and one filler block from the low volume fabrics she provided.

 

I offered to do an owl or feathers and Carol chose feathers. This is a pattern from the Forest Quilt along hosted by Shape Moth and Juliana.

 



For the filler block I went with a simple random log cabin block. I added a couple of my own Zen Chic fabrics and some strips again from the FQR scrap strip swap.

 

 

I think the two blocks combined look good. I hope Carol likes what I've done.

 

 



Simply Solids bee

On Monday morning it was a quick job to finish Nat's dancing stars. I now need to package them ready to send back before the end of October.

 

 When I checked the Flickr group for the Simply Solids Bee on Monday, I was pleased to see Celine's instructions for these pyramid log cabin blocks. as we were using our stash for these, I added them to my to do list and they were soon finished. My Simply Solids blocks are now up to date. I also have some other blocks to send to Celine so only one trip to the Post Office.

 

I still have my blocks from about May to put together for this bee. 

Sunday UFO day

My aim at our Guild's six hour UFO day was less UFO and more Bee catch up. I progressed the blocks from the pile of raw materials and foundation patterns, to something which looks like the final product but it's not quite there yet. I am hopeful that I'll finish both by the end of the month. no pressure.

 Firstly are these dancing stars blocks. The cutting instructions were a bit mean on fabric and wasteful too which had me puzzled for a while. I was please I printed these onto Carol Doak foundation papers as they tear out so easily. Later I wished I'd used the same paper for the other foundation blocks. There are three to make so I was pleased to get two out of three completed.
 

 

 

 

For the FQR bee, I chose a foundation pieced feather block by Shape Moth for Carol's month. There was no way I was going to finish this at one sitting, but you can see how the pieces will come together. Look at how small some of those pieces were and one of the fiddly bits, I had to unpick and start again as I had my blue and low volume fabrics reversed. There are two feathers in this block but I'm going to leave them separate so Carol can choose how to use them.

 

Siblings Together Bee 2

Céline provided a coloured drawing and instructions for this block which she designed on her blog. I hadn't realised she'd posted instructions until I saw the thread today and she confirmed receipt of someone's block. Oops. I dug out my box of 2.5" strips from the FQR scrap strip swap, added in some Sweetwater reds from my Sweetwater basket and I was ready to sew.

 

I have two other October bee blocks to sew tomorrow. One is a foundation pieced block x 3 for the Simply Solids block. I have avoided this one as it is not obvious how to use the pre-cut pieces. The other block is for Carol for the FQR quilt bee which is to be a foundation pieced feather designed by Shape Moth and a low volume filler block. Both should get done at the Caesarea Quilters UFO day tomorrow as I won't have any other distractions.

Striking Seminole quilt

 

This quilt was made by Janet and is very striking. It uses Seminole strips from a series of workshops by local quilter Angela Rybarczuk. Angela's classes are always popular as she puts a lot of thought and preparation into each session with great hand outs and samples.

 

I quilted it using a Japanese clouds pantograph and Stone Age by King Tut for Superior Threads.

Sewing Room swap goodies received

 

Whilst the posting date for this swap was at the beginning of September, stuff happens and my partner had to move her family of nine with one month's notice. I can't imagine coping with a family of nine, let alone finding time for myself. I've found myself chasing my tail recently, but I seem to have come out the other side and after unwrapping my parcel of goodness from Lisa yesterday I caught up on four months of bank statements. Tomorrow I'll start on the credit card statements. How did I get so behind?

 

We had to send our partner a "large" item and a "smaller" item for their sewing room taking into account their fabric preferences. I think I asked not to receive an ironing board cover but requested a sewing machine cover. Tick. Have a look at the first item out of the parcel. I think the background fabric used is Essex linen paired with V & Co's Simply Style range which I have also used recently.

 



 

The second item was an embroidery hoop with a hand stitched saying which co-ordinates with the cover. This is, I believe available as a free pattern on http://www.sewmamasew.com/ but I can't access the website for a direct link at the moment. I picked up an extra seam ripper at the Knit & Stitch Show so this is definitely me.

 



 

The lucky girl that I am, there was more - a coordinating basket. And it even has a firm bottom to it.

 

 

And then there was even more - lots of lovely scraps. Other people's scraps are always more interesting than your own. I particularly like the polar bears and the two text fabrics. Text fabrics was something I was looking for at Knit & Stitch and all I managed to purchase was three Fat Quarters. And I mustn't forget the two reels of Aurifil thread and some large Lifesavers. Or what we call Polo Mints.

 

 

Tomorrow I'll have a customer quilt to share with you and I have yet to share what I sent to Cindy for the Sewing Room swap.

 

Linking to: