July UFO - Christmas on gingerbread lane

I am so pleased to have finished all of my cross stitch UFOs and this is the last one by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

This is how this project looked just a few months ago. I now have lots of Christmas projects complete and ready to decorate the house in December.

This was my July UFO project for the APQS challenge, August's number will be revealed tomorrow. All f my remaining UFOs have quite a lot of work to be done to complete them.

Sweet bee socks

When I saw this pattern on the Sew Sweet Violet podcast, I wanted to make them for my beekeeper friend, Jane. Jokes of the Sew Sweet Violet podcast is also running a rainbow along on her Ravelry group,nwhy not make a rainbow version of the pattern? The 40 ends I had to sew in would, you'd think, be a good enough reason! I pulled out an unnamed skein of grey by Kate Selene along with the leftovers of the Mind the Gap colourway by Trailing Clouds.

They are finished and now soaking before being blocked and a few days late for her birthday, but she has hinted that I should gift her a pair of handmade socks, so they should be well received.

July UFO is so nearly done

I have finished the third building and have just two characters to complete. And it's only 22 July.

I am a little bit nervous to see what number is chosen next month as most of the remaining UFOs have a lot of work that needs to be done. Also some up drawn numbers have already been finished so I will work on other UFOs that weren't finished in the correct month. Even though we are only just over half way through the year, I am writing a list of UFOs and new projects ready for 2019.

#100daysofufosewing has ended

And I am pretty pleased with my progress on my UFOs. I finished the challenge working on Christmas on Gingerbread Lane. Annoyingly I have had to order more of one thread to complete the project. Thus is also my July UFO for the APQS UFO challenge.

It isn't complete but it should get finished this month and then that would be all of my cross stitch UFOs complete.

I also finished my HUG cushion.

And my Pretty Little London which is framed and ready to gift. I also completed all of the appliqué on my TQS BOM which I will piece together when it is chosen as the challenge project in the coming months.

All in all a successful #100daysofufosewing for #100dayproject with @lindsayjeanthomson and @elleluna 

Hugs cushion

Another finish is this cushion which has gone from a panel to a finished cushion complete with Pom Pom trim and denim back.

That took longer than I expected to out together and would be quicker if I knew where my zipper foot is hiding.

Not quite the light at the end of the tunnel

However progress has been made on my Christmas on Gingerbread Lane by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I ran out of the pale pink last week, but a few clicks later I had ordered just the one skein and it was soon with me.

My plan was to finish the countdown to Xmas panel by the end of week 2 and I worked on that at my morning quilting group on Wednesday so it is already finished.

And by the end of week 1, I wanted the Noel house finished. It is now finished and I am working on the second house of three so I am ahead of schedule for the time being. However the final house panel has had almost no work done on it ever, so I will need the remainder of the month if I want to finish it in July.

Today I would love to stitch the cute penguin which appears to the right of the girl.

Lisa the unicorn finished

This is now bound and ready for group challenge reveal in January. The remit was for a baby quilt small enough for a shoebox for Roumania. I know I have finished early but it was the perfect retreat project due to its size and I could quilt it whilst waiting for the return of my sewing machine.

The pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman 

July APQS UFO challenge

July's number has been published and it's number 7, which for me is Christmas on Gingerbread Lane. Thus is my last cross stitch UFO unless there are some more hiding in my cupboard, which is always possible! I am pleased to say that I had already started stitching on this project after I finished my HUG cushion.

I plan to be tackle this in four portions. The pattern was released in three sections with a house in each section with the countdown below. If I work left to right, I will allow one week to finish the Noel house, then one more week to finish the Merry Christmas house, leaving the remainder of the month to work on the final house which has had almost no work done on it.

Progress has already been made and I have completed the border on the countdown section. I will probably work on the numbers in this section at my quilt group tomorrow morning as it's easy to work on in company. But then filling in the Windows would be even easier. I am too easily distracted. LOL. I know that I can achieve a lot without distractions, but I am easily distracted. Then I need to start on the girl figure then it's mainly small sections of finishing for section 1.

The pattern is by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

Q3 finish along

My list is no longer than Q2, however some new items have been added and some oldies have been completed.

1. Jan Krentz star from 2010

2. TQS BOM Sedona Star from Jan 2012 - I have been working on this for my #100daysofufosewing so progress is being made.

3. Lion from 2017

4. Tula Pink butterfly from October 2017. I need to move a few blocks and then quilt it.

5. Christmas on Gingerbread Lane

6. It's a small world from 2016 2/3 pieced

7.  Five impossible things

I was briefly under ten UFOs again but I need to add:

8. Test quilt for Abigail

9. Elizabeth Hartman quilt along which I am probably going to leave at the number of blocks I already have made.

10. I want to make a project from Gnomeangel's new book and I have made some fussy cutting templates to use to make the we are all connected mini quilt.

June UFO is complete

I am waiting for Pom Pom trim to make it into a cushion but the cross stitch is finished.

I have now moved on to my Christmas on Gingerbread lane cross stitch. More excitingly it is the last cross stitch pattern that I have in progress. 

Retreat plans - Lisa the Unicorn

I made one fatal flaw in my retreat planning, I didn't print off page 21 of the pattern which contained the template for the horn. Fortunately Pippa came to the rescue and emailed me the relevant page which the hotel printed.

I also miscut two strips but Liz had lots of Blueberry Park in her stash and came to my aid too. I finished the quilt top at retreat and packed it in my hand luggage so I could quilt it on my return from retreat.

This project hadn't stopped throwing me curve balls as a couple of my background pieces now look like they don't match. In the end I decided to quilt it as it is as it is to be a baby quilt for humanitarian aid to Rumania.

I hope to finish this project before the end of June

Jet set sewing station

I made this as a gift for the recent Simply Solids retreat. My first small gift was a needle keeper which was purchased at our Jersey MQG meeting as a number had been made to raise funds in memory of a member, Karen, by a friend of her Mum, Rosalie. Day two I purchased the 8" rotary cutting mat for the jet set sewing station and also slipped in a mini rotary cutter. On the Friday, my swap partner Helen, looked at the same rotary cutter during a trip to the Simply Solids shop and was told by her daughter not to buy it. Imagine her delight on day 2!!

I used Kaffe Fasset fabrics which are Helen's favourites and chose this pattern as Helen loves to do EPP. The present was a hit, I am relieved to say.

Pretty London finish

I have no idea why I haven't shared this earlier as I finished this week's ago and it is framed and put away to gift.

I am pleased with the progress that I made on this project once I actually applied myself to just one project. Half an hour a day does make a difference.

Retreat plans -Flora supply case

I have made the flora supply case before, so took it with me to the Simply Solids retreat as a visual aid. I precut and quilted they outside panel using a graffiti digital pattern by Karlee Porter. And I was ready to roll at retreat.

I also packed my corner rounding template (available from my Etsy store). Several people at retreat were having a destash so I picked up a piece of Tabby Road by Tula Pink from Katy Jones to make the pocket. Today some silver zipper ends were delivered so I have finished my project.

I also put a zipper end on my slalom pouch so that is also finished and it's one of my Q2 UFOs.

Retreat plans Trip around the World

The first finish of last weekend was a Trip around the World quilt top using my pre prepped strips. It is only four foot square but it's a good  lap quilt size.

My aim was to have a dark blue cross with low volume strips either side. The strips came together quickly and I finished the quilt top early on Saturday morning.

I packed my three finished projects in my hand luggage, leaving my sewing machine and goody bag with purchases to come home on the ferry on Wednesday evening with Kim.

That meant that I could quilt the quilt top today using Superior Thread's King Tut in De Nile. I will trim the quilt tomorrow and cut the binding so it's ready to bind on Thursday. This afternoon I am going to see Book Club at the cinema. I might try and load another project to quilt this evening,

June 2018 UFO - working on the G

Having finished the letter U ten days ago, I can see the end is in sight. I can fit the remaining stitching area into the working area of my frame and have stitched several of the borders up to the end. I was one stitch short, and I have used all of the tiny scraps of turquoise to make the bottom border he correct length. The kit was full of yarn at the start, but it is now running low. I have no turquoise left and the deep yellow is running out too. 

I was away on retreat from last Thursday, so I worked hard on this before I went. Having worked in this over the last week, I can see the end is in sight. Will it be finished by the end of June?

Retreat plans 3 and 4

My third retreat project is the Lisa the Unicorn pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. All of the pieces have been cut and bagged up with the pattern. The fabrics are all by Karen Lewis from her Blueberry Park ranges except for the Kona grey. 

Kim has my sewing machine in her car along with one design board to keep my pieces in some sort of order. I may piece this on the Saturday with the Trip around the world blocks as a leader and ended project.

I have one more project which is my improv quilt from Poppyprint's class for the London Modern Wuilt Guild which may remain untouched, we'll see.

Retreat plans 2

@pommesdeterre is organising a scrappy trip around the world sewalong on Instagram. So I have jumped down that rabbit hole. I selected green, turquoise, low volume  and navy scraps and fat quarters from my stash. I then cut strips for sixteen blocks and organised them by colour into IKEA ziplock bags.

The plan was to pack these for retreat in the bags but I soon realised that the sewalong timetable meant that I should have put my strips into block sets.

So I drew one strip from each bag at random and put them into 16 bundles ready to sew. You know that it was too tempting, so I did sew a couple of strip sets together and have two finished blocks as well. They are now ready to pack along with thread and my 2.5" wide ruler and the instructions from the Quiltville blog. Two more projects still to prep along with my sewing machine. 

Retreat plans 1

I am going to the Simply Solids retreat with two friends next week. Kim is taking her car whereas I don't use the cross channel ferry and prefer flying. Today we are taking our sewing machines to Kim, so I have been focussing on getting projects together to work on over the two and a half days of retreat.

I had originally planned to work on the Everything in its place bag by Annie Unrein but I finished that project last month as a reward for finishing the appliqué elements of another UFO. so I am going to make a Flora supply case in matching fabrics. I have pulled together a kit for myself in a ziplock bag with the pattern ready to go. I quilted the exterior fabric on my long arm with an area of a graffiti pattern. The only item that I needed to purchase was the folded elastic.

I have also added my rounding template to my kit which is available in my Etsy store. 

June 2018 UFO progress

My plan for this month was to have H and U finished by 8 June. It's the 9 June today and I have just finished the cream around U. I find cream or white backgrounds tedious and slow going. I have to force myself to do one strand of cream, one of the brown and then reward myself with one strand of colour. This is a kit by Emily Peacock.

I have been distracted this week with laser cutting acrylic at our local library. More on that tomorrow. I have opened a little Etsy store. Also our local WI entered a group competition and I spent a day or more making a tablecloth, napkins etc to pull the entry together. I am glad that's now finished.

I can now see the end in sight, literally. I have stitched right to the end of the pattern on the top border as well as working on the final letter - G. I am away for five days this month, but I will also be without my sewing machine from tomorrow so won't be able to sew and will focus on either this project or a shawl which I'm knitting.