Monday make - Bits and bobs blanket

 

I started 2020 with about half of this blanket complete. It was my 11th UFO to work on in the year out of 12. It was chosen as this month's UFO on one of the hottest days this year. Not ideal.

By the beginning of August, I had knit the body of the blanket and almost finished the icord bind off, but none of the ends had been sewn in. Yes, I should have done them as I went, but you know how it is!!

Once I started sewing in the ends following the provided video tutorial, it was soon finished and I have now started working on my Chinese zodiac cross stitch every day instead. I wonder what project I will be working on for September?

Freebie Friday - scrappy summer sewalong

 

I am enjoying sewing up the simple nine patch blocks for this free pattern (see last Friday's post). Having taken down my Techno Garden Quilt from my design wall, I can see that I have sewn 61 out of a total of 100 blocks. 

These little blocks were a perfect leader and ender project whilst stitching up the Techno Garden hexagon blocks. I was aiming to stitch four blocks a day. I lay out the blocks on two design boards which easily accommodates four blocks per board, so I have now started sewing eight blocks a day. I am planning t do this on week days and stitch on my tattoo quilt blocks on a Saturday. I will share the latest block with you next week.

This is another scrap busting project but it doesn't appear to have reduced the volume of scraps one bit. I have finished the indigo and purple blocks and just need one more blue block, before focusing on the turquoise blocks for which I need to cut some more squares.

WIP Wednesday - Techno Garden

 

I really should have engaged my brain before starting to sew together the units as I could have done vertical rows but decided to do diagonal rows. Never mind, This week's task in Karlee Porter's class is to sew together the columns so I have taken it down from my design wall to await next week's video.

I am making the small units to make a baby size quilt as I have too many huge quilts. I am looking forward to seeing how we're going to quilt this.

Monday Make - all aboard case

 

My zipper pulls to complete this bag arrived on Friday so I allocated some time on Saturday to complete the bag. My daughter is thrilled with the finished project but has tweaked it herself to suit her needs by hand sewing the divider in the lid into three. She now needs to add a button and elastic loop and she considers it perfect for her needs.

The details:

Pattern - all aboard case by Anne Unrein (purchased from Sew Hot)

Skull fabric - source unknown as it was a gift from a friend who was destashing

Purchased from Sew Hot - pattern, By Annie's mesh, foldover elastic in gunmetal which is more of a white

Thread - Glide for quilting and 80 wt Aurifil for piecing and top stitching.

Lining fabric by Basic Grey for Moda Fabrics from Crafty Quilters Jersey

I think the zipper pulls from Tania Fabrics on Facebook just complete the project.

Freebie Friday - scrappy summer sewalong

 You know I love a good sewalong, add a rainbow scrappy quilt into the mix and I signed up toute suite. The #scrappysummersewalong2020 is a free pattern by The Home body  Last week was week 1 and we had to show off our scraps. Tick. They are all pressed and in bags sorted by colour. My planning was limited to deciding to do low volume scrappy backgrounds and a rainbow of crosses.

So far I've cut all of the low volume fabrics, 484 2" squares and just a few coloured squares to sew up each day as prep is always so tedious and I need to do some sewing to feel like progress is being made. Can you do all of the prep before starting to sew a new project? I don't have the self control.

Next I need to work out how many squares of each colour I need to cut so I am ready for week 3 which is sewing up 41 units. I have 20 already sewn as I have been sewing four each day as leaders and enders for another project.

WIP Wednesday - All Aboard case

 

Lizzie asked me to make her a bag for her make up pallets with some fabric that a friend had given me. I ordered the gunmetal elastic and thought I was good to go. I was surprised that gun metal is more of a white elastic rather than grey, but it would still work. I also bought the By Annie pattern - All Aboard from Sew Hot.

I quilted the skull fabric with a simple pattern from Anne Bright called Circuits. I found a large piece of Grunge by Basic Grey so decided to use that for this case as the lining.

They say that pride comes before a fall, and I thought I could finish this case in one day. I could have progressed quicker if I hadn't adjusted the measurements of the wrong piece of the pattern and wasted an hour unpicking and redoing the quilting to realise I only needed a 2" piece and not 5". Then I relaised I only had one zipper pull and not the two required in the pattern. Lizzie is excited to see this completed and it is starting to come together with all of the component parts ready to assemble. Fingers crossed the zipper pulls arrive this week and I can share a finished project with you soon.

Monday make - Star stream

Last week's WIP is now a finished baby quilt. This is a sewalong for the Sewing Shindig using a pattern by Sally Davies (@chasing.tigers). I have used my Tula Pink stash for the fussy cut centres of each star and what I thought was Kona Ash for the background. Turns out it's probably a mix of Kona ash and Robert Kaufman silver leftover from my Violet Craft lion. I only needed to buy a little more background t add a 2" border around the whole quilt. The solids were mostly from my Hex on the Beach quilt which hadn't been put away. I need to tidy my basket of solids next but I am avoiding that task!!

The backing is a little random but I went through my stash of backings which were measured and bagged up with a label showing the size of the piece and this piece was the perfect size, so I went with it. The binding is also from stash is a rainbow gradient.

Having finished this project, I rewarded myself with a new project which I could finish in a day. More on that on Wednesday.

WIP Wednesday - Star stream SAL

My husband has taken my last baby quilt for a new baby in his office, so I decided to just do the crib size of the Star Stream pattern by @chasing.tigers I also decided to fussy cut some of my Tula Pink animals. I then took the lazy option to start pulling Kona cottons from the leftovers from my Hex on the Beach quilt. There is just enough for the half square triangles.

I have cut the HSTs on my Accuquilt which is quick to cut and no trimming of the resultant squares is needed. I am using my scraps of Kona ash for the background. I have cut the larger squares and strips from the small amount of yardage that I had left and the HSTs are cut from the scraps.

I have bought another metre of the background fabric locally just in case I don't have enough scraps. I think many of the pieces left aren't big enough for 2.5" squares. The crib size requires 6 blocks so I am already half finished.

WIP update - August 2020

I started July with 14 UFOs and finished with 12. As one was the project needing the most attention - Tula Pink's Hex on the Beach, I shouldn't be too disappointed in my progress. I have added two more projects into the mix but I have not included projects that I can't finish this quarter and so the list doesn't include the Tattoo quilt with @happysewlucky, sewalong with Karlee Porter, Chinese Zodiac SAL with @thefrostedpumpkinstitchery nor my Bonnie and Camille stars. 

1. TQS BOM 2012

2. My small world from 2016 which is pieced and partly quilted. 

3. Tate Modern quilt which was our challenge March project which is now ready for quilting.

4. Hoffman Dream Big Panel - I have started this and took it off the machine to work on customer quilts. I think this will be made into a bag once quilted.

5. Bits and bob blanket - pattern by Kay Jones - The I-cord edging is almost finished and then I need to sew in lots and lots of ends. This is our Jersey Modern Quilt Group's UFO pick for August so it ill be finished this month.

6. Linen dress

7. Libs Elliott sewalong - quilted and bound but it just needs some ends sewn in.

8. 1985 Prairie Schooler annual Santa

9. The light by Barbara Ana designs

10. 1987 Prairie Schooler Santa

11. Spellville by Barbara Ana

12. Spring sampler by Durene Jones

13. All aboard bag for Lizzie

14. Chasing Tigers sew along - star stream quilt in the cot size which requires six blocks and a lot of cutting out.

Friday finish - hex on the beach

I am doing the happy dance. I have finished the binding and I have even added a hanging sleeve. I love how it looks and that it's finished. 

I can now work on my own choice of project today until August's UFO is chosen tomorrow morning.

WIP Wednesday - Hex on the beach

I am shocked how far this project has come in just one month, especially as life was turned upside down last week when my Mum passed away suddenly. Dad has moved in with us temporarily and is returning to their flat each morning to start tidying and donating stuff. Mum had a good last day socialising with her friends at bowls in the morning, lunch at a smart local hotel, a nap and then a paddle in the sea where she was taken ill. There are worse ways to go and despite Mum's many underlying medical conditions, it was a shock for my Dad especially. So at 92, Dad is going to have to learn to work the microwave and other tech. We are now just waiting for the path lab to finish their tests so we can make arrangements.

I had great plans to custom quilt this piece but instead I chose a digital pantograph. I have bored IG friends with my dithering over binding choices but in the end I went with a classic black and white stripe which I could buy locally. Today I sewed the binding down to the front ready to hand sew it to the back today and tomorrow whilst Dad reminisces.

I will have this finished by the end of the month and then I hope that Kim chooses an easy project for us to work on for August.

Monday make - Love

I took a break from hexagons over the weekend and stitched up the August / September block for the Tattoo Quilt by @happysewlucky. I only have a metre and one fat quarter of the background fabric so I am not adding the borders at this point. I mistakenly used the orange for lettering and it should have been white but I had almost finished the letters so I decided to roll with it and there is more contrast in real life.

I was driving myself mad looking for the one metre piece to finish the block and searched high and low in my sewing room. I enlisted the help of my daughter and she found it downstairs next to my PC. What a relief and I was very grateful for her efforts.

That makes two blocks out of 11 so far. If I our local retreat happens in November and a UK based retreat in September, I will probably take these blocks to work on instead of the half a dozen simpler projects as I would normally do.

WIP Wednesday - Hex on the Beach II

Last Wednesday my Hex on the Beach quilt by Tula Pink looked like this.  A few blocks still to be pieced or fixed and the rows have been sewn down to the bright green hexagons. Yesterday I hit a milestone and all of the blocks are now pieced and fixed. I had to take out four hexagons that I had pieced in the wrong shade of blue but I was on a roll and got on with it.

You can now see much more clearly how the final quilt will look. This morning I have sewn two rows together. The last row I added to the top portion took four hours to stitch, but I got these two rows done in under two hours. Going forward my plan is to piece two rows together on quiet days and on busy days I have two rows that need the blocks to be stitched into a row. 

I haven't run out of steam yet and should get the top pieced, if not quilted by the end of the month. I have a piece of Tula Pink handmade for the backing but I need to choose and order some binding now. I'm off to google which Tula stripe others have used.

Monday Make - Truth

Truth is block one of the Tattoo quilt by @happysewlucky. I purchased the solids kit from Sewhot and it arrived about a month ago, however I decided I wanted to step it up by including a Tula Pink fairy dust background and some Tula Pink True Colours.

I ordered a fat quarter bundle ten day ago from Sew Hot and it arrived on Friday. I had already printed off all of the foundation pieces so I dived into the first block. I am so pleased with how it came together. The fussy cutting of the heart is almost perfect which is good enough for me!!

There are some borders to go on this block which I will add when I start block 2 - Hope. In the mean time, back to my Tula Pink Hex on the Beach EPP.

Sunday Stash - Make Modern issue 35

The newest issue was released on Friday and is full of stash busting projects and interesting articles delivered direct to your in box. If you're not yet a subscriber, here's a flavour of what's in the magazine and a link to subscribe (affiliate link).

Beautiful fabrics and quilts are meant to be shown off and enjoyed. Agree? We certainly do, and in this issue, we encourage you to use your quilts, with ways to get them out of your cupboards, on display and in rotation. And if you’ve got special fabric that you can’t quite bring yourself to cut up into a quilt yet, we continue the theme and MOTIVATE you to use that precious fabric!

We MEET two talented quilters, Jo Avery and Velda Roy. And we MAKE rainbows as we cheer on our Creative Director (and self-confessed rainbow addict) Kristy Lea who makes her fabric debut with her new Create line, featured in the Rainbow Bright quilt pattern, just one of the ten beautiful patterns featured in Issue 35. Be inspired by our incredible line up of international quilters and makers to prise that precious coveted fabric out of your stash and under your machine, pronto!

MEET Jo Avery and Velda Roy, MAKE rainbows and micro mini quilts, and be MOTIVATED to display your quilts and use that precious fabric!

Included Patterns:

• Rainbow Banner Quilt by Amanda McCabe 
• (@jamesandgraciehandmade)
• Victorian Tiles Quilt by Monika Henry (@pennyspoolquilts)
• Busted Fence Quilt by Rachel Julia (@kohatupatterns)
• Rainbow Bright Quilt by Kristy Lea (@quietplay)
• Walkie Talkie Wristlet by Brianna Roberts (@briannaroberts71)
• Good Measure Quilt by Geraldine Wilkins (@livingwaterquilter)
• Intersections Quilt or Cushion by Angie Wilson (@gnomeangel)
• Skull Squared Quilt by Velda Roy (@freckledfoxquiltery)
• Dresden On Point Quilt by Rebecca Cottongim (@aquilterschaos)
• Gorby Baby Quilt by Sam Joseph (@rnbwtrout)

Featured Articles:

• Smash That Stash: Use That Precious Fabric! by Jane Kelly (@janekellyquilts)
• Great Makes Using Simple Shapes by Velda Roy
• Quilts on Display by Jane Kelly (@janekellyquilts)
• Gallery: #microminiSAL hosted by Lesley Chaisson (@berry_birdy) by Kristy Lea (@quietplay)
• Meet the Maker: Jo Avery (@joaverystitch)
• Meet the Maker: Velda Roy (@freckledfoxquiltery)
• Tips + Techniques by Alyce Blyth (@blossomheartquilts): Better Basting
• The Hustle by Angie Wilson (@gnomeangel): Pressured Change
• Quilt Like a Rock Star by HollyAnne Knight (@stringandstory): A Quilting Plan
• Fabric Love by Chelsea O’Hayre (@pinkdoorfabrics): Sew in Colour

Library: Color, Thread and Free Motion Quilting by Teri Lucas, Adorable Animal Quilting by Ingrid Alteneder, Love Your Creative Space by Lilo Bowman, and Beyond the Tee – Innovative T-Shirt Quilts by Mary & Jen Cannizzaro