Bumbling Honeys - February 2015

Carol from The Running Hare asked us to make the blockcalled 'Geese all round' which can be found here: www.quilterscache.com/G/GeeseAllAroundBlock.html And she would love us for ever if we could make two. :) The background is Kona white and the geese are navy, teal, aqua, blue or lime green.

 

It has been a busy few days with a Ceilidh on Thursday evening, La Moye WI hosted the baton on Friday evening and I was an invited guest. Also yesterday we had a lovely lunch out at the St Brelade's Bay Hotel. Very nice. Tomorrow we are visiting Durrell and having a photo with Gerald Durrell's wife - Lee followed by afternoon tea.

In the midst of all this activity I've slowly foundation pieced the blocks which are now ready to post to Carol with Jane's block. Next I need to work on my New York Beauty centre.

Making progress

Aviatrix I already off the frame with no ends to sew in. Hooray. It has been trimmed and the edge zig zagged ready for binding. I ordered my binding from Simply Solids yesterday and I'm told that Jett has parcelled up my order ready to take to the Post office yesterday evening. Although the postman has been, I can always hope that it's coming in the parcel van.

Tomorrow I am helping the Jersey Eisteddfod needlework section take in some of the 500 entry forms and write up the cards for attaching to entries. I usually take some binding to hand stitch down, but despite having two projects needing binding, I think I will be going empty handed. I will however walk down this year as I made the mistake of parking in a short term car park last year and it cost me £12 for six hours. Lesson learnt.

I think I'll work on Carol's bee blocks next as that is my last set of bee blocks for February to do.

Centenary baton arrives

 

Progress is being made - Aviatrix is ready to be quilted. I don't have enough fabric to bind the quilt so I have ordered more of the Essex linen in steel to finish it. Not that it will even be quilted by the time my order has arrived. Jane has finished with my long arm - her poor husband didn't even get a lift to the airport so that she could finish it today. I now have to work out what backing I bought to use for this quilt.

 

 

The WI centenary baton is doing a tour around England, Wales and the islands and today it arrived in Jersey - 12 hours late due to bad weather yesterday evening. we didn't get taken on a tour in the vintage cars, but they make a lovely back drop for photos of our reception at Government House today. of course in true WI fashion, the reception was followed by lunch at the Ambassadeur Hotel. Tomorrow evening the baton is being hosted at a ceilidh.

 

Off to look at last year's blog posts to see if I can work out which backing I should use for Aviatrix.

Foxy lady

I know I said I wouldn't start any new projects, but I was sucked in by the quilt long over at Gnome Angel using Elizabeth Hartman's pattern at Oh Fransson!!. The hedgehogs and fox are so cute. I've used Kona plains along with the Priory Square map print. I have used Bondaweb to applique the glasses and will do a small blanket stitch around the glasses on my Bernina.

ALYoF - February 2015

 

 

My Q1 FAL plan says I should be working on Orbit this month but I need to finish Aviatrix so I'll do that first and then quilt Orbit. I went to add the final butterfly border to my quilt at my Guild's UFO day last month and I was one block short. Fortunately I hadn't yet discarded the templates for cutting the irregularly shaped wings, so I need to cut and sew one light orange block, add it to the existing border, sew on the butterfly border and the last grey border. Then quilt and bind it. And all before the end of the month for it to be entered into the local Eisteddfod.

 

 

 

My smaller project for this month will be my UK mini swap New York Beauty quilt. This is bound and just needs the centre circle taken off and made smaller, quilted and it's done. I'm also entering this one in the Eisteddfod. Perhaps I should work on that today?

TQS BOM 2009 - Thimbleberries edition

 

My quilt photographer assistant is still at work, so this photo will have to suffice for now. I finished this top, probably not long into 2010, I started quilting it on my longarm with thoughts of beautiful custom feathers, but I haven't ventured far from using the Prostitcher edge to edge designs yet. so it was taken off the machine and abandoned on the top of the wardrobe until this month.

 

I love the centre feathered star block of this quilt and I have to admit to falling back in love with this quilt now it's finished. I must find a home for it as I have too many quilt (finished and in progress).

 

These six inch stars made up of lots of half square triangles were a challenge, but I love how their scrappy colours helps pull the quilt together. I used fabrics from about four different Thimbleberries programmes to make the quilt and only ran out of the blue binding fabric, but a member of Kim's TB2 group came to my aid.

 

I used a flowering vine pattern to quilt the piece and was inspired by several of the fabrics I used to choose this new pattern. The quilt is now ready for entry into our local Eisteddfod needlework section in March.

 

Come back on 1 February to see what I have planned to work on in February.

 

Linking to:

 

Two years late but a finish never the less

 

 

I bought the kit for the Christmas knitted bunting at Knit & Stitch over two years ago. I also bought one for Claire as her Christmas present. Claire finished hers and made a second for a baby. Mine was almost finished apart from the string which I finished this month. I've even blocked it and it's ready for the Jersey Eisteddfod in March. I think I need to put it on a cardboard base to keep it nice and flat.

 

 

 

I'm also trying to finish up all of the odds and sods of moisturisers, cleansers and more. I seem to have more eye creams, hand creams and body lotions than anything else. I've definitely made progress on this in January. I have two containers in the top drawer by my bed and I need to work through them. I've just found a small pot of Crème de la Mer moisturiser which I've started using up.

 

I'm looking out of the window and it's a dreary damp day - to go on this morning's WI walk or not? I'll decide in half an hour. 

January bee blocks

 

I have dithered about my blocks for Sue Blake for the ST2 bee. Sue asked for blocks in red and blue using half square triangle (HSTs). I decided at the beginning of the month that I wanted to do one friendship star and knew I had some HSTs left over from my Swoon quilt. As the end of the month approaches, it was time to get down to piecing these blocks. The friendship star was quick to piece and cut.

 

The small HSTs - 1.5" finished took ages  to trim and piece, so much so that I forgot an appointment.

WI centenary wallhanging

 

2015 is the centenary of NFWI and each WI has been invited to make one square depicting their WI and / or parish for inclusion in a wall hanging. We made the decision as a committee to represent our logo. I also immediately decided that I would use Bike Tracks as the background fabric.

 

I found a small scrap of navy linen which was perfect for the jeans and I thought the Cotton & Steel looked like the tread of a tyre. I hope my members like what I've done. Next job is to finish reading our Book Group book for this evening.

 

FNSI January 2015

 

Last night was the first meet up for 2015 hosted by Wendy at Sugarlane Quilts and friends from all over the world. I had been sewing during the day so I finished a few blocks last night and prepped a couple more.

 

Block 25 of the Moda Building Blocks. I drew myself a foundation piecing pattern for this economy block and it went together smoothly with some Pearl Bracelets and Cotton + Steel.

 

Oops, another little project started. I am only doing nine of these blocks for a baby quilt (no intended recipient) and this is a combination of Cotton + Steel for the spines and plains for the body and face on a low volume background. I have three patterned fabrics and have raided Jane's stash for more. I am surprisingly lacking in plains though.

 

Another Moda Building Block which looks striking with its red and white spot on a Carolyn Friedlander background.

 

Time to get ready for the day, plans include:

Making cakes - probably ginger cupcakes

Playing canasta this afternoon (hence the need for cake)

Dinner with Mike & Jane

Prepping some blocks for tomorrow's UFO day as I've stitched up the ones I had already prepared. I also need to find the last border for my Aviatrix quilt which might also lead me to some more plains.

In a bind

 

I have successfully sewn the bindings to the front of two quilts this week and I have even hand sewn the binding on all four sides on the Thimbleberries quilt which is about 80 inches square. I used a blue print which had been used in the centre of the quilt in sashings. I like this quilt more than I expected now that it's almost finished. Now I just need to sew in a few ends which I marked with a pin as I quilted it.

 

 

I also found the rainbow stripe that I bought at the Festival of Quilts in 2014 and even better there were almost enough strips already cut to bind the New York Beauty mini. That will wait until my next morning guild meeting which is the perfect opportunity for doing hand sewing. Then I'll just have a few ends to sew in and the centre will need to be removed, rectified and quilted.

 

I've even made progress on my Christmas bunting which now just needs blocking once I've washed out the mister I need to do the job.

 

 

Mid month progress

I know it's the 20th, but I am still checking in to show you my progress on this month's projects albeit a little late:

• Thimbleberries TQS BOM 2009
• Knitted Christmas bunting

 

So the BOM is quilted and trimmed and ready for binding. I cut the binding over a week ago, but I now need to locate it to sew it on by machine today. Then I can hand sew it over the next ten days.

 

 

And the string for my Christmas bunting is now complete - all 500 stitches of it. However I now have about 40 ends to sew in. I think I'll enquire about going to Stitch n Bitch tomorrow evening to see if someone can guide me as to the right tools and technique.

 

 

I have even progressed my New York Beauty to the quilted and trimmed stage. Again, I need to apply the binding. I'm thinking that the rainbow coloured fabric I used for a Siblings Together quilt might be perfect for this to pull the myriad of colours together in the piecing.

 

 

Once bound, I can focus on the middle of the quilt which is a little poufy. Fortunately the centre was hand appliqued so it will be easy to remove and remedy - fingers crossed.

 

And in bigger news - I've even managed to not start any new projects. I've been very close to clicking buy on a pattern or two but I've been strong so far. I also figure out what to work on at our group's UFO day on Sunday. Perhaps the final Aviatrix border and a Moda Building block or two? Or perhaps my Wishes quilt. I need to get another quilt on my machine whilst customer work is quiet.

Moda Building Blocks Monday

 

The Christmas holidays are just a distant memory, so it's now time to return to projects in progress. One of those is the Moda Building Blocks quilt.

I started working on Section A and this is block 42. I love the churn dash block.

 

 

Which is probably why I deviated from the plan and did a similar block which is block 48 using a Basic Grey dotty.

 

 

A slightly more complicated block with an economy block centre. A couple of blocks are based on an economy block, which is why I drafted up a foundation pattern for the block, after I'd finished this one.

 

 

So to complete section A, I just need complete two more blocks - 10 and 20 (which is in progress).

 

I've turned around block 17 as the writing is then horizontal. Come back in four weeks time to share your February progress.

And what progress are you making with your blocks?

An InLinkz Link-up

Oh my beautiful bundt

 

 

Be still my beating heart. My new jubilee Bundt tin arrived from Amazon yesterday. Post on a Saturday, I know that is very unusual. We are playing canasta tomorrow afternoon so I thought I'd bake a cake in my new tin. I've just heard, it's surplus to requirements, but as the alternative is Christmas cake, I think I'll be bold and still take it with me.

 

 

What to make that was up to the fabulousness of the tin? there was a recipe for an orange cake on the sleeve for the tin and it has a marmalade glaze. So I adapted the recipe to the ingredients I had and changed the measurements to grams. I also did my usual all in one method, which hasn't failed me yet. The recipe called for orange juice so I used packet orange juice and kept the oranges without their peel for an afternoon juice of orange, carrot, lime and mint.

 

 

 

I also found the #bundtbakers through the Nordicware Facebook page. So many delicious recipes.

 

Split nine patch - January Bumbling honeys

 

Mary (The wool palace) chose the split nine patch for January to add to her Do good stitches project. I love the palette that's been chosen - yellow and orange with light blue and cream low volume background. I was worried that I might not have any cream low volume. Hmm, I had quite a few as it happened.

 

Here are my two blocks along with Jane's two blocks.

 

 

 

And a gratuitous toffee banana bundt adapted from a recipe from Jo Wheatley's blog.

Q1 FAL plans

This year I'm just planning on one large and one smaller finish each month which are as follows:

 

Jan TB Block of the month (apparently it's from 2009)

      Xmas bunting as I got this out to take on holiday and did absolutely nothing on it.



Feb Orbit

     UK mini swap - the deadline is April but I have already started it

Mar Wishes

     Beau bears - a bag of them has sat in my office for about two years and they need to be moved on.

Ruby Tuesday

In an effort to complete the 5 day juice detox, yesterday being day 2, I downed the pretty looking Ruby Tuesday juice, whose main constituent was raw beetroot. It was very colourful but made me feel ill for the rest of the day. However today's berry juice has got me back on the plan. I even went without one of Astra's delicious Eccles cake at Chez Soi this morning. I purchased a few for Lizzie though and they are locked in the boot of my car, out of harm's way.

 

Before going to my patchwork group this morning I finished one more row of quilting on my Thimbleberries quilt. This feathered star is the centre of the quilt, so I'm just about half way to being finished. If I get one row done each day, it'll be ready to bind at next week's meeting. The binding is cut but waiting to be pieced and pressed. A job for tomorrow.

 

This is also the time of year when thoughts of the Jersey Eisteddfod needlework section is in my mind. So whilst my machine worked it's magic,  I wrote a short list of what I might enter this year.  I have six items to enter, not all finished and these cushions are two of the items. I filled in the forms ready to take this morning, chuffed to be ahead and promptly left the forms next to my computer. Never mind, at least I have a plan.

 

 

My small project to complete this month is my Christmas bunting and that's what I took with me to my group to work on this morning. I'd like to say that it now looks better than the holy mess above, but it needs lots of ends to be sewn in ad the letter squares to be blocked. I can report that I just now need to cast off the binding so some progress has been made.

ALYOF January 2015

 

The last two months of the year didn't seem very productive but I did finish a Sew Together bag for Jane's Xmas present, mini stems for ALYOS, and two quilt along projects from Instagram and Lori Holt.

 

 

 

You can be forgiven if you don't remember this project as apparently it was the Quilt Show BOM for 2009. It briefly made it onto the long arm with intentions to custom quilt it. It then came off and was tossed on the top of the cupboard where it languished with the fabric for the binding for about two years. acknowledging that it will never be custom quilted, the quilting has been unpicked and the top and backing repressed. I have even installed the leader grips on my frame and it will be quilted and bound this month.

Happy New Year

We're back from our Caribbean holiday and now I'm ready for 2015. I haven't chosen a One Little Word before, but this year I have chosen:

I toyed with finish, but complete seemed to encapsulate more. I start things with enthusiasm and then run out of steam. So in 2015 I want to take everything step further. I've also started a five day juice detox this morning. No planning as usual, so I went to the gym and then having showered, I went to Waitrose afterwards to pick up my ingredients for today.

 

 

 

So my day started with a ginger shot!!

 

 

I plan to join in the monthly and quarterly challenges to complete lots of projects in 2015 but also to try and not start as many as I finish. I have one project that I want to make this year and want to complete it slowly over the year. So my list of UFOs to complete this year are:

 

Jan TB Block of the month (apparently it's from 2009)



Feb Orbit

Mar Wishes

Apr CQ hexagons

May Tree skirt

June Aviatrix

July RWB hexagons

Aug Thimbleberries olive and mustard

Sep Moda Building Blocks

Oct Lori Holt

Nov Swedish Blooms

Dec New quilt

 

 

And for the quarterly challenge, I'm going to add a small project to finish each month, so the first quarter is like this:

Jan Xmas bunting

Feb Uk mini swap (already started)

Mar Beau bears (I think they've been sitting in a bag for about two years, but perfect to take to Wednesday quilting group.

 

Other things to finish include small bits in our kitchen and installing some leader grips on my long arm.