November progress

We are almost half way through November and I set myself the following goals at the end of October:

1. Finish socks in progress - done

2. Finish a second Squad Ghouls cross stitch - hampered by my new glasses not being correct for me, but I have now picked them up along with a pair for close up work, so I should be good to go. This is the one I completed in October.

3. Finish my La Fin du Monde quilt by Libs Elliott - hampered by ordering the wrong size of pre wound bobbins and I am having to wait for the replacements to be delivered. 

I have very nearly finished the background around the heart using a doodle pantograph by Karlee Porter. Then I am going to rewind the quilt and use a different pantograph for the heart itself.

October finish 3

I am really pleased to have started and finished the Snowflake quilt by Modern Handcraft in October. I cut all of the squares and triangles on my accuquilt from my scrap bags initially and then from low volume and turquoise fat quarters. I then packed it up to sew at the Modern Quilt Club retreat in October, where I completed a few blocks.

The blocks are very quick to sew up as I had already sewn all of the HSTs. I soon had it pieced together and ready to quilt. I used a new to me digital pantograph called West Wind in Winter from My Creative Stitches. Abigail of Cut & Alter had used this pantograph on a winter quilt for a customer and I immediately went and purchased along with the chevron design I used on the cushion made at retreat.

I had the perfect backing in stash which I widescreen by Carolyn Friedlander and I also used it for the binding.

Sunday stash - Pink Door Fabrics

It's not often that I have any new stash to share. At retreat I only bought a needle threader for myself and some Pellon for a friend. However I won a $300 voucher for Pink Door Fabrics from Gnomeangel's #100days100blocks sewalong. I was so surprised. I found it quite difficult to spend with no specific projects in mind, but it went a long way and I only had to pay postage.

I have seen a lot of great projects using Guicy Guice's fabrics so I bought 15 different fabric from his ranges. Great basics and great for rainbow projects too.

Then I bought one piece of Tula Pink, the 2019 bundle of V & Co's metallic ombre. I used the first bundle for the Fat Quarter Shop threadology quilt. I also purchased some Christmas fabrics as I love a good Christmas quilt and I was lacking turquoise fabrics in my Christmas stash.

Lastly I purchased a book that I had browsed at Modern Quilt Group, a kit and pattern for the crescent Tote by Noodlehead, an Elizabeth Hartman pattern and some bag bits for a cross body bag. I plan to keep the tote kit to work on at one of the retreats I plan to attend in 2020. It contains the pattern, fabrics, interfacing and bag bits so can easily be packed ready to go.

I am just waiting on some bag sliders which were missed from my original order. I also had a thread order arrive this week, but I ordered the wrong size of pre wound bobbins so my long arm is quiet at the moment which is a shame as I have made great progress quilting my La Fin du Monde quilt  - pattern by Libs Elliott.

October finishes 2

Now for the second knitted beanie for my daughter. In grey. Yarn purchased in Province town at Purl. the yarn is by Juniper Moon Farm in colour 104. 

Before going to Boston and Cape Cod, I contacted Youtuber and dyer, Kristin of Voolenvine Yarns for shop recommendations and she provided a comprehensive list. we would have liked to have a Great Yarn in Chatham but we only stopped for a short while (30 minutes) but I had seen the shop en route to the parking and we just didn't have enough time to get there and browse.

I have knit DK hats previously and I struggled to find hats that I liked in the right yardage. Then I had a flash of inspiration and looked at what people had made in the yarn on Ravelry. Success. The Elm Road hat was perfect. A lot of twisted rib though.

October finishes 1

I am pleased with the progress I am making on my November list of projects, but today I am going to start sharing my October finishes with you.

The first is one of two hats I made for my daughter Lizzie before she went back to England to finish her third year of University. This is to replace a previous knitted beanie with pom pom that I had knit for her.

The pattern is the Tiilda hat by @isangknits in Caron x Pantone purchased by my daughter in Michaels when we were recently in Boston.

WIP Wednesday

I said I would share my plan for WIPs and UFOs with you. I thik I lost my mojo because I was so overwhelmed by projects and plans. Going forward I think I need to chose one quilting WIP, one cross stitch pattern and one knitting WIP to focus on each month. Once they're finished along with customer quilts, I can then work on something else.

So for October I chose the following:

1. snowflake sewalong - this is ready for quilting. Here is a progress shot.

2. I am going to finish one of the Ghoul Squad each month and there are four to complete. One is done and ready for framing. I'm calling this one Mrs Bones.

3. I had a deadline before going on retreat to finish two beanies with pom poms for my daughter. I stalled on this as I couldn't find a pattern that was the same yardage as the yarns Lizzie had purchased. Then I realised that if I searched for the yarn on Ravelry.com I might find inspiration. That worked like a dream and I finished the two hats. I have even knit another for Lizzie for Christmas.

My goals for November are:
1. Finish socks in progress
2. Finish a second Squad Ghouls cross stitch
3. Finish my La Fin du Monde quilt by Libs Elliott

I have two customer quilts to finish at the moment and three more that are ready to be delivered to me. I also want to right up a guide to prepping your quilt for longarming as I have had several quilts where the backing is too small.

If I get those done I will join in a Xmas cushion sewalong by The Crafty Nomad

Mojo Monday

Well I went on retreat taking several projects with me. I had a great time and made progress on al of the projects except one whilst I was away.

1. I prepped lots of reusable make up wipes which I finished when I got home. I stitched all of the squares together whilst on retreat and then what I hadn't finished, I turned and pined at my hotel on the Sunday night. I no longer have any worn or coloured towels, so this project is complete.

2. The retreat project by Jeliquilts was a fun make and I finished the top at the retreat but quilted it at home on my longarm. I love this zig zag quilting pattern which gives great texture. This is the last of this rainbow stripe that I used for the binding.

  I used a rainbow of poppers for the closure of this cushion cover.

3. I put together the four blocks for this mini quilt - pattern by Fat Quarter Shop and added the border, so it was ready to quilt when I was home. Another striped binding finished this project.

4. Lastly I worked on the Snowflake sewalong and I soon had six blocks done and ready to continue this week. I have been home alone sine I returned from the retreat as my husband has been away and left the car at the airport for me to collect as he flew out on the same day as I returned.

I have a plan for tackling my UFOs and WIPs as I go forward. I will share my plan with you on Wednesday.

Snowflake SAL

As the #100days100blocks sew along comes to an end, I have joined in with the Snowflake QAL by ModernHandcraft I am planning to do scrappy turquoise background with low volume scraps for the snowflake. I also plan to cut all of the blocks with my Accuquilt as I need 3" finished squares and HSTs. First I am going to start with my scraps and then move onto FQs in my stash. I can even stash dive for the backing.

The Modern Quilt Club Retreat is coming up in two weeks time, and I think this is the perfect project. There is also a foundation pieced retreat project / cushion and I have all of my fabrics for that project packed and ready to go including wadding and backing. I will probably make up the cushion when I'm home unless I prep the backing of the cushion as I probably don't want to pack my tools for setting the poppers.

Q4 Finish along 2019

1. TQS BOM Sedona Star from Jan 2012. Not yet pieced together but progress was made in 2018.

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

3. My small world from 2016 which is pieced and partly quilted. This was the April project to finish for the APQS UFO challenge

4. Five impossible things

5. La Fin du Monde which I started as a quiltalong late 2018, but the background fabric got lost in the post, so progress stopped.

6. Tate Modern quilt which I need to start drafting again. I had made some templates but some were wrong and I might be able to use a circle ruler instead.

7. HST BOM  - I want to keep up with the blocks each month and finish it in December

8. Tula Pink Hex on the beach - this is the project I was working on for the #the100dayproject so I should make good progress on this during the third quarter.

9. Quietplay BOM 2019. 

10. Hoffman Dream Big Panel - I need to load this and practise my free motion quilting.

11. Snowflake QAL

12. The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery Squad Ghouls.

13. Grey hat 1

14. Grey hat 2.

Can I get down to single figures in 2019? I think so but my big and oldest UFOs won't, I think, get any attention.