Friday Night with Friends

We were a small but select little group of stitchers yesterday - just 14 of us for the last FNwF's of the year. Many thanks to Cheryll for hosting - even though she was off on the high seas no doubt having a great time! Pop over to Cheryll's blog here to see what everyone was working on.

A few weeks ago now I started a new EPP project. I am joining in with lots of other EPPers around the world making quilts based on this 1797 quilt which is in the V&A collection.

Most people are reproducing the quilt using modern fabrics but of course I have to be different! and so I am using my hand dyed fabrics.

I started the quilt in November so have added this to the centre of my quilt and plan to add odd dates along the way to mark my progress.

This is where I am up to so far

so my task for Friday was to baste hexagons for the next couple of rounds and here is my evenings work.

However, fairly early on I decided that I was not keen on the sudden transition from green to yellow - as shown here.

So I hunted through my fabrics for a mottled green and yellow to put inbetween.

Which I much prefer - sorry about some of my photos, we have sunshine and showers here today so it is either too bright or too dark to get a good picture!
However, there was not enough fabric to do a round on the quilt so I got another dye batch underway

and while I was at it a batch of ultramarine and marine violet for another project.

They were left to brew overnight.

It's not a drying day today so I ironed them dry as I am keen to get cutting and basting.

Terrible picture of the green/yellow but it has turned out as I wanted as has the larger piece of marine violet/ ultramarine which will be perfect for the project I have in mind.

So all in all a very profitable evening - many thanks Cheryll for getting us all together again and all through the year.

FNSI for November - part two!

Many thanks Wendy for inviting us round again - you can see who joined in here

After a very long and pleasant curry lunch with our lunch club my first job when I got home was to cut out the fabric for another weebrawbag

At this point I decided that I needed to be sitting by the fire and so I got on with some secret stitching and then added the hanging sleeve to my Gardeners Journal panel.
Last up I folded these pentagon stars and pinned them ready to add their beads.

So today I have a bag to make and beads to sew - I had best get on with it!

FNSI November - part one!

Many thanks to Wendy for inviting us round not just once this month but twice!

We have had beautiful weather here all week and Friday was no exception so after adding the final borders to this Gardeners Journal panel (which has been waiting for it's borders for some months) I headed outside to do some more work in the garden.

So then my task for the evening was to add some quilting which I did with a lovely yellow/pale green variegated perle thread.

Then for the last hour of my evening I got out some crochet. I started knitting a pair of socks with this lovely yarn last year but was not happy with the pattern. Now I NEED a cowl so have undone my knitting and started crocheting my cowl. Not sure how big it will turn out but I am sure there will be enough there. It's lovely, simple, rhythmic ripple crochet - perfect for relaxing with at the end of the day.

Thanks Wendy - see you again next week. xx

A Crazy catchup

I realised yesterday that I had not shared with you the crazy quilting that I recently completed for a competition! Part of the brief was not to publish WIP shots as the winner would show all these shots in an article in Crazy Quilt Quarterly Magazine. Well, I did not win so am going to show my pictures now.
Each entrant received a package of fabrics and embellishments to use in a project to make a needlecase, phonecase or something else but I cant remember what that was now! Anyway - here is the package that I received.

There was a lovely piece of printed botanical fabric and silk in various colours, buttons, beads, ribbons, braids and a few threads. We were expected to use as much as possible from the package and only add up to 10 items from our own stash.
I was totally in love with the botanical fabric and having chosen to make a needlecase I contrived to use as much of it as possible. So here is a shot of my piecing.

 



Now a few shots of my embroidery as it progressed

And the finished needlecase

 

 

This was a fun project to work on but also a challenge to use fabrics and embellishments that I might not have chosen myself.

Friday Night with Friends

Many thanks Cheryll for inviting us to share the evening with you again - to find the links to everyone who took part go here

After a couple of grey, damp days we had a lovely sunny afternoon so spent some time in the garden cutting back and tidying - there is always something to do!

So in the evening I got down to some serious stitching and worked on this small piece of embroidery using hand dyed threads and shibori fabric.

The design comes from this lovely little book which is full of useful motifs and ideas for small gift projects.

Cheryll made a very smart heat pad for her kitchen - I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else was working on,

Have a great weekend.

The weebrawbags

My weebrawbags are finished! Well, they have been finished for a few days but I had to wait until this morning to get the cord as I had nothing suitable in my stash.

They are really deeply boxed which makes them super spacious inside as well as being able to see what you have stashed away. Also on the larger bag I was able to use a couple of the cutaway squares to make the tulips on the ends of the cords.

This one might become my everyday sewing bag as I adore the fabrics and have been saving them for something special for some time!

This is the smaller bag - again these batiks have been in my stash for a while but in this case the bag is going into my gift box.

Right, having got those out of my system (although I am sure I shall be making some more in the future) it's back to secret Christmas stitching!

The weather has finally turned and it is a grey damp day today with even colder temperatures and rain forecast for the weekend - sounds like plenty more sewing time!

Have a great weekend.

Finally finished!

Back in 2015 a facebook group that I belong to organised a block of the month. I kept up with the blocks - you may have followed my progress here - and then I stalled. Earlier this year I decided to try the quilt as you go method on these blocks and I found this to be brilliant. The blocks got quilted in no time at all - far less daunting that having a whole quilt in front of you to quilt. The sashing and borders were soon added and then it got hot! And it stayed hot for most of the summer, so sitting with a quilt on my lap to finish off the quilting was not pleasant. However, to bring a long ramble to a close, quilting of the borders and sashing is finally finished and here is the ta dah moment!

Hand pieced and hand quilted - I did a fairly random wavy line through the sashing and a loopy one round the borders.
Nice to cross something off my UFO list.

FNSI October

The weeks are whizzing by far too quickly! Many thanks Wendy for hosting our get together again - click on the link to see what everyone was working on.

I have had the pattern for a weebrawbag for a few weeks now and have been itching to make one.

The pattern is by Laura Cunningham and you can find her on Instagram @laura_zuckerkuss

So yesterday afternoon I got out my fabrics and started cutting. There are two sizes of bag so of course I decided to make one of each!

For the smaller bag I am using some delicious batiks that have been in my stash for a while. For the larger bag some pretty floral for the pocket and a bird print for the bag.

No time to start sewing as we were then off to visit a friend for a walk through her woods. The weather here is still amazing although chilly at night. So we are seeing clear blue skies every day. No sign yet of migrating cranes so winter is not too imminent!

During the evening I managed a little more quilting on my pink quilt.

A few more evenings should see this finished! At last.

Anyway, I am off to sew a bag or two - have a great weekend.

FNwF, happy mail and other news

Many thanks to Cheryll for inviting us to join her again last Friday. For one reason or another Friday was a stitchy non event for me - all I managed were a few bits of quilting on my Pink BOM which seems to be taking me ages to finish!

I received some happy mail last week - these gorgeous Island Batik fabrics which I won in a blog hop from Turid.

At the moment they are still too gorgeous to unwrap but I will soon find a project for them I am sure.

I finished off the little crazy quilting pincushion that I was making

and completed the crazy quilting I was working on for a competition - still no photo's allowed, sorry.

The patchwork girls came last week and started on their next block of the Mystery Quilt. This is what they are making.

A Log Cabin, log cabin! Now, I got the idea for this block from a blog but stupidly did not make a note of whose blog! So if you are reading this then please, please contact me so that I can credit you.

Update May 2019 - I finally found the inspiration for my block! here My thanks to JanineMarie of Quilts from the Little House whose beautiful log cabin block I copied!

And finally, I have completed two more blocks for the RSC - September

and October

I am off to UK again this week but hope to be back in time for FNSI - so see you there.