Q4 finish along

I only finished one item last quarter, but significant progress has been made on some projects. I need to start quilting my finished tops when my HQ Avante comes back from being serviced.

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

6. Five impossible things

7. Test quilt for Abigail which I will work on next.

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

9. 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.

10 to 12 some tops for my holiday and a shirt for Halloween in a Tula a Pink skulls fabric.

Lone star salsa

I have been participating in the #greatbritishquilter daily challenge on Instagram. Towards the end zone f last week, we were challenged to reveal our oldest UFO. finishing our oldest UFO is also the challenge I set four the Jersey Modern Quilt Guild too. This UFO dates back to 2010 as it was started in a workshop with Jan Krentz during the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.

This project has languished as I didn't like the freezer paper method for the foundation piecing method demonstrated. All of the diamonds were complete, blocked and trimmed.

I gritted my teeth and decided to work on it at the Jersey Me de n Quilt Guild meeting on Saturday and I completed five more of the rocket blocks. Nothing sewn together yet.

Here it is now. The rocket blocks are complete and one count rent is sewn on. I made a mistake and printed the company energy black cost the wrong size so I reprinted the pattern, unpicked the incorrect blocks to reuse the fabric and have six of the twelve foundation pieced units complete. I am enthusiastic to get this finished by Sunday.

I also did a quick calculation and have sufficient client of the navy fossil fern to add a narrow border and binding. Happy dance.

August UFO

My UFO to work on was It's a small world by Jen Kingwell published by Quiltmania. I did leave it very late in the month to restart it, but I went to the Festival of Quilts for a few days at the beginning of the month, and if I am honest, I have been avoiding this project. 

Bank holiday crafting finish

I surprised myself yesterday by finshing my new project - the haunted birdhouse by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. 

I also added a frame of a purple ghostly fabric from my scrap bags and inserted it into a 5" frame. I now realise I have a number of other stitcheries that need framing so will add them to my 2019 UFO list.

And I added wadding behind the Stitchery before adding the borders and added four layers of a stiff pellon behind the Stitchery. Then I glued down the purple fabric and ironed a circle of felt onto the Pellon.

I now realise it's a little off square, but what haunted house isn't a little wonky and run down? Now yo continue with my August UFO.

Bank holiday crafting

Tomorrow is the last bank holiday in the UK, until Christmas Day. Whilst I have made good progress  on my August UFO, I decided that it would be a fun idea to start a small project yesterday. It is a small cross stitch pattern called Haunted Birdhouse by The Frosted Pumpkin.

Instagram is to blame as this new Halloween pattern popped up on my feed. Before heading to the supermarket, I quickly bought and downloaded the pattern. I printed the colour key and added the pattern to my Kindle downloads. I then pulled out a small thread box, added a pair of snips, needle and sourced the necessary threads form my stash. I had to substitute for several colours by referring to the project photo.

I have a plan to finish this over the long weekend by stitching out the black frame first, then today, I will do all of the white areas, then finish everything else tomorrow. I do one section of white and then a section of colour.

You can see that the black of the border is complete and I have made good progress on the tree house. Today I will finish the border and white sections.

Holiday prep

I am headed to the Festival of Quilts on Thursday but this year, I am staying in the city centre, as this was a last minute booking and the NEC hotels were silly prices. I regret having paid for a hold suitcase but it's booked and paid for so I will shop until I drop.

I always take a project with me to work on, even if it's just on the plane or at the airport. I bought some wool got my birthday last week from Dragon Hill Studios. I am using the metropolitan stripe colourway and divided it into two balls. I hoped that the cake started at the beginning of the grey stripe so wound off about 40 grams until I got to the end of a pink stripe. I then cut the yarn and wound it back into a ball so the yarn started with grey.

It's true that a striped yarn almost knits itself as you just want to get to the end of another stripe. I have knit a third stripe today and need to putting it away or it will be finished before Thursday.

I am just under an inch away from the heel turn. I think I will do the heel turn at my quilt group on Wednesday morning and then put it in my hand luggage.

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,