A Quilt Top and Having a Ball

Apart from Monday, which had glorious Autumnal weather when I went for a walk with the TG ladies, the weather has been really wet, windy and generally miserable.  Which meant more time for sewing.

I've managed to sew together all of the Kingfisher Quilt blocks and working out a couple of the side panels to 'square off' the quilt top was a challenge but they are joined together

I have since added a narrow cream border around the top and at the moment have left it at that.  It may not get my attention again this side of Christmas as going away then getting ready for Christmas may take up more time. but there is a feeling of accomplishment that I've got a whole top instead of a collection of blocks.

Another thing I've started and finished is an EPP soft ball made up of pentagons.  Not wanting to piece over papers and having to remove the papers while joining the ball I looked for a more permanent solution.  I traced the pentagon to card, draw around the card shape onto some Vilene.  One layer was a bit floppy, so using a cake liner on my ironing board I layered the Vilene onto a second piece and ironed lightly to adhere the layers just enough so there was some glue left to attach to the reverse of fabric.  Phew, that took some explaining.  Anyway it worked and this was the result

12 fussy cut pentagons (2" sides) sewn together kept me amused on a rainy Tuesday afternoon.  Not sure if this will go to Flo or save for baby grandchild no. 6, due in April.  The pattern for this comes from Issue 9 of Love Patchwork and Quilting. from 2015.

I've also had a go at Tunisian Crochet from a monthly box from Little Box of Crochet.  This will make a zippy pouch eventually. This was last month's box but I didn't follow the link for the tutorials to go with the box until the other day, which with the written and pictorial instructions took the mystery out of this type of crochet.  With the crochet cotton this does make a dense and fairly solid piece of work.

 And it curled up!

So to take a photo of my progress with this I had to pin this in place on my display board!  There are 4 more colours to make a rainbow pouch.  Once I got the hang of this process its quite a nice project.

I have got this month's crochet box to take on holiday with me which is a Mandala, which involves working in front and behind stitches.  I've seen the tutorials already but will have to rely on the pattern and try to remember what I saw!  That'll be interesting.  I'm also taking a book (takes me an age to read a book, so one will do) and some knitting so will keep me amused during days at sea.

I had a surprise today when I got home from knit and natter group as I found that I won a pack of 10 fat quarters.  I'd entered a giveaway hosted by Sewing Directory. I'd forgotten I'd entered it so it was a nice surprise.  

This is Color Master curated fat quarters by Jessica Swift for Art Gallery Fabrics and I will resist the temptation to undo and open out the bundle until after my holiday.  But seeing as it was my birthday yesterday it seemed like serendipity that I won that bundle!

This weekend will see us packing and going to a carol concert on Saturday and a Quilters' Christmas lunch on Sunday.  So plenty to keep me busy!

See you soon.

November Catch Up

This month whizzes by with a round of birthday gatherings and getting out and about.  November sees my Mum, David and I all having birthdays and next month David and I are away on a cruise so we are gearing up for that.

I went for the first time to West Country Embroiderers' local group who meet at Corfe Mullen.  We were shown how to make Dorset Buttons, by Anna from Henry's Buttons and make Christmas themed ones with glittery thread and ribbons.  Here's my attempt.

A sideways view of the buttons the top one is a traditional one with the addition of narrow ribbon for extra decoration to the cartwheel and for the trim.  The bottom one is a Christmas tree, though I had a job trying to stitch French Knots as they kept pulling though to the wrong side so made small stitches instead.  It was an enjoyable day and I think a few more may be made some time soon...

I have just finished the hexagons on my Kingfisher Quilt and in the process of joining the blocks together.  It's taken 46 diamond blocks of hexies and it has been lovely to have this bit of slow stitching sewing the hexies together and appliquéing them onto their backgrounds that I'm going to have to find more hand stitching now, but that might wait until the new year.  Here's the progress so far

 A pile of diamonds

 The last two hexies to be sewn onto their backgrounds

 Arranged on the floor of my room ready to be sewn

Joining the strips together - just over halfway through

I spent Monday piecing the blocks together but have left at this point.  I hope to have the time on Sunday to join it all up and trim the edges.  I have bought a half metre of neutral fabric to put a thin border and will make the decision about what other border/s to put on this.  Quilting and finishing will probably be in the New Year.  So this will go on my self imposed Finish A Long for next year. I love how this is looking and serendipity of the blocks.  When laying out I didn't think much about what goes with what but just went for it and I love it.

Another finish has been this, a small hexie Table mat for Christmas.  I took part in a Christmas Hexie swap two years ago!!!  I don't know why it took me so long to get there, but it has.  Don't look at the wonky stitching it could have been better, but its a finish.

I hope to do a catch up next week before going away.  Have a good, creative weekend.

November

A week into November and less than 7 weeks to Christmas - less than a month until our holiday.  Time as ever flies by!

Last month saw the rediscovery of a crochet project that has been lingering for more than a year.  Crochet Now magazine ran a Crochet A Long (CAL) called Vintage Sweethearts which was designed by Sandra Paul of Cherry Heart blog.  Rather than have the yarn in a net bag I took the decision to work on this and with the longer evenings I have been steadily making crochet blocks of which the one above is in part 7 (I got up to part 6 before abandoning the project).  I have since just finished the blocks in part 8 and made a start on part 9.  As yet I haven't blocked the crochet blocks  and sewn together, that's yet to come.  I have seen a tutorial on YouTube by Helen of Crystals & Crochet about blocking acrylic yarn which has been useful and will at some stage get on with the blocking before sewing up.  Much better to be a blanket than a pile of yarn sitting in a net bag!

So, part 8 is on the left and part 9 is on the right.

Back in September I went to a retreat in Shropshire (which I didn't blog about) and in a lucky dip bag amongst other things I had a fat quarter of a lovely fabric called Boho Forest with squirrels, bears and owls.  Too nice to tuck away in stash so I made a folio with it.

The instructions came from Aneela Hoey's book of Stitched Sewing Organizers, which has been a useful resource for me this year.  I used fabrics from my stash, picking out the colours of the Boho fabric = mainly the taupes, yellows and duck egg blues and appliquéd the bears on the remaining piece of the fat quarter. It will hold the book along with pattern pieces in one place.  I have a couple of dressmaking books with patterns that have to be traced so there will probably be folios made for them too.  I used basal interlining for the cover, which although soft made it heavy so next time I will probably make a quilted cover instead.

A few months a go I signed up to make blocks on a monthly basis for a Siblings Together quilt bee and the requirement was to make blocks of warm colours.

They've now been sent off to the Quilt Bee Mama - a collection of those should make a lovely bright quilt.

It wasn't that long since I went to a quilt show, but I went one in Basingstoke run by North Hampshire Quilters and also took the opportunity to visit my brother-in-law's just a short hop up the motorway after.  They are a large group and their quilt styles are varied - from traditional to modern to contemporary.  A small but enjoyable show

Next Monday will be my first visit to West Country Embroiders Poole branch, making Dorset buttons.  I saw their exhibition back in September and made enquiries about joining, so see how that goes.