An August Furtle

 For a 31 day month, August has disappeared really quickly - where did it go? With autumnal temperatures and being the first tomorrow it seems like summer is on the way out. 

Anyway, I haven’t posted much this month, but I have been kept busy as usual.  I’ve got two finished quilts, one of which is a fleece backed one for Project Linus, which I made in a couple of days.

And my second one, not sure where it’s going yet, is this green and red one that was made from leftover blocks from another quilt.  Both of these can be read about in my last post.

I worked on my Daisy the Herdwick sheep, and made her some knickers and a dress too. The photos have loaded up in the wrong order, even though I clicked to get them in the right order!

Daisy the Herdwick 

With her dress and knickers (she’s properly dressed)

Sharing the sheep shelf with the rest of the flock

And making friend with Luna

 I think I’m getting a slight addiction here.  I bought second book of Luna Lapin and friends series and there may be another animal, and certainly more outfits for Luna and Daisy. There is also a Facebook group which I joined last month Lunas are breeding almost like rabbits!

There’s been some progress on my Sew 4 the Soul book, which I may dedicate another post to next month. I’ve started on another two pages, which may take a little bit longer to complete,  but I have sewn together 

The first two sets of pages.

And then this week there’s been some sock knitting action going on.  I had a turn out of my yarn stash and found some purple yarn.  No label as I bought it some years ago, but it was self striping sock yarn and I had 80 grams of it so it was enough for a pair of socks.  I’ve tried unsuccessfully to make toe up socks and I bought a pattern last month from Vikki Bird Designs for the Seed Head socks.  Now the seed head pattern would have got lost in self striping yarn, so decided to omit the pattern but use the toe up instructions which have been very comprehensive.  I finished my first sock yesterday evening still leaving the markers in so it’ll help guide me with the second sock.

I found that not only do the needles match with orange of the stripes, but the maker for the front toe of the sock almost matches the sock itself! Anyway, the first sock fits really well. I look forward to making another pair in a solid colour so I can use the seedhead pattern.

So linking up with Mini Archie’s tour around the Blogosphere this month, here

(Sorry, you will have to use the link above this month - I can’t get Blogger to cooperate!)

August Catch Up

Now its halfway through August its time for a bit of a catch up.  We're now getting out and about a bit more and now eating out too at local pubs under the "Eat Out to Help Out' scheme once a week now. Seemed a bit strange at first, when we first ventured to a carvery in Worthing when visiting Alex and family but getting more used to the new normal.  Also getting to see more of the people we know too. which is great.

So what else have I been up too?  I bought a book and kit.  This is the third book in the Luna Lapin series, by Sarah Peel of Cool Crafting. 

I could not resist the Herdwick sheep, Daisy and when I learned that the book with the pattern for her and her friends was due out at the end of July I put my order in.  It came in a few days!!  So far I've only made the legs and arms but will hopefully make the rest of her this week.

I've made a couple of small quilts too.  One has gone to Linus and I also donated some fabric that I'm not likely to use. The backing is composed of 2 pieces of fleece fabric that I had left over from other fleece backed quilts made previously. I took the photos in my friend's garden, as I was slip stitching the binding while visiting her! She didn't mind as she's a quilter too. As you can see from the pic below I ran out of binding fabric, so a piece of the dog print was added to it.  I like this effect and might try that again.

I had a turn out of drawers where I keep my fabric stash and pulled out a couple of packs of unfinished quilts.  This quilt was from our days in Yorkshire over 10 years ago!  Last year I put together the pieces to make a long quilt hanging from most of the pieces but the quilt was meant to be wider. A mistake in cutting the triangles and not being able to get more of the cream fabric at the time meant it became a UFO. I think the nearest to this is Cascades 2, but hung sideways, as this was to fill the stairwell of the house we rented at the time.

So I re-arranged the remaining pieces and re-cut some blocks laying them out on the floor (I don't have a design wall - so its either the floor or the bed in the spare room!). I had some green fabric that went well with the other blocks and instead of border and binding I did a wide border instead.  I'm pleased I've got one less UFO.  I’m left with tiny pieces of the fabrics now, so they will go in the scrap box (that needs sorting too).

Just look at the mitred corner, not bad is it? The mitres worked out just right. 

On Saturday 15th August was Granny Square Day.  For those unfamiliar with the Granny Square, it's a crochet square made from clusters of treble stitches which are either made as small squares joined together or one large continuous square.  Click on the link above and there's an explanation.  I have fond memories of my grandmother making large square blankets having been donated wool to make the blankets for the 'old folk', who, more often than not, were older than she was!  Anyway here are my blocks 

The corner 2 corner Granny Square 

The Sunflower Granny 

So I had a go at a Sunflower block from Sew Happy Creative (who did a rainbow sunflower, so pretty) and a Corner 2 Corner block from Simply Crochet  Magazine, which I read through the Readly app,  There was a really big collection of photographed granny squares on Instagram.

I’ve discovered a new to me You Tube video channel called Suzieqmakes, a crafter who lives in Devon and dabbles in sewing, embroidery, journal lingo and cardmaking. I found this through searching for Sew 4 the Soul videos as she is also taking part in this.  I will update later on my progress on my Sew 4 the Soul book.

  

Rulers

I thought this month that I’d focus on technical stuff.  I saw on UKQU Facebook group that people ask for recommendations for various quilt making items.  I think that it is an individual thing because of what quilters make and how they work.  Over the years as well as amassing fabric, I’ve also gained a lot of tools.

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So for this post I will be looking at Quilting rulers.  Starting off with the first ruler that I had along with my first cutting board, then I went larger with both. I’ve placed my rulers against the wardrobe door. The original ruler is 2nd from left.  You will notice that I have washi tape on the ruler as I marked where I had cutting lines. From left to right are 24” x 6”, 18 x 6”, 12 x 6” and 8.5” x 4.5”.  The last one I find really useful when cutting small shapes and especially when trimming postcards.

Another type of ruler is the square ruler and I have 2 sizes, 6.5” and 12.5” for squaring up quilt blocks. 

Recently when cutting strips for my friend, she had a June Tailor Shape cutter, which has slots every half inch for a rotary cutting blade.  Having found this useful I bought one myself from Amazon and it is so easy for strip cutting and as you will see it has angles like most rulers have, so it’s useful for cutting bias strips. All the rectangular rulers are stored in between the fabric boxes so they are accessed easily.

I also have some specialist rulers too, which I’ve gathered over the years.  These are mainly different type of triangle ones. They don’t seem to be used that often but they do have their uses. 

Here are my collection. I’ve put these shapes on my block board, so please excuse all those threads!

First is my 60 degree equilateral triangle ruler.  Again, I found that placing washi tape is useful for marking and it also identifies that it’s my ruler. Comes in handy when at workshops.

Above is a 2 peaks in 1 ruler, turning around for the half triangle. This may look a little like to the 60 degree one, but laying one on top of the other the angle is narrower- it’s 57 degrees. Often used for rectangular shapes.

 

The above pic shows a half square ruler, an Easy Angle ruler, which I don’t use often the markings are on both sides of the ruler.  I also had a free one from Today’s Quilter from a few years back.

A few different rulers this time. At the bottom is a Dresden plate ruler, which is found useful for tumbler blocks too when using the wide end measuring up.  There’s another washi tape marker.  I’ve also got a hexi ruler, but unfortunately it measures the height of the hexi not the side measurements. 

I’ve got a couple of rulers that I bought on a whim, but are hardly used and these are half circle and half heart.  I find them easier to use with a pencil in the slots then cut with scissors or free rotary cut.

All the shape rulers are stored in a small Seasalt hessian bag along with their instructions.

So that’s my ruler collection.  How do you use yours?

A July Furtle

Last month I finished crochet kits that were hanging around and this continued into July.  I made Gareth the Fox, which I wrote about earlier this month and is now lounging on top of the storage unit in my room.  I already have a rabbit, blue tit, owl, cat and chicken so there’s quite a menagerie now. The rabbit now has a scarf to go with her coat.

I finished off my Hostfagring shawl which I wrote about here

I’ve also finished off my cardigan, I’ve even got buttons. Really pleased that I’m adding to my made cardigans rather than buying cheap thin ready made ones. This was a Stylecraft pattern made with Stylecraft Bellisima yarn.

Another knitted finish, which I only started at the end of last month is the Sprindrift Shawl, by 

Curious Handmade . Quite and easy shawl by ticking off the progress on the pattern. 

Earlier in the year I made the Attic 24 Dahlia Blanket from the Dahlia yarn kit,  I still had some yarn left in the pack after making a large blanket and a mini one. I used what was left to make another mini for my youngest granddaughter using the same stitch pattern but a different colour order

And then trying to get as much as I can out of the yarn I then made a coat hanger cover. I added some Polyanthus flowers and leaves.  All are Attic 24 patterns.

As for sewing I managed to put the Youngish Quilter blocks together at the beginning of the month and started quilting them.  I am using the walking foot and straight stitching, but adding in one or two wavy stitches as well.

Earlier this week I put together a few of the blocks from the first Splendid Sampler blocks from a few years back

The weaving embroidery is finished.  I spent a few mornings listening to the radio and working on that to get it done. I finished off with a felt backing but didn’t have quite enough of a whole piece so I joined two smaller pieces together and cut out a circle backing. Im really pleased how this looks and may tackle another one sometime.

Some blocks were made for Siblings Together

Birch trees for Dianne

9 patch blocks for Jane.

Phew, that was busy month.  Even though things outside are eased, most time is still spent at home, so I still find plenty to do.

There’s a couple of new things for August which I’m looking forward to - a new kit so I can add to the menagerie.

I'm linking this post to Mini Archie's Monthly Furtle Around the Blogosphere, so pop over and see what other bloggers have been up to.