Furtling in August

 Despite having days out using the bus pass, and it’s amazing how far you can go from Bournemouth town centre, I have been busy making progress on a quilt top and now thinking how I put the component parts together. I had 5 blocks from back in 2014 when I followed Erin of Sew At Home Mummy blog started a block of the month called Classic Meets Modern. 

The above photo shows the older blocks with 2 additional ones in the middle and right on the bottom row. I made 4 more during this month finishing with block number 12 on Sunday.  By this time I made blocks of my own. The colour scheme as you’ll see is purple, red, pink and I used up some old batik fabrics as well as adding some newer fabrics.

A 16-patch (which isn’t in the BOM) and Flying Geese

Rolling Stone (that’s the block, not the aging rock band).

And Origami Star (pattern from The Crafty Quilter). 

I’ve bought some wadding and I may have to buy some fabric for the backing (oh dear, what a shame!). At least with bordered blocks I don’t have to think about sashing. So putting the blocks together and quilting will take up September. 

Another bit of sewing this month has been an old cross stitch of crocuses.  I put a photo on Instagram a few weeks back (I’m @suewilduk on Instagram) and someone messaged me to say they had a tapestry of the same design from Prima magazine.  After all these years (the copyright on the pattern is 2002) the cross stitch kits can still be bought on EBay.  

The problem with this is that I started to run out of thread, mainly as the pattern states 1 strand of stranded embroidery thread and I used 2 strands.  There were no numbers for the threads used  so I had to try and best match the threads with what I had (I use DMC stranded cotton) or to get from Hobbycraft. As with last month’s Furtle, I am working on it a short time each day and made very good progress so should be a finished item by September. 

August also saw the start of #100hexies100days on Instagram, hosted by @sewfoxymama.  I’m posting on a weekly basis and have so far posted 4 weeks and each week has a theme.The first week was 5 days, so 5 hexagons.

Week 1 - Hello - it’s Me. Glasses, of course, they’ve been part of my life since childhood. Knitting. Reading books (though I don’t need ones on learning to sew or quilt!}, train - heritage railways, and a shell - for living in Dorset, not far from the Jurassic coast.

Week 2 - Summer Vibes. Ice cream, I had to do a little appliqué for that hexagon. A gull, though the ones on the coast don’t wear Breton Jumpers! Deckchair stripes, a little bit of Liberty fabric. Cocktail glass for the warm summer evenings.  Flowers, another wee bit of Liberty for the gardens to visit. Butterflies. Lastly beach huts, parasols and sunshine. 

Week 3 - Sewing Notions.  I think each hexagon is self explanatory, but I’ll start from the top left - sewing machine, iron, rotary cutter and scissor, another pair of scissors, safety pins, dressmaking pins and cotton reels with tape measure. I surprised myself that I had that much variety in this subject.

Week 4 - Flower Power. I managed to find some contemporary fabric flowers for these hexagons, which include Fuchsias, Passion Flower and Roses

For the ATC swap this month the theme was Fairy Tales, so I made Little Red Riding Hood.  I painted the background and the trees, which I added after.  Red Riding Hoof looks more like Sunbonnet Sue. Grandma’s Cottage is a bit of fabric from a coastal themed fabric (from which the shell hexie was also cut from - this fabric looks like Swiss Cheese with all the fussy cutting done). 

And I received Three Little Pigs in return

And last but not least knitting. I’m starting to get ahead on the C*******s making and started on some fingerless gloves.  This is in some self striping sock yarn and they won’t be quite a matching pair, but near enough. Since I took the photo below the second glove has grown a bit more.

But not much progress has been made on my jumper though. I haven’t yet divided for the sleeves, so I’m not going to share here. I’m going to get the gloves done and get back to the jumper then.

So September I hope the cross stitch will be finished, the quilt blocks joined, a pair of fingerless gloves done and more hexagons to add to those done already. Let’s see how that goes…

Joining in with Mini Archie’s August Furtle Around the Blogosphere 

Mid August Meanderings

 It’s halfway through August and it’s Granny Square Day on 15th August. So here we are 

As it’s also the start of #100hexies100days, here’s a hexagon version

I started on a sort out of my room and found a lot of orphan blocks.  Five of them were from a Quilt A Long from way back in 2014 called Classic Meets Modern by Sew at Home Mummy’s blog (although she no longer maintains the blog as it seems the last post was 2017).  But as it was raining on Monday I dug those blocks out and framed around the Drunkards Path block and made two more.  The blocks are 16.5” square.  So three more blocks to make and as they are framed, no sashing to sort out.  As you can see I’ve kept to a palette of red, pink and purple on a white/light cream background.  I’d like this to be an older child’s quilt/care leavers quilt. I would have to make this as a 4 x 3 blocks so 4 more to be made.

Here’s a close up of two of the blocks I’ve made

A Churn Dash, to which I added a crazy log cabin centre

A Dresden Plate block.

And bordered the Drunkard’s Path block too

I have a lot of orphan blocks and general bits and bobs that need making into something so if I can sort the above quilt out, then I may do an ‘odds and sods’ quilt next. 

The first 2 weeks have passed on the #100hexies100days Instagram challenge, hosted by Maranelle, @sewfoxymama, which also has weekly themes.  The theme for the first week, which was 5 days, was “Hi it’s me”

Day 1 refers to glasses as I’ve worn glasses for a long time. Day 2 knitting (and crochet too) which has returned to my crafting life.  Day 3 books as I’ve found time to read books again. Day 4 trains - we enjoy visiting heritage railways and David volunteers on our local Swanage Railway. Day 5 shells, we live near the coast and not many miles away from the Jurassic coastline.

Week 2 was Summer Vibes - Ice cream, I appliquéd this hexagon. Gulls (who would nick an ice cream if they could). Stripes, this Liberty fabric said deck chair stripes to me.  Cocktails, or drinks of any sort for the get together or socialising outdoors.  Flowers, this was another Liberty fabric, for wandering in the flower gardens at this time of year.  Butterflies, that just says summer . Beach huts, sunshine, what could be more summery.

So this has been my month so far.

Furtling in July

 Well that month went quickly and now into August.  

So last month had two finishes.  Below is Flo’s cardigan, which she is now wearing and really pleased with. The pattern is by Stylecraft and the yarn is King Cole Procewise, which although acrylic was a nice feeling yarn to work with.

Earlier this month I finished the gnome, I tried to keep up before my holiday in June, but it had to wait on my return. He’s worked out well.  This is Gnifty and used a mosaic colourwork technique (in which colours are alternated in each row) for the rather large hat. Got a rather large nose to match! The pattern was a knit along by Imagined Landscapes and I used 4 ply yarn in my stash.

And a new knitting start.  I’m using shades of blue hand dyed yarn to make a short sleeve jumper. This is Seashore Stroll by JST Knitwear Designs.  I tried to do a tension sample in the round which I found difficult so I’m just going for it and starting to knit and checking my gauge. It may mean I might end up un-knitting but see how it goes, it’s a risky venture.

There has been progress, working a short amount of time each day on my cross stitch.  I’ve been working on the bowl.  There is some white spaces to fill, but I will be sewing a different colour for the bowl’s flowers, which should also be white. If you look to the bottom left there are some small squares trying out some shades of peach.

The ATC swap theme this month was monochrome and I was inspired by the small quilt that’s on the wall in my room inspired by Mondrian.

I can’t remember when I made it and it is pieced, there’s no bias strips and I think this was the wrong size for a quilt challenge so it stayed with me and I’m pleased it did.  Anyway, from that inspiration I made these. I’ve kept the black background one.  These were embossed backgrounds with strips of the opposing colour and decorated with these black and white dots.

And I made a birthday card too. I added gold embossed card

I’m seriously not into cardmaking but I’ve been to a couple of workshops at the nearby card craft shop. I hope this is not another slippery slope I’m going on. Below is the one I took last weekend.

I have been sewing and started on a ‘backwards’ quilt.  I’ve made the backing from patches of fleece before I’ve made the half square triangles for the top. I will share photos later this month of the progress and it will be a Project Linus quilt.

I’ve also made blocks for Siblings Together as not making any for ages.  The request was for Economy blocks in creams, browns and blues. I also put in some squares for the nine patch blocks to go with them.

I’ve also been making some scrappy pouches again, which was from a You Tube years ago from the Gourmet Quilter that I’ve made over and over again. They use quilt as you go blocks. In the photo below includes a completed pouch which I use myself,

July also involved a visit to the Romsey Quilters’ exhibition at Romsey Abbey, which happens every 3 years and there is more about the quilts and yarn bombing in this post.

July has been a busy month, which I guess is why it’s gone so quickly!  

As you will see from the top of my post are a lot of hexagons.  I’m going to take part in #100hexies100days2023 on Instagram. I’ve posted about this on my last post.  Not sure what will become of them, but it’ll be fun making them.

I’m not going to Festival of Quilts this year but hope that all those going are inspired. 

I’m linking up with Mini Archie’s July Furtle Around the Blogosphere.