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