Mid February

I may not have posted for a couple of weeks but that doesn't mean I've not been busy!  Last Saturday I went to a local Project Linus Day and made a small quilt and the top of another to complete at home during the week.  Packs are made up with pieces of fabric and a pattern, together with strips for the binding.  Instead of wadding and backing just soft fleece fabric is used to make the quilts cuddly but light at the same time.

The second quilt had smaller framed squares and large squares alternated in this cheerful farm fabric. I found that I had a green stripe fabric that went well as a binding.

The pack I took home had the same design but in handbag and hat fabrics with a lovely purple print to match. I found a light purple batik that did well as a binding

I didn't have any fleece so I went to Seahorse Quilting to get this cute hedgehog one, which went really well.

I took this to a social sewing day yesterday to finish slip stitching the binding. So that's three quilts to Project Linus.

I've also done my bit for Siblings Together, with the block bee Mama's request for cross blocks, which was really quick and easy to do.  They've now been received.

As a change from sewing I went to West Country Embroiders and tutor Salliann taught Kumihimo braiding.  I had a go at this years ago and even had a disc for the threads, but it was fun to try this out again.

This pic was taken back in my room when I tried out some dk cotton yarn, but originally I did braiding with a single strand of Perle thread which was really skinny. But realising that I had to double up the threads or work with thicker ones would produce a better effect.  Above are my samples.  My thinking is that if I put thread a small ring through the yarns I might be able to join a split ring to made a key ring, which could be useful.  See how that goes.

Earlier this month I received a copy of The Townswoman magazine for TG members.  I was at one of the carol services in December in which I was one of the stewards.  The pic appeared on the TG Facebook page after the service took place. I'm on the right of the pic, along with my fellow Canford Heath group members.

This month I treated myself to a book purchase to make up an Amazon order as I had to replace a cover for my iPad.  Oh dear! In my defence I hadn't purchase any craft items at all this year other than to finish off things so I don't feel guilty about this at all.

I'd been thinking of getting a Zakka themed book and this spoke to me and I had it on my wish list for a while.  It is good for small items that might be good as presents during the year.  This is by Minki Kim .

Furtling in January

January has been a long month, but a productive one.  With a lot of grey days making one want to hibernate and retreat to the sewing room.  There were some lovely cold days too and having to make the most of them.  Best of all the days are lengthening out.

So what have I been up to.  Well I made a dress for my Luna Lapin rabbit, which you've seen on my header.  The rabbit was made between Christmas and New Year and I've made a pair of felt shoes, but not sure if I like them or not, but she doesn't seem worried by it.

The crochet along had started for the Dahlia Blanket from Lucy of Attic 24.  This is an earlier pic when I'd not long started the blanket

And here's a pic I took this morning (excuse my foot!) and I'm up to colour change 54, or a few rows into part 4 of the mixed colour changes. A little behind as the crochet a long is now on week 5, but there's no pressure. So that's coming on.

I've also made reasonable progress on my cardigan too, knitting that in between crocheting the blanket.  Having knitted both fronts, this week I started on a sleeve.

On the sewing front I made a couple of blocks for Siblings Together

I made a postcard on the theme of 'To Infinity and Beyond'. Later after sending I received one in return.  The swap was with Adelle from Devon.  Her's is at the top, mine underneath (but I didn't correct the sideways look.

did some shadow appliqué at West Country Embroiderers.

Made a dent in my Finish A Long list with a finished quilt, which I posted about here.

Last Sunday I made a Lola pouch (which I posted about in the link above) and really impressed how it went together. This is a paid pattern by Sotak Handmade.

And yesterday I made a peacock!  The kit was a Christmas present from Christmas before last from my granddaughters. The kit, by Corinne Lapierre was complete but the cutting out pattern to me seemed small and I wanted to make him bigger so I increased the size by 150%.  The open fan then was a bit big, so going back to original pattern it was increased by 120%, which was just right.  I added to the embellishment with sequins and a beady eye.

So I've made the peacock picture my monthly marker for February.

But it's not all about the making.  In January we had to make the most of the sunny days and David and I took a short break, staying overnight in Torquay and enjoying a cold but sunny afternoon at the model village in Babbacombe.

Joining in with Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere

A quilt, a postcard and a pouch

The end of last week and the weekend was dull, cold and sometimes wet, which was a complete contrast to the bright sunny weather the weekend before.  A lot of time has been spent crafting and whilst I managed some knitting and crochet in the evenings, I have been sewing too.

One of the items on my Finish A Long list was finished!  This was a strippy scrappy quilt (the spell check wants to keep changing to 'stroppy'!  Anyway, I found 2 large pieces of wadding to sew together to make one piece large enough for the quilt and a backing fabric big enough too, so no excuses.  I finished off an old can of spray baste on this quilt too, so I'm pleased to use things up to progress the quilt.  I used a variegated thread and wiggly stitch to the widest width and a longer length to quilt it and I wasn't fussed about precise lines so long as I quilted the length and width of the quilt. Here's detail below.

I machined the binding on so I could hem that when at Bourne Quilters on Thursday evening.  I continued on Saturday and labelled the quilt too. Below is the back of the quilt and the front below that.  The quilt finished at 36.5" square and will go the the local Project Linus group.  So that's the first finish of 2020!

Going back a couple of weeks and a new postcard swap was announced on UKQU Facebook page called 'to infinity and beyond'.  I found some suitably starry, space-y looking fabric and some silvery sparkly fabric and thought planet or moon.

I used a porthole technique to face the hole under which I put a padded moon underneath.  With the addition of sparkly thread and star stitches from my sewing machine this spoke of space too me. This was posted off end of last week to Devon.  Today I received this postcard from Adelle, who really did her homework and based it on an image of a black hole from an image captured by a network of radio telescopes in April last year.

Lastly a pouch.  I've made several pouches but the first time making this Lola pouch by Svetlana Sotak, of Sotak Handmade blog, which is a paid pattern.  I've seen several before on Instagram and wanted to have a go, so yesterday I pulled out some purple fabrics, to match the zip that I had.  I got as far as inserting the zip and so this morning I finished with the binding.  

The pattern comes in two sizes and I made the small size.  It is very detailed and has step by step photos and I really enjoyed making it.  I feel there could be more of these made, it's that brilliant.  Anyway here is the pouch.

The only thing I added to this was the small pocket in the lining because there was a small piece of the purple circles fabric just big enough to put one in.  I like the binding around the top of the pouch which really gives it a good finish.

So my dull, wet weekend wasn't wasted!

Finish A Long 2020

The past few years I've been following the Finish A Long each year and you will have found posts regarding this each quarter of the year.  The format is different this year and the projects and finishes are being posted on Instagram, which I did last week.

Here is my list

It doesn't seem very big but in compiling the list I piled the quilts in the making on the spare bed and it almost looked like that of the Princess and the Pea.

So here goes
1. The Kingfisher quilt - it's layered and tacked and I started on the hand quilting and that's it.  I wanted to hand quilt this one and it may take some time!

2. The Tube quilt - layered, tacked and some machine quilting done, In the square centres and around the squares.  I've got to think how I quilt the white squares now. Oh, and sew in the thread ends!

3. Ups and Downs quilt.  In pieces.  Found it was too long and narrow and took some of the blocks apart.  Not sure if this will get progressed, but we'll see.

4.  Black/grey and orange/yellow quilt.  The top is complete and the backing too.  Just have to get the wadding to progress this further.

5.  Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses Mini Quilt.  This is going slowly now so much crack on with this the main patchwork square and done and sewn together, now for the half square blocks as the quilt is on point.  For a small patchwork its taking a loooonnnggg time to progress.

6.  Scrappy Strippy Quilt.  I followed the Scrap Busting Sew Along on Facebook last Autumn and put a few blocks together made from strips of colour coordinated fabrics.  I now have a quilt top and found a backing just the right size and sewed together 2 pieces of wadding to make one piece of just the right size.  No excuses I must get to quilt that one.  I think it could be lines of wavy stitching, which would suit it well.

So thats all the quilts in progress.

In addition on my list is the cardigan that I'm knitting (more about that here).  That's going well having done a back, left front and now onto the right front.  I started that as my Christmas Eve cast on, so for nearly a month that's not bad going.

As you will know, reading my recent posts I'm also participating in Attic 24's Crochet A Long blnaket which I started on 3 January, also here.  Part 3 of the colour changes was released last Friday, but I just finished part 2 yesterday evening.

My hopes are to get both the blanket and cardigan done and also the strippy quilt done in this quarter. If I'm lucky I might also get the Miniature quilt done too.  See how is goes .....

What Do You Watch?

I've recently taken to viewing You Tube a lot.  Quite a few You Tube presenters last month did Vlogmas videos, which were short daily (or almost daily) videos during December on the lead up to Christmas.  It got a bit difficult to see the presenters that I liked everyday, so I had to be picky what I watched!

Anyway today I'm going to share the videos or 'vlogs' (video blogs) that I watch.  Not many of them are quilting ones, but tend to be knitting/crochet ones.  I hope you will share those you watch.

Missouri Star Quilt Company - I love seeing Jenny Doan's demonstrations most Friday's and I like the way she breaks a block design down so that anyone can make it.

Just Get It Done Quilts - Canadian quilter Karen is another tutor who breaks down quilt blocks, but also shares strategies to organise your fabrics and tools.  This month she also talks about planning using a bullet journal.

Sewn Up by Teresa Down Under - This isn't a spoken tutorial but is animated with some cheery music.

The Gourmet Quilter - Susan is a New Zealand Quilter who you may have seen at Festival of Quilts last summer.  She runs a daily block programme, but she also shares quilting tips.

Jenny Smith Sews - short videos with quilters about the quilts that mean a lot to them.

Fat Quarter Quilt Shop - An American shop that has demonstrations by guest quilters.

I also watch some textile YT videos too.  Recent ones I've discovered are:

Arnold's Attic - I've been working my way through watching her short 'Meet the Artist' series, which has been interesting in introducing textile artists.

Kathleen Laurel Sage - Does short videos on her textile and embroidery techniques.

The following are knitting/crochet ones that I follow:

Stranded Dyeworks - aka Amy Florence - a dyer, knitter and crocheter who has recently moved to Scotland.  I like her style of video - nearly always with a weather forecast at the beginning!

Craft House Magic - Ellie from Norwich, who dyes her yarn, also knits, crochets and sews garments. What doesn't she do!

Crafternoon Treats - Kathryn is another dyer and Stylecraft Blog Star.  She dyes yarn, crochets and designs crochet patterns.

The Bakery Bears - Their videos are long, so I cut down the viewing into sections to watch this.  A husband and wife team, they knit and crochet and Kay designs knitting patterns.  They add in other subjects like the Pudding Club or exploring the local area.  They also have a radio podcast too which is handy to listen too while I'm sewing.

Little Drops of Wonderful - Ali is very chatty with her knitting and crochet projects and videos usually once a month, although some months does some 'vlogs' on a daily basis.

Not Enough Yarn - An ironic title as Lesley has plenty of yarn but never enough to complete a whole project! She compiles short videos over the month to present at the end of the month.

Cherry Heart - Sandra is a crochet designer (you may have seen her designs in UK crochet magazines) and I've watched her videos for some time. She is also a Stylecraft blog start

And some other YT videos I like to watch that don't come into any of the above categories

All the Stations - Geoff and Vicki explore stations on the UK rail system and Vicki has recently started exploring towns and cities.

The Last Homely House East of the Sea - Kate paper crafts, sews, knits, keeps chickens, bees and cats.  One of the cats, Norma, never wants to be left out of a video!

So there you have it - that's just a selection of the You Tube videos that I watch.  In case you're wondering, I do have time to do things and I'm usually knitting, crocheting or doing some hand sewing so I'm not doing nothing!!

What are yours - anything you like to watch??

New Year New Starts

On Christmas Eve I started a new cast on which would take me into the New Year.  I saw on Facebook a 'sponsored post' from a company called Knit in a Box, which is a monthly knitting subscription pack and I liked the pattern that was shown on the advert but the past box was no longer available.  I found the pattern was by Stylecraft and from their Ballisima range of patterns and yarn.

A quick search on the Wool Warehouse website and I found the pattern and a different colour of the yarn (the box version was pink and I liked red).  I'd also recently looked at ordering the Dahlia crochet blanket pack (more about that later) so an order was put in and delivered very efficiently!

I wanted to finish a pair of socks I was making so I could start on Christmas Eve.  This is pattern below and I am making the V-neck version (shown on the right).

I think this must be the progress around Christmas

 And the back was finished last night and the left front started.

 I'm surprised how far I've got with this, but as its mostly stocking stitch its easy to do.

A new start is the Dahlia Crochet blanket crochet a long (CAL) and this was in the same Wool Warehouse order.  This is a pattern by Lucy of Attic24 and I wanted to make this blanket but I needed to have a home for it and fortunately my daughter Sarah would like it.

The yarn comes in a net bag (as all the yarn does) and I made a start yesterday while resting to make a tension piece which worked out well.

This is how the blanket looks as at today's date (7 January) as I've now completed row 8 (of 15 rows) of the mixed stripe sequence.

To the left are the yarn bands with the appropriate colours around them as a guide to know what colour I'm working on.

13 Year Blogiversary

Today, 13 years ago I started my blog.  I started it to record the stitches I was using as part of Take a Stitch Tuesday, on Pintangle blog authored by Sharon Boggon.  That blog is still going and there is another year of Take a Stitch Tuesday.  Should I start this again and challenge myself to new or not-worked-on-for-ages stitches?  I'll think a little longer about that one.

This was my first attempt.  I enjoyed (and sometimes still do) fabric weaving and added some TAST stitches to this sample, which I think must be postcard size.  I can't remember if it was actually made into a postcard - some of my samples were.

Looking back at that year I certainly enjoyed challenges.  Have a look at my 2007 posts from the sidebar.  At the time I belonged to British Quilt List Postcard Group, making several postcards at a time and Arts In the Mail, both groups being Yahoo Group lists, which, although I stopped making for those several years ago have now sadly finished due to Yahoo's.  One challenge seemed quite ambitious with layering fabrics, slashing them and distressing with a heat gun!  I do still make the occasional postcard but usually one at a time instead of half dozen and that's for a swap group part of UK Quilters United Facebook group. Below are the last two that I made which were displayed at Craft 4 Crafters in October.

I was also a member of 2 local quilt groups, but now member of one.  However since retiring year before last I have joined an embroidery group, which I quite enjoy, to learn different techniques. That hasn't changed - I still enjoy the process of learning - there is always something new out there.

There is no sign of knitting or crochet!  These are two things that have crept into my crafting life recently.  I knitted for my children (they are all well into their 30's - my eldest will. be 40 next year!) up to when they started growing up and sweatshirting became fashionable and knitting definitley wasn't!  The internet I think has changed that with a much greater awareness of wanting (rather than having) to make clothes and wanting more sustainable fashion.

There were 2 weddings and a grandson's arrival that year.  I made a quilt for the grandson, Leo, who's now 12 and have made quilts for all except for the youngest, Cecily, and my Mum has made one instead. She makes quilts for Project Linus and photos of some of her quilts appear on my blog from time to time.

That year was the third year that my friend Brenda and I ran International Quilting Day meeting at Sturminster Marshall and the following year was to be the last one that we ran together.  It was on St Patrick's Day.  We look back on those days with fond memories, but it ran on for 2 or 3 more years under Pauline and Sarah of Pauline's Patchworks, but the quilting day had run its course.  It was a lot of hard work organising.

This was a picture of Brenda and I in front of a St Patrick's themed challenge.

Lets see what challenges lie ahead for my 14th year of blogging!