Raggedy & Friends QAL-Block Eleven

Block 11 stitched.  I love the sheep.  One more more block to go

Raggedy & Friends QAL-Block Ten

Slowly, but surely, progress is being made.  Block ten is now complete with it's stitching. 

Tissue Holders

At the beginning of the month, I was looking for ideas for using up my red scraps and found this tissue holder tutorial.  I had this in mind when cutting some of the scrappy blocks I made last week.

Some of the red scraps ended up in the squares, and I've used more for the linings.  I tried both methods, edges meeting in the middle and overlapping, and I think I prefer the overlapped ones.  I need to buy some packets of tissues now to put in them. 

February Heart

The next heart from Raspberry Rabbits was released a couple of weeks ago.  I've had it all traced out and ready to stitch, but got sidetracked.  I had packed it very nicely to take with me to do while I was waiting for the children ice skating last week, but ended up reading and then talking to another mum.

I unpacked it yesterday afternoon, and spent a pleasant hour getting it stitched.  Now I'm ready for March.

I've also received my first two blocks in the Barn Door Swap.

Many thanks to Blondie, who sent some scraps from the blocks and a charm.

Now, I'd better get myself organised and start making my blocks to send.

Raggedy & Friends QAL

 The last three blocks of the Raggedy blocks have been released.  I have the blocks pieced, but need to trace and do the stitching.

Block 10

 Block 11

Block 12

It was quite satisfying to have all these blocks on the table at the same time, they were all the same size!  Great progress has been made since the beginning of this project, long may it continue.

Crochet

 I finally made myself leave the sewing and get to doing the next four crochet blocks.  I've decided, I really like the lacy patterns.

Apparently, I now have enough blocks to  put together the first quarter of the afghan.  All I need to do now is find them all, and get them arranged.  I imagine it will take a little time to put them together.

Mystery Monday-Week 5

Step 5 complete

Jennifer

 Jennifer is finally finished.

 I had to piece the backing, using some of the fabric from the front and a very pale mottled yellow fabric.  I quilted in the ditch, both sides of the central border, and on the inside of the outer border.

I then tried my hand at some hearts.  They are what I would called rustic, or naive!  Not perfect, but not bad for a first attempt.

Here she is in all her glory.  I did hand finish the binding on this one again.  I like the narrow effect it gives the binding at the front.  I used a pale pink mottled fabric as a contrast to the deep red.

Now I need to decide what to do today.  So many projects are calling, but I can't do them all at once.  Maybe the ironing will help me decide.

Flower of the month quilt

There's nothing quite like a challenge to get things done, and the same is true with the UFO 2011 Challenge.  This months number corresponded with the flower of the month quilt.

 The embroidery blocks, ended up taking a little less than a year to embroidery, but then they sat and waited several months for something to be done with them. 

It took quite a while to work out what fabric to use, with a couple of aborted attempts.  It's not always easy choosing fabric online. In the end, I decided on something plain and dark, to let the flowers do the talking.  Then it was a choice of borders or just the sashing.  After having the blocks laid out with variety of fabric around them, sashings only seemed to be the way to go.  I've used a dark green, similar to the colour used in some of the embroideries.  Maybe someone cleverer at choosing fabric than me, might have found a more interesting combination.

A separate binding was originally chosen, but when it came to sewing it on, I just didn't like it, so went with the same fabric I used for the backing.  As I really like this fabric, so it wasn't a painful decision to make.  The hanging sleeves are also made from the backing fabric.  The binding was hand sewn to the back of the quilt.

Seventeen months after the first stitch went in, the flowers of the month are now completed in their own wall hanging.

Friday Night Sew In

 Friday Night Sew In was spent doing some relaxing cross stitch, I didn't have enough energy left to do anything else.

It's quite strange seeing a before and after picture of the evening's works, but great to see the progress made.

We had snow overnight, and it hasn't yet stopped this morning.  I'm thinking it will be the perfect opportunity to get some sewing machine time in.

Mystery Monday-Week 4

Week 4 saw all the pieces from last week put together.  Another four blocks completed

Playing with Scraps

Twice in a about a week, my attention was pointed to this link to use up the small pieces of scrap fabric, or even not so small.  It seemed such a good idea that I unexpectedly spent the day playing with them yesterday.

 The colour isn't very good here,. just as I finished, the heavens opened, the sky went black and we had a hail storm.

I love the being able to cut the squares at any angle to get some unusual blocks. Even the pieces of fabric I don't like, have taken on new life and become attractive.  I've even used up the rest of the red scraps.  All I have left in red, is some linen, some of which may get used later this week.

I have some rectangles ready to be made into something else, the other squares will go to make up a quilt.  I still have some of the blocks left, so I'm thinking of cutting 31/2" squares from the pieces that are big enough.  Once I have some more strips of fabric, I shall certainly be making some more.

Now to get back to the things I should be doing.

A long time in the making



This cross stitch is one of a pair.  The first one I completed when  I first started blogging.  You can see Winding Path here.  In an effort to clear a lot of the unfinished projects I've had lying around, I decided it was about time to get Woodland Way done.

All the blocks of colour make it an easy stitch, although the back stitching takes a day to do.  In the end it's worth it.  Now I have to decide what to do with them.  I had thought to make them into a wall hanging, but the thought just went through my mind to have a pair of complimentary cushions. 

I have both the charts, and quite a lot of the thread still remaining,  If anyone would like them, please let me know and I'll be happy to send them to you.  I'd much rather someone else make use of them than recycle them.

Day of Change

As I was supposed to be taking Daniel to an art workshop, I knew that there wouldn't be much time for sewing, but with an hour to spare before leaving, I thought I'd see how far I got with binding the mats.

 The small cats mat got done first, and I still had time.

 Next came the mug rug/pot stand and it was time to get ready to leave.  Just as I got my shoes, there was a text on my phone to say the workshop had been cancelled.  What was I going to do now?

After about five minutes to collect my thoughts, I was back in the kitchen, put on a saucepan of sweet potato and chili soup to cook and the larger of the cat mats was on the sewing machine to be bound.

By the time I'd done this the soup was cooked, so off went the gas, and the table topper was next to be bound.

This has now gone to be washed.  The pencil lines I'd drawn for quilting(which I didn't use) need to be washed out, and the cats hairs need to be removed.  This one is not for them, no matter what they think.

By the end of the morning I didn't think I was going to have, the cats had two new place mats, all my waiting mats had been bound, and I had a large saucepan of soup!

Mystery Monday-Week 3

As I thought I was going to have to go to the train station to meet Daniel, I didn't think I'd have much time to get anything done yesterday, but I thought, I might as well try and see how far I could get.  Something was definitely better than nothing.

With plenty of time to spare, I completed all of this weeks Mystery Monday step.

 All trimmed, labelled and bagged.

By this time, Daniel had decided he would be OK until he got off the bus in the village, so that gave me more time to play.

A smaller mat for the cats bowl upstairs.  It's all quilted and waiting for binding.  I must get a day in the next week to get all the bindings on, so I can actually have some finishes for this month.

Poshest Moggies in Town

As I said, these red scraps are going a long way.  This will be the cats new mat, as soon as it's bound.

 I decided, that as it was for the cats, I could try out one of the stitches on the machine.  I'm so glad I did, I liked it.

 It's the serpentine stitch, and has just the right length of curve.

 I do hope the male moggies won't mind the pretty backing fabric.

 Then came this.  I did think mug rug when I made it, but I think Daniel will end up using it as a pot stand, which is OK too.

The serpentine stitch was back in use, and more red scraps for the back.

I have one more the same to make of these, but then I really must get to binding them all so they can be used.  After all the mulling over colours, I think it will be safer to stick with black for the binding, it was the only way I could think of matching the backs and fronts.  That means I will have to order some more black.

More Red

For someone that didn't think they had a lot of red, these scraps seem to be going a very long way.  I got a table topper made yesterday, all it needs is some binding.  I used a piece of red gingham for the backing.

I think this will go in Daniel's room for him to put under all his carnivorous plant paraphernalia.

Even with this done, there are still more scraps.  At the moment, they are laid out ready for piecing.  There will definitely be a mat for the cats dishes, but then I am undecided.  I'll either have two mug rugs or a small table topper.  I'll just have to see what happens when they get to the sewing machine.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge-Red

For the start of this month's challenge, I got out all my red fabric.  Surprisingly, I didn't have as much red as I had expected, and disappointingly, there wasn't much of it I liked.  The only solution was to slice it all up, rearrange it and see what happened.

The inspiration came from a quilt called Simple Strips from allpeoplequilt.com.

 As you can see, everyone wanted to get in on the picture.

Although I didn't like a lot of the fabrics, once the black sashing and borders went on, it took on a different feel.  I can't say I love it, but it is growing on me, and I'm sure I will find someone that will love it once it's finished.

Even after doing this, there are still some of the fabric left.  I am thinking of doing something similar again, but on a smaller scale, but I'll have to wait until I get another sewing day.

Mystery Monday-Week 2

Week 2 of Mystery Monday was to piece the block made and cut last week into four blocks.

All done and trimmed, ready for the next stage.

Creative Tuesdays and Jennifer

This is another week where I've tied two projects into one.   The theme for Creative Tuesdays this time was Valentine, so Jennifer seemed to be the perfect project.

I've adapted the design from  Little Ladybug Creations and finished it in a slightly different way.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough suitable fabric for the borders, so the quilting and finishing will have to wait for another day.

For the month of February, I need to get out all my red scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and it is UFO Number 8.  Before I can start on that, I need to do some shopping,  In the meantime, I need to catch up with this week Mystery Monday.