Mystery Monday-Week 9

I was a bit late with my Mystery Monday this week after having a very busy start to the week.  However, after a good sort out, taking furniture down at a friends house, putting back together in our house, and a good clean, I could finally get to the sewing machine.



Fortunately, it was another simple week, cut two squares, two lines of stitching and four triangles are the result.  It's the first time I've done triangles like this, and it was such a relief to find it worked.

Unfortunately. the lurgy seems to have bitten again, so the sewing machine went back under cover.  Hopefully, I can get going again by the weekend.

Spring Lambs

Last week, I got to the situation that all my hand projects that I had prepared were all finished and I the embroidery projects I wanted to do next needed me to buy some supplies.  I  don't like sitting in the evening without having something to do, so I got out one of my old magazines and did this little cross stitch.

It brought a bit of spring into the house.

Once it was finished, I searched through all my card mounts and found this pale green card.  I cut an oval of wadding to go behind the stitching to give a padded effect, now someone can have spring all year round.

Play Ball

I still had a bit of the elephant fabric left which I didn't want to go to waste, but I also didn't want to have it lying around any longer.   The next project was to make a baby ball.

 This was one of those projects that was so much fun to do, and came together much easier than I expected.

I fussy cut the fabric so I could get elephants on each piece.  The ball is stuffed with polyester toy filling, and has little jingly bells inside.

The only trouble is, Jonathan has taken a liking to this, so I'll have to make another one with "grown up" fabric especially for him.  I also thought small ones with catnip inside would be popular with the feline part of my family.

Sweet Smelling Felines

About  a year or so ago, I made some fabric hanging pictures for my neighbour.  Apparently. she has been scenting them with perfume and using them for her drawers, so she asked if I could make here some more.

By sheer good fortune, I had some cat fabric in my stash that was suitable, and at her request, they are stuffed with toy filling.

These ones are made to be sweet smelling too, they each have a lavender pouch inside.  They are wrapped, packed and ready to go across the road.

Simple Start

Monday of course, is the day for the next installment of Mystery Monday.  This week was definitely short and sweet-cut 9 41/2" blocks.

With that done, I thought I may as well get a couple of other bits done too, so now the Flyboy has his sky.  I had forgotten I had this cloud fabric, but came across it last week looking for something else.  I thought I'd better put them together before it got lost again, or used for something else.

 At the moment he is only fixed to the background with bondaweb, though I will stitch him when I get to the quilting stage.  I still need to get some fabric to get this one finished, but a little progress has been made.

None of these too much time to do, so the next thing on the list was to sash the Raggedy Blocks.  This definitely took more time than I had expected.

 I usually avoid cornerstones, but these worked out a lot better than I had expected.

A lot of this fabric came from my "old" stash and I didn't really like them.  However, getting them back out and seeing them altogether has been quite a revelation.  As a whole, they don't look too bad and it's a great feeling not to have gone out to buy all new fabric.

I did have to buy black for the sashing and a shopping trip will be needed to progress further with this quilt.  I need fabric for the sashing, backing and binding, as well as some batting. 

Quilt In a Day

At the beginning of the month, when I'd been sorting out all my green fabric, I also pulled this fabric out.  There was enough to do a quilt top, but it was languishing on the side as I didn't have enough fabric for the backing.  Over the month, I had thought of making a baby bag, but still had the problem of co ordinating fabric.

 I then thought a pieced back would solve the problem.

As I didn't have any of the purple fabric left, I used more of the print for the binding.



I did simple straight line quilting, which meant all in all, I could get this put together in a few hours, especially, as it's only baby size.

Friday Night Sew In

Let me introduce you to Flyboy Jacob, the latest design released by Little Ladybug Creations.

My Friday evening of sewing saw me finishing the stitching on this design.  As you can see, he needs a wash to get rid of the transfer lines and the wrinkles from stitching.  He will then become a wall hanging, though it may take a little while to be completed.  I need to find some fabric suitable for a little boy.

March Heart and Crochet blocks

Raspberry Rabbits released the pattern for the March heart earlier in the week, so that's now stitched up and ready.

 This months crochet blocks are all done, so I think that's all the monthly projects done for March.

Now all I need is some sunshine, cold germs to go away and a good nights sleep!

UFO Challenge

The number was drawn at the end of last month and it corresponded with the postage stamp pillowcases.  These were made from extra blocks leftover from the postage stamp quilt.

It had been a bit daunting thinking about getting these done for some reason, but doing it step by step, they came together quite easily.  I've come a long way since I made these, and the piecing was quite awful, but now they are finished, it doesn't seem to notice, unless you look for it, lol.

 It felt too mean to move Rumple out of the way to take photos, so I left here where she was.

I used some calico to back the postage stamp fronts and did some simple straight line quilting.  I then added a border to get enough width to fit the pillow and then bound the edge.  It was then a simple process of sewing on the back making sure I had the fold over going the right way.  The fabric I've used to do the pillowcases is the same as I used for binding the quilt, so they tie in very nicely.

All I need to do now, is to buy a lovely sheet so I can swap the duvet for the lighter quilt.  Warmer nights might be useful too.

Quarter Afghan

Well, this tells the story of my learning to crochet journey, but at least they join together, of a sort, and will keep warm some winter evening in the future.

At the moment, this is one quarter of the total afghan.  I already have about two thirds of the blocks needed for the next section, so hopefully, it won't be too long to see more progress.

Mystery Monday-Week 7 and Barn Door Swap

It was a nice easy week for Mystery Monday, which was just as well, with how I've been feeling this week.  Lovely son decided to be generous and share his cold germs.   As I was feeling a bit rough, it was a slow plod through the cutting and sewing, and now have a little pile of four patch squares ready for next week.

In the post, came these blocks in the 71/2" barn door block swap.  These have come from Canada.

Thank you, Mary, a great start to the swap.

Embroidery on Silk

There is something very satisfying about stitching on silk.  I just love the "pop" of the fabric, when I saw the pattern in Part Four of Discovering Needlecraft, I knew I wanted to do it.

All the flowers are stitched in satin stitch using Madeira stranded cottons.  I really enjoyed stitching this, and found it really relaxing.



This will eventually become the front of a cushion cover, I just need to get the cushion pad so I can finish it.

More Pot Holders

Eight of the half square triangles have been put to good use.

Two more pot holders.

I think that will be the last of them for this month.  Now I have to concentrate on finding the fabric and batting to get  the tiger quilt and wallhanging finished.  Meanwhile, a couple of other projects are calling to be done before the end of the month.

Wall Hanging or Lap Quilt

The day started sewing half square triangles which I then  arranged to form these blocks, before I ran out.

Originally, the idea was to use this for a central panel of a wall hanging, but as it's quite big, I've begun to think of making it into a lap quilt.  If I did that the borders at the top and bottom would have to be a couple of inches wider than the sides.  As I don't have suitable fabric here to do borders, I shall think on it a bit longer.

There were some of the half square triangle blocks left over, but not enough to make a complete block.  I think eight of them are destined to be pot holders,  the other one can go into my crumb blocks.

Green Saturday

Another day trying to use up my green scraps, this time I made two pot holders.Again I used the quilt as you go method with the strips set on the diagonal this time.

More green for the backing.  This is the same fabric as I used for the table runner.  I didn't have green for the binding on this one, so I used a dark red.

The binding on this one was some of the leftover fabric I used for the strips.

The backing of this one, was some of the green I had been gifted in the week.  You can see, I've also used some in the front.

This one is slightly larger than I would normally make, but I thought it was a useful size to use on the table.

It's getting more challenging as the scraps get used up, but I think I have the germs of an idea growing for the next project.  I think I will be sewing lots of half square triangles today.

Table Runner

It's getting to be a challenge trying to think what to do with the rest of my green scraps.  I'm running out of larger pieces of batting, but I did have enough to do this table topper.

I've used some green scraps of my own, as well as some that were kindly gifted to me.  I cut them all into strips varying in width from 11/2" up to 21/2".  I added them to the backing and batting using the quilt as you go method.

The backing was also out of my stash, and although, you can't really tell from the photo, is a pale green.

More dark green for the binding, and you have my green table runner.  I've had it laid out on my sewing table since it was finished, and it looks quite fresh and springlike.

All the batting I have now are smaller pieces, which I would like to use up.  The next green project will probably be a pot holder.

Do you like tigers?

That was the first thing Daniel said when he came in and saw this on the floor.

I found another couple of fabrics to make up some more blocks, in fact, I have two left over.  I was so pleased with how these blocks came together, most of the triangles in the middle have points that actually meet!

All I need to do now is find enough for the borders.

Barn Door Swap-71/2" block

It seemed a good idea at the time, but when I signed up to the barn door swap, I signed up for both sizes.  This month's partner for the smaller size wanted teal and white, so I had to wait for some supplies.  Teal wasn't a colour I had in my stash.  I think I should have though, as I like these colours.

I've done two blocks, using a darker and lighter teal.

These are now in my ready for the post pile, and that's my blocks done for this month.  Now to do something else on my to do list.  I feel the need to be able to cross things off.

Roses Sampler

As I was doing the centre of this sampler, I thought I'd be finished in a week, the alphabets went so quickly.   However, the border took a lot longer, though, with no back stitch detail, the progress was easy to see.

This is a design taken from Part Four of Discovering Needlecraft, stitched using two strands of Madeira thread,.  I did enjoy stitching this, but I am now enjoying some embroidery on silk.  Lots of satin stitch to fill my evenings over the next couple of weeks.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge-Green

This is the first week the Green Rainbow Scrap challenge, and so far I have come up with eight of these blocks.  As I had been having so much fun with the barn door blocks, I thought I'd carry on.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of these greens to make as many blocks as I would have wanted.  However, I have some other greens, so when I get the next opportunity, I'll try and make up some more blocks.  Hopefully, they'll give me enough for a quilt top, otherwise the thinking cap will have to come out.

Today, I need to work on something completely different, a wedding invitation sample!

Second Barn Door Block

The second block has been made, this time in blue. I only had enough to make two blocks in this variation.  My swap partner's block are all ready to be posted, but it will be next week before they go.  Now, I have to make the 71/2" version.

One thing leads to another

The next colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is green.  Tuesday night, I went through all my fabrics and pulled out the ones that would be suitable for this month.  I had it all sat on top of the box waiting for inspiration.  At the same time, I remembered I needed to make some blocks for the Barn Door Swap. 

I've managed to kill two birds with one stone, use up some green and made some blocks.

This is the first time I've made this block, and I like it.  I managed to get four blocks out of the fabric I was using so  I shall probably keep one for myself and keep some for swapping later months.  Now, I need to make some from another colour for my swap partner.

Scrappy bag

I've had the Pick-a-Pocket Purse pattern from allpeoplequilt.com saved for some time to make.  As I had enjoyed making the scrappy blocks so much, that I would use them to make the bag.

The handles form the pockets on the front and back of the bag and was quite simple to do.

I like the way it turned out, my only disappointment being it isn't a little larger.  You never know, one day, I might make a larger one with different fabric.

Raggedy & Friends QAL and Mystery Monday

The last of the stitching on the Raggedy blocks is now complete.  I now need to get some black for the sashing.  I seem to have used the fabric I bought for something else.

 Also done are the blocks for this weeks Mystery Monday installment.  That's eight more blocks made.