March’s mixed sewing

I’ve a variety of projects to report on this month, starting with some secret (at the time) sewing from January.

I mentioned that I was pattern testing and I can now share that it was for Jodi from Sewfearless and was for her Rafka box. Way back in 2013 I tested Jodi’s Mommy Poppins bag and it was lovely to work with her again. This is very clever pattern – the large size box opens out into a useful tray thanks to the curved zip. The pattern went together really well, though I made things difficult for myself by not taking the zip apart. I would certainly recommend deconstructing the zip (as in Jodi’s instructions) or using a separating zip if you make this pattern.

In something completely different, I attended an afternoon workshop and evening talk at Waterloo Quilters by Jennie Rayment. The workshop (Texture into Sudoku) saw us making nine blocks using a variety of folding techniques. I took photos as I went along, but I don’t think they will be much help if I wanted to make the blocks again. There are still finishing touches needed and I will share more photos when these have been completed.

My final update for this month is for the Tiny Nine Patch Challenge and the end is in sight for this project. The borders have been added and the top sandwiched for quilting. Fortunately the backing (which has been in my stash for at least 10 years) was wide enough not to need piecing. However, I did run out of pins when basting the layers and had to find my emergency supply of smaller pins for the borders.

I’ve now completed the quilting and binding and just need to work out how to get a photo of the completed quilt as I think it might be too big for the usual washing line photo.

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Barnyarns "Mystery Box"

Last month I received an email from Barnyarns stating that their mystery box was “back and better than ever”. Always on the look out for a bargain, I ordered one and was keen to see what it would include.

My expectations were somewhat managed when the box arrived as by its size I could tell there would be no cutting mat, wadding or thread boxes inside. (To be fair, it is clearly stated that the image is for illustration purposes only.)

The box contained a variety of items covering a range of crafts, some of which will be useful but many of the items duplicate what I already have.

Cutting mat not part of mystery box

I think previous mystery boxes may have had specific themes (perhaps quilting, dressmaking, embroidery) and these may have been a better option for me than a general box such as this.

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Tiny nine patch progress

Good progress has been made on my Tiny Nine Patch Challenge quilt this month. It has gone from this:

To this:

The tiny nine patches have been replaced by making tiny Seminole style strips for the borders.

Who knows, maybe next month there will be a complete quilt top to show.

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The tiny nine patch project continues

In several of last year’s posts, I mentioned the blocks I was making for the Tiny Nine Patch Challenge. These blocks are tiny - each block is 1.5” finished size (UK 5p and 1 cent Euro coin for scale!).

The original timescale of the challenge was to get the quilt top completed in a year, but I only managed to get as far as making all the tiny nine patches (~550) I need and cutting over 400 setting squares. Good progress has been made this month and all the tiny nine patches have been assembled into larger nine patches. This means that I am now ready to start stitching the rows of the quilt together and working out what size edge triangles to cut for the on point layout.

However, I’ve taken a brief break from tiny nine patches to gather some supplies from my stash for some pattern testing. I pattern tested for this person back in 2013 and I'm looking forward to trying her latest pattern.

 I’ll update you on the project and show the finished item once the pattern is available. 

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2024 Sewing Summary

This year has been much more productive than last year with quite a few items sewn for charity, for online challenges or as activities at the meetings of Waterloo Quilters.

 

• Three quilts and an advent calendar for Project Linus
• Comfort cushions and syringe driver bags for a local hospice
• Mini quilts for online challenges
• Tree decoration, organiser bag and travel tote made at/for Waterloo Quilters
• Two mini iron caddies repurposed from a full-sized iron caddy

 There has also been a lot of sewing of tiny nine patches for the Tiny Nine Patch Challenge. Approximately 550 tiny nine patches have been stitched and trimmed and 424 setting squares cut for the first part of assembling these into larger nine patches.

Hopefully it won’t be too long into 2025 before I have an update on this project.

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Festive fun

This month saw the Christmas meeting of Waterloo Quilters which had decoration making and an optional Secret Santa.

We did a little bit of hand stitching and then some clever folding to make a small hexagon decoration from a two much larger hexagons

For Secret Santa, I made a foldable tray with a foundation paper piece centre behind a clear vinyl pocket and a small biscornu pin cushion that can be clipped into the tray. I hope the recipient will find this useful for sewing days and I think I might need to make one for myself.

Once all the festive sewing was completed, I was able to finish the last of the tiny nine patches I need for my tiny nine patch challenge.

The quilt assembly part of this challenge will have to continue into next year, but I’m pleased to have got this far this year.

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Something different for Project Linus

In a change from the usual quilts I make for Project Linus, I was asked if I could complete an Advent Calendar panel for one of the children’s charities.

There were minimal instructions with the panel and while they made sense for the horizontal rows of pockets, they didn’t make sense for the pre printed vertical rows of pockets, so I ended up making and lining each pocket individually. This did have the added advantage that I could put the pockets in a random order, though I was limited by pocket colour.

I added an extra border to the panel and backed it with royal blue fleece. Quilting was minimal – just a free motion meander around the snowflakes in the border and outlining the sleigh and reindeers. I added a handing sleeve to the back and used an extendable rod for net/voile curtains to allow it to be hung from hooks.

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