2025 Sewing Summary

This year seems to have been quite light on completed projects, with sewing being replaced by trips to quilting shows and/or trying new techniques in workshops.

 

Completed projects and activities include:

• One quilt for a show 
• Pattern testing for a zipped boxy pouch
• 34 syringe driver bags
• 16 paediatric ICU sheets for Project Linus
• One sewing machine mat
• 13 mini felt microbes for a public engagement event at work
• One quilt for Project Linus
• Three shows visited (Uttoxeter Quilt and Stitch Village Show, Festival of Quilts, Knit+ Stitch Harrogate)
• Five workshops trying new techniques at shows and/or Waterloo Quilters
  
  

There has also been a lot of preparation and finally some sewing for the Wonderland Sampler Sampler quilt.

 Hopefully I will make better progress with this in 2026.

 

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A final few finishes for 2025

I decided to make use of time off for the holidays to finish a few projects so I can start 2026 with a relatively empty to do list.

First to be completed was a request from the local Project Linus co-ordinator for some duvet covers to be turned into colourful sheets for the ICU department at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. Once the covers had been cut to size, a rolled hem foot made quick work of hemming the edges.

Next was a quick “whole cloth” quilt for Project Linus. This was the front of a duvet cover, the back of which I used for making syringe driver bags earlier in the year. As this was backed with fleece, minimal quilting was needed - just some quilting around the edge of the Liver bird and a few LFC-related words.

The final finish was completing a sewing machine mat started during a Waterloo Quilters workshop run by Diane from Stitchscape. This made use of the temporary tackiness of “Steam a Seam Lite 2” which allowed us to adjust the layout of precut shapes. Most of the design work was completed during the workshop and all I had to do was fuse it to a piece of fleece, machine applique with a satin stitch around the joins and bind it with some remnants of binding from previous quilts.

 

Hopefully now these are completed, I will feel more like starting new projects next year.

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Wonderland sampler progress and a trip to Harrogate

This month has seen a little progress on the Wonderland Sampler quilt and a slightly unexpected trip to the Knit+Stitch show in Harrogate.

I’ve completed seven more of the EPP blocks for Wonderland Sampler quilt and a couple more (not shown) have been partly completed in that the EPP part is done, but they require an additional part to be appliqued.

These blocks gave me the chance to try some fussy cutting and, as with the first three blocks I completed, I have tried to keep to the same or similar fabrics as in the book. Again, I have made some minor changes to the shapes to reduce the number of hexagon shaped blocks.

Looking back at the blog, I think it has been 5 years since I last went to the Knitting and Stitching (now renamed Knit+ Stitch) show in Harrogate. This show can be difficult for me to get to by train but one of the sewing/quilting groups had late availability on a coach trip and I took the opportunity to go.

As usual, I didn’t particularly “need” anything, but I did manage to find some bargain items that will be useful and I was able to get some Schmetz Super Universal non-stick needles for projects involving bondaweb etc. One thing I did need to get was something for the quilting group Secret Santa and after much looking I finally found something that I hope will be well received (not shown in the photo just in case anyone relevant is reading this!).

As the show also covers embroidery and yarn crafts, it does mean that once I’ve looked at the sewing/quilting stands, there is time to go into Harrogate and get some cakes from Betty’s to bring home. This year’s choice was a mocha torte and two fat rascals.

 Going as a group makes the ticket prices reasonable and I think with this show, I regard it more as trip to Harrogate with the added bonus of a small sewing show on the side.

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Sewing has finally started on the Wonderland Sampler quilt

After many weeks (or even months) of preparation, I’ve finally started sewing blocks for the Wonderland Sampler quilt!

At the start of this month, I went along to one of Alice Caroline’s pop-up shops and topped up my Liberty stash with a few fabrics for the Wonderland Sampler quilt and some small pieces of plain lawn. There were no Liberty bargains, but I did find some other bargains - 1.5m of sage green chambray with a printing fault for £10, Aurifil thread with a 25% discount, a Merchant & Mills point turner for £1 and a pack of Tulip needles for £1.

 

This month’s Waterloo Quilters meeting was a free sewing session and I took along some of the English paper piecing (EPP) blocks from the Wonderland Sampler quilt to stitch. I managed to complete three blocks during the meeting and the rest of the EPP blocks are all now tacked to the papers ready to stitch together.

As you can see, for two of the blocks although the fabrics are different I have kept to the book’s designs, but for the other block, I decided to omit the outer diamonds to reduce the number of hexagon shaped blocks.

It’s been a while since I last did any EPP, but I’m hoping I can get into the habit of doing a little stitching each evening now that the clocks have gone back.

 

 

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Giant(ish) microbes and more

There’s been a little bit of sewing and quite a lot of preparation for sewing this month.

The month started with making some felt disease-causing microbes for a work public engagement event. These were to accompany commercially-available “giant microbes”, so I guess that makes them “largish microbes”.

Next was a great morning at Waterloo Quilters listening to Maureen Crawford talk about 50(ish) of her quilts in 50 (ish) minutes. There was lots of inspiration for quilt patterns and quilting designs and it was interesting to see examples of quilts made with fabrics other than quilting cottons.

There has also been lots of preparation for my Wonderland Sampler quilt. I’ve gone through my Liberty stash and picked fabrics as close as possible to those used in the book. I’ve decided to set the blocks on point and so I won’t need to make 100 blocks as in the book and I think I have prepared kits for each of the blocks I am planning on making.

There are a few fabrics where I didn’t have a close substitute, but Alice Caroline is having a pop-up fabric shop in Port Sunlight next month which will give me chance to get a few new fabrics.

 

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If it’s August, it must be Festival of Quilts

This month started with a trip to Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. Unlike last year when none of the workshops or talks appealed to me, this year I booked two quick and easy workshops (one at 8.30 am!) and one talk which meant a two day trip and an overnight stay in Birmingham.

My first workshop was a no-sew introduction to Bargello in which double-sided fusible stabilizer was used to create strip set and arrange them into a panel. Making a Bargello quilt is on my wish list and this was a great way of understanding the process and seeing how the patterns can develop.

The second workshop was early morning which meant an early departure from the hotel in central Birmingham, but had the advantage of being able to go straight from the workshop to the exhibition halls for the start of the show. This workshop was for making earrings from Dorset buttons and we were able to complete one earring during the workshop. I now need to make another earring while I can remember how.

My final activity was a talk on the history of Sylko threads and how they now have collectable status. This was interesting and amusing (how many shades of pink can there be?) and, after hearing how much some of the rarer colours can fetch, I should really check my few Sylko reels to see if any could fund next year’s trip!

I get the feeling I only took in a fraction of the quilts on display. After many years of going, I still find the quantity of quilts overwhelming, though one quilt in the 5-9 age group in particular did make me smile. The theme was “My Hero” and from a distance it made sense, but then I saw the title - the hero is not Godzilla!

Fortunately someone with a show guide was able to share the description which explains the link between Godzilla and Grandma.

As usual, I didn’t come away empty handed and my purchases this year saw bargains from the Project Linus stand (including So Fine Thread for just £1 per reel); 3m of interfacing to give a tana lawn quilt some oomph if needed (from Lady Sew and Sew) and some rings for Dorset buttons; an ombré remnant and a cat panel from Allison’s craft emporium; a free bag and some other goodies from Aurifil.

The rest of the August had been mostly sorting and preparing fabrics for my Wonderland Sampler quilt, though sewing has yet to start on it. I did manage a bit of sewing at Waterloo Quilters where we tried the Accuquilt Qube system to make some 12”blocks. It was great for cutting half square triangles as no trimming was required, though cutting squares is probably just as easy with a ruler and rotary cutter.

Trying the Accuquilt system reminded me to check my Sizzix dies and it looks as though I have the correct size dies for half square triangles and quarter square triangles that might be suitable for a few of the blocks in the Wonderland Sampler. Hopefully this weekend will see the last of the preparation and next month sewing can start.

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Planning a new project

After finishing my Tiny Nine Patch quilt earlier this year, I’ve realised that I miss have a ready-to-go long term quilt project and I’ve decided to try to use up some of my Liberty stash by making the Alice’s Wonderland Sampler quilt from Alice Caroline.

The quilt in the book is made from 100 blocks which use a variety of piecing techniques. My quilt will probably be only 81 blocks as 20 of the blocks are use raw edge applique designs, a technique which is not my favourite.

The quilt requires 6 metres of white/cream background fabric which I don’t have in my stash. However, I was able to find on Ebay two “new old stock” single cotton sheets for less than £7 each (including postage). They have some discoloration at the edges, but if this remains after washing, it will be easy to cut around it.

The sheets were made by Horrockses, a Preston based manufacturer which is quite appropriate seeing as most of my Liberty stash is from when it was printed at Standfast and Barracks in Lancaster. My plan is to cut and package the fabrics for most of the blocks in advance so that I have my own quilt kit ready to sew.

 

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