Finish-a-long 2019 – Q4, finish 1

My first (and hopefully not last) finish from my FAL Q4 list is the shaker style box I got at last year’s Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate and which first appeared in my Q2 list.  It had an insert to go in the lid and I needed something to decorate it.
 

 
I had bought a needlepoint kit at Festival of Quilts in the summer with the view to adapting the square pattern to fit the oval shape of the lid. However, while I was still thinking about this, I received a lovely hand embroidered card from a very talented friend and I realisaed that this was a much better starting shape.

(This was taken after I had poked around the edges to see if it would come apart)

By adding a bow and making the stems a little bit longer, the embroidery was just the right shape and size for the lid. I add a couple of layers of quilt wadding to pad the lid and laced the fabric across the back to secure it to the insert. The insert was then fixed to the lid with some double sided sticky tape
.

Even though my stitchy contribution to this project was very small, I’m so pleased to have repurposed this embroidery in to something that I will used. I’m planning on keeping sewing essentials (a pair of scissors, a few needles, some pins, and bobbins of threads in useful colours) in it so they are at hand for mending jobs etc so I don’t have to root around in my main sewing box.

(For 2019, I am trialling a version of this website on WordPress to see if it is more mobile-friendly  for commenting and posting. The WordPress version of this post is available here.)

Finish-a-long 2019 - a nice surprise

Back in the summer, I had a surprise email from the organisers of the 2019 Finish-A-Long to say that I won one of the prizes for Q2. Being in the UK, there is always the possibility that with vouchers for American suppliers, you might end up spending more in shipping and custom charges than the voucher itself. Luckily this was a very generous prize and so right from the start I factored in the likely custom charge when deciding what to get.

My voucher was from Sew Sweetness and I spent a while looking at the website to see what I needed and what would be the best value items taking into consideration shipping/customs. Sara from Sew Sweetness was very helpful with questions I had about the different shipping options and once I had finally decided what to get and placed my order, the items arrived in the UK very quickly.

I chose a mix of items that I needed (a hot ruler for pressing hems etc which will be an improvement on the cardboard templates I usually use), items that were better value than in the UK (long double-headed zips for bag making), and some items that I wanted to try and where ideally priced to use the full value of the voucher (Tulip applique needles, a magnetic needle/pin/scissor keepers, and some Clover wonder clips). With some careful planning, less than a fifth of the voucher value went on shipping and the cost of all these items to me was a customs charge of ~£18.

I’d like to thank the sponsors and organisers of the 2019 Finish-A-Long and I better get sewing to have some finishes to show for Q4.

(For 2019, I am trialling a version of this website on WordPress to see if it is more mobile-friendly  for commenting and posting. The WordPress version of this post is available here.)

Autumn themed mug rugs

With winter approaching, there’s just time to show you a mug rug and couple of coasters I made for an autumn swap.

I used Paula Doyle’s mini mosaic technique which I learnt at a Festival of Quilts workshop back in 2016. The mosaic pieces start off at 1” square and are fused onto an interfacing backing. Once the seams have been stitched, they finish at half an inch square.

For the mug rug, I just used a narrow binding, but for the coasters I added a border before binding.
 

The quilting on the mug rug was stitch in the ditch around each leaf shape and I did the same on the coasters but added an echo line of quilting around the outside of the leaf.
 

The swap was supposed to be for a single item, but I received two sets of mats!

 (All of which are far too pretty to use.)

(For 2019, I am trialling a version of this website on WordPress to see if it is more mobile-friendly  for commenting and posting. The WordPress version of this post is available here.)

Finish-a-long 2019 - the list for Q4

I completed just two of the six items on my list for for Q3, so for my list for this last quarter I am going with the four uncompleted items and not adding anything new:
 

1. BOM quilt No progress at all during Q1, Q2 and Q3 on this quilt - perhaps its time will come in Q4. My target for this year remains the same - to have it as a completed quilt and donated to Project Linus.
2. Upcycled bag This pure wool jacket from the charity shop remains deconstructed waiting for me to make it to make into a Carter bag.
3. Shaker box I've still no idea as to what I would like to put on it, but I'm still thinking it will probably be something EPP.  Perhaps Q3 will be when the ideal pattern for it appears.
4. Liberty pinwheel quilt I made this quilt top several years ago with a view to turning it into a picnic blanket, but something more suitable came along. I'd quite like to get this finished as a quilt now, maybe using it to practice FMQ as it has large "empty" areas.

Let's see if I can make the effort and get all these finished by the end of the year.

Linking up with 2019 Q4 Finish-A-Long


(For 2019, I am trialling a version of this website on WordPress to see if it is more mobile-friendly  for commenting and posting. The WordPress version of this post is available here.)

Finish-a-long 2019 – Q3, finish 2

I think this will be my last finish from my Finish-a-Long list for this quarter. The two tops that have been hanging on the back of a door for about a year are now hemmed and finished.

Unfortunately, I think the short sleeved top will get packed away ready for next summer, but the long sleeved top will get worn this winter.

(For 2019, I am trialling a version of this website on WordPress to see if it is more mobile-friendly  for commenting and posting. The WordPress version of this post is available here.)

Finish-a-long 2019 – Q3, finish 1

For the first finish from my Finish a Long list for Q3, I dusted off the overlocker and made the Style Arc Fay skirt in the geometric print.

Using the overlocker to attach the elastic resulted in a much neater finish than I had managed to obtain with the sewing machine.

This was so quick and easy that I made a second skirt the same day.

(I have also bought fabric for another one, but that has yet to be cut out.)




(For 2019, I am trialling a version of this website on WordPress to see if it is more mobile-friendly  for commenting and posting. The WordPress version of this post is available here.)

Festival of Quilts 2019

If everything had kept to the usual schedule, I would be at Festival of Quilts now, but it was moved forward a week this year and so I was at Festival of Quilts last week. This also meant that it coincided with the Ashes cricket at Edgbaston and so it was more “spot the cricket fan” in Birmingham than the usual “spot the quilter” (but the less said about the cricket the better).

My trip this year was spread over two days with the usual mix of workshops, shopping and looking at quilts. I had two workshops booked – a full day on the Thursday and a 90 minute twilight one on the Friday evening. After making sure the essentials were packed (rulers, mat, etc for the workshop and supplies for the hotel room), I travelled to Birmingham on the Wednesday afternoon to minimise the chance of train delays and cancelations preventing me getting to the workshop on Thursday. In the first workshop (Precision Piecing with Philippa Naylor) we got to sew on a Bernina machine (which I was surprised to find retails at ~£1000!) while learning how not to lose points on HSTs and flying geese. There also just about enough time to have a go at a mitred border sample, something I’ve not tried before. The second workshop was Designing Grid Quilting with Carolyn Gibbs which I chose to give me more ideas for straight line quilting. This was a low tech workshop (pencils, rulers and tracing paper) but nevertheless I came away with a much better understanding of how to plan quilting patterns rather than my usual way of starting to stitch and hoping it works out.

I didn’t have a shopping list as such this year and though I had wondered about finding some novelty prints for Project Linus quilts, I wasn’t really in the mood to browse given the overwhelming choice and number of stands. I picked up some finer machine needles than I usually use as these were recommended in the first workshop and I had ordered some Flatter for collection, which will also come in useful as in the first workshop we were advised to press with steam or a spritz of water. I also noticed in the first workshop that my cutting mat had lost its self-healing properties and crumbs of it were sticking to my rotary cutter, so it was the ideal time to buy a new mat. My other purchases were a silver marking pencil, a needle threader with thread cutter, an embroidery kit, a couple of back issues of magazines chosen for their free gifts, and a box of acrylic EPP templates. As you can see, all these had to be inspected and then ignored by “Not-Our-Cat”.

When it came to looking at the quilts, I was disappointed to find that the modern quilt section had been banished to the furthest corner away from the main entrance. I don’t know if the layout of the show is planned by the Quilters Guild or Twisted Thread, but perhaps they should consider what message it sends by always having the same quilt categories in the prime spots. Anyway, once I found the modern section, I was delighted to spot several quilts by people I know either in real life or via social media. I didn’t take many photos of quilts, just a few of ones that inspired me with their piecing and/or quilting, or ones that used blocks I’d like to try. If I had to pick one quilt as favourite I think it would be Red Light by Anette Sundberg (E108 in the guide). I loved the use of different sizes of the same block, the colour paletteand fabrics, and the black background.

Red Light by Anette Sundberg (Festival of Quilts 2019, E108)

As usual, after looking at Instagram posts back at home, I realised that there were sections that I had not found and not had time to see. Perhaps next year I should go on the last day when I have had chance to see what everyone else has spotted.

(For 2019, I am trialling a version of this website on WordPress to see if it is more mobile-friendly  for commenting and posting. The WordPress version of this post is available here.)