WIP Wednesday - Making progress

At last I started quilting The Tea Shop Quilt. I started Monday afternoon and by tea time I had the quilting done. Its a long way from perfect. I possibly would have done a better job if I had planned out what I was going to do but I just don't seem to quilt that way. I start and make up my mind what I am doing as I go which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I used Aurifil thread and have to say I am really impressed. REALLY impressed. It went so smoothly and didn't seem to have any of the issues that can sometimes happen with quilting. I did find that I hadn't completed the applique on one block. Oops

I also managed to flip up the back and quilt some it down in the wrong place 

And sew the darning foot to the quilt. So much talent I have

Apart from those mishaps it went well. I even got a bit creative with the tea shop itself and stitched in the bricks on the chimney and the tiles on the room

 I got the binding made that evening.  I chose a brightly coloured stripes. There were lots of bright colours in the quilt and I think it worked well


The next questions was whether to machine it on front and back or machine the front and hand stitch the back. I don't mind hand stitching at all. Especially when there is something good to listen to - a podcast or radio play, or something worth watching on the tv. But its been SOO hot here in Central Queensland. Considering its March and there fore officially Autumn it should be cooling off but this last week we have had record temperatures across the inland part of the state. (one day last week 15 centres had their highest March temperatures ever) Here in my home town we have  had high 30s (Celsius) Its a bit cooler this week - mid 30s. Still way too hot to sit with a quilt in your lap stitching. It does mean that it won't be show quality but I don't stitch for shows. I want this done by Saturday so machining it was. I got the binding on front and back. 

There was still some hand work to be done on it.  I made a label and stitched in on and stitched the hanging sleeve down as well. There was a bit of embellishment to go on the quilt as well. I had a heap of little buttons that could go on the quilt... little cakes, tea pots, a tart. These all went in the tea shop window. Beading on the appliqued cakes in the window as well.



 I think I am done... but have heaps of buttons I could sew on if I wanted to.

But I think I get to declare it done. This was declared project for this month's A lovely Year of Finishes so that is great. It was also one of my March goals. That means I have only one goal from that list to go...

At Handmade With Love sewing day Tuesday I made 2 little pouches for the stall on Saturday. I used a pattern that the Clermont ladies had given me on Thursday last week and it was so quick and easy. They had printed it off the internet and then photocopied the pattern for me but you can find the pattern on the Better Homes and Gardens here

This is the clutch from the website. Mine isn't quite so fancy.

I managed to get two done (almost) in the morning which included a long morning tea and a meeting of our group too. I still have to stitch the press stud on the second clutch and sew on the button.

The American BHG website was a bit of a time sink. I have found several other patterns that I am keen to try out

At Patchwork today I got the blue quilt I have been putting together for our group pinned. I have bought it home to quilt. 

I printed the next pattern for the POD. It was an owl There were 4 owls to choose from but I went with Hegwig, Harry Potter's own owl. There were so many pieces in this one. I just looked at it. I put it away and worked on all sorts of other things but today was D Day. Another pattern will come out tomorrow and I didn't want to get behind so I took it to our sewing day at patchwork. After I had finished pinning the blue quilt I made good progress on the block before coming home and then after we got  back from babysitting I worked on it some more. (Fixit Guy is teaching our friend to drive and whilst she is at the lesson I get to babysit the most gorgeous 14 month old Tish). About 6.30 tonight I got it done. Yay me. Its not perfect but its done.

I've got a few more titles stitched on the spines of the books in the bookshelf of the POD QAL. I finished one block at our sewing day in Clermont last Thursday and today whilst babysitting I got the titles written on 2 more blocks and started hand stitching them. I stuffed up ... big time. One of the blocks I had upside down when I wrote the names on in the pigma pens I write with before embroidering over them. I thought that perhaps I could just pretend those books are upside down in the shelf..... but they are around the wrong way. Sigh. I am going to have to unpick and restitch either those books in the block or applique something over them... or ignore them and see if anyone notices. So cross with myself

Once I finish the next POD pattern due out tomorrow then I will have completed ALL my goals for March. I am very proud of me.

I got my scrap basket emptied and all the fabric that had been cut into useful units put away. Since then a few scraps have been added to the basket. It never stays empty for long

I forgot to take a starting shot. This was actually midway through the process

Empty. That's a mirror in the bottom of the basket NOT a scrap of fabric

  


Linking up with  WIP Wednesday,WOW- WIPs on Wednesday and Lets Bee Social