WIP Wednesday but its Thursday

This isn't my A to Z blogging post. Visit my previous post for my R post... or read this one anyway. 

Oops running late again with my WIP post. This being on holidays lark means I lose track of what day it is so easily. When I am home my regular commitments helps me track the days... Tuesday is Handmade With Love, Wednesday is Patchwork group, Thursday Avalon, Friday bible study Sunday church. Anyway..... its still Wednesday somewhere in the world.

Hexie Quilt
I finished off my handwork in the car on our drive from Brisbane to Sydney. I now have two pieced bits that I will incorporate into the backing of the Hexie quilt - one long thin piece and another that is square. I have also managed to use up just about all the hexies.... think I might have one left.

On Monday whilst we were on the Gold Coast looking into buying a car for Boyo I visited a Vinnies shop (St Vincent de Paul second hand shop) and found some fabric that was a good fit for a project I had in mind. We had been delayed an extra day in Brisbane due to the car so when we got back to our boy's home I unpacked the machine and set to work on this project.

I had been given 5 12" blocks - cream and maroon. I wanted a casserole carrier for me - I've made 5 for donations to stalls but never made one for me. I had to tweak my usual pattern to fit in with the size of the blocks but over the course of the evening I got the carrier made. The fabric I'd bought at Vinnie's formed the lining and base of the carrier. I didn't bring the velcro with me so it isn't quite finished but close enough. I had one major oopsie whilst making it. I found, as I was putting the two pieces of the casserole carrier together that I had stitched one lining piece back to front. By this time I had done the top stitching and couldn't be bothered to unpick everything so

I have been working on my bike quilt named "Onya Bike" (On yah bike or on your bike) I had pieced the centre on Sunday and Monday evening I put the first border on. I bought some blue toned fabric that I had thought would be good for the second 5" border but now I am not so sure - well actually I am sure. It won't do at all. Instead I am going to make a 5" piano key border instead using up the scraps of the fabric from the centre. I won't have enough and I don't have my scrap collection with me but I will make up what I can and finish it off when I get home... or buy some bits and pieces along the way (what a problem NOT). I would like to get it finished before I get home.

I have more casserole covers cut out with me that I can work on and also have another project prepped and ready to go. Its another one featuring cat fabric that I am calling "My Cat Likes to Hide i Boxes" The pattern is an adaption of a Square in a Square block that I found.

My sister in law, Christine from Bluebirds and Bumblebees has had a pattern published in the Australian magazine Homespun.  I bought the pattern and will move onto it when I get my other projects completed.

WIP Wednesday

Time for quilting has been a bit short over the last few weeks. Boyo was home over Easter and whilst I did some sewing whilst he was here it was more limited. Then we were packing and getting ready to go to Malaysia for a week at the same time I was working on getting my A to Z Blogging Challenge posts written before we left so that they could go up while we were away.

One way and another time was short.

Then we got home and I went back to work full time for a week. That was a bit of shock to the system when I haven't worked fulltime for a few years. Whilst I had some time to sew in the evenings I needed to get my sewing mojo back up and running again... and I didn't have the energy.

So... finally on the weekend I had the time to spend sewing. I was delighted to get  back to Clue 4 Scrapitude. This month's clue saw us putting the blocks together. They have turned out really well.

I was on a roll. On Sunday I tackled the Block 14 of the POD challenge and Monday Block 15 and Tuesday Block 16! All ready for Block 17 to come out Thursday.  

 

 

I then decided to have a go at quilting the Blue Pinwheel quilt that I have put together for our quilt group. I was really pleased that I got the whole top done Tuesday evening, and got the binding machined on. Now I have started hand stitching it down.

 

Today I was off to our quilt group for the morning and I was able to work on the Bluebird quilt I am making for my niece Judy. The embroideries were designed by my sister in law Christine and they were stitched by my sister Joy. Judy is her daughter. I got the blocks trimmed up and have started to stitch on the sashing so I'm making good progress.

 

Its great to be back into my sewing AND now I have almost finished ALL my April goals. All I have to do is get the rest of that binding stitched down and I will be done!. Yay. Go me

Linking up with WIP Wednesday and WOW -WIPs on Wednesday

        

WIP Wednesday

As usual it has been a busy and varied week of sewing.

My Sister in Law Christine (from the blog Bluebirds and Bumblebees) designed a block of the month set of embroideries several years ago. I have spoken about them before.  (She is now putting them one month at a time on Etsy).  My mother completed several sets of them including 2 for me. One I made into a quilt for my daughter Fangirl and one I made into a quilt for myself.

 My sister Joy also completed a set of the blocks but never did anything with them. Earlier this year she offered them to me  and of course I said "Yes please". I decided to make them into a quilt for my niece, Joy's daughter. I was sure she would really appreciate them and enjoy having something special with links not just to her mum but 2 of her aunties as well.

This week I got them out and trimmed them back. I meant to trim them to 8.5" so they would be 8" finished but somewhere along the line I had a brain explosion and trimmed them to 8" instead. Ho hum. I then calculated the size of the triangles I would need to make (I used this tutorial from Pieceful Living  to work out the size) I'd asked my niece what colours she liked and if she liked brights or pastels. She said blues and brights :) If I only used the 12 blocks themselves the quilt would have been rather small, unless I put a huge border on them so I decided instead to alternate other blocks with the embroidered blocks. I cut 8" squares from a variety of blue picture fabrics. The triangles for all the blocks I cut from a variety of mostly bright blues. All the triangles have now been attached. I am still tweaking the arrangement of these blcks but hope to settle on something suitable soon.

Next I have to trim the blocks to a uniform size before I stitch them together. Then I will work on the border. I could just do a simple border but knowing me I will probably end up making flying geese.... or checker board.... or piano key... cause I love scrappy borders so much. We will see.

I made another banner for church this week. Its another banner for lent so its lots of purples. It was inspired by a banner I saw on pinterest whilst looking for banner ideas. Its from PlayfulStitching

My banner was substantially different in the end but this was my initial inspiration.

I made it basically as big as I could with the fabric I had. I used scraps I had already cut in my scrap stash. Some I had to cut down to 2.5" as they were wider than that. I did cut a few strips from my yardage but only a very few... maybe 3.

For the backing I used some fairly thick fabric... not sure what it was exactly or where it came from. I suspect from fabric I inherited from my elderly aunt. She died a little over 2 years ago at 99yrs and 9 months. I didn't use any wadding in it but did quilt it.

 I echo quilted around the cross and then went out from it about 1" for 10 rows then went to 1.5" then 2" then 2.5" and finally 3". I have declared it finished although am thinking of doing a little trapunto type work on it and stuffing the cross to give it a 3 dimensional look. We shall see. If I do that I will have to go back and stitch another row on the cross as at the moment the first row of stitching is 1/4" outside the cross.

At Patchwork this week I continued to work on the blue block donation quilt that our group is putting together.  Its all random - asymmetrical and its challenging to me cause I keep wanting to make things all matchy matchy. I got 2 sides just about put together. I might have to take off the sashing from the previous border as its a bit wavy. I have been trying to ignore it but.... its annoying me so might as well give in and redo it.

I have completed the week 8 block for POD . I followed the lead of some of the other participants in this challenge and chose some more adventurous fabrics for the book's spines. A new one was released today so hope to make a move on it soon.

 I am one week behind with the Elephant Parade blocks but I have got eyes on the frog block

The fabric is all cut for the next two blocks I have to make - the turtle and the bird. Hopefully I will get them both done this weekend too.

Fixit Guy is going away this weekend so I will have a clear run at my sewing. Not that he ever stops me sewing but sometimes he does suggest alternate activities like going for walks or doing other jobs. In fact he is a great enabler getting me lunch and delivering it to the sewing room if I don't emerge and often cooking tea etc. I really need to get stuck into some small projects for the sewing stall Hand Made love is having at the Afternoon tea on the 28th March. I haven't made anything for a couple of weeks now. Better get some of those pouches sewn.

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

Thursday Thoughts

I have found a couple more linky parties on the web. There's one at Sew Fresh Quilts that I have linked my WIP Wednesday to. The tag is Lets Bee Social. I found the link on another blog I was on.

 

Sew Fresh Quilts has a Block by Block Quilt along going as well called Elephant Parade. It looks paper pieced and I think I will join in it as well.

This year is the year of Paper Piecing for me. This one is only running till March 29th so nowhere near as long as the other one I have signed up for which is 30 weeks!!

Speaking of which, The 3rd week's pattern is up in the Fandom in Stitches POD and I have just printed it off. I might go make a start on it very soon...



       


Things are in a bit of chaos at home (again) Fixit Guy has been fixing the ceiling in the kitchen. Paint is peeling and there is staining as well. There were 2 vents in there from when we had ducted evaporative cooling in the house that needed to come out. So he has been scraping and plastering and such.In preparation for sanding the plastering I insisted that everything had to be put away... everything off the walls and open shelves, window sills and the top of the fridge. That fine dust from sanding plaster gets every where. So I spent a few hours today (with his help) putting stuff away. He then sanded and then he has washed the walls down now that he has finished with sugar soap. I will put everything back when he has finished painting. It all looks so nice and clean and bare... I hope that when I go to put stuff back I can be a little ruthless and get rid of some stuff. I am not sure I need to  have it all go back up.

Meanwhile the loungeroom has lots of stuff piled up in it... all the kitchen chairs are lined up across the room and the table is piled high with boxes and baskets and that is after I tried to shove as much as I could into cupboards!!

Its lining up to be a busy weekend. We have a birthday party and a wedding. We are also kitten sitting. My daughter (Fangirl) is off to Sydney for her cousin's 30th birthday and to see my extended family whom she hasn't see for 2 years. We have her two kittens to play with. Our old boy cat is a bit put out although they are shut up in the rumpus room which he doesn't go into much. We will let him mix with them tomorrow. Its also Australia Day on Monday so we might head down to the Botanical Gardens for the town celebrations (BBQ breakfast, citizenship ceremonies and local awards presentations.) I want to be able to hang up a banner celebrating Australia Day so better get a wriggle on. I am going to use this pattern designed by my Sister In Law Christine from Bluebirds and Bumblebees and available here on Craftsy free this month

Hope you are all having a great busy time too

Monday Musings A Linky Party and a Free Embroidery

My Sister in Law Christine who blogs at Bluebirds and Bumblebees designed a lovely set of embroidery patterns a few years ago, one for each month of the year. They were released through a local quilt shop exclusively however she has now started to release them through Craftsy. Her first pattern is free.



To check it out this is the link The patterns will be released monthly and the subsequent ones will be $2. I have made 2 quilts from these embroideries already after my mother did the embroideries. I made one for my daughter Fangirl and another for our bed.

Whilst I was catching up on reading Christine's blog I found a link to a year long linky party for Finishes. I was too late to sign up for January but am hoping to link up in future months. It is A Lovely Year of Finishes and is hosted jointly by Shanna of Fibre of All Sorts and  Melissa of Bittersweet



I need to make myself up a list of all my projects and try to work my way through them this year. I just have to make sure I remember to link up in time next month. You have sign up in the first week of each month.