Sunday Stash Report- a mixed report

This week there has been some in and some out!
In - I received my order from MassDrop of a Fat Quarter Bundle - 18 fat quarters from the Andover Chambray collection. Its a luscious collection of beautifully textured fabrics, some shot with gold or silver, in a range of colours - creams and whites, gold, purples, greens, aqua and black. just gorgeous. 18 fat quarters. That was a total of 4.37m of fabric

Out

Our dear friend Bek loves Minions and for her birthday (which was Sunday) I made her 2 small minion wall hanging. They are paper pieced, measured 32cm x 40cm and are gorgeous. She loves them.

I completed The TARDIS Tree, a Christmas wall hanging. Its all labelled and ready to get tucked away with my other Christmas stuff... some of which is still piled up in the office waiting to be put away. No matter how careful I try to be in putting stuff away I always find various stray bits of Christmas decorations after I have heaved the boxes I have packed the Christmas stuff into up into their high storage cupboards. The TARDIS Tree has 1400 1" finished squares in it and 72 HST of the same dimensions in it. The usual formula I use to calculate fabric usage didn't accurately reflect the fabric that went into this quilt so I added an extra metre of usage to my calculations to more accurately record the fabric. 3.68m of usage in all

Its been a Doctor Who themed week. Fangirl turns 30 next weekend and is having a party with the theme "Adventures in Time and Space" She had bought herself a TARDIS dress to wear but it was very tight across her thighs. She asked me to adjust it for her. The easiest thing to do was to undo the side seams, remove the side zip and insert 2 black panels that would hang loose. I hemmed the side seams and it has worked very well. The side panels used some black fabric I have had left over from a dress I had made for a ball back in 1986 I think! (when Fangirl was 18 months old) The panels used up half a metre of fabric.

My last bit of sewing for the week has been 2 bags made from the top part of a pair of jeans. I have several containers with leftovers from the jeans I cut up to make Jean's Jean Quilt last year - pockets, the top parts and other bits and pieces. I came across them whilst sorting out and listing all my UFO's, WIPS, and planned projects. 

I googled Jeans Bags and came across one fairly simple pattern here on Paging Fun Mum's blog. I found it quite helpful although it glossed over a few tricky bits. The biggest hassle I had was cutting off the jeans to make them straight. The blog said to cut off at the crotch but I was interested in keeping the back pockets in tact so had to go a little lower and that meant there was a bit of shaping to negotiate around. 

 

I trimmed it back and made it as neat as I could. I made the first one flat across the bottom but the second one was a little bigger instead of having it flat I shaped it a little by lining up the side seam with the base seam and sewing across to make the bag have some width. 

I was going to take photos as I went but I forgot so no tutorial from me. I also changed the pattern by sewing some of the many pockets cut off the jeans to the right side of the lining before I sewed it together. 

   

I am still tweaking the design and have about 5 more tops of jeans that I can make into bags so should be good by the end. I made the strap from a lenght of denim cut for the leg of a pair of jeans, folded right sides together and stitched along the length, turned the right way around, pressed with the seam in the middle, stitched down again and then sewn onto the bag. I am no good at studs etc and don't have any anyway. I used velcro as closures for the bag. My kids are very impressed with the results! I plan to give them to the Our Rainbow House craft ladies to sell to raise money for our school in Zambia

It looks like its crooked but I cut it straight so I think its the photo... that is going to be my excuse anyway

They didn't use much fabric though... just the lining. Since I didn't count the jeans as fabric in I don't think I should count that part of the project as fabric out (although I did for the jeans quilt.) There was a total of .25 m used in the lining for the two bags (I used some tan paisley patterned left over backing. It has that retro feeling that will go well with the bags

So 

This Week

Fabric Used                               5.21m

Fabric Added                            4.37m

Year to Date

Fabric Used                               13.01m

Fabric Added                             10.35m

Net Fabric used                            2.66m

So how has your fabric usage gone this week?

TARDIS Tree Quilt finish

Yay - my first bigger finish for the year and its not that big... but it was very fiddly and compared to the little wall quilts I have done... its a reasonable size

Its finished size is 112cm long by 102cm wide or 44"x40'. Using the formula on my Excel spreadsheet that Pam at Hip to be a Square Podcast came up with that is 2.40 metres of fabric used. Now that was only allowing 15% extra for piecing. This quilt has a total of 1400 1.5" squares and 120 1.5" half square triangles that came down to 1" squares finished. That is 50% increase. The 1" squares finished  alone worked out to about 2m of fabric (sorry to keep switching from metric to inches but that is the crazy world we all live in when you live in a metric country and participate in a craft that uses inches). I could get Fix It guy to add another qualifier in the formula that he has used (1 adds 10% for large pieced quilts and 2 adds 15% for smaller pieced quilts and 3 doesn't add anything and just uses the length by width to allow for fabric given away as is or used as is eg the serviettes I made) I could get him to do one that adds a higher percentage. However I've decided that I am going to just add an extra metre of fabric as yardage and that will make up the difference.

Anyway... TARDIS is finished. This quilt is a wall hanging to be used at Christmas to display the cross stitched Doctor Who figures that Fangirl made for her Dad. There are 25 figures and we will add them to the tree like an advent calendar. The Quilt is done although I still have to label it and also add the hooks to attach the figures to it but I am counting it as done.

My quilting as always leaves a lot to be desired but since this is for me and I really don't care it doesn't matter. I echo quilted around the tree on the white in a variegated white thread.

Then I quilted the blue section in stippling - lots of big swirls.

Then I did the white in stippling using the variegated thread and did a sort of wave/swirl on the border. I machined the binding down using a swirl.

 Its not perfect but I am pretty happy with it. Now I have to pack it away (after I label it) until Christmas time.

And I get to tick off another goal for  January.

WIP Wednesday

Busy week with several finishes as reported yesterday and in my Sunday Stash Report. I did enjoy making those little Minion wall hangings.

 

Today at Patchwork I was able to get 2 quilts pinned. Annie's Quilt is pinned and ready to go. I forgot to take a photo of it laid out and pinned. It looks the same as it did before hand just with lots of pins in it!! Thinking about how I am going to quilt it. Its going to be a combination of stitch in the ditch, echo quilting and stippling. Its such a busy quilt with so many different blocks in it.....

I also got Tardis Tree pinned. I think that I am going to echo quilt around the shape of the tree and then do a little stippling in the rest of it. Its made up of so many little squares I don't want to compete with them too much. I am just not too sure what I am going to do. Might have to wait and see what happens when I start.. that is what I usually do. I will use the variegated white.cream thread I have on the white and a darker blue or grey on the blue parts. Watch this space. I would love to think that I am going to get at least one of them finished to report on in Sunday Stash report but that might be being a little optimistic given I haven't started quilting and I have commitments most of Saturday and Sunday morning.

Here they are, piled up near my machine ready to go. Ready set... oh look squirrel

I started a new project at Patchwork today. We are making Quilts of Love for our local hospital to be used for babies born too early. They only need to be between 20-24" square and don't have batting in them. I am making a log cabin using 1.5" strips. Something has gone a bit skewiff with them and they are a bit out of whack but hoping some judicious trimming at the end will put it to rights. Not sure if I cut the strips a bit wrong or if the 1/4" foot on my machine is a bit out. I am also not that thrilled with the colours but hoping that it will be ok. I am making 9 of the log cabins so it isn't going to take me very long. Hopefully it will work out okay in the end.

This isn't finished - the 2nd bright green fabric and outer blue still to be stitched down. This is just to get an idea of the colours.

I have managed a little hand stitching during the week on my Christmas Delights project... but only a few stitches. I am hoping to get a lot more done at the meetings that I will be attending on Saturday... unless I have the quilting done on one of my projects and am up to stitching down the binding.

Fangirl bought me back a lovely little stack of embroidered blocks that my sister Joy had done using the BOM designed by my sister in law Christine (of Bluebirds and Bumblebees) Joy had made them 7 years ago when the patterns were first released but hadn't gotten around to making them into a quilt and she offered them to me. Of course I said yes and she sent them to me via Fangirl. Now I am contemplating what pattern to use with them and who it will be for. (A reminder that Christine has listed her patterns on Etsy. The January block is free... for this month at least. Go check it out here

Now I am anxiously awaiting the release of the next pattern in the POD on Fandom In Stitches. I am getting rather hooked on paper piecing it seems.

I have joined a new challenge group. Its called One Project A Month - OPAM.

You commit to trying to complete one project each month (of any of the fibre arts) It can be a new project that month or it can be a UFO or a slow project. Each month you report in what you have completed. And they encourage you to have a side bar with your completed projects for that month.  I have added the list of my completed projects for this month to my side bar. I don't think it actually starts till February but I thought I'd add my projects already. It looks rather impressive cause I have made so many little projects this month. If you are interested in joining in you have to sign up by February 1st so hurry!

  

WIP Wednesday

This week I worked on paper piecing and completed the first 2 blocks in Fandom Stitches POD 30 week challenge. I also completed a paper pieced TARDIS from a pattern on their website. I have downloaded a heap of others which I may or may not get around to doing sometime soon.

I completed the 3 little zipper pouches using the MSQ tutorial and really enjoyed making them... so much so that I have ordered 20 pretty zips from eBay and keenly waiting their arrival in a couple of weeks. (ordered from Hong Kong so have to wait for them to be shipped here) After I had posted on this blog about running out of zippers a local friend, Lindy,  told me that she had a box of zips that she had been carrying around for 20 years or so and she was happy for me to help myself to a few. She bought them to Patchwork today and I gladly took 6. 1 which I used straight away and 5 to make into pouches.

Fangirl (my daughter) asked me to make a cushion out of a cross stitch that she made in 2005. I sashed it in 3 borders and then made the back and (get this) inserted a zip. I made it today at Patchwork using one of the zips Lindy gave me. I don't have a photo of the finished cushion. I wish I had fussy cut the 3rd border but by the time realised I should have done that the top was already together and I wasn't remaking it.

I am waiting on a bolt of batting to arrive in order to be able to complete some more projects. Ive made the backing for the Tardis Tree and also for the Orphan Block Quilt. I thought I would piece a backing for it but in the end I had a piece big enough and so used it. I have decided to call it Annie's Quilt... you know Little Orphan Annie.... also our dog who died early last year was called Annie so I like the name.

       

I have been working on Vanishing Hours. I got all the borders on and so now the top is finished. YAY

I've started on the backing, using up extra blocks that didn't make it onto the front - including one vanishing pinwheel that I made by mistake instead of the vanishing hourglass. Also some extra hourglass blocks and some left over piano key border. Its got a way to go but hopefully I will get it done by the end of the week so I can post it off to my friend Kym to get quilted.

 So its been a very busy and successful week. How have you gone this week.

   

WIP Wednesday

I've been working on several projects this week.

I've put the first border on Vanishing Hours. It didn't go on so well... two sides were ok but two sides didn't fit properly and initially I added an extra bit to make them fit because I didn't want to unpick them but today I knew that I had to take them off and go again so I did and after a good bit of easing and squeezing and carrying on I managed to get them on. Then I started on the hourglass border. That has also taken a good bit of "managing" to get that organised. By the end of my day at Patchwork I had the 4 sides stitched together but not attached to the quilt. Next week for that I hope. Then there will only be the piano key border to attach.

I've also worked on Tardis Tree. I've put the border on it. I need to get some batting before I can finish it up. I would like to buy a roll of batting but trying to get prices on them is proving difficult. I will go into our local shops and price it there this week and try again online and see how we go.

I've completed several small projects as well.  I have a sister named Joy and I had this country coloured square featuring the word Joy. I made it into a little banner which I'll send off to her. I used the method described by Katie from Katie's quilting corner to make it into a simple hanging picture.

I also worked on 2 blocks for our Patchwork clubs block of the month. When I went away on holidays the idea had been that all the blocks would be in blue and white I thought but whilst I was away the idea was revised and they changed the colours for each month. So the blue and white one here I knew was definitely wrong. However I had already prepped the fabric for it so I made it anyway.

I had previously made the block below in blue and white but I knew that one of the blocks had to be red white and black so I made this one again accordingly.

I took them up to Patchwork today and ... yeah... they were both wrong. I should have made the above one in white and pink and the blue and white one was supposed to be the red, black and white. Oops. Never mind. They will all get used in the quilts we will make for charity at some stage, even if they go into the backs.

So at some stage I have to make these two blocks again in the correct colours. Then I might volunteer to put some of the blocks that have come in into a quilt top.

I've started to make a zipper pouch as well using this YouTube video put up by Missouri Quilt Company. 

I haven't got far with mine... but I have started

Its been a productive week.

  

Final WIP Wednesday for 2014

New Years Eve is upon us and it's time for one more WIP Wednesday report

This week I have been working on a new project. It's been one I have been contemplating it for a year or 2. Fangirl made her dad a set of Doctor Who figures a for Christmas 2 years ago. They were designed to hang on a tree. I decided to use them on a log cabin tree that I had just completed. I also completed an advent hanger with little pockets for you to put little gifts in. I decided to use it to it the decorations for the tree in and the Doctor Who figures fitted pretty a a perfectly. trouble was that there weren't enough figures so Fangirl made some more over the next year and gave them to me when I visited her in the UK (where she lived for 2012-2013) she gave them to me. I wrote a blog post about the tree, the decorations and the advent pocket here

The wall hanging I made was in creams and green and was based upon a quilt that my friend Dawn had made.

 I had to draft the pattern myself and it took a bit of doing working out how many pieces of each size I needed. I was pleased with how it turned out but to be honest... It didn't really suit s Doctor Who themed decorations. So I went searching around for the calculations that I had made but I couldn't find them. Just thinking about redesigning it made my head ache

Then on a Facebook page I am s member of someone posted a picture of a tree wall hanging made from small square.


 I decided that I would make it the same size as the log cabin tree. I calculated that I was going to need just under 1600 1.5" pieces. The tree would be in blues and the background whites with a black stem. I wasn't going to go with the star or the presents... or the sleigh.

Firstly I sorted through my scrap bins for all my 1.5" squares in blues and whites. I also got out all my 1.5" strips in those colours. I pulled out 3", 4.5" and 6" strips. I sewed strips together sliced them across and built up strips. I also made a heap of half square triangles in blue and white.

I built the tree in groups of 6 strips 38 squares wide. Each strip had white and blue squares with the blue In the centre Starting with 2 half square triangles to be the peak I increased the row by 2 blues in each row. The 7th row i decreased the blues by 4 and then built it out again for 6 rows. I made a total of 5 sets this way. The last row the blue stretched right across the 38 squares

The trunk of the tree was made from black squares. 4 squares wide. I made it 10 rows. Looking at it I might have made the trunk a bit long but it's pretty good

Its not quite finished. I will put a border on it. I will probably do a tonal white 1' finished border on it first and then dark blue 2' border and will bind it in the same colour.

Apart from the Tardis Tree as I have called it, I have also done a bit of embroidery. We drove into the city to have a look at couches, shoes, clothes for a wedding we are off to. Its a 3 hour trip in and out and I did a bit stitching whilst going in and out (in between snoozing) and before it got too dark.

Its almost midnight so nearly the new year. Hope you are all having a great time where ever you are celebrating. I will do my New Year goals in another post.