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Showing posts from June, 2015

June in review

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So June is over (or nearly) and I have made some progress! Hoping for Finishes! 1.  Triangle quilt for Mum's birthday -  Nearly nearly there. All that's left now is to sew the binding by hand. 2.  Star Plus - I nearly quilted this one but this will be put away once more 3.  Skirt Sew Along - no progress 4.  IG Secret Pal swap - May done (pincushion) Bee Blocks  1.  I love Lucy international  block (June) - in progress 2.  Flower hexies for the Inchy Hexie Swap (May and June)   3.    Bee Europa (June) 4.  Book Bee (June)  5.    Flying geese Bee - no progress 6. Fat Stash Bee (May and June) - May done, June in progress 7.  Block Lotto blocks - no block 8. Bee Hive WIP 1.  You've got Mail wall hanging - I made the last 2 enveloppes and quilted the piece for the background 2. Finish my work bag - my  Lazy Bums  challenge for November - no progress 3.  M r Snowmen cushion - qu

Making more blocks

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The last few weeks have not been very productive in terms of sewing, I didn't find much time to sew in the evenings. Anyway, I made a few blocks to catch up with my bees. First I finished my hexagons for May And then I made my Bee Hive block for my good friend Esther I also finally made my block for the Fat Stash Bee for May, the block was a wonky house and I am not very good with wonky, maybe that's why it took me so long to make it.  Next one was a little book for Grace and also one more block for my Farm Vintage quilt, although I am far behind on the quilt-along. And finally I finished my last 2 envelopes for my "You've got Mail" That gives me 8 more blocks for my 350-blocks project. Linking to Building Blocks Tuesday . Celine

Free motion quilting marathon

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Before the frame got dismantled until my next quilt is ready for free-motion quilting, I wanted to go through a few UFO that have been waiting in the cupboard. First I quilted my "September in the hexagon" that was quilted a few years ago. I choose a motif from  Lori at The Inbox Jaunt, called the Oyster Shell. I wanted a curved pattern to contrast with the hexagons. I quilted with Aurifil variegated thread and a variegated red Superior Thread in the bobbin. I used some fabric I bought years ago for the backing. So now this one only needs binding. Let's see how long this will take. Next on my list was the panel for my You've got mail wall-hanging. I choose a linen fabric I had in my stash and a quite ugly lime green for the backing from my stash too. And I quilted with another pattern from Lori, called Lines and Spirals. Although this one was quite small I broke a needle and also  finished 2 thread spools that I had in my stash. Now the panel is ready,

I want to make some bubbles, do you want to play with me?

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Ever since I have seen Aylin's bubbles on Instagram, I have wanted to make some too. Photo from Aylin's pattern website After all the bubbles are made of Log cabins and I love Log Cabins. Aylin started a bee on Flicker and I was too slow and missed the sign up unfortunately :-( I am not sure how it happened but anyway I woke up too late to join her group. So after reposting on Instagram, I agreed to run another bee to make bubbles too. Now the consensus for the new bee is not to start right now (everyone seem over-committed with bees and swaps etc) so I have proposed a starting date of January 2016. I know this sounds very far but I don't think anyone will be interested/have time to start too close to Christmas. And if people want to start sewing earlier, there is nothing to stop them really! Anyway I have opened a new Flicker group for the bee and prepared a sign up form . So if you would like to play along, please join me (I can't do a bee by myself :-) )

Work (still) in progress

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Last year I cut 285 triangles to make a Triangle quilt for my Mum after she saw the one I made for my friend's birthday and asked for the same one. But then the enthusiasm to do the same quilt again wore out and I stashed away my pile of triangles for later, hoping it would be done by last Christmas. Before the dust settled too much, I decided to make it for her birthdays and got the pile out earlier this month, banking on a 2-weeks turnaround to finish the quilt. Overambitious, me? Of course, I changed my plans (twice) while I started sewing my triangles, which meant that I had to cut more triangles (twice) to get to a grand total of 322 and a 14 x 23 arrangement. I was planning to have the top pieced the first week of June ready for quilting at the week-end but of course, I just didn't keep up and the top wasn't ready until early last week. By which time my backing fabric that I ordered at the last minute hadn't turned up. When it finally arrived,

Guest blogger - Building Blocks Tuesday

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Today, I have the honor to be guest blogger for Jen at Quilter in the Closet for her Building Blocks Tuesday. Welcome if you are new here and coming from Jen's blog. Jen started the linky party while I was in a swap with her, a little while back. I love the idea of a block linky party because I am not industrious and able to produce a quilt every other week! And also because I am in so many swaps, bees etc, I make quite a lot of blocks that are just blocks, i.e. I will never make them in a finished quilt but just send them on for someone else to enjoy. Let me show you the blocks I made recently to catch up and then why not linking yours in the linky party below? This week, I made 2 more Farm Vintage Blocks, I am still behind but slowly trying to catch up and also made a bee block for Muriel for Bee Europa. Muriel sent her fabric for the Tic Tac Toe block. I love her choice and can't wait to see the finished quilt! My first 3 blocks this month for the 350-b

A very sweet finish

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This one has been a labour of love! I started my Once upon a Time sampler about 15 months ago in February 2014. The first pattern was revealed in January but I didn't gather my supply until the end of the month as I ordered a gorgeous hand-dyed linen for the sampler. So of course, starting late, I tried to play catch up the entire time. Because I started late, I worked by colour rather than month and finished Snow White square in July! Over the last year my cross-stich had become my morning commute companion and grew gradually over the months with the Princess and the Frog the 3 Little Pigs Godilocks and the 3 Bears Jack and the Beanstalk The Princess and the Pea Thumbellina The Musicians of Bremen So this was my commute work:  But then I changed job at Christmas and my new job no longer involves a commute (which is great!) so that meant that there was no longer a dedicated time for my cross-stitch, and it had been a little bit "abandoned&quo