All sewn out!

  At the start of the week, my goal was to make the Half Moon Modern HST quilt to match my cushions.  Yesterday I completed that goal and I am so happy with how it's turned out.  It still needs borders but I have to measure it on my own bed first to see how wide I need to go.

I have been avoiding making anything with HST for so long after a rather horrendous try at a zigzag quilt last year.  I think I may have cracked it though, it's not perfect but neither am I ;-)

Being modelled in the MIL's spare room  - check out the old tape player!

I now need a third cushion in matchy HST cushion to go with these two..

Matchy matchy cushions!

I ended up unscrewing the ironing board top and turning it around, now it's just perfect!!  I have had a brilliant week, but I have to admit, I am ready for a few days break from the sewing machine.  

Pimped!

I needed a  new mini ironing board and after being forced to step away from the sewing machine on Wednesday (Dads birthday), I decided to get a sneaky bit of crafting in!

I bought a £7.99 TV table from Dunelm Mill.

Then using some of my precious Melody Miller Typewriters and some 80/20 Wadding, I followed the Oh Fransson tutorial.  Instead of using staples though, I bought some upholstery pins form B&Q and they worked really well.

I did centre it before I nailed it down!

The finished Ironing board is so cool, I might never put it away!

Just one problem!  I didn't think about fabric direction when I was laying it all out....

That is going to annoy me forever more!  I am already considering unscrewing the top and turning it around.

In other great news for this week, I received an email from Rachel of Stitched in Colour last night.  My mini was one of the random pick winners in the Festival of Scrappiness and I have a 12 pack kit of Aurifil 30 wool threads winging their way to me. Woo hoo!!!!!

W.I.P Wednesday

You can tell I am on holiday as I have lots to show, including some actual WIP finishes!  It looks impressive but two of them just needed binding and I have had a LOT of child free time this week. ;-)


Finishes:

• London Modern Quilt guild - April challenge Mini:

Drunkards path potholder:

Bunting galore:

• Drunken Pacman cushion:

• NYB duff block mugrug:

WIPS:

So my actual WIP list hasn't changed one single bit from last week, apart from an addition!  I seriously need to stop starting new projects, is there a 12 step programme for this?

• Colour brick quilt - still not bound
• Circle stitched cushions - no progress.
• Little Apples tumbler quilt - no progress.
• Just wing it quilt - blocks all trimmed ready to sew.
• FQ Sewing retreat name tag swap - no progress.
• Half moon modern HST quilt - blocks ready to sew.

The final layout after several happy hours of moving blocks

New stuff in the pipeline:

• 2 cushions that are not NYB - one hst and one DP. - One made - see finishes ;-)
• Half moon modern HST quilt for me - planning to start next week. - Now moved to WIPS
• Zakka style sew along - well I already have the book, it would be rude not too.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday as normal.

Two birds....

.....one rainbowey stone!

My London Modern Quilt Guild challenge mini is all finished and I am rather pleased with it (mild understatement!).  April's challenge (yes I am still aware that it is only March - I am geek!) was to design a 12" mini quilt. A vote will decide which 12 mini's get to be displayed at the Oxford Street John Lewis store in June.  

As I was a whole month ahead of schedule with this challenge, I thought I would enter it into the Stitched in Colour Festival of scrappiness.

My entry is hardly a massive scrap buster, but it fits within the rules and there are prizes involved ;-)



I am feeling much better today, although still avoiding the squaring up!  I need to get my arse in gear!  Please excuse the bizarre layout of today's post, blogger is doing my head in!

My attempt at an arty pose!

Reverse with cute little hanging corners.

Curvy random quilting inspired by a quilt from the Zakka style book

It's been a bunting kinda day....

Despite a slight setback due to a chest infection settling in the minute I was on annual leave, I have managed a few sewing jobs.

Yesterday afternoon was spent paper piecing yet more letters for the bunting I was suppose to make last week.  I love how they turned out, although my poor boy is going to have to miss out again as I am now bored of making it ;-).  I might make him the version that takes a quarter of the time!!

I finished these up this afternoon and then ventured outdoors for an hour to soak up the afternoon sun.

Tonight's job is to finish pressing my hst and square them up.  Not my favourite of jobs but I am desperate to get to the messing around with layout part.

In just five minutes...

I had arrived at my In-laws, ordered the re-arrangement of furniture and had my corner set up for the week.

My little sewing corner

Now I have a hot date with these tonight and a  determination to have that king size quilt top by the end of the week.

Pre-cuts for HST because I'm lazy ;)

Have a great weekend
xx

Drunken pacman!

Nope I haven't been sewing under the influence (I wish!!).  Instead of spending my day off making personalised bunting, I made a Drunkards path cushion for my bedroom.

I used a few charms from the Half moon Modern line and messed around with the layout until I settled on this.  Reminds me of Pacman, which I loved as a kid!

I added a border, used some fusible fleece and went a tiny bit line happy with the Hera marker!

I then went a lot crazy with the Hera marker and ended up quilting the crap out of it!

and now I have two matchy cushions....

Just need to make the King size bed quilt to go with them now!

 I am on annual leave next week  and am heading back up to the Parentals, whilst my lovely hubby does living room DIY (which includes a new sewing table and storage - woo hoo!).  I just have to get through two 15 hour days at work first.  It's a hard life I lead ;-)

WIP Wednesday

I have a new motto from this week - If at first you don't succeed turn the duffing block into another mug rug and MOVE on!!  As I was reminded this week, sewing is suppose to be fun and I was worried my son learning a whole new vocabulary of blue words.

At least it will make a cute mug rug!

So I have managed lots of little jobs this week.

I made and sewed on the binding for my mini quilt and potholder. I still have to hand sew these down though, not my favourite job to do.

LMQG mini - I am in love with the honeycomb dots

I made the third block for the New York Beauty QA (block 1) - I am not particularly impressed with my fabric choices/placement on this block, but hey ho!  I am thinking this may be my last NYB block for a while, I'm just not feeling the love.

Bland but at least its about the right size!

After seeing these stunners on Laura's blog I pulled out my stash of Melody Miller and attempted Kim's brilliant tute.  I will be making more of these for sure!

Yesterday afternoon was taken up with making personalised bunting that my heftily pregnant BF asked me to make for her imminent arrival and also for her 2 year old son.  Funny how my hobby becomes acceptable to my friends when they want something ;-).

It's meant to have a Z in case you thought I couldn't spell ;-)

I decided to piece the letters rather than applique them on, my colour palette of rainbow will be of no surprise!  Fusible fleece was added to give a bit more structure as I didn't want floppy.  Just need bias binding and it should be all done for the weekend.  I have three more names to piece today by which time I will probably be questioning exactly why I just didn't applique the bloody things!

As for my other WIPS:

• Colour brick quilt - still not bound
• Circle stitched cushions - no progress.
• Little Apples tumbler quilt - no progress.
• Just wing it quilt - blocks all trimmed ready to sew.
• FQ Sewing retreat name tag swap - no progress.

New stuff in the pipeline:

• 2 cushions that are not NYB - one hst and one DP.
• Half moon modern HST quilt for me - planning to start next week.
• Zakka style sew along - well I already have the book, it would be rude not too.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday as normal.

Sulking!

So after my bad start to the week, I put on my big girl panties and got back on the horse, so to speak.  I happily started to piece my second block for the New york Beauty QA and it was all going swimmingly until it came to trimming.  I had to cut it down to 7" to get it square, not good!

Duff block!

 I got off the horse, shucked my big girl panties and went back to sulking! (Just as well I was at work and couldn't sew if I wanted too)

I have now got over my sulking again, probably due to the rather nice post this morning.

I did a little late night fabric ordering after a very long day at work and they all arrived today!

From The Village Haberdashery came the gorgeous Typewriters bundle, it was very hard not to buy tons from this gorgeous shop!!

From M is for Make I ordered some Honeycomb dots for my LMQG mini binding and some Washi fabrics:

Today has been declared Mother's day as I am on call again tomorrow!  My boys are out shopping for dinner ingredients and I am off to try the NYB block again :)

W.I.P Wednesday

Whilst last week as good sewing week, so far this week has been a bit meh.  I seem to have lost my mojo again (probably alcohol induced from the weekend) and finally gave up trying after dropping the iron, singing the carpet again and then stepping on the broken tip from the iron burning my foot!

I have a couple of bits to show though, so its not all bad ;-)

Finished projects:

I turned my first NYBQA block into a cushion for my bedroom.  I am in love with my Hera marker right now!

W.I.P's:

• LMQG challenge quilt - I finally decided on a random curvy style after seeing a similar pattern in the Zakka book.  Now I just need to find a black spotty fabric for the binding and it will be finished.

• Just wing it Improv quilt - blocks sewn and ready for squaring up.
• Little apples tumbler quilt - no progress, still 3/4 pieced.
• Circles stitch along - no progress
• Brick quilt binding - no progress

New projects:

I am off to the Fat Quarterly sewing retreat in June and have signed up to be part of a name tag swap.  I am working on a couple of ideas and wanted to try them out so ignore the fabric choices.  I am thinking about stamping my partners name onto the fabric.

I have plans to sew the second block of the New york Beauty QA today, but right now I am off to check out everyone else's WIPS.  Linking up with the Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday as usual.

New york Beauty...

Whilst the kidlet was at nursery yesterday I got to work on making my NYB block  into a cushion, too say I am happy with the result would be an understatement!  My bed is going to buried under NYB cushions by the time I have finished this quiltalong.

Today has been fantastic, although I may have been a little over ambitious to think I may get two quilt tops complete!  I did manage to sew up all my improv blocks in between yakking and eating, they just need trimming now and I hate that part!

I got home to find the postie had delivered my copy of Zakka style.  I was admiring this beauty on Hadley's blog the other day and moaning about wanting a copy.  I took it as a sign when Amazon sent me an email the next day declaring they had stock ;-).  This book is going to keep me busy for weeks, it is full of eye candy!!

Tonight is my last night of what seems like a sewing frenzy; tomorrow I am off on a weekend of debauchery culture with my gal pals to York.

Have a great weekend
xx

W.I.P Wednesday

Having had a good week so far (I am on annual leave again), I finally have something to show for a link up with W.I.P Wednesday.

No I haven't finished any of my current WIPS, they are still sitting neatly folded in the cupboard.  I have however managed to start 4 new projects, I clearly have an attention deficit!

Finished:

Mug rug - made for the London Modern quilt guild February challenge.

New projects:

Mini quilt - April's challenge for the LMQG but I appear to be extra geeky and have done my homework very early!

LMQG - April challenge mini

I made this block before deciding on the above design, so will probably turn into another mug rug or pincushion, you can never have enough surely!

New York Beauty Quiltalong  block 0 - I had only intended to make a quarter of this block and then got all carried away.  I'm turning this into a cushion for our bedroom to get a bit of colour in there, my husband is a big fan of white!  I think I will use a darker background next time to stop some of my points from disappearing.

NYBQA - Block 0

Little apples Tumbler quilt & Just wing it Improv quilts:

The Little apples tumbler quilt is about 3/4 pieced and then I got distracted!



Not even looked at never mind worked on:

Cushions
Binding for brick quilt
Curves class final projects



Tomorrow I have the luxury of going to my sewing buddy's house for a day of chatting, eating and making  and hope to complete both quilt tops.

Right I am off to have a look at what everyone else has been working on!