The one where I made some stuff

I'm starting a new job tomorrow and decided I needed a new pencil case, so I made myself this

 

I also designed and test stitched a logo for a customer's towels,

 

And I worked on some HSTs sewn by the ladies in my church house group. One of them is about to adopt three young siblings so I thought they should have a quilt each - this one just needs the binding finishing, two more to go!

 

And quilted!!!!! Get me!

 

Now time for an early night ready for work tomorrow!!!

 

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The one where I did *more* machine embroidery and some quilting

You really don't expect *more* photos of preschool uniforms I hope?  I'm getting a little fed up with them - 44 down, 31 to go!!!

However the HST and Strings / £7 quilt has moved along and now looks like this

I've done some liberated (free range) quilting in the solids . . .

using a lovely variegated thread . . .

However, my drawer of fabric strings doesn't seem to have gone down AT ALL!!!

The one where I worked on a £7 quilt

Not much time for sewing today, (appointments in town and a visit to mum), but I did get the solid & strings HSTs stitched, trimmed and pressed.

I'm really happy with how it's looking

And just for a giggle - I took this pic of mum and a fish we caught near her home ...

 

 

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The one where I did some quilting!

I'm not a quilter- I'm a patchworker! But very occasionally I feel that a patchwork is asking to be quilted!

For a long time some ladies at my church house group have been stitching HSTs together. They are not necessarily comfortable with a needle and thread, and some of the stitches are bigger than I would choose, but I'm all for encouraging them! After laying out the design and sewing the squares into strips on Friday, I got them assembled today and that's when they started asking to be quilted. I'm on holiday, and have the time so I decided to listen and start quilting.


Liberated echo quilting, nothing fancy, but I'm really pleased with the result


Just the binding to be hand stitched and then it's done. It's for one of our ladies who had a baby girl last summer ... 1st birthday pressie!

I also managed to finish the Gay Pride bag

And I've finished and embroidered a quilt for a cousin who has just had a baby girl, Annie

Now back to embroidering school uniforms!

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The one where I finally did some sewing!

School finished yesterday! And not just for the summer in my case, but forever! I have resigned- I felt it was better for the school that I left at the end of a year, and could leave everything ready for my replacement, rather than either giving notice during the hols and not going back or going back for a few days or weeks in September and leaving things half done.

The parents and staff were very kind - I got lots of lovely cards and gifts! And today I got to sew!

This pile of HSTs stitched by the ladies at church

Have been stitched into strips

 

And this tshirt has been rescued from a charity shop to be made into a bag

 

Tomorrow? More of the same!!!!

 

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Tempting Triangles

I've never been a big fan of HSts, but it seemed a good project for the ladies at a Church House Group to tackle.

Assorted abilities, but over the last few months we made this, and on a recent Sunday we gave it to a lovely lady in the village, who, like the quilting on this, holds everything together!

I have experienced a deep, but unexpected love of HSTs!!!!

I don't know that I'd want to machine a whole pile of them, but hand stitching while chatting with friends and drinking coffee is a whole other matter!

As the original HST project was totally finished they wanted to start a new one, and this last Sunday must have sewn 50 or so together!  This time I used odds and ends of charm packs - the charms that didn't make the final cut in whatever I used the rest of their family for - and added white.  I'll ask them what arrangement they like best:

Flying Geese

ZigZag

Or like this

Looking good eh?

Since my last post ...

Life seems to be whizzing by - not much sewing time and even less blogging time!!
I have finished the binding on this wonky stars quilt

I have finished this birthday reminder (although I wish I'd bought "family" or even "birthdays") but it is changeable

I've started embroidering this 36 times for a customer

And I've requilted the house group quilt - previously the lines were just under 1.5" apart, I've now quilted between each of them, so between about 1/2" and 3/4". Very, um, free range!

And I've added the binding. It's a wide one as I want all the ladies to write their names on the back of the binding

That's it for the weekend - hope you had a good one!

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While I was Quilting

Yes, I actually did some quilting! Every few weeks I meet with ladies from a couple of local churches, and we chat and sew. For a few sessions we have been joining triangles and making squares, now we are joining squares to make strips.
So far there are five strips added to a fleece blanket. Some of the sewing is less, um, *sturdy* than ideal, so I have decided to quilt this one for added stability.

I'm using a variegated thread, and quilting free range lines at roughly 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 into each strip. 

It looks red and green here, but there is yellow and blue there too

While I was quilting, I had the embroidery machine going too: lots of button key rings for the craft sale at the Richmond & Kew quilt show later this year.

  

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Embroidery Extra

Machine embroidery is usually a happy task for me, but I guess that is when I can design something, and stitch it for me - 14 named fleeces,  two named dog towels, an a dressing gown are not as much fun!

Still they are done, and paid for so  I shouldn't really complain!

And much more fun was embroidering this name for a new arrival on an iSpy quilt

My other weekend project has involved getting ready for tonight.  My church hosts a number of Housegroups, and at the one I attend we have been sewing.  The old (and currently abandoned) project as well as the new plan were blogged about here.

The ladies did loads of sewing at the last meeting: pick up any two HSTs and sew them together

They are now all pressed, and this week they can choose to pick up two HSTs, or pick up two squares for sewing together, any colour any direction

I am really loving how bright this will be

Hadley's HSTs (copied)

A while ago I got the ladies at my church group sewing: we were making paper pieced string blocks and got this far 

We discussed who we were making it for, and unanimously agreed it had to be one of two ladies - Vikki or Sheila - lovely ladies from church - both of whom were fighting cancer.

Sadly Vikki died before we got much further, and while I know the quilt wasn't to blame, I kicked it into a corner in disgust, and couldn't bring myself to work on it while I was in mourning for such a lovely lady. I eventually got into the right frame of mind to finish the quilt for Sheila, and she died. Another lovely lady, such a loss to the village .  Another period of mourning :- (

Again I fell unable to complete the string quilt.  It has too many sad memories! At house group last Sunday Mandy made an observation - maybe its time to give up on this and start something else. I'm not sure it's a permanent surrender, but I think she's right that I need to move on at the moment.

The thought rattled around in my mind for a bit, and then I saw the Kona FQs I got from Ireland,

and was reminded of a project Hadley worked on last year -

(Pic stolen from Flying Blind - hope I'm forgiven)

 Hummmm?

• Can I cut rainbow FQs into 6" HSTs?
• Can non-sewing ladies stitch HSTs into squares?
• Can I easily restitch HSTs if needed?
• Will these units make a fab flimsy?

I reckon all these can be answered with a YES, so I'm leaving the string quilt to "mature" and we'll work on a copy of Hadley's quilt for a while!

Triangles cut - roll on next house group!

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Saturday Star

Well I had a "home alone" day today, waking up to an empty house, and it'll be just me until 10pm ish.

Much as I love my family, this is the best kind of day (once in a while at least!)

So in my pyjamas, over the first cup of coffee, I cut the biggest squares I could get out of my half metre dots.  Then I cut them into triangles.

Then I stitched and stitched and stitched.  Then pressed and pressed.  Then I joined the blocks into strips and then I realised what a beast I had created.  I joined two Ikea fleeces together and sewing the strips together, until I had this:

Isn't it wonderful!  I love this method of making a quilt top - I reckons HSTs aren't too bad when they are big, but these are probably too big, so I started a smaller version - then the iron packed up, so no more today.

(PS, if I turned this over you would see that two Ikea fleeces are not enough, I need to go and get a third!  So no more work on it for now, until I get to Ikea!  I can see errors: the puckered stitches and the mismatched seams, but I don't reckon you can!).