What to do next: Groups, swaps and charities

Lots of very exciting groups have started up this year:

Hadley and friends are running a swap they are calling Mouthy Stitchers - they are encouraging lots of chat via Flickr as each member makes a purse for a randomly allocated victim




Sarah is hosting the Stained Glass Quilt Along that I have decided to have a go at:











I'm getting so little sewing time at the moment, and I'm getting behind with blogging, blog reading, and emails, so I have decided not to join Hadley's, much as I'd love to.  I know that's I'd either not be as chatty as the group would like, or I'd let other stuff slip, and risk resenting the swap

However, I am going to have a go at a suggestion from Annabelle at Annabelle Serendipity.  She has blogged about Blankets of Love . . . [copied straight from her blog, hope you don't mind Annabelle]

In 1992 a charity was set up in Australia by two sisters, one a midwife and the other a quilter, the aim of which was to provide grieving parents with a special quilted memento of the child they lost. This lovely idea then spread all around the world and is now followed in almost all neo-natal wards.

The quilts requested are to be 'nappy' sized - approximately twenty-four inches square, extremely soft and extra special. The quilt is then tagged with a label provided by the charity.

If you would like to take part in this worthwhile project do contact The Child Bereavement Charity - Blankets Of  Love via Julie Cullingworth on 01494 568917.

And this is something I will be making quilts for.

darn darning!

As previously mentioned, I don't knit, but mother does - and is fab at it.

Over the years she has knitted me a number of really warm Norwegian style jumpers.  The most recent one (3 or 4 years ago) is a style called Voss: a place near Bergen where coincidentally my aunt and uncle have a 'hutte' or cottage.  This design would usually be knitted in just two colours, but I couldn't decide!

With the colder weather this last week, I went to get this jumper out of the wardrobe: can you see a problem?

 

What if I put my finger behind part of it

I am very peeved.  I don't know if I caught it on something and didn't notice, or if I have moths, but I certainly have some darning to do, sigh

I wore this jumper to church on Sunday instead - more traditionally Norwegian.  The scarf isn't traditional at all: it was bought from Holister - in Florida!  It looked fab, but was too thin, so I have lined it with fleece which gives it a better shape, and much warmer

I have managed some sewing: it doesn't look much but, but these 50 or so blocks were last seen laid out on the floor in mum's spare room, where they were pinned together in rows, well now they are stitched together in rows, ready foir ironing and suddenly I have a gazillion more pins that I had yesterday!

Even more TLAs and other acronyms

Here are some of my favourites - although the one I use the most is when I have a CRAFT moment - Cant Find A Flipping Thing

DH = Dear (or Darn) Husband
DIY = Do it yourself
DSM = domestic sewing machine
F8/FE = Fat Eighth
FART = Fabric Acquisition Road Trip
FFO = Finally Finished Object
FIU = Finish It Up
FLIMSY = Finished top, not quilted
FM = free motion quilting
FQ = Fat Quarter
Frog Stitching = ripping out stitched seams (rip it, rip it)
HP = hand piecing
HQ = hand quilting
HST = Half square triangle
HSY = Haven't Started Yet (pronounced hussy)
NQR = Not Quilt Related (an alternative to OT)
OSMG = Old Sewing Machine Guy
PHD = Project Half Done
PIGs = Project In a Grocery Sack
PIPS = projects in process
PITS = Project In Totes
PIW = project in waiting (waiting to grow up to be a WIP)
QIMM = Quilts in My Mind
QST= Quarter Square Triangles
RTFM = Read The Flipping Manual (last resort!)
SABLE = Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy
SEX = Stash Enhancement EXperience (or eXcursion)
SID = stitch-in-the-ditch quilting
Siggies = Squares of fabric with signatures and often other info written on them
Squishie = Envelopes filled with swap fabric/blocks (squishy is the way they
feel)
STASH = Special Treasures All Secretly Hidden
TBQ = To Be Quilted
TGIF = Thank God It's Finished!
TOAD = trashed object abandoned in disgust
UFO = UnFinished Object
USO = UnStarted Object
VIP = Very Important Project
WHIMM = Works Hidden In My Mind
WIMM = Work in my mind
WIP = Work in progress
WISP = Work In Slow Progress
WIVSP = Work In Very Slow Progress
WIWMI = Wish It Would Make Itself
WOA = Work of art
WOMBAT = Waste of Money, Batting, and Time
WWIT = What Was I Thinking

UFO, HST and other TLAs (*)

At last I have managed some sewing, and I have been tackling what is probably my oldest UFO.  When I first went to Sandown park for a quilting festival, I admired a quilt that was about 8 inch squares, made from two triangles where one was blue, and the other was stripes of fabric. (Now I can tell you that they were HSTs using strings)

So I started sewing strips of leftover fabric, and cutting squares of blue and squares of strips, and joining them with two seams either side of the middle (if you don't understand, see end of the post, but be warned, very boring to make!) and ended up with 17 completed units

 
(no, I have no idea how I ended up with an odd number)

and a few dozen striped squares, and some blues

and two flimsies of strips waiting to be cut into squares

and a loathing of stitching HSTs that is still with me.

I cant accurately date the start of this UFO, but I recognise most of the fabrics, and remember whose quilt I used them in.  I can see Teddy bears from when Great Niece Emily was born (2000), and purple with white spots when a work colleague's daughter Sophie was born (2004), but none of the citrus fabric from when niece India was born (2006), so I'm guessing it was started about 10 years ago, and worked on a few times in the following half dozen years then put away.

Part of the problem was that I didn't want to make any more HSTs, and the other part was not knowing what to do with the blocks..  So today I took the bull by the horns, and make big pinwheels from the HSTs.

So that makes 8 pinwheels - NBG for making a quilt.

I can make a square and just use string squares in the middle, like this, and then add more strings around the outside (there are another 38 cut to size, plus the two flimsy, I wont run out!)

Or I could alternate pinwheels and strings like this,

Or I can return it to the PIGs group, and put the whole lot back into it's bag until I am next inspired . . .  anybody got any ideas, suggestions or preferences?

.  .  .  .  .  *      *      *      *      *  .  .  .  .  . 

UFO = Unfinished Object
HST = Half Square Triangle (explained brilliantly by Rachel at p.s. I quilt
TLA = Three Letter Acronyms
NBG = No Blinking Good
PIGs = Project In a Grocery Sack


There are plenty more of these if you want them!

Following Instructions - Moi?

I'm not a great one for following instructions in any aspect of my life, which has guided my patchworking in certain directions, but I am going to have a go!

The very talented Sarah designed and made this scrummy quilt and is, starting next week, running a blog based class on how to make one. I have all the Australian Aboriginal themed fabrics and a whole load of black that I think will look fab in this design, so I am going to have a go at (gasp) following instructions! I am hoping my love of randomness will overcome my issues with instructions (and if I do things differently in places I'm not sure many people will notice, or care!)

If you fancy joining in, visit Sarah at her blog for details

work is a four letter word!

Much as I love my job, it is getting in the way of my sewing :-(  I haven't even switched on my sewing machine for over a week, although I did spend last night teaching nephew #2 how to use a sewing machine so he could teach himself book binding (don't ask!)

Anyway, the lovely Fiona has done an article about me on her UK based Sewing Directory website.  Its a great site where you can search for services, courses, people associated with sewing,and she has posted info about all of my Fun With Fabric courses - thanks Fiona.  Why not check out the site!

Tonight I'm clearing the decks so I can sew all weekend!

Hope you have achieved more than I have

To knit or knot to knit?

[for those who gave me their addresses, I have *finally* been to the post office, so I hope the bags arrive soon!]

I can't knit, but my mummy can, and last summer while I made the texture quilt for her friend, she knitted LOADS of grey squares for me. I have been sewing them together, first in pairs, then joining the pairs, and I think I'm over half way

:-)

Has anyone else had problem with Blogger refusing to accept a photo as the limit had been exceeded?  I just had to delete a whole load of photos from a Picassa account (that I didn't know I had) to be able to load this photo!

A finish from me, and a finish from him

 I've been plodding through my to-do-list again, and yesterday I finished mum's birthday present - another Pink Penguin's lunch bag's big brother

Brian has stopped working on the kitchen floor, but I do have a new door on the downstairs loo:

And thanks to Pinterest inspiration - how fab is this handle?  And there is a spoon on the other side of the door :-)

More Block Lotto Blocks and two finishes

The blocks from my Block Lotto win, keep tumbling through the letter box:

I am so looking forward to making this quilt.   There is one more package to arrive, so I am going to plod through some UFOs and then I'll allow myself to start when the final blocks arrive

I have cleared a few more UFOs - they really didn't need much, just the binding being attached by hand, but they have now made in from the UFO list to the Finished Quilts list - yippee!

Pure Blue London Bricks #2

Orphan Vanishing 9 Patch in creams 

A finish, an Ooops, and an off!

The Finish:
This pinwheel quilt was almost finished before I went to Oz - just needed the binding to be hand stitched.    Yay - now finished!  This will go to my friend Sue who had breast cancer 15 years ago.  She fund raises at school each year for the local Breast Centre Unit, the Parapet, in Windsor, and calls the fund raising Pink Day - so I thought this would be suitable for her raffle!

The Ooops:
I tried to finish the Christmas tree Jackie sent me last year . .  I had sewn on the decorations, and stuffed it

but didn't consider that the 'branches' would then scrunch together, and all decorations near the middle would vanish into what the family kindly described as tree-bum-cheeks

Drat!  I now need to unpick and move 3/4 of the decorations - that might be a job for next Christmas!

And the Off
I did get all the Fat Quarter bags wrapped up ready for posting

And had great fun taking apart blingy key rings (left), and turning them into crafty key rings (right) - I wish I'd bought some more, does anyone know where they sell them in the UK?

Happy New Year

Wishing all of you

all the very best

for 2012