Sunday, September 30, 2012

More bits and pieces


Here's another top, this one made from yet another set of blocks inspired by the block lotto. I have had these for a little while but wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them - there were an awkward number (15) - setting them out 3x5 was too long. In the end, I removed the two that were most similar to others in the bunch and just used 15 in a small top.  The other two can go somewhere else to do something else, someday!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Pink Stripy Strippy


Finally had a little sewing time - it's been few and far between this month - and finished the little strippy top. Tomorrow I'm hoping to have more sewing time - perhaps several hours in a row, if I'm really lucky!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Cross stitch update


A fair amount of progress this week - I've completely finished the middle section, and begun on the last third - the alphabet is done, along with my initials -the date will also go on the bottom (just the year) - obviously there's the bird to stitch, and the flowering vine to match the one down the left. But not long to go!

Monday, September 24, 2012

As the Crow Flies


I haven't done a lot of sewing lately (although I did work a tiny bit on the strippy quilt top on the weekend)


but I did make some ATCs for a swap with the theme of As The Crow Flies. 


The cards had to feature a crow and a bit of some sort of map. 




Thursday, September 20, 2012

Cross stitch update


So, this past week I worked on the chilis again. It may not look like it. In fact, comparing the photo to last week's (see below, top photo) it may actually look like I went backwards. But that's because...


when I took the piece out of the frame, look what I discovered:


Can you spot the problem? Yep, it's the wrong way around - the piece needs to run down the length of the canvas. Sigh. So, I unpicked it all (if I'd had another piece of the right size canvas at home, I probably would have just chucked it). And then I started again. So really, I've made pretty good progress!  Don't even ask how I managed to stitch it the wrong way up!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

More stripping


In addition to working on a small piece for a swap, which I'm not going to show until it's finished (the swap, that is - the piece is finished already) I did actually do some other work this weekend. I decided to tackle my strips again - they were getting a bit out of control.


This is the after photo; beforehand, the strip pile (at the back of the photo) nearly reached the top of the basket.  What I've done this time is to cut them to the closest quarter inch, then stitch them together into long, long strips (rolled in top photo) and then use those rolls for some small strippy quilts. The first one, which is only a start uses some strips of hand-dyes interspersed, and I will carry on in that vein, but I also think I'll do another in just strips.


It also occurs to me that I have  bag of binding offcuts, which are 2 1/4" strips, really. I ought to incorporate them, as well!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Cross-stitch update


Good progress this week - I finished the big bird, and did quite a bit of the miscellaneous background stuff. I might be ready to move onto the third (and final) part of this after the next round of stitching on it... I didn't think I'd get that much done, as I had two quilts to bind (one very small, but the other large) during my hand-stitching time this week.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Another finish


...and this time, a big one - Nadia's quilt is done, including the binding - hoorah!  She's going to come collect it in a few weeks' time, which is good for her as she'll be able to have it on her bed when we get to quilt season...

Monday, September 10, 2012

World's Fastest Filling Basket...


I'm sure I just emptied this a week or so ago!  But the least interesting sewing related thing I did this weekend was go through the mending basket - a few holes in seams, a missing button, a shirt where I changed all the buttons because the ones which came with the shirt were too small and kept coming out of the buttonholes (what's with that, anyway - it's not the first time I've had to do that!), a Converse All Star with a hole needing darning, a pair of too-big school shorts, and another hole in my old white linen trousers (they are rather patched now, but highly comfy). Told you it wasn't exciting!


Sunday, September 09, 2012

Finished!


And here it is, binding all sewn down neatly. Ta da!

Saturday, September 08, 2012

Baby quilt - quilted!


This weekend's homework was to quilt and bind this baby quilt for the sister of a friend at work, whose baby is due the 23rd of September.


I used a simple line pattern - wavy lines with loops alternating with wavy lines with hearts. It works.

Thursday, September 06, 2012

New cross stitch


Having finished the cupcakes, it was time ot put a new stitchery into rotation, so I dug out these Chili Peppers - a kit I've had for years, which I picked up for a fiver somewhere on sale (fabric and threads included). I thought it looked fun - and actually, it's not as bad as it might be, with all the different reds and oranges - it still stitches very quickly - this is only several evenings' work above. 


Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Cross stitch Update


As expected, I finished the cupcakes.  There wasn't a lot left to do, I admit!  I have started something new to put in the rotation with the Loose Feathers piece; I'll show that tomorrow, though. It's quite different. And has a lot of red!


Nadia's quilt - quilted


Don't think I ever showed this once it came back from being longarmed. I have now attached the binding and need to sew it down - that will probably take me a week, given the size of the quilt!


Sunday, September 02, 2012

More scrappy blocks


Another thing I've been doing, amidst other sewing, for the past few weeks, is making these blocks. I had the centres for a while - they were some of the smaller scrappy log cabins I made this year from scraps - 6" blocks. I added four triangles to the outside out each block, using small pieces of hand-dyes from my stash of hand-dyed fabrics, to create these colourful blocks. They aren't sewn together in this photo, and I'm not sure if I will sew them all together or sew into two separate tops - it would make quite a large top with them all together, so I might do two.  But for now, I am simply putting the blocks away in my block stash, as the next thing on my list must really be some quilting and some attaching of binding!

Saturday, September 01, 2012

Scrappy stars, again


I finished the last of the scrappy stars today, and stitched them together.  Another one for the quilting pile. Someday!