Scrappy blocks with Egyptian print

Here are those blocks, assembled into a top. I'll now put them in the pile for bordering, though it may be a while before I find something suitable. 

Cross Stitch Update

I've finished off the middle and made a good start on the third section of this piece this week - definitely on track for a finish before Hallowe'en. 

Extremely exciting sewing, part 2

This one was a bit more of a challenge than the curtains. Our local park has a little mini golf, which is run by the Friends, along with the cafe. The council originally fitted it out, but over the years, one of the flags has gone missing entirely (inluding the pole) and one has been chewed up by foxes (but still has the pole). We looked into replacing them, but you can only buy sets (e.g. 10-18) rather than single numbers, so I thought I'd have a go at a cheap replacement. 

The 13 is a bit weird, as I had to make up the platic fitting which goes inside the flag to keep it rigid - with the other flag, I was just able to reuse the one we had. 

But they do ok.  At the moment, 13 is resting on a bamboo garden pole, but we are ordering a new pole for it - those you CAN buy in single units.

Extremely exciting sewing, part 1

A couple of things are actually getting sewn in the past few days, though they aren't that exciting. The first, a set of curtains for under the counter in our local park non-profit cafe (I'm on the committee for the Friends of the Park). Just tidying away all the extra bits and pieces which live under the counter and are a bit messy.

Block Set Update

It's been a while since I did this, but with quite a bit of activity recently, thought it was about due. These are now all the block sets I have waiting - the birds and circular flying geese will stay with me anyway, so it's not really a problem that they are still waiting to be worked with. The others are getting a lot thinner on the ground - hoorah!  Perhaps it's time to make some new sets...

Matching up the borders

Despite what seems to me to be a relative lack of sewing in the past few months, I did have quite a good sized stack of tops which were ready to have borders added (for Project Linus) - so I took a few minutes to sort out some potential border fabrics for them. Here they are, matched up. I may decide that a few of them don't work when it comes to actually attaching the borders, but for the moment, they can go back in the box paired up and ready to roll...

ATC Friday: Haunted Houses

Another swap I joined with a specific theme - Haunted Houses. I do enjoy a good Hallowe'en themed swap - luckily, most of them are in summer, or I probably wouldn't have time for them... Just like regular ATCs, the houses are approximately 2.5x3.5 inches - but house shaped.

Purple Cat Quilt Top

And here's the next stage of the purple cat quilt top - it doesn't have a border on it yet, but at least the blocks are together.

Cross Stitch Update

Making good progress still (yay!) - finished the border around the middle section and filling in some more of the detail in the centre. I have high hopes for this actually being finished before Hallowe'en, despite it having a third section to complete. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the progress!

Little scrappies into Bigger scrappies

These blocks are made up from 4 smaller scrappy blocks each. I had a big stack of very small blocks; with four sewn together, you get an 8" block, which is a great size.

Here's a closer view:

Egyptian theme blocks

These blocks are similar to the last set I showed (with purple cats) except that the alternate fabric is an Egyptian print - again, something which I got from the stash of my local Project Linus coordinator. Eventually, these will get sewn into a small top as well. 

More time for stitching

I used a purple cat print from my Project Linus Coordinator's Linus Stash to alternate with some scrappy blocks to make larger blocks for a small quilt top. There are nine blocks like these, which I'll put together shortly (and then eventually border, probably with the same purple cat fabric, as I have quite a lot of it). 

A couple of little quilt tops

Finally getting a bit of a chance to sew, so I'm going through what block sets I have in the house, trying to get them used up into tops. Here are two small, very similar, tops made from some scrappy blocks bordered with novelty prints. In the fullness of time, these will get small borders and then be donated to Project Linus. For the moment, at least they've moved on from my block basket.

ATC Friday

Just for a change, here are a couple of sets of cards which I have made for specific themed swaps - I haven't had time to join many swaps during this past school year, but I'm taking advantage of my summer holidays to make some things.  This top on was for a Letter theme; a theme close to my heart as I love lettering on cards.

This swap theme was winged animals (ones which don't usually have wings, that is). Another theme I enjoy and have a small collection of. 

Cross Stitch Update

A bit more progress on this in the past week or so. The bit at the bottom has lots of small bits of different colours, so it's not quite as fast to stitch as the lettering or the border, which are larger quantities of a single colour, but it's still fairly quick.  I do hope to keep this one going so that I can finish it before Hallowe'en this year.

A few bits and pieces

We had a trip down to Ikea yesterday to pick up a much needed mattress for one of the kids' beds; the closest Hobbycraft is right down the road, so I had a quick stop to stock up on paper flowers and a few other bits and pieces...

ATC Friday

In some ways, these are my favourite of the round robin ATCs - you send out a random background, and then see what comes back. Working on them isn't quite as fun, as I feel like backgrounds don't have quite the creative challenge to them, but it's great to see how they come out...

Cross Stitch Update

Cross-stitching is something else I haven't done in quite a while, mostly because when I'm a bit tired in the evening, it's easier to just grab my tablet and catch up on email or play a game while watching telly than to get out the cross stitch stuff. But lately I've been making an effort (and of course, I'm less tired, as it's the summer holidays and I'm not working) so there has been actual progress. I pulled out this one, because if I do keep up the cross stitch, there's a chance I'll actually finish it before Hallowe'en. Which would be good. Lots of progress to show this week as it's mainly lettering, which stitches up very quickly. This was a mystery from last year, with three parts. As you can see, I'm partway through the second part. Watch this space. I hope. 

ATC Friday

This time around, the ATCs aren't ones I worked on as a second player - they are ones which came to me to finish off. Sometimes you get a card which has been worked on by two people which has lots of space to add stuff, like this one.

Sometimes, the cards are a bit fuller, so your choice of what to do is more limited. It's what keeps it interesting!

Cotton Robin: Quilting

And this is the quilt that came to me for quilting - a very cute piece and one which it wasn't too hard to decide what to do with. Sometimes it's really tricky to decide.  I went around the sunflowers, and filled in most of the rest with a meander, though I did some spirals (ish) in the triangles. 

The other thing I did was to quilt a sunflower in the centre section, to echo the two on either side. I think it came out pretty well; hopefully the owner likes it!