Tall Ships

A few ships for this month's block lotto - the theme being blue ships on a white background or white ships on a blue background.  Four is probably all I'll make, as I have a busy month - and also, I'm trying to cut back on the number of lotto blocks I make, as it's getting quite expensive to mail them to the winners, who are usually not in Europe. 

Adding to the backgrounds...

Yesterday I showed the backgrounds waiting to be added to.  Luckily, I had lots of time to do some art in the morning (I decided to skip going swimming with the kids) so I managed to work on those background, plus the three more which arrived in the post today!  To to brown background with hessian "grass" I added some birds.

And to the black and white backgrounds, I added some words (a different word on each card) and some coloured gemstones

I got these backgrounds - sort of vintage ad reproductions:

And to them, I added some pictures of vintage couples, using some rusted paper as mini backgrounds.

I also got a set of little red watercoloured flowers, which stumped me for a while (I'm not good at drawing, so I couldn't just add some leaves or stems or butterflies or something)

In the end, I went down a totally different track, and cut a very thin border from a piece of red fuzzy material and added a tiny bit of vintage lace. I'll be interested to see what player three does!  All of these cards are ones which need to go to a third player to be finished, so room needs to be left for someone else to work.

And finally, a card on which I was to be third player. This is a card I admired when the first person posted them - it was just the birds at that point - and the second player said she'd send them to me. Which is great. Except that I can't really draw or paint, as I've mentioned before, so I was a bit nervous about working on them.  They are so delicate, I didn't want to do anything which would overwhelm them. 

Here's what I chose to do in the end - tiny paper leaves, from a hand-made paper (not by me) with leaves in it, and a label of the name of the bird. All three cards have the same bird, though they are slightly different in shape. And all three branches are slightly different in shape, so the leaf placement is different on each card.

I think they are really sweet!

It's a great challenge working on a card as part of the finished product instead of just making one from scratch, but what you end up with can be really interesting and lovely.  If I remember, I'll try to update all the cards I was second player on, when I get them back after the third player has worked on them!

A few backgrounds to add to!

June, for some reason, seems to be the month that everyone I know wants to visit London - our weekends are very busy.  Still, I'm hoping this weekend to have a little time to sew and craft - included to be able to add something to these backgrounds, which I've received in the post.  Luckily, working on a round robin ATC takes a little less time than (usually) than making one from scratch; as there are three people who work on it, you don't want to add too much, as you won't leave space for the following player. I am the second player on both of these sets of backgrounds, so I need to leave space for a third person to add something before the cards are complete (we each get one of the cards in the end - it's fun).  I'll probably try to make some backgrounds of my own to send out as well, but I guess that will depend on time. Watch this space!

Fabric buying

As those of you who read this blog regularly will know, I try to limit my fabric buying to a few times a year - e.g. the sale at Farnham Maltings or a trip to a quilt show, though of course I occasionally see bargains I can't resist. I've been sewing from stash quite a bit in the past few years, which is great, but what it does mean is that I've really depleted my stash in some areas, especially because I play the block lotto, which requires specific fabrics - a wide variety of different fabrics and often with a lot of leeway, which is great for using up small bits of stash - but what I've depleted in my own stash is the sorts of fabrics we tend to use for backgrounds - like white, cream, white-on-white and so forth. So I've caved in and ordered a few FQs of white-on-white fabric - not the most exciting thing to show, but I'm happy to see it in the post, as it means I can try to make a few blocks for the June block lotto, which is lovely blue boats on a white background (and vice versa). Maybe this weekend!

Cross stitch update

It's been a while since I worked on this piece, but as I had finished the Spring Sampler and had one evening left before my tradtional, self-imposed, switching over day of Wednesday, I decided to have a go at the latest installment of this piece. As the installments are quite small, I knew I could get a good chunk stitched, even if I only had one evening...   I worked on the bird with the spirally tail - he's almost done now, except for beak, eye, legs and filling in the little heart. There is also a bit of branch and a word, a small section of top border, and a round design at the top border. None of this will take long to finish, when I next pick it up.  This summer, when I am away on holiday, I probably won't take two pieces to switch between, which will be a little odd - of course, I probably won't get as much stitching done either, as I mainly do it when I am sitting watching telly, and I won't do much of that on holiday. Though I'll do more sitting around chatting, so I might stitch quite a bit at those times!  Anyway, back to the irises for the next week, and then I will finish this and start one of the little sheep virtues - really looking forward to those - they are very cute.

Spring Sampler

Yes, I know it's not Wednesday, but I've finished the little Spring Sampler tonight, so thought I'd show it anyway. The leaves on the flowers definitely work better with a darker colour. I picked out the fence as well (you can hardly see it in the bottom photo) and redid it in a light brown so that it shows. I think the model was stitched on a darker fabric than mine is.  Tomorrow I will pull out the next installment of the Faith bird piece (on the pink fabric) and do some work on that - it's not a large piece, so it won't take too long to stitch up, though I shan't get it all done in one evening, so it will have to wait a while in rotation anyway... But I can make a start!

Low volume baby quilt - finished!

And here's the baby quilt with the binding stitched down - it's off to the library tomorrow so the organiser can have it a few weeks before the fair to sell raffle tickets. It's very sweet - I'm sure someone will enjoy winning it!

One I prepared earlier

Only a tiny bit of sewing time today, as we were expecting guests for lunch - I did have time to attach the binding to the baby quilt from yesterday, though I haven't stitched it down yet. Instead of showing that not-very-interesting stage of the process, here's a top I put together a while back.  I realised when I went to lay out the blocks that I hadn't made the right number of each type, so it took some creative arrangement, but it works ok in the end, I think.  Another for Project Linus.

Low volume baby quilt

Due to various changes in my weekend plans, I had a little time today to do some quilting - luckily, there was only a little quilting to be done. This is one of two tops I put together from the low-volume heart blocks I won recently in the block lotto.  The other top will go into my baby quilt stash for the next time it's needed, but this one is going to the Friends' group at my local library to help fundraise at their summer fair. 

It's not quite finished yet - still have to do the binding, which I hope I have a chance to attach tomorrow - but at least it's quilted - I just used a simple loop meander with some hearts thrown in. Quick and easy.

More organising

A few days back, I showed a sort out of some paper drawers - well, I have now really completed the job and gone through all my drawers which hold paper and card, very thoroughly.   They are now sorted to within an inch of their lives - hopefully I can keep them this way!

The drawer at the top has card and greeting cards and playing cards in it; also some ATC sized backgrounds I have either cut, made or swapped.   This drawer has thinggs like postage stamps, words & phrases, etc., each in an appropriate envelope. 

Here I have a drawer with stickers, stick-on gems, transparencies, transfers, and anything else which isn't strictly paper but still falls under the general "paper" umbrella.

This one has printed pictures and cut outs, image sheets, etc.

And this one now has paper and card in all sizes, not just the larger pieces, which is what it had before. The smaller pieces and off-cuts are in envelopes to the side.  

This really does make it much faster to find what you need for making ATCs and other things, but keeping it organised can be a real pain. 

Splash of Lime - the final

I know I showed this before, but here it is with the binding completely on - totally finished. I really like this quilt - almost a shame to be giving it away!

Cross stitch update

Not a huge amount of progress this week, but that was expected, as I put the binding on the Splash of Lime quilt (which I will show, completely finished, later) and bound, sleeved and added a label to the Cotton Robin quilt (which I can't show yet, but will do in the fullness of time). 

Still, I did get a bit done - teh top two flowers are now totally done, although there's still a leaf that needs finishing at the top of the lefthand one. I now need to work on the leaves below the middle flower. I decded to start doing the inner (black) border and some of the outer border as I go along, to keep it from being a boring finish at the end of the project.  So far, so good.

Make do and mend survey

A while back I was contacted by someone at moneysupermarket.com, asking if I was interested in taking an upcoming survey about crafters and mending & recycling and so forth. I was happy to do this, as I do make a number of things from scratch, but also, believe in mending things where possibly rather than simply replacing them.  Nt that I enjoy it, particularly, mind you, but I believe in it in principle). It just seems wasteful to buy a new pair of trousers rather than simply fix the split seam on the old ones...I don't make clothes anymore (though I have in the past) but I do mend and alter, and I think it's a shame more people don't.

Anyway. I digress.

If you are someone who mends or reuses - or if you have strong feelings on the subject - you are more than welcome to take the survey, too. It's not long and is quite straightforward (though there were some questions I would have liked to have been able to answer with more of a "a bit of both" type answer rather than yes/no/don't know, which are the options for most of the questions).   If you want to give it a go, it's here:

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/money/surveys/make-do-and-mend/

Cotton Robin Sneak Peak

I've been taking part again in the Cotton Robin, a mini-quilt round robin organised by the lovely Julie. I really enjoy the round robin, though sometimes it's even more of a stretch than I had anticipated. The one thing I don't like, though, is not being able to share what I'm working on until the whole thing is finished (though of course, I enjoy having a surprise when my own piece comes home).  Anyway, here's a tiny sneak peek of the piece I quilted for this round (final round) which is on its way home later this week. In time, I hope to show all the pieces I worked on and the work I did on them!

Exciting binding

(notice how I resisted a play on the word "spell-binding"?)  Most of what I did in today's small amount of sewing time, I can't actually show, as it's the quilting on the Cotton Robin, which I have to mail to its owner by the 10th of June (nothing like leaving things until the last minute).  It took me quite a while to work out how I wanted to quilt it, but the actual quilting is pretty quick. I just have a little bit more to do in the borders and then I'm done - of course I have to binding it as well, but it's little, so that won't take long.  I'll try to take a photo which won't give things away to use as the sneak peek, if I remember, but in the meantime, here's a look at the other thing I did today - make and attach the binding for the Splash of Lime quilt (the binding fabric is what I used on the back, as it happens). Now to get it all sewn down...

Splash of Lime

Back from the longarmers!  Doesn't this look lovely? 

The quilting is particularly striking in the dark blue border, but it looks good everywhere. Woo hoo.  Now to get the binding on before the occasion for which it's a gift...

Black, white and bright baby quilt, part 2

This photo just shows all the blocks made and laid out - they aren't stitched together yet - but it shouldn't take too long to do that. Then it will be a matter of quilting it!  I have a few other things at the top of my deadline list before I can get back to this one, but it won't be too long, I hope.

Black, white & bright baby quilt

I've started another project - I mentioned it the other day - but this time at least it's for something specific, with a specific deadline. It's a baby quilt; beyond that, I'm not saying just yet. I bought these two black and white prints at Farnham Maltings in January with the intention of using them in a baby quilt (or two - although I may use the leftovers for the back of the quilt). 

As the gender of this particular baby is as-yet-unknown I decided to go with something colourful but neutral. I chose these two lizard prints as a starting point, and of course, decided to make log cabin blocks. You probably wouldn't expect anything else from me!

Here are the other colours I pulled out to go with the lizards in the end.  And yes, "stripey" does count as a colour group in this quilt!

Cross stitch update

Lots of progress on this little guy this week - including a lot of the (rather boring) green lawn. I am using DMC subsitute colours on this piece, and notice that the green stems and leaves in the flowers doesn't really contrast much with the grass, so I think I might unpick just those small bits and stitch with something darker. it's only 20 stitches or so in each flower, I think worth doing!  There's probably one more week's work here, unless I get really productive (or really busy) so I'll soon be able to move on to the next installment of The Flock, which I have waiting. But next week, back to the irises...

Flock of geese and lots of cabins

Here's what I finished up in my sewing - there are three geese for the block lotto and 15 (only 9 pictured) to keep. 

And a stack of 20 scrappy log cabins with HST centres.   I also started something else, but I'll show that later - it's a project with a specific purpose and a required finish date - aren't you impressed?