May Round-Up

I am glad that I signed up for challenges at the beginning of the year - they are really motivating me.

For the May One Monthly Goal I wanted to finish two mini quilts, and I just got the second one finished today!

This is what I made with the Stay at Home Sampler blocks from the Temecula Quilt Company on Instagram. The quilt is 20"x30".

The other is this Thimble Quilt I talked about last time (14"x25").

Since we are still staying home because of COVID 19 I am choosing to do things that I really enjoy, so both of these quilts are finished the same - small inner border, large outer border, and the machine quilting is the same as well - meander in the centre, loops in the inner border and hooked feathers for the outer border - real comfort sewing for me.

Thanks for the motivation Patty!!

For the May OPAM I finished five projects!

The above two mini quilts, two pairs of handspun socks, and a little orphan block wall hanging.

Both pairs of socks are toe-up, two-at-a-time, 58 stitches, on a 2.75mm needle. I used up every bit of handspun for both pairs of socks. Dyeing the fibre, spinning the yarn and knitting simple socks are definitely some of my favourite things.

I spun up yarn for a couple more pairs of socks-

This one might be a bit thick for socks and work better for slippers.

This one is a rainbow gradient.

This little wallhanging was made with some of my orphan blocks (so I am counting it towards the WOOFA Challenge too). Our son was experimenting with making little hangers for embroidery with his new CNC plasma cutter, and I wanted to try one out (it works well, just needs some design tweaks). It is 5"x14".

Thanks Kris and Cheryll for the motivation too!!

I mentioned last time that our son had made a CNC machine for the plasma cutter, so lots of metal has been cut recently (he did have a week off while waiting for a replacement part to be delivered). His is selling some items -

Mainly little birds of his own design.

This is a velociraptor from a pattern he purchased (he is selling the cut pieces as a kit - permission to sell came with the pattern)

He has also cut out a few other things from pictures online

 This is my favourite - a design by Jack Willoughby, it just needs a red marble in its mouth.

It is 12" high and 23" wide.

 This is one I spray painted.

Even though I had to wear a wool hat this morning (just above freezing temperatures), summer has arrived and we have been gardening!!

The perennial garden is doing well.

The vegetable garden is planted, and things have started sprouting.

We put in a new little area at the back of the yard (our son made a Torii Gate last year and painted it orange last week).

The apple trees are blooming beautifully.

A Baltimore Oriole.

All the best!♥︎

Last of the Tea Towels!

I finished weaving the last set of tea towels from kits I bought from Jane Stafford Textiles in January (I had originally thought these would be a year long project, but I was so glad I had bought them all when life changed).

These are the Huck Lace Cotton Tea Towels in the Falling Leaves colour way.

Fresh off the loom - the kit made 8 towels, each over 30" long before washing.

I added about 18" extra warp, and still had plenty of cotton leftover when finished.

Fresh off the loom the fabric looked like this-

the white line (crochet cotton) is the cutting line between towels

And after washing like this-

Seven of the towels were made with Huck Lace squares,

and one towel I wove with Warp Spots (it created a denser square). It was harder to see the pattern when I was weaving so I only did one, but I love how it looks after washing and I should have done more.

I also wove a coordinating band on the inkle loom.

Once again, I don't need loops on the towels but I love how they look.

With the extra warp I used up the leftover bits on the bobbins and wove one bobbin of boucle cotton, to make four little kitchen cloths. Two layers of fabric (one plain and one with boucle), just sewn around with a serger.

 All three types of tea towels.

I bought the kits of learn different types of weaving, which I did, plus I learned so much more. The biggest was 'just do it' - like most things in life. They were all much easier than I expected,

and now I have some nice gifts.

Finishing these towels was my April project for One Monthly Goal, from Elm Street Quilts - thanks Patty!

Best friends! 

All the best!♥︎

February Round Up

February was a good month for me to finish a few big projects.

At the beginning of the month I finished a Pineapple Quilt (only took 4 years!).

I started this handspun tunic early last year by cleaning and preparing the wool. Spun the yarn over the summer, and started knitting it at the beginning of September.

I also finished knitting a hat out of some handspun yarn that I had dyed with indigo (this one had been my take-along/car knitting project).

I was really pleased to have started and finished weaving some fabric for my Mom in the month (especially since we were away for a week). 7 yards of fabric! 

I used up five of my orphan blocks (not the orphan block quilt I want to eventually make, but nice to use up some of the blocks) to make a table mat for my cousin (we stayed with her in Quebec). I am counting this one towards my WOOFA challenge too.

I had a couple of little finishes this month too-

 a tiny needle felted mouse

and a Valentine pincushion. 

This month I completed all my monthly goals for OMG, worked on two of my WOOFA Challenge projects, and finished 7 projects - 4 counting towards OPAM.

All the best!♥︎

Pincushions

I belong to Kathleen Tracy's (from A Sentimental Quilter) online group called Small Quilt Talk. For Valentine's Day there was a pincushion challenge. I made a little crazy quilt heart out of some leftover French General fabric, and an old key with a heart shaped opening.

I used a piece of wire so that the pincushion could hang up - let's be honest it is more of an ornament than a practical pincushion.

It is an addition to my other pincushions I have made over the years. The oldest one is the felt one with my initials that I made in primary school in England when I was about 10. I only use a couple of them, but they make nice decorations. It seems to be popular now to have bowls of decorative, matching pincushions, maybe that is something to try next.

Photos from around -

 Today was incredibly windy.

 All the blowing snow was something to see.

 I thought the colours were so pretty.

All the best!♥︎

January Round-Up and a Start

January was a productive month for me. I think the main reason was because to celebrate 10 years of blogging I decided to blog every day for the month - I needed things to write about! Some days it was just about tiling bathrooms, but at least those are finished now too.

I finished four projects in January - a woven table runner (with handspun yarn as part of the weft), a quilted wallhanging, a quilted table runner, and a quilt for a single bed.
I completed four projects as part of OPAM (Thanks Kris!), and two of the projects were part of my WOOFA Challenge (thanks Cheryll!). I realized I am motivated by challenges!

Now for the start-

I finished sewing the Pineapple Quilt blocks together, and pinned it ready for machine quilting.

I auditioned some thread, and decided on the red. Both are Essential Pro thread that I had such good luck with on the last quilt.

I started quilting an overall meander.

All the best!

Chicken Potholder

Today I made a quick and simple project -



It is a chicken potholder from Barbara Brackman's "Moda Country Fair Blog Hop".
It was a fun project to make. The hardest part was finding two small dark matching buttons for the eyes!
If I was to make it again I would add a piece of light interfacing on both of the chicken body pieces, just to give it a bit more stiffness, it is very floppy. I did use foil batting (which is a bit stiffer than normal batting). I used the freezer paper method for the applique, and next time I would try making the wings separately and just tacking them on so that you could slide your fingers in them (my mum had a chicken potholder like that when I was young).

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Update - Rosie has a beautiful chicken potholder in patchwork - another great idea for next time.

More Stuff

Not much sewing or blogging these days!
We leave for a two week holiday (in France) tomorrow and I just had a few things to add before we leave.

I forgot to say at the beginning of this month that for those making the Hop to It blocks we are making Block 10. Since I have not been doing much sewing, I hope it is fine that this block will be for August and September.

I did put together the EQ block of the month - August Amusement.

I also finished another mug rug with the free pattern (finished one thing this month for OPAM). I just had to do some free motion quilting and the binding.

The garden is still doing fine (lots of cucumbers this year) -


We have had a bit of rain this week, maybe the grass will come back to life. Last month was a record breaking month for the least amount of rain.

Hopefully in September I will feel like getting back into the swing of things (two family funerals in a 2½ week period gives a different perspective on life). The vacation has come at a perfect time for us.

Au revoir et a bientôt!♥