Friday Night and Saturday night Sew In

Friday night this week was Friday Night Sew In  - I was happy to join in and spend the evening with like minded crafters from around the globe.
It had been a busy week and I hadn't had a chance to prep anything for my evenings in my comfy chair so I've been knitting some more dishclothes. I had made some last year from cotton yarn that had been sitting around for a while. I wanted to keep knitting until I used it all up.

They don't look too bad......in this photo —

Nor in this photo —

But in this photo you see that I have created probably the ugliest dishcloth ever created 😔

Haha as I ran out of one cotton I added another and just kept on knitting until the end.

Definitely not one for the gift box, however I am sure my kitchen bench is not going to mind being wiped down by an ugly cloth!

On the positive side, this is all I have left from four skeins of the cotton yarn.

I knitted all of these cloths with two strands of yarn using *this pattern* which I found in Ravelry.

On Saturday I made sure I did some preparation so that I had something to do in the evening! 
I'm back to working on the Sip Tea and EPP mystery project that was run on Instagram in January. No longer a mystery, it's a lovely little sewing folder. 

This was how far I'd got —

After machine sewing it together yesterday afternoon, last night I sewed the opening up and attached the rosette.

There are a few more decorative features to add so I will continue on with it tonight.
(This was a free sewalong designed by @stitchingnotes and @nordiccrafter (on Instagram). They now have a detailed pattern available which I ended up purchasing to save back and forthing between all the posts. It's available *here* or *here*.)

Thank you Wendy for hosting us this weekend ♥

I have a bit of time left this afternoon before the evening rolls in so I hope to cut some Bear and Popstar blocks for the week's sewing. 

We have had a heavy rain warning for today/tonight but so far no rain has come although there has been a lot of wind. We really need a decent rain so we are hoping something will happen.
I've been starting my dinner prep a bit early so that I can cook up a pot of apples while the meal cooks. A bottle of stewed fruit a night keeps up with the windfalls and makes it less of a task for me.

So with all that in mind,

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Time In a Bottle Blog Hop

It's been a while since I've taken part in a blog hop, but when Carol, of Just Let Me Quilt, put out the call for this one, it seemed like a fun thing to join in with.

The challenge was to 'add an hourglass to your project".

The easy bit was signing up to take part - the difficult bit was to decide what to do. Luckily, I have, at my fingertips, an infinite amount of resources (haha that's tricky speak for 'an overflowing stash'). After a bit of a think and a rummage I decided to take an orphan block and add to it, using hourglass blocks.

The orphan block is one I made when I tested a Boxer Dog pattern for Juliet of Tartankiwi (back in 2019). Rather handsome, and because of the size, it's a block I'd always thought would make a great floor cushion.

The block measured twenty inches. I had a play in EQ8 and decided small hourglasses (as well as being fiddly) were too busy for the simply coloured centre block. Larger, four inch, blocks were going to be the perfect size. 

Luckily I found more of the background fabric to use. And the more autumnal coloured fabrics were the best colour match, too.

A moment of inattention meant a date with the quick unpick —

Et Voila —

Sadly this is as far as I got. I had hoped to get back to it and actually complete the cushion but we had a busy family week which thwarted any more attempts to sew.

I like to put plain outer borders on my cushions so the 'pretty part' doesn't disappear as it curves towards the back after inserting the cushion inner. This one now finishes at 32" - almost big enough for a small quilt but it is a big cushion I want!

I imagine finding some hard wearing fabric (denim or drill perhaps) scraps in the cupboard to use for the back. A zip inserted somewhere will complete it. Then it will go downstairs to the kids' hangout' room. You'll have to picture the finished result for now! 

Here are some photos of other blocks which I have tested/sewn for Juliet over the years, also finished into cushions. These two are quite small and are on the beds in the kids' room —

And these larger ones are on the small sofa in the dining/kitchen area —

Here are the other bloggers who are taking part today —

Inflorescence

Lynn's Blog

Karen's Korner

Scrapdash

Familypatchworks

The full list of bloggers for this hop is *here*.

Thank you Carol for hosting us all - it was fun to work on this challenge 😄

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Noses and Tassles

I have finally started a new project - well two, actually. Two young ladies were born late last year and a quilt for each of them has been on my to-do list for at least since then.  I have been itching to get these started - I decided that if I waited until I'd tidied up other loose ends before starting, they will still be in the pipeline when the wee girls start school!

The pattern is Bear and Bear Paws by Sew Fresh Quilts, and here is the first block —

Extra cute, I believe.

There are 6 bears per quilt, all in different fabrics. All the noses are the same though, and to streamline the process, I've been making more noses leader-ender fashion while doing other sewing.
The noses are the fiddliest part of the block so once I've made them, the bear faces will go together quite quickly.

Recently I finished another block for Wings and Pretty Things —

Even though it was a straight forward block one of the poor wee ladybirds had a bit of an identity crisis and needed unpicking! 

Oh dear!

I mentioned in my previous post that Mum was staying. She stayed for 10 nights and we managed to keep her free from bugs while she was here. Luckily not all of the visits with the kids were balcony visits —

She got a bit of her (incredibly fiddly) cross stitch done (sadly I forgot to get a progress photo) —

And I kept her company with a wee bit of knitting —

I thought I'd finished with making Barbie clothes but these little beanies found themselves made— 

It was Mum who suggested the coloured tassles and I was happy to run with the idea!

Just as well it's Feijoa season - the smallest fruits were perfect for modelling the beanies.

Just to show off our Feijoa crop, for those who are 'in the know'; below we have a small Feijoa with a beanie on, normal sized fruit cut in half and monster fruits off one particularly well producing tree this season —

The Time In a Bottle Bloghop, which I am joining in with, is coming up this week. My project is done as far as it will get done and I am looking forward to sharing that on my day; I just need to sort out the time zones so that it gets posted on the right day! Carol from Just Let Me Quilt is hosting it.

'til then,

happy stitches,