Tidying up at the end of April

Since I came out of isolation and resumed a normal life, I haven't had much chance to sew, or blog. However today it is wet so I am going to attempt to have a tidy up post before the month ends.

I took a photo of the Moda Love quilt top I made at Scrub stitching. I didn't have a complete photo to share when I showed the Moda Love quilts everyone had made, back in *this* post. I made this from a charm pack, In The Meadow by Riley Blake designs. Because I didn't plan my colours before sewing my HSTs mine went down a slightly different track. And I added borders to help the size grow a little - 

Hmm I wonder how long before I get this one quilted??! It's on the pile at least!
*Here* is a link to the Moda Love pattern. It now seems to only come up as a PDF.

Whoops, I told a lie, I did get a bit of time in the sewing room aka The Palace, yesterday. I decided to unpick a couple of the applecores in my applecore quilt to slightly redistribute the colours. Even though this is a top I didn't want to spend hours fussing to get the fabrics right, there were a few too many darker ones a bit close together which I have now swapped out. (I allowed mself to unpick four only!) This will also be bordered to so it has gone into my bag to take to work for a fabric hunt.

I've hunted out some photos of the makes I took to Scrub Stitching with me. First up, the dress up for our Australiana themed dinner - 

The Gumnut beanie - 

I used a basic beanie pattern and 14 ply (chunky) wool yarn. There are lots of cute baby hats with 'stalks' on them so I looked one up to work out how to finish mine. This actually knitted together pretty quickly - and I made two, (and unpicked one) as the first one was too small!

And to 'finish' my gum outfit, I made a gumleaf from a Twig and Tale pattern - I purchased and used the NZ leaves pattern a few years ago. This leaf is from their Australian series. Again, another quick sew which I had done in a day (just as well as I was running out of time by then!).

I left this in Australia for kiwikid Sue's wee grandson. I hope he enjoys it for some imaginative play as he grows :-)

Today Odie claimed the beanie as his own, saying that it looked like the hat that Dipsy, the green Teletubby, wears! If it will make him wear a hat, great!!!

I didn't have photos to show you the gift that I made for our mystery swap at Scrub Stitching. Janice received mine and shared photos on her blog, which I have now 'stolen'. I made this little bag that folds down to a useful container for using - 

I made one of these for my swap gift last time too (2019). Linda, who received it, loved it so I thought I may as well make it again!

The pattern is Catch All Cutie by Teresa Weaver.

One of the things I wanted to do at Scrub Stitching was to make a start on my On Williams Street QAL blocks. I had been eyeing up this QAL since it started in January but hadn't had the chance to do anything about it till now. Each month they offer a free motion quilting design for a block. Each month's block is the same, but the quilting designs are different. They are quilted as blocks and then all joined later.

The 15" block is a pretty cool block. However at this stage, one night, I decided to put this one into the corner for some time out!

Nice and fresh, back at home, I fixed it up.

And started another. Whoops, that one went into coventry too!

All fixed, 

And with its mate.

I have altered the pattern a little. Instead of sewing half square triangles for the centre, I made an economy block. And I used the 8-at-a-time method to streamline the making of the half square triangles.

If you are at all interested in enhancing your free motion quilting skills, pop along and have a look - they post a very comprehensive video each month.

Ok, I'd best be off,

'til next time,

Happy Stitches,