Finishing bits and pieces

Some heavy rain over the weekend granted me my wish of a quiet, inside, sew-day. I had a few bits and pieces I really needed to finish up.

I had got to the binding stage of a wall hanging by The Birdhouse which I started and shared a couple of posts ago. 

I made a couple of corner triangles to insert a dowel for hanging, and then machine sewed the binding down.

Santa's Workshop by The Birdhouse

I know some people don't worry too much about quilting these little hangings but I like the finish that a little bit of quilting gives. The photo doesn't show it well but I used the walking foot to stitching in the ditch of the border seams and a couple of straight lines in the outside border.

Then I used the hopping foot to quilt around the outside of the stitchery.

Next on the agenda for the day was to complete a wee bag using this stitchery —

Some straight forward sewing and the bag was complete —

Alphabet Birds by Fig N Berry

Finally, I made the finishing touches to my Bear quilt. I shared copious amounts of photos of this in my last post. I machine sewed the binding on —

I also remembered to include a corner triangle (in the pink) to use as my label. The photo below also shows the scrappy backing. It's all brushed cotton, which I like to use for my young people quilts.

The background fabric I used is a light pink grunge - I'm really happy with how well it worked. 

I've seen other people share fun photos showing the threads they used. I'm pleased I have a 'comprehensive' collection of Aurifil - being able to match the threads well helps to hide the wonky stitches!!!

The quilt pattern is from Sew Fresh Quilts.

So that was a pretty good sew-day!

Since then, I have completed one more project. It's a small pouch for storing threads in —

Country Garden by Marg Low Designs.

It was nice to finally have three finishes for OPAM (the final pouch is a November finish). Although with all my galivanting about this month, I have only made 10 blocks for the 350 block project - and that includes the three stitcheries I've shown above! Swings and Roundabouts.

The flurry of wee finishes is just in time - they are samples to showcase patterns for The Country Yard. Today we are packing up the shop and going down to Auckland for Festival of Quilts. This is the first time this has been held for a couple of years so it will be nice to be there! I'm looking forward to being there and seeing everything :-)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

April tally-up —

Mixed results from my month of sewing...even with the lock down I didn't get as much done as I thought I would - always plenty of distractions down on the farm (etc!). I did set myself plenty of goals though and on the whole kept reasonably focused. I fought the urge to start new large projects but did get sidetracked occasionally with smaller ones :-)
My PHD goal, hosted by Quilting Gail, was to finish my Hannah and Harrington quilt. It was all basted, ready to go.... I stitched in the ditch of the big blocks, and also quilted in the small squares.
Rather than cross hatching, I did a simple vine design across the diagonal of each square —

A lot easier to see on the back —

So at this stage it looks like this —

It has a lot less pins in it!

Some may remember me saying I have a Glide foot to attach to my machine to quilt around the felt appliques (preventing any snagging). Attaching that involves doing a foot conversion first - the warning on the pack says to take care, incorrect installation may 'cause damage to your machine'. I gulped a bit at that and decided to wait till after lock down to do that IN CASE things do go haywire. I wouldn't like to not be able to get it looked at by my machine person for weeks.....

So because of me chickening out, the work on this goal sort of stalled a bit.

My One Monthly Goal, signed up for over at Elm Street Quilts was to get my Truck and Tractor quilt finished...hmmmm....I got the top finished - yaay - but didn't get it quilted. I had a rummage around and didn't have enough of anything to use for a backing so that was another wait because of lock down job. However, I was happy enough with where I got to as there was still a lot of work to be done on it at the start of the month.
I've just linked up for the end of the month report - click *here* to see how everyone else got on.

My WOOFA goal was to get some more work done on Foxley Village. In particular, some pieced blocks to go with the appliqued ones I've already done.

I wrote about this the other day. Pleased with the progress here.

My 350 blocks project is another one I'm tallying up tonight. Shelly over at Prairie Moon Quilts has challenged us to make 30 this month. 

Including the 15 for the Tractor/Truck quilt, some for Foxley Village, 10 for my postcard quilt, and a few extra randoms, my tally came to 34. Not bad, I feel!!

I haven't quite updated my OPAM page yet but I think I have 11 for the month! I'm so glad I've blogged about them all as I'd forgotten about the bunnies —

the bunny bags —

there was also the Scrub Stitching pouch —

and a Tilda pincushion —

I counted overlocking four nighties as two finishes and there was a cot sheet, plus my postcard quilt. Whew, plenty keeping me out of mischief, and it doesn't make my underachieving of my goals look quite so bad. The goals help me to keep focused on the bigger picture but I do like to potter and play with other little things as well!

'til next time,

happy and healthy stitches,

 

August OPAM in September

As the end of August approached I realised that I would once again have no finishes for the month, and nothing to report to Kris for OPAM (one project a month).
But then I got thinking; there were a couple of quick projects that had taken my eye...you know the sort; it would be cool to make that one day, and then never get around to it.
I decided Saturday would be the day! The first chance to sew after three busy days in a row, and the last day of the month. I figured that if I got organised I could make a couple of things.
First up, I'd seen Carole of frommycarolinahome blog make tote bags from empty birdseed bags a long time ago and the idea had stuck in my head.
I'm always looking for a bag or a box to put fruit and cartons of eggs in to give to the family. The days of a ready supply of plastic supermarket bags in the cupboard are long gone! I'd put aside a couple of empty chicken pellet bags —

One down, one to go

These were quick and straight forward to make. I did have to take my sewing machine out of it's set-in bed though to sew around the top. The 'fabric' definitely wasn't as nice to sew as quilting cotton, but wasn't too bad!

Sewing at a precarious angle!

They're distinctive enough that they should come back to me for more eggs and fruit (and so on), so if I make a couple more there should always be enough to circulate between our four families :-)

Two made and being admired.

Just for the record, so that I remember when I make the next ones, I trimmed the bags to 20" high, cut one 3" strip off for the handles, and the boxed corners were 4 ½". As always, Carole's tutorial was well worth following.

And while I was on a roll, I thought I'd have time for another wee project. I also came across this idea the other day; making small 'ouchie' bags that are stored in the freezer for the bumps and hurts that young children have on a regular basis. I had followed a couple of links and ended up on Lori's Bee In my Bonnet blog.

They were an even quicker make than the tote bags, apart from the fact that I didn't have enough rice on hand to fill the last one. Just as well we had planned a trip into town after the afternoon cow/calf/milking session to stock up on a few groceries. (That's code for, we feel like takeaways for tea, and if we get a few groceries at the same time, it's a worthwhile trip to town!)
 I was able to fill the last one and sew it up while it was still August!

I quite liked that Lori lined the inside of the bags with a piece of flannel (I used wincyette scraps). She suggests the bags stay cold for longer, and I like the double layers to keep the rice under control. Plus they feel nicer.

So how about that - 6 finishes for OPAM for August. A little bit cheaty in a way, but, hey, six, useful and ready to use items - not bad for a day's sewing!! Thank you Kris of Tag Along Teddies, for hosting OPAM for us; linky parties and blogland commitments are a great motivator!

PS As a follow on from my last post, I finished my Foxley Village block four the other day, doing the piecing needed for the bottom of the applique part. I'm hoping to start on block five tonight :-)

Whoops, it still needs a good press!

It's a beautiful day today so I'd best get moving and do some bits and pieces - washing on the line and so on. I think we have family visiting later so I might make some muffins too.

Enjoy your day,

'til next time,

happy stitches,

End of month scramble

At the end of last week I suddenly realised that we were racing towards the end of the month and that I had committments to meet! I was sure there was still another week left in April!
First up, my One Monthly Goal (kindly hosted by Patty D of Elm St Quilts each month).
My aim was to pull out my Friday's Garden quilt and make some progress on the quilting...... hmmmm...... after precisely 3½ weeks of procrastinating I have done a little more on it.  I wasn't really sure what I was wanting on it, a bit of something but nothing too intricate. To get my brain cells working, I cleaned and oiled up my machine and continued on with a wee fill I'd been doing when I left off many months ago. At the time I wasn't too fussed on it but I've decided to carry on and I'll see where it leads me.

I know if I hadn't signed up for OMG, this quilt wouldn't have been touched so I call it a bit of a minor success; at least it's out and under the needle now. It's likely to be next month's OMG too so hopefully a few more gaps will be filled next time I report on it!

Another commitment I've had this month is my 'List of 12 item'. Some friends and I have made up lists of projects we'd like to work on throughout the year, numbering them 1-12. Each month a number is drawn and we work on the corresponding project. This is our first month so we're all bright eyed and bushy tailed!
#6 for me was my Omigosh! quilt (designed by the late Sue Garman). Started in 2016 as a way to use up the smallest of my scraps, I haven't seriously thought about it for a while.
This was one of my last shares; I'd sewn a few bit together to see how it was going to look.

Since then I've sewn (many) strips together and thrown them in a box (!!). This has been one of my leader-ender activities.

A box full of bits!!

You can see that I prefer to sew and trim later. When you are making 1½" (finished) sized 9-patches that is definitely the easiest way to go, although it does look rather messy.
From time to time I've done a bit of pressing and made a few 9 or 4 patches. And trimmed. But really, it was a whole jumble of bits.

This month I've made an effort —

Wow look how tidy they are!

Fancy pic of the day.

This morning I realised that I hadn't seen the pattern while I was sorting these this month so I had a little hunt... I found it in another container with a few more finished 9-patches plus a few cut pieces! Too many hiding places. These were the ones I made right at the beginning when I was making the 9-patches from one colour only. I'm making them more 'jewel-like' now.

And I've sorted these out for my next leader-ender sewing. Sewing triangles to the 4-patches —

For April's OPAM (One project a month) I have two pairs of happy pants to put on the list. One for YD and one for her hubby. After mending cheap and nasty K-mart pants earlier this month (one ripped after the second wear) I decided they needed quality mummy-made pants.

And I have another flimsy to put on the quilting pile! (Oops, once I've embroidered some nostrils and a 'nose seam'.)

I have built Eeyore to a decent cot-size so the calculations can stop. 

I'm hoping these notes will make sense when I put another quilt like this together this month —

This past weekend the Whangarei Patchworkers and Quilters Club had their biennial show. It seemed to go really well with plenty of lovely quilts to look at. I spent much of my time there on The Country Yard's stall so, sadly,  really only had a rushed look around.

The Country Yard's stall

Luckily for us, Leeann of Quilt Whangarei has put up 3 posts (so far) of photos for us to drool over.

And so the month ends, thank you for reading along, and here's hoping you all have

happy stitches,

EQ7 and warm things....

One of my goals for this year was to become more familiar with EQ7 and use it more. I have been 'pulling it out' from time to time, using it for the odd block here and there but was delighted and excited when the EQ7 blog site (Behind The Mouse) said they were going to do a 'summer drawing series'. And lucky me, I didn't have to wait to do it in summer - I could do it now, in winter!! (hehe).
At the start of each month they post a lesson, showing how to draw a particular block. We have the month to do the lesson, draw the block and then sew it up. At the end of each month is show and tell.
Here is this month's block (Block 2), drawn using the Patchdraw function. It was foundation pieced.

I absolutely love this block!! Now I am thinking to myself, what would a whole quilt with this block look like?! I can see (one day) I will be back to EQ7 to have a play and see what else I can do with it!
Last month's block was drawn using Easydraw. I had it done in time to do a photo link up but not write a post with it in.

Think I will change that centre square but you get the idea.

I like how both blocks have used totally different skills and aspects of the programme.  I have resized my blocks to 9" rather than the 12" drawn in class. Mid-month there have been further mini lessons with variations of that month's block... I have saved these but not done them yet.
Those of you with EQ7, their blog really is a wealth of information, techniques and tips. I didn't really realise how good it was until recently.

For OPAM this month, I made sure I sat down and properly finished off the wrap/scarf I completed in the car recently.... yes, those wool ends were still waiting to be sewn in; without OPAM they possibly would still be waiting, but now it's done! (I have to update my list but I think I am up to anbout 5 finishes this month- woohoo).

Many of you who know me know I love to play.... I spent some time yesterday trying to get the 'perfect' shot of the wrap...
OK.... but a little boring....

 ....the shots of it artisticly draped around various objects were also a little undramatic... but I did like this picture of it around my neck - these uncontrollable curls come in handy sometimes!

I kept it on after the photo shoot... we've had
a few frosts lately!

One thing I like about blogging, is the accountability... I've said out loud I'm going to do something... so I had actually better do it! Following up on my intention to make some hottie covers at my sewing group the other night, yes, I did get some made for the Hottie project. Today they are popping themselves in the post and starting their journey to Christchurch. Good on Kerry too who took the pattern home and made the snuggly red ones.

So now it is time to get to the post office. Maybe a little sewing later on this evening.
Happy stitching,