Stitching away

Friday Night Sew-In saw me settled in my comfy chair with a bit of hand sewing.

I've started another block for my Wings and Pretty Things quilt; there's not much to show yet but it is a good little start!

I finished the flower but needed to do a little prep work before I could continue, so I pulled out my current stitchery project, Memory Lane, to work on instead —

Since I last shared this project, I've finished a couple more blocks so I am nearly done with month 3 - still very behind though!

This weekend I'm trying to get the requested Barbie clothes done so I can put all the 'doll-making' bits away. 

Pyjamas are on the cutting board at the moment and here is a pair I completed yesterday —

(NO, I didn't do tiny little buttonholes, there's Velcro tape sewn on the underside and the buttons are for decoration only!)

Well I'd best get back to those fiddly seams, thank you Wendy for hosting FNSI!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Seeing Stars

You may remember that I tried to resist starting the New Year with new hope and new promises - in other words, with new projects. The start of February was to be my 'new year'. I'm now delaying the start of my new year to the start of March as I quietly make my way through some things I really wanted to get done.

The Star Pop quilt is one of those quilts (last blogged about *here*).

I had made 49 blocks and 'just' needed to join them.

In the last week it's travelled its way around the house. Deciding on layout on our bedroom floor —

Joining blocks and in the kids' bedroom —

(It actually lasted a few days here - Odie even slept in the bed twice and it survived!)

On our bed, and deciding to add another column of blocks to make it a little wider  —

Passing the Nigel test —

(As you can see, I don't have decent floor space for spreading out a bigger quilt!)

This afternoon I got as far as I can go for now - I need one small piece of background fabric to make the last two blocks (grr!) —

I love this pattern, it's such a fun and easy one to sew!

I realised the other day that, just to confuse myself, I have another star quilt on the go with a very similar name - Popstar!!
Fiona of Bubzrugz twisted my arm and made me start it. I did the test (first) block last year so it doesn't count as a new project. A wee group of us are sewing it together, a mini sort of QAL. This is supposedly going to be my leader-ender project when I finish the Star Pop blocks. (Yes, I'll move from Star Pop to Popstar!!)

Three blocks sewn so far. The light wasn't very good for either photos, they're quite pretty fabrics, really!

This is a free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop.

To finish today's starry story, here is a block I sewed up as a test block for The Country Yard. We launched our new projects over the weekend and this was one of them.
Test block —

I spent some time writing instructions for it, and even though it had been sewn up twice, I still wanted to make sure I had all the right fabrics in the right places. Hence a 'paper pattern'! —

Here is the shop's version. It's the centre of a medallion quilt using Laundry Basket Quilts fabric. Very pretty —

In my last post I said we were about to celebrate young Odie's second birthday. It was a fun, family affair. Seven of the grandies there, which was pretty good. The eldest was working that day. 

He loved his cake!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

First week of February

I have made a little progress with my handwork projects this week.

On Friday Night With Friends (thanks Cheryll!!) I put the finishing touches on another block for my Wings and Pretty Things quilt.

I love this block (well, I love them all!) but I did have misgivings about the green I had used for the leaves - was it too bright? However I didn't really want to unpick it and now that I've completed the block I am happy with the green. The red is also quite dark but I will pop it into some other blocks and it will even out. 

I'd like to start joining these blocks but there are borders between the centre block and the smaller blocks which I haven't yet made a decision on. Perhaps in some spare time I will lay them out and get thinking!

After finishing that block, I decided on a wee change from needleturn and I pulled out my Memory Lane project. This has been sitting neglected for a few months or more. (This is a BOM being run by The Country Yard incorporating some favourite stitchery designs they have used over the years.)

I did a little more on Saturday evening and got this far —

We're using a combination of Aurifil and Cottage Garden Threads for these stitcheries, and they will be put together with Tilda fabrics.

On Saturday, after cooking up a spectacular amount of tomatoes for pasta sauce for the freezer, I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole......

Two x 3 year olds have produced mind boggling lists of the clothes their Barbie dolls need so I started doing a bit of an online search for patterns. I don't mind paying for patterns but with the number of clothes requested I need to be careful or I'll end up spending a fortune. I'd really like one or two or three patterns that I can just adapt (eg trousers that will become shorts, trousers, pyjama pants etc). All four dolls (2x Barbie and 2x Ken) are slightly different shapes which further complicates the matter!

So I started looking at the free ones that are available. Printer/paper size differences and no measurement tool on the patterns guide made for a drawn out session!

Finally I bit the bullet and made a pair of shorts - these, I think, will fit only the muscular Ken - they seem pretty huge. Today I will hopefully get a chance to do a fitting and see where to go from there!

This photo  proves that I did actually make two identical dresses as stated in my last post!

(And you can see how one Barbie is definitely bustier than the other!)

This coming week our youngest grandie turns TWO. Where have the years gone?! A simple family BBQ lunch is planned for today so I had better get a move on.

Thank you again to Cheryll for hosting Friday Night With Friends. You can visit her blog *here*.

'til next time,

happy stitches,