Well, following my last post I haven't really improved my blogging output at all have I.
Many's the time I have thought to sit down and post but as the months rolled by I fretted about fitting everything in. Then I thought, if I am going to continue this blog, just get on with a post and show a few recent makes, I don't have to include every last moment from August! So working backwards from my recent sewing here is what I have been up to.
I finished all of the blocks from the Bella Skills Builder sew a long, changing a couple in the final stages. I did set out on this project hoping to make use of lots of shirts I have stashed and did use some of them. The project was meant to be made using Bella solids and I stuck to the solid plan which I found very enjoyable. The shirts I started off with sort of dictated my colour palette and I also used some stash solids. I always knew that I would want to make a larger quilt than the one in the QAL and tried a few layouts on EQ7. Aiming for a pretty large quilt for our very large bed, I made a start this week on joining and sashing the blocks and in the picture below you will see I have completed the top section, adding in monster 6" sashing & borders. My quilt is going to end up about 90" square and I am constructing this joining stage in three sections which I will quilt separately. I have to admit I was a wee bit scared using such wide sashing but the effect has spread out the blocks and I like this better than having them all butting up together. It's a wee bit hard to make it out in the picture as the blocks have overshot my "design wall" onto an existing quilt, I'll try for better photos as I progress.
Just before Christmas with no Big Day to organise here I found myself needing a quick sewing fix and made this Nina wristlet from Sotak Handmade
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Since August, I have been attending Amanda's classes in Prestwick. Amanda took over these classes from me in 2016 and has offers really interesting projects. I decided to sign up for The Catch All Caddy, a useful bag design by Annie.com. This bag uses Annie's Soft and Stable wadding which I hadn't used before and was keen to try. The timing of the course was also perfect because if I finished the bag in time I thought it might be a perfect gift for my friend's special birthday in December.
Despite my years of experience (Cough, cough) I found this quite a tricky project and was really glad of Amanda's guidance. I used Sweetwater's Celebration fabric line for the bag - the main fabric has lots of celebratory events printed on it and as well as a birthday, friend Janet was retiring.
Also in December I recalled Jo launching a competition on her blog - those of us who attended the Stitch Gathering in September received in their goody bags a panel of Cori Dantini fabric plus some coordinating fat quarters. So the challenge was to make something using the fabric and submit photos on Instagram by tomorrow!! I opted to make a nice zippy purse and after bit of thought I cut out the character from one of the panels plus some of the flowers and appliqued them on to an already quilted piece of fabric I found in my UFO drawer. I really enjoyed taking time over this project and actually came up with a different way of inserting the zip which I'll share another time.
And lastly, still in December my fellow Sewing Bee pals (real life not online) and I finally finished this joint effort quilt, a special birthday gift for the aforementioned Janet. The design is based on a quilt called Spin, by Leanne from She can Quilt who first showed the on her blog maybe about 18 months or even longer ago. Strangely I saw it at the same time as one of the other Bees and we had both bookmarked it in our heads as being the perfect project for Janet. With Leanne's blessing we chose this as the perfect project.
We all know Janet's colours and so chose our palette to suit.
We actually made a start on the project last January and used a Lewis and Irene fabric line, Make a Christmas Wish. We wanted to make a subtle Christmas quilt that perhaps could be left out all year and think we pulled it off. To finish we both hand and machine quilted it.
I have been enjoying my sewing recently and hope to forge ahead with projects old and new in 2018.
I wish you all a Happy and healthy New Year and hope to be back again soon.
