A Stingy Tip

Nicky posted her August block a little early to give some of the worker bees a chance of getting ahead of the game in August.
She has asked for these rectangular blocks...........

Image pilfered from Nicky's blog.

It is a quick and easy block to make with just one tiny challenge, making the top and bottom row align well.

So I thought you might like to see how I manage to do this.

Here you see the three rows waiting to be assembled.

In this one I have joined rows 1 & 2 and pressed away from the white.

Next, align a ruler against the left seam of the top row. Try and have the ruler square with either long seam too, or maybe the top or bottom edge depending on how your fabric is behaving! Make a little pencil mark on the right side as shown in the pic.

Repeat, aligning ruler with right hand seam. Make mark.

As always, my photography lets me down, but it's tricky balancing the camera in one hand!

Now, with right sides together, match the pencil marks to the seams of the bottom row & stitch.

And press.

And my finished blocks...weird angle!

This wee trick is also useful for aligning sashing. Top tip from a Stingy Brit!!

Finish A Long - 3rd Quarter

Sneaking in under the wire.
I was pleased to have a major finish last quarter and I did feel that signing up for the FAL spurred me on a bit to finish so I am throwing my hat in the ring again.
My classes all start up again in August so I am going to make it a realistic (small) list for the 3rd quarter.

1. Failure form FAL 2 and a very old UFO. Hidden Wells - my 2004 class sample, all layered up & basted but never quilted. I think I will unpick the basting and insert newer, flat wadding. I still quite like the colours and the tricky pattern so I plan to finish this as a small runner for my kitchen table.

2. A Christmas cushion - this was another failure from last quarter and an EPP project that is destined to be a cushion. Just needs finishing off.

3. And for my last hopeful task, I am choosing this poor chap - a make - a - long from my last year's Christmas workshop (in July!!) He definitely needs his hat and jacket, and maybe even a face before this Christmas.

I am tagging on some non-FAL stuff today too. I am so excited to report that I met a blog friend today, Marg from SunshineParadise? Marg has relatives here in Ayr and has been travelling a fair bit from her native Queensland. We met this morning and managed a couple of hours chat over coffee. I just can't believe her luck with the weather as I had been telling her to bring jumpers and warm clothes for our rotten summer. How wrong was I? Anyway, I took along my camera today but totally forgot to do anything with it so our meeting will have to be in our memory banks. I totally understand all you girls out there getting so excited about the Retreat next weekend in London - you'll meet Marg too as she is on her way down tomorrow.........

And to end on, a couple of little finishes - these two wee quilts are for my Princess & the Pea project. I am so loving this idea and have one or two UFOs that might be adapted to a little quilt. The recipient, Ava, is only 16months so will not be getting her hands on the bed+quilts until she is old enough to understand the story so I have a while yet - I think the tally is at 4, or is it 5? A way to go yet.

This first one is another Crazy sample that I was playing about with for the Stitch Gathering in Edinburgh - the panels are hand pieced and then joined to the white by machine. I then used lots of fancy machine stitches to emulate a bit of hand stitching.

 

And next, we have an AMH feather block. It's one I made as an extra in January when our Bee a Brit Stingy Bee started and we made these for Lucy. I had some spare bits left and decided to use it for the binding but to be honest there were so many joins it was a mini nightmare. Good to learn these things on small projects though.

I am linking this up to Leanne's FAL. Good luck everybody, with your projects.

Sweating the Small Stuff

Good title huh? Sometimes I just astound myself - lol.
So here we are, still basking sweating in temperatures in the high 20s, several consecutive days, almost unheard of here. As always, we Brits complain about the weather and people are muttering about the heat - I imagine all the mums are well chuffed though as our school broke up for summer a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, despite the heat I have managed a little sewing, and it's all small stuff - see what I did there?

First up, I did the July/August blocks for Judith's Bee Blessed. These were so quick to make and are meant to be for a man quilt - I am not sure my colour choices are right, so Judith, just say and I'll do another couple, I enjoyed making them.

Next is another trivet from Ayumi's book - this is to go with the tea pouch that I made recently and are both destined for a traditional loving quilter friend. I really enjoyed making this again and this time I took the trouble to bind it rather than "bag" it.

I have another couple of projects almost ready to share, both small but they are not quite finished yet.

Meanwhile, I am Queen Bee for July in the Bee a Brit Stingy Bee - I asked for the Woven Ribbons block to finish at 8" and in beachy colours that might sit well with my Mod Pop quilt. This is my first Bee and first time as Queen and it's pretty exciting receiving blocks that others have gone to the trouble of making for you. So far I have had Karen's and they have some of her great fabrics in them.

and these next ones are from Emily.

and here they are, playing nicely together.

I plan to make my blocks into a large runner that will cover a double width chest of drawers. Keep 'em coming girls!!

My last photo shows a little something that arrived in the post last week..........

I know lots of you are getting a bit excited about another certain quilt venue, BUT...........anyone bound for Birmingham??

Great Scot!!

                                                          The boy done good....hic

 

Fabric Fest

I promised I wouldn't go on about my holiday but I have had a couple of requests to see what fabric I might have picked up along the way, how could I refuse?
As well as our forays into JP Knit & Stitch and Sew Fresh Fabrics, Janet and I also stumbled upon (!!) Tumbleweed Quilts in Cape Cod. It was a traditional style of quilt shop but packed to the rafters with traditional and modern fabric - we had to sample a little.
We also made a couple of trips to Jo-Anns. In the past I would have agreed with comments that Jo-Ann fabric is not so top notch and I have seen "No JoAnn" in swap listings. However, I think they are upping their game because we found a pretty good stock of Kona Solids, and exclusive lines by Denise Schmidt and Susan Winget. I see from their website that they also stock Cloud 9 organic fabric and are listing all of these as their "premium ranges". By the time we visited, our suitcases were beginning to bulge so we settled for notions and just a wee bit of fabric. I also scored a new Accuquilt die at a special 25% off their normal price - it's a cute applique one that I think might have the seeds of a new workshop in the making.
Meanwhile...fabric.......I got a 1yd pack of the DS line which was marked into four fat 1/4s.

from JP Knit & Stitch, I got these next three pics' worth. They stocked a lot of organics.

and from Sew Fresh, some textured solids,

some Essex linens,

Echino - had to have it,

and a mix, lots of Cosmo Cricket, I have a plan,

and a wee bit of Heather Ross.

The next two lots are from Tumbleweed.

Before I left for hols I took advantage of an end of bale sale at Pink Castle and came home to find these waiting.......

and a few days later my Stash Club fabrics arrived, also from Pink Castle. Janet and I are sharing a half stack every month which eliminates the risk of having the VAT & PO charges added but is still good value.

I boldly cut into my pristine new fabric and made this embroidery folder from Ayumi's book for a  blog friend who has a big birthday today. I seem to have discovered orange, love working with it these days.

In other fabric news, I was fabric shopping in Glasgow yesterday with a friend and we found a huge haul of half priced designer cottons in John Lewis. most of it was £6.98 down from £14 per yard. Lots of Amy Butler and I spotted Flea Market Fancy. I just couldn't buy any, I don't think I'd have been allowed in the house.

But, I did sneak in a wee pack of Liberty patches, from Mandors. They have two pack sizes and my wee one was £4 for I think, 20 patches, it's very sweet.

Now then, I must concentrate on the tennis. 33 years ago today Allan and I married on Wimbledon Final day - it was the famous five setter Borg (swoon) / McEnroe match and won by Borg. We watched it before setting off in our old blue Beetle for three days in Devon. Things were simpler then...........

I got this today and I am not going to jinx anyone by saying when I would like to crack it open........

Have a great weekend everyone.

End of FAL Quarter 2

I am sneaking in here under the wire with a finish for the FAL quarter ending June.

I have just refreshed my memory as to the rules and also to my pledges to finish - didn't realise I had said four!! If you go HERE you will see the four projects I hoped to tackle.

I did quickly produce a finish early on in the quarter but it was only a pincushion so I am not counting that one seriously.

My Biscornu pinnie

The main focus of the quarter was my Mod Pop quilt that I started I think back in September with Leanne. I always knew I wouldn't be able to keep up as I only squeeze in personal sewing between class stuff and I had a busy class schedule last year. However, classes ended at the end of March so I made an effort and finished up the piecing.

This is what I had done by the beginning of April............

I always intended to quilt this in chunks and join them in a QAYG manner - so before I set off on holiday in early June, I managed to complete and quilt the three sections I had divided Mod Pop in to. My original plan was to make the great big version but I adapted a bit and have ended up with a quilt that is about 84" square.

I really need to learn quilt photography - we have had shocking weather here this week (heating on Tuesday for an hour, unheard of!!) so no chance of a really nice outdoor pic.

Can you see the two joining strips? I don't think they spoil the overall pattern, it just makes it so much more of a pleasure for me to tackle the actual quilting knowing I don't have to manhandle a great big quilt about.

On the back I used two bargain buys, a beige houndstooth by Barbara Jones for Quilt Soup (?) and Innocent Crush by AMH. I also had to use a wee bit of Kate Spain's Fandango (another bargain buy)

The pattern for this quilt is by Julie Pickles and you can find it for sale in her Etsy shop. Even although I teach P & Q I haven't done all that much curved piecing, a little Drunkard's Path but not a lot. I bought Julie's plastic templates for this project and did my cutting in many sessions with a smaller rotary cutter. My piecing confidence grew and I ended up chain piecing with no pins (thanks Leanne). Some of my patches & blocks looked a bit rough around the edges but I found overall that the block pattern was quite forgiving and I always live in hope that imperfections will "quilt oot", a favourite saying in these parts amongst quilters.

I had been a bit slapdash when I cut my backing and in places around the edges things were not as even as they might have been. I didn't want to trim too much as I would lose too much of the patches so I decided to go for a wider cut binding. When I started quilting I always cut my binding to 3" and eventually realised that I had way too much on the back. But I decided on 3" for Mod Pop and sewed it on using a 3/8" seam allowance. This covered the imperfections. As I had a FAL deadline in mind I decided against hand sewing the binding down - something I usually enjoy - and thought I would try machine stitching it on the right side in the ditch. Those of you who know me well know that I hate in the ditch quilting. I see it suggested in so many books as if it's easy peasy for beginners but so often you end up out of the ditch and stressed out with sore shoulders. But I have a ditch foot with my new machine and I wasn't afraid (yes I was) to use it. Well, the black guide was right up against the binding but the stitches were pretty visible and wasn't always catching the back binding. Hmmm...........I changed to my plastic craft foot, but the combination of glare, poor eyesight and beige on beige fabric had me gritting my teeth. Hmmmph...........I changed to my lovely open toed walking foot, discarded binding clips and pins and eyeballed my progress from there.....much better although not 100% catching on the back. I just went back over those wee bits though. 

So as I often say, every day a school day. Could do better.

Still have that nice feeling that I have a finish and I am happy to link to Leanne's FAL.

PS (Didn't even look at the other two projects - Fail!)

Not So Flaming June

My June sewing was somewhat curtailed by my summer hols but I managed some Bee blocks before I went off on my travels and a couple of small things on my return. I have also got Mod Pop ready to bind and hoping to bring it in under the 2nd quarter FAL. Keep your fingers crossed.

I am linking as always to Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day.