July was a slow month.

July was always going to be a problem when it came to my sewing and knitting projects but in the end it was much slower than I'd hoped. 

My Chookshed stitchers challenge was to work on my English paper piecing quilt. I wanted to attach the whole red round. I have made progress, completing about half of the round. I'm happy with my progress and the flowers looks so pretty. I just love red and pink. I'm linking up with Dreamworthy Quilts for the end of month link up.

I did much better on the One monthly goal challenge. I completed all 6 triceratops blocks. I've already posted the photos so I'll just add my two favourites, purple and orange.

I took part in the 'Something smells fishy' blog hop by making a small wall hanging to go on the bedroom wall of a young friend who loves fish. I finished the quilt by using the facing method and this worked very well. I'm happy with the little quilt and so is its new owner. The facing or knife edge finishing was very easy to do and would be great for a quilt where the quilting goes all the way to the edge without a border,

I've made a lot of bunting and used up a lot of fabric. This was the amount I'd made when I last took a photo. I've added a good number since then.

I've also made  a lot of pom poms of all sizes. I've cleared a pile of left over yarns.  I've been using up the tapestry wool that belonged to John's Dad. I don't do tapestry any more so it is very pleasing to be able to put the yarn to good use. This is what I made over the last two days.

On the knitting front I completed the back of my jumper. I will be knitting the front next but I haven't started it yet, it's just too hot for knitting.

Katy asked me to make some seat cushions for their window seat. I've made the first one but I have two others to make. I was going to make a new dress to wear at Katy and Olly's wedding but I saw one I liked today, and after trying it on, I bought it. One thing less to worry about.

Looking back the month wasn't bad at all. Projects have been moved forward and I've enjoyed the time I've had for sewing. I wonder what August will hold? The month will get off to a great start on Friday when John and I are joined by his sister and friend on a trip to the NEC in Birmingham for the Festival of Quilts. I'm informed it is the largest quilt show in Europe. I really enjoyed it last year and I had a lot of photos to show. I must remember to recharge the batteries for my camera. It will be a long day but will be lots of fun.

Take care,

Lyndsey

Dinosaurs.

This week has been a bit of a whirlwind. On Tuesday, John phoned me to say he was going to see our older daughter who phoned to say she wasn't feeling well and wondered if either of us were free. She was going very dizzy and was worried as she had her son at home with her. John went over on the train and once I finished work I headed to her house. I had a lovely time playing with little one and reading him stories. Having rested, our daughter was feeling  a little better but we stayed until little one was in bed and asleep and her partner had arrived home from work.  Wednesday was a day of back to back meetings followed by teaching on Thursday morning and graduation in the afternoon. The ceremony finished at 6 and I met up with my students before heading home. It was 9 p.m. when I got home and I was ready for bed. Friday was my none working day and I went over to older daughter's house to help her with some wedding preparations.  I'm looking forward to the wedding but I need to find a new dress and I've only got three weeks to do it.

Today I finally got time to get my sewing machine out and make the last three of the triceratops dinosaurs.

Here are the three I made earlier this month.

Completing these 6 dinosaurs was my one monthly goal for July. I'm please to have completed this goal and I'm linking this post with Anne-Marie from Stories from the sewing room for the OMG end of month link up of One Monthly goal.  I now have one last set of 6 dinosaurs to make. I'm looking forward to making the T Rex. 

There are still a few days left of July to get as far as I can with the red round of the Grandmother's garden quilt. I'm not sure I'll get the whole round done.  Tomorrow I'm at work but I only have 4 days to work before my holiday. On Friday I'm going to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC. I'm hoping the weather will be good as I'm driving. Now I need to sort some things out ready for tomorrow.

Take care

Lyndsey

Something smells fishy

 

Welcome to day 2 of the 'something smells fishy' blog hop. Thanks to Carol from Just let me quilt for organising the hop. It's really fun taking part. I love the button for this hop. We were asked to create something new on a fishy theme or creatures from the ocean in fabrics, appliques, quilts, stuffies, or bags. 

When I started planning this project I decided i wanted to make something using applique. I spent some time sketching out fishes but then I decided making a fish block would also work. I still hadn't made a final decision when I got asked if I would make a small wall hanging to go in the room of a fish obsessed young boy. Well, how could I refuse. The wall hanging could be up to 16 inches wide by 28 inches long to fit in the space available. This really was a small wall hanging but perfect for the hop. I decided to make a pieced fish block with the finished piece being 15 by 24inches. 

The fish blocks were approved by the young fish lover and he particularly liked the fabric I used for the border. Unfortunately I only had a small piece of the border fabric so I had to join the top and bottom borders. It would have been great to use the same fabric for the binding as well but there wasn't enough. I had other fabrics with fish on them but they weren't right for the piece. Instead of adding a binding I am going to add a facing probably in white or light blue. This will be completely turned to the back of the little quilt and will not show on the front. Young fish lover was very happy with this solution when I spoke to him and his mom on Sunday evening. I do love children who know what they want when you are making something for them. The completed wall hanging is due to go to its new home on Friday so I have a few days to add the facing.

Here is the schedule for the rest of the hop. Do visit to see what everyone has made.

                                                      JULY 22

Just Let Me Quilt

Karrin’s Crazy World

Scrapdash

Quilted Delights

 

JULY 23

Patchouli Moon Studio

Words & Stitches

Quilted Snail

Quilting Between The Rails

Sew Many Yarns

Hazel’s Daughter

 

JULY 24

A Quiltery

Beaquilter

Quilting Gail

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

That Fabric Feeling

 

JULY 25

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Quilt and Color

                                                            Selina Quilts

Thank you for visiting .

Take care 

Lyndsey

Weekly catch up

 Although I haven't posted this week I have been working on my various projects. By the time I remember I need to write a post it's late and I'm ready for bed. I need to think of a way to fit it into my week. Anyway catch up time, what have I been up to? 

First up I've done a lot of knitting and yesterday I finished the back of the jumper I'm working on. This is long line jumper rather than just to below the waist. I'm quite slow with knitting as I have wrist problems and so I can only knit for a limited period each day. It was a joy when I started the shaping as the rows got shorter and I could get more done. I love the green of this yarn.

I have also been working on the grandmother's garden quilt. This is an English paper piecing project and is all sewn by hand so it is taking a while. It would be finished more quickly if I hadn't decided to make it using 1 inch hexagons. I'm working on a round of red and have enjoyed pulling all my red or pink fabrics with flowers on them. It is slowly growing and I think i am now about half way round this row. The quilt is almost at the size my daughter wants and from the next round I will be starting to make it into a rectangle or square (depending on my daughter's decision). I love the colours in this round.

Both of these projects are hand stitching and are great in the evening if we are watching something on the TV or just sitting and chatting as a family.

Over the week I also worked on the dinosaur quilt. I am currently making the triceratops dinosaurs. Earlier in the week I completed cutting out the dinosaur fabrics and the background fabrics in preparation for starting the sewing. On Friday I managed to complete three of the dinosaurs.

They need a good press and to be trimmed but I'm happy with how they went together. I will try to finish the other three over this week. That would leave the remaining set of 6 T Rex dinosaurs to make before I can put the whole quilt together. The only fabric bought for this quilt has been the grey background fabric. All the rest were from my fat quarter or scrap collection.

Yesterday I spent a little time planning for later this year into next year. I have been asked to make the Cats in Pyjamas quilt and I want to make a quilt for a colleague who loves shoes and bags. In order to fit them in I need to finish the dinosaur quilt and the Red manor house quilt.

This coming week is the Something smells fishy blog hop organised by carol from Just Let Me Quilt. Here is the schedule for the week.

JULY 22

Just Let Me Quilt

Karrin’s Crazy World

Scrapdash

Quilted Delights

JULY 23

Patchouli Moon Studio

Words & Stitches

Quilted Snail

Quilting Between The Rails

Sew Many Yarns

Hazel’s Daughter

 

JULY 24

A Quiltery

Beaquilter

Quilting Gail

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

That Fabric Feeling

 

JULY 25

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Quilt and Color

Selina Quilts

I can't wait to see what everyone has made. I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching 

Take care

Lyndsey

Cutting fabrics and 'Warrior'

Where has this week gone? It seems to have flown by and I was just thinking back over what I have achieved so far. It felt like I'd spent very little time doing any hand crafts but when I put a little effort in I realised I have moved projects along slowly. On Wednesday I got home from work earlier than usual and I pulled out the fabric for the next set of dinosaurs.

I love the bright fabrics that I'm using. By the time I needed to make a start on dinner I had prepped 3 dinosaurs. Everything is labelled so I get the right size pieces for the right places and hopefully they will get sewn together this weekend. These will make into triceratops. I have 3 more lots of cutting to do.

On my knitting project I am just short of the armholes on the back. It's rather slow going as an old repetitive strain injury in my wrists has raised its head again. As a result I am limiting the length of time I knit. The jumper should still get finished by the autumn when it will be needed.

I also made some more pompoms and bunting plus I've added flowers to the Grandmother's garden quilt. This all means that over the week I have managed to fit some stitching in everyday, and I've also read a book towards my 2024 reading challenge. So far I've read 14 books so I'm a bit behind if I'm to read the 30 total I set myself. This is a personal challenge so I'm not worried if I don't read that many books.

A while back I told you I had lost some of my photos from our visit to the historic dockyard at Portsmouth. I spent some time searching in my photo collections and I managed to find some of them. I'm still 'missing' a lot of pictures. Anyway here are some of the pictures of our first visit when we went round HMS Warrior.

HMS Warrior was built for the Royal Navy 1858 - 1861 and was the first armour plated iron hulled warship and was built in response to France launching the first ocean going ironclad warship Gloire which had a wooden hull. HMS Warrior never saw active service as a warship and is now moored at Portsmouth.

Although it never saw active service as a warship it was built for that role and so the interior is made to accommodate the 40 guns that she had on board. She is a frigate class ship and is steam powered. 

There are steep steps to get between decks and the ceilings are low in places. I managed to bump my head several times,

For the crew the accommodation was basic however the captain had a nice comfortable apartment. I liked the stove with its pretty tiles and he had  pictures on the walls.

At one end of the room there was a table for meetings and for dining and I would love a desk like this one.

The sleeping area was behind me as I took this photo but it gives you a view of the space, which including the sleeping area was the full width of the stern of the ship. 

This was the captains sleeping area.

This room was one of the other officers sleeping area, with reduced space due to the gun!

Somewhere in the system there other photos but one drive has managed to muddle them up. I will eventually get them back in the right place.

Today I need to do some marking, which is seriously impinging on my sewing time. If I get a move on I should be able to sew this afternoon. I also have a cake to bake.

Take care

Lyndsey

Fast and slow stitching.

Today I wanted to get on with sewing some of the bunting. I'd started by trawling through my stash where I quickly found quite a lot of batik. My daughter asked for bright and cheerful bunting and batik fits the bill perfectly. I'm using double thickness fabric so that there are two right sides. Double thickness will give it a bit of body and it will look prettier. I may decide to trim the edges with my pinking shears. I have a long roll of tape to attach the bunting to but that will wait until I know the range of colours and patterns of fabrics used. I cut a cardboard template for the triangles which worked well. Sewing them on the machine was quick and easy. I still need a lot more but this was the first day of making bunting.

I love the range of colours so far. The downside is that I've created still more scraps, so I think I see a scrappy quilt in my future. Talking of scraps I need to do some scrap management to get them sorted. I like to cut the scraps into useful sizes as it saves time when I feel the urge to make a quilt.

Last week I spent time prepping some 'flowers' for the grandmother's garden quilt. This is something I can do at lunchtime at work or even when in an online meeting when we don't need the camera on. No point in wasting valuable stitching time! Yesterday evening I spent time adding the flowers to the quilt. This takes a little time as you have to keep moving the fabric to make the edges line up. In total this round will require 42 flowers. I'm not sure how many I've made so far, or the mix of the fabrics I've used. I need to check as it makes it easier when planning the order to sew them onto the quilt. Here are the flowers I've already made, some I have to stitch together and the fabric I may use for other flowers.

This evening I will be knitting instead of stitching . I tend to alternate the two activities so that my wrists and arms don't start aching with the repetitive actions. I will alternate these two activities for the rest of the week, apart from Tuesday when I will make the fruit cake for Katy's wedding. The ingredients I am short of will come in my grocery order tomorrow evening.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching. I love seeing the projects people are working on.

It's a work day tomorrow and I want to clear some of my work projects since I am not teaching. Having worked on Saturday I have a day to take back in lieu in the near future. If I can fit it on a Monday or Thursday it gives me a four day weekend which would be very nice. Next weekend I have two sewing days booked which will be fun.

Take care

Lyndsey

Tennis, election and some sewing.

Here in London the Wimbledon Lawn tennis championships started on last Monday (1st July). I drive very close to it on my way to and from work. I like playing and watching tennis but I haven't been to Wimbledon championships for over 40 years. I found that I ended up with a sore neck as a result of turning my head to follow the ball from one side of the court to the other (it does depend on where you're sitting). I am very happy to watch the games on the TV especially if there are some strawberries to enjoy as well. The shops and restaurants in Wimbledon village are decorated to celebrate the tennis, with lots of flowers and tennis balls and rackets. 

On Thursday night John and I stayed up to watch the election result come in. I have been doing this since I was in my teens but the evening was so unusual as the results were a massive landslide. Our MP was re-elected which I am very happy about as she is a great constituency MP. Whilst watching the results I alternated my knitting and EPP project. That meant I got quite a lot of progress on both projects.  As results came in a lot of the ministers, all well known figures, from the previous government lost their seats. We went to bed for a couple of hours at 5:30 in the morning.

Yesterday I took a photo of my grandmother's garden quilt as the one I posted last week wasn't up to date. I had completed the white round and at the top of the picture you can see the beginnings of the next round which is red.

This project is English paper pieced. To do this you use paper templates which are then covered with fabric. Normally I would print my templates from the internet but I received some in my subscription quilting magazine which has saved me a lot of time. I am using 1 inch templates. The fabric is cut larger than the template and the fabric is tacked to it.

When stitching the hexagons together I use whip stitch and try to just pick up the fabric, not going through the template. That way the template can be reused in a future project. The papers stay in the project until the top is completed and ready to be made into a quilt sandwich.

It is very easy to remove the papers by cutting the tacking thread and using your nail to pop the template out. The templates at the middle of the top do become very worn as a result of folding the top to put it away when not working on it. The templates round the outside fair better and can be reused. Different patterns can be produced by how you sew the hexagons together and by using other shapes that tessellate together. I like EPP and added bonus, it is something you can do whilst watching TV.

Today (Saturday) I was in work as we had an open day. It's been rather a quiet day as I think many potential students are preparing for the England versus Switzerland football match later today or watching Wimbledon or just staying out of the rain! I don't usually mind covering the open days but it is annoying to lose a sewing day when there aren't many people attending. When I got home I made a couple of pom poms. I have yarn in a big tub in the loft but when I was in Hobbycraft getting a large pompom maker I bought these bright balls of yarn. I have four sizes of pompom makers and so will make some of each size in each colour as a start. I then start using the yarns from my stash.

I also started pulling fabrics from my stash that I can use to make bunting. I needed to find some red fabric suitable for my grandmothers garden quilt so I started with my fat quarters and my scraps. I could end up clearing a lot of fabric. In particular I want to use up the larger scrap pieces I have as they are taking up a little too much room.

I have done my grocery shopping order this evening and I took the opportunity to add the cake ingredients that I'm short of. The delivery is for Monday evening and I will have time to make the cake on Tuesday evening. this wedding is already starting to play havoc with my plans for my sewing projects. It's not a problem as I can replan my sewing and it is so exciting for the wedding to finally be going ahead after it was cancelled during covid.

Tomorrow I plan to cut the pieces for the next set of six dinosaurs. I may not have time to start any sewing but I should be able to fit that in next weekend. The grandmother's garden quilt is all hand stitching and so much easier to work on in the evening.

Finally I'm really enjoying the flowers I had delivered earlier this week. The smell from the roses is delightful. 

 Take care

Lyndsey.

July Plans.

The first day of a new month and so much potential for working on my sewing projects. At the start of each month I spend some time planning my sewing time. First I consider any visits or family events during the month. These tend to happen on the weekend and so reduce available sewing time. I'm busy on two Saturdays this month but no other commitments. If I use my time wisely I should be able to move several projects forward.

I'm going to work on my Grandmother's garden quilt this month. This is an English paper piecing project and is my oldest UFO. Unfortunately I never seem to make time to work on it. It is time to finish this quilt but there is still a lot of work to do. I think this is the last photo I've taken of it. The white round is complete and I've started on a red round. I'm interested to see how much progress I can make.

The Chookshed stitchers challenge pulled number 1 for this month and this quilt was my number 1. I love the cute buttons for this challenge.

I also set a goal for the One Monthly Challenge run by Stories from the sewing room.

My goal for this challenge will be to complete at least 6 of the remaining dinosaurs for the dinosaur quilt.  I'd love to finish both the triceratops and the T rex but I don't think I have the time. I would like to have this quilt completed before the end of the year so I can gift it to the new owner. 

This is going to be such a bright and cheerful quilt.

In addition to these two challenges i want to finish knitting the back of my green jumper. This is going quite well but it is slow. I need to carry on with the hand stitching of the mystery quilt and I really want to start a new project. In addition to sewing I also want to complete the roofing on my dolls house. 

Finally this month I have some MUST Complete projects. Older daughter is getting married on August 17th and she has asked me to make her wedding cake of three layers, fruit cake, sponge cake and chocolate cake. I need to get the fruit cake made this coming weekend. She would also like some bunting in floral and bright fabrics and pompoms. I will also need to make time to shop for my dress for the event. I'm not a great lover of clothes shopping so this could take a little while.

I'm linking this post with Dreamworthy Quilts for the July Chookshed Challenge. and Stories from the sewing room for the One Monthly Goal.

Take care

Lyndsey