Sewing curves.

This week has been a little bit manic between work and home. At work it's the run up to the end of this academic year and the preparation for the new academic year starting in September. This means there is a lot of preparation e.g. timetables, room booking, updating teaching materials and of course interviewing potential students. At home there is always housework and the garden needs a lot of attention. In the middle of this Twiglet managed to get a sting or bitten, by some marauding insects, on his back. Being a dog he licked and bit at the area and a visit to the vet was needed. The vet shaved the area and local anibiotics have helped deal with the problem but he has needed to wear a cone and is very annoyed by it. 

Earlier this week I was working from home and as a result I had some spare time. No need to drive into work so I had some time before work and I also didn't have to drive home so I gained personal time both ends of the day. That additional time gave me a chance to continue cutting the fabric needed for the double wedding ring quilt. However cutting fabric isn't an easy job and after a while my wrist was hurting so I needed to change activities. Instead of cutting I decided I needed to start putting some of the pieces together. I am not very good with sewing curves so I reread the instructions on how to sew them. I took a deep breath and got stuck in. I stitched several pieces together, pressed them and sat back to admire my handy work. I was pleasantly surprised that I'd made a reasonable job. Yes I agree there is plenty of room for improvement but I need to make 160 of these pieces so I'll get lots of practice.

I'm really happy with how these pieces worked. None of them are perfect but they really aren't that bad either. With so many to make I can only get better at making them. I am planning to do some more sewing on this project this afternoon.

Over the week, in small pockets of time I have been stitching on my embroidered table cloth. I wanted to finish the side by the end of the weekend. I am counting this as complete. Later when I have my slow stitching time I'll finish off the flowers and then turn the corner. It is difficult to say which flowers in the middle area belong to which side. Anyway I now have one more side to stitch and it will be finished. I will be taking this everywhere with me as my take along project in an effort to get it finished.

Yesterday I had time to work on the quilting of the frog quilt. I'd spent some time thinking about the quilting and in the end I decided to guilt the individual blocks using the walking foot and following the shapes.

There are two versions of each block, one large one small and I'm quilting them the same. I still haven't made up my mind how to quilt the stitched blocks but they need to be quilted especially the large blocks. I'm sure I'll have a good idea pop into my head at some point. 

Today I'm hoping to sew some more curves and also to finish the quilting on the pieced blocks. I also need to go through my stash to find a suitable fabric to use as the binding. I'm not sure I have anything appropriate but not to worry as I'm going to the Festival of Quilts at the end of July so I will be able to find something suitable.

The weather here in London has gone cooler for the moment but we are told the heat will be back. At the moment we are all hoping for some rain as the ground certainly needs it. Later this afternoon I have some gardening I need to do. For now I'm going to set up the machine and try and finish the quilting.

Take care.

Lyndsey

The double wedding ring quilt.

 

The pattern for the double wedding ring appeared in the December 2020 issue of the Today's Quilter. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make it but I had a major panic that I wouldn't be able to cope with the construction. My way of dealing with that was to put the magazine issue in the box file with the patterns for other quilts I wanted to make and forget about it.

In January 2024 I decided I wanted to start this quilt so I put it as one of my monthly challenges for the Chookshed Challenge. In March I visited my favourite quilt shop and I bought all the fabric I needed to make the quilt top. I think it was October when this was picked for the challenge and I started the cutting out and began to piece the rings. This is when I hit a problem - I wasn't confident on sewing curves!  I decided I needed to practice curves before I went any further, so the pattern and fabric was put into a project box  to keep it safe.

In January 2025 I wrote this quilt down as one of my Chookshed challenges and it was picked in October. I managed a little work on it but not much. October is a busy month at work as we have the new students groups. there was also a lot going on at home and in the wider family. All that to say I made a start on this quilt in October 2024 and did a little work on it in October 2025. I think it is high time I got on with the job.

When I'm making a quilt from a pattern I like to put the pattern into my own writing . The large post it note on the right has instructions 1 and 2 from the pattern.

When I'd started this pattern before I'd never got on and cut out all the bits to create the rings. My first job is to get all these pieces cut out. As I cut them I'm putting them into piles of ten. Making 10 curved units at a time will help to get the job done. In between one set of 10 units and the next I'll do some work on something else. Hopefully that will help me remain sane!

The problem with curves is that they make me panic. So this process will be rather slow. Working on other things in between will help to reduce the stress. I am well aware that no one has made me make this quilt, it is a challenge I set myself.

One of the other projects I will be working on this month is the frog quilt. This quilt is for my younger grandson and I would like to get this finished to gift as his Christmas present. I have some ideas of how I will quilt it.

I'm still working on the embroidered table cloth and I'm nearly at the end of the third side. This is a second project I would like to complete by Christmas. This should be doable. I started this side at the start of May and I should finish it by the end of next week. Therefore the side took two and a half months to stitch. At the end of July there are 5 more months to Christmas so I'm very hopeful.

The weather here in the UK has been very hot and humid and I know it has been even hotter in many areas of the world. Do take care to stay hydrated and protect your health. 

Take care,

Lyndsey

A weekend away in Suffolk

On Friday John and I were heading to Suffolk to celebrate the 70th birthday of two friends. The birthday bash was planned from Friday evening until lunch time Sunday and would involve quite a number of people we had never met. The thought of a lot of people I'd never met made me a little anxious as I count on my weekends to power down and enjoy a chillout time with family. However I was determined to enjoy the activities and to meet new people.  The drive through London was slow but the journey wasn't too bad until we got to the M11. From here it was slow traffic all the way. we stopped on the way to fill up with petrol and to buy snacks. Traffic jams always make me peckish so snacks were essential. The party was in Long Melford, a old and very pretty village with a stately home, a distinguished church, lots of pubs and interesting shops. We were staying in one of the many pubs/hotels and our room was very comfortable and spacious. We weren't meeting the rest of the party until seven o clock so we took the chance to rest after the journey. I had taken my embroidery with me so I spent the time stitching.

The evening was a chance to meet people and enjoy prosecco and pizza and a varierty of desserts. We enjoyed the walk and watching the swifts swooping over the sky above us. Walking back was and interesting experience as the street lights were infrequent and we didn't have our phones with us or a torch.Since we both grew up in small villages we should have remembered how dark it is at night in the country.

On Saturday after a delicious breakfast we decided to explore the village. We were meeting up with everyone at 12 noon to visit Melford Hall so we had plenty of time to browse. We enjoyed exploring the shops but I only bought a new book mark for Lucy. As we set out for Melford Hall I grabbed my camera. On the way we got sneak peeks over the wall surrounding the hall.

As we walked we passed the old primary school building, now used as a meeting place.

Before we crossed the road to the hall we investigated this building. Unfortunately there was no information to say what it was but a resident told us it was something to do with the water systems.Whatever it was for it was in a bit of a state.

We crossed the road and entered Melford Hall park by the gateway.

In the grounds there used to be a lot of oak trees. In the 1980's the children of the family had planted acorns which had grown and now form this nice driveway. These oaks are quite large but not yet fully mature.

Before it started getting too warm we all decided to take a walk in the park. we walked up the hill surrounded by sheep, some of them were pregnant and many had young lambs with them. At the top of the hill we were lucky enough to observe the sheperdess help a ewe deliver her lamb. The sheperdess then had to encourage the lamb to suckel.

By this time the sun was overhead and getting hotter so we headed back to the hall and more importantly the cafe as we were getting hungry.

After lunch John and I set off to view the house. I liked the Blue Drawing room. This room felt comfortable and would be a good place to sit and read . The hall still has family living in the south wing and the rest is under the National Trust. The feeling of the place was that of a family home.

As I went round I was interested in the textiles. A small quilt was available in the nursery. I love simple block designs for children, let the fabric do the rest.

In the bedroom there was this pretty handstitched cover on the bed.

and this cute little pillow

This beautiful stitching was on the cover of the cradle.

There was more hand work on display in another bedroom.

At the very end of the corridor there was this treadle singer sewing machine. It was in an alcove area and it would have been a fun sewing area.

Next we wandered around the garden and had a look inside the banqueting house. The term 'banquet' originated in the 15th century from the French word 'banquette' meaning small bench. It describes what we now know as dessert. So a small lodge or building in which you eat and enjoy dessert. Sounds fun to me.

Having visited most areas of the garden we decided to take a quick visit to the church. The church is a large,light and airy space. Unfortunately we came across a young women who was very distressed and it took us quite some time to calm her down. By the time she was more comfortable and ready to leave I wanted to have a lie down. We decided we would come and visit the church another time.

We walked back to our hotel and didn't have a lot of time before we set out to the evening barn dance. The evening was great fun and the food was very tasty. By the end of the evening I was completely worn out with all the activities of the day.

On Sunday we met up with our friend and had some tea and cake before heading off to visit John's brother and his wife. We hadn't seem them for about 10 years and none of us were quite sure why. We had a lovely afternoon with them before we drove back to London. It was nearly 9 p.m. when we got home. It was a fun but very tiring weekend.

Once home from work on Monday I set about sandwiching the frog quilt. I needed to join the backing fabric as I didn't have enough of any of the chosen fabrics. It took longer than I had anticipated and I felt very tired as I finished pinning the quilt. I'm planning on starting the quilting towards the end of the week.

 

Another project almost completed. Does that mean I can start something new?

Take care

Lyndsey

A new month, a new challenge.

I'm sitting here trying to work out how to fit everything I want to do into the second half of the year. I'd hoped to be further forward with most of my projects but a busy work load and a fairly busy social life this month has eaten into my sewing and craft time. In addition, the very high temperatures recently really did slow everything down. Enough moaning, let's find out what I achieved and what I hope to complete this month.

Over the weekend I managed to finish the frog quilt. I needed to trim the stitched blocks to the right size and I also had to cut some blocks from the various tan fabrics to use as filler blocks alongside the smaller pieced blocks. It was supposed to be the same fabric used in the pieced blocks but I had used up some of those fabrics so I introduced some other tan colours. Anyway I'm very pleased with the end product. The sun was so bright when we took this photo that it drained the colours.

I decided to lay it over the dining table to give a different perspective. I love this quilt.

We are away this weekend at a friend's 70 birthday celebrations so I won't get this quilt sandwiched for a couple of weeks. That will give me time to think about the quilting.

I haven't done much work on the goldwork seahorse but at least I've made a start on it. It's not brilliant but I'm slowly remembering how I did it, many years ago. I'm sure I'll get quicker and neater as I go on.

I've been enjoying adding afew stitches or flowers over the week to my embroidered table cloth. I took it with me when visiting my older daughter and she would like to stitch one, so a possible Christmas present?

I'm also trying to use up some of my yarn. I do have full balls of some of the yarns but mostly it's left over from knitting and fairly small balls. I decided to crochet hexagons to make a blanket for donation. It makes a change from squares. I do have a pattern for a blanket that I want to make but I want a particular colour scheme so it will have to wait until I've used up the scraps.

I'm also working slowly on making fabric from scraps. I will be using the blocks to make a quilt. Like everyone, I do have a lot of scraps and need all the possible ways of using them up. All suggestions gratefully received.

I haven't done any knitting on my cardigan as it has been too hot to be holding the knitting as it grows. 

So that brings us to July and the Chookshed Challenge. This month the challenge is number 5 and my number 5 is the double wedding ring quilt. I bought the fabric for this quite a time ago and I cut the fabric into smaller sizes rready to be cut further as I made each block. 

All my fabrics are carefully numbered so I know where they will be placed.

Parts cut out for the rings. This was trickier than it needed to be!

I cut some of the pieces for going in the middle of the rings. These are cut folded so it speeds the process up.

This is the picture from the pattern.

The pattern was in Today's Quilter and the templates came with it.

I made some of the arcs up and eventually got the knack of stitching them together. Next job was to stitch the whole ring together.

This was my first attempt and it got unpicked until I got it right. The photo below is one of the early attempts. It took me a while to master the piecing.

So this is what I'll be working on this month and I have set myself a target to get done but I'm keeping that to myself because I know I won't achieve it. I think it's called dream big!

I will still do some work on the tablecloth over the month. I want this finished before Christmas and that is very doable. We are away this weekend so I will be taking the embroidery for the quieter moments.

I take my crochet to work with me as I can sit and make a couple of hexagons during my lunch break. I also work on it during Team's meeting. For some of the large meetings we don't have our cameras on and so lots of people are busy doing some form of craft whilst listening. It's a good use of time.

I also want to sandwich and start the quilting on the frog quilt. If it isn't finished this month, I will get it done at the beginning of August when I am on holiday. We have several trips out planned but we aren't going away.

I'm excited to see what I can get done this month. I should achieve more than usual as we are only away this weekend and the rest of the month is quiet. More time at home means more sewing. I'd better check for spelling mistakes and get this post uploaded as I promised my younger daughter I'd pick her up this evening.

Take care

Lyndsey

Working on the frog quilt.

This week has seen high temperatures of 36 degrees celsius in the UK. I know that isn't high compared with some of the temperatures folks across the world are coping with. Missy and Twiglet have got a little grumpy as by the time I'm free to take them out, the pavement is too hot for their paws. The weather forecast for tomorrow is showing lower temperatures so hopefully I can take them for a long walk. Today, we should have been on a trip to a nature reserve in Lincolnshire, however the organisers cancelled the trip because of the heat. The reserve is very open and there is limited shelter from the sun so the decision was very sensible. That meant I had nothing planned for the day.  I quickly decided I was going to try and complete the blocks for the frog quilt. I had two different blocks to make but each block is made in 2 sizes so I needed  4 blocks before I could sew the quilt top together.

The first two blcoks were already cut so I got my machine set up and I started work. It started well but as I started piecing the block I got very confused with what went where. I made a coffee and then spent some time staring at the picture on the pattern and rereading the instructions. It slowly started to make sense and I got the larger block made up. Making the second block was completed really quickly.

I needed to cut the fabric for the second set of blocks. the second set was easier to put together but the cutting out was tedious. I had to do quite a lot of unpicking with this block as I kept making silly mistakes. I was so happy to finish them.

I decided to quit whilst I was ahead. I was convinced I'd make major mistakes if i started to stitch the blocks together. I'm hoping to complete the top tomorrow. Here are the blocks I've got for the quilt. First the stitched blocks. These were a lot of fun to do. The pattern has them all stitched in green but I decided I wanted some additional colour on the blocks. I do need to rinse the blocks to remove my lines when I copied the pattern.

Here are the pieced blocks, two of each design. 

I also have some fun frog fabric. I will use the ribbet for the backing and possibly I'll use the other two as borders in the quilt.

At the moment I can't make up my mind whether to free motion quilt or to hand quilt. I've only hand quilted one quilt so far and it was rather slow but I really enjoyed the experience.  I'll make my final decision once I've got it all stitched together.

I've been doing some work on my goldwork seahorse. Progress is slow but I'm enjoying the process. I'll give an update in my next post.  For now I'm going to have an early night and try to catch up on some sleep. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we won't have a thunderstorm as I really could do with some good solid sound sleep.

Take care

Lyndsey