A perfect day for quilting.

It's Saturday, a sewing day and I've been looking forward to getting on with some quilting on the baby quilt. Last month I worked on the top for my 'Let's book it project'.  This month I'm continuing with the quilt as my project and I hope to have it finished this week.

First I had to visit a quilt shop as I needed backing fabric and Wadding. There is a sewing and craft superstore within walking distance of my house but when I'd popped in recently I didn't see any fabric that I wanted to use for the backing so I needed to go further afield. It took an hour to drive there but I found this fabulous fabric which I think is perfect for the backing

Once home I got on with making the quilt sandwich. For once this went really quickly and I soon had my machine set up and ready to start. Back in January we visited Bath and whilst there I treated myself to a pair of gloves for quilting.

Wow I wished I'd found out about them before. I started quilting prepared to find that they were just a gimmick and I'd wasted my money. No, they were so good and made it so easy to move the quilt around whilst I whizzed along. They certainly helped with the whole quilting process. Now I just need something to help with the back and shoulder ache I get when quilting.

Over the afternoon I finished the quilting and all I need to do now is trim the quilt and stitch the binding. Oh and I must check to make sure I'll dealt with all the ends.

I also need to make a label. I haven't made labels for most of the quilts I've made but I decided I'm going to start doing so. Last month I bought a new printer as our old one died of old age and the new one is perfect for making labels.

Tomorrow I'll do the binding and then this quilt will be ready to be gifted. With the baby quilts I've made I haven't washed them before gifting them as most new mothers want to use their own choice of soap powder for their new babies clothes and bedding. I include a label with the washing instructions in the gift box.

This evening I'm getting on with some more knitting. I can't do many rows a day as knitting makes my right shoulder hurt. To make sure I get it finished I'm trying to knit between 5 and 10 rows a day.

I have some marking I need to do before I get on with stitching the binding but by the end of the week I'll have a finish.. 

I hope your Saturday has been as much fun as mine.

Lyndsey

It's raining scraps!

We all have scraps right? Are you plagued with them or do you embrace them enthusiastically as you plan out your next scrappy quilt. I love scraps. They look so pretty in their boxes and it's amazing how much money you save by using up the scraps. If I go to my local quilt shop here in London most of the good quality quilting cottons cost between £14 and £22 a metre (20 to 31 US dollars) so using up the scraps saves me a lot of money.

Last year I set out to get my scraps organised by cutting into useful sizes and storing them by colour and size.

The only problem with scraps is that the more you sew the more scraps you produce, so on a regular basis I try and revisit my scrap basket so I can keep the scraps under control. On Thursday evening I got out my cutter and the scrap box and spent a little time cutting 1 1/2 inch squares. I didn't get very far as it is quite a time consuming job but I did end up with a small pile of squares that I can use on my nine patch baby quilt.

I still need to cut a lot more squares in order to finish the baby quilt. Sarah from Confessions of a fabric addict has a new linky party so we can share how we organise our scraps and then how we use them. My goal with my scraps for March is to cut enough 1 1/2 inch scraps to complete the 9 patch baby quilt. Simple! I also want to press all the scraps in my box and start the cutting process . I tend to cut scraps into 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2 and 3 inch squares. I've found these are the sizes I use most frequently.

Now I need to cut the pieces for my 'Once I caught a fishy' baby quilt. This is my 'Let's book it' project for March.

I found this lovely fish fabric. The fish have such happy faces.

I also have a pale blue for the fish to be appliqued onto. I have already cut the template for the fish from a thin plastic sheet.

Today the weather was fabulous here in London. Yesterday morning was cold and foggy. The fog in town wasn't particularly bad, but you can see the frost on the car windscreen,

Looking across to the city from the 10th floor of work  you couldn't see most of the tower blocks

In contrast today was clear and sunny and very warm, up to 17 degrees C (62F) 

So John and I made the most of the weather with a trip into London to go to an art exhibition at the Tate Britain and then later we took Scamp for a long walk on the common. This afternoon I got the cutting done for the baby quilt and made a start on the stitching.

This quilt should go together very quickly.  I'll let you know how I get on tomorrow. 

Lyndsey

Slow Sunday stitching already?

The weeks seem to zoom past and I sometimes find myself wondering what I did with the time. I'm not very good at keeping my diary up to date so this blog helps as I post about visits and some of the events we attend. I also keep a scrapbook of tickets and programmes from concerts, plays or exhibitions. Generally when I'm hand stitching I will be watching television or chatting to the family but when I'm alone I find myself using the time to look back over the week and reflecting on what I've done. It helps set the memory and gives me time to put things that have happened in perspective, whether good or not so good.

This week has been good as I finished reading one book and read another from cover to cover. The first was Dust by Patricia Cornwell. I like murder mystery books and try to work out what happened before the author tells you. This one was easy to second guess and isn't one of my favourites of the series. The second book was Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson.  This is a coming of age story about a lesbian girl who grows up in an English Pentecostal community. I enjoyed reading this book 

I've also managed some sewing. I've been getting on with the quilting on the 9 patch quilt. This is being done on the machine. I'm not posting a picture as I've already shown how this is being quilted.  I'm also working on a piece for the 'Nuts about' blog hop. My day is the 10th February. Sorry no peeping until then

I sorted my fabric for this months colour on the rainbow scrap challenge. Brown with a hint of pink. 

I'm sure I've got a couple of other brown fabrics somewhere but I just can't find them right now. That leaf one looks really orange here but is quite brown in real life.

Finally I've been working on the millennium sampler and I will be working on this tonight whilst I watch Vera. Unfortunately I won't get as much done this evening as I should as you have to watch Vera not just listen.

Here's a close up of the border I've been working on.

I'm linking up with Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday I hope you've enjoyed some stitching time this weekend.

Lyndsey

Busy catching up.

I love Christmas and always look forward to getting the tree decorated, the presents wrapped and the food all organised. This year is no exception, and I'm very pleased because I've made a gingerbread house, a christmas cake and the christmas puddings.. The presents are wrapped but I still have a couple to buy but hopefully that will be sorted on Wednesday when Lucy and I finish up the last little bits for the holiday. Oh I must remember I need a tasty special veggie menu for Lucy for Christmas dinner.

In the run up to the holiday I tried really hard to complete everything for work but I have a few things I need to do. The good news is I don't need to go into the office to do them. So last Friday was my last working day of 2015. We go back to work on the 4th January 2016. Wow it seems strange writing that.

I need to have a major sort out and reorganise of all my sewing bits. I have so many scraps that I must make some scrappy quilts this coming year. I started the process of using some scraps by making a block for the baby quilt. This is from a pattern in Today's Quilter issue 3. 

This is a new publication in the UK that started in the Autumn. I came across issue 3 one day whilst scanning the magazine section in our supermarket. I bought issue 4 and have subscribed to the magazine as I like what I've seen so far. I often miss them because the shops don't seem to stock enough for the demand.

Anyway this cute baby quilt was in the 3rd issue and as I needed to make another baby quilt I thought it would be perfect. 

I already had a lot of  2 and half inch squares so I just had to find 27 squares for each dog. That hardly made a dent in the box.The block went together very quickly. John couldn't see the dog shape at first but he had just woken up from a nap.- this being on holiday is very tiring!

Kathryn and Olly visited last night-hence why I wasn't able to finish this post. They were both tired having hosted their first Christmas party in their flat. Their flat is small so there weren't huge numbers of people but they had a lot of fun. They're hoping to make this a yearly event. Kathryn wanted to make a couple of gardening kneelers for Olly's mom for Christmas. She has allotments as well as a garden and Kathryn and Olly enjoy the results of her labours. We had to visit the sewing shop to get some oiled cloth to make them. Such a hardship! I took the opportunity to buy the sashing and backing for the baby quilt plus some fabric for a couple of backings.

There wasn't a big choice of oiled cloth so Kathryn chose these two. Before she went home she had made two kneelers but I forgot to take a photo.

Over the last week I've been enjoying stitching the Christmas tree cross stitch. My only complaint with cross stitch is that it doesn't grow very fast, oh and I forgot it is also quite tiring on the eyes especially when working on the bits where you have to keep checking the pattern and counting the thread to get the stitch in the right place. Still it does look different to last week.

I  hooped up the first pattern for the cat quilt I'm going to make next year. The cat is Brutus and they are free patterns from Red Brolly My main problem with getting started on the stitching is I've put my embroidery thread boxes somewhere and I can't find them. I remember thinking 'It would be more logical to keep these with..' but it isn't at all logical now. Also moving something to a new storage place after many years is only encouraging disaster. I could lay my hands on them in seconds before. I know I'll find them soon so till then I work on the Christmas tree.

I hope you are all ready for the holidays, presents bought, food organised and some hand stitching or a good book for those quiet moments. I need to browse the TV listings to see if there is anything worth watching  and some tidying and a little cleaning is needed before I'm all ready.

Wishing you and your families a very Happy Christmas. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you facing the bad weather.  Stay safe and take extra care if travelling.

Love and hugs

Lyndsey

A hair cut

The 3rd of November and I've managed to do some stitching each day which is making me very happy. I started the day by cutting the fabric for my kitchen curtains. I also had the lining to cut. The fabric was already folded along its length and this meant it was a quick job to measure the length and cut using my trusted rotary cutter. The lining was a different matter. The fabric was on a roll at its full width and so I had to fold it in half lengthways in order to make it more manageable to be able to cut it.

I soon had a neat pile of fabric ready to be stitched. I had other things to do today so I'll start work on the curtains tomorrow.

I needed to visit the fabric shop. I was short of a fabric to make the binding for my turtle quilt and I also wanted the header tape for my kitchen curtains. This gave me an opportunity for a little exercise as the shop is about a mile and a half away. So a win win activity, a walk of about 3 miles and I got the fabric I needed. 

This afternoon Scamp was booked at the groomers. This photo was taken on the 3rd October and is the most recent photo I had of him. As you can see he is a little shaggy and of course his hair was even longer with the extra months growth. In fact his fringe was so long he could hardly see out from under it. 

Scamp dragged me into the shop so he obviously wanted a good bath and he seems to prefer to have short fur. He really does look a little cutie and much younger with short fur.

Before he went into the groomers we took a walk along the Thames. There have been some very high tides recently and the path was very muddy and slippy. The walk helped to add to my milage so I was feeling very happy and Scamp was nice and calm for his grooming session. 

When we got home our older daughter was visiting so tea and chatting was required after which we  drove her home. By then the evening was getting on and I wanted to watch a programme on TV and do some hand sewing. A great way to finish up a good day.

Tomorrow I plan to start the stitching on the curtains and cut and attach the binding to the turtle quilt. If I have any time left I need to make some blocks for the rainbow scrap challenge as I'm getting behind. I also need to catch up on some housework.

Lyndsey

A slow day stitching.

For the last couple of days I haven't done any sewing and only spent a little time on the computer as my right wrist had started to be painful. A couple of years back I overdid the knitting and ended up with repetitive strain injury which affected my whole arm. It was so painful that I don't want it to happen again. Now if my wrist starts aching I rest it for a couple of days and it usually settles down quite quickly. Yesterday I attached the binding to the front of the ribbon quilt.

I used some more of the strips from the jelly roll which is 'Blooming fresh' by Deb Strain. I'm slowly stitching the binding to the back by hand. It's a nice job to do whilst watching TV. There's a Midsommer Murder on this evening and I've not seen this episode before.

Earlier today I finished the quilting on the second of two bath mats I've made. The binding is made and ready to be attached. I'll do that tomorrow.

I also finished stitching the binding on the first mat. This has already been pressed into service.

It's great to have finally used the shell fabric. I was given the fabric several years ago and it is perfect for the bath mats. Our bathroom is decorated in blue and white and the mat gives it a seaside feel.

As those of you who follow my blog will know my son is a star trek fan. I recently finished a quilt for him which incorporated fabric from the original star trek series.

I saw some fabric from Star Trek the next generation on ebay so I ordered a pack of 4 fat quarters.

I don't have a project to make with them yet but they will come in useful. I love the red fabric with the star trek logo on. 

Whilst I was preparing the binding on my ironing board I realised it was time to make it a new cover. The old cover isn't that old but the foam backing has lost its 'umph' and the metal mesh base shows through. You can see it on the bottom of the photo.

I have some pretty fabric that would be perfect. 

Tomorrow I have work but tomorrow evening should see the baby quilt finished and I can start my next project. I'm linking with Kathy's quilts for slow stitching Sunday. I hope you've had time for some slow stitching..

Lyndsey

Finishing the baby quilt

Today I had a little marking to finish off and then I was free to get on with some quilting. Most of my friends assume that as I teach at a university I have the whole of the summer off but reality is very different. One of the courses I have responsibility for will be running all though the summer and there is marking still coming in. In fact I have about 60 essays to mark in the next couple of weeks. The difference during the summer is that there are only a few courses running so there is space to take time out. The main part of the job now is preparing for the start of the new academic year in September.

Once the marking was finished and I'd dealt with the emails I hit the sewing. I decided to do a meander on the background of the ribbon baby quilt so this was my job for the day. When I started I thought I was going to have problems with the sewing machine as the stitch wasn't very good but I re-threaded the machine and it worked well. It didn't take very long to complete the meander.

I have some more ends to sew in this evening. As you can see I have already trimmed the quilt (don't panic it is trimmed square but it's badly folded.) I will make and attach the binding tomorrow.

Having finished the quilting I decided to sort out my stash of pink fat quarters. I have a baby quilt for a girl to make. The baby's due date is actually tomorrow but it is a first baby so will probably be late.

I seem to have lots of pink fabric and somewhere I have the fabric I plan to use as the background - I just need to remember where I put it. It's not a bad as it sounds, it just that I have several places where I store my fabric. 

Finally I did some boring sewing. I had a small pile of mending that I had been meaning to do for a while. Instead of putting it off yet again I got on and did it. I now feel very virtuous.

I've been doing some hand stitching while watching TV but now I've got to go out. Today in London there is a tube strike and I've promised my son I'll collect him from work. So I'm off for a late night car ride before bed. It all adds to the rich tapestry of life.

Lyndsey

A new pattern and some fabric and August goals

I always love receiving presents so it was lovely to receive 8 fat quarters from John. He had picked them up a little while ago when he went on a trip away. He always comes home with little presents for everyone. He gave me a small present at the time but didn't give me the fabric since he knew I didn't have any time for sewing. Since the machine is now back on the table and in use again he thought it was the right time to give them to me.

There are four patterns with two FQ's of each fabric. I had muttered that I wanted some pieces with small floral patterns and these fit the bill just fine.

I also like presents that I treat myself to. I have been following Barbara's progress with stitching her quilting snowladies and the more I saw them the more I wanted to stitch one myself. Well actually I want to stitch 3 or 4 as pictures for decoration at Christmas but I thought I'd start with one. Barbara blogs over at Cat Patches and if you haven't visited her blog you are missing out on lots of fun. Barbara blogs about all sorts of things from trips, flowers, cooking ( such yummy recipes, I know I've tried several of them), cats, stitching and quilting. Barbara has just completed stitching the last of 12 of these quilting snowladies and it looks fabulous. Anyway I ordered one for myself from Chickadee Hollow Designs and it arrived today. I really shouldn't start it yet as I still have one more of the red work dog designs to do. In fact I can't start it yet as I need to get some fabric to stitch it on first!

Barbara added a little cat to each of her stitcheries. It's already been suggested that I stitch the flag as an English flag rather than the US flag but I'm not sure.

So having checked out my presents I settled down to decide on my August goals.

I intend to complete two small quilts. 

Number 1 the ribbon baby quilt.. This one is almost done and should be completed by the weekend.

Number 2 is to complete the turtle quilt.

This is already sandwiched and ready to be quilted. It's not that big so wont take long to finish. This one will be my August finish for A lovely year of finishes 2015 over at Sew Bittersweet designs.

I also want to complete the dog red work I'm working on and make a start on the next and final pattern for the 'It's a dogs life' quilt. I also need to catch up on the rainbow scrap blocks as I haven't made the July blocks yet.

I have some other plans too but I need to make some kitchen curtains or blinds. I haven't decided which to make yet as it rather depends on the fabric I come across when I go shopping.

Anyway I'm going to sit and relax with my redwork for a little while before bed. I hope you've had a good day and enjoyed a little 'me' time.

Lyndsey

First Finish of 2015

I'm busy doing a happy dance as I've just completed my cross stitch 'the butterfly catchers'. i was given this cross stitch kit several years ago as a birthday present.  I started it but for some reason put it away unfinished. In the run up to Christmas I pulled this out of my UFO pile. This is how I'd got.

Here is the completed embroidery.

I still need to wash and gently press it but I'm very happy with the final result.

I visited my local fabric store yesterday and found these two fabrics. I'm going to use the green wool fabric to make a jacket and the checked fabric is destined to be a skirt. I can't wait to get started on them.

I also got my Votes for Women quilt out ready to start the quilting. I thought I had wrapped this up well so that it wouldn't be affected by the dust when the house was rewired but unfortunately it was covered in dust. I had folded it so the backing fabric was outermost so I unpinned the quilt sandwich and put the backing in the washing machine. Over the weekend I'll iron the backing, re bast the quilt and get started on the quilting. I'm hoping to finish this quilt this month.

I'm linking this post with Link a finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts and with Amanda's Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. I wonder if I could manage another finish next Friday.

Lyndsey

I'm not cross, just stitching.

I hope you all had a very happy Christmas. We had a very enjoyable time. Christmas Day was unusually quiet as there was just the three of us but on boxing day both my daughters and their boyfriends joined us for a family meal. It was very noisy and chaotic but really enjoyable. I had been worried how the cooking would go as the kitchen is in bits but it all worked well in the end. 

Quilting bits worked their way into my presents with an A3 portable cutting board from my son which will be perfect for my quilt classes.

He also bought me a quilting calculator. It helps works out the yardage. Being me I don't always trust calculators so I gave it a test with a quilt I had already planned out and done the maths on. It came up with the same answers so I'm very happy. The calculations took me a lot of effort but the calculator did it really quickly. That means more sewing time. I'll let you know how useful it is as time goes by.

In my Christmas stocking I also found three fat quarters. As these are the only pieces of fabric easily available in our house at the moment I gave them a good petting and stroking. I've missed pulling out fabrics as I decide on a new project!

As all my sewing stuff is packed up at present I've been catching up on some hand stitching. I seem to have a backlog of cross stitching. I realised that this was because several of the LED's in my sewing light/magnifier had gone. Richard helpfully replaced these and now I can sew what I'm doing. Some of my cross stitch is on high count fabric so my old eyes have a few problems without the light.

I started on the crown on the millenium sampler. This piece really has to be finished in 2015. (I have been threatening to get it finished for ages.) I think I'd better stick to smaller projects in future as it takes a lot of stamina and determination to complete these big projects. There is still a lot of work to do on the crown (not to mention the remaining bits of the sampler.)

I also pulled out this teddy bear cross stitch. It had been put away in a box and forgotten about. This is how it stood when I found it earlier this year. I hadn't done any work on it until today. Scamp seems to have eaten something he shouldn't so he has been on my lap whilst I stitched. I wrapped a hot water bottle in a towel and he lay on this on my lap. I got rather hot but he got better and the stitching has moved forward so a good day all round.

The finished size is 8 x 8 inches. There is still quite a bit to do but it should be finished soon. I know the instructions say to leave the outline stitches until the whole thing is completed but I find it helps to do it as I go along as it helps me keep track of my place.

I still have the rest of the little teddy plus the butterfly net and one more butterfly to do. I think I would have done more hand stitching over the holiday if there had been more interesting programmes on the TV (Not that I'm saying there wasn't anything interesting to watch as there certainly was.) I always stitch or knit when watching TV. Lack of good programmes meant I did some reading instead. 

I'm linking this post with Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy's Quilts. 

I hope you've had some time for stitching over the holiday and that your Sunday has been relaxing and peaceful.

Lyndsey