Oh happy day......

It's been a somewhat exciting weekend, this one. After my day in the shop on Saturday, and a lovely Chinese meal out with the other half that night for his birthday, yesterday a few of my LMQG friends met up for a sewing day.

The lovely hostess

Nat is lucky enough to have a dedicated sewing space, so five of us happily sat around sewing and chatting, and eating lunch, and generally having a good time!  There was plenty of space for some cutting out, machine sewing, hand stitching of binding, and in my case, unpicking some dodgy quilting!

We had a lovely lunch provided by the gorgeous Kelly who was working on an Aeroplane bag - and very stunning it looked too, in the fabulously glittery latest Melody Miller range.  The weight of the fabric makes it perfect for bags and such like, and I can't wait to a) see Kelly's finished bag, and b) attempt one of my own.





isn't it gorgeous?

Kelly and her cleavage!

Check out that top-stitching

Of course, it wouldn't be Kelly without some tom-foolery, and she couldn't resist demonstrating other possible uses for the amply sized smaller bag - here she models the latest in over-the-shoulder-boulder-holders..... what more can I say! As you can tell, it wasn't a terribly serious day.

I'm quietly confident my little Janome would happily fit into this smaller bag, so I have some Melody Miller of my own that Charlotte very generously gave me for my birthday, and so I will be putting that to good use - watch this space.




binding away

Amanda was happily handsewing the binding onto her stunning diamond ring quilt, which looked lovely made from the Pearl bracelets range. She also had a play with Kelly's 11.5" inches, and we all spent a large part of the day planning what we could sell in order to justify the purchasing of new machines - needless to say there is no limit to the deviousness of female quilters when it come to inveigling a new machine into the house!
  

checking the fit

Amy was having a foray into dressmaking with her Schoolhouse tunic. it will be so summery once she's finished.

 

All in all, we had a wonderful day, and the next one is already in the calendar, when we plan to all attempt The Weekender together... apparently we have homework to do in preparation for that one!

Oh, and I just realised this is my 100th post!  Perhaps I ought to have a little giveaway...

100 days.

Right then, one day to go, but with an event for 150 tomorrow night it's unlikely this list will change before the end of the year!

Having posted back on the 9th November that I had made progress on only 4 of my 17 projects, and that I would have to work hard over the coming 40 days, everything went a little bit awry.  As many of you know, less than a week from that post my life went through a pretty cataclysmic shift.  So, I'm sure you're not expecting great progress with this, and you'd be right!

Here goes:

1) design & make a cd holder using the Melody Miller records fabric - tried and failed.  Have something else in mind during the course of 2013.

2) Make double-sided quilt for niece Megan - finished, loved and delivered to Megan.  I saw this over Christmas hanging in her newly decorated pink bedroom! (1 finish)

3) use the brown batik Charlotte challenged me with - 2 projects in mind for this. I used the tote bag we got goodies in at Retreat and made the batik into a tree trunk.  The leaves are Innocent Crush.  Project two was a 40th birthday present for Charlotte - a pouch which you can see in her post here.  What she has failed to mention is that the pouch was lined with brown batik! (2 finishes)

4) Make an Amy Butler weekender bag using 'Newquay' fabric neeeeever gonna happen!

5) make the Christmas wonky log cabin into a mini quilt - Christmas was pretty much cancelled in my house this year, so no Christmas projects got done.

6) finish the double circle flying geese cushion cover from FQ Retreat scrapped...

7) make mug tree / Christmas cards  see item 5

8) make 3 thank-you popsicle mug rugs replaced with Bottle sacks filled with pink champagne! See this post for more details. (1 finish)

9) finish campers travel sewing kit oh dear, no excuse for this not getting done!

10) make 2 x hopscotch quilts with jelly rolls This may have been a tad optimistic, but will keep me busy in 2013.

11) finish Maison de Garance quilt for Christmas gift DONE!  Hurrah, I did manage to finish something, even if I was hand-finishing the binding on Christmas Eve!  This now graces the bed of my OH's parents, and looks lovely, though I say it myself.  It was finished with a border of the rich goldy-biscuity colour with the rich deep red as the binding.  Backing was a plain beige sheet.  Although I wasn't sure about this to start with, and it was definitely a 'well, they'll like it' I ended up loving the warmth and vintage-y feel of this one. (1 finish)

12) make 4 x Oh Fransson! bags for Christmas gifts 3 made, and then another one was made in black denim, 2 of those were sold for use as Christmas gifts, the other two are still here.  I also have wallets cut out ready for sewing, and I made 2 pretty pleats totes in Melody Miller Ruby Stars Vinyl telephones panels - one with the orange phones, one in the blue phone colourway. One sold along with the pouches and one given as a gift.  I also started another Christmas quilt for my niece and nephew but a sewing machine in need of service put paid to that!  (counting this as 2.5 finishes!)

13) make a notebook cover for Christmas gift well, I've got the fabric and the notebook, just need to get the two together! Nothings' changed there but I did make other Christmas gifts - see above!

14) make a duvet cover for the spare bedroom out of IKEA fabric another project for 2013.

15) make a QAYG version of Weekender bag using Tula Pink fabric.  see item 4.....

16) various bee commitments 

17) edited to add: finish raw circles quilt!!! Yay!! All done, hand quilted and bound and just gorgeous.  Currently over the back of the sofa where the feline in residence is also in love with it and spends most evenings asleep on it! (1 finish)

So, out of the original 17 items, I'm counting 8.5 finishes.  As 3.5 of those were quilts, I think that's not bad under the circumstances.  Had I not had a few weeks of other things to deal with, plus a sewing machine which gave up the ghost in the days before Christmas, I would have got a lot further. However, hopefully I can get the remainder finished in the next few weeks - at least they'll be ready for next Christmas.  

I'm linking up for the final round-up.  I don't expect to be in line for the prizes, but it was fun trying to get everything done!

Halfway there...

There's been quite a bit of upheaval and change in my life in the last few weeks, so I'm not as far along with this as I'd hoped!  Still, here goes for the 50 day link up:

1) design & make a cd holder using the Melody Miller records fabric - ha, great start, no progress

2) Make double-sided quilt for niece Megan - finished, loved and delivered to Megan, only 5 days late!

3) use the brown batik Charlotte challenged me with - 2 projects in mind for this. I used the tote bag we got goodies in at Retreat and made the batik into a tree trunk.  The leaves are Innocent Crush.  Project two still on the back burner.

4) Make an Amy Butler weekender bag using 'Newquay' fabric ermmmmm...... I still want to do this, but probably now a QAYG version if I can pluck up the courage!  Will merge with item 15!

5) make the Christmas wonky log cabin into a mini quilt ermmmm....

6) finish the double circle flying geese cushion cover from FQ Retreat will NOT be doing this - have had several attempts, getting it all out, reading the instructions, and I can't get my head round it, so this one will be scrapped...

7) make mug tree / Christmas cards  planned for next weekend

8) make 3 thank-you popsicle mug rugs another ermmmm....

9) finish campers travel sewing kit good grief, this is getting repetitive!!

10) make 2 x hopscotch quilts with jelly rolls guess what....

11) finish Maison de Garance quilt for Christmas gift next priority - the top's done, the backing's ready, just need to save enough pennies to buy the wadding and then get it quilted and bound.

12) make 4 x Oh Fransson! bags for Christmas gifts 3 made, but now had other ideas for these recipients, so will change this to 'make 4 Christmas gifts' - youngest is getting one of these pouches, the others are having other things.

13) make a notebook cover for Christmas gift well, I've got the fabric and the notebook, just need to get the two together!

14) make a duvet cover for the spare bedroom out of IKEA fabric yes, well this was just daft thinking I'd get this done before Christmas!

15) make a QAYG version of Weekender bag using Tula Pink fabric.  see item 4.....

16) various bee commitments sadly, because of the aforementioned upheavals and changes, I've had to drop out of the bee.  I've has no real sewing time since the middle of last month, so I just couldn't guarantee I could honour these commitments.

17) edited to add: finish raw circles quilt!!! Yay!! All done, hand quilted and bound and just gorgeous.  Currently over the back of the sofa where the feline in residence is also in love with it and spends most evenings asleep on it!

So, four out of 17, with two scrapped and two becoming one - not the best first 50 days eh?  Better get stuck in over the next 40 or so.....

Already down to 99 day hustle!

Doesn't sound as good as the 100 Day Hustle though, does it?!  Kelby Sews launched this linky thingy to get us all working on our unfinished projects or starting new planned projects before the end of  2012.  

Anyway, I wrote myself out a to-do list, and I've already lost one of those 100 days, so here goes....

1) design & make a cd holder using the Melody Miller records fabric

2) Make double-sided quilt for niece Megan

3) use the brown batik Charlotte challenged me with - 2 projects in mind for this.

4) Make an Amy Butler weekender bag using 'Newquay' fabric

5) make the Christmas wonky log cabin into a mini quilt

6) finish the double circle flying geese cushion cover from FQ Retreat

7) make mug tree / Christmas cards

8) make 3 thank-you popsicle mug rugs

9) finish campers travel sewing kit

10) make 2 x hopscotch quilts with jelly rolls

11) finish Maison de Garance quilt for Christmas gift

12) make make 4 x Oh Fransson! bags for Christmas gifts

13) make a notebook cover for Christmas gift

14) make a duvet cover for the spare bedroom out of IKEA fabric

15) make a QAYG version of Weekender bag using Tula Pink fabric.

16) various bee commitments
17) edited to add: finish raw circles quilt!!!

So.........  not much to achieve then!  Clearly it's no good sitting her rabbiting on to you lot, best get cracking!

Linking up with Kelby Sews