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.....

November, already.....

Well, October was some month!  It started with a two-week holiday in Cornwall where I spent a good percentage of the time looking out of rainy windows while I stitched away at various projects, and it's ended with some major steps towards life changes for us. Phew, busy times!

Anyway, your positive thoughts and crossed fingers did a brilliant job earlier in the week, I am now less stressed and hopefully taking big strides to a happier life. So thank you for your lovely, friendly support.  But more on that another time...

So, in October, I got this lot done

Not quite as much off my 100 day hustle list as I'd have liked, but a few bits and pieces.  Seems like I'm going to have to roll my sewing sleeves up now and get stuck in before it's too late.  Christmas is galloping towards me and i'll have less free time now, so will have to make the most of every spare second.  

Linking up with Lily's quilts and 

The Double A Side has landed

OK, so it's all very well spending months sourcing just the right fabric for your 3-year old niece's birthday quilt, designing a double A sided pattern, piecing it all, finishing it with lovely borders, tying it with gorgeous variegated embroidery thread....  

but it's no flippin' good if you then miss the birthday!!  Imagine my horror yesterday when I realised Megan's big day was last Friday, not this week as thought!

Baaaaaad Auntie Pennie....

So, I just about managed to wrap it in more pinkness and get it into the post, special delivery, with a very grovelly card.  It took some doing, letting it go, and I think I might have to start again on the Heather Ross hunt to make another one!  

Anyway, I just got this......

I think she likes it!

Honey, I'm home!

Awww, quilting world, how I missed you..... The effort of trying to post via mobile proved just too traumatic, and my signal in not-sunny-at-all Cornwall was erratic at best so I have heaps to tell you and to catch up on!

I have finally figured out how all these amazing super-achievers get things done so quickly - they do absolutely nothing else..... I'm kidding of course, I know all you wonder-quilters have jobs and children to take care of really... or so you say!  With two weeks off, I got one quilt finished, another completely done and a significant amount of work done on a Christmas project.  I also initiated my friend Hilary into the joys of quilting, as we started work on Santa sacks and other Christmas goodies for her.  

In between sewing sessions I did a lot of dog walking - Hilary and I have 4 spaniels between us, so we did beach, woodland and sand dune walks to keep them all quiet enough for us to have the sewing sessions.  There were also quite a few afternoon teas, sticky cakes and yummy lunches consumed, so the diet starts now!

However it did rain, nearly every day, and on Thursday we got caught, whilst on a circular walk, by the worst rain storm I can remember.  I have never been so wet in clothes in my life - trust me, everything was soaked.  The irony was that it was sunny when we set off, so we left waterproof trousers in the car.  When we got back we ended up having to strip out of sodden jeans and wear the waterproofs instead so as not to soak the car.  Later that day, the area's website reported flash flooding...

Anyway, enough about my holiday, you want to see the work, right?

Well, I posted that I'd finished the raw edge applique circles quilt.  I finally decided to bind it with orange magic beans, as I found any solid binding just over-emphasised that colour within the quilt top.  The busier binding blended in really well, I think, and I'm really happy with this, it kind of disappears. I'm looking forward to being able to snuggle up under this on the sofa over the winter, with the bright colours really cheering me up on the dull days.  Alison's original tutorial on Cluck Cluck Sew can be found here.





Mind you, it's already been claimed by a certain member of the household, who actually kicked bags off the top of it last night so he could curl up on it.  Think I might have a wrestling match on my hands!


I also got Megan's Double A-side finished, and I have to say I love it!  It's the first time I've ever felt slightly sad that I don't have a daughter to give it to! I hope she likes it, otherwise I'm reclaiming it.  I finished it slightly differently, as the quilt already had the borders around the edge, and I couldn't think of a binding that I liked that would go with both sides.  So it is not bound - I just sewed the edges together almost all the way round and then turned it right side out and hand stitched the opening, and then top stitched all the way round.   

 As doing it this way meant it wasn't going to possible to quilt both sides and as both sides were very different layouts anyway,  I decided to just tie it using variegated DMC embroidery thread.  As I'd used cotton / bamboo mix wadding, this is now a beautifully soft quilt, and I am really happy with my first attempt at a quilt without using a pattern.

I might not be making anything pink for a while though.....

Yesterday I had a great time helping Annie from The Village Haberdashery on her stall at the Knitting and Stitching show in Alexandra Palace.  I'm sure Annie's blog will tell more about this, but it was great to see other quilters there - I spotted a few faces from retreat 2012 - but my favourite part was the number of handmade bags being sported by visitors, along with some fantastic handmade coats and jackets.  Quilters are a colourful bunch!

WIP Wednesday

I got a bit busy in the sewing room over the weekend, not only cutting out Megan's double A-side quilt, but also tackling the brown batik challenge set by Charlotte while I was convalescing.  It's taken me a while as I couldn't decide if the brown batik would drag down the lovely accompanying fabric in whatever I made, or if the lovely stuff would lift it to acceptability by association.  Well, you tell me....

I used the FQ retreat goody bag, and a Google image for inspiration, which in itself was I think drawn from a Cluck Cluck Sew tutorial.   I used Innocent Crush for the leaves and hand stitched them on with perle.  I haven't decided yet whether to line the bag with a patchwork Innocent Crush made with the remains of the charm pack I have.

Today I went over to Charlotte's to pick up the Snow White fq, check the layout of the double A-side on her design wall..... oh, alright & to cuddle the puppy!

I took this photo of the Heather Ross side in the office at the weekend, and for some reason the proportions look odd, but trust me, in reality, they are fine!  The gaps at top and bottom will have the Snow White fabric in them.

Much as I love this, I wasn't sure it would fill the requirements for a pink quilt, and so you may remember I did another side with Aneela Hoey fabrics which definitely fits the brief!!  If you don't like pink, look away now!

 Hopefully it will all work out - there may be extra sashing needed to make up for seam allowances etc, but fingers crossed it will all come together wonderfully!  


So, that's what I've been working on this week, together with the raw circles hand quilting, which goes without saying!!  

Linking up with WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced.

So much for improv....

It's been a busy day today.  I think working with Melody Miller's Ruby Star Vinyl recently has gone a bit to my head, because when I started cutting fabric for my niece's 3rd birthday quilt today, in my wisdom I decided it would be a double-A side

Megan, the niece in question, is responsible for my beginning in quilting.  I'd done lots of knitting over the 3 or 4 years before her arrival - and it was her brother Dylan's arrival that started that off.  For Megan's birth, I made a playmat, using a cheater panel and yardage from the same range, and I basically made two quilts with high loft polyester wadding and bound them together to make it nice and thick.  I didn't take photos.  All in all, I've learned a lot since then!!

So as Megan's about to move into a new bedroom with a big girl's bed, I thought I'd like to make her a new, pink quilt.  It has to be pink, it's been requested!  I've been collecting fabric for a few months and today decided to cut the pieces ready to sew together while I'm on holiday at the start of next month.  I've got loads of Heather Ross, because I loved the fairy tales theme, and also loads of Aneela Hoey, because it's pink!  As the two are so different in style, colour etc, I decided I'd do one side in one and the other in the other, and then Megan can decide which side she wants on show.  

Heather Ross layout

It was to be improvised, no pattern, just cut and sew bits together to make the 36" x 52" quilt I wanted. 

Only I couldn't do it, I couldn't just chop into the Heather Ross preciousness without a plan.  So I spent a while measuring the motif sizes on the various different fabrics - I've got Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Princess and the Pea and the Owl and the Pussycat, along with some lovely roses.  With the recent Spoonflower offer of a free fq for the price of postage I bought a princess and the pea panel, which is the centrepiece.  I then spent an hour with the PC and a dtp package in the absence of a high-falutin' electronic quilt design package, and drew it all out, working out what filler pieces I needed.  (I took a photo of the pc screen so I could check the layout, as we're not high-tech enough to have a printer at home!)

Once it was all drawn out, I very, very, very carefully cut the pieces out, with only one mistake.  I followed the wise advice, of measure twice, cut once.... measured twice, talked about the measurements and then cut it wrong!  Luckily it was a fabric I had lots of, so no major drama....  I used some lovely toning peach and gold oakshotts for some small filler pieces I needed and I've got 2 gaps to be filled with a Snow White.  Lastly, it'll have a pink oakshott border.  

Then I started on the other side, and the Aneela Hoey fabrics from Sherbet Pips, Walk in the Woods and a Sew Stichy panel.  It's very, very pink!  There's an occasional flash of pale blue and a couple of bits of grey, but otherwise it's unrelentingly pink!!  I thought the first side was quite a symmetrical pattern so I tried to make the pink side a little more out there.  This time, I'd cut the fabric before I did the drawing, so it was a case of fitting in what I had and working out what more I had to cut.  Whether it will look anything like this when I'm done is another matter!  

Once I'd got both bits done and used the screenshots to check the layout, I broke both sides down into blocks and put them all in separate bags, and once I have picked up the Snow White from Charlotte on Wednesday, I'll be ready to sew it all together.  

Once I'd finished those, I got on with yet more hand quilting of spirals, which is flying now I'm on the outside blocks.  I'm happy to report I only have 13 more to do!  Then I have to choose a binding, but it should be finished by the end of the holiday.  

And talking about Charlotte, have you all signed up for the Pervalong?

I was bravely resisting as I'm supposed to be on a fabric diet (even more so after yesterday's extortionate vet bill!!) but I was tempted over to The Village Haberdashery today to look at the pre-cut kits that Annie has put together for the project....  Firstly, let me help you a little in case of confusion - Charlotte's quilt, on which this QAL is based, was originally called Fractured, but because of it's colours and a certain line of literature popular this summer, it became known as '50 shades of perv'.  Annie has quite properly stuck with the Fractured moniker for her kits!  Anyway, I'm waffling....

I was doing so well with the brave resisting, until I saw this little bundle of pink and grey loveliness, and now I'm wavering....  

Lastly, I just want to say that although it seems to me like I've had a tough time lately, there's a friend of many of us going through something truly awful with her family at the moment, which really puts things into perspective.  I'm sure all of us are thinking of them, and wishing there was anything we could do to ease their pain.  

August's been a busy month!

I feel a bit of a fraudulent Slow Blogger this month, because I have actually not only done a fair amount of sewing, but also had time to blog stuff, too!  In fact, if I look over my archive, this post makes August the joint top month in number of posts!

However, there are two very good reasons for that - distraction and convalescence!  And I can assure you this mega-activity probably won't last once I'm back to work full time!

Finishes this month include:

• Sew Stitchy and Cherry Christmas reversible sewing machine cover - see it here
• Summersville Go Anywhere bag - that's here
• Summersville wallet - that will be over here
• Yet another Summersville bag - it's turning into a bit of an addiction, as this post shows - by the way doesn't the lining photo in that post remind you of a shark mouth...?
• and lastly a project for someone that I can't show you yet as it is destined for big things, but which more than tested my sewing superpowers, but I did win out in the end!

WIP's are mainly my raw circle applique quilt, which is coming along really nicely.  Am loving the colours and enjoying hand quilting the free-style spirals (well, spiral-ish!).  I've given this a plain red backing and I'm thinking of binding it in orange magic beans, but that's yet to be decided.  And then there's my fabulous brown batik challenge that I need to get finished to show my friend Charlotte I can work with anything...

Photo bottom right courtesy of Canoe Ridge Creations

Plans in mind include something interesting to do with the Ruby Star Vinyl records, when I hopefully get some; making a start on my niece's third birthday quilt using the Sew Stitchy panel, some Heather Ross fabrics and whole load of other bits and pieces; joining in the Japanese Charm swap and working out my block and fabric requirements for my bee month in November - I want to do something similar to the block Megan showed on her blog although whether they'll turn out quite so gorgeous remains to be seen!

Lastly, a small matter of a paper pieced block to make before the next LMQG meeting on Sunday - for someone who professes to be a slow blogger, I don't half like leaving things to the last minute!

Linking up with Catherine at Knotted Cotton for the inaugural Slow Bloggers linky party & shamefully doubling up for Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day.

Coming along nicely...

My raw edge circles quilt is gradually getting there.... The quilt top is all sewn together and now I just need to work on what backing to use and how to quilt it.  

It's not good enough weather here today for photos outside, so here's the quilt top artfully draped over one of the sofas!  It's such lovely colours, I can't wait till it's finished, and I think it'll be a great splash of cheerful warmth through the winter.

I'm considering plain red with a small section of red magic beans on the back.  There's quite a bit of my beloved pezzy and some teal magic beans on the front, so I think it would be a shame if the back were completely plain.  I'm thinking this multi-coloured Aurifil thread in Laura's giveaway over on Needles, Pins and Baking Tins today would be just the thread to quilt this.

I've also got quite a list of other WIP's at the moment - two bee blocks for Plan Bee 2012, a maison de garance quilt for the in-laws for Christmas, and I want to try and make a start on my niece's birthday quilt too.  

I'm linking up with Lee over on Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Wait a minute Mr Postman....

I'm really busy today - got 3 events to get finalised for next week, and my desk is piled high with paperwork....

But look what just came in the post!  I am so excited, a) because I've never had a parcel from Japan before and b) because I only ordered this on Sunday evening! It's hard enough to get a first class letter within the UK in that time, let alone a bundle of gorgeousness from Japan.


So, yep that envelope was pretty exciting, but it's contents had me dancing about the office - don't worry there's no photos of that cos it's not a pretty sight....

However, this was a very pretty sight - some gorgeous Heather Ross fabrics to go with my Sherbet Pips, Walk in the Woods and other bits and pieces for a quilt I'm going to be making for our niece's 3rd birthday.  At the moment, I'm thinking Bloom for the front with an additional design element in the corners, and Heather Ross pieces for the back. I've got a couple of other fabrics I want to get for it, one of which I'm stalking an Etsy shop for, just in case there's any more destashing going on.... 


(Mind you, I very luuuurve the Sleeping Beauty print, so Miss Megan will consider herself very lucky indeed if it makes it to her quilt....)

Rapunzel, Roses, Sleeping Beauty

A lovely afternoon....

After a very busy month, the only time I've had for sewing has been after a stressful or long and tiring day.  I've been working on a 12" mini for the LMQG challenge, and I just haven't been able to get it right, because I've been tired, and so have taken short cuts or made mistakes with proportions when my brain's not working!

So today I sought professional help!  I took my brain-curdling efforts over to Aneela, with the plan to have a cuppa and chat while we did some sewing. Once again, there was too much chat for us to be able to concentrate on stitching!  I got some advice - mainly don't sweat it - on the mini, we talked about upcoming projects, brain stormed an idea for a new tv show (yes, really, we have a great plan!) and then I had a truly breathtaking glimpse into her fabric stores.  Oh my, I hope I didn't get too much drool on them!

There was obviously the full range of Aneela's own designs, and some other ranges I recognised, but the most exciting of all was the stack of beautiful Heather Ross fabrics, that previously I've only read about. There were aliens, cats, dogs, camper vans and ice cream trucks.  And then there were the supermodels of the fabric world - the unicorns and Princess & the Pea of Far, Far Away, and the truly beautiful Mendocino.  I have a fresh understanding of why they have been so sought after.... and a huge regret that I didn't start quilting longer ago, so that I might have bought some myself.

Next time, it'll be my turn to host, although I doubt there is anything in my little range of fabrics that would even compare with the contents of Aneela's sewing room.  I might have to resort to chocolate brownies in recompense!

Oh, and that photo at the top?  They're now mine, all mine.......