Tuesday 8 July 2014

Finish Along Quarter 3!

After declaring a partial success on Q2 it's now time to lay out my plans and ambitions for the upcoming 3 months of this year. I enjoy this process, it gives me some focus, and I'm linking up with Katy at The Littlest Thistle to keep myself accountable (and perhaps be in with a chance of winning some awesome prizes at the end of Q3!!).



Okay, let's start with the urgent stuff.

1) Granny Square quilts for Siblings Together with Leeds MQG.


These have been made using some blocks we put together at our last Leeds MQG sewing day. I brought all 48 blocks home and have sashed, basted and quilted both tops . Phew. All that remains is to make the binding and get them bound and labelled! I'll be on with that this week as they both need to get finished up at our sewing day this coming Saturday - the lovely Karen is going to take them to Fat Quarterly Retreat to hand over to Siblings Together so they need to be done! Obviously this is a group project but I chose to shoulder responsibility for them so I think this is a legitimate goal!

2) Teacher gifts.
I have to admit that gift crafting is not my favourite. But still, here we have 3 Noodlehead open wide zip pouches in various stages of unfinished-ness. 



I already have the Hotel Chocolat goodies to go in these so I need to resist the temptation to give up and just give the chocolate. I am not feeling the love for these. I haven't made one for a while and as soon as I got going I remembered why. It is a brilliant and easy tutorial but these are not my friends for some reason. Much unpicking of seams. I always muck up the boxed corners. How?! have no idea. My zippers look rubbish. I made the large size and wish I hadn't OR I wish I'd thought about it a little harder and done them with a contrast (linen?) bottom. Just MEH. Maybe I could pretend they are DD1's handiwork ....


Okay, immediate obligations out of the way (that will probably take me up to my upcoming Summer holiday) and we're onto the exciting stuff. Secret sewing, for the first time ever for me. These have an end of September deadline (though I'm not sure if I'll be able to share them by then, hmmmm). But anyway.

3) Secret quilt

4) Secret sewing project. This may involve EPP. Hold onto your hats people. 

And then for the sake of just in case, because of course I'll have so much time to sew over the Summer holidays and first term of school, a roundup of the WIPs and stragglers from last time.

5) Roundabout mini quilt



I tested this awesome pattern for the lovely Jess at The Elven Garden. Pattern to be released very soon, but shamefully my mini is not yet finished. Pieced, yes. Basted, yes. Quilted .... NO. Always the quilting. I am considering hand quilting it. Is that insane? I need some handwork for my holiday. Any ideas on design, links to tutes etc please??

This pic may help.


I would love to see this finished and on my wall by the end of Q3.

6) Travel duffel 2 (rollover from Q2)

I wish this bag were made and ready to pack for my holidays. It is not. 


7) Vaguely festive churn dash (another rollover)

This is very unlikely indeed. But hey, you've gotta be in it to win it, right? You never know. 




That will do I think! Linking up .... 

Wednesday 2 July 2014

End of June, start of July


I'm just sneaking in a bit late for Fresh Sewing Day but I do like to try to do my monthly round up and plan ahead even when there isn't much to report! Last month's plans have been mostly ignored with just a couple of very pitiful finishes to report.

Some blocks for a quilt for Aneela


Some baby boy gifts



Umm yep, that's about it, sorry. No progress at all on my Aviatrix Medallion :-(

But I have been busy, with the 48 Granny Square blocks we made at Leeds MQG last month. 

I've been sashing ...




Basting ...




Quilting and trimming ...



That's one done and the other one half basted as I type. We meet again a week on Saturday (last month's meeting was later than usual) and we are hoping to get these bound and labelled and generally finished and ready to send off to Siblings Together before this year's deadline.

So looking at my to do list for July, that's the first big job.

1) Finish Siblings Together granny square quilts!

Then more deadline sewing:

2) Teacher gifts. 
I need to turn this


into 3 Noodlehead open wide zip pouches for the TAs. I have Hotel Chocolat goodies to go in them!

And I must also add a touching personalised label to the Dottie quilt which we are going to give to DD1's wonderful reception teacher.



I don't generally make labels, but I had an idea to get DD1 to write her message which I will then trace onto the fabric and hand embroider to make a label. Is that a ridiculous idea?! I haven't done embroidery for years (decades ...), will it take hours and hours?! Thoughts and/ or better suggestions in the comments please!

And then finally
3) My Siblings Together Bee blocks for July.

I am eager to rattle through this list and clear the decks as I have some SECRET sewing to do this Summer. This is a first for me and I am both excited and terrified in equal measure but looking forward to getting these things done so I can focus and crack on.

Oh and we do go away for the last 2 weeks of July and it *might* be nice to take some hand sewing. I won't even have time to do any prep before I go, but maybe I should brave these ....




I'm going to kill two birds with one post now and link up with both Lily's Quilts and also WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Lily's Quilts