Chookshed Challenge Done

Can you believe it?  I’ve actually met this month’s Chookshed Challenge, and early too!!

In the couple of days before we went on our impromptu trip to the Isle of Man in May last year I traced off a few stitcheries to take with me.

This was one of them, worked while sitting in a churchyard watching the bike races.

It has sat patiently waiting until now to be made into the bag.

I wasn’t sure if it would get done this month either, but like last month, I at least dug out some suitable fabric.  I rather liked the fabrics used in the photo of the pattern, so went with something similar, naturally all from stash.  Yesterday, I decided to cut it out.  Not as simple as it sounds, as my sewing room is currently the dumping ground for most of the things from Mum’s room.  Job one was to be able to get to the cutting table and then to excavate it. 

Once that was done I cut it out.  Once completed, I thought I’d just prep the stitchery ready to appliqué.  Now, while I’m going, I’ll press the strips for the draw string and handles.  I may as well get them stitched.  You can see where this ultimately went.  Once all the small things that could be done by machine were completed I stitched down the appliqué and finished the bag before I went to bed last night.  

So, ta da!  

The buttons are from one of Mum’s blouses that couldn’t be donated, and they were just the right size and number of them.  I did alter the handles slightly, by adding some batting to make them softer.  If I was to make it again, I think I would make the top section that has the draw string an inch or so shorter.  Other than that, I’m very pleased with it.  I can see it being used for small knitting or crochet projects.

I have linked up over and Deana’s blog.  Pop over to see what else was achieved.

A New Leader and Ender Project

When there are lots of things that you should be doing, what do you do instead?

Why, start yet another quilt, of course.  However, this is a bit different to the last few.  

I have really missed having a leader and ender project on the go for the last couple of years, so decided to do something about it.  I’ve had a couple of ideas swimming around in my head, but this was going to take the least effort to bring to fruition.

The pattern is “Bonnie Lass” from Jen Kingwell’s book Quilt Lovely.  

As you can see, there are lots of the same sized pieces that will be perfect as leaders and enders.

I got out a couple of tubs labeled “Small Scraps”, as well as the left overs from when I made my Trail Mix quilt and made a beautiful mess.

After a couple of hours of playing in my happy place, I had 80 sets of blocks ready to go.  Now, that isn’t even a quarter of what is required, but should keep me out of trouble at Scrub Stitchin’ and for a bit longer. When these get low, I will have another cutting session. There is no rush for this, so I will just have them sitting beside my machine and one day I will have a bonus quilt top.

Meanwhile, they are tucked away in their pretty little tin.  From memory, I used this tin when I started the hexies and they outgrew it rather quickly.

It’s Finally Done

After heaps of delays and loads of frustration, the Three Yard Quilt using the novelty dog fabric is finished.  What a relief.

It is definitely not perfect, but it is a donation quilt and will still keep some kid warm.  I’m just pleased that it wasn’t a special quilt or I would have been really disappointed.  

The quilting has lots of imperfections, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.  Monique is playing better, but still not quite right. After more googling, we have one more thing to try, but that will wait until after Christmas.

In the meantime, I am just happy to have this one over the line.  I will just be quilting donation quilts for the next little while until everything is running nicely again.

I had started this quilt at Baradine in September and it was my Chookshed Challenge project for that month.  This was the final goal to be met from the ten that I chose for the challenge and I’m stoked to have ticked all the boxes in the calendar year. The only projects that weren’t completed were the Laundry Basket Quilt, but the goal was only to progress the quilt, so that was fine, and to work on any EPP.  I worked on my hexies, so that was fine too.

This was my One Monthly Goal for December as well, so happy to also tick that box.

Now, I can concentrate on Christmas.  There’s two days left.  Plenty of time.

My Goals for September

Here we are at the beginning of spring and it is time to set my goals for the month.  I kind of had them sorted in my head, but on Sunday I had to have a rethink.  You see, at the last minute I decided to attend the “Spring in the Scrub” retreat this coming weekend and I need to have a few projects ready to work on.  So this is what I have come up with……at this stage…..

ONE MONTHLY GOAL & CHOOKSHED STITCHERS’ CHALLENGE

Once again, one project will tick both these boxes.  The number that Deana drew out of the hat was 7.  For me that is “Three Yard Quilt - Start and Finish (for Donation)”.

I have selected a pattern and initially chose these fabrics.  That has since slightly changed, but I didn’t get a photo.  It is already kitted up to take on the weekend.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

I haven’t really been able to ascertain the colour for the month, but have a feeling it is black or neutral?  If so, it is a little difficult for me.  I don’t want those colours in most of the projects I’m working on.  

Initially, I didn’t think it would work on my bright fish, but the pattern that will be released next week is tropical fish, and I want to use orange.  An orange and black fish will work, so all good.  I also want to catch up on August’s fish.  I may just use some random colours for that month.

Other than the fish, I may also just work on some random colours for the other projects.

BATIK FISH

I will be making some more fish this month.  I found another small scrap of batik in a stash I inherited that is a salmony colour.  It will work well.

FIFTEEN MINUTES A DAY

Of course I want to keep up with this.

OTHER STITCHING

• I didn’t get to work on my Chookshed Stitchers’ Challenge in June and it is fairly simple, so I will kit that up and take to retreat.  It is just another small donation quilt.
• I want to quilt my Laundry Basket Mystery Quilt, but want to try a new pantograph on something smaller before using it on the larger quilt.  At least one of the donation quilts will work for that.
• Hand stitching is always on the list these days, to take to my stitching days and for any Zoom times.  My hexies are ticking that box at the moment.
• I didn’t get any knitting or crochet done last month.  I want to set an actual goal this month to deconstruct the crochet baby rug, so that I can sew the squares together rather than crochet them, so that it will sit flatter.
• Also, I have purchased some fabric to use for sashing and border on the Sashiko table runner.  I’d like to get that done this month too.

That should keep me going.  There is always plenty more if I go looking.

MY OTHER GOALS

These  are simple.

• Try a new recipe.
• Read a book - I’ve been failing at this lately, so need to lift my game.
• Have a fun day out.
• Write Isle of Man blog posts - before I forget what we did.

I’m linking up at Dreamworthy Quilts, Stories From the Sewing Room, So Scrappy and Life in Pieces. 

Let’s see how I go at the end of the month.

Chookshed Stitchers Challenge and One Monthly Goal Completed

 My goal this month was “Laundry Basket Quilts 2023 Spring Mystery Quilt - Progress”.

This is where I was up to at the beginning of the month.

Finally, after I had finished the little Blue House Sampler hanger I could turn my attention to this quilt.

My plan was to add a narrow border and then a half square triangle border, but first to work out the maths.  Ideally, I would have liked to have added three inch HSTs, but that would mean only a half inch narrow border, so in the end it was a one and a half inch first border and then four inch HST.  

I pulled out this selection of fabrics that I thought would work.

They looked nice all cut out ready to go.

I marked them all out ready to stitch and started pinning them together when I realised I’d had a brain freeze and pinned them right side of the neutral to the wrong side of the coloured fabric! Doh!  Thank goodness I woke up to myself before I had stitched and cut them apart.

After I made them and started to lay them out I thought the overall effect was a bit drab, so removed a few colours and replace them with something a bit more vibrant.  Here is my final selection, ready to stitch together.  Much happier.

So, here she is, all done, in the poor indoor night time light.  I had just enough of the narrow border fabric left over from the pieced centre.

And outside in the daylight.  I’m really pleased with how it looks. All fabrics were from stash.

The next big decision is whether to quilt it now using a pantograph, or wait until I have the confidence to custom quilt it.  At this stage I am leaning towards a pantograph to just get it done and being used.  Mick has commented that it would be a nice springtime quilt on our bed, so let’s see how I go.

Anyway, for now the challenge has been met, as I definitely “progressed” the quilt.

I’m linking up with Stories From the Sewing Room and will link to Deana in a couple of days.

Blue House Sampler Completed

This is a project that I have had a lot of fun with.

It all started with me very quickly tracing off a few stitcheries to take with me to the Isle of Man back in late May and early June.  I made a start while sitting in a church yard beside the race course.  I didn’t get a great deal stitched while over there and then gradually added a few stitches now and then once we returned home.

I finally completed the stitching earlier this month and initially planned to simply add a two inch border of blue fabric, as per the original pattern by Gail Pan.

However, for some reason I can’t remember, I decided that it would be a bit boring and started to wonder what else I could do with the stitchery.  Maybe a bag, or what about a more detailed mini quilt to hang in my sewing room?  That’s when I made a huge mess on the dining table, pulling out vintage trims, laces, various fabrics and had a general play.

At the end of that day I had this vague idea.

The size would be determined by the vintage coat hanger I wished to use as the hanger.  This has been waiting for the right project for many years.

Over the next few days I gradually added bits and pieces, just making it up as I went along. 

Let’s have a bit of a look to see what I used. Firstly, I added the fabric borders.  The floral fabric on the left is one I have had for many years, probably since the 90s, and I just use little bits every now and then.  Initially, I was going keep everything blue, except for the front door, but once I added this fabric it seemed to set the colour scheme for the project.  The stripe at the top is a scrap from my Blue Quilt.  It is actually joined from two pieces and I didn’t do the best stripe match, but decided to leave it.   The large blue piece of fabric is from and end of bolt I purchased for next to nothing at Spotlight shortly after I started quilting, so in the early 2000s.  It has been included in many of my projects over the years and has been so very versatile.

The linen that the sampler is worked on is an offcut from the Vintage Linens Quilt that I made a few years ago.  It even had a hand stitched hem at the bottom, which I left in place.  The pale green huckaback with the white crochet lace edging is the offcut from a hand towel, also used in that quilt.  The final offcut from the vintage linens quilt is the narrow crochet lace across the bottom of the sampler.  It only had about an eighth of an inch beyond the crochet, so I carefully hand stitched it to the linen hem and then did a stitch in the ditch by machine to secure it to the huckaback.  The ric rac is blue and white, which is rather unusual and was found in my stash of bits and pieces.

Decisions, decisions.  At this point I did add the two lace flowers to hide the ends of the narrow lace,  There were just the two flowers and a bit of a stem joining them, so they were perfect.  You can also see that I had added some decorative blanket stitch to the right of the flowers.

I had two pieces of this sweet lace edging and wanted to use one.  I thought it would go OK here, but that tape at the top didn’t look too good.

Maybe cover it with some little hexies?  Nah, it still doesn’t really cover it.

Then I remembered some trims made with a very fine silk ribbon.  There was a green one that may work.  It didn’t, the colour was too grassy green, but there was a very narrow trim with pink flowers.  That did work.  

I kept fiddling and decided that this would be my final layout. 

I thought I would attache the little fabric scraps at the top with decorative stitching, but it didn’t look very good at all, so was removed.  Simple running stitch was all that was required.

Once I had all the trims attached, other than the buttons, it was time to think about quilting it.  I knew I didn’t want a binding, as I wanted to have the lace edging on the bottom.  What to use for a backing?  I have a few vintage damask serviettes, so I selected one of those, opting for the one with the least distinct pattern and the thinnest fabric, as I was going to hand quilt it.  For the batting, I joined a couple of little off cuts.  Here it is, stitched on three sides, ready to trim and turn right side out.

Now it’s starting to take shape.  Thread basted and ready to turn under the bottom hem and then do the quilting and add the buttons.

This really has been a project of using whatever bits and pieces I had to hand, even down to some sewing cotton that has been hanging around for years to thread baste and using scraps of crochet cotton to do the quilting.  The blue was used around the stitchery and the cream for everything else.  The cream one came to me from one of my stitching friends when she was sorting out her mother’s craft supplies.  It’s nice to use it.

Not quite “Ta Da”, but nearly there.  That top right hand corner neeeded something, both to fill the space and to anchor it more for hanging.  But what?  Some boro quilting,  more buttons?  I needed to think on it for a day or so.  I thought about adding a small quote, but everything I came across was too long or I wasn’t fussed.  I didn’t want “Home sweet home” or “Home is where the heart is”.  

In the end I just stitched “Home” and a couple of hearts, taking elements from the sampler and added a border.  It is probably a bit larger than I would have liked, but I wasn’t going to redo it.  If I come up with something better, it won’t take much to remove it.  I also found a little pink bejewelled heart charm, so added that as well.

So, here it is.  Ta Da!

And the back.

Let’s have a little closer look at some of it.  You can kind of see the sweet little floral trim I added to the lace. The tiny hexies were made a year or so ago from scraps from my Splendid Sampler 2 quilt and have just been loose in a little baggie.  I still have a few more and plenty of more scraps.  The hexy flower was made at the same time.  The buttons are just ones I found in my button stash.  The two little blue buttons were just the right colour, so had to be included.

In addition to what I have already shown in the bottom section, the floral braid came from Mum’s stash.  She has some lovely laces and trims.  The buckle was in my bits and bobs.  I seem to collect old buckles.  The “JM” is French laundry tape.  A lady in France used to blog and she was selling it, so I treated myself.  

So, there you have it.  My little stitchery, traced off with no plan, just something to stitch, has ended up having a life of its own and giving me a lot of fun along the way. Added to that, it has even ended up being a sustainable sewing project.  

Fortunately, there was still one spot where I could hang it in my sewing room.  It suits the room rather well.

The First Week of August

 It is amazing how much more productive I can be when I stay home.  Who’d have thought?

The first sewing project I worked on was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  It didn’t take too long to piece my two split nine patch blocks.  These were actually completed on Saturday morning, before the big sewing room tidy up.

I cut out two hexy flowers at the same time and pieced them yesterday at my patchwork morning.   Rather glarey, aren’t they.  I channeled my inner frugalness, as the orange floral vintage sheet fabric was left over binding from my Crossroads quilt.  There was the join in the binding, so I decided to leave it in place.  You often see pieced small pieces in vintage quilted.

Just for fun, and to use up some of my tiny scraps, just now I have pieced another crumb block.

Here is my little collection so far.  They are quick and easy, and use up those scraps that most people would throw away. I really should do more.

I have decided to give the Fishy Business blocks a miss this month, as I want to use orange in next month’s fish.  I’ll catch up next month, by swapping colours.

This is how much is left in my orange scrap box.  The bright one at the bottom will be ideal for the fish next month.  Now, everyone has a different definition of a scrap.  Most would call mine crumbs, as I don’t add anything to these boxes less than a layer cake sized piece of fabric.  Most other colours are jamb packed, so some more crumb blocks will be a great way to use them up.

Of course, I finished off the little HST Baby Quilt.

Once that was done, it was time to turn my attention to the little blue sampler stitchery.  I couldn’t resist adding a red front door to the house.

This is what the finished article looks like in Gail Pan’s book.  I felt that it needed something else.

Time to make an almighty big mess on the dining table.  Yes, can you believe it, it was all tidied away before the afternoon was over.

This is kind of what I was thinking.

Then I remember that I have a box of Mum’s laces and trims and found this little cutie that might just work. 

Honestly, I could open an Etsy store with the amount of laces, trims and old linens that I have.  We won’t go there.

I’ve have this lovely vintage coathanger for years and would like to use it as the hanger.  That will dictate the size.

This is where I was up to yesterday.  The fabric that the stitchery is worked on is a linen offcut from my doyley quilt that I made a few years ago.  It already had a hand stitched hem on the bottom.  The two toned ric rac has been added to the bottom of the stitchery.   The narrow lace under the stitchery is also an offcut from my doyley quilt.  The green huckaback hand towel off cut with its lace edging, surprisingly, also comes from the quilt.  Fancy that!  It’s good to find a use for them.

I’m looking forward to having a play with the embellishments.  I think I will use a thin wadding and just do a facing type edge.  I don’t think I want a binding and would have to work something out at the bottom with the lace edge anyway.

I have done a tiny bit more today, but the light is too bad to take a photo. 

As you can gather, I managed to achieve my 15 minutes of stitching each day.

What else did we get up to?

Can you believe that I actually tried not one, but two new recipes?

The first was a recipe I came across on Instagram.  It was a one pot wonder chicken and rice dish.  It was cooked on the stovetop and ended up rather gluggy, hence no photo being shared.  However, it tasted great.  I reckon that I will use the ingredients/flavours and translate it to an oven baked risotto, using aboria riced.  That should be a success.

The second was a whole orange cake, also from a recipe I came across on Instagram.  Let’s call it a middling success.  It wasn’t a boiled orange cake, rather the orange was just chopped up in the food processor.  It rose rather unevenly and is a tad dry.  It was still very tasty and there is none left.  However, I think there are probably better recipes out there.  Actually, I have had one for years, that my old next door neighbour gave me, that I have never made.  I should give it a whirl.

That pretty much wraps up all I have to report for the week.  Now to see what next week brings.