October Stitching Round Up

Here we are at the end of yet another month, with the year three quarters over.  Where has it gone?  

Time to check in to see how I went with this month’s stitching goals.  You can read about them here.  All I can say is that my goals didn’t go well.  

Once again, the main reason is that my sewing room has turned into a big hot mess.  That always does it.  I find it too overwhelming to sort out and just avoid it.  Funnily, I was reading back to this time last year and I could nearly do a copy and paste of that post.

Having said that, I still have been doing bits and pieces.  Let’s see how I went.

ONE MONTHLY GOAL AND CHOOKSHED STITCHERS’ CHALLENGE

As I shared previously, I did get the quilt top made while at Baradine.  Then it just sat until yesterday.  

I finally started to make some headway in sorting things out, excavated Monique, and actually pieced a backing and got the quilt loaded.  (Photo taken to show the tidy side of the room.  We won’t look at the other side.)

I started basting the edges and noticed the thread was unravelling after going through the tension discs.  We tried everything we could think of and have now put in a call to the serviceman to see if he can give me some guidance.  Therefore, despite my best last minute efforts, I have failed to get this quilt completed in September.  Not to worry.  It will get done, all in good time.

Pop over to Deana’s blog to see how the other girls went.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

The colour this month was black.  Not something I want to work with in the split nine patches or hexies.  It would work for the Fish Quilt, as this month is tropical fish.  Well, I printed off the fish pattern…….and that’s as far as I have got.

BATIK FISH

Ditto.  I have the pattern, but have not gone any further…..see above…..the sewing room was too messy.

OTHER STITCHING GOALS

June Chookshed Goal - Koala Baby Quilt - I kitted up two quilts from the fabric I had and got the tops made at Baradine.  Once I get the current quilt finished I will quilt them.  Then I will be up to date with Deana’s challenge.

Quilt Laundry Basket Mystery Quilt - I want to try out a feather pantograph on one of the koala quilts before using it on this one.  Obviously, that hasn’t happened yet.

Deconstruct the crochet rug - that didn’t happen either.

Add the sashings to the Sashiko table runner - nope.

Hand stitching hexies - YES!!! LOTS!!!  This has ended up being my main stitching project for September.  I have made 23 one inch hexy flowers and one two inch hexy flower.  I have now made a total of 53 of the one inch flowers, so nearly half way. The quilt needs 111 one inch flowers and 8 two inch flowers.  I have also started to appliqué some onto their background fabrics and have several more glue basted ready to stitch down.  I’ve used up all the obvious small suitable fabric scraps, so now have to cut into some fat quarters.  I’m really enjoying working on this project…..more than I thought I would.  It also is the perfect project to take to my stitching mornings.

GROUP QUILT BLOCK

Our patchwork group are making a quilt and 12 inch blocks were requested.  I made one at the end of last month and have now made a second one.  The hardest part is to decide on a block design.  This was a fun block to make.

CRUMB BLOCKS

These were made while I was at Baradine.  They are great fun and use up some of those tiny scraps.  No idea what I will do with them.

UNPLANNED PROJECT

While I was at Baradine, Mick went to a garage sale in the street behind us and the lady had some fabric for sale.  He phoned me and did a wander showing us what was there.  

He bought a few pieces and one was a Dr Seuss panel.

After I returned home I wandered up to see what else she had left. One piece is now being used as the backing on the quilt that is currently on Monique.  

She had been making fabric masks during the COVID lockdowns and had a bag of cut out pieces.  She gave them to me.  I sorted them into types.  The solids will go into something at some stage, the batiks are from the same range as the ones I’ve been using for the fish, so they will get used and then there were some nice bright colours, but what would I do with them?  I had a brain wave.

Firstly, I cut them into pieces to make the best use of the fabric.  Somewhat of a time waster, but fun to see the odd shapes transform into something usable.

Then I added one inch borders to the Dr Seuss panels.

Before using the bright scraps for sashing and border.  I’m loving it.  I still felt it needed a border to add some size to it.  Fortunately, I found a suitable fabric in my stash.  That hasn’t been added yet.  It has now been put aside for the minute, until I get all those quilts quilted.

It was such a lovely day that I dug out my baby Elna Stella and set myself up on the back verandah to sew.

AND ALSO….

I nearly forgot that I made the little swap gift for Spring in the Scrub.

And that about sums up what I have been getting up to on the sewing front.

15 MINUTES A DAY

Apart from one day, I have done some stitching every day.

September = 29/30

Year to date = 250/274

Success rate = 91.24%

I’m happy with that.

So, all things considered, despite not achieving many goals, I still have a bit to show for the month.  We’ll see how we go next month.