Big Sister in progress

Next on my list of quilts (on my Winter Stitching list anyway) is Fifi's Big Sister quilt. My god daughter is soon to become a big sister for the first time and as she never got her own baby quilt (she is 4 and I have only just finished my first quilt) this is her big sister quilt. It is designed to loosely match the Mystery Mix Tape, but as she is no longer a baby- I didn't a want a typically baby quilt.

As a ballet-loving girly girl, I have gone for a range of pinks and reds, but I am keeping the grey sashing and 6" blocks from the Mix Tape.

Using the mix tape layout of 5 x 6, 6" blocks, I need a total of 30 blocks, 15 of these will be 9 patch combinations (7 of these shown above) and 15 will be single colour blocks; the central single block with have an F monogramed onto it... if I ever complete the embroidery tutorials!

Jx

Too many choices

Today, I started working on a cushion for my nan for her christmas present. I took an outline of each of her grandchildren's hands over the summer and so far I have traced and cut out each handprint, but after laying them out on the cushion cover I am not sure what layout to use.

Option 3 was originally my idea; but I think the middle 2 hands are too similar for this (even though one is 24 and the other 9!!!) and it looks lost in the middle of the cover.

I will be going around the outside of the design with a brown quilting thread to border the prints and will be embroidering their signatures around the outside of the cushion; I anticipate this will be about 1cm deep.

Answers on a postcard please...

I think my new favourite might be option 4, but I would love to hear what you think; answers on a postcard (or in the comments section) please!

J x

An alternate and some present preparations

I don't think I am going to get a chance to get my embroidery hoops before christmas, so I think my christmas embroideries (number 4 on my Winter Stitching List) will instead be a series of sketchy drawings- inspired from around the interwebs on the corner of a series of placemats.

Starting with a strip of christmas patchwork for the height of the mat, each embroidery will sit in a window in the lower right corner of each.

I have been working on them here and there for about a week now and I am slowly getting there- these may be practice stitches or they may be the final thing, I am undecided yet. Most likely I will redo the reindeer as I'm not keen on the thread I used; I much prefer the chunky DMC and especially the Perle.

I hand drew these guys, based on a design by Kerri, they were my favourite to start with and I ran ahead with them before I had the thread I had ordered online, now I really wish I had waited and will probably be redoing these!

Father Christmas used my hand quilting thread so the red stands proud from the cotton, you can also see my little collection of french knots on the right; about half of them are single stitches because it took me ages to figure out what I was doing wrong!

The snowman;

I had also seen these carol singers on pinterest, they are another design from Sew Deerly Loved that I fell in love with, these are the first embroidery I have done that solely uses the correct thread :) So far I am pretty happy with how these guys are turning out.

Trying to make the most of my brown thread I decided I needed a little Christmassy robin to complete the set. 

 I can't wait to get these all finished- but I still need a sixth design, maybe a forest of Pine trees, like the ones in Rainbow Stitches? Any ideas?

Also, although I havent got it started yet, I have got all my bits and pieces ready to make some family photograph coasters for my Mum's christmas present. Hope to get started on these this week too!

J x

Woohoo, a finish and some great news!

***Good news first: This morning I found out that my uncle is out of critical care! Now just a couple of days to wait before we find out Grandad's new prognosis.***

I finally sat down with my quilted panel and my homemade binding and finally got this baby bound!

I am so pleased I got around to it, and no single step was as hard as I expected. There's a fair bit I would differently with it, if I was going to do it again- but I have plenty of time to practice and plenty of quilts in line to practice on!

Still on a high after completing my binding, I went out to the Fabric Guild and picked up some batting to get ready to work on my Mystery Mix Tape next.

J x

Doom and gloom is lifting :)

After day after day of bad news the last few weeks, and a subsequent couple of hundred miles in the car, I think things are starting to look up- even if they will never be completely cured.

I haven't had much crafty time, but as no post is complete without a picture, I have been working on some little Christmas embroideries that I plan on making into place mats for the table (please excuse my lack of ironing).

...and I have all the shopping done to make some family photograph coasters, which I think will be my Mum's Christmas present- ssssh!


Promise I will have more stitchy/ crafty goodies to show soon!

J x

Making progress

Thought I would share some of my progress on Numero Uno, I am really taking my time on this while I procrastinate finding other things that NEED to be done right now!

My first full size quilting (because, although mug rugs were great practice, I don't think they really count)...

which I really enjoyed, and once I had a good rhythm I think I could have gone on and on!

and the binding is prepped and ready to go...

ready for the final task... maybe later, but in the meantime at least I can tick off a couple of things on my ginormous daily to do list!

J x

Twins!

I have been trying to keep quiet about this all week- but now Miss October has received her blocks I feel free to post away... This month Laura asked for "stars," pretty much any stars in the whole wide quilty world and believe me I checked every corner!

After changing my mind a few times at the beginning of the month I decided to stretch my wings and try out some beautiful paper pieced designs I had seen on the Freshly Pieced Summer Sampler Series

My very favourite, and most star like blocks, were the Arkansas Traveller and Rocky Road to Kansas (and how excited was I when I saw that Laura had commented on the Arkansas block- I thought I was on to a winner... a very secret winner) so I started cutting and playing with my own fabrics and graduated to Laura's lovelies!

Imagine my surprise when I log in to flickr to inform the ladies that my blocks are in the post, and to post some sneaky previews, when *shock horror* I see that the first 2 pictures in my photostream are from Judith at Needles and Lemons, who has chosen the EXACT TWO BLOCKS and to make matters worse; she is a damn sight better than I am!

So, long story short, sorry Miss Laura, at least you gave us all different colours! Next time I will be checking flickr more religiously!

J x

ps. check in for more lessons next month, when I will be screwing up HSTs for one month only... if I'm lucky!