WIP, ermm... Thursday

The last few weekends have been all about family and I have managed to do next to no sewing, as well as ignore my poor little blog, so back for a quick update on my lettering practice;

I have completed a further two words; "brown" in a whipped backstitch and "over" with a button hole and stem stitch (which, the way I did it, are practically the same.)

I also have two of my bee blocks back now for my month in the Brit Bee, and am still as excited as ever! Thank you to Hadley and Judith.

So I can start to think about layout, I have way too many different ideas for how this quilt will go together, I guess I really should wait to see what the other blocks are going to look like :) ... but it's too exciting to not think about.

AND I have made a tiny bit of progress on my Maple Leaf Rag, the first octagon is half finished (not much progress I know but at least it's some and I am hopefully back in full gear now!) Photos on that tomorrow because I have to go to work!

Christmas is in the air!

One more super busy weeknd, does anybody have any free time at the moment?! I have got to say that I am loving the productivity though, even if it is hard work! This weekend I managed 3 finishes and some progress on a WIP as well asgoign to the wedding of one of my best friends!

So I guess the first thing to share is Helen's wedding; I have never been to Cambridge before so after the meal a group of us went punting on the river, it was icy cold as it was going dark, but it was lovely to see the city from that angle and I can't wait to go back :)

Here is Helen and Reeves outside the registry office.

And I was going to share a pretty picture of Cambridge, but it seems I have forgotten to upload it so I promise not to inflict anymore photos on you!

So, for the bit you are actually interested in, my first finish was an eternal calendar, a christmas present for a friend.

 I have wanted to do one of these for myself since I saw it on Design Sponge via Pinterest but after spending almost all of friday night working on it I am not sure I have the patience to one for myself! Originaly I had intended on hand stamping each day individually and had even bought a librarian style stamp to do it with, until Chris pointed out just how many 366 card was going to be. He then set up a photoshop file for me to just change the date one at a time but even that took forever! A disc and a half of Gilmore Girls later, I had it down to a fine art, but at 20seconds a card it was non-stop and I was pretty tired by the end.

My second present was a set of ruffled roses, I loved the mix of masculine fabric with such a girly pattern and made these into pins so they could be put onto anything.

I didn't think this fabric was going to fray much, but the second I started working with it, it practically fell to pieces; fingers crossed it frays nicely and doesnt completely collapse!

I also managed to start and finish a present for my mum, a tree cushion in black and white (ish) to match the decor in her bedroom. It was quite a simple style and I had planned on embroidering it, but I couldn't decide what shape the trees should be and while I was playing about with templates I decided that felt applique might be more effective.

The reverse of the cushion turned out to be kind of what I had in mind for the front, I am so glad I changed my mind as I would have to have some skill in drawing trees for this to have worked out well...

And last but not least, I had an extra hour on sunday night so I finished quilting Fifi's Nine Patch (it has been sitting, half done in my dining room all week) and I started binding. I have now finished attaching the binding to the back of the quilt, so all that is left is to flip it over and fix it down tonight and this guy will be ready to go! Then there's just one more to quilt and bind before Christmas!

Left on my list of jobs for tonight is to roast and can my chai tea mix for the rest of my christmas presents, if I get around to it tonight then I will have a recipe and some photos to share tomorrow, but don't hold your breath as I bought the ingredients last tuesday and have fully intended to do it every night since then!

J x

Busy busy busy

I finally sat down and cracked on with my christmas presents this weekend, and I can at last check one off my list... I present to you, the GrandHands Cushion!

It has been sitting in pieces since I last posted about it, but this weekend I finally got around to putting it all together and I can't believe how easy it was- why I have I not made a cushion before?!

I went with option 4, from this post, (omg I can't believe that was november, I have been so lax with this!) and Laura's suggestion of swapping the white and beige hands around and I think the little white hand stands out a bit better this way.

After outlining all the prints with a long running stitch, I traced and backstitched a signiture of each grandchild next to their hand.

A quick panel for the back flap with the date, so we can all marvel at how small Maddie's hands are in a couple of years time, and I was done!

Not only have I finished something, but it was something on my Winter Stitching List too- woohoo!!!

Now just to sit down and plan out all the things that I must absolutely get done before Christmas, time for some finger crossing.

J x

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

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

Winter Stitching Update #1

1. finish my woolly christmas tree garland (13 down, 7 to go)
                no update to report

2. wrap some woolly wreaths, from ChristopherAndTia
                fail!

3. make a series of felt stockings for the garland, by Dutch Blue
                maybe next week?

4. trio of applique and embroidery christmas scenes (when Helen brings some hoops back from China for me to play with) by Pilli Pilli
                no embroidery yet, but my hoops are on their merry travels to England!

5. stay up to date with my Brit Bee (and finish October's this week)
                woohoo success!!! I finished October's block this morning and it is on it's way to Laura, I will             .              do a post on the blocks after she has received them.

6. enjoy the local quilting festival on Sunday 23rd, by Lutterworth Piecemakers
                check out the post that I did last weekend to see some of the great quilts I saw, it was a lovely             .               exhibition!

7. quilt and bind Numero Uno
                quilting - check, binding - nearly!

8. quilt and bind it's twin; Uno Gemelo (sticking with the spanish naming theme for these babies)
                no chance, must buy more batting

9. quilt and bind my Baby Mystery Mixtape
                ditto

10. start (and finish the big sister quilt)

                nope

11. cushion for Nan of all her grandchildren's handprints

                started, but very little progress.

12. decide what I want for my Bee month and order the fabric

                I think I have decided, been researching like mad this week, but I need to try it out myself              .               before I inflict it on the lovely Bee ladies!

13. finish the embroidery lettering tutorial, over at Needle N Thread I started months ago!

                I'm sure I will get around to this eventually...

14. write my winter stitching list

                another checked item!

so the updated list looks like this;

1. finish my woolly christmas tree garland (13 down, 7 to go)

2. wrap some woolly wreaths, from ChristopherAndTia

3. make a series of felt stockings for the garland, by Dutch Blue

4. trio of applique and embroidery christmas scenes (when Helen brings some hoops back from China for me to play with) by Pilli Pilli

5. stay up to date with my Brit Bee

7. bind Numero Uno

8. quilt and bind it's twin; Uno Gemelo (sticking with the spanish naming theme for these babies)

9. quilt and bind my Baby Mystery Mixtape 

10. start (and finish the big sister quilt)

11. cushion for Nan of all her grandchildren's handprints

12. decide what I want for my Bee month and order the fabric

13. finish the embroidery lettering tutorial, over at Needle N Thread I started months ago!

I thought I had made much more progress than this :( better luck next week!

Jennie x

Hoop Trio

Mum stop reading NOW!!! (just in case!)




I don't think that anybody that I know IRL reads my blog, I tried to keep it quiet; it's kind of like having a secret identity, but you never know what mum's get up to! :)

I worked all weekend on a present for my mum's birthday and I am pretty pleased with the result (isn't it great when that happens, I hate it when you work on something FOREVER and you just can't get it right - that's what work is like at the moment for me)

My dad has recently converted the back bedroom in their house to her new sewing room, but despite it now being filled with all the requisite crafty stuff it didn't seem quite complete... which is where I step in! I decided that what she really needed was some artwork, so I planned and planned and researched and planned and came up with these...

which quickly turned into these...

and not so quickly into this...

which I am little disappointed with as my sketch was so much better, but transferring it to the patchworked fabric was really difficult (I can tell you that it was NOT my best idea, I should have listened to Chris)

So together they read "karen's sewing room"

Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope that she likes it when I give it to her this weekend!

J x

Bee Dreaming

Wow, I didn't realise how long it had been since I last posted but my Bee fabric arrived through the letter bx this morning and has spurred me into action again :)

The task this month has been set by Judith of Needles and Lemons, and it is for ANY red and white block- kinda scary!

I love redwork quilts and have been thinking about embroidery; at first I found some lovely fairy tale designs (the Princess and the Pea was my absolute favourite!) but I didn't think that was personal enough. Then I saw a quilt made from town landmarks -sorry I forgotten who/ where it was, and I thought something from Judith's hometown would be lovely... but what is more personal than your own home- and I spend most days drawing houses after all! So I thought an embroidery sketch of the front elevation would be nice, but on second thoughts I have always loved doors and it really is the most easily identifiable bit of your home.

So Judith, my first idea is a redwork embroidered block of your front door. What do you think? I know you said that you didn't want any blocks with obvious corners so I was thinking a white block with an inset red sashing (unfortunately the white edge didnt show up very well in my mock up)

Oh, and if this in any way looks like your own front door- I promise I'm not a stalker it was just a picture of a pretty door :)

Still thinking about my second block, which will probably be a conventional block but I am not sure which yet.

Thank you for the freedom Judith, I am really loving the research in this challenge :)

J x