October 2026 - Craft Escape

Hello and welcome to this month's roundup.  Hope you've had a good October

I didn't do much making at home but had a whole week booked in the middle of October: I took over the studio at the village hall and invited crafters to join me.  The take-up wasn't huge - six people - but we had plenty of space, lots of encouragement, chat and coffee!I took along 3 big ikea bags of things to work on!

I did some hand quilting on the Mandelightful quilt

I moved two I-Spy quilts along so they just need trimming and binding

 

Made a big lined project bag 

basted and quilted an EPP flower garden, now it just needs binding

trimmed 70 or so log cabin blocks and decided how to arrange them

Cut a LOT of small pieces to a tilda instruction sheet some as small as 3/4" square! . . .

and made this!

I had a charity shop hoodie but with an Adidas logo so I covered the logo . . .

then bound the hood and the pouch openings to make it looked as if the added fabric belonged

I've made one bootie for gorgeous grandson, just need to try it on his foot before I make the next one

I started on a jelly roll quilt: I didn't have fabric but amazingly Lisa had some spare fabric that  worked brilliantly with the bits I had - this is half of it

I also managed to take up some dresses and make them into tunics, and lengthened a short pinafore dress

A few photos of other creations too ...

Once home again I did some embroidery for a friend,

And I may have bought some wool!  A friend and I went to a local fabric shop (Lady Sew and Sew in Henley) and I'd forgotten they sold wool too.  We have this blanket on our bed: I love it but it doesn't have the calming vibe I want

there is a Janet Claire quilt hanging on the fireplace as a head board, and I *love* the colours so this was my inspiration.  I had the matching wools in an online wool shop basket on my phone but it was great to be able to see the colours in real life 

So here is my wool selection . . .

and here is the start of my new blanket

This was the Chertsey Museum's group making applique coasters  (thanks for the idea Plum)

2020 Wk 14 - Finishes!

Some projects have moved from the UFO pile to the Finished pile - yippee!

This jelly roll race was bound, finished, gained a label, and went in the post to Australia

 This lush Kaffe Fassett creation had been bound and finished

And this has made it to flimsy stage, and fleece has been ordered for the backing

 In other news - the garden table has had another coat of varnish and is looking amazing

 And I *LOVE* getting pics of little people using the quilts that I made for them!!!!

2020 Wk 12 - Jelly Roll Race

I finally braved the state in the sewing room, unearthed the started jelly roll race, and finished piecing and quilting it.

I love the total randomness of the blocks!

My lovely niece, Indi, and I recently had an Instagram chat during which she said yes please she would like a quilt for her bed

Music to my ears of course!  What to make?  - Mum brought an Australian Jelly Roll home from Australia for me, from her recent visit to my brother and his family.  It was displayed in the shop made up to  Jelly Roll Race, and that's what caught mum's eye. So that was a good idea, but could I add more to it?. . .Indi has lived all her life in Oz, her mum is quarter Spanish, and her dad is half English and half Norwegian.

They used to have an Akita dog, she did a tandem parachute jump for her 12th (!) birthday and she is a great little driver, accompanying my brother to race tracks when he races.

So a quick shopping trip to Spoonflower added some other relevant (but eclectic)  fabrics:  Hopefully she will see it as a grown up version of an i-spy quilt

Trimming and binding still to be done, then get it sent off to Oz!

2020 Wk 8 - customer, fabric and crochet

Crochet fun - the blanket I started at Jackie’s has grown - I'm on at least the 4th colour (the jury is undecided whether the first few rows are a different colour)

And Lisa’s first Persian tile has been done - isn’t this lush!

Mum has just got back from visiting my brother in Oz.  She picked up a jelly roll of Australian Fabrics . . . I need to clear the decks so I can get stitching!

I was asked to embroider a logo and company name onto some tabbards.  I don’t know what I was thinking when I quoted for one small logo for each one.  That covered the girl, but the writing was bigger, and more annoyingly on a wide pocket stitched down the middle.  I had to unpick the sewing, embroider, and then re-sew the pocket!  Dope!!!  Anyway it’s done , delivered and paid for now!

I went on line shopping for green (grass and trees) fabric for a project , somehow these other colours fell into the basket🤦🏼‍♀️