2019 Wk 15 - Playdate with Sharon

 Saturday playdate with this lovely lady!

We put the world to rights (of course!) had plenty of coffee, rethreaded the overlocker, cut a quilt for her and speed-dated one for me!

What a way to spend a Saturday!

Sharon has great ambitions for her **SECOND** ever quilt (this was the first)  She has pieced a rainbow jelly roll as the front (like this but this is from Pinterest as I forgot to get a pic of hers) but then wanted to make a fractured heart for the back.  The pattern was for 2" or 5" squares but we went for 2.5" squares.  We had to lay it out in 2 halves

but then used a bit of photo trickery to sort of join them - isn't it going to be awesome!!!!  I think I want to make one too!!!

For my project we layed out the EPP plus blocks on her spare bed, and I now just need 15 squares to fill in the gaps and then I'm ready to put them away and ignore them for a while start sewing them together

I have been sewing these starred hexies together, but they don't look any different

And I am all caught up on my Temperature Project.  A warm blip is shown by a map of the state of Texas and TX

And the other half - I'm loving the texture of it!

This was the walk to church this morning - isn't the cherry blossom beautiful!!!

And we (the sleepout) was in the local papers!!!!

2019 Wk 4 - lots of hand sewing

I can only assume I've watched more TV that usual as I've certainly done more hand sewing than usual!!!

I've tacked a whole load of clam shells (thank you Plum for the templates)

And I've put together all the parts of "Not La Passacaglia".  No, I don't love it, but that sometimes happens.  Some people manage to make scrappy quilts that work, and I clearly haven't got the knack!  Still I'll get it onto a fleece and I'm sure the cat will love it!

After the disaster that was the sizzix Plus template I decided I'd have to make my own.  Luckily Wild Olive had done all the hard work so I just needed to resize until the templates were suitable for my fabric pieces - and here are the first 7 full pluses.  I AM enjoying this project!

I'm also enjoying my temperature spool wrap: It's due to get colder for a few days so I might get to use some new colours!

We had a great morning at Stitch and now have a big pile of shields: just needing liners and bags to add to make complete kits and soon we can start sending some off

And a few more rope bowls happened to happen.  They seem to decide on their own shape: I expected these to be the same but clearly they had different ideas!

 I needed to fall back in love with my sizzix so I played with some felt and made some flowers 

I'm not sure why I didn't post this pic from Crafty Church - we had a lovely afternoon!  There was knitting and crochet and beading and necklace making and needle felting!  Unfortunately I didn't get pics of everything.  My favourite part was Lucy (mum of two teenagers) being taught how to crochet by Daisy (age ten)!  Lucy now has 2 crochet projects on the go!

And the last photo is of samples I have made for Chertsey Museum's Fun With Fabric on Friday

2019 Wk 3 - sewing!

I've finally managed to find some time to sew, and to take pics of stuff that has already been done

On the flight to New York I made some more hexi flowers

for my rainbow hexi quilt

 And I worked on my kind of temperature project!  The usual method is crochet or knitting - I don't have a significant stash of wool and didn't want to buy more so I scrapped that idea.  I had a  go at setting up the loom to weave maybe a temperature scarf, and didn't feel the love

I've been looked at wrapped and stitched vintage spools on Pinterest, and DID feel the love, so I started using a strip of torn denim and a few kantha type stitches each day in the appropriate colour

I started before I went to NY, and caught up on the woven days, and now I'm up to date.  I decided to use the temperature in NY when I was there . . .in the shape of the letters NY!  I am now totally in love with the project, just wishing the temperature would chop and change a bit more - I want to use different yarns!

And I have all my yarns wrapped around wooden clothes pegs which makes me oh so happy when I open the case every day!

I also found a nearly finished project that I'd forgotten about.  It's at least from Christmas 2017 if not before.  I finished it tonight watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Start with 8 circles of fabric, and 4 card or plastic triangles and 8 wadding triangles.  I don't remember the measurements but the relative sizes are:

(If anyone wants to make one I'll get the protractor out and work out exact measurements)

Join pairs of circles.   RST all the way round (using - - - as the sewing line).  Cut a small slit in the middle of one of each new unit and turn through and press into a good circle shape.  Put a sandwich of wadding / card or plastic / wadding in the centre of each circle unit covering the slit.  Pin a short looped length of ribbon in one corner of two triangles, and a long open length in the corner of a third.  Like this (but this is after being stitched

Fold the three arcs to the middle of each triangle, arranging so each on is part under and part over the neighbours.  Slip stitch closed along the arced edges.

Whip stitch the three sides to the base making sure the ribbons will all meet at the top when the box is pulled closed. Tada!!!

This was mostly for me for next time I want to make one - if you want better instructions and more pics just let me know!