Sunday 12 October 2014

A sewing day at last.

Today's been a busy old day. I only had a couple of hours sleep on Friday night so I had a lie in this morning. Just what I needed and it meant that when I finally woke up I had loads of energy. I had some chores I needed to get done including catching up with my ironing but I had promised myself some sewing time.

I had an ironing mountain that had taken on the proportions of Mount Everest so I desperately needed to reduce this. I spent the early part of the day ironing. I had already done a couple of hours on Saturday but there was a lot of shirts to be done. I ironed for an hour and a half after which I needed to take Scamp out for his walk. The last few days have been wet and yesterday we had to cut Scamp's walk short as it got very wet and he couldn't cope in the wind. 

Today we managed to take a long walk over Wandsworth Common. The weather was dry and warm and lots of families were out. The leaves are all on the turn so the colours are looking beautiful ranging from greens to reds, oranges, yellows and browns. 

Once home and after lunch I got my machine set up and was ready to make a start. I want to finish the Star Trek quilt top this month. I thought I had finished all the blocks but when I got the project bag out I realised I still had two blocks to do and had to sew the border on the central block. I was sure I would remember how the blocks went together so got straight on with a block. Turns out that my memory wasn't so good so I had to rip out several seams on the first block. Never mind I finally finished all the blocks.


The blocks finish at 24 inches. I laid them out on the bed. The central block is just one fabric piece with a border but the other 8 blocks are pieced. There is sashing to be added and a border. Scamp came to help take the photo but when the doorbell went he disappeared in a blur (top left hand corner of the photo).  I thought the quilt top might be too dark but instead it is very bright and cheerful. Tomorrow evening I will add the sashing and hopefully the border. This will be a large quilt.

As I've been busy this week I haven't bothered getting the sewing machine out. Instead i've been sewing hexi flowers for my grandmother's garden quilt. It started will a red central flower and each row going out is the next colour in the rainbow. I am up to indigo or purple. I need 30 flowers for this round. So far I have made 18. I've got several more hexis made but need to sew them into flowers. I was working on that before I started this post and will do a couple more later.


I hate they way the camera changes the colour of the fabric. All of these are various shades of purple but in the photo they look brown, pink, well just about anything but purple. I must take a picture of progress so far.

I have also been knitting. I'm working on a jumper for John but in between I've been using up scraps of double knitting yarn to knit a blanket for a dog or cat at Battersea dog and cats home. It is very relaxing as it is all knit.. no purl rows, no pattern just knit knit knit.


Each band of colour is 10 rows. I only started this last week so it is growing quickly. Last week I decided to try and knit or sew for at least 15 minutes a day. This is so relaxing to do it has been my way of winding down after a day at work. It should be finished by the end of this coming week.

So my sewing day has been very productive. All blocks finished for the Star Trek quilt top and the sashing and border all cut out and ready to add. Quiet hand sewing making hexis and stitching them into flowers. Just another 12 flowers to make and I can add the next row to the quilt.

I hope you've had time for some sewing this weekend and the the weather where you are has been good to you. Here in London there is a weather warning for heavy rain and high winds overnight and into tomorrow. That will make the morning commute to work interesting!


Lyndsey

Tuesday 7 October 2014

September review and October plans

2014 NewFO ChallengeA Lovely Year of FinishesNever too hot to Stitch!


It's that time of the month to review what I managed to achieve last month and think about my plans for October.

September was a busy month. I have taken on more work than I did last year so I have less sewing time. There were also several weekends that were fully booked during the month and it looks a little busy for October. 

I had planned to finish the star trek quilt top  but unfortunately this didn't happen. The blocks are all done but I needed more fabric for the sashing and the border and I wasn't able to get to the shop until the last day of the month.  This will be my main goal for October and is certainly achievable.



I managed to catch up all the blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I'm making 4 nine patch blocks a month. These blocks finish at 6 inches. I am also making a hexi block each month. I'm pleased to have caught up and I've got to go through my scraps to find this months colour of black or browns. 


I love the pumpkin fabric in the orange hexi block.

As my NewFO for September I started the Charming Stars sew along with Terry at Terry's Treasures. I had a couple of charm packs that I had wanted to use up but I couldn't decide on a pattern. When I saw the Charming Star blocks I feel in love with them and just had to join the sew along. In September I made 4 blocks. I still haven't decided how big I want to make the quilt but I will work that out as it progresses. Here are the blocks I've made in September.



This month I need to get started on my project for the 'T'was the night' blog hop. I know what I will be making and I'm hoping to get started this weekend.

Twas the night....blog hop FULL

I also want to start the corset quilt pattern I 've got. I've been collecting the fabrics I want to use for this quilt and I'm getting excited about starting. Roll on my October NewFO.

Last week I went through my work in progress list and realised I haven't done much work on my older projects recently. This month I must move some of these projects forward. I want to work on John's jumper and also on Lucy's grandmother's garden quilt. I'm not working tomorrow so I'll share some photos of how far I've got with these projects. Getting them out of 'storage' will push me forward. Unfortunately putting projects away when I tidy the house results in the projects being forgotten about - out of sight, out of mind. 

I'm not making many plans for this month as we have work we need to do about the house. We are having the heating system redone at the beginning of November- new boiler, pipes and radiators. We have flooring we need to take up and we want to make some other changes whilst the house will be in disarray. In fact this will take up quite a lot of time over the next couple of months as I want the majority of the work completed  in time for the Christmas holidays.

I will also be baking this month. I like to make my own Christmas cake and Christmas puddings. I like to get started on preparations early to try and avoid getting stressed.

I'm hoping to fit at least 15 minutes sewing in every day. This is do-able as I want to work on the hexi quilt. This is all hand stitching and very portable so I can take it to work and do some stitching in my lunch break. I hope you have managed to fit lots of sewing into your plans for October.

Lyndsey