Let’s Try This One More Time

This poor blog has been sorely neglected for quite a while now. When I started it I was living in England and wanted a way to show my family what I was up to. Now that I’m in Switzerland and living close to my family I seem to forget about blogging. Add to this the fact that I love Instagram (@lemonshark) and am very active over there and it’s a bit of lose – lose situation for my poor little blog. I’m going to give it one more shot and see if I can get back to making this little space my happy place.

I have been busy sewing even though I haven’t been blogging and am back to working on my Spring Carnival quilt. This quilt was started after the first Fat Quarterly Retreat in 2012 and is still not finished.

I ran out of the stripy fabric and for ages couldn’t find anything I could replace it with to make the quilt bigger (it’s about lap size at the moment). Hence, it’s been lurking in a box under the bed for at least two years. However, not long ago I found the perfect fabric to add: Michael Miller’s Dumb Dot in white and dark grey. I’ve already sewn a few wheels and love the change from stripes to dots.

I’ve happily been working on this quilt in the evenings and have added lots more wheels since I took this picture. After five years of working on it it’s really time to finish it, don’t you think?

Shingles

I can now attest to the fact that shingles are painful. It’s not something that was ever on my list of must-haves and I have to admit that I’m pretty tired of them now. Luckily I went to the doctor quite early so I’m hoping that the tablets he gave me ensure that the pain will subside soon. Furthermore, I was lucky that Little Miss Bossy-Boots was going to see her daddy for ten days. This meant that I could sit on the sofa all day with my Spring Carnival EPP, Charlie and The Gilmore Girls.

Lazing Around

Charlie loved the fact that I was there to talk to him and stroke him all day long and I got quite far with my sewing.Spring Carnival and CharlieEvery time I laid it on the floor he had to go and sit on it. I already knew that I didn’t have enough of the stripy ticking that I used for the hexagons and triangles to turn this into a large quilt. I sewed all the circles into rows but realised that if I squared it up I would lose a lot of the top and bottom circles. So I changed my plan and got the seam ripper out, took off a couple of the circles at the top and bottom, added them in different places and ended up with a giant oblong hexagon.

HexagonThe plan is to appliqué this onto a white background and then add some borders made up of 2.5″ or 3″ squares. I’m making them slightly bigger than the ones in the EPP panel as when I printed out more papers to finish it I realised that the original ones I used were all 1/8″ smaller than they should have been and I really don’t feel like cutting a million 2 3/8″ squares. I’m sure it wouldn’t take me long to get them wrong.

I know for sure that Charlie will love this quilt whatever the size of squares. Not that it’s for him. No, this one is for me, at least until Little Miss Bossy-Boots comes along and claims it as she has done with all the quilts I’ve made lately.

Charlie

FAL – 2nd Quarter

It’s that time again, the time to fess up and bring out all the WIP’s to link to Leanne of She Can Quilt‘s Finish-A-Long list. My list for the first quarter was filled with small things like a sewing kit and some cushions which I managed to finish and one quilt which I didn’t even get out of the drawer it’s been banished to. So, as you can imagine it’s going on this quarter’s list. Right, here’s my list for this quarter:

1. Little Miss Bossy-Boots’ log cabin quilt.

Pink Log CabinsI’ve got four log cabins so far and will have to make at least another sixteen, I think. I’m not sure I have enough fabric so I might have to be a little creative and add some sashing to make the quilt big enough.

2. The Spring Carnival quilt. This is quite ambitious but I really want to bring it to the Fat Quarterly Retreat in July.

Spring Carnival ProgressMy biggest problem here is that I’m fast running out of the stripy fabric I’m using for the ‘background’. I believe I have enough for two more columns, then I have to decide whether to keep it that size or choose a different fabric and add a frame around the stripes.

3. Master’s Bag

Master's Bag

I promised to make this bag last year (hangs her head in shame) and only started a very short while ago.  I know it won’t take too long to make, I just need some uninterrupted sewing time which isn’t easy with Little Miss Bossy-Boots on holiday.

4. The Spring Version and Blossom panels.

Réalt Glas, Spring and BossomI’m not sure what to make with those two. I was wondering if I should turn one of them into a small quilt for the couch by adding a few borders and maybe making a bag with the other. Or maybe another cushion? Watch this space as I’m not sure yet what to do.

5. In The Woods

In the Woods FinishedTote pocket or doll blanket? The jury’s still out.

I think I’m going to stop here as I’d really like to finish everything on the list and there’s more than enough on there to keep me busy. Also, I know myself well enough that I’m sure I will start many new projects.

 

 

 

 

Progress Report

I don’t watch much tv but with the start of Strictly Come Dancing and I’m Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here I do sit down and watch a bit every night. Luckily I have my Spring Carnival, as well as Charlie and Aron, to keep me company.

You can’t see Charlie in the picture but he’s there, half hidden by my sewing. This is how far I got a couple of days ago.

It’s so much fun for me to look at the different rings with all their different coloured scraps. Lots of memories are already attached to this quilt and I’m sure there will be even more by the time it’s finished.

 

Scraptastic

I thought I’d show you how far I’ve gotten with my Spring Carnival quilt. Sorry about the dodgy picture. The weather here has been quite depressing and I took this picture last night with my phone.

I took a little break from hand sewing to start a quick knitting project but have gone back to it now as my elbow and wrist don’t like me knitting for too long. Getting old, I believe. I will show you what I’m knitting once it’s finished and has been gifted to a certain lovely lady.

When I first started sewing the plan was to make a cushion in pink and aqua. Then I added a couple more colours and decided to make it into a lap sized quilt. Now, I’ve my mind set to go for as long as I have any of the black and white ticking left. If I’m lucky I might be able to turn this into a quilt big enough for a single bed.

My biggest problem, however, was to find enough scraps in my scrap bin for all the wheels. As I haven’t been quilting for very long, I don’t have a huge scrap bin but I needn’t have worried. First, an envelope full of scraps arrived from Helen and then, a little while ago, another one from Dianne.

The quilting community is just the best and I’m so glad I’ve met these lovely and very generous ladies.

Generosity

Look what I received in the post yesterday:

Scraps for my Spring Carnival quilt sent by the lovely, wonderful and very talented Helen from runquiltknitwrite. I tentatively asked for a scrap swap in my last post and Helen offered to send me some straightaway. As I had told her I didn’t have many yellow and green scraps she sent me these.

I love them, they are going to look great in my Spring Carnival. Thank you so much, Helen!

Spring Carnival

Do you remember the project I started before I tackled any of my UFOs?

My scrappy Spring Carnival quilt is progressing nicely. I took it with me to Denmark and worked on it while chatting, watching the kids play, in the evening. Basically whenever I had a little time.

I have now started sewing the ‘wheels’ together and I’m so happy with the way they look so far. I still have a bit to go before it’s quilt size but my aim is to finish it for next summer.

14 ‘wheels’ down about 85 to go.

 

BTW, loved the Aurifil thread for hand sewing around the leaves on my mini quilt. Will write a bit more about my experience with Aurifil when I show you the finished quilt but it definitely gets a thumbs up from me.

Forgive me…

…Father, for I have sinned.

Yep, I started a new project before finishing any of my UFOs. The beautiful weather we had last week (wow, a whole week of summer!) meant that I was stuck in the garden, lounging under the gazebo while watching Little Miss Bossy-Boots playing in her paddling pool. I know it’s a hard life.

My hands were itching to do something so I started cutting out paper templates for my next English Paper Piecing (EPP) project using Katy’s Spring Carnival Templates. Once I finished cutting out millions of templates I was, of course, tempted to start covering them in fabric and sewing them together. This is how far I got before the weather changed:

Iffy picture again, sorry. This weather is driving me crazy.

I’ve decided to add more colours and have cut out some yellow, purple and green triangles and squares but I just don’t have enough different fabrics. Would anyone like to swap some scraps?