Holiday Stitches

We've been away on our summer hols in Scotland for a few weeks and I took some simple hand sewing with me to pass the evenings in our holiday apartment and caravan.

I stitched up hexies for my hexie diamond project, but to intersperse the hexies with a wee something new and interesting, I decided to take some appliqué hearts to work on as well.

I've been SO tempted by Sarah Edgar's Perfect Pairs quilt since she first posted it to IG and her blog.  It's gorgeous!  I would dearly love to make a whole quilt one day and so I recently invested in the acrylic template from her shop.  It's a fab wee doofer with an inner heart shape and a quarter in outer heart which allows you to add on your seam allowance.  Sarah also designed the template with alignment lines and a centre hole for fussy cutting - genius!

For now, a whole quilt is out of the question, but nine little hearts to make a cushion panel seemed like a perfect holiday project.  I enjoyed every stitch of these pretties, and am very much looking forward to making up the cushion front, perhaps with a little hand quilting to finish.

Thanks to Sarah for the inspiration and the template to keep my hearts nice and standard.

So now that hols are over, normal chaotic services will resume - wish me sanity as I have 8 loads of washing to put through, I am running outside every hour to rescue my laundry from the rain and my tumble dryer is broken!!  Home sweet home.

Happy Days BOM - Month 8

I'm not going to lie, Month 8 of Sarah Fielke's Happy Days BOM too me a long time to finish.  Two foundation pieced blocks and a humdinger of a Hawaiian appliqué later I have been challenged but not defeated!

Block 18 is a super pointy star block.  This one was quite straightforward piecing and my favourite part was choosing the fabrics.

Block 8 wasn't actually difficult but there did seem to be an awful lot of sections to join which resulted in this mighty convergence of seams (and tricky paper removal).

But, I hope you'll agree that Sarah's pattern was worth persevering with.  I love this one!  There are many fabric placement options for this block and it was hard to decide (and then remember) which to piece where.

I know that Block 16 has had some of us shaking in our boots but I didn't want to let this Hawaiian appliqué go by without at least trying it. There were certainly an awful lot of twists and turns as the needleturning got underway.  I'll admit that I got a certain distance in and then got a wee bit overwhelmed, leaving it aside for a week or two.

However, as is often the case with these things, the fear of the block was worse than the reality and aside from a struggle between my fat fingers and those internal cut out sections, it finished without much incident.  I wish that there was better contrast in this block after all that work.  Funny how sometimes a fabric turns out not to have quite as much as contrast as you thought.

Now I must see if I can fill in the gap and finish Month 7's blocks!

Happy Days BOM - Month 6

Sarah Fielke's Happy Days BOM is now into Month 9 but I'm not quite there yet, so I'll fill you in on the months as I complete them.

I was full of grand ambitions to stitch Month 6's blocks whilst on my holidays in the Lakes this year, but I had forgotten just how busy a holiday with a baby can be.  So, best laid plans were shelved and I just enjoyed my hols without stitches.

This appliqué is Alain Lapin, so named by Sarah herself for block 11.  My Alain, as you can see, is embracing his feminine side sporting pink fluff, but isn't he cute?

As you know, I love hexies and EPP so I'm delighted they are part of this BOM (Block 5).  I went bold with my colour choices for this block.  Hope they won't dominate too much or stand out like a sore thumb in the overall quilt.

I thought I'd be smart and sew the petals on to block 17 after sewing the block together (not the way the pattern suggested), but I didn't really execute it well at all.  My petals don't line up anywhere near where they should at the corners of the checkerboards, and this pic is even after I fixed a few.  The rest, I have decided to live with.  Feel like I made a mountain out of a molehill trying to get that placement right before turning the edges under to appliqué.  Do you ever do that?  Make something much more difficult than it needed to be?

I have some more blocks to show you, and other projects too (if you're an IG follower you'll have seen them).  I just need to load the photos on to the laptop so I can write the posts.  Hope to be back to share more with you soon.

Happy Days BOM - April Progress

Check out these pretty block designs that Sarah Fielke has set for April's Happy Days BOM.  Aren't they pretty?  Mine are only prepped at this stage (i.e. fabric glued in place) but I've got some long car journeys shortly and, as I'm not the driver, maybe I can work on them en route.

I have been enjoying the needleturn appliqué on this BOM so far.  Even a few blocks in I can see a bit of improvement in my turning and I'm getting slightly smoother curves as I go, too.  Still plenty of room for improvement of course, but so far so good.

I decided to gather all the blocks I've made so far and was a bit surprised to see just how much there is already.  Three and a half of the eight and a half wreath blocks are stitched, 17 of 24 sawtooth stars are completed and I'm up to date with the two pieced blocks.  I really like these fabrics on the low volume backgrounds though I don't think this photo does them justice (perhaps a little over-exposed as they are right beside the window here).

Sometimes it's good to take stock and see just how far you've come!  Right, I'm off to stick those two blocks in a wee pack with my needle, thread and scissors all ready for my travel.

Happy Days BoM - Month 2

Just about before month 3 of Sarah Fielke's Happy Days BoM lands in my inbox I have some of month 2's progress to show you.  First up this month is the second of the larger pieced blocks that Sarah has issued so far, though for BoM purposes it is known as Block 7.

My first attempt wasn't great to be honest.  Perhaps doesn't look to bad at first glance, but on close inspection there were a lot of gaps on those star points.  To begin with, I thought I would just live with it, but I began to feel a little slack when I saw more perfect versions popping up on IG and thought I really should try again. OCD strikes again!

It was quite a time consuming block to make first time around and second time too, though I did find it interesting.  My hopes of it being a better second effort didn't quite materialise.  There are fewer large gaps between the stars in version 2 but there are a few more lost points, and I'm not entirely sure which one looks better in the end.  I'll keep them both and see how it goes when all the others are made and gathered together.

After the pieced block was our introduction to needle turn appliqué in this BoM.  I have been really looking forward to this bit since I saw Sarah's Craftsy class and her techniques for this appliqué.  It was the main reason I signed up to the BoM, a motivator to actually do some!!

Lots and lots of cutting and prep was easy in front of the telly late one night,

resulting in 8 and a half wreath blocks all stuck in place for stitching as the months progress.  (Love all those lv backgrounds.)

I even managed to squeeze in a finish on one of the appliqué blocks.  I'm hoping that I will improve as I get more experience, but I'm quite happy with this one so far and I really, really enjoyed doing it.  So peaceful and stress free.

You might recall from my first month's post that there are 24 little sawtooth stars to make for this quilt.  We don't need to have them completed until much later on in the year, but I have been stitching them as leaders and enders and they are coming together nicely.  

I think I have fourteen made so far and I am enjoying rediscovering my pretty fabric pairings as I reach for each little pre-cut star.  Prepping everything in advance is a real winner when your sewing time is restricted.

For my first month's post I also showed you these two blocks which were destined to become the bonus Block Book project that Sarah has offered her BoM subscribers.

I added pretty orange borders and these became the outer cover of the book which will hold all the gathered block pieces in progress, a little bit like a fuzzy felt album.

Here's my block book all neatly finished. 

Inside, I added a little pocket for pattern papers and a felt needle landing just to make the book a little more of a portable project folder.   

Gratuitous shot of the back, just because I love these fabrics and their crisp, clean lines in these block patterns.

Overall, I am a wee bit surprised that I'm keeping up with the BoM because I really never expected to.  It is early days mind you, so I'm not counting too many chickens, and I think the pace might speed up next month too. But so far, thumbs up!  I'm having fun and it's nice to have a friend or two on this BoM journey too.  Given the mystery element to this quilt, I am also curious what next month's blocks will actually look like.  Not long to wait now!