FAL Quarter 2 2014: Round Up

Katy has decreed that the time to admit to our successes with our Finish-a-long Quarter 2 Goals is upon us.  So let me review:

1 - Crazy Scrappy block quilt

16 of these cheery blocks and some navy fabric for sashing are tucked up in a box on the sewing room shelf. I think it's time to make something of them.  Yep, all finished - tick no 1.

Starter blocks

Fun finish!

2 - Mystery Medallion Quilt

Not quite such a Mystery now that the quilt top is finished, my medallion quilt is currently hanging on the back of the sewing room door.  If I can source one of those dual positioning quilting guide arms I would like perhaps to spiral quilt this one.  I would love to finish it this quarter.  A little quilting drama notwithstanding, I did it - eventually.  I LOVE this quilt, though I didn't spiral it as planned.

All pieced and waiting to become ...

this big TA DA!

3 - Ruby Churn Dash bed quilt

I think I have made about 33 of the 49 churn dashes that I need for this bed quilt, and I love them!  The remaining blocks are all cut and it would be good if I could finish this during the quarter so it can be in use when it becomes warm enough to sideline the duvet (she says optimistically). Hmmm... not a finish this quarter but I do now have a pieced quilt top.  At least it's progress.

I did progress from just some blocks ...

to all of the blocks pieced into rows.

4 - Kaffe Fassett Sparkling Gemstones Quilt

Left aside with a Pam Lintott Sparkling Gemstones quilt pattern in mind, this sadly neglected fabric deserves a little attention.  I think I could be pushing things hoping for a finish on this one in quarter 2, but sure you never know ....  Whispering very softly, this one is still in the box, still sadly neglected.

5 - Crocheted Ripple Throw

Been quite a long time since I started this crocheted throw back when I was in need of amusement during the many long hours a week I spent as a poolside mum.  Things changed and I haven't been poolside this year so the bag of crochet has been a little neglected.  It needs to be finished and since I only have that small amount of yarn remaining, I am hoping that Qtr 2 will see it rippled to a pretty finish. It won't be huge, probably just a lap sized throw.  Yay for another finish to declare!  My little throw is complete and draped over the back of my sofa, proving perfect as a shoulder wrap when the temperature drops a little late at night.

Not quite finished.

Wavy loveliness!

6 - Hunter's Star Cushion

I really need to switch out some older cushion covers from the lounge and I decided a while back to use the Hunter's star pattern for one of the replacements.  The fabrics are pulled and I've already cut some of the paper templates, so maybe one weekend I can turn on some tunes and make this a Qtr 2 success.

Finished this one too!

There was a lot more piecing in this that I realised.

But it was worth it.

I am going to call 4 out of 6 goals completed a respectable result for the quarter.  

I would so love to have finished the Ruby quilt so that it could have actually been put to use the past few weeks of warm nights, but in my defence I did have the quilting dramas of the Medallion to contend with.  I also managed the Retro Butterflies quilt from start to finish at class, as well as my windmill petals cushion and QAYG tote which weren't started at the beginning of the quarter so didn't qualify to be listed.  Add in a slew of blocks for my three bees and I'm happy with Sew Me productivity levels this quarter, even if they're not all FAL projects.

Got to say though that having a FAL goals list each of these two quarters is really helping my WIPs an UFOs to be brought under control.  A little accountability seems to work well for me.  Thanks for keeping us all at it Katy!

Linking up with Katy at The Littlest Thistle.

July Queen Bee - Modern Stitching Bee

This month is my month to be Queen Bee for the Modern Stitching Bees and this block, or should I say "that block" is my choice for the Bees to get busy with.

Some months ago, I came across "That Block"  (yes, that's what it's called) and I haven't been able to get it out of my head.  Mary from Molly Flanders Makerie has written a great tutorial for the block and has kindly allowed me to reference it for the purposes of the Bee this month.  (MS Bees please note that I am upscaling the block a little as Mary's will produce a 10.5" block.  I will list all adjusted measurements on the flickr discussion thread.)

Sort of similar to the Spider's Web block, it builds layers of strips around a central star shape (generally pieced in a solid).  However, using the quarter square unit as the base, rather than the quarter triangle a la Spider's Web, sets the star off-point and results in a different secondary pattern when the blocks are repeated.

I think it's this secondary diamond pattern that makes me have a personal preference for this block.  I love it and can't wait to see even more of them all laid out and repeating!   So what better way to get a deliciously summery scrappy quilt of "That blocks" than to farm out the work to the beautiful bees of your hive?!

So, ladies, I hope you won't hate me for the strippy piecing but this is what I would really love from you for July.  All of the specific details, adjusted measurements and handy hints from my experience of making up the blocks are posted on the flickr thread in our group.  Any other questions, just shout!

Thank you in advance for making these up for me.  Mwah!

Seriously excited!

Just couldn't wait to show you my churn dashes all stitched together.

Squee!

All my Ruby fabrics mixed with some Marmalade and Vintage Modern. Love it SO much!

 

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Crocheted Rag Rug - Beginning of a journey

You may recall that back at the end of August I posted my fabric scrap rolls which I said were destined to become a crocheted rag rug just because I've always fancied having a go at one really, and it would use up those skinny strips I otherwise don't have a scrappy purpose for.

I would really like my rug to be oval (or probably more correctly a rectangle with rounded ends) but it is surprisingly difficult to track down a tutorial for one online.  The one I did find started out well -

I posted my late night pic on IG and had lots of kind admirers.  I think the random scrappiness of the fabrics caught folks' attention.  Then about 2 rounds later none of the counting seemed to be right, the increases for the rounded end were coming in the middle of the straight side and I just didn't know where I'd gone wrong.  I took a few rounds out and was meticulous this time but same issue repeated.  Clearly this pattern and I were having communication issues.

So, I ripped it back and tried another pattern for oval crochet and ended up with this wavy thing.  A little online research suggested that the waviness was due to too many increases for the curved ends, so continuing with this pattern was only going to compound the problem round by round.  Needed a different approach, so I left this one aside and picked up a new fabric roll.

Attempt no 3 is looking much better!  Basically, I am now working it out as I go along.  I've been a diligent little bunny and am painstakingly applying the principles I noticed in the original patterns to my own counting and it seems to be working so far.  I've used basting pins to mark the beginnings of the each curved section and each straight section (helps a lot with all the counting involved) and a basting pin with wool tail over there in the curved pink gingham end to help me identify the slip stitch at the end of each row which I am NOT supposed to work into (but did several times).  I seem to be getting there, though oval crochet advice hereforward suggests I need to start randomising the placement of the increase around the curved ends to avoid a half hexagon look.  Not sure how good I'll be at "randomising" but I'll give it a go in the name of crocheted rag rug happiness!!

I've had a few questions about my fabric rolls on IG, so thought I'd just quickly recap here.  My strips are all 1" wide lengths of leftovers that were too small for any other scrappy purpose.  From my reading I know folks have used strips as small as 0.5" wide too.  Not sure how wide they've gone but I wouldn't really like to be much wider than the 1" myself.

Making up the rolls is fairly mindless.  I simply stitched the strips together with a straight 0.25" seam allowance.  My advice is just to make sure you backstitch the whole 1" seam for a little security when working the crochet stitches.

Initially, I did try joining them at an angle like you do with binding, but this rug isn't a precision thing, so straight seams aren't going to be an issue, and they're much quicker than the angled ones!   When I'm coming to the end of a roll while crocheting, I can just stitch the end of the last strip to the starter strip of a new roll (unless I want to join as you would normal yarn and bury the tail ends as I go).  Not much to it all really.

Back in April I had a whole bin full of 1" strips to work through which suited that time but I wouldn't necessarily want to face them in this marathon way again.  If I trim the strips to 1" as I am tidying away other projects and sew them together a few every now and then my rolls could gather gradually.

So, there you have it, the beginning of my rag rug adventure.  Wish me well with the continuation of the pattern, I REALLY want this to work.

New Bag for the Summer

I do love to have a new bag for the summer, don't you?  With a man-free zone chez Sew Me this weekend, I planned to tackle such a new bag as a diversion from all the FAL finishes and quilts of late.  Yes, I know I have still got two unfinished items on my FAL list and that time is running out, but I won't tell Katy that I wandered off track this weekend if you don't ;-)

Getting prepared, I started to stitch up my QAYG panels last week.  Round and round and round with lines and lines of stitching (in spite of an errant walking foot!) all in my favourite Bonnie and Camille scraps.  Yum!

I mentioned in a previous post that I had already decided to make Judith's Quilt As You Go Handbag/Shopper Pattern as one of my bags this summer.  It's a very generously proportioned QAYG tote, ideal for summer days out (tons of room for a beach towel, sunnies, some high spf, a good book and bottle of water) or in my case for long car journeys and ferry trips where all sorts of distractions (my book, a little crochet, the ipad, bags of jelly babies and raspberry ruffles for the car journey ...) can be stowed away to occupy a few hours and take my mind off feeling seasick.  It also occurred to me that this would be a very useful number for, say, a soon to happen quilting retreat in the big smoke - imagine all that QAYG in your fave designers' fabric scrappy strips.  Just sayin'. . .

Pic with sewing machine for scale

See how big it is?

QAYG was a technique I've never really had a go at before and I do like how much structure it helps to give your bag.

One of the reasons I wanted to make this bag was to learn how to make a recessed zippered opening.  Judith's pattern instructions really demystified this process for me making it all very straightforward actually.  I do love my pretty lining fabric (from Scrumptious) and it was a toss up between an orange and a red zip for contrast.  As you can see, red won this time.

See all that room inside?

 Pockets are not included on the bag pattern but adding a wee slip pocket is a very simple thing to do.

Never having made an internal zippered pocket for a bag, I was keen to include one on this bag and add another new skill to my repertoire.

With the help of this free Craftsy tutorial I succeeded in creating a useful zippy pocket for my essentials - keys, phone, chocolate ...

So, there you have it, my super scrappy summer tote.  I'm off to stroke my lovely fabric bag and work out how many choccy bars fit in that pocket!

Check out more fab versions of Judith's bag if you need further convincing that this is one worth making.

Retro Butterflies Quilt

Today was too beautiful a day to miss a photo opp in the garden with my newly completed Retro Butterflies quilt.  Woohoo!

This quilt was a class project with original design by She Can Quilt's Leanne and taught in Belfast by Judith.  I have been so enjoying the new skills of curved piecing to achieve these butterfly quilts, and I even did it the hard way with templates.  Not a die cutter in sight for this dinosaur!!

This quilt really started with the backing fabric which is a lightweight curtain which my gorgeous friend Di charmed from some charity shop.  Being rather taken by the vintage feel of it but the freshness and softness of the colours, I knew immediately that one day it would be the perfect backing for an aqua and grey quilt top.  So I raided my stash back then and set aside any fabrics that might work with it and over time I added a sale fq here or half metre there until the stack was big enough to stretch to a reasonable sized quilt.

When Judith advertised this class for her summer term programme, I wasn't the only one to rush to enrol.  And, I am so glad I did!  I love the calmness of the colours in this quilt, the soft dove greys and the splashes of clear water aquas.  It's definitely a summer quilt, so I used some very low loft cotton wadding from Quilter's Dream and added a few echo quilting lines inside and outside each butterfly.

This gloriously over-exposed shot shows off the quilting beautifully.  It reminds me of simple celtic knots almost when you see it from a distance or from the back.

I'm calling this quilt "Flutters of Friendship" because it will always remind me of the other friends who've had a little share in its bringing into being - Judith for her class tuition, Leanne for her original design and brilliant curves piecing video tutorial and Di for her generosity and thoughtfulness in gifting the inspirational backing fabric.  Thank you, lovely ladies!

In my attempts to ensure that this quilt did not add to the WIPs list that I have so diligently been trying to diminish since the beginning of the year, I actually managed to finish up a few weeks before the end of the class session.  But never fear!  Trusty WIP/UFO list to the rescue -

these 49 churn dash blocks have been laid out and are being packed for a piece-a-thon at tomorrow night's class!

June Bee Blocks

When I can, I like to take care of my Bee blocks at the first opportunity each month.  This month I wasn't quite as on the ball as usual - combination of having a little less available time and having to think about some of these blocks a little more.

The easy peasy one was the Bee Blessed block that Judith chose to be our BOM for June - Scrappy but Classy block by Anne Marie at Gen X quilters.  This one took more time choosing fabrics than stitching up and I think it'll make a great scrappy quilt for Bee Blessed.

Queen Bee of Modern Stitching Bee, Anneliese, plotted to keep us busy with HSTs for an afternoon but I think you'll agree the results are very pretty.  Her daughter should have an amazing pieced quilt 

when these lovelies all make it home.

As you can see low volume strikes again for the MSBees!

In HipBees, Rachel asked for floral applique blocks in a variety of sizes.  This one made me scratch my head a little lot as applique isn't my favourite stitching style and I didn't want to mess these up on Rachel.

With much thanks to Google Images for helping me find starting points I have made:

a raw-edged sketchy applique 6.5" square with an orange morning glory (you know I never knew they could be orange but they can);

a little bunch of yellow tulips, satin stitch appliqued as best I could (this block is 12.5" square);

and a 6.5" x 12.5" rectangular block with a little flutter of blossoms and leaves of the "Sarah-made-them-up" variety (sketchy raw-edge applique again). 

A trio of floral applique challenges!!

So, there you have it.  All squared up on the Bee Block commitments for another month and next month I get to play Queen ....