Mini Archie's October Furtle

This month has been all about going on retreat stitch-wise.

Most of my work early in the month was preparation for projects I wanted to take away last weekend and, of course, my pincushion for the swap.  I feel like I've already overloaded you with the details for all of it in the various posts, but in case you haven't seen them you can catch up on the links below:

You can read all about my pincushion thoughts here.

The two little piles of fabric became this

and this

And these three got machine bound to the front of the quilts, though I appear to have deleted the photos so can't upload here -

Christmas Countdown - it's now just waiting for the binding to be hand stitched on the back.  The little number squares have all been made up in anticipation of the final finish.

I pushed through to a finish on my Strippy Heart Wallhanging flimsy and got it quilted in advance of going away.  I bound it by machine at retreat and finished the binding by hand this weekend.  Pics to follow on a post soon.

I also managed a fabric basket and bound a mini quilt to go along with it.

It was a busy but very productive month thanks to the motivation of and dedicated stitching time at retreat.

I hope you've all had as fruitful a month as I have.

 Linking up to Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere.

Mini Archie's September Furtle

September has been a hectic, stressful month with the return from summer break to full on schedule of activities and routines again.  On top of that, I seem to have spent much of it in advocacy for CT's pre-school provision. So, I'm a little surprised that I have anything stitchy to show for September at all, and not really surprised that what there is to show is a little bit all over the place (rather like my head).

Before my wee brain got super stretched I managed to exercise it a little in working out how to make a rather large sleeping bag for CT.  It's been well tested now and I'm pleased to report is doing the job nicely.

I finished my 'perfect pairs' block into a cushion which was such a pleasure once I'd decided which border fabric to use.  I just love this.

While I didn't actually do any stitching for my EPP Hexie Diamonds quilt in September, I did gather all the diamonds to play layout and then spent a couple of evenings figuring out a design to help frame and finish the diamonds centre panel.  Let's just say it's going to take a lot more hexies!!

The re-emergence of this Christmas project WIP did encourage me to progress it a little this month.  Not a lot of sewing admittedly - I completed the embroidered panel and then spent time at the ironing board setting bondawebbed numbers on the squares for the next stage.  A little progress is still progress.

So, that was my September in stitches. What about you?

 Linking up to Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere.

Mini Archie's August Furtle

August has mainly been about hand stitches of one variety or another because of time away from home and my machine on holiday.

There were some pretty appliquéd hearts

and more hexagon EPP for my Hexie Diamonds quilt.

I even tried a crocheted mandala in a hoop just for fun (and maybe as a trial run for future efforts).

I then indulged in a little more stitching from Carina Envoldsen-Harrison's book Mandalas to Embroider, choosing the lovely paisley mandala embroidery design.  I still need to finish off this hoop, but the embroidery itself is complete.

While on holiday I discovered that Karelia House was nearby, and I persuaded hubby that he could avail of the coffee shop and treat CT to half an hour in the little playground on site to afford me a quick snoop around.  As always, when I go into a fabric or wool shop without an actual shopping list for actual projects, I found myself overwhelmed, wanting to buy but not knowing what to buy.  I almost walked away empty-handed, but I spotted a cotton yarn (I think it's 94% cotton) in one of the special offer packs and made an impulse buy with a view to stitching up a shawl.  As you can see, I have already made a start with a very simple pattern - Candy Kisses Triangle Scarf by nanascraftyhome.com.  So far, it's working up well.  I have no idea how big I will be able to go with my 10 ball pack but I'll keep going and see.  I hope I can get a reasonable size as it feels so soft and has a beautiful chunky drape without the irritation of wool which I just can't wear next to my skin.

I also managed a sleeping bag for my Little Miss, just scraping a finish in the month by stitching the final stitches last night - which means I haven't blogged about it yet.

And then, there are these ...

I didn't actually work on these next two projects this month, but I'm sneaking them in here as a 'confession'.  I had forgotten about these two WIPs - a case of tidying them away having put them 'out of sight, out of mind' for a number of months.  I rediscovered them when pulling fabric for my holiday projects. 

This is a Christmas Countdown wallhanging

and this one is a heart wallhanging akin to the strippy heart quilt I made last year.   I really should make a better list of my WIPs and keep an eye on them!

So, lots of 'bits' this month which have probably just increased my Works In Progress numbers (not to mention the extras I 'found' - ssh! don't tell the Committee!

 Linking up to Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere.

Mini Archie's June Furtle

Hello Furtlers!  It's good to be back after a couple of months AWOL.  Best laid plans and all that ...

I am pleased to report that I managed to finish up two WIPs in June.

Firstly, this Bonnie and Camille On Point Charm Square quilt

and then, rather out of season, my Chunky Cut Christmas Quilt.  

Ticking WIPs off the list feels good,

except, it just encourages me to believe its a good excuse to start something new 

 with a leaders and enders bonus starting alongside - oops!

Oh, and in the spirit of full confession, I also started a By Annie Hold Everything Bag, too!  I think that makes 3 new WIPs in place of the two I finished.  Not great maths, is it?  Maybe I'll finish the bag soon and at least break even again!

Although this embroidery doesn't strictly belong to June's stitching, I have only just been able to reveal it this month as it was for a birthday present.

Happy to report that I am continuing to sew from stash on all of these projects and have even broken out the ever growing box of 2.5" squares to begin using up in the leaders and enders blocks.  I've got to be really honest, though and say that except for the Christmas fabrics, you would really hardly notice that much difference in my stash.  It's so odd that it seems to take a lot longer to reduce than to accumulate.  Must try to remember that and ration my purchases accordingly in future!!

I'm also excited to have booked a place on Just Jude Design's first ever quilting retreat.  So happy to have a retreat here in NI, finally. A whole weekend of stitches all to myself!!!

Finally, have you listened to the Great British Quilter podcasts yet?  If not, you really should go and hear a little bit more about the stories behind some of the famous faces of our quilting community.  Sarah Ashford has done a lovely job of engaging with Jo Avery and Kerry Green already.  I am sure there are more great interviews planned.

Linking up to Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere.

Mini Archie's March Furtle

Hello there!

March was a much quieter month stitch-wise than I'd have liked, but c'est ma vie!

I did manage to overcome the woe of having to unpick the quilting disaster on my son's quilt, and it's all looking much nicer now. And, extra bonus, it's finished!!

A bit of a diversionary project resulted in a finished virus scarf too.  If you like to crochet and haven't tried this pattern yet, you should give it a go.  It works up really nicely and gets off to a speedy start, though of course as the rounds get bigger it seems to slow down a bit.  I have referenced some patterns and a useful video tutorial on my original post, if you are interested.

Back in January I decided my goals were:

1) to find time for more - progress and prep
2) to sew my stash and scraps (and generally use what I've already got)

Well, I didn't do so well on the time thing as life bit hard this month, but I did use up two balls of yarn from stash for the scarf and the quilt made use of lots of fabric that had been specially collected over a couple of years.  Aside from buying replacement threads for the quilting, everything used was already here.  Somehow though, the stash boxes still look just as full!!

I hope you've all had the month you wanted - productive, relaxed or otherwise.  I'm hoping to pop in on some of you through the Furtle shortly.

Linking up to Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere.

Mini Archie's February Furtle

It's time for the second of Mini Archie's Furtles Around the Blogosphere - didn't that come around quickly?

Well, my February stitching got off to a great start ...

 Cosy Christmas was bound and labelled to complete the quilt-a-long started over 2 years ago!

I whipped up a 30s Repro fabrics cushion just to scratch an itch after seeing a new tutorial.

I also completed a trio of Bonnie & Camille cushions that I had been piecing.  Love these ones.

All of that came together nicely as the projects were already well advanced as February began.

Then I worked at this quilt for my son, but got stuck in the disaster that was my quilting effort (more here).  So, things have kind of stalled as a result of the unpicking delay and real life just increasing the pace again.  

This yarn is not as neon as it appears.  It's actually a nice coral shade of pink.

Of course, in a classic avoidance tactic I then allowed myself to get distracted by Pinterest, a crochet hook and two balls of yarn I unearthed.  A little virus shawl is coming along nicely, but needless to say the unpicking is not!! Will I never learn?  I think in March I really need to face up to the unpicking and maybe even brave re-quilting ;-)

So, there you have it - mixed month for me.  Off now to see how the other Furtlers have fared in February.

 Linking up to Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere.

Mini Archie's January Furtle

Do you plan to furtle?  Isn't that a fab word?  Furtle. Furtle. Go a-furtling - do you think you can say "go a-furtling"?  I like it, so I might say it regardless of whether it's correct or not ;-)  Oh, rebel me!

If you don't know what I'm waffling on about you need to check out this post on Archie the Wonder Dog's blog.  In essence, Mini Archie (MA) and his lovely friends are hoping to encourage us back to our blogs - dusting them off and starting to chat again about our stitching, or indeed any crafty exploit.  Go and read the post, MA says it so much better than I can.

Honestly, the little invitation to a monthly link up with other bloggers again is quite timely.  Following personal musings as to whether or not to continue or 'retire' my blog towards the end of 2018, I ultimately decided that I like the blogging medium and while I really miss the engagement that there once was through blogging, I'm not ready to stop yet.  Since then, I've really tried to post more often again which, of course, has been helped greatly by finding a little more time to sew. Long may it continue!  So, here's to connecting again and sharing and 'furtling' through more blogs.  Please do join in!

As you can see from my posts this month, I've had a fairly productive January and it feels great! Life doesn't always lend itself to this level of stitching activity and I am extremely grateful for it.  These efforts were fuelled by lots of preparation at the end of my Christmas break from work.  It seems that good preparation time really helps me make progress when I make it to time behind the machine.  

I've also been working hard to use up what I've already got - that's fabric, scraps, WIPs, all of it. Back in the high days of blogging and Flickr groups and Bees and swaps, I immersed myself in all that was going on and enjoyed building a stash to work from with options 'in case' someone made a particular Bee request, or I wanted to make something for a swap partner.  It was fun, it was exciting and I loved it.  I hadn't foreseen that I was about to lose my liberal sewing time and ability to connect in ways I had previously, so I have this lovely, but rather large stash and collection of scraps and incomplete projects that deserve better than to be sitting in ugly plastic storage boxes all over my bedroom.  (My bedroom also deserves better than the boxes!)  I expect it will take some time to make much of a dent in it all, but I have made a start and will keep on raiding my boxes before heading to the online shopping option.  The beady-eyed among you will now understand the proliferation of Bonnie & Camille projects lately, and still to come.

So, it looks like I have 2 goals for 2019 -

1. find time for more - preparation and progress
2. sewing my stash and scraps

It's a plan, right?  

I hope you have inspiring plans for your stitchy/crafty 2019 too!

Thank you MA and friends for encouraging us all to re-connect.