Sew Many Plans - September 2013

My long list of stitching plans for August went swimmingly well, in no small part due to the fact that I had two glorious weeks of holidays to free up lots of lovely "me time".

• I stitched the final stitch in my Forever hexagon quilt three years after I started it - yay!
• A giant star quilt top for Bee Blessed was whipped up from a set of beautiful Punctuation fqs;
• My FQR UFO's were made into a cushion and a finished embroidery;
• Fiona's block marked the end of my first year in a bloggy Bee;
• I made time to make a special gift for a very special friend;
• And, there were some wee fundraising makes thrown in for good measure.

Results, I'd say!

Moving into September I have a new commitment to fess up to.   I have joined the Modern Stitching Bee and will start this month by making Leanne's requested blocks.  Her block plans are fab, I just have to pull it off.

Bee Blessed picks up again after a much needed (by me) summer break and there is always plenty to keep us all busy there, not to mention the giant star quilt top that needs some attention too.

hipBees starts its 2nd year this month and I am kicking off as Queen Bee. I have already made my blocks in advance for the instructions sent to the others, but I do have a backing to piece for my first quilt so I'd love to be able to make some progress with that one.

Class - I'm also going back to class as a totally self-indulgent treat to socialise and make a pixellated heart quilt over a six week period.  I am really looking forward to that as it's been a while since I've been able to attend and they are always loads of fun!

Maybe one or two little things might work their way through the sewing room as the month progresses. Who knows?  Still some WIPs and UFOs that could use my attention, but this month I am definitely all about NOT stressing, so we'll see how it goes.

So, looks like I have a plan.  What about you?

Double Four Patch - Bee Blessed September

If your September is anything like mine, it'll be a crazy month as term time swings back into action and the summer fades swiftly to a dim hazy memory.  So, just to break us all back in gently to the resumption of normal services, I've chosen a great wee simple block for Bee Blessed this September.

Two Double Four Patch Blocks

This double four patch is the kind of block you will be able to whip up in 15 mins when you just want to regain a wee bit of stitchy sanity.  So why not hunt out your summer sewing leftovers and give this block a go?

The aim here is to use white solid and have 6 different prints in each block where possible for a really scrappy look.

Assume a scant 0.25" seam throughout.

Cut 2:  6.5" squares (each a different fabric)

Cut 4:  3.5" squares white solid

Cut 4:  3.5" squares (each a different fabric)

1.  Lay out your pieces as shown above taking care with the placement of the white solids as this will affect the secondary pattern of the quilt.

2.  First of all make up the smaller four patches.  Lay the pairs of fabrics right sides together and chain piece them.

Woeful picture - sorry!

3.  Press the seams of your pairs towards the coloured print.

Another one!

4.  Now join your pairs into 2 four patches by butting the seams and stitching together.

5.  Press this seam open.

6.  Now return the four patches to your table and carefully replace them in the correct layout.

7.  Now treat the four quarter units of your block as another four patch.  Start by laying each pair right sides together.  Join with a seam and press the seam towards the larger fabric square.  Again, butt the seams of the two pairs to join all four quarters together.

 8.  When all four quarter units are joined, press the final seam open.

9.  Take your block back to the board and trim to 12.5" if nec.

Ta da!

Told you it was easy peasy, didn't I?  You probably didn't even need this tutorial, but I added it just in case.

Hope you might consider having some simple fun and joining in with the scrappy blocks!  Thank you if you do.

Making Me Smile - 35/52

My boy brings a smile as he looks all smart and grown up starting Grammar School this week.  Very proud of him.

Even you might smile, if I tell you that this pic is a FRIDAY afternoon VOLUNTARILY doing homework! Not sure whether he has been inspired by the excitement of a new term and new school or maybe he's just afraid of the English teacher!  Whatever it is, I never thought I'd see the day when homework was effortlessly sat down to without a lot of nagging from me.  I shall enjoy the spectacle for now as I'm not entirely convinced yet that the new leaf is turned all the way over!

I hope you have things making you smile this week too!

hipBees August block

Fiona's month as Queen Bee brings our first year of hipBees to a close.  Happy Birthday to us!  With gorgeous Amy Butler Gypsy Caravan prints to play with, Fiona asked us to surprise her with whatever blocks we liked.

This one started out as a plan to be the Envy block from the Modern Stitches book but, as you do in a Bee, I made a few wee adjustments to be able to make the best use of Fiona's fabric - so it's sort of been re-Christened by me as "green with Envy" since it's not quite the original block. I tried to choose a block that let the prints speak for themselves, and hopefully Fiona will think they do.

It can be daunting to ask for surprise blocks in a Bee and have no idea what you're going to get back in your little parcel, but if Fiona is even half as lucky as I was when I asked for similar surprises in May, she will have a truly original and fantastic sampler as a memory of her first Bee quilt.  All part of the fun!

Now, anyone ready for year 2?

Holiday Stitching - 3

Before I was lovingly shunted off the cottage dining table to make way for Picaso by Numbers (read yesterday's post if that's made your brow furrow quizically), I made a start on two very different quilt tops.

Before our hols I prepared fabric and then transformed these

into this giant star quilt top (a la Jeni's instructions)

These gorgeous Punctuation fabrics were kindly donated to Bee Blessed some time ago and I think they look great in this enlarged starflower design.  Hopefully, when I get around to quilting and binding it, it will find a good home with someone who needs a special comforting gift.

Then, a la my own Churn Dash tutorial and my precious Ruby and Marmalade stash, maybe with some Vintage Modern thrown in (all Bonnie and Camille, so what's not to love?) I made a start on the blocks for my own bed quilt.  SO excited about these, but there are a load more to make and it's not going to be a big priority project over the next few months, so it could be a while before there's more progress to share.  In the meantime, I might just lift them out of the box and stroke them and make cooing noises over them from time to time.  (I know I am not the only one who does this, so don't act like I'm some kind of crazy lady when you do the same thing! - ha!)

Holiday Stitching - 2

I promised to show you the other cushion I finished up while I was on holiday, so without further ado -

Circular portholes

We have a front and a back, or a back and a front depending on your preference.

Heart Porthole

I know that two useful cushions could have been made from these FQR porthole samples but realistically I don't have the space for two cushions and I wanted them to pretty up and make comfy my sewing chair.  A few rounds of simple borders and a hidden zipper and I have averted the all-too-easy phenomenon of samples being chucked in a drawer never to see the light of day again - feeling quite virtuous about that!

The portholes weren't the only FQR projects that I worked on over the hols too.  At the mid-point of our break my son discovered the joys of painting by numbers and commandeered the small table in the cottage we rented to create his masterpieces!  After that, my sewing machine didn't make any further appearances but it did "encourage" me to work on the embroidery I had started at the retreat.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed having time to play with new stitches I'd never tried before (lazy daisies and stem stitch).  Handstitching is so entirely therapeutic to me.  I'm sure there's some profound psychological explanation for it, but whatever it is I am really thankful for it's calming and restorative influences. Perhaps I should really be thanking the painting by numbers for providing the opportunity to get on with some, instead of grumbling under my breath about the plans that I didn't complete!

If anyone is interested in this little pattern, it's downloadable as a free pdf from nanaCompany here.  I have yet to decide what the embroidery should become - a cushion? a small wallhanging?  a pouch?  If you have any suggestions I'm happy to throw them into the mix.  For now, I'm just pleased that the embroidery worked out so nicely.

Come back tomorrow for my last holiday stitching post and I'll show you some work I did on new quilt tops (prior to loss of sewing table).

Holiday Stitching - 1

We returned from a lovely family holiday on Saturday night. Can you guess from our silly pic what our holiday purchases included?  Rain hats!  I refused to go all "Australian outback" with mine, but the men in my life are heading off to look for wild horses to break in for their daily commutes!

Our holiday time involves lots of adventure sports (this year: gorge scrambling, Go Ape highwire forest walking, rowing, lake swimming, mountain biking to name a few).  I can now set your mind at ease by confirming what you probably already suspected - I do NOT participate in said adventure sports. My role is to gleefully wave my men goodbye for a few hours and meet up with them for coffee and tourist activities later in the day.  While they live on adrenalin, I am free to stitch some peaceful hours away.

After stitching up the brooches (better pics than the previous post)

I had immense fun appliqueing hearts to some gorgeous Kaufman Essex Linen and embellishing it with a little lace and buttons, hoping to achieve a sort of pretty, vintagey look.

There was a lot of chalking grids and measuring to make sure everything lined up nicely.

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of stitching this little cushion.  It was fun and freeing to just play with design and some notions.  I like the simplicity of it and hope that its recipient will too.

And, because I adored the print from the central heart, I used it on a contrasting band for the envelope backing. I think it might be from Denyse Schmidt's Shelburne Falls line, but didn't know that when I bought it.  I do know that I wish I had bought more of it!

So, this will be off to its new home soon, I hope.  And, hopefully tomorrow, I will show you the other cushion I made while I was away.