Finished UFO and Other Finishes, No progress on Purple

 I took some days finishing several small items sitting on the table and taking up space.

Two scrappy green table toppers are done

These green pieces were scraps left from RSC March - the GREEN month - after I finished the green Churn Dash quilt. All batik, except the green Moda Marbles backing. These two small table toppers are for the kitchen; top of microwave oven and cupboard.

Out of approximately 30 yards green fabric, I have about 11 yards left, mostly Moda Marbles. Yeah me!

I've finished the custom order for my friend in Norway

Table runner

Two pillow covers

Placemat / table topper

Mug Rug

Placemat and mug rug are made from table scraps

A finished UFO! 

This is the one that popped up AFTER I had done my UFO list!

(UFO list to be updated end of June)

Made another patriotic table runner for my shop

...and coasters from table scraps

No progress on the purple quilt, except that I received the charm packs. 

These squares are soooo yummy! 

The idea was to use mostly tonal purples, but now I don't know what to do?! These purples and greens are so beautiful and I think they would brighten up the quilt. I may not use the greens, but maybe the tonal purples and those with greens. What do you think? 

So, the color for May is ORANGE. That's not an easy one for me. I may have a few, but not enough for anything, I think... I will have to go through my stash this week, searching for orange! 

 

WIP's and another UFO

It's early Wednesday morning, I'm enjoying my first cuppa of the day and listening to the birds' chirping (before the traffic sets in). 

It's time to update what I've been up to since I counted UFO's! :) You can see that post here I forgot to add one UFO though, the updated list is posted below. 

My creative mess this past Sunday! 

I've been working on so many things I've almost lost count

Close to my heart are mug rugs. They are easy and fast to make. I've had Loralie's 'On the mend' panel for ages and decided it's time to turn it into mug rugs. These are ready to be quilted.

Ran out of a yellow fabric for a couple of Easter table runners. More is on the way, not expected until beginning of February. Are you able to spot the pattern in the tray? It resembles 'orange peel' quilt pattern! The latter has been - still is - on my bucket list. :) Has any of you ever made an orange peel quilt? 

I've made a few Easter table toppers, hand sewing the binding is on the to-do list this week. The black one is one of my many UFO's; the Advent Calendar, almost done! 

I haven't bought a quilting book since as long as I can remember, but when I saw this one, I couldn't resist! It has some really cute pillow patterns. If I make any of them? Time will show! :) 

Updated UFO list #2. I've added #18, which I posted here

I'm currently working on #10; FMQuilting. It's almost done; a little bit quilting left to do and then the binding. 

Newbies, some UFO finishes and progress on UFO's

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! 
How do you celebrate this day? For us, it's another ordinary day. Hubby says it's Valentine's Day every day, so no need to do anything special on February 14th each year.... I so agree! :) 

Since my previous post, I have been busy working on UFO's. Happy to say some are finished and some are still WIP's. 

First of all, I have a couple of NEWBIES that were not UFO's

Nifty Nurse mug rug. It is listed in my Etsy shop and it will make a great (Valentine's Day) gift.

... and a pair of table mats

I have finished two UFO's - from this post 

UFO #13 - Log Cabin pillow cover

UFO #14 - Log Cabin table topper

I've been working hard on two of the UFO quilts

The 'Irish Chain' quilt is quilted and I have left to hem the binding

I'm currently quilting the Postage Stamp Quilt (PSQ). It's almost done, but these straight lines take time. I have quilted the blocks and border in a loopy pattern. Working on this one, I have already planned PSQ #2! The pattern will be different though and I have yet to decide on which color for the sashing. For this one, I have used white tone-on-tone. I don't want to use white again and I don't want black.... I have seen some in red as well as lime green that I like........... Any suggestions? 

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day! 

Long overdue update

Again I wish a day had more than 24 hours!

This morning I just decided to sit down doing this blog post, to share with you what I have been up to since I last posted. Tropical cyclone 'Imelda' kept us in suspense for some days before she decided to take an easterly direction and moved away from us. Instead, she hit our tenth district the island of Rodrigues. She did some damages like power cut etc - fortunate not a strong cyclone; gusts of about 75 miles/h / 120 km/h - enough to do some small damages. We got rain for some days and when it finally cleared up it was time for gardening!

... and of course I have been sewing! What else to do when it rains?! :)

 

I have finished a baby (crib) quilt I started earlier this year.

I have used scraps from pink pastels, white tone-on-tone and a Teddy Bear panel that was stored away I think for the last 4-5 years.

 

 

I think these Teddy Bear blocks are so cute! :)

 

 

Another one...

 

 

I'm working on a blue one too, using blocks from that Teddy Bear panel

 

 

... but again, this is what happened!

More is on its way from the US! :)

 

 

Yes, I HAVE been working on the UFO's from this post! :)

The PSQ... From the two jelly rolls I used, I was left with some already sewn together squares. As you may recall, I had in mind to add piano keys, but that again meant I had to buy more fabrics, which is not easy to get. Since I already had the squares, here's what I did... Good use of the jelly rolls; I'm left with 3-4 squares - only! :)

Next step is to add the last border and then its ready for sandwiching! Hurray!

I was hunting high and low for more of those fabrics, and ended up at a wonderful seller at eBay! :) The fabric has arrived, so hopefully I'll continue on this one this week...

 

 

#1 'Love is' quilt... This is the smallest one, a crib quilt size.

The binding is done, but I have some more quilting to do....

 

 

Some of you may say 'that's not possible'! LOL

Let me explain; when I quilted it, I wasn't sure what to do with the blocks (panels). When the quilting was done and binding attached, I saw the blocks 'puffed' too much, so I decided to outline part of each block. That was a lot of work! :) Now I'm left with the text (words) on each block, which has to be hand quilted....

How did it turn out that wonky on the photo?! It is straight! :)

 

 

#2 'Love is' - is also quilted and the binding is thread basted.

#1 'Love is' I quilted straight stitches, on this one I have FMQ (free motioned quilted).

On this one I have to outline some of the details on the small blocks (panels) too.

 

 

When looking for something, we always find something else, don't we?! :)

I found a rectangle where I had already added 2.5 inch squares together. Those squares are leftovers from Christmas/winter table runners / toppers I made 2 years ago!

I decided to make a pillow cover, which was needed for one of the pillows... I just added a small border around it to make it fit the pillow, and VOILA! New pillow cover! :)

It was not in the plans to finish this old UFO, but it was just a few hours work - and it's done! :)

 

 

Blue sky today and not too hot, so perhaps we'll go for a walk to a temple not that far from our house. The temple is situated in a hillside with stunning view over the town and surroundings.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

 



UFO's and another finish - March 2013

I hope you all are having a wonderful Easter Sunday!

Easter celebrations here in Mauritius isn't that big, but of course there are Easter service in the churches etc. It was supposed to be a wonderful Easter celebration for many people, but it took another turn after the torrential rain that hit the island yesterday. Worst hit is the capital Port Louis. We were lucky, not much rain here, compared to Port Louis. You can read more about it here.

 

It's better to talk about something more cheerful; FUFO's! (Finished UFO's)! :)

My goal for March was this, and this is what I have accomplished.

 

Four coasters. I love this Debbie Mumm fabrics, got carried away and here you can see what happened! :))

 

 

I finally got the quilting thread for the baby quilt.

It's done! :)  

 

 

I think straight stitches suit this quilt. It looks a bit wonky, but it is washed and line tried. It was blowing quite strong when I took the photos....

 

 

With some leftover fabrics, I made a pillow case too.

 

 

I think the backing fabric is so cute, with its butterflies! :)

 

 

The PSQ... I have only been looking at it this month... almost.... I came to the conclusion that I'm not 100% happy with it as it is now; it looks like something is missing... Therefore, I have decided to add a border and piano keys around it... Since I used two jelly rolls for this quilt, I had to buy more of the solid fabric, which I got earlier this week. That will be one of my goals for April... have yet to decide on other projects...

 

 

Those of you who know me, know I'm a huge coffee lover... :)

Therefore, I couldn't resist making a coffee themed drawstring bag! :)

 

 

I think making drawstring bags has entered my brain - LOLOL!

This early morning I dreamt I was making a drawstring bag - the pattern is in one of the quilt magazines I had a look at yesterday - LOL! :))

I think that means it is meant to be I make that bag! :))

 

I'm going to link this post up at A Passion for Applique - Nothing but UFO's in 2013.

Why not join us? :)   

 

 

Cushion covers

Last week I finished the three cushion covers!

Here they are, happily (I think!) posing on the couch. Each is a different design, but all three have the little chapel in the center.
All of them are 'stitched in the ditch' and I have quilted around the little chapel.

This is the first one I made...

#2...

#3...

The back... I decided to free motion quilt the back in a meandering design... I added another piece of fabric and quilted them together. All covers have a zipper on the back.

The Polar Bear quilt and the 'Sun & Earth' quilt are  FM-quilted and ready for the binding, which I hope doing next month.

These days I'm working on a few Christmas gifts - top secret! :)

Bag, pillows and Granny Squares

How fit are you craft wise when having the flu? I caught that darn bug 1,5 weeks ago and still I'm not feeling well. Of course I'm up and kicking, but still on slow motion. I don't really feel for doing anything, but I can't just sit there doing nothing - that's not me! It's better to do something for so to take a long rest afterwards. Got a bottle of coughing mixture from the pharmacy, which really knocks me out... But I'm not going to blog about that flu bug...

We went to Port Louis (the capital) last Friday and I bought bag feet for the market bag I was working on. I struggled with the bag bottom, because I wanted it a bit stiff. The combination of 'bag-newbie' and 'not-getting-what-you-need' require your brain to work on high speed; how to solve the problem?!

The pattern required a piece of template plastic for the bottom, but still I thought that was not good enough... I set my brain into top gear and came up with the idea to glue Peltex/Pellon 71F to the template plastic. The pattern says 'glue template plastic to bag bottom using a glue gun'.... So I thought I was clever when I glued the F71 to each side of the template plastic - using the glue gun!

WRONG! Even if I put heavy things on it; mortar (made of stone!), heavy pans and pots etc the night over, no way it glued the layers together!!!

So I thought; next solution is shoe glue! Same procedure - same result! :(((( Do you believe I was happy?!

Then I decided to put it on hold, wait until the trip to Port Louis,  buy bag legs - as the last solution! In the meantime - while waiting for the bag legs - I came up with another solution; sew the 3 layers - peltex, template plastic and peltex - together, using the sewing machine - it did work! No idea why I didn't think of that before I tried all that darn glueing?!

It worked! Here's the market bag.

The closure on each side. I had wanted some more fancy, decorative buttons, but you know... I should not say it again.... :)

... and finally; the bottom and the legs! :)

I had to use black, plastic rectangular rings for the handles - only rings of that size available here...

The bag is quite big; 14,5 x 26,5 x 53 cm / 5,5 x 10,5 x 20 inch.

The pattern is from Australian Homespun, and I LOL  when I read the pattern heading; '....it's so oversized that your partner won't be aware of how many purchases you've bought home!' :))

I'm not sure what kind of fabric I've used, it is definitely not 100% cotton. It is quite stiff and thick, and not very easy to sew through thick layers. Even if I used size 14 and 16 sewing machine needles, it kind of slipped on the weaving and made some of the seams uneven... If you take a closer look at the last photo - bottom - you'll see what I mean...  Not very happy about that, but I'm not sure it was possible to do it different... Quite some struggles putting this bag together - PHEW! But,  I've learnt a little bit more on bag-making! :)

Well, that was the bag.... What do you do about all the tiny pieces of scraps after squaring blocks, pieces that are too small to be kept for scrap quilts, thread ends etc? I bet all of you throw it all in the bin, don't you?!

I don't! I have been collecting all this bits over the last four years. No, I'm not insane! I have collected it in mind for pillow filling, to be used for making big pillows for the couch (?) in the dining room.

Over a period of four years I had collected 4-5 big plastic bags - 14 kilos/30 pound! with scraps etc. that took up space on the floor in the studio/ex-sewing room.

I shouldn't write this, but it had collected a lot of dust. My advice is; if you are allergic or asthmatic, don't do this, I believe it will cause some problems to you!

Stuffing the pillow inserts. I had just enough to make four inserts, measuring 60 x 60 x 10cm / approx 21 inch square + 4 inch.

Here they are; the four pillow inserts. I've already bought fabric and zippers for the pillow cases, but don't know when I'll start working on it...

Some of you might recall I have mentioned my crocheted granny squares... I bought 100% wool yarn during my visit to Norway last year. Crocheting has never been 'my thing', I've only done one pair of pot holders... Oh, now I remember; I crocheted a turquoise sweater in my teens...! Loved it to pieces - literally! :) Except from those projects, I can't recall I have done other crocheting projects...

What is better than to snuggle up on the couch, wrapped in a quilt, drinking hot cocoa and crocheting granny squares when not feeling fit for doing anything else?! :)

I didn't know I miss working with wool yarn that much... I did a lot of knitting when I lived in Norway, using wool as well as cotton yarn...  

I have enough yarn - mix of wool and acrylic - I think it is, for a pair of socks. Yes, I'm wearing wool socks these 'winter' months. :) I have a knitting UFO as well; a pair of wrist warmers/fingerless gloves... I'm going to wear them during the 'winter' months too, because I'm always so cold on my wrists. 

Don't know when they will be finished... :)

I've finished an Easter table topper and have left to do a small piece of the binding on the Easter wall hanging UFO, but that will be another post...