New Blocks, Loved Fabrics and WIP's

Being back in the UK last week, the opportunity to have fabric delivered within a day was too good to miss. Having signed up for the New York Beauty QAL I have been watching with envy all the fabulous fabric selections being posted in the QAL Flickr Group, so I knew my opportunity to join in had come with my trip back. Unlike my quilt from the Sew Happy QAL, which was always destined to be a present for my son and daughter-in-law, the NY Beauty quilt, if it gets that far!, has no definite destination. In theory, that should have made the fabric selection easier, but it didn't seem to work like that. After browsing loads of websites looking for inspiration I decided to use a fabric I already had, Kona Solid in Hibiscus from Sew Fresh Fabrics as the base fabric. With that in mind I set to browsing with purpose and eventually settled on a FQ bundle of Kaffe Fassett fabrics from Tikki Patchwork and here they are together

I added a note to my order telling them that the fabrics were for a NY Beauty QAL and would be paired with the Kona Solid and I am thrilled to bits with the fabrics they selected. So thrilled in fact, that I am already worrying about messing up such beautiful fabrics with my first attempts at NY Beauty blocks!


On my return to Riga I had another fabric parcel waiting for me, Erin's of Missy Mac Creations Fugly Fabric giveaway had arrived. Isn't in nice to get fabric in the post when you are not expecting it? Erin had offered a very generous 80 charm squares, and I am already mulling over which projects to use them in. Having enjoyed my paper piecing so much recently I bought Carol Doak's 300 Paper Piecing Patterns book whilst at home, so I think that might feature heavily in the projects for the squares, although I also have a couple of bag patterns using charm squares too, so they might get a look-in too.

Didn't Erin package them up nicely?

In amongst all this retail therapy I did manage to get some sewing done too! As well as finishing the Sew Happy QAL, I also finished the third block of In Color Order's HST BOM, compared to the Sew Happy QAL, the gaps between the blocks appearing seem so long, but as I am currently behind with both Katy's FPPFTT and the NY Beauty QAL blocks, perhaps that is just as well. As for the Craftsy BOM, let's just not go there!

So my WIP list is now looking like this


Completed

• Reindeer Cushion
• Shades of Green, Fleur Bleu, Checkered Heart and Orange cushions 
• Orphan Block needle roll 
• Pieced arc tea towel  
• Yo-yo maker purse 
• Padded hangers and tutorial
• Sew Happy QAL quilt (My March WIP of 12 WIP's in 2012!)

Ongoing

• 3 blocks of In Color Order HST BOM (up-to-date) 
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt now basted 
• First and second blocks of FPPFTT completed (1 block behind schedule)
• First border of teatime quilt completed, blocks to be calculated and cut
• New York Beauty QAL fabric bought (1 block behind schedule)
  

Waiting

• Indigo, yellow and violet rainbow cushions
• Sunflower Quilt 
• Last block of Sampler quilt - no progress but it is in the UK and I am back in Latvia!
• Amy Butler bag 
• Bag Making Bible Fashionista Bag 
• Dragon Bag
• Patchwork Block bag
• Christmas mini quilts
• Craftsy BOM which I have signed up for but still haven't looked at yet!

 At least there has been some movement on the list, even if the NY Beauty QAL has only moved from waiting to ongoing because I now have the fabric!

Hope you are all making progress too.

Linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday and Esther's  WOW

The Best Laid Plans!

I had it all planned, we were going home to the UK for a week last week, so I brought all the blocks of my Sew Happy QAL with me to finish off and send to my son and his wife before we flew back to Riga. It was all going to be so straightforward, all I had to do was print out the instructions and template for the last block, cut out and sew the sashings, buy the wadding and then back, quilt and bind the quilt. That doesn't sound so hard, does it? Hah!!

There was the small matter of a trip to Dublin, the husband's birthday and catch-ups with friends to fit in too, but it was all going to work out. Hah!!

So what I really needed was for the phone line to die and for us to have no Internet connection for 5 days!!

Buying the wadding was easy enough, fortunately I had already found the perfect backing material in Riga before we left.

A local bedlinen manufacturer, I discovered, sells 100% wide width cotton for around £1.50 per metre, so when I saw the last 2.5 metres of this grey, shadow striped faux patchwork for sale I knew that I had found my backing fabric!

When we did eventually get our phone line sorted, something to do with old wiring in our area being replaced and engineers inadvertently twisting wires apparently, I had only a couple of days left to make the last block, finish the quilt top, quilt and bind the quilt. Nothing like a deadline for concentrating the mind :) Cue also much muttering from my husband about how much longer was I going to be tied to the sewing machine!

Fortunately I have already practised Dresden Plate blocks before for the QAYG sampler quilt that I started years ago at an evening class, so I had an idea of what to expect. I didn't, however, have enough of any of my fabrics for the background 12 and 1/2" block for the fan, more shopping needed!

Ideally I would have like to have had less grey in the fans in this block, but these were the only fabrics left that were big enough for the fan template. I really went down to the wire with fabric on this quilt!

I had to raid my stash for the turquoise solid for the pieced blocks in the sashing and paired it with blocks from the extra white fabric I had bought to finish off the Dresden Fan block.

With some of my feature red leaf fabric in each corner, this is what I ended up with.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole process of Jenna's Sew Happy QAL, it has been a great learning experience, even the foundation piecing (!), and I would definitely recommend joining a Sew Happy QAL to anyone.

Finally, the evening before we flew back the quilt was quilted and bound. The binding was a bit rushed to say the least, but, fingers crossed, neither my son nor his wife will notice the few tucks here and there! I posted the quilt to them yesterday morning, so they will, hopefully, be snuggling under it soon and my son can no longer remind me that he is the only one of the family not to have their own quilt :)

So, I can tick off my March WIP of my 12 WIP's in 2012!

I am off to check out the blocks I have missed on Katy's FPPFTT here and Sew Sweetness NY Beauty QAL, before I end up too far behind!


Linking up to Sew Modern Monday here and Sew Happy Geek's Manic Monday

Foundations, fish and finishes

Well, we are on the home straight now with the Sew Happy QAL, the second last block and boy, was it a pain in the neck! Nothing to do with Jenna's brilliant video instructions, I hasten to add, but if this had come along earlier in the QAL, I think I would have been running for the hills. I have been struggling with this block for the last two days, and I am glad that it is now finished (and far from perfect, unfortunately!). I think this may prove to be my one and only foray into foundation piecing, in fact, I am sure of it.

Part of the problems I had were, I think, due to having to use up scraps of some of the fabrics to make up the block, as this was all that is left of the lovely turquoise fabrics that I started with. So some of the seam allowances were, I think the technical term is "scant", or in my case, "very scant". In some cases they were so scant as to be non-existent, so seam ripping was called for and another attempt made. When I measure this block against previously completed blocks it is about 1/2 inch bigger all round, now I know that is better than being smaller, but isn't this kind of piecing supposed to do away with that kind of problem??

Actually, I think that the fabric I used for the foundation might also have contributed to my problems as, although I starched it before using it, I suspect that there was a bit of stretching going on, which all the ripping and re-sewing probably didn't help! That probably accounts too for one square of the centre square being 1/8" too small. Aaargh!!!

I had dithered about whether to paper-piece this block (and am now wishing I had!) because I am enjoying Katy's FPPFTT so much, but decided that the whole point of this QAL was to learn new skills, so ought to try the foundation piecing. Well, all I can say is that I have now tried it and won't be trying it again any time soon!

This week hasn't been all bad though, I have finally finished a cross-stitch towel that I have been working on since the New Year. I only work on it in the evenings in front of the TV, which is why it has taken so long. The pattern, again, was from the book, Made in France, cross stitch and embroidery in red, white and blue by Agnes Delage-Calvet and is rapidly becoming my favourite source of cross stitch and embroidery inspiration.

 Stitching and watching, or more accurately listening to, the TV is definitely easier when you are only using one colour!

Speaking of fish, I thought you might like to see an example of the fish for sale in the Central Market here in Riga. The market is actually 5 buildings, which were used as aircraft hangers in a previous time, housing a fish market, meat market, vegetable market, bread market and dairy produce market. In the summer the market spills out onto the surrounding area, but only some hardy souls ply their wares outdoors in the winter.

 
The selection of fresh and smoked fish available in the market is extensive, but these fish have always intrigued me. I have never been brave enough to try them but every smoked fish stall has them so they must be popular!

It doesn't seem like a month since I linked up to Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet for the first time, but I am delighted to be linking up again. It was lovely to see what other new, and nearly new bloggers were getting up to.

Paper, Snow and WIP's

After my enjoyment of the first instalment of Katy's Foundation Paper Piecing for the Terrified FPPFTT I was definitely looking forward to the second tutorial, especially as it would come one day before the long-dreaded foundation pieced block in the Sew Happy QAL! This time we were practising triangles so more capacity for disaster I would have thought! In the end, the block turned out better than I had anticipated, which is always nice.

I hadn't been overly keen on the fabric combination when I had pulled them from my stash, but was keen to get on so had gone with them. They definitely came together better than I had expected, so I was very pleased. Now I just need to decide what to do with the block and whether to do more of the same to give me more options. All suggestions gratefully received! My son and his girlfriend have decorated their bedroom in purple, so I could maybe do something for them.

It wasn't entirely plain sailing with this block as I did find that I was being a bit too generous at times with the seam allowances. I found it more difficult to judge with the triangles than I had with the strips for the first block, but, hopefully, that is something that will improve with practise. Let's hope so as Jenna's next block in the Sew Happy QAL is a star full of foundation pieced triangles, and I can't afford to mess it up as I haven't got much fabric left!

There has been a great incentive to be indoors sewing these last couple of days here. Just when the temperature rose above freezing for a couple of days and it seemed that the winter might be over, this is what we looked out on yesterday!

So as well as getting to grips with the paper-pieced triangles, I also got around to starting the teatime lap quilt that I have been planning for several weeks after the discovery of a forgotten, embroidered linen in my cupboard. The borders are on to square up the linen and I am busy working out the maths for the first row of blocks. This may take some time as I am always forgetting or miscalculating the seam allowances, if only someone had been able to tell me at school how important maths would be I might have paid more attention :)

 I really like the stripe fabric for this border, it picks up the embroidery colours really well. I am finding the linen centre very contrary to work with, trying to get the edges square has been difficult to say the least. Hopefully, now that the cotton border is on it will be a bit easier. I have a pattern for an Irish welcome quilt that I would really like to do, but it has a linen centre too so will no doubt have the same problems. I will see how this one turns out before tackling any more linen I think.


Here is how my WIP list is looking at the moment;

Completed

• Reindeer Cushion
• Shades of Green, Fleur Bleu, Checkered Heart and Orange cushions 
• Orphan Block needle roll 
• Pieced arc tea towel  
• Yo-yo maker purse 
• Padded hangers and tutorial

Ongoing

• 10 blocks of Sew Happy QAL (this weeks to do)

• 2 blocks of In Color Order HST BOM (up-to-date) 
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt now basted 
• First and second blocks of FPPFTT completed
• First border of teatime quilt completed, blocks to be calculated and cut

Waiting

• Indigo, yellow and violet rainbow cushions
• Sunflower Quilt 
• Last block of Sampler quilt - no progress but it is in the UK and I am in Latvia!
• Amy Butler bag 
• Bag Making Bible Fashionista Bag 
• Dragon Bag
• Patchwork Block bag
• Christmas mini quilts
• New York Beauty QAL signed up for (starts March)
• Craftsy BOM which I have signed up for but still haven't looked at yet!

 Oh dear, nothing has moved on the Waiting list! I will definitely have to try and find the time to at least have a look at the Craftsy BOM as the March tutorials will be out tomorrow.


Linking up to Lee's WIP Wednesday and Esther's WOW

A new passion?

Never having tried paper-piecing before I was very surprised to find that I loved tackling the first block in The Littlest Thistle's FPPFTT. I loved it so much that I didn't stop at one block, but got a bit carried away and made 4!

Joined together and bordered with a linen strip, the 4 blocks became the orange in my rainbow cushions. Four cushions down and three to go and two results in one!

I really loved this fabric, Terrain by Kate Spain, so livened up the back of the cushion with some self-covered buttons too.

The next block in the FPPFTT is due out today. Katy gave us a preview on her blog at the weekend, so I am really looking forward to getting to grips with triangles this time. In fact, I have enjoyed the paper piecing so much that I have signed up for the New York beauty QAL too! I am nothing if not enthusiastic :) Check out the giveaway at Freshly Pieced to celebrate the beginning of the QAL here

Talking of Quilt a Longs, the Sew Happy QAL is steadily coming towards the end. This week's block was number 10 of 12, the time seems to have flown by on this, which I really didn't expect when I signed up. This week's block was all HST's, and came together really quickly. The next block is a paper-pieced block, so I am glad that I will already have had some practice before attempting it. I am beginning to worry about running out of fabric for the last couple of blocks, so can't afford to make any mistakes now!

The finished quilt will be a (late) First Wedding Anniversary present for my son and daughter-in-law. It was their Anniversary yesterday, which they celebrated with a weekend in Florence. As we had snow again on Sunday I know who was in the right place. The quilt will be a few weeks late but I am sure they will forgive me!

Packages and Paper Piecing

More lovely packages in the post, this one was so lovely that it was excitedly ripped open before it got to me! Latvia post, however, saved the day and my treat to myself of a Sunny Happy Skies FQ bundle from Julie at TheIntrepidThread arrived a bit battered but still intact.

These are destined for the teatime embroidery to make a lap quilt for my mother. I am thinking of surrounding the embroidered panel with friendship stars, now that I know how to do them thanks to Jenna at Sew Happy Geek. Although I think these will have to be smaller than the 12.5" blocks in the Sew Happy QAL. That's the plan anyway!

Today there has been a rare concurrence of events, there must be a blue moon somewhere! The bedroom floor is hoovered and washed, the backing for my (almost) Irish Chain quilt has just been washed (again!) and is at the top of the ironing pile and I have even pulled the pieced quilt top out of the cupboard, where it has been lurking. These things have never happened together before it is scary :) Maybe, just maybe I will get this quilt basted over the weekend, then I really will be looking out for the blue moon!

You can see from the photo why I am calling it an (almost) Irish Chain. I mucked up the measurements somewhere along the way and ended up with two different sized blocks, so it fitted together in one direction but unfortunately not the direction needed to make the chain!

If you are like me and have always fancied having a go at paper piecing but thought it was way too difficult there is help at hand. Katy at The Littlest Thistle has launched today her course Foundation Paper Piecing for the Terrified, where

"Each Monday for the next few weeks I will be taking you through the very basics of foundation paper piecing, building up each week to a slightly more difficult pattern." 

That sounds exactly what I need, so I am in! One of the aims of the course is to provide us beginners with the confidence to tackle this QAL from Sew Sweetness

I would really love to tackle the New York Beauty QAL so Katy's course will, hopefully, give me enough practice and confidence to have a go. Would love you to join me :)

Have a great weekend. 

Post and piecing

With the next block in the Sew Happy QAL surfacing early and snow forecast, the weekend seemed an ideal opportunity to get ahead of myself. The Saturday post brought good news too, my Orange and Green Terrain bundle from Sew Fresh Fabrics, so a chance to get started on an orange cushion for my rainbow cushions. As ever I was impressed with the service from Sew Fresh Fabrics, the order was made on January 31st, sent out the same day and arrived 11 days later, that is amazing for post to here. The fresh, zingy colours were a welcome hint of spring on a grey winters day.

I have been looking through my magazines for inspiration for the next cushion as I want to try out new (to me) techniques for each one. I really would like to try paper-piecing, but I am waiting to try my hand at the paper pieced block in the Sew Happy QAL first. Only two more weeks to wait I think, so these lovely fabrics will just have to sit there for a little longer.


This weeks QAL block involves more of what is rapidly becoming my favourite block, flying geese. That is not to say that I am so proficient at them, but I just love how putting together squares and rectangles produces such a great block! This time they were much smaller, 2.5ins, so the capacity for a disaster was undoubtedly magnified. Given my problems in the previous post with mitred corners, any hint of potential disaster was enough to make me nervous. I shouldn't have worried, as always Jenna's instructions were spot-on and the block came together surprisingly quickly. Unfortunately quickly enough to give me time to witness another Scotland rugby defeat, but then I should be used to that by now!

With 9 blocks completed this quilt is really beginning to take shape and as I will be back in the UK for a week next month, I am trying to work out if I can somehow complete it then so that I can give it to my son and daughter-in-law whilst I am at home. I think that probably means I need to start the sashing now, so another fabric order is on the cards. Isn't life tough :)

Hope you had a good weekend too!

Peek-a-boo blocks and painted houses

At this time of year one of the sights we find amazing is the frozen shores of the Baltic Sea, so nothing would have it but that we venture down to the coast for a stroll along the icy shoreline. Quarter of an hour from the car park, however, with ice in my hair the frozen sea didn't appear to be as attractive an option as the nice, warm coffee shop twenty yards away! Photos of natural ice sculptures take a back seat when a hot Cafe Latte is on offer :)

The houses at Jurmala, the nearest seaside town to Riga, are just as interesting as the frozen shore and in the quiet of a winter's day more accessible. Just like the Art Nouveau buildings in Riga the houses in Jurmala are, or were, bright and colourful and some of the decoration on the wooden buildings is like lacework.

This one is for sale, isn't it a real chocolate box of a house?

And how about this for a change of style?

Our trip to Jurmala wasn't entirely a sightseeing one. There is a small fabric shop on the Main Street in the town, where I had purchased one of the background fabrics I am using in In Color Order's HST BOM. After cutting out the second block I worried that I might not have enough for the twelve blocks, so took the opportunity to stock up with more. Needless to say this wasn't mentioned to my husband until we were nearly there!

I am amazed to find that this week is the eighth block in the Sew Happy QAL, the time has certainly flown by with this. Talking to my son and daughter-in-law on Skype at the weekend I was able to show them my progress so far. Fortunately, they seemed pleased with the blocks! I hope they like this one too.

This week's block is a Peek-a-Boo block, another new one to me. I was a bit worried about dealing with 2.5in triangles, but got there in the end. I am still not confident when marking the diagonal lines on squares for the triangles, as I often seem to be a shade out at the corners, so any tips would be much appreciated!! Especially as I am going to be practising a lot with the HST BOM over this year.

Orphan Blocks, HST's and Needle Rolls

Last month the Pleasant Home Blog's theme for January was using up your scraps and there were some wonderful projects showcased. Although I have not been sewing long enough to have built up enough scraps to consider some of the marvellous quilts shown, like probably all quilters I do hang onto leftover fabrics from my projects, no matter how small, in the belief that they will come in useful for something!


So, inspired by the many projects I have been looking at in the last month, I decided that it was time to "liberate" some fabrics from the scrap bag, and realise their potential :) I spent a pleasant hour going through the scraps, remembering the original projects and trying to image new ones. To my delight I came across an "orphan block" from the very first quilt I made, which was for my eldest son, who was living in Madrid at the time and complaining of the coldness of the winter nights. As I also had some fabric left over from the original quilt too, I realised that there was scope for a new project using the block and fabric scraps.

Sitting next to the scrap bag in my craft cupboard, is the evidence of my infrequent forays into the world of knitting. My nice new knitting needles are jumbled together in a magazine file so it is not easy to find the right size or even a pair when I need them. Something needed to be done, and here is the something!

A shiny, new knitting needle roll made from the "orphan block" and leftover fabric, and lined with fabric cut from yet another of my husband's discarded shirts! They are coming in very useful these shirts of his :) My knitting needles have never been this organised. The needle roll measures roughly 22" wide by 17" high, with an inner pocket approximately half the height. I quilted channels of various widths from the top to the bottom of the roll before binding and adding a ribbon tie. I even discovered that I have purchased two pairs of needles the exact same size, but now that I am so organised I won't be making that mistake again.


By now I was on a roll (apologies for the pun!). Until now my knitting UFO's have resided in the brown paper bag that they were originally brought home in, but it is all too easy to ignore them in brown paper, so if they are ever going to be finished it was time to house them in something a bit more inspiring too. Last year I had made a couple of bags from jeans that were being discarded by my son (I seem to have become a bit of a magpie with my family's clothing!), from the bucket bag pattern by Lisa Lam available here. So I dug one of those out of the cupboard too and, voila, a new knitting bag and needle roll for no cost apart from time, and time spent sewing is never a bad thing.

Although we did venture out this weekend, it was not for long as we have found that when you can't feel your chin, it is time to head back indoors. So I had plenty of opportunity to catch up with the February block of the month at In Color Order's HST BOM, which this month is a Flying Geese block. I have always thought that these were beyond me, but having just finished the Flying Geese block for the Sew Happy QAL, I was feeling much more positive towards them, so set to work and finished that too.

We spent a glorious day last Autumn/Fall in the SW of France listening to the honking of flocks of geese and watching as they flew south overhead, and making this block conjured up those memories. Maybe one day I'll make a quilt from this block to keep that memory!



Linking in to Little Quilt Monday at a pieceful life

Flying Geese pinwheel block QAL

Flying Geese pinwheel block QAL, a photo by Celtic Thistle on Flickr.

Block 7 on the Sew Happy QAL is done and dusted. I am really enjoying this QAL, a bit to my surprise I have to say, as I worried when I started out that I would have fallen by the wayside by now. Each block has been interesting and achievable, even for my novice sewing skills, and I cannot recommend Jenna's tutorials highly enough.

A side-effect of joining the QAL has been the boost it has given to the rest of my sewing. I am even contemplating basting the large quilt I started last year with my new-found confidence! Note though I am only contemplating, but at least that is a start :) I wasn't even doing that a few weeks ago, and this is exactly the right time of year here for the quilt to be getting used.

As the temperatures keep dropping, there is no incentive to venture out unless it is absolutely necessary. Are sewing supplies absolutely necessary? The answer, of course, is yes and with the fabric supermarket next to the food supermarket fortunately easy to do without spending longer than necessary out of doors.

I have deliberately not looked at the next block in In Color Order's HST BOM, as that will be my treat for the weekend.

The next few weeks will be tense ones in our family, so I will need a retreat from the tension. Being a Scot married to an Irishman, and both of us supporting our national Rugby teams, the onset of the 6 Nations Rugby is a test of our relations at the very least. Add in to the mix though, 3 rugby-playing sons all born in England, who support variously Ireland (eldest son), England (middle son) and Scotland, hurrah!, (darling youngest son :0 ) and you can see there is plenty scope for tense inter-family relations! With the Scotland v England game due up on Saturday, it is perhaps fortunate that all of the supporters involved in the family are located in 3 different countries.

May the best team win (as long as it is Scotland!)



Via Flickr:
7th block in the Sew Happy QAL

Fireflies block Sew Happy QAL

Fireflies block Sew Happy QAL, a photo by Celtic Thistle on Flickr.

Halfway through the blocks for the Sew Happy QAL and I am still in there! When I signed up for this I worried that I would not be able to keep up, but so far, fingers firmly crossed, it hasn't been a problem.

This block looked quite daunting when I first saw it, but with my new best friend, the starch spray, it came together much more easily than I had thought. Thanks Sew Happy Geek for the tip!

12 WIP's in 2012

Just came across AJ's blog with her 12 WIP's for 2012, what an excellent idea and just up my street at the moment, so I am signing in! We will, hopefully, be moving back home sometime this year so this is a great incentive to get things finished before the move. The WIP's are in two parts, six should be projects that have already been started and put aside (abandoned!) and six should be projects that I have the materials for but have never started and I have lots of these! To take part I need to send AJ a fat quarter of fabric and at the end of the year she will have a draw and the winner will get the donated fabrics, which is quite neat.

By typing these projects I am committing myself to finishing them, so here goes -  the first 6 of my WIP's are to:

• Back, quilt and bind the sunflowers quilt I have been working on for a couple of years. The quilt is pieced but hasn't got any further
• Back, quilt and bind the Irish Chain quilt I started last winter. Again the quilt is pieced but I mucked up the measurements so it didn't work as an Irish Chain and was consigned to the cupboard
• Make the final block for the Quilt As You Go sampler quilt I started a few years ago at my first ever patchwork and quilting class. The block is meant for the centre of the quilt and is a folded star block but I have lost the instructions on how to finish it, so it has been gathering dust for ages. It can't be that difficult to find instructions on how to finish it off, can it?

These are the three big WIP's hanging over me, the next three are less daunting but that hasn't stopped me putting off finishing them!

• To make buttons and buttonhole loops for my winter cushion to finish off the back. I cut the envelope backing a bit neat on this cushion so it really needs a button closure to stop it from gaping and I have seen instructions on how to make your own buttons with modelling clay, so that is what I plan to do

 

Reindeer Cushion

• To finish the Shades of Green cushion I have hand pieced and quilted but not backed and, hopefully, I will have learned my lesson from the cushion above and will cut the back to the correct size this time!
• To either finish (again) or recycle the material from the Dragon Bag I made to carry at my son's wedding. I did finish the bag before the wedding but never got to use it as the first time I carried it with belongings inside the bag came away from the frame! I have made several other bags with glued-on frames and it had never happened before, but none were as big as this bag so that might have been part of the problem.

Big Betty Bag pattern from u-handbag.com

That is a daunting list, but maybe if I start off slowly and work up, who knows, by the end of the year I could finally have some quilts on beds and space in cupboards! Fingers crossed.

The second half of the challenge is maybe not so daunting, although time will no doubt tell whether I am being overly optimistic again. My list for this only has two largish quilts in it, so is hopefully eminently doable even with the challenges I have set myself in the first half. So here is my list:

• To complete the quilt for my son and daughter-in-law that I have signed up for with Sew Happy Geek's QAL
• To complete the quilt I have signed up for at In Color Order's HST BOM
• To finally make the Days to Santa Countdown from Nancy Halverson's 12 Days of Christmas booklet. I have had the fabric for this for a couple of years now and promise myself every year that I will start it in time to have it completed for December 1st, and every year the time passes and I have missed the opportunity to get it done in time again!
• To sew for myself, or possibly my daughter-in-law or son's girlfriend, one of the bags from Amy Butler's Style Stitches, the book will turn out to be an expensive indulgence if I don't make at least one handbag from it
• To make for myself a fashionista bag from Lisa Lam's Bag Making Bible, I have made two of them already both for my daughter-in-law, but despite buying some lovely pink wool fabric in Tallinn especially for this bag and having all the hardware needed it hasn't even been started

• The final WIP for this challenge is another bag, a patchwork bag I bought the pattern and fabric for on a quick stop in the Scottish borders whilst we were taking our youngest son to University. The purchase was probably as much about being able to have my pick of quilting fabric and notions as about the pattern, as quilting cottons are not popular here in Latvia, so I am like a child in a sweet shop when I get in a quilt shop in the UK :)

I think that is probably enough to be going on with for now. Coming up with the list itself was an interesting exercise though as it did concentrate my mind on what was achievable and, in some cases, how little I actually had to do to finally finish something. No doubt I will be diverted in the coming months but having this in black and white will make sure I get back on track, at least that is the plan.

Let me know what your plans are for the coming year, so that I don't feel so bad about having so many unfinished projects cluttering up my cupboards!

Work in progress - some faster than others!

Halfway through the month is a good time to reflect on my progress, especially in January when by now apparently most resolutions have been broken. Well my resolutions this year were to

• join a Quiltalong
• start Blogging
• make 12 cushions using 12 different techniques 
• and take part in a sewing swap 

Well I can tick the first two as I am taking part in the Sew Happy QAL and this post is evidence of the second.

For the third I have pieced and quilted this shades of green cushion, but have to admit that it was all done before Christmas and has been sitting waiting for more attention since then. However, I have also bought some green linen fabric that I think will be ideal for a cushion back so will plan to have that done for the end of the month! When I started putting these greens together from my scrap bag I had the idea that I could work my way through the colours of the rainbow for the cushions, which won't take up 12 months I know, but at least gives me a start.

As for the 4th resolution to take part in a sewing swap that is still on the agenda but I have a whole year yet to complete that one so that isn't broken yet!

As well as joining up to the Sew Happy QAL I have also decided to tackle In Color Order's HST BOM quilt, I am nothing if not keen, so a happy hour was spent yesterday wading through my fabric stash to put together some fabrics for the first star. This task would have been a lot easier if my fabrics were in any sort of order but unfortunately they are not, one of these days .... (maybe that should have been one of my resolutions!)

As well as patchwork I have also recently rediscovered my passion for cross stitching, not least due to the birthday present from my son of a copy of "Made in France, cross stitch and embroidery in red, white and blue by Agnes Delage-Calvet. The motifs are lovely and as they are in one colour, very easy to do whilst watching/listening to TV in the evenings. I have already finished one towel in red with her Russian Doll pattern, a teatowel in blue with the teapot pattern, a small purse in red with a wildflower pattern and I am halfway through another towel using four fish charts, and there are plenty more charts that I would like to do!

I think these are not bad beginnings for the year, so hopefully will bode well for the rest of 2012.

Templates and Trials

Just finished the fifth block in the Sew Happy Quiltalong. According to Jenna it was designated for slightly advanced beginners, which certainly means I am a beginner and far from advanced!

I had a bit of bother with the templates as I couldn't get my head round "sticking" the templates to the fabric and kept shaving slivers off of the template every time I cut! Jenna does talk about using a Lazy Angle ruler and I suspect that if I had had one of these I wouldn't have had so much trouble. Still the end result is not a disaster and with only one block this week I have time (if maybe not enough fabric) to make another if I decide it will turn out better.

Another project - BOM quilt?

Just came across the Half-Square Triangle (HST) Block of the Month (BOM) quilt a long by In Color Order and will be rushing to my burgeoning stash. At one block a month I think I should be able to keep up, and as I need all the practice I can get by the end of the year I should have cracked cutting and piecing triangles with any luck.

This timescale also gives me plenty of time to find a good source for decent quality wadding/batting, which is something I have struggled to find here in the past. It is also, unfortunately, extremely expensive to have sent so my usual strategy of internet shopping is not the answer. If anyone has details of a supplier of good quality wadding/batting in the Baltics I would be delighted to hear from them!

Quilts and Promises

I promised my son and his new wife a quilt for their wedding. In actual fact, I promised them a Double Wedding Ring quilt, how ambitious/over-optimistic was that?

Well they were married in February last year and the Double Wedding Ring templates are still firmly in their packaging! Having only ever made 2 bed-size and 2 lap quilts before what on earth made me think that I could make a Double Wedding Ring quilt in 6 months?? Blind optimism or staggering naivety, you tell me. As the 2 bed size quilts already made have gone to his brothers , the son recipient of the Double Wedding Ring quilt has not been slow to remind me of my rash promise when the opportunity arises. So in an attempt to regain some credibility with aforementioned son I have signed up for Sew Happy Geek's quilt along. Not quite a DWR quilt I know but a quilt nevertheless and one that involves the very scary technique of paper-piecing (!) so not without its challenges.

Two weeks and 4 blocks into the QAL and I am thoroughly enjoying myself thanks Sew Happy Geek!