March furtle

 Well what’s been going on in march? It’s a funny month, all the anniversaries of this time last year .... very strange, on one hand grateful to be here and be safe but on the other sadness for so much loss. Hey ho, lets not get maudlin.

I now have LOTS of toilet paper!! 😂😂 we now subscribe to ,who gives a crap, great service, good toilet paper! 

Ok March has still been full of fence posts, not as many as I would like but still some are better than none.

Did I mention I have started weight lifting? Well in an effort to stave off the lockdown weight gain and get fitter and help the RA I have started an online personal trainer ... so I now have a body pump set and an exercise bench! Which also doubles up as a nifty patchwork holder 😁

It was holding the blocks for my New England motel SAL blocks, a great free pattern by Brimfield awakening. What a fantastic use for scraps, especially those left over binding and jelly roll strips. Many thanks to chum Sheena for the outer pink fabric.

Awwwww I will have to write a separate post .... sad day for mini mini Bud ... his favourite liberty shop Duck egg threads is no longer selling liberty, hey ho Sarah will go on and do other fab things and mini mini Bud had an extra big splurge in her end sale!!

I wrote a post about this, my Angela Hoey booklet pouch for my special chum Jacky, lots of Japanese zips and Helen Steele fabric and glittery vinyl! What’s not to love ❤️

Soooooooo I had to pull out the back up machine .... the main machine took a hissy fit and is skipping stitches, yes I have done all the stuff, oiled changed needle etc etc , new bobbin de floof etc etc, it needs extra TLC but the wee machine is working fine and will do meantime!

I have been doing an embroidery class in the evenings, with the Glasgow modern quilt guild, stitch birdie is taking the class, really loving it, above is the bonus postcard we are making and below is the main mini lipping blogger has rotated the picture *sigh*

I have made really good progress with the liberty Garden trellis quilt! Using all the tins to organise the squares, organisation is key!

This is one of the filler blocks, all the appliqué block have been done and I now just need 8 more of these and I will be ready to put together!! Exciting

And that’s it for this month. It still all feels a bit wild and scary out there but I’m happy and safe in my sewing room 

Birthday pouch!

When a super fantastic chum has their second birthday in lockdown what to do! Well you make them a pouch in Helen Steele hand printed fabric with Japanese zipper charms  and glittery vinyl😊

This is the small version of the Angela Hooey booklet pouch a firm favourite to make.

My chum especially loves the Helen Steele patterns where one animal is going in the opposite direction so I made sure to include that in each section.

Awwww glittery vinyl!! What’s not to love!

My chum loves it and I loved making it too, win win!

February furtle

 *sigh* blogger why do you put pictures in random order? Ok let’s start with the non crafty stuff first! February has been a month of several seasons .... this picture was taken this week towards the end of February when spring is most definately in the air! Thank flipping goodness!!

Because February started off with almost 10 inches of snow!! And it just added an extra layer of *meh* onto lockdown!! Hey ho it was pretty but pretty much meant I was stuck indoors for almost three weeks .... could have been doing without that to be honest!

Pretty back garden!

I did get out a couple of times when the snow was deep enough and not too slippy, you can see how chuffed I was!

As it was February love was in the air!! Very different valentines from last year when we spent it in Tokyo!

Right let’s get down to the crafty stuff!! The university gave us a rest day, thank you! (We deserve it ...) I decided to use it to work on something I hadn’t started yet, my garden trellis quilt which I am going to do mostly in liberty capel!  Poor mini bud had the vapours at first at the thought of me actually using the capel .... he soon got over it when he saw how much fun he could have playing with it.

2021 seems to be the year of embroidery, I decided to do Carina craft blogs temperature embroidery, the inner circle, if the minimum temperature each day and the outer colour is the maximum, I’m going to do a page each month plus a mandala in colours to match the season.

I signed up for a free sew long! Linen and .threads, i saw the one the did last year but that was neve on the cards but this year I am definately going to do it, these are the first two months.

Motoring on with the capel quilt, the appliqué put me off but I just decided to machine it.

Mini bud in his element.

I did the first block by hand, I do like the effect but my hands won’t do it all so machine it is!

I also signed up for Carina craft blogs feb four mandala stitch along, I will use these with the temperature blocks, here are the first two.

The penguins got a bit tipsy ...

Annnnnnnnd I got back to blossom Jane, to be honest these two blocks kicked my butt, big time but hey ho, they will be lost in the overall scheme of it.

See you next month!

Blossom Jane update part deux

 Well progress on Blossom Jane was halted by the urge to use up all my charm packs, now they have all been used I can come back with a clear conscience to Blossom Jane.

The last time I posted I had got up to block B01 I think, I am doing them all in sequence and aiming to only use one unique accent fabric for each one. I have managed that so far but am running out of options I think I will order a Japan crafts layer cake and fingers crossed get enough out of that for a lot of them.

So this weekend I realised I had all of rows A and B finished! so with no more ado I whacked them together:

My main concern is that the background colours dont shien through enough so you can see the differences between the red gold and blue, but hey its a big busy quilt! there is enough going on here to keep folks amused!

Love the one above, you can see my iron burn ...

I really want to find out more about the era Jane Stickle made her quilt in, so much resonates with just now, very very different and no we are not technically at war but there are so many similarities with feelings anxieties and using craft to keep us sane!

the book below is the book which inspired the whole 'Dear Jane' phenomenon, it was the one in which the quilt first appears in print. I was glad to find a second hand copy, fascinating reading.

So these are my first blocks in row C, I only have 16 blocks and then I will be in single figures for getting the rows done. Its all in the process!

I do love the one above but blimey that was tricky to get the placement of the figures!