October furtling!

 😳😳😳😳 ok when did it get to October!! Sheesh, 2021 is stonking  on, there are quite a few ‘secret’ things I’m working on, guild challenges etc that I am itching to post about but cant! Anyhoo this is what I can post about. 

So, this is one of my embroidery floss organisers, I’m really getting back into embroidery and want to build up a decent stash of colours. I use the stitch palettes for inspiration then at the beginning of each months I buy 30 or so skeins to add to the collection, it’s a nice beginning of the month treat. Of course, being a librarian i track all my floss numbers 😂 please don’t judge!

With the new bionic eyes these cute little hexies are a skoosh! 

Also I am mostly managing to keep up with my temperature embroidery, just loving doing this, very calming.

One of my very tight deadlines is the Alice Caroline sos quilt, I am almost finished putting the top together, it was a rush but I shouldn’t have committed to 54 blocks!! But hey with a bit or organisation I got them done, just putting them all together now.

🥰🥰🥰🥰 back to in person group meets, brilliant!

Got a dear Jane done! I am now fretting about sashing ….. I have put 4 rows together without sashing but now think I should have? Don’t know! Quandry!

Love and kisses blocks laid out.

I really couldn’t have done those fifty four blocks without my clearly perfect angles, it’s a game changer, I’m not a huge person for gadgets etc but this is one which totally changed the amount of quilts I can do, I no longer quiver at patterns which say “255 half square triangles” 😂😂

And that’s a wrap! I’m rushing to get this done as we are going off grid!! Yup me and the Scoobs are off for a whole week off 😊😊😊 and off grid too 😳😂 no mobile no Wi-Fi, it will be epic!

Getting out and about again!

 

I’ll never forget the last sewing day I had in March 2020, it was only the second or third meeting of the Glasgow Modern guild. We had just come back from Japan, the world was on fire. It all felt so apocalyptic. When I wrote in my thought for a day diary that it might be the last meet up for a while I never in a million years thought it would be 19 months before I met up with those lovely ladies as a group. I will admit it is still quite a thing for me to go out and about with people. I am still terrified of catching this virus, so the care that everyone puts into making it feel safe is wonderful.

Yes it was so so brilliant, just sitting chatting seeing other peoples makes and bags and pouches, it feels so warm and lovely. I said in October 2020 that going forward we would be more careful about who we spent our time with. There is never any question that these ladies are on that list.

This weekend was Killearn, I have been back her once already. Today was special, helping Kim bind and finish her amazing temperature quilt. It’s a stunning evocation of the past year in colour and fabric and thread. All quite incredible, bonds made in the strangest and scariest of times.

Lovely things from lovely people

I do love an Emmaline retreat bag! This is the small version and it’s just prefect to fit in all my supplies for EPP. Since getting my bionic eyes I have been able to do lots more hand sewing and really got back into EPP.

The bag and all the things in it make me smile and make me happy, that’s important more so mow than ever.

I love this bag because it reminds me of a great FOQ visit and I think lovely Ruth bought some of this fabric too, the emmaline pattern is perfect for it.

These two cute little boxes nestle in the bottom, I got them from Jen Walshaw many years ago, she got two sets of kids lunchtime box sets so gave me one (it had a panda water bottle in it as well!) these wee boxes are perfect to keep the papers and basted hexies in.

The pin cushion which I keep in the bag was a present from Love Natalie, it just arrived out of the blue one day just when I needed some cheer, the needle case I made myself at another fab FOQ visit, Sheena made one and I loved it so had a go myself the next year.

 

I am so Monica …

 My chums (very affectionately) call me Monica, you know from Friends? Because I organise things, I just cant help it, been like this since I was a bairn. I like it and when I am stressed getting things in order helps calm and soothe.

So yes things at work (same old same old!) are really stressful. So I organise 😊 at the start of each month I order DMC threads to top up my stash, I have been getting more and more into cross stitch and embroidery this past year so I want to build up a good supply again.

I have been looking through stitch palettes and picking out colours I like from there, but it always annoyed me that I then had to go to my box and check what I did and didn’t have.

No more! 😂😂😂 I was going to put together a spreadsheet of all the colours and mark off what I have, then I found some genius had already done it and made It freely available! Thank you Mr Genius!

So a happy soothing hour was spent marking off what I do and don’t have and then ordering this months stock.

Furtling and finishalonging Sept 2021

 Well well well its the end of September 😳 sheesh when oh when did we get here? I dunno, time soup, it all just feels like time soup.

Anyhoo. Here we are so what happened in September? Well I work in Higher Education and we did the whole return to campus thing, in the middle (virus not gone away!) of a Global Pandemic, so you can just build your own picture of the stress levels.

Hey ho, back to crafting! I am Sheldon (from Big Bang) I know this and embrace it but it means that when the Finish Along insta account goes AWOL in the middle of the finish along I get twitchy, do I still post its not completed for the year (STRESS!) i can do with incomplete things. So I decided to wrap it up with the furtle and include my FAL Q3 list in here.

So thats the Q3 list, poor Blossom Jane is still languishing but she gets a few blocks done every now and then thats as much as i can do just now.

Garden Trellis is waiting to be long armed, binding is all done on that. Oh Michael Powell Cross stitch is done - hoorah!, Hexagon sewing case, yup am on it, Alice Caroline well that features below, all the others still have to get off the starting block but we will get there!

So above is my 2nd quilt for Alice Caroline SOS this year, I can only commit to 2, i decided to make a love and kisses quilt from the lovely Jenni Smith Quilting with liberty book, great way to use up scraps.

You know me, its all about the organising, cutting for the blocks was the main chore so i did most of that in one go, all set up for chain piecing!

I did do one blossom Jane block! Making a start on row E, i do love this crane fabric from Japan Crafts

And here is the Michael Powell cross stitch from the Q3 FAL list a lovely chum found this lurking in her sewing room and knew i love his kits so much so she gave me this one to do, so lovely. They are such a satisfying make.

The temperature spiders wen embroidery carries on, below is up to August

And here is where i am at for September.

It’s great seeing the days come alive with colour, I am making a mandala to go along with each month. All of these patterns from Carina Envoldsen Harris - Carina Craft blog on insta (she made the free spiders web temperature pattern too)

I have made 5 so far, love these little ones, I love picking the colours for each month, below is an autumnal month obviously!

I think thats it for this month. Fingers crossed life will calm down a bit …. But goodness knows when!

Love and kisses

 

I need another quilt for the Alice Caroline sos for 2021. I have always tried to make 3 but I just cant do that this year, two will have to do.

I had a trial block from the transatlantic love and kisses quilt left over so I decide to work around that and make a love and kisses quilt. Super quilt block from the Quilting with Liberty book by Jenni Smith.

I had a few meters of Louden left from the standfast and barracks haul so that will be the background fabric. The rest is just cut from scraps so far trying to use them up.

I had a fairly good run at it this weekend, but am scaling back my ambitions! It’s gone from a 6 by 9 row quilt to a 5 by 7 row quilt with borders 😂

Blossom Jane row D

 So we have the first three rows put together. Interesting. This is going to be quite a bold quilt but i never do subtle!!!

I’m really enjoying fussy cutting fabrics

I remember buying this pussy cat fabric in Tokyo in the nipori fabric district, that was a lovely day.

So that’s row D blocks done, need to put them together and sew onto the first 3 rows, I’m struggling a bit just now finding the motivation but I know it will come back just got to plough on.

First block of row E done, slowly slowly getting there.