Mo Mo's

More progress, but not many more finishes just yet, I'm not worried, they're like buses, they'll all come at once!  I have managed to finish these 2 blocks for the Can't grow a Mo, sew a mo quilt i mentioned the other day. 

So now I can do this:

12. At least 2 Mo (moustache) blocks for the quilt

It also looks like I can't count, as I have 12 projects on my total list to complete by the end of September not 11, but on a bright note, just 10 left, hurray! 

The baby tumbler is all quilted, so I just have to choose a fabric for the binding, and we've completed another on the list.

Ange x

Poor Cinders.

After completing all of my cleaning jobs yesterday (one of my child free days!) I finally managed to get to some sewing.   I was itching to get stitching, and make some real headway on all of those projects on my Sunday big list, and I have managed to make some more progress, so here's my list and the progress in blue:

1. Complete the quilting and binding on this cute grey Octagonal number- I had finished most of my quilting, only about half an hours worth left to do, when I realised the last 5 or 6 quilting lines had a great big fabric fold in- aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!  Oh crap, I'm going to have to unpick a load of this and re-do it, how annoying.  I'll do in one night in front of the TV when the mood takes me. : ( 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

3. Complete the foxy pouch for the Modern Scrappy Swap - All Done, yippeee!

4. Complete the quilt top for the big Chevron quilt- I've made some progress, added a set of chevron points at the top and the bottom to really highlight the shape, no I just need to add a white border all of the way round, shouldn't take long, so almost there.

10. Get all of the backing hexagons for my daughters Scrappy Hexy quilt attached, as it will need to be hand quilted and that might take a while- although I started it in January 2010 so I hardly think I'm in any hurry!!- I also needed to finish off the flowers down one side of the front, and the flowers are all sewn together now,

Hexagon Flowers to attach

 just need to attach them to the main body of the quilt, and then I can attach up the backing hexagons, phew!

Rest of the quilt front.

I have also added an 11th job to the list. 

 I like to do a few bits and pieces for charity (it was wiggly bags last time, see Flickr), so I am going to make some Mo blocks for Danielle, who is making a Can't grow a Mo, sew a Mo quilt, to raise money for Movember and a hospice, in honour of her birth father, who sadly lost his battle with Prostate Cancer earlier this year. So:

11. At least 2 Mo (moustache) blocks for the quilt, something like these.

And not like this!!! 

 

It might not sound like lots, but its a bit of progress here and there, at this rate I might even get enough of these finished to get started on a new quilt this week, yay, then its just a matter of deciding which of my great fabrics I'm going to work with.  I love this bit, when I get to make choices on fabric and style of quilt, will it be the Summersville I've been meaning to do something with for ages, or the Crab Shack, or something else altogether??

So that's 1 down, 10 to go, you know what they say, slowly, slowly catchy monkey!  What the hell does that really mean?? Anyway, its all good progress!

Ange x

 

Confessions Of A Serial Sewer!

If you look at my WIP page you might be forgiven for thinking I only have a few things on the go at the moment, but in truth I have a big pile of projects that are half to 3 quarters of the way through.  To try and get my house in order (literally) I am going to make a big push in the next month (September) to get a load of these finished, as my head is spinning with new projects I want to get working on!!

So its time to 'fess up, and put my cards on the table so I can start working towards completion.  I love writing a big list, and then crossing jobs off, it makes me feel like i've achieved something.  I suppose it all goes back to my boss in my first real job, who we used to call Swill (if you said her name quickly that's what it sounded like, and to be honest she was a thoroughly unpleasant person, so I always thought of her as Pig Swill!!- it seemed appropriate.) Her first job for any day was to get us to write a jobs list, and its become a good habit.

So here we go, jobs to be completed by the end of September
1. Complete the quilting and binding on this cute grey Octagonal number

2. Complete the quilting and binding on the tumbler blocks quilt

3. Complete the foxy pouch for the Modern Scrappy Swap

4. Complete the quilt top for the big Chevron quilt

5. Make some coasters, maybe paper pieced for neatness, as my wooden ones are being used to raise the bed due to the uneven floors in our bedroom!!

6. Attach hangers and put up the Dresden Plate Mini

7. Complete the stockings for my nursery Christmas promo

8. Complete an advent calendar for nursery promo

9. Complete Christmas bunting for nursery promo

10. Get all of the backing hexagons for my daughters Scrappy Hexy quilt attached, as it will need to be hand quilted and that might take a while- although I started it in January 2010 so I hardly think i'm in any hurry!!

11. Complete July AND August BOM for my craftsy project, ooooops, a little behind again.

I think I'll start off with 1 and 3 this week as absolutes, and maybe 2 and 4 as my second set of jobs for when 1 and 3 get completed.

You'll have to drop by again to see how i'm getting on, I figure if I can get the first couple of quilts done then there's no reason i can't get at least 1 other quilt started now is there, and I have got a couple of beautiful fabrics I'm looking forward to playing with!

On top of these things I do need to get some of my completed items listed in my Etsy shop, so maybe I should have a target of listing at least 2 things a week before the end of Sepetember, that seems doable.

Ange x

Boxy Foxy WIP

I'm taking part in a Modern Scrappy Swap over on Flickr, and today I have been working on the scrappy gift to send with the scrap fabrics.  I have gone round in circles in the last few weeks trying to decide what style of pouch to make, whether it be a boxy pouch made from hexies, a smaller pouch in the style of a pretty, flowered letter with embroidery and so on.  Well, as the deadline is looming (we need to send it between the 1st and the 7th of September), I figured I needed to get a shift on, and start some ideas.

I finally decided on an English Paper Pieced Fox, which I purchased from the incredibly talented Sonja at Artisania. Now I haven't done much paper piecing so far, so I needed to stretch myself, and I figured this was the perfect little project, and I was right, it got my brain ticking over, and worked out a little challenge, but I enjoyed it.  Fortunately for my left handed brain, Sonja has some good basic Video Tutorials on her blog page, which are really good for reminding us the basics of paper piecing, to cut down on the use of the stitch ripper, and try to get it right first time.

Sonja has got lots of free patterns on her site too, so its worth heading over there if you want to try some.

So, what do you think of my new Foxes?  I made the green background one first, then couldn't decide if I liked the green, so I made the full on foxy one- and think it blends into the background too much, oh well, I think i'll put it to the vote on Flickr, and see what the swap ladies think. So, which one should I make into the boxy pouch??

Any comments, suggestions would be great!

Thx
Ange x

Birmingham Festival Of Quilts 2012

Lu Summers- my fave!

After a few weeks of procrastinating I decided if I was ever going to start this blog I should just get on with it while I had some reasonably fresh photos from the festival of quilts in sunny Birmingham, so here goes.  There were some stunning entries to this years competition, but as one of my fellow bloggers pointed out, us Modern Quilters were a little under represented, so I think next year we need to have a big push and encourage a few more fresh, modern entries. Unfortunately I can't attribute all of the quilts to their owners, but i have labelled the few i can remember, including my favourites by Lu Summers!

Lu Summers (i think this is actually sideways, but look at the amazing detail)

More Lu Summers detail

Lu Summers mini quilt

I think this one is Pauline Burbidge

Bellsjo

Trudi at Quilting Prolifically

If you managed to wade through all of these and make it to the bottom, well done, and if you know the authors of these works of art, feel free to comment/message me so i can attribute their work to them!  

You'll have to forgive me for the untidy look of this post, i'm still trying to get to grips with how Blogger works, but bare with me and i'll get there eventually.
Ange x