December Friday Night Sew In Session II Results

Overall a very productive evening.  I planned to keep plodding on with my string blocks and maybe deviate to Step 5 of RRCB once it was auto published.

That is until I saw it.  Click the link if you dare but I don't want to talk about it!

I did cut the fabric for this step though:

 

I also made 10 more string blocks which now brings my total to 30.  I'm halfway - 30 more to go!

I would have liked to  pull an all-nighter but my wrists ached and if not for all the metal holding my left one together I'm sure it should have fallen off!

Also DH came home with my yummy Lay-By from Lorraine's Shop. 

Now I'm itching to snap up whatever she has left of her little bundles of Farmer's Market and Mezzanines fabric!!

December FNSI Results for Session 1

I definitely didn't do as much as I thought but I did get 5 more string blocks made:

 

That brings me to 20/60! Still a long way to go!

Here is a pic of all the finished tissue holders for Max's teachers.  he gave them out on thursday which was his last day of school.

December Friday Night Sew In - 2 Dates!!

It's on again and this month there are TWO FNSIs to help everyone get organised before the end of the year.  Click on the pic below to sign up! 

 

The first FNSI is on 10 Dec and the second a week after on the 17th.  I'm going to try to do both...and do a warm up tonight!  I'm not sure what I'll work on for the FNSIs but this weekend the free-motion foot has to come off the machine so I can get those gifts for teachers done.  

The dino quilt will have to wait a little longer.

October FNSI Results

I actually got something done!  It took way longer than I thought and the quality of my cutting and piecing it terrble but considering my plaster I'm happy enough with it.

Cutting:

Sewing:

 

The finished centre of the table mat 

I still have 2 borders to add and then it will be used for my scalloped edges class next month.  I need to sandwich it and quilt it before the class though!  Now that'll be scary!!

Not quite as planned...

Last night I didn't end up going to Gisborne Quilters.  My left underarm is really sore.  I have no idea why!  The anaesthetist did mention something about arm block anaesthetics having temporary or permanent complications.  Maybe it's to do with that but after 3 weeks?  Anyway I'll give it a few days.  It's just annoying more than anything.

Then this morning I got an email from Hawthorne Threads saying the fabric I thought I just managed to get enough of is VERY short.  I had to change my order a little but no big deal.  I got a few extra pieces just to be SURE I can get the fabrics to all play together nicely ;-P

I highly recommend Hawthorne Threads.  Wonderful friendly service and great prices too compared to other online stores.  I can't wait til my fabics arrive!!

I have also decided to participate in Bonnie Hunter's newest Mystery Quilt!  Her mysteries lend themselves to stashbusting and scrappiness which I need if I'm going to avoid buying more fabric.

It needs 4 colours and a neutral/background.  I've picked the background which is white with some basic daisy print in various colours.  I'll pick the 4 colours from this print and use it to tie them all together.  I'll work out to be semi-scrappy in that the background will be the same but the rest scrappy.

She will post fabric requirements and yardages on 1 November so my only concern is that I have enough of my background fabric.  There is a good chance I wont and it will mean I have to change my fabric choices.

Meanwhile I really should start my DaChintzy Mystery.  I haven't been peeking at the clues posted on About.com so I should get up-to-date in no time. I haven't been brave enough to try machine piecing with my plaster yet but tomorrow is FNSI and I plan to try then! :-O

October Friday Night Sew In

FNSI is coming up again this friday!

I didn't want to commit until I was certain I'd be able to do something especially after my disappointing FNSI last month but I think it was understandable given I had just a few days to prepare for a hospital admission!

I'll be doing one of two things. If I'm able to machine piece, I'll be piecing a large block for the centre of a table mat which will be the class sample for my scallop edging class in early November.

If not I'll continue with either Lizzy Mae or my Aster Manor sampler.

Click on the pick to join in the fun!

September Friday Night Sew In

Will be held on the 17th this month.

Click on the piccie above to go to Heidi's blog where all the info is!

I'm still undecided as to what I'm working on.  September is a very busy month in terms of projects.  I may try to do DH's potholder. 

If I have surgery in October as I'm suspecting then he wont get his potholders until next year probably!  Hand piecing is OK in plaster and machine piecing is do-able towards the end when the pain subsides but I don't dare quilt anything for months afterwards.  It's just too painful.

Actually I haven't tried machine piecing in a above-the-elbow cast.  Only did it last year when I had a smaller forearm cast.  Should be interesting given my Lizzy Mae is a monthly class until December and the remaining classes are all machine piecing!

August FNSI Report

Well I'm pleased to say I actually did something!  I was certain I'd have to pull out due to the Nemesis.  Unfortunately DH's potholders had to wait.  Maybe next month!

My FNSI actually sort of started late in the afternoon!

I popped into Lorraine's shop today to pick up my pack for month 1 of Lizzie Mae's Medallion!

On the left is the original pattern sheet and on the right is Lorraine's applique so we know which bits of fabric go where. (click for a close up)

I'm really excited to be starting and now that my health issues seem to be under control I'm confident it will proceed well.

I love that Lorraine has pre-cut the bias stems!  Yippee!  All the little bits will be a challenge to pre-wash though.  I think I'm just going to swish them around in a pot of boiling water to reduce the fraying.

As soon as I got home I did what any control freak would do - scrutinize the colours, dive into my repro stash and pull out extra ones to tweak it.  The following pics include the fabric from the kit and FQs and F1/8s from my repro stash.  Not sure exactly what I'll use and where though.

I'm not really good when it comes to lack of symmetry which is one reason samplers bother me somewhat.  Anyway, any bits from the kit I don't end up using will go into my Dear Jane.

DH wanted to make stew for dinner.  I was too washed out to argue and as long as I didn't have to do it then fine...but I knew we'd be eating late (which we did).  Kidlet wasn't at all sleepy even after a week of school (what's new?) so he bounced around til almost 10pm (Yikes!).

The official portion of FNSI started around 9pm I think.  It doesn't seem like much but for me it was a huge achievement given how awful the pain has been lately. 

 First I cut out the A4 pattern sheets and taping them together to make the 20" by 20" pattern sheet for the central applique.  Sticky tape was MIA but due to my dodgy wrist we have lots of Micropore around.  It actually worked better than tape being soft and flexible and goopy holding the sheets together only on the back!

Then I numbered all the individual applique components and wrote down the ammended colours then traced them all onto freezer paper.

I still need to cut out all the individual shapes and wash my fabrics but I have til Tuesday morning.

I'm also feeling better!  Around the 24-36 hour mark after starting the antibiotics I'm pretty sure the pain is reduced!  Granted I'm still taking fairly heavy painkillers but they're actually working which they were not before and I take them less often. 

I'm really hoping we've found the problem but the downside to all this is to figure how to get rid of the infection permanently.  It's not going to be easy and the success rate isn't 100% (but neither is anything) so we wait and see.

August Friday Night Sew In

It's on again!  Click on the pic below for more details!

Make sure you sign up - there are prizes to be won!

My goal this month is to make new oven mitts for DH who has been begging for ages.  I'm HOPING I can finish 2 in one evening!

WIP Week Fri 13 - Thur 19 Aug

I can't believe August is almost halfway over and I'm still nowhere near done with my 3UFO challenge!

Starting today I'm going to whip my WIPs into submission!

That means for FNSI (20 Aug) I can make the potholders DH has been begging for and not feel guilty about starting something new!

Plus I need the distraction.  I'm seeing my hand surgeon again on Wednesday and given the deadline I've given him I suspect it's crunch time and something needs to happen.  I'm more afraid of not finding out what's wrong rather than getting bad news.

Anyway I'm making decent headway with unpicking the handbag quilt so that is one goal for the next seven days.  Plus I want to finish piecing Aqua and Chocolate and finally put the borders on the Dino quilt.

I still doubt I will complete my UFO challenge but I'll be a heck of a lot closer!

July Friday Night Sew In

Things started off well.  Pretty much all my pieces were pre-cut and (as far as I knew) all the square-in-a-square blocks were done.

I'm making a larger version of Lynelle Slade's Perfectly Peppermint quilt from AP&Q magazine Vol 15 No 4.  I simply increased the dimensions of everything to make the quilt big enough (it's going to have to cover a sofa).

The first few blocks came together very quickly even though I couldn't chain piece too many sections at a time since I'd forget where they went.  I only managed to stitch one section wrong which must be some kind of record for me!

I did realise fairly quickly that I still need EIGHT of the smaller sqaure-in-a-square blocks!  I have plenty of fabric but I was too tired and sore to make them last night.  All in all I pieced together 7 sections out of 15 so I'd be halfway there if it wasn't for those 8 remaining blocks I need to make!!

Piles of fabric

Laid out to be stitched:

 

 

FNSI outcome:

 

Happy FNSI everyone!

I'm excited! 

As per the rules, I'm already in my jammies - well I haven't been out of them in days actually!  DS has been home sick from school so we've both been slobs together.

Dinner tonight is take-away so that's taken care of too.

I'm hoping I can keep the Nemesis away for the night.  He appears to be attacking the fingers on my right hand for some reason.  Have no idea what that's all about.

In between slobbing I've been putting DS to work holding up quilts to take pictures of.  Most are pretty blurry because he can't stay still!

Now the big question is whether I can turn this into a quilt top by tomorrow morning??!

Finished!!

Well only the backing for the dino quilt but still I feel like shouting it from the rooftops!

The downside is that I never got to Gisborne Quilters last night.  DH came home late and DS was coming down with something.  I'm glad I stayed - he had a rough night the poor little mite.

Another positive is I can now take proper pictures again!  You know how it is - the IT consultant's wife is always the last to get technical support! 

I'm slowly getting ready for Friday Night Sew In.  I've decided I'm going to piece the chocolate and aqua quilt top.  Once DS goes to bed, I should be able to get it done in one evening - provided I've cut enough fabric!!

That'll be another UFO that can be moved to the UQO section!!  It will also be one of my 3 UFOs before 31 August goals completed!

My table runner class is 2 weeks away and I have decided not to go with a Bali Pop.  I have 4/10 (maybe 5) of the fabrics I need to I'll just cut swatches and buy the rest to match.

Spotlight is having a big sale so DH promised to take me this weekend!

I still have no idea what I'll do for matching place mats.

Pieced Backing:                                                                                             


















Front (without borders):

Friday Night Sew-In

Heidi hosts Friday night sew-ins and I'm participating for the first time!  The next one will be on Friday 23 July.

I'm very excited to have set aside a block of time to get some of those UFOs on my list done.  The deadline for the 3 UFOs by 31 Aug is fast looming and I'm getting decidedly uncomfortable!!

I haven't decided yet what I'll be working on but I have a little time.

Details for the Friday Night Sew-In can be found by clicking the pic below: