WIP Wednesday

Hello, hello!

Whew!  What a busy few weeks.  I meant to share my latest updates on my That Cat wallhanging last week but it was simply not meant to be.  However, despite the busy work and life events, I have been managing to fit in a sewing day most Sundays, which has been blissful to resetting that work/life balance.

Nearing the end now, I finally have all of the quilting done.  I straight stitch quilted around each of the orange boxes and around the cat.  I also straight stitch quilted in the borders with a 1/4 inch spacing, like in the original featured in the magazine.

Please excuse the cat hair (ironic, right?)

On to the binding - my favourite part!  So looking forward to seeing this project done!

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WIP Wednesday

Welcome back!

I've been making progress on my That Cat wallhanging this week.  The applique is on and has been stitched down and it's been sandwiched and basted, ready for quilting.

I decided to swap out the fabric fused collar for a silver metallic ribbon (which is showing up a weird blue in the photo) and once finished, I'm going to sew on a little Hallowe'en-themed silver charm.

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WIP Wednesday

Hello, hello!

Whew!  School is back in full swing (and I have an awesome class this year, might I add) but I've been finding a bit of time here and there to squeak in a little sewing.

I started my Hallowe'en-themed That Cat wallhanging from McCall's Quick Quilts and the background is now finished.

It's ready to have the cat applique added and after that, it should go quite quickly to finish up.  I love the oranges - my favourite colour - and can't wait to see it on the wall!  I'll keep you posted on the progress.

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WIP Wednesday

Welcome back!

Quick post today (such a busy week!)  It came to my attention that it's been some time since I last shared an update on my Nice People, Nice Things embroidery quilt.  I'm currently working on the final month's set of blocks but it's been slow going (but going).

How adorable is that little ladybird family?

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WIP Wednesday

Welcome back!

Well, I have officially returned to work this week and while it's always a bit sad to see the summer holidays come to a close, I will especially miss having all of this extra leisure time to sew and quilt.  There are, of course, evenings (work too late, come home far too tired) and weekends (AKA recovery & errand-running days) but it's just not the same.

So, a quick update on the statue of my Diamond Jubilee jelly roll race quilt.  Saturday morning I got up early and sewed like a banshee to get the binding on this quilt so I could take it to work on at guild.  A wee bit stressful?  Yes, yes indeed.

After guild (and a seriously much-needed nap), I spent the remainder of the afternoon out on the balcony, enjoying the good weather, listening to some Paperclipping Roundtable (nothing quite like mixing and matching your hobbies) and hand stitching that binding down.

While I do enjoy building quilt blocks and seeing a design come together, I think it's hand stitching the binding at the end that I actually love the most and look forward to during a quilt project.

And of course I had some help...

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WIP Wednesday

Hello, hello!

I've been busy, busy sewing away - here's a little update on my current WIP status:

• HST sampler QAL - add borders, quilt & bind
• Red Velvet layer cake - quilt & bind
• Diamond Jubilee jelly roll race - quilt & bind

And here's a little sneak peak at the work I've been doing today on my jelly roll race quilt.  First, sandwiching and spray basting, which was a real joy with Greta (cat) involved, I can assure you.

Then under the machine and the quilting began!  I decided on soft rolling waves along the length of the strips, so as to give some sense of movement and soften all of those hard lines.

 

Everything was going swimmingly until I ran out of thread - eek!   Another trip to the quilt shop is clearly in order and in the meantime, I have another - new - project to begin.

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WIP Wednesday

Welcome back!

Last year I joined in Material Girl's layer cake quilt-along project, featuring HST blocks.  I really enjoyed working on this project - two blocks were released a week for ten weeks and surprisingly, I managed to keep pace.  Then I came to the sashing and promptly ran out of Kona white.  A trip to the quilt shop for more white and I discovered while cutting the new sashing strips that it was not Kona white that I'd purchased.  Sigh.

Suffice it to say, I got busy, life happened and this project has since sat on my sewing table for a year.

More Kona white purchased and a dose of enthusiasm later, and I'm pleased to show off a freshly sashed quilt top:

I'm so happy with how this is turning out so far.  The sashing went together well and now I need to start deciding on borders and binding.  I intend to do scrappy binding, which I love the look of but for the borders, only a few of the fabrics I used are larger than FQs so I'll have to choose from among them.  I have a good chunk of the turquoise from the first block in row two (left side) and a really large chunk of the buttery yellow from the last block in row four (right side) so those are the most likely choices.

Detail shot of the pieced blocks:

And for good measure, one more shot from dead on at the foot of the bed:

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WIP Wednesday

Hello, hello!

I've been in a whirlwind of sewing lately.  I have so many WIP projects, I simply can't justify starting any new ones without making more progress - and ultimately finishing - some first.  I've had a bit of an on-going list of what really needs finishing:

1. Jelly roll race quilt - add borders (done!), sandwich & quilt.
2. Harmonic convergence wallhanging - finish replacing borders, sandwich & quilt.
3. HST quilt-along quilt - finish sashing, join rows, add borders, sandwich & quilt.
4. Layer cake quilt - finish building blocks.

In last week's WIP Wednesday, I shared the progress I'd made on my Diamond Jubilee jelly roll race quilt; adding the borders.  Since then, I've moved on to further work on my Harmonic Convergence wallhanging.

First, a little back story: I originally added two borders when I finished the top.  However, I really didn't like the narrow, inner border I put on - it was a weird blue colour that didn't match the turquoise in the rest of the fabrics but was all that was available at the shop at the time.  Then, several years later, I came across a gorgeous turquoise print that matched perfectly!  I went ahead and ripped out the blue border and put in the new turquoise border instead...  Except that when I got to the final top border, it didn't fit.  Argh!

Along the way of fiddling with removing and resewing borders, the fabric stretched, the seams warped and the top border ended up an inch smaller than the width of the wallhanging.  I tried getting that border to fit - tried and tried and tried.  I'm sure I sewed it on and ripped it off three times before giving up, fearing that if I fussed with it any more, I'd just make it worse.

Well, I sat down recently and decided I wasn't going to let this project get the better of me!  After a thorough starching and pressing, I matched up the cornerstone seams and tacked them for good measure, pinned it to within an inch of life and at a snail's pace, stitch by agonisingly slow stitch, I eased that border into place and viola!

That border up there at the top?  That's the culprit.  But isn't that turquoise border lovely?  I'm sure the final effect will well be worth the effort.  Here's a closer look at that tricky border:

Looks harmless enough, doesn't it?  And just for good measure, here's a little detail shot across the wallhanging's piecing.

Now it's ready to be sandwiched, quilted and bound.  Hopefully I'll be able to hang it in my kitchen soon.

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WIP Wednesday

Hello and welcome back!

It's been a looong time since I last posted a WIP Wednesday.  So long, in fact, that I can't actually remember when the last one was...  Clearly that needs rectifying, so here we go.

Recently I've been working on my Diamond Jubilee jelly roll race quilt.  I stitched up the top (in true jelly roll race style) some three years ago now, during the year of the Diamond Jubilee...and then it sat there in my projects pile in my bedroom, folded, sad and ignored.  Until now.

Sadly, I didn't ever get around to going back to the quilt shop and buying more of the same London fabrics to finish it off so all that was left were two small cuts of the navy 'I love London' fabric (which I scooped up and may become the binding, if I'm lucky).  But I had long envisioned it having bold red borders and just when I thought I'd gone through all of the red fabrics in the shop without hitting on the right shade, I spied a series of Shadowplay fabrics - success!

I also decided to add a narrow inner border of Kona white to help lift the design and keep it from feeling too dark and heavy.  I'm glad I kept the borders pretty plain - there is so much pattern and chaos going on in the stripes in the quilt top itself that it needed some calming down with the more solid borders.

And here it is laid out on my bed - it looks fab with these sheets, too:

Now I need to go decide on a backing fabric.  I've been toying with the idea of using this white and beige woodgrain fabric, which also happens to be marked down in the summer sale.  Or I also like the idea of using a newsprint fabric, but the local quilt shop doesn't currently have much newsprint fabric available so I'm probably out of luck there.  Or I might try some of the local haberdashery shops that carry 60" or wider rolls of fabric and see what they have in the way of cottons that could work (and possibly save me piecing the back).

Either way, this quilt top is already Greta-approved.

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WIP Wednesday

Hello, hello!

Wow, is it seriously Wednesday again already?  Amazingly, I got some extra stitching done over the weekend and that means more progress on my Nice People, Nice Things embroidery quilt.

It's shaping up nicely.

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WIP Wednesday

Hello, hello!

Just a short post to share with you today my most recent progress on my Nice People, Nice Things embroidery quilt.  I really like the simple elegance of this block.

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Until next time...

WIP Wednesday

Hello, hello!

It's been a while since I shared a WIP Wednesday so without further ado...  I present further progress on my Nice People, Nice Things embroidery quilt blocks.  Another block finished and a new one freshly started.

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Until next Wednesday...

WIP Wednesday

Hello, hello!

I think it may have been a few weeks since I've shared a WIP Wednesday but here it is.  I've been continuing to work on my final set of embroidery blocks for my Nice People, Nice Things quilt.  Progress has been slow since going back to work after the summer holidays but there you go.

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WIP Wednesday

Hello, hello!

I'm excited to announce that I've finally started on the final month blocks for my Nice People, Nice Things embroidery quilt!  Last weekend I stitched up the first picture block - so cheery.

 One down, eleven more to go!

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WIP Wednesday

Welcome back to another WIP Wednesday!

I've been continuing to make more progress on my Nice People, Nice Things embroidery blocks and have completed the phrases for month #8 - whoot!

Nice People, Nice Things - phrases #8

I always find the phrases harder to get through than the pictures because let's face it, they're not nearly as interesting or pretty as the pictures.  But they're done and just one more month's worth of blocks to go.  In the home stretch now!

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WIP Wednesday

Yup, it's that time again - WIP Wednesday!

I've been stitching away here and there and it's been adding up:

Nice People, Nice Things #8

Yes, that's right - month 8's picture blocks are completed!  Just one more month's worth of picture and phrase blocks left to go...and then I'll need to decide what/how I'm going to proceed from there (I sense fabric shopping on the horizon!)

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Now your turn!

WIP Thursday

I'm about ten and a half hours behind in sharing my WIP Wednesday with you but when I remembered it was Wednesday (evening), I realised I had forgotten to take photos of my current projects while the day light was still good and strong so decided to wait for decent(-ish) photos.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  So here we go:

I've been doing a bit more embroidery for my Nice People, Nice Things embroidery quilt.  I finished off the text for the back of the 'party time' block.

'Dance like nobody's watching - sing like nobody's there - love like there's heaven on earth'

And then I must have really jumped on the band wagon because I sat out on the balcony in the blissful sunshine one morning and stitched up the next picture block from start to finish!

Laughter

Now, I have an old friend from Canada arriving to visit me for two weeks on Sunday so not sure how much attention the blog will be getting while he's here.  I know what you're thinking - it's not been getting much attention already!  And you're correct but that's the beauty of summer holidays, isn't it?

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WIP Wednesday

Hi, folks!

Just a quick WIP Wednesday update for me today.  I got a little work done on the weekend on my current Nice People, Nice Things embroidery quilt.  I'm starting to run out of orange floss, though, so I'll have to make another shopping run soon.

I'm hoping that I can make a trip to the quilt shop soon to buy the correct white to continue work on my layer cake sampler quilt - I bought 3m of white about a month ago, started cutting into it when I got home and then realised it's not the same white I used for the rest of the quilt.  Le sigh.  Hopefully the white I need won't be sold out...

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WIP Wednesday

Well, despite all the baby craziness going on, I have managed to make a wee bit of progress on my Nice People, Nice Things embroidery quilt designs.  Ironically, I started stitching up this party-themed block while keeping my friend Alice company and distracted during the first stage of her labour.

Partytime Front

Needless to say, there was much to celebrate over the weekend.  The matching saying for the back is a bit on the long side so not sure how much I'll get done by next Wednesday but we'll see.

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WIP Wednesday

Hello, hello and welcome back!

Whew, it's been a long time since I last blogged - over a month (sorry about that, honestly)!  Real life has had a full rollercoaster of ups and downs lately.  So as not to bore you with the details, here's the Coles' Notes run-down: end of school year, report writing, new job accepted (squee!), sick and dying kitty (not squee).

Okay, moving on to WIP Wednesday...

I will admit that I haven't had much motivation to craft recently with all of that (^^^) stuff going on.  I'm hoping that with the summer holiday now underway that that will change.  I've been continuing to progress on my Nice People Nice Things embroidery quilt, mostly stitched in the sunshine of my balcony with Oskar for company.  Here is my latest completed set:

Front

Back

Please excuse the wrinkles and PJ bottoms.  ;)

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.