WIP wednesday No.37

Another week, another WIP wednesday and another two new project have been added to the list :-)

*you'll have to make do with craptastic pics this week I'm afraid (not that they are any better on other weeks!) I have surprise guests today. The kids asked to have some friends over, so I called friend A, friend B and friend C. Friends A and B I left answer machine messages for the parents suggesting wednesday afternoon and received no reply. I spoke to friend C's mum and we agreed on her coming over on thursday afternoon. The doorbell rang half an hour ago, and there stood, friend A and friend C. Oh my!*

My first new project is a cross stitch piece. A few months ago I read an article about LoveQuiltsUK and was interested in getting involved. Whilst I am not yet able to help out as a quilter I can certainly participate as a stitcher, so I signed up to make a heart block.

The heart pattern is provided on the LoveQuilts site and you choose what to stitch in the middle. I'm stitching a cute little cat sitting in a teacup from issue 229 of CrossStitcher magazine.

If you are interested in taking part too, why not pop on over to the LoveQuiltsUK website and have a look around. They are always in need of any help you are able to give, whether as a quilter, cross stitcher or in the form of fabric/monetary donations.

New WIP number two is a crochet blanket. I needed something to do whilst the kids were at athletics on monday night so grabbed two balls of wool and a crochet hook and this is the result so far. It won't really get too much bigger as I'm running out of wool, that's why there are only three rows of dark pink in the outer row :-)
I'm calling this Tickled Pink :-)

Hexie progress has been made :-) I've finished all the Terrain hexies and I now need to start work on the white Bella solids for the border. I've been messing around with the layout for these and I think I have settled on this.
I plan to make a long cushion for our sofa. It would really help to cheer it up a bit. I'm stitching these hexagons as part of the Hex-a-long :-)

No progress this week, so far, on the skill builder sampler. I had planned on getting stuck into it this afternoon, but that's not going to happen now! Hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow, if friend B doesn't decide to turn up, with friends X, Y and Z in tow!

This weeks stats:

New projects +2

Completed projects 0

Currently in progress 4

Doubled in one week!

I quickly wanted to say hi to my new followers, HI. Don't be shy, please feel free to leave comments or email me. I'm glad you came over for a visit :-)

I'm also now on Twitter, @SadieWishart . I'd love it if you popped in there to say hi if you tweet too :-D

Sadie x

Sewing table

Sometimes, I manage to tear my eyeballs away from the computer and all the wonderful things other people are doing for long enough to actually accomplish something myself :-)

This table sits in our living room and is my sewing table. No drinks are allowed on this table, the kids (and the hubs) know that this table is just for mummy's sewing stuff.

It is a dull table.

Dull, dull, dull.

Not any more!

The map of Belgium was 10p from a local charity shop. I sanded the table, used PVA glue to stick the map on, then gave it two coats of clear, matt varnish. I love it :-) and it only cost me 10p as I already had all the other supplies. You can click on the pictures, should you fancy a closer look :-)

I also made a peg bag. The fabric is from my stash, when the hubs and I had our first flat I used this fabric to make the curtains for our living room :-) Shows how I don't like to throw anything away, I still have the leftovers from those curtains over 14yrs later!
The ready made binding was also in my stash :-) Another cheap and satisfying finish for our home.

Time now to make the most of the fab weather and enjoy an evening of crochet in the garden :-)

Sadie x

WIP wednesday

Good things come to those who have no self control and spend too much time online with a bank card in hand :-) See!

I read all about the hex-a-long over at Lily's Quilts and was not even tempted to join in as I knew that it was going to be too much for a novice like me. Then Lynne posted some step by step instructions on English Paper Piecing (EPP) and I thought, I could do that.

My first effort was this tumbling block.

Which was okay, not great though, so I decided to try out plain hexagons instead.

Oh my, I'm in love!
With both the fabric and the hexagons :-)
I was making these until 2am, and I only stopped and went to bed because I ran out of paper templates. The printer is in our bedroom and printing more would have meant a very cross and grumpy husband.
I can't wait to make more today :-) but I'm going to be a good wee housewife and do the housework first.

Other progress this week has been on the skill builder sampler. Here is block four, pinwheel parade.
This block was a bit of a pain to make, I had real problems with the bottom left pinwheel in particular. It was in and out more times that I would have liked. But it's done now :-) I really look forward to fridays when the next block is revealed :-)

This weeks stats:

New projects +1

Completed projects 0

Currently in progress 2

That's it for this week, head on over to Freshly Pieced to see what everyone else has been up to this week.

Sadie x

Pinwheel parade

This weeks block for the Skill Builder Sampler was pinwheel parade. It was hard! This is my finished block.

Four out of the five pinwheel blocks worked out really well, but you see the little turquoise gingham check one in the bottom left corner, that block was a little shit difficult. It's still not as good as I would like but there is a limit to my patience and so the block is finished ;-)

Here's the glamour shot of the blocks so far :-)
I like that the newest block helps to balance out the full colour blocks nicely.

I'm still waiting patiently for a suitable, dry day to be able to take some pictures outside :-) it is very showery here, with just the odd break in the clouds. It would be quite useful to get some washing dry too :-)

Sadie x

Morse code

Week four of the Skill Builder Sampler was a bonus block :-) Leila asked us to sketch out some ideas for a block using a 4x4 grid. Below are the different variations I came up with.

I decided to make block number 9 because it was something a little different and there were no HSTs :-) . So I worked out how many pieces of fabric I would need and what size to cut them.
Then I set about cutting and sewing.

Here is the finished block.
I've called this my morse code block, because it is dots and dashes :-) Made with Kona Cotton in white and Michael Miller Ta Dot in Ocean. I plan to make this into a wall quilt for our bedroom. I'm going to add a white border and then bind it using the ta dot fabric. I'm very excited and also quite nervous too. This will be my first effort at quilting :-) Wish me luck.

Oh! I've just had a thought! (scary I know!) If I make two of these blocks they would be perfect for the tops of our bedside tables (which I have yet to make!). Sounds like I just talked myself into twice the amount of work!

We've had a lovely spell of weather recently, so we headed off to the beach to take full advantage while it lasts :-)

The tide was way, way out so we had lots of fun exploring the old boat wreck and the rock pools.

I found this little heart shaped lichen, isn't it cute!
Sadie x

Churn dash

The third block for the Skill Builder Sampler is the churn dash. I was super excited about this one after seeing it pop up all over the place as part of the Farmers Wife QAL. My favourite of the three so far, I would love to have an entire quilt made of these blocks.

There were two different methods for making the HSTs, making them exactly to size (meaning very, very careful measuring, cutting and sewing) and making slightly oversize and trimming down. I much preferred the trimming down method. Although, i did forget to trim one of them down and had to do some unpicking! Oops!

All three blocks so far.
Linking up with WIP wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Sadie x