Cat fight

I was sitting in the kitchen this morning, sewing my latest SBS block and also making some jam (Susan!) when I heard a whole lot of angry cat noises coming from the garden. I looked out the window and saw this.

The grey cat in the foreground is our cat Travis, obviously defending the boundaries of our (his) garden. His foe is UFC (Unknown Fat Cat) They stayed like this for ages, long enough for me to go and get the camera and take pictures, all the while making very unpleasant noises at each other.

Then I went outside.
And got the evil eye from UFC, who then slunk off, still giving me the evil eye!
I gave Travis lots of fuss and some cat treats for doing such a great job of defending our little kingdom from UFC.

Drama over, or so I thought, it was back to the sewing. This is Ohio Star.
This block was going really well until I got to the last corner (the top right in the pic above) I've had that corner in and out and in and out and in and out, so many times, and it's still not right. Then I noticed that the eyelets on the lighter purple triangles were all pointing in the same direction, apart from two! Can you see how they all go up and down, but two of them go sideways. Not what I was aiming for at all!

I think I will remake this block, but not today. I need a break from it or I might just end up chucking it on the fire!

Instead I am going to concentrate on my jam (Susan!) and see if I can steel myself to tackle the ironing :-)

Sadie x

WIP wednesday No 44

I gave my hexagons a little attention this week, they are now all sewn together.

Next up for this project is to finish the white hexagons for the border and sew them on.

This week I finished up my Tickled Pink crochet baby blanket, weaved in all the ends and blocked it, so it is now officially off the WIP list :-) Sadly no pics, it's so dark here today!

I added a new project to the WIP list, and I also finished it so it came off the list too :-)

Double star cushion.
No progress since last time on the Skill Builder Sampler or the LoveQuiltsUK cross stitch.

This weeks stats:

New projects +1

Completed projects 2

Currently in progress 3

Linking up with Lee

Sadie x

Set design

The last block I made for the skill builder sampler, Double Star, came out a bit on the small side.

Rather than try to force it to fit for my quilt, I chose to use it to make a cushion cover.

Although, I have made cushions before, this particular cushion held a couple of firsts for me.

My first time quilting.

My first time making and stitching binding.

To say that I am thrilled with the result doesn't even come close to how happy I was when I finished making this cushion. I absolutely LOVE it!

I added a 2 1/2" white border to my double star block to make it bigger and to make sure that the block wasn't lost in the binding. I quilted 1/4" on each side of the horizontal, vertical and diagonals on the block itself, and then I quilted concentric squares 1/2" apart on the white border.

It's easier to see the quilting on the progress picture below.
For the binding I chose straight rather than bias as it won't be getting a lot of heavy usage. I machine stitched to the front and then hand stitched the back. For binding width, I found some people used 2 1/2" whilst others advocated using 2 1/4".

I couldn't decide so split the difference and used 2 3/8" which worked perfectly well. I do think that in the future I would use 2 1/2" though, simply because that width of fabric is more commonly used and any leftovers can be more easily re-purposed.

It's not perfect, but it is far better that I had dreamt it would turn out. I can certainly live with it, most happily!

Now, would you mind going back up the way and taking a peek at the first picture on this post. (go on, I'll wait here)

Now, see the flowers on the right, they are Hollyhocks. Because of the lack of sunshine here in Scotland this summer, they are only now coming into bloom. Sadly thanks to some strong winds earlier in the week, the hollyhocks now lie nearly horizontal.

But horizontal does not make for a prettified picture.

So, dear (long suffering) husband Stuart was roped in to hold the hollyhocks in an upright position whilst I took pictures of a cushion. And then I cropped him out!

Here he is uncropped.
It was our wedding anniversary on Tuesday, nine years!

You know you have the right man, when he is willing to hold hollyhocks up for you whilst you take pictures of a cushion and he does it with a smile on his face.

Love you honey x

Sadie x

August round up

August was mostly about the skill builder sampler for me. I made five blocks which keeps me caught up :-) The pincushion was made from scraps and I don't know what I would do without it now. Double fat jack was a really fun make, just need to quilt it and bind it. Hopefully I can include a finished pic in next months round up.

1. arizona, 2. bow tie, 3. pin cushion, 4. double fat jack, 5. virginia star, 6. breaking out, 7. double star, 8.first nine blocks, 9. feelin' festive

Linking up with Lynne for Fresh Sewing Day.

Sadie x