Stitching and catching up.

I'm finally starting to catch up, much to my relief, I'm still behind with some things but that's just the way it is and it will all get done sooner or later.  Before I tell you all about my wonderful weekend away want to see my design wall?

Not much has changed with Postcards, at least not on this pic, I have stitched the second row though and half of the third so a little progress.

These are my bee blocks for Paige who blogs at Quilted Blooms, Paige is making what she describes as a Teenage I Spy quilt.  I am a little late with these blocks they were due last month, we have two queens on two of the months in the year so we get finished well before Christmas.   I have very little in patterned fabrics, that is I love tone on tone and solids but when I buy patterned I never seem to know what to do with it, but I found these fabrics lurking in a box which seemed to fit the bill.  You can find the sizes and tutorial on our blog Bee Inspired.

This is my second bee block, Starry Night for Emily at The Darling Dogwood who is queen for April which is me bang up to date.  I met my nemesis, the most dreaded paper piecing, I did say I wanted to get to grips with it this year and this was my introduction.  Emily wanted it either blue with red or red with blue on a white background.  It took me ages, my own fault most of it, I just kept making mistakes, I would add the next piece and then stitch on the wrong line not realising until I had trimmed it therefor wasting the fabric, honestly, it drove me round the bend.  Finally I got the pieces stitched and then I had to stitch them together, that was another story, could I get the joins lined up properly?  Some seemed to go in no bother, I did remove the seam allowance paper and that did help though.  The final seam was the worst, I had it in and out several times it just wouldn't line up, finally I took another seam partly out and redid it and that did the trick, finished at last.  You can find the Bee Inspired post here which has the link to the free pattern too,

Guess what this is

Any idea?  No?   Its freezer paper and there are 48 of them,  they are the backing pieces for the signature panel for the second wedding quilt, I showed you the block last time.

This is it along with the two bonus triangles.  The middle bit is 4 1/2 inches wide, I will have to cut the ends of the paper though.  All the blocks are made and all I need to do is iron the freezer paper to the back and add some tape to the front so guests don't sign in the seam allowance, I did this for the first signature blocks and it worked like a charm, no one wrote in the seam allowance.  I still haven't decided what to do with the bonus triangles yet though.

Want to see my embroidery?

I finished my small piece.  It was supposed to have a spider suspended from a thread but I don't like spiders, I mean I really don't like spiders, I couldn't have one on my work so I made a ladybird instead.  The wings are made separately using wire and stitched in place at the end, stump work, the rest is surface embroidery.

This is the big piece I am working on which I progressed somewhat.

This is the bit I progressed, I did the green closed fly stitch leaves and the stem stitch vein with the seed stitch in the middle.

We only had an evening, a full day, and a morning to stitch but we had a little time off in the afternoon so my friend and I went into the small (as in tiny) town as always and of course I had to visit one of my favourite shoe shops where I found,

these beauties, are they not lovely?  I do so love them.

That's all my work since I last posted.  I've been thinking of what to so next as I have three quilts on the go not including any UFOs.  I also have some secret sewing to do, although you won't see that for a while yet, and I'm still in the planning stage.  I decided to get on with Postcards, at least I intend to finish the first four rows and get them stitched together, then I want to do the front of the first wedding quilt which I think will be fairly quick to put together.  I will need my design wall which is why I will finish the first quarter of Postcards first.  I do wish my design wall was a little bigger but at least I have one now so I won't complain.

I'm not sure how much sewing I will get done in the next week, I have all the last minute stuff to do before 'the wedding'.  However, I will endeavour to be back next week to bore you rigid with my ramblings.

Until then,
With smiles from,
Kate x

Linking up with:
Midweek Makers
Can I have a Whoop Whoop?
Finished or Not Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts

Postcards and Signatures

It's been a while, I suppose you expect me to have an amazing amount of stitching to show you?   Wrong!  Well, I have done some stitching recently but I just needed a break, you know?  I seem to go on overload now and again, usually when I've had a lot going on, but I'm getting back to normal now.  Want to know what I have been doing?

Postcards, from Sweden to be exact.

Sorry for the dreadful pic, I'm in the process of doing something about those.  I finished cutting all the triangles and started stitching them together.  The first row is all done and stitched, the second has half the blocks trimmed and pressed and the other half waiting to be trimmed, in the third row most are stitched none are trimmed.  I'm hoping to get back to it in a few days but I have had other priorities.

My goal for April, if I had linked up to One Monthly Goal which I didn't and no I didn't link at the end of March either as I was in my shut down mode, was to make the signature blocks for Chris and Sarah's wedding quit which will be a panel on the back.  Sarah is very excited about this, she has a degree in fine art and I encouraged her to design her quit herself giving her guidelines, here is what she came up with for the back.

The quilt will be 80 inches wide by 64 inches deep to lie across their kingsize bed with a centre panel of 48 signature blocks.

First I cut the 48 blocks, 8 1/2 inches square in Kona silver and 96 5 1/4 inch squares in sixteen different Kona colours which Sarah had chosen previously, there are another three greys but we decided to use only the brights for the signature panel.

I added stitch and flip triangles to opposite corners of each block and then stitched an extra line half an inch away to harvest the bonus half square triangles.  Next I pressed them all to set the seams.

Before flipping them open and pressing them.

Next I have to open them all up and cut off the bonus HST's.

This is what I will end up with, 48 blocks and 96 bonus HST's which measure at 4 1/4 inches before they are trimmed.  Only thing is so far I have only sat this one so guess what I will be doing next?  What to do with the bonus HST's?  Haven't decided yet.  Can't wait to start on the front.

Sewing wise that's all I have been up to.  I have read five books though, I also got a dress and jacket for the wedding (I'm going to use the fascinator shoes and bag I bought for Tina's wedding in February) but I haven't got a pic as yet.  Oh and a couple of days ago I bought,

the new camera I wanted.  I was fed up of luging a big camera and lenses around, too heavy, plus it's quite old now and I have had a couple of issues too.  I have been using my tablet and my phone but they have serious limitations.   I decided to invest in a small camera that will slip into my bag, it had to have a large sensor and a decent lens and be able to take nice pics in low light.  After taking advice from my nephew who is knowledgable about cameras I decided on this Sony DSC-RX100.  This is the original camera in the range, there is also a mark two, three, four, and now five each having more and more extra features, but most of them I don't want or need, apart from a viewfinder which I would have loved but the shop only had the mark 3 and four both of which have viewfinders but the three would have almost doubled the price so I did without.  I haven't had a play with it yet but when I do I'll tell you what I think.

The only other thing I have been up to was the Hen Party!  Oh yes, and a good time was had by all.  I won't bore you with all the details but I will show you a pic

of the bride, Sarah, my future daughter in law and myself.  No we were not in jail, and I had all my clothes on under the orange coverall which is why I look huge.

My daughter and granddaughter were there too, my granddaughter is an adult by the way, she just looks quite young on the pic.

That's all my news, except I am going to Higham Hall for an embroidery weekend tomorrow, oh I'm so excited to be going, especially after the disappointment of the last time when it was cancelled for snow.

I'll tell you all about it next time, and hopefully I will have made my bee blocks too, but until then,
With smiles from
Kate x

Linking up with
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?