FO: Neat Ripple Blanket

For a while now I've been wanting to make another Attic24 Neat Ripple blanket (click the link to go to Lucy's pattern). I haven't really had the time to make one. Then my Mum phoned the other week and mentioned that an Aunty is hoping I've made her a blanket for Xmas.

So, what do you do when you find out that someone wants a handmade blanket that you would usually make over at least a month and you know the presents for them are being collected in less than 2 weeks???? Well if you're as crazy as me, you start making one with the intention of posting it up sometimes before the last posting date in December. Then you start crocheting like crazy and finish it in 10 days.

I have to admit I haven't enjoyed making it as much as I usually would because I've been working it up so quickly. I also had to use the yarn I already had and I'd maybe have chosen fewer colours if I'd been ordering yarn for the project. I decided to do interlocking colours.

This is the ripple blanket withe the first couple of border rounds on. I had to slightly fudge the first round to create a straight edge and went around again in the pink as I thought it gave a neater finish in the corners.

I then added a pale blue, deep pink and finally a green round in the style of Lucy's border here.

WIP: Xmas Quilt

It's amazing how much you can get done when the kids are both at school full time and the next OU module hasn't started. I'd promised myself that I wouldn't just fill up this time with more work and it's really nice to be able to sit and relax and do a bit of sewing when I feel like it.

I finished sewing the 16 blocks for my Xmas quilt yesterday. In the evening, Alan helped me lay the blocks out. I'd put coloured pins in some so they wouldn't get mixed up; when I felt one needed to be moved it had to be swapped with a block with the same colour pin. Eventually I was happy with the layout and I've spent this morning putting it together.

Here it is hanging on the line as I think it shows the colours off better and luckily today the weather is nice & bright. It still needs a border added and I'm sure it won't be quilted before Xmas!!! My next module starts on Tuesday so the amount of sewing will drop off a little then. I just wanted to make sure the top was together as the blocks are very similar and the longer they are separate, the more chance of them getting muddled.

WIP Weds: Another Quilt

So I headed off to quilting class on Saturday afternoon looking a little bit like I was going on holiday for a month. We're having a couple of sessions for Christmas projects and I hadn't decided what to make. I thought the easiest thing to do was take pretty much all my Xmas fabric, some wadding, some plain fabric, some thread in winter colours along with my machine, cutting mat, rulers and sewing stuff. I also had to take the finished robot quilt so everyone could have a look at it. If you're familiar with the big blue bags from Ikea, I had one of those full to bursting plus my machine!

The plan really was to look through Sarah's quilting books and see if there was a block I liked that I could make into a Xmas cushion (or two) but of course I decided the best thing to do was start a Xmas jelly roll quilt. I'm hoping to have the top done before this Xmas but I'm definitely not planning to have the quilting done by then; I'm not quite that crazy!

I spent the whole session cutting so most of the stuff I'd carried could have been left at home. After the session I finished the last of the cutting (loads of white squares) at home. I decided to take the project along to Monday night's sewing class as it was all packed up ready.

The quilt is made up from 16 blocks. Initially the blocks all follow a simple log cabin pattern with half the block from light fabrics and the other half from dark ones. I pretty much completed these at Monday night's class, with just the final few strips to add at home. The final round of each block varies based on its position in the quilt, to create stars between the blocks. Check out Rachel's quilt here for the finished look. This means there are 4 different blocks in the quilt. The quickest to make are the corner blocks (there are fewer triangles to sew) and I got these done yesterday.

Corner blocks

Today I made the 4 central blocks. These take the longest as they have the star sections in every corner.

Central blocks

I have 8 more blocks to finish before deciding on a layout. It all requires a bit of careful checking and double checking that the triangles are forming in the right direction, as well as careful labelling of the completed blocks.

More Quilting & A Treat For Me

Having finally finished the robot quilt on Thursday evening, I decided on Friday to make a start on Orla's Xmas present quilt. It's made from an Aneela Hoey (Moda) "Walk In The Woods" charm pack and two other charm packs I've picked up at various quilt shows. This quilt has turned into quite a bargain. I bought the Moda charm pack at a bargain price at a quilt show, the two other charm packs were also really cheap. Backing fabric came from The Skep's January sale (which is amazing btw) and I think I paid about £2-3 a metre (it would be something like that as I didn't pay more than £4 a metre for anything), the wadding was free as the shop I ordered it from cut it incorrectly and they sent me a replacement and let me keep this bit.

It was also really quick to make. I laid all the squares out in the living room to decide on a layout and then stitched it all together before hiding it and picking the kids up from school. I basted it and quilted it once they were in bed. I got the idea for the quilting from Rachel's Walk In The Woods quilt, which you can see here on Sarah's blog.

Just the binding left to do.

Back to the robot quilt for a moment. It is now hanging on our bedroom wall after the most difficult quilt hanging in history; what is usually a case of banging 2 nails in a wall involved a husband, a drill, BIG screws and a bit of polyfilla!

I couldn't resist treating myself to this coaster, made by the lovely Annie at Heavenly Anarchist. It's a glass coaster with copper cogs in. The process of heating the glass causes a reaction in the copper creating beautiful colours.

This will be going on my bedside table as I think it goes really well with the robot theme.

Annie has lots of lovely items in her shop. The coasters would make lovely Xmas presents but she also has jewellery and gorgeous tealight holders. Please take a look!

FO Friday: Robot Quilt

I had to search back on my blog to find when I started this quilt as I couldn't remember the exact details of which month I actually started working on it. Turns out I started it right back in January! I know that when I started it I said to myself that I wouldn't put a deadline on it. I wanted it to be a fun, relaxing and enjoyable project and I didn't want to feel I had to work on it because some date was looming. I've stuck to that with the exception of this week, where I had got so close to finishing it I felt I had to get it done in time for tomorrow's class so that people can see it. I spent Thursday morning making binding and the hanging sleeve. After a phonecall I went to sew them on, repeating in my head "Make sure you sew the hanging sleeve to the TOP of the quilt". I took great care to do that....and consequently went on autopilot with the binding, sewing it to the wrong side by mistake. Luckily I noticed after the first long side but it still took a while to unpick.

Binding & hanging sleeve match the backing fabric

I started hand sewing the binding to the back before the school run, managed a little between that and having to start cooking food and then some more while Erin was at Rainbows. At that point I started to panic I was running out of thread so Alan headed over to Hobbycraft for some more after picking Erin up. Turned out I didn't need it (only just mind, there was practically nothing left on the reel) and I finished the quilt at about half ten.

I really like the brightness of the blue binding. Unfortunately the picture above doesn't really show off the quilting but I'm really pleased with it.

FO: Xmas present & WIP: Robot Quilt

What can I say, the kids are back at school so I'm being more productive. On Monday I spent the day drinking tea and crocheting. We'd had a fireworks party on Sunday and kept the Halloween decorations up for that so it was easier to crochet rather than have to clear all the table decorations up in order to sew (table confetti was involved!!!). Still it gave me the opportunity to finish my Aunty's Xmas present. I started by crocheting a bunch of leaves, then trying out some new flower patterns (I adapted some from a number of patterns and others I just followed the original pattern) and finally finding the enthusiasm to sew them on.

In the evening I found time to stuff the sewn bird and hang it in the wreath as well as add ribbon so the wreath can be hung.

I apologise for the terrible picture. It was a dark evening so the colours haven't come out very well.

On Tuesday I finally got round to clearing up the Halloween decorations so the table was clear. This allowed me to continue quilting the border. I have to admit it really dragged on. I put some soup on to warm up while I was doing it and it was about ready when I had 10" to go so I carried on and finished it so I could relax over lunch! I then went back to it and trimmed it ready for binding. I'll be adding a hanging sleeve too as I'm planning to hang it in our bedroom.

The borders were quilted with this random design featuring lots of triangle shapes. It was hard work because it involved a lot of concentration, thinking about what to do next and trying to keep it random in a fairly small space (borders are 3" wide iirc).

Ready for binding!

Half Term & Halloween

What with the revision I'd been doing and the robot quilt I just didn't have time to do any sewing for Halloween. Still I consider it an achievement that I have stuck to my promise of doing the free motion quilting on my robot quilt before starting a new quilting project. I just have half the border to do now, which I'm planning to do on Monday when the kids are back at school.

This half term I've taught a half day Felted Beads and Bracelets workshop, which was lots of fun. We did some wet felted swirly beads, some round beads and basic bracelets followed by some needle felted shapes, which people were able to embellish as they wished. Then it was a quick loading up of the car for a trip to the in-laws.

We had a big party on the Sunday, for which I contributed a Mixed Berry Lime Drizzle Cake. I used the Raspberry & Blueberry Lime Drizzle recipe here. I had bought limes as I was sure I had a lime cupcake recipe but when I looked it up in my recipe book I found it also had coconut in and I didn't have any. A google search combined with checking the cupboards for ingredients and I found I could make this with some frozen fruit I had in the freezer.

It came out lovely and flat on the top!

On Monday we were planning to go into London but the problems with the trains due to the weather would have made it difficult so instead we went bowling. I have no idea how I managed to win, not least because I spent half the game with the kids picking my bowling balls for me (including "too heavy for me to throw" balls and "very light but can't fit my fingers in the holes" balls). We also got the chance to do some child-free shopping, which for me means peaceful browsing of fabric. I was very restrained though, picking up just 1m of Xmas fabric from a remnants section at half price.

We came home on Tuesday but Alan had also booked the Wednesday off work so that we could go pumpkin picking at Farmer Copleys. Unfortunately the tractor wasn't running due to the ground; it was getting stuck. It didn't deter the kids though and off they went in search of perfect pumpkins. For both kids this generally meant the cleanest pumpkin they could find as they "don't like muddy ones". Orla wanted to find "a nice tiny one".

Plenty of pumpkins to choose from!

They eventually made a decision.

And this year we decided to carve them on site. Last year we wanted them to last a bit longer but this year we weren't bothered about that.

I managed to cut my finger doing this. I think it was due to using the cheapy kits that need a bit more pressure than a normal knife and I didn't notice I was doing it so I now have a sore finger which is making it hard to sew anything!

A bit of help from Daddy

Ta-Dah!

On Halloween itself we made some cakes and iced some biscuits for the Trick or Treaters. We had a really nice fun day. The kids watched Casper and we went Trick or Treating when Alan had got home from work. There seemed to be more houses decorated this year and we definitely had more people calling round.

Halloween cakes

Some of the iced biscuits

All ready for the Trick or Treaters