Christmas is Coming

I've already started the Christmas shopping. I always start it in October in the hope I won't have to trawl round the shops when they're packed in December. Of course, the reality is I get all shopping sorted, wrapped, labelled and then the relatives start phoning me "Can you get this thing for you kids cos I can't get it near me?". So I actually do my shopping in October so I can do everyone else's in December, LOL.

I'm always tempted to make all the gifts I send by hand but invariably I end up finding myself without the time to do so. This year though I have already made my aunty a scarf (well I need to weave the ends in but it's pretty much finished). I have enough yarn left to make another so I might do that, it was a fast knit once I got used to handling the loopy King Cole Krystal yarn.

I've also bought the yarn for my next blanket. I'm really enjoying making the Granny Stripe blanket and am planning to make a single bed sized Ripple blanket next. I've loved using the bright colours but decided not to use them again for the Ripple because I didn't want my enthusiasm to wain. So here is my selection of Jarol Heritage DK

Having done the Granny Stripe randomly I might decide to plan the colours out more with this one and repeat them. Still pondering though.

Fat Quarter Quickie

You remember my Halloween quilt top shown below, well, after sewing it together it was time to decide whether to put a border on and if so, what to choose. My original plan was to use the spare backing fabric for the border but then I realised it wasn't going to look right, the pattern was too much and too big. This is actually great news for me because it means I got to go fabric shopping.

I nipped over to The Skep. I really like this shop, it has a nice balance of fabric and yarn along with a few bits like magazines and buttons. So I had a plan to go and buy a meter of black fabric (wanted extra for my other Halloween project). I was going to be good. Only a meter of fabric....

Well, I came out with the black fabric I wanted, plus a long 1/4 of glow in the dark fabric to use on the corners of the border and a pack of 10 FQ's just because I liked them. Luckily my husband was sitting in the car with the children by this point so couldn't do the "more fabric" eye rolling. 

So, here's the finished Halloween quilt top

I'm really pleased with it. It's now awaiting quilting as I've been waiting for glow in the dark thread :-) which arrived this morning. Unfortunately my husband is working late so I doubt I'll have chance to play around with it until the weekend.

Close up of the glow in the dark skull fabric

The extra black fabric was used to do a wallhanging (which I think is from a Nancy Halvorsen pattern iirc), apologies for the terrible pictures

There's still a fair way to go on this so I doubt I'll have both the quilt and wallhanging done by Halloween.

As for those 10 FQ's I couldn't help but do something with them right away. I had a browse online for a pattern but struggled to find anything suitable. Everytime I found a pattern I loved it needed lots more FQ's so I decided to make my own. I cut my FQ's into 10 pieces, then swapped fabrics around so that there was 1 section in each colour and sewed them back together! Admittedly some of the combinations aren't what I'd have done if I'd had a bit more time but I'm pleased with the result. First attempt at laying it out I just put the blocks down as I'd made them in a 3x3 setting then moved them around to balance the colours out a bit. This was the result

but I wasn't convinced about it. I then decided maybe it would look better if I rotated some of the blocks and much preferred that look. I decided to stitch he blocks in each row together and then, since there were only two more lines of stitching to join the rows together, finished the quilt top the day after starting it. Here it is

But 3x3 is only 9 I hear you say! Yes there is a spare block, which I am planning to use on the back of the quilt. I'm thinking of using white fabric for the rest of the back and putting the spare block in to tie it in with the front.

I'm hoping to write up the pattern/tutorial for the quilt top soon so check back if you're interested!

Wednesday is approaching

Back in February I started a course with the Open University. The idea is that once both kids are at school full-time I will go back to work so I'm retraining to open up a few more possibilities. It's been great doing more study and I feel like I've done well but Wednesday is the dreaded exam day. Three hours of being quizzed on the finer details of the course and writing code by hand. BY HAND. Do you know how annoying that is? And the exam is in prime nap time...you know that mid afternoon, my baby is sleeping and the only thing stopping me from being asleep is the fact I don't want to be late to pick my 4 year old up from school and so I'm lazing on the sofa in a half-dozing state time of day.

So you'd think, with this exam swiftly approaching I'd be sat with my head stuck in the 14 books I've been learning from. Except what I'm actually doing is looking at my backlog of sewing projects

wondering if perhaps it is time to rethread the overlocker to finish that top (the one that was discarded when the thread snapped and I didn't have the patience to rethread the machine that hates me!) or if I should finish the wallhanging I started over a year ago or take up my daughter's trousers that I bought before she started nursery (she's now in Reception).

And before you say that's a small backlog...it's not even half of it. That would be the pile that never got hidden away in a bag somewhere and it's only from the sewing backlog. There's also a crochet backlog, a knitting backlog, felting backlog, jewellery making backlog, dyeing backlog. Yes the list goes on and on.

So what have I done today? Have I started on that backlog? No, of course not. I've ordered thread instead ;-)

Blog Inspiration

So I've been busily crafting away in any spare moment. 

First up is the progress I've made on my Halloween quilt. Originally I had planned to make it 4 blocks wide using the same idea as on the Quilt Dad blog but then I realised that (a) it was going to have to be 8 blocks long and (b) I didn't have enough fabric for 32 blocks. So in a change of plan I decided to make it 3 by 5 blocks and have each block in the same orientation. Of course I decided on this plan after ordering the backing fabric for the bigger size but it's worked out for the best...the sewing group I go to are doing a Halloween quilted bag quilt along so I at least have fabric for the lining and the background.

With limited time this month I am really pleased to have got the blocks sewn together. Just need to decide on a plan for the border so I can get on with it. Here's a pic of the final layout (no pics of it sewn together cos I haven't had time to take any!)

I would have been much further on with it if it hadn't been for a weekend in Lincoln (congrats to Mark & Ming on their wedding) and a weekend in Scarborough, where we had a great time at Flamingo Land and a relaxing day on the beach.

The kids loved Daddy getting buried in the sand

and digging in the sand

and paddling in the sea (even if it was freezing!)

We were really lucky with the weather and definitely chose the right time to go to the beach. By the time we were having a Fish & Chip lunch it had started to darken over and get a bit chilly.

Though obviously you have me to thank for the current heatwave. The hot hot sun had to come out once I was working on a huge blanket didn't it?! The Attic 24 Granny Stripe Blanket is lovely to do and I am up to 23 stripes but making slow progress because of the heat. Here's a picture of the blanket at 22 stripes

I've made it wide enough for a double bed and am hoping to add enough stripes that it works as a blanket but also looks good on the bed. The Attic 24 used 60 stripes so I'm hoping to do around 60-80 and will probably judge it a bit by eye as to whether it's long enough.