Working On The UFO's

Every year I say that I'm going to do my best to finish off all the projects I've started and put to one side. I expect most crafters are the same. For me, it tends to come down to things like how much time I have. I might put one project aside to start a quicker one and then not find the time for the other one for ages. Other times I try to make the most of the classes I go to so I'll put aside a simple project to work on something I need help & advice with. Soon I find that I have a stack of unfinished projects.

Today I managed to have a large chunk of time where I could just sew. Both kids were at school and I decided that working on some of the UFO's would be a really nice way to spend the day and be productive. It's not often I give so much time to my hobby because I tend to prioritise the house, studying and the kids.

I started a couple of cushion covers at sewing class one night and I finished the fronts today. These are made from the leftover strips of a jelly roll I made a wallhanging from. I finished piecing them and then quilted them with simple diagonal lines.

Fronts Of Cushion Covers

I need to choose a fabric for the backs of the cushion covers. I'll just be doing simple envelope style cushions.

Having got that done I decided to have a quick look at the other projects. I decided to work on the quilt I started for Erin months ago. It only needed a small amount of sewing to finish the top and then I chose a backing fabric, basted it and did the quilting.

Quilt For Erin

This just needs some binding now.

Ok, so technically they're both still unfinished but I've made good progress on them and I have a couple of weeks at sewing to fill before the holidays so there's a good chance I'll get these done!

I did manage to finish one thing today though. I did the cross-stitch Tux quite some time ago and used a hoop while stitching. After taking it out of the hoop I realised I'd stitched it the wrong way on the fabric, which wasn't quite square (it had a chunk out). My plan had been to stitch the thinner head part of the picture in the smaller bit of fabric and then shape the border around it. It's sat in the cabinet for a while now as I pondered what to do about my mistake. Today I decided to just sew a bit of fabric in that corner. So here is my finished mouse mat.

Tux Mouse Mat

To Boldly Sew...

Ok, very predictable blog post title! I couldn't resist this pattern from Pixel Power Designs after booking my ticket to the new Star Trek film. Luckily it's not a huge picture (less than 12" x 4") so it didn't take long to do despite my incredibly slow cross-stitching.

Star Trek The Next Generation

It might be a while before it gets hung up anywhere though as I'm yet to find a frame that fits so will probably have to order a custom frame.

Oh and in case anyone is wondering I took advantage of the 3 patterns deal and also bought the Lord Of The Rings pattern and The Munsters pattern. Not sure when I'll get around to sewing them though.

Sampler Quilt Update

And just a quick update on the sampler quilt. Here are all the blocks so far laid out on one of the options I have for the sashing (probably not the final choice because I think the purple fades into it).

There's one more block to go, which I'll be doing tomorrow afternoon. I'll also be taking lots of potential sashing fabric and making a decision on that.

FO Friday: Dress Number 2

If you've been following my blog you will probably have guessed that I've had an assignment due and so haven't had the time to fit a blog post in. You'll probably also remember that I had finished making Erin a dress in my last post. I let her have it before her actual birthday because she had a school disco a couple of weeks before it, so she was able to wear the dress to that and her birthday party.

Erin at her karaoke party in her new dress

I then set about making Orla's dress. It too is a Cloth Kits dress. Now Erin isn't big, in fact she's probably the smallest in her class and there wasn't loads of growing room in the dress above so I had a bit of a dilemma with Orla's dress. I could cut out 3-4 or 5-6. She'll be 4 in August and is also small but I decided to cut out the bigger size. My main reason for this was the small fitting of Erin's dress and the style of Orla's. It's pulled in by buttons at the back and I figured I could adjust the placement of the button and/or add another buttonhole if needed or I could just adjust the dress. After all, you can always make something smaller.

The next problem I had was that the seam allowance on the dress meant that you could see the cutting lines for the smaller size along part of the neckline at the front. (For those not familiar with Cloth Kits, the pattern is printed onto the fabric so you cut out the pieces directly, there's no paper pattern to pin on). I really didn't like this at all so I ended up adjusting the seam allowance to hide it. I realised later that you can still see some cutting lines down the side seam of the dress and it annoys me but it's a lot of work to hide them because any adjustment would have to be made in a way that keeps the shape of the dress so I decided just to leave it.

Here it is. The picture above is when I was pinning the straps in place to figure out where the buttons needed to go and they've now been sewn on. Orla is really pleased with it.