Spinning Quilt Blocks

I have made a cracking start this week on my Spinning Stars blocks. After a marathon cutting session last Tuesday morning, I managed to have 4 blocks laid out ready for sewing and enough pieces for another two blocks which I sewed together this week.
So here are blocks 1-6

I am trying so hard to make the blocks random and not plan them too much, (which is very unlike me)  but I've not put the same fabric in a block twice (so far!).  

Each block I make is coming out neater and only the 1 & 2 have saggy middles, which I might try and rectify at the end. 

I think the yellow may well be my favourite!
The plan is to make a further 14 blocks and I definitely have enough of the Quilt Blocks fabric but need a fair bit more Sketch.
The blocks being posted in the Flickr Group are stunning! It's also been great to hear other people having saggy problems and how they solved it.
All my blocks are temporally living on the wall in the kitchen, they are really cheering me up and are making ignore all the mess around them that I should be dealing with!!

Wedding tea

Back at the beginning of September I was due to go to my school friends wedding, but because of a last minute childcare issue we were unable to attend. I was completely devastated, as we had been so looking forward to sharing their special day. I had been beavering away at a present for them, something that I knew would be just perfect for a tea loving bride!

                              

 

A tea cosy!! We had a part of her hen party in a tea room and we bought her a teapot as one of her hen presents. Whenever we get together tea is always drunk in copious amounts!
I had seen the pattern by Kerry of VeryKerryBerry for the Teapot in Issue 8 of Fat Quarterly and knew this would be a perfect gift. The cup and spoon pattern, that I used for the other side, I found on Kerry's tutorial page here, where she had made it into a mug rug.
I pieced both of them using the foundation way, as I had never used the method of paper piecing with freezer paper. So, with an extra printout of the cup pattern I was able to change it from paper pieced to foundation pieced.

I added a bit of embroidery to the spout of the teapot and the top of the mug for steam. Inside I added their initials and wedding date. 

It's all wrapped and ready to be given. We have a tea date set for half term and I can't wait!

I'm linking up with 

                                                

Winnings from Ravelry

Over the summer, (I know ages ago!) I was spending some quality time browsing Ravelry, while the children killed entertained each other. I was hoping to find some easy knitting or crochet projects for the build up to Christmas! Sad I know, but it's good to be prepared (and I never normally am!) and I remembered that I had seen some wonderful stockings that I'd added to my favourites back in December by MillaMia. After finding the stocking pattern, I got completely lost in their group and then stumbled upon a competition to win a copy of their latest book Little Rascals, which was filled with the most stunning children's patterns. All they asked was for you to leave a funny story about your little rascals! Well, mine have really said and done the most wonderful things that I really wish they hadn't, so I left my comment with my story and I was one of the lucky winners!

The patterns are for such fun jumpers and dresses, I have to say I love them all. They are for an age range of 0-7 years and there is a really good selection of different patterns and it's not just all girly, lots of lovely modern boys stuff too. Also, each pattern gives you several different colour pairings that would work well together and each design has been knitted and modelled in two or three different colours. It has patterns for beginners, improving and advanced, so has something for everyone!

They even signed the book! I know I'm  easily pleased!

I decided after my last knitting project taxed my brain a lot that I would pick a simple quick pattern to try from this book first.

My model was not in the smiling mood I'm afraid!

The Gustav Hat was a super easy pattern, and came together in just a few evenings. It should have ties from under the ears, but I think my little lady would just yank at these so I left them off.  I didn't buy any new wool for this, I'm trying to reduce the stash. So I used a left over ball of Rowan Cashsoft Baby dk which was the pale pink and a part used ball of Rowan Pure Wool dk which is the plum colour. When I buy Rose's winter coat I will be making another one in matching colours as it's just perfect. I just love the way it goes all pixieish at the top!
The next pattern on my list from the book will be the Hanna Cardigan which is on the front cover. I just need to sneak a wool purchase on next months statement!! Just don't tell the husband.....Shhhh!
I'm linking up with
                                         

Spinning around!

So, I'm trying really hard to get all of my wip's finished up (and I'm doing quite well) and I had promised myself that I wouldn't be starting anything new until I'd cleared the pile of half done project. That was until, I saw all about the Spinning Stars quilt along that Katy of I'm a ginger monkey was starting. Seeing the quilts that have been made with the pattern was enough to convince me it was worth starting something new.
I joined up to the Flickr group, downloaded the free pattern from Anna Maria Horner's Make page and started to think about fabric. Whilst looking through the Flickr group I noticed that a few people have been doing practice blocks and decided that this was probably a good idea. I don't want to cut into my precious fabric with out a clue!! So I dug out some I ♡ London fabric and a few reds and started cutting pressing and sewing and here is my trial block.

It went ok, but I'm very pleased I had a practice as I've learnt a few things
         I can't cut well with paper templates (lucky I've ordered the acrylic templates)
         My seams are wonky (must try harder)
         The middles a bit baggy, maybe because of the seams?
         Even though I'm not using this fabric for the real quilt, I shouldn't have used that red circle dot, as its too similar to the red of the ring!
         & I need to concentrate on the points meeting!

So, as soon as the templates arrive I'll be cutting into this lovely pile of fabric. I was lucky enough to have bought a fair few FQ's of Quilt Blocks by Ellen Luckett Baker with my voucher from Intrepid Threads and was saving them for something just for me and I think this may be it.

I've added some Pezzy Prints to blend in with the Quilt Blocks to make it look slightly scrappy and the Sketch by Timeless Treasures will be used as the solid rings. I have a bit of a tough time doing things randomly, but I hoping not to be too ocd with the placing of these.
This is how the finish quilt should look, don't you think it is just gorgeous, I hope mine looks even half as good as this!

I can't wait to get started! Although that Kylie song has been going around my head all day, hope it doesn't do that every time I make one of these blocks!!

Cross Stitch Ta-Dah!!!

I have finished another wip! I'm so pleased to have kept plodding on with this, and now I have yet another cushion!!
A girl can never have too many....can they?!?

Men obviously can, as The Husband declared 'Not another cushion!! Where is that going?' Honestly, it's not like I'm asking him to make it!

Well, after placing around the house, I have decided it will be staying on the chair in the hall. So no bottoms can catch the stitches!!
I started this back in January or February I think.........No, it was March. (I just checked back to an old post, don't you just love that blogging lets you see your true progress?)
This has been something that I have picked up very intermittently, and just slotted in on spare evenings, until this last week when I have given it a final push to finish that border.
From the very beginning of starting this I knew I wanted to make it in a cushion. I decided to edge the cushion with piping like it was in the magazine, as this wasn't something I'd tried before. I followed this tutorial, which was fantastic. Although, I did mess up the corners by sewing things a little to close to the edge, but hey ho! It's for me and I don't have to let anyone get too close to see the dodgy bits! The piping I picked was quite chunky, but I didn't want something too small and fiddly.

The cross stitch pattern is called 'Handmade with Love' and was designed by Jacqui Pearce and was in Issue 243 of CrossStitcher Magazine. Although you can now buy the pdf pattern from here. The fabric for the back and piping is left over from my first quilt and is Delighted! by The Quilted Fish for Riley Blake.
Now to get on with the next unfinished project, as I'm planning on joining in with a quilt along that starts tomorrow!!!!

It's finished!!!

Yippee.......I've finally got a Ta-Dah. I mentioned that I tried to take some neglected items away with me on holiday and one of those was the Edie Flower Top that I have been working on since (according to Ravelry) the end of May!

Can you spot the mistake?

I let this sit at home waiting to have all the edging knitted on for weeks but just never got around to it, on holiday it took me just a few quiet hours. (Thanks to my parents being childcare!!) I blocked it over the weekend and then took the little lady in the garden for a few photos and thank God it fits!

I was a little worried that it had took me so long it wouldn't fit, but it looks perfect and I think it will do her for a while. I know it took me a while but I did enjoy making it, it's just not the pattern you can do when the children are asking you a million questions. So I tended to only work on it in the evening and not when I was watching something too engrossing or I'd make a mistake. But, that said I'm still a learner and picking up the intarsia was a steep learning curve! 

The pattern was from Eco Family by Debbie Bliss and I made the size 18-24 months. I used Eco Baby Cotton as instructed and still have a little left over from one ball. This is the second pattern I've used from this book (Saskia Cardigan) and I'm really pleased with how they both came out. Just like it said on the tin!!! 

I mentioned in my last post that I was worried about sand getting into the projects I took away, so didn't take them to the beach.....................then I turned my back to check the photos on the camera

She was obviously a lot less worried than me!!

I'm off to pick a project from a new knitting book I won over the summer!

So, did you spot my mistake? It's staying, there was no way I was frogging it once I realised!