Oops!

After writing a post suggesting everyone sign up to the Friday Night Sew In guess what I forgot to do...

Yep that's right I didn't sign myself up!!

I did however get some sewing done so I will share it now

It's not a huge amount but trimmed round my 6ft ish square quilt and started the epic handstitching of the binding.  Wish meluck this may take some time!

October Friday Night Sew In

It's here October's Friday Night Sew In...

The perfect way to welcome in the weekend and to craft with many others.

The rules are simple:

1.  sign up at Crafty Vegas Mom's Blog below with your blog/web address.  blog about it and invite everyone you know!
2.  on friday 10/21/11 make something FUN.  get your comfy clothes on and CRAFT until you cant go anymore.
3.  saturday 10/22/11 be sure and blog about your project.  post some pictures, talk about your night, surf other blogs to see what everyone else did. 
4.  sunday 10/23/11 check back at Crafty Vegas Mom's blog for the lucky winners picked by random.org

I thought I didn't have anything to do for this FNSI as my finishing off is going well but then I spotted my UFO list - I'll be busy!

Pinwheels Polished

Well the baby this quilt was created for is now four months old and I've eventually finished her quilt - which is lucky as I'm meeting her for the first time next weekend.

The pattern was from the free ones at fatquartershop.com and the fabric is mostly Makower Spectrum.  I've quilted diagonal, straight lines either side of the seams on the pinwheels and straight line between the pinwheels with white cotton. The stippled white border was done in a variegated primary colours type of thread.  I'm really pleased that this quilt has ended up looking just like I planned it would.

The Postman Calls...

And left...

 A very bright, somewhat squishy and fairly heavy parcel.  Looked like my fabric order from Hancocks had finally arrived.

I'd spotted Julie Paschkis' Catkin range (to the left of the picture) ealier in the year and had fallen in love with it.  But I patiently waited until free shipping appeared at Hancocks and pounced.  I've treated myself to pretty much half a yard each of the whole range (although I'm sill waiting for three back ordered fabrics with crossed fingers).  I haven't quite decided what to make with the fabric (so possibly I shouldn't have bought it) but it'll definitely be a quilt for me.   To make up the minimum spend amount for the free shipping I added the red fabrics (to the right of the photo) to the order.  These are eventually destined for a scrappy red and cream Farmer's Wife Quilt. I was amazed, even taking into account exchange rate and the commission for using me credit card on an overseas purchase how cheap the fabcric worked out compared to uk prices.  Add in the pretty quick service and I think I'll be taking advantage of this fabric shop again.

(Apologies for the slightly poor photo quality - I've had to use my I Pod as I don't have my camera with me.  Though I do think it makes a fair substitute)

No More Cold Hands

Sorry about the lack of posts this week and it's not as though I hadn't got anything to update the blog with.  Seem to on a finishing off jaunt at the moment.

The finished items for this post are the surprisingly quick and simple Debbie Abrahams fingerless mitts.

I was really pleased when I found out we were making these at the class as I suffer from very cold hands and tend to wear fingerless gloves alot.

I'd tried fairisle knitting before but not quite as neatly as on these mittens and I have fallen in love with beadwork - who'd have guessed it was so simple!

Think some more of these need to be made!

A Long Term Work In Progress

So my family came to visit this weekend and my sister brought along the French knitting we have been working on, on and off, since I was six.  I think it was given to me to do partly to keep me occupied and partly because we'd found some wooden cotton reels at my grandmother's house.  It also helped that my mum had a huge stash of double knitting wool oddments I could use for it.

When it arrived the French knitting was wound into a ball about 6 inches in diameter.  I set to laying it out in the rug shape we'd eventually like it to make - that took a fair while.

On completing this task I'd learnt a few things...
- Trying to lay out what is essentially a coil of string on top of a duvet covered bed neatly and accurately is nigh on impossible
- My mum and sister weren't joking when they said we didn't have enough knitting for a rug yet - the coil in the picture is definitely less than a metre across
- On a rough estimate we need to knit about the same amount againg to create a decent (smallish) rug for my sister's room! (Hopefully this will not take another 24 years to achieve!!!!) 

Another Quilting Course

It's a dangerous thing paying a visit to my LQS, I'd only popped in to get details for the Debbie Abrahams knitting course when I found myself signing up to the raggy quilt course the weekend after.

This is actually a course I've wanted to do since I started quilting but the classes and my free time have never coincided.  It looked like that was going to be the case with this course but I was, just that morning, informed that my family wouldn't be arriving at my house the Saturday of the course until 4pm at the earliest (that probably actually means 6pm). It seemed to be fate so I signed up for the course, and then realised I wasn't supposed to be buying any more fabric after spending a small fortune at Hancocks (with free international shipping and cat themed fabric I couldn't say no).

A little browsing of various shops' discount lines and I think I've found the, in my opinion, most perfect raggy quilt fabric ever...

Beautiful Paddington Bear fabric courtesy of Doughty's (who managed an inspired bit of fabric subbing via a phonecall - the top right hand turquoise fabric was selected by their staff)

This quilt is all for me; I love Padddington bear - I fondly remember my Paddington bed covers and curtains, I enjoyed the stories, and marmalade sanwiches have been a lunchtime staple for years.  I am really looking forward to this quilt.

I'm Late, I'm Late for A Very Important Small Blog Meet!

For the first time ever I'm joining up with Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet a get together held by Lynne once a month for those of us with blogs with less than 50 followers to share our blogs with each other and to find some more excellent crafty blogs to while away our evenings with!

For those who've popped over from the small blog meet link - Hi! Feel free to have a look around this somewhat erratically updated blog.  I've only been blogging a year but have been crafting in one form or another for as long as I can remember - finger knitting does count as a craft?!  Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll be able to introduce you to one of my first ever proper craft projects (and still a UFO!) next weekend.

If you want to visit some of the other small blogs or check out Fresh Sewing day the click on the Small Blog button (it may work!)

Winter Mitts During Autmn Heatwave!

On being told a few weeks ago that during the Debbie Abrahams led fairisle and beadwork knitting class at Nimble Thimble I would be working towards a pair of mittens I thought what a lovely autumnal project that I'll probably be very keen to wear at the end of the day!


I didn't count on the temperature, on Saturday, during the course being 29 degrees centigrade (hotter than any day this summer.


Luckily the high temperatures did not do anything to dampen my enjoyment of the course and they gave me the perfect excuse for an ice cream break!


Debbie Abrahams is a very friendly and enthusiastic teacher; I learnt more than expected during the day and managed to get further throught the mitten than I imagined possible.

This was what I had to show by the end of the session.
Not only have I leant how to incorporate beads into my knitting, to strand and weave the back of fairisle properly, and to keep the whole lot untangled.  I also found out that I have been doing the thumb cast on wrong for the last 20 years - I had wondered why this supposedly stretchy cast on wasn't so stretchy!


I am definitely hooked on beads and colourwork and Debbie's designs, and spent the rest of the weekend poring over the copies of her books which I have had for years trying to figure out what to try next.

Boozy Weekend!

Unfortunately (!) none of the booze has, as yet, been consumed by me.

It has become apparent in recent days that Xmas is creeping nearer.  I adore Xmas but I hate the fact that the shops have already got seasonal food and advent calendars and such like in stock.  That said it hasn't prevented me preparing some Christmas treats.

During a run one lunchtime last week myself and a friend came across a Sloe bush (can't remember if its a Hawthorn or Blackthorn) and so Friday lunchtime saw us out with plastic bags picking sloes.  And so, after freezing them, Xmas treat experiment one commenced on Sunday afternoon.

And now I have my first ever bottles of sloe gin and sloe vodka doing whatever they do and being agitated daily for the first week.

Experiment two is my first ever attempt at making a Xmas cake.  And no simple fruit cake for me! I just couldn't resist this recipe on The Pink Whisk blog.

It smells lovely after just one day, if I remember rightly its got to soak for 6 weeks.  For this first week it needs stirring everyday.  It's going to take a lot of will power not to keep sampling the fruit!

Hopefully these treats will be successfully completed by Xmas Eve. 

Squishy Loveliness

I adore coming home and find out some yarn I have ordered has been delivered.  Especially when on opening the packaging you are greeted by...

(which isn't quite how it looked as there were a couple of stitch markers attached to the bow but I removed them before I thought to take a photo). 

And then it just gets better and better when you open the package...

All the yarn is from an online shop called Five Moons

The pinky orange laceweight is for a lacy scarf I've bookmarked on Ravelry as I'm really enjoying knitting lace at the mo.  And the mini skeins of double knitting wool is going towards a French knitting project that has been a UFO for 22 or maybe even as much as 24 years and has been worked on by myself and both my sisters (obviously with very short attentions spans) over the years.  Hopefully when my sister comes to visit me in a couple of weeks she'll bring it with her and we can figure out how much more there is to do (and I'll get some photos for the blog too).

Stitch and Unstitch

Considering a lot of my weekend was (pleasureably) used up by a curry night with work colleagues and a shopping trip to Swindon (a suprisingly good place to shop) I have achieved a lot this weekend and I squeezed in a Saturday afternoon nap!

I finished off the quilting of the technicolour baby quilt with in the ditch quiting in the border.  I wasn't sure if this was entirely necessary, especially when unpicking at least half the quilting due loopy stitching on the reverse (must remember to actually delint my machine once in a while and replace the quilting needle more frequently!).  But, now I've seen this picture on the big screen it was definitely worth doing it and doing it properly. I really love this quilt.

I also (finally) finished the quilting on my log cabin quilt, which has been ongoing for over a year but got waylaid by baby quilts and gifts.

I'm now looking forward(!) to a week of handstitching binding and sewing in ends, as well as trying to do some significant progress on the lacy scarf.

Almost Hexies - A Crafting Review

Been a bit quiet on here as I have been having some work done on my flat and consequently felt a bit guilty crafting.  And then last weekend, when I had lots of crafting time and got the squiggles done, I found I'd forgotten to bring my camera - there will be a sudden burst of photos in the nearish future showcasing my house improvements and craft achievements (barring the knitting which I have been doing obsessively but is destined to be a family present in the winter).

For now I'm going to have a little craft retrospective and update everyone with my slow progress on my hand sewn tumbling blocks quilt.

It hasn't grown much but I've just started on the third row, having added about half a rows worth of blocks.  To give a sense of scale (and to explain why its folded over) this quilt is destined to be suitable for at least a double bed, possibly a kingsize bed.  I have a cunning plan to increase the size of this quilt rapidly...at least two or three rows (possibly as many as five) have already been completed and sewn together.  These are currently somewhere in my mum's house so I have put a plea in with her to track them down and send them to me and then I can get a real feel for how far I have got with this quilt.  In optimistic hope I'm starting to try and figure out how it should be quilted and planning in a trip to buy backing fabric.  Judging on current progress that trip may not be until 2014 but you never know!