A Little Xmas Sewing

In our family we exchange Christmas stockings filled with little gifts on Christmas morning. Usually these are sneakily filled by another member of the family on Christmas Eve but this year my sister is spending Christmas with her boyfriend's family, so we won't see her on the 24th.  Actually we realised that the only time we'd see each other before the big day was last weekend, so we'd have to exchange (but not empty!) stockings then.

Not a problem, until the realisation dawned that neither of us had a clue where our empty stockings were.  Cue a sewing session till 3am on Saturday morning to ensure we had something to (over) fill.

As I have never made an Xmas stocking before so made it up as I went along I'm pretty pleased with the end result.  Perfection will take a little more thinking out.  Another plus point is that these were made entirely with stash fabric - a small dent in my collection!

And the Celebration Keeps On Going...

With the last mailing of the Debbie Abrahams Mystery Blanket we had it confirmed that the theme was "A Celebration of Sport" and I had it confirmed that I needed to get on with knitting my remaining blocks (especially as I had overcome my fear of intarsia).

This is my progress so far, less the block and a half strip which is currently on my needles and being knitted.

Admittedly this is before the final details have been added and no squares have been blocked, but I'm starting to really like this blank.  The finished blanket is 7x7 and with how tight I knit that is going to work out as a small lap blanket.

I have really enjoyed the challenge of making this, but I have decided not to sign up for next year's. Nothing against the concept, and I love Debbie's designs (I've had her books for years but never been brave enough to try anything) but I think my next long term knitting project may be something fair isle. Then again I could try finishing off the squares for an Aran blanket that my mum and I started ages ago. We'll see!

Great South Run 2012

 

On Sunday, around lunchtime, I completed my fourth Great South Run. A 10 mile run around the city of Portsmouth, the cousin of the Great North Run. I completed this year's run in 2 hours 1 minute and 23 seconds. Very pleased, as that was nearly my target time, and now very achey!

Getting There...

Does anyone remember the monster batik wave quilt top I finally finished piecing a couple of months ago (hopefully my sister does as its for her!)

Today I finally got it basted.  As it's approximately 3m square I've been having trouble finding a suitable space in which to lay it out.  But at today's Bath Quilters Sewing Day, using an adjoining room (apologies for being somewhat antisocial) and taking the best part of 3 hours to press, layer, baste and grab a quick lunch it was done.

(Basting in progress on a large table)

And as I think I've figured out how to quilt it (though still toying with the easy option rather than the correct option!)  This will hopefully be done by the end of Nov.

I seem to be in the mood for finishing off, partly to clear a little space, but mostly so I can start new projects which I have planned!

London,Baby!

With a week off work and my littlest sister visiting from Scotland I decided an overnight trip to London was required.

We did a museum...

 And dinner and a play...

(Picture to follow)

Bumped into some famous people whilst wandering along the Thames...

And generally took in the views...

We also squeezed in a little shopping in Covent Garden (visiting a store selling a brand of t-shirts my other sister loves and failing totally to buy her anything from there!).  A good time was had by all.

(Slightly limited as to the number of photos we could take as I forgot to put a memory card in my camera so we had to rely on the camera's memory.  How did we ever cope with film cameras and only 27 shots???)

Mystery Blanket Update

I have been slowly working my way through Debbie Abraham's 2012 Mystery Blanket (a knitted one), and I mean slowly.  We received the patterns and yarn for the last squares at the beginning of this month and I'm now working my way towards them.

Finishing has been a little held up by my fear of the intarsia knitting technique.  Finally I've taken the plunge and completed my first ever intarsia square...

...which will eventually become a bicycle wheel.

A few more to go...

Two Quilts, One Weekend

The jelly roll race quilts went very well.  My sister and I worked on them on Saturday and Sunday, alternating time on the sewing machine.

My sister's quilt was made from a Kate Spain Serenade jelly roll with some grey pezzy print as the binding.  She has done really well with it and has totally finished her first ever quilt.

Mine was made from a Summersville jelly roll and I still have most of the binding to sew on, judging by my sister's efforts that shouldn't take too long!

Let the race begin...

I have a weekend of crafty activities planned with my sister and the main event is Jelly Roll Race quilts.  Although our race will be a bit more of a training run as we only have one sewing machine and this is my sister's first ever attempt at using one.  I'm sure the results will be good all round though.

Festival of Quilts 2012

On Saturday, after a badly planned hair appointment (15 minutes before I'd wanted to be at the festival and over an hour away - I should really check a diary when making appointments!) I set off for the Festival of quilts

There were so many lovely quilts,  I hadn't meant to photo many (especially as I didn't have my camera with me and was relying on an IPod and my phone) but I couldn't resist.

There were wholecloth type quilts...

And lots of variations on log cabin blocks

And some beautiful pictorial quilts...

And so many more.

I also braved the crowds...

...to do a 'little' shopping...

I tried to be restrained, the fabric was all bought for specific projects that already had some fabric allocated at home (all except for the elephant squares and batik fabrics - but after I couldn't resist the elephants I quickly developed a suitable project which needed the batiks!).  The patterns were impulse buys but I know I'll use them all (no detailed pictures of them as they may become presents).  I think, on the whole, considering all the wonderful fabrics available and all the other lovely things, I did quite well.

Already looking forward to next year!

(Makers details and quilt name will be added once I track down my festival program)

FNSI Results

Not the most successful FNSI ever for me due to getting home a little later than planned and then realising I'd forgotten to bring key items home with me such as some studying that needs doing and my internet dongle.  And then my technological items started playing up and all in all I got quite wound up but I did manage a little hand sewing to calm me down.

A few more blocks for my brother's quilt.

Hope everyone else's FNSI was entirely relaxing.

Friday Night Sew In

I've just noticed that August's FNSI is taking place today!  I'm not 100% sure what I'll be working on but I'm looking forward to it as I haven't participated in one since February!

If you want to join in there's still time to sign up (just!).  Pop over to Crafty Vegas Mom's blog to join in the fun.

What with the FNSI and the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham I'm going to have a very quilty  weekend.

New shoes!

This past week I seem to have turned into a shoeaholic! And before anyone asks I also have the matching pair for each shoe.

First-ish attempt at crochet

Truthfully this is actually my third attempt at crocheting this shells and chain scarf (pattern found via Ravelry).  Nothing was technically wrong with the first two attempts - the first was two wide for the amount of yarn I had and the second was unravelled when I found this random, sparkly, fluffy yarn (Rozetti Nida Simli from Aberkhan Fabrics).  I think I now have the right kind and ideal quantity (500g - hopefully more than one scarf's worth) of yarn to finish this crochet.  And then I may even attempt some fingerless mittens I've seen using the same shell motif.

 I hoping to have done quite a bit more of this scarf by 25 Aug as the lady who taught my to crochet is teaching at my LQS that day and I'd love to show her my efforts.