Plodding along...

I'm not entirely sure what I've done since I last blogged so let's see what I can find in my 'June' folder, shall we?!

I got the backing sorted for my hexy quilt.  There was a bit of a problem when I discovered a small hole (which I knew I hadn't caused) in my first order (after I'd washed and ironed it) but the wonderful staff at The Cotton Patch sorted it out in a jiffy and sent me a new piece of fabric (and kindly allowed me to keep the original piece, I suspect because I'd already washed it - their customer service is wonderful, I've shopped there before this and will definitely be going back!)  This is how it's been for about four weeks:

(A big piece of fabric folded in quarters and laid over the back of a settee!)

Isn't it pretty, though?!  It'll be even better when I get it layered and tacked - I've got as far as finding the masking tape and tacking thread/needle tin but not much further, I just haven't had the energy!


I've managed a bit of crochet, though.  This yarn was originally going to be a blanket (for me) but then I realised that you can't tumble dry it and a big blanket that is impractical to wash isn't a good thing when you have a tendency to spill cups of tea so I decided to look for an alternative yarn for the blanket (still haven't found anything that comes in the right colours - blues, greens and greys, mainly - and can be tumble dried, suggestions welcome!) and make a bag.  I need another bag like I need an extra hole in the head but I felt the need to crochet (and saw a friend's stripy crochet bag and got inspired!) so I made this:

Stripy bag - the yarn is King Cole Bamboo and is beautifully soft

The bag body is based on a pattern by Patons (but altered so that it's larger) and the trim is the same as the trim on Attic24's bag.  The handles are going to go all the way to the base (so will hide where I've started and stopped the rounds in each colour) and are going to be in the dark blue.  I just need to find some twill tape in 1" and 0.5" widths in navy, bright pink or purple (or anything that will go!) - any ideas?


I've also made a bee block for the Siblings Together Quilting Bee after a bee couldn't manage her block (life got in the way but I'm happy to report that's she's back on 'duty' for July).  I really enjoyed making the block but it confirmed that I was right not to volunteer for a 'proper' place in the bee - there's no way I could make a big block every month, particularly not on the machine, which I find it very tiring.  I did enjoy it, though, and it's nice to be able to contribute to such a wonderful cause!

Big star block for Lynne

The fabric (PB&J for Moda - bee mates, is that right?) is gorgeous and I've seen a photo of the finished top and it's wonderful!


Finally, I've made the first block in my new hand piecing project.  Remember the photo of all the bright fabric on my bed?  Well this is what it's going to be turned into:

ET phone home block - the first of many!

The back

I even used my new block book (my first FAL Q2 finish) and it works a treat!  More photos of my stitching sequence, etc. can be found in my Flickr set.  The pattern is ET Phone Home, designed by the very talented Lynne@Lily's Quilts and the foundation piecing templates can be found here.

I hand pieced my block my usual way - print out the templates on freezer paper and cut out.  Iron them on the wrong side of the fabric, draw round them (to get a sewing line) and remove the templates.  Cut out (leaving an approximate quarter inch seam allowance - it doesn't need to be exact because when you hand piece you line up the sewing lines, not the edges of the fabric) and then stitch together using a running stitch with the occasional backstitch.  In other words, not EPP *wink* (The only time I do EPP is when I'm making teeny tiny pin cushions out of Japanese import fabrics.)  I couldn't work out a better way of pressing the seams than the photo above but bulk of the intersections doesn't interfere with the sharpness of the points on the front so I'm happy!  I'm hoping to make another 34 blocks and then join them together with squares on point (which is instead of adding triangles to square up the block - I thought I'd cut out a few more seams!) - needless to say, this is a long term project.  My hexy replacement, if you like!

In other exciting news, I won a voucher for Photoworld in a competition on Clare's blog and I'm having trouble deciding which photo to turn into some 'wall art'.  I've narrowed it down to (naturally!) a photo of Archie and have narrowed the choice even further to one of these photos:

Please can you let me know which one you'd choose because I really can't decide!  (The top of his head isn't really chopped off in photo three, it's the effect of the mosaic!)  Feel free to comment in either a comment on this post or on the Flickr photos (either the individual one or the mosaic), just please comment!


I'd best go, Archie wants his tea and he's been through enough today what with a b-a-t-h without having to wait for the final highlight of his day!

I'm linking up to Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day (thank goodness she does this, at the moment it's usually the only time I'm managing to blog!) and I'll be back towards the end of the week (yes, two posts in one month!) with my Finish-A-Long quarter two post.  I'll give you a hint - I've missed something off this post because I wanted to save it for the FAL post!  If you want another hint then it's something that's been on many FAL quarter lists but they've not necessarily been mine...

P.S.  The title of this post makes me sing this in my head.  Or out loud...