Archie The Wonder Dog

I feel I've done quite well this quarter, particularly when you take into account that I've probably spent more time asleep than awake in the last three months.  And that my machine was out of action from just after putting the binding on the Dresden mini (end of January) until about a week ago - that's why most of my finishes only required hand sewing (or no sewing at all, in one case!).   My list is here , in case you fancy seeing what I didn't finish! My first finish was this mini for Yvonne : Sorry about the dreadful photo but that's the middle of a dreary day for you! This was machine pieced, hand appliquéd, embroidered and hand quilted.  It measures about 14" square (I think, I can't quite remember now!) and has a couple of extra layers of wadding behind the centre to give a bit more texture.  You can find out more about it in this post . My next finish was my clock: This is 12" square and the gubbins to make it (canvas b...

I'm quickly popping in to register a FAL finish before the deadline.  (Yes, this is an honest-to-goodness attempt at a short post!) I first added this project to my FAL list in the third quarter of 2013 and I've done nothing with it until now.   This is how it has looked for about two years: I can't find a photo of the square by itself... I think part of the problem was that I didn't really know what to do with it.  At first it was going to be a pin cushion, but I didn't have enough of the pale blue felt to make one with 'walled' sides, which was my intention.  Then it was going to become the top of a box, but I didn't really need a box!  Then it was going to go in a frame, but I didn't like the way it looked behind the glass. In the end I decided that I definitely wanted it on the wall but I also wanted on the wall by itself, i.e. no frame, no canvas block, etc.  I had a square of the pale blue felt so I cut that down a little (I took 3...

At the back end of last year I had a sudden flurry of things I needed to make which made for a very busy December and am only now catching up with blogging about them! First up were 'under bed den' curtains for my eldest niece.  She got a 'mid bed sleeper' bed (an odd name for a bed but that's what they're called!) in the summer and asked me if I could make her some curtains for it - I said I'd have them finished by Christmas at the latest but didn't get the measurements until the beginning of December so I had a frantic few days of fighting with slippery voile and metres of ribbon.  They turned out well, though: I don't know why I had fifteen metres of voile in my loft but I have enough left to make another set of curtains, should her sister get a similar bed and want some! Also needed was a book bag tag for my youngest niece, to help her identify her navy blue book bag in a pile of thirty-nine navy book bags.  She first asked for a pink ...

In August last year, Nicky  had a project published in the Fat Quarterly zakka issue (issue 18) - she made a clock (I've looked for a photo of it/blog post about it but can't seem to find one, sorry!).  She kindly sent me the canvas and clock gubbins to make my own and I've finally got round to it! I decided to (hand) piece a hexagon block which had twelve segments so that it would be easy to tell the time.  Choosing this block also meant that I didn't need to cut a hole in the middle for the spindle - I simply stopped stitching an eighth of an inch before the centre of the block (to create a hole approximately a quarter of an inch in diameter) and, obviously, didn't do my usual circling of the intersection.  I used three 10" 'Miss Kate' squares (by Bonnie and Camille, for Moda - these were a present from a fabric fairy) and have a few small scraps left for future projects: You can't see the central hole in this photo but it is there, jus...