Archie The Wonder Dog

In May last year, I took part in a blog hop for Oakshott and made a table runner from their gorgeous Lipari range, which was being relaunched.  Before I launched into making the blocks for the runner, I needed to piece a test block to check the templates worked.  Here it is mid assembly: I couldn't leave it on its own, so let it choose some potential friends: I decided to stick with the fabrics from Monico Solorio-Snow 's Sew Yummy collection for Cloud 9 fabrics , so out went that multi dot and in came some tomato pin cushions.  I made an exception for the bead lines second down as that would make an ideal binding. I pieced these blocks in fits and starts in between other projects as I found that having made sixteen whole blocks and four half blocks, my enthusiasm was somewhat lacking.  To think that when I made the test block I thought I might up the size a bit and make a big quilt!  I think not! At some point I had three blocks: Then I ha...

This test block has been on my FAL list for a while now and I've just never got round to making it into a mini quilt.  This quarter ( Q4 FAL 2015 ), I was determined to cross it off! Here's how it looked at the start of the quarter (and at the start of several quarters before that!): The block is hand pieced and was made to test the templates for the block.  I (eventually) want to make a quilt using this block, in pale Oakshotts and pale grey backgrounds.  I have the fabrics, just not the time/energy to start! Impetus to finish this mini quilt came in the form of a new to me in the ditch/edge stitch sole plate for my walking foot (thanks, Sheila !) and a need to test it before I embarked on a bigger quilting project.  I quilted in all the ditches and found that the foot was great for straight ditches but not for curved ones, mainly because the design of the foot means that you can't see where the needle is going to land.  It's also easier if the ditc...

One of the items on my FAL list was this 12" (finished) hand-pieced ( not EPP!) test block for the ET Phone Home block  (pattern by  Lynne of Lily's Quilts ): The first thing I needed to do was to give it a good press! I'd made the block to test the templates (and work out my stitching sequence) before starting to hand piece enough blocks for a quilt - I haven't made much progress with the quilt but more on that later! I used fusible wadding on the back and then machine quilted (with navy thread) in all the ditches, apart from the four 'squaring up' corner triangles, in an attempt to reinforce the circular appearance of the block: As seems to be usual with me and fusible wadding, I forgot to add a backing fabric!  I think it's because I usually use fusible wadding with cushions or bags/pouches where a backing fabric isn't strictly necessary and so my brain forgets to remind me.  It forgets to remind me about a lot of things... Anyway,...

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...

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 ...

Thanks for popping in to see my entry in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.  I haven't managed many finished quilts since the last festival (no surprise there!) and didn't think I'd be entering this time round, but Nicky reminded me about the mini category and so here I am! I made this little quilt, 'City Walk' (naming quilts isn't something I usually do but I felt that participating in a blog hop and designing a pattern for Oakshott warranted a quilt name!) in July when I was part of an Oakshott blog hop  and is designed around the traditional 'walking triangles' block.  I wrote a rather  ridiculously long tutorial for it as part of the blog hop and you can find that here , should you wish to make your own version. The quilt is made from a F8 bundle (plus a piece of wadding and a piece of fusible fleece) and I decided that I wanted to make something useful as well as decorative so this little quilt also doubles as a block roll (to keep piec...