February Update

Being away from home means not a great deal has been done on the sewing side of life.

Quilting the Pineapple top has taken a great deal longer than I thought it would, not only because of my wanderings, but it also because it has become a battle of wills between me and the quilt top!!  Until now I seem to have been the loser, but finally I can see an end to it all!  The sheer size of the quilt has made it almost impossible to feed through the throat of my machine as most of the quilting has been on the diagonal, and all the pulling and tugging causes the arthritis in my hands to flare up, so it's been a very slow process!

I think that perhaps 'straight lines' was not the most intellegent choice of quilting for something this size as I've ended up with quite a lot of  rather wonky lines , but they are my wonky lines and.......they are all finished ! Just the borders left to do so hopefully it'll be done in next couple of days and then there'll only be a trillion or so threads to bury and the binding to get on with!

All things considered, my target of one finish a month was disappearing fast,so I took some time out and finished another  UFO -  small yes, but at least I have a finish for February :-)

My mini quilt version of  Kelly's Flower Garden Pillow.

You can find the tutorial on Kelly's blog if you're interested.Can't remember how long this one has been hiding in the cupboard, but the date on the tute will give you some idea:-)

I'm also adding a couple more items to Myra's PhD Challenge as I need to tackle something smaller and easier to finish in March after  all the push and shove lately, so, remember this post ?  Well, not long after, DGD decided that the bedroom was not to her liking and it changed it to pink!  D9P really did  disappear into the cupboard and there it has stayed. I'm hoping to finish it in the next couple of weeks as its on a promise to Project Linus! 

Next it's to do something with these - Soot & Ashes by Cheri

I did finish all 15 blocks, put them together as per the instructions, didn't like it, so I took them apart - as one does!  Time they went back together again I think!!

Flying Start

I'm off to a flying start for February with 3 finishes already!

Number 1 - Tessellation doll quilt  quilted and binding done

In case you're wondering, the chair was made for DH when he was 2,  and ,  like him, it's  getting on a bit now :-)

Number 2 - DGD got herself a   RED  'beginner's sewing machine' for her  8th birthday on Christmas Eve ,  and is all ready to make her dollies some new clothes.We are due to see her and her new sewing machine on Sunday, so as well as a parcel of  goodies for her to play with, I made this mini Charmer tote bag  (Penny Sturgess pattern) to pack them in and maybe double as a work basket too.

Number 3 is another mug rug, which I can't show you yet, but I can show you this one which is the one that stayed at home!  I wasn't too happy with it in the end so decided to make an alternative to swap and keep the reject for myself :-)

Don't know why Blogger has turned the photo again!

Quilting on the Pineapples is on stop for the moment as my wrists have been aching so badly, but  I have finished all the white 'stars' and  5 of the coloured ones too, so another 7 to go plus the borders. If  I get the quilt totally finished by the end of the month I'll be more than  happy as we've a couple of busy weeks ahead and can't see much more getting done :-)

Every Cloud....

...has a silver lining!  Well, that's how the saying goes and it's certainly true about the last number of days when it has rained & rained and rained! Because the weather has been so dismal there has been nothing to do except sew, sew, sew and now I have my first finish for 2010!

 

Scrappy Sister's Choice all quilted and bound - first UFO off the list and also my first quilt without a single stipple stitch in it !  I've quilted the blocks with a kind of 'flower' motifs out from the Pajama Quilter DVD/workbook- they don't quite look like Dawn's but not too bad.  Border 1 has a vine of small leaves,  and border 2 is a combination of  flowers, leaves and ribbons would you believe!  Probably not the best quilting you've ever seen, but on reflection no worse than my stippling was when I started and that's quite reasonable now so maybe if I keep practicing...............?

Block 2 of the Civil War quilt is up if you are taking part, - here's mine

I do wish I could take 'square' photos then my blocks would look square too, maybe it's time to nag DH again about the promised portable design wall .

I got so carried away with the first block on Barbara Brackman's blog  last week that I failed to register that the book she is referring to was on my bookcase

Needless to say it's not longer on the shelf but being  perused with more attention than the last time around :-)