The group quilt project has been taking a back seat over the past few weeks, what with dress-making and Christmas knitting, but I got a gentle reminder in the post that I should be working on my Celtic applique block in the shape of an acknowledgement of our registration for the 2010 Festival of Quilts at the NEC. I'd stalled a little bit on the second leaf so it was nice to finish that in Eleanor's company (it's always good to have moral support for the tricky bits) and the third leaf seemed to go much more easily. I'd learnt (the hard way) that it's a good idea to line the outer edge of the piping up against the outer edge of the leaf to ensure that all the layers of fabric are caught down by the stitching.



It's still over 5 months until we even have to send in the entry form so we should have plenty of time to finish the quilt, especially as after Sally, Eleanor, and I have finished our current blocks the remainder should involve a lot more machine stitching and a lot less applique by hand.

Tiny and cosy

I might have mentioned, once or twice, that I have the cutest niece in the whole world. She turns two on Saturday and already she is totally the little mother. Whenever we take her to the park she'll have a quick go on the swings and slide herself and then spend the rest of the visit putting dolly on the swings, pushing dolly in her pram, changing dolly's nappy.

I had the idea to make dolly a gro-bag (baby sleeping bag) of her own after one afternoon in the park when Laurie spent the whole time tucking dolly into her own pram and covering her with her own gro-bag.



It's just a rectangle with armholes and a neckhole and a zip up the front. I used the rest of the snail and peapod fabric for the outer and a beautiful blue fabric with flower print for the lining.



The bias binding is the fabric I used for my needle roll.



When I saw Laurie at the end of October she had really got the hang of adjectives. She would hold up a Cheerio between her little fingers and say "TINY" at the highest possible volume and pitch. She gets very excited by things that are tiny. The other thing that she would do is to tuck dolly and mousey and Jane dolly into her pram and say "cosy". Hopefully she'll find this both "TINY" and "cosy" and she'll have a wonderful second birthday.

Square one

Presenting my first completed block for the quilting group's sampler quilt. The block is taken from Lynne Edward's New Sampler Quilt Book. I'm really liking the combination of the fabrics I chose together with the lighter background fabric that we'll all be using. I think it's going to be a very classy looking quilt. This block wasn't too much of a challenge (I'm fairly used to machine piecing by now) so for the next one I'm going to choose something to take me out of my comfort zone - possibly the Carolina Lily or Drunkard's Path (I love quilt block names).

I *heart* Sundays

Two hours in the bath reading Atonement followed by Sunday brunch banana pancakes with golden syrup. It doesn't get much better.

Once bathed and fed I settled down to finishing the embroidery on the sheep cardigan and by the time that Lewis Hamilton had crashed out on the final lap of the Italian Grand Prix it was all ready to post off to my sister.



Pattern: Sheep Yoke baby cardigan by Jen Little
Yarn: British Breeds Blue Face Leicester Double Knitting in Natural, Denim, Sage, Rose, and Sienna
Needles: 3.75mm
Modifications: Extra yoke rounds and increases to modify the size to fit a two-year old, sleeves and body lengthened

I picked up the buttons yesterday on a trip to Village Fabrics in Wallingford with our quilting group (our inaugural fieldtrip).



It was my first visit to Village Fabrics and I loved it.



They have a great selection and the displays are beautifully set out - little bundles of fat quarters and eighths tied up with ribbons and arranged in baskets everywhere.

We were there to pick fabrics for a sampler quilt which we'll be making as a group project. I'm really excited about learning some new quilting skills. I chose three fat quarters - two blue and one brown - which will coordinate nicely with the backing fabric (very light brown with slighter darker dots).



Hopefully if we end up making a good effort of it we can raffle it for charity.

Brand new/old bag

This is more or less my first ever knitting FO.



I bought the yarn way back when Oxford actually had a Rowan shop (it's now a copy place - sigh) along with a copy of Big Easy in order to knit the pattern Merry. Sadly when the pattern was done not only was I not too keen on the gauge (a little indecent frankly) but the damn thing wouldn't go over my head. After toying with the idea of undoing one shoulder and adding buttons I finally ripped it all out and wondered what to do with the rather expensive yarn.

The answer was this bag from another Rowan big wool book (bought for another doomed Rowan big wool project - more of which later) which knit up quickly and easily, looked great - and stretched like nothing on earth which is why it sat in a drawer for the last two years. It only occurred to me this weekend that lining it might just do the trick.

Pattern: Violet from The Next Big Thing
Yarn: Rowan Big Wool
Needles: 10mm
Lining and handle fabric is by Makower from Hobbycraft.

It's now carrying around my latest knitting project which matches it in a very pleasing manner.

After struggling to machine stitch cotton fabric to chunky merino wool (my poor machine foot) sticking a border around the quilt was the work of a moment (or at least half an hour).



My cotton batting arrived from the Quilt Room on Monday and I'd be quilting away right now if I hadn't accidentally left the parcel at Ellen's last night - oops. If she brings it to knitting for me on Wednesday please, please don't let me leave it in the pub.

Last but not least, the pattern for the Hopscotch socks is finally up on Ravelry. it has been test knit twice so I'm hoping that there aren't too many errata. If you spot any please let me know via Ravelry or the comments.

Cabbage patch quilt

The sewing which I had planned for Sunday finally got done this evening. I just had seven blocks to stitch together before I could start on laying out the quilt.



I tried my best not to overthink the arrangement of the blocks. I just laid out one vertical strip of 6 different blocks - trying to get a good balance between the dark and lighter blocks - and then laid out the other 3 strips offset by one block.

I'm really happy with the way that the pink/red blocks balance at opposite corners and I love the dark green stripe across the middle.

I'll lose some of the area to seaming but I think that it should work out single bed size (or as a runner for the base of a double bed) once I've put a border on.



I'll take some better close-up shots of the individual blocks once it's sewn together as these photos don't really do the fabrics justice.

Of course some of my motivation for getting this done (aside from working with the lovely fabrics) comes from checking out the Rowan fabrics at liberty the other weekend. It looks like we'll be making another trip to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC this summer and I can't justify buying more fabric until I've finished the two quilts currently on the go.

Stained Glass Quilt

I finished off the quilt top on Saturday morning and couldn't resist pinning it up against the window to show off the colours. I'm going to finish it off with a border in either the red or dark green and a back in the cream to show off the quilting. It's just going to be a lap quilt with a finished size of probably 36" by 56" and should be lovely and bright for the spring.

Whilst the quilt top looks pretty impressive I'm conscious that behind the scenes (or seams if you like) it could be neater and there are some fairly fudgy spots. However, I'm on the learning curve and I've learnt a few useful lessons for my next attempt such as the larger the individual pieces the easier (and quicker) it is and that less than a quarter-inch seam allowance is not a good idea.

Serendipity

Finally I get to show off the great fabric I got at Hobbycraft at the weekend. It's been under wraps till now as I used it to make a needle case for Lara's birthday present and I wanted it to be a surprise.



I bought quarter metres of the three fabrics plus another metre of the cupcake print for Felix as I was pretty sure she'd love it. My hunch was confirmed when she turned up having bought the very same fabric herself (also from Hobbycraft) to wrap up her own present for Lara (Felix has revolutionary ideas about wrapping paper which I may be adopting).

The Twighlight Zone vibe just got more intense as Felix presented me with my own beautifully wrapped parcel just as I was saying how I nearly bought this great cabbage print fabric and how I still really wantesd it.





Lo and behold, the very same was in my parcel (second from the left). I'm going to have so much fun making these up into a spring garden-y type of quilt, maybe with strips like Jane Brocket's Allotment quilt or a simple log cabin. I really enjoyed making the star blocks over Christmas for my current on the go quilt project but they are a bit labour intensive and I'd like something a little more relaxing (and with a little less ironing!)

Talking of which...



There's nothing like either a) the successful conclusion of a project or b) new stash to fill you with enthusiasm so it was small wonder that I got out the sewing machine when I got home and got piecing.

There are now 16 completed blocks sewn together and I think I need 8 more (which are cut out but not yet pieced) to make a decent sized top. A job for the weekend I think.