Friday 22 January 2016

2 more flimsie quilts

I have made 2 more quilts   first Urban neighbourhoods   the new year challenge quilt from Michele Foster,    unfortunately I was like a bull in a china shop and after making the 30 blocks I thought I knew best and put it together without following instructions.  Alternate blocks should have been rotated 90 degrees  I certainly was not going to unpick it all but will make another correctly in the next few weeks.  I used a jelly roll,  the river bank by Fabric freedom and some plain yellow.  How much easier using a jelly roll, so much less cutting to do as it was the right width,  will use another the next time too.Sorry the photo is very dark   taken on the kitchen floor.



the next one was in the mini series,  also one of Michele Foster`s  Carousel rides which I am very pleased with,  one more to go then all 6 will have been done and I might then pluck up some courage to try quilting them,   have a notion that small quilts might make life easier!  The last one is due to be released at the beginning of feb.



Have been in trouble with the lap top,  seems I was hacked and then ripped off over fixing it, paid out a lot of money fortunately by cheque which I have stopped,  police sent me to PC world and they have worked on it they said windows had been corrupted   not sure what all that means and put a new windows in and so far all is well,   the only problem now cannot reconnect my printer or reinstall Microsoft office so no printing at the moment,  will download to memory sticks and go to staples for now.
Not very motivated at the moment re starting a new project   I hate anything new but hopefully will start something soon,  have Farm girl vintage,  Women of the Bible and The farmers wife all on the to do list for this year.   Maybe will do another Crazy challenge  have signed up but not started yet.
Comments have been down so looks like google have stopped some from leaving a comment but I think everyone can still see what mischief I am up to   will just see what happens.  Have removed the embedded bit from comments after being given the instructions.

Monday 11 January 2016

blogger change

Today I read about this google change to blogs,   sorry I do not understand it but seems we will all be affected    I have joined most blogs via the google button but those that do not have it I think I might not hear from when they have posted to their blog,    will be such a shame if we lose contact with those we are following   hope I can stay with you all and you can stay with me, I do have the google friend button on mine so maybe those of you who wish to continue following me will register on that,  http://pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/blogger-change.html. I have tried to copy the article but my mouse broke yesterday and having problems trying to use the pad,  will buy one today when I go into town

hexagons now a quilt

These last few days I have made my hexie quilt from the BOM 2015 challenge.    The hexies have been sewn by hand onto the backing fabric then a decision had to be made about the sashing,  as there was not much red in the quilt I choose to use red with the background fabric as corner stones, the sashing is 1.5" and the borders are 3.5", overall it measures  94" x 66"   my largest quilt to date.
It is now on the spare bed along with all the others waiting to be quilted!




Here is the next mini quilt in the series of 6   this is the 5th one and called Carousel ride,  it measures 27".  so many HSTs   72, I make them with 2 squares back to back but they all have to be trimmed back to size    what a pain!  Likewise there were 72 flying geese,  these I also make with a big square making 4 from each square and had them to trim too,  It might be small but took 2 days to do. When all 6 are done, the last will be released in feb, I will have a go at quilting,  I am hoping smaller will be easier and might turn out to be doable and then give me a bit of confidence to  attempt some of the bigger ones





Lap top is back working,  the shop had to take it back to earlier time, they are very good as it is out of guarantee, fortunately I had things backed up both on a memory stick and external hard drive.  Was concerned windows office 2007 would not reload but it went on fine along with my printer so fingers crossed all will be well 

Saturday 2 January 2016

Happy New Year to everyone,    and belated Christmas wishes too.

I have been very neglectful with my blog,  it is over 3 months since I posted but have been following everyone else in my absence.

Will now try and add some photos of what I have been up to.     Success these photos look ages to add,  having problems as at the moment my lap top is not working with windows,  have been locked out somehow so now it is going very slow,  takes 30 mins to open a folder and the same to get onto google. Have spoken to Microsoft who say it is my problem and will have to pay a technician to sort it,  seems they are passing the book as when I went onto bing and put in what the computer says is the problems there are loads of people with the same problem.  Rant over.

This is my aiming for accuracy 11 quilt,  it was a block a month but I waited till I had them all then started it a week before Christmas and finished it Boxing day,   well to the flimsy stage so it now joins aiming for accuracy 1 on the flimsy pile.  It is one of Michele Foster`s of MiskhasPlayground.com  BOM`s.  I am thrilled with it, the triangles were a pain to do on the border and are not all they should be but I can live with them.

 These are  in another series with Michele,  she is sharing 6 mini quilts,  have now done the first 4 and waiting for the next 2 to be shared with us. They will be 24" square when completed. Thought this would be a good challenge as maybe just maybe I will not have too much of a problem trying to machine quilt it as there will not be a lot of weight to battle with,  I am living in hope anyway. The first 3 I made at the same time then the 4th when it was released. I arranged the first in a different way to the way we were shown and the second one I managed to get 2 pieces around the wrong way but what the heck I call in a personalised quilt. The 3rd and 4th are I think correct.
 

oh dear now I look at this the error is quite noticeable   maybe I will  no it will be too difficult to put right,  I will live with it


This is a BOM by Jacquelynne Steves,  we were able to either embroider, applique or use a fabric in the squares,  of course I opted for the embroidery version. It is the first quilt I have done on point and unfortunately is a little out of shape but hopefully when it finally gets off the flimsy pile the quilting might disguise the shape.  Jacquelynne has now joined up to work with Michele so I can see some amazing quilts being shared by them.  They are bring out some mini quilts soon with embroidery/applique on so will have a go at those too


Loving this next wall hanging  Home and Heart it is from Bird Brain designs and the same people who designed the cat one I did. I decided not to do it all in one colour but used a different perle cotton for each block Have now bought their latest design Stitchin`Wisdom Quilt which  I am looking forward to starting. Sorry the quality of the photo is poor think it is easier to see enlarged like this than smaller. I am hoping the hospice Helen is a nurse at is going to like it and maybe use in a raffle to raise money as they need every penny they can raise to keep the hospice running smoothly



Just a couple of pincushions I made   the owl was so quick to do, thought the little one was a little too little so enlarged the pattern, liking my pyramid one too,  have made quite a few cushions in this shape over the years  mostly embroidered  and bigger but not pin cushions.


These are the Christmas table pieces I made for Xmas 2015,  a table runner that goes down the centre of the table and, 4 place mats and 4 mug rugs. we used it on 24th when my 2 daughters and granddaughter came for the day for their Xmas meal,  Helen the hospice nurse was working on 25th she always volunteers to work on Christmas day as she has no children, so a quiet day I had on 25th and ate left overs and got on with the A4A11 quilt. They are now put away till next year, (the mats not my girls)    have had the Christmas fabric for years so glad to get something done with it at last



This is a small runner I made from some scraps Jennie Rayment gave me,  it fits on my horn cabinet which I have finally got downstairs and my benina Heidi is housed in it. I was so cheeky when the fire brigade came to fit new smoke detectors I asked them if they would bring the cabinet down for me and they agreed to.  Will post a photo of my set up next blog as have not taken one yet. Hopefully I will be less than 3 months next time it will be less than 3months next time. The fabric is rather Christmassy so think I will make another one for the rest of the year or maybe do a spring, summer and autumn one and ring the changes.


These are the last 3 blocks in the hexie BOM and all 12 laid out,  did wonder if I could join them all together and then attach them to some fabric but changed my mind at I am now in the process of sewing them on individual blocks which I will then join together with sashing,   not sure what colour I will use for that,  have 2 more to do then will decide.




This is a bit of fun fabric,  I could not resist when I saw it and bought a panel and have now made a holder for my fountain pens, roller ball pen, biros and propelling pencil. 

Think I have added enough   hope you enjoyed it all if you managed to last till the end of the posting

 I have Alfie Helen`s cat staying for a couple of days so not much stitching will be done as he demands attention!