Q2 Finish Along

Q1 sewing didn't go as planned, so my Q2 goals are pretty much a repeat of my Q1 goals.

This lovely pile of fabric will become pillow shams.

This lovely pile of fabric will become a baby quilt.

And this lovely winter design will become a Christmas tree skirt.

Here's hoping Q2 goes better than Q1.

Bird In Hand Mittens

I've been sewing lately - I promise - but I can't show any here because it's all been secret sewing. I'll reveal all when it's finished.

I have been knitting too. I finished these mitts for myself - Bird in Hand - and I love them. I love the colours and they'll look great with my white parka. I want to add a fleece lining so they'll be super warm, and I need to do a little embroidery on the thumb. (if you look closely at the thumb, there is a white blob near the tip - it's meant to be a bird, so I need to add eyes, wings, and legs)

I've had this pattern for years. I needed to learn to knit Continental style first, so that I could manage the two colour knitting.

Now, I'm hoping it isn't cold enough to wear them until next winter.

I Think I've Had An Epiphany

It's been awhile since I last posted. I've been sewing and crafting, just not blogging (mostly due to a computer problem, which is now fixed).

What I've been working on most recently is a travelling quilt my friend L cooked up. She was inspired by a similar one she saw online. There are three of us in this group. We set up some basic rules and provided our own fabric. Then, we rotate the fabrics between each other enough times to end up with a lap sized quilt at the end. Our official name is QB Travelling Quilt - we're on Instagram as #qbtravellingquilt if you want to look us up.

Everyone made their own first block and decided on a theme. My theme is 'shine brightly' and this is my first block.

The pattern is New York Flying Geese by Better Off Thread. I bought it on Craftsy here; its a paper pieced pattern and simple to do, just fiddly. This fabric is part of a 54 piece fat 1/8th rainbow bundle I bought about 5 years ago from a vendor on Etsy called Surly Sheep. These are only 32 of the colours. The rest of the fabric I bought for my quilt is from Pink Castle Fabric and is called the Moda Rainbow Stash Box.

I love this block. It speaks to my heart. The colours are great and I love the different ones included. It was really hard to give it to L, who is making my next set of blocks.

I have to make for C first. I can't show everything of hers because she might read my blog and everything is a secret until she gets her own back sometime in April.
These are her fabrics

Right now they are up in a design on my design wall and I might be in love with them. They are so rich and varied and look so happy up there.

Here's my epiphany - I might have to change my colour palette. I like to use bright colours but I don't always do it enough. These last two examples of brights are showing me how much I enjoy the brights and how great they look together. These colours are also so saturated and so rich, that they are magnificent. It's either the depth of the colour or the rainbow aspect that is speaking to me - I think it's the rainbow aspect, but I'm not positive.

Now, I just need to win the lottery so I can buy fabric with abandon.

A Finish - A Snake Suit

I joined the Finish Along this year again and I've completed my first UFO.

This is a snake suit for my oldest niece. She wanted one that matched a snake stuffy she has - she picked out the fabric, zipper, and cuff fabrics. She wanted me to sew with silver metallic thread but I managed to talk her out of that. Our trip to the fabric store was fun - the kid has taste, because I couldn't talk her into some very ugly Xmas sombrero/cactus fabric.

The pattern is this one:

My younger niece got a dalmatian costume for Hallowe'en using this same pattern last October. I had to lengthen the torso, arms, and legs for both girls - I don't know if that is a reflection of their body proportions or the pattern design. Either way, the alterations were simple enough and the pattern easy to follow.

Here's my finished product:

And a close up of the hot pink zipper (which coordinates to something on the snake stuffie).

E will get the costume next weekend when she and her sister are over for a crafternoon and sleep-over.

Q1 Finish-A-Long

Last year some wonderful bloggers set up a finish-a-long, and there are great prizes. Happily, the group is continuing this year and I'm going to join again.

If you're interested, you can find all the details here.

For this quarter here are my entries:

1) A Christmas tree skirt I started in time to finish for Christmas, then I came down with a nasty sinus infection and it got put to the side. It's #1 on the list.

2) A one piece snake suit for my eldest niece. The fabric was bought around Hallowe'en but she said she wasn't in a hurry, so it's still sitting in my sewing room. Honestly, I'm stalling a bit because it's a knit and I haven't sewn a real knit for quite some time.

3) A pair of red and white mittens for myself. I've had the pattern for a long time and finally got a suitable yarn for them.

4) A quilt for a friend at work who is having her first baby, a little boy, and she wants a sports theme. I know the pattern, I just can't find it in the mess of my sewing room right now.

5) Finally, this fabric (plus a few others currently in my dryer) will be turned into a variety of pillow and bolster shams. The colour looks awful here, but in real life they look much better.

I'm linking up to She Can Quilt to sign up. Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!

I knew I hadn't posted for awhile but I didn't think it was that far back in September. Life sometimes gets in the way of blogging. I've continued by sewing and other crafts, but work got in the way of reporting on it.

I'm not big into those posts about reflecting on the past year and setting goals for the new one. My primary crafting goal for 2017 is to make something for members of my family to commemorate Canada's 150th birthday - I've made the offer to everyone to request an item. I have a few ideas cooking but I don't want to rush into anything. I also want to clean up and organize my crafting space because I spend too much time re-arranging things and looking for things, when I could use that time for sewing. (The same goes for the rest of my house lol).

Here's what I'm working on right now...

I started a new Christmas tree skirt for myself a couple of weeks before Christmas and I was making good time until I came down with a wicked sinus infection. This is immediately on the radar to finish so it can go away and is ready for next year.

On the knitting front, I decided I needed warmer mittens for when the weather is really cold. I found this pattern years ago and even bought yarn, but I couldn't get the right gauge with that yarn so this holiday I got some finer yarn and my gauge is now much better. I also found a hat pattern I like to go with this (I'm not a big hat wearer, but it never hurts to have one around).

Since I last blogged I finished a few things as well, unfortunately, I don't have photos. I did some sewing for a colleague at work and made some window seat cushions and some throw cushions as well. I finished knitting a sweater for my oldest niece for Christmas and didn't get a photo of that either. I also fixed a snow mobile cover for someone at work. And I knit myself a shawl. I must have worked on more, but alas again, no photos.

Useful and Good Looking

Just like the kids, when September hits I'm back to school. This year I'm not in the same room all day so I needed something to help me be portable and keep me organized.

I decided on the Caravan Tote as a good sized bag. It will fit my binders and whatever marking I collect. It got great reviews online, which is always helpful. I didn't make all the pockets and zippers it called for - I didn't need them and I wanted to keep the cost down.

I used Essex linen as the dark base with Mon Ami as the floral and a dot pattern as the inside. I bought .5m of each fabric and had very little left over. The base has a quilted cross hatch in it - hard to see in this photo - of 2.5-3" squares to help hold the fusible fleece in place. Sorry I don't have a photo of the inside. I put in a small zippered pocket and a hook to hang my keys on. I've been using it every day for the last two weeks and it works great. It's the perfect size and I love how it looks.

I also made myself a marking pencil case to go in this bag. I don't do any marking at home so I need a small case that holds my essential marking supplies for when I'm marking - usually at Starbucks.
I used some of the fabric left over from the bag to create this:

It holds all my essentials - kleenex, pens, highlighters, clips, and post its.

I used this pattern (by the same designer as the Caravan tote, but free) and made the size small. It's big enough to hold pens and plenty more.

Finally, I needed an every day pencil case to hold all my other supplies. Pens, pencils, clips, elastics, everything I could possibly need. I used the Sew Together Bag pattern and put this together. The fabric is "Apple of my Eye" by The Quilted Fish - it's part of the first fat quarter set I ever bought. I've been saving it, I don't know for what, and broke it out for this project. This bag is great and holds everything I could possibly want in a day.

And maybe the best thing about everything I made - I love my fabric choices and they make me happy every time I see them.