Siberian Gold - Part Twelve

This week saw me actually getting to the half way point on this baby, yeah!


Here is where we were at on the last outing.
This is half way through.
I had hoped to steam on and progress this even more but other things seemed to get in the way and I only managed a few extra stitches. So this is where we stand now.

Time to put the Tiger's away for a week. Tomorrow I'll introduce the new project in my hand stitching rotation :)

QUILT NEWS - I'm happy to report that despite not feeling well yesterday and therefore not spending all day stitching as originally planned I've got an almost finished top, just have the border fabric to add which I'm hoping to get to this evening. Pictures soon :)

Quiltmania and Mission Impossible?

On a whim I purchased this magazine yesterday. I have bought a few issues in the past and have always enjoyed them but it's not one that I go out of the way to purchase regularly. There are some lovely patterns in this issue and as we are fast approaching December my mind is already wandering on to thoughts for my stitching goals next year.

In particular I really like this pattern. It's called Dalarna, designed by Mariet Soethout-Mous. I'm not sure how well it shows in this scanned picture. In my head I can see this made in stripes of rainbow colours rather than the reds and browns shown here. I think I will make this my big project for 2009. There are a total of 192 6 inch blocks to make so it may take me a while! Hopefully by making it nice and colourful it will keep me interested while making so many blocks!

In the meantime I have another project in mind to help me bust some stash. I found this wonderful tutorial via a link on Vicki's blog. I have been wanting to make my Gran a quilt for a while and being the mad thing that I am I have decided that this one might be straight forward enough to make as a Christmas pressie. Given the fact that I don't have a whole lot of free time I might be pushing it but I think the top will go together quickly enough it's the quilting part that worries me!I already have 20 FQ's pulled from my stash so am ready to go. I will be locking myself in the sewing room this weekend in the hopes of getting the top made by the end of Sunday, wish me luck! Before I can get anywhere though I have to clear this mess off the table so I have somewhere to cut my fabrics!

Inspector Hector

I'm happy to say that we've had some good news for a change. The family crisis that I mentioned a while back, while not averted is not going to have as large repercussions as we first thought so things should be business as usual here for the foreseeable future.

I shared a picture of Inspector Pip a while back, well not to be outdone here is Inspector Hector (and he rhymes!) checking out that piece of tucking I did in my workshop a couple of weeks ago.I don't think it met with his approval though as I only had time to snap a quick picture before he wandered off looking bored!

Snowflakes

I thought it was about time I got back to some postcards before I got withdrawal symptoms!

These are for a 'Snowflake' Swap. Difficult to get a decent picture of though so apologies for the naff quality.
I made five altogether and although they are all lightly different, these two are a pretty good representative of how they came out.
They were fun to make. a combination of different white on white fabric scraps, some ribbon, some paper punched shapes and one of the fancy stitches on my machine. I do enjoy working white on white (just wish I could get a better picture to show you, but pretty impossible here at the moment!)

And if you haven't already heard Terri and Sue are having a great 12 Days of Christmas giveaway. You can find all the details on their blogs, but all you have to do to be entered into the draw is sign up for their newsletter here. Go on give it a go, it'd be daft not too :)

Orange Fish

I'm having a lot of fun with these fish blocks. Of course I'm sure you knew there has to be a set of orange fishes in my future somewhere :)

No eyes this time, some of the ladies in the swap will want to have embroidered eyes instead of button eyes so we've decide to leave theme eyeless for now!

Steam - Part Two

Remember this picture that I shared a few posts ago?

Well it's grown a bit. It's difficult to get everything in one picture as the text is stitched in a long line across the fabric.

Now to start work on the main part of the piece that this will be used on .....

Mountain Autumn Part Three

Remember how Mountain Autumn looked on it's last outing?

Well I can hardly believe it myself, but look just one weeks work later....

... it's done, how cool is that!Now to find a nice mount and frame for it. The finished piece is 4.5" x 6.5"

It will be back to the Tigers next week, and I'll also have to find something new to work on to keep this rotation thing going :)

Scrappy Flowers

I'm beginning to realise that at this time of the year, even with some day light getting good photos is proving to be difficult, still I will plough on :)

I've been working on the next row for the Row Robin swap that I am taking part in. Now this one is different as Mary has asked that her blocks not be joined together but just left as they are. What a quick, easy and fun pattern she has chosen.

Another one that is perfect for raiding those scraps and small pieces I've been hoarding.

I think she is going to have a really fun quilt at the end of this swap!

Mary said that she will be embellishing with some scrappy leaves and things once it's put together so I'll be looking forward to seeing the finished top.

I don't have much space in my little house and with these not being joined together it was super tricky for me to try and get a photo, but I laid them out on my bed and did the best I could.I wonder what the next round of this robin will be throwing my way?....

Look Whose Been Naughty

A day off work today, yipee! I had planned to stitch, stitch, stitch all day, but it's been such a nice clear bright day it seemed a waste to spend it all indoors so I went on an early Christmas shopping trip to Bath.

Of course I couldn't go to Bath without calling into my favourite quilt shop, Country Threads. And oh look before you know it look what happened to fall into my bag :)


A pile of magazines

Some Christmas fabric.

Oh and I couldn't resist some of this fabulous fabric too.
My 'No Buy' fabric rule has been well and truly broken but what the hell, let's just call it an early Christmas present to myself!

Pink Fishes

To help me with my stash busting mission I decided to sign up for a couple of quilt block swaps. I know, I know technically I won't be stash busting as I will get blocks back but I have it in mind that eventually I might make a few charity quilts from these blocks (or maybe donate them to a woman who can if I don't find the time, lol

Anyway I have been having fun with fishes this week.

These cute blocks are just 8.5 inches and are being swapped in sets of four.

What a great block they are for using scraps on too! Vicki if you look closely you might recognise some of these fabrics!

They are due in the mail by the end of the month so I'm hoping to get another couple of sets done before they have to swim there way across the big pond to the swap hostess.

Angels

I have decided that the perfect way to combat the whole grey days = no photos thing is to work like a demon on my stitching in the evenings and the photograph everything at the weekend when I get to experience some daylight! So for the foreseeable future the stuff on my blog will be 'what I did last week!'

I have managed to get slightly behind with a couple of my swap commitments due to the whole sewing machine drama, but it feels good to be starting to catch up.

Here is one of a set of 4 postcards that I made for an Angel themed swap at Artsnthemail.

I changed my idea for these cards several times before coming across the perfect rubber stamp image buried in my collection. If you visit often I'm sure you've noticed by now that I love my bright colours (grin) but I also enjoy working with white. I thought a mainly white card would be perfect for this heavenly theme. I really enjoyed making these.

Harmonious Strip Patchwork

On Saturday I took a workshop organised by the Swindon Branch of the embroiderers guild. The tutor was Heather Martin and the title Harmonious Strip patchwork.

The aim was to start making a wall hanging from strips of cold dyed fabrics in our own choice of colour. As always happens when I go to workshops I didn't get very far!

So no hanging to show yet just a file of orange fabrics.

After the morning session of dying most of my afternoon was spend hand stitching some tucks.
The course requirements stated that the work could be done by hand or machine I was feeling too lazy to pack up my machine but to be honest if I had known that this is what we were going to do I would have taken it.

Still overall it was an enjoyable day, and I have a nice bright wall hanging to construct and keep me cheered while the weather outside remains grey!

Siberian Gold - Part Eleven

First off I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone who has commented on my last couple of posts. I love blogging and although I think I would do it no matter what, the wonderful support and encouragment from everyone who takes the time to read my mumblings really means a lot to me.

Now at last something that I can report progress on!

The whole rotation approach is working wonders. This is such a large piece for cross stitch that I had started to loose enthusiasm, but the knowledge that I only had this last week to progress the the Tigers really spurred me on.

This was where we last saw it.

This is the now.Good progress, no? I'll be working on Mountain Autumn this week, you know I think I am actually going to miss those darn Tigers.....

I could start a library ...

I can't sleep so instead I thought I'd blog. I found out last night that I'm on the verge of a potential family crisis, pow it just came flying at us right out of the blue. This thing might not come to pass but if it does the way I live right now will be turned upside down, there will likely be no time for blogging or stitching, so if I suddenly disappear for a while don't worry I'm ok, just riding out a storm.

In the meantime I'm trying to keep things as normal as possible so back to usual content :) I love this time of the year, dark, cold evenings which provide the perfect excuse to sit and stitch in front of the TV. The down side is that as I am at work during all of the daylight hours, it's difficult to get decent photos of anything. So even though there has been stitching I don't have pictures to share yet.

Instead I thought I'd share the results of the Amazon spending spree I went on while without machine.

I thought these would keep me company until the machine was fixed, sadly they all turned up the same day the machine was returned so plan foiled. So far I have only found time for a quick flick through them but I can't wait to have a proper read.

The Big Five-Oh-Oh

Well this is my 500th post. I had hoped to announce it in style with a super giveaway and all that jazz, but without my sewing machine I just haven't had time to make anything.

So watch this space, I'll just have to have a post-500 party instead :)

Happy Days

Look the wanderer has returned.....She seems to be working just fine but I haven't had too much time to put her through her paces properly yet. I'm sure she will get a good workout soon though as I have a stack of postcards and quilt blocks ready to be finished.

Yesterday I spent a lovely day with the Great Western Embroiderers. The day was spent stitching on projects for our up coming exhibition.I'm starting to panic and wonder if I will ever get a piece done in time, I'm still finding it hard to narrow down my ideas but I made my very first stitches yesterday.

Hopefully I will be able to pick up the pace and get a finished piece ready by January.

I just want to say a special thanks to Sue who spent her stitching time sharing some wonderful inspirational photos from her trips to Morocco with me. Mark has wanted to go to Morocco for ages but I have been a bit hesitate, but speaking to Sue has gotten me all excited and I think we will be planning our trip in the not too distant future!

Mountain Autumn Part Two

Still no machine Grrr. Apparently it's fixed there was a blown internal fuse it is with the Janome engineers and should have been delivered to me on Thursday but no sign. I will have to chase it up tomorrow what a pain. I have several postcards and quilt blocks waiting to be finished.

In the meantime I do have something to share at last. Some progress on the Mountain Autumn kit.

(apologies for the wonky photo). In order that this doesn't turn into a UFO I think I am going to do a rotation with this one and Siberian Gold. I will work one week on the cross stitch and one week on the long stitch.

I will start this week with Siberian Gold which hasn't had a stitch added to it since my last post, I have some catching up to do :)

Frustration

My machine was supposed to be back from the shop today but it didn't show up :(

Hopefully tomorrow.

In the meantime stitching of all types has ground to a halt. Maybe it's just some lag from a busy couple of weeks and a manic weekend but I just haven't had the energy or the motivation to stitch this week.

Checking In

I have been back from the conference for a few days but have had a really busy weekend. No time for stitching that's for sure. Actually I did try doing a few bits yesterday but got really frustrated as my old sewing machine just wasn't playing nice. I'm going to have to wait for my regular machine to get better. So things my be quiet on the blogging front for another week or so.

As I don't like to post without a picture, here is one taken a few weeks ago. Please let me introduce you to Inspector Pip of the Quilt Police.

Look at that bad ass stare, no-one messes with Inspector Pip!