Halloween and Houston

The last week has flown by. Parents arrived from England. Our youngest had a ballet show to perform as a Zombie Ballerina in the mall! Turns out she is not such an exhibitionist when there are other people watching. I had to make a black tutu to turn her into a zombie ballerina!

This year our eldest daughter wanted to be a Zombie Bride! After much searching we couldn't find a costume to buy, so again I made one. A man's large t-shirt and lots of netting! 

And for the Halloween party with the neighbours they were characters from a book called Clover Twig. So a cloak and hat made for a witch, a fat costume for my son and thankfully a cat we already had! Hubby was left in charge of assembling them all, but not a bad job was done!

On Monday my parents and I left rainy Vancouver behind for warm, sunny Houston! We have just got back from the preview night of the International Quilt Festival! Oh, so much to see and buy! Wonderful!

As a result of all that not much progress this week with many of my sewing projects. But a few hours on the plane (and no kids to amuse) meant I got a lot of knitting done!

Got to get some rest now, more quilt show tomorrow! :) 

Linking up with Freshly Pieced and The Needle and Thread.

Christmas/Spring table runner

Progress this week! Hurrah! The table runner for my parents is (so nearly) complete, despite running out of thread on Tuesday whilst doing the quilting! And then discovering I had no binding! I had to have it done by today as they arrive from England tomorrow and I knew I wouldn't get anytime once they arrived to finish it.

It all started when I saw this table runner by Flutter.Kat. I wanted to make my parents a table runner that would do for the Winter season, not just Christmas, and one they could turn over and use at other times too. 

So, I made some paper pieced trees using fairly non-Christmas fabrics since I didn't want it to be over the top on the Christmas theme.

I then made a few wonky stars:

I had some Lynette Anderson snowflake fabrics that I thought would make a good border and, in my mind they did! So, here it is all put together:

I was really pleased with this side of the table runner. But struggled more with the idea for the back! I have always like pinwheels, so after browsing pinterest and googling images I decided pinwheels it was. I chose fabrics from my stash that I knew my mum would like. They were all batiks! 
So I constructed what I thought was enough pinwheels to make it close to the same size as the one above. I then discovered my calculations were a little off so had to make a few more. But eventually this is how it turned out:

Finally, the quilting and binding. I quilted most of it with a meandering pattern since I had two different designs to accommodate. I did however, add a few stars into the pattern on the white areas above the trees, just to break it up a little bit. Not that they stand out too much, now I look at it from a distance! Ah well.

I was in the middle of quilting it when the reel of thread ran out! I was not impressed as it was the one day hubby took the car to work so there was no way I could get across town to buy more thread. I was so close and yet stuck. Parents arriving in less than two days and it wasn't compete! 

It all worked out in the end. I purchased more thread and completed the quilting with ease. I did have to take another trip to my LQS to find a binding as I just did not have one that would do both side! I have managed to get the binding sewn on, now I just need to finish the binding by hand. I like this bit as it's the last step before it's done, a nice ending. 

So here we go the pinwheel side, nearly done! 

I also got round to felting my knitted slippers! Our washing machine did a fine job of agitating! Now waiting for them to dry to finish them off.

Next on the list to complete (before starting anything new!):

• Christmas Quilt - FMQ
• Bright 9 patch quilt - hand quilting
• Car strip quilt - FMQ

I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced and The Needle and Thread Network.

WIP - mainly cakes!

Well, this week has not seen much sewing and far too much cake making! A birthday party at the weekend meant another very chocolatey cake:

And another birthday today means more cake! This one is for my eldest little girl who also received a real sewing machine as her present! 

She was very happy with the cushion I made :) And the jeans (forgot to take a picture) I had embellished went down a dream too :)

On the sewing front, I have started (ha, another one for the list to finish) a table runner for my parents as a Christmas gift. Some paper piecing trees so far.

And I am also trying to finish knitting a pair slippers! It has turned cooler here in the last day, someone took the sun away and now it feels like October should. When sewn together I need to felt them and I can't wait to see the end result. They should hopefully look something like the ones here, but this is them at the moment!! I'm sure it will all turn out right!

Birthdays are always lots of fun but I do feel relieved once they are over and things return to some sense of normal again!

Linking up to

  

I'm off to browse other people's progress now!! Happy creating. 

WIP Wednesday

I finished something this week! Yay! 

Firstly, I have so very nearly completed the cushion for my daughter's bed. Nearly a week in advance (most unlike me!). I blogged here that I had nearly completed it! I just have to add the buttons now.

I have my fingers crossed blue really is her favourite colour! I must now make a cushion pad to fit inside, my cover is typically not a standard size! 

Front

Back

Earlier this year I started knitting a pair of socks. For a long time I had one sock, but now I have two!!! And they fit too. I don't do a lot of knitting but when I do my stitches are often too tight so things end up smaller than they should. But thankfully these fit nicely. Only issue is they are hand wash only! Eugh, I hate doing laundry let alone hand washing!

The wool is Opal Nightlife 5734. They took less than one ball of wool. I love the pattern, especially as it is just simple knitting and nothing fancy to get confused over when I haven't touched it for so long! So pleased with them. 

And finally, the kids and I made a cake for hubbies birthday yesterday! This went down a treat! Can't beat a good chocolate cake on your birthday :)

Unfortunately, my Christmas quilt has been put on hold for a minute. I have some thread that I am experimenting with and some quilting patterns. But since we have another birthday next week there just doesn't seem to be enough time to do everything. 

I am also linking up with Freshly Pieced and The Needle and Thread Network. Can't wait to see what others have been up to this week.