More Harry Potter

A quick update on my progress with the Harry Potter quilt along blocks. Patterns are published by Soma at Whims and Fancies.

The first two blocks in August were Hermione's bookcase (here) and Hedwig (here). The next two were the deluminator and the Weasley Box. I was thankful that we had two months to complete these, as time ran away with me! But here they are:

Next came Crookshanks and the Time Turner. I'm not sure I am completely happy with the colourings of Crookshanks but it looked ok when I pulled them from the shelf! It is what it is, no way am I undoing it!

The Time Turner was a big block and I think I mixed up some of the colours but again, I'm not undoing it. It's probably only me that would fuss over where I think I went wrong. I like the end block and that's why counts!

The latest two are a Cornish Pixie and a Mandrake! I love the Cornish pixie, the little playful things they are! And Soma used such great colours in her block, this on is so fun. I enjoyed making this one and it came together so easily.

So now there's just a Mandrake left, but as I have another month to do this one I must move on to some Christmas sewing! Time is marching on fast!

Linking up with Soma at Whims and Fancies.

Online Trunk Show

Soma over at Whims and Fancies is hosting an online trunk show and I thought I would join in.

Wedding Anniversary Quilt
I think my best finish so far this year (and possibly ever) has to be the 50th anniversary quilt I made my parents. The pattern was round and round by Thimble blossoms and I used a Simply Colourful II layer cake and a huge amount of Kona white! 

50th Wedding Anniversary Quilt

The centre block contains my parents photo and around the edge are their five children on their wedding days. I included the 16 grand children under the respective parents too. Somehow I quilted this in a weekend (a tight deadline!) and was sewing the binding down on the aircraft flying to the surprise party. The final stitch were sewn just hours before the party began. There is more about this quilt here.

Center Block

Mario Bros
This next quilt was finished a couple of years ago and is another favourite of mine. Made for my son who was a Mario Bros fan. The pattern is by Angela at Cut to Pieces who ran it as a quilt along several years ago. I started making the blocks long after the quilt along had finished or I might have found it easier to keep on track. It took a long time to make these blocks, maybe something to do with the 3888, 1 inch pieces it comprises! I also found this one hard to quilt on my domestic machine, the size and weight made my shoulders ache after a while and it took me well over an hour a block despite chosing a simple stippling pattern! But I am so pleased with it, it keeps him warm and I love seeing it on his bed! You can read more and see more pictures here.

Super Mario Bros Quilt

Dalek Pillow

My husband is a big Doctor Who fan and I just loved taking part in Soma (Whims and Fancies) and Caroline's (Trillium Designs) quilt along a while back. I must confess though that I still haven't sewn all the blocks together into a quilt! But I did complete this Dalek block and turn it into a finished cushion last Christmas. Their patterns are great, sometimes challenging, but so satisfying to finish. 

Dalek Cushion

Friends for Christmas Wall hanging
I am so pleased I have finally finished this quilt (a long term WIP). I has been on the go for quite a few years. I went right off appliqué half way through but picked it back up earlier this year determined to finish it. The pattern is by Lynette Andersen and I just love the reindeers. I quilted the background with an all over loops and stars and it makes the characters stand out more. If you want to see more, it can be found here.

Friends for Christmas

Oakshott Challenge Quilt

My mum and I have been challenging each other to do something new and together for the last few years. The latest challenge was to use some Oakshott fabrics I won in a competition. We each started with a center block (wonky star in my case) and then, a bit like a round robin, sent it to the other to add a section and then swap again. We continued like this until we'd reached a reasonable size. This is my finished wall hanging. I heavily quilted mine just because I like to experiment with new designs. See more here.

Oakshott Challenge Quilt

Well, I think that's enough for one trunk show. I hope you enjoyed the selection. Take a trip to Whims and Fancies to see other trunk shows happening and maybe join in yourself. Thanks Soma for a fun idea! 

A very stupid thing!

I was tidying up my blog the other day and sorting through photos. I was removing some photos that were no longer needed. I obviously got a little over zealous hitting the mouse button and before I knew it I had managed to delete the whole image gallery! I was so mad! 

I have been going through adding the photos but it takes forever working out which image goes where and actually finding the images! So, there are still some pages with images missing! Hopefully I can restore them all eventually. 

Lesson learnt, when deleting take it slow and careful!! 

Halloween bags

I have had this fabric for quite some time and have planned each year to make the kids some trick-or-treat bags rather than using the broken plastic tubs they have carried around for the last 4 years!  Actually, I think the plastic tubs got thrown away in our recent move where we were quite ruthless! So it's a good job I finally made these. 

I found a pattern here that pretty much met my needs and roughly copied it!

I started with a small appliqué pattern that I drew onto freezer paper and then sewed onto the background fabric using a zig zag stitch. 

A friendly ghost!

A witches hat

Believe it or not the fabric is the same midnight Kona in both pictures! Nighttime lighting isn't good for taking pictures! I added a name to one but decided it might not be cool for the boy to have his name on it, so went with 'boo' instead! Much more him! 

The fronts

I found some silver, sparkly, rik rak in my stash, just perfect for a little girl. They sew up really quick and had pretty much completed the two in a single evening. Amazing what one can achieve when ones mind is set and there's time!

I used fusible fleece but still decided to do a small amount of quilting on the back, spiders web, to go with the spiders! 

Here are the two bags. The kids approved of them too!

Since this has been on my to do list for many years, and was on my #FAL Q4 list, it feels good to finally complete it! Perhaps this will be a productive quarter! I just discovered I forgot to link up my goals post with the ladies running the FAL, but I shall continue to try and finish some of my WIPs before the year is out.

Linking up to the WIP Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network.

Finish Along - Q4

Well I did not do so well last month. I didn't finish anything on my list and I don't think I made much progress on any of my WIPs! My list is pretty much the same as last quarter, although there might be a few more on it!! 

1. Double 9 patch quilt - still needs quilting

2. Dr Who - No progress

3. Bright flower patch quilt - no progress

4. Simply colourful - no progress

5. Camp blankets - no progress

6. V and Co Ombre - some progress. I made a few more blocks

7. Beeutiful QAL - a couple more blocks were made

 

8. Tula Pink City Sample - I joined the madness of the 100days100blocks quilt along! We are currently about 55 days in. It can be quite tricky trying to sew and post a block a day but so far so good. Here are the first 35 blocks.

9. Halloween Bags - I have the pattern bookmarked here and some purple halloween fabrics.

10. Princess Leia - apparently I have to create a halloween costume for our youngest child! I have a white sheet that should work and I'm sure I can find some silver fabric for a fancy belt.

Linking up with

 

100 days 100 blocks

Instagram is great for inspiration, community and fun, but such a distraction!

I saw the #100days100blocks tag surface and catch on, like wild fire. So I just knew I wanted to play along too. In case you haven't seen it, it's a quilt along only on Instagram and organised by Gnome Angel, Sunflower Quilting and Sweet Little Pretties. Quite simply the challenge is to sew a block a day for 100 days using Tula Pink's City Sampler book.

I have had the book for ages and aside from browsing it many times I have never done anything else with it. This was the perfect opportunity. I have also been hoarding a bundle of Reel Time fabrics by Zen Chic. So the perfect time to use some stash too.

The sew along started on August 17, so we are two weeks into it, and so far so good. Generally I have been sewing the block on the day. I am trying to stay prepared by making sure I always have the next 3 blocks cut and ready to sew. They sew up so quick, I find it's choosing the fabrics that take me the longest time! Helping me out are these mini design boards. Although, I will confess that I have actually sewn some of the blocks due to be posted around Sept 1. We move house that day and I feel the chance of sewing is pretty slim! So I have a couple of blocks either side of that day done to take some pressure off.

Here are my first 15 blocks:

I am really liking where this is going. And hoping I can keep up with the schedule.


If you are on Instagram you can follow along with my progress at createthepoint_100blocks.

Hedwig -- Harry Potter QAL

Hedwig was such a great choice for one of the first blocks in this quilt along. I loved making her and the pattern, as always, was great.

And I completed her just in time for the next 2 blocks to be released today. Check out Soma's quilt along at Whims and Fancies. Thank goodness we have two months to complete the next two blocks, September always seems to be a busy month.

Happy sewing!

Hermione's bookcase -- Harry Potter QAL

It's been almost two weeks since the first two blocks of this quilt along were released, but I am finally making some progress! Just in time for the next two blocks to be released! :)

The QAL is being run by Soma at Whims and Fancies, the details can be found here, for anyone interested.

First up on my cutting board is Hermione's bookcase.

Image from Whims and Fancies

I am pulling all the fabrics from my stash for this one. With all the pieces cut up in a neat pile there seemed rather a lot!

This is a large block at 24" x 12". Although some pieces are quite small. That pretty little moon is only 3.5" square and made up of 31 pieces !!

The pattern has 4 pictures on the doors, and that moon is one of them. The pattern suggests fussy cutting pieces of fabric for these space. But when I saw Soma's block with the moon, hat, star and vile I just knew my collection of fabrics was not going to provide me with anything close to those.

Soma so very kindly provided some extra patterns for these pieces. And I am so thankful and touched by her generosity, they are excellent and make the block perfect.

And the final block does not disappoint! Here it is.

Next up is Hedwig, but I'm not sure I'll get that one finished before the next two blocks are released later this month. Because, see all those totes sitting there in my messy sewing room, they need filling!

We are moving house on September 1st , just 5 days before the kids start the new school year! Not perfect timing, and certainly not of our choosing! The joy of renting.

Off to prep Hedwig in the hope I can finish him before the move, good to have a deadline. 

Happy sewing!

Finish along - Q3

I made quite a dent in my long term list of WIPs last quarter! I finished 4 quilts and a cardigan. So I now feel justified to add some new projects to my list :)

I still have some long term WIPs that need to be completed though, so these are still on my list:

1. Double 9 patch quilt - still needs quilting

2. Dr Who - it's still just a pile of blocks, although I did add a couple more and make a bit of a plan!

3. Bright flower patch quilt

This quit has been constructed since 2012 but I decided I would hand quilt it!! I do like to hand quilt things but often smaller projects! This is not usually the first thing I think to pick up when I have time. I think I have completed 10 of the white blocks with the sunflower design below. I'm adding it to my list to remind me it is there and needs finishing, rather than leaving it hiding in the cupboard.

4. Simply colourful - this one still needs a plan

5. Camp blankets
My kids are all members of scouting and they each have a camp blanket for collecting their badges. Say their blankets are still very bare but the pile of badges is continually getting larger! I am not keen on sewing these badges onto the blankets! The kids keep pestering me to do it though, so perhaps this is the quarter I really should get it done.

And it's always good to add some new things to keep the mix interesting :)

6. V and Co Ombre 

I have this jelly roll of beautiful ombre fabrics and I love it with the essex yarn dyed in black. I have struggled to decide on a pattern I want to make, but I made a block last night that I think I might continue with.

7. Beeutiful QAL

I just couldn't resist these cute bee blocks I saw being posted on Instagram by @sweetlittlestiches. The QAL is being hosted on Moda Bake Shop website over the next few weeks. I am not sure I will make all 16, but we'll see how far I get. These are my first 2 completed blocks, which I think is block 4 and block 2 (I'm playing catch up)!

 

So, while my list from last quarter shrunk considerably, I seem to have added plenty more to focus on this quarter. Happy sewing everyone.



Linking up with