WiP Wednesday - playing catch up!

This week I have been working on more paper piecing, trying to catch up on the Doctor Who blocks from the Dr Who Along. I am so far behind!

The Vashta Nerada was first up, and not quite as straight forward as I had hoped! The skull was the first part to construct. When putting the pieces together I somehow managed to switch the black and charcoal around and only discovered when adding the helmet! Oh, I was not happy, so much to unpick and redo!

Vashta Nerada

Next up The Crack in the Wall! Fundamental to the story line. This one went together much easier than the last two tricky ones! 

Crack in the Wall

Only another 8 blocks to catch up on! 

Linking with Freshly pieced, The Needle and Thread Network, Lets Bee Social and Paper Pieced Party.

Banners

When I saw the Easy As ABC QAL with Blossom Heart Quilts I knew I wanted to make some of the blocks but wasn't sure about making the whole quilt. The finished quilts I have seen do look amazing though!

I decided to make letters from my children's names in colours they would like and to turn them into banners for their rooms. My intention was for Christmas gifts! But unsurprisingly time ran out and they weren't complete!

So, here are the three banners: 

I machine stitched in the ditch around the letters. I found some matching buttons for the corners and some perle variegated threads for hand quilt around the letters.

I shall now hang on to them until I need a gift. Perhaps Easter. 

No more weeping

This block was rather hard work, so many small pieces! Soma designed this block with two options one with all the veins in the wings and one without. Well, after starting the harder version I was soon wishing I had chosen the easier option!

I loved the episodes with the Angels, I found them so spooky. Especially living in Cardiff (where the show is filmed) at the time, with all those statues around near where I worked!! 

So, here she is, my weeping angel:

Weeping Angel

Having placed all my blocks side by side, I have noticed that they aren't all the same size!! I guess I forgot to check my scaling when printing out. Hoping this isn't going to cause me too much of a problem later on!! 

Linking up with The Needle and Thread Network.

A girlie bag {Finish}

We seem to have had several birthday invites lately for the littlest one. She always gets very excited at the thought of a party. Many parents say no gifts or only something small. So I turn to my creative side at this point and work out a small gift.

So last weekends birthday gift was a pillowcase made with glow in the dark fabric. The littlest one was so excited by the gift she had it wrapped up before I realized I hadn't taken a photo. Ah well. The present wasn't unwrapped at the party but later in the day. It looked like a normal pillowcase until they shut off the lights at bedtime! Apparently, it went down a storm. 

This weekend we have another birthday party. This time for a girl, a very girlie girl who likes pink and sparkles! I had some pretty pink flannels and some accessories and an afternoon. I recently saw this bag and thought it looked an ideal shape and size for a 6 year old girl.

A sparkly initial

Front with sparkles and rick rack

The back

This is the first time I have used webbing for handles. It was so quick and easy! So now waiting to find out if it passes the test of my little one before handling it over as a gift! 

And I'm off to attack my weeping angel again! Only I think it's me that's doing all the weeping!

Goodies in the Post

Look at what showed up in my mail box just a few days into the New Year! 

Oakshott Fabrics

I entered a competition to win a gift certificate for some oakshot cotton fabrics, and guess what, I won! Yay! I received the good news on Christmas Eve which was really rather nice. 

I waited until the sale was on over New Year and ordered a selection of those I liked the look of. They showed up on my doorstep a few days later! Talk about service! 

I have never used any shot cottons before so this is going to be really fun!

Doctor, Doctor

One of my finishes (well, near finishes!) for Christmas was a scarf for my husband. I started off trying conceal what I was up to, but he had guessed what I was making before I had even got to row 20!! Despite knitting at any time possible I was still finishing the gift on Christmas Eve! In the end I had to wrap it with all the ends (and there were lots of them!) not sewn in and no tassels!! But a couple of days later it was done.

So after 2 months of knitting, this set of wool:

became this scarf:

Knitted Doctor Who scarf

It measures about 6 foot which I believe is about 6 foot shorter than the official scarf but that was very much intentional! I knitted it on round needles so it is double thickness and super warm! 

With Christmas out of the way I can focus on sewing again! So I decided to move onto my other doctor who project! I am so far behind in the Doctor Who QAL that I have many blocks to pick from!

I decided to stick with the scarf theme. Thankfully this one didn't take me 2 months, just a couple of days! Yay! Here is the doctor's scarf:

Paper pieced Doctor Who scarf

On a bit of a roll, I also completed River Song's Diary this week.

Paper pieced River Song's Diary

I wonder how long I can keep up this productivity! 

Quilt backing

I had hoped to have finished the Mario quilt for the boy for Christmas but unfortunately it didn't happen! I had the front completed well in time. But the backing proved more tricky! I wanted it to be a bit more interesting than just a plain backing but knew I was limited by time! 

I have taken part in the Blossom Heart Quilts ABC Quilt along making my children's names (something else that needs finishing!). So I used her templates again to make the boy's name for the quilt backing. They had to be square to fit in with the pixelated theme of the front so I changed a couple of the letters to fit in with the look I wanted. I didn't take pictures of them as I was going along! 

But then I realized I hadn't got enough of the Kona aqua to complete the back! So 3 weeks before Christmas I ordered more fabric and sat patiently (not!) watching the days disappear waiting for the package to arrive in my post box. It took far longer to arrive than I anticipated, I guess Christmas post and all that. 

Two days before Christmas I finished piecing together the backing! But, by then, I had to accept that it wasn't going to happen so gave up pushing myself to complete it. 

Now I have the two pieces waiting to to be put together. Soon, hopefully!

Lovely Year of Finishes - Dec Goal

I seem to have a long list of things I want to finish (or even start and finish!) within the next couple of weeks! So it's hard to pick one for this months goal.

But I have decided that the Mario quilt is the priority! This is supposed to be one of the boy's Christmas presents and I'd rather it didn't become a birthday one instead! 

I spent much of yesterday doing the sashing. None of my blocks seem to have finished at the same size. The margin of error may only be very small on any row or column but overall has meant that they have ended up anywhere between 18.25" and 19". Lots of manipulation going on!! 

Now it is nearly all together, this quilt is looking big! I am struggling for a space to photograph it all! I am going to have to make a backing as I have nothing this large sitting around! And quilt it! Going to be interesting! I see some late nights coming up!

Linking to A Lovely Year of Finishes.