Fresh Sewing Day - November gone in the blink of an eye

It's 7 weeks since I blogged, on holiday, about my aims for the last quarter of the year, which we're now about 2/3 through. I missed November's fresh sewing day completely.

I had a wonderful holiday and then suddenly everything went a bit all over the place, new bathroom took 3 weeks, we've both been doing a lot of volunteering, not home very often, tired, house is a mess etc etc.

Looking back through my phone I have done some sewing and crochet over the last two months. On holiday I fixed my hexagon blanket (I'd missed round 4 out on about 15 hexies so they no longer looked right) and quilted and bound two of my WIP quilts, must do reveals for these.

Since being home I've dabbled in a bit more crochet, a couple of epp projects and started an Aragon bag. Got frustrated with it, pieces now all over living and dining room.

Yesterday I started cutting and piecing a new quilt, obviously with so many WIPs I needed to start another but it's for a special birthday present for later this month. Over 75 fabrics, 360 3 1/2 in ch squares in many different colours and 288 in Sketch mist later I was ready to start piecing. It's the Sparkle Punch Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman. Planning on doing a few rows a night this week  - lets see if I can have a finished top by Saturday.

Not got any Christmas gift sewing planned this year, need to be realistic, my Sparkle Punch quilt and then WIPs are my priorities. 

I'm linking up with Lynne, both for fresh sewing day and small blog link up as my fledgeling blog is tiny at the moment. Have a great December everyone. 

                          

Finish Along 2014 quarter 4

After my less than successful quarter 3 I'm back with a new optimism for quarter 4. Unsurprisingly 8 projects are carry forwards, the 3 I made progress on in quarter 3 and the 5 I didn't touch.

Then there's a quilt top that I started last quarter but didn't finish and also a Noodlehead divided baskets that I cut out in May, put to one side then rediscovered last week to take the total to 10.

5 quilt tops to baste, quilt and bind:

3 sets of blocks to make into tops, then baste, quilt and bind:

A cushion to quilt, make up and bind:

And finally the new addition of a divided basket:

I'm linking up with Katy for 

I'm currently trying to do this on a nexus 7 with slightly dodgy internet so the formatting isn't great for now - I'm going to sort it out when I can but that'll be after deadline which I don't want to miss.

Finish Along Quarter 3 Round Up

OK so it turns out I was a bit ambitious last time with my finish along aims for my first attempt - quarter 3.

I had so much hope but the extra time over the summer didn't happen and I only have 2 finishes from the 10.

I did make progress with three others though too:

Finished the rest of these blocks

Made a pile of strips into this quilt top

And added the border to this.

I also started and finished this quilt top:

And pattern tested this bag:

I've done a lot of crochet too which I didn't do last summer - I think a fair amount of travelling combined with a busy time work has meant crochet has been easier than machine sewing this summer.

I'm currently writing this on my Nexus 7 with a slightly dodgy internet connection so I'll leave this like this now and format better when I'm on a proper computer.

Needed to post this before I do my finish along aims for quarter 4 tomorrow.

Finish along finish Number 2 - Date Night Purse

Just in the nick of time - I finished a second item on my Finishalong list my date night purse by Dog Under my Desk.

I'll blog in more detail about it and other bags I've made in the future. 

This was project number 10 on my Finish along list: http://changingthisstory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/finish-along-quarter-3.html

Linking up with Katie for

Fresh Sewing Day - that was September or third time lucky

Don't have a lot to show for September looking back through my photos which is sad. 

Sewing wise things started well, I had a great day at Leeds Modern Quilt Guild and got something on my finish along list finished, albeit the easiest one. Then my in laws came to stay, for a total of 26 hours, but it meant all my sewing bits that were in the dining room were shoved unceremoniously into my sewing room and the door shut (just about) and 3 and 1/2 weeks later I've not touched my machine since. 

It's been another hard month at work and I haven't found Guiding easy to get back into after the summer break either. On the positive side I've done a fair bit of gardening during the daylight hours I have been home so that's been nice and productive even if not in the sewing sense. We also have our shed at last (funded by my fabric destash at the start of the year) so we have filled that with gardening things from the garage which in turn should allow some things currently in the house to go into the garage and make some more space inside too. 

I've found myself crocheting a lot this month. I finished my vstitch blanket and also made a whole little one for my friend's impending arrival. I also made my very first baby hat for him/her too and finally a random crochet block too from a crochet a long (which I intend to add to in time, I'm hoping it'll improve my skills). 

So this is the sum total of my makes for September:

But I'm going to get some of the ironing mountain finished tonight and then I intend to get my machine out and sew something, anything, just sew! 

Hope you all had more fruitful Septembers sewing wise than I did and that you have brilliant Octobers. I have another holiday to look forward to and after my productivity whilst away in June the sewing machine is definitely being packed this time too. 

I'm linking up with Lynne, both for fresh sewing day and small blog link up as my fledgeling blog is tiny at the moment. Have a great October everyone. 

                          

A finish at last - Free motion Petal Cushion

I finished two craft projects last week, one was my crochet blanket which I'll do a separate post about and another was, shock horror from my Finish Along Quarter 3 list.

Number 9 on my list was a Free motion Quilting Petal Cushion that all I needed to do was bind, so simple really but still a finish. 

I've really enjoyed going to workshops over the last few years, having a day set aside for me to just sew, whether it's learning a new technique or just 'having a play' it's something I love but never found anything suitable in York that I could make so I've had to travel to scratch that itch. That itch is now well and truly scratched by Leeds MQG set up by the wonderful Lisa Sew in March this year. 

Last autumn however I was looking for a class and saw that Brioni was teaching a class that I liked the look of at The Skep, which is on the wrong side of Leeds to me, but off I travelled on a Sunday in December. I was able to get through the early stages on the project fairly quickly which allowed me to have a good play with the free motion quilting/applique part and I came home with a finished panel. 

I turned it into a cushion when I got home that night, cut the binding, and then it got lost in Christmas preparations and because I no real purpose for the project it sat unfinished and unloved on my shelf until Friday night when I carefully selected (grabbed) it as one of the projects I could take to our Leeds MQG day on Saturday.

I've played with machine binding in different ways before but wasn't quite sure I had it right, however I remembered Karen posting on instagram about her machine binding and she kindly offered to show me how she does it on Saturday. 

It's a bit wonky, partly due to the seam bulk making it harder to sew the binding on that it would be on a quilt, but it was really easy to do and I'm definitely going to try this on my next quilt. 

On the way home from Leeds MQG I went via Dunelm Mill and bought a cushion pad the right size for it and it's now on my chair at work - it's a bit big for this really but it gives it a purpose, gets it out of the house and brightens up my office a bit! 

1 down, 9 to go. At least one is better than nothing and I still have a few weeks left! 

Fresh Sewing Day - August is over

Not sure what happened to August, well 2 trips to the south of England to celebrate friends getting married, Nick stage managing a 2 week long run of Ghost the Musical at the theatre where we volunteer, me duty managing 4 of the performances, and me working in University Admissions which means August is my busiest and most stressful month of the year, that's what happened to August.

Although I had a break from almost all my Guiding volunteering activities and my theatre volunteering was relatively light, I wasn't as productive crafting wise in the evenings and the weekend time I did have as I'd hoped for, I do have a few things to share though.

Firstly my crochet vstitch blanket - started in July with no real purpose but decided to make it into a lap blanket for me. At the start of August it was 47 rows high and by the end of the month it was 100, long enough and ready for a border, with all 200 ends sewn in. This blanket came to work with me a lot but only actually got added to on one or two lunch breaks, but there was lots of opportunity for car crochet when it wasn't my turn to drive, a bit of theatre crochet, and plenty of curled up on the sofa after a hard day at work crochet. Hoping to get the border done over the next week and start using it- a friend is having a baby next month and I know she'd love a little crochet blanket - so I see a smaller gender neutral vstitch blanket starting as soon as this one is done.

Sewing wise I turned a pile of pieces of fabric cut at the end of July into a quilt top, and finished another quilt top from my finish along list, which was really satisfying as it had sat screwed up in my sewing room since i abandoned the pieces last Autumn. I also made 6 more blocks from Katy's book (which is another thing on my finish along list) and pattern tested Erin at Dog Under my Desk's fab new pattern for a little going out purse/bag. Erin's patterns deserve a whole blog post of their own which is on my to do list for this month - and Arm Candy is launching this week and is well worth snapping up if bag making takes your fancy.

September needs to involve lots of sewing, specifically basting, quilting and binding to clear the pile of quilt tops, most of which do have intended recipients. I have high hopes of finish a long finishes to share with you over the next few weeks, one at a time - I can do this. 

So I'm linking up with Lynne for the second time, both for fresh sewing day and small blog link up as my fledgeling blog is tiny at the moment. Have a great September everyone. 

                          

The Good Things - The People in my Phone

I'm linking up with Margot and Barbara's The Good Things again this week - really enjoying these.

This week it's all about 'The People in my Phone'. I first used the internet 15 years ago I think, that's certainly when my parents first got dial up. Having email and MSN Messenger at University really helped keeping in touch with friends, especially University friends during the holidays.

Over the years I've used the internet more and more and because I work at a University I got a Facebook account in mid 2006. Then I discovered blogs, with Lucy's Attic 24 blog being the first I regularly read. Twitter followed in 2010 and in December 2010 I got an internet phone and my 'social media network's grew and grew.

Having the internet wherever I go has opened up a whole new world to me and I've been very inspired in many ways by the blogs I've read, tweets and instagram photos I've seen, and people I've interacted with.

I do a job where I can spend a lot of time in an office on my own and being the summer holidays there are no Guiding and little Theatre volunteering to do so at the moment I'm especially glad of the 'people in my phone'.

Talking to my 14 year old Guides a couple of months ago they couldn't imagine being their age with no mobile phone let alone no internet, although they could see the advantage of not having it sometimes. Sometimes I think I should be less dependent on mine, there's a well timed story about this on the BBC Website today - however on balance it's definitely a good thing for me.

Fresh Sewing Day - Goodbye July

July was a big month for me as I finally started blogging. I've often read Lily's quilts monthly fresh sewing day and small blog meet posts and thought I must make this the day I start blogging and never quite got there, but now I can join in!

July was another month that flew by. Nick went away twice with work, I had a weekend away with the Guides and we had a weekend in London so we seemed to spend half the month packing and unpacking. But we did finish decorating our bedroom so we achieved something at home which is good.  

I do have some finishes, a shoulder bag and a couple of make up bags, which were started in March. They were my mum's belated *cough* Mothers' Day gifts. The other zippy bag was for a former colleague of hers who often comments on the lovely sewing I did when she knew me as a teenager. The bag was inspired by a photo on justabitfrayed's instagram and the zippy bags are Essential Wristlets by Erin at Dog Under My Desk.

This is what else I have been working on this month, a finished quilt top, a new one started, three more crochet flowers, a new crochet blanket (I got the v stitch bug thanks to instagram!) a new bag cut out, and the Guides taught me how to make loom bands.

I work in University Admissions so August is a pretty busy and stressful month as we confirm whose got a place but my evenings are relatively quiet so I'm hoping to work my way through my finish along works in progress and share some finishes soon! 

So I'm linking up with Lynne for the first time, both for fresh sewing day and small blog link up as my fledgeling blog is tiny at the moment. Have a great August everyone!

                          

The Good Things - Anniversaries

Linking up with Margot and Barbara again for The Good Things. This week it's anniversaries for me.

Different anniversaries mean different things to different people. Nick and I can't remember exactly when we first met, it was October 2001 in Derwent College at the University of York where we'd just started at undergraduates and lived in the same accommodation block. You meet so many people during those first few weeks at university, many you never see again, others are part of your life forever.

Our friendship grew over the next two years and finally, after some cajoling from friends we became a couple on 26th July 2003. Then three years and three days later, on 29th July 2006, we got married.

So we've been celebrating anniversaries this week. Last weekend we were in London, seeing a couple of musicals with tickets I got for my Birthday and for Christmas which deserve a blog post of their own. On Tuesday we went to Bill's for the first time, which has just opened a branch in York, and had a lovely meal. We'll certainly be back.

Sometimes I can't believe we've been married 8 years, sometimes it seems like we've been married forever. But then my parents celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary the other week, and Nick's will celebrate their 37th next month. Nick's grandparents have been married 61 years so we've got a way to go yet!

The Good Things - Guide Camp

One blog I love is Margot and Barbara because Elizabeth blogs about all sorts of themes, and whilst I love blogs just about quilting or crochet or theatre or whatever else I'm someone with 'fingers in lots of different pies' and her blog has shown me that having a blog covering a variety of topics can work well.

I'm read Elizabeth's 3 Good Things, and more recently her The Good Things, series with interest. The Good Things series features a blog post every Wednesday about one good thing in her week and she invites others to share theirs and link up. To quote:

Happiness means different things to everyone. Whether that’s climbing a mountain, baking a cake, spending time with family, travelling somewhere exciting, a gardening or environmental success, visiting a new restaurant, a great outfit post, or your experiences of learning something new, The Good Things is a linky for everyone. For me, happiness is found in the everyday things. It’s about taking notice of the small things and practising gratitude for the life that I have. So, I will join in by writing about something that’s made me happy each week; My Good Thing…

I'm starting off with a Good Thing from last week really - I started to right this post last week then chickened out but I don't want it to get lost. 

Volunteering is a hugely important part of my life, since the age of 13 I've been involved in volunteering in some way, shape or form. That's another blog post but currently one of my two main areas of volunteering is through GirlGuiding. Like many women I was a Brownie then a Guide. I was then a Young Leader and a Ranger for a bit. Then I took a break, went to University, did other stuff etc etc. Since 2008 I've been a Brownie Leader and in 2010 opened up a Guide unit too, both in a village just outside York. 

Sleepovers, weekends away and longer camps are a big part of both Guiding and Scouting and the weekend before last we went to Bramhope Scout Camp Site which is to the North West of Leeds. 

26 10 to 14 year old girls, the 4 leaders who help with Guides each week and one of the leader's mums who drove all the way from Birmingham to cook for us. We've been there twice before and so know what the expect and stay inside - none of us are big campers - but being July and great weather we got to do all sorts of activities. 

The site is also run by volunteers and has various outdoor activities available, an assault course, archery, and go karting proving popular. Saturday night's dinner was cooked on open fires by the girls - which is a real skill (bacon, beans, potato and egg followed by chocolate bananas so nothing too complicated/risky) and we also played a wide game across the site. 

We like to balance things around too so there were some crafts and cooking indoors too. I was taught how to make loom bands and the girls also love some free time. They all help with jobs like preparing food, laying the table and washing up, as we tell them we've given up our weekend to take them away, we're not waiting on them too! 

We always have a theme and this year was the Ready Steady Glasgow! Challenge all themed about The Commonwealth Games, The Commonwealth, Scotland and Sport. They all got this badge for completing the challenge:

It was a wonderful weekend and ended what has been at times a tough year in Guiding for me. But 26 happy girls thanking you at the end of the weekend makes it all worthwhile.