Handstitched Class - Round 3

I predict you will all be sick of this quilt by the time I finish it as progress is slow even though this is the only project I am working on right now.  How did it get to be so busy?

The Storm at Sea blocks in the corner are foundation pieced.  I had never done that before so it was exciting to try something different.  I love the Kona solids together, so bright and happy!  I am working on the next round now, slowly, in between my day job and the children.

The early morning light is making the colours look very warm in that quilt.  It wasn't!!  The below photo is of Peppy the pony who wandered over for a look, he has frost settled in his mane.  That is how chilly it was!

Foundation Piecing

This round of my Handstitched quilt project has paper pieced corners.  The instructions were for English paper piecing, but I am behind with this project so I elected to do foundation piecing on the sewing machine. I have never done either of these methods before so it is still new to me.

I have some fabric here and some hexi papers ready to go so I will try English paper piecing soon, or soon-ish anyway!

I am still at least one round behind, but I now feel like I am making progress again on this quilt, and that feels good. I wasn't sure the scale of the Echo print in this fabric would work on the smaller blocks but I think it is looking nice, especially framed by the Kona solids.  Hopefully I have this round finished soon and I will be able to post a photo of my progress.

Slow Progress

Do  you ever get that feeling that things are moving much faster than you are, you can't quite keep up?  No?  Maybe it is just me...  I feel behind in everything; I will swim faster and catch up, but not today, and maybe not tomorrow either. 

I have had a cold that lasted a month.  I have had a bronchial chest infection.  I have travelled 1850 km in three days and been to a funeral.  Today I am throwing up.  Yup, the fun never ends here!

Still, if I look on the bright side there is good stuff going on.

I am behind in my handstitched class quilt, but I am loving it!  It is bright and happy and my wonky hand stitches are a splash of colour on a grey day.  I will catch up on the quilt somewhere in between writing 4 uni assignments and all will be well.

Tomorrow is a new day :)

edit: this is my 600th post!  Hurrah!!

Friday night ~ Wonky Little Stitches.

It is dark and cold and I am sick; but, I am looking on the bright side.  

It is Friday and I am stitching away on my Handstitched project:

I am loving every wonky stitch!!

I am not being too concerned about my stitch length, I am just enjoying the process.  I decided to do just the corners in the satin jewel pattern as per the class but not to put them in the middle of each row as well.  I like the effect of the triangles as they frame the dogwood blossom feature.  I will show off a full photo when I finally finish this round, it won't be in a hurry at this rate.

Handstitched - Dogwood Blossom

The Handstitched class via the Stitched in Color blog is now under way and we have completed our centre Dogwood Blossom.

Reverse appliqué, mitred corners and blind stitch are all new to me and I am learning a lot already which makes me excited about the rest of this quilt and the things I will try before it is done.

The inner points of my Dogwood blossom are not all that pointy and you may notice it isn't exactly centred either.  I also used too much spray baste (first time using it) and did get into a sticky mess with that.   I only mitred the corners on the first border around the blossom and not on the second coloured border.

The next part of this quilt is where we embroider the white border shown.. Eeek! 

Handstitched

The Handstitched Class is about to start.  There are a number of projects, but given my lack of time I will be concentrating on the Modern Medallion Quilt.  I have gotten as far as buying a selection of Kona Solids to go with the Echo fabric by Lotta Jansdotter.  

I have to pick the combination for the centre Dogwood Blossom as seen in the below picture, but I am having trouble picking which print, and which solid...

Mother's Day - The Good and the Bad

Flowers from Possum's pre-school garden = good

Cute card made by Possum at pre-school = good

When you open it up it has fun facts such as my favourite colour is blue and I like to knit jumpers, both are true.  There is also a little photo of Possum.

The book The Mr bought me.... not so good*...

Thankfully there was also chocolate!

It also makes me VERY glad that I bought myself this:

Hurruh!!  I will be taking part in the Handstitched class learning something new and having some fun.  I am picturing cosy winter nights in front of the fire as I work on new techniques and create something special.

What fabric range should I buy?  I was thinking Echo by Lotta Jansdotter....

*I am a big Chuck Norris fan, and some of the one liners in this book are pretty hilarious, but really, for Mother's Day?  I guess the airport newsagency didn't leave him many options?