SAL “Share” – Merejka happy dance!

It’s time to link up with other SAL members to show progress and I’m having a happy dance this time.

I could probably have given linen a quick iron before taking photo lol, but here it is complete with wrinkles and hoop marks.  I need to put my thinking cap on to decide what I’m going to do with this now it’s finished.  In the meantime, since Avis and I both finished our current SAL project in time for today, we’re going to begin a new project for next time.  We’ve agreed on a design we both like, and will therefore be working on the same design, as from next time, but in different colours.  My supplies are all prepped.  I’ve gone for Christmas reds, greens and a gold on white aida. You’ll have to wait until next time to see what we’ll be stitching – oooh the suspense!.

Here is the complete list of links of all SAL members.

Avis,  Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, 

Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

Next update on 23rd August.

best layer of the month # July

We’re all melting in this part of France, hens included, with temperatures way too high to be comfortable.  Today it’s 39.9°C in the shade.  Hens don’t like the hot weather.  For most, it puts them off their laying and for Miss Moneypenny, it makes her broody which means she’s sitting in a stifling coop, trying to hatch eggs that are infertile, since we don’t have a cockerel.  I pick her up and make her go outside a couple of times each day, to make sure she drinks & eats, but as soon as my back is turned, she hurries back to the nesting boxes.  And even when I’ve collected eggs, she sits all fluffed up in the nest and won’t budge.

Anyway . . . the above to say that egg count is lower than usual in the coop.  I collected a total of 74 eggs for July.  Mauricette laid 14. Miss Moneypenny laid 15.  And the two younger gals battled it out for best layer of the month:  Ruby laying 22 eggs and Florence 23.

 

 

F2F3 more progress

I’m wondering why on earth I left it so long (almost 2 years) to start joining all the gorgeous blocks from the F2F swap!  Because it really is so much fun to sit down at my sewing machine and sash.  I already have my 32 blocks all joined, with white sashing & turquoise cornerstones, into two quilt tops.

And I love how they both look!  It might be a little while before you see photos of the finished quilts, because I’ve run out of wadding and have to wait for fresh order to arrive.   But I am going to try and make sure I finish both by the end of August!

 

F2F3 2018-2019 finally coming together!

From June 2018 to February 2019, I took part in a patchwork block swap, organised by Kate.  Link to the F2F blog is here.  I was Miss August and the colours I chose for my blocks were: black, turquoise & grey on white.  I received some beauties but they were put away in a drawer, waiting for inspiration.

You’ll be pleased to hear, I got them out of the drawer the other day, and laid them all out on the bed to remind myself of all the lovely blocks I received.  Cats were only too pleased to help

Just as well I was only trying to remember what all blocks looked like and not actually trying to decide on a proper layout, eh?  Abby made it her job to deposit a little cat fluff on a few, while Le Bleu was in charge of removing a few stickers (one member had labelled her blocks with stickers so I’d know the name of her blocks but they seem to have lost their “stick”lol).

Anyway . . . I actually have a total of 32 blocks in my colours.  Should only have ended up with 27 at the end of the swap but I made 4, Nanette made 4, and my friend Avis sent me 3 as well. Which makes 32.  After some umming and ahhing.  Do I make I  a big 5 x 6 quilt with 30 and then make 2 cushions?  Or do I try to use all 32 and make two smaller quilts?  I finally decided to go for two quilts: 4 x 4 each, and to make them “sister quilts”, ie I’ll be using the same fabrics for sashing, backing & binding, so they’ll be like unidentical twins.

After a check in my stash, and a measure up of my options the assembly began.

This is as far as I’ve got so far.  Only 16 of my 32 blocks here, but they make a nice size.  Not finished yet, obviously, because I need to add outer border, quilt and bind, but this gives you a general idea of how the blocks all play nicely together.  I sashed with plain white and used a dark turquoise to give me 1″ cornerstones.   I’m very motivated to get both finished by the end of August . . . so that it’ll only have been 2 years from start to finish.  Watch this space!

happy bunny dance

I’m having a happy bunny dance – yay!  The little baby quilt I’ve been working on is finished.  It’s small, and finishes at only 36″ square but should be a good size for a snuggle quilt.  I followed the majority vote, after posting photos the other week, wondering about binding.  You all agreed I should dare to add more green, so I did.

And I love it.  It’s lovely and fresh looking and those two thin strips of green on the front really pick up on all the leaves and green bunnies.

And rest assured, my edges aren’t wonky lol.  Just the grass needs mowing and quilt couldn’t lie flat because of uneven grass shoots.

ScrapHappy # July

15th of each month is the date I link up with Kate, Gun and a whole group of crafters (list of links further down) to make use of those scraps.  It’s been more fabric scraps for me this month, leftovers from past clothes-making projects . . . which are ideal when you have a collection of dolls that need clothing, like I do.  No photos of actual dolls in this post (so no need to shut your eyes). If you’d like to see dolls modelling the following outfits, you can find them here.

Anyway, time for photos.

A  knee-length jumpsuit in brown cotton, with very pretty floral print, plus matching head band, made for a 48cm vinyl doll.  This letfover fabric had been in my drawers since 2011, a remnant from a dress-making project for my daughter.

Another 3/4 length jumpsuit, for a 44cm vinyl doll.  This is more a polyester cotton.  Scraps found in a box I inherited from MIL several years ago.  The pattern for jumpsuit is from the July issue of “Modes & Travaux”.  Original pattern meant for quite a dumpy 40cm doll, I adapted for my slightly taller, more slender dolls.

A little dress for a 40cm vinyl doll with scraps from a tunic I made myself not long ago.  And no, it’s not pattern matched but it does fit the doll, therefore it does the job!

Here’s the list of other ScrapHappy members.

Kate, Gun , Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline,
Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin and Vera

SAL “Share” – Merejka #3

Three weeks ago, this is where I was with my cross stitch project for the SAL.

I’ll admit to having been slightly distracted by other crafting projects since, and cross stitch hasn’t been high on my agenda.  But, knowing there was an update due, that spurred me on to knuckle down and stitch the section I had decided on for my next stage.  Which means, we have a second fairy!

The overall picture looks like this.

Now it’s time to visit the blogs of other SAL members and see what progress they made since last time.  Here’s the complete list of members.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, 

Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

And we’ll be back on 2nd August!

baby bunny quilt WIP

I’ve started a new patchwork project with some lovely prints I had in my drawers.  The original plan, when starting, was to use only those fabrics, and hence call this project a stash buster.  This explains the rather scrappy layout of blocks, as I didn’t do the maths first, to work out how many blocks I would get.

Having got thus far, and undeterred,  I realised I needed to stop & think, and find a way of pulling things together.  Luckily, I had the perfect green (bought in for Rainbow patchwork), so I added a very thin border of that, followed by white.

So that’s my top.  It measures 36 ” X 36″ which is a decent size for a baby quilt.  Next step will be to quilt and bind.  And I have to own up to having done some more fabric buying . . . I bought in some more of the lovely bunny print which I will use for backing.  Just need to decide how I’m going to quilt this piece and whether I dare use more green for the binding, or to tone things down a little with some more of that beige/brown.

Baa Baa Blue Lamb

In May, you might remember I crocheted up a really cute sleepy lamb, from a pattern by Kawaii Design and bought on etsy.

When I made this little one, I said there would be others . . . hence the title . . . this time a blue lamb.

Crocheted in blue & white from my stash on a 3mm hook.

I’d just finished sewing this little sleepy blue lamb together, when I noticed, over on etsy, the pattern designer had added a flower embellishment to her photo . . . and thought how pretty it looked.  Now, it just so happens, way way back in February 2017, a blogging friend, Yvonne, sent me some lovely crocheted embellishments she’d made. And it just so happens, that there were some little flowers in the bag. Exactly what I needed!

Awwww don’t they look cute?

And last photo for the day (close your eyes and don’t look if you’re squeamish about my dolls!

best layer of the month # June

Lots of lovely fresh eggs again from the coop, with gals laying a total of 88 for the month of June.  Florence, the black hen strutting her stuff on left of photo, was our best layer with 27.  Ruby, the red hen, just showing her fluffy bottom, came in second with 26.  Miss Moneypenny, with her pretty speckled collar (right) laid 21, and Mauricette who is enjoying the shade under the coop only laid 14.