Cozy clocks and re-purposed shirts

We had a beautiful, sunny, but cold weekend here in Riga so took the opportunity to have a wander around the Old Town centre. I couldn't resist taking a photo of this clock to share with you, obviously the temperature is colder than I thought if the clocks need to have covers.

Laima is a chocolate factory here in Latvia and the Laima clock is a well-known meeting place in the centre of the Old Town. I can't imagine how long it must have taken to produce a knitted cover for the clock and would love to have been around when the clock was being dressed. Knitting is not my forte, unfortunately, despite my mother being an excellent knitter. I have bursts of enthusiasm and buy lovely wool and fancy needles but always end up adding to the basket of UFO's as the finishing off throws me every time. Perhaps I should sign up to a Knitting WIP challenge, but then again maybe not!

My favourite part of the whole knitted outfit was the scarf, how sweet for the clock to have its own scarf! I shall have to try and keep a lookout for when the knitted outfit comes off, as that must mean that the winter is officially over :)

Whilst waiting impatiently for the next blocks of the Sew Happy QAL and the HST BOM due this week I decided to work on another cushion in one of the colours of the rainbow. Having decided that blue would be the colour, I rummaged around in my scrapbag and came up with enough fabric pieces to have a go at a cushion pattern I had seen in the May 2009 issue of British Patchwork and Quilting. (I knew it was worth keeping that magazine!)

The cushion pattern is called Fleur Audrey and is also available online here so I have called my version Fleur Bleu. The cushion front and back are both cut from a discarded business shirt of my husband's, which was the perfect shade of pale blue for the background. He disputes that it was discarded but it truly was! He will be "losing" more shirts in the future as I received, for Christmas, a copy of Juliet Bawden's book "The shirt off his back", which is full of great ideas for re-purposing men's shirts. I was already putting shirts in the laundry and thinking "that would make a great bag lining" so the possibilities have increased with ownership of Juliet's book :)

Finally, if the forthcoming London Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee are putting you in the mood for all things British, check out Sam's blog "Cup of tea and a Slice of cake aka UKMUMINUSA, where she is hosting a giveaway for her Union Jack pincushions. Details of the giveaway can be found here

Fireflies block Sew Happy QAL

Fireflies block Sew Happy QAL, a photo by Celtic Thistle on Flickr.

Halfway through the blocks for the Sew Happy QAL and I am still in there! When I signed up for this I worried that I would not be able to keep up, but so far, fingers firmly crossed, it hasn't been a problem.

This block looked quite daunting when I first saw it, but with my new best friend, the starch spray, it came together much more easily than I had thought. Thanks Sew Happy Geek for the tip!

Dipping into DWR blocks

Having recognised that a Double Wedding Ring quilt is way beyond my abilities at the moment, and salved my conscience by signing up for the Sew Happy QAL to make a quilt for my son and daughter-in-law, I thought I could at least take a tiny, baby step on the journey towards a DWR quilt. One of my birthday presents last year was a copy of I (heart) Patchwork by Rashida Coleman-Hale, which has instructions for a linen teatowel with appliqued DWR-like patchwork arc, so what could be more perfect for a tiny, baby step?

Whilst living in the Baltic States means that quilting cotton is not easily available, the same cannot be said for linen, there is lots of beautiful linen here and I am happily building up a sizeable stash whilst I can! A recent trip to Vilnius, Lithuania, for example, yielded these lovely linens.

So with a delve into my "scrap bag" I was able to come up with enough small scraps to make two arcs for my teatowel, as opposed to the one given in the instructions. Initially I thought that the finished arc didn't look quite as curved as the example in the book, but by the time I had hand-appliqued them to the teatowel there was a definite curve there I am pleased to say. I hadn't intended to hand-applique but for some reason the tension on my sewing machine went completely to pot, and neither rethreading nor adjusting the tension made any difference, so hand-applique it was. Actually I think it looks better that way, but I hope it holds up to the rough treatment I usually mete out to my teatowels! If you have any suggestions as to what else I might try to sort out the tension problem they would be much appreciated.

This is actually the third project I have made from I (heart) Patchwork, which makes the book a winner for me. I have lost count of the number of books I have bought or been gifted that I have discovered have only one project in that interests me enough to attempt. The previous projects were an apron for my daughter-in-law to go with the pastry course she wanted for her birthday and a cute little pincushion holder for myself.

The dish is a paint tray and cost less than £1 in a local craft supplies shop and as the rest was from scraps of stuffing and fabric it was a very economical make.

I find it difficult to resist new sewing/craft books when I see them, but they don't all live up to their promise and turn out to be expensive patterns if I only make one thing from them. Which books are well-thumbed in your collection and which have gathered dust after your initial look through?