Playing and Floating!

Before we went on holiday I signed up for the Siblings Together charity appeal launched by Lynne at Lily's Quilts, but have only now got around to starting on the blocks. Knowing my limitations I did not sign up to making a complete quilt but, instead, committed to making blocks to go towards a quilt. Judith at needles and lemons volunteered to co-ordinate a quilt from simple log-cabin style blocks, and here are the first of my blocks to be ready for posting.

The batik fabrics are scraps from a quilt that I made for my youngest son to take to University, so are, I think, especially appropriate for this quilt and cause. I always enjoy seeing the camaraderie between my 3 boys when they get together, as they did over Easter, so hope that some of that will be passed on in the quilt blocks. For more information about the charity and the quilt appeal check here and in the Flickr group here


I am obviously in signing-up mode at the moment, as I have just signed up to take part in Sew Happy Geek's Play mini-quilt challenge! The challenge invites participants to make a mini-quilt based upon a playing card, and having never made a mini-quilt I thought that it was about time that I had a go. There are some great prizes on offer too, so if you are a keen bridge player or poker fiend, head on over to Sew Happy Geek to find out how to indulge your twin passions and maybe pick up a prize along the way!

I found these fabrics in my stash, so think I might use them in the challenge. That, I have to say is as far as I have got in the planning and the min quilt has to be submitted by May 21st, so I need to get a move on :)

This is a short post as I am heading out to have a Berry and Ginger spa treatment. I won a voucher for the spa at a Christmas Bazaar, but have only just got around to making the appointment. The voucher runs out on April 30th, so I have just made it. Apparently after the peel and fragrant oil massage I will be floating on my own personal, perfumed cloud. so in exactly the right frame of mind to tackle the outstanding blocks on the NY Beauty QAL!

Progress

With football on the TV last night, I had a great opportunity to crack on with the second block for April in the Craftsy BOM, as my other half would be too occupied to expect any conversation! The instructions for the second English paper pieced block produce a sun-ray block with a "grass" border, but that wasn't going to work with my colours, so I adapted it slightly by taking out the grass border and increasing the rays.

As this class is all about learning new skills, I decided to have a go at machine applique for the blocks too. I have only done this once before with circles and they are definitely easier to do, no corners to worry about! Originally I had planned to put some hexagons between the rays, but it ended up looking very cluttered, so decided against it. It might have worked with very small hexagons, but I have my limits!

The project for this week of the Zakka-style SAL is a small portable sewing pouch with another pincushion. I don't really use pincushions much but made it anyway. I am sure it will come in handy on our next road trip. No zig-zags involved so a doddle compared to the tote project, although I did manage to attach the leather thong the wrong way round so the long end was on the inside! It was a good thing that I had overestimated the length needed.

The interior fabric was a FQ from the bundle for my teatime quilt that was a bit too "babyish" as the quilt is for my mum, but was ideal for this. The embroidery motif on the pincushion is from Aimee Ray's Doodle Stitching.

Next week's project is a pencil case, so should be fairly straightforward too, although some of the pieces seem very small!

Have been measuring and cutting away today, so will, hopefully have more progress to report soon.

Shopping, stitching and sighing!

I realised when looking at my photos that the only photos I have shared of the markets here were of the fish market. Now, whilst we like fish we do buy other things at the market, so this weekend on our weekly shopping trip and walk back through the Old Town I took some photos to give you an idea of the shopping opportunities in Riga!

Now that Spring has (finally) arrived many of the fruit and veg stallholders have moved outside, so the area around the Market pavilions is a riot of colour. Later in the summer small stalls will be set up with people offering produce from their gardens and allotments. Last year we particularly enjoyed the tiny wild strawberries for sale on these stalls, so we are looking forward to trying more of them this summer. The time for fur hats has, thankfully, passed so the ones you see are aimed at tourists, who were out in force this weekend, so the fur lady and her neighbours selling knitted socks and gloves and amber jewellery will have been happy. The handicraft ladies ply their wares all year round so must be a very hardy bunch!

Although it felt like I spent a lot of time sewing over the weekend I don't seem to have much to show for it. I did, however, get last week's project from the Zakka-style SAL completed.

I have been hoarding the fabric and ribbon for a while so it was nice to finally find a use for them. I didn't have the right stuffing so made do with leftover wadding, so it is a bit lumpier than I would have liked. At least, though, it is finished which is more than can be said for the first project in the book, the zig-zag style tote. Having spent what seems like all week on this tote I am still some way from finishing and the photo below shows you why!

When I joined the zig-zag panel to the plain side panels to make up the front of the tote I lost my points on the edges! I was tempted, as you can see, to ignore this and make up the bag anyway, but have decided that this is all character building so am steeling myself to start all over on the zig-zags. I have also discovered (thanks Kirsty QP) that I am not the only one to have trouble with this project, so I don't feel quite so bad :) Check out Finding Fifth's  blog if you are struggling too.

As it is nearly the end of the month I am trying to catch up on my BOM's before I get behind again, so spent again what seemed like many hours hand-piecing hexagons for the Craftsy BOM for April. One down, one to go, hope there is something good on TV this week so that I can get stuck into the second block.

I only realised as I was sewing the last one down that I had intended to have both of the half-hexagons with the blue side on the white background. At 11.00p.m it was definitely not going to be changed!

When we  were in Tallinn a few weeks ago I found a copy of the craft magazine Mollie Makes so naturally snapped it up. The magazine had a pattern for a Crochet Flower Brooch, which caught my eye as it seemed reasonably straightforward for a non-crocheter. However, despite several attempts I have to confess to coming unstuck.

I am hoping the crochet experts amongst you can explain what the following instruction means (or point me in the direction of a good tutorial) as I cannot get my head around it. The pattern says "With RS of the work facing, work in a spiral towards the centre of the base. Work into both loops of Round 4, then into the unused loops of rounds 3, 2 and then 1 of the spiral base, until you have reached the very centre." Sorry, I have no idea what this means!!

We are heading off on a trip next weekend so I was hoping to take the crochet along to do on the plane,  hopefully someone will be able to help me out.

Hope your weekend was more productive than mine.

Linking up to BOM's away here , Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday here and Manic Monday here