Webs and WIP's

The second March block for the Craftsy BOM is finished, I am finally ahead! This time it was a Broken Spider's Web block using foundation piecing, aargh!! Instead of adapting the block again for paper piecing I decided to meet my nemesis head on and have another go at foundation piecing, this time using a more robust fabric for the base, in the hope that that would sort out the previous problems.

Well it did, up to a point (sorry no pun intended!). The fabric still stretched on the bias edge so putting the triangles together still involved a bit of manipulation, but it was definitely less stressful than my previous attempt at foundation piecing. I prefer paper piecing though :)

The Craftsy BOM is billed as being suitable for absolute beginners and I can see from the comments posted on the website that this is the first time that many of the participants have ever attempted quilting. Whilst I am definitely no expert, I think that there is a large capacity for problems, especially for beginners, when you are cutting and/or sewing many of the pieces involved in these blocks on the bias. Then again, maybe that is just me!

We are heading off to Tallinn for a couple of days, which is always a pleasure. I was hoping to have my copy of Zakka style before the trip so that I could stock up on linen, but no sign of it yet. Fingers crossed it arrives before the SAL starts.

Hopefully the trip will include a sprinkling of sightseeing with a few coffee stops thrown in (or maybe, even, the other way around!).

 With maybe a bit of retail therapy thrown in, on my last visit there a couple of months ago I found a shop selling American patchwork magazines, so I am hoping to treat myself to some on this trip too. In Riga, I can only get German patchwork magazines, and neither my schoolgirl German nor Google Translate are up to the task of translating sewing terms!


As another Wednesday has come around it is time to work out what I have been spending all my time on. I already know the answer to that one - paper piecing!

Anyhow here is how my list of WIP's stand at the moment

Completed

• Reindeer Cushion
• Shades of Green, Fleur Bleu, Checkered Heart and Orange cushions 
• Orphan Block needle roll 
• Pieced arc tea towel  
• Yo-yo maker purse 
• Padded hangers and tutorial
• Sew Happy QAL quilt (My March WIP of 12 WIP's in 2012!)

Ongoing 

• 3 blocks of In Color Order HST BOM (up-to-date) 
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt now basted 
• 5 blocks of FPPFTT completed (on schedule)
• First border of teatime quilt completed, blocks calculated and half cut (the fabric that is not me!)
• 3 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed (on schedule)
• 6 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (on schedule)
  

Waiting 

• Indigo, yellow and violet rainbow cushions - Yellow fabric in post
• Last block of Sampler quilt - no progress but it is in the UK and I am back in Latvia!
• Sunflower Quilt
• Amy Butler bag 
• Bag Making Bible Fashionista Bag 
• Dragon Bag
• Patchwork Block bag
• Christmas mini quilts
• Zakka-style Sew a Long (starts April 2nd) 

Hope you are all making progress too.


Linking up to TNT Thursday

Paper and Padlocks

It feels like I have spent the weekend sewing on paper and then ripping it off! It means though that I am back on track with the Littlest Thistle's FPPFTT and NY Beauty QAL, thank goodness for that :) So, I can contemplate the next two blocks in the series' without panic, well that is the theory anyway. The NY Beauty blocks take me ages to do, starting with agonising over which fabric should go where, so I am glad that we are going at the rate of one block a week and I greatly admire the fellow NY Beauty blockers who are whipping up 4 of each block every week! Check out their blocks  here

 

I must be learning something in this QAL as the inner arch on this block, with only 9 pieces to contend with felt like a doddle to do and three weeks ago the same pattern was really daunting!  There were even more curved seams to contend with in this block, so I paid a lot more attention to my seam allowances and with only a bit of unpicking the block came out at the right size :)

Like several people in this QAL I am not really sure what I am going to do with the blocks when they are all finished. There are some fabulous cushions being made by participants who are making 4 of each block, and that is something I may think about, but for now I will just keep plodding along with 1 block a week and see what inspires me at the end of the QAL.

For Katy's FPPFTT block this week we were mastering "larger scale complex sectional blocks" apparently, and I took the opportunity to use up scraps left over from the Sew Happy QAL. I suspect it is down to my Scottish heritage but I have a bad habit of trying to make scraps fit when they are really not big enough, so I ended up with seam allowances that amounted to a couple of threads in one or two places! I really will have to learn to be more generous with my fabric pieces :) The finished square will eventually (hopefully in the next two weeks!) end up as a cushion and will go to my son and his wife along with the Circle of Geese block that will also become a cushion. They will then have a cushion each to snuggle under the quilt with, although from what I saw of the weather forecast for the UK last weekend, they won't be needing quilts at the moment.

It must be officially Spring here as the Laime Clock has had its winter woollies removed! So you can see it in all its natural glory.

And just in case you thought that I spent all of my weekend tied to the sewing machine or ripping out paper, I also visited the Fish Market

and walked through the park bordering Riga Old Town

It is a tradition here that when couples get married they fasten a lock to the bridge and throw away the key to symbolise that they will be locked together in marriage for ever. As you can see it is a popular tradition.

As you can also see the locks are engraved with the name (or initials) of the couple and the date of their wedding.

Looking forward to seeing the results of your weekends too.

Linking up to Manic Monday, Sew Modern Monday , BOM's away and Fabric Tuesday.

Catching up at last!

Having finally started on the backlog of blocks for the Craftsy BOM , I am determined to get up-to-date before April arrives. So, you can imagine my delight when I realised that one of the March blocks was a foundation pieced string block, and the block that I have yet to catch up on for Katy's FPPFTT is a paper-pieced string block! Two blocks with one stone, that is my kind of catching up :) True to my resolution to avoid foundation piecing at all costs, the March Craftsy block instantly became a paper-piecing project!

The HST blocks, which were the February blocks, in the BOM were a mixed bag to be honest. Each of the 2 blocks used a different method for creating the HST's. The first, for the Chevron Block, involves drawing diagonal lines on squares and sewing either side of the line to create 2 HST blocks when cut on the line, whilst the 2nd method, for the Balkan Puzzle block, involves sewing all around 2 squares with a 1/4" seam and then cutting the squares twice on the diagonal to create 4 HST blocks. In Color Order's HST BOM also provides these 2 options for creating the HST blocks, but until now I have only ever used the first method, which In Color Order calls the "traditional" method. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained, perhaps now was the time to have a go at the "alternative" method! There have been several comments in the HST BOM about the bias edges created by the alternative method, and although I am not 100% sure that they were the cause of the problems, I have to admit that the Balkan Puzzle block was ripped and re sewn several times before I could get the points matched up in any kind of order! I am obviously a traditionalist at heart :)

Still, with only the Spider's Web block to go for the Craftsy BOM and the end of the month over a week away, things are looking hopeful for a clean slate to start at the beginning of April. Now, if I can only get this week's NY Beauty Block and FPPFTT block completed this weekend, I will be so up-to-date I won't know myself!


In other catching up, the lovely Claire at Sewing Over Pins kindly passed on a Liebster blog award a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't managed to get my act together sufficiently to a) thank her or b) pass the award on. As you are probably aware the  Liebster award is given to blogs with less than 200 followers and as a recipient of the award I should thank the award blogger in a post, list the names of five blogs I follow who fall within that category who I feel deserve to be noticed, advise the five bloggers by leaving a comment on their blogs and copy and paste the blog award on my blog. Since Claire nominated me for the Liebster award I have been lucky enough to win a giveaway at Ellison Lane Quilts and a Bonus Prize in Sew Happy Geek's QAL, so I am hoping that I am also passing on the luck too!

So here goes, I have nominated the following bloggers who are all relatively new bloggers like myself, and who might not have already come to your attention.


Amy at the cute life :)  Check out the progress of her Fire and Ice quilt!

Catherine at Knotted Cotton Look for her photos of the cutest tree house doors you will ever see! 


Karen at Practically Pippy See if you can help her with her Stale Stash Swap!

Caroline at Quilting in the Cold   A fellow quilter in the frozen north, who is just beginning to thaw out! 

Judy at Sew Rip Repeat Another NY Beauty blocker! 


Sarah at Silly Banana Sewing A fellow Scot in exile! 


Hope you are all having a productive week too. Have a great weekend!