Another one bites the dust!

My first attempt at English paper pieced patchwork was a very simple hexagon pattern which I started several years ago and left aside when I started to learn other techniques. This last week the wind has been too strong for me to be gardening, so I got it out and finally got it finished! Whether it will be of any use or not remains to be seen (too small for a bed but probably too big for a cot), but at least it's no longer a UFO...

My first quilt

It's been almost a year since I wrote anything here - not that there was nothing to say, just was too busy to get round to it! Whoever said retirement was the busiest time of their life, I agree...

Anyway, my biggest ever project (not the longest lasting, but the physically biggest) is now finally complete. This is my first (who knows, maybe also my last!) full (double bed) size patchwork quilt - based on Lynne Edwards' Sampler Quilt book.

The blocks and the border were made from scrap fabrics, though I did purchase fabrics for framing, joining and binding. The batting and backing fabrics too were "pre-loved" - the batting taken from curtain interlining and the backing from bedlinen. In this way I think I more or less used the original idea of making patchwork quilts.

Each block was quilted separately before being joined to its neighbours - I had decided on this after making a throw which I found extremely difficult to quilt using just a standard sewing machine. Only the final joins of the borders had the whole quilt on the sewing table. 

Final cushion finished

I finally got round to finishing the "Trip Around the World" patchwork cushion which has been waiting since January ... this is the seventh - and last, as I don't have more of these fabrics left. It's also slightly bigger than the first ones - but the fabrics all match.

I've also made another block for my sampler quilt - I now have five done. This was the "Maple Leaf" pattern - hand pieced then machine quilted.

One down... and three added!

Final completion of one of my UFOs today was not by me, but by a local picture framer. I finished the embroidery several weeks ago and have now had it mounted - at an expense, of course, but I thought it would never get done if I had to do it myself. However, I don't think the framer knew that embroideries should be stretched over a block before mounting, as it doesn't seem to lie completely flat. It's still much better than being screwed up in a workbox though! The colours suit our French home better than the London one - but when it will get there I don't know; I won't risk it with Ryanair baggage handlers! It will have to wait until we make a journey there by car or by train.

Today I had a "clear out" day - crafting bits and pieces were all over the place in the home, and an initial search for something amongst the mess led me to decide to spend the day sorting. In the process I not only rationalised the storage of my sewing equipment, but also discovered more UFOs which had been lurking forgotten underneath other things. I have absolutely no recollection of even starting the log cabin work, and there's no indication of what it was destined to become! Perhaps one side of a large quilted bag? I do have a vague notion of what the other patchworks were to be - at least, what the designs were, if not the finished objects.

Finally, I've also added to my UFOs a tiny cross-stitch which I think my Mum had started - most of her sewing things came to me after she died, and I think this was amongst them. If I finish this off, it will be something else to remind me of her. I owe my interest in crafting to her anyway - she was the person who taught me to sew and knit in the first place.

Best-laid schemes

Less than a month into the New Year and I've already started several new projects despite the good intention to clear up the old ones. There's a good excuse for at least two of them - I always have a good excuse! Two days ago friends became parents for the first time - so something has to be made for the baby; yesterday I joined a crafting group at a local church - and couldn't join in without agreeing to take part in their current project. So, I'm crocheting a baby blanket and also having a go at appliqué using fusible interfacing. The baby blanket is straightforward - I've made the same design before, for another friend's first child. The appliqué is something I've never done before. So far the fabrics are all fused together but now the embroidery needs to be done - I'll leave that until the group meets again next Thursday.

I have finished something off this week - but it wasn't a UFO - it's a child's jumper which I only started last weekend. I knitted it as a favour to someone who asked on impossible.com for test knitters for her new pattern. I've completed it and sent her my comments - but not yet had her reaction back. Here it is - I really need to find a 4 year old to try it on for a better photo!

Meanwhile I've also begun work on something which I didn't list as a "UFO" as all I had done previously was buy the fabric - it's to make a box cushion to sit on the blanket chest in our bedroom. This evening I've made a cotton cover for the foam pad, and now need to get going on the cushion cover itself.

Also this week I used up all the leftover fabrics from my patchwork cushion covers to make a final one using the "Tour Around the World" design. The patchwork is done but I won't be able to complete the cushion cover until I go back to France next month. I'm quite pleased that I managed to stitch the 1" squares together neatly. Unfortunately it will always be an odd cushion as I've now used all these fabrics up; the other cushions in these fabrics are in pairs - two each of three designs.

More from the loft

Searching through the loft for something else entirely, I discovered several more items which hadn't made it to my original UFO list last year: 

The crochet cotton bags are left from a batch I made to sell on behalf of a local church restoration project. Four of these had been completed, but the remaining two weren't made up in time for the church sale, and have been left unfinished ever since. The patchwork is more recent - a second design started from the "Stack-n-Whack" book which has yet to be made up.

The canvas bag already had the embroidered flowers on when I bought it in a charity shop, but my intention was to decorate both sides with beads etc. Finally, the last item pictured was an idea I had to make a gathered skirt re-using old fabrics decorated with ribbon and lace. Some of the fabric and the lace had been hand dyed to toning colours but the pieces then were put aside. It's waiting for a zip to be bought... and one of the fabrics frays very easily - as I don't have an overlocker I'm thinking of binding the edge of that fabric but that might make it too thick on the gathers...

Three in one day!

Today's been a great "finishing" day... three items off my UFO list. Firstly, I completed the sixth of my set of patchwork cushions. I'd made five some time ago, then realised there were enough fabric strips left to make another; the patchwork had been done but not the making up. However, I'd forgotten the order in which they were put together so had to search out again the website from which I'd learned the techniques of piping and inserting a hidden zip.

The crochet beret started on my last journey has also been completed:

Finally, the odd square of patchwork which I'd put together from scraps and was using as a practice quilting piece has been quilted and bound to make a table mat:

Nothing else in my UFO collection will be quite so quick to finish off as these have been!