Retrieved from hibernation

At the last meeting of my French stitchery group, we got the bindings cut for the two quilts which have been ongoing for the last year or two, and I now have one of the quilts bound. I can't describe it as complete yet, though, as the hand quilting isn't all finished. The target for completion of both quilts is now November, when we have a showcase event planned.

Travelling by train from the south of France to London gave me plenty of time to get the last bits of my art nouveau peacock embroidery done. The canvas is quite grubby in places, though, so will need careful hand washing before it can be framed. I did find the second kit for this design which I had planned to make up as a mirror image of the first one. Whether or not this will ever get made I don't know; so many hours went into this piece of work that it's off-putting to consider starting all over again.

I'm about to make the return journey by train now so have retrieved (from the box in the loft where she has languished for many years) a knitted rag doll which I made. About half of her knitted clothing has been done - I will now try and complete the clothing so that she can be dressed... I have a feeling that I lost my impetus with this project when I was unable to make a reasonable job of embroidering her a face. If I do get all her bits done, I think I need to find someone a little more artistic than I am to give her nice features!

A good day...

I ended yesterday with a sense of achievement and six complete articles! First, I finished off a crocheted beret which I'd started the previous day while on a flight.

Next I got out the cutting board and the sewing machine. Since we got back from a recent camping trip I had intended to replace our plastic sponge bag with a larger one; from an old plastic table cover I cut enough good waterproof material to make two bags - so we're all set for next year's camping... 

I'd recently managed to ruin the tablecloth used on the terrace, by leaving some candles out which melted next day in the heat, and had bought a replacement tablecloth which needed to be cut down to size. I'd also bought a second hand piece of fabric which I thought would be good for patchwork, but it happened to be just the right size for the table. A bit of cutting and hemming, and I now have two tablecloths for the terrace.

Finally, whilst I still had the cutting board and sewing machine out, I decided to have a go at a recent challenge from someone in my French craft group. She had suggested in July that we might all make a "little dress for Africa", and one of the group had already made one when we met in August. I can now add mine - made from stash materials so no purchase necessary!

Started... and finished!

As a bellringer and stitcher, I couldn't resist buying some ringing-related kits when I visited the Taylor bell foundry shop earlier this year. One of them kept me busy when travelling by train, and I since managed to finish it off. Here it is:

I plan to put it somewhere in the belfry where I ring most often... jugs of beer are always welcomed by ringers, but I've yet to see a ringer in spurs!

On the not-so-positive side, I've discovered yet another UFO, which I don't remember at all. It's another counted stitch embroidery, this time in tent stitch rather than cross stitch.

One day project

Not quite all in a day - there was a bit of preparation first - but almost! My French stitchery group had a one-day workshop at which we each made a large tote bag. Five of us took part, plus our tutor for the day, and we had all chosen completely different fabric combinations, so that our bags - all made from the same pattern - are very distinctive. I brought my bag home with the side seams, lining and top binding still to be done, but couldn't bear the thought of this becoming another UFO, so stayed up late until it was finished. I love it!

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.

Two complete

Two items finished off this week - one is a lap blanket (which will eventually be a SIBOL gift) - made with the yarn left over from the jacket I finished recently. On the photo it looks like there's a dirty mark on it - a strange trick of the light! The centre is a square from a pattern found on Ravelry (Sweet and Fair Afghan Square), then I just kept adding rounds of (UK) trebles until the yarn ran out! Fortunately this made it about the right size for a lap blanket.

The other piece is the baby blanket which I was making as a practice piece using different stitches of Tunisian crochet. The last time I mentioned it on here was because I couldn't find it! This was because I was looking in London and had actually left it at my French house. As with the lap blanket, I was using up leftover yarn and again ended up with a practical sized blanket when the yarn ran out! A border of white yarn made a neat job of the edges.

I bought a couple of children's playmats - the foam jigsaw ones - to use for blocking the pieces.

My French stitchery group has a one-day workshop next week - we'll each be making a quilted tote bag - so I've started work on that - quilting a couple of pieces ahead of the day. I went shopping with one of the other group members to buy fabric for her bag - and ended up adding three pieces to my stash too.

My sampler quilt progressed to the stage where I now have four blocks complete - but I need at least twelve even to make a quilt for one of the bunk beds - so that won't be done in a hurry. I'm trying to do a bit of work each day on the hand quilting of the group quilt too - and still have a cushion to finish - patchwork done in January, backing added and cushion pad bought a bit later - now needs zip and piping to complete.

One down!

Completely the wrong season for it ... but I have managed to finish the chunky jacket I started in April. However, there's quite a bit of yarn left over...

I'd found this really nice yarn in a discount store and wanted to make something with it. It wasn’t until I started knitting it up that I realised the colour blend wasn’t random - so the result was a striped piece; unfortunately this meant I then had to work it so that the stripes matched up on the seams - which meant lots of cutting and loads of yarn ends to darn in. It was also complicated by the fact that some of the balls of yarn were wound with the colours in the opposite direction to others, so these had to be re-wound by hand so that the colour sequence came out right. I later looked at others’ work on this pattern and saw that some had knitted in one piece so no side seams - would have saved me time but made the stripes quite narrow.