Part 4 of the mystery quilt

I am still keeping up with the clues given by Bonnie Hunter to make her mystery quilt called Easy Street. We are on week 4 and the pieces are starting to add up.
I would like to do the extra cutting she gave us as well as I don't think that I will be able to do much in the next 10 days really.
Here are some photos of the finished pieces, just put together to try to make a pattern

This week we made more flying geese with purple for the geese, and blue for the background. We then sewed them to purple and white geese made previously.
I can only try to guess what the quilt will look like. Still no green has been used.

Enjoy your sewing, maybe for some Homemade Christmas presents.

Pascale

Sewing roll

On Wednesday we had our Christmas buffet in our patchwork group, Golden Lion Quilters.

The "festivities" are kept simple and include a raffle, where we all get a piece of fabric, and we exchange a secret present. They are all put in a bag and we pick one.

This is what I made, and Yvonne picked it up, as well as a tin box for buttons.

 I made a sewing roll and you can find the patttern here, on All People Quilt's website. The paper is on the left side of the photo.

 I didn't have time to add the embroidery or the flowers in fabric. I kept the design simple.
I was hoping to add some ribbon but found nothing suitable in my little stock.

 There are 4 pockets, 3 small and one bigger, and I added a needle holder piece.
You can see that the bigger pocket could easily be embellished.

And as its name indicates, you can roll it up to carry your sewing necessities.
The pattern was so easy that I am considering making another one for myself, using different fabrics. We'll see.

Enjoy your sewing, maybe you are finishing some Christmas present.

Pascale.

Our very cold part of the world

Wednesday was very cold -5C.

These photos were taken in our garden in the morning. The tree is beautiful, all white.

View from the front garden. The pond is frozen.

 And then I went running. I had a hat on as well as my usual kit, but really missed some gloves.
I took my camera with me and took some photos near Coate Water Park in Swindon.

THere is a bit of water in the middle that is not frozen, where the ducks are all staying.

This robin took the pose for me.

Beautiful willow tree near the golf.

Nobody is playing but I can assure you this is the golf course.

Enjoy the warmth inside, and maybe a bit of sewing.

Pascale.

Easy Street part 3

I'm still keeping up with our Mystery Quilt on Bonnie Hunter's blog. I have done part 3, finished it yesterday Wednesday in fact, and waiting for our next clue tomorrow Friday.
Here are some photos:

 We had to make 64 blocks so there was a lot of cutting triangles, and 2" squares.

 Here's half of my block. I particularly liked Bonnie's method to make these. It worked very well.

2 of the finished blocks

4 of them with different fabrics

And here are the 64 finished blocks.

I really wonder what this quilt will look like. We haven't used the green yet.

The amount of work involved is supposed to diminish around Christmas, not that I will be able to sew then.

This afternoon I spent a few hours with 2 good friends, pulling on the needle, with coffee and cakes. Such a wonderful time, but too short of course.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.

Christmas Craft Sale

You know Christmas is coming when you find reindeers in an outlet village shopping centre.

Or when you are invited to take part in a Craft Sale. This one happened at Lower Shaw Farm in Swindon, last Friday, 30 November. I took a quick photo of my stall, not very easy with all the things happening around.
I had half a table and sold a few things, had a chat with very nice people and enjoyed myself. I am to bring it all back for my knitting group who meet in the same place on the second Monday of the month.
I bought from another lady a pot of jam, lime and ginger. As it is almost gone, I hope she will bring her stock back and I will buy some more, some to eat ourselves and some to give away.

This little owl to use in the kitchen was waiting for eyes for ages. Made with the block Drunken Path, alternating the fabrics and the direction of the blocks.

This sale meant I rummaged through the things already made, finished some projects I had forgotten about, and created new items for the sale.
What was the most difficult for me was to find the right size to make an ipod cover. I had 3 trials to get it big enough, and apparently it needs to be taller for the Ipod5! My daughters love their music and all the games they can play on these clever little machines. DD4 uses her's to read her emails as well.
So here are the covers.

 One is missing, sold before I took the photo. It had the black and red writing and was a bigger size, like the blue.

DH chose the fabric so that it is a bit manly, I like it, and put some purple inside for fun. there is a pocket to store the earplugs, and my inspiration came from this pin, but when I follow the link I can't find the post. So you only have the photo.
It's a way of avoiding more plastic, and I love the contact and cushioning of the fabric.
I need to make another one for my camera before it gets damaged in my bag.

My thought since I started making coasters, zip pouches, etc... was that I could always use them as presents for the people I love around me.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.

Easy Street part 2

I keep going on the Mystery quilt organised by Bonnie Hunter. Part 2 is lots of flying geese. I have made nearly 90 out of 128, so am nearly there. It will happen, no problem. You can view what other people have made on this post, there are nearly 230 people doing this quilt. I'm going to link this post on my blog to hers.

I still keep my pieces attached by 10 to count them.

Some flying geese, and some half made.

With the difference in time zone, Bonnie will give the next clue tomorrow morning for her, which will be afternoon or evening for me in the UK. That's fine, I will start on the next stage when I can. The week ends are quite busy with the family, and I know that next week I will be out 4 evenings out of 5. That's a lot of Christmas food and parties.
I am not going to stress about this project being done in a deadline. It is a very busy and nice time of year, and I will spend a lot of it with my family; there will be some travelling involved.

So enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.

Fabric postcard, Flying Dutchman

I took part in a little swap on the group BQLPC (Post Cards) with only 3 of us.
The theme was "Flying Dutchman", which I interpreted as the boat called that name. It was supposed to be a ghost embarcation, and feared by people on the sea.
The name also refers to the patchwork block called the Flying Geese, triangles in a line, in the middle of a rectangle.
And this is the result:

I regret the poor lighting, with winter the days are quite short, and the weather is terrible, lots of rain at the moment, and flooding not far from where we are. There is no risk for us as we are on a hill, but we feel sorry for the people who are affected.

I managed to go running this morning, but got wet from the rain while in the middle of nowhere. There were only fishermen around the lake where I was.
This is all on the theme of water isn't it!

Enjoy your sewing,

Pascale.

Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

I am starting a mystery quilt, you can find the instructions on Bonnie Hunter's blog "Quiltville's Quilts and Snips" here for the fabric requirements, and here for Part 1.

The quilt when finished will be for DD3, who is modelling on the photo with my blocks for the first part. I have not finished the 192 4patches, but am on the right way. Over 120 are sewn and pressed already, and a lot of 2 squares are together.

My strips of grey with white and black.

On some strips, I used different fabrics.

 I followed the choice of colours suggested by Bonnie. I am not very adventurous on this one. Except I would not have taken the grey and bright colours, but I would like to have a modern quilt at the end.

 On this photo you can see my plain grey, and the white and black fabrics.

My printed instructions.

My 4patches are still attached, 10 together so I can count them quickly.

Have fun sewing, I am enjoying following somebody else's instructions.

Pascale.

Lots of things have happened.
I went to Malvern Autumn Quit show, and bought more fabric! Super.

I'm doing some knitting, especially in the evening in front of the TV, when I'm too tired to sew. I taught myself to knit holding my thread in my left hand, so that I could be faster, and make more things.
So here is my latest production: a pair of socks for DD3.

 The thread was bought over a year ago, but things do happen eventually... It is"Bamboulene" by Cheval Blanc,  DK weight, 50% wool and 50% bamboo, knits with 3.5 mm size needles.
There was very little left at the end.

 I made them size 7/8 UK, with 4 times 12 stitches (48 stitches), short row heels and the leg measures 10.5cm before the heel.
I used this book to work out a pattern and it was very helpful.

You can find it here on Amazon (no affiliation).

Next I'm going to start a snood for DD3, it seems to be all the rage in the shops at the moment. Mine will be done in proper wool at least, blue and white.

Enjoy your sewing, or knitting.

Pascale.