December finishes - candy hexa quilt and JK cushion cover

 Working with colours helps me deal with my crazy work life and hectic family life. With three kids (young adolescents now) some things are easier such as cleaning up the kitchen after diner .... some things don't change at all .. the driving them around to the different sports/music classes each evening at least one kid has something ..... and some things are more work ... the increase in grocery shopping and the food they eat. Am not complaining as I enjoy the hecticness and craziness as this fits with my personality. I do need time off in between to center myself. In the past I could go for a swim, but the last few years with Covid this has become difficult. Also because the pool is closer to my work and with the teleworking just too far away.

Quilting and knitting have helped me to center myself and as I have finished quite some quilts over the last two years my skills have improved.

This year I discovered making cushion covers, I participated in a few swaps and they were around cushion covers, again stretching my skills as you make something for someone else. I loved all the ones I made and will make a few more in the new year.  

My finishes of December are:

Candy Hexa quilt

 

In October and November I participated in the honeycomb stars sew along. For December I wanted to finish the quilt. Once I had finished the top, I sent it to the LAQ.

 

The quilt is all done now and gifted.

 

Jen Kingwell cushion cover

As part of the winter swap I made two cushion covers in November. One turned out really nice once batted and quilted and one I loved from the beginning. I started a third one, to make up for the disastrous first one, just did not have time to finish in time. After a "vote"  on my IG page with pictures of the two finalized projects, the winter grey/white was choosen most so off that gift went. 

The unfinished winter/grey was originally going to be a mini quilt, however as I kept it for myself, I made a cushion cover, which is adorning my sofa right now.

 

 

Linking up with Patty's OMG for December at Elm Street Quilts. 

 

 

November finishes

 This month I finished some projects and I worked on two other projects. My OMG for November was to finish the two cushion covers I had planned to make as part of a Winter swap. The designs are from Jen Kingwell. She just published a new book that I absolute want ..... however I never used her book I bought a few years ago. So that was a no-go. What better way to use her book for some cushion covers. And now I am addicted and want to make more.

1) Red modern Christmas cushion cover 

For this cushion cover I followed the book's instructions and a variety of Christmas red and green fabrics. The end result is this colorful modern holiday cushion cover. Well the way I finished the back allows to also use as a small tabletopper.

The fabric combination really makes this a festive contribution to a Christmas decor.

 

This is the first time I use my new label that I ordered this month, simple. the backing is cotton I bought a few years ago on line in the UK

 

2) Winter cushion cover

 

Why read instructions right, especially if the pattern looks so easy. I did follow the instructions to cut all the pieces and started sewing using my sewing machine. Lots of Y seems ... And then I looked again as something just did not make sense .... I cut the pieces of fabric for hand piecing. For machine sewing the fabric was cut differently ..... After ironing the top looked awful, so I carefully washed the top, ironed again a few times .... very carefully. And sew a border around the top. Now that looked way much better. I used a bit thicker batting giving some volume to the top and the wobbly was no longer wobbly. This one also made it to the finish line in time. Also with the option to either use as a mini table topper or as a cushion cover.

 

3) Winter table top/wall hanging

 

As my second cushion cover was on its way to become a disaster I decided to try a third model of the Jen kingswell book. this pattern is for a quilt and I adapted this to a square. I really like how this is turning out and need to decide if I turn this into a table top/wall hanging or a large cushion cover.

 

linking up with Patty's OMG for November at Elm Street Quilts

October finishes

Several projects got out of the way this month so a lot of feelings of accomplishments floating here around.

1) OMG October

My main OMG for this month was to finish a baby quilt for a baby born this month. And the quilt is given to the grandmother so on its way to the baby this weekend.

The new mum loves pink!!! The baby being a girl the quilt just had to be pink, and not any pink .... pastel pink (if that expression even exists in English).

Enough pink fabric in my stash left over from my very pink scull quilt .... just these were very very bright pinks. A trip to a small shop (one of my favourite yarn shops who also happens to sell some baby fabric) and some more fabric buying over summer in the Netherlands and the basics for the quilt were there.

I used the pattern disappearing four patch block from the designer/quilter Material Girl Quilts. I watched her tutorial and started cutting and sewing and more cutting. Once all blocks were done i was not sure on how to best place each block. I tried a few options and ended up making a black and white picture to see how the balance was. After a few try-outs I was happy and started the assembly of the blocks in to a top.

 For the quilting I was not sure what to do and in the end decided to use curvy lines to create soft lines.

Some details: the new mum loves dogs and when I saw the dog-paws fabric I just knew I had to use that also for the binding. And the flamingos are just too cute.

Linking up with Patty's OMG at Elm Street Quilts.

2) Socks

I bought this yarn a few years ago for the colours, I had bought two colour schemes, one more purple and this one with more turquoise. And I don't think I will ever buy this sock yarn again. I don't like the way it knits up. I do love the colours, very warm and rich. I started knitting these a few months ago and was so dissappointed that sock number 2 never got finished. I tried a few times and .... not much progress. This had to change. I got a few knitting sessions going and last week finished these socks. They are too ugly to wear - but in winter I might wear these at home to keep my feet warm.

 

3) Scarf

Last winter bought yarn for a scarf. My youngest already had one, my daughter knitted one for herself, so high time to make one for my eldest. He choose the colours and I knitted. This was my on-the-go project

Color Jolt QAL

September was a good crafting month .... and not yet finished ... am on a roll.

 

I finally finished my quilt - binding and all. 

 

This quilt started somewhere Q3 or 4 2020 and the top was finished in November 2020. I sandwiched the top earlier this year and somehow just would not progress. This had to change. I added finishing this batik beauty to my OMG list in the hope that this would push me to finalize. I had to add this to another challenge (the wips-b-gone list - 100 last days of the year challenge) to get going. Having a finished top laying around more than one year seems to be a too long.

I had started with straight (more or less) horizontally accross and then some more vertically across. And then the little block ... no idea what to do with them .... nothing seemed to inspire .... so decided to quilt diagonal lines, using one of the diagonal sashing as the basis and work across.  Up close, the quilting looked awful .. to me and I almost threw the quilt out. Took a deep breath, layed the quilt on the floor and stepped back .... and loved it again ... from 2 meters away the total looked good. 

 With new energy finished the quilting and the binding three evenings later.

 The backing is solid purple and some African batik.

Linking up with September OMG from Elm Street quilts.

June finishes

Halfway the year 2021 and am making a little dent in my projects to be finished - only to get side tracked by new projects, ideas .....

On the knitting front I almost finished a pair of socks, both are done and the only pending is finishing the toes with the kitchener stitch of both socks. Maybe because I don't really like the yarn ... not difficult to knit - just not what I expected. My favourite sock yarn is definitely West Yorkshire Spinners. And I have some yummy colours waiting for me.

I did finish a scarf for my youngest - he choose the colours .... and that was it ... supposedly he was going to learn how to knit himself .... another day/year ....

I started a scarf for the eldest which progresses nicely, no thinking required and can be done in front of the tv  and this is one of those "no-rush" projects. 

On the quilting front my OMG finishes for the month are:

1) Harmony hand pieced quilt

This wall hanging really turned out nice. My daughter wants it for her room, so this will be either a wall hanging or a sort of curtain. I thought of turning this small quilt in to a sewing machine cover, so will need to make a new one for myself.

2) Catching up with the Sewcialites QAL

I was pretty behind and made 10 blocks this month and worked on the lay out. I managed to do more that planned which is always a bonus. Another month will think about the backing and the quilting, although I definitely want to have a finished top next month. For the FMQ part am thinking of maybe straight lines diagonal across and that will look nice with the diagonal lines of the HST.

 

 

 

 

I cut the grey blocks and the grey/yellow HST and played a bit with the lay-out

I think I like the second layout best - so that will be my finish for next month.

Linking up with Patty's June OMG at Elm Street Quilts.

Harmony hand pieced quilt

 Ta da!!!! My first hand sewn project is finished, what an accomplishment. The good part is that I really enjoyed the slow pace of hand sewing. Still quite a few things to learn, such as precision when using the paper templates - or actually - next time make carton templates for more precision.

We had some nice weather over the weekend so I managed to make some nice pictures.

My cherry tree is a good model for quilts.

For the quilting I tried to be a bit more adventurous and used the design to guide the FMQ and not straight lines or a circle. This is still not my thing .... and a good thing I went for the wall hanging size. Although now that the quilt is finished am very pleased with the result.

Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts and Kristin Esser at Simple Handmade Everyday. Thank you for the lovely pattern, explanations and motivation.

April goals and country side walks

 The end of April is here and it rains. We had some very nice days in April and we went for a walk past Sunday. I bought my self a simple watch to track my steps as am not walking enough. There are still days that i don't walk enough, but now I can see how much I did manage to do. With the kids at home I spent quite a few days in the office (special permission as still in pandemic mode) and these are the worst. I am locked up in my little office and definitely don't get a lot of steps done. I do get a lot of work done.

 

We tried a new path close to our house, the kids had already walked there with the school; however for me was a first and I seriously enjoyed this walk. 

 

I never get tired of views on the lake

 

On the creative side there were burst of activity, some days none at all and other days progress. In the end, I managed my goals. Accomplishments are good - especially at the end of the month.

My very very pink skull is finished. Last night I added the binding - and took a picture, Clearly more pictures need to be added (and taken) to show this beauty. I am trying to improve my quilting and looked at many different sites, bought a book, joined an on-line course and still have a lot to learn. I also know that I love quilting with my walking foot and work in (more or less) straight lines. I decided to only outline the pink areas as they are busy enough. To add value to the pink and that the skull stands out more I filled up the negative space. In the grey are I followed the lines of the skull, adding lines and lines, stopping to see what else was needed. The black area is in horizontal and vertical lines. Daylight pictures to follow.

I also made progress on the Harmony quilt. I so enjoy hand sewing, a different mind set and pace for sure. A separate post was written on my progress.

 

Linking with Patty at Elm Street Quilts' April's One Monthly Goal