Project 50 Quince Jelly

It is no secret that I enjoy making jams, jelly I don't make often though. I was given a few kilos of quinces and did not look forward to peeling them. To make jelly one does not peel the quinces, merely quarter them and remove seeds. The jelly is quite easyt to make, boil the quartered fruit in quite some water, filter the juice and cook with sugar. As I had too much juice (4 kilos)I froze a part. the fruit pulp also went in to the freezer and will be used to make fruit snacks and compote

One Monthly Goal December Christmas gifts Place-mats

Christmas is around the corner, gifts are needed and I still have a stash of fabric. Hence hand-made gifts it is this year. Thought to make place-mats (read mini-quilts) as they are fun and relatively easy to handle with my sewing machine. I had ordered a quilt Christmas book, some models I will not make - ever - others are good for inspiration. I need to make 4 place-mats for my SIL and two for my HB niece who needs to fit the gift in her suitcase.

My goal for OMG December from Elm Street Quilts is to make thus two sets of place-mats using my African batiks.

Project 49 Top of BSB quilt done

Now that I had finished all the individual blocks, it was time to sew them all up. The quilt is huge. Somehow as all the different blocks were made seaparately I did not realize how big the quilt would be.

The next step will be the sandwiching and the free motion quilting. This will have to wait until January, no idea how I can quilt this on my small sewing machine. It is seriously time to consider a long-arm machine. Or find someone who has a professional quilting machine. Have started asking around, no luck yet.

Finishing the top of the Bella Skill Builder quilt was part of my One Monthly Goal for November with Patty from Elm Street Quilts.

Project 48 Autumn socks

Knitting socks is becoming an addiction. They are the best projects on the go. Sometimes one sock will take weeks and then I go off on a knitting frenzie and knit sock number two. Or as was the case withe autumn socks, number two was progressing real slow. Until I bought Christmas yarn - the second sock was finished in no-time.

Project 47 Halloween capes

Halloween is here and the kids want to dress up. First at the "summer camp" they had to come dressed up. Slava wanted a Star Wars cape and Alexei a Vampire cape.
One of the best investments was my lock-machine. It makes finishing costumes really easy. Don't they look cute with their masks and capes.

Project 46 Sweater for Alexei

Last year I started knitting a sweater for Alexei. And then winter made way for spring and the sweater was not done. It became one of these lying-around projects. So as part of my 52 projects challenge, I had to include finishing these WIPs. All it took was a few weeks of vigorous knitting, puzzling on how to attach the sleeves to the body of the sweater and then knit the yolk. The first attempt at the yolk was horrible, so frogged it all and started all over. Second time around it worked. The sweater is now finished and Alexei is happy and warm.

21 October 2017

OMG November BSB quilt assembly

So now after all these months of making a set of blocks of the BSB QAL, I find myself with this pile of blocks in all kind of different sizes and colours. There is one colour I would have never chosen myself; however as it was part of the package I used it.

Now that they are all finished the next step is to lay them out and start sewing. My OMG for the month of November, hosted by Elm Street Quilts, is therefore to sew these all up and make the boards.

Project 45 BSB Block 9

October block for the Bella Skill Builder is the last block of the quilt. Making the block is my objective for the OMG October of Elm Street Quilts.

I enjoyed making the blocks, there are two sizes and colour schemes. At first I had no idea how to cut the fabric as I don't have the lazy angle ruler. A good thing the cutting mat on which the fabric was cut in the video provided clues. I made the calculations, jumped in to the cutting for one square and it worked ... happy dance ......
The green block turned out amazingly well, guess I am learning how to be more precise when cutting the fabric.

Now need to find time to place all the blocks together and sew. Most likely that will be something for next month.

9 October

One Month Goal October

Time flies .... a bit too fast sometimes .... maybe I am too ambitious in my plans, or just too enthusiastic with too many ideas.

October is here, a birthday coming up for my youngest that needs planning, as well as my daughter's party with her school friends. So this month I will not have a lot of time for crafting.

The minimum to do this month is my BSB block 9 to finish as my objective for the One Month Goal for October from Elm Street Quilts.

A bonus will be for myself if I make a second mini quilt and a bag and ....... Let's see how far I get before my ideas run away again.

Project 44 Mini quilt

I was asked to make a mini quilt. Of course I said yes. This mini quilt encompasses many "firsts". The first time someone asked me to make a small quilt, making a mini quilt and free-motion quilting.

It was quite a challenging project ... I designed the quilt based on a picture I saw on the internet .... then calculated all the different sizes. Cutting and piecing was relatively easy .... well the first try-out was ugly .... with the second version I improved my sewing and the end result was not too bad. The mini quilt turned out a little bit bigger than I thought it would, but that was because my half-square triangles came out a little bit bigger.

How to continue ... I asked Patty from Elm Street Quilts who kindly gave me good advice. Thereafter the next big challenge was the FMQ ... a mini quilt is indeed the best way to try this out and gain confidence. After all if I wasn't going to jump now and do more than straight lines, I was never going to do so. Thank you Patty for the little push I needed.

The end result is a very nice mini quilt. Its size is 19 by 19 inches. Still small enough to be framed, and big enough to place on a table. I can treasure it for a few weeks as I will gift the quilt in November.

The mini quilt and my BSB block 8 were done in time for my September objective for One Monthly Goal

30 September