Not entirely cross stitch for a change

I am running out of wall space, and friends to give stitched things to. (One of my motivations for starting to sew for Love Quilts initially actually) But I also try to think how else I can use and display my sewing.

A couple of projects were started out as being educational cross stitch pieces for S&P and have been finished off as quilts.

The numbers quilt takes elements from the number blocks designs that were originally published in New Stitches. In addition I did applique number blocks to intersperse on the quilt top.

The alphabet quilt takes the letter patterns from Margret Sherry .

I do some straight patchwork and quilting too. I'm not sure where the design or this one came, but it was a fat quarter bundle that I bought with no plan for. It is a bit larger than I am used to doing on my domestic machine and I actually sent this away to get it properly long-arm quilted.

This one is big, and I did between finishing University an getting a job. It was quite fun to do, with the variety of different blocks. This one I quilted myself, but I went away for the day to a local quilter's who let you use their long-arm quilting machine. An enjoyable experience and made me wish that we had both the space and the money to house one myself. A pipe dream would be to be able to set myself up and do it for others, but it does not strike me as being a viable option when you need to make a living.

The last one here I tried out a different technique. I did it quilt-as-you-go. So each block I pieced, then layered up with wadding and backing, and then quilted individually. The front and back sashings were then stitched on together, sandwiching a wadding strip between them when stitching the second seam. I used a different colour to the backing for the sashing on the reverse, I think it makes for quite a good effect.

Happy stitching, xx

What did April bring?

Good Friday, I was off work, and it was the penultimate insect day, what a happy occurrence! S and P were in nursery too, so a "me day" for a change, and no pressure to study. So Insect stitching and I, Claudius to start. I followed this up by making some felt masks for the girls.

I've been doing most of my own framing for a while so got my mount cut and materials ordered so that I could frame my insects straight away, no real reason why I needed to, I just wanted too. I've got my mount measured and cut for the fantasy one too. So once the final Insect arrived I got him stitched up before work. A bit disappointed to get a beetle, I was hoping for a dragonfly, but it was a quick stitch and actually looks OK stitched up, and in keeping with the pattern. I got it framed at lunchtime, much to my delight. The designer of the Insects SAL, Sara Abdelmageed (a fellow twin mummy) trades as  Little Beach Hut on Etsy - have a look, her designs are lovely, I am hoping to see mare Lakeside collaborations with her to come.

I made some headway with Stitchrovia this month, finally settled on colours I liked. Though they do remind me of Neapolitan ice cream! I'm not up to date, but making progress. Next two months have been bought and are in the queue.

For the Fantasy SAL we got a dragon this month at last, though  I not quite dragony enough for my taste. I'm not going to make too many changes though as I worry that it would  a look out of style  a with the rest of the design. I started it on Monday while the girls were busy and cracked on with it in the evening, to realise that I was using the wrong colours and it all had to come back out. So am doing the UTS first instead this month, delighted with the seahorses and they stitched up quickly. 

I decided I wanted to make the girls little trinket boxes, so I commissioned a local crafts man to make me a couple of bespoke wooden boxes to fit the fantasy circles. Posy wanted the goblin, I think probably because of a current obsession with the incredible hulk, and Squirmy asked for the flying pony. OK, I mis-measured and ended up having to stitch on 18 count, but I think they look really dainty on the finer gauge, and enjoyed stitching them again. I wouldn't have expected to hear myself saying I enjoyed using 18 count, but it feels OK after using the 25 for the One Ring. If I go for the Lakeside new SAL I'm thinking that I might go 18 for that for a change. The 3rd box is for me as the cunning artisan offered me a third for less than half price! 

I mentioned last month that I was having trouble getting an order I had placed in February, a month down the line and it still hasn't been received despite 3 assurances it has been sent, I have checked they have the correct address, no excuse for such poor service - next stop to cancel via PayPal.

These coupled with study for my next exam all mean that there has been little progress on the One Ring this month. Oh well...