Catching up!

Hope all enjoyed the St Patrick’s day celebrations and monuments all around the world going green for the day. I love that bit!

It’s my mum’s wedding anniversary on that day and as Dad is no longer with us we like to make a big fuss of mum on the day. (Couldn’t get married during lent back in the 1960’s but everyone knows St. Patrick’s day is a day off from lent right? ) So very little sewing done this week. I’m late with my WIP Wednesday post, so I’m thinking of this as a To Do Thursday post instead!

I did get my Make modern quilt finished on time so really happy with that and looking forward to sharing with you for the May edition of the magazine.

Now that the deadlines are done and dusted, I am hoping to work on swaps, book reviews and finishing some long languishing WIP’s!

I joined 2 swaps on Instagram, #spdfairytaleswap and the #nerdscraftitbetterswap.  For some reason Big Huge labs was acting up and didn't give me url info to credit the infividual images.  They are compiled from searches on Flickr and Pinterest!

Anything mythological and fantastical with a bit of the underdog winning through brains and co-operation is right up my alley. I have a fondness for Hans Christian Anderson as his stories always have an element of kindness to them.  Little Red Riding Hood seems to be the most popular and it really is hard to resist the Brother's Grimm for evil villains!

For the nerdy swap I geeked out on Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Doctor Who and Buffy!  After missing the Make a Dalek, make a Friend swap I was delighted to see this one on Instagram in time to join.

Both swaps require a mini quilt or similar sized item, a smaller handmade item and some goodies.  A mosaic image of likes to help your partner and 3 work in progress photos are needed to abide my swap rules.  Nerds has a post date of 1st May for Internatinal and FairyTale June 29th.  Thinking cap is well and truly on!  Might have to try making a Sew together bag yet as one of my items!

Also on the To Do list is a book review I promised a friend.  I'm reviewing A Quilters Mixology by Angela Pingle and decided to make some lanterns from her book only I'm not making a bed quilt.  I'm hoping to make a sewing machine cover!  Using EQ7 I've resized Angela's designs from the book from 16" to give me a small medium and large lantern.  Imagine this folded in half with the pink on one side and the purple and yellow on the other.   It's all curves and drunkards path and looks like fun though I suspect lots of pins will be needed!

Of course I got carried away with playing with the curved shapes then in EQ7.  It's kind of addictive when you get going! Not sure what this is going to turn into. 

Lastly but not leastly, I am hoping to play catch up with all the blog posts I've missed while my nose was firmly to the sewing machine face plate!

I love reading what everyone has been up to and though you can't sew and read at the same time it's important to me to make time for both!  Apologies to those comments I've been late replying to!  How about you guys - are you having a To Do Thursday too?  

Finish-A-Long Quarter 2 update

Linking up to the Finish-A-Long at SheCanQuilt it's time to review the sewing goals I set myself last April.

Nothing like a deadline to push those unfinished objects to the finish line! Ahmm yup that's what I thought 3 months ago. Except this last quarter, I started more new things than I finished. There was just so many lovely projects going on that I joined in on and a few weekends to Galway and a week in Chicago visiting family ( though I did visit the Quiltology store and bought fabric for a Swoon quilt so not all of it was non-quilting time! )

So here's the round up:

1. Bounce : in April here's where I was

 In June Bordered and Basted - not yet quilted

 Finish = 0

     2. A Dog's life - applique project for myself - no progress, nope, nothing at all

Finish = 0

    3. Karavan Cushions - 2 finished, 1 to go!

Finish = 2/3
  
  4.  Scrappy Trip - 2 blocks completed and given away, no finished quilt

Finish = 0

   5. Strip & Flip quilt
In April this was the pieced top

In July Basted and quilted! Yay

Finish = 1


So all in all 1 2/3 out of 5.  Yup I can definitley improve on that score in the next qtr.  Hope you guys managed a little better!

FAL Goals

So beginning a new quarter, just the time to set some sewing goals.  I'm linking up to FAL at She Can Quilt.  Nothing like a deadline to push those unfinished objects to the finish line! 

My UFO's that I really want to finish are:

1.  Bounce - present for Gordon's Aunt: at the stage where I'm adding borders.

2.  A Dog's Life - Applique quilt project (present for me from myself!)

3.  Karavan Cushions - just love these elephants!

4.  Mini Scrappy trip around the world lap quilt - strips ready to sew

 
5.  Strip & Flip baby quilt present for friends expecting in the summer.  There seems to be a baby boom at the moment!