A Friday Finish for me at last!

Hello everyone and Happy Thanksgiving to all my American quilting and knitting friends. I hope you are having a wonderful time with your families and friends gathered round. I am a teeny bit jealous and then again a teeny bit glad I don't have to organise another family feast. Christmas is probably enough for me.

Tuesday was the last class of our cutting mat bag course. It has been great to sew with some lovely ladies and a shame it has come to an end. I have spent this afternoon putting the final touches to my effort and I am just waiting for the varnish to dry on the handles to take a photo. They should be dry by the time I post this on Friday. The bag has pockets for a 24x6" ruler, a 12' x 12" ruler, a rotary cutter, a notebook and a 24' x 18" cutting mat. All the pockets are lined and quilted before attaching to the bag. We have appliquéd, patched and foundation pieced the various blocks before embellishing them. It was a lot of work but I am pleased with the result. I blogged about the bag here.
Guess who likes Kaffe Fassett and saturated colour? - me! I used Kaffe Fassett shirt stripes for the linings and binding, Benartex Essential Gradations for the maple leaves, Wickerweave for the background and various Kaffe Fassett prints for the flowers and stars.

Mike has made the sloe gin this year. We picked the sloes (blackthorn berries) in late September. Blackthorn has lethal thorns and they have to be picked so carefully. They were frozen then put in Kilner jars of gin until this week. The freezing means that the sloes do not have to be pricked for the gin to penetrate and for the flavours to mingle. The colour is glorious. The recipe does not need the best gin. We used bog standard supermarket brand gin. Mike added the sugar after decanting the gin from the berries and warmed it slightly to dissolve (Do NOT boil the alcohol off!) This saves the shaking of the sloes every few days and the sugar is added to taste. I find most commercial sloe gin too sweet so our is just sweet enough. Very fruity and warming. It is all bottled up and we might give a bottle or two away as presents.

Tomorrow I am attending a class on machine and free motion quilting. I have been practising and I think I am getting better but I need all the help I can get.

Have a wonderful weekend, especially to my dear friends Margaret and Colin whose son is getting married.

Catherine

Linking up to: TGIFF and  Can I get a whoop whoop?,

Stir Up Sunday, the start of the Christmas season.

Stir up Sunday is the last Sunday before Advent and is so called because of the Collect in the Book of Common Prayer of 1549.

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Traditionally this was the day for the making of Christmas Pudding but I'll let you in on a secret. I marinated the fruit on Friday and steamed the pudding on Saturday as the pudding requires 8 hours steaming and it was more convenient to steam when I was not cooking Sunday lunch. I use the Delia Smith recipe from her Christmas Cookbook. I love all the spicy smells and the traditional stirring and wishing. The pudding has now cooled and been put away to mature for Christmas Day.

I've been trying to finish off a few bits and pieces. I finally finished the Christmas Stocking for Bee Hive. All the members of Bee Hive are making them and they are to be donated to the children's ward in a local hospital. The front is quilted and the back has a simple star appliqué.

I am a bit behind with my "homework" for the cutting mat bag class. I have to make 12 maple leaf blocks as a panel and have only managed 8 before running out of background fabric so I've placed an urgent order and I hope it will be delivered for Tuesday morning.

I've removed the machine tacking out of the stems and stitched them down since the photo.

Last week I had the great pleasure of attending a class in Cheadle Hulme near Manchester at Patchfinders with Lucy Brennan of Charm About You. The shop has a fantastic fabric selection and I will be visiting it next time I am in the area.
Lucy was brilliant and the day passed too quickly. She was teaching the Japanese +x quilt block. I had been a bit concerned about my fabric choices as they were quite far out of my comfort zone but I am pleased with the 6 blocks I completed. It might have been more if I had not chatted as much.
This will not be the final layout!

I will put this project on hold until the New Year as there is so much to finish for Christmas.

I've been knitting up a storm to finish some hand knits for my granddaughters. I started the Tiny Tea Leaves cardigan last week for Lexie. This pattern was written by Melissa LaBarre and is meant to be a quick knit so here's hoping. I am knitting the size 6 for her (26" chest). The yarn is Sublime extra fine merino DK in a peacock blue colour. This is the first time I have knit a garment in the round from the top down. Everything has gone well so far but I am now waiting for a set of double pointed needles to finish the sleeves. This will another first as I have not knit anything in the round before either. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The button bands look like they may need a good stretch when I block- or should I unpick and adda few stitches- not sure what to do.

Other projects to finish before Christmas:

• Christmas Tree quilt- quilting started but lots to do.
• Christmas napkins
• Isobel's cardigan
• 2 chunky hats (also in the round!)
• Cushion covers.

Linking up to Janine's Wool on Sundays. Janine is celebrating her first year of Wool on Sundays with a giveaway so pop on over and take a look.

also linking to my unfinished cardi to Celtic Thistle Stitches:

and to Ho, Ho, Ho and on we sew, November over at Rose and Dahlia with my stocking

Also linking to Lee's WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. #wipwednesday

Have a great week and try not to stress about Christmas plans (note to self!). Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends too!

Catherine

Fabric choice for my Green Tea and Sweet Beans quilt

I purchased the Green Tea and Sweet Beans booklet by Jen Kingwell with the intention of starting this summer. However none of the current fabrics really grabbed me. The 1930's prints I saw were all in primary colours and somehow just not to my taste.
I was reading Lori Holt's fab blog, Bee in My Bonnet, yesterday and loved her new fabric range for Riley Blake fabrics, Flower Patch. It has a vintage vibe in slightly pastel tones and a great range of colours. Lori was kind enough to give me permission to use a couple of her photos.

I've done what I've never done before and ordered a fat quarter bundle of 24 designs from Fat Quarter Shop without seeing the actual fabric. I think it should look good as there is such a variety of colours and tones. All I've got to do now is sharpen up my appliqué skills!

At the beginning of the year I took part in the Grow Your Blog party run by Vicki of 2 Bags Full. This is the most amazing event and the organisation behind it is tremendous. I met so many interesting people and in a short space of time had new followers for my blog. It isn't that I want followers per se but it is lovely to share ideas and thoughts with creative people all over the world. All that is needed is to sign up and commit to a blog post on January 25th about yourself and your work and to visit some of the other blogs on the lists. Last year there were over 600 participants so you are bound to find some blogs you really like.
The party sign up is open for 2015 and you can get to Vicki's sign up post by clicking the previous link  or the button in the sidebar on the right. If I can do it then anyone can, whether you are totally new to blogging or have been at it for years. I promise you won't be disappointed so give it a go!

Catherine

A finish and a conundrum

I never thought I would be as busy when I was retired but these days I never stop. Mike and I have been away for the last two weekends; first to catch up with our family "up North" in the Lake District  for Halloween and then in Leicestershire for the Remembrance day service at the parish where Michael's grandfather was vicar from 1913-1923. There was a huge turnout at the church and then afterwards we attended a book launch at Wymeswold Memorial Hall. The book is "Bringing them home: the story of the Lost sons of Wymeswold" by Ivor F. Perry. Ivor researched the stories of all the boys and men who went to war in 1914 and never returned. There was an exhibition of first world war artefacts and the research. Michael's grandfather, as vicar,  had been instrumental in co-ordinating the memorial committee and in the decision to have a memorial hall as a place for the whole village to meet. Michael was asked to unveil a new plaque at the hall.

Wymeswold Parish Church, St Marys.

The highlight of the week for me was acquiring a haberdashery shop unit from eBay. These usually go for a lot of money but we set a limit and got the counter for less than £250. It is 6 ft long and has sixteen solid oak drawers with half moon handles, a glass top and back. The only place we can keep it is in the conservatory as it is too large for anywhere else. Mike has replaced the beading on the kick board and it is like new. We think it is likely to be from the 1950/60's. This morning I spent hours sorting my fabrics into colour groupings. I am so pleased there was room for all my fabrics, WIPs and threads with a large space under the drawers for mats and large rulers.

I know that the light in the conservatory is likely to be strong enough to fade fabric colours so I have only put small current projects in the top drawers and will cover them.

Next; a FINISH! The Coastal Ripple blanket has been around the house for at least 3 months and I am beginning to feel a bit snowed under with lots of things to finish for Christmas. The blanket will be a present so I'll not publish this to Facebook and spoil the surprise. I will need to steam the corners gently to square them up and darn in the ends from the border but I could not wait any longer to show you.

I just love the colours that were chosen by Lucy of Attic 24 for her Coast Ripple. The pack is available at Wool Warehouse. I enjoyed this so much I've bought the Cosy pack too but will not start until after Christmas. There is a lovely rhythm to the crochet stitches in this blanket and it is ideal to do in front of the TV.

Finally, do you wash? Not you but your fabrics for quilting?
I have never done this before but I am about to cut my fabric for a Japanese +x quilt class next week. I chose a very modern dark fabric- Juggling Summer by Zen Chic for Moda. I saw this in Calico Kates in Lampeter in the summer and had to have it. It is totally not my normal style and I am not sure what I will do with it when it is finished either but I loved it!

I added Kona fabrics in Putty and Amber and since this photo was taken, a pale grey in the Juggling Summer range. As the prints were so intensely coloured I did two separate washes and threw in a couple of colour catchers.This is how they ended up.

Just so glad I did wash this time. I would hate to do all the work in a quilt and then have muddy spoilt colours.

I am going to the West Country Quilt Show tomorrow. I entered a quilt for the first time, not I might add in the hope of winning, but for the experience of seeing my quilt hanging up for all to see. I feel a little recreational shopping coming on too.

I'll be linking up to Wool on Sundays and Yarnalong.