A DrEAmi Finish! Coffee Koozie

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for the lovely comments on my last post, I really appreciate them!

Today is all about my Coffee Koozie! This is my DrEAmi (Drop Everything and Make It) project which I will be linking to Sandra's DrEAMi party! And as it is a finish I will also be linking to Crazy Mom Quilts on Friday for Finish it up Friday.

But first of all, just to let you know, I'm still working on my CV bag (Camper Van)

..... oooh! I nearly forgot to say, I am making this from a tutorial “Just a little Purse” which I found on Pinterest from SewMamaSew, but, like you do, I am changing a few things slightly as I'm making it.

One of those changes being the lining. "Don't do this at home!" as they used to say on some programme on TV ..... was it Blue Peter? well, maybe not! But anyway, I put my front and back together, stitched them, bound the edges and then decided I had to quilt the inside as well as the back of the bag .....

it wasn't easy! I had to have one hand inside the bag to make sure the stitches didn't go through to the back (front actually!).

I decided to quilt the inside because the lining sagged
once the bag was turned through.

I only quilted the middle, it didn't really
need quilting all over.

..... but I got totally distracted when I visited Patty's blog and saw her Coffee Koozie! Patty has a link to the tutorial! (Mind, if you go to visit her right now, don't forget to come back!) 

Anyway, I couldn't resist making one, could I?! 

Well it all started with the idea that the squares could be "leaders and enders" while I stitched my CV bag .....

Edited 31.08.18:  Adding the binding: 

I was really happy with the finish of the binding,
bit hard to see maybe, but it's gone really well.

but, once I got as far as stitching the blocks together this was where my Coffee Koozie  became my DrEAmi project which I just had to carry on and finish!

Made using the "Quilt as you go" method (see it on the tutorial).

Everything went swimmingly ..... until I started "top stitching" .....

Disaster struck big time!

I machine stitched all the way round but wasn't happy with the way the stitching looked and had to pull all the stitches out, which was tricky because when my machine had hit the joining seams they had gone from size 4 to 0 .... it was almost impossible to get that lovely pink thread undone.

Anyway, I eventually finished the Coffee Koozie, replacing the machine top stitching with hand stitching.

Don't you just love that apple green lining ..... ?

Soooo ...... this does mean my poor CV bag is still waiting to be FFO (Fully finished off)!

Oh, and this is my latest little cross stitch kit ..... just started. More about the details next time. 

and no doubt you can tell ..... I can't decide which method to use to keep my place!



 Anyway, you can see I still have plenty of stitching to amuse me!


Hope you are all keeping well! I'm off to try to catch up on visiting all you guys now!

See you soon!!!





Hugs,
Barbara xxx

Linking to: Sandra's DrEAMi party

and            Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday

P.S. Sorry guys, that header is a bit big, I'll try to find something smaller next time!

Gifted Gorgeousness and TUSAL - August 2018

Hello Dear Blogging Friends,


I'm linking to Daffycat's blog for this month's TUSAL report. 
TUSAL is where we show pictures of our ORTs (leftover threads), for no particular reason (other than that they look kind of pretty)!

Both of the items I'm making also come under the category of "Gifted Gorgeousness" which, in case you don't know, is where we write about stitchy gifts given and received. Both of the following are gifts from magazines so I am shoehorning them in!

Jo! Don't faint ...... I've done it! I worked out how to add the Gifted Gorgeousness photo at last! 

To discover who else is joining in visit Jo at Serendipitous Stitching by clicking ..... HERE!

~~~~~~~~~

No new projects just yet as I'm trying to make sure I finish these two before I start working on my next project for Art Quilt group I'm a member of ..... The Endeavourers.

Our next challenge is an Improve Quilt!! I haven't done Improv before so it'll be a crash course in learning "how to"! It's funny though, last quarter the challenge was "Spiral" and I just couldn't think what to make ..... it was hard to think of something original, most things have been done before after all! I was really nervous, but, after a false start ..... eventually, I thoroughly enjoyed making my piece.


But, anyhow, I digress! Back to the subject .....

My ORTs are mainly from my Bee needle case which is finished except for stitching the case itself together, and some were from finishing the Camper Van, and, before you say it, I know they don't look much, but I do use each thread as close to the end as possible, so there isn't much left to gather!

Almost finished!

If only I didn't hate back stitch so!

But, of course, it actually didn't take long, once I made myself sit down and stitch!

These fabric ORTs are from my Spiral quilt and also from the little Summer pouch I'm making for Camper Van. 

(If you haven't read about either the Camper Van or the Bee needle case you can read more about them here!)

A little irksome cutting up a zip for the pocket, but at least I've used something that has been in the "Dreaded Cupboard" for forever (it seems).

Of course I got this far and then decided the back would look better quilted (that's the pink fabric). Took a while before I decided how to quilt it, but I made my mind up eventually. 

I'm going to "box" the corners, it's so much easier to find things when you've got a flat bottom, don't you think? Then, I'll attach the Camper Van to the front, oh, and I need to make and add a strap.

~~~~~~~~


I couldn't finish today without a picture from the garden .....

DH and I were watching "Gardeners' World" on TV last week when Monty Don showed a phenomenon we hadn't seen before!

..... these amazing little chaps will grow up to be Ostrich Ferns!!!! 

At least, that's what I think that's what they're called .... and they will grow up to look like this:

Ostrich Fern which just happens to be growing in our
garden, and we never knew how it propagated itself before!

Strangely enough the little guys don't grow under the main plant, and the little chaps had suddenly sprung up in a plant pot quite a distance from any other ferns.

~~~~~~~

Well, what have you been stitching?

Hugs,

Barbara xxx

And if you want to know what TUSAL is, why not pop over to Daffycat's blog to find out more!

What goes around, comes around - Spiral

Hello my friends! (Apologies in advance, this will be a longish post!)

I'm back! At least I'm hoping this isn't just momentary! And WE FIXED IT OURSELVES!!

Some of you will already know that the other day I found my computer wouldn't even turn on.

Well, after a whiz of a neighbour came to our aid, investigating our laptop when we were really stuck, although unfortunately without much success, today DH had a go!

We knew our neighbour had pressed "Start" and F2, which starts you up in "safe" mode, and then he had run Auto Repair which failed, so today DH tried Auto Repair again which failed again. He then clicked on "Advanced Options" and chose "go back to previous restore point".

Because we've been very naughty and not backed up for ages our restore point was 31st October 2017.
The computer told us we would lose data and it would restore back to that point, so DH connected our external hard drive, clicked on "Restore Now" and waited ...... After a short wait the computer burst into life!

We had both been resigned to the fact that we were going to lose all that data, but we were so lucky that for some reason we haven't lost any!

But the moral of the story is: "Back Up" and "OFTEN"!

And now for the post I wanted to share on 1st August!!

~~~~~~~~~~

This year I joined a group of art quilters called "The Endeavourers". This is the third quarter of the year, and our third project is "Spiral".

And now, to celebrate my being able to upload my photos again:

Tah dah! Here is my Spiral quilt:

"What goes around, comes around"

But that wasn't how I originally envisaged it, and if I'm really honest I struggled trying to think what to do and how to make an art quilt as such.

Back when our topic was announced I had and idea of making a lap quilt. I saw a photograph on Pinterest of a fern and a snail and it gave me the following idea. I've even stitched the squares together and cut and ironed bias strips ready.

I planned the backing fabric too:

But as time was slipping by I realised I was trying to do too much again!

Soooo! Plan B! I'd seen ticker tape quilts and thought I could do something along those lines:

And then, as panic was setting in I discovered, probably like most quilters, just how many triangle offcuts I had! So, one day I took them along to my handicraft group and was showing my idea to some of the ladies (and I'm sorry but we are only ladies, we did have one man join us for a short while, but I don't think it suited him). 

Toying with positioning

But I decided, after much playing about with the pieces that they looked better with large pieces becoming smaller toward the centre. Oh, then I wondered how to keep the pieces in place without pins and remembered a while back winning a book "Crafted Applique" by Lara Buccella of BuzzinBumble. Now I can't tell you how she does it, you'd need to read the book to find out, but suffice to say I found her method worked well for me ...... Thank you Lara!

Then to give it a "sketched" look I machine stitched around all the pieces, about 1/16th" from the edge, initially in pink cotton. Then, as it didn't show up sufficiently I tried purple (my fav colour). Still it didn't look right, then I popped over to one of my favourite blogs - the blog of Josie - "Sew for Soul" to read how she does this, and found she advocates using black thread. Having admired her method for years I've finally tested it out!

I was really nervous how to make my spiral in the centre, but used a Frixion pen to freehand draw  in some lines. After stitching I was able to use a warm iron to remove the pen lines.

I had originally intended to add a curved border but in the end I was running out of time and was determined to finish this time, so I finished my backing using the "bagging out" method.

I even remembered to add corners to hang my quilt from ..... and with a branch (hurridly trimmed by DH)  from a hazelnut tree I fashioned a loop to finish the hanging.

Please excuse me if I haven't visited you lately, this wonky computer has taken up so very much time this week! 

I have really enjoyed making this quilt and I can see lots of other things I can do with this method of quilting.

Oh, btw, I am not being recompensed for mentioning any products in this post, and have only done so because I like them and found they work for me.

Do pop over to visit The Endeavourers blog where you can see all my fellow Endeavourers' wonderful Spiral quilts, oh, and to read how I named my quilt!

Hugs,

Barbara xx

The Endeavourers - Spiral

Hi everyone,

I’m really flummoxed today!

I was up late stitching last night to finish my quilt for The Endeavourers “quilt challenge”.

Imagine my utter horror this morning as I turned on the computer ...... and ...... nothing!

I was staring at a screen that said “Starting Windows” ...... and that was all it did! No flashing lights, nothing!

So here I am unable to upload and share photos ..... and this time I have a finish!!!

I thought I would be able to add photos from my iPhone or iPad, but both systems say I need an App. All very well, but which App, and will it work if I get it?

Do any of you know, and if so, can you help me? I’d really appreciate any help you can give me!

OMGosh ..... I don’t post often ..... but not being able to show you my little stitchery is sooooo frustrating!

H-E-L-P!!

Oh but, while you can’t see my stitching do pop over to “The Endeavourers” blog, and see what wonderful quilts the others have made! Starting here!




Barbara xx