Round up of last two months

Just like that, two months fly by without me tapping the keyboard to add any updates of my unpicking skills! I have three lame excuses, (1) lack of motivation to turn on the laptop; (2) the thought of waiting for dial-up to load my blog page and (3) being on hols in a place where the dial-up is even slower than at home... All that might change soon as at long last my beach community finally have access to Broadband. I now need to "contact my provider"!

On the quilting front:
The bargello quilt - haven't touched it since November... needless to say my parents received alternative Christmas presents.

The log cabin quilt - slowly, but surely I am making process. I have finished the initial 12 houses. The next smaller 16 houses (or out-houses as I like to call them!) are in the cutting out stage.

The mystery quilt - is still that, a mystery!!! I printed out the last set of instructions without looking at the printer, so it's still a mystery as to what it will look like. I did briefly begin appliqueing the second elephant.

Molly in the Garden wall hanging - all the essential bits are appliqued on, but then I got stuck on my flowers. This will need to be taken to my UFO classes to get some guidance.

My first bag - COMPLETE!!! I gave this to my sister at Christmas for a belated July birthday gift. She loves it. It turned out quite nice, can't wait to make another!! Find some pictures below to prove that someone who has never made a bag before, can! (even though it took a really, really, long time...). The beautiful print is of course from the French General range, just divine.

I shall be returning to my UFO classes next Wednesday. Can't wait to catch up on all the goodies the group have been making. Happy stitching!

Building houses

For the past week I have been cutting out the shapes for my houses which will complete the border of my log cabin. I am starting on the big houses first, all 12 of them. I began by making all the windows with doors. At my sewing group I attempted my first roof detail with chimneys, what a mission. I attempted to put my first house together, but have found that the sizing of the window/wall detail is not the right size (what's new). I may have to cut out some new templates and begin building again... No doubt there will be some unpicking to do.

As for my bargello, I haven't touched that one since I found out the last triangle wouldn't line up. It has been a little frustrating to think that I have come this far and now find myself hitting this hurdle that is holding me up, grrrr...

Triangle rights and wrongs

OK, so I didn't read the directions properly and now I am up the creek... I formed four individual triangles. I was supposed to form two squares, THEN cut them in half after I completed all the detail, to form four triangles. My borders now appear to be up the wop. I am DETERMINED to get it right. I think sometimes "perseverance" is my middle name!!

I shall add a couple of pics to show you what I have done so far. I had attached all four corners to my bargello, but have since done lots of, yes, you guessed it, unpicking. I will not let this quilt beat me.

Bargello portion completed!!!

This actually happened a couple of weeks ago, but I was busy doing other things that I forgot to post the exciting news!!

I must admit after all the resizing, which was a lot and very timely, the finished product was pretty damm amazing if I say so myself. I had to stand back and look at my efforts in silence for sometime and let it all sink in. One year's worth of toil, happy stitching, unpicking, hiccups and buzzy happy moments. I think I needed the two weeks off from it just to let it all sink in - I had finally done it! Now to begin the borders...

Bargello complete

Ditto

Bargello - final rows sewn

It had to happen, I finally cracked my last two rows of my bargello quilt! What a mission... It took me five hours on Sunday to size up the four blocks required to do the third row. I basically had to unpick a row off each block and sew on another to make it wider, then cut it down to the exact size. I finished the fourth row tonight about 6.30. I decided I wouldn't iron the seams in the dark, but wait till tomorrow night - one of the good things about daylight saving. So thrilled to have finally achieved this part of the quilt. Next up will be to iron the seams and then sew the rows altogether.

Bargello all ready to sew the first two rows together

Close up on my pinned seams - a lot of work to sew over!

First two rows sewed together

Lining of bag

At last Wednesday's group session I finished making the lining for my first bag. Initially I found out that I had sewn the bottom thingee that holds the plastic sheet in place in the wrong direction. So, with unpicker in hand out it came! After re-sewing it in the correct direction, I sewed the two pockets in place, including the most wonderful zipped one!! The larger one was eventually sewn to make three pockets, including one for your handy pen. Sewed the sides up and all ready to rumble... next step, sewing it into the bag itself!! So exciting. I'll take a photo of the lining in the daylight and add it here in a day or two.

Lining all ready to sew into bag, what a mission...

Bargello - first row

With no sewing group for two weeks I didn't touch my bag at all, only to iron the zipped pocket... I cracked on with my bargello blocks though and started to sew them into rows, two down, two to go. That is a rather easy sentence to write, but it felt like a lifetime to do.... The blocks when completed needed to be 13.5" squared, so you can imagine the sounds coming from the sewing room when they measured 14" one side and only 13.2" on the other. Sheesh... this meant cutting down one side, equally, to 13.5, then unpicking one of the rows and adding on another that was just a tad wider. What a lot of fiddling about and getting it right. If they weren't right they wouldn't line up. And all this because either I, (a) didn't sew exactly 1/4" at all times or (b) didn't cut my strips exactly to size. So, if you're about to start a bargello, being accurate is the key! Will I ever do another one, yes, but not this big...

First row completed