March was busy and exhausting. I saw friends and family over several weekends but my health is continuing to be problematic. So
1. Jumper – No change 2. Large mixed media embroidery – No change 3. Mandolin quilt – I’ve turned the 20 mandolins and 30 edge pieces into 20 mandolins sections. I’m now working on pairing them up before creating bigger sections 4. A cherish quilt – a couple more seams joined and some basting was done 5. Beaded Snowdrops – No change 6. Focus cutting sewalong – I am still on track 7. Beaded bottle – I’ve finally started a new one
My focus cutting for the month
Things I finished in March include the knitted flowers for the community postbox topper, the Christmas tree topper and two beading projects.
Beaded fox
One was a little peyote fox pattern wrapped around a wooden bobbin. This was a beading group project and a cute quick make. The other was a bead embroidery star ornament. I’ve seen something very similar on Instagram and been considering making one for a long time. I put together a bead selection before Christmas and found a star template in January. I then did the beading across two days and sewed it up the following day.
My Christmas tree topper, all ready for next year
I have some time off in April, so I reckon I might get a few things finished and started.
Oh gosh has Feb been an odd month. I had a fab birthday but I was sick just before and then had a major fatigue flare a couple of weeks after. However, despite spending many days unfunctional, I have several finishes, mostly due to a Saturday spent sewing with my sewing group.
Jumper – No change
Large mixed media embroidery – I completed several motifs and began a couple of others
Mandolin quilt – I picked a layout, labelled all the pieces and am working on joining each mandolin to it’s edge pieces.
A cherish quilt – I’ve sewn one or two pieces together. This project lives in my work bag and I try and sew one join a lunchtime
Beaded Snowdrops – my beading group was a casualty to my fatigue flare up but I created all the stems and leaves so I can put them together once I make the flowers
Focus cutting sewalong – Im managing to keep up
A Christmas tree topper – I designed a star Christmas tree topper with my partners input and bought suitably sparkly fabric before Christmas. I knew I wouldn’t have it done for last year, but it will definitely be finished for next year
Knitted flowers – I’m knitting flowers for a community project with the sewing group. It’s fun to make some small items
Both were helped along by Thursday sewing sessions and then finishing touches added at home. It’s really nice to have something done and both are already in use.
I am have a couple more items I want to finish before I start any big projects but my birthday bought a couple of lovely kits so who knows what might get opened
My feature image is of a patch of snowdrops in the garden. It’s been fun to see what is coming up.
Very occasionally I buy quilting magazines, and one came with clamshell paper templates.
Just after I finished handpiecing my snowdrop quilt, I was looking for other handsewing projects. I have loved clamshell quilts and sewing projects since forever and it seemed like a good way to go.
I’d also just moved house into a drafty Victorian terrace and needed a draft excluder. I thought it was going to be a fun quick project.
I picked my fabrics by starting with the remnants of the batik fabric that backs the snowdrop quilt. I then shopped my stash and then the fabric shop in town. I bought the fabrics at the same time as I was shopping for my rosemallow quilt that went to my guide son, and there is some crossover between the two. This is one of the things I love about making things, the bleed over fabrics and the stories they tell. There is a blue floral fabric in this piece, that I took from my mother and back in my teen years, began a dress. I still have the half made dress in my stash – now the wrong size but I can’t quite bring myself to take it apart.
This is the only photo I can find of this project
The clamshells are handbasted, ironed and then appliqued to each other and the base fabric. It’s slow and unlike English paper piecing, I found the process much less meditative. So this was a slow process – I don’t believe I picked it up at all in 2023.
As part of my push to finishing things this year, I took this along to my sewing group as a way to make myself get over the activation barrier of starting a project. When I packed up the project, I had planned to add three more rows, which would have required cutting and blasting more clamshells. However once I had added one more row, I realised that I could actually join the piece as it was and it would be plenty big enough. That felt far more achievable.
In an ideal world, I would have pinned or basted the first row down and then appliqued the second row down. That would have let me tuck the final row in under the first to make a tube. However as I appliqued the first row down, I cut round the shapes, tucked the base fabric behind and appliqued it to the final row. It’s a little messy and occasionally the base fabric is visible but it’s secure. And I don’t know many people who would be inspecting my draft excluder in that way.
I then added a slightly puffed circle at each end. For stuffing, I cut up all the scraps of wadding that I’d cut off quilts before binding, and used those plus some toy stuffing. I’m trying to think about sewing scraps and when I keep them and use them and when I don’t. This seemed like an ideal way to use a thing I’d been keeping and it worked great – I’ll do it again.
Finished items
I have moved house since starting this project, so the draft excluder is longer than a standard door. So I stuffed it gently so it can squish it to the door frame. This house also has drafts so it’s been put to good use already.
January has been slow. I’ve been trying to do a little less so that I don’t crash energy wise, especially as I am working full time again. It’s mostly worked but left me feeling a little under stimulated. I have been working on a range of projects to combat that feeling with some mixed success
Jumper – No change
Large mixed media embroidery – I have picked this back up again, with the aim to finish it this year. I’ve completed a couple of different motifs and am set up to continue working on it
Clamshell draft excluder – I am working on joining the fabric piece up into a tube
Mandolin quilt – All the sections are done, I’m going to take a short break before joining them together
A beaded Christmas wreath – I’ve added a lot of length and used up all the green beads I own. I’m actually going to take this one off the list until I go shopping.
The mixed media quilt as you panels – the top is constructed as are handles so now it’s assembly time
A cherish quilt – I’ve cut out the pieces for 3.5 of the hexagon sections. As I’ve said this is a slow project so don’t get your hopes up just yet
Beaded Snowdrops – I had a kit to make some beaded Snowdrops bought for me several years ago. I finally started them in my beading group
Focus cutting sewalong – I saw this on Instagram last year, part way through the year, and found it interesting. And so this year I’m participating in a way. The challenge is to make a hexagon from equilateral triangles each week, according to the theme. The overarching theme is the alphabet and then each week has an associated letter and style of focus cutting. I’m doing half hexagons out of 3 triangles each week, to limit the amount of effort required. It’s very fun to play around with my fabric and see what I have.
My focus cutting sewalong half hexagons weeks 1-3
I don’t have any finishes this month, but I hit some good milestones so I’m feeling good about it
December was actually quieter than November for me. Which meant I was able to lean in to some lovely Christmassy activities, and do some hibernating during the darkest days.
Jumper – No change
Large mixed media embroidery – No change
Clamshell draft excluder – I actually sewed most of another row down. I have one full row to go.
Mandolin quilt – I’m working on mandolin 20 and all the connections are complete apart from one missing triangle. I also want to change one outer ring so still some more to go.
A beaded Christmas wreath – No change
The mixed media quilt as you panels – I had to reconstruct the top but I think I have it now
A cherish quilt – No change
A beaded star for the star Christmas lights – I made and attached 5 over December. I’ll probably do another couple over January and pack away for the year.
To finish off the year there was a finish and a blog post for my beaded bauble. I also made Christmas cards again this year, which I really enjoyed, as I’d missed doing it last year.
For 2024, I would like to do some more different projects. I haven’t done any bead embroidery for a while or knitting and I have several kits waiting for me to open them. The kits are a mix of bought ones and projects I’ve kitted up myself from ideas. So I’m going to see what it feels right to start and what I should shelve from my list.
Like I said in my 2023 review, more improv style projects is something I’m going to explore doing.
I would like to donate another quilt this year as well, whether it’s to project Linus or elsewhere I’ll have to see, but I’ll plan it into my making.
And I’m going to look through my beading patterns and pick one to complete for the year.
I’m going to set a target of publishing 5 blog posts this year, I enjoy writing them and documenting things so it will be good to do more.
This year has been an interesting one. I had a whole month off in February between jobs, so the first quarter was quiet but since then the new job and moving house has kept me busy. Naturally that has also meant some big changes to how I make things. I’ve moved away from the pottery studio, so far fewer wonky pots this year. But I found a regular sewing group so Ive done more sewing since October than the first 3/4 of the year. I’ve got a new craft room and it’s delightful but I’m not sure I’ve got the set up right, so I’ll be playing around with the layout in 2024.
Back at the start of the year this is what I said about my crafting plans:
For 2023, I have some big things coming up so my only goal is to enjoy making things. I just want to make sure I keep doing the things I enjoy in a way that doesn’t make me feel guilty if I end up busy or needing to rest. So thats what I’m going to keep reminding myself this year, am I enjoying doing this, if yes then carry one and if no, time to stop or swap.
I have enjoyed making things this year. I really did need to be able to rest for large parts of the year. My fatigue is still ongoing although it is improving and I had COVID early on in the year. At times it’s been a bit overwhelming but generally I am feeling better.
Across 2023, I’ve made 17 items, which really surprised me when I counted. I bought 10 items into 2023, and only five of those are coming into 2024. Of the others, I finished 4 and shelved one (the cross stitch). So I partially lived up to the goal of shelving things. I also think I did a pretty good job of finishing things this year.
Some of my finishes
My favourite project of the year was my creativity squares. I really like that kind of improv sewing and I’m going to try and incorporate more next year.
I really miss pottery so I am going to look into this more next year.
I also decided to have a pattern on Instagram where I put all the photos of my mandolin blocks in a row on Instagram. I was roughly posting once a week so I was then posting mandolin blocks approx once a month. This actually gave me a nice incentive to keep up with these blocks. So I’ll have to have a think about what keeps that going while not being too restrictive.
I am trying to write more full blog posts and one of the projects I want to document this year is my partridge in a pear tree bauble.
The bauble is a kit from spellbound beads. I asked for it a couple of Christmas’s ago and in general I’m trying to work through kits and patterns I have bought or saved and make the things I’ve been thinking about. This has turned out to be pretty productive with me finishing this bauble and a necklace where I’ve had the pattern for probably a decade.
The peacock bauble
I’ve made one other spellbound bauble, the peacock and the patterns are fiddly but beautiful. I struggle with the fact there are more written instructions than pictures so sometimes miss steps – this is easily avoided if you read the pattern which is very detailed.
This does mean my version is slightly different as I slightly messed up the dangles as described in the pattern. However my version looks good, so I’m not fussed about it.
I did 90% of the beading for this bauble at my beading group, with a last minute rush to get it done before Christmas.
I actually smashed the bauble during one of my trips too and from my beading group, but I managed to find a set in Tesco’s that were the right size and included this nice green colour, which matches the pears.
The temperature has been dropping and November ended up being a social celebratory month. Me and my partner both had friends come and visit and then we went to celebrate Diwali with my family. We also had a mini break with a very relaxing couple of nights in Herefordshire.
I’ve also begun the Christmas activities with a delightful performance of the nutcracker with my sister and a very beautiful and wintery trip to the Munich Christmas markets. So don’t be surprised I haven’t done loads of crafting.
Jumper – No change
Large mixed media embroidery – No change
Clamshell draft excluder – No change
Mandolin quilt – I’m working on mandolin 17 (for real this time). All my pieces are basted and ready to go.
A beaded Christmas wreath – No change
The mixed media quilt as you panels – they’ve been made into a bag and I’ve made a lining. I’ve got halfway through making the top, so I just have to figure out construction.
A beaded bauble – another little bit got done.
A cherish quilt – No change
A beaded star for the star Christmas lights – I unpacked them and immediately wanted to make another star so I did
There haven’t been any finishes but I am making Christmas cards this year. I even managed to get a blog post up on the project Linus Quilts. Let’s see what the last bit of the year brings.
One of the things I was looking for when I moved was a social crafting group and I’ve been really lucky to find one.
The group has been doing a charity drive, where they’ve been making quilts and knitted baby things. They had received a donation of fabric and partially made quilts and blocks from the project Linus coordinator, and were using them to make the quilts.
So I had a rummage through and found some beautiful patchwork blocks, including some Hawaiian quilting and and an appliqued Dresden plate, flower block. I also took home a few other blocks that looked like they coordinated colour wise.
Once home, I pulled fabric from my stash and had a play around to see what works. There are specific sizes that project Linus requests so I got out some tape measures and made an approximate square.
My general approach with improv piecing is to lay pieces on the floor, cut out rectangles and sew bits together and hope that it all fits. If it doesn’t, I just then cut extra rectangles and add them in – it is improvised after all.
For the yellow quilt, it was very easy as I used the little squares to guide my sizes. For the purple quilt, I was a little more fluid, as I was limited in how much fabric I had available. So in this case I cut as big a rectangle as I could and then went from there.
Once I’d pieced the tops, I had enough backing to do the small quilt. I quilted this one, by following the lines of the central Dresden plate flower. I used a frixion pen to mark the like to keep my lines straight. It was my first time quilting an actual pattern, and it’s much easier with a small quilt that you can manipulate. I really love the final effect of this quilt.
I knew once I’d started using the back and blue swirls, that I wanted to use the elephant fabric as a binding. It took me ages to work out how to cut the fabric so I ended up with a row of elephants around the quilt. I got there in the end and then had to do some complicated ironing.
For the purple quilt, I bought a pretty floral batik fabric for the backing. I love batiks for quilt backings as they blend the quilting in, especially when using a multicoloured thread, which I do love to do. I quilted some straight lines around the quilt on my machine. I then hand quilted around the Hawaiian applique motif. I had tried to do as little quilting as possible, mostly because my machine wasn’t really coping with the slightly thicker multicoloured thread, and also because it’s hard work and I like a soft quilt finish. However once I’d done the handquilting, it was clear that I needed a little more quilting. So I went back to the machine and added some more lines. I didn’t mark any of them out, so they are often a little wonky.
For the binding I’d been hoping I had enough yellow left, but alas it was not to be. I think the yellow fabric came from my mother’s stash once upon a time so I have no idea how old it is. I auditioned a range of other fabrics from my stash but none of them were really doing it for me. So I went with just using the backing as the binding. It worked well but as I didn’t really measure when cutting, the binding is a little variable in size around the quilt. Although probably not noticeable to many others.
Making these quilts was really fun and a good way to practice different techniques. I struggle to take risks or practice new techniques with my quilts because they take so long. This gave me a way to try and improve some skills but still make something useful. I’ll definitely be doing it again.
We’ve started to settle into a routine during the week and also being busy at the weekend again after a quiet patch. It’s been lovely to catch up with friends and I’m looking forward to a range of festive activities that are planned for the next few weeks.
Jumper – No change
Large mixed media embroidery – No change
Clamshell draft excluder – No change
Mandolin quilt – I’m working on mandolin 16 (I got my maths wrong last month)
A beaded Christmas wreath – No change
The mixed media quilt as you panels – they’ve been turned into a joined up panel using some sashing. I’ve also quilted a base panel and now need to assemble into a bag
A beaded bauble – It’s going to be done by Christmas – that’s my promise to myself
A cherish quilt – No change
I’ve got some finishes this month finally. I’ve finished and donated the two quilts for project Linus. My sewing group donated 41 quilts in total, which was incredible.
One of the things that kept me busy at a weekend was a beading workshop. When I booked it, I lived a fair bit further away from the bead shop, but I’ve since moved dangerously close. The workshop was using cubic right angle weave, to make flower motifs. I mostly wanted to attend to meet some local beaders and the tutor who I’d followed on Instagram for a long time. It was a really lovely day and very well taught. I also had a lovely time doing some bead shopping. I’ve even managed to finish the necklace I started, it’s designed to match a pair of earrings I love but don’t have a good pairing for.
And the keenest among you will have spotted the cross stitch has left the list. I haven’t finished it, but I have finally decided that I’m not going to finish it. I’ve lost 2/3 of the pattern for over a year and didn’t find it when packing or unpacking, so I have no idea what happened. I’ve not thrown it away but I have taken it out the hoop and packed it all away incase a miracle happens. I’m hoping this gives me the opportunity to focus on other projects on the list instead of feeling guilty.
makingshyeni 