Saturday 22 March 2014

Rainbow Scrappy Saturday

Hello everyone, I thought I wouldn’t have anything to show again for this weekend but I got a tail wind last night and managed to sew up the little cross blocks for my RSC14 this month.  Here they are, though the light isn’t so good for the photo.   
  Rainbow Scrappy March 14 Teal cross blocks
Apart from last night I haven’t stitched anything in a couple of weeks.  I came down with an addiction to Irish Crochet which I just recently discovered.  It is fascinating!  I discovered it while I was on a quest to find a crocheted Shamrock motif to make a bookmark.  Well the bookmark never got made in time for St Patrick’s day but it’ll keep for next year.   Anyhow, I joined the Irish Crochet Lovers group on Ravelry and from there I enrolled in an online course on IC at Irish Crochet Lab.  This course is run by a lady called Larisa who moved the States from the Ukraine.  She is the most excellent teacher and her videos are so very clear and precise.  She has some videos available on her YT channel here.  I came across her when I was looking for a video on how to do the crochet bullion stitch for a project I’m working on.
Anyway, I’ll show with you some of my meagre efforts:
Irish Crochet practice pieces March 14_2   IC traditional white motifs practice
Here’s a close up of the little padded flower and bud which uses a padded ring in the centre and Clones knots for the petals. 
 Flower bud and flower with clones knot and padded center button
The three flowers on the bottom row in the first picture are all the same pattern but from left to right are made using #5, #10 and #20 crochet thread.   I’m not to happy with my white leaf in the second picture.  This was quite difficult (excuses, excuses) but I will try it again.  You can see the cord in the bottom left picture of the circle one… dangling towards the bottom of the picture.  The thread out to the left is #20 and the stitches so tight I could barely see them to work into them.
Here’s a small doily using padding cord in the centre and picot back ground netting. The thread is #10 a little easier than working with #20.  Though this was my second attempt at the padded centre daisy motif… you can see my first attempt in the above left picture of the yellow daisy.Irish Crochet Doily
So that’s where I disappeared to last week…  Maybe there’s more to this than meets the eye though. It is my brother’s third anniversary of him passing, coming up this week and he is buried in Galway Ireland… our ancestral home (well one of them).. our grandfather came from there and Pete’s widow is from there too.  March is not a good month for our family with many anniversaries occurring.  My Irish grandfather, my English father and brother and my Spanish grandmother.  I’m always on edge, as well as feeling sad, during March wondering who may be next.
I’m linking up with Angela of Soscrappy’s for this week’s RSC14.  The colour for this month is Turquoise/Teal/Aqua… go check out what everyone else has been up to.   This coming week I hope to make my TTA scrap box Smileso I’d better go get on with it! and try not to get side tracked.
Happy Stitching!! and Crocheting!!
Ellyx

Saturday 8 March 2014

Rainbow Scrappy Challenge Saturday

Happy Saturday everyone,
Not a lot of sewing has been going on this past week as I have been playing  a bit of hooky Winking smile
However, last weekend I did work on some blocks and projects here are the results:
Firstly, as the colour for RSC14 for March is Turquoise/Teal/Aqua or any variation of blue/green I made my Turquoise Boxed-In block:
RSC14 Turquoise_March_Boxed InI apologies for the picture the lighting isn’t very good at the moment.
I also made another 2 pink RSC14 sampler blocks.  One from Angela of Soscrappy’s sampler blocks and the other from a new book I’ve just got – Tula Pink’s 100 Sampler Blocks:
RSC Pink sampler blocks(note to self: I should have used the same design board for these as I did the Box-In block…  Those magnets don’t do much for the picture…)
Lastly, I made a little pin keeper using an embroidery block from one of Jenny of Elefantz designs. The design is from one of Jenny’s tutorials which can be found here: http://www.elefantz.com/p/tutorials.html
It is the Fly Stitch tutorial.   Here is the pin keeper I made with it: Pin_keeper_forJ2_Feb14
Pin_keeper inside pocket
Pin_keeper button_Feb14
So that’s my efforts for this past week.  *Treat yourself to more Rainbow Scrappy eye candy over at Angela’s blog Soscrappy  and see what everyone else has been up to this past week.
For now from me…. Happy Stitching!!
Hugs
Ellyx
*please wait until later Saturday to visit  Socrappy...

Saturday 22 February 2014

Rainbow Scrappy Challenge… last Saturday in February

Hello everyone,

Isn’t it amazing just how fast these Saturday’s come around.  This week I didn’t get a lot of stitching in but have made some progress on a couple projects.

First up is my Pink Scrap Box.  Here are a couple pictures:

Pink box 1Pink box 2

I did some crazy meander quilting on it and remembered to do the top stitching.  I also used mount board instead of cereal box card.  It makes for a sturdier construction… though now I think it is too thick… big sigh.  I need something in between the too.  However, I used cereal box card in the base still to which I glued some heavy interfacing… May try this for next month’s box.  By the time I get to the 12th box I should have perfected it, LOL…   Pattern is from “Sunday Morning Quilts: 16 Modern Scrap Projects” By Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison.  You can see my blue box for January here.

Next I caught up with Leah Day’s Building Blocks Quilt Along and have blocks one and two quilted… after a fashion Winking smile

Leah Day BBQA for Feb14 blk1&2 quilted

I think I’m better at straight lines than curved ones.  I sort of lost the plot a few times in the circle one.  BUT it is a learning process…. as I keep telling myself…. so no ripping!!  It stays wobbles an’ all!

Here is the back side of them:

Leah Day BBQA for Feb14 blk1&2 quilted backs

Lastly, I made a little progress on my African Flower Crochet blanket.  Here’s an update picture:

African Flower Motif blanket progress Feb14

The Rainbow Scrappy Challenge is a fun challenge but there are no strict rules.  You get  to play with your scraps and follow along with the colour of the month …. or not…. the choice is yours as to what you do.  However, as an extra, this year Angela is also sharing tutorials of the blocks she is making for her Rainbow Scrappy Sampler which she is working on.  Cute little 6inch blocks using scraps in the monthly colours.  I tried to resist but caved last week.   I’m in progress with another little block so hope to show you this and hopefully a few more next week.

If you’d like to see what everyone else has been up to this past week for Angela’s Rainbow Scrappy Challenge pop over to her blog Socrappy!

Happy Stitching!

Ellyx

Saturday 15 February 2014

Rainbow Scrappy Challenge 3rd Saturday


These Saturdays come around faster than I can blink!   Anyhow, here are my offerings for this week.

I sewed up a heap of scraps into a ‘slab’ of pink fabric scraps and layered and quilted and cut out the sides and bottom for my pink scrap box.  I also prepared the lining and some heavy duty interfacing which I’ll glue to cereal packet cardboard to make it stronger.  Here are some pictures of the progress so far:
Pink box at slab stage Pink box slab quilted and cut
In the first picture is the slab I made for the 4 sides, I made a separate slab for the bottom (not pictured).  In the second picture I have quilted (at slab stage) then cut out to size all the sections.   Not in the picture are the prepared lining pieces.  Do you notice the piece with a block in it.  This was an experiment using 5 inch squares to do the disappearing pinwheel block shown here by Jenny of Missouri Quilt company
Next up a confession.  I have succumbed to Angela of Soscrappy’s   RSC Sampler!!  Thank you to all you ladies who have made such cute little blocks that the temptation became to great to resist any longer, lol.   Here are the blocks I’ve made so far.   Two blue and two pink:
RSC Sampler blocks 1
I plan to slowly catch up of the next few weeks.   My favourite of these was the little baby nine patches.  I’m pleased how they turned out.  The pale blue sections in the Tic Tac Toe could have been skinnier.  I should have paid better attention to the instruction, lol..  But I still like it.
Lastly, I have been doing a bit of catch up of Leah Day’s Building Blocks Quilt Along  I left off at the end of last month having made a bit of a mess of quilting the 3rd block.  That’s when I was coming down with that head bug and couldn’t concentrate.  Anyhow, I decided I would leave it and not make another so here are pictures of the last 2 quilted blocks from January which I did in blue and the 3 pieced Pink blocks for February which are yet to be marked, layered and quilting started.
The second blue (which didn’t turn out too bad): Front and back:
Leah Day BBQA 2nd for Jan Leah Day BBQA 2nd for Jan back
The fated 3rd blue, front and back: 
Leah Day BBQA 3rd for Jan Leah Day BBQA 3rd for Jan back
Notice how I went well off the mark particularly in the last segment.
And finally, here is the pile of pink blocks pieced ready to layer and quilt for February:
Leah Day BBQA for Feb14
And that’s it for my efforts this week.  I have been working on a little crochet too which is almost finished so maybe I can squeeze it in next week ;)
For all those who took a guess at my little candle mat in progress in last week’s post, can I just say you were all correct, lol… there is a bunny in it.  I still have to layer, quilt and bind this one, this week coming hopefully ;)
Now if you’d like to catch up on how everyone else has done this week in Rainbow Scrappy land then pop over to Angela’s blog Soscrappy and have a very enjoyable time blog hopping.   Make sure you have a cuppa by you ;)
Happy Stitching!


Ellyx



Sunday 9 February 2014

Rainbow Scrappy Saturday

Hello everyone,

I’m a day late this week.   I missed last week as I was under the influence of a bug.  Not much stitching got done during the past week but I have made a little pink scrappy progress.   I already made a pink ‘boxed in’ block last year though I do plan to make another.   However, I stitched up a small candle mat using a pattern which was gifted to me by my dear friend Cyn a few years ago. It isn’t quite finished yet as it needs layering and quilting.   But here’s a couple sneak peak’s of it:

 Log cabin block inPink Sneak peak of project with Pink Log cabin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any guesses? :-D

The other project I managed to finish is one of the circular sampler blocks I showed in my previous post.   I managed to draft some corners and machine piece them onto the outside of the Joseph’s Coat block.  The block itself is hand pieced with the aid of sewing lines which were printed on the patches using Inklingo.

Here is that block finished and ready to be pieced with other 12.5 inch (unfinished) blocks:

Joseph's coat block with cornersThat’s all I have to show for last week’s sewing efforts.  However, I would like to leave you with a picture of my two girl bunnies who have finally bonded together so they can now play with each other.  Here they are waiting for a snuggle from me :)  Chichi on right, Penny on left.

Penny and Chichi bonded Jan 14 

If you’d like to see what everyone else has done with their Pink scraps this past week then hop on over to Soscrappy’s blog.

 

Now I’m off to start making a pink scrap holder box with some of my pink scraps ;)

Happy Stitching!

 

Ellyx