teaching sewing confidence, tip by tip

Friday 4 March 2016

February 2016 Progress Update


The weather has continued to be very uncooperative when it comes to photographing my work and I'm never happy with my indoor photos of large quilts so for now some projects are still nothing more than a sneak peek tease.  There have been a few January finishes I've been able to fully share though so you can now click the pics below to read more about these finishes:


I squeezed in a tute that you wowed at and loved; along with a November finish; and a post about a couple of quilts Flicky made too.


On to February progress and finishes - that's what we're really here to talk about, well here's how I've gone on this month.

My "oh I'm passing M&J Trimming and don't have my project with me but I think these will work" replacement handle rings were an epic fail so I still can't cross this off my URO/WIP list.  I so loved the original rectangular attachments - why did Tatty dog have to eat one?!!!


After a trip to Pacific Trimming and purchasing these metal rectangles I unwound the end of the handles to feed them through but it was fiddly and the finish wasn't good.  I finally found the solution - I fed the felted loops straight through the wound handle ends without using joiners and I really like it - success and job done!


Another repair this month was replacing two buttons on my On The Bright Side quilt - find out how I used buttons to 'quilt' it and also take a peep at how I 'darn' a quilt hole and my new pictorial tute How To Cover A Button.


Aviatrix Quilt: I bought white batting for my Aviatrix Quilt - if I use white fabric in a quilt I prefer to use white batting rather than natural as the natural colouring really does change the appearance of the white fabric from a bright white to a warm white.  The quilt's now sandwiched and basted all ready to quilt.  


Baby Snugglies: I finally got around to ordering the sherpa fleece to make my baby snugglies.   Buying supplies to finish projects doesn't seem like much but it's definitely progress.  I pre-washed the flannel too so it's ready to use.  Prewashing fabric is always scary but there was no colour run in the colour catcher, yay!  I thought I had fabric for three snugglies but turns out there's enough to make sixteen - I've finished four so far!


I've worked on some brand new projects too:
The first a game for my Grandson, Oli - it's almost finished; and the second, a Pincushion Organiser and Thread Catcher that I've blogged about here.


Last weekend I went on a quilting retreat with my NYC Metro MOD Quilt Guild, we had such a giggle, this is me with my friend Sandi


and I got so much work done there - 

Giant HST Quilt: I've sewn all 36 of my Giant HST Bee Blocks together to make the quilt top and I've made the quilt backing too - it's 96" x 96" so pretty big!  I ordered a kingsize 'black' batting - I want black batting so the dark grey solid keeps its depth of colour - but the company sent me a double 'natural' batting instead.  Returned and refunded but now I'm waiting with fingers crossed for the correct batting to arrive from a different company.  I'll report on how I go on next month and if you want to make your own giant HST quilt you can follow my tute here.


... then there's four other projects I've completed that I can't share with you yet as they're gifts and I also made my Timeless Treasures Guild Challenge block too.


Here's how my UFO/WIP List looked at the end of January;


and here it is again at the end of February.


As you can see the list has grown but those last 4 columns on the right are all finished work:

Completed January / Completed February / Photos Taken / Blog - Scheduled/Published.

I can't believe how much I've achieved already and I know it's writing these posts and being accountable for my progress that's keeping me motivated and on track.  I'm using the web app Trello, a digital notebook, you can read more about it here in my January Progress Report.

and here's my updated UFO/WIP list at end February 2016 
I'll carry on including the list in this format too so you can click through to the blog posts and read more but I'll also include my Trello boards because these are such a great visual of my progress.

Quilts
Bear's Paw quilt - NYC Metro MOD Quilt Guild Bee Quilt - started December 2012
Transparency quilt - started 2012
5 baby quilts - started 2012
Skillbuilder quilt - started January 2013
Giant HST quilt - NYC Metro MOD Quilt Guild Bee Quilt - started December 2014
Shirt quilt - started 2014
Cloud 9 circles quilt - started January 2015
Aviatrix quilt - started 2015
Batik animal quilt - started 2012-2015
Improv curves quilt - started 2015
Sliced jelly roll quilt - started 2015
12 Snugglies - started 2015

Completed:
Jelly roll quilt -  started December 2015/finished January 2016
Quilting By The Lake quilt - started July 2015/finished January 2016
Sliced improv block quilt - NYC Metro MOD Quilt Guild Bee Quilt - started November 2013/finished January 2016
4 Snugglies - started 2015

Quilt Blocks & Pattern Testing
Seahorse FPP testing for Tartankiwi - started February 2016

Completed:
Timeless Treasures NYC Metro MOD Quilt Guild challenge - started February 2016

Hand Sewing
Cross stitch - lilies - started 2003
Coffin hexies - started January 2013
Hexie hexies - started 2014

Completed:
Hand quilted quilt - started September 2013/finished January 2016

Clothing
Flicky's dress - started 2012
Flicky's skirt - started 2014
Boxer shorts - started January 2015

Completed:
Boxer shorts - started January 2015/finished January 2016
Flicky's PJ bottoms - started January 2016
Flicky's PJ bottoms - started February 2016
2 Aprons - started February 2016

Textile Crafts
Pirate dolls - started 1998
Flicky's book cover - started 2010
Jelly Roll block cushion - started 2013
Xmas cushion - started 2013
Flapped tissue case - started 2013
Snail block - started 2013
Fabric game - started 2014
Fabric book - started 2014
Sashiko cushions (several) - started July 2015
Create fabric covers for 2 canisters - started 2015
Tula Pink storage containers - started December 2015
Name Badge - started February 2016

Completed:
Mini butterfly cushion - started December 2012/finished January 2016
Pincushion Organiser/Thread Catcher - started February 2016

Textile Art
Quilting By The Lake - Series 1 - started July 2015
Quilting By the Lake - Series 2 - started July 2015

Repairs
Replace worn blocks on Simon's quilt - started November 2015
Restuff and mend teddy - started 2015
Repair various clothes for family - started 2015

Completed:
Replace buttons on Button quilt - started November 2015
Repair handles on felted bag - started April 2012


To keep track of all related blog posts in one place I've created a page you can click through to and see this post and each of my monthly update reports; you can click through to it here.



Have you sworn to clear your UFOs/WIP this year?  How are you going about it?  Let me know if you start using the Trello app too.
Do share your ideas and progress, you might just inspire someone to do the same :D


Clicking on an image will take you to a new page of crafty goodness :)
 

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Linky Parties This post may be linked to some great Linky Parties, always a great source of inspiration too.  If you click through to my 'Fave Linky Parties'  page you can see where I like to share my work.

4 comments:

  1. Great work Chris - I wish I had been half as productive! xx

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  2. I am surprised that you have time to eat or sleep Chris, given the amount of projects that you have on the go :) Congrats on knocking off more of those WIP's last month!

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  3. Wow you have done so much last month, never thought to look back like that but a good idea and shows what we can achieve.

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  4. You are super productive! Great projects!

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Chris Dodsley


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