Near Finishes!

After the disappointments of last week, I wasn't quite sure I had the energy or confidence to do anything remotely creative or crafty this weekend. But, my targets for the month of October called, and I sat down to my sewing machine with no small sense of trepidation on Saturday afternoon, armed with helpful suggestions from Judith and Leanne about FMQ-ing. After a methodical de-threading, cleaning, and re-threading, my machine magically began to cooperate, and I was back in business! I finished the FMQ-ing in no time, and I'm so pleased with the result! 
It was a bit overcast when taking these photos, so they're not amazing, but you can see all the lovely stippling of which I'm insanely proud!
While I was at it, I sewed on the binding and now just have to finish hand sewing it on. I'm calling that a success, if not yet a completion! (Near finishes count, right?!) 

 Since I was obviously on a roll, I also made a start on the throw pillows to match this baby quilt. I had bought two pillow forms at Ikea a while back with this intention but didn't have much of a plan in mind, except that I wanted to use the same fabrics from the quilt in the pillow covers. As I plotted and planned on Saturday, I decided I might keep one pillow very plain and make the other a quilted front, using the Scrappy Block pattern we've been making in Bee Blessed recently. So, following the measurements in Sew Mama Sew's great pillow-making tutorial, I came up with this....
Again, the lighting isn't great...
I just have to quilt this mini quilt sandwich, attach the pillow backing, and throw on a bit of binding. It sounds like a big job when I write it down like that, but I'm definitely happy with my progress this weekend! And, I'm feeling so much less discouraged than I was at the end of last week.... not least because I received a fantastic delivery on Saturday - my charm pack from the Japanese Charm Swap!! I've spent so much time marveling at all the lovely fabrics included in my pack that I haven't actually managed to take any photos, but I promise some in due course. In the meantime, massive thanks to Sarah for organising the swap and making my first experience of such a thing so enjoyable!!

 xx Tina

Comments

  1. Judith, Belfast15 October 2012 at 16:54

    Big well done on conquering the fmq! Looks amazing! Jxo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Simply Sew15 October 2012 at 18:48

    WEll done on the FMQ. What a difference a day makes!!! The quilt looks great. I still have to conquer FMQ.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Di15 October 2012 at 21:14

    Beautiful quilt and FMQ. The cushion is looking good too. Di x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sarah15 October 2012 at 21:58

    Fabulous Tina - so great that you have mastered FMQ - your quilt is so cute and your cushion will be just great when it's finished too! Definitely a successful weekend's work.

    ReplyDelete

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