The Sewing Dilettante

Well, I didn't quite manage to finish everything I had intended to this month, but 'almost' is ok with me at the moment! My biggest accomplishment this month is my charm square baby quilt... Pictured with the Sock Monkey made for Baby H by Mrs. L back home in New Hampshire I'm really pleased with how this turned out and can't wait to use it when Baby H arrives! The FMQ worked out really well, despite some teething issues at the start, and, while I wondered initially if I should use a different colour thread for the quilting, I think the cream adds the perfect contrast to the various fabrics without being too glaring or conspicuous.  A close-up of the FMQ and a view of the flannel back I'm going to call it 'Oh, the places you'll go' after one of my favourite Dr. Seuss books. Not just because the bright colours kind of remind me of the vivid illustrations in all of the Dr. Seuss books, or because the FMQ makes me think of winding roads a...

It's been a while since my last post, and I don't have much excuse except that I've been manically busy trying to juggle 16 million things at once! Feeling slightly overwhelmed by it all this morning, I headed out for a pressure-releasing power walk (read: waddle) and was almost immediately refreshed by the autumnal glory in Ormeau Park. Obviously, I couldn't resist kicking through the leaves like a little kid! Somehow it's never really occurred to me before this year how similar autumns are here to those back in New England. Belfast may not have New Hampshire's reputation for fantastic fall foliage, but it's still pretty spectacular! The crisp fresh air combined with the lovely scenery and some child-like romping on my part put things back in perspective and made me crave some of my favourite autumn treats, pumpkin pie chief among them. I just might have to rustle one up this weekend!  These are the only photos I have to show today, but there'l...

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...

This afternoon, a new spool of thread in hand, I sat down to finish the FMQ on my charm square baby quilt. But, luck clearly wasn't on my side, and I just couldn't get things to work for me. The thread kept bunching up on the underside of my quilt sandwich, and no matter how I changed my thread tension, re-threaded my needle, re-inserted my bobbin, and checked the feed dogs, I simply couldn't get things going right. Extra frustrating because I only have a tiny portion left to quilt, and I was hoping to get the quilting done and binding attached today. Instead, I forced myself to push back from my sewing table, shut things down, and vow to have another go when I was feeling fresher. No point ruining the rest of my Sunday over a bit of uncooperative thread! Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong? I'm sure it's something simple and obvious, but I can't figure it out, and the manual for my machine isn't shedding much light on anything, except to indicate...

I can hardly believe it's October already! September just seemed to fly by, not least because of my new job, and while I love all the wonderful things about October - the changing of the seasons, autumnal foliage, and the welcome opportunity to bake apple and pumpkin pies - I'm feeling slightly anxious about the passage of time. You see, the beginning of October means I've only got three short months left until Baby H arrives, and none of my baby-related projects are finished yet! Eeek!! Now is the perfect time, therefore, to follow the lead of many a fellow blogger and offer both an account of what I've accomplished in September and a projection of what I'd like to do in October. I'm trying this out through the Fresh Sewing Day on Lily's Quilts  (hope I've done everything correctly!); I'm also linking up to the Small Blog Meet in the hopes of learning more about other great blogs and maybe attracting a few more readers to my blog as well! ...

This afternoon I got home from church and went straight to work on my charm square quilt. Hubby was away, so I had the whole house to myself and nothing specific to get done except some sewing. A couple of hours later, and my charm square baby quilt is pretty much ready to go! I changed the layout a bit, re-arranging the squares so I'd get a diagonal line of each colour - a pattern that seemed to work better than the completely random arrangement I'd tried out earlier . Then, I added a narrow border in red Kona, et voilá, my quilt top was finished. I sandwiched it together with its fleece backing and wadding using spray basting and made all of the leftover bits and pieces of fabric into binding.  The only thing left to be done on this quilt is the actual quilting. I think this might be the time to have a go at Free Machine Quilting, but I'm feeling anxious at the very idea! Still, it's quite a small quilt, so it shouldn't be too much of an ordeal, righ...

This week has been a bit of a whirlwind, mainly because things are crazy at work. I'm in the process of changing positions at the moment, so my days seem to pass in a haze of phone calls to various HR individuals, countless emails dealing with logistics, and a panicked flurry to tie up loose ends at the old job before moving on to the new. Just as well I had some fantastic blogging/patchworking events to look forward to this week! Monday morning I was invited along to my first blogging event ever, and boy was I delighted! The lovely Judith organized it all, and Fiona kindly hosted us (despite just having had surgery!) There were only five of us altogether (including one non-blogging daughter), as several other Northern Ireland based bloggers couldn't make it, but it was lovely to meet a few of the bloggers I've been following and put faces to names. As ever these days, I had my hexies to hand, so I worked away on those while we chatted about ourselves and our projects, at...