Le Moyne Star quilt top

 I got the quilt top completed about a week ago.  It measures 41-1/2" x 52-1/2".  Blocks are 8" square finished.  The 9 patch setting squares are 3" square finished.  Fabrics are Beach House by Blackbird Designs for Moda with Kona Solid Snow.  I opted without a border because I got lazy and decided I had enough of this quilt!

Before I put all the fabrics away, I cut up the binding and sewed them together.  This will be a scrappy binding.

Designer: Primitive Bettys

The crow pincushions are all stuffed and sitting pretty on my desks.  Weighted it with walnut shells and did some elongated blanket stitch all around the pincushion with cotton a broder thread.  Just love the pairing.  Beneath the pincushions you will see the X-Quisite doll quilt which is currently being hand quilted.

Patchwork curtains still in progress, took more time than I anticipated :s

 Bought 2 more spools of YLI silk thread off eBay.  So I got the lights, mediums and darks covered for future applique!

About Crows

Designer: Primitive Bettys (Freebie)

When I was working on the applique portion of the bow-tie quilt, I was using a piece of felt to poke my needle and applique pins.  For someone who does needlework, it's a shame :)

So I looked for simple pin cushion patterns and loved those by Betty Dekat.  She's a generous soul with so many lovely freebies.

Her most recent freebie is Sunflowers & Crows.  It was stitched with DMC 928, 3011, 3820 and 782.  As for Crow it's stitched with DMC 3371.  The linen is 35ct Fagales by HDF.  I really love the pairing of these 2 designs, quite primitive I must say.  I will weigh it with crushed walnut shells and finish it with a blanket stitch variation all around using Anchor's coton a broder thread.  One for my stitching table and one for my sewing table!
 

 I've completed the 20 star blocks and the 12, 9 patch setting squares.  So now it's a matter of sewing up the sashing and the blocks together.  It's gonna be a good lap quilt size and I'm quite pleased that it is nearing completion. This has taken a while.

The layout will 4 by 5 blocks.

I'll leave you with an Irish folk tune!  This tune is recorded earlier before the lessons got to be more technical.  Learning very important ornamentations in Irish tin whistle playing ... it's tough ...

Bear Paw - WIP

 

Just had to get a block going of a red and white Bear Paw block into my quilting pan.  It's pretty huge at 14" square.  My plan is a 4 block quilt with a million HSTs for it's border!

Season's Greetings all bordered up.  Need to look into the applique for this baby.  And the 5 miserable blocks of orange peel appliqued to date.

Design:  Christmas Eve Flight (Freebie)  Designer: The Sampler Girl  Fabric:  Scrap linen  2/2 Floss: DMC

Christmas Star Block with borders sewn in ready to be sewn into a cushion cover for a 14" pillow form.

Ellen pants by Burda is completed.  Along with belt loops.  There's some puckering on the front right waist band but no matter as I never tuck in my blouses.  I like it.  I've got another piece of dark grey cotton drill for another pair.  It's either another Ellen pants or Angela Kane's trousers.

Pieces up on my design wall on this cold and rainy morning.

Fancy a Jane day?

Design: Fancy a Jane day? Designer: The Sampler Girl.  Fabric: 32ct Belfast Flax 2/2.  Floss: DMC 3721.  To be finished into a pocket

This design has been growing on me and since Tanya of The Sampler Girl was having a Black Friday sale, I couldn't resist ;)

My miserable attempt at a red & white school house block :(  I was inspired by a post by Laurie of Minick & Simpson.  Love those red and whites. I think the school house block will have to wait till I figure it out some more or look into foundation paper piecing.  However, I need to put a start to the Red & White Bear Paw quilt inspired by Moda's Bakeshop ... soon ...  I was playing with Cheri's Home for the Holidays quilt called Season's Greetings and decided to go larger.  Those 1/2" squares are causing me grief!

Started on another Christmas Star block.  Going very quickly with the help of Lori's HST tutorial.

 

 This is a quilt weight that I made a couple of months back.  Since my sewing machine was in the shop for servicing  ... finally ... I had table space to do some hand quilting.  The quilt weight worked wonderfully and it was a great tip from Katell on SQT.

My lunch today with brown rice.  I know it does look a little icky because the egg is supposed to be smooth but I wasn't bothered since I've steamed it in the rice cooker basket with the rice cooking.  It's a Chinese dish called 3 egg yolks or something like that.  There's Chicken egg, Century egg and Salted egg sprinkled with sesame oil, soya sauce and oyster sauce.

Design: Orange Peel Quilt  Designer: Kathleen Tracy

So while my lunch was cooking, I did some applique!  Yes, horrors of horrors!  With the encouragement of some friends and a dare from another (you know who you are), I will give applique another go :)  I bought an e-pattern from Martingale when they were having the Black Friday sale.  Again I couldn't resist ;)  Orange peel?  Bring it on!

Ellen Pants - Revisited

I am giving the Ellen pants another shot.  I've enlarged where needs enlarging :p and I've added a pocket too.  It's a cotton drill fabric and quite nice to work with.  I am using a different fabric for the pockets and the fly shield.  I've joined a 1 year membership to Angela Kane's patterns.  And looking forward to her shirt and skirt videos.

The Ute blouse is completed.  Very happy with it despite the mishap which is rectified with a silly label!

Some cross stitch on the stand.  It's been about a month since I've cross stitched.  Enjoying this small stitch immensely.

Ellen Pants

Since I wear pants mostly when I work, I wanted to try to sew me a pair of pants.  So I started out with a free pattern from Burda ... you know I am cheap.  And I bought 1.5M (60" width) of Tetron synthetic fabric (June helped me figure out the fabric).  I think it's a low quality fabric with lots of fray and great price for trying out ... a muslin if you will.

Since there were some comments saying that the pattern ran large, I took one step down from my normal size.  Big mistake :(

 

This might sound like sour grapes but my objective was to grasp the pants sewing process and the instructions being beginner unfriendly did not help.  So from the onset I approached it as a lesson.

I ignored the belt loops, pockets and ironing the seam allowances apart.  It frayed badly and I think my room needs a good vacuuming.  But I get it now.  And I will go for a larger size and I will know where to take in or put out the next time I try this pattern for my less than ideal figure :p 

 The Soot and Ashes block are now auditioned for comments from Jess on how I will go about adding applique and laying out the quilt.  Cheri's come up with a fabulous finished quilt and if I can only manage half of the applique I'll be happy as a pea.

One of my lunches last week.

Got an 8' run dowel where the shopkeeper kindly cut for me the lengths I require.  I sand papered them slightly and now their hanging my quilts in my room!

 

I really loved this design (freebie) by Betty Dekat of Primitive Bettys.  It says so much especially with the impending crazy Christmas season!  I've changed my mind re the white linen.  Hah ... talk about simplifying :)

Pin Pillow finish

This is my contribution to the The Great Pumpkin Challenge and it's also my draw gift for those participants that have completed their 1800s Vintage Quilt over at SQT.

 

It was Lillie's birthday on Monday 27/9 and because of issues with the courier company :( she got the package on Tuesday instead.  I stitched up Danybrod's pattern Pins and Needles as a needlebook.  I changed the colours to pinks!

And a little pinwheel patchwork pincushion.

And a couple of LHN charts.

Now the scarry part of sewing those button holes, it always freaks me out. I've done some testing on scrap fabric just to be sure.