More baking and sewing my Little Hazel!

Apologies for the streak of sunlight over these photos - clearly its been so long since I've seen it that I've forgotten to adjust for it!

This was the last ring in Esther Aliu's Little Hazel. I was pleased with my progress!

 This is it pinned to the outer part that will square it up.

Unfortunately, as you might just be able to make out here, I managed to rotate the inner star, so that the four points that should be pointing at the corners weren't going to be.  Ugh!  Fortunately I noticed before I sewed it, but it was annoying to have to repin it all!

 Here it is with the purple squaring up border.  It's not quite as wiggly in real life - hanging it on a wiggly fleece doesn't help here -  although I have lost a few of the green points, I'm afraid.  Not ideal, but I shall gift the quilt to a non-quilter who will never notice!

On the whole I'm pleased with progress, although I shall be happier still that the future blocks are smaller!

The last hurrah of the birthday happened last week - with a triple layer chocolate mousse cake extravaganza (do I have to confess that there was only a layer of chocolate mousse included as I defrosted it thinking that it was more chocolate buttercream?).

Well received, although I'm pleased to be done with big cakes for the moment.  Bake to work-a-day baking without either buttercream or fondant icing on show!

Easter over, but the Easter holidays in full swing!  Less sewing time than usual, but fun and high jinks instead!

Hope that you are having fun too!

Sewing and Baking

 More work on my 365 challenge - the only sewing that I've managed this week.

These two squares are 6 1/2" square (ish!) and each demanded many mitred corners.

 These are the normal 3 1/2" square and show the start of the mitred corner set of blocks.
 The rest of my time this week has been taken up with baking and birthday stuff for DD1.




The first cake of the week was made to celebrate the news that DD2 will be going (along with several of her friends) to the same school as DD1 from September.  I'm looking forward to them both having the same school holidays and training days again!

The second cake was my best attempt to represent Brighton Pier (and specifically the fairground rides on the end of it) in cake form.  This was the destination of the birthday treat day out on Saturday - and I think that I'm still recovering from it, although the girls have bounced back!

I also made some bread - a no knead recipe - for breakfast after the sleepover.

Just one more cake to make (for the actual birthday!) and my baking efforts for the week will be complete!

I'm hoping to get a little sewing done over the Easter break, but it's always hard to know how much will actually happen once we start enjoying the school holidays!

Happy Easter, Happy Spring, happy sewing, one and all!

Small Pleasures

 You know those weeks where they seem full, busy, chaotic - but you can't really find what took all the time by the end of them?  That was the sort of week that I had! 
In fairness, I did some useful sewing done, just not as much as I'd hoped!

 I made (in the company of lovely friends) some bunny bags this week, ready for Easter.  Based almost entirely on this tutorial by sewcanshe.com.  I love that by ignoring the face embroidery I can get a quick gift that looks like a bunny hiding in a bag!  If you have four charm squares, some ribbon and about 20 minutes you should give it a go!

I also made the first 6" block from the 365 challenge.  I'm starting to think that I need to buy more dark batiks to feed into the making as the project is eating them up faster than I was expecting.

 

 Time off for a bit of quilting retail therapy, provided by the lovely Isabelle of Creative Quilting who packed up a good sized chunk of her shop and brought it to my quilting group on Monday night.  So pleased that they are now stocking Aurifil - my favourite thread!  Also a new to me magazine title which I'm looking forward to reading.

Finally a showcase of Week 10 (although I need to check how I've got 8 blocks rather than 7 shown here.  It's entirely possible that the last one will reappear next time I show you a weeks worth of blocks too!

Some fiddly piecing - on that last basket the little half square triangles are 1" blocks, so only 1/2" shows once they are finished.  Lots of fun when they work!

Hope that you are finding fun and small pleasures this week too!

Katy Catchup

 Playing "Katy Catchup" with my 365 challenge this week!

So lovely to get to make the centre medallion - I had fun breaking out the bright batiks for it (whilst remembering to use some of the prints that I've been using in the darker blocks so that it has some continuity).

I wish that I'd got all the sub units right the first time, though.  I haven't taken a picture, but I originally put the block together with some of the flying geese facing the wrong direction.  I had to spend longer than I wanted unpicking it before resewing the right way around!

 These are the blocks from week 8 of the challenge.

These are the five from week 9 - we had two days to make the centre medallion, so only five small blocks.

I've nearly caught up!  Just last six days to make and I'll be there.

I've also got another sewing project with a deadline for the weekend, so I'd better get on with that too!

Distractions!

 I had intended to get back up to speed with my 365 challenge - but got distracted!

Instead I made these cards - free motion stitched a stick figure and the fabric balloons.

 Then I made the rings for Little Hazel, part 2.  Thanks again to Esther for her pattern!

You can't tell the scale from this photo, but it must be almost 30" across already - the pieces feel huge compared to the small ones that the 365 challenge demands!

 And I made these, from fabric mutt, who published a fab tutorial for these little fabric baskets that she called Pixie Baskets.

Two have been gifted for birthdays, one is holding my fabric scraps that are 'pre-made' units for the 365 challenge, and I have two more cut out and ready to sew.


Addictive?  You think???  They finish at 3" x 4" and are totally cute.

Ideal for all sorts of things!

Perhaps now I've got these little items out of my system I'll get back on track with my other projects!

Hope that you have some fun sewing planned too!