WIP Wednesday No. 7

I'm having a very productive week so far. Tiring but productive. By the end of the week I need to have made 3 stuffed toys, a tea cosy and finished up my block swap blocks. I've given myself a strict timetable and, so far, I've managed to stick to it.

This evening's progress

One completed goose

and

a redesigned heffalump

Block swap
It didn't occur to me that 25 blocks is actually equivalent to making a whole quilt. I'm slowly getting through the piecing in between other jobs. So far I have 108 pointy house shaped things, 108 HSTs and 108 plain 2.5" squares. I just need to dog ear 108 rectangles then I'm ready to put them together.

The blocks are supposed to be in the mail by 20th October but I want to get them posted ASAP because they always take so long to get to the US.

Time to sleep, work in the morning (I still like the sound of that, I wonder when that will wear off.



Why not pop over to Freshly pieced to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday.

Progress Report

Day 2 of my self-imposed timetable and I'm still on track. Here's the proof:

108 half square triangles

and

A new pile of stuffed animal parts.

I sometimes think my desk looks like a kind of stuffed animal abattoir with bits of elephant, goose and fish spread all over it. I need to come up with a storage solution. I tried pinning them up but that just looked mean!

Jobs are like buses....

... you wait 3 months for one and then three come along at once.

I'm struggling to get anywhere near my computer at the moment. My 4 days a week at work have turned into 6 days, the owner of my LQS is really pushing me for tea cosy patterns and my big sister thought she would help me out by taking orders for stuffed animals and tea cosies from the girls she works with.

Add to that my general lack of organisation and you end up with a scene like the one below (you may have to click on it to get the full force of the chaos)

Is there any wonder I can't get online to blog? A plan is needed and I figure if I write it down here then I'll have to follow through. So bear with me and I promise I'll post every day to prove that I'm on track.

Planned timetable

• This evening: finish assembling random stuffed animal parts into a fully formed sheep
• Tomorrow evening: press and trim 108 HST and start making a goose
• Wednesday evening: finish constructing the goose and redesign tea cosy shape
• Thursday evening: knitting club! Finish tea cosy shell
• Friday evening: get drunk and fall over (Maria's birthday)
• Saturday: nurse hangover, line tea cosy. make an elephant.
• Sunday: finish quilting Strawberry Patch

It looks like I'm in for a busy week but I've made a start. Here's a picture of the finished sheep:

One animal down, two to go. Hopefully by next Monday I'll feel a lot less swamped.

A little bit of progress

I've begun to quilt my Strawberry Patch Quilt. I started by echoing around the anvil blocks with I think really helps to accentuate the pattern. 

I think it needs something in the centre of the blocks to finish it off. Otherwise there's a clear 9" across the middle without quilting which I think is a little too much. I bought this stencil from The Fat Quarters but I'm struggling to quilt it.

It's only 3" big so the curves are very tight and I can't seem to get them right. I'll have another couple of tries before I give up. This week I've also completed a long over due task. I made these two cuties for my twin nieces for Christmas 2009.

 Last year they were given back to me in desperate need of some TLC. I've patched them up and they're ready for round two. I didn't want the twins' big sister to feel left out when I gave them back so I made her a little friend too.

He's from the latest Tilda book and I think he turned out super cute. I hope they last a little longer this time!

The wounded return

Last Christmas I made some stuffed toys for my twin nieces.  They were as adorable as the girls and I was sad to let them go - you can see them here.

This week I was handed them back by my sister and they look like they've been through a war!

Here's "Quack Quack" returned to me minus both wings and with a footprint on his back.  Bunny faired a little better with only an exploding arm to show for his battles with the terrible two.

At least I know they've been well loved, the twins took them everywhere (which explains the variety of stains). Time for some emergency surgery!

First set of Christmas presents

It's been an awful month. Ear infection which became labyrinthitis which was quickly followed by swimmer's ear. What on earth is going on with my ears?!? I'm typing with my head on one side so that my ear drops can soak in and it's very odd.

Through all the illness I've managed to get a good start on my Christmas presents. Meet Quack Quack and Bunny, they're made from Tilda patterns in Tilda materials and I just love them. They are for the twins but they're not quite finished. Quack Quack needs a hat and they both need faces but it shouldn't take long to finish them up.

I've also almost finished a quilt for my father and step-mother. It's all pieced and layered up, I'm just trying to do the quilting but the ear problems mean I'm struggling with straight lines. Hopefully I'll be finished in a couple of days and you can have a look.

Babies Babies Babies

I'm still off work because of my ear infection so I got to spend the day with my sister and her gorgeous twin daughters. They are just the cutest babies in the world (in my completely biased opinion). That is Lucy on the left and Alice on the right.

Unfortunately, mum has already made them a beautiful quilt each that they get wrapped up in for naps and chilly walks in the buggy so there's no point in me making them one. I have found a really cute book by Tilda with stuffed animals in though, so I'm going to get going on some Christmas presents. Alice's first words were quack quack so she's getting a duck (it's actually a goose but I think she's a little young to quibble) and Lucy is getting a cute bunny.