Comfort and Joy

I start the year with trying to get as many Bee blocks done as possible.  Tomorrow, back to the day job.  I ma lucky, I love my job and realistically I am unlikely to earn my living through stitching bits of fabric together, but it is with a little reluctance.   I was invited to join the Cocorico bee (very similar to Ringo Pie) and I needed to get Melinda's block done first.  Her theme was Vintage/Cute Christmas, I wanted to get it finished before Christmas completely disappeared.

I had to drag this block kicking and screaming from deep inside my creative internals.  I had a vague idea, the jar shape was already in my head but it wasn't till I free pieced the string tied around the rim of the glass that I felt it was working. Only then did it make me smile and I could see it all working.

My usual letter stamps and red Versacraft on linen.

The tag shape came about from a lovely set of 'Kodomo Margaret' Japanese stationery stamps that Damian bought me for Christmas.   I stamped onto Kona stone and used needle turn applique to stitch it on with a little perle thread to link it to the jar.

And then I went on a little stamping marathon, address stickers

 cards, the Eiffel towel postal stamp was a little gift from Ayumi x

labels- love them!

These stamps are not the easiest thing to find, but this shop sells the brand.  

Christmas- not yet

Just finished, ready for Christmas in Hawaii, my Christmas Ringo Pie bee block-an advent tree for Amber.  I found this wooden tree on Flickr and that was my starting point.

The bordered squares are 1.5 inches.  I stamped the words- a line from White Christmas using Versacraft ink as it sets permanently onto the fabric.

The background fabric and stamped squares are Kona Snow.  I have very little Christmas fabric so I dived into the red and green in my vintage and new fabrics so it is an eclectic mix.

You can see the other Christmas blocks which have rolled in so far here as well as the first blocks from Amy's camera theme too here and here.

It might be a while till Christmas but it is the start of stitching time- I am hoping to get some paper pieced patterns ready for sale in the next 2 weeks with Christmas designs ready for stockings, cushions etc.  Keeps me busy x  

September

Thankyou for the birthday wishes!  Giveaway is here and I am finding the comments incredibly helpful.  

September makes...

1. Courthouse Steps Pillow/cushion- started, 2. Cracker Scraps Block for Angela, 3. Mug Rug- how to paper piece tutorial, 4. Girl Bonjour block, 5. Back to school, 6. B for Bonjour!, 7. Quilts on a line for Corey, 8. Sewing Machine Block for Amisha, 9. Ringo Pie preview for Amber

Not so much this month, back to work, Lula starting high school and all the support that entails, a bit of a sore arms flare up situation- better now, it has been a month of blocks and it finished with me working on Amber's Christmas block for Ringo Pie so a little preview for her at the bottom of the mosaic.  There are a couple of Kumiko Fujita blocks from a Japanese magazine  that I hadn't got round to posting about, part of a mystery quilt-a-long in the magazine Patchwork Tsushin.  There is a wonderful piecing video showing Kumiko at work.

Check out the lovely makes of the others taking part at Lynne's Fresh Sewing first of the month meetup.  The weather is beautiful Autumn sun and temperatures that we should have had in August, and I am thinking Christmas sewing whilst wearing a summer voile tunic...