Modern QAL – April Block

It’s April, and the final block for the Modern Blocks QAL. And I’m even caught up with posting my blocks and linking this one up on time!

April’s block is called Stacked Squares, and like all the blocks comes from this book:

I have to admit that this was not one of my favourite blocks as it has a large block of solid colour, so only uses the one colour. I think I prefer some of the others where I could use more of the range of colours I chose for the quilt, but it will be interesting to see how all the blocks look together when the quilt is fully sewn.

Here is my finished block:

 

You can see all the other blocks that people have made over on And Sew We Craft 🙂

 

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Modern QAL – February Block

 

It’s February – oh wait, no it’s April!

It’s about time I caught up with posting my blocks for the Modern QAL, since this is the last month before putting all the blocks together!

February’s block was called Parisian Star, and like all the blocks comes from this book:

Here is my finished block:

 

You can see all the other blocks that people have made over on And Sew We Craft 🙂

 

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Crochet Owl

The sewing machine is still on its round the world cruise, so I’m doing lots of crochet at the moment, in fact I started and finished 4 things in the last week – this must be a record for me!

One of those was a cute little crochet owl. The pattern (found here) was linked to on Facebook, prompting a friend to ask me to make her one.

I copied the exact colouring of one of the example owls in the pattern to make the stripey tummy and think he turned out quite well.

I used Rico Creative Cotton Aran to make it. I like cotton for making toys as it’s a bit more sturdy than wool and acrylic. The eyes are brown safety eyes (which I conclude that the only unsafe part is trying not to injure yourself fastening them on!) and the beak in just stitched on at the end.

Royal Mail did a pretty good job and he arrived the day after he was finished and is now living in his new home in Rugby 🙂

Adult v-neck t-shirt v2

The final Christmas present 2013 post!

After the t-shirt I made turned out too small, I went back and cut out the size large pieces instead. I used the same Charlie Tee pattern by Fishsticks Designs, and again drew on a v-neck, rather than the original rounded neck. I followed the instructions from the children’s v-neck pattern I have, and stay stitched the v before adding the neckband on. I’ve never done that before as I didn’t really see what difference it would make, and it means changing the double needle to a single and back again, but actually it does make the v much flatter! So perhaps following the pattern properly is a good idea after all! Look at those stripes! I was so proud of these – they match up perfectly!

It turned out really well, and was even better as once finished I didn’t have any Christmas presents left to make! 🙂

Adult v-neck t-shirt

It’s nearly the end of January and I still haven’t finished sharing the things I made for Christmas!

 This was intended to be an adult’s v-neck t-shirt that I was going to give as a present. It is made from grey cotton jersey with white ribbing for the neck.

There are not a huge number of adult patterns out there, at least not as much choice as there seems to be with children’s patterns, and I couldn’t find one with a v-neck at a reasonable (not extortionate) price. I did, however, already have an adult t-shirt pattern with the ordinary rounded neck – the Charlie Tee pattern by Fishsticks Designs. So in a ‘how hard can it be?’ moment I decided to just use that one and draw my own v-neck onto the pattern pieces! The answer to my question turned out to be – not really that hard! I think the v-neck turned out just fine. I used my twin needle again to do all the hemming … …and I also use it to sew all the seams and topstitching.

I sewed the size medium, and that turned out to be my one mistake. When I got my husband to try it on it was a pretty good fit on him, which meant that it was going to be a tiny bit too small for its intended recipient.So it was back to the drawing board for the Christmas t-shirt, and this one went into our wardrobe instead. (and he does wear it, so even though he’s not a huge fan of me making him things to wear, he must like it really 🙂 )

Tardis Hat

We’re back in the UK and it’s a bit chilly!

W has an owl hat I made him, but since it’s a year or so old his head has grown and he needed one a little bigger.

What better for a mini Dr Who fan than a TARDIS hat?!

Even more impressive – I didn’t use a pattern!

I searched online for a pattern, and did find a couple, but not one that I liked enough to buy. So since I’ve made enough hats to know how to make the basic shape, and done enough colour work to know how to change colours I though I might as well just make it without one!

This is the first hat I’ve made in aran yarn, usually I use DK, and it makes it a bit bigger without having to add in extra increases.

There are two sets of windows on the front and the same on the back. The words ‘POLICE BOX’ are only on the front. Really they should be on both, but letters are a pain to do and at least he’ll be able to tell which way round it goes with it like this! There is a white pom pom on the top for the flashing light.

He seems happy with it, he even let me take a few photos of him trying it on!

Modern QAL – January Block

 

It’s January! And there’s only four months of the Modern Blocks QAL left!

So everyone who knows me will know that I can’t possibly have made made my block this month. Living in a house with no table/chair/desk and with my sewing machine and all my fabric in a box ready to start its 10,000 mile journey to a new home I’d need some superhuman powers to have made it in the last two days!!

But when I made last month’s block, suspecting that this might be a possibility, I got ahead. So actually I made all the rest of my blocks, since there was only four, which is cheating a little bit, but now I can still link up when everyone else does – yay!

All of the blocks for the QAL come from this book:

 

This month’s block is called Everything Equal, and Alyce’s tutorial can be found on Blossom Heart Quilts’ blog.

I looked at all the colours in the fabric I’m using for my blocks, and couldn’t resist making it a rainbow!

I think it looks really pretty!

 

You can see all the other blocks that people have made over on And Sew We Craft 🙂

 

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Winter Hats For All!

Most of the adults in the family got hats as their Christmas present this year. I made nine hats in total, including the rainbow hat I made for my youngest niece.

The second hat I made was another rainbow hat, but this time in adult rather than baby size:

This one is a bright rainbow, a bit more manly than the pastels: 

This one is green and browns –  another manly one:

This one is in purples and white. I tried out thicker stripes for this one; they worked well:

And finally for this pattern I made two matching in blue and white stripes – Ipswich Town football colours:

The last two hats I made were novelty hats.

One was a minion:

And the other a red monster:

Everyone’ll be ready for a cold winter 🙂