August’s Square

I made August’s square last week. I was expecting it to take longer to make than it did because it looked like there was a lot of work plus when I had just sat down to sew I had some unexpected child care. With respect to the latter I was able to sew while he played with cars and regarding the former I could do a lot of chain piecing.

This block was labeled as appliqué but making a template was also involved. The flower has 20 petals. I had scraps of yellow in four different colours but decided to buy some more. An eighth-yard in three different colours when on sale at Jo-Ann’s does not cost very much. A template was made for the petals and the cutting out did not take long as I was able to layer two or three fabrics and then cut out with a small rotary cutter. Each petal was sewn across the top to make the point, turned to the right side and pressed. I then sewed the petals in pairs. I didn’t have any order for this, just made sure I didn’t have two of the same. Some of the pairs were sewn into four groups of four and then two groups of ten were made. These two groups were joined into a circle.

Here’s photos showing them before and after pressing.



The circle was then sewn to the green square – the appliqué part. There was no way I was going to do this by hand so I used zigzag stitch. I am very pleased with it; also very grateful for the needle up/down function on my new machine. The green is from the fat quarter I bought for March’s square. I am happy that I had a big piece in stash.

Flower sewn to block.



The centre of the flower is appliqué and a new to me method. The circle is cut larger than the template, running stitches made in the seam allowance, gathered around template. This was easier than expected as I had never done it before. The secret is to make stitches small and make sure they are all the same distance from the edge.

Finished block. This is the largest one so far.

And Another Bag

The other reason for there being quite a few finished sewing projects just lately is that I want to use all the fabric I purchased recently. I know that sounds a bit strange but I want my fabric purchases to be for specific projects and to be used in a short time scale and not sit in stash. I had a coupon for 20% off (I think) all purchases including sale items so I took advantage of this to buy fabric that was already massively on sale. That trip I bought fabric for five projects: the two dresses for my granddaughter, a skirt and a dress for myself, and a bag.

This week I made the skirt and the bag which means I have now used four of the five pieces of fabric. The bag was a new-to-me pattern I found in the One-Yard Wonder book. After purchasing the fabric, I noticed that the pattern said not suitable for one-directional fabric. Uh oh. No big deal. Just meant I had an extra seam at the bottom and had to concentrate to make sure the fabric was the right way up before sewing.

The bag was a straight forward lined bag with handles in the top seam but the sides and bottom had a pin tuck to give the bag shape. I messed up a bit at the corners but as my husband said anyone else wouldn't notice. Apart from that, I am happy with it but have not decided if it will be a knitting bag (for all those big projects) or just a regular carry anything bag. My granddaughter has not seen it yet and I am worried that she might lay claim to it as it is pink and dogs.

More Sewing Than Knitting

I don’t know if that is true but it definitely feels like it as this is another post showing a sewn item.

One reason is that my knitting has been big projects. Two of my finished projects this year have been over 1000 meters and the one I am working on now will be close to that. So not quick knits. Whereas the sewing has been, mostly, quick things. Also I usually have the chance to sew in a big block of time so it is easier to finish something, especially the block of the month. Whereas with just an hour or so each night spent on knitting it takes more days to finish something.

Add to that, if an item is for a child then they are very keen to see the finished item. Which brings us to today’s post and yet another dress for my granddaughter. She chose the fabric herself when we purchased the pink fabric as the dress is another view on the same pattern. This one was slightly easier as there were not eight panels to cut and sew for the skirt but they did seem to make the cutting out more complicated that I thought it needed to be. For the skirt, half the size was provided, which is usual when you are placing on the fold but they had you lay the fabric out flat and lay the pattern piece twice. This seemed unnecessary to me and I folded the fabric. The other change I made was to mitre the corners when hemming the skirt.

And There’s Knitting

At last I have a finished item to show you. Although I have many projects on the go, there is usually just one that I work on most of the time. This was my Changes shawl but when I couldn’t continue because of the split in one of the needles I picked up the Snow Day shawl. Although not at all appropriate for our summer heatwave I decided to finish it as it really is a lovely project.

I purchased the yarn at the end of January 2017. At the time I did not have a pattern in mind but purchased enough to make a decent size shawl. But when the Snow Day pattern was released I knew this yarn was perfect but I would need equal amounts of each colour. Another skein was purchased on last year’s Yarn Crawl.

I finally started it at the beginning of March when I was in London and I call it After Snow Day as there had been a bulk of snow the week before.
The pattern is written for three colours but I just alternated the two colours I had. When I came to the end of the written pattern I had practically a full skein of each left. The pattern is written with a different number of rows for each section, I worked the sequence backwards and finished with two blocks of garter stitch.

I love it. It is very squidgy and I am looking forward to wearing it when we have cooler evenings. My pattern notes say I would have gone up a needle size if I’d had bigger needles with me but now I’m glad I didn’t.

Pattern: Snow Day
Needles: 5mm
Yarn: Western Sky Knits Willow DK Superwash Merino
Colours: Pepper and Jasmine
Amount used: 2 full skeins of each.