Stitch Gathering 2015 - Pre-Sewing

At the end of September, I attended the Stitch Gathering in Edinburgh.  This is the third time I've been and the first time I finished the items I started - hooray!

I'm going to start with the pre-sewing and write up the classes and day itself in another post.

TICKET
The ticket for the Stitch Gathering is sent to you for embellishment and return at the end itself.  This has previously been a quilt block and a canvas bag.

This year the brief was to embellish a piece of white cotton with a word - any word - which could be sewn up into a quilt.  

I struggled for a long time to think of a word.  My initial thought was democracy, but I didn't want anything too long.  The night before the event itself when I was tearing my hair out, I decided to go with VOTE.

I cut the letters out of 3" by 3" squares, to represent the box on voting papers, and appliqued it onto the piece of cotton.  I ironed it before I handed it in, I promise!

You can see some of the other fantastic words people came up with in Jo Avery's, My BearPaw and Stitch Gathering organiser, post here.

NAMETAG SWAP

For the name tag swap this year, I decided to make a little needle book which could be used after the event.  The hook was attached to a string for wearing on the day but can hold scissors afterwards.

I made the pattern up, which meant I made lots of mistakes and this binding was on and off about three times before I got it right.  

I used matchstick quilting on the outside and left negative space for my partners name.

NOTION SWAP

This was a new addition to the pre-sewing homework.  Swappers were asked to make something for a partner which they could use as a sewing accessory.

I was flicking through Quilt Now Magazine and stumbled across a EPP kit case which I decided to make for my partner.  Having a pattern for this one meant no mistakes!

It's  bit wonky but I was super proud of this zip!

It turned out my partner is making a La Passacaglia quilt so this will come in handy - success!  

I also had some other sewing to do in preparation for the big day which I'll show you in the next Stitch Gathering post!

Stitch Gathering Jelly Roll Quilt 2

I've been powering on through this quilt and have now completed half the rows for the top.  Four to go!

Linking up with Work in Progress Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced

Stitch Gathering Jelly Roll Quilt

I've picked up my eternal WIP, the Stitch Gathering Jelly Roll quilt again recently with a view to getting it DONE!

I'm going to gift it to a friend when she gets married later on this year.  

My normal approach is to cut a bit, sew a bit.  I don't think it's particularly efficient however, so decided to take a more assembly line approach to this quilt.  I thought it might help me to make progress quickly, even if there wasn't instant gratification.

I did my best, but I have to admit I did give up on the cutting after slicing up the width of fabric strips.  They were tricky customers and I was bored of just cutting - I wanted to see a finished row!

And progress has indeed been forthcoming.  In the last week, I've completed two and a half rows of the 8 needed for this quilt.  Compared to my August 2013 to September 2014 progress (1 row), I think that's pretty good!

I feel like the skills I've developed over the last year will make this a better quilt though so maybe I was right to wait.  I just can't wait to see it finished now!