Welcome to the North Pole November update

This is the final update for the SAL. Some of you joined up 2 years ago and several did a wonderful job of finishing their quilt early this year. Then a few more wanted to start this year.
I have put mine on hold indefinitely while I get over my obsession with dolls clothes. All my quilts are patiently waiting.
If you haven't posted about your progress yet make sure you add your link to the linky at the end of this post. This is as far as mine got. I changed the design quite a lot because I wanted it to look like a scene. I have started the last blue row for the top. It has the moon and stars on it and the other two reindeer. It is put away in a box for now.

Thank you to all those who joined in along the way.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

An InLinkz Link-up

Welcome to the North Pole SAL August 2014

I have started to pack up some of my sewing things in anticipation of the big move early November. The house will be locked up today when the garage door goes on and the kitchen will go in next week. I love the kitchen. I will post a few pictures soon.

I feel like a bit of a poor hostess not working on my Welcome to the North Pole blocks but I do hope some of you have managed to get a bit done this month. It is quite exciting to see some of the quilts started last year almost finished now.

I hope you will post some progress in the linky at the bottom of the page.

In keeping with the applique theme at least, I have created a small Tribute to Spring with some flower pots and flowers that could be used for applique or stitchery but I think it would look great with a bit of both.

It is so easy to put patterns in my Craftsy store so that is where I have put this one. It is free to download. If you are not a member of Craftsy yet please sign up through my affiliate link in the left hand side bar. I get a small commission when new members sign up.

I have just been down to Brisbane for a visit with my mum and we went up to Tea and Niceties (32 Eagle Heights Rd Tamborine Mountain). What a lovely high tea we had. Well worth a visit. Especially now they are in their new garden location. It was $55 each. My favourite thing is the tiny scones. We even bought a teacup and plate set like the ones they use. It is a design they had made just for them. I haven't got a picture of the cup design and I scoffed most of the goodies before remembering to take a photo. Pathetic I know, but you will just have to visit for yourself.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

An InLinkz Link-up

Welcome to the North Pole SAL for July

After struggling along trying to work in the restricted space of my temporary sewing room combined with a lack of resources - some in storage and my pocket money going towards rent and storage costs - I have finally decided to put all my quilt making and general patchwork on hold until get into the new house, towards the end of the year.

Instead, I am going to concentrate on the doll clothes side of my sewing. It is small all round and it also means I can pack up some of my sewing stuff to get a bit more organised.

In keeping with the Welcome to the North Pole theme I have created a small scale Christmas applique scene as a border for a pinafore skirt. I forgot to put in something to show the scale but the drawing is on an A4 sheet with a bit more taped to the end to make it 15 inches. The houses are about 3 inches tall.

I hope everyone working on their Welcome to the North Pole quilt has made at least some progress through July. The months seem to go so fast! Please link up your post or photo in the Linky. There are always lots of lookers. It is such a great quilt.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

An InLinkz Link-up

Welcome to the North Pole SAL for June

I just managed to get a bit of  fusing done on my table runner but I couldn't focus on posting about it yesterday. I hope all those working on the North Pole blocks have managed to get some done this month.
I have swapped from needle turn to fused applique half way through my table runner. I am just not cut out for the fiddly hand sewing. I have fused on some windows but still have to sew them down.

If you have some progress to show please blog about it or upload a photo to link to and add your link to the linky below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Welcome to the North Pole SAL for May

Just a little bit of progress this month. I have two more stars attached. I have also decided that after trying several small projects using needle turn applique that it is just not my thing. I will be finishing this table runner using fusible applique. I still like the look of needle turn applique but not so much that I want to do it. I am perfectly happy with the results of fusible applique.
My hand is still quite sore after I have used it a bit so I find that I have to rest for half a day after doing some sewing or cutting or typing.

I hope all of you working on your North Pole projects have made some good progress this month. I tend to get distracted by other projects both new and old. It takes quite a lot of discipline to work steadily on projects. Lately I just tend to flit around being excited about our new house and thinking about how nice it will be when I can organise my sewing supplies and space. We should see something happening on the block of land next week.

Please link up your blog post or photo showing your progress this month for Welcome to the North Pole.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

An InLinkz Link-up

Welcome to the North Pole SAL update for April

I have been busy sewing my felt stitchery and getting ready to have a stall at the local Easter Fair the last couple of weeks. I have also spent a bit of time on Pinterest. I found this lovely completed quilt by Gail Muller. I can't find anything about her or the quilt show it was in.

Link to the pin on my board

We sold a dozen items or so at the market and lots of people admired our work.
We were selling our fused glass pendants and earrings and some polished amber.

You can see my fused glass story here

Well you know what is coming now. I have to say I didn't get any further on my North Pole table runner this month. I hope you all managed to get some done.

I found some lovely clothes collections for paper dolls that I want to make into patterns for my American Girl 18" doll. I also wanted to sew on the machine rather than by hand. I have started the pinafore dress in this picture and will gradually create patterns for each item.

Click to visit my pin board

If you have a picture or a blog post about your Welcome to the North Pole progress please link it up below.
You can also add images to the Flickr Group

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

An InLinkz Link-up

Welcome to the North Pole SAL for March

After flying to Sydney and spending time in the city I have caught a cold. I will never fly again without dosing up with immune boosting supplements. I took them when I went overseas for six weeks and I didn't get sick once.
That said, I did enjoy my time in Sydney. It is just such a pretty town in places. The Queen Mary 2 was in the harbour.

I returned home to some exciting mail. I won the charm and charm holder on Let's Book It at Vrooman's Quilts last month. Join in at the end of each month with a project you have made from one of the many books you own and be in the running for a quilt charm.

There are so many lovely pins and charms at Pin Peddlers.

I have done a little bit on my North Pole table runner. I sewed down two stars and the moon and put some rick rack on Santa's roof. I hope to do the other stars and maybe start some windows. The windows look very tiny and fiddly.

If you are sewing along this year please link up your march blog post below. It was great to see some lovely work from last year linked up last time. There are some new people this year and some picking up from last year. Soon there will be lots of finished quilts.

I posted a giveaway yesterday. The prize is a free Craftsy Class closing 2nd April. If you are not into Craftsy it is definitely worth a look.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

An InLinkz Link-up

Welcome to the North Pole SAL for February

Hi everyone, I hope you are bouncing out of your seats waiting to get linked up. I made the decision to pay for a thumbnail linky service because pictures are much more interesting than text so even if you have a picture of some wrinkly fabric ready for your quilt I expect you to link up.

I put a call out now to anyone who sewed along last year to do a bit of a round up post and link up your progress. I know some were very close to finishing the quilt.

I still have my quilt to finish but I am not working on that until we move into the new house so I have started the cute table runner on the back cover of the book. I am doing it with a mixture of machine needle turn, which I suppose is really iron turn, and regular hand needle turn.

The straight pieces are easy to do with the machine using a blind hemming stitch and some fine thread. No. 13 is my stitch. It goes stitch stitch stitch zag and I make the length of the stitch around 1mm and the width of the zag about 2.

You can just see where the zag catches the fabric.

I am using invisifil  by Aurifil in a grey shade that blends with most colours.

For the needle turn by hand I am using the same thread and a fine flexible beading needle. I am not sure if it is the same as a straw needle used for needle turn but it works just fine. I will be doing the pointy bits by hand.

I have the stars and moon cut out. These three are positioned ready to stitch. I am using freezer paper and cutting out with a seam allowance. I have learned that you don't snip anything until you are actually sewing and then only just before you sew it down. A few frayed threads makes it almost impossible to sew down properly.

I look forward to seeing what others have been doing so far. Please link up. We all want to see what everyone has been doing.
Remember:
Include a link to my post in your blog post
Link your post URL not your whole blog
Linking to a photo is fine too
After linking visit 2 links before you and leave them comments
Come back again later and visit two links after you and leave comments.

Don't forget to pin your work and +1 others posts on google plus. I think there are still a lot of books on book shelves that can be dusted off this year.
You can also join the Flickr group and add you photos whenever you like.

Not into Google Plus?
Leave a comment on
  Flickr
  Pinterest

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

An InLinkz Link-up

Welcome to the North Pole - 2014

Ho! Ho! Ho!
A whole year since I first got this book. I have made a good start on my version of the quilt but just had to lay it aside while I tried to move house without stressing too much.

There have been lots of people keen to be part of the SAL for 2014 so here we are again. I invite anyone who still has some work to do from last year to stay with us and anyone who wants to pick up a UFO or start new is welcome to join in.

On the 4th Wednesday of each month you will need to do a blog post or upload a photo to flickr. Since linkies are just a fabulous way to share and archive project progress I will set up a linky to show off what you have done on my 4th Wednesday post.

When I first found this book I looked around quite a lot and eventually found one or two quilts that people had made several years ago. I was quite excited to see that number 11 link on the 1st page for a google search was a valspierssews post about this pattern. No wonder more people are finding the SAL. It is such a great pattern it deserves to be found.

This year since my quilt is in storage for 6 months (I only brought Go Wild with me to the rental house) I am going to make the little wall hanging and because it is only small I am going to practice my needle turn applique. The wall hanging is on the back cover. I have started to cut out some freezer paper shapes in readiness. I am off to Spotlight on Tuesday to get some night sky background fabric.

You can read more about the quilt and how much you will need to complete each month to finish it in a year on the original Intro post.

It seems the book is still available from Piece o' Cake for $16.95 USD plus postage. Scroll down the book list until you see it.
It is also still available from UK Book Depository $17.87 AUD with free shipping.

I have made a button with some of my blocks since I don't think I can rightfully use the book cover. You can grab the code and put it on your blog.

<a href="http://valspierssews.blogspot.com.au/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCQ9_uRohDYzl0yvURZGN__SI627JWUBzEPuxlVXQ6Dgic7uEJscJxJonMbyXv2KoVX6kItECvuUYVtRoulfN3jULjgkCG-_CmNSdtv0o-Ynnf7d7amLxdh5kMUksTE1n_wJOTXeRl2M/s150-no/wtnp+sal.jpg" height="150" width="150"/></a>

Happy Quilting and Crafting,

Val