It's 'Finish it up Friday' Friday

Woohoo for Friday.  This week I made progress on my WiP list - yay!  I managed to do a couple of things in the sewing department:  one was long overdue to actually start; and the other had/has a looming deadline - so it felt good to work on these two things!

Daylight shot - still doesn't capture those yummy greens properly! 

I started making my 'mini quilt' [above] for the London Modern Quilt Guild April Challenge [to make a 12" mini quilt representing what 'modern quilting' means to me, with hanging triangles at the back.  Twelve mini quilts will be chosen to be hung on the walls in John Lewis Oxford Street in June!!  No pressure then - to be judged by my peers and critiqued - yikes, nerve wracking or what!!?], and I am nearly done - thankfully!  All I have to do now is sew on the two hanging triangles and the binding and I'll be done.  Yay!  Another (almost) finish for me!  Woohoo - I'll be one step closer to making the charity quilt for Siblings Together! 

[UPDATE: Sunday 29 April - I FINISHED it last night - yay!!  Sorry for the bad photo.  It is a bit dull and grey out today so my gorgeous greens just haven't come up true.  Here it is:  ]

LMQG Mini Quilt - completed.

With the April Challenge, it took me ages to decide what to sew and no matter what I came up with it just didn't seem right.  I also wasn't sure what the purpose of a mini quilt was so I struggled to get my head around that too.  In the end I just got my scrap fabric bin out and cut a few squares (all in greens) and made a square with the 2" squares.  Decision made - I liked the greens together (which is one of my favourite colours anyways) and I love the simplicity and graphic-ness of squares forming another square, I love white in quilts and I like to up cycle so I used a pillowcase for the back and that was that!  I guess that's what modern quilting is to me.  You play with fabrics and come up with something you like and you sew it!  Here are a few of the process pictures:

One outdoor picture and the rest were shot indoor which is why they are sort of yellowy. 
I love my little green dotty binding.  The fabric was a purchase from Fabric Land
 in Canada at Christmas so it was time to use it up!  I have it in purple too :)

This week I finished the amazing 241 Noodlehead Tote (which I absolutely love) over the evenings of Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday.  The hardest part was deciding on which fabrics to use!!  Oh and the y-seams.  I'll have to work on those.  My lining is Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow Herringbone in maple.  I could have used a complimentary shade of Kona but I like this print so much I wanted it in my bag!  I love my pocket too!

I like the lining and my two-colour fabric pocket which makes it easier to find the pocket!

Outer pocket detail shot showing some of the lining.

To justify my small craft and sewing output this week (just to myself really), I did do a tonne of gardening over the weekend which kept me away from Mr Toyota!  I had a busy week.  It felt good to get some important things done around the house and garden - and spend some time with Mr Crafty Shenanigans too.  Yay!

Picture of three of my four varieties of potatoes currently growing in five grow bags. So much fun! 

As you can see, my potatoes are doing really well in this horrible wet weather that we are having.  The other two containers of potatoes are still wee little things so I didn't take a picture. If I am lucky, I will have some delicious tasting spuds in a several weeks.  Hopefully they aren't under the soil rotting away merrily - that would be bad!  I love growing my own veg - very exciting and relaxing at the same time.  You can physically see all your hard work growing (so satisfying) and you are then rewarded with the fruits of your labour to eat.   How cool is that!?

The goal this weekend is to finish this mini quilt and to at least cut the fabric for the Siblings Together quilt using the fabric I won from Lily's Quilts.  Isn't it cute?

 'Savanna Bop' by Thomas Knauer.

Wishing you all a happy Friday night!  I'm linking up with Amylouwho's Sew & Tell Friday and of course crazy mom quilts Finish it up Friday (her last one for a little while).  See you!

I'll be linking my finish up with: