Chookshed Challenge - June 2025 update

   

I’m still away travelling so updates on my blog are a bit limited sadly. 

However, I can say that I have completed June’s challenge (to myself) of #5 in my list.  See R’s quilt at https://patchmaggie.blogspot.com/2025/03/march-is-complete.html


I’m not thrilled with the border on this quilt but it is done!

So here is how my list looks at the end of June  

  1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
  2. quilt and bind A's quilt (March)
  3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  4. quilt and bind S's quilt
  5. quilt and bind R's quilt
  6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt (January)
  7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
  8. Start on Amelie’s quilt
  9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  10. quilt and bind Mason’s quilt
Deana has drawn the challenge number for July and it is #9. Which is handy as my #9 is a backstitch embroidery kit - while travelling. I brought three backstitch embroideries with me and two have been completed, so I’m happy. (Completed means that all the sewing has been done. Of course there is still the washing and pressing, and then inclusion into a frame or something else to be done when I get home.). I have so many small kits/patterns bought/acquired over the years, it is about time I was doing something with them. 





So two of the embroideries are done, one Nikki Tervo design (a mandala about 5.5” across), and the other from Hatched and Patched (a bunny about 4” square). Neither very big but perfect to carry while travelling for when I need a sewing fix.  
The third embroidery I brought with me isn’t started yet and is the biggest, but I have more travel to do this year, so it will get done. 
So July’s challenge is completed and it is only the 2nd of the month!  How’s that for commitment? 🤣
I’ll report back officially at the end of the month. 

Check out some of these other participants in the Chookshed Challenge. 

Chookshed Challege 2025 - Deana from Dreamworthy Quilts is one member of the Chookshed Quilters.  Each month in 2025, Deana will select a number from one to ten and quilters work on the project with the corresponding number from their own list.  The main rule for this challenge is that there are no rules, which should work for me as I am away for large chunks of 2025.  For example, if the number six is chosen, and that particular month is a bit tricky to work on that numbered project from my list, I can change the project!  And a goal could be just making minimal progress on a particular quilt.  I like those sorts of rules.  

Here are the links to other participants:



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Chookshed Challenge report - May 2025

  

(Here's my challenge list at the end of April:
  1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
  2. quilt and bind A's quilt (March)
  3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  4. quilt and bind S's quilt
  5. quilt and bind R's quilt
  6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt (January)
  7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
  8. start on Amelie's quilt
  9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  10. quilt and bind Mason's quilt (February)
May's number was #8 - and my rulebreaking planning is working out as I worked on Amelie's quilt in early March.  I reported on the quilt in https://patchmaggie.blogspot.com/2025/04/more-happened-in-april-than-i-realised.html

So far - so good.  

For June, Deana has pulled the number #5.   
My number #5 is to quilt and bind R’s quilt. 

So this is how my challenge list looks so far. 
  1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
  2. quilt and bind A's quilt (March)
  3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  4. quilt and bind S's quilt
  5. quilt and bind R's quilt
  6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt (January)
  7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
  8. Start on Amelie’s quilt
  9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  10. quilt and bind Mason’s quilt
No photos in this post as I’m travelling and find it hard to update posts on my phone or iPad. 

Chookshed Challege 2025 - Deana from Dreamworthy Quilts is one member of the Chookshed Quilters.  Each month in 2025, Deana will select a number from one to ten and quilters work on the project with the corresponding number from their own list.  The main rule for this challenge is that there are no rules, which should work for me as I am away for large chunks of 2025.  For example, if the number six is chosen, and that particular month is a bit tricky to work on that numbered project from my list, I can change the project!  And a goal could be just making minimal progress on a particular quilt.  I like those sorts of rules.  

Here are the links to other participants:




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Chookshed Challenge 2025 - April update

 

Here is my challenge list for 2025 (at the end of March):

  1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
  2. quilt and bind A's quilt (March)
  3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  4. quilt and bind S's quilt
  5. quilt and bind R's quilt
  6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt (January)
  7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
  8. start on Amelie's quilt
  9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  10. quilt and bind Mason's quilt (February)
April's number was #4 - and my rulebreaking planning is working out as S's quilt is bound and finished!
I reported on the quilt in this blog post




Here's my challenge list at the end of April:
  1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
  2. quilt and bind A's quilt (March)
  3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  4. quilt and bind S's quilt
  5. quilt and bind R's quilt
  6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt (January)
  7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
  8. start on Amelie's quilt
  9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  10. quilt and bind Mason's quilt (February)
So far - so good.  

For May, Deana has pulled the number #8.  
My number #8 is to start on Amelie's quilt and I have done that!  Yay.  So no need to shuffle numbers for May, I will just report on what I worked on a few weeks ago.  See you at the end of the month.  



Chookshed Challege 2025 - Deana from Dreamworthy Quilts is one member of the Chookshed Quilters.  Each month in 2025, Deana will select a number from one to ten and quilters work on the project with the corresponding number from their own list.  The main rule for this challenge is that there are no rules, which should work for me as I am away for large chunks of 2025.  For example, if the number six is chosen, and that particular month is a bit tricky to work on that numbered project from my list, I can change the project!  And a goal could be just making minimal progress on a particular quilt.  I like those sorts of rules.  

Here are the links to other participants:




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More happened in April than I realised

As 2025 is a year of travel for me, I knew that from mid-April on, I wouldn't achieve much sewing for about six months.  That's fine as I felt that the first three months of the year were fairly productive.  This post is long, to make up for no posts in May and June.  

I did make a simple top for travelling.  I drafted the pattern from one of my favourite tops - an op shop buy - and I'm pretty happy with it.  A very simple pattern really, although I did forget to allow extra fabric outside the seam allowance at the side seams for the bust darts.  Plan B worked well however!  The purple cotton batik fabric doesn't have quite the same drape as the original top.  


Amelie's quilt received a bit more attention and I finished the plus blocks section of the top, as well as the name letters placed on the background fabric.  The letters are still to be appliqued before the quilt is sandwiched.  (No photo of the letters yet, sorry.)  These two photos show my measuring mistake prior to sewing up the blocks.  The picture on the left shows the quilt at 17 sections across while the right-hand picture shows the quilt with 13 sections across and 17 down.  As some of the fabrics are directional, I had to change the sizing of the quilt.  

  

I also mended a few pieces of clothing - a house dress, a pair of khaki linen trousers, and a pair of blue trousers.  (Or are they pants?  Are trousers a particular kind of lower body garment?  Mmmm, something to research another day.  Maybe I'm showing my age? or something?)

In my sewing room are a few quilts that I've made but not given away or used in the house.  Two of these quilts are now going to new homes.  The first is for a little girl born last year.  I gave her older sister a quilt seven years ago when she was born so I was reminded that the new(ish) baby should have one also.  In 2020, I fell in love with the Swoon quilt block on Pinterest or somewhere, and thought it was worth doing.  I used scraps of fabrics in four colours and used a background fabric that just keeps on giving (I have had it for at least 15 years and I still have some pieces to use up.)  This quilt was the subject of my first blog post.    The other quilt was made back in 2014 as a trial for a larger quilt.  I wanted to use the Little Twister ruler I'd picked up somewhere so tried it out using a charm square pack.  This quilt went together well so I made a larger quilt for a newly born grand-niece.  Again with this quilt, the background fabric is one that has turned up in many of my quilts.  The quilt will go to my daughter's brother-and-sister-in-law for their new baby, due in June while I'm away.  I intend to make a bigger quilt for the baby (with the baby's name on it) once I'm back in Australia for a while.  












Swoon quilt:  37" square












Twister quilt: 30" square


The larger quilt made for Raelene in 2014.  

I spent time in Sri Lanka in April and succumbed to temptation and bought cotton fabric from a weaving workshop near Galle, where the fabrics are woven by hand.  Most of their dyes are commercial but one natural dye they used is from the wood of the jackfruit tree.  I bought three 3m lengths of fabric.  Hopefully each piece will be enough to make something memorable.  













April 2025 fabric tally

Finishes in the month:   batik top = 2.5m; Swoon quilt =  1.75m; Twister quilt = 1.25m  (the quilts are leaving the house so the fabric use is being counted this month.  My fabric tally, my rules!)

Purchases in the month:  9m of handwoven fabric in Sri Lanka  

Fabric used:  - 5.5 m         Fabric acquired:  + 9 m

Running tally for 2025:  - 19.75 m    




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Chookshed Challenge 2025 - March update

 

Well, my #2 challenge for February is completed (actually finished late last year but I included it on the list as I still hadn't handed it over to the parents.)  That was A's quilt.  Here he is, looking cute with his quilt.



Here is my challenge list for 2025:

  1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
  2. quilt and bind A's quilt
  3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  4. quilt and bind S's quilt
  5. quilt and bind R's quilt
  6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt
  7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
  8. start on Amelie's quilt
  9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  10. quilt and bind Mason's quilt

What is April's number?  Deana's random number generator chose #4!  So that's easy for this month, as I've already completed S's quilt.  Which is handy as I'm heading away on holiday and won't have time this month to do much sewing.  

Chookshed Challege 2025 - Deana from Dreamworthy Quilts is one member of the Chookshed Quilters.  Each month in 2025, Deana will select a number from one to ten and quilters work on the project with the corresponding number from their own list.  The main rule for this challenge is that there are no rules, which should work for me as I am away for large chunks of 2025.  For example, if the number six is chosen, and that particular month is a bit tricky to work on that numbered project from my list, I can change the project!  And a goal could be just masking minimal progress on a particular quilt.  I like those sorts of rules.  

Here are the links to other participants:


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Chookshed Challenge - June 2025 update

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