Some works in progress

Here's a little peek at some other things I have been working on lately.

I absolutely love the Aunt Martha's iron-on embroidery transfers from Grandma's Attic. I've bought a few over the last couple of years and have had hours of fun with them. At about $2 a pack they are such great value too!

The latest pack I bought was a fruit themed one, and I have completed four embroideries (about 6" x 8" finished blocks each) to turn into a little quilt:

The pack included 7 different designs plus some extras for borders, but these four were my favourites.

I'm currently in the process of turning these stitcheries into a small quilt (it looks like it will turn out about cot sized) using Farmer's Market charm squares.

The postman brought me the first instalment in the Among The Stars Block of the Month yesterday.  This BOM is designed by Kimberley Jolly of Fat Quarter Shop and uses the beautiful Moda Sentiments range of fabrics.

The BOM goes for six months with two blocks every month. I couldn't wait and made my first two blocks straight away! One is below, the other is the same design but with the red and green reversed.

Now I'll have to wait another month for the next instalment! What I love about Fat Quarter Shop kits is that they provide enough fabric to allow for mistakes (which is lucky because I did make one!). There was just about enough fabric in the first pack to make two more blocks, which I might eventually do .....



Good intentions

 As usual about this time of year, I start making resolutions involving stash-busting, and yet every year the situation becomes even more dire than the one before. It is always too hard to resist the crisp newness of brand new fabrics, the exciting new designs that come out, the pleasure of not having to try to match fabrics that comes with buying a set of pre-cuts or fat quarters from a new range.

But this year will be different! I will start making scrappy quilts and will be a bit more prolific about piecing too. By the end of the year, I'll have cleared some room. I promise.

So today I rummaged through some scrap bins and started making some scrappy houses.

I couldn't find a block the size I wanted so had to draw up my own. These are 12 1/2" unfinished blocks. The windows and chimneys used 2 1/2" squares and the doors 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" rectangles, so these were perfect for little scraps.

I put them together without rhyme or reason, totally randomly except for trying to get some degree of contrast between the main house colour and the windows and doors.

I'm not sure how I am going to put them together. I have seen a lot of lovely house block quilts on the web where the houses are tilted a bit wonkily. Or should I make scrappy sashings to use even more scraps? Or not use sashings at all and make them into row or town houses, a bit like the pic above? Or maybe add a few tree blocks in between? Hmmmm, there are too many options, it is hard to make a decision.

I also finished hand quilting my little autum hourglass quilt this week.

While rummaging through scrap bins I found a good quantity of some deep purple, hand-dyed fabric which will be just perfect for the binding, so putting that on and finishing this quilt will be my task for this week.

Happy 2012

I've spent this morning preserving some produce. Despite the coolish summer so far, and probably as a result of the heavy rain, everything has just been so productive except for the tomatoes which are yearning for some heat. I have been eating spinach and leek pie, zucchini slice, eggplant bake, miscellaneous quiches etc constantly for weeks! And still can't get rid of everything in the garden!

This morning I preserved some zucchini strips in olive oil and pickled some beetroot. To do the former, I degorged the zucchini overnight in salt and cold water, then drained and pressed out the excess water. I brushed the strips with olive oil and grilled. Then tossed them in some cider vinegar, lemon thyme and garlic, packed into jars and topped with olive oil. These will good for antipasto, pizza toppings, pasta sauces etc throughout the zucchini-less months.

This is my favourite project of late ..... a cute little bag made from Ruby charm squares a Secret Santa gave me.

These fabrics are just so fun and lively. I used some ribbon that came on one of my Christmas presents for the drawstring, but I think I'll look in my stash for an appropriate fabric to make some more dainty ones.

I've also put together a small lap quilt made from 80 charm squares and a couple of other fabrics. The fabrics are from the Bittersweet range, a lovely autumny collection. I love the way they appear so radiant and jewel-like when set off by a neutral background.

I'm handquilting this one, and not doing a very good job of it. I'm not using a frame, but even though my stitches are sometimes a bit too taut and the fabric isn't quite flat, I really like the antique, puckered look this is giving it.

The secret to successful child-rearing

I recently bought some iron-on embroidery transfers from Grandma's Attic. (Note to self: stop buying crafty things online, remember your car rego is due, Christmas is coming, pups are nearly due for their vaccinations etc! It is an addiction, and you need help!) These were so cheap, and they actually work, giving a clear, crisp outline with minimal ironing on! Unlike my experiences with iron-on embroidery patterns from here.

The above is from a set of 1930s tea towel designs, one for every day of the week. Only, I am planning to make these ones into a quilt, if I finish them all.

I also bought a set of iron-on puppies and herbs, so lots of embroidery to be getting on with.

I was restless on the weekend and started flipping through old, old magazines for some vintage inspiration. I love old women's magazines, especially from the 1940s, even the ads and recipes reveal so much about the period. For instance, lots of inventive and imaginative, if unpalatable, butter substitutes to deal with rationing. And lots of lard - yuck!

But the ad below came from a magazine in the early 60s and I laughed so much at it, I just had to share it - click on it to zoom in:

Drunkenness - the answer to all problems!

Dresden Plate Quilt Progress

I started putting together this on the weekend. It is made from a Moda Candy Bar and inspired by the free pattern that came with it, only I have added sashings. I still need to applique 8 half-plates for around the edges and piece them on and am thinking of piecing a star or something from the same fabrics I used in the sashings in each corner to tie it all together. I love Dresden Plates, they always look good.

I love a bit of hand applique and stitchery too, as it is something I can do while the pups are having a nap up against me and we can have some quiet snuggly together time.

Some more stitcheries and ramblings

A couple of Leanne Beasley stitcheries I have been working on, from old issues of Homespun. They were a set of three and I haven't decided if I am going to do the third one or not. I've trimmed these quite ruthlessly so clearly I plan to piece them into something. I don't know what yet though.

I also received some goodies in the mail this week, including a Rosalie Quinlan Christmas stitchery in redwork which I started yesterday. It was quite expensive, but pre-printed on linen which saved me tracing what was quite a complex design. I'm looking forward to making it into a centrepiece or something for Christmas.

I also received a parcel from The Fat Quarter Shop which I had despaired of ever seeing. Their service has always been faultless and my last order, in early July was dispatched in 2 packages within a day of placing the order. One parcel arrived within a week and the other never showed up. I've been meaning to call the post office about it and never got around to it, and to my surprise it arrived today! It was just a few charm packs and things that were on sale. I wonder what stories that parcel could tell, where it has been on its travels. I live in an area with a lot of similar street names - lots of Aboriginal words starting with "B" - so I frequently get mail addressed to the same number in neighbouring streets and go around delivering them myself.

The pups and I spent a happy weekend in the garden, weeding and paving, getting our vegie patches ready for Spring. We were startled by an equally startled frog; tried to work up a level of murderousness to kill a snail but it looked at us too beguilingly so we just moved it to a plant we didn't care about; watched the antics of a Golden Wattlebird who was frolicking around the garden; and found an interesting stone that we like to think is an ancient Aboriginal flake tool. All in all, an exhausting but fun and productive weekend.

Autumn is random .... and maybe a little ugly

Long time, no post! My boss has been away for a few weeks at work so I've been super busy and haven't been able to do much more than collapse into bed at the end of the day, so I am way behind on everything else - housework, gardening, crafting, emails, blog reading and of course, blog posting.

But in the little time I have had to sew, I've been back on a stash-busting mission. The above is one of the stash-busters I've been working on. This is a disappearing nine patch with two alternated colour blocks. It's in autumn colours although in the photo they don't seem very autumny at all. The colour placement was really random, and hence it has come out a bit clumsy and maybe a bit ugly. But what the hey, my goal at the moment is to use up fabric, not make anything gorgeous! The above used the equivalent of 18 fat quarters - yay! I still need to trim the blocks and sew them together. That is my least favourite part so I'm having a rest for now.

I'll have to post about the great birthday gifts my friend Lyle gave me too. The cutest sewing basket, a huge pack of mixed blender fabrics, a full quilt kit, a book on colour and composition (which maybe I should have read before piecing the above!), and some geisha panels. I was soooo spoiled! I started the kit yesterday as it was pre-cut and the pattern is super quick with big chunky pieces, perfect for showing off all the beautiful fabrics.

I hope my bloggy friends have been well, and I hope to catch up on your blogs soon.

Works in Progress

It was a wet and miserable day yesterday so I spent a happy hour or two playing with those rainbow coloured spot fabrics I posted about previously. I had originally planned something plain, quick and strip-pieced but I was in the mood for some hand piecing in front of the TV so started these paper pieced hexagons. I don't know that I'll have the perseverence for a quilt top, but I have been promising my Mum some big cushion covers (as in 80cm+) for some months now, so maybe these will become a part of those.

I didn't have any die cut commercial papers, so I went to this site I have used before which I think is quite wonderful. You choose your shape, then your dimensions, then it generates a template for you in PDF. I printed off a few sheets, gave them a quick spray with adhesive (actually, the nearest thing to hand was quilt basting spray, but it worked quite well), smoothed them out on old manila folders and cut them out. I chose 1.25" which was the edge size of each hexagon, and got 11 templates to an A4 sheet. Quick and easy!

I've been doing a lot of knitting lately. I still haven't pieced together the grey cabled sweater I was making, but I have started several more projects since then. My favourite is this short sleeved sweater in a deep forest green:

The yarn is Jo Sharp Silkroad Ultra and the pattern is a free one from the terrific Lion Brand website. I bought some end of lot yarn from the Jo Sharp shop which was 40% off thinking I'd make a simple vest, but changed my mind and started making this which is bigger and ran out of wool (I bought a pack of 10 balls). This yarn is discontinued, but I was lucky enough to find another online shop which stocked it in the right colour. It most probably won't be the same dye lot so I am just going to have to cross my fingers that it will be ok. It better be, this is turning out to be a very expensive project!

The yarn is lovely to work with though, soft and supple and doesn't pill and has a very slight sheen. I also bought some in grey and am nearly finished a vest. Again I'm not sure I'll have quite enough, although it will be close.

With all this knitting I think I have developed knitter's thumb! My right thumb has been painful for more than a week now, and I can hardly move it. I have pre-existing RSI in my wrists, so I am used to them suffering if I knit or crochet too much, but thumbs?! Is this normal?

What I've been up to

I haven't been doing much crafting of late, so my blog has been abandoned for quite some time. I just lost my enthusiasm and motivation for a while, but I think it is on its way back.

I have been knitting this cabled top, the pattern for which was in the latest Better Homes & Garden magazine. Although I love the look of handknits, I am not a very quick knitter, so I very rarely finish any big knitting projects I start. This one knits up super quick though, so even though I only started this on Monday, I just have the sleeves to go now and they are short so they'll only take an hour or two.

I'm using the specified yarn which is Moda Vera Shiver. I kind of wish I hadn't. It is acrylic for one thing (I'd never buy an acrylic jumper!) and quite pill-y so I can't imagine this top is going to look new for very long. Also, the pattern called for 12 balls, so I diligently bought 12 balls. I was wondering why it looks as though I am going to have 4 or 5 balls left over and double-checked the pattern - it called for 12 x 50g balls. But the yarn comes in 100g balls so I have twice as much as I need. And my last whinge is that, unlike most patterns with a cowl or long neck, the pattern doesn't reverse so it shows on the fold-over, it is meant to drape naturally so the outside is still the outside. My neck is a bit big and floppy (the top neck, not my neck!), and making it drape right takes some care. If I were to do it again, I'd probably change to smaller needles for the neck to make it a firmer, tighter knit. Still, my fingers are crossed it is going to turn out ok! And one good thing is, I also overcame my fear of circular knitting needles in this project.

While I was at Spotlight looking for the yarn for this top, I also splurged on these bright and cheerful rainbow coloured spot fatties:

I am thinking something simple and quick and colourful. Maybe chunky four patches or nine patches with bright white sashings.

But my project for this weekend is going to be my washcloth and tea towel for Jewell's Easter Swap. I have been fiddling with ideas for weeks now, making false starts, becoming discouraged with ideas half-way through. I'm now running out of time, so I think I am going to be doing something wth these bits and pieces:

In the last week, I've changed my mind completely about taking a redundancy and accepted an ICT Project Manager job at my place of work. I realised I was only planning on rejecting it and leaving to make a point and to stand on my principles - which eventually were not good enough reasons to make myself unemployed. I officially start next week and will be moving to a new office and have been told they've been waiting for me to make up my mind as they already have about 10 projects that need managing that will be landing on my desk next week!

I've also said goodbye to my faithful old Suzuki Swift and welcomed this Toyota Corolla into my home:

I think it will take a while to get used to. It drives and feels so different. I had the last car for 10 years and knew it so well parking and everything was a breeze. I have no spatial awareness of the size of this car so it just feels weird and I have to concentrate and check mirrors etc to do anything and in the blind spots have no idea whether I am going to scrape against anything. I guess I'll just try to drive it as much as I can to get used to it.

UFO Thursday - Pretty little quilt centre

I'm not sure when I started this quilt. Several years ago, anyway.

The centre medallion is button-hole appliqued and it features a star in each corner.

I think I started this with visions of a nice big quilt and was making it up as I went. And somehow, I stopped at this point.

UFO Thursday - Where did this come from?

My friend Beryl has given me a good talking to about being so lax in posting on UFO Thursdays! So I am backdating a couple of entries to get myself back on track. Thanks Beryl!

Now, I had a bit of a rummage through some drawers to find some UFOs to post about and came across this little quilt top.

The embarrassing thing is, I can't even remember making this one!

The sewing is not too great - a few corners don't match and is a bit of easing to fit in evidence. So I imagine this was a pretty early attempt.

UFO Thursday - Teddy Bear Quilt

I love this teddy bear pattern. It is from this massive quilt block archive and is so much fun to make. I've made a few in different colours but I do like this nice bright one.

However, I think that is why it is a UFO. I don't normally like bright colours, so don't have many in my stash, so have never finished this.

UFO Thursday - Patch and Chat Mystery Quilt

Today's UFO is another mystery quilt, this one designed by one of the talented former members of the online quilting group I am in, Patch and Chat.

I was so excited by this challenge, I made two - one in this colour scheme and another in blue. I think the blue may be finished as far as the piecing is concerned, but I don't know where it is! This one needs at least the final border on, I think. I will have to try to find the instructions.

And get an iron onto it, obviously!

UFO Thursday - Mystery Quilt

I am being a bit naughty and backposting this UFO Thursday post, and I will for the next post too, because I missed them! (Today is Australia Day!)

I have been enormously busy with work and other things, have way over-committed myself to too many things and well, a million other excuses. But I'm back on track now.

Today's UFO is a mystery quilt that a dear friend in Indiana, USA, sent me many years ago. It had many parts - 20 or so from memory - and each installment came with a new chapter in a mystery fiction story as well as a new classic block.

I haven't counted my blocks, so not sure where I got up to. I'll have to spend some time matching the blocks against the installments.

I think I came to a standstill because I ran out of a good mix of blues, and never got around to getting started again.

UFO Thursday

I have joined up for Cookies and Cream Craft's UFO Thursday, which involves posting about a UFO once a week. I've also joined the Stashbuster's 2011 UFO Challenge, which involves actually finishing some UFOs, so hopefully some of the UFOs you see here every Thursday will join my finished list for 2011!

This is one of my favourite UFOs. I love the fabrics and design of this quilt so much. I sooo wish I could finish it!

It looks finished from a distance, as last time I got it out with the intention of finishing it, I put the binding on. But look closer and you'll see it has lots more quilting left to do. Unfortunately, I started hand quilting this one quite heavily. I've hand quilted around all the blocks so I felt it was stable enough to risk binding it, but I have only echo quilted around half the stars, and chose a very labour-intensive 1" cross-hatch for the borders, of which I have only done one! There are dozens of hours of hand quilting remaining to be done.

I started this quilt probably five or six years ago using the Wuthering Heights range, and pieced it in a single day. I truly hope this will make my finished UFO list for 2011, but I doubt it!

Born free

I haven't done much this weekend. I have just been so tired and without energy or motivation. I think all the hell of work at the moment is just taking its toll. I've spent a lot of time cuddling puppies.

So I will share a little bit of the crafting I did last weekend, when I was in better spirits. While hunting for something else, I came across some signature blocks I made for a get together of the online quilting group I am a member of several years ago. It was a lovely occasion - it is a small group who met online by chance, and deliberately kept the group small to ensure we could share personal things and chat off topic. Most are Australian, but from four different states, and one from New Zealand and another two from the US. So it was quite a feat for every single member to make it to this gathering.

Last weekend, I finally started to put my blocks together:

I still have a couple borders to do, but at least it is a start.

Other interesting news this weekend is my friend Michael returned from a visit to Cambodia and Laos with some interesting stories, and lots of goodies for me.

Also, while putting my bins out tonight I saw a tiny frog under my bin, near my mandarin tree. So I was very happy as I thought all the outdoor tadpoles had all perished. This one was about the size of the indoor baby frogs, so probably from the same batch. And he had found a good spot, full of tiny worms and bugs and quite damp and with lots of ground foliage to hide in. So I released five of the indoor frogs there to be with their long-lost sibling. A bit sad, as now I will never know what becomes of them but I know it is the right thing, and now I've released some, I think I will be brave enough to take some of the others to suitable creeks and locations around the area. They're still babies, but they need to experience life in the wild. Sob. I love them and I will miss them.

Here is a somewhat blurry photo of one taken a couple of weeks ago:

Almost there!

I spent all day yesterday and this morning on this quilt top. I still need to add another border but I need to find the right fabric for it so will need to go shopping this weekend.



I don't normally like making big quilts. I just don't have the room for ironing, laying out, pinning. There comes a point when it starts becoming a bit of a wrestling match, when every row starts taking half an hour to pin on to sew, when I start getting entangled and tripping over between the ironing board and the sewing table, when I wonder why my sewing machine is dancing on the spot and find a dog sitting on the other end of the quilt top ..... you get the idea. It is too HARD!

I also managed to run over my finger twice with my rotary cutter in the making of this one and will probably lose half a finger nail.

This one is going to be 250cm square, so it will be a nice bed sized quilt. I'm glad I persevered, even after it stopped being fun, but I'm also glad I can soon move on to something else.

Changing the subject, while at Bunnings getting medicine for a sick orange tree and mulch for the vegie garden the other day, I came across these little cuties:



Aren't they cute? They were less than $3 each so they were hard to resist. I noticed a couple hardened tradesmen in the queue with them too!

Jelly roll sampler quilt top finished - sort of

I've finished my jelly roll sampler quilt sort of. Sort of because I realised I wasn't going to have enough of my chosen fabrics for sashings and borders, so decided to quit while I was ahead and stop at 9 blocks.



It's a nice lap size at this stage. Gee it's hard to get quilt photos in this house. There's always the occasional dog walking through and giving the quilt top a bit of a road test.

I've received the next two installments of my Faeries in My Garden Gift of the Month. I still haven't finished the first few! But here is a little embroidery from the one I am working on now:



One thing I am finding a little frustrating with these is the iron on transfers for the embroidery. In short, they don't work. I've re-read the instructions, followed them diligently, and they still don't work. In the above, I managed eventually to get a faint transfer after about 20 minutes pressing. Some of the others haven't worked at all. There's always the option of tracing them, I guess, but some of the designs are quite tiny and intricate, making it rather difficult.

That's the only dispute I have with this GOM. The patterns are lovely and the instructions very detailed.

What I've been working on this weekend

I bought a set of lovely blue and white fat quarters recently, on sale. They're from RJR's Redwork Bluework Revival range and have a nice mix of small and medium scale prints; florals and abstracts. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but started out making a few experimental four patch blocks, then played with arrangements.



And this is what I've decided on.



The only problem is I've inexplicably decided to make it a big queen sized quilt, so only have half the amount of fabric I need to finish it. So I'm going to have to go shopping again ......

Crazy Patches and Other Things

I've been having fun with Victorian crazy patchwork this week. These are parts of a bag which is the latest in the Faeries in my Garden Gift of the Month club. So far I've just made the back and front of the bag:



This has been a good project for doing in front of the fire on these cold nights. And it's been a great project for practising some of my rusty embriodery skills too.



Apart from that, I've been catching up on my Jelly Roll sampler blocks and am now up to date, although another one comes out today.



Only 3 more blocks to go and then I can start putting it all together.