Sunday, July 31, 2011

A week already..

Cup of tea. Baby down for a sleep. Alrighty.

My week got off to a super slow start. I felt I was getting nothing done and it was driving me mad. We have also hosted both my sisters and their partners for separate visits this week which has been awesome but makes for a hectic time.

Looking at last weeks lists might be a good way to see if I have in fact achieved anything. Here goes.

This is a little quilt/play mat I made for a new baby in our community. It wasn't even on my WIP list last week, was on the wishlist so this feels super good. The top photo shows me using standard old pins to baste as all my saftey pins were employed in other basted quilts (yikes) and I don't live in a place where one just nips out for some more. Probably could have borrowed...anyway, I improvised. A brilliant idea I thought. Until I stabbed and stabbed and stabbed my hands wrangling this baby under the machine. Never again. As far as holding the quilt sandwich together it was perfect just a bit bitey.

This is my outdoor quilting arena for basting. So much easier than scooting around on the floor that's for sure. Of course this is only suitable for little quilts.

With matching ball.




I started this quilt on Friday, washed it last night and sewed the label on this morning. It felt really good to deliver this to the new family this afternoon. I hope it gets lots of use.

A smallish quilt I am trying to finish up in time for my little boys birthday. I love the brightness and retro feel of these fabrics. I picked up a Happy Campers jellyroll and Punctuation (both American Jane) layer cake at the craft and quilt fair and I can't believe how far they are stretching!
This is where some of my safety pins are being employed. I have backed it with a green gingham but need to get a suitable thread colour to quilt with. It's a bit tricky as there are so many colours, I am thinking a soft blue or green, perhaps variegated, who knows? Hopefully I will feel all inspired when faced with the thread selection tomorrow. I have been making a few of these blocks every couple of days and joined up a selection of them this week. It's really important to me that I get this quilt done and delivered close to the little guys birthday as I am donating it to the NICU where he stayed for a really long time.

More selections chopped and ready to be stitched....


....to make these guys. I have about 30 blocks here and enough for about 25 more blocks. There might be enough for 2 more small quilts or one larger one. I am keen to get all the blocks made up then perhaps they can sit and wait for a bit.




This weeks block for the QAL. Bow ties. I love this block. This block might get some friends and become a quilt all its own. I am up to date with the quilt along. That feels good.

In progress;
  1. Queen sized hexagon scrappy madness ( alluded to in this post)begun in March 2011 for our bed - about a quarter pieced (by hand peeps!)
  2. Skill builder sampler quilt along in June 2011 - up to date
  3. A giant secret started in June, will be able to post soon - about a third half hand quilted - woot!
  4. Square-in-a-square quilts for the NICU where my little boy spent the first 100 days of his life - hopefully they can use them as raffle prizes to raise some money for the newborn care centre that provided so much for us all - two thirds of the blocks pieced basted and ready for quilting, yippee
I also have a list ( I love a list!) of quilts I'd like to make;
  1. Orange and grey one for my patient, kind and supportive husband (was going to be a surprise but I'm hopeless with surprises so he already knows)
  2. I have some sherbet pips that I am itching to cut up but have promised myself not to begin anything new until at least the 'big secret' is finished
  3. Beetle bugs fabric I bought at Sydney Quilt and Craft show from Saffron Craig herself - for my little boy, no rush on this as he won't be in a big boy bed for a little while
  4. A play mat and ball for Dangar's newest bubby
  5. My sister is expecting her first baby in November so obviously he or she will need one

All in all I think it has been an OK week on the quilting front.

We have had the most stunning couple of days. It's hard to remember it's the dead of winter, although I could just read last weeks post for a reminder I guess.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

A sunny Sunday

It's been raining cats and dogs here since last Tuesday. It was a lovely surprise to wake up to a beautiful blue skied, sunshiney, if cold, Sunday. I had my Mum and Dad (read babysitters) visiting for the weekend so my hubby and I escaped for a quick brekky at the (only) local cafe/shop this morning. What a treat! Of course bubby slept the whole time we were gone and woke promptly once we were home.

With the sun shining I took the golden opportunity to take some belated photos of previous projects. Some have long stories and others are just brief. I'll try and stay on subject.




The above is a playmat I made for bubby. A simple strip quilt in bright colours and fun prints to stimulate his senses. The top took an afternoon, the back is pieced from scraps in blues and oranges. I machine quilted it with a cross hatched design, I used painters tape for reference, I guess the lines are a little over an inch apart and oh my! it took forever. My shoulders ached at the end of this. How do people machine quilt bed sized ones? Yikes! Overall I am really happy with the finished product and it gets plenty of use. I also made him a little ball from a tutorial I found I think it's pretty cute and plan to make a new baby a mat and ball to welcome him to the island.


This double hourglass quilt I made just for fun. I have seen lots on blogs that I really love, in particular .
I used this tutorial although I changed the dimensions a bit. It's kind of a funny size and shape but it's fine for snuggling on the couch. I straight lined machine quilted this one sparingly after my first attempt at machine quilting. I used some jellyrolls I picked up at spotlight for this quilt, it was meant as an experiment! Can you see the boo boo? Bottom right in the picture? I knew it was there BEFORE I basted and quilted this! I didn't correct it for the following reasons;
1.pure laziness,
2.as a permanent reminder of how easy it is to make mistakes when not concentrating
and 3. because I knew that I could live with it.
If it had been meant as a gift I would have unpicked it and fixed it ( I think).



Now. This quilt. This is the beginning of my quilting journey. This is the second quilt I finished ( I also made a sampler years ago but alas it got lost in all the moves that happen when you're in your 20s). I made the quilt top back in about 1994. Yep, 1994. I lugged it around in a pillowcase for years. I remember saving up and making a special trip from my small home town to a big city to buy the fabric for this quilt. I took it out earlier this year after refinding the pattern in the magazine (at my Mum's place), bought some batting and backing fabric, basted it and then set about quilting it. I had even made the binding for this quilt way back when.I always intended to hand quilt it. 11 days after I started the hand stitching, I machined the binding on and hand stitched it down. Straight into the washing machine....and finally after nearly 17 years it was done. It's been in use ever since.

I love blue. I love stars. Would I make this exact quilt again? Probably not. But I am pretty happy it's finished. Until I make one specifically for my long and lanky husband this quilt is perfect for him when he's all sprawled out on the couch. Because it's hand quilted it is super soft and snuggly.

Certainly not a perfect quilt, but a loved and useful one.




I made this little quilt for my Mum's birthday in May this year. I love wonky stars! Along with the pillowcase of blue stars I have been carrying some fabric baggage. While these might not be designer fabrics a lot of them are very special to me and my family, off cuts of dresses and other clothes my Mum made us when were kids along with some recycled fabrics from much loved things I couldn't bear to throw away but would never wear or fit into again. I didn't use a pattern. I just started making wonky star blocks from this tutorial and it just grew and grew, and then I sewed a border and then it was a quilt. I think my Mum loves it. I hope she does.

There is one more little quilt that I finished this year that I made for my little sisters birthday, I hope to get a photo of it soon. She lives about 300km away so I can't just nip over and take a snap. I know, I know, I really should take more photos...but that's one of the things this blog is all about.

So, for 2011 I have finished the following;
  1. Playmat for bubby
  2. Double hourglass quilt
  3. Wonky stars
  4. Old fashioned blue stars
  5. Wave quilt for my sister ( not included here)

In progress;
  1. Queen sized hexagon scrappy madness ( alluded to in this post)begun in March 2011 for our bed - about a quarter pieced (by hand peeps!)
  2. Skill builder sampler quilt along in June 2011 - up to date
  3. A giant secret started in June, will be able to post soon - about a third hand quilted - yah!
  4. Square-in-a-square quilts for the NICU where my little boy spent the first 100 days of his life - hopefully they can use them as raffle prizes to raise some money for the newborn care centre that provided so much for us all - two thirds of the blocks pieced

I also have a list ( I love a list!) of quilts I'd like to make;
  1. Orange and grey one for my patient, kind and supportive husband (was going to be a surprise but I'm hopeless with surprises so he already knows)
  2. I have some sherbet pips that I am itching to cut up but have promised myself not to begin anything new until at least the 'big secret' is finished
  3. Beetle bugs fabric I bought at Sydney Quilt and Craft show from Saffron Craig herself - for my little boy, no rush on this as he won't be in a big boy bed for a little while
  4. A play mat and ball for Dangar's newest bubby
  5. My sister is expecting her first baby in November so obviously he or she will need one

All this writing of blogs and lists is filling up my head so I'd best get to it.

Happy sunny Sunday.

My First Quilt Along {QAL}

I joined my first quilt along in June here

BWS tips button







I was/am so excited. I am even keeping up to date. Block #1 was a log cabin. I couldn't leave it alone though and turned it into a square within a square block. Who doesn't love a log cabin? My colour/fabric policy for this QAL was to not overthink it. I am just using some fabrics I have picked up along the way just 'cos....just 'cos I like the colours, design and/or feel. So far there is an abundance of blues and greens with some pinks and yellows thrown in for good measure. I'm not entirely sure how (or if??) it'll work together but I figure if I like it then that's really all that matters.


Block #2 was an education in values and itty bitty squares. I really like this 9 patch although it's a good bit darker than my other blocks - - lucky this QAL goes for a whole year so there's loads of time to even up the values and colours.
Block #3, Churn Dash. I felt every second of this block. For a few reasons. First proper go at the dreaded monster-under-my-bed; HSTs. Like all monsters, it had to be faced and the thought of it was worse than the reality. I did however fail to read the instructions properly and ended up with double the number of HSTs. I realised this was NOT the end of the world as HSTs are useful little guys...


...and the 'pinwheel extension' was born. I turned my extra HSTs into my challenge block #1 which I thought was pretty neat. Little did I know the next block would be...


the above beauty - Pinwheel Parade or block #4. All those little triangles! Lots of trimming and crossing of fingers. While she's not a perfect block there was less swearing than I thought there would be although I nearly burnt my fingers off while ironing all those seams this way and that.


This weeks block #5, Arizona. My favourite block so far. Lots of ladies in this QAL have been fussycutting (love that word) their middles and I wanted to have a try. I like it. Again, lots of triangles...I am putting the monster back where it belongs although I don't know that I'll be doing a whole HST quilt any time soon ( not least because I have a whole bunch of other things I should be finishing or doing).

Phew. Now that's up to date.

It's a beauty of a day here on Dangar Island and I've managed to get some snaps of some other things I have made. I will post them shortly.











Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The first post

Well here I am!






I have been thinking/threatening to do this for a while. Blog that is. And...here I am.

Why? I have recently rediscovered how much I love to make stuff and have also discovered a whole community of crafty bloggers. I would like to be a part of this community that has been providing me with so much motivation and inspiration over the past few months. Above is just one of my WIPs, a hexagon jobby. Big jobby! I will post lots of photos of finished projects as well ones in the works (of which there seems too many, how does this happen?)

Below are snaps of things I love. I live on an island in a river so I love our ferry 'The Sun'. I love the colours of the dories on the beach, we have a pale blue/grey and yellow one 'Princess Buttercup'. I love pink champagne - nothing more to be said about that really. The photos are kind of random but I just picked some ones I liked cos that's what its about isn't it?













My intentions for this blog are;
- to write about the stuff I am making, mostly quilts.
- to get better acquainted with blogland and using this media (or is it medium?).
- to take more and BETTER photos to make this blog look nice (and for my own benefit). I currently rely on my husband for this as I am usually doing while he is snapping. We have some sweet cameras and I intend to start using them!
- to have some fun and sometimes expose expose myself for the queen of the dags that I am!

No big intro as it'll all come out over time.

And that is that.