It's Growing

That is my coffee table. That is half of the yo yo's. If you have any suggestions of colours I need more of please let me know! I need to work on that bottom middle bit, I had all these mainly white ones left over and I just didnt know what to do with them.

Bound!

With Christmas over and the gifts exchanged I now have a lot of DVD's to sit and watch, making it perfect time to get some hand work done!

I finished the binding on this on Boxing Day and it is already being used on the lounge chair


Here is a bad photo to show the quilting on the back. I used King Tut variegated thread. I have no idea what number it is but it goes between purple, orange and red and I really like it.

That isn't a pucker, that's just where I was too lazy to unfold it properly.

I'm really happy with it, and following with the tradition of working on something mostly finished, I spent a lot of time today weaving in ends on the all white quilt. Unfortunately there are a lot of ends to weave in, so its going to take more than a sitting of Get Smart and Monty Python to get it done.

Melanie's New Bag

I bought this the other day, and how awesome is it! It is so bright and cheery, definitely not like all those other green bags out there. It also contains a pocket inside to hold three bottles safely and a newspaper sleeve. I will hopefully be the trendiest person at the supermarket this Christmas!

County Fair

I quilted this a couple of weeks back.


Its a cheater cloth designed by Denyse Schmidt. The front is quilted using smoke invisible thread, and the black is a bright red variegated thread - this meant I didnt need to change thread throught the entire project. Now, like a lot of things round here, its just waiting patiently for the binding. Then it will take its place over the lounge chair properly.

I also broke my "nothing new" rule last week.. I was getting 'cutting crazy' and just had to cut something. So I have started the Extended Pinwheels Quilt out of A Colourful Journey, by Kaffe Fassett.
Just looking at it makes me smile. I am making mine out of green, cobalt and blue fabrics, taken from my shot cotton collection (of which I amazingly had 11 of in just the blues and greens), and then also from the Kaffe stash, which is still as large as ever. Now that I have started it I really wish I had have just used bigger triangles, because now I need to make double the triangles just to make it abouw 8 inches bigger on each side.

Killing Time

In one week I made more than 115 yo yo's.


This picture only shows the ones I made after I decided to see how many I would make without internet. In reality, I made about 20-30 more before I started putting them on the coffee table like this.

The total is now above 500. Yay!

Evidence

My mother doesn't believe that I wear the clothes she makes me out in public.

So here I am, on two separate work days wearing two things you made me. Sorry for the bad photo's, they were taken in one shot by co-workers.

For the record, I am wearing the hippo skirt right this moment, and while shopping today had a guy in a store go "Oh my god that chicks skirt has ....rhino's? NO! Hippo's on it! And one is biting another one! That is so cool!" He then turned to the other three guys around him and pointed it out to them.

And the dress? Well, the sleeves were still WAY to puffy, but with some minor adjustments through safety pins they have been de-puffified a fair bit.

No Internets!

My router blew up in lightning strike power surge *pop* last night, and it will take 2-5 buisness days to get a new one! Oh internet, I miss you already!

So when it does finally arrive hopefully sometime next week I should have lots of things to show, as I have already started making more yo yo's tonight, and have plans to finish the quilting of something else





PS. Mum- I can handle not having a tv, but with one day of not having internet I'm already going crazy!

Not-So-Slave Labour

My mum makes better clothes than she takes photos.



Simplicity 2997

More Yo yo's!

3/4 inch finished. Not sure what I'm going to do with them yet. Made from a few pieces out of the stack of 1930's 2.5inch squares I have left over from something else. I was going to only make pink, purple and green ones, but now I can't decide.

Finished!

Woo! I knuckled down and suffered through the hand pain to finish this. Now I just need a large water proof bag to send it in and then it off to Mum.

On to the next binding!

Two Good Excuses for Not Crafting

Number 1. Going on holiday.


Number 2. Living in Brisbane.


This is above the area where I was going to spend today cleaning up, assembling some more ikea shelves and then storing my ufo's. This doesn't actually look bad at all, only a little bit of water so far, because the problem started in the lounge room, on the other side of that wall. I'm very glad that I procrastinated about cleaning my room now.

In actual crafty related news, I did finish the quilting, but didnt get the binding made or attached. While on holidays I did not much at all, but managed a grand total of 32 yo yo's. (Though, in the two days after coming home, made 39). This leaves the 'to be made' count somewhere around 250. More than half way there!

Bad Blogger make for a Good Quilter

While I'm frantically trying not to start anything new, it makes for bad blogging. For the past week I have been working on the quilt in the background of this post, and as I speak, only have 3 rows of quilting to go. Sorry, I though I had posted a photo of this before, but as it is under the machine at this moment I am not pulling it out to take a photo! You'll just have to wait for the binding to go on...

I'm going on a mini holiday on Thursday, and was hoping to take it with me to weave in all the ends, and sew down the binding, so we will see if it makes it to the beach with me!

Kaffe's Midnight Garden

I made a cushion for a challenge at Peg's Place. The cushion had to use 80% or more Kaffe Fassett fabric, and incorporate a yo-yo. I won Viewers Choice.

272

And I'm out of my pre-cut bits! Time for some more cutting. I'm about half way through my pinks and purples, but I can't really notice them in it!

Bleh

I'm feeling bogged down by all my unfinished quilts stashed around here, so I have decided its finally time to keep my little fingers away from new fabric (which can be very hard as I work in a fabric store) and to start finishing some things!

So, today I cut and sewed my binding together, using this wonderful tutorial to match all my stripes ( I was on the right track so when I saw this tutorial it was like a lightning bolt!) Then decided to do things out of order, I attached the binding THEN decided that it needed more quilting so then I did all the extra quilting on it!

So now it just patiently waits for some nibbler than mine hands to sew the binding down (nudge nudge Mum!)
(These are bad photo's too by the way. Its getting late, I'm very tired and blogger stuffed up the first time I tried to post this!)

Quilting Day 1

I have to have the basic quilting completed on this by Monday night. hmm...

Step 1

Baste. This Dresden plate will be 3 inches across when finished.

166

459 to go.

Gee's Bend

This book was totally worth the $95, and the probability of eating baked beans on toast for lunch and dinner for a few days next week...

Honestly, after going through the book it made me really disappointing about the quilts at the Quilt Indulgence Festival. The flyer I received three months ago had three quilts on it I REALLY wanted to see, and those three quilts were not here! However the other international quilts at the show more than made up for the Gee's Bend let down. I now need to work out if I can afford a subscription to Patchwork Quilt tsushin (which is no. Its 11 800 YEN a year, for six issues a year. Thats $31 AUS a magazine.)

To Appease Mother

My internet exile has ended! Firstly, these are two of my quilts hanging at a local quilt show, in a shops stand. Mine is the pink and black one, and the one to the right of it (which is just a quilt top, I'm picking it up on Monday, buying wadding and a backing fabric and working frantically to get it quilted in time for the next quilt show in a weeks time)

Here are a couple more civil war blocks and one in progress.


This one above is actually made incorrectly. As I was working off a black and white photocopy I didn't realise that the colours are reversed in the opposite corners! However it looks so good I don't think I have the heart to unpick it and throw two blocks away and make two more!



And then there is a new hand sewing project (like I needed another one). Its going to be a yo yo quilt!

I'm slowly moving through my stash cutting two squares of each fabric to make two yo yo's out of each fabric. I started on the scrap pile, then moved onto the spots, which is why if you look closely about 80% of them are spotty. I have 83 made, have the fabric cut for another 43, and to make a 25 x 25 quilt, will need 625 yo yo's! But remember, so far I have only cut the scrap pile and spots drawer, if I end up cutting 2 from all of my fabrics then it might end up being a wee bit bigger than that...
When I get to about 300 I will start whip stitching them together. I am waiting for a friend to produce her antique yo yo quilt (and in her fashion she said "oh I don't know where they are, I'll have to find them") so I can get a look at how they did it. I know its just whip stitching but I still want to see someone elses first!

Next post I might show you my 3 inch across dresden plate, but I need to find it first!

Also, I need to make this quilt.

The Skirt.

This is it.
So, I carefully made the pattern, cut it out, used my sewing machine to finish all the edges, then sewed the two pieces together and put the zipper in. I tried it on - and it just fell straight off me. So I took the seam in by about 1.5 inches, then it was a bit too tight. I let the seam out twice, and still to tight - I kept getting bunching across the front of it. I call my Mum, who suggested I let out the seam (again) and add darts, and she tells me how to do them. I unpick the right hand side seam for the third time then carefully measure half, and then a quarter and then sew in the darts and try it on again. Hmm... I accidently put them on the back instead of the front... I decide to leave them there as they seem to have mostly solved the bunching problem, but I needed to make them a little longer, and then voila! It sorta fits.

I did a very very shotty job of adding a facing, but I think its ready to go to work with me. Things that will still need to be done (sometime after I have worn it to work tomorrow) - hem the bottom, topstitch over the facing - but this can only be done once I have unpicked my first origonal seam and cut it down to the new seam! I also need to fix up the top of the zip in one spot - this is the first time I have ever put a zip in an item of clothing so I think I did alright. The facing also needs to be cut to size - I have a little bit overhanging, I think I'll just safety pin it out of the way for tomorrow and then finally, I need to hand sew the facing down.

Then, after that is complete, I attempt skirt number 2!

Other things I got up to today were sewing together what I could of my triple irish chain. Its moving along slowly. I will admit that for the past two days I have been debating making it two rows shorter, meaning that when I add the next lot of blocks I will be done, and just have borders, but then it wouldnt be big enough for my bed. So I think I will just have to persever. You may notice in the skirt photo that this thing continues down to the floor.

I also made a quater of a civil war block. I'm really liking how all these are coming along - even though I have only finished 2 and have about 5 in progress!

Wow, I have a clean room

Nothing much to show tonight, I've been cleaning up my room. Some things I found include my academic transcript*, all the pieces for my walking foot that had escaped recently from the box, my hera marker, lots and lots of threads, and most interestingly, 4 empty rolls of rasant thread, all for white. I only started using rasant for all my piecing about 2.5 years ago, which means I have gone through more than 4000 meters of white thread, just in piecing. Not to mention, I also found 3 rolls of white - 2 half empty, 3 rolls of cream - again, 2 half empty, and 2 rolls of black. Thats a lot of sewing I've been doing! I can also now account for all of my bobbins.

Tomorrow(well today technically) I only work 5 hours, then I have a day off! yay! I plan on making at least 3 skirts, two from fabric Mum gave me, then a skirt out of my piece of Drawing Room by Anna Maria Horner that I have told the ladies I work with I will be showing up to work in on Tuesday...

* Technically this wasn't 'lost'. If I had a need for it, I knew where it was on my desk, but when I 'found' it tonight, I decided it might be time to put it somewhere a little safer.

More Civil War!

I have completed 2 Civil War Blocks! Yay!

This makes 2 down, 8 to go. I also have 3 in progress so Im getting there, slowly.

The Children will Play

A lady I work with decided she would buy the Civil War Diary book. So I though, maybe we should have a little 'challenge' of sorts. I picked six blocks to start off with, and we have two weeks to complete the six 6 inch (finished) blocks, then when we are done, she will pick the next six and so on until we have as many as we want. She is making hers in reproductions, I'm making mine in Kaffe Fassett. So far they are looking pretty interesting. Unfortunately, most of the blocks need to be foundation paper pieced, as the measurements are a bit weird.


Those strips are a quarter of an inch wide. I was a bit hesitant about using the diagonally stripped fabric, but once I had finished the little block I was so glad I did.



I think they are looking great so far

It needs some binding

On the bias..
But I can't choose which one! Mum, I think you should choose for me.

Monkey Magic!!

This little guy got finished today.

Started about 6 months ago, he got a little bit more stuffing, his side seam sewn up and his tail stitched on with one of my favourite vintage buttons. Fabric is Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton in 'Aegan' and I think the contrast is 'Spring Fling', but I can't remember, it was bought as a remnant. His face is doctors flannel, and while there is that lovely hand stitching around it, I also vliesofixed it on to make sure it wasnt coming off.

The pattern is out of this book, which I borrowed out of the library, so now I don't have the instructions to make more!

And this is the clock I made you mum! Currently still 'in progress' as my clock work bit on the back is too heavy, so it can't opperate leaning like this, it has to be hung. Oops. Good clockworks are hard to find. I bought the hands thinking they were silver too so I was a bit dissapointed when I realise they were gold. Might have to paint them another colour. Oh, and its technically a tiny bit off center, but I really don't think you notice.

Two down!

Since my last post:

• One quilt has been completely finished, binding, pocket rod and all and has even been washed and cooked in the dryer.
  This is the first quilt I have ever washed and had fabric run. Doesn't really bother me, but its pretty unfortunate as the back is also pieced, so if the fabric had have been about 2 inches to the right, it would have been on a pink fabric and then unnoticeable! This quilt was 'cooked' to see how much the bamboo batting would shrink. All up it shrunk by about an inch on each side, but I think that could also be due in part to my heavy quilting, and the fact I can't actually remember how big the top was before it was pinned, and I can't remember if I measured it after quilting it and before washing it. Either way, I like how crinkly it came out.
  

• Another quilt that has been 'in progress' for about 2 years (I *think*) had its final border quilted. It is a Material Obsession pattern that was printed in a Patchwork and Quilting magazine. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of this as I have left it with my wonderful hand sewn binding Grandmar for to have it hand stitched. (She also hand stitched the pink and black one aswell, that only took her about an hour! She is superwoman!!)

• And today, I unpinned, then repinned my multicolour barnraiser-ish half square triangle quilt. On top of that, I have also quilted all the straight lines on it already tonight (in about 2 hours, even I'm impressed with my lack of procrastination while doing it). Now I just have to pick a free hand quilting pattern to do in all the white areas and I'm set to finish it! The next big step for this one is picking the binding fabric.

And I didnt resize two the photo's so I could show you (sort of) the other thing I have been working on. It only has 9 rows to quilt in one direction, and 16 in the other. Which isnt bad considering that thing is about twin/queen size and there are about 47 rows in each direction. I'm starting to get excited about finishing it as when it gets folded up it looks georgous, but it will look even better with all those pins out, and a nice black binding on it! I will give more details about it when I'm finished.