Time is a thief

I've been so busy that my blogging has been falling by the wayside and June has been a blur.
What a neglectful blogger and just when I have more time, dh and I get sick. Bring on the drugs, they can make me feel almost normal.

Enough of the whinging, I did tease a bit last time with the block of the month  I got from the quilt show and a couple of smart people guessed correctly. It's the Jane Pizar quilt ( the Marriage Quilt) from Carolyn's Quilt Room. Carolyn does the most amazing and authentic looking reproduction quilts. These blocks are 7" finished and hand pieced. These are challenging for me but do-able and I'm happy to say I think I'm over over the fear of hand piecing. The more I do, the better I get.

My other reproduction quilt is growing. I have just finished panel #7 out of thirteen which takes me over the half way point. The sun is shining today so I took it outside for the photos.

And yet another reproduction quilt is moving along at a snail's pace with the quilting. I decided on a grid for the center of the wreaths in my Coxcomb quilt. It contrasts nicely with the straight lines for the rest of the background quilting. This is the back which I'm showing first because.........

The front looks like a dog's breakfast with all the pen marks. I started off by marking the grid with one inch lines, divided those for half inch lines but that looked way too big. You guesed it, I went for quarter inch grid which was far too small. Well it stands to reason that 3/8th's was going to be just right so it's been marked to death in rainbow colours and looks a mess. Fear not, it all washes out in the end.

Apart from the bom I bought at the show, I was quite restrained and only bought a few fat quarters. I was trying to get some fabrics like Jean from Linen and Raspberry uses in her fabulous hexies. These got the Jean stamp of approval and she was kind enough to send  me a few of her hexies in the mail. I'm yearning to play with some fussy cut hexies now.

Until next time, Janet

On my needles

It seems like ages since I could sit down and blog, we had a long weekend and lots of family visiting so I've been snatching moments to play with my projects.
I've been knitting with gorgeous Noro Kureyon wool to make squares for an afghan. I've become sensitive to wool and can't wear it as a garment but I do like to play with knitting needles.

The changes in the colours are just delicious especially when I knit the squares from the outside and inside of the balls every so many rows.

You probably recognise the pattern as the Lizard ridge, free at knitty.com.
The bubbles have been likened to wee boobies but when the blocks are blocked or washed, they disappear. I may not even block them because they look so good.

I spent the whole day yesterday at the Sydney quilt show and still didn't see everything. I did catch up with some favourite people and picked up some loot. I bought Brigitte Giblin's book from the Quiltmania stand. There is a quilt in there that I'm mad for. Brigitte has started a blog which gives a whole lot of valuable information about the quilts she has in the book and how to's on English paper piecing.

I could have bought at least four books at that stand but settled on this one by Reiko Kato because it has lots of wonderful purse patterns.

I didn't think I'd buy any fabric but after a lot of deliberation, I weakened and bought a block of the month with fabric kitted up so this is for the first month.

I'm not going to say what it is until I have a block made and can show you since it's hand piecing (eeek) with reproduction fabrics and that's something that will challenge me. Lets just say that I probably need my head read because it's a biggie project and I needed the kit because I just know I don't have enough of the repros in my stash.

I'd better carry on with this Trailing Vines panel which is nearly done. I'll be posting the next installment sometime in the weekend for those of you stitching along with me. I'll also try and do a post on how to tackle really skinny small leaves soon.

I have three other projects on the go at the moment, how many are you tackling?

Some sewing at last

I've been a really bad blogger lately but honestly, I had nothing to show here. I've hardly sewed at all because I've been playing with another interest of mine.
I finally got my mojo back and dived right back into the sewing room. Lucky the sewing machine hadn't rusted up in protest.

I got the sixth panel joined to the Trailing Vines at last. It's been hard to take photos though because  the sewing room really is a cave and to top it off we've had dark wet weather so these will have to do.

The first four panels have 1/2" main stems but the last two I switched to 3/8" which I like better. Susan McCord's Vine quilt has uneven sized stems so it's in keeping with hers I suppose and I love that.

A friend recently emailed me and alerted me to the news that the Henry Ford museum has acquired the thirteenth Susan McCord quilt. What an exciting acquisition and you can read about it here on their blog. Check out the signature leaves on the borders!

This is what I've been doing the last two weeks. I just had to take some time and play around with sourdough formulas to get the bread we like to eat. It's not too sour because I like to try and bring the flavour of the wheat to the forefront. You wouldn't believe how bogged down by science I got. I think I might play with fabric this week instead.

I lost an email from somebody wanting the block pattern for the Coxcomb and Currants block. My sincere apologies and if you think it's you, could you email me at

janet_treen@hotmail.com

It's been awhile

I had a great three weeks in New Zealand visiting family and I arrived back in Australia last weekend but it seems I never left apart from trying to get back into some sort of routine.
Indulge me while I drag out some Nana brag photos.

Here are the three youngest grandkiddos, I don't think the twelve year old would appreciate a photo on my blog. The girls are wearing the dresses I made for them and they fit perfectly. Sophie on the left is six and wants to grow her hair like Rapunzel on Tangled. Ella is our polly pocket rocket, she wants her hair long but it just won't grow! She helped me make bread and is very good at shaping balls of dough so she's the little baker. Noah is two now and is just mad about anything to do with the movie cars.

Being the youngest of four kids means Noah watches everything and then copies so when I was taking a photo of the stick insect, he raced to find the toy camera and copied my close up style, lol.

The weather was fabulous, not too hot and not cool except for at night so we did get to go to the beach which is not far away and dig for pipis. I suppose the taste would be like clams and we even got a few cockles.

When you dig for pipis that are not far into the ocean and when the tide is going in, you have to  twist  your toes to feel them under the sand, it's quite a sight and good exercise.

We soaked them overnight in sea water for them to spit out the sand and my DD made some delicious pipi fritters for dinner the next evening. It took me right back to my childhood with every summer at the beach doing the same thing.

My older sister and I had a couple of nice lunches out together and both of us chose a beef and pear salad with blue cheese dressing for lunch on one of those days. It was so delicious that I had to try and make it at home. It turned out to be really delicious but I could have added a few cherry tomatoes and it would have been perfect. I served it with my sourdough which I've missed so much while away.
It has salad greens, red onion, avocado, red capiscum, avocado, pear and roasted pine nuts along with the beef.

The dressing was so delicious that I just have to share. After it's been in the fridge, it goes thicker and would make a rock star dip.

Blue cheese dressing

75g Costello blue cheese, chopped

125g (1/2 cup) creme fraiche

1 green shallot, end trimmed, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tbs white wine vinegar

1 tbs light olive oil

1 tbs good-quality whole-egg mayonnaise

2 tsp Dijon mustard

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

To make the blue cheese dressing, place the blue cheese, creme fraiche, green shallot, garlic, vinegar, oil, mayonnaise and mustard in the bowl of a food processor and process until mixture is almost smooth. You can also use a mixing wand.Taste and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl or jug. Serve at room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until required. It will keep for several days.

So what about the sewing? Well there wasn't too much of that but I did prep all my leaves for another panel on the Trailing Vines quilt before I left and I only have a few more leaves to sew on.
I don't think anybody is in a rush for the next panel to download so when I've drawn it up, I'll let you know here on the blog.

I did stuff another trapunto block for the Coxscomb quilt, each block takes me about four or five evenings to do so it's not a quick job.

You get the idea of what it will look like from the back view without the yellow pen I used. I was too lazy to iron it so it might look a bit rough. The only thing I didn't get to work on was the snowball quilt from my last post but better to have too much than not enough sewing to do.

I tried to keep up on my blog reading while I was away even if I didn't have time to leave comments.

I'm looking forward to catching up. I do have a couple of Coxcomb and Currant blocks to email to some of you so that requested it so if you don't recieve them within a day or two, could you flick me another request please.

Until next time, Janet

Making long stems for Trailing Vines and panel one is now available.

These instructions are  for the Trailing Vines quilt along.

First prepare your cut background panel by first pressing  it in half lengthwise and width wise.

Run basting stitches in the pressed lines by hand or by using a large stitch on the sewing machine.

I draw the lines for the edges 2 1/2" from the middle and the top and bottom so that you can be sure the leaves will be contained and not move into the seam allowance. I use a pen that washes out.

 

BIAS STEMS

There are many methods to make bias stems and you may have your own way that you're comfortable with so go ahead with whatever method you prefer.

This is how I make mine. The stems are 1/4" for the branches and 3/8" for the main stem. I like to use the Clover bias makers.

First I starch and press the fabric.

Line up the 45 degree line on your long ruler at the bottom selvage edge.

I've butted up another ruler at the top end to give me more cutting length. Make the cut from selvage to selvage and realign rulers as you progress across to the other selvage edge.

Once the initial cut is made, fold the cut edge in half.

Cut strips 3/4" wide from the cut edge for 3/8" stems and cut strips 1/2" wide for 1/4" stems. I actually cut a smidgen over the 1/2" which gives me better results.

For the main wider stem, you'll need to make joins so that your strip will measure around 100" long.

Place strips as they are in the photo below. Draw or eyeball the bias seam and sew.

Open up the strips and trim excess fabric.

Press seam open. I secure the seam allowances down with a little basting glue or fabric glue stick so that they will move through the bias maker smoothly.

I put the pattern on my light table and place the stems with the tiniest dots of basting glue, being careful not to distort the background fabric. I try to aim the dots of glue between the leaves.

The last panel I did differently by drawing the pattern on the background and then placing the stems.

I thread baste in the middle of the main stem and the branches on one edge. (click photo to see)

This is so that as the leaves are sewn on, you can slip them under the stem so I would do one side of the branch, undo the basting and fill the other side with leaves.

Sew the edges of the stems as you complete adding the leaves to each branch.

It's your choice if you draw the pattern on panel or not. If you don't like to do that, I would suggest putting a dot on the bottom and top of each leaf placement and use those to guide you.

Panel one is now available for download. Click on the page under my header to go to the Trailing Vines page. I'm going to upload photos of each branch from panel one onto flickr.  Once I've done that, I'll add the link to the Trailing Vines page.

Learning curves and The Vine Quilt.

I've been away the last weekend and tied to the computer learning all sorts of new things I didn't know before now. I'm way behind on my emails and blog reading so I'm sorry and I promise I'll try to catch up this week.

The good news is that my DH and I did a photography class for a day to learn about our new Nikon DSLR D5100 and how to use it beyond the auto button. More on that at a later date.

My other big learning curve has been to work out how to make a blog button. Sorry if you came over yesterday thinking I had posted - false alarm.

The good news is that I now have a humble little blog button for you to grab (which is optional) if you are joining in on the Trailing Vines  quilt along. You'll find it on my sidebar.

I also have a new page called Trailing Vines under my header where you will be able to access the downloads and links to any information. The downloads will only be available though the links provided. The materials list and cutting information is now available.

Thank you so much for the overwhelming interest in my pattern and for all the encouraging comments. Please be kind to me because I've never done this before and if I've made any mistakes, let me know so that I can rectify them.

Panel five

When I start another panel for the vine quilt, I generally don't stop until it's done or bad things might happen, such as it ending up not getting any attention at all.

It's really hard to photograph one panel, it's so long and skinny so I've tipped it on it's side. It's taken a little longer than the others since this one has eleven branches.

 I had to immediately add it to the others so I can enjoy the changing effect as it grows.

I took a few photos and made them large so that you could see the fabrics. You can click on the photos to get a closer look. I had trouble with correct lighting, it's been very grey and wet around here lately and my background is a bit more creamy than it looks below.

I'm so overwhelmed by the response to my proposal to make my pattern available to anyone who would like to stitch their own version, thank you so very much!

I'll be making a materials list available early next week and I'll let you know when the first panel will be available for download.

I found a close up photo of Susan's quilt which you can see fabrics and hand quilting very clearly. Go have a look here and click on the photo once then again.

I'm on a tight schedule and have to pack, we're having a weekend away but before I do that, here's two blocks I put together for the Gorgeous Amy and her daughter, sent off to Sarah last week.

Susan McCord's Vines pattern

As you know, I've been drawing a pattern of my own to stitch a quilt inspired by Susan McCord's  Vines quilt.
I've been focusing on stitching the fifth panel and have got about half way.

Sometimes when I sit and stitch, I go into a zone where the woes of the world don't exist and the mind thinks only of quilty things.

Here's what I've been thinking about. I'd love to share my pattern (for free) with anyone who would be interested in making this quilt and releasing a panel per month for download. There are thirteen panels.

It's not an exact replica, rather my interpretation and I think it gives a similar look to the antique quilt.

If there is enough interest, say more than one or two of you, I'll go ahead with it and would appreciate you leaving me a comment so I can see if it's worthwhile doing.

A bit of this and a bit of that.

I finally got back to my applique that I was missing and finished this block for the "Beyond The Cherry Trees quilt. It took a lot longer than I though it would, lots of leaves in this one.

The one below was the last one I'd done and I just wasn't happy with the emerald green stems so unpicked those and replaced them. Now I can live with it.

Note to self, find time to make more of these blocks since I'm enjoying the more modern fabrics.

I also managed to get two more of my circle blocks done. I'm finding it hard to stick to these and I'm behind which is normal for me. I'm not very patient at prepping for hand piecing you see.

Note to self, stop procrastinating on these.

The Vine quilt has been whispering, no, shouting in my ear to get going and draw another panel. It took a few afternoons to do the drawing but as you can see, I'm now starting the stitching. This will be the fifth panel and has about 305 leaves to sew on. I'm loving being back playing with this one.

Note to self, get down to the sewing room and make more leaves.

More drawing, this time a Currants and Coxcomb block I wanted to draw up after some inspiration hit me whilst looking at antique red and green quilts.
Note to self, blinkers don't work when on the computer.

Whatever time you have for stitching, have fun with it.

Janet

Panel #4

My heart is beating a little faster now that this has grown by one more panel.

I'm giving a couple of closer up photos here in case you want to see the fabrics a little better, the photos can be clicked on for a bigger picture. A lot of the leaves are stripped pieced which was Susan McCords signature.

It's really hard to take a decent photo on my design wall, it always looks crooked and the lighting is not great but it gives an idea of how it's looking.

I really think the stems are a bit fat, a minor thing I think but I'll be using that 3/8" bias maker for the next panel when I can get the nerve to do another one. In reality, I imagine Susan McCord's quilt had really skinny stems. I wish I had realised that at the start of the project. I know,  I'm being fussy.

Queen of the blocks

This year I've decided I could be crowned Queen of the blocks as I get into tackling some of those oldie but goodie projects that I have lying around. I like that, oldies but goodies sounds so much better than UFO's.
I did think about what I wanted to work on and I'd like to keep my options open but I got to thinking about the list, my quilting bucket list actually. I'd like to finish the Nearly Insane one day so I'll try to make blocks more regularly.

I'll continue to make panels for the vine quilt. I'm half way through the latest panel. This is one of my bucket list quilts. The one at the top actually.

I'm having so much fun with the Cherry Tree blocks that I'll try to keep these going regularly. I'm really into the fabrics I'm using. This is block 3. Have you got a quilt that you absolutely have to make one day? I'd love to know what it is. Oh and I promised myself to work on the Baltimore.That's a have to finish quilt.

We've had a few trips out and about, not sure it was a good idea to go into Sydney while the sales were on but I enjoyed wandering around without a purpose. The next two photos are from The Queen Victoria building, I love watching the clock which has all these figures coming out and rotating around when it hits the hour.

I just love stained glass windows. If you ever get to the building, be sure to go to the top level to view the carved jade carriage.

I wasn't very good at supporting the retailers, I only came home with a book and this small jewellery pouch. I liked the shape and thought that one day, I may have a go at making a sewing sized one.