AWOL?

I've not really been AWOL, maybe MIA would be a better description, because I have been busy and am excited to share the end of month progressions... and goals for next month.

With a clear floor, I spent a few hours pinning my Stack, Shuffle and Slide quilt, which has now been moved to a "holding zone" awaiting quilting. Perhaps once the blanket stitch station is free, I can get this one started.

With the last of the Sugar Club blocks upsized.  Yes, you read right... the LAST BLOCK, I have had it laid out on the floor and closely scrutinized, to get the perfect layout.  I may never sew another half square triangle.

And I've been cutting, pinning and sewing the sashing strips and blocks together.  Only one lonely block to attach now, and then the last row to sew... then it's just the final plain border!  I always underestimate the time it takes to get this stage finished... it just seems to take for-ever!

Getting away from machine piecing, I took the last My Tweets block to my monthly sewing session at my favourite patchwork shop - The Country Yard.  Although I didn't finish it all up there... there was a bit of cutting and ironing at home too... I did get the block constructed over the weekend.

And I'm all ready to tackle the blanket stitch as part of my June goals.

I decided to sash my blocks a bit differently to the pattern, so I've got a narrow 1/4" dark border framing the blocks, then a mid toned 3/4" frame.

A close up of the fabrics!  It is a bit fiddley doing the narrow borders, but as I don't have enough of the dark fabric to waste - I am being extra careful, and with the help of my friendly spray starch, so far so good.

I've selected a few other fabrics that will suit being sashing... both being somewhat mid toned and large enough!

My Tillie's Lane large applique block for June is this one, plus a small applique and 24 hour glass blocks.  I've got two done already!

I need to get my VQR blocks finished as Monika is ahead again... there are only two blocks left, so this will be my first priority to get finished this month.

Also on the radar are the RSC blocks... still don't know what colour June will be, so will keep you posted.

And, I have high hopes to get another dress finished up.  You won't believe it but I actually bought another fabric.  Once the Sugar Club blocks are cleared from the open floor space - I think it will be time to pin out another pattern.  Can't wait.

Sounds like it's going to be another busy month doesn't it?

A Really Great Week

I've just had a really great week.  This month I was a bit light on my monthly goals... mostly because I wasn't sure how the clothing sewing was going to go and how much time it would take up.  With one dress down, I can put that aside for a bit, and now that I can focus back on patchwork goals, I feel a lot more settled.

Charlotte's mystery quilt appeared on Carol's Quilts blog, and I searched out a possible selection of fabrics... but still had to read through the instructions to work out whether what I had would meet the requirements.  It took a bit of figuring... but I think it has all worked out.

I started off with a feature fabric and bunch of possible team mates:

While I had intended to chop up the feature fabric, it then became difficult to slot the other fabrics into the necessary positions according to the requirements.  So I made an executive decision, and figured I'd use the feature as a border... and use the other fabrics as the main contenders, and listed them as follows:

I added this Denyse Schmidt fabric into the B section of darks... it gives me four good dark options, although I've left the stripe in there because (a) I don't know where else to put it and this seems like the best fit and (b) while I would like to use it... I'm not sure whether it will work out in the long run.  The down side of participating in a mystery!

And I got my month one's blocks finished.  Four four patches...

And four four patches with a half square triangle in one of the  positions.  Then I had a bit of fun spinning these around...

Okay, on to the rest of the week.  I've been buzzing through the Tillies Lane hourglass blocks, and sewing triangles to my Sugar Club blocks... enough that I have completed not one...

but two upsize blocks!

I left a comment on someones blog about the interesting variety of blocks on the design wall... so just for full disclosure, there are remnants of three very different projects littered all over my one at the moment!

New Things

I wore my new dress to work today.  Although it was a bit cold... I really need to buy a cardy or something warm that goes with it.

I have this scarf that is almost the perfect colouring... a bit more is more, but it looked OK.

And Me, excuse the odd photo angle... these things happen when you get your 11yr old to take your photo!  At least my eyes are open and I don't look cross... you don't want to know how many photos it took to get this to happen.

Righto... and onto other new things... my good friend Charlotte has designed a Mystery Quilt on another blog... Carols Quilts.  You can check it out here.

Now, I have been sneaky and checked out the Mystery Quilt (don't tell anyone)... so I know it's a good one.  Not too long (6mths) or complicated (squares, rectangles and triangles), and ends up with a mid sized quilt that you could easily grow to the size you want.  I've been waiting for the first months instructions, to see exactly what the fabric requirements are, and have pulled the following as a possible grouping.

It started with this fabric - Secret Garden by Sandi Henderson, Michael Miller Fabrics which I have had in my stash for ever!

It's quite a large print, and I am imagining just cutting it up into small bits

Then I found these that I quite like to go with it... not too samey/samey but a nice blend of blendy and contrasty.  Don't you love making up your own words?

From left to right:
Newspaper print... unnamed selvedge
Small dot... 11993 Daiwabo for EE Schenck Company
Stripe... unnamed selvedge but I wouldn't be surprised if it is a Stof Basic
Dark grey solid... pretty sure this is a homespun from Spotlight
Lighter colour small dot... same marking as darker dot above
Large multicolour dot... printing is actually half off the selvedge but its something about Habitat (a philosophy a refuge) by Benartex
Even lighter small dot... same as above
Neutral stripe... no markings but similar to a shirting
Green floral... Quilt Gate Mary rose collection
Green solid... either a Spotlight homespun or a Bella solid
Bird detail print... Field Notes by Blackbird Designs for moda

Now I need to actually read the instructions to see what fabrics I really need...

If you are looking for a new project, or just want a bit of low commitment fun, I really do recommend the Mystery Quilt.

I'm going to try linking up with Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash.

Falling Down the Rabbit Hole

Well, it all started with the two dress patterns I bought... then one lot of dress fabric purchased... which wasn't even cut out yet (I don't know that I had even opened the pattern yet), and I bought five more patterns through an online download provider... yes, FIVE patterns, on top of the TWO patterns I had already bought, and another two lots of fabric!

The two fabrics matched with these two patterns...

Now... if you've been reading about my blogging adventures for while, you'll know that I don't really sew clothing, or bags, or other things that aren't quilts.  Like many people, I used to, back in my late teenage years (I probably had a half and half mix of handmade and purchased clothing); and again when my kids were young I made polar fleece tops and pants to supplement their wardrobes.

Oh crap... what have I got myself into.

On Thursday, I figured I had put it off long enough, opened the first pattern, unwrapped the lunchpaper to trace off the pattern pieces (not required but something I wanted to do to keep the integrity of the original pattern), did my body measurements... and started tracing.  Friday I pinned out the pattern pieces and cut the bits out... only three pattern pieces so it's not like it took an enormously long time, but I wanted to do it carefully... so I took my time.  I sewed the shoulder seams and finished the neckline, then put it aside for Saturday, when I sewed the sleeves in, sewed the side seams, and finished the hems.  So I now have ONE whole finished dress!!!

On a bit of a roll (and while I still had the stretch fabric needle and normal sewing foot on the machine), I though I'd print out one of the downloaded patterns, and spent probably a couple of hours printing, cutting and sellotaping the pieces together.  Laid out the fabric to position the pattern pieces and realised that the fabric I THOUGHT was 60" wide was really only 42" wide... so there was NO WAY the tunic pattern pieces were going to fit.  GAH!  I suppose this is a bit of a warning about the Birch organic interlock knit fabric... although I am sure that I checked the measurements on the bolt and it was the wider width.  Oh well, lesson learned.  And check out this enormously wide selvedge!

That's almost 2" wide!

Enough fabric for the back, not the front or sleeve

Just a plain black denim to make the short pinafore pattern

 Righto... back to patchwork mode.

After selecting a mix of green scraps to make the largest block of this RSC quilt, I decided in the end to reduce the variety of tone in the scraps for such a large and important block.  I wanted it to read strongly as green... so swapped out the teal toned fabrics, and found more that were olive in tone to match what I had already found.

Sewn together and laid out with the other blocks... along with the rest of the carnage from the weekend.  I sewed another small green unit with 2.5" cut squares... and have another in the pipeline.

I don't think I showed a close up of the little Tillies Lane applique block for this month.  The large circle fabric was the border fabric from Nadia's first bed quilt.  It's fun to find some of these old scraps and get sentimental about them :o)  I think the other fabrics are from the Avalon Quilt that is laying dormant with the blocks pieced, but not sewn together.

I made a more neutral toned hourglass block, and relaid out the centre panel.

I ended up with Version One:

Or Version Two:

Do you have a preference???

Tillies Lane - interim progress

The first week back at work after two weeks holiday is always a bit of a mission.  Getting back into school and work routines... bedtimes... yeah, it can all get a bit exhausting.  Even though I didn't always feel like sewing after work, I still spent a bit of time most days making the effort to do something, even if it was only messing around with fabric.

Before I got too carried away with this months Tillies Lane requirements, I really REALLY needed to know how things were looking... so for the first time EVER, I laid out all my blocks created so far!

It is amazing how lighting and camera angle can change your flash/colouring so much!  This photo below is definitely a bit yellow.

And I think this one is maybe a bit closer in colouring... but maybe a bit washed out.

What I really needed to know from this experiment was how the centre blocks were looking, and which backgrounds needed to be repeated in which spots.  This is the patterns centre arrangement.

And this is how mine is starting to look.  I started with the small nine patch layout being more random in colouring, similar to the pattern, but I didn't like it (you can see that version in the very top photo) .  I figured since this is going to be the centre of the centre, it should look amazing, although I'm still not completely finished with the colours yet.

I managed to get my Month 6 wreath block stuck down... and now halfway to being blanket stitched.

Sewing is nothing if you are not wearing your monster slippers.  You just need to remember to lift your feet extra high so that they don't catch on the fabric (and all the better to stomp with anyway).

Another little job accomplished during the week was sorting through some green scraps, for this months RSC colour - GREEN.  Funnily enough, I have plenty of green scraps, and enough pieces large enough to cut these 6.5" units.  The rectangles measure 6.5 x 13.5".  Getting sewn together might happen sometime during the week.

Goals for this month - part one

I finished up the hourglass blocks for last months Tillies Lane BOM.  Only 12 needed for last month, which is good, because I hadn't prepped enough... the reason for them getting finished a bit late.  They finish at 3" and are so cute and a great way of chipping into the scrap pile.  That wrapped up Month Five's requirements.

For May (Month 6) I have another large wreath applique, a small applique, and 24 hourglass blocks... I've chosen the fabric already for the large block... so heres hoping for a quick finish.

During the school holidays, I had a catch up with some quilting friends.  One of my questions for them was whether to add an extra row of small blocks to the base of this quilt.  The answer was... make a visual decision.  So I draped it over the bed to work out whether it needed an extra border... I reckon it did!

I just had to take a photo of this tape measure... I've carried this little sewing kit around for years, and never opened the tape measure... it is only 24" long... too cute!

So another border it was... I figured I had enough fabric to add plain borders to the top and sides, and decided to go with three small blocks along the bottom in a wider border.  This border will hang nicely off the bed, so it's not like you will actually ever see it laid out like this.

 And I found the perfect backing fabric... an extra wide text fabric with a variety of greys. 

 Goal for this month is to get it all sandwiched together!