Pages From Me

2012-03-21T13:40:00.003+10:30

Now that I've made about twenty nine-patch blocks I'm turning them on point like this. I need two 5 1/8" squares for each block, and I'm using a few different fabrics to keep it interesting.
I cut the squares once on the diagonal..
And then I trim the points off at about 4 3/4".
This allows me to centre the triangle on the ninepatch easily, but you can also just crease the centre of the block and the triangle and match them up if you don't want to do this step.

Lay the triangle on the block and make sure there is the same size little triangular piece showing at each end, this means it's centred.Sew triangles on opposite sides, press,then add the remaining two triangles.
You can see that trimming the points earlier makes lining up the last two triangles very easy, and there's nothing to trim afterwards either.

The nine patch is 6" and the blocks finish at 8 1/2", so they mount up pretty quickly.

Once I've finished these I'm going to play with the setting because I don't know how big I'm going to make it yet. One thing at a time, I'm having fun with these really simple blocks.

2012-03-16T04:32:00.006+10:30

Despite the fact that I've got several projects in the works at the moment, I was suddenly overcome by the urge to start a nine patch quilt that I saw in a book.I didn't even try to talk myself out of it, but jumped straight in and began cutting.

I wanted a different dark fabric for each block, but I've kept the same cream throughout, so I could cut a whole half metre into 2 1/2" strips. This is most unusual for me, because I like scrappy everything, including backgrounds.

I didn't want to strip piece long strips, as I only needed one block from each fabric, so this is the system I came up with. I cut from fat quarters, and one strip is plenty for each block.

I layered a light and dark, right sides together, and found I could cut two pairs stacked on top of each other without any trouble.
My strips are 2 1/2", and my first cut was three times that measurement, plus a little bit for squaring up as I cross-cut later. I cut at about 8" here.
Then with the stack untouched I made another cut of squares at 2 1/2". After this I pulled out the cream fabric and cut single squares of the dark fabric. This resulted in a pair of the 8" cuts and two dark squares and one light, for each block.Then I sewed all the 8" strips together, which went very quickly, and pressed them.
Next they were cut into 2 1/2" slices
and each slice had another square added to it, light or dark, to make the nine patch.
I have sewn long strips together to make nine patches, but I'd rather deal with shorter lengths, and when you need a lot of variety this method is very easy. And it goes without saying that when you're using scraps this is great too- if you have a 13-14" strip of dark fabric you can get a block from it.

I was humming along making these when I happened to read Kathie's post about her nine-patch quilt. Oh my goodness, I want to start one of those too! I think I could just make quilts from nine-patches for a year and still not be done with this block, I love it!

And here's another way to make nine patches without using long strips, in Bonnie's directions for her Sister's Choice quilt...

2012-03-03T10:12:00.002+10:30

I've been missing out on my sewing time because I decided to rearrange my whole set-up. The sewing room I have now is much smaller than my old one, and I've never felt that things had settled down after my move. I've been doing lots of thinking over the months and tried various ideas, but I still wasn't happy. But now I've taken my computer out of the room completely and set it up in the lounge room, switched the machine from one side of the room to the other, made a huge new pressing area and designated an area for designing and doing applique, with good light. Of course the whole room was turned upside down in the process, and I still haven't managed to put everything away, but I just have a happy feeling that this is going to work for me.

Sometimes I have to let go of one fixed idea :"The computer has to be in my sewing room" and then that frees up my thinking and I can come up with solutions. I realised that I didn't look at my quilt photos for reference when I was sewing and I could update my spreadsheets and other quilt related stuff anywhere, so there was no reason for it to be taking up valuable real estate in my smaller sewing area.

I haven't cut anything out for so long I was immediately energised by my new set-up and started slicing up fabric for old projects, and new ones.
I do love organising my cut out pieces next to my sewing machine, and generally having everything tidied up and put away, (only in my sewing room, I hasten to add, a good housekeeper I aint), which is why these piles of fabric everywhere are giving me the irrits.
I don't usually work like this, with things jumbled on my cutting mat, so the next job is to get all this tidied and put away. I'll actually enjoy it I think, now that all the big decisions about what to put where have been resolved.

Bonnie was talking about spaghetti squash and I thought I'd show my pumpkin patch. The summer has been too cool and damp for a really good harvest, but I've had fun growing these anyway.
I've got about three squash plants and the rest are pumpkins and zucchini, so I didn't have a lot of plants. There are twelve large fruit at the moment, and they may produce more. Keryn and I have picked two so far, and we liked it enough to vow that next year we'll plant a lot more. It's certainly easy to grow, and the fruits are large and quite heavy so they justify the time and water I've put into them.
They go bright yellow when they're mature, so the ones at the front are still growing. Keryn and I are trying different ways to cook them, baking, microwave and some books say to boil them whole- bit cumbersome I think, but we'll let you know the results later on.

2012-02-06T21:06:00.001+10:30

It was so lovely to see my immediate family at the wedding too. Rob, Elisa and Logan came over from New South Wales, a long drive of about 1500 kilometres and John and Liz were there from Adelaide. Keryn and her daughter Seonaid were with us too, and we accidentally stayed up until 4.30am, talking about our memories.I was quite horrified when I saw the time, but it was a great night.It was special being all together, and in this photo you can also see my MIL who is nearly 90 and was still on the dance floor at ten thirty that night. Talk about stamina!
Unfortunately Logan wasn't feeling his best, and while he was very well behaved he wasn't his normal cheery self. There were plenty of people to cuddle him,
and give him kisses and hugs.
He took a fancy to his mum's purse, and that kept him happy for a while but it didn't really match his tie. His outfit caused a lot of comment; he looked so darn cute in it and he must feature in dozens of photos.After the ceremony he went for a walk up the hill with his mum and dad and I took this photo. What a lucky little boy to have such loving parents, and how fortunate they are to have a beautiful son to love.We barely had a day to settle from that trip when more upheaval followed- John and Liz have teaching jobs in Pt Pirie and moved up here to live. They will only be thirty minutes away, so we will see lots more of them. I'm thrilled about that, and already we're planning things to do with them.Our social life will be a bit busier from now on....

2012-02-03T15:20:00.001+10:30

Last weekend saw us making our way to Victor Harbor for a family wedding. It was held on the family farm above Pt Eliott, and it was wonderful to visit the in-laws again and catch up with everyone. This view never fails to take the breath away, the coast stretching away to Goolwa and the Coorong in the distance.

The ceremony was held under these huge gumtrees and the weather obliged by being not too hot, or windy.
A piper played the bride and her father down to the waiting wedding party, and it was very evocative in this lovely setting. I'm a fan of bagpipes, being one quarter Scots myself, but I noticed that some people in the vicinity moved a lot further away when he started playing again!

I won't post close-ups of people because I didn't ask for permission, but I thought you might like to see the table set up for signing the register- a nice old Singer treadle base.

Later on there was a pattering of rain, and then a beautiful soft sunset that could have been made to order. There will be some spectacular wedding photos from this day.

2012-01-24T05:35:00.004+10:30

When Bonnie was talking about first quilts a while ago, this is the one I wanted to show but I couldn't find it at the time. We've always called it a Postage Stamp, even though the squares are 2" finished . It's the first quilt I made entirely by myself, without Keryn's help. I think there was a photo in a magazine somewhere, but it's lost in the mists of time. I can't remember when I started it, but most of the piecing was done after I'd had my second son Rob in 1984. Rather than go to bed for a few hours I used to stay up until his 2 o'clock feed and I spent the time building this top. I didn't know how best to construct it so I sewed groups of six or eight squares together, starting in one corner and just kept adding fabrics.
Every night I had to lay it out on the floor and decide the fabric for the next rows and then I'd spend some happy hours hand piecing them together. The boys were asleep in bed and the little woodstove we had made everything toasty and I kept a kettle simmering on it ready for cups of coffee. Sometimes I took a break and fell asleep on the floor in front of the fire, because it was tiring looking after two little boys, but I managed to get a lot done every night. Some of the fabrics in this are still favourites which I'd love to have back in my stash, and others were just whatever was available at the time.
There are two or three polyester fabrics I can see in this photo, and the small cream border was very thin and flimsy but I loved the print. What I wouldn't give for metres and metres of that blue border which had an almost chintzy feel to it, and came on a roll as dressmaking material.

It was one of the first times I'd bought fabric just for patchwork without even a pretence at making clothes first, and I felt quite daring cutting it up. Our Mum disapproved quite strongly of cutting up 'good' fabric for quilts, when we could make ourselves a nice skirt or a dress with it.
Keryn had left to go to agricultural college and so she wasn't around to help me baste it and I can remember putting this into my quilting frame when a friend came round for coffee. She held the clamps and did what I told her, but she thought I was absolutely demented and couldn't understand the idea of quilting at all

The backing was a brushed twill that I bought at Kmart for 50 cents a metre and I got three backing lengths in different colourways. I couldn't go past a bargain back then either! There are still scraps of this floating around in the stash somewhere.
It's done very simply, just 1/8" away from the seams and the borders haven't got any quilting at all, apart from along the seams. The border on the front was left extra wide, and then folded over to make a border on the back, caught down with not very neat stitches. I am quite surprised at how untidy some of the handsewing is, but it's held up well and I did improve over the years.

I gave it a good soak and wash when we discovered it at the bottom of a pile of quilts at the hall, and while I was at it I decided to wash my 4-4 Time that was featured in Australian Homespun last year. Pippi had been snoozing on it and it was a bit grubby, but washed up fine. I love the look of quilts on the clothesline, the natural light and the backdrop of trees make the colours stand out. I might dig out some other quilts I haven't shown and put them on the line too....

2012-01-22T10:43:00.003+10:30

I've nearly finished four of my antique blocks, and it's much easier now that I've found my fabrics. It's hard when you get interrupted during a project, I can't quite manage to get the enthusiasm back for this. I've been looking for the blue fabric used in the lower left hand block, but I can't find it anywhere. I'm almost sure I used all of it so I think it will have to have different corners on it. I've wasted too much time already.(I can't seem to capture the right colours lately, the top photo is too drab and cold, and the other one is too yellow. Imagine something in between the two...)

At least it's getting done, but Keryn doesn't know how many blocks we're going to make, so I'll just keep on until told to stop. She's obsessing about the 'right' setting fabric, and a number of pieces have been bought and then rejected so it's becoming a bit annoying. My method of working is to put the blocks in a drawer for a few months ( or years!) and wait till I find the fabric I want. But Keryn really likes to Finish tops and she's getting a bit antsy. I think there may be a trip to Adelaide in the future to try and settle the matter.....

Pippi has extended her landscaping projects to Keryn's back yard. There were two piles of dirt down the back and Pips rearranged one to her liking, about a foot of it removed and spread about, and the main excavation begun in the middle. Dolly was supervising, she usually stands off to one side looking worried and saying "It wasn't me!!"

Pippi hasn't got the brainpower to pretend she didn't do it, and here she is on the second pile of dirt just softening it up, ready for the Big Dig. She's so happy and she's not doing any real harm, and who needs two piles of dirt anyway?

2012-01-17T14:21:00.003+10:30

It's 40 degrees outside (around 105 F) and I'm holed up in the sewing room with the airconditioner on, staying cool. On days like this there's nothing else to do, housework is out of the question, and as for cooking! Yuk!

This morning I watered all my garden and moved pots out of the horrible wind which seems to accompany these days- I think it does more damage than the heat. This gorgeous David Austen rose is just a shapeless bundle of dried petals now, but at least I have the photo.
My tomatoes are loving the heat, as long as they have enough water, and they are well over six feet high now. I've picked kilos and kilos from them, and they're still laden. I want to make tomato sauce, and I've frozen half of the nine kilos I need. It won't take me long to amass the rest, at the rate they're ripening.
I'm trying to work on the antique blocks, but I was still having a lot of trouble with the fabric placement. I just didn't seem to have the colours I wanted and it was making me feel very sour towards this project.
Yesterday I was looking at the shelf above my sewing machine and saw a plastic box with a likely looking fabric in it, and when I got it down I could have kicked myself.
When we started this project I went through the stash and collected all the bits I wanted to use and put them together in one container. Then Christmas happened along and other things distracted me, and I completely forgot even doing it. No wonder I couldn't find the 'right' fabrics; they weren't in the stash anymore. Sigh. My memory is getting very fickle these days.

Pippi likes to lie at my feet in this weather, stretched full out so I can trip over her more easily. I drew her the other day, and as she was facing away from me she was upside down. It's considered a good exercise to try drawing an object like this, makes you focus on what you see, not what you think you see.
Here I've flipped the sketch in photoshop, and it still looks ok to me anyway.

2012-01-11T21:21:00.002+10:30

I'm working on some nine patches that will be used in the centre of my album variation blocks. They're supposed to be random, but for some reason I'm having trouble with just picking up bits and sewing them together. So I'm doing a rather planned scrap look, and to help me keep track of what I've decided I use an old magazine.

I start about half way through and lay each block out on a page. I flip the previous page over on top of it and plan another block and so on, until I've got as many as I need. Then the whole thing just lives next to the machine and I can turn the page and sew one block at a time without getting all mixed up.
I just seem to be happier with this way of choosing fabrics, and I don't agonise over every decision like I was before. It still looks fairly random to me anyway.

This is a catalogue for a gorgeous English shop called Past Times- I don't know if it still exists as this is from last century, 1995 to be exact. There are so many beautiful objects in here and it keeps me amused as I sew and look at all the things I didn't buy...
I was in the garden today and saw Pippi lying on the lawn, all four legs in the air and enjoying the shade and cool grass. She loves lying like this and quite often goes to sleep in this unladylike position. How undignified...
She came over to me later and I snapped a photo but didn't realise she'd closed her eyes-doesn't she look silly? Oh, that sun was so bright she had to go back and have another nap on the lawn. What a good life our dogs have!

2012-01-04T15:24:00.002+10:30

I don't get really mad at Pippi digging, because most of the time it's somewhere harmless, and she's very funny to watch when she's in action. Now that it's so hot I can't blame her for digging a hole to lie in that's slightly cooler than the surrounding earth.This was originally a pile of dirt about two feet high, which she flattened and spread around with lots of pronking and prancing and skittering in all directions. I noticed she'd started an excavation, and when I investigated I found she was trying to bury one of her toys. Poor thing got pretty mangled at some stage!
She looks so mature and sensible sometimes, but she's still a big puppy at heart. And a naughty one at that, she recently ate two of Keryn's shoes, and what made it worse is they were from different pairs. When is she going to learn..... sigh.

2012-01-01T17:09:00.002+10:30

The summer heat has started, and my big plans for this weekend have degenerated into staying in my one air conditioned room and trying to stay cool. I did have to go and pick some tomatoes and water the garden, but I did that at six am when the sun wasn't too bad.
I've picked quite a lot of these small heirloom tomatoes, about five kilos so far and today I cut up a tray of them and stuck them outside in the 40 + degree sun. I might as well make use of all that heat I suppose....My vegie garden is coming along nicely, despite some very vigorous digging on Pippi's part. She doesn't seem to understand why I'm so cross about her excavations, and part of me has to admire her zeal. She created one hole deep enough to sit in up to her chest, and removed three punnets of seedlings that I'd just planted there. Most of them were flung about four feet away and amazingly survived being replanted. So now I keep a very close eye on her.....

These are the blocks that Keryn and I are making and I'm finding the colour choices hard going. When there are about ten different fabrics per block I get all confused and it takes me forever to decide what goes where. I thought making the half square units and the flying geese would cut down on some of the indecision, but it's still a slow process. Only a few more to go, so I'll plug away at it and think about what I'm going to work on next.
I hope everyone had a great New Year, there were three very noisy parties around here last night. This morning when I was in the garden I heard some people that sounded very sorry for themselves starting out for home. I'd been up since five and felt full of beans, I couldn't bear to begin the New Year with such a hangover!

2011-12-21T11:28:00.003+10:30

Keryn and I are reproducing an antique quilt and it has lots of half square triangles in it, so that's all I've been sewing lately. I'm going to make dozens and dozens and then try to work out the fabric combinations in each block. It's very complicated and needs a lot of focus and care taken with the measurements and I'm just too distracted at the moment. But I can sew two triangles together alrighty!
I have to trim the 'ears' off this batch, and can anyone remember my glass bear that was holding all the little bits for me? Last time I posted about it he wasn't very full at all....(he looks more like a pig in this photo)
But Keryn had been adding her bits to him, and so have I. He's now full up to his eyeballs, and I think we'll get another six months worth of tiny triangles into him and that's it. I do shake them down and pack them into the indentations, but they're pretty springy little customers and bounce up again when he's back on the shelf.

That's a lot of triangles we've sewn together....

2011-12-13T12:23:00.003+10:30

Woohoo! I finally have my new computer, which is faster than any computer I've ever had before. I can't believe how quick it is, I used to go off and make a cup of coffee while Photoshop loaded. Not any more, it's all lickety split...done! My internet speed was the next hurdle, but I've found a way round that too and hopefully it's all plain sailing from now on.

I wanted to blog about this package from Andre a, all the way from Wales. I won these lovely vintage looking fabrics in her give away, and now I'm planning what to make with them. I've never won anything before, so it was quite a thrill. I do adore vintage fabric patterns and Keryn and I have quite a stash, packed away at the hall. I'd like to start going through them and posting photos of a few, some are gorgeous and others completely bizarre. Stay tuned for that...
I've been very unsettled in the sewing room, and sewing has been at a minimum while I moved furniture and generally made a right royal mess. I did start Bonnies Orca Bay mystery, but fell off the horse at the first sign of string piecing. I know she says absolutely no whining allowed, and I knew there was string piecing involved and I really thought I could do it.... but I can't. Won't. So I've been doing the pieced units and I might just cut squares of the red and blue fabrics when it comes time to put it all together. I'm not a very good mystery participant at all. I'm always the one in the background looking very worried and piping "But what happens next.... where will this go.... what if I change that..." Best if I don't try at all it seems.
I've used up some blacks and neutrals, which is good; these were a bundle of scraps hanging around to no good purpose.

This is a top I quilted last week for a 14 year old girl, her first finished piece. She did a wonderful job of it, beautifully pieced and balanced. She's already enthusiastically planning her second quilt which I think is great. Get them sewing young, and then they don't have all those regrets about not starting sooner.
It made me want to pull out all my scraps and make something so cheerful and pretty.

2011-11-28T16:20:00.002+10:30

I'm having dreadful computer woes, and am in the process of having a new one built. I'm limping along on the old one, but everything takes ages to load and then freezes or just shuts down. Grrr!I really wanted to blog about my first quilt on Bonnies blog, but I can only refer to an old post as resizing photos and trying to blog here is beyond my ailing technology. I would have liked to show you the first quilt I made entirely on my own, without help from Keryn, but I don't even know where the poor thing is now. Stored at the workshop somewhere, I suppose.

I still love my early quilts, I was so enthusiastic over the whole process. But I guess I would have been thrilled to know that I would one day make my living from finishing other people's quilts, something totally unforeseen back then. Hundreds and hundreds of quilts, and I'm still loving it, that says something....!

2011-10-19T05:51:00.004+10:30

Back to the customer quilts after a much needed break.
This colourwash heart needed extra rows in the centre and the borders added to finish it, which I did last week. Then it was loaded on Millhouse and custom quilted with allover feathers. I had great fun with it, just going where I pleased.
The fabrics in this were beatiful, it must be fun to collect them over time.
Of course more feathers in the border....In my sewing room I returned to these blocks (must see if they have a proper name) and now have twenty sewn.
They were good fun to piece, but now I don't know how to set them.

Straight, with sashing....
or on point, with setting squares?I'm going to have to have an audition session, with fabrics and different settings and probably graph paper involved at some point. I just hope the final decision doesn't involve me making more blocks, because I'm ready to go on to something else.

2011-10-09T16:07:00.003+10:30

Back again, after a ten day stay with Rob and Elisa in New South Wales.
It was lovely spending so much time with them and getting to know Logan properly. He's a good baby, and very cuddly, which suited me fine. He wasn't in the least bit shy of me, he's such a friendly little chap. It's hard to believe he'll be a year old in less than a month, that time seems to have flown so quickly.

Curtis has had a hair cut and looked very well groomed. He doesn't forget me and he needed his share of attention too.
Unfortuneately it rained most of the time, so we didn't get to sightsee as much as we could have. We went to some wineries and a cheese factory and the markets, but even there we were rained out. I'll have to go in summer next time.

I didn't get much sewing done, in fact this is all I accomplished; part of a Carpenter's Star.
(I bought this little case at the cheap shop, and it was perfect to pack all my sewing stuff in.)
I knitted nearly a whole sock, and made an art smock for Logan to wear at daycare, but I was quite content to just spend time playing with him and not doing handwork. I can do that now that I'm home again.

Rob and Elisa's house is in a new development and there was lots of building going on. This view was at the top of their hill, wouldn't it be nice to see this from the lounge room window? It was very nice countryside, lots of horse studs, wineries, and of course coal mines.
Very pretty, and I liked watching the rain storms roll across the hills like this.

2011-09-18T12:28:00.002+09:30

I'm still enjoying sewing my nine-patches, but I thought I'd better start making some decisions about setting them into blocks. I hunted through my extensive collection of photos and it was so hard choosing just one. I want to make them all!!
This is what I was thinking of originally, just a standard double nine-patch, with sashing, pretty straight forward. How about that colour though, I don't think I'm brave enough for all that yellow- wow!
I've always loved this very ordered setting, and it wasn't until I studied it this time that I noticed the chains are made from the white squares. For this I'd need to use five shirting squares in each little block, and four dark squares, but I've done them the other way around. Oh well, next time.

This made me look at my other pictures more closely and I found a lot of the antique ones were made with this configuration, some of the times set on point as well.
Doesn't this simple change in the placement of the light squares create a whole new look? And here's a luscious Amish version, love those darker colours.
This just makes me think I have to create more and more nine-patches in all sorts of fabric placements to try all these different ideas. I'm not sick of them yet and they make great leader-enders- how many nine-patch quilts can you start before you know you've got a problem (hint: obsession!)

2011-09-11T10:55:00.003+09:30

I suppose pikelets are an English thing, along with the scone, which, by the way we pronounce to rhyme with John. The American tv shows we've heard make it rhyme with stone, which we find peculiar. And I've got no idea how the English say it, any British readers out there that can offer their pronounciation?

Anyway, my recipe comes from this book, which is the first cookbook Keryn and I ever owned. Mum gave us each a copy when we were in our early teens, and they were duly placed in the "Glory Box", ready to assist us in our married life. (I should do a seperate post on this out-dated custom, which was virtually a trousseu girls collected over years and years, usually in a big trunk of some kind.) This book is Keryn's, which stayed a lot cleaner than mine did.
I used to make pikelets when the boys had sleepovers, and I can remember standing over the frying pan making batch after batch and watching them all disappear at an incredible rate. They were a great cheap snack to fill up hungry boys, and the ingredients were always at hand. I was happy when the boys graduated to being able to cook them on their own, and then I didn't have stand there, spatula in hand and looking at a child holding a plate out for more, more, More!!
And yes, they are smaller than usual, because I found this cute little ladle at the op-shop, and even though I had no idea what I'd use it for I had to buy it. That's a teaspoon for scale. It makes
dear little pikelets, and I love the fact that they're all the same size, and that I found a use for my purchase.
I'm still flitting from project to project- will I ever settle down to one thing again?
There are nine of the pastel Arrowhead blocks, still being pieced at night while watching telly. (two finished since this photo was taken)
These blocks have been resurrected and now there's ten of them.
There's eight of these blocks, and then there's the nine-patches!

Arggh! the nine-patches! (clutches head and wails...) I can't stop making them......110 at last count and I still haven't decided on the setting!

2011-09-04T14:19:00.004+09:30

Here's a close up of the setting fabric for the Feathered Square blocks. I didn't realise it was a quilting fabric until I read the selvedge, this feels more like a lightweight dress material. I do love the pattern, and when I first saw this there were very few large repro type prints available so I fell on it and bought about four metres.

I'd already used it as a setting fabric in a smaller top and it was flimsy but the straight seams helped control it- no bias to worry about here.
I like the idea of making a pillowcase from the remaining fabric, thanks Henrietta!

It was also Henrietta who said that Dolly and Pippi were such good dogs. Yes they are..... but there have been times when they've been in disgrace. Take for instance this pretty pink and green top of a friends that we ordered a special pink and green thread for....
Pippi pinched the reel from the table and this is what it looked like by the time I found it- unrecognisable. And as it came from America there was no hope of quickly getting another. Bad Pippi! And Dolly has turned out to be a cat chaser which is something we're trying to discourage- but no-one's perfect, are they?

The golf course is so lush in parts that the dogs have to wade through the grass and weeds. This is the last resting place of many golf balls but they love it and it uses up a lot of their excess energy jumping through it.
But there's always enough pep left for attacking a sister when she least expects it...Gotcha!

2011-08-27T06:58:00.002+09:30

The Feathered Square blocks are together, and I'm very relieved to have this done. The fabric I chose for the setting was an old favourite, but it wasn't very good quality and it sagged and stretched and generally misbehaved. Those long bias edges on the triangles were very hard to keep flat, and even after they were sewn to the blocks and stabilised the strips seemed to change lengths as they were pinned on the design wall. I had to bribe myself to keep sewing until it was all done, and I could only do one long seam at a time before I lost patience.Of course I like it now that it's in one piece and all the bias has been contained but there were times that I was ready to stuff it back in the project box and put it on top of the highest cupboard in the sewing room. Where it had been for many years before this.

I've done this Streak of lightning set many times before, and this is the first time I've ever had any trouble. I still have a little bit of this fabric left and even though I like the design the flimsiness might dictate where I use it from now on.
I made pikelets a while ago and everywhere I moved in the kitchen I was concious of this appealing little figure in the background. She knows she has to "sit" before she gets any treat, so she shuffles around on her bottom as she follows me, eyes pleading and the very tip of her tail wagging quickly. "Pleease!" Needless to say I usually give in and she gets a taste of what I'm having.

2011-08-24T09:46:00.002+09:30

The Woven Geese now has a border, and the backing is pieced and pressed, waiting for it's turn on Millhouse. I'm really pleased with this simple pattern and I'm already planning one in different fabrics. Matt will probably end up with this one and I'll make a prettier one for me.

I'm still flitting from one set of blocks to another, and have even begun a new project.
I've always wanted to make another Double Nine Patch, so I've started making the units. I was cutting strips for one of my sets of blocks, and thought I'd just cut the one and a half inch strips while I was at it. Then I thought I'd just "test" a few blocks and suddenly I've got a production line going and the nine patches are all I want to sew.

I don't care, I don't want to feel pressured to stick with any particular project, and I'm having so much fun I can't feel guilty over my flightiness. However I did need a way to keep all my pieces separated nicely, and I found these plastic catering trays in the cheap shop.
They are big enough for the individual sections of the blocks I'm working on, and then I can stack them all neatly depending on what I feel like sewing at the moment.
I think they're great for organising my piecing, even if it was for just one project instead of the three I'm sewing now. As you can see I've got about six trays stacked up there- that's not excessive, surely?

2011-08-04T11:01:00.002+09:30

This is the project that I was hand-cutting pieces for last week. I'm not sure what this pattern is called, Broken Arrow?

These blocks were an old UFO that I wasn't even sure I wanted to finish. They spent some time in the orphan pile before I decided I did want to make more and rescued them. They are terribly wishy-washy, but I wanted that faded, washed-a-hundred-times look, rather like my Rolling Stone top I did last year.
And the hexagon blocks that I finally finished......I think I should stop with the faded wishy-washy theme already! All these blocks are an attempt to use up all my old, old fabric, and I don't seem to be making a huge difference. I decided to go through all my containers and weed out everything from that early era, 1980 to early '9o's, and I was shocked at how much I still had. I think once these tops are all finished then I have to take whatever's left and piece backs for them and hopefully that will use it up entirely.

While I was rummaging in the container of diamonds I'd cut out I decided to try piecing a Carpenter's Star by hand, just to see how tedious it was.
I enjoyed it, even though it was time consuming, so I might start cutting some of these from my nice reproductions. I was hesitant before because I thought I might hate all those set-in squares, but they were a doddle by hand. I've always loved this pattern, now to choose which version to sew...
I don't know that I could use just one fabric, might get a bit boring, even though the results are stunning.Alternate setting blocks so I don't have to make so many...?Mmm, I'm going to have a hard time choosing because I love all the possibilites!

2011-07-31T09:28:00.002+09:30

I'm acting very irresponsibly in my sewing room, working on about five different projects for ten minutes at a time, and then being distracted and wanting to start even more ideas. I can't seem to stay focused at all, and my only consolation is that everything's gradually inching toward the finish line. But there's no one completed quilt to point to, yet.

I applaud Bonnie for deciding to stick with one thing and see it through, and even though I've given myself a stern talking to I'm still flitting here and there as the fancy takes me. I'm quite capable of making myself sew for hours on a less than favourite project, just to see it done, and some of my old UFO's have been conquered this way. But when I'm in this mood I get to a certain point and then feel almost nauseated at the thought of one more seam-ugh!

So the only thing to do is chop and change and not let myself get sick of anything, and after a while I'm able to carry one top through to completion.

I think this one will be put together first, I've got half the rows sewn together, and the rest will go together quickly. It's not as big as I thought it was going to be, but I'm happy with it, and I think it will have a border instead of the extra rows I was planning on.

I call it Woven geese, I don't know if it has a proper name.It's been a lovely pattern to sew,only two fabrics per block, great for scraps, it presses nicely and the rows all nest together, what's not to like?

These Feathered Square blocks are so very nearly a top, but this is one that I had to bribe myself to touch. I did bits here and there and walked off and left it many times in the course of the week it was on the design wall. There are only four main seams left to do, so I know that one evening's sewing will see it done. I have no ideas about borders, but I'm happy to let it sit and stew once it's in one piece. Another very old UFO inching closer to the bed instead of the cupboard...

I returned to these little spinning rails as Leader Enders and after a while I had a niggly feeling that something wasn't quite right. I went and checked the pile of completed blocks and yep! the new ones are spinning in the wrong direction. Sigh. These will have to go on the back or be corners in the borders or something, I'm not pulling them apart.
Last week we went to Wirraberra Forest with Matt and the dogs for a five kilometre hike and Pippi was beside herself with excitement. She and Dolly ran and ran, up hill and down, plunging through the long grass and following exciting trails through the trees. They waded through the creek and raced up the bank and down to cross it again. However it's much deeper and wider in this spot and there was no time to judge the take-off. Pippi gave a mighty leap, but it didn't end well and she landed smack in the middle, absolutely saturated. But it didn't slow her down and she floundered through ready to go again. Dolly was more sensible and splashed her way across without going under, as my silly dog did.

2011-07-16T08:15:00.002+09:30

I love pressing all the bits I've sewn and lining them up in neat rows.I'm making piles and piles of flying geese and sewing them into rows of four, and while they were on the ironing board I played around and came up with some new setting ideas to try out. But not now; these pieces are going to become this block, which I saw in one of the Stashbusters photo albums.
I've been cutting up lots of scraps and have got about forty blocks made so far, and another twenty or so cut out. It was to have lasted me quite a while as a kit for in between other projects, but I became obsessed with it, as you do. Now I might just as well push ahead and finish it, sigh. I have good plans, but rarely follow them, I usually prefer to go with the flow and do what interests me at the time.
I also pressed some nine patches for the centre of my album variation,
and these three stars, which I was piecing at night while I watch the telly. Years ago I cut all my repro scraps into diamonds and I've sewn literally hundreds of these stars yet still have stacks of diamonds left in the container. After two hundred plus Lemoyne stars I've started another project using the diamonds and hopefully that will see a few more gone.

But strangely I'm also cutting more hand piecing bits to finish an old UFO. There seems to be no logic to this process- trying to get rid of one lot of diamonds, while creating another new pile of them at the same time, but what the heck. When my Sensible Self ventures to query my methods I just hiss "Don't Question Me!!" and keep on cutting.

2011-07-03T08:52:00.002+09:30

I spent last night watching a dvd and sewing random pieces, and then saved all the pressing for this morning. A nice prospect; lazy Sunday morning, cup of coffee and seeing all the little seams laying down flat under the iron. Now I can arrange these units into blocks and set up my next sewing jag for when I can get to the machine.
Here are the red cross album blocks set together, awaiting corner triangles and a border idea. I think there will be a wide cream border on the outside to show up quilting, but there might be triangles or squares around the blocks. Something will occur to me.

The block in the corner of the design wall is Bonnie's Nifty Thrifty from Scraps and Shirtails- I didn't even realise it was there until I downloaded the photo. I think it's a great block and there will be some scraps cut up for a quilt soon.

Dolly and Pippi were sitting on the lounge looking so cute that I quietly got the camera out to take some photos. Keryn held up a biscuit to get their attention but it worked too well and resulted in this pose. Dolly is humming "Biiiscuts......mmmmm" and Pippi knows she has to "Sit" before she gets one- even if it's on top of her sister.
We had a customer and her grand-daughter come to pick up some quilts yesterday, and the girl had never seen Pippi before. She likes to visit because she was a fan of Dolly's but she fell in love with Pippi and spent ages patting both of them. Some people think because Pippi is bigger than Dolly she's her mother, but when Keryn remarked on this the little girl said "No, she still has puppy eyes". How astute of her.Ahh, puppy eyes..

2011-06-25T12:22:00.002+09:30

Henrietta asked what the stack of blue boxes in a previous photo were. They're from a hardware store and were originally meant to store nuts and bolts and suchlike. But they looked useful for a sewing room, so I bought four sets and I've used them in numerous ways over the years.
At one stage they formed a set of shelves, with boards in between them, and now they're serving to hold up a shelf above my sewing area. One contains all sorts of sewing gear, measures and cutting blades and bobbins and marking pencils.

The other has a series of narrow strips in them, when I thought I'd use such things. And I mean narrow, ranging from 3/4" to 1 1/4". The latter I still save, and have started a log cabin using them, but I decided I didn't want to keep the others. I thought I might make applique stems from them, but that's probably not going to happen so I've stopped cutting those sizes. I suppose I should repurpose the drawers but I haven't decided what to put in them yet.

Yesterday I weeded all the small lengths from the 1 1/2" drawer and sewed them into pairs, then crosscut them into 1 1/2" slices.
From these I sewed forty tiny four patches which will join the others I've already made. I have two quilts in mind to use them up, but that's a long way off.
I like to tidy up the strip drawers like this occasionally; it only takes half an hour or so and the stack of four patches is growing nicely.

2011-06-19T16:57:00.003+09:30

I love the blocks that are on my design wall now. They're like an album, but with more of a checkerboard feel to them. I wrote a post about them years ago, and how many variations of them I'd already made.

I'd sewn the red block and the one with the green background a while ago and they suddenly wanted to be turned into a whole project or two. Two more WIP's don't matter to me, and I'm loving how they're turning out.
I sew the blocks together in batches and leave the corners till last, and it always amuses me how they look like stars before I press them open. This would make a very cute block if I ever get around to it, but I won't be sidetracked at the moment.
However, I did feel a tad guilty about the old sets of blocks, so I've started putting one lot together. It won't be anything fancy, and there's only twelve so it won't be big either.
I'm still not connected to the internet- I won't have a big spit about it here but hopefully this week will see me back in the loop. I've missed blogging regularly because there's no record of all the time that's gone by. It's handy to have my projects documented here, and other events like the birth of the puppies.

Here's Pippi enjoying a bit of winter sunshine, we've had some very cold days here and ice on the car in the mornings. I love winter!

2011-06-12T07:47:00.000+09:30

I've been rearranging my workspace trying to get the best lighting and a little design wall area. I'll have to walk around the cutting table to get to the iron, but it's all exercise. I tend to sew a heap of seams and then iron them all at once, so it won't bother me to have to get up now and then. I've been cutting lots of pieces for different projects and I think the time has come to sit down and actually sew some together.

In this photo you can see how much taller Pippi is than Dolly now. She'll fill out too, so she's going to be a lot more substantial when she's fully grown.
This is the sight that greets us when we come home; two hysterical dogs dancing from foot to foot and yelping anxiously until we get through the gate.They look so funny- this isn't their best angle, that's for sure.
Dignity, they haz none...

2011-06-06T18:57:00.002+09:30

I just finished quilting this large quilt for a customer. It was 103 by 90 inches and seemed to take forever to reach the end. There are feathers all over it, a bit over the top but it looks effective.The coloured pieces are all reverse applique, this must have taken ages to complete. I've only ever done small areas of a block in this technique, I can't imagine doing a whole top like this. The customer must have liked it though, because she also finished her friends top.

I have no internet at the moment so blogging is difficult. I'm hoping to change that soon, I really miss reading blogs and being able to post.

I'll have to post a recent photo of Pippi, she's bigger than Dolly now, but she's still a puppy at heart.

2011-05-17T05:16:00.006+09:30

Okay Jan, here's a post about Curtis, just for you and his other fans.
Curtis by the way, is a cross between a golden retiever and a brittany spaniel.

Elisa assured me that he'd remember me, but it's been a long time since he saw his grandma. But when he realised that it was me standing in the front yard he went mad. He jumped all round me, raced off to tell Rob, ran around the car, back to me, leapt and spun and yipped and yelped and barked with excitement- yep, he knew who I was!
That afternoon we went to the dog beach, which is always an entertaining couple of hours. I think it's wonderful, dogs of every description running around having a great time, and amazingly I didn't see one sign of aggression anywhere. There were purebreds and mutts and designer dogs like Curtis, but they all had one intention - FUN!!This puppy was a cross between a chocolate lab and a rhodesian ridgeback, and he was huge. He had a really pronounced ridge and was a lovely reddish colour with greeny-yellow eyes. The day was so bright I couldn't see the camera screen so I just pointed and clicked and didn't realise I was at the wrong angle to see his back decoration, sigh.
I love border collies...

Curtis had to think twice about going after this piece of wood that was floating out of reach, but he finally swam out and retrieved it.
Got it!
Once he got wet he was in and out of the water, and racing around with the other dogs, collecting a vast quantity of sand in the process. His fur is so soft and doesn't have guard hairs, so he was really soaked.
When we got home Elisa decided to bath him, and he looked ridiculous sitting in this tub. He was so good natured about it, and very patient. When he was allowed to get out he shook litres of water everywhere and ran around the backyard like a mad thing, all nice and clean. He took hours to dry off, so a trip to the dog beach is quite an undertaking really.

Collapsed, too much excitement for one day...

2011-05-14T08:07:00.003+09:30

When I was looking through the archives on Sujata's blog The Root Connection, I found a photo of this quilt, which I think is absolutely wonderful. It is the same pattern as Keryn and I made for the bushfire quilts, but the blocks we made were 8" finished.

Sujata's quilt used pieces that are a lot smaller, and that makes it very appealing to me. I could literally make hundreds of these blocks! Mine finish at 4" and they are very cute and blindingly quick.
The reason I was so pleased to find this inspiration is that I had a little drawer full to overflowing with precut 1 1/2" by 2 1/2" pieces already. When I'm cutting up 2 1/2" strips, sometimes there's a little bit left over that I can't get a square from. I cut these bits into 1 1/2" pieces, and there are a number of ways I thought of using them. Chinese coin strips, borders for mini quilts, or blocks like Chunky Churndash from Bonnie's site.But I knew these Spinning Rail blocks were so easy (as long as you remember to have them spinning all in the same direction) that I decided to make them my Leader Enders for a while.

I can make the whole block without ironing, just finger pressing as I go, so they seem to mount up in a very satisfying way.

I thought I would make as many as I could from this little drawer, but it's taking longer than I thought. This was so full I couldn't shut it properly, but I've made 60 complete blocks and the components for probably another ten and there's still some left. It's much emptier to be sure, but I wonder if it's ever possible to use things up entirely. There's some sort of magicking involved here, where the drawer refills overnight and I'll just keep sewing these forever....

2011-05-12T11:01:00.000+09:30

I received a copy of the latest Homespun magazine in the mail yesterday, and inside there was my four patch quilt! For some reason it looks like it has blue sashing in the first photo, but the next page is closer to it's real dusty green colour. Hmm, it would look nice with blue sashing, now that I come to think of it....
These photos are terrible, my camera didn't like the shiny paper, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like. I think it came up very well, and the pattern was lovely and easy to do. It used up a whole heap of scraps and I'm tempted to start another one soon. perhaps with that blue sashing this time!

2011-05-09T05:22:00.003+09:30

While I was away I was tempted to buy some precuts at the markets, and stopped myself with the thought that I just don't use them. I have a number of charm packs already, the remains of a layer cake that Keryn gave me and a jelly roll project that I'm not enthused about. I don't want to add to that little pile of guilt if I can help it.

I love seeing all the fabrics in a range, but there are always ones I wouldn't choose to work with, I hate the pinked edges and and I don't like the feeling of constraint that I 'shouldn't ' add any other fabrics. That's my silly perception, but it does affect my enthusiam. So I bought the fat quarters instead, which I know I will use.

Determined to use the charm packs I did have I started making sawtooth stars. (This block is square by the way, but I rotated and cropped a photo so it looks out of whack.)

These finish at six inches, and use four squares each, so I'm not going to get a lot from one pack, but I don't care. I've stopped trying to keep charms separate from the rest of my stash, and I'll just find similar fabric to make more stars.

From one square I cut four 2 3/8" squares and then cut them on the diagonal. These are the light triangles in the flying geese units that will make the star points. From another square I cut a 4 1/4" square and cut it twice on the diagonal. These will be the 'geese' in the flying geese units, and the background of the star. Hardly any wasted fabric here.
Then I cut four 2" squares from one charm; these are the corners of the block and a 3 1/2" square for the centre of the star.
There is a little bit of waste, but I can live with it, especially as I cut those larger bits into 1 1/4" strips for my little log cabin. So for me there's no waste at all.

I'm having fun making combinations of four squares, and I've picked out some other fabrics which will go with these. I have no idea what this range is, it was a generic charm pack of assorted fabrics (made by some shop because it didn't have pinked edges) and seems to have a variety of reproduction prints in it.
I'll have fun making more of these; I'm thinking perhaps a medallion quilt with these as a border, but I've got a lot more to make before I decide anything.

2011-04-29T11:35:00.003+09:30

I can remember watching Di and Charles wedding on tv and then Sarah and Andrew's. My son John was about three and a half when the latter were married, and this is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to Keryn at the time.

"Did you watch the Royal Wedding? Or as John puts it, the "Oil Wetting."

I let him stay up to watch it, and he was fascinated. He loved the horses and carriages and the church and all the people, but I had a hard time explaining what it was all about. I pointed out Sarah in her carriage and said "That lady's going to be a princess!" He stared and asked "How are they going to make her a princess?"
"Well" I explained "She's going to marry a Prince."
"No she's not!" said John firmly.
When Andrew and Edward came on I said "That's the prince she's going to marry, and the other man is a prince too."
"No, they're not Princes!" protested John. "Where are their swords?"
I pointed out that they did have swords on their belts, but he still wasn't satisfied. "Where's their hats?" he asked.
"Do you mean crowns?" I said.
"Yes, those hat-things they wear on their heads!"
I couldn't anwer that so I just said that they left them at home sometimes. He watched very intently for a while then asked "What are majesties?"
"They're Kings and Queens, you have to call them Your Majesty....."I said, hoping the questions wouldn't get any more complicated.
"Where are THEIR crowns?" John asked, obviously quite sceptical until he saw at least one crown amongst all the fashionable hats.

Eventually Sarah got there and started to walk down the aisle. "What's that thing behind her, that bit of dress?" he asked. Inwardly I groaned and said "It's called a train." John fell about laughing, then said "That's not a train, what's it called ?" It was a while before he'd accept that it was indeed called a train, but I could see him thinking all this was getting weirder and weirder. "Where's HER crown?" he asked, looking critically at the wreath in her hair. I ignored that and said wasn't she pretty etc etc.

During the service they showed the man conducting the choir, making trembling passionate gestures and frowning at the singers. I turned to look at John, and there he was, throwing his arms around, glaring at the telly and generally being a temperamental Artiste. When he saw I was watching him he was quite embaressed and explained "I'm conducting, but you really need a stick!"

After Sarah had signed the register and came out I quickly spied the tiara and said to John "Look, Look! She's got a crown now!" He stared at her open mouthed, then turned to me with huge round eyes and breathed "She IS a Princess!" After that it was sealed. Sarah was a princess, Andrew a prince, her train a train, it was all true because Sarah had a crown."

Ah me, that was a long time ago. I think I'll go and make a pot of tea and wonder where all those years went...

2011-04-28T11:39:00.003+09:30

I spent four days in Newcastle, catching up with Rob and Elisa and little Logan. He's five and a half months old now and terribly cute; I had the best time getting to know him. I took quite a few movies of him so that I can watch them at home and remember all his little winning ways. I'll just have to make more frequent trips to see him, he's changing so quickly now.

Although I took some hand sewing to do I really preferred to spend as much time as I could gooing over him. He's such a good happy baby and very much like his Dad, except Robert had pale blue eyes and Logan's are dark. He's certainly got a big voice like his father and plenty to say about lots of things, but as it's all good natured chat it's just funny to listen to.He likes books at bedtime too, just like his Nanna.What a little dear.

Rob took me to a local market and as we were walking round he said "The fat quarters are over here Mum," and showed me a little patchwork stall. I've trained him well!

2011-04-17T12:33:00.002+09:30

When I made this Irish Chain top years ago, I spent quite a while working on a checkerboard border to go around it.But when I laid it out the top absolutely rejected it, too heavy, too overpowering, wasn't having That, thankyou very much! I packed the bits away in a drawer and every now and then I'd try them against some other top, but they were just too ....red.
Then I decided to mix them with other four patches of all different colours, and that toned it down somewhat. It's still horribly bright compared to my usual tastes, but at least all my work hasn't been wasted. This will be a donation quilt too.
That blue is so intense it throbs!

Once that was off the design wall I got out my Scrappy Trips blocks and sewed them together- another bright and cheerful top. These colours are so not me, but I've enjoyed working with them, and it's nice to move them out of my stash. I'm not quite sure how I ended up with so much fabric that isn't my style, but I won't be replacing it, that's for sure.
I've still got some bright blue, perhaps this will get the border treatment too...

I can't believe how big Pippi is getting, she's as tall as Dolly, but not as muscled. She'll fill out like a good staffie should, but that adorable puppy shape has gone forever.
I love her personality and she's such good company, I can't imagine life without her now.

2011-04-07T10:18:00.002+09:30

The rail fence top is in one piece, I rather like the basket weave effect in this one. So easy to do and it gobbled up quite a few strips in the process.The strips that were too small for the rail fence were made into these four-patch puss in the corner blocks, which have been set together into another top. I'm going to put borders on this when I get the chance, hopefully this weekend. And there are still 2" strips left over; I think this is the fourth or fifth top I've made from this container. It doesn't do to think of how many actual quilts are lurking in the stash, does it? I might get a bit overwhelmed.

And one of the good things about finishing tops is now I get to choose the backings, which will use another pile of fabric from the shelves. Oh, and bindings...!
Every evening Keryn and I take the dogs to the golf course, which is mercifully free of golfers at the moment. We keep threatening to take a thermos of coffee and just let the dogs exercise themselves by chasing mice and rabbits while we lean against a tree and relax after some very full work weeks.That would make a nice end to the day, and if I rigged up a doggie backpack we could even get out of carrying the thermos.
When we are walking the streets to get to this lovely spot we see many dogs who never get out of their yards, ever, and I wonder if our dogs realise how lucky they are? It doesn't take much effort to make these two really happy, and sometimes it's only half an hour there and back, but it makes their day.

2011-03-30T04:40:00.003+10:30

I've been jealous of Keryn finishing her old projects, so I thought I'd tackle one of mine. I hadn't really decided what I was going to do with these rail fence blocks that I made some time ago, but I was sick of them taking up space in my project drawers. I made another ten or so, and now I have enough for a charity quilt.

They are ready to be sewn together but I got sidetracked by the four patch blocks I'd been making at the same time and suddenly I had piles of them, and thirty blocks made for another quilt.I'm never quite sure how I manage to get so far off track sometimes, but I don't really question myself. If I'm enthusiastic and want to keep sewing, that's enough for me. I never know where I'll end up, but I'll probably have enough bits and blocks for three donation quilts, so it's all good.

This is another log cabin made from 1 1/4" strips, and it's queensize.
I just love it, and I've been pulling out my container of strips this size and rummaging through it, wanting to start one of my own. If I was honest I'd admit that this is my second drawer full of 1 1/4" strips- when you cut scraps down to the very dregs you end up with a lot of these little bits. They are calling me quite insistently, but I want to do the charity quilts first.
Patience, my little strips, patience...

Pippi's trying to be patient too, but it's sooo boring when I sew. She flumphs into this chair and groans and sighs theatrically. Every now and then she comes and stands on her hindlegs next to me, so that she can lay a beseeching paw on my arm and whine "Can we go and play with Dolly now?!!" Then trails back to the chair again, sighing. It's quite heart-warming to see how well she and her big sister get along, it would have been catastophic if they hadn't liked each other!

2011-03-23T13:41:00.002+10:30

I've started a Scrappy Trip Around the World, using Bonnie's pattern, and as usual I think it's just great.
These blocks are so easy to whip up that I'm finding it hard to stop. I'm using deeper toned fabric, no lights and shirtings here, and it's going to be quite intense. I want to donate this one too, and thought it would be good for a guy quilt, not florally and sweet like the Scrappy Bargello.

I have the strip sets sewn for ten blocks and I intend to sew the last long seam to turn them into tubes and then leave them for a bit while I go on to other stuff.
I can slice them into 2 1/2" strips later and sew one block at a time when I feel like it, whenever I can.It's so annoying when you want to push on and finish a project and then other stuff, (like earning a living) gets in the way.

But I have twenty blocks finished or in construction, so the remains of this group of fabric can be packed away and the table cleared up, that always makes me feel good.

I quilted this little Log Cabin this week and the strips are 3/4" finished. I'm itching to start one of my own, this is the third one I've done for other people and I just love them.
This one has clever sashing to make those stars, a really cute idea and so effective.

2011-03-20T08:20:00.003+10:30

The other day I investigated strange sounds in the garden and came across this.
AWWW, isn't she cute?A Pippi in a Pot. Just ignore the sad remains of the plant that she'd chewed earlier in the day, stuck hopefully back into the pot next to her.

But the sounds had included splashing and snorting worthy of a small hippo....
Whaat? Disgusting gross stinky black water and my puppy smack dab in the middle of it.
Sigh, another bath coming up. If she wasn't so darn gorgeous....

2011-03-16T16:33:00.003+10:30

When I decided to use my strings I looked through my photos and found this one. I can't remember if it was from ebay, or a blog, but I was immediately intrigued with the possibilities. I decided to make it from the "strata" I was constructing , sewing the strings into larger pieces of fabric.
This maker has thrown in some crumb type piecing as well, but I didn't want to confuse myself too much.

I began by cutting the strata into strips, in this case 4 1/2" wide. I just cut until I couldn't get anymore, and then set aside whatever was left. It helps to make several different strata pieces before making the blocks, and then you run less chance of having the same fabric combinations show up together.
I tidied up the ends of the strips so that they were straight- this meant I could sew them together to make longer strips as needed.
I had a selection of 4 1/2" squares already cut, and I sewed one to a strip; in this case I jogged the ends a bit so the seams wouldn't fall where I wanted to trim them up square.
The smaller cut-off pieces can be sewn together to make more strips; this is useful at the start when you only need the piece to measure about 5" anyway.
Sew another strip onto the other side to make the centre of the block and trim. It will be 12 1/2" by 4 1/2".
I made several at once to simplify the process.
Then you can add a longer strip across the top and bottom, trim and square it up, and that's it. You can move the strips along to make sure fabrics aren't repeated top and bottom, and flip them around to distribute lights and darks in a pleasing arrangement.
The leftover bits can be sewn together for more blocks and to add more variety, turned into a strippy border or just go back into the string box as 'seed' material for the next top.
I enjoyed making these and once the strings are sewn into one piece they're really simple to put together. I'd like to try and make them more wonky and perhaps put some crumbs and tiny bits in there too. I'll definitely go back to this method, but I've made twelve so far and the strings have run out. I'm too impatient to wait for more to build up, so I'll probably set these as soon as I get the time. I don't think I'll use the strip around the outside of the block, as the original quilter did, but you'll have to wait and see.

Keryn was looking at some blogs the other day and said "Oh look, there's your block". She was reading The Root Connection and Sujata has a beautifully pieced block as her profile picture. It's much more vivid and contemporary than mine, and dare I say made out of nicer fabric than the old scruffy stuff I used, but the method is the same. And I pinched it from the older quilt, it's amazing how these things go round and round.

2011-03-15T17:23:00.004+10:30

I've been without an internet connection for weeks, and I'm just about going crazy. I have 862 unread posts in google reader and I feel like I'm totally out of the loop. I'm working on a solution, but it's not straightforward when you live in the boondocks, as we apparently do. And Keryn has been little better off until just recently, so we felt a bit deprived of our technology.

We were in an op-shop the other day, shamelessly eaves-dropping on a conversation between two of the staff. A man was bemoaning the fact that he and his wife had bought an electric mixer, and the first time they'd used it they couldn't get the beaters out. So they'd taken it back to the shop to complain about it being broken, and blow him down, if the girl didn't tell him there was a button to push and the beaters just fell out. Like that! Well, he hadn't known about it, that's for sure!
The woman listening had been making tsking noises and muttering in sympathy, and finally she said bitterly "That's Technology for you! It only makes things more difficult!" Keryn and I immediately tucked this phrase away, and now when either of us fumbles with things, or we can't get a package of biscuits open, we trot it out..."That's Technology for you!"

But we love our interwebs and the blogging world and instant downloads, and I miss the ease of a good internet connection, sigh. Hopefully I can sort it out soon.
I have a post partly constructed about another block to make with my strings, but there are far too many photos to load now. The container is nearly empty, and I'll have to hunt around for some bits and pieces if I want to keep making string blocks, which is quite encouraging; I thought there was never going to be an end to them!

2011-02-24T18:55:00.006+10:30

Here's one way I've been sewing the strings. I pair them up by similar lengths, and sew the straightest side together, not worrying about squaring anything up yet. These are pretty rough, but I don't want to have to do too much preparation with this technique.
I press the pairs, then trim both edges straight. I don't make then parallel, because a bit of wonkiness adds interest. You can even things out by sewing the next seams; notice the wide end of the green strip evens out the narrow end of the blue strip.
I keep sewing pairs together keeping the length as constant as possible, but not being too fussy This isn't fabric I really care about, and a bit of waste isn't going to upset me.
I end up with a pieced fabric that I can cut in all sorts of ways.
I used my small square ruler to cut some more 3 1/2" squares for my string cross blocks

and paired up some of the leftover triangles to make crumb blocks, so this isn't wasteful at all.
The blocks end up very random, but that's the whole point of strings, I would think. I've got another block to post soon, I keep thinking of ways to use my pieced string fabric.

2011-02-21T19:29:00.002+10:30

The Scrappy Bargello has finally been bound and photographed and will be sent off as soon as we get some other quilts together for the flood relief. I was really pleased with this pattern and would make another very happily.

I've been sewing my strings and I've got a few blocks to show you, but I haven't got time to do a post on them yet. I'll probably end up with two or three quilts in progress from this collection of bits, I'm amazed how far the strings go.

Henrietta remarked that Pippi was getting big, and I agree. We think she may be bigger than Dolly, her legs are longer and she has a bigger frame than Doll had when she was four months old. We'll have to wait and see, but her appetite is certainly all encompassing, including some of Keryn's potplants. (Got into trouble for THAT). And a few of our socks ...and two slats of the venetian blinds.. and a roll of paper towels.. quantities of grass and a green shopping bag, among other things. I think she's chewed more stuff than Macca, Bonnie and Dolly combined. But she hasn't lost her baby teeth yet, so perhaps she's just going through a phase? I hope so. And Henrietta also asked if she would get lighter as she got older, but I don't think so. Macca has got darker the older he gets, and Dolly's coat deepened in colour too.

I've given up trying to draw Pippi when she's awake because as soon as she notices me watching her she gets all silly and tries to climb into my lap.Perhaps when she's more mature I'll be successful. Sleeping dogs are much easier!

And here's Dolly too.

2011-02-13T17:33:00.005+10:30

I've been trying to tidy up my sewing room, which has been a bit jumbled since I moved. Some of the messiest containers were the ones (note plural) that housed my strings and crumbs and bits that I just wanted rid of. There are strips torn off backings and donated strings and weird crooked lengths in here. I kept opening the drawers and staring at the contents, getting stymied as to how to use them, and putting everything away again. I felt like Kramer in that Seinfeld episode where he has the line in a Woody Allen film- "These pretzels are making me thirsty", except I was saying "These strings are making me anxious!"

I've come to the conclusion that I don't like piecing string blocks on a paper foundation, even though the majority of quilters seem to love it. I don't like the process of the sewing, or tearing the paper off afterwards, and my strings seem to make really boring dull blocks anyway.
Look at these two, Boring!! (And don't mention fabric foundations, I like them even less)

Yet I love the finished results that others seem to get, especially the antique examples I've saved. Even the old and faded ones are beautiful.Can't say these are boring..
Wow, lots happening in this one,
and these three have given me an idea...

I cut the blocks into quarters and sashed them-
much more interesting now methinks. I might even learn to like the process eventually.

In other news, Keryn has to dig a trench on her property for some cables to be laid, and we thought the best way to soften the ground would be to keep filling it with water and digging out the earth the next day when it had drained away. She had two avid helpers, especially Dolly who obviously has a keen interest in engineering. Pippi just ran around like an idiot, falling in the trench at intervals and getting filthy. Eventually I put them in the car and took them home to my place.

Note that I put some paper on the seats to protect them a bit- somehow it ended up scraped to the back and the mud ended up all over the place anyway.

But Pippi had such a good time I couldn't be cross, look at that happy face!

2011-02-10T04:26:00.002+10:30

The Scrappy Bargello was really easy to put together, and Bonnies instructions worked like a charm. She adds extra length into the strips to allow for trimming up the strip sets, but I had one piece of fabric that was a tad too small.
I thought I'd squeak it out, but that was the strip where I had to make an extra clean up cut, and I was 1/4" too short at the end. I thought of cutting the whole strip set down, and putting it on the edge of the quilt, because it wouldn't make any difference to the overall look.
But I found another piece of the fabric, and it was the work of minutes to unpick a bit of the seams, insert the patch and sew everything back together again. This is called a 'poverty patch', and a lot of old quilts had them, where the maker eked out the fabrics she had to try to keep to the pattern. I always enjoy finding them when I look at antique quilts, it's a real reminder of how women had to 'make do' in the early days.
I found some pretty rose fabric that had all the colours of the strips in, added the borders and started the machine stitching last night. I couldn't finish the quilting, but it will only take an hour to have this done, and then I can add the binding- the first finish for the year!

2011-01-30T21:42:00.002+10:30

After a very slow start, summer has finally arrived. As my Mum would have said, just in time for the kids to go back to school. Yesterday was 44 degrees (112 F) and it was thoroughly nasty all day, and night as well, because the temperature only dropped to 27 .

I've been a bit alarmed at the quilts mounting up- one lady brought twelve tops last week, saying all her friends wanted their tops to get into the queue too, and she'd kindly offered to bring them all up to us. That, and a few other good customers bringing three and four tops at once means that we're working at capacity again, just when the weather is the worst.

The hall is wonderful, but there are a few things that make it hard to bear in summer; the lack of windows and ventilation, and the 18' ceilings which make it impossible to install affordable air-conditioning. It stays remarkably cool for a while, but when these temperatures build up, it stays very hot out the back where the Statler lives. Which is where I work, sigh.

Yesterday we got up at three, and had the machine running soon after, on this large flannel quilt, complete with flannel backing. It would be lovely and cuddly warm in winter, but I felt like fainting every time I touched it.So hot!!
Pippi stayed in front of this little evaporative unit the whole time, she's not silly. It keeps my feet a little cooler, but the main reason to have it on the floor is to try and cool the computer for the machine. The operators come second!
After a few hours that top was done and I got a second, smaller one loaded and finished by twelve. By then there was no way we could function in the workroom/oven so we came home to collapse in various attitudes of exhaustion. The dogs hate the heat, and they opt to lie flat out on the tiled floors, and I've thought of joining them more than once. Roll on Autumn!

Despite the heat I managed to finish sewing all the panels for the Bargello, but I couldn't face turning the iron on and pressing them. They're waiting for a cool morning to get that done, then there will only be three long seams to sew and it's in one piece. I've enjoyed the technique, and now I want to try a Trip around the World.A trip to the patchwork shop in the next town yielded these fabrics, just because.I don't know what I'll do with them, but it's ages since I bought anything new and these spoke to me. That rose fabric is gorgeous, and I'll be trying it on a few tops that need borders, when it's cool enough to pull them out.

2011-01-27T06:05:00.004+10:30

I've been sewing my strip sets for Bonnies Bargello, and have got one cut and sewed into it's final pattern, just to see if everything fits.
Yes, so it's on with the next one, only two more seams to sew and I'm halfway there.
Well, more than halfway, because all the strips are sewn, and I just have to crosscut these and then pin, and pin and pin those intersections.
But it's mindless, and very satisfying to see the chains of colour march up or down across the strips. Then I can think about a border and backing. This whole top has come from the scrap bin, and while there aren't many pastel pink, green, yellow or blue bits left, I can't really see a dent in the pile. Now I'll have to do a dark top, and one with country colours and so on and so on.

This customer quilt had a dark blue background and I had to use a cream thread in places. I thought the contrast might look horrible, but it's not too bad.
These blocks are straight, it's just that I've got the quilt slung over the arms of a chair. The hall is so hot in this summer weather that I can't bear to stay there longer than necessary, and bring the quilts home so I can end the threads sitting in the air-conditioning. Winter is so much more pleasant when quilting for a living.

2011-01-21T14:09:00.002+10:30

I was cutting a pile of brown fabric for my latest project when I read Jan Mac's blog and suddenly all I wanted to do was dig in the scrap bins and start cutting for some donation quilts.
Keryn and I made a lot of quilts for the bushfire appeal, and it felt so good to be able to do something constructive. The floods in Queensland and Victoria have made me want to sew for others again, and Jan's post was the encouragement I needed.

So I've made a huge mess, and I'm scrabbling and cutting and sorting and working out what I'm going to make.

First up I want to do one of Bonnie's Scrappy Bargello's, because it's so easy to cut for- you only need 2 1/2" strips 16" long. As most of my scraps aren't width of fabric, this will find a use for them. Anything smaller is getting cut for Keryn's Half and Half, or Happy blocks. I figure if I get too many 16" pieces I'll make a Scrappy Trip around the World from Quiltville too, as that uses the same pieces.There's enough in this container for a lap sized quilt, but I haven't finished yet, there's more piles waiting.
Look at the pile of trimmings already. It's so good to get all these bits and pieces out of the way.
Dolly is teaching Pippi how to beg nicely, and who could resist those little white paws?

2011-01-17T06:00:00.004+10:30

I've been going through my sewing room and finding all sorts of things that I only have vague recollections of. I can remember making these units for a pink and brown block, and thought I'd finished one or two. But I found 13 blocks in the drawer so I must have pottered away on this project a lot longer than I thought I did.

For now I can just make another pile of sq in sq units, but I'm going to have to get serious and decide how big I want the top to be, and how I'm going to set them.Another drawer contained these two finished blocks and pieces cut for a lot more.
I can remember making one to test the pattern, but I'd done three, and a heap of Puss in the Corner blocks to use as the centre.
Nope, not much was written to the memory banks on this project either. I also made this more complicated version, so I must have been fiddling with the idea for quite a while. Oh well, the pieces are all ready and waiting and I can start sewing with little preparation.
Pippi went for her first long walk at Bowman's Park the other day, and she ran and ran like a mad thing, racing around with the other dogs. When we got home she just collapsed on the gravel driveway- she was pooped!!
Once she builds up a bit of stamina I think she'll be hard to keep up with.

2011-01-01T18:25:00.003+10:30

We had great plans for achieving things this long weekend, but the heat (44 degreesC or 111 F) has meant that we've been settled in front of the air-conditioner just trying to stay cool. Today wasn't quite as bad, but the heat always upsets my plans and drains my energy. I'm a winter person I'm afraid, but we've got three more months of this so I'd better get over it.

Of course plans to handsew are impractical because of the general stickiness and short temper, but I did finish the last of these blocks.

I thought I only had ten more to do, and then I found a little container with eight more hiding in it. Gagh! But finally they're done, now if only I could remember how I wanted to set them.

Originally they were going to look like this, with just two rounds in each block.
I've lost the photo of the antique quilt that made me decide to add another round, but it was something like this, without the hexagon centre.
I know it had two setting colours like this, but beyond that I'm at a loss.
I should have finished the darn thing while it was still fresh in my memory. I've lost so many wonderful pictures of antique quilts in various computer crashes, and I still get cranky thinking about them. Now external strorage devices are so cheap it's not a problem, thank goodness.

Keryn and I spent an hour yesterday making a list of goals and directions for 2011, and we'd be all fired up and ready to go, except for that whole energy-sucking heat thing. But at least we know what we're aiming for.

Pippi has displayed quite an astonishing aptitude for excavating, and all but disappeared in this hole she dug yesterday. She was standing on her hindlegs here, and you can see the dirt flung around in all directions. I think we'd better distract her from her hobby; the first time she digs up a garden bed I won't be quite so amused...
Can you see a theme with the drawings ie pippi's always asleep. I tried drawing her sitting up today, and she got so excited as I continually glanced at her that she ended up prancing around barking at me.
She refused to stay still after that, no wonder I like it when she's fast asleep...

2010-12-30T06:04:00.003+10:30

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas break and didn't get too stressed out by all the hype. The best part of my Christmas was finally getting to know dear little Logan- I could hardly wait to get my hands on him. He is fifteen different kinds of cute, and even when I wasn't holding him it was fun just watching his face and generally doting on him. It's hard to believe he's only seven weeks old, he's going to be pretty big by all predictions.

It was so lovely to see how Logan responded to Elisa and Rob, he obviously knows he's adored and he's one happy little baby. I miss him already.
I'll have to content myself with my puppy, who's growing up very quickly.
I wanted to draw her quite often, and I haven't done as much as I could, being caught up in the Christmas rush and all, but these are some of my sketches.
Perhaps my New Year's resolutions could include doing a drawing of her every day- I could document her growing up.

2010-12-07T21:11:00.003+10:30

To clear up the confusion about the dogs, Jessie is Matt's first dog, a miniature Fox Terrier. She's nearly nine years old, but still has tremendous energy and is incredibly Busy, despite the number of white hairs around her muzzle. She's a fantastic mouser and during the winter when we had a mouse plague she dispatched dozens of them with great efficiency. The staffies didn't want to know, and Dolly used to look the other way and pretend she couldn't see anything- What mouse?When we lived out the farm she used to disappear down rabbit holes and once was missing for four hours. Eventually she came back, dirty and triumphant, no doubt having finished off a few bunnies as well.
This is the view we usually see of her, hunting in every likely looking nook and cranny for something to chase.
She's a dog of very little brain, but she's fun to watch, and very loyal. My mum loved her, and when she was living with us just before she got so sick, Jessie was her constant companion. Even though she's such a quick little thing, darting here and there in a white blur, she would keep pace with Mum, one painful step at a time. Mum was very touched by this, and even though it sometimes took ten minutes to go from one room to the other with her walker, Jessie was right there beside her. You've got to love a faithful heart like that.

When Mum died she left her grandchildren a few hundred dollars each, and Matt used his money to buy Macca. No money could have been better spent, because this dog has changed Matt's life for the better, and they are totally bonded to each other. It's lovely to see. And now Keryn has Dolly, who is Macca's daughter, and I have Pippi.

Bonnie belongs to the friend that Matt shares a house with, and is the mother of the puppies. So that's the family history of the dogs so far.

2010-12-03T18:14:00.004+10:30

You asked for puppy pictures and here they are. This little girl is "V", named because she had a v-shaped white blaze when she was born. It's sort of disappeared but the name stuck.
This is Buggles, unkindly named because she was 'bloody ugly' when she was born, but now she has her own charm and is pretty cute. The name stuck.
"Kitty" who was black with a white stripe on her face and rather small. She looked more like a kitten than a puppy but now she's filled out and is the friendliest, cuddliest little thing.
"Boofa", the only male puppy and he's always been the fattest and sookiest one. He's going to be a beautiful dog when he grows up."Mirra" who is the smallest puppy, but the most active and playful. She's going to need lots of attention but she's so funny and mischievious that I was tempted to keep her. There would never be a dull moment with her around.

But right from the start I knew I wanted to keep "Pippi".
She's very much like my Panda from the last litter and as soon as she was born I fell in love with the white stockings on her front legs. I said she was Pippi Longstocking and Pippi she's remained.
I wondered if her personality would let her down, if I'd fall in love with one of the others but I'm still adamant that she's the one for me.
She seems placid and sensible and adores her big sister Dolly

How cute is she? Expect to see lots more when she finally comes to live with me, in a couple of weeks time....

2010-11-12T05:54:00.002+10:30

More puppy pics. Macca is desperate to get in and wash the puppies, but they need to be a bit more robust. Bonnie did let him lie next to her and have a good look at them. He's been super interested since the day they were born, but Jessie's hair went up on her back and she crept out as quickly as she could, no doubt remembering the liberties taken by the last lot of puppies. Dolly just pretends there's nothing there- what puppies?
Their eyes have opened since these pictures were taken , and the cuteness factor has tripled. This was supposed to be Bonnies last litter, but it's so much fun to watch them develop; the novelty hasn't worn off yet. Two of these puppies have found homes already, which is good.
The moving of the big things, in particular Millhouse, went well, but the removalists were two hours late which didn't help the stress levels. When they were leaving they thanked us for being so organised, apparently the people who they shifted before us weren't, hence the delay. So this week has been spent on clean-up, and the brilliant-at-the-time idea of a garage sale. Once that's out of the way this weekend, we should be free to wander aimlessly around muttering "Where the hell did we put (insert any item)...."

I don't know how Keryn got Millhouse up and stitching all by herself, but she did. I'm full of admiration; I looked at the tangle of cords and leads, the nuts and bolts and heaven knows what and limited myself to fetching tools, holding bits together and generally just doing what I was told. This is the practice quilt being stitched out, and so far so good. Phew, what a relief.

2010-11-04T05:40:00.002+10:30

Meet Logan Jack, born on November third. Beautiful baby,
happy Mum,
very proud and relieved Dad. My little boy has a baby boy, I just can't get over it!
I'm so proud of Elisa and Rob, they're going to be great parents.They've provided a wonderful spot of happiness in the stress of the last few weeks and I can hardly wait to see them all in person.

2010-10-31T05:56:00.002+10:30

Just some quick puppy photos, we're still busy dismantling the workshop. Today I want to take down the thread racks and box the spools, but the ones with already wound bobbins will have to be put in ziplock bags to keep them together, and then all the pegboard hooks taken out and put somewhere safe. I still have about four days of quilting left before the Statler is taken apart, so I probably won't be able to find the thread I want, sigh, but I don't want to leave it till the last minute either.
I hate to think of the dust we'll find when we shift the workshop furniture, because some of it hasn't been moved for years but we'll just deal with that too.

And I've been jumping every time the phone rings, because that little bump in this post is now three days overdue, and I'm expecting an exciting announcement! And in other news, first-born son John and his lovely partner Liz have announced their engagement, so we'll have to celebrate with them as soon as the move is over. My head's spinning a bit, but as John says, "It's all good!"
Isn't this so stinkin'cute? One little girl is the current leader for favourite puppy,look at those little paws....

2010-10-25T05:45:00.002+10:30

I've got my new design wall up and some blocks on it for inspiration, a few of my "gorgeous things" spread around and I'm ready to start a new project as soon as the huffing and puffing are over. The movers won't come for another ten days or so, which will give me time to concentrate on more customer tops and I may be able to fit in a bit of mindless sewing for myself. I just want it all over and done with.

There was a little break from quilting and packing last weekend when Keryn and I got to sit down and relax for a few hours. Bonnie and Macca (Dolly's parents) were expecting puppies again, and I had vowed I was going to drop everything the minute she went into labour so that I could sit with her. She conveniently started on Sunday afternoon and only took about four hours to have six puppies, so it was an exciting little interlude in between our other chores.
I don't know if our coaching helped her in any way, but she loved being the centre of attention and looked so pleased with herself afterwards. The pups are gorgeous, and as Dolly will be going to live with Keryn at the hall, I might be in the market for a dog. If one of them stands out as much as dear Panda did (I really would have loved to keep her...) then I think I'll be owning it.

Expect puppy updates in the future, they are always good blog fodder.....

2010-10-21T05:37:00.002+10:30

I feel so bad about neglecting the blog, but life has dealt us another surprise that has taken up whatever spare time there was. Our workshop is located in a rented building and the owners are coming back, so that means we have to move. And as Keryn lives in the house attatched to the workroom, she has to move too! Boy, I thought my relocation was upheaval, but Keryn has to shift all her printing and office stuff- paper, files, pattern stockpile, computers, printers and paraphanalia, the many bolts of fabric we have for sale and all her teaching stuff as well as the household, and I have to worry about the things related to the quilting side of things, boxes of customer quilts, rolls of batting and backings, threads etc, and most concerning of all, Millhouse. We're leaving that to the professional movers, and I'm pretty sure they've never seen a longarm before. They seemed puzzled that we actually mentioned moving a 'sewing machine' specifically so they might get a shock when they see it.

I've been trying to finish as many quilts as I can so that they can be picked up and out of here; the less customer tops I have to keep track of the better. I feel torn between quilting and packing, but they're both getting done in a frenzied sort of way.

So there has been much lugging of stuff and packing and an unnatural interest in cardboard boxes lately. It's much harder now to find a good cardboard box because a lot of them are broken down for recycling and we never see them. But the little supermarket next to Keryn puts some out the front and they are eagerly snapped up so we've taken to haunting the place lately. I know from moves in the past that this interest persists long after the need has passed, and it feels wrong to leave a particularly 'nice' box in the pile.

We've uncovered a few items that have been missing since Keryn moved into the place three years ago ("So that's where we put it!") and we're trying to downsize at the same time. I was feeding bags into the Goodwill bin the other day, and was quite embarrassed to find I'd filled it up and nothing more would go in.

One of the things we found was perhaps our oldest UFO, a Double Wedding Ring started in about 1979 or 80. Keryn drafted the pieces from a picture in an American Country Living magazine, and not knowing any better we thought it was made in square blocks, hence the seam through the centre piece. We chose the colours to make this graduated effect in the rings, and I'm still quite happy with that. But the horrible calico background and the seams in it put us off and it has lain untouched for all these years.
In our memory it was mostly in pieces, so we were surprised to find that the blocks were all sewn together except for the last row, which is missing two blocks. All it would take would be a blank label block or two, a few seams and a quick border. Not gonna happen this year, but now that I see how little work would be involved in finishing it, I will have a go when we're settled in.
I felt very sad when middle son Rob remarked the other day "Mum, your blog's Dead !!" and decided I have to resurrect it. I've loved having this record of the years, and months have gone by without a word. Internet problems will occur with the next move too, but we'll try to work round them and get back to regular posts. Stay with us, we'll get there in the end....

2010-09-26T19:49:00.001+09:30

I've nearly got my sewing room set up in the new place, which is actually the old place that I was living in before I moved to look after my mum. So it feels like coming home in lots of ways and I'm enjoying myself getting everything in order. But I haven't had any time for sewing and it's driving me nuts. And I don't count customer quilts as my sewing fix, that's work!!
This top was huge, and even though the backing was extra wide I still had to piece another bit onto the side to make it big enough. It was quite a job wrestling a 118" square bit of fabric around, and not good for the temper. But the quilt turned out lovely; done with my Featherme panto, and Keryn trimmed out the centre so that I could freehand some feathers in the white centre borders. The piece of fabric they surrounded was beautifully embroidered, so it was nice to be able to highlight that.
A friend dropped off this huge bag of scraps the other day, and Keryn and I had great fun sorting through it. Everyone was happy, our friend because she cleaned up her sewing room and got rid of the bits she wouldn't use, and we got to play around while we divvied up the spoils. I think we got the better end of the bargain though, I do love a good scap bag....
I don't have the internet connected at the other place yet, so posting will be sparse for a while.I'll do my best, and hopefully I'll be back in the habit of blogging regularly very soon.

2010-09-01T19:25:00.002+09:30

My backing squares are piling up nicely, and I think I have enough now but I have very little time to sew at the moment. I have to move house very soon and most of my spare moments are taken up with packing and sorting and throwing things out. After our Mum died four years ago I didn't have to get rid of her things as we were living in the same house, something I was very glad of at the time. It's much less painful to let some of those objects go now, but it does mean I have more work to do. But Keryn is helping, and it feels good to declutter and streamline possessions sometimes.
This is the orphan top I'm working on; it will probably have a few more borders around this centre part but I haven't decided yet. I don't want it to be too big so I don't think there's too much left to do here.

Yesterday we drove into the neighbouring town and were amused by these cloud formations on the way. The little blobby ones kept forming into bird shapes, splitting up and then becoming birds again.

Kept us entertained for at least ten minutes!

2010-08-13T20:26:00.006+09:30

Keryn has been chopping up piles of fabric like a woman possessed, and it's inspired me to attack my stash too. I've been trying to whittle down the brown section, but I've made at least four sets of blocks already and have barely made a dent. I'm never going to get anywhere just cutting out a block here and a block there. Time to get drastic.
I went through the fat quarter drawers (three of them) and tried to be ruthless. Everything that was nibbled at, was thin quality or just plain old got piled on the table. I ended up with 14 metres of bits and pieces, and the drawers slid in a little easier.
I had fun pressing all the bits, some of them were still precious and others I was glad to see the back of. The telly in the sewing room came in useful again.

I am cutting for two sets of blocks, one a Duck's Foot in the Mud,
and the other a Yankee Puzzle so I quickly used up some of the smaller pieces. The Yankee Puzzle will be blue and brown and red)
But the pile wasn't diminishing fast enough to suit me, so I cast around for another idea. Then I remembered something I'd seen on this blog, (Kathleen Tracy) scroll down to see the antique quilt.
The front is gorgeous but the back was just the ticket for my pile of browns. Of course mine aren't beautiful madders like this antique, but they'll do. I have a top made from brown orphan blocks which will look great with this. The trouble is I think I've got enough for two backings, but an extra one won't go astray!
I've cut out dozens of 5 1/2" squares (bigger than the antique one but I want this to go quickly) and I've sewed up about 50 of them so far.Blindingly fast and almost instant progress, a four patch is 10 1/2" and covers a lot of ground.
I think I'll try to make a few four patches a day, and I'll be done before you know it.

2010-07-29T05:44:00.003+09:30

For some reason I was a bit resistant to the idea of jelly rolls, and didn't succumb to their temptation until a few months ago, when Keryn and I bought three or four in rapid succession. Then mine sat on the shelf while I pondered what pattern to use and they became more and more precious and unable to be touched. I discovered I was making 'rules' in my mind about what I could and couldn't do- I must use ALL the strips in one quilt, I musn't add any other fabric that wasn't the same range, the pattern had to showcase all the strips, dark-light-medium and I would have to buy yardage from the same range if I wanted a border.

Needless to say I started to get a bit miffed with all these restrictions and all the patterns I found that could use the entire jelly roll seemed too simplistic or there weren't enough lights for the backgrounds of the blocks or some darned thing.

I realised that it was likely the jellyrolls would sit on the shelf, forever precious, untouchable and covered in dust if I didn't change my attitude towards them. So I examined how I like to sew my projects and decided I don't like to work within a single pattern range, I like to add material as the top develops and speaks to me, and I like to use unexpected fabric combinations and colours that don't necessarily 'go'.

With that in mind, and ignoring the 'rules' I went looking through my photo file of antique quilts and found this beauty. I added a cream fabric for the background triangles, and the rest of the block could be cut fron the 2 1/2" strips. So far so good, I had a pattern I liked and was finally ready to start sewing.
Then I found another thing that didn't suit my way of working... the measurements of the strips. Where do you regard the edge to be? From the points on one side of the strip to the points on the other was much more than 2 1/2". How do you sew an accurate 1/4" seam when you can't use the edge as a guide? What about sewing a straight cut edge to the pinked edge- which edge do you line up? Grrr, this is definitely not how I like to sew.
By trial and error I found I had to leave a little of the points showing as I lined the pieces up, but this really goes against the grain. I've worked on my piecing skills for decades, and now I had to fudge and disregard my own working methods. I'm not happy with this level of inaccuracy at all.

But I'm making the blocks and they are turning out nice and the fabric combinations are giving me a lot of happiness.(The range is Garden Party by Blackbird Designs and I truly love all the fabrics and the lovely colours)I'm finally enjoying sewing these, but I don't think I'll become a jellyroll convert.I know everyone else just loves pre-cuts and I'll probably get told there are lots of lovely pattern books out there for jellyrolls and I'm the odd one out... but I really think I'm happier playing with all my scraps and strips and making my own decisions about everything. At least I can say I've tried them now, and I'll know not to buy any more!

2010-07-19T20:43:00.003+09:30

The paisley album finally has it's pieced borders attached, but it's not finished yet. I still have to add another black border (a fussy cut stripe) to frame it and then I might call it quits, or it might need something else. I've lost the photo of the antique quilt I based this on, and I can't remember if it had another border after the pieced one or not.
At least the hard part is done and I can go on to other things.

This is a pretty applique and embroidery quilt I just finished quilting- I don't make feminine dainty tops like this, but I get to enjoy the fabrics and patterns by quilting them.
It was beautifully done- makes me want to get stuck into my applique again.

2010-07-14T20:14:00.002+09:30

We spent the weekend in Adelaide, catching up with Rob and Elisa, and John and Liz and it was lovely to see them all together.

Keryn wrote about the "Scroll -Off" here, and I must say it makes me proud that all of my sons can cook. As teenage boys with colossal appetites they always had a healthy interest in anything edible, but now they can produce the food as well as pack it away.
And the finished product....
John's batch is on the left, Rob's on the right. They were both delicious, especially warm from the oven. Yum!

Elisa and I went shopping together, to Hetties Patch, and bought a little bag of fabric, so that I could make a little quilt, which will eventually cover this little bump, when it makes it's appearance in September.
It's so exciting, I'll be a Granny for the first time! We worked out this baby will have 10 grandparents, and I haven't decided what I want to be called yet. Plenty of time to work that out....
Amazing, isn't it?

2010-07-03T17:54:00.002+09:30

Finally the Irish Waves is done, and I will never add a pieced border on the fly again. If I'd been sensible I would have asked Keryn to work it all out in EQ6 and tell me how it went, but it didn't even occur to me. I worked it out on graph paper, then impulsively decided to first add an extra border of squares, and then a solid border of mid blue. I didn't think at the time of how that would affect the corners, and I ended up just cobbling it all together.

I'm sick of thinking about it, and I've got all bogged down and I just want it finished. This pieced border has added nearly a thousand extra pieces to what was already a heavily pieced top. I need to closely examine my little exclamations of "You know what might look good.....?!" It turned out to be a lot of extra agonising in this case.

But I really like it, and I love the centre pattern which went together beautifully. I want to make another soon, but in a different fabric combination. I have completely used all my light and dark 1 3/4" scrap squares in this, so the drawer is practically emptied, which is what I set out to do. I used no yardage in this, it was all scraps and individually cut pieces. The pink setting squares were oddments of fat quarters left from our early quilting days, but sad to say there are still a few of them left. We did go a bit overboard on that dusty pink, which looks soooo dated now.

One top down, one more pieced border left to do and then I can devote my time to something else entirely.....

2010-06-26T08:16:00.004+09:30

Keryn has been badgering me to do another blog post- "I'm sick of that damned piece of toast!" were her exact words. Yes, the weeks have flown away and we're still busy, but the main problem was I don't have a good camera these days, and a post without photos isn't much chop in my opinion. I bought a new camera last week, but it's only a cheapie, and it remains to be seen if that will solve the problem.

I wasn't surprised that the jaffle irons are available under different names, they're too good an idea not to be widespread. I don't think Australians have ever put sweet fillings in them as Laura said, but we may try that at our next breakfast. My favourite was always spaghetti and cheese, tasty but rather messy to eat. And I'm sorry, but the square ones don't taste the same, I think because the crust gets cut off with the round ones, much nicer.

On the quilting front I've been plodding away at pieced borders for two quilts, and I think I've put myself off them for life. Hopefully they will both be finished this weekend and I can go on to other interesting projects. I've never felt so mired down and bored with everything, but I'm making myself go on. I may be so relieved when I get these done that I start a couple of new things, that always revives my enthusiasm.

I have two customer tops to do, beautiful applique patterns, both queensize and with lots of wideopen white space for feathers. I've been puzzling about what sort to put there, and decided to see if I could something along the lines of Jamie Wallen, really closepacked feathers with no background showing.

So I did a bit of a practice to see what felt comfortable and it was so much fun.
Sometimes one direction that you stitch will have better results than others, so I need to experiment and work out a pattern of movements.
I'm going to fill up this piece of homespun until I know what I'm doing, ditchstitch the applique and then go to town. I'll let you know how it turns out!
And yes Meggie, Macca is a gorgeous boof, but he's a boof with a flowerpot on his head at the moment.
He keeps scratching his ears until they bleed so he's been wearing this natty headgear until we could get to the vet. It's not kind to laugh at him, but he's hysterical to watch. He still plays all his fastpaced games, but he can't see where he's going half the time, and blunders around trying to find his toys. He's discovered that he can use the edge of the pot to flip the ball into his mouth, and that he can even catch it behind his head and let it roll round into his waiting jaws. This dog is unfailingly good natured, adaptable and ready to get on with life and fun no matter what. He has a lovely personality.

2010-06-06T18:57:00.003+09:30

On Friday afternoon I had removed a large quilt from the frame and was pinning on the second one of the day when all the power went off. Some work was being done down the end of the road involving the local waterworks, the phone company and now electricity was turned off. I didn't even feel the slightest bit annoyed, instead Keryn and I got in the car and went for a drive. We couldn't use the computers, the phones, the longarm, the sewing machines, nothing. So off we went in the beautiful sunshine, on a backroad to a neighbouring town, and admired the clouds and green fields and didn't even feel a bit guilty.

This morning I got a call from Matt that he was starting a fire, and did we want to cook breakfast out at the park. That sounded pretty good too, so we grabbed our supplies and headed off.
There's something about toast cooked over the coals, it was absolutely delicious spread with real butter and Rose's Old English Marmalade. Then sausages and bacon, and a childhood favourite, Jaffles.
I don't know if anyone else in the world has these, or a version of them; we call them Jaffle Irons. I can't use them on my electric stove, they need gas flames or hot coals to work properly. We laid a piece of buttered bread on one side, cracked an egg onto it and then laid another piece of buttered bread on top. Into the coals, and five minutes later, perfection..
This particular jaffle iron is nearly sixty years old and still going strong, it's seen a lot of use over the years.

The dogs had a great breakfast too, there was a lot of very nice 'sitting' and perfect 'staying' going on. It's amazing how focussed they can be when there's food involved.
And Macca will not believe that he's too big to be a lap dog, he managed to cram himself onto each of us in turn.What a big boof he is!
I think Sunday morning breakfast at the park might become a regular thing, it was just what we needed to relax after all our work.

2010-06-03T08:23:00.003+09:30

Yesterday I left the quilt I was working on ( the second of the day ) and tottered in to Keryn's office, when she was typing frantically at the computer, answering some desperate email and tearing her hair out over a photocopier that won't print nicely. "Do you realise" I asked her "That we have worked 17 days in a row?" She turned a half-crazed face to me and uttered a sort of scream that frightened Dolly - apparently my observation hadn't helped matters any. We can't go on like this....

Years ago, when my boys were little, they used to watch Star Trek, Next Generation at a friend's house. My sci-fi experience had been limited to John Wyndham novels and an enthusiastic embracing of the Star Wars movies when they first came out.

Because the boys enjoyed the series so much we began watching it at home, and then we progressed to Voyager and Deep Space Nine when they began to be shown.I was never taken with the Klingon's bloodthirsty ways, but the boys loved them and there were many bat'leth fights all over the house. (Word of warning, don't start searching Star Trek sites, there are some strange people out there...)

It was always a good weekend when there was a stack of rented episodes next to the main tv and we had our own little marathon. I quilted and pieced many projects to those series, and the boys drew, worked on the computer or played video games on a second tv with the sound turned down. It was very companionable and made for some good family bonding.

However, the boys moved on to other enthusiasms and somehow I was the only one left an ardent fan. I still am to this day, although half of my enjoyment is picking on my least favourite characters and groaning at the "Kill the Extra" mentality. I own all the series except the original, can't come at that somehow, and I regularly revisit them, just for a laugh.

Now those warrior Klingons have a battle cry of "It is a Good Day to Die!!", followed by a blood-curdling "ROAHHRR!!!" After the first seven days of quilting without a break, I tried to whip up some enthusiasm with my own little catch-cry of "It is a Good Day to Quilt!!", followed by the "ROAHHR!" Keryn was a bit non-plussed, and half heartedly repeated the words, but refused to do the roar. Wuuss.
Perhaps we could be the Duras sisters of quilting, Lursa and B'Etor! Except they were the baddies and it's getting too chilly for those outfits (you wouldn't want to get a cold in THOSE chests) and Keryn doesn't like the whole forehead ridges thing.

I'm facing at least three more big quilts before I can take a break, and I don't think I can manage the quilting cry today. I'll do my best, but it's more likely to come out as "It is a good day to quilt; squeak."

2010-05-25T08:49:00.002+09:30

Another pretty customer quilt, I loved the pink and yellow colour combination in this one. I've quilted three of these Gardeners Journal tops, and they are all different, it's amazing how the different fabrics seem to change the pattern.
I put the borders on another long term UFO, and I've made the backing and cut out the binding. How's that for organised? I'm keeping an unofficial record of fabric usage this year and so far I've only gone through 68 metres. Got to get those figures up, and backings are a great way to do it.

I'm piecing borders for two other projects, and the Irish Waves one is in a terrible muddly state. If I don't get this sorted soon I'll chuck the lot away, it's really starting to irritate me. I bet Bonnie never gets in a mess like this, her borders are complicated and tinily pieced and add wonderfully to the design. I'm wondering if this border will even suit the top, now that I've gone to the trouble of actually piecing most of it, sigh. Sometimes things look good on graph paper and it doesn't translate as well into fabric. I'll keep you informed...
I'm still plodding away at my applique at night, but I tend to drift off after a couple of pieces, especially if I've been up since four o'clock. When I press the bits before sewing I often muck around, playing with ideas. And then I can take a photo and record it for later, in case I ever want to develop something.
I love digital cameras, I used to do this with film, but it cost a fortune to print them. Technology has added benefits to the sewing room in so many ways, hasn't it? Perhaps if I'd worked my bloomin' borders out in EQ6 they wouldn't be in such a mess now.....

2010-05-16T08:14:00.003+09:30

Another busy week gone. When we started quilting for other people I felt very strongly about always having the weekend off, as I've seen many longarmers work themselves to burnout point trying to keep customers happy. There are times when I have worked nine or ten days straight, but I hate it, and I'm convinced that if I'm to be in this for the long haul, I have to have regular time off to look forward to.

Even though I have a huge list of things to do, including much hated housework, I need time each weekend to just potter in my room. I love going through my projects and scraps and revisiting the stash, not to mention cutting the pieces I'll need for the next week's sewing. I've been getting up at crazy hours 3.30, 4.30 am, and when my first thought is what needs to go onto Millhouse next, I know it's time to do something for myself. Hence the pottering and pootling in my room.

Before you express dismay at my weird sleeping patterns, just let me say it's not all bad. Yesterday (Saturday) I got up at 3.30 and started cleaning out the backing shelves. I organised the fabric, cut some smaller pieces into 10 1/2" strips ala Bonnie, decided on backings for two tops that haven't even been finished yet and cut a pile of scraps that had built up over the last few weeks. I got all my washing done and overdyed some fabric for another backing, then cleaned out the laundry. By this time I was starving and went into the kitchen to get some lunch, where I discovered it was only 10.30 after all. I felt as if someone had given me another morning, free, and there were so many extra things I could fit in.I love waking early. I didn't even need a nap in the afternoon, although I did fall asleep at nine that night.
I have this reto cake container on my shelf (Billy bookcase from Ikea, need more) and it's the perfect size for this project- also pretty retro. I started it a good ten years ago in an effort to use up all my bland old fabric, a spectacularly unsuccessful attempt as they still haunt the stash to this day. (I realise that this green fabric isn't bland. I must have been rebelling against the lack of contrast in the rest of the blocks...)
I hand-pieced all the hexagons, which went very quickly and if I'd just stopped there I could have had this in one piece all those years ago. But I saw a quilt on ebay that had another round of pieces, so I made a template and begain cutting again.
It turned into a nightmare, finding the bits and pairing them up, and once I'd done that I realised I disliked adding the extra pieces. It would have been much easier to sew them as triangles first, and today I would machine piece them, probably from strip sets. So do we change.
Last year I counted up the remaining blocks left to sew and told myself "Self, if you do one a week, this project will be finished within a year" and I started. I really detest this piecing, and I bribe myself with all sorts of other things I'm looking forward to.. "When you finish that block, you can do some applique."
As I put the latest block away I realised I only have ten left to do, and I could accomplish that in a week if I wanted to. I don't, but the end is really in sight at last. I don't even know that I want to set it like that long ago ebay quilt, but it will be ready to finish, and that's a good thing. Plus I get to put something else in the cake container, woohoo!- is that shallow?

2010-05-10T10:02:00.002+09:30

I set a new Personal Best last week and quilted 7 customer quilts. Two were queen size, one was King size, and the rest were lap to single bed size. I was buttered by Saturday morning, when I unpinned the last one, and slightly bilious. I deserved my weekend off, and today Keryn is working on a huge embroidery quilt, using the Statler side of the machine, so I'm doing other things. I have four of the customer quilts to sew bindings to, so it's it's not as if I can take it easy just yet.

This queen size quilt was made with gorgeous modern fabrics, and it was picked up too quickly for me to get an overall shot.

Another queensize quilt, made with large half-square triangles and some lovely large scale fabrics.

And this was a wedding quilt, with some beautiful embroidery in the centre.

I thought hearts were appropriate as a filler.
And feathers are always special, aren't they?

2010-05-04T06:33:00.004+09:30

There are only two completed tops so far, but it feels good to have these done. I started the Irish Chain some time after we got Millhouse, and I wanted to have a practice top to do continuous curves and some feathers. It isn't particularly attractive, because it's made out of bleh fabric I wanted to get rid of (how often have I done that?!) and I didn't want to have something so nice I'd be afraid of ruining it with my learning stitches.Somehow I didn't have time to 'practice' these things, I just had to do it, sink or swim, and the top never got finished.

The other top is a really old UFO that I started when we lived on the farm, and each block used up the last of some really precious bits. I hand pieced them all, and enjoyed every single minute, but then I didn't know how to set them. I'd just drafted the block on graph paper, so I had no antique quilt to copy, or give me ideas. I sashed it a fair while ago, and then let it mature some more, and now it's finally finished.
In my rummages I found these blocks, which were going to be my Millenium quilt. I started doing this by hand, and it took ages to decide on fabrics for each block, because the pattern relies on tone for effect, and I was limited by not being able to repeat any fabric. Eventually the restrictions were too much, the deadline was past, and I didn't really care anymore. Perhaps I'll machine piece the two extra blocks and make a wallhanging out of it and call it Mereth's Millenium Folly.

2010-04-26T18:18:00.002+09:30

Mary made me laugh with the pictures of her work space after she'd ransacked it. As Keryn said, I love to tidy my sewing areas and keep things fairly organised, but just lately we've been so busy that it's been a choice of tidy OR sew, and I needed to see some progress on a few projects. I've been cutting out extra pieces for about four quilts, and have trays stacked on top of trays on top of boxes. Not my usual style at all.
It came to a head this weekend when I pulled out a stack of tops that needed borders and had a huge audition session.
I had fabric piled everywhere, and tops, and sets of blocks that I thought might make interesting borders in themselves. It was very liberating just reefing out different prints and trying them on all the tops, even if it wasn't what I had in mind in the first place. In this way I made final decisions on three tops, and got lots of ideas for the others. One in particular is quite different from my original concept, but I'm really excited to finish it now.
So this week I'll be cutting up fabric and sewing borders and Tidying until everything is back to the way I like it. And hopefully there will be three (or four) new completed tops in the pile.

2010-04-16T08:06:00.004+09:30

The 4-patch 4-patch has a border now and I'm piecing the backing from some bits and pieces. I think there are a few bright pieces here that don't belong, but I was hoping to use up all of these 1 3/4" strips.
I roughly sorted them out into lengths and sewed pairs together, then cross-cut them into 4 1/2" segments and it went pretty quickly. Much to my disappointment there's still about a third of them left. Is it possible to use up every last skerrick, or will there always be bits left over?

The closest I ever came was this little crib quilt, made from the pastel swatches from a quilt shop. I used all but one of the coloured squares, and used up all the white on white pieces from donated scraps that I'd accumulated. I never buy either of these types of fabric, so I was really chuffed to get almost all of it removed from the scrap stash in one fell swoop. I quilted this two years ago, and I'm ashamed to say it's still not bound.

And remember I bought a little telly for the sewing room? Keryn came in the other day and said"Oh that's really great, I'm so glad the TV is being used......."
What?!! It's a multi- function model!

2010-04-10T07:29:00.002+09:30

The Rolling Stone top is in one piece and looking as pallid and washed out as I was hoping. I really wanted the vintage look of the original quilt and I think I've succeeded.
I'm trying to make a backing for it and had a pile of fabrics picked out that I thought would fit in with the sort of 'frugal farm quilt' feel of the top. I was actually really looking forward to using these fabrics and getting rid of them but when I laid them out on the bed it just looked wrong. I think some of them will be useable, but for the most part the top just went "Nuh uh, I don't like That!"

The problem is that most of the shirtings in the top are a crisp white, and the backing fabrics are cream based, so it's just looking dirty at the moment. I'll see if I can find something that doesn't appear to be filthy and then get this top quilted, I really want it on my bed soon. And I'm not sick of the block yet, it was an absolute joy to construct.

This customer quilt was huuge and it took 5 years to piece, using the English paper piecing method. When it was given to us it was wadded up in a plastic bag, without it's borders and it's owner had almost given up hope of ever finishing it.
All the cream seams needed trimming because the fabric was very thin and all of the fabric was polyester except for the floral. I had to add the borders and press it very carefully, but finally it was ready to go on the frame.

I think it turned out beautifully, and the owner was pleased to have it done after all these years. When I said that she could go home and put it on her bed she ruefully explained that she'd changed her colour scheme and now it wouldn't go with anything else! So she's going to gift it to someone in the family.

It's nice to be a part of finishing tops like this; it was too nice to be languishing in a cupboard all these years.

2010-04-03T08:16:00.004+10:30

I've nearly finished the extra ten Rolling Stone blocks, so I should be able to start setting them this weekend.

And I've been working on the pieced border for the Irish Waves but came to the conclusion that I have to add another row of blocks.

I originally declared it finished at this stage, even though it wasn't symmetrical. Another row would have made it square, and for some reason I don't like square quilts. This is all very well until you try to add a pieced border, and then suddenly the corners don't match and the pattern goes haywire and the planets reel off course. It just wasn't going to work.

So to make the border easy, I'm adding another row to the top. A lot of extra piecing for an 'easy' solution, but it's gone quite quickly. I've been sewing two or three pairs as Leader-Enders instead of just one, and it does mount up that way.
I'm also tackling the basket of triangle scraps. This is a tiny little container and yet there are hundreds of scraps awaiting trimming, mostly from bindings that I've made over the years. If it's vaguely triangular, the scrap gets put in here, and it was overflowing. All of those pieces on the mat are 2 3/8", so there's a whole heap more square in square blocks to be made. Just lately I've branched out and started sewing flying gees units too, just for a bit of a change, but it will take me a while to make a dent in this lot.

And here's a photo of Macca on a dead tree in the creek bed. He doesn't have much fear of heights and usually launches himself off these obstacles in a terrifying manner. Fortuneately Staffies seem to be very tough and he hasn't hurt himself yet.

2010-03-28T12:40:00.002+10:30

The four-patch four-patch top is in one piece and I'm thinking I may add a pieced border, either checkerboards or piano keys.

I can see that I could have some fun with this design and really think about the colour placement, but when it comes down to it I wanted to use the scraps up and not agonise over every block.
So it's done, and there were some leftover blocks I didn't need that were sewn into a small crib quilt top. Now the box is almost empty!

These two lone blocks will go into the Drawer of Requirement until I need some little fillers, and I'll see what new project I can store in here. The sewing room abhors an empty container....

2010-03-26T16:49:00.004+10:30

Last weekend Dolly had to stay with Matt as we were busy out of town. When he gave me these photos I refelected that her visits out there are rather like Boot Camp for dogs. She has to eat dry food, sleep on the floor, rough in with everyone else and go for prolonged marches over the hills. She seems to like it though, even if her life at home is a bit more pampered.Macca and Dolly can hardly wait to get going, they love exploring this rough terrain.

Macca especially loves to climb, and tackles trees,hills and boulders as a personal challenge.

They really are lucky dogs, getting this much fresh air and exercise.

And they are the best of friends too, trotting along side by side for miles. It's so nice to see them still enjoying each others company so much.

2010-03-24T08:51:00.000+10:30

I've been wondering just how many tops I've made using the sq in sq unit as a major part of the design.There was this top with cheddar sashes..

and this green and red and gold one, with two extra rounds added to the basic unit.
There was this large top,

and this one, both around queen size.

and the huge madder top.

This little piece was made with leftovers,

and at least three sets of these blocks, twenty in each . I just couldn't stop making them either...

Does anyone doubt that I have a 'thing' about little sq in sq units? I just love 'em.

2010-03-22T08:02:00.002+10:30

I've made twenty of these Rolling Stone blocks so far, and my scrabbles in the stash (sounds like a book title, doesn't it?) have unearthed more pallid fabric than I thought I had, so I could make more if I wanted to. I'll lay them out and see if I want to make it bigger, I'm certainly not sick of piecing them yet. I think I could go for thirty.....
I've been longing to do some applique, so I've drawn up my pattern, inspired by an antique quilt, of course, and I'm prepping the pieces at night. I've made one block, so I know I'm happy with the design, and now it's just the groundwork, which I happen to love. As I finish each block's shapes I put all the bits in a ziplock bag, and it looks like a little kit, just waiting for me. I'm only doing five at this stage, but I think I want it to be nine blocks, I'll decide later.

These blocks have been set into larger blocks with some green and they should be in one piece by the middle of the week. I'm not in love with this, the only reason I'm doing it is to empty the box the little blocks were in. And I'm also looking forward to making a backing for this, I've got a big length of old green that is earmarked for this top. Whatever the motivation, it will be done soon and I can cross it off my list and move on. For some reason, once a project is done to the top stage, it ceases to bother me. I don't mind the tops (and their backings sometimes) sitting around waiting, sometimes for years. I could never be one of those people that works on one project at a time from start to finish, it's just not me...

2010-03-14T10:11:00.003+10:30

Elke from Germany asked me how I get the sq in sq units so precise. There are lots of ways of making these, including sewing strips around a square, and sewing oversize triangles to the centre square, both of which require trimming down to size. The strip method wastes fabric and the outer edges are on the bias, a recipe for disaster with these little pieces.

My method relies on two things you should be aiming for anyway, accurate cutting and a scant quarter inch seam allowance. If you can master those two, you can make perfect square in squares.

These instructions make a 3 1/2" unit. Start with two 2 3/8" squares for the background, and a 2 5/8" for the centre.
Cut the squares in half diagonally- I layer them and cut both at once- and then nub the ends at the two inch mark. This measurement is arbitrary, the main reason to get rid of these corners is to aid in centreing the triangle on the square underneath. The two inch mark works for me, but you could try others, just don't go below it or you'll be cutting too much off.

Lay the triangle over the centre square and use the trimmed ends to centre the piece. Make sure both ends are showing the same amount of the underneath fabric in those little spaces, and it will be in the right place.
When you sew, don't automatically use the nubbed corners as the starting point for the seam. They may well be, depending on how you nipped those bits off, but I usually have to sew a few threads closer to the edge.

I make sure I'm sewing my usual 1/4" seam, using the edge of my foot, or whatever guide you choose. If you sew from one nipped off point to the other the block may end up slightly smaller than you want.

Sew another triangle to the opposite side and then finger press them open carefully before you iron them. If you leave a little fold at this stage it will throw the final measurement off as well.

Centre the next triangle the same way, making sure there is the same amount of fabric showing at each end.

In this photo you can see a bit better that the same thing applies, those little corners don't have to match up with the edges underneath. Centre the triangle and sew the seam, that's all you have to worry about.

No trimming required and once you've got the hang of this method you can churn them out in a production line, and have a drawer full of them, like me.
Fiddle around and see if you can make this work for you. Everyone usually makes a few adjustments for their own sewing style, but this has worked for me for hundreds, if not thousands of these units. Good luck!

2010-03-10T08:20:00.002+10:30

Still sewing these blocks, no sign of nausea yet. I'm trying to keep it pastel without being wishy-washy, but it's quite hard to do. So many of my fabrics are mid-tones to dark, and I'm having to go back through the older stash of the eighties/nineties to get the sort of pale contrast I want.

I could of course start collecting a heap of these from shops, but I want to sew the blocks Now, and I do like to use what I have. Especially when I can't think of anything else to do with this type of fabric.

Most of these came from what I call my "Expendables" drawer, which is where I keep fabric that is no longer precious and can be used in charity quilts or backings or to make test blocks from. I don't feel any angst about chopping my expendable bits up, but it's surprising how often the drawer comes to the rescue when I'm stuck for a certain piece. Every now and then I go through the good stash (hmm, is there a 'bad' stash?) and weed out pieces that are no longer precious, or fat quarters that have been nibbled right down, and these go into the expendables bin. It's the first place I look when I start another project, there's a lot of useful stuff in there.

As leader-enders I've been attacking a pile of blocks I made ages ago. They're just little four-patch four-patch blocks that were themselves made from L-E.
I didn't know what to do with them but now the're being set into fours with sashing, and I don't really care what they turn out like, I just want them done.
In the corner of the last photo you can see my latest acquisition, a little telly I bought at a garage sale. I've always wanted to watch tv in my sewing room, and now I can- this should improve my production no end. The trouble is now I want a dvd player to go with it, we're never satisfied are we?

2010-03-07T22:06:00.003+10:30

Keryn quite rightly pointed out that I wasn't actually making Rolling Stone blocks, but a variation. I put the extra square in square block in the centre, thinking that would use up more, but it has changed the overall effect. The ring in the centre is missing and it has lost the circular movement.

Of course there was no other option, I had to start making the genuine blocks.

The other blocks will have to wait now until I build up some more scraps for them, so I needed a new project. And of course I don't want to be saved from my obsessions, I get so much done! I'm not nauseated yet, so I'll keep churning these out, and see how far I get.

2010-03-06T09:41:00.002+10:30

Sixty of the little blocks done, ten of the Rolling Stone variation, more being pieced.....Save me someone! I just can't stop......

2010-03-02T19:40:00.003+10:30

I've started these Rolling Stone blocks using the square in square units too.
The units are 3" finished, so that makes this block 9" and the blocks in the previous post finish at 6". I've completed 40 of the latter and the drawer will close again, but I don't want to stop. I have to let the obsession run it's course, which means that I'll sew and sew and one day I'll pick up the bits and be overcome by a wave of nausea. Then it's time to go on to something else. Doesn't everyone work like this?

I've got a lot of pictures of antique quilts in the Rolling Stone pattern and I love them all.
I like this bold colour combination, but the pastel one below is pretty too.
I'd never be brave enough to use colours this intense, but it's certainly striking, isn't it?

2010-02-26T20:08:00.002+10:30

I've been jumping from project to project in my sewing room and not really settling to anything. The only thing I felt like doing was making more scrappy square in square units,
about 150 more actually. Occasionally I get obsessed by them, and the only thing to do is let it run it's course.

I usually just add them to the piles in the drawer, but this time there were too many- the drawer was full.
So I pulled out the scrappiest brightest ones and now I'm sewing these simple blocks to try and use them up, don't know how they'll be set or how many there will be at this stage. I just need the drawer to close again!
I started another set of blocks, but I'll show them in another post, these units are so versatile and can be combined with so many other little blocks. That's one of the reasons I love making them.

The pile of pieced bits for the Irish Waves border grows too, I think I'm going to have to forge ahead and finish this soon.
I have a kindergarten chair in my sewing room that I use as a stepstool to reach high shelves. Dolly loves to sit on chairs whenever she can, and has claimed this for her own. Small things make her happy, but she's rather subdued at the moment, and sporting some nasty looking embroidery stitches on her side. No puppies for Dolly, and no jumping on chairs for a while either....

2010-02-17T06:49:00.005+10:30

The year is getting off to a busy start and the two weeks I took off in the New Year are a distant memory now. The tops keep coming in, which is good for business, but bad for my own sewing- sometimes I'm too tired when I get home to face my own projects. I need another holiday!

This beautiful emboidery top was very large and because it was for a four-poster bed, with cutout corners, I had to load it upside down. This made it harder to work out all the cute sayings, but both Keryn and I used to pride ourselves on being able to read upside down so it kept my interest. (This is a useful skill to have if you're nosy about what people sitting opposite you are writing or reading)
Then there were these five wallhangings, all the same pattern but slightly different fabrics,

and this row by row, the second one I've done of this pattern.

This little wallhanging was made by one of our local childminders, a lovely lady who seems to have the patience of a saint and is always surrounded by little ones. These blocks were embroidered using some of the children's drawings, and they were absolutely gorgeous. It was very entertaining to work on this!

There were also two quilts that were picked up before I could photograph them, and the big applique quilt that Keryn blogged about here.

Lots of quilting on that one.

I've worked through the last two weekends, and I still have one big custom quilt to do before I can take a break. Phew!

And remember my purple Bricks and Stepping Stones? It has now gone to America to live with Laura, who fell in love with it and wanted to know if it was for sale. It never hurts to ask, and so this was packed up and got to it's destination in a week, pretty darn quick I reckon.

2010-02-07T06:11:00.004+10:30

You might be forgiven for thinking I'd overdosed on sewing after the marathon effort, but I've just been super busy and neglected the blog. I thought I'd be able to potter through a few customer quilts but there was a sudden influx of urgent tops with deadlines, all of them custom, and of course all of them Huge. It always seems the way, no-one ever needs a small quilt done quickly...

The things I've been working on in my sewing room are just more of the same projects I've already shown, so the photos are a bit boring. I'd love to be announcing some more finishes, but I'm in the plodding phase at the moment, adding to the pile of Flying Crosses,
some more basket blocks and pieced units,

and trying not to bolt ahead on my Leader- Ender project, which is the pieced border for my Irish Waves.

That's proving hard, as I'm itching to get it all in one piece. Patience, I must have patience.

I've heard that some dogs absolutely hate having a bath, but that's not the case around here. Dolly and Macca will just jump in and whine to have the water turned on.
Mmmm, bathwater is the best!

2010-01-17T19:33:00.009+10:30

The Double Reel/ Jacobs Ladder is done and waiting for it's binding.I used Keryn's Square Spiral panto and it turned out very nicely.

I used cotton as the batting, so I wanted it to be quilted fairly densely and evenly.
It actually looks better on the back with all that piecing.
It's fairly straight but not centred, the side borders are slightly different widths. If it was crooked I wouldn't have been happy but on a bed you never see both sides at the same time so what will it matter?

This is the Little Crosses set together, after years of arguing with me about what they wanted to be. Now I have to got through the whole process again as I find out what sort of borders they'll consent to have, but I'm liking it so far.

It's nice and soft and old-looking.

I finished nine more blocks for my unshown project to make a total of twenty.
I now have piles of half square triangles already sewn from my mystery project and a stack of pink and cream HST for a UFO.
I sewed the two complete Flying Crosses blocks and the units for four more,

and then I unpicked the borders on this top that I finished a while ago. I'd never been happy with the width of the navy border, so I bit the bullet and unstitched them. Not that much work, and I'm pleased with it now.

And that's my Marathon,- I got heaps done, and now I'm off to put my feet up. Thanks Judy, it was fun!

2010-01-17T08:00:00.002+10:30

I finished the Bricks and Stepping Stones and if you like purple it's great. I used one of my pantos called Indira, and I love how it turned out.
Very nice on the back.
I loaded this top Saturday afternoon, longterm readers may remember it from this post.
It has another top as it's backing, and as I finished quilting it at 12.30 pm I haven't unloaded it from the frame yet. I don't know how square and centred it is, but here's hoping it's alright.
I sewed these blocks together, but haven't got an overall photo yet and I finished the set of blocks that I can't show you. So day one of the marathon was pretty productive, roll on day two!

2010-01-16T10:58:00.003+10:30

Last night after tea Keryn and I started Judy' marathon. I loaded my Bricks and Stepping Stones and started Millhouse stitching on that and then I pieced a scrap pattern on Queenie. Keryn was busy cutting scraps and we had some folk music up loud to drown out the Friday night crowd at the pub across the road. And sang along, so heaven knows what they thought!

By 12.30 I'd nearly finished quilting and Keryn had emptied one scrap drawer, and I'd completed all the little steps for my scrap pattern. I can't reveal what it's going to be, but it felt good to have it ready to piece into blocks.

I went home at 1.30 and this morning I've been flitting from one thing to the next. I'm making these units for another set of blocks,
some scrap puss-in-the-corner blocks

and setting these little Cross blocks together. I'm all over the place like a mad woman's breakfast but I'm getting things done. I want lots to report at the end of the weekend!

2010-01-10T04:32:00.002+10:30

Another spell of hot weather is making it hard to quilt during the day. I started yesterday at 6.20, but that was too late, so I got up at 4 this morning and will turn the machine on at five.
The first customer quilt for 2010 was a huge 100" square Ohio Star which took quite a while to do. But it turned out nicely and we were able to turn Millhouse off and let him cool down before the hottest part of the day. Sometimes the computer part has a little hissy fit when it's too hot and we have to restart everything- the machine can handle the cold far better than the heat.
I went home and came back- I was going to say ' in the cool of the evening', but there was no cool. When Keryn was watering some things in the garden I wandered out carrying a thermometer and at 7 pm it was 120 degrees in the late sunlight. But only 100 on the back verandah, and believe me, that felt cool! I know you shouldn't measure the temperature in the sunlight, but I was just curious.

I then loaded another top, recognise this Brenda? This is all batiks and looked very cool and pretty and foresty, but it was still too hot to turn Millhouse on and the insects had come out. So it will be started this morning instead, when I can open all the doors and get some cool(ish) air into the workroom.
Have I mentioned before that I hate summer? I'm reading the northern blogs with longing, thinking of their snow and cosy fires, of knitting and snuggling under quilts. I miss my wool socks and polar fleece and rain and clouds and homemade soup. Sigh. It's usually hot well into March here, so I'd better stop complaining right now.

2010-01-01T19:37:00.002+10:30

These album blocks have been on my design wall for ages, but I finally made the effort and got them set together last week. I have no idea what I'll do for the border, I think it may end up being a pieced one. For the moment I'm happy to have got it this far, and the design wall is ready for another project.
I do love paisleys, and I gathered quite a few before I began this. I've still got quite a collection though, these blocks didn't use nearly enough to make a dent.

It's still hot here, and the dogs like to share a communal dip to cool off.
The family that bathes together, stays together.