Round Robin... Border One... Completed

After my initial design (triangle blocks with tulip blocks on the corners) I collected my assortment of fabrics in the colours I thought represented my garden/growing things idea - greens for the growth, orange/yellow for the flowers, and blue for the sky.  But they didn't quite work with the original fabrics.  Hmm.  Ok, time for a rethink.  I still wanted to work with my garden idea and use the same blocks so it was just a matter of tweaking the fabrics.  Off I marched to my stash, and discovered that my pile of browns, that never seem to go with anything else whenever I require something brown, went perfectly with the colours of the original block.  Right - instead of green grass on the larger triangles, the browns would represent the earth.  Next, instead of the bright greens I had been looking at, I searched through my bits and pieces left over from other projects and many of the soft greens and teals from my "floral applique with hand blanket stitch that I'm still doing a year later and I do a little bit more each week (and I promise I will finish one day Caroline)" worked much better.  They represent the growth.  And a collection of reds became my 10% accent colour representing the flowers.  By changing the small triangles from yellow to a fawn/brown colour, they count as one of my two main colours, and does't need to compromise the 10% accent colour rule.

So - behold - after a very busy Sunday morning choosing, cutting and now sewing... a block with borders has been born!



I just wanted to show it on point as the design will end up being, but it wastes
so much space on the photo to fit it all in...




so once I make it square, you can see a bit more detail...




and a closeup of some of the fabrics.

 This has been a 3" border (because it was easy to do the maths on) - but I will probably add a plain 1/2" border as I managed to cut my small triangles the wrong way, ending up with bias on the outer edge.  Solution, add a straight border on the outside... problem becomes a design element.  Done!  Hope you like it Linda!

Cancellation of all non quilting sewing projects

I have spent more time, effort, brainpower and money on trying to save the universe through changing my clothes buying philosophies - ie stop buying clothes, and start making them - than I actually have time (and brainpower) to accomplish.  I would like to make soap and cheese and do preserves (not at the same time - but you know what I mean).  But if I do that - I won't be quilting.  If I sew clothes - I won't be quilting.  What do I like to do more than anything else in the world - you guessed it - quilting.  So I am hereby cancelling the starting, finishing and all the bits inbetween of all projects, books, magazines and blogs related to things other than quilting.  If I read stuff I just get all silly and go off on a tangent - this must not continue. 

The great undie experiment continues - none of my mail orders have arrived yet, so can't comment on the bras from Ezibuy - but I have bought numerous types of undie (over the last 3 or so months) looking for the magic pair that doesn't cut across the fat through the hips, doesn't show a knicker line and don't fall down, or ride up in that way that only undies can do.  I have now spent $30 on one particular pair - the most ugliest ones in the world - but they are pretty comfortable and do meet my requirements listed above.  There must be a compromise somewhere between cost, function and fit.  However I am yet to find it.  The hunt continues.

I have been deep in thought regarding the border I need to add on to my Round Robin block.  The instructions are for a 3 - 3.5" wide border which must be pieced, and refers to something I enjoy doing in the area where I live.  It must only have two colours, although a third colour can be used in small quantities.  I have had in mind something to do with gardening/flowers - and after a play with EQ6 I have constructed a border that I am happy with.  However, I haven't started cutting or sewing yet (haven't chosen fabrics yet) - and as the pieces will be quite small, it remains to be seen whether it works out or not.  Fingers crossed.  Will keep you posted...

Bras and Briefs

I have just ordered 4 bras and 2 undies from Ezibuy.  I have great hopes that they will fit beautifully and look great on.  I am not being sarcastic.  But I do wonder who on earth designs the underwear that is available at the moment - because obviously they have never worn them - or have any concept of gravitational pull and the effect on your shoulders when the shoulder straps are noodle size.  In fact, I could add swimwear to the discussion as nobody I know is happy with their togs, and they all seem to have the same design faults that don't actually suit any body type.  What is supposed to hold the middle part of your boob inside the bra - when it is cut back to somewhere near your nipple, and the plunge area seems to start well below your boob line??  I think I'm turning into my Nana...

Alert! Alert! Something has been finished!!

I have been collecting both patterns and fabrics (sorry, new fabrics not recycled, but they have been on sale - so I'm not really sure whether they count as being ecologically responsible) - anyway, yesterday I set my mind on sewing a dress for Nadia from a pattern in Stitch Magazine - and it turned out great!

There are heaps of little panels all over the dress - so I think next I might sew a multifabric version with all sorts of different colours on each panel.  I also used Charlotte's machine binding technique, and altogether ended up with a much better result than I normally do when machining bias binding.  A very successful end to a hot Sunday afternoon.  She wore it to school today and was very happy, so that is the main thing.

Friday Update

It has been a busy week.  I find myself now working four days a week while the kids are at school.  I will now need to amend my profile as technically I won't be a SAHMWKAS (stay at home mother with kids at school) anymore.  My spare at home time is more likely to be spent doing routine housework type things, while the things that I would rather be doing ie quilting, sewing, blogging, doing my fitness routine and getting my hair cut, will need to fit in if and when I get a chance.  On my day off, I do go to a friendly patchwork morning where we do get sewing done, as well as all the other things a small group of likeminded ladies do. 

My block - I didn't take a photo when it was actually finished, Duh!
But this is pretty close.

So it is round robin catch up time... I posted my block off on Tuesday per my last post.  I have just doublechecked whether the person I was sending it to would have been affected by the weather disaster of the last few weeks and it seems all is OK on that front.  Whew!  Then on Wednesday, I had an exciting delivery in the mail, with someone elses block arriving!!!  So welcome to Linda from Victoria who used her block to interprete the theme in a pictorial fashion, with lovely photos of her family and surroundings, plus the plans for their new house printed on her fabric - surrounded by aboriginal fabrics.  It is quite lovely!  Now it is just a matter of waiting for the next set of instructions to find out what I am supposed to do to it.  Watch this space!  If anybody else is interested in this sort of programme, the one I am participating in is through "The Patchwork Studio" and they have another one starting in March which they are currently taking registrations for. 

Linda's block

I have cooked up another batch of tomatoes, capsicum, garlic and this time onion, so I am finally going to post the promised photos of the procedure.  Not that it is really overly interesting, but oh so easy, and a great way to use all those million of tomatoes that all seem to ripen at the same time. 

Raw tomatoes, garlic & capsicum, salt, pepper, slug of oil... in the oven 150C for 1hr-ish

The cooked product - simply whizz up, then use for pasta sauce, pizza bases, all sorts.
Freeze in bags or containers... YUM!  Turn into tomato soup by passing through
sieve, and adding chicken stock.

I don't really have much else to report at this point in time - I haven't actually done much else... it has been too hot and I've had grumpy children come home from school - first week back is so tiring.

Something funny that was in the local rag... advertising a new liquor outlet the new owner was described as opening "after years of developing great product knowledge".

Round Robin - Block One - Posted

Woo Hoo the school holidays have finished!  The last week or so have been particularly "stressful" so it was with much joy for both me and my children to be dropping them off to school today.  Dylan has moved into Room 4, and Nadia has moved to Room 7 - so I have already been hearing snippets of how things work in their new classes.  Both seem to be happy with the changes so that is always a good start. 

I finished Block One of the Round Robin challenge, last week - and filled in my history page which details a bit about me and how I came to make my particular block.  So today I put it in the post.  I did have a moment of horror thinking about if it goes missing... but not much you can do about it if or when it happens.  Postage was $3.40 to Australia - for future reference, so at this point, not a huge financial commitment to the programme.

It is enormously hot, but I must commit back to my fitness regime which became a bit vague during the holidays - so I'm going to do my exercises next, and then have a celebration swim.  I haven't measured myself properly to compare notes from my pre-Xmas measurements but I know my weight has crept up to almost but not quite the pre-fitness level - so I'm not gutted, but am quietly optimistic about regaining my progress.  Better get cracking...