Sheds, babies and projects

This summer in Northland has been one of the wettest in known history.  Not the greatest conditions to try and finish one's quilt shed!!  We finally got the roof on... after hubby had a bout of covid, and the rain and wind decided to behave itself.

Doors, windows and roof...

Once the outside was done, it was time to look at the interior.  First a bit of a clean up of construction rubbish...

Much cleaner!  We decided on mdf panels for half the flooring, and foam tiles for the other half.  This worked out to the cheapest way to cover the floor space in the most useful manner - a work area and a basting area.  

Then it was time to outfit it with all the important stuff I had accumulated in Sewing Shed number one, but had got too out of hand to be able to find anything, so the storage solutions were the most important element.

I ended up placing the sewing table on the right hand short end to avoid afternoon sun in the eyes... and plenty of storage for smaller items in this zone... quilting rulers, patterns, small scraps etc.

The back corner has a new cutting table and my old shelves were installed above, the ironing board is just to the left.  

A batting covered design wall covers the entire back wall...

The left hand short end is filled with cupboards and open shelving.  I have fabric cupboards, and WIP cubbies... a bit of a book shelf... still a work in progress but the piles on the floor are getting smaller.

Swinging back around to the front, we have the front door and that is my sewing shed!!

One of the projects/sew alongs that I have been patiently waiting to start was Corey Yoder's new Sunny Patches mystery sew along which uses a jelly roll and assorted yardage.

I have this Flowers for Freya jelly roll with a few of the matching fabric in fat quarters...

Then I pulled a whole heap of fabric from my new stash containers...

And this was the first mystery block.

It wasn't long before the design wall had projects on it... this is going to be a new The Country Yard project... using a range called Sun Washed.

And I pulled out last years rainbow challenge and have been plugging away filling up the empty spaces.  I just have two more star blocks to finish, and to the right you can see the start of the Mystery quilt with the jelly roll creating setting blocks.

Little Amarni is not quite so little any more.  Being about 4 months now, she is quite a character.  Here she had just worked out how to get her thumb in her mouth.

She came to visit me at work...

Just generally looking cute :o)

Happy New Year

 Well 2022 was definitely not the year of the Blog that's for sure.  I'm thinking that I want to be more bloggish next year - and the purchase of a new computer should help that along.  I must admit that I miss the freedom of typing on a keyboard instead of pecking at a screen... I enjoy the flow of typing thoughts, having learnt touch typing in the 1980's has never lead me astray although I also type a whole heap more rubbish... more like how my brain works so there's that :0).  Anyway I digress... what's been happening in the sewing shed/life.

The most exciting occurrence has been the birth of my first grandchild on Xmas Day!!  We welcome Amarni-Jade to our family.  She was a healthy 8pd 4oz at birth and has grown during her first week of life.  Woohoo... another baby to create quilts for.

After much discussion and analysis of various quilt patterns and fabrics with my daughter Nadia, we both agreed on the Cabin Nights pattern using a lovely animal print at the feature fabric.  Blues, greens, greys and browns and a bit of pink also.

I though a nine-block layout would be a great size - but of course it is enormous so I have spent the last few days finishing up the four block version which will be a better size for bassinettes and car seats etc... and one day would make an excellent doll quilt.  I just have the binding to hand stitch on and unlike my own children, I will actually finish this before using the quilt.  Dylan's baby quilt never had the binding sewn down until after Nadia was on the scene so this Nana has learnt something over the past 19 odd years - basically that binding is my arch nemesis.

Anyway... isn't she a cute wee dot?

The other major news is the addition of a new sewing shed!  After much looking and comparing sizes and prices we bought a flat pack shed 6 x 4m and hubby is well on the way to getting it erected.  It does have the doors installed now... and he is working on the floor, before the roof is started.  To say that I cannot wait until the shed is completed is somewhat of an understatement - I CANNOT WAIT!!  The whole back wall is going to be covered in cotton batting for a design wall (come on Spotlight, give me a batting sale of at least 40% off) and cupboards are going to cover the left-hand short wall.  My sewing desk will sit under the window at the front, and a mobile (yet to be built) cutting/worktable will probably act like an island bench in the middle and be moved to the side for activities such as basting and floor layouts.

Having a new space will allow my old space to be utilised as family storage - excess linens, clothes and all the other things that families seem to collect can be stored safely and neatly.  This is something that I also can't wait to happen.

I managed to get most of my sample BOM project completed - just a border treatment to design and it will be ready for quilting.  I am really happy with the way it turned out with a creative sashing giving a lot of movement to the basic nine patch block layout.  I know that I need to repeat the little triangles and plus blocks in the outer sashing but this resulted in the mojo indicator moving to zero so no progress has been made on this in recent history.

Another short and simple but unfinished project was this jelly roll quilt...

Some blocks done but I found this was one of those things I needed to layout and distribute the colours evenly as I was making blocks - and once my previous design wall became unusable and Dylan took over my design floor when he moved into the sleepout, well... this project also hit the wall.

Did I mention how much I can't wait until my new shed is finished?

I feel like this was the year of not getting much done, I completed a baby quilt right at the beginning of the year, the Tiger Plant quilt which is a free pattern.  While the recipient was extra happy to receive it - and I receive semi regular photos of the little person it was for on it - I can't help but notice that the quilt is always upside down.  Oh well, at least it is being used.

Using the #apqresolution challenge I worked on many of my WIPs throughout the first half of the year, and although there weren't many finished I did manage to get something achieved.  My Patchwork City quilt (started as part of a sew along in 2018) finally had it's binding sewn down.

I finished piecing my scrappy Brightly Quilt.  I absolutely love this pattern and all those scraps.  Note, it is not written as a scrappy pattern but easy enough to adjust.

A second baby quilt was finished for my husbands 5th grandchild in Australia.  I don't seem to have a photo of the finished item.

Hmmm... and that seems to be it in the finishing department.  I have lots of plans for 2023 - just need to work out how to get more time to sew.

All the best for New Years wherever you might be... and we'll catch you in 2023.