Homespun Magazine BOM

Monthly goals disappear in a puff of smoke when I get my teeth into another project.

Catching up before the month is over, the last couple of days I have focused on Block 4 of the Tilda fabrics BOM from the Homespun Magazine.  This month is made up of a few smaller units... so it is easier to get it done in small chunks.

I started with the 6 inch Ohio star blocks (which are probably my favourite block) before getting stuck into the simple applique blocks.

If you were to compare this to the magazine original, you would find some differences... but that is the least of my worries and I'm very happy with how things are turning out.

Cutting these 1.5 inch sashing squares was a pain in the neck, but I got it done.  Only one more applique block then I can sew all this together.  One more day of school holidays, then back to work on Monday.  I can do it!

All the Stuff...

Sometimes life just has a way of getting in the way of things... doesn't it?  Three weeks ago I had a call from school to say my daughter was sick, at the sick bay (there were bugs going around) and needed to be picked up.  By the time I got there - less than 30 minutes - I was informed my son had dislocated his knee cap, and was waiting for the ambulance to arrive... so the last couple of weeks have been a bit up in the air - looking after Dylan when he needed extra care - checking in with Nadia who turned out just had a bit of a cold coming on which started with a high temperature and general crappiness - and finishing up the last week of work before the {well deserved} school holidays started.

Now almost at the end of the first week of the two week term holiday, Dylan has attended a specialist appointment about his knee {fortunately he seems to have avoided major injury - and just needs to be careful and avoid sports for another month before he can use it fully}.  Still a little bit sore at times and a bit swollen, he was very lucky!

Nadia and I have both spent the first week of the holidays doing bedroom cleaning, sorting and tidying.  Her room is finally moving from a childhood bedroom, into more of a teenage bedroom - a bit of a bittersweet moment. 

Nadia inherited the smallest room in the house - and we installed these shelves for all her little girlie stuff.  It didn't remain this tidy for very long - but it did look good, and keep track of a lot of stuff, for quite a while.

The toys have turned into clothes storage with sleek grey baskets.  Still a work in progress, but I am really hoping that this will be finished by the end of the holidays.  One week to go!

Before Xmas I located a fabric shop in the US that sold fabric in pre-cut bundles complete with a pattern that suited the fabric.  This was awesome because the hardest thing about buying dress fabrics is judging the weight - and matching it to the pattern requirements.  Although they didn't ship to NZ, they put me on to a shipping go between that organised that side of things.  And so finally, I had a rather large bundle arrive with three different patterns and fabrics enclosed (for quite an exorbitant postal charge I might add and I'll never do it again!)

 I chose a pattern for a jacket and black "sweater knit" fabric, half because I quite liked the simple nature of the jacket that I thought would be a useful addition to my wardrobe, and half because I wanted to know what "sweater knit" was.  I chose view A.

As the fabric was calculated for the view and size that used the most, I worked out there should be some left over as I was sewing the smallest size on the pattern, and chose the shortest, sleekest view.  With the left over yardage, I had the extra cool idea of seeing whether I could squeeze this Bibi dress from Tilly and the Buttons book Stretch from the same length of fabric - YES! I was off and running and I cut the two items out at the same time and commenced sewing.

 It turns out that sweater knit is just a relatively heavyweight, maybe double? knit.  Still not entirely sure.  I sewed up the dress in the size for my measurements - not noticing that it has negative ease, which means it is designed to fit smaller than your body measurements... not a look I was going for.

So, yeah... I made a dress that is too small... while simultaneously sewing a jacket that ended up too big.

I have some weird pulling on one side, and it hangs rather loose.  The collar also sits a bit weirdly at the bottom.

I am not completely disheartened by this, and next I'm hoping to make a dress from this book...

... from a grey and black stripe.

We shall see!

Wow, what a month!

Me and technology are just not happening at the moment.  First up the photo problem.  Then the blogger comment thing... which I was a bit slow to the party about and hadn't realised it wasn't just me that was having problems.  And then, to top it all off - the space bar on my computer stopped working.  This really has been most frustrating.  So... after a couple of short and sweet posts made on a small tablet (I will never get used to not touch typing) and a very swift replacement of the keyboard on our laptop, I am back in the swing of things.  I have done the "suggested fix" for the comment situation, and am still looking for a better solution for the photo thing - but I will get there!

Right... sewing... I have been getting lots done - just not exactly what I had planned to do.

After buying a new walking foot, I had to finish the final border on the quilt I wanted to baste, so that got done first - then the massive task of pin basting a large quilt in a space that was slightly too small.  This was the first quilt I had tried basting after reorganising my sewing and ironing area - and I worked out pretty quickly that my layout was not ideal.

Time for another change around - this time moving the sewing table along the other wall - and moving some odd furniture items to leave more free open floor space.  We tend to move junk out into this room - and it is a really bad habit.  This room is not the prettiest... but is the only room we own that is even vaguely big enough for basting.

I also created a bit of a new seating area around my design wall... I figured it was easy enough to move the coffee table out to reach the bottom of the design wall when I need it, and makes quite a cosy place to sit and contemplate.  AND I can stand on the coffee table to reach the top of the wall - so maybe an added bonus.  As you can see - there is more things looking for homes before I can sit down however!

My main cutting zone... on top of the chest freezer and secondary sewing zone...

The view from the outside door - and the white door you can see here goes through to the other sewing/basting space shown above.

I did get my quilt straight line quilted in the manner I wanted - and it appeared to work quite well.  Sewing cream stitching lines on cream fabric does not lend itself to halfway decent photos... so you'll have to excuse the lack of photo evidence.  The project has now been put aside for a little while so I could focus back on those other pesky To Do list items.

I managed to fuse all the pieces for my Homespun Magazine Block Three BOM.

And have started the long and tedious task of machine blanket stitching these...

I also finished up the teal/blue/green RSC block for this month.

I ordered a new pattern - an apron dress that just fascinates me, and bought some odd bits of fabric and a length of premade bias tape, thanks to Fibresmith in Australia.

And after a successful sewing day at The Country Yard yesterday, I came home with some new fat quarters... loosely inspired by the coffee mug fabric.

For some reason the green fabric would not photograph well above - it is much more accurate in the photo below - although even greener in real life.