Where has the time gone?

Well, June disappeared and July is already underway.  I have struggled to work out what I have achieved the last couple of weeks since the last post.  Usually I take photos to remind myself... but as I started to think a new post was well overdue, well... it appeared there were no photos on the camera!

So... what exactly have I been up to?

Firstly, I did some redecorating in our bathroom.  Our family/only bathroom is pretty small.  Consisting width wise of a bath, basin and shower unit (the room is as long as the bath - 1.5m)... it's never really had any decorative elements.  That changed when I bought some storage boxes which my handy hubby attached to the wall, and a new toothbrush holder and soap dispenser.

I really like how it turned out, and we can now keep the window sill and basin top clear of all the crap that used to cover it.

I have been asked to run a FMQ class... so I requested that participants create a small quilt top (18 x 24" roughly) which could be donated to the local maternity unit as bassinet quilts once they are finished.  Being the tutor means that I will have to demonstrate too... so had to look through my bits and pieces to find something to put together.  I just happened to have a selection of rainbow squares cut... goodness knows why, and I realised they looked great with a strip of leftover backing from my Tokyo Subway quilt, and some odd pieces of white on white.  This is what I came up with.  It is insanely cute.

And talking about FMQ... I finally started quilting my Stack, Slash and Slide quilt top...

After much thought, I decided to stick with a simple interlocking boxes design all over... so far - I've got the first 1/4 finished.  Unfortunately I managed to strain a muscle in my side, which led to a twinge in my neck from overcompensating (like you do), and it took a few days to come back to normal.  Moral of the story... stick to small, regular sessions instead of marathon ones.

 Finishing all my mindless piecing jobs early in the month (RSC blocks and Tillies Lane hourglass blocks) meant that I needed something small and easy to just whizz through the machine as a leader/ender.  Tillies Lane for July is Month 8... and there is only Month 9 left after that.  Which is mostly putting the quilt together!  A little bit of preplanning means that I'm creating little four patches with my hour glass blocks.  Here's one I prepared earlier!

And although the pile is still pretty small... it is growing!

The project needing the leader/ender, is operation "My Tweets block framing".  I've got the left hand side blocks added now.  I can almost see the end of this one now.  Almost.  I've chosen the framing fabrics for the right hand side and started the top right hand block.

When I was sorting through my sewing shed a few weeks back, I found this orphan block.  Luckily it is the perfect match for a new commission - a single bed sized quilt for a little girl - purple being the chosen colourway.  I haven't quite decided how one block is going to turn into a full sized quilt, but with it up on the design wall it's just a matter of time before those creative juices start flowing.

I spent the last Saturday of June sewing at my favourite fabric shop (The Country Yard)... and just happened to buy the following fat quarters.  From a Sweetwater range... of course, none of these fabrics have labeling on their selvedge.  Gorgeous.  I am in love.

And these totally random fabric purchases arrived in my post box also... maybe some of these purples could end up in the kids quilt.

Thoughts about goals for July.

Well, I still have this quilt all over my floor.

The RSC colour for July is BLUE.  So really, I need to lay out the blocks so far, to do some planning before I can choose a new block to sew.

I'd like to sew another dress, so I really need to lay that out to be able to cut it out.

I'd like to lay out Tillies Lane because, well, it's almost finished people!!!

I can just see the My Tweets top falling off the design wall completely as it gets bigger and heavier.  If that happens... well, I'll need to lay it out on the floor.

Also on the horizon is Charlotte's mystery quilt - which already has month threes instructions up on Carol's Quilts blog.  Not sure if I really need to lay this out yet - but you never know.

So to do any of these things... I really need to get these VQR blocks sashed and sewn together.  I feel a bit weird because it's working backwards order-wise to how I've been doing things most of the year.  Today I sewed together my first row.  OK, I can do this.


Right, I think I'm all caught up... hopefully you are still awake.

On the agenda

As one project comes to an end, it is a natural progression to start thinking about what is going to appear on the agenda next.  Something new and exciting.

Just not quite yet.  I have a couple of projects that I have committed to... the Baby Bunting Quilt which I was commissioned to do for a baby due to appear in December, and quilting a top that was a group effort - made by my old Friday stitching group (only old in that now that I work 5 days a week, I am unable to attend) from stash of one of our members who passed away - with the intention of donating the finished quilt to Hospice in her honour.  So really, I am not free to pursue my own creative dreams yet.  But when I am... watch out... I have plenty to get off my mind!

This week has been spent blanket stitching around my applique shapes.  Somehow I managed to miss this one!

And today I started the FM quilting - just stippling, but exactly the look I wanted.  This is my Ronan Keating thread... (you quilt it best, when you quilt nothing at all...) a very fine polyester Wonderfil thread, that practically disappears, but leaves all that lovely texture.

All the background fabric areas are quilted the same... it really makes the applique and star points pop.

Even though I started this quilt with no intention of keeping it... I could SO keep it!  Although what I'd do with a cot size I don't know, and NO - there will be no more babies in this household!  But with my queen sized quilt obsession... I could do four blocks with different applique patterns in each, set in a four patch with sashing and corner stones... and the beautiful applique around the outer border.  This would come out to about 85 x 80".  Maybe one day :o)

We've also been making progress in Nadia's room.  With a very clever husband, it only took a day to knock up a headboard - it finished off this view of her room.

The angle to the left shows that every thing has a place... and it's just a matter of someone putting all those things back into their right place to keep things tidy.

And the mirror did get hung...

Just a bit of a close up of the headboard... made from off cuts of our lounge-room laminated flooring - with a timber trim.  Fab!

End of Holiday Roundup

Well, as Sunday rolls around, with back to school and work tomorrow; checking through The List, I achieved some of my goals for this holidays.  Woohoo!  Unfortunately I never did catch up with the washing pile - it just seemed to get bigger no matter how quickly I tried to fold it, and the floor got vacuumed several times, but never mopped.  I swapped around my room and cleaned one of the windows... but never quite got everything tidied away or that other window cleaned.  We didn't finish Nadia's room renovations, but I have paint, and will finish the furniture repainting another time.  Perhaps Christmas?

Some of the smaller projects did get finished for her room - after looking all over for a pretty mirror, I ended up painting the ugly orange varnished wood one that she already had - and applied some pretty chipboard 3D scrapbooking stickers to make it pretty.  On the schedule for this afternoon is to get hubby to hang it (I do know my limits).  We also made up a small Kaisercraft chipboard/cardboard drawer unit which I painted and decorated with pretty papers.  This is supposed to be the new home for all her hair ties and clips.

There were a few new things I wanted to buy, and was lucky to find this purple bedside table and funky flower rug... we are getting there!

On the quilting list, I wanted to get the applique border quilted on my Bluebirds and Berries quilt, and the quilt top constructed for the Bunting Baby Quilt.  Woot!  Finished the quilting on the applique border today - and didn't run out of thread!

 When I started quilting, I kinda forgot that the bottom border was wider than the other three borders.  It took forever to get this border half quilted (using the vine as the dividing line) and I really despaired of getting this finished.  But once I got used to weaving in and out of the applique, and changing between the different quilting elements - it sped up heaps, and I could get half a side done in a day.  So pretty much eight days of quilting dedicated to this!

The ruler is there to remind me that the side and top borders are 8" (looks like a quarter inch has been taken up in the quilting)... and the bottom border (shown side on) is 10".  Now I just need to wait for the thread to arrive which I'll use for the narrow dark green border and the outer printed border.

I haven't quite finished the Bunting Quilt construction (would have if I hadn't added the extra applique) - but I've made good progress with getting the applique stems attached.  On the top vine I started on the right hand side and attached one side of the stem all the way around to the other side; then coming back I am up to the black spot almost in the middle.

And I've attached one side of all the stems on the bottom border.

I had another Amy Gibson Sugar Club BOM day, and worked on this lovely block.  Not the easiest to construct - well, more not the easiest to press nicely - there are a few lumpy seams hence the ripple in the photo on the right.  But it is a lovely looking block.

Right, that's me for another week.   Catch you next time...

Monday Morning

OK, so really today is the first day of the holidays (edited to add, it really was morning when I started this post - somehow turned into afternoon by the time I got to the bottom).  I have a huge agenda... cleaning, decluttering, redecorating, sewing and quilting.  I know I do best with a list... but I've been putting off writing this one, because there is so much I want to achieve.  Partially because last holidays were so sucky (remember, storms, no power, all roads blocked so no fabric shopping), and nothing really got done. Partially because I'm just sick of the way things are at the moment, and it's time for a change.

First up the redecorating plans.  Tied up with Nadia's birthday, we decided to redecorate her bedroom.  We have a small house, and when we shifted in five years ago (I know, unreal aye?) the smallest person in our family fitted best into the smallest room.  She had a lovely twinkly light fitting and pink striped curtains.  A nice girly bedroom that I could still live with - not being the pink girly type myself. 

Does anyone remember the shelves and the small gremlin?

Then we decided to put both the kids in the larger room with bunk beds, and the small room turned into a studio/computer room... that lasted only a short while because it didn't really work having the two kids in the same room.  Then Dylan moved into the small room, taking his charcoal curtains and orange spaceship looking light fitting, and I moved my studio into the larger room with Nadia.  It stayed like this for quite a while - before my studio moved into the converted garage outside, and Nadia took over the whole large bedroom and proceeded to make a complete mess.  Finally she decided earlier this year that she wanted to move back into the small room, where she had some hope of keeping it clean.  This was just wishful thinking on her part - she makes a mess wherever she goes :o).  After all this jiggling around - Dylan had ended up with the pretty light and pink curtains... and Nadia had the spaceship and the charcoal ones.

This photo was taken on her birthday... 

...I think it's time she had a big girl room. 

It's slowly changing... there's a new light and blind, with some filmy white net curtains, but I'd like to get the rest of her room sorted over the break.  I actually have a whole list of things I want to achieve in her room.  Watch this space.

On the sewing front, I managed to get half of the quilting finished on the first applique border.

Then I started on the baby quilt applique - well, choosing fabrics for the key elements... one of the best things about fusible applique is that you can make changes right up to the last minute.  For those of us who are visual designers, it's the perfect technique.  I needed to cut the pink star points to assess just how pink it was going to be.  Even though it is destined for a home somewhere else - I still have my pink limits :o).

I quite liked didn't hate the pink on pink... but maybe just a little bit too much pink?

And I quite liked the deep blue basket with the pink rick rack... but maybe too bottom heavy?

Finally a compromise...

A last little note about stem making tools.  I'm not huge on specialty tools, but I love my Clover bias stem maker.  This is size 9, which makes a 1/4" stem (I think) which I use for just about everything.  I cut a 3/4" strip and feed it through the gadget, using the iron to set the shape as it emerges - folding the two edges under nicely - all ready for a bit of hand stitching.

OK, I'm off to start that list.

Even more random than last time

What to start with?

So much has been going on which has almost nothing to do with patchwork or sewing.  However I did manage to get the last two circles of this one cut and sewn. 

 This is the layout I've decided on... let me know if the placement annoys you, like, is it OK to have those three red segments in the bottom row... however having that dark grey square set off centre is non-negotiable.  Just saying.

Then I went to the chemist on a totally unrelated mission and found a lady doing free nail painting... this has had a bit of a chance to wear off, but you get the gist of it... and I fell for the sales pitch and added a few things to Nadia's Xmas present haul.  Well, I think it will be a "for sharing" sort of present.

Nadia managed to step on a nail on Sunday - a huge nail.  She has a very nice hole in the bottom of her foot which is full of pus.  But on the good side she's on antibiotics and pain killers and is getting bored with being at home, because she's not sick in the slightest - and I think that pus is clearing up.  If we can manage to get her walking instead of hopping, she can go to school tomorrow.  At this stage, that is a big IF.  She is pretty stubborn.

While yesterday disappeared in a haze of appointments... today is beautiful outside, and reminded me about the material and pattern I bought for Nadia a while back (when it was still cold and horrible).  After about an hour of cutting and sewing, I have a finished reversible top!

I have enough of the paisley fabric to cut the front skirt bit of the skort, and we've decided on a solid peacock colour for the rest of the shorts.  But after this burst of activity - I'm happy to put that onto hold until the weekend.


On the home front, we finally (after 3 years of it being on the To Do list) started painting our house.

Original colour

New colour - chosen to match our existing coloursteel sheds (not just because we wanted boring cream!)

Oh well, washing is calling out to me...