Let there be SEWING!

I've had a really crazy week - being selected for jury service (even though I didn't end up on the jury) caused a lot of stress and upset... not something I enjoyed at all.  I also had emotional ups and downs after investigating a possible new sewing machine... but unfortunately that fell through.  So instead I bundled up my trusty little Bernette machine and took it off to get serviced.  As a result, I turned to some FMQ which I compete on my larger Brother machine.

Last time I worked on my Stack Shuffle Slide quilt, I was partway through the second quarter...

Working on this interlocking boxes sort of all over pattern.

A week later and I've now got three whole quarters finished! Woot.

Looking at it from the other angle, you can see all that lovely texture.  Yum!

Once I had reached this milestone, I was itching to do some more piecing... so even though my Brother can be a bit of a pain to piece with, I set it up and away I went... my strip sets have been slowly decreasing on the TATW quilt and that was great motivation to get some more done.  I think I've lost a week somewhere in this quilt along.

And now I have a heap of new blocks.  I needed to pull some more fabrics as I discovered to my surprise that I had already cut up most of the original pull!  I found some Stof fat 1/8ths that fit the bill, and they have a lovely subtlety that combines well with my other fabrics.

 Only TWO left to go!  Hard to believe that is 36 blocks, with a finished quilt size of 90" square.

With the stink weather we have been having, I figured a nice Spring like quilt was due on the bed (even though we had a frost), so straightened out my Swoon quilt - and remembered that I love it.

Also remembered that it is not quite finished.

I also started a new project!  Oops, but I can't control other people from having babies now, can I?  I really like these green, aqua and yellow geometrics for a Spring baby boy quilt.

Simply Retro by Camille Roskelley has some great simple but effective designs.

And it started looking good pretty early on... I decided to make it slightly smaller than the pattern with only 4 squares across, and 5 squares down.

I've got the top row pieced now, and working on the first sashing strip.

And, because I have other projects already on The List, I pulled out all my orange scraps for this months RSC colour.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to get these ironed and cut out this week.

All I want for Christmas is...

... a Swoon Quilt on the bed!

 I just wanted something bright and summery to match the lovely weather we have been having.  And the small fact that the binding is not quite finished yet was not enough to prevent the Swoon finally getting its time to shine for Christmas.  For all the angst I had putting it together - I now struggle to find those pesky intersections that just wouldn't match up making the blocks.

Beep Beep has been whizzing along...

This got to the stage where I had to think and assess what fabrics were going to go into the missing slots - pins in my design wall worked well to give the visual aid and make sure it was all looking balanced.

Until finally all the blocks have been constructed!  This may well be a new land speed record!

Do you know that there is only one sleep left?

My kids have the job of decorating the tree and I love that it has that "casual" feeling.  A little house means a little Xmas display.

And this little guy crops up every few years when I remember to bring him out at the right time of year.  I'm still surprised that the glue is holding him onto his rockers (repurposed coat hangers).

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Christmas - hope Santa brings you all something nice!

Much Ado About Nothing

Well really, no ado about nothing.  That about sums up the extent of my patchwork endeavors and lack of blog worthy news.  I can't believe I didn't even have one post for the whole of April!

I did however get my magazine quilt finished and packed off to the appropriate people on time!  And then spent a week or so finishing up the instructions and getting them emailed away too.  Then was a week of doing nothing... cause I needed a rest.  But really, just didn't feel like doing too much.

I did get my Country Yard Mystery Medallion centre block completed the day before it was due... and showed it off to get my second lot of instructions.

The first block instructions were for an applique block on a background that used more than one fabric, with a narrow border.   I went for a star block as my background, with two different text prints as the fabrics.  Then a mix of blue, green, grey and brown fabrics for the applique elements.  The fabric for the twirls is the provided fabric that needs to be used in every round.

The instructions also stated that the next lot of instructions would set this block on point - so it was important to select a block and applique pattern that would suit.  I liked this applique pattern as it is asymmetrical as well as non directional - you could just about use it any way you liked, although I do think it probably does have a top and a bottom somewhere.  Because you just never know what's going to happen, I also wanted a centre block that I liked both square and on point, and these designs just fit my requirements perfectly.

Making the block the day before it was due meant that some of the finer details... like blanket stitch ,were not completed.  Luckily I didn't receive a penalty! I also may not have pointed this out at the time :o)

Catch up time and today has been all about the blanket stitch.  As the next round is due on Tuesday coming, I wanted to get the first block completed properly before any additional bulk was added to the centre.  I'm using a neutral beige thread for a narrow blanket stitch - it really does finish off the design.

While I have done very little sewing or sewing related shopping (gasp!) I have picked up some fun things on my shopping travels.

I think everyone needs a pair of monster feet slippers... for you know, when you need to stomp around...

And I couldn't resist these cups... cow cups...

Complete with boobies...

The other major occurance over the past month or so was receiving my quilt back from the long arm quilter!  This is the first quilt I have had quilted by someone else, and it really did stretch my Scottish short arm/long pocket syndrome.  However, I knew that the Swoon quilt deserved the best, and I really wanted the Baptist Fan pattern to be quilted on it.  This is almost impossible to quilt on a domestic machine, trust me, I've tried, and the other option would be by hand, and even I'm not that crazy.  I just had to bite the bullet and invited my friend and long arm quilter Leeanne from Quilt Me Kiwi to do the honours... she did a terrific job.

You can probably see it best from the back...

And from the front

And so you can actually see the quilting!  

I love how it turned out, the mix of traditional block pattern and quilting design with the more modern fabric choices - Leeanne, thank you so much.  Now to get onto the binding... one day.  First up I need to finish the rest of the blanket stitch and get that second round completed by Tuesday.  And I promise to not be so slack about blogging (and checking emails) in the future!

Finally, some excitement!

I ordered some backing fabrics towards the end of last year, and have been waiting patiently (or not so patiently) for them to arrive.

Today, finally, one of them did!

First up is the package from Fort Worth Fabric Studio online shop. They really paid a bit of special attention to the packaging, with the fabric enclosed in a plastic bag and then the international envelope had extra tape around all the edges.  If you've ordered fabric from the US before, you'll know that those international envelopes are not the strongest and I have had things arrive before where the cardboard was hanging onto the contents by a shred.  Inside there was also a hot chocolate sachet and some snowman stickers - plus a nice little Xmas tag.  A nice touch.  I have looked at their website on and off for quite some time, they also send a weekly email newsletter with shop news and specials - but this was the first time that the stars aligned and I ordered from them.

Right, onto the contents!

Two fabrics (4.5yds each), one pattern and a charm pack.  This shop allows up to 9yds of fabric for the smaller bags.  Luckily the charm pack and pattern in addition to the yardage didn't affect the postage charges.

I selected this large bright floral with the idea of using it on the back of the Tokyo Subway quilt.  Although it doesn't have ALL of the colours of the tracks, it does have quite a few (more importantly, all the colours in the print are in the quilt top)... and I liked the tropical boldness of it - totally different to all those regimented squares on the quilt top.

Calypso by Red Rooster

I chose this bunting print hoping that it would go with my long forgotten Swoon top.  You may remember that I pieced a huge back for this one... but in hindsight I feel like it is too dark and heavy for the airiness of the quilt.

While it doesn't look too bad with this block - it doesn't really go with the rest of the colours - which are a lot more subtle than the bunting. 


In fact, it looks better with the Tokyo Subway quilt - and also has many of the same bright colours.  However I am going to stick to the large floral as it will be more practical for its intended recipient.

Looks like this backing will need to wait for another time.

Roll on package number two!

One of THOSE sort of weekends...

I decided to turn my bedroom around late Friday afternoon... it wasn't pretty!

With a little bit of careful cropping, it was eventually safe to go to bed that night.

Saturday was a bit of a sewing free day, and Sunday morning disappeared in a sea of washing.

Finally, something happening in the shed!

Janet has been quiet for quite some time.  First of all she was annoying me with the joins in her plastic rails - so we replaced them with the metal strap bracing used in garages - perfect.  Then I had issues with the stop/start button.  Hubby came up with his own solution involving the brake handle and cable from a push bike.  Perfect.


Finally, we needed a new handle, which was bought for $2.00 from a garage sale - an arm rest off a 10 speed...  you guessed it.  Perfect.

I splashed out on a new second hand machine - a straight stitch Janome 1600P so that I had a dedicated machine on the frame.  We still need to come to an arrangement that gives me even tension and threads that don't shred... but we're getting there!

Throughout the week I got about half of a My Tweets block blanket stitched.

So just the second half to do next week.

I also finally did the last few seams for my Swoon back.  If I ever suggest doing anything like this ever again - shoot me!

And after much procrastinating I did finally get the last applique block applied to the background for this Gypsy Blooms quilt.

I'll have to give my focus projects for next week a bit of a think... so I'll let you know...