The one where the music soars.....

in my head at least - and I danced a bit (my husband thinks I'm nuts) - because this evening, I finished the last FWQA blocks - yep, all 111 of them - and yes, I know I still have to sew the blocks together and finish the quilt - but Rome wasn't built in a day and all that - I started these blocks in June 2012 when I joined the FWQA and initially I made several each week.  However, as things go, my exuberance waned and I found it was months between blocks...they really did become quite tedious.....and then I got another spurt on and another til finally, they're done - the first 3 of the top row I finished last week and the remainder I've finished today - the bottom left block took me longer to make than the other 7!! - actually, that was the penultimate block and just because I really wanted to finish them all today, my sewing machine decided to start playing up - bloody thing - a clean out, a new needle and a change of thread and bobbin helped a little, but it looks like it needs a professional service.....but, it was ok enough for me to finish them all....YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

....and the stack all together...

It must be the right sort of day - because this morning I finished the machine quilting on this baby...

rotten photo - it's night time!

I've custom quilted this - there's feathers and lots of stitch in the ditch (ish!) - I won't win any prizes for the quilting but it's a whole lot better than previous efforts - onwards and upwards!  I'm going to do some hand quilting too so it's not ready for an official finish as yet - I started the quilt top back in April 2010 - I didn't know how to foundation piece so I signed up for a BoM with Stitchin Heaven - it's called 'Dancing with the Stars' and every block is foundation pieced.  It's a big quilt (80" x 92") - but it's almost Oz Open time so the hand quilting can be completed whilst watching the tennis.

On that note, I'm off to add the FWQA photos to Flickr then go to bed - funnily enough I'm pooped!

Farming again..

Not sure what came over me - but I'm thinking getting those do.Good stitches blocks done has spurred me on - so while waiting for the painted and inked pages of my journal to dry, I whipped up 4 more Farmers blocks - so that's 97 done now and only 14 more to go....feels like a marathon!

no 94 - Tall Pine Tree

no 95 - Temperance Tree

no. 97 - Waste not

no.96 - Tulip

Hoping to do a few more and get them finished - but if Melbourne continues a lovely run of the weather we had today, it's unlikely

do. Good Stitches - Cherish

Debra asked for a couple of blocks with a beachy theme and they had to be all one colour - so I've added a little artistic licence and we have a blue boat for sailing on the deep blue...

and a green lighthouse, who really wanted to be a greenhouse....

There was a couple of 'Y' seams when I joined the pieces together - that was fun!

These will be joined with the other blocks made by the clever ladies in the Cherish Circle and will become a gorgeous quilt for a deserving someone.

what a stinker!

This month for the Quilt Club Australia bee we were asked to make a lonestar string block using red, white and blue - being the staunch anglophile I am, I have quite a bit of fabric in those colours so finding scraps wasn't going to be a problem.

I have foundation pieced lots of times, so that wasn't going to be a problem.

However, I am never going to make another one of these blocks in my life.......

That's all

Class Mug Bag

I teach sewing/patchwork at 2 local Community Houses and we have a project every month - we've actually just kicked it off and the very first project was a little bag to hold your mug - it protects the mug when you take it to class.  I don't know where the pattern originated - I just rejigged the instructions (which were simply typed on a piece of A4 paper) to make them a little easier to understand.  Well, my gorgeous ladies have been beavering away at their mug bags and they've created a riot of colour...

a couple of these weren't quite finished when I took the photo - but they all are now and they're fantastic.  The blue/purple bag on the right has a beautifully embroidered cup of coffee on the front - unfortunately it's obscured by the handle - sorry Barb!

Some opted for a pieced centre - and there was a lot of vintage buttons used - sensational

One lady supersized the dimensions to make a tote bag - the original size is on the right - way to go Mary!

The ladies did a wonderful job - and we're now onto our second project.

The second project takes the dilly bag created by Jeni of In Color Order (and generously shared by her through a tute on her blog) and I've added a foundation pieced panel - the ladies wanted to have a go at foundation pieceing on a small project...

I'm really enjoying the classes - the ladies are wonderfully enthusiastic - and they're very forgiving if how I teach something doesn't work for them - I'm actually searching out all my notes made when learning all about adult education (it was soooo long ago!) so that I can incorporate new methods.  I'm loving my new life!

Farmers Wife Frenzy

Using fabric scraps I received from the gorgeous Shay I went on a bit of a sewing frenzy given I haven't made any for over a month........my fave is the Silver Light and I have to say I detested making Shooting Star - it was a bugger to do even though it was foundation pieced - never, ever making one again...

silver lane

seasons

rosebud

sawtooth

ribbons

shooting star

so that's 79 down - only 32 to go.......

TGIFF - a finish - woo hoo!!

On Wednesday I loaded a quilt top that has been languishing in my UFO tub for over 2 years.  One of the reasons, (the main one really) was because it needed specific custom quilting rather than an edge-to-edge pattern and I'm afraid my skills just weren't up to it 2 years ago....and while I won't win a prize at any time soon, I've custom quilted the top, made and just finished sewing on the binding - this was after a bit of a disaster which saw my bff and I unpicking some seriously embarrassing quilting lines from a row of flying geese (what a bff - comes over for a barby for Oz day and spends an hour or so helping me unpick!).

So here is 'Which way to go'

The photo doesn't really do justice to the richness of the colours

The centre mariners compass is foundation pieced and came from a 2nd hand magazine given to me by my bff's mum - from the 1970's.  I also foundation pieced the flying geese as 2 years ago, my geese results where less than satisfactory - in fact, they were so bad the poor geese would have had no chance setting off on their migration nor escaping the hunter's gun, so seriously were they deformed!

Just about all the batiks came from Bali - my husband and I (Queenly wave) went to Bali for a wedding a couple of years ago and I came home with about 50 metres for around $2 a metre - so even though this quilt fnished at around 80" square, there's still quite a lot of batik left in my stash - and I'm not a huge fan of it anymore - well, not of quilts made exclusively of batik fabrics - I do like to add them to quilts made from patterned quilters cottons - they don't stop the eye as solids sometimes do.

I got a bit excited in the centre and quilted pebbling - this is one of my most favourite finishes..

This quilt was in my Winter/Summer sewing list so that's another job jobbed..woo hoo to that too!

I'm linking up with Lynn of What a hoot who is hosting TGIFF today so go and see what other Friday finishes have finished..

A little Farmer love

After the last couple of weeks, which seem to have been secreted away somewhere I can't find, and which were filled with other things I do besides sewing, last night I decided on a little Farmer love.

Blocks 45-48 were completed which means there's 63 more to go - and I'm still determined to do them all - even though there's nowhere in my sewing room, nor a spare wall to display them all (because I won't be putting the quilt together as suggested - my reds need to be evenly distributed and I've noticed that there's a couple of concentrations), so when that time comes, it'll be a bit of fun on the floor methinks!

Maybe I can cajole my youngest son into making me a folding display screen.....

Anyway,

Grape basket, block 45 - I really wasn't all that fussed about making this one as I was a little over 'basket' types - but it went together somewhat effortlessly so now I don't mind it at all!

Block 46, Hill and Valley - this was a bit of a chore - and there'll be a couple of cut-off points when I join it to the rest of the blocks - but not so 'pointless' as to make me want to do it again - I have a cunning plan with regard to my varying block size finishes anyway, so the points on the edges won't be such an issue....

Block 47 - Homemaker - I foundation pieced this one, but still had a little trouble with the 'Y' seams - again not enough to worry about.  I like it though - painting, pets, flowers and sewing - very important elements to making a home huh?

Block 48, Homeward Bound - I changed the corners of this block - couldn't see the point of making 2 x 1 1/2" squares when 1 x 2 1/2" x 1 1/2" would suffice - and the bottom right isn't wonky in real life, it's just my rotten photography!

After I finished these last night (well, very early this morning really) I printed out the instructions for the next 24 blocks and there are some doozies coming up....should be fun!

A little bit of what you fancy..........

I actually sat down yesterday and made three Farmers Wife blocks - numbers 42-44.  There was a basket (yes, another one and number 45 is yet another one - think I'm a bit over the baskets), a garden path and a gentleman's fancy - not sure why this block is called gentlemans fancy - there's not a great deal to it...

Here's the Block 42, Fruit Basket up close - it looks wonky but it's not in real life - the points didn't turn out too badly and there wasn't any unsewing - although up close I can see the basket base is off kilter - I'm going to say that at one stage, the Farmers kids knocked it over and broke it and had to glue it back together - unfortunately, it's a bit NQR.

The next one, Block 43, Garden Path - I got a little fancy-schmancy with this one and fussy cut the 'paths' - again, a little bit wonky (but not as bad as how the photo is showing - it - need some photography skills obviously!) so I'm going with the paths were affected by flood waters from the swollen creek in the far paddock, and last, but by no means least....

Block 44, Gentlemans Fancy - this was foundation pieced so is the most accurate of the lot - still can't see what's fancy about this one - anyone any idea?

The next block to be made is the Grape basket - same as the Fruit basket but with a different stand - and I just couldn't bring myself to make it yesterday - maybe next week.  So, 44 down and 67 to go - here's hoping the grape basket is the last of its' kind....................

How's your Farmers Wife coming along?

Going over all psychedelic.....

Some days, you just need to finish something the same day you start it - and I needed a new journal cover as my current journal is almost full (I know it's a little bit nerdy to have a journal, but I have the memory keeping capability of a goldfish, so the journal works for me!).

I made one for my bff's birthday which was specific to her and her tastes (blogged earlier) but I wanted mine to be a bit more unfinished.

So, out with scraps of fabrics I'd hand dyed - especially the selvedges - and in a salute to my Scottish heritage, I wove a psychedelic tartan.  This was stitched down onto a piece of scrap wadding, using variegated thread and then the real farty stuff started:

First of all, I used some of my stamps (Extreme Elements from Stampin' Up - one of my favourite stamp sets) and with a black 'stayzon' stamp pad, stamped here and there.  Then, I remembered I could also use bleach as a stamping solution, so out with the White King and a bit more stamping - the dye came out of the fabric but not the black stamped images - guess that's why they call it 'stayzon' !  I really enjoyed this part - except for the fumes - it was amazing to actually watch the dye leach out.

Once the bleach had all dried, I got a nail brush out and vigourously scrubbed to further distress the fabric - and the result is a super soft, very distressed, psychadelic tartan.  Perfect!

I added a couple of pieces of fabric to hold the notebook, left all the edges unbound and then added a little brad on the front - I love it - it's soooooo tactile - here's hoping it inspires me to bigger and better things......

Notebook is opened out so you can see the entire piece (rotten photo - it was taken at night)

Here's a close up of the front:

It's very different to the one I made my bff, but some of the elements are the same - my hand dyed fabric, stampin', variegated thread - love, love, love how a similar set of components can provide the stimulation for ideas at either end of the spectrum.....chaos/order, rough/smooth etc etc

My bff's journal opened out - my hand dyed fabric, stamped, hand quilted, foundation pieced circular flying geese, buttons, sweetwater fabric line and a piece of ribbon taken off a beautifully packaged cake!