Stitching by hand

In between sewing by machine and putting some hand quilting on my sisters hexy quilt, I've been creating a couple of samples for my Diploma.  This term we're studying colour theory and I for one did not know there was soooo much written about colour - it's truly fascinating - so we've been cutting and pasting and painting and colouring and stitching........

Last week was red and fly stitch.......

This week was blue and french and colonial knots.....

I found out on Sunday that I've been sewing french knots incorrectly - oops - but then I was shown how to do a colonial knot which results in a larger knot, so fills in more space - scores!!!

Next week is yellow and buttonhole stitch, so that'll be interesting.

While I was faffing about today, I made up next month's project for my classes - and we're going to make a zipped, lined pouch - I stuffed up the base though - made it too wide, so will have to make it again - I also have to write the instructions - I'm supposed to be doing that right now but I got distracted ;)

I copied the stylised flower shapes and drew them on the left hand side of the pouch with fabric markers - I messed up placement a bit but I don't think I mind - I really love that floral fabric...unfortunately I now only have a piece about 4" x 11" left :(

Steppin' out with the Farmer

I pulled my book out today and saw that it's been 2 months since I made any of the Farmers blocks - I think I'd had enough of them and as the next few are either foundation pieced or involve a huge number of pieces, it seemed like a really good idea to put them in the shelf for a holiday.  Anyway, I did manage to complete 3 - Blocks 85 - 87.....

Square dance

Squash blossom

Star gardener - this one finished 1/4" bigger than expected!

I also noted that's it's been almost a year since I started this quilt - and given the disparate sizes of the blocks it'll likely be a few more years before I can muster the enthusiasm to put it together : \

24 to go..........................

Images from school 1 - SEASONS

After madly stitching, ignoring kith and kin, and dust bunnies, and sleep, and hmmmmming and hawing about whether we'd captured what we intended to, and whether we'd executed our stitches well, and whether we had truly represented our chosen subjects, we presented our pieces to our teachers for a mini exhibition in our school library.......and some of my classmates agreed to share their pieces on my blog.........except they don't know of my photography 'skills' so if all of a sudden you see 'photo unavailable', you know why......

The 3 pieces up for assessment were:

• 'Seasons' - a stitched representation of one of the seasons
• 'Folio Cover' - a textile folder cover based on any of our drawings (or part thereof) in our art class
• 'Lucious Fruit' - a textile representation of lucious fruit

Lots of photos, so enjoy.....except Blogger is taking umbrage with the number of photos so I'll do a couple of posts.......

Carol has captured summer in her back garden beautifully - from the soft tones of the painted background to the glorious floral display next to the pool - so well in fact that I might have to cajole her into sharing that space for a class barby under the umbrella next summer :)

From one extreme to the other - Sherryn introduced a touch of frosty storms to her stitching - love the use of the chain stitch which insinuates roiling clouds as well as the straight stitch and french knots blowing in snowflakes and sleety rain

Margaret's piece was full of the joys of Spring - warm and balmy but tempered by a capricious wind

Kristen gave us the lazy, hazy days of summer with a beautifully (french) knotted blossom tree and a carefree swing - and a perfectly poised dragonfly amongst the flowers

Carolyn depicted Spring bursting out all over - fresh green, birdies and a gorgeously wrought tree

This is mine, representing Autumn - a grape vine in front of what kinda looks like Uluru (Ayers Rock) with falling leaves turning into a brown mush beneath the branches

More to follow, over.......

WIP Wednesday #10

It's that time of the week again and although I don't always make it, I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced - it's her 1 year anniversary of WIP Linky posts - thanks Lee - a sterling job!!

We have had the mother of electrical and rain storms today - flash flooding, hail and lightning all over the place - it flooded the local community centre where I teach patchwork on wednesday evenings, so those who braved the rain came to my house to sew instead - it's still raining and the pool looks like it's about to overflow - and given the pool pump has seized (the man is coming out on Friday to either fix or replace it), we may be swimming in our beds!!  I'm also just a little concerned about my vegie patch - I was very happy about how things are growing out there, but the hail may have decimated it - I'll have a look tomorrow.

But, onwards and upwards....since the last time I reported on a WIP Wednesday, there has been some progress:

I made more hexies and cut out some 'plain' ones, so now I have 26 - I think another 14 or so and I can start putting them together with sashing - then a couple of borders and the top will be ready.  The hexies are hand pieced, but everything else will be done by machine.

I started and completely finished a quilt that will go into my shop (either at Etsy or Madeit)

Made a few more FWQA blocks (blogged about here)

I'm now over half way on these so that feels pretty good.

I finished a UFO (now in my Etsy shop)

I lined some pouches with my hand dyed fabric, and listed those in my Etsy shop

...and on the Long-arm side, I've quilted one very large charity quilt, a lap size client quilt and loaded a queen size client quilt ready for quuilting tomorrow.

Phew!!

To summarise:

Finished:

Whirleygig II quilt
Nest quilt
3 pouches

Quilts in Progress:

Blanket Box Hexies - total made, 26

4 FWQA - total made, 56

No action at all:

Class Sampler quilt - all blocks completed

UFOUFN's:

Psychedelic tartan - who knows??
Double diamonds - still needs something......
Which way to go - needs quilting
Dancing with the stars - needs quilting
Kimono mini - needs binding
Sashiko qayg - needs finishing!
Red and white challenge - needs properly starting

Please click on Lee's "Freshley Pieced WIP wednesday" button on the right to see what others are up to .....

Hangin' with my peeps

Is the abovementioned title just a little bit bit sad being written by a mature woman??  My son is rolling his eyes, but I don't think I care - I find it very amusing and it aptly describes how we spent yesterday.....

My SIL came over to use the Gammill - she's made a really pretty quilt top for her mum for her birthday (my ma-in-law, and I still haven't made her gift yet...) and wanted to get it quilted.....



Robyn just sewing in a couple of threads after quilting

Then my bff finished piecing the back of her sampler and we loaded that one too



Lizzy having a bit of a meander

Unfortunately she had the same issues as I usually do with 'stitch in the ditch' so there was a bit of unquilting in front of the telly later, whilst watching 'Limitless' (not a bad movie), followed by what must be the worst movie ever made (and I've watched some stinkers) - I won't say what it was called because you just never know - but O.M.G. - it was filled with oddly timed close-ups (reminiscent of those awful daytime soaps), an amateurish and predictable script and terrible staging.  The DVD cover was so promising too - and we watched it to the bitter end, hoping against hope that it would get better - it didn't!  Ah well, it created a lot of amusing commentary...........

I made pea and prawn risotto for dinner followed by chocolate or butterscotch self saucing pud with cream or ice-cream (or both - Weiss vanilla bean or Ben & Jerry's chocolate cookie dough - mmm) contributed by Sparky.....an excellent saturday all round really.

Show and tell

I've been teaching some very crafty ladies the rudiments of patchwork and created a sampler quilt so we could work on foundation piecing, applique, HST's, cutting, pressing etc etc. 

One of these crafty ladies also happens to be my bff - and she has completed her quilt top.  It's absolutely stunning and the following photo simply does not do justice to the rich depth of colour that glows from this quilt...

Apologies for the rotten photo - it's nightime and I used the flash (and I probably should have edited out her toes!!)

My bff is currently piecing the back and is doing a little improv. stitchery with the scraps - she's also created the initials of the recipient (it almost looks like MWAH!!! - sealed with a kiss indeed)

Lucky Sparky.

It is amazing how different it looks from my sampler, seen here and also to our other classmates' (I'll post a photo of their quilts once they've finished piecing them.)  It's also amazing that this time last year my bff wasn't all that into quilts - really didn't like them at all - and I lurrrrrve that she's now as obsessed as I am with fabrics and blocks and all that other fabulously creative stuff - my evil plan has worked (heh, heh *smirk*, *smirk*)  - love you Miss Lizzie.

Trumpeting..

I do love to trumpet - even though it's a trait my mother thought was "unseemly" - and I just finished machine quilting Stella's Sampler - I still have to do a little hand quilting (with gorgeous perle thread) and label it, but the sunshine outside was too good to resist...so I ran outside, pegged it up, and tah dah!!!!!

and here's the back.............

The block in the middle was one that I remade for the front - and it's ideal for the back. 

Love it when a quilt comes together.

WIP Wednesday

We had a scheduled electricity outage today, so not a lot of sewing done - but, there has been a fair amount of activity since the last post:

My bff finished all her blocks for her sampler quilt - rich and sumptuous japanese prints and beautifully stitched - this was the last photo before it was packed up for the night (and after several block moves to get just the right layout!)  Well done bff - very, very gorgeous and your Sparky is a very, very lucky boy...

I created this in EQ6 to keep track of the FWQA blocks I've made so far (and haven't got any new ones to show as I didn't get any done this week)

I finished and sent off 2 of these Shoofly blocks for a Red and White challenge, issued by Elizabeth - these were finally completed after a disaster concerning a small child and a very muddy dog which meant an emergency dispatch of new fabric from the USA - but that's a whole other story....

I dyed a rainbow of fat quarters - don't you just love how the sun is shining through the pots?  Just like a stained glass window - and given we've been subjected to a great deal of rain and wind, the sun was a very welcome sight

I made some triangular pouches - can't say who they're for because I just posted them off today......when I opened the zips, they reminded me of little birds in the nest - so searched out this twig wreath and attempted a little arty farty photography - perhaps I should stick to sewing????

Once the electrickery came back on, I loaded my sampler quilt (same pattern as the one my bff made at the top of this post) onto Gertie (the long-arm Gammill) and started quilting - had to stop when my stitch in the ditch started to become stitch everywhere else but the ditch....

and finally, Buster and Antonio enjoying a little rest time....Buster is the (ex-muddy) dog and Antonio, the cat (whom I wanted to call Zorro, but that too, is another story) have a reasonably friendly relationship but it is unusual for them to lie down together - usually the cat baits the dog until the dog moves...

...............and now it's very late Downunder, so it's time for bed - au revoir

WIP Wednesday - (although it's Thursday in Oz, so the date above is a bit misleading)

Another cold and wet day on the Peninsula and sooooo much nicer inside playing with fabrics and thread....

This week I joined the Farmers Wife Quilt Along (FWQA) with  Angela   and Amanda , and lots of other very clever and creative people -  and I've completed my first two blocks.  We have to make 2 a week and given there's 111 of them, this will take a while.  The one on the left is Attic Windows and the one on the right, Autumn Tints.  I had been talking to my bff about making the Dear Jane quilt together - but I'm thinking we can do this instead (sorry bff - will talk to you about it on the weekend!!).  I'm going with red (my favourite colour) with a creamy vanilla solid to be incorporated in each one and I'm hoping it will make a good sized dint in my stash.

I've justified starting a new project by convincing myself that as I'm hand quilting the DWR, it's as good as finished (even though it'll likely take another year to be completely finished) and it wouldn't be fair to deny myself the opportunity provided by the wonderful ladies hosting the aforementioned quilt along (works for me!!)  I have been quilting along - fingers looking like pincushions - so reviewed my decision to not use thimbles and after being shown by an expert, will try again.

I've also been continuing with a Sashiko Quilt-as-you go class - it's not true sashiko because it's done on the sewing machine, using upholstery thread - but you get the general drift - and funnily enough, I've chosen red for this project too......

The line you can see in the top left corner of the photo is where I'm joining the blocks - so only 2 joined but I want to get a few more made so I can try a few combinations first.  I'm also adding a little applique into some of the blocks, which adds interest - I think this is going to be a really striking quilt.

Lastly, I added the appley green border to my sampler quilt - but have to say, not loving it.

I'm waiting on delivery of the Amy Butler fabric I'll be using as the final border so I'll wait to see how that looks before I decide whether to rip the appley green border off.

Okey dokey - that's it for today - oooh, except on Monday, I had my weekly Scrabble session with my sister - and it was one of those days - I had 7 seven letter words, 3 in one game and got them all oon the board except one - so needless to say, I blitzed it!!!  Sorry sister (hee hee - we're pretty even but I do like to rub it in when I win!!)

WIP Wednesday

I really like reading where people are at in their creative endeavours - and it's a fabulous time line to review progress as you go along.  I don't know about anyone else but I have a memory like a sieve so any method available to help jog the grey matter is a good thing in my book. (a friend of mine said that at the end of the year, she prints out and binds all her blogs in a journal - loving this idea and one I'll happily pinch!)

So, without further ado, I have several things in progress and here's some of them......

Last Easter, my husband and I (with a queenly wave) packed up the camper trailer and trekked across Oz to WA.  Prior to going, I cut out all the doings to piece a Double Wedding Ring quilt (most of the fabric is Kaffe Fassett).  Given I usually machine piece, a hand pieced quilt was going to be a novelty and possibly a permanent UFO - I ended up making 3 melons while we were away (that's 3 of the eye like shapes). We had the best time - and on our return, I was diagnosed with breast cancer - so all of a sudden, I had time on my hands......to the point where I am now hand quilting (I usually use my long-arm to quilt, but this is hand pieced, so I thought it deserved to be hand quilted - and the long-arm certainly comes in handy to put all the layers together - sure beats grubbing about on the floor!).  So, this is one of the items in progress (it's lovely quilting in front of the fire now that winter is officially here).

The next thing.....

I'm a newbie at dyeing fabrics, and this is my 3rd bundle - these were dyed (with the help of my DIL) using red and turquoise.  I love them!!  The only problem is I love to look at them bundled together (I'm going to tie them with a ribbon later) and can't think about cutting into them.......but they are destined to become items for sale when I finally organise a stall at the Mornington market, so I'll have to grit my teeth - and obviously make them into something worth their glorious colour.

And the next thing (I'll stop at 3 - really, I am still amazed that I had time for paid, full-time work before BC........but nothing like a health scare to focus where your bliss is!!)

I finally found another green I can use around this little sampler - I didn't have enough of the other green I used for the sashing, so happy to say, after a trip to Spotlight (sale day!!) I can now complete the sashing, then add the final border - this is all Amy Butler fabric (not the solids) and I'm teaching some newly addicted quilty friends using these blocks.

I do have other things on the go, but this will do - actually, it explains why the house is a pigsty and the ironing has taken over the laundry.......................