Stitchy fingers

I've been gagging to start something with these challenge fabrics. And finally, it's July!


My self imposed (or is that self allowing) month where I get to put aside the long term projects I've been working on all year, and finish off/work on/start some projects with a Christmas theme, or for Christmas gifts.

First up, I started another small redwork stitchery for the Bronwyn Hayes Christmas wallhanging. This little birdy block is stitched. It will become the centre of a tiny sawtooth star. There is another little one traced and ready to stitch.



Last night after little man went to sleep with his Daddy, I was in the right frame of mind to cut and measure fabric pieces for one of the redwork blocks, but the fabric was nowhere to be found! Dangnabbit. I'll have to work on something else. It turned out to be in a box under our bed where he was sleeping with Dad.... No way that I  would have been able to rummage around without waking up Bub, and that is why I couldn't find it last night.

Well, with itchy fingers (or should that be "stitchy fingers"? hee hee) I went searching for something else to cut and stitch.

Ta-da! Ooh, these fabrics are lovely. The challenge is to make an item no bigger than 50cm x 50cm using only these fabrics.

I liked the look of these flying geese blocks at Temecula Quilt Co. This link shows a photo tutorial for making the blocks starting with 5 squares to make 4 geese units.

I made these last night. It took no time to make 18 blocks.


All pinned together, and little confetti triangles cut off...



And here is the tiny quilt top ready to quilt. This is going to be a table centre. This will fulfill the challenge requirements and then it will be given as a gift to one of the children's class teachers for Christmas.



Then I really liked these green fabrics with the oranges.



I couldn't use them together for the challenge, so I decided to make something else with the leftover orange prints from the challenge.



 This will become a quilt about a metre square.



 Hmm.. I'm going to need some more orange and green fabrics. What can I find?



More geese!!



Uh-oh. I cut these squares too big! Back to the board to cut them down...





I've made 44 geese blocks... I think that will be about half the size I'd like.  I'm going to have to look for another 6 or so fat quarters.... that's all I could get up to today... school holidays! Busy Mummy!!

Earlier this week I took little man and my Mum (Grandma) off to the Townsville Show to look at the exhibits.



The craft and baking sections were so small.... I feel bad for not entering this year. I want to keep the exhibits going. Now, I know how to present everything, I am excited to enter a few sections next year.

It's an amazing thing to see everything new in the eyes of a child.



I feel totally blessed to be a parent...
Ooh! The Ferris Wheel.



Who is looking at Who?

Little Man couldn't take his eyes off the Dodgem Cars. I know he's going to love them when he's older... or maybe he will have a go-kart and won't need them. He's definitely a car buff like his Dad.

Slow Sunday Stitching in a whirl

Well, I've really put the boot in today working on a long term project.

It takes about 2 hours to foundation piece 20 little diamond blocks, not counting trimming, pressing or cutting fabrics. I estimate 40 hours foundation piecing all the little diamonds in the Diamond Hill quilt - it's namesake.

I was all ready to join the last two sides this morning... and for some reason the strip of 23 diamonds was too long, by about 2 inches. Almost an entire block too long.

I measured. I remeasured. I measured another bit.

Well... it seems my 1/4 inch seams were too scant. Check it out! The block is 1/8 inch too big! Infact, they were all too big. So I had to restitch all the seams for two sides, and re-press them.



Ooh. Now they fit. Month 5 is almost finished. All I need to do is the English Paper piecing for each corner and the centre.

Oops, hard to reach high enough now to photograph the whole centre

(Mother in law made me this skirt, and I am making her this quilt!)

Also made another 12 diamonds.

And started to join some together to make part of month 6.

Need 4 blocks of 15 diamonds (3x5 arrangement)... but ran out... need to make more!

I will continue with the every last slither of purple background until it runs out. Then I will have to stop piecing them until I pick up the rest of the background fabric on layby....

Heaven knows I have plenty to go on with! I need to venture out to Officeworks to print out the next patterns for both Diamond Hill and Secret Garden - I need the templates. Then the 40 x  4inch blocks for Secret Garden will follow (machine piecing).

It is almost July. For all of July I plan to celebrate "Christmas in July" by making Christmas projects, and maybe some Christmas gifts.

Before Christmas In July starts I'd like to finish another Labyrinth block I am working on. I am keen to finish that quilt by the end of the year.

I also bought a mystery fabric pack to enter a challenge at Quilty Desires LQS.

I got these Australian artsy fabrics. 25cm of each (that's a metre of fabric) in the mystery pack for A$20. All I need to do is make something and email photos into the shop.

I am also putting these greens with it - 3 fat quarters. I have some more too if that's not enough.

Together these make a really fresh combo. I have plans for a table runner and cushion if there's enough fabric for both. I hope there is. As they will be Christmas gifts, I will work on them in July... which reminds me.... the photos need to be emailed to the shop that month too! I must remember the deadline.

Well, that's certainly a big step on the slow journey towards the finish of Diamond Hill. ... linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching. Now you know why it's called SSS, even if you get lots done in one day.

A little bit of heaven

Love is... machine quilting while baby sleeps, his big brother is helping Daddy fix a car, and Miss 5 is sitting next to me happily singing "Hot Cross Buns" (what we sang as we ate them for breakfast) as she crafts away dreamily... Such a special moment to capture in a photo.

Love the view

Before the quilting was started on Project Quilting challenge 2 for the year, there was a bit of an oops  to unpick. I guess it's because the timeline is so strict, (binding day tomorrow, post on internet Sunday). There are a lot of vintage quilts that are just so unique because of a whoops, or they ran out of a particular fabric, and those are some of my favourite features of antique quilts. I always wondered how they could make such a mistake, but with little space for laying out all the blocks, it's no wonder there are perfectly imperfect quilts.

unpick to turn applique block

This is my favourite tool for marking straight lines of machine quilting. The Clover Hera marker. It's much faster than masking tape, works on any colour fabric and the crease irons or washes out. See the funny shape? It is based on a design traditionally made from a bone. Us vegetarians definitely prefer the plastic version. You can also use it to "finger press" seams so you are not getting up to the iron all the time.

Clover hera marker

Then a little bit of free-motion quilting around the applique.

It quilted like a dream, because I used a drill weight fabric for backing. The backing didn't want to bend or crease, and being a little bit stiff it kept the quilt flat. I originally bought it for Christmas tablecloths because it was marked down to $2 a metre, but because it worked so well on the back of a small spray-basted quilt, I will use it for small backings.

bargain backing fabric in a drill weight

Very excited to be on schedule, ready to trim and add binding tomorrow. And tonight's project? Contact some more school books ready for Monday. Nearly finished covering A4 exercise books.

Tonight I am linking up as I "Whoop! Whoop!" how happy I am to be on track with the challenge.

And linking up with a FNSI (Friday Night Sew In).

I can't really talk on here about the other projects I am working on.

I have 2 secret projects in progress.

One: I am designing and making a Mystery Quilt from Kaffe Fasset fabrics for my LQS. Oh, drool, and pat. I am becoming drunk on the fabrics!

Here is a little snifter at what I mean. Glorious colour! I am playing and playing. Yes, I am taking some photos of my progress, but I can't really share until the quilt is no longer a mystery!! LOL!!

Two: I am taking part in a challenge with my girlfriends at the blog Mission India-possible. In May, I will be able to show you what I did in February... In June I will be able to show what I am doing this month!!

Bear with me, while I work on these secret works....

What does a PIG look like?

A few years ago (Ack! Maybe even 4 or 5 years ago! Sandra bought me some lovely fabric. I bought more to go with it.

It is a Project In a Grocery Sack (PIGS). An unstarted UFO. Not even a future project, just a lovely group of fabric in a box or bag ready to go (usually kept in the shopping bag it was purchased in).

NB Although we don' t use the term "grocery sack" in Australia, it's such a good acronym I am stealing it.

Why haven't I started it? Same reason for not using the red and green Robyn Pandolph fabric I bought 8 years ago. Still looking for the "right" pattern. Actually, now I look at this fabric, it probably needs a little zing in there somewhere. I know I will find it.

Anyone know of a good pattern??? LOL! This fabric makes me think of Persian carpets and Moroccan tiles.

Cecile Whatman is organising a challenge: create either a self portrait or an abstract self expression quilt. Download the forms and send a donation for the N.S.W. Cancer Council (in Australia) and you will receive specific challenge materials to use in your small quilt.

You need to register by 12th September (hurry!!), but you don't have to hand in your mini quilt until December... that's good news!!!

P.S. One side left on the final border of Eureka chain.

VicQuilters Showcase of quilts - Melbourne

Yesterday Rosie and I went in to the VicQuilters Showcase in Melbourne. Ah, heavenly exhibition with lots of opportunities to peruse wares and purchase goodies (which we did...). We unexpectedly (well... sort of... ) ran into a lot of our friends!

For us, one highlight of the exhibition was the featured work of the Kilmore Kwilters (a few of our friends are members). Their challenge each month was to finish 6 blocks from the book "Nearly Insane" by Liz Lois or give a block of chocolate to the other "Salinda Girls". Over a period of 1.5 - 2 years a total of 14 quilts were created!! Wow!!!

We are particularly proud of our dear friend Andrea who lived in Germany for most of the duration of the Challenge - but that didn't stop her (although she had to send a block of chocolate over once!!). Andrea purchased all her fabrics before she temporarily migrated. This is her quilt.

I have uploaded a slideshow of each Salinda Rupp quilt with closeups. Click on any picture to freeze the slideshow or have a closer look. The different colour schemes really look wonderful. Thank you to all quilt makers for inspiring us.

Christmas Elves Challenge 2008 - miniature quilts

Pictured left is the miniature quilt I made for our challenge. Pictured below is the back of my mini quilt. I did not want to cover my quilting with a label, so I made a "hollow" label and wrote inside it.

Rules of the Challenge: the finished quilt must measure between 12" - 20" square. The quilt must have 2 borders. Binding corners must be mitred. Fabrics provided must be used (can be mixed with others). Add a quilt label with a big impact.

What a lovely time we had at our Christmas In July day! Sew sew sew! Lots of ladies made a quilt as you go table runner. I worked on a UFO that needed FOing (finishing off??). Not much to tell really, I sewed all the grey parts on. LOL!! I got really tired at about 3pm and packed up.
It must have been the roast dinner and Christmas pudding working on me!

I love how good the mini quilts all look together. I saw a great picture on a blog I love to read - Quilting With The Past http://www.lucyquilting.blogspot.com/ . It had a wall covered in mini quilts! - I have included the picture.... Anyway, now I have made 3 mini quilts, I am going to start my own wall!

How good does this wall look?