The soothing of the stitch

I am still justifying starting a new project. I am looking back at all I have achieved so far this year.

January 2006 (2 1/2 years ago) my DH and I went to India for our first overseas holiday. I took stitcheries with me. Some were in green (Bronwyn Hayes patterns) and some were in red (I think it was Raggedy Angels or something like that). One colour stitcheries are more fluid. No changing colour. This way I could take something to work on without needing a lot of brain power.

The soothing of the stitch was embraced and I finished the stitcheries in India.

It took me until about May this year to finish the quilts. Mum quilted them in allover designs. The green one has frogs leaping here and there... the red and blue one has kites dancing over it.

I love them, and so do my friends little girls. I neglected to give them quilts when they were born, so now they finally have them! Two more finished objects!!

Lists

As I lay on my sick bed most of the day yesterday... I tossed and turned with quilt projects in my head.

Perhaps I need to list my UFOs and WIPs (I haven't done this before, it sounds scary). I really want to start something new to work on by hand, but I've got a rule - I need to finish something before I start something new. That way, no matter how many projects are on the go at once, their number do not increase.

With my brain in a fuzzy fashion, I just want something to work on that will not require an awful lot of brain power. All the projects I can think of are machine, machine, machine. I am not in any fit state to cut fabric either.... so what to do? I find myself sitting in one place looking around the room for inspiration or a reason to say "Oh yeah" that's what I wanted to do, then settle down with it.

Right, I need a list of what I have achieved this year (I need to build up my self esteem and justify starting a new project) - and perhaps a list of what I want to work on.. and maybe an incomplete list of UFOs. After all, don't they get put away and forgotten about? Maybe UFO stands for "Unfinished Forgotten Objects".

A little later... alright! I justified starting a new LITTLE project. Look I have done 1/5 of it already!

And here's a photo of what it will look like finished - it's an Australian pattern "The Night Before" by Cinderberry Stitches.

Baltimore Block

I am at home sick today... about to crawl back to bed. What am I doing up with a bad cold? I had to go into work to leave my classes for the day.

Doesn't everything go wrong when your brain is fuzzy? We had the heaviest frost of the year and the drivers door locking mechanism froze. I had to crawl over from the passenger side. Grr! I hope when it unfreezes it all works well.

Here is one of my finished Baltimore blocks. I love its assymetry.

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?

My Official Wedding Quilt

I have been talking about my Baltimore Album WIP as though it is my Wedding quilt. That's not strictly true. I already have a Wedding quilt. It has been on our bed since our wedding day, and it is so beautiful! It was secretly made for me by my Mum and my dear friends Rosie, Sandra, Annette and Andrea (who is currently living in Germany). There was much secret posting here and there!!

I want to finish my Baltimore Album to commemorate my Wedding. I started it about 4 years ago! Trying to keep myself going with an intensive project I used Elly Sienkiewicz books from the Club library to distribute one pattern every 2 months to members of the Club. Then, I slowed down.

More to come on that.

Mum came over last night and we are off the the group Christmas in July function today. I have finished the miniature including the label (photo tomorrow).

Last night I machined together pieces of a small Christmas quilt. I thought I might machine quilt it today at the Club function, but I have changed my mind. I don't think there will be much room. I dug out my Piecemakers Barns quilt. I have already cut out all fabrics. I am going to free-machine embroider them today. What a good idea when I have a block of time at the machine!!!

Completed Baltimore Album Block

I worked on the embroidery around the rose buds last night during the parent-teacher interviews session. I ended up seeing about 5 parents during 4 hours. Needless to say, I had a little time up my sleeve.

When I got home we watched "Batman Begins". I stitched while I watched, and now this block is finished! Yay!! I have completely finished 9 out of 16 blocks for my Baltimore Album quilt. I will post a photo on days when I have no other photos to share. The idea being that this will incite me to finish them all more quickly. It is working so far.

Riva by Ruth Reynolds

What fun! My dear friend Sandra just returned from 10 days in the Top End and brought me back a present (well 2 actually) - all I did was check the letter box while she was away!!

Get a load of this book. It's full of quilts!! A lot of the quilts feature cells from cartoons that the author has drawn and translated into quilts. A lot of fun! Maybe some inspiration? What a lucky girl I am!

Still working on the embroidery embellishment of the Cornucopia block. Parent/teacher interviews tonight - I only have about 4 appointments over 4 hours. It's only for VCE students and I only have 1 VCE class... I should get some more embroidery done tonight!!

Baltimore Album - My Wedding Quilt

I finished the quilting, binding and embellishing on the miniature quilt challenge ready for Saturday's "Christmas In July" reveal. Now I need to do the "label with a big impact" as directed by the Christmas Elves. I will not reveal the completed quilt until Saturday as it is supposed to be a surprise!

As I couldn't work on the label last night at our quilting group I thought about the Lucinda's Needle fabric. It is calling to me! My quilt design has space for applique blocks, I designed a lovely old-fashioned rose yesterday... Then I looked at the design I made on EQ - I need to make 12 applique blocks the same! Well, that has put me off that for a while.

I thought, if I am going to immerse myself in applique, shouldn't I finish a WIP/UFO?

I dug out my Baltimore Album blocks. I have set my deadline for the 5th January 2009 - my first wedding anniversary.

This was not the first block I made, but it does need some embroidery embellishment, so I worked on it last night and will work on it today (if I get a chance in my lunch break).

I am going to use my daily blog entry (I wonder if I will keep it up) to spur me on and finish things!!

30th birthday quilt

I really HATE trying to photograph quilts on the clothes line, but I had no choice. This quilt is massive and I had nobody to hold it for me.

First I wound the clothesline up so the quilt wouldn't drag on the ground, but then I couldn't reach to peg it up.. so, it came back down again and I tried to juggle it in my arms and peg it up at the same time...

Then it blew in the wind.. so this is the best photo I could get so far.

I expect to have a better photo when it is on my sister's bed.

This is my sister Libby's 30th birthday quilt. She turned 30 in June 2007 - yes, over a year ago. The thing is, it was hard to make her a big quilt. She hates anything with pink, flowers or frills. Her quilt is modern and geometric. I love making quilts with reproduction fabrics and antique looks.

So, here it is finally. Mum quilted it on her longarm with allover swirls in citrus variegated thread.

I haven't figured out how to insert a photo just anywhere in the blog post yet. I wanted to insert the close-up photo right here, but it went to the top of the page. Ah well, more to find out!

Reproduction fabric - Lucinda's Needle

Isn't this fabric delicious? Most of it is from a Jo Morton range called "Lucinda's Needle" - reproduction fabric... I have designed a quilt on Electric Quilt. I plan to start it next month while on a weekend retreat...but the more I look at it, the more I want to cut it right now!!!

Charity Quilt

My quilting group alternate each year between holding an exhibition and making a quilt for charity. This year we wanted to contribute to the "really local" community. The Kuwanis group run many programs that support youths in our area. As a fundraiser they are holding an Art Show in September. Our quilt will be a major prize in the raffle. The quilt is titled "Heritage Sampler: Celebrating Our Past" designed by Lori Smith. It was a great choice for a group quilt - beginners pieced the half-square triangles in the border while intermediates pieced a block, needle-turn appliqued a block or pieced the top together.

Here is the quilt ready for the binding. The longarm quilting was donated by Deep Creek Quilting in Carisbrook,Victoria.

We need to attach the binding, photograph the quilt and have it valued so the value can be printed on the raffle tickets.

The Christmas Elves

Hi, This is my first ever post to my blog. I love reading quilter's blogs. It's so inspiring. I have so much to learn about posting. I just tried to post a blog in the "about me" section! Please stick with me while I improve the look and feel of my blog.

It has been a cold, rainy Winter day here and I have been madly working in a miniature quilt challenge item. Last Christmas all members of my local quilting group were given a parcel by "The Christmas Elves". The parcel contained small pieces of fabrics to be used in a miniature quilt: with 2 borders and measuring between 12" and 20" square. The mini quilt has to be finished by next Saturday for our Christmas in July function. Last Friday I had sewn the centre (the bit that looks like clam shells).

I tried making Dresden Plate for the first time - in miniature?? How mad was I? Suffice to say, there are improvements to be made.... To cut a long story short, I did not make a semi-circle, I made quarter circles and appliqued them on, then joined seams. This means the "spokes" (is that the right word) don't quite match up at some points.. so I will need to cover them up with something. Suffolk puffs? Buttons? Ribbon? They can't stay like this, and I don't have time to unpick and re-do.

Any suggestions?