Suddenly switching projects

I've stopped working on a few projects abruptly to commence Christmas In July!!

Another small (6 inch) block from The Goblin King is finished, and another 6 are traced ready to stitch in August.

And Toby is started, and almost finished. He reminds me of my own son... walking.. blonde.. blue eyes... doesn't say much (well, not in words we can understand)... looks cute in a stripey onesie, runs around like a garden gnome/playful goblin.

That's the end of the thread I had stockpiled in that colour. Time to go buy another swag of threads.

Secret Garden month 6 has been released. It's four intense centre applique blocks that require deadly accuracy as there are interlocking circles. In August it will be back to embellishing the first 3 blocks, appliqueing block 4, and machine piecing 40 x four inch blocks. Crikey! That should be a good warm up to the very specific centre blocks.

Stay tuned for Christmas in July projects!

Head down...

Only a couple more days left this month, and I am excited to do as much as I can on Diamond Hill, Secret Garden and the Goblin King quilts before July starts.

And when July starts, I will be just as excited to start a new challenge project, and to make Christmas gifts and Christmas themed items during the entire month. Ooh! What a great idea to insert a (hopefully) whole lot of finished items onto the annual list (see the sidebar on the right) in the middle of the year, instead of adding them all at the end. Hee hee.

Some people make gifts all year - one project a month, they call it. I think I've been making gifts all year anyway. Hahahahahhaha. Just really big ones, that aren't all finished yet!

Progress? Well, this is an English Paper Pieced block for a Diamond Hill corner.

It's the first one. And these are quite tiny. They will be appliqued onto a 4 inch finished square.

And this is the back.

A little bit more machine piecing... two out of four chequerboards are finished for the next border on Diamond Hill, which is mainly applique.

And another 36 little diamonds (not all pictured here) for the other two chequerboards.

Soon, the last scraps of purple will be used up, and that piecing will have to wait until I pick the rest of the background fabric from layby.

Secret Garden pieced blocks are being cut more accurately with freezer paper patterns ironed onto the contrast fabric, then rotary cut.



Today I pieced about 10 of them. Only 30 to go, then leaves to be added to each block. Next set of instructions (month 6) will be released in 3 days, and I am still working on month 4 and 5. A month off may be all I need to get really stuck into the blocks again in August.

And another block for The Goblin King stitchalong.



I love that line!!  As the quilt is a tribute to the Labyrinth movie I wanted to include any particular lines that come to mind from the character.

Right! Now it's time to stitch the next EPP flower or another stitchery block!

Head down, bum up... see you in a few days!

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.

Sneaky stitches

It's so lovely to have my machine home...

Since I picked it up last Wednesday I've left Janome baby on the kitchen table and sneakily stitched (well... snuck a bit of stitching in at odd moments) up another 44 diamonds. Woohoo.

44 foundation pieced blocks to be trimmed

I MUST be half way by now...

Oi! What's this? Little man has been drawing on Mummy's sewing! Too bad I didn't see it until after I finished stitching the block. Such a little helper!

Ooh! He's a cheeky clogs! Dancing to "La Cucaracha" at the Mexican restaurant.

Mmm chipotle chicken and rice

And I tried out test blocks for Secret Garden part 5, some machine pieced blocks. I prefer the grey background with purple contrast cross.

Next for Secret Garden: make 40 blocks and applique leaves

I've realised that I need to cut the strips for the diagonals much more precisely, and pin to fit, to ensure the background is not stretching. Otherwise, if the lattice blocks are joined later in the quilt instructions (I don't know as it's a mystery), the seams will not match.

Ooh, a patworthy pile of fabric!

Maybe I'll get up to these next week!

Deja vu

Sometimes we just need a change of scene. It's been all about Diamond Hill and Secret Garden applique BOMs for the last 5 months.

I started joining in the Goblin King quiltalong at fandom in stitches. About 2 months ago I lost the bag with the stitcheries in progress. Perhaps it was stashed somewhere very special by Master 18 months!! I stopped stitching, hoping the blocks would turn up.

Um. No. I even had to buy a new embroidery hoop.

Now that some people have finished piecing the entire Labyrinth quilt top, and I am feeling inspired to stitch a block or two again.

Look! Here is the new Hoggle block all stitched out. Next I need to print out some more patterns. I only have the worm to work on.

Ooh deja vu. Have I already stitched this? I can't remember.

And so, I turned to the other stitchery project I started this year (also a big project) - The Wish Quilt by Red Brolley (Bronwyn Hayes). It's a free pattern too.

This little block has been stitched onto a piece of waffled red tea towel. I'm loving the contrast in thread colours.

Cheers to all our slow stitching projects... that are hopefully coming together by the end of the year!

my Janome girl

Hurrah! I've picked up my sewing machine, and it is sewing like a dream. I can hardly believe how well it's working!

The thread cutter is working! It has never really worked properly for very long. There used to be a time when I would specify it when I put it in for a service, but it only worked for a short time afterwards, so I didn't bother.

Well, my baby has had the supreme service now. It even has a piece of felt in the base to cut down on the clunk clunk noise. How precious! And... the original bobbin winder motor had burnt out. Yes. I have machine quilted many a quilt on the Janome 6500. So many bobbins used, that the motor blew up a few years ago! hahahahah. That was replaced about 8 years ago, and the auto turn off on the bobbin winder hasn't worked since then. The previous mechanic told me that it wouldn't work.  Now... Janome baby even turns off on auto bobbin fill! Ooooooh. It certainly makes a difference where you get your machine serviced.

So here is what I got up to on Diamond Hill today at sewcial sewing group .... not too much as we celebrated a 70th birthday, and I had to leave early for the children's sports carnival.

Joined long strips of diamonds to make the other two sides, and now the two halves are joined into one whole piece. That is all ... in over 2 hours! Goodness! I'll have to keep the newly massaged Janome baby on the kitchen table to sneak a bit more stitching over the next week, or I will feel like I cannot keep up.

Revisiting block 2 of Secret Garden

The evenings are pleasantly spent... including an hour or so each night, embellishing Secret Garden blocks I thought were already finished. Ha!

Once one starts embellishing, where does one stop?

There is a need to be careful ... because if too much embellishment occurs, there is a risk the quilt will be seen as "too precious" to use. And this quilt is for me! Ha!

The extra embroidery is making a big difference, especially when tying the different colours in a block all together.

And so, I hereby pronounce this block, finished. I even handwashed it to remove all of the green Artline fineliner.

Memo to self: make sure to adjust brightness when snapping photos of these blocks. With the darker background, the phone camera seems to automatically overexpose the photos.

And aren't the cameras in phones sensational? In the early blogging days we would take a photo on our digital cameras, then run it through various programs to reduce the pixels so the photos would load on screens around the world in a timely fashion.

A couple of days ago I made another 42 twinkly diamonds for Diamond Hill. That is enough to finish the centre when my machine comes back from it's big checkup. The next instructions are on Esther's blog for Diamond Hill part 6. The instructions are in 7 parts - we are almost finished the quilt top! At the moment it's a free pattern. But only for another month or so, then it will be available for purchase. Get onto it now if you think you might want to do it.

So... when my machine comes in, it will be time to finish the centre of Diamond Hill (part 5 finished). Then it will be time for me to start part 5 of Secret Garden, which is also mostly machine piecing.

Just have to keep going and going....

Have a great day everyone!