The First* of May and a Giveaway!

Edited: This Giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all for Entering!

Modern Scallop - Pillow

Get ready to get excited everyone because this month I have finished something! And not just one thing but two.  Oh yes, two things. First up is my scallop pillow. I adore this pillow and now I finally get to use it.  I thought it would be a simple matter to just add a backing with a hidden zipper.






Scallop Pillow - Back

Well it might have been except that I chose a fabric that my machine hated more than anything in the world, but just for the top-stitching, you know, the part that everyone can see! Oh and I carefully sewed down the flap covering the zipper before sewing the back and front together and then forgot to leave the zip open a bit for turning. That was a fun 15 minutes...



Modern Scallop Pillow - Finished

Despite all that it now happily resides on the couch in my craft room/guest room/. Along with that blue scarf which is waiting to have the ends sewn in.  It's a bit long, I measured when I was sitting down and then added a bit extra for luck and now it touches the ground when I put it around my neck :(  I might have to make it into a pillow too.

I've also finished my binary code. All 104 numbers aligned as well as I could. The numbers finish at 1.5" x 2.5"  and the centre panel is 15.75" x 40.75".

I'm not that happy with it.  Maybe the making stage took too long? It was started over a year ago. I kind of wish I'd chosen softer colours. Grey maybe? I always planned to put it on a canvas to hang in my home(yes, I am that nerdy) but now that its on there I'm really not sure about it.  The border seems too wide and it definitely needs a edge/binding to break up all the black. I did make the borders wide on purpose so I had enough to staple and so if I wanted to turn it into a quilted wall-hanging later I could.  I might. I'm just not sure. Any suggestions are welcome. For now its just hanging out on my dresser until I decide what to do. Obviously I removed all my junk treasured memorabilia before I took this photo ☺ Not sure why both the dresser and the panel look bent? I blame the photographer.

Binary Code Pieced Quilt Panel

I made a binary code panel for a friend a few years ago(just one word) and loved it.  I'd been searching for a word or a phrase for a while and this quilt seemed to have just the right one. For anyone who'd like to know what it says you can go to a translator here and type in all the numbers or just have a look at the link above.

Lastly(thanks for hanging in there) a GIVEAWAY!


Down Under Quilts Magazine, Issue 157, 2013.

To celebrate that I've reached over 50 Followers(!), to thank you all for being patient and sticking around during the post-drought and to happy-dance that this quilt got a little mention in the latest Down Under Quilts magazine I'm having a giveaway!

I'm giving away a copy of this magazine, a charm pack of the fabric I used and a little Dresden related surprise! To enter please be a follower and leave a comment telling me your two favourite colours. This giveaway is open worldwide! Please make sure you are not a no-reply blogger or leave your email in the comments so I can contact you to find where to send your prize! Giveaway will close at the end of May.


I'm linking up to Lily's quilts for Fresh Sewing Day.



*(For any calendar police, I know this is posted on the 2nd of May.  It's just that my computer hates me and did not want to cooperate in editing and uploading photos, no matter how much I tried to encourage it by swearing and promising untimely demises.)

Happy Birthday! Surprise - Secret Squirrel is Finished!



Dresden Plate Quilt- Quilting

Ok it's time I confessed and let the cat out of the bag, or rather, the squirrel! Confused? Well, do you remember the Secret Squirrel Quilt?  I actually finished it way back in October, had it quilted in November, popped the binding on a couple of weeks ago and posted it last week! 

It has made its way to a very nice lady. She is very important to our family, she is caring, giving, generous, always there for us and we love her very much. Happy Birthday Faye! 

Now I did take a few photos before I posted it but the only place I had high enough was under the old verandah and the sun was playing peekaboo with the clouds. So between that, the wind and my photography skills....  and yes it is straight and square, its just the wonky old curtain rod I hung it on that has issues.




Dresden Plate Finished Quilt Front

You'll have to excuse the circles, those centres have names of people in our family embroidered on them. Even though those hourglass blocks drove me crazy I'm really glad I kept them in and the pieced binding worked really well, its just enough colour to bring the centre out.



Dresden Plate Finished Quilt Back

I quite like the back, very minimalist with just a pop of colour. and yes, another of those annoying circles :)



Dresden Plate with Embroidered Centre

The other centres(the annoying circle ones) are embroidered circularish(is that even a word?!) like this one above.




Quilting Close Up -  Quilted By Desley Maisano

In this photo you can see some of the lovely quilting feather work done by Desley Maisano at Addicted to Quilts. You can see more of her work here.

Dresden Quilt Label

When I sewed the label on, I tried to fit it nicely inside the quilted outline from the front so as not to spoil the back.

Quilt Stats:   Finished size 75" x 87"
                     Quilt Number 5
                     Pattern - Based on the Moda Bake Shop - Plates for Your Table
                     Fabric - Colours - Plates and Binding - Simple Abundance by Bonnie and Camille
                                   for Moda
                                   Cream Spot - Mill House Inn by Fig Tree Quilts for Moda
                                   Backing - a wideback that didn't have details on the selvedge - sorry
                     Pieced - By Me!
                     Quilted by Desley Maisano at Addicted to Quilts

            
I am so happy to finally be able to share this finish, I've been feeling guilty misleading you by posting work I did ages ago.  I'm also happy to be able to give this to Faye. A fabulous quilter herself who whilst she makes many quilts for others and quilts a lot of tops through her business, has never( I don't think?) had one given to her. So even though I couldn't give it to her personally on her Birthday I'm very relieved that Australia Post didn't lose it and it got there on time!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SECRET SQUIRREL!

Christmas crafts and Teacher gifts

The end of term and the end of this year has come around so fast. I hope 2012 goes a little slower. This week BB and LB have helped me make some gifts for their teachers/carers.  We've made some little bags with hand drawn pictures to tuck some chocolates and a kid made Christmas decoration in.

   

I got BB to draw a picture for each bag. I did ask for a flower and got a landscape, but apparently you can't just have a flower, it needs ground to grow on and then sky above :) So the flowers were a fair bit smaller than I was envisaging but they are very much BB's style and that's the important part. Earlier in the term I had asked him to find out each teachers favourite colour and he helped pick fabric he thought they would like for the lining, I just tried to get him to stick to a small scale print as the bags are only about 6.5" finished.

Linen Bag and Lining Pieces

Kids Craft - Linen Teacher Bags

 

For LB since he is a bit more of an, ah, shall we say, abstract drawer, I made a stencil out of Freezer paper, which I ironed on and then got him to colour in. (Don't tell BB but I think its my favourite...shh.)



Christmas Tree Bag Stencil - In Progress



Christmas Tree Bag Stencil - Finished


Apart from the fact I forgot to top-stitch the handles on every single bag(a moment which included a fair amount of swearing), I think they turned out totally cute, but of course I am completely biased :)




Teacher Gifts - Personalised Linen Bags

We've also been keeping small boys amused by making some Christmas trees out of paper.  Very simple. We traced different size circles, cut them out, then cut each in half and curled and stapled them.  A little mix and match and a bead on top and they are will be finished.  Ready to be beaded and threaded on a garland later this week.




Kids Christmas Craft - Paper Trees

I've also been working on the Secret Squirrel quilt. It seems to be taking forever(no one remembers when I wanted to finish this by do they? Phew!) which hopefully means I'm about halfway through.  Even allowing for quilting I am hoping to have it ready to give to her in January.  For anyone having an awards ceremony in January this may or may not be for you ;)



Dresen Quilt Piecing in Progress

When I drove past the fabric shop last week these fabrics just happened to jump into the car ready to make some bunting for my goddaughter for Christmas.



Fabric for Girls Bunting

So much to do yet and I'm running out of days. I hope your Christmas plans are on schedule!

Make your own Christmas Wreath!

Fake it or Make it?

What do you really think about appliqué? Not the design as such but how it's actually done. I don't know about you but I've always had a thing that appliqué, especially on a quilt, needs to be done by hand and be invisible. Any other kind was faking it. I guess it really stems from the fact my Mum used to teach and judge handicrafts and we would always hear her comments about items that were poorly finished, seams not pressed and hand sewing that was visible. All those comments seem to have embedded themselves into my brain and so I've always hand sewn(very carefully!) any appliqué I've done. (TH has mentioned I might be a teeny tiny bit pedantic about it but really, who are you going to believe ;)

But having said that, the first Dresden I appliquéd took me over an hour to finish. Yes, I did have some little interruptions, still that meant even if I could do three a day, it would take me ten days. Two a day, fifteen days.  So I had a rethink and a google and then a play on my machine to test out some machine appliqué. I decided to go with a blind hem stitch and just do one and compare, cause you know, I can always unpick! Or frog it? Is that the right term? You know where you rip it, rip it, rip it!

I'm really happy with the result.  It took me longer to figure out that I was trying to put the blind hem foot on back to front (It actually took me a fair while to realise this and then I didn't use it anyway) and to stop giggling than it did to do one plate.  The thread is one that Faye has given me(Thank you!) and it blends in really well on all the colours and I'm very happy with the results.

Dresden Plate Applique Techniques

Have a look at them side by side. The one on the left is by machine and the right hand one is done by hand. From about 15cm away(less with my eyesight!) you can't tell the difference!

Dresden Plate Centre Applique

I've also used it to put the centres on. They take no time at all compared to all the stopping, starting, turning for the Dresden's.

Dresden Plate Centre

So even though I feel like I'm faking my appliqué, doing it this way means I'll get to actually finish this quilt in time this decade. So I guess my answer is I have to fake it to make it!




I did have a couple of other questions though:

Why do I only do wobbly sewing on the parts where it will show?
Why don't sewing machines come with a foot lever for the presser foot, instead of that stupid knee thing?
Why can you only find the pins you've dropped by stepping on them?

If anyone knows the answers please let me know!

Sew-Inspiration Sunday & Small Blog Meet & Fresh Sewing Day!

Sunday already? Where has this week gone, for that matter, what happened to September?? I'm sure it must have sneakily skipped a week somewhere.

I've been inspired today by Lynne of Lily's Quilts, her generous hosting of the Small Blog Meet means that I've got to meet lots of other people who have the same interests and who have recently started blogging too. Before I started blogging(instead of just reading) I didn't realise how much of their time it would have taken, not only to write the blog but to take the photos. Though maybe that's 'cause I'm a really bad photo taker and take at least 2 shots of the same thing - just in case! So to all those people who write the blogs I read and follow, Thank You, I really appreciate your effort!

I'm going to link up again this month to hopefully meet some more inspiring people :) If you're here visiting - Hi, nice to meet you!

I'm also doing my first link up to Fresh Sewing Day. If you haven't been yet, pop over to Lily's Quilts and have a look at what everyone has been up to. There is some fantastic stuff to be inspired by.

So this month:

60 degree diamond English Paper Piecing

I've cut out all the diamonds for my English Paper Piecing and punched holes in all the diamonds.

Dresden Plates

I've made 20 dresdens for the SS quilt and are about two hours away from 10 more. Sigh.

SS Quilt, Dresden Plate, Possible Layout

I've worked out the layout for the SS quilt, though I've just realised I haven't actually posted my decision -Sorry! (note to self - DO that this week!)

Toy superhero reversible cape

I've kept two small boys and their toys happy.  Though now I have to make some toy dog pyjamas...

Kid's potholder/oven mitts

And I've made a couple of kid size potholders to go with an apron and hat.

I feel like I haven't really achieved much this month so I'm hoping by the end of October I will actually have a finished quilt to show!

Thanks for visiting!

TH - Happy Anniversary, I Love You. x

Sew-Inspiration Sunday or rather, what I've been up to this week.

This week I've been a bit flat and a bit sad and a bit procrasinatey(of course it's a word!). Not only have I been trying to get better(with the "help" of two small assistants) but a member of the family passed away. So even though I felt like doing some sort of sewing to take my mind off things, anything colourful seemed wrong and anything with the machine was just too loud. Not that Ella(My Elna) is actually loud, just that the volume in my ears seemed to be turned up all the way.

I have finally managed to finish trimming all the hourglass blocks for the secret squirrel quilt(SS). Which my left elbow is very thankful for. The first hundred weren't too bad but the second hundred took forever.... 

I eventually had a small brainwave and "borrowed" some Invisi-Grip from another ruler for the 3" square I was using.  This meant that I didn't have to use so much pressure to hold it still. I then decided with about 50 left to go, that I really should go and get another rotary cutter as after I dropped mine for the second time the bit that fell off the back was making it really hard to keep the blade protector retracted. I wish I had done that before I even cut the fabric for the Dresden's, 'cause its fantastic! Smooth, sharp, no pressure required and it's not the one pictured above!

I've also been working on the plan/pattern for the Rocketship Quilt for Big Brother(BB). I'm hoping(this doesn't come back to bite me on the...) to finish either for a late November Birthday or Christmas.

It all started back in February when I asked BB what sort of quilt he would like for his new big boy bed. His answer was "a red one".  Okay, hmmmmm. Not really much to go on there but one morning(hence the coffee stain) he also mentioned a rocket, so I did a quick sketch for him and its grown from there.

I was initially going to do improvised stars all through the background and I'd made a grid so I could work out the math, then I got BB to colour in the background in the colours he would like.

Fabric for Rocketship Quilt

I did a bit of fabric searching and decided on a range called Twinkle by Yolanda Fundora for Blank Quilting. I ordered all the fabric then the whole thing stalled for a couple of months as I just wasn't happy with it but couldn't figure out why.

One day I took it out and decided to make it into a mock bed to see if that would help. It made me realise which part would be the best for the rocket. The top. Ha, ha.

Recently I came up with a new plan to simplify the whole thing.(Well kinda). I got BB to draw a rocket that he would like and we talked about what he'd like it to look like and about the colours. 

After a family colouring afternoon we came up with the rocket above. (Aside from the blue bit down the bottom left which I think is a building?)  Then we chose some fabric. The light blue is much more green than in these photos, which I now realise are pretty grey looking.  Sorry.

So this week I sat down and simplified the background into pieced strips with appliqued stars, there still looks a lot but there are about 20 less stars than my first idea.

Add the rocket and I hope you get the idea, the finished size will be around 80" x 100", which is pretty big for a single bed but he not only likes to be tightly tucked in, he also likes to bounce on his bed.

Lastly I'd like say I feel so lucky to have 14(!) lovely friends following me and that really does make me feel inspired. Inspired to keep quilting and creating and enjoy sharing with you all.  See, look at that, you've gone and cheered me up.  Thanks :)

Can't wait to see what you've been doing too!