Tutorial Tuesday

Tada!

Time for another clever tutorial from someone that isn't me!

Ever wondered how to do those wonderful mitred borders?  The ones where the stripes all line up like this: 

Image taken from website

I bet you have seen them and thought 'uh oh, not for me - wayyyyyy too hard'  Well, don't be a chicken.  Go to the tutorial for the above photo here and give it a go.

http://thehabygoddess.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/how-to-sew-easy-mitred-corner.html

Or how about corners like this:

Taken with thanks from

http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/2009/08/mitered-multiple-borders-tutorial.html

There's a very, very comprehensive tutorial there for mitreing borders.  I urge you to try them.  They are not so hard, they look F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C. on a quilt.  I'm all too guilty of being lazy, whacking just any old border on a quilt just to get the jolly thing finished.  But I also know that the quilts I take that extra time with, to put a fancier border on, they are the ones that really pop. 

It's so worth the time taken.

Anyway.  That's all for now.  See you tomorrow!

Suzie

The Mother of all Quilt Caves

I'm an avid blog reader, and seem to end up on some fascinating places, with people who blow my mind both creatively and just in general.  I start with one blog, from there I meander over to another one, and find myself a mile from home in the most fascinating of places.

One place I visit sometimes is http://www.sewwequilt.com/, which has lots of guest posters.  From there, I was introduced to Fabric Therapy.  I read her posts in awe of the massive, and impeccibly organised stash she has at her disposal.

Obviously I wasn't alone, because she's now done a series of posts on how she organises her quilting space. 

It's just a wonderful series of posts, covering everything you could imagine. 

I only dream of being that organised.  I could never be that organised.  I think it must be in your DNA.

So do yourself a favour, go and visit her at Fabric Therapy.  Start with this post, and work your way through it.  Fantastic. 

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

A little show and tell

Remember the other day how I said I’d forgotten how to thread my machine and now it’s working?  Well it isn’t.  And I’m beginning to think that there’s a broken off thingamie inside the thread guide whatchamacallit and it’s not me after all.

So, what little sewing I have been doing has been interspersed with wonderfully colourful language.  My Pfaff has always been an adored addition to my family – it’s never given me a minute’s trouble but now – well, I guess you could call it my problem child.  And yes, I must admit that I have been browsing Pfaff websites for a newer addition with less attitude problems. 

In lieu of something I’ve sewn today, I thought I’d show you a little bit of what’s on my wall right now.

From a design called “Beyond The Garden Gate” by an Australian designer, Candlelight Creations.  I believe the pattern is still out there, though I’m not sure if she’s designing new things anymore.

My very clever mother stitched these.  I can do most stitches but I’m just not able to do anything like bullion stitches or satin stitch.

Lovely and blurry.  I had to take these photos perched on a kitchen chair, leaning at quite the wrong angle.

This lady does lots of lovely florally designs.  All covered with flowers. 

I’ve got a candlestick just like this one.  It only gets used during power outages.  That’s a shame really.  And we never use table cloths.  Certainly not the embroidered ones!

She’s forgotten to cross her tee’s here.  Every time I look at it, I think she’s stitched ‘Senility’.  I have to look twice.  Senility sure would fit in this house.

The centre piece of the design.  We don’t have a garden gate.  At least, not a pretty cottagey one like this.  Ours is purely to keep the dog in. 

I’m not sure what these things are.  Maybe an outdoorsy type of pot plant stand?  I live in a wine growing region and every household has a half a wine barrel cut in half used as a pot plant holder.  That looks like this one.

All I can think of when I see this one is the old water pump that used to be at my dad’s work shed.  We used to play with it when we went visiting him.  It looked nothing like this one but that did not diminish the appeal.

A nice one to finish with.  You are all very welcome here at my little blog. 

I haven’t done any stitcheries for months now.  I seem to spend all my time trying to work out how to get my stupid machine to work.   Maybe it’s the universe’s way of telling me to sit and stitch, instead of sitting and bitching.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Hello - catching up...

Hey!

I've been away!

I took my little family, along with my husband and his mother across the border for a four day break.  It consisted mainly of playgrounds, playgrounds, and playgrounds. 

It was lovely.

But I'm back now, and when I've done some stitching (my fingers are itching!), I'll let you see!

Thanks for all your lovely recent comments too, btw.  I've replied to all I can, so if you haven't received a reply from me for something you wrote, it's most likely because you are posting as a no-reply commenter.  Which leaves me no email address to post back to you. 

So if you want a reply (and I'll always write one!) check that when you post a comment.

Tata for now, and I'll catch up soon.

Suzie

xx

So maybe technology isn’t quite so bad

I’ve been sewing today, catching a spare five minutes here and there when the children allow.

I’m pleased to tell you (or should it be perhaps embarrassed to tell you) that I’ve figured out the problem with the sewing machine.  Turns out after owning the thing for five years and sewing on it more than once a day for all of that time, I’d forgotten how to thread it.

I am indeed THAT stupid.

Anyway.  Sewing machine is threaded.  New card bought for the camera and here is a couple of piccies I’ve been wanting to show you.

The first is a companion piece for another picture I stitched a few months ago.  I spent a lot of time framing it, which doesn’t show very well on the photo.  But take my word for it, it’s lovely.  It matches the companion piece very well.  I’ve tried to find a photo of it in the links but I can’t.  But you can see it in my flickr stream if you so desire.  It’s part of three I plan to do.  So, two down and one to go. 

And look at that!  It’s finished!  Well, it’s very nearly finished.  I realised as I was stitching it that I am one teensy tiny little unit short for the bottom row, so I have to stitch that one up yet.  But it’s a pretty good effort really.

If you disregard the fact that there is not one single seam that matches, and it is quite possibly the worst made quilt I have ever accomplished, and it will never, ever, EVER see the light of day in public.  It looks really good if you stand about five metres away from it permanently.

But it’s done.  Will I do another Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt?  Yeah, probably!

Anyway, have a lovely weekend and I shall chat to you all tomorrow.  Maybe.

Free Pattern Friday

Due to the loss of my creativity today (stuffy head cold which has left me with cotton wool instead of a brain) I thought I'd share some more free pattern sites I love to look at.  You know, just in case you have nothing more to do. 

Cindy Carter is a lady I visit often.  She's most generous with her freebies, and there are many free quilts on her website.  I particularly liked the maple leaf below. 

http://carterquilter.wordpress.com/

I love people that do nice things just for the sake of it.  Offering such a lot of free patterns is a very nice thing to do.  So thankyou, Cindy.

Till tomorrow (hopefully with a clearer head, a sewing machine that works and a card for my digital camera!)

Suzie

Technology Sucks

I've not had a good week.  I think there is something in the stars conspiring against me. 

The card on my camera has died.  So I cannot show you any photos of quilts I have made in the last few days.

Which is fine, really.  Because the sewing machine is being a total *&^&* at the moment and won't let me sew anything. 

Some days, it's best just to stay in bed.

See you soon!

Another flimsy done!

 

I put Orca Bay aside for a day, and finished one of my flimsies.  It’s amazing just how little I need to do on so many of my UFO’s.  What makes me put them away when I just have such a little to do on them?  Who knows.

This was a mystery quilt run by one of the ladies at our local quilting group.  It’s not exactly how she finished hers, but this is about sixty inches square and I think it’s a really nice size for a nice lap quilt for an oldie.  I might get it quilted and donate it. 

I’ve seen a few versions of these throughout our group and I must say, I do like mine.

The good news is that this is part of my UFO challenge.  So the grand total there is:

1. The Blue Cream Scrap Quilt – Done and dusted.

2.  Mystery Quilt – Done and dusted.

3.  Amish Quilt – Done and dusted.

4.  Crocheted Blanket – Done and dusted

5.  Framed Stitched Pictures – Not done.

6.  Orca Bay –  Not done.

7.  Heart/ Flying Geese Quilt – Not done.

8.  Master Bedroom Quilt – Not done.

9.  Hand Embroidered Quilt – Not done.

10. Hand Embroidered Quilt – Not done.

11. Blue String Quilt – Not done.

12. Joseph’s Coat – Not done.

So, before April has really started, I’ve done four projects from my list.  Some of the remaining ones really only have a day or two of work to do on them.  Some of them have a truckload of stuff to go. 

But I think I’ll have done my twelve easily by the end of June.  So maybe, I’ll be able to pick another twelve!  How cool would that be?

The sad thing is that it isn’t even a drop in the ocean of what still remains to be done from the Master List of UFO’s, but that’s not thinking very positively, is it?  And no, I’ll never tell just how many are on that list.  No way no how.

Anyway.  Must choof off and get the rug rats their dinner.  It’s the end of the school term and everyone is feeling very tired and emotional at present.  The sooner everyone is in bed tonight, the better.

Suzie

Quilts I Don’t Like Sewing, or how I spent my Sunday

 

I’ve always been a follower of Bonnie Hunter’s scrap quilts. Love, love, love her work.    I’ve done her last mystery quilt, it was challenging but it got finished and so when she published her newest one, Orca Bay, I was there with bells on.

Mystery quilts are excellent for pushing me out of my comfort zone.  I avoid lots of styles of quilting, most importantly bias triangles.  I can never get them right, and rather than practice, practice, practice I tend to stick my head in the sand and choose another quilt to do.

But when you do a mystery quilt, you don’t know what’s coming.  Bonnie’s quilts are filled with bias triangles.

With the greatest of respect to Bonnie, man oh man, I have to tell you, I do NOT enjoy sewing this quilt.  

I’ve stitched, unpicked.  Stitched, unpicked.  Put it away, started it again.  Stitched, unpicked.

I’m at the point now where I just want the thing done and off my workbench.  So I plugged along most of today with it.

 

 

Some of the seams are stitched, and some are just laid in position so I can see what it looks like.  And I know it’ll look lovely when it’s quilted. 

Just don’t look too closely at the joins of my triangles.

Till tomorrow

Suzie