Sunday

No time for sewing today. The day whooshed by.  Now it’s bedtime (for the kids, not me) and I have a little time to show you what’s been hiding on the digital camera.

I made the latest of Barbara’s blocks, this one called Union Square.  It was easy.  I felt very clever.

This is my block.  Feeling pretty okay with it.  Am V. Good. Quilter.  Right?

Then I saw today’s block. 

Not feeling clever.  Feeling pretty downright intimidated, truth be told.

image from here

Holy batfish.

Now, just to be clear, this is NOT my block.  I’m slightly terrified to even begin this block.  I’ll definitely hand piece it with freezer paper, I think.  I’ve traced the picture out, and that’s all I’ve done.  I might need to dwell on it a little.

Lots of clever ducks have already posted theirs onto the flickr website.  Very clever ducks.  Very QUICK clever ducks.

I don’t think I can do it.   Wish me luck.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Help!

Ladies, I need your help.

I am so OVER reading advertising spiels cleverly (or not even so cleverly) hidden in blog posts.  It seems everyone is trying to sell something, and there seems to be less and less decent quilting going on in quilting blogs.  Is it just the way of the internet?  Sooner or later it all boils down to the dollar?

I know there are great blogs out there written by clever and engaging bloggers, I just know there are.  Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places?

Please, please send me some blog links!  I need some new ones, to find inspiration, to see some quilt candy instead of DVD giveaways.  If you are a lurker, a reader who hasn’t posted and you’ve started up your blog recently, please send your link my way!  I’d love to see what you have been up to.  And if you’re a long time blogger and I just haven’t found you yet, please send me that link too. 

You guys know what I like.  Can you help me out?

More samples

 

Back in the olden days, when we used to own a shop, I had the very great honour of being asked to submit a project to a magazine.  I was over the moon.  It remains a terrific thrill to see yourself in print.

This was one of the things I made for it.  It’s a very steep learning curve to design something, and write down the instructions so that (please forgive me for being so blunt) the slowest person in the room can understand them.  You have to assume the person you are directing your instructions to is a total novice. 

It’s a very good exercise, I believe.  Teaches you to look at things in a different angle, to explain things in a different way.  Thinking laterally isn’t a bad thing. 

I’ve photographed a million things in the last few days, so I’ll keep posting while you’re happy to keep looking!

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Friday Show And Tell

Hi there!  I’ve photographed a couple more quilts so I thought I’d share.

This one isn’t mine, but my mum’s.  I seem to have acquired a lot of her stuff over the years.

A hundred years ago, our quilting group held a challenge for our annual Rose Week.  Each year, our small town holds a Rose Week celebration, as our town holds the southern hemisphere’s largest private rose garden (apparently, I just know there are lots of roses here in October).  I’ve long forgotten what the challenge was titled, or the rules except to say that I think it must have been floral based.  I do remember the winner – just stunning and if I can find a photo I’ll scan it. 

I’m just a beginner at needleturn.  I really want to be good at it, though I guess like all things it’s practice makes perfect. 

Today is the final day of school which means for the next two weeks I get the added thrill of my children’s company each day.  It’s amazing how used to being alone one gets.  I fully expect routines, such as they are, to be thrown out the window very quickly.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Oh, Hi There….Remember Me?

Yeah, I know.  I disappeared again. 

No apologies to give you – just to say that as soon as they invent a day with 48 hours in it, I’ll be so much more organised.

Want to see what I’ve been doing?

A few weeks ago, I decided I had Too. Much. Fabric and thought I would make a one colour quilt.  I decided red would be that colour.

I fiddled around and come up with this.  It’s kinda based on one of Bonnie Hunter’s, but a little different.

I did mess about beforehand with Electric Quilt (such a clever programme). 

I added a few more blocks.

I added a sashing row in between them, this photo only shows it pinned but once it was all put together, it turned out like this:

The light is a little better in that photo also.  So, the whole finished quilt now looks like this!

It’s cropped but it still shows the whole quilt.  It’s been hanging on my quilt wall for a week or so now and various visitors have all looked at it and commented.  The general consensus now is that I’ll put a wide cream border on the outside, and then send it off to the quilters recommending she heavily quilt the outside with feathers or something.  Then when it comes back, I’ll bind it in red.

I find this stage the most frustrating.  Do I just finish it like this, because truth be told by this stage of a quilt’s life, I’m over it.  Or do I go that extra step and put a border on it, knowing that a fancy border can really make the quilt? Many times I’ve put a quilt away at this stage, only to get it back out later and whack a border on it when I have a little more patience.

That’s all I’ve got to show you today.  I’ve been clicking away on my little camera, so hopefully there won’t be such a long break between posts.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

p.s. – the box of reds I was trying to get rid of?  Doesn’t even look like I’ve made a dent in it.  I have too much fabric. 

Christmas Placemat

This is all rather boring really.  A simple placemat.  I made a few of these from leftover fabrics and will donate them to our local Meals On Wheels for Christmas gifts. 

Nothing special, but hopefully one of the oldies will like it.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Starting something new….

I don’t have any work on the go (cough cough) so when Barbara Brackman announced her new block of the week, I just had to do it.

Never mind that I’ve barely got a start on the last one she did. 

It’s been going two weeks and I’ve got both blocks made already!

Block one – Grandmother’s Choice.  I had to unpick the seams a little bit to get the points lining up properly but I think it came together quite well.  One block down.

Naughty Barbara.  Throwing in a Y seam on our second only block.  Normally I would run like the wind from anything too fandangled like Y seams, but I’ve only just started this quilt, so I can’t give up yet.  I only had to unpick one or two seams, and the points go together pretty darn good, and what’s more – IT MEASURES CORRECTLY!

Yay me.  I’m two for two.

I’ve decided to do my colour scheme in red and green, just for something different.

It promises to be good fun.  I’ll definitely keep up with this one.  Fingers crossed.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Farmyard Critters

 

Another quilt from my very clever mother.  This was a design by McKenna Ryan, and it is no longer with us.  We had a rush of blood to the head when someone wanted to buy it, and it lives in a new house now. 

I’m tempted to keep every quilt I’ve ever made, but I do know that one day my girls will be dealing with all the stuff I’ve kept over the years.  So sometimes, when the opportunity (and price) arose, I sell them. 

Do you worry about the things you’ll leave behind?  The clutter?  What if I make all of these quilts and my girls chuck them away?  Is it about the end result, or is it about the process of making the quilt that gives me the most pleasure?  Do I get to say what happens to my stuff after I’m gone?

Big questions all jumbling around inside my head right now.  Big questions.

Dear Jane (again)

An up to date picture.  Well on the way, I think.

The Pool

We have a pool. 

It came on the back of a truck.

They had to remove half our back fence and a few of my husband’s beloved stone borders with a sledgehammer to get it through, but it’s through.

It’s a bit big.

He calls me spatially challenged.  Which means, I see something on a plan that says ‘I measure xx metres by xx metres’ and I think ‘Oh yeah, it’s this size’.  And then it turns up and it’s a little teensy bit bigger than I planned.  It’s how we ended up with the world’s largest trampoline.

They had to lift it off the truck with a crane.  I didn’t take photos of that, I was toooo stressed that they would drop it so I hid inside.

Then they had to lay it on a flat surface (i.e. husband’s PRIZED lawn) and hopefully the crane straps wouldn’t break and take out out the verandah.

Easy does it.

All is good.

I had to go then to an all day quilting day, which is probably good because it’s the most stressful thing in the world to watch.  If they dropped it, another one would have to arrive.  This one took a long time to arrive.  We didn’t want them to drop it.

But, apparently they didn’t drop it, because when I got home I found this:

So it’s in.  Now there’s just the rest of it to do, and hopefully by summer we’ll be swimming laps with the best of them. 

I can’t wait.

Oh Hi There

Remember me?

So I got sick.  Big yuchhy fluey sick.  It’s been two weeks and I’m really not feeling all that brilliant still, but I need to do a post so that you guys know I’m still around!

Obviously, haven’t been sewing.  I did manage to bind a couple of small lap quilts while sitting on the couch, in between naps. 

But in the absence of anything new to show you, I dug up some old stuff.  Hope you like them.

I’m currently transferring my backup photos from Picasa to Flickr, and I found these in the 2005 file.  I just adore the heart/triangle quilt, and want to do one just like it.  Whether I do or not I don’t know.  Too many other things on my plate.

We’d taken our shop to a quilt show, and before the show started I wandered around, taking photos of things I liked.  Back in those days, there were so many more dolls and bears.  I used to do the whole doll/bear thing.  But at some point, one can have TOO many bears and dolls cluttering up the house.  So I haven’t made a doll for years now. 

But these two little ones are pretty cute.  Don’t you think?

Picasa was brought by Google and then was turned into Google Plus.  I have an intense dislike of Google Plus – and after years of being with Picasa and having a long and fruitful relationship, I’ve broken up with it.  I get so cross with Google.  They fix stuff constantly that just ISN’T BROKEN!

So now, I’m in the process of transferring all 20294737575 files I have with them onto Flickr and I’m coming across lots of old gems.  So maybe I’ll share some with you in the next few days.

But until then,

See you soon!

Suzie