Two Stitcheries–pushing through the photos….

I’m trying to get my photo taking/documentation up to date before the end of the year.  I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Hope you don’t mind lots of photos of not so current projects?  I didn’t think you would mind.

Somehow I ended up with these two framed stitcheries.  I think they were from the shop.  I know I didn’t stitch them, the work is too lovely for it to be mine!

I remember the days when stitchery was huge.  Is it still as big as it was?  I must admit, now I’m not in the shop I find it hard to keep up with trends.  I do see ladies at quilting doing some stitching but they don’t seem to be doing anything new, most of their things are from older patterns.

I wonder what the current trends are?  Do you know?  Are there current trends these days?  Am I just getting to be an old fogey, stuck in my ways?  Who knows?

Earth Laughs In Flowers

My great grandmother was an accomplished needlewoman (like really accomplished, one strand thread embroidery, back as good as the front, etc etc). 

She was also a world class hoarder.

Somehow, I was given (probably by my Nanna, her daughter, NOT a world class hoarder) a piece of Irish linen that came from Great Grandmother.  Goodness only knows how old it was.

I found a really lovely stitched saying somewhere, in one of the many magazines I have here.  I decided I would use the lovely piece of linen and embroider this on it.

But I can’t do ‘fancy’ embroidery to save my life.

So my mother finished it for me.  It has at least three generations touching it, probably four.  I’ve framed it which is why it looks cloudy.  I did have it hanging on the wall for a long time but it’s been packed away in a box someplace, which is okay.  One day I’ll find it again and put it up somewhere.

But it’s safe and sound for now.

Hope your day went well, mine was filled with Children Activities and Volunteering For School.  It’s the pointy end of the year when all the Christmas activities and swimming activities are crammed in before the end of term, which means I’m out a lot.  But small blessings – ballet will finish soon for the school year and I’ll have my weeknights free at least!

Talk soon!

My Blue Heaven (or at least half of it)

I tried making the Quiltville My Blue Heaven quilt.  I’ve talked about it before, it turned out blech, like one big blue blob.

I ended up making two separate quilts (why not, it’s not as though I don’t have enough tops already!), and this is the first one.  I like this one, the stars are clearly defined, it all looks a treat.

The other one looks very dull.  It’s okay, better as a back than a front I think, which is what I will end up using it for.  I don’t know if I posted it before, looking online is too much like hard work so I’ll just repost that tomorrow if I have.

So we all okay this weekend?  I had a quiet weekend, went out for tea with my in-laws last night, went to the Russian Ballet the night before (I am v. v. cultured – didn’t you know?).  Staying in tonight, back to the school rush tomorrow.  The ballet was beautiful, and the audience was filled with little girls, as they were performing Sleeping Beauty.  Ever hear a group of little girls tittering in laughter when the boy ballet dancers come on?  Oh, it was gorgeous.  I mean, there are NO surprises when it comes to the male dancers costume, and the little girls thought that was hilarious.  I must admit to wondering myself how … well, how they put their tights on, if you get what I mean.  Fabric seems to perform engineering miracles in certain places, it really does.

Back to the grindstone tomorrow – keep well, everyone!

More light and pretties….

I’ve showed you this before, but as I am rephotographing and labelling everything, I have a better photo for you.

This is prototype Two of the very first quilt I ever made. 

I know, nothing like jumping in the deep end.

Prototype One was a disaster.  I knew nothing.  The pattern was in centimetres.  Nothing worked,  nothing matched, it was a dog’s breakfast.  Most of it was made in polyester.  Did I mention it was a disaster?

I so loved the design though.  So after I had given up in defeat with Prototype One, I put the pattern away for the day when I perhaps knew a little bit more about quilting/pattern drafting and I could maybe do the quilt again properly.

And I did.  There are still swathes of imperfect things in this quilt – I doubt any of my nine patches are exact (so, so far from that), and I’m sure the points of the flying geese don’t work but I don’t care.  I love it to pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s not massive though and it remains a flimsy partly because I am thinking I might add a few more borders to it, to make it a bit bigger.  It’s currently too small for a single bed but it’s so bright and cheery, I think it would look great on one of the girls’ beds.  I can’t decide.  I’m dithering, I know.  My brain is all over the place right now.

I have very little in the way of pastels anymore (because I’ve used them all up!  Have to buy some more fabric!  What a shame!) and I think that’s what is stopping me.  I’m planning a day trip to the next town to do some Christmas shopping soon so that might be the push I need to pop in to the local quilt shop and get some pretties. 

What do you reckon?  What should go next?  My brain is stuck in a log cabin rut so I’m finding it hard to think of any other patterns.

Hmm. Shall continue to give it thought.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Hot As … you get the idea

We’re in the grip of a heatwave this week.  Today is scheduled for 44 degrees C (111 F), it’s officially described as a ‘catastrophic’ day.  Yep.  School busses have been cancelled, as they do in a ‘catastrophic’ day so I had to run the children in.  That doesn’t bother me but going out to pick the up at three p.m., when it’s going to be at its hottest- THAT bothers me.  I very nearly kept them home, purely for that reason.  And the pool is a lovely shade of green, as the filter isn’t working.  First world problems, I know. 

My house is made of stone and for the most part doesn’t really need air-conditioning, if I’m clever and close the house up before the heat sets in.  So it’s now lovely and dark and cool inside, and I must admit that I may well just have a lazy old day on the couch. 

I’ve not much to show you in the quilting side of things.  I’ve been madly sewing log cabins in an attempt to get them finished.  And I’ve run out of creams so I’ve had to do an emergency order from someplace, so I’m waiting that out.  I did manage to finish another top, that will be ironed today and photographed so I can show you that tomorrow.

I did have a couple of videos to show you, but the internet is not behaving for me today and so I can’t work out how to load them. I shall tinker offline and see what I can do.

So there you have it, an update with absolutely nothing to update!

Keep cool and safe!

2015 Mystery Quilt Part Eight

Let’s get this all put together, shall we?

To make this quilt, you should have the following:

 

 

Unit H – 42 Units

 

 

 

 

 

Unit G – 36 units

 

 

 

 

Unit F – 14 units remaining

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unit A – 49 units

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unit D – 6 remaining

 

 

 

 

Unit C – 98 remaining

You will need 49 Unit A blocks and 98 Unit C blocks.

Stitch a Unit C (flying geese) block to either side of Unit A.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Repeat this to make a total of 49 blocks. This will be known as Unit I.

Row A

You will need 42 Unit H blocks and 42 of the newly made Unit I blocks.

Stitch a Unit H block to a Unit I block:

Repeat to make seven rows of six blocks as shown below:

Stitch the final Unit I block to the end of these rows.

Stitch the last remaining Unit F to either side of the rows, following pattern placement.

Repeat this step to make a total of seven rows.

Row B

Stitch the Unit G blocks into six rows (six Unit G blocks in each row)

Stitch the remaining Unit D blocks to the end of each row following pattern as shown:

You should now have Seven of Row A:

and six of Row B:

Now all you need to do is sew the rows together, and we do this by sewing a row A to a row B, to another row A and so forth until all our rows are used up.

And here is your finished quilt:

I’m hoping so much that you like it! Feel free to add a border if you wish, but I kinda like it just the way it is. I’d love to see any photos you have if you’d like to send them my way. My address is sillygoosequilts@hotmail.com

Thanks so much, once again!

Suzie

Show and Tell–Log Cabin

What a horrible weekend, yes?

You don’t need me to dwell on it, there’s enough of it on the internet.  I’ve not been watching TV, I’ve not been surfing the net, I’ve been doing what we all do best in times of strife and stress – sewing, sewing, sewing.  There is nothing like the repetitive pushing through of log cabin blocks when your brain won’t shut down.  I’ve made hundreds of blocks over the past week, but yesterday I just sewed all day.

I don’t have them to show you yet, but I photographed this last week.  You may have seen it before, but this is the finished top.

Made this years and years ago, all it needed was a little bit of touching up. I’ve now done a label, pressed it really well and it shall go back to the depths of the linen cupboard where it once lay.

Keep smiling, everyone.  Chins up.

Suzie

What do you think?

Which colour way do you like most?  I'm leaning towards the second one.

Yes, I started something new.  What of it?

Seriously.  I need help.  

Have a lovely day.

Nature' s show and tell

It's the time of year again, where nature really puts on a show in our town.  All the jacaranda trees are blooming.  We drove past this beauty the other day and I had to show you.

Just beautiful.

Suzie

2015 Mystery Quilt Part Seven

We could put this together in an easy, straight forward fashion, or I could mix it up a bit, and totally confuse you. I think that sounds like much more fun.

You should have (42) Unit Ds left (leaving six units over). We will need those, and also we will need 84 of our flying geese (Unit F).

I want you to stitch a flying geese unit to either side of Unit D.

You should have (42) of these units. We will call them Unit H.

Gather together all of your units previously made and hang on – because next week is our big reveal!

Flimsy done– Barn Quilt

After the excitement of the last post, I’ve not been doing much sewing.  I’ve been plodding through my ironing pile, gradually ironing quilt tops, photographing them, and putting them away.  I’ve not been able to iron much lately, the iron keeps making the house power short out.  Don’t ask me why it does it, we have an electrician coming (oh I hope he turns up!!) but I got myself out of trouble for a while by purchasing a new iron.  I have to buy a new iron every year or so with this problem, which is far too often for me and a definite sign that things need sorting.

So, long story not so short, I finally have some finishes to show you.  Here is today’s:

There is so much more to this quilt that just won’t fit in the photo – a whole row of houses.  It’s a behemoth.  Lord knows what I will do with it now.

It was a sewalong on some blog somewhere.   I can’t even remember where.  I am pleased with how it turned out.  Though the size.  Oh, it’s big.

She who wins state quilting awards (Mother) has a long arm machine and table and is asking me to learn (yeah, in my spare time) so some of these quilts will be used as practice for that, I expect.  It will be handy to know how to use the machine, though never in a million years would I want to do it for other people, like she does.  I’m nowhere near patient enough. 

So that’s my show and tell for today.  It’s a glorious day here in South Australia.  Not too hot, not too cold. I’ve taken the girls to the plant shop and we have brought some veggies to plan this afternoon, so that will be fun.  I’ll have to do my sewing now so I’m not dirty!

Hope your weekend is doing well. 

Happy Quilting!