Disappearing Nine Patch

Strictly speaking, this isn’t a disappearing nine patch as I’ve labelled it.  It’s the bits and pieces left over from my Pioneer Braid, the one that was bigger than a football oval.  I must have made a real mess up of my cutting because I had so many bits left over.   I didn’t know what to do with them, then it occurred to me that it looked a little like a disappearing patch, so in a fit of finishing, I stitched them together and here it is!

I actually think it’s a lovely scrappy design.  A real quickie, and would be ideal for a charity quilt.

As for the rest of my sewing endeavours, I’ve been crossing boring jobs off my list in the hope that I’ll have some free time soon.  Hah.  This close to Christmas?  I doubt it!

Hope you’re doing well, I’ll post some more soon!

stupid google

I’ve just discovered that stupid google has logged me out of blogger (but not livewriter, interestingly) so I can’t reply to your comments until I sort that out.

So if you’ve commented recently, and you think I’m a horribly rude person for not acknowledging them, please know that I have seen them, and I’m on to it – hopefully with a new password that will let me in again (don’t even get me started on the ‘must be 29 letters long with upper and lower case and numbers blah blah blah).

Until then, thanks so much if you’ve commented – it means a real lot to me!

Pioneer Braid

Another UFO/Flimsy to show you.

Can I just say, I Did Not Like making this quilt.  It’s one of Bonnie Hunters’ designs (well, I doubt she invented the Pioneer Braid but I followed the pattern from one of her books).  The stitching of this quilt is far too stoppy starty for my liking, and the long sections are very unwieldy to handle as they get longer.  None of that is Bonnie’s fault, of course.  And if you are going to make one, following her pressing guide is a really good idea because all my seams butted up against each other, which made stitching the rows together much more accurate.

I had decided to make this quilt wider, and had it folded up to make more sections when my cat (god love him but I really don’t know why he did this) decided to pee on it.  He doesn’t do that as a rule, he’s very well behaved in general.  But he decided to pee on the worst thing ever.  I had to wash the top and then stitch two more rows on which was a flipping nightmare.

But now it’s done and it’s still hugely long – I must have made a mistake with my cutting because it was so enormous. 

But as I said, it’s done.

Water Lilies Class–back at it!

Hi lovely readers!

You may remember a few weeks (months….) ago I did a class with Rachelle Denenny, a local quilter who wins awards all over the place and taught me a life changing method of turned applique.

I’ve finally been able to work on the sample I did in class!   I know!  Don’t fall over in shock!

It’s still a long way from finished, but I have managed to do all the prepping for the top turned applique, and I have fused all the bottom section with vliesofix.  Now I need to stitch the top section before I can do anything.  And then I need to travel to another town to buy some tulle for the lower section.  Ah the joys of living in a small town. 

But it’s looking good so far, yes?  I think it is.

Have a lovely weekend, won’t you?  It’s going to be a HOT one here, and yet only a week ago we had hailstorms that wiped out many of our fruit crops (you can read about it here).  I didn’t post about it because it’s just so darn depressing.  They were bumper crops this year, and mother nature just decides ‘Nup, you can’t have it all your way – I’ll show you who’s boss!’ and leaves me once again asking myself, ‘who would be a grower?’.

See you soon!

Roses

Just a quickie to show you before I put away the computer and get going on the housework.

This is a quilt we had at our shop, a million years ago.  I think it’s Tanya Whelan fabric, she does beautiful rose fabric.  We did very well from this range, if I recall correctly.  Very Shabby Chic. 

I had it out for a photograph and label check, so I thought I’d share it with you!

Hope your day is going fine!

The most expensive coat hanger in the world.

Doesn’t look that expensive, does it?

As with many of the things in my cupboard, it has a story.

As you know, I have two little girls.  It was very important to my Nanna, their Great Nanna who was a staunch Lutheran lady from way back, that those two little girls be baptised.  With all the trimmings – big fancy dinner, fancy baptism dress, etc.  She was such a darling Nanna that I happily obliged.

My first daughter was baptised in the family baptism dress (there’s a whole other story about that dress that I will tell you about at the end of the post).  It barely fit her by the time we organised the baptism (can’t rush these things!), and it took so long for me to get my act into gear that she celebrated her first birthday on the same day. 

Needless to say, by the time I got my lazy backside into order  I organised the next baptism day, my second daughter was too large to fit in the family dress. I had my reasons for taking so long, my husband was away All The Time, I was fairly well raising two kids on my own, and we had to wait for the godmother to be able to come here from interstate for the weekend, and she has a busy, busy job.

So we needed an outfit for baby number two.  She was probably closer to two years old by the time we had her baptised, and that first dress was never going to fit.  Nanna, as you may remember was a wonder with embroidery and smocking, and she volunteered to make a dress. 

All I needed to do was buy the fabric and get a pattern.  So off I trot to the local spotlight with two kids in tow (one five years old, one two years old – imagine that in a craft shop).  I found the pattern easily.  The pattern said I needed three metres (to this day I don’t know why it was so much – but I am a rule follower) so I found two rolls of fabric I liked – one averaged price (perhaps $20 a metre) and one fabric that must have been spun by elves from gold that cost $75 a metre.

Ohhh no, I wasn’t going to spend that much money on a dress for a two year old, despite how important the day was.  So I put one roll back and took the other one to the counter.

And you know where this is going, of course.

The clerk cut the fabric, rang up the sale, and told me it was $250.  Yep, I had put the cheaper one back and brought the expensive one.   The fabric was cut, she was not letting me get away with it, the kids were beginning to rebel and I just wanted out of there.  So I bit the bullet, paid for it and bought it home.  I gave it to my nanna and made her swear to please, please not make a mistake when cutting out the pattern!  I wasn’t going back to get any more!

And this is what my eighty five year old nanna made my two year old daughter.

It’s really not the best of photos, but can I tell you, I cherish it.

So the reason the coat hanger is the most expensive in the world?  It was made with the left over $70 a metre fabric.

Sadly I have no photos of the day, because I was up the front holding the baby, and I gave my camera to my brother, who was totally useless and didn’t get a decent photo at all.  Brothers!

That’s the story of the most expensive coat hanger in the world.  The story of the family baptism dress?  When my husband’s grandmother died, we helped his Auntie clear out her house.  We had a six week old baby, but we drove over to offer some assistance.  In the cupboard was an outfit, clearly a christening dress.  The aunt didn’t know what it was from, but upon asking my husband’s mother, we found out that it was the dress that my husband had been baptised in forty years before. 

So it’s a special dress, and it’s waiting in the cupboard for the next generation. 

That’s it!  End of story!

Thanks for bearing with me.

When in doubt, quilt!

Okay.  No debating of American politics here today.  Needless to say it’s been a tumultuous couple of days for everyone, I suspect.  My eight year old came home and asked if Donald Trump will blow up South Australia?  And how far is South Australia from America?  Will the bombs reach us?  This is my eight year old who I doubt has a clue who her own National Leader is yet this is her current fear.

I don’t know how to parent my kids through this.  This parenting thing is H.A.R.D. 

I love the internet.  But sometimes – well, the internet has a lot to answer for, I think.  I’m all for global awareness but this is not something that my eight year old should even have on her radar.  Kids should be blissfully unaware of this stuff.  I’m not alone in thinking that, am I?  Plenty of time for scary, adult conversations.  Not when she’s eight.

And even if I limit their internet exposure, the other kids at school are all over it so she hears it all from them.

H.A.R.D.

Anyway….

I’ve long since learned that when one is anxious or upset, creativity will calm the mind.  It’s always been the thing I do to shut my brain up.  Put on a mindless video, start something messy and time consuming and plough through. 

So that’s what I did yesterday.  Began watching Doc Martin on Netflix, and shifted my brain from the ‘what ifs?’ to the ‘how does this colour look with that colour’.  I’ve seen lots of random Doc Martin episodes on television but never the whole series from the start, so that’s what I did!

I’ve had this pattern for a while, but didn’t love the owls.  I’m very particular with owls, you see.  We had an all day sewing day at our quilting rooms, so I drafted a couple of owls from various designs on the internet.  Yesterday (Wednesday) I spent the day tracing and ironing and playing in my sewing room.  As you do when your mind is going places you don’t want it to go.

Here’s the finished (well, ironed in place yet to be stitched) result.  Not the best lit picture in the world but c’est la vie.

I’ve had the fabric for ages.  It’s all part of the Chinese Ebay haul I brought.  Let me be that cautionary tale for you. It’s cheap tat, PLEASE don’t buy cheap Chinese fabric from Ebay.  The old saying ‘if it seems to good to be true…..’ is ringing in my ears.

I don’t know that it’ll last a wash.  But the colours are so pretty, I figured I’d just use them up. 

The mess that is my sewing table.  This is actually clean for me.  I at least took the wine glass from view (it was night time by the time the photo was taken, I wasn’t drinking during the day!).

Please ignore the fabric on my ironing board.  As each one starts to get revolting, I just cover it up with another fabric.  I don’t know how many layers I have under there now.

The applique is all done with good quality homespun, at least.  If the quilt falls apart before too long, I know the applique will last and I’ll just take it apart and reuse it.  I’m a quilter, I can do anything.

So I may continue my Doc Martin marathon in the lounge room and sit and sew today.  I may stitch something else on my machine.  I don’t know yet. 

Have a lovely day today, my friends.   Lovely, calming, stitching day.

Suzie

Lucy Boston–Another one bites the dust!

You know, it took me months to prep the above block.  I don’t know why, just didn’t make it a priority, I guess.  But once I’d basted them in place on the papers, it took me an afternoon to stitch it.  Nothing ever takes as long as you think it will!

So now I need to prep more.  Hopefully it won’t take me as long!

Lucy Boston Block Four

So somewhere along the line I forgot to show you my latest Lucy Boston block.

Here ‘tis:

I do like this one very much.  I’ve learned that if you’re going to have any fussy cutting in the block, it’s best to make it so that any crosses don’t really lie next to each other.  I made a big mistake in my first block where my cross doesn’t line up and I’m tempted to unpick it (I won’t). 

I love the pink/green repros.  Which is why I have very few as I tend to use them up first!