Faceted Jewels–Thirties Style

I have a finish to show you.

About a thousand years ago, I started a Faceted Jewels quilt.  I’d always loved the design.

It’s finally, finally a top now.  I don’t want to begin adding up the amount of pieces in the thing.  But there are many.

It’s not that big really – it finishes about 78” square.

It really was a bugger of a thing, excuse my French.  It was all going along swimmingly, and I cut all the pieces out. The fancy triangles, (I don’t know their proper name, but it’s the ones on the four centres of the block) I cut them out using my brand new Accuquilt cutter.

Well, I cut the whole lot out.  Thousands (or so it seemed) of little pieces.  However, when I went to sew them, they didn’t sew up right.  Every single one was smaller than it should have been.  I put the thing away in disgust, knowing I should probably recut them.  But all that fabric – I just didn’t know what to do about the whole mess.

When I needed a project for our all day Sewing Day just gone, I pulled this quilt out.  I’d decided just to finish it as best I could, matching seams or no matching seams, and call it done.  So I sewed all day Saturday, lots of Sunday and some of Monday.  And I can finally call it done. 

And it’s not half bad, when you look at it this way. 

I have this dilemma all the time.  I try my hardest to get the technique perfect, and early into the design I find it’s actually harder than I thought, or my skills are not good enough to pull it off yet, and I put the design away in anger.  But that doesn’t achieve anything, really.  I’m pleased with myself that I finished this one off, and whilst it won’t win any quilting prizes, it’s not actually that bad!

Which is not to say I don’t think I should try my hardest – I do really want to be a better quilter.  But this one will be quilted up and its bright cheery colours will make me happy, and that’s really all that should matter.  I’d love to be the sort of quilter who wins prizes, who aims at the start of the quilt to win prizes.  But I don’t have the stamina for that, at least right now.  I just enjoy the process, and if I can get gradually better each quilt I make, then that’s a positive thing.

That’s my thought for the day.  Hope you enjoyed my little show and tell.

Happy Quilting!

Suzie

Another Flimsy Bites The Dust

I’ve got a rotten head cold.

I thought I might share that with you.

Haven’t sewn a stitch therefore.  Have sat in a quiet corner and knitted some lovely cables.  I find when I have a head cold, sitting quietly in the corner, with a nice movie and some knitting works wonders.  It’s almost medicinal.  Medicinal knitting.  I like the sound of that.

A few weeks ago I showed you my Nancy Halvorsen stars.  You’ll be pleased to know that it too is finished.

I’m thrilled to bits with this one.  I was going to add another border around the outside as I had more precut squares to use up but I think this is just lovely as it is.  And it’s huge.  I’m going to bind it in black and call it done.

I’m unsure why I’m leaning towards black homespun in things at the moment.  I’ve another quilt on the go that also uses black homespun.  I think it must be because we are heading into winter (though someone forgot to tell Mother Nature, it’s been spring weather all week long here).

It was a ridiculously easy quilt to make, and I’ll type up some instructions when my head clears a little.

Do you like it?  I’m more than a little pleased with it, to be honest.  I think it’s destined to be a quilt we might actually use, rather than another flimsy in the cupboard.  We’ll wait and see.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Another Flimsy

I’ve been quiet lately on the blogging front but I have an excuse!

I’ve been quilting!

It’s a variation of the Slashed Square block – tutorial can be found over here at Patchery Menagerie.  I’ve made mine a variation of the original tutorial, my blocks are smaller and also I added the sashing. 

I might write up some instructions as to how I finished my quilt off if there is the interest – my quilting group seemed to like it.

The whole top only took me a long weekend – it is a remarkably quick quilt to make and I reckon the plains with the black work really, really well.

So there you go – that was how I spent my weekend!  Hope you like it!

Suzie

A Finish–of sorts

You all know my aversion to quilting the quilts, so please find the latest flimsy which will go straight into the cupboard with the other many, many flimsies. 

I call it ‘On A Roll’.  It’s made from two jelly rolls and some white homespun.  It’s 64” square, and it took me not very long at all, really.

It’s okay.  It was a jelly roll left over from the shop, and rather than have it languish in the cupboard I decided to try out a new pattern on it. 

I think it looks okay but I’m not sure I’d make it again.  That blue/brown floral sure hits you in the eye.  But what else do you do with a jelly roll?  I don’t love them.  Maybe I’m not creative enough to make something major with them.  But I find them very limiting.

Some of my points line up beautifully.

Some of them don’t.

Still.  It’s done, it’s photographed, I’ve tacked a label to the back of it and I can call it finished. 

Now to move onto the next UFO in the pile.

What have you been up to?

Long Time No Quilt

Hi lovely readers.

To say the last few weeks have been a bit crappy would be an understatement.  Trying to guide two little people through a grief that they really don’t understand, but feel is pretty jolly hard.  Added to that my own feelings – and it’s been a fairly hard time to get through.

But get through it we do. 

The quilting, much as the whole lifestyle, has been pretty haphazard.  I’m working a bit on one thing, then moving to another.  Blaming it on grief is too easy – it’s the way I’ve always been!  But I have some photos to show you that I have actually put needle in fabric.

This was a half done shop sample.  It is half done no more!  Flimsy away!

A while ago, I got stuck into my baskets.  After plodding through, I’m happy to say it’s a flimsy!  Flimsy away!

So two flimsies gone now.  Another two in the cupboard.  What will I do with them all?

I’m still half plodding along with technology issues, I have my laptop back but now I can’t load Livewriter on it, and my desktop won’t accept the photo card, so it’s still a little bit fiddly.  But all first world problems, I think. 

I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend, I hope you’re all warm and comfortable if you need to be, or cool and laid back if you need to be that too.

Happy quilting!

Suzie

13 years later, it’s now a quilt…

Or at least, a flimsy.

Were you one of those collectors like me who, wayyyyy back in 1999 collected a million squares from all over the world?  Were you planning on making a millennium quilt, so we could have something for posterity to mark the occasion?

Were you like me, in 2012, still with a box of squares you just didn’t know what to do with? 

I had a box like that.  Filled with 3” squares, which at the time seemed like a good size to swap.  But three inch squares aren’t a good size to work with, at least so I’ve found.  I’ve pulled that box out year after year waiting for the inspiration to hit me, and nothing ever did.  I know I could have made about a million half square triangles, but the thought of trimming them all just did me in. 

So this year, I decided – that’s IT!!  The little buggers are just going to be sewn into one huge postage stamp quilt.

And here it is.

It’s not my best work, though I did try very hard to make my points match.  But I like the overall look of it, and it sure screams scrappy.  Which is the aim.

I began by sewing squares together to form a rectangle:

Then when I had made all my rectangles, I sewed them together into a width that was ‘long enough’. 

That was about six or so units.  I’ve lost count.  Oh, to be organised.

Then I had the problem of what to do with all the signature squares.  I could have randomly placed them throughout the top of the quilt but that idea only came to me after I’d sewn most of my rows together.  So I pieced them in with some left over squares and I decided I would use them on the back. 

Do you recognise your name?

I often wonder where the lives of these ladies have taken them in the last thirteen years. 

So that’s it.  Another flimsy bites the dust.  Another box out of the cupboard and stitched together. 

 

 

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Easy Street–finally done!

I didn’t mean to have such a long blogging break, but things get in the way.  There’s a lot happening here behind the scenes in Silly Goose country.

I did manage to finish Easy Street finally.  Out of ten, it’s not a ten for me, but it’s a seven or eight.  The colours are not my ‘go-to’ colours, and that’s a good thing, I think.  I’ve totally used up all the pink, purple and green hand dyed fabrics in my stash, so that’s a good thing to.

I don’t know if I’ll do another mystery for a while.  Famous last words, I’m sure.  Remind me of this post when I do start another one.

I hope everyone is doing fine, with the various extremes of weather.  We’ve officially run out of rain water (our tanks are dry) so rain would be very welcome here in my little part of town.  But I do sympathise very much with those forced to move because of fires, or floods.  And those of you overseas, as I swelter with forty degree days, I hope the snow is not getting you down too much.

Tomorrow, I hope to post some more pictures.  I’m going to a class.  But we’ll see.  No rash promises.

See you soon!

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. 

Doll Quilt As Designed By A Five Year Old

This is the product of an afternoon with a very determined five year old, who would not listen to her mother help her choose her fabric.

She’s very, very proud of it.

Autumn Leaves

You would not believe the amount of times I have made this wall hanging.  When we were in business, it was a kit/pattern that we designed ourselves.  It was hands down our most popular design.  We have made in so many colours, we’d hang it on the wall as a shop sample and someone would come in, admire it, and ask if they could buy it.  We always said yes.  Shop samples are like rabbits, they breed and breed.  Even today, all these years after we have left the shop, we have bags full of shop samples. 

This one is unquilted, therefore just a flimsy.  But as I work my way through the cupboard photographing all of them, I’m sure to find a quilted one. 

It’s only small, and it went really well as a table centre for a rectangular table.  I used to do the whole ‘pretty table’ thing.  Then I had children.  Now it’s covered in texta, bits are chipped out of it, someone has drawn a smiley face on it. 

I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Tumbler Flimsy

Did I show you this one already?  It’s very sweet, made with the Accuquilt tumbler die.  I would ideally like to have made it bigger, this one is only about twenty inches or so.  But as luck would have it, I didn’t have enough spots and stripes to finish the job.

The go cutter is a very handy thing to own, I must admit.  It takes so little time to cut things out.  Now I just need time to stitch.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Vintage Dresden Plate

I stitched a little bit over the weekend, and threw this little top together.  I probably showed you this at the time that I cut it out – I cut out all the wedges for this dresden plate in about ten minutes flat with that wonderful invention, the Accuquilt.  The cutting out took no time, the sewing – well, that took a little bit more time.

I’m ridiculously thrilled with the look of this quilt.  I can see now I have a few of the same fabrics too close together – funny how we look and look and we’re certain that it’s definitely right, and yet after you sew it together the errors (or misplacements) pop up still.

My only problem with this is that I used a background fabric I no longer have access to, and I’ve not got any left.  So this is only 39” square, and it’s kinda too small for any of my spaces.  Ideally I’d do another round of dresden plates, but I can’t.  So I’m thinking of putting a different fabric around the border and maybe doing some smaller half dresdens on it…but I don’t have any fabric just yet that will do as the background.  So it has to wait for now.

But for now, it’s awfully pretty, don’t you think?  Those reproduction fabrics – oh be still my beating heart.

I’ve got a houseful of girls this week due to the school holidays (six today, only two of them mine).  I’ll do my best to upload the next Bountiful Bouquet (the LAST Bountiful Bouquet!!) but I know you’ll forgive me if I’m a little late.  I tend to make computer errors when I’m under pressure, and I’d rather do it properly the first time.  Who said girls are quieter than boys?

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

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.

Something new

Back in the olden days, when I used to work/own a quilt shop, we were always trying to develop new patterns for our customers.  The Block Of The Month that I've offered as a freebie was one of them.  The patterns that always sold well, for the least requirement of work by me (as time was such a drama) were stitcheries. 

I did a lot of different ones that just didn't work.  You know it's not going to work, but rather than chuck it out and try something new, I would put it in the UFO pile to be finished at a time when my free time was not so limited.

(Ha. Ha. Ha. she laughs to herself, as she realises she hasn't had free time since 2004)

This was one of them:

Once again, not the best picture.  But here is some closeups:

Blogger is being a little bit of a pill so I can't do the rest of the piccies for you but that can be tomorrow's job.

I was going to use a particular matching panel with this quilt that was covered in delicious sewing themed stuff, but I just could not make the darn thing work!  Panels are very difficult to use sometimes.  This was a difficult quilt to do.

So in the end, I stitched them all and sewed them into a wall hanging like this.  I don't mind it toooo much but really, I could live quite happily without it. 

On another note, I must thankyou for your comments that you send me.  I do try to reply to you all, and if I haven't, I WILL!  I promise.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie