018 Show And Tell - Mini Amish

Geez Louise, I've made some crap in my lifetime.

This is another example.  Made to fit in a laundry.  I made two, hung them both and yeah, they looked okay at the time (we're talking years ago) but I'm seriously wondering what to do with them now.  I could chuck them, to be honest I'd be too embarrassed to give them away.

These small wallhangings are useless to me now.  But what to do with them?  Dilemma, dilemma.

See you soon!

013 Show and Tell - Scrappy Pinwheels

This is another one of those what was I thinking quilts?

It's all fine, really.  But it's far too small to be useful.  And it's another one in the cupboard, wondering what I shall do with it.  I suppose it's big enough for a dog blanket, and that's a sad statement when the best you can find to do with it is to give it as a dog blanket.

Sometimes it's hard to look back with today's eyes, isn't it?  But at the time, there was a need for a design in our shop that beginners could do, and this served its purposes.  

But I still don't have a place for it.

Hope your day is going well.  See you soon!

010 - Show And Tell (Country Friends)

A thousand years ago, country chic was the rage.  We made dozens of little wall hangings that we would sell in the shop.  It's not something I can see anyone wanting nowadays, but back then we did very well out of it.

This was one of the many designs of its style we made all those years ago.

It would be hard to find a place for it now, but back then they were very popular!  It's another one of those embarrassing designs that I don't know what to do with.  But I have promised myself to photograph and blog each one of my designs, more of a record for me than anyone else.  And so here it is, something embarrassing, but part of my quilting history.

Happy quilting!

007 - Show and Tell (Flower Baby Quilt)

Some of these older quilts I'm just downright embarrassed to show you.  But I'm going to anyway.

This one was designed for those customers who were brand new to quilting.  It's a very basic quilt.  Sadly it looks like a dog's breakfast but what can you do?

It's part of my quilting history and I guess it at least shows how far I've come?  

Happy quilting!

003 - Show And Tell (Checkered Hearts)

Back into the Show And Tell routine, documenting and photographing all my quilts, even the less spectacular ones.

This one was made many, many years ago and has been washed and loved to death.

I look back now at all the flaws, and I need to remember that whilst it may look dreadful, we didn't know as much as we do now and it was loved to death.  Washed and washed and washed, now it's faded, the binding has begun to shrink, and it doesn't matter because isn't that what we make quilts for?  To wear out from use and then to make another one?

Anyway.  It's photographed and documented.

44 degree day today.  Not sure what that is in the old numbers but well over 100.  Hot (boom boom) on the heels of our all time hottest day on record, 48 degrees the other day.  Australia is either burning or flying away in dust storms, and it's really very hard to not get caught up in the emotion of it all.  I focus on the positives, we are safe here, we are far from fire trouble, we have water and we have electricity.  But so many places are burning.  It's hard to know what to say or do.  

I always sew on days like today.  Keeps me calmer, somehow.

Anyway.  Hope your day is a quilty one!

Scrap Jewel Box - Show and Tell

Hi lovely readers,

It's been a big week.  School's back, and with it all the chaos/organisation that it requires.  I don't mind - the girls have been very bored over the last few weeks and it's so tempting just to let them play their screens as much as they want (which in the case of the eldest is All. The. Time.  It's nice to have them back into a routine, as much as it's nice for me to ease my way back into a routine.

I managed to both acquire a head cold for the best part of this week, and also kill my email on my laptop.  It's very possible that one caused the other.  I don't work well with a head full of cotton wool.  The days are numbered for my little laptop, I fear.  It's a shame, I wish I was more techy and could fix things myself but I was never very good at technology and the older I get the worse it becomes!  

I do have my other trusty laptop, which to this day my girls have never used.  It's nice to have one unblemished thing!

I've been sewing a little bit, mostly the log cabin blocks.  Of course I miscalculated the blocks, as I said I would and so I have to make a few more, but with any luck by the end of the weekend I should have it together.  It's so enormous, I hope I haven't made a mistake making it so big.  We'll see, I guess.

So in the absence of nothing new to show you, here is another one of my flimsies:  It's a totally scrappy Jewel Box.  Lovely, simple block that works with whatever fabric you use.  I have so many scraps, I shall never run out of needing new designs to use them up.

This is a nice one.  I'd obviously aimed for darker fabrics more than lighter.  I can't remember if that was a choice of mine or happy coincidence, but it looks lovely in the end!

Hope your weekend is a quilty one!  See you soon!

Suzie

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

Smokey Mountain Stars–my version

I am knee deep in the middle of the school holidays, and my computer time is being curtailed by small children (who are better at the computer than I am!).  Add to that a head cold which we always, always seem to get in the first week of the holidays – well, that’s why the posts have been thin on the ground.

But I’ve been sewing up a storm, what with an all day sewing day our guild held last week (sheer, pure bliss!), plus forgiving children who seem to want to play with each other all day long (is there nothing better than the sound of happy kids playing?).  I’ve got more photos of what I’ve been up to that I want to show you, but until then I thought I’d share another of the Bonnie Hunter quilts I’ve made.

Dark, clotted cream and musky pink have always been some of my favourite quilting colours.  My favourite by far, which explains why I have such a lot of them on hand.  Although I never seem to have enough creams in the background box.

I’ve always loved this Bonnie Hunter quilt – it’s called Smokey Mountain Stars and you can click on the name to take you directly there.  It’s surprisingly easy to make, and I whizzed this one up quite quickly.

It’s only small though, and this day I don’t know why I made the darn thing so little.  It’s not like I lack for fabric.  I think I aimed for a bed topper, and it does look lovely on the bed, but it would look so much nicer BIGGER.  Of course, it’s one of the few I’ve actually had quilted (thanks Mum!) so I can’t make it bigger now.   C’est la vie. 

I love it to pieces.  Adore it.  It remains up there with my favourite colour/design choice.  You know when you make a quilt and sometimes it’s in your head how it will look, and you end up making something that just doesn’t cut it?  But sometimes when it works, it really, really works?  This is one of those quilts.  Love it, love it, love it.

Easy peasy pattern to make.  Did I tell you I want to make all the quilts on Bonnie’s page?  I’m not sure that I will, but I think I may give it a good shot. 

It’s been quilted with a big overall love heart pantograph that works really well.

 

 

So there it is, one of my favourite quilts.  See that border fabric?  I’ve got so much more of it stashed away.  I could make another one just like it.  Only bigger.

Hope your quilting has been productive!

Suzie

More show and tell

I’m not sure that I’ve shown you this flimsy before.  This is an oldie but a goodie, and surprise, surprise – it’s in the thirties prints!

Amazingly easy, this quilt.  A simple nine patch, then matching triangles on the outer edges, sashed together with cream and thirties prints.  I loved this little one. 

One of these days, I will have to count up how many thirties quilts I have done.  I adore them.  I love their bright, happy colours and they way they cheer the sewing room up when I’m working on them.

I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of making them.  My only problem is that I’ve made most of the ‘traditional’ thirties patterns, I’ll have to expand a little.

What to do with all these quilt tops?  I asked my daughter if she liked it, and she said ‘yeah….I suppose – it’s just another quilt, right?’.  The cheek!  Though to be fair, she’s seen me plough through them one after the other, I think the whole importance of them has been diluted a bit because there are so darn many in our house. 

And she knows if it’s a dud quilt, which sometimes they are, well Mum will just make another one!

Between their mother, their two grandmothers and a very clever great grandmother, my children are swamped with handwork.  It touches every corner of our house.  I do feel great sadness for kids who have no access to handwork, or craftwork.  How sad for kids who only know store brought stuff!

Points are a little dodgy there on that block.  Such is life. 

(there’s a quick trivia question for you – who made famous the words ‘SUCH IS LIFE’?).

Happy quilting!

Suzie