002 - What I Am Working On (Oklahoma Backroads)

Even though I haven't been blogging last year as I would have liked, I have been documenting what I've been working on.

As usual, it's been mostly scrap quilts.  I've had this brilliant idea to make every version of Bonnie Hunter's scrap quilts that are on her blog.  Whilst I've done a couple, I'm no where near close to being on track with that.  

But I did start an Oklahoma Backroads a while ago, and I am slowly, slowly adding to it.  This is one of the bigger quilts I want to get finished this year.

Please ignore the crappy design wall.  I really miss not being able to crop photos in the blogger platform.  I always forget to do it on my phone, and it ends up being embarrassing like the photo above.

The quilt itself is lovely.  I've got so man scraps, and this quilt has always spoken to me.  For a little while I was doing a block a day, and it was getting along quite well, but as usual with me, it got put away in a box and I haven't worked on it for a while.  So it's now the current 'to be finished' quilt.  The one that is out on the table, looking at me.

I do love scrappy quilts.  This one needs a lot more pink/spring colours I think.  What do you think?

Anyway.  That's what I've been sewing.  Bit by bit, one block a day, I should get it done.

We shall see.

Happy sewing!

So…..

I’ve been UFO’ing today.

I was supposed to make 100 of these:

Instead, I made 100 of these:

Frustrated.

Do you ever do that?  In the completion of one UFO, you inadvertently create a second one?

Happens to me all the time.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

2013 The Year’s Goals

This year I plan to finish everything I have ever started, and not start another new thing.

Yep.  I’m joking.  I wish I weren’t, I wish I could honestly say that every little thing in the cupboard would be finished by the end of the year but that just isn’t realistic.

Instead my plan is to work hard on a couple of really big projects, those long term ones that have been bothering me but sitting up there on the design wall, mocking me.

This one is so old, it’s not funny.  All it needs is for me to applique some flowers up and down.  It’s one of those ‘didn’t really work’ designs for the shop that never made it to the shelf, but I still have a half made sample that needs doing.

My Grandmother’s Choice blocks.  I’m only about twenty blocks behind.  Dear me.

The very lovely Faceted Jewels quilt.  This one, whilst looking barely done, is quite advanced.  I have lots of it cut out and half pieced.

My little basket quilt.  When I say little, I mean the baskets are little.  I have many, many of these baskets so the overall quilt will probably be huge.  I’ve made all the sashings and nine patches, just have to hand stitch down the handles.  A good night time job.

This delicious little number is high on the list to finish.  I’ve done all the blocks, now I just have to make many little girls.  I do love doing them but the preparation is what takes me the longest.  And then I can sit at night and do them.

Of course, the very lovely Dear Jane.  Whilst I’m not promising this one will be finished by the end of this year, I’m hopeful to put a jolly big dent in the work load of it.

And my Joseph’s Coat quilt.  In precisely the same spot as it was last year, when I did my goals for the coming year.  Let’s see how this year pans out.

So that’s it.  Obviously there will be other things I’m doing along the way, but if I can get most of these off my to do list, it’ll be a huge achievement.  We’ll wait and see. 

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Sunday Update

I seem to do a lot of updating posts on Sunday afternoons.  I should be doing housework, the house is going under with all the amount of work that I have to do, so in my best traditions I'm ignoring it and hoping it all all go away.  It hasn't, sadly.  School holidays and housework and two little people do not go well together.

You may remember me mentioning my darling Pfaff went to the doctor because the spindley thingie was not connecting with the shuttle thingie and he sent it back and proudly pronounced it FIXED.  Hah.  Not in this house, things are not that easy.  It is NOT fixed, it is TWICE as bad as it ever was and I think it's just being miserable out of spite.  It's gone back to the doctor again. 

So until I can beg or borrow another machine, I'm back to doing handwork.  Which is no biggie really because, my lordy do I have some handwork in the box of UFO's.  My handwork of choice at the moment is my Josephs' Coat quilt.

Now, I gotta tell you when I signed up for the Joseph's Coat Quiltalong, I was kinda expecting the original blogger to actually finish hers, not leave me hanging mid way and actually having to work it out for myself.  So I haven't a clue how many of these arcs I need to do.  My brain tried to work it out and then it just went fizzzzzle and sparks came out and I gave up.  It seems other people also have had some trouble, because I couldn't find anywhere that actually mentioned how many of these you need, except for one website.  I found a lovely blog here who mentions that we need 637 of the arcs.  I only had 538 so now I have cut more of the little lovelies.  I'm taking her word for it.

When I cut my original ones, I had wayyy to many pink ones and little else left over, so I've taken the opportunity to cut into the holy stash of thirties prints.

Man oh man, do I love that box.  It's getting empty.  I need more.

So now, I have lots more different colours to add to my work box.  The quilt is 49 blocks big, plus extras on the side.  I figure this is week one of fifty two weeks, so if I aim right, I can do a block a week and get it done by Christmas time.  Hopefully it'll work out better and I'll get into it quicker.  And to add to my craziness, this is a quilt that screams out for handquilting.  I do love a bit of handquilting, but realistically, when do I get time to sit and do it? 

Each of the 49 main blocks needs 12 arcs, and so I've sorted them into groups, all bagged up and ready for me to work on when I have a spare minute.

So, that's it.  Now I just have to put the proverbial head down and bum up and as Dory says, just keep swimming!  And hopefully by this time next year, I'll have a fabulous quilt finished.

I'm not sure what the ettiquette of posting other people's quilts in your blog is, so I'll not do that.  But if you do a search on the images section of Google, using "Joseph's Coat Quilt Along" you'll come up with lots of wonderful pictures if this takes your fancy.

And hopefully mine soon will look a lot more like theirs.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Trying to keep up

I lead a busy life, and I overly complicate it by starting too many things, buying too much stuff, saying yes too often instead of no sometimes, not finishing what I start.  I don't think I'm alone in that.  I'm one step away from being shown on Hoarders.

We've had a few medical upheavals of late and it always reminds me that we leave behind all our stuff if we disappear for others to deal with.  If I were to suddenly not be here, I'd leave such a mess for my family to deal with.  It's something that really does trouble me and I'm trying to take baby steps to rectify the situation.

I've surfed a lot lately about being organised and I really think that my year for that will be 2012.  It sure has heck hasn't been 2011!  One of my organising ideas is to make a plan for this blog and stick to it.  We'll see how that goes.

I've been blessed with visitors this week that entertained the little people a lot, and so I spent a bit more time in the sewing room than I usually do.  

Part of my problem is that I see a technique, I decide I absolutely must do it, and then when I get a little into it, it bores me rigid and I don't want to finish.  Or it's too hard or it's not working or a million other reasons.  This box of hexagons is one of those techniques.

They do look quite nice put together, but not one single one turned out the same size and the whole thing was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I guess I could unpick them and start over, but doing that would require more work than just finishing the jolly things, so that is what I will do.  Finish it and see how it looks then.

I've also added a couple of rows to my apple core quilt.  Needs a good press, it does.  I've got about four rows to go.

And my lovely Joseph's Coat will look a lot like this when finished.  I think I have my head around how it's done, the finishing I mean.  

I'm finding making my points difficult.  Some I ace:

Some, I don't. 

But whilst I'm trying my very best to do it beautifully, I'm also remembering the mantra 'Finished is better than perfect!'.

So that's what I've been up to the last couple of days.  Hope you've had a productive time of it.

All the best, 

Suzie

I'm back!

I seem to say that quite a bit.  I do try to blog daily, really I do but sometimes I do feel like the most boring woman on the face of the planet with absolutely nothing noteworthy to say.

But this week I have a good excuse - it's school holidays.  Fresh off the beach break, family visited for three days and I've barely had the computer on. 

So busy family time means no busy sewing time, much to my dismay.  I feel disconnected if I don't get to do some sewing at least every day.  And when I say sewing, I mean the whole spectrum of craft, plonked under the umbrella of 'sewing'.  Even if it's crochet.  Or knitting.  Or something.

(on an aside, at the local spotlight store I very nearly brought a 'do your own candle' kit.  Then I smacked myself around the head and got the hell out of there, because really - do I need to invest myself emotionally in another flipping craft?  I don't even like candles.)

I got a shipment from Judy Rothermal of www.schoolhousequilts.com (I'm sure I've mentioned my love of her stuff before) of her latest collection.  I've been wanting to use my Apple Core dye on the Go Cutter for ages now, so rather than put the fabric away for 'special', I thought Nope, bugger it.  I'll cut it up.  And this is what happened:

It's going together so well, the Go cutter works really well for this curved sort of project.

I do love this range.  I do love her fabrics, as much as I love Jo Morton.  As much as I love Nancy Halvorsen.  I'm an addict.  This is filled with lots of lovely bubblegum pinks and rich browns and it's yummy.

Also on my design wall is this:

The picture is a bit blurry.

 

I have wanted to do a pineapple quilt since I saw Bonnie over at www.Quiltville.com doing one.  I printed a few pages from my EQ programme and whilst the little people were playing so beautifully, came up with two blocks.  I think I can manage one a day in the 'downtime' we get but it's a pretty messy sort of job - I have strips of fabric EVERYWHERE!

 

And because I do actually like to talk to my husband for at least five minutes a day, I don't lock myself in my sewing room after he get home (which is always pretty late, he works long hours).  I prefer to do hand work in the television room with him.  This is the result:

 

 

How cute are they?  These are left over blocks from another quilt I made (it's always never ending) that didn't quite fit so I added a couple more and this is the start.  I've got about five more to applique so I'll stick them up on the wall when they are done.

So that's all I have to show you today.  I'm off to a flower show and market stall this morning with the little people so I may have some lovely photos to show you tomorrow, if I remember to bring the camera.

Have a good one!

Suzie

A quickie

Yeah, I know I've been missing in action but life has just spiralled into crazytown right at the moment.  I have about four minutes to do about two weeks worth of work and a tonne of commitments for our quilting group.  One of which is to participate in a pin cushion swap for Christmas. 

It has to be finished today (as in September) even though Christmas is actually still four months away.  None the less it is now finished apart from the stuffing and sewing shut which is saying a lot for me.  If it was due at Christmas, you can bet your bottom dollar I'd be stitching it shut at midnight on Christmas Eve.

You like?

I like.  It's about four inches and in my diving thirties prints.  It's supposed to have twelve arcs, but my maths/piecing skills are totally crap because I had to put a whole new wedge in it to make it fit.  So it's got thirteen.  But I like it.

I had my nails done yesterday (I don't have long nails as a rule) and now I have spectacular falsies.  They look soooo pretty but by gum, they sure make typing hard!

Till tomorrow

Suzie