More Brights

I think I am detecting a theme.

 

Many years ago, when I was in the shop, we had a kit for sale.  I left the shop eight years ago, the kit is older than that.  It’s been staring me in the face for many years, taking up so much space in my cupboard because I did something unusual for me – I cut the fabric I needed for the kit and put it away for my quiet times.  Hah.

 

Consequently I have masses of fabric taking up all sorts of space.  So I did something rash – I took it out of its plastic bag and I cut the kit out.

I am unsure why that photo is blurry.  It wasn’t blurry when I took it.  It was a panel, you needed to stitch around it and it was one of those quilt in a day things.  It’s taken me not much more time than that and I can tell you it’s nearly done!

Another blurry photo.  It’s coming along swimmingly.  I’m not sure how much more I will get done tonight but I am confident I can get it finished tomorrow – the top at least.  And you know the beauty of that?  I get to move a whole bag of fabric from the ‘ufo’ pile to the ‘stash fabric’ pile. 

 

It’s really just a case of me moving fabric from one side of the room to another but it feels like an achievement.  And I’m also doing something secret squirrel in brights so the more I have the better.

And so lovely readers, thank you again for popping in.  With luck I will have the finished top for you to see very soon.

Happy Quilting!

Little Monsters ... Again

About a year ago, I showed you this:

which was my Little Monster quilt, bound and finished and hanging on the wall.

I had a few left over because I just couldn't get the maths working correctly - none of my measurements would make them fit.

This guy was left over

As was this guy (or is she a girl? I don't know?).

And this one too.

The bad news is that they are still not going to be used up, because the maths that failed me way back then continues to fail me this time. I will however, use them on the back of my current quilt.

But this guy:

And this guy:

And this guy:

are all going to find a new home in my latest Monster Quilt, made solely to use up old blocks.  I've made more work for myself because to use up three spare monster blocs, I've made about ten more.

They are ever so slightly addictive and I find myself scouring the internet, looking for monster pictures I can use.

I don't know how many I need for a new quilt (why bother with insignificant details??) but I'm loving the little guys I've done already.

No pattern to share with you, just random images from wrapping paper, cards and the internet.    Hopefully I'll get a chance to iron some more on tonight after the rug rats go to bed, and I'll show you tomorrow.  I did spend ages artfully cropping all the background from these pictures but somehow from the Ipod to the Laptop, they changed back.  Too bad....better things to do than worry about that!

Hope you like them, till tomorrow

Suzie

Update on the fire, and a quilt block!

Update on the bushfire:

All good, Robin Hood.  It’s not out yet, it’s burning its little way through a sizeable chunk of forest, and I don’t want to think about the flora and fauna in its wake.  But it’s moved away from the houses and farms, and I am very grateful.  The change came through late last night and blew a gale, and I thought the world would end, but it blew itself out, blew the fire away from the houses and all is getting better.  Slowly but surely.

Thanks so much for taking an interest – it was pretty horrible yesterday, not knowing what was happening but I feel much calmer now.

So much so that I stitched.

We shan’t draw attention to the point that doesn’t match up, I’m fairly happy with this one.  It’s another six inch block that I posted about a few days ago.  If I make one a week, it’ll be finished in a year.  I’m pretty sure I can do more than that.

Hope your day is filled with quilting things!

Suzie

How hot is hot?

Whilst I appreciate how cold the US has been, please spare us a thought in sunny South Australia.

Today’s temperature was 45 C (113 F).  Yesterday’s temperature was 44 C (111 F) and tomorrow, if you can believe it, will be 48 C (118 F).

We are used to a few days over 40 here, but 48?  I absolutely refuse.  I will not accept that.

We are lucky enough to have a pool, which has had a flogging these last few days.  The garden’s barely hanging in there, and I keep my chooks alive by showers from the hose every few hours.  They seem to be coping fine, even if they are annoyed at the showers.

So, when I’ve not been in the pool with the children, I’ve been in my sewing room.

I found a couple of jelly rolls at the back of the cupboard that take up way too much room and so when I saw this pattern here: Easy Jelly Roll pattern I thought I would try and fashion something a little like it.

It’s a funny jelly roll really, I do like all the colours together but some of the darker ones really seem to stand out.  It was one leftover from the shop days, and we didn’t sell it when we closed, so it’s sat there for years waiting for a use.  Today was the day.

It’s so quick to run up – it only took me a few hours to stitch them all together, but then in my usual clever way (working too fast, not thinking too much) I stitched a sashing to both sides of most of the blocks, only remembering later that they are only supposed to have one on one side. 

Took me no time at all to stitch the four rows, but gee whiz, did it take me an age to place them in a half decent way.  I find taking a photo works really well here to see the glaring issues.

This isn’t the final layout – I can see the glaringly obvious blue issues, so I’ve rearranged it a lot more.

It’s missing a middle white sashing and cornerstones, but I could at least see where I’d duplicated the fabrics – oh look, like that blue floral.

I adore, fall in love with, would get married to that blue circle print.  I wish I had more than just a jelly roll strip.

And so, when the children are safely tucked away in bed, I shall have another go at piecing some rows. 

It’s too hot to do anything concentratringish at the moment.  Sewing strips together is something I think I can manage.

So that’s today’s update.  Where ever you are, please keep safe – whether it’s from the stinking, horrible heat or the crazy cold.

I'm linking this up with Freshly Pieced Modern Quilts here for their WIP Wednesday.  

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Log Cabin, The Reveal!

This one is totally, one hundred percent finished.  Stitched, quilted, bound – even has a label on the back! 

Yay me!

I’m so thrilled to pieces (haha) with this one – it turned out so lovely.  I hung it in our quilt show as a first reveal and sadly didn’t win viewer’s choice, but I did get some very nice comments.

Each block is four inches finished.

There are four hundred 4” blocks in the quilt.

There are 13 logs, including the centre ‘fire place’ in each block.  So that makes a grand total of 5200 little logs in the whole quilt (assuming my maths is correct).

So all in all, a good few weeks’ work.  I would have loved to hand quilt it but you and I both know it’ll never happen.  So the long arm quilter (mother) kindly quilted it for me and I am very happy with it.

Does it surprise you that I’ve already started on in my thirties prints?  No?  Didn’t think so.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Monsters Inc.

Here’s a few more of these little lovelies.  Thanks so much for your comments, I do appreciate them.

I don’t think this lot are quite so scary, really.

Luscious lips.

This one looks half asleep.

And she looks quite the princess.

I love this little one too.

So another five for you, the last five in the next post.

I hope you are enjoying your quilting time.  I’ve managed to catch a cold from the little people and my head feels like cotton wool, so I have been napping on the couch.  A rare luxury.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Little Monsters

Boo!

How are you?

These are a bit cute, aren’t they?

A few years ago I had a hankering to make some monsters from a bunch of brights I had in the cupboard.  I vliesofixed them all on in a fit of fury and then promptly stuck them in the UFO pile until I had some time (hah!).

I fused twenty blocks in all.  My very lovely mother, who had nothing to do (!!) has blanket stitched the whole lot for me.  Aren’t I lucky!

Now I get to work out the maths and make them into a quilt.  All are different sizes.  It should be an interesting challenge.

I’ll show you more tomorrow.  Not much sense clogging up your newsreaders!

Till then,

Suzie

I Built A Barn

So because I’m either a sucker for punishment, or because I have no will power at all, and despite declaring to the whole internet that I won’t start anything new, I started something new.

This is how I started.  Can you see what it is going to be?

A few seams stitched together.  Is it any clearer?

There we go.  A finished block.  But not quite finished just yet.

Tada!  I raised a barn.  Totally gave it away as a spoiler in the title line though.

I got the idea from Bee In My Bonnet’s Quilty Barn Along.  I’d seen a lovely school house quilt block with the six inch block inserted, but I couldn’t quite make it work – I mean I couldn’t find a schoolhouse block that I liked enough to do it myself.  When I saw this one, I thought I really should have a go at that.  And this is the end result.

The finished block is about fourteen inches (really should have measured it before sitting down at the computer) and the small one is six inches. 

It didn’t take too long, more than a morning’s work though.  I’m not sure how many I will make but I have a feeling they may be slightly addictive.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

The Class–An Update

So a few weeks ago I had the lovely pleasure of going to my first ever real quilting class PC (post children).  It was bliss.

I arrived nice and early and set up my work station.

There were lots of ladies there to take the class but I had enough room to spread my stuff out ALL over. 

Do you do that?  No matter how much space you are given, it’s never enough?

After I set up, I took a quick stroll to see the tutor’s samples.

This was by far the most stunning one.  It was at least six feet tall and I don’t know how she did it, to be honest.  But it was stunning.  Gothic almost.  It looks like a church window to me. It’s no surprise that this tutor is the wife of a pastor. 

The first thing we had to do was layer all our fabrics together on top of a thin layer of wadding, and lay our pre-traced freezer paper design onto the top of it.

From there, we had to pin it well, and then hit the machines!

It was as simple as sewing on the marked line.  It was a bit cramped at times but the freezer paper softened beautifully and it worked very well.

Turn it back to the right side.

This is the tutor’s sample.  Note the colours? I’d not seen it before this day.  I’d only seen a fairly grainy photo.

The real fun began after lunch.  We had to painstakingly trim away, with very sharp scissors, the bits that we didn’t want.  Harder than it looked.

This is Mum’s version.  She got along very quickly.  Smart alec.  Mine was nowhere near finished on the day.  Hers was.

I plodded along.  I got lots done, for a first time class.  But I spent too much talking.  If I had put my head done and bum up I would have probably finished on the day.

I did get enough done for a start though.  I was pretty pleased when I got home.  Exhausted, but pleased.  When I got home, after a few days (can’t rush these things) I finished it all up.  At least the cutting part.

And that is the end result of my class.  I somehow managed to pick the exact same colours as the course tutor.  I’m not sure how that happened.  But I think I did okay.

It’s a long way from being finished but it’s done this much for now.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie