Is it done yet?

I’ve been UFO’ing again, and I’ve been working on this quilt:

I had made the blocks months ago (conservatively, it was probably closer to years) and had put it away, as I do with so many of my projects, because I didn’t have the right fabric to finish the sashings and borders.  But some time ago I brought the fabric online, and over the weekend I was able to finish.

 

 

But I don’t know if I’ve finished.  The original design had borders.  But the more I look at it the more I think it’ll do.  Apart from the fact that it’s already a big quilt, the borders will make it immense and if I do actually finish this quilt all the way to the quilting, it’ll need to be a certain size to hang on the wall.  It’s definitely a wall quilt for me, I’ve never been a lover of one direction quilts on beds.  The fabric I have for the border is the same one I’ve used for the cornerstones of the sashings.  I planned to put a small cream border next, then a wider red one as the final border. 

But I don’t know.  I’m hemming and hawwing a lot about this top.

So what do you think?  Am I being lazy by not adding a final border?  I’m thinking if I leave it as is, I’ll bind it with a stronger colour –perhaps even the green I used in the sashings. 

I’ve got it hanging on the design wall right now and each time I pass by I give it more thought.  Maybe a few more days hanging might firm up what I think.

Apart from quilting, it’s been a busy, hectic time here, but that is nothing new.  I have houseworked my butt off today, and I feel very virtuous.  So some soup for lunch will do me, and then I will have a few hours in the sewing room guilt free before I have to do the child from school, child to ballet run.

Busy Busy Busy.  But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Happy Quilting!

A Finish

Hello lovely readers.

It is me, she with the cotton wool head. 

My cold is still there, hanging on for dear life despite the drugs I am throwing at it.  But it’s fine – it’s slowly, gradually leaving the building, as they say.

I managed to sew yesterday while the house was quiet and I have another flimsy to show you.

The close ups give a much better idea of the colour – I’m still struggling with photography – my aim is to replicate as much as possible the original colour of the quilts I make.  Some days are better than others.

It’s a BIG quilt, and it’s stretchy as all get go.  After deciding I didn’t need to press it, I really did and spent much time unpicking and pressing and trimming back to get it all to go together.  I do like it, but I think if I made another one I would pay more attention the the colour placement, and try and highlight the centre squares.  And perhaps I would limit the amount of fabrics in it. 

But I doubt I’ll do another one.

Still it was a good exercise in quilting, and I must admit that as far as quilts go it was a quickie.  So it’s all good.

Now I’m going to take my cotton wool head and have some hot soup and maybe curl in front of the tellie with a movie and some knitting – it’s about all I feel up to right now.

Hope you have a lovely day!

Suzie

Update on the sick old me

So my first daughter has had a really nasty cold, which she has given to me.  I’m sick of being sick, you guys.  I know it’s the time of year but seriously – twice in two months is doing me in!

But no whinging from me today (apart from that small one).  I have managed to fit some sewing in and have got motoring along with these blocks:

I made a whole lot of them, and then realised that despite saying I didn’t need to press them last post, I really did.  And that made them all a little distorted, try as I might, so I had to then trim them all down.  But it was worth the effort (it always is worth the effort) and I am much happier with them.

I’ve made all my blocks up but just pinned a few onto the board for pinup purposes.  It’s a much darker quilt than I originally thought it would be.  But it’s going to be quilted and popped on my spare bed, so this one will definitely be used and abused.  So dark is probably better than light!

I also had a go at Quiltville’s spools designed for leaders and enders.  I’m no good at that, I think I’ve told you that before.  I end up just sewing the whole quilt in one go rather than using them for their original purpose.  But they have intrigued me and so I had a go.

Hideously horrible photo that one.  I’ll take a better one on the proper camera.

Do you find your ipad takes horrendous photos or is it just me?

Anyway, we have a long weekend and visitors this week so I may not be back for a while (what’s new??) but I hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Suzie

An update...

Busy busy busy...story of my life.  How are things with you?

I have had a chance to do a quick bit of sewing.  We host a small class here on Tuesday nights, just four ladies who come share some sewing time away from their families.  They are always looking for something new to try and when I saw a tutorial for a Missouri Star Quilt pop up on my facebook, I thought it might be something they might like to try.

I've hopefully embedded the tutorial here:

It's much like another block in a quilt I made years ago, whose name I can't remember.  

So you remember that box of pretty pastels and greens?  The one that never diminishes no matter how much I use it?  I used a bit more, and no - the box is no lighter.

I am pretty pleased with the outlook of this quilt.  None of it is pressed yet, it's all on the bias and I'm just trying to stop the stretching for now, so it's only pinned.  But I do think it's pretty.

I cut way too many strips.  Way too many.   

So there you are - another quilt begun.  Because I need more quilt tops.

Hope your week has been a good one!

Suzie

What did we do before fusible webbing?

Back before I knew anything about quilting, I decided that I would make a design on one of the Disney characters I had always loved.  I was very young, probably about nineteen or twenty.

I didn’t know about fusible webbing like steam a seam or vliesofix.  I didn’t now about much really.  But I figured ‘this can’t be too hard’.

And it was SUPER hard.  I can’t believe I finished it.  I appliqued it all with pins and a good bit of cursing onto calico, with no sticking products at all, then I stitched it on with machine applique (which again, I had no idea how to do) but I think perhaps I was young and naive, and didn’t know how much easier it would have been with the right product.  And it just worked out.

It sat for so long as a cut out finished tiger, with no background.  I didn’t have a clue how to finish it off, but then the water colour quilt came into vogue and I thought ‘hmmm, that might do’.  So about fifteen years after I finished the tiger portion I finished the background section and now he is done. 

Well, he’s a flimsy.  But that’s done enough.

What do you think? Yes, I’m well aware I broke about 397 copyright rules, but I figure I’m not selling it for money – I can’t see how Disney would have any sort of issues.  But don’t tell them, just in case.

Hope your day is a good one!

I'm back, and some lozenges to share...

I really do apologise for the quality of these pictures.

I'm not sure just how to take non-shaky pictures with my Ipod.  So much to learn there.

So I've dropped off the planet again.  Sorry about that.  I have the head cold from hell (still) and it's not showing any sign of leaving my body.  The reason I have the head cold from hell is that I told someone the other day 'we've not been sick for ages.....' and you know what the universe thinks about a bragger, don't you?!

I've been sewing when I can, and I decided to try Bonnie Hunter's leader and ender challenge - the lozenge.

It's an interesting block really.  It has lots of stretch in it due to the bias, which worked for me.  I could make most of my points match quite easily.  The colours are not too much to my liking, but I have this bag of fabric left over from the shop days and I'm determined to use them up, hence this new quilt.

Of course while we say we are going to use all our fabrics in these scrap quilts, the actual amount of fabric used was really very small.  I suspect there will be a few more scrap quilts made from this bag of fabric before it all gets used up.

In other news - the children go back to school tomorrow (yay....). I've loved having them home this time, they are good kids and play so well together.  But it'll be nice to have some quiet time and maybe even a chance to have some naps.  Maybe then I can kick this cold to the curb.

So hopefully all is well in your neck of the woods, and hopefully I shall be a better blogger in the next few months.

Happy Quilting!

Show And Tell

Hi there.

It is school holidays.  I’ve packed off my children for three nights with their grandmother.  The house is quiet and still.  I’ve all the time in the world to quilt.

And I have a head cold.

Yay.

I thought I’d give you some show and tell today.  This quilt is a really old one that has been languishing in the cupboard for years, just waiting for ‘something’ to finish it off.

It’s a disappearing nine patch, and it was finished to the red outer border.  But it wasn’t ‘finished’.  On my last visit to a fabric shop I brought some black and whites and in half an hour had stitched an outer border.  I think all it needs now is that red as a binding and it’s done. 

It was a shop sample (so many shop samples) and we sold metre after metre of black and whites once people had realised what they could do with them.  I must admit that black and white prints can look very daunting, but this worked a treat.  Don’t you think?

I hope you’ve had a good day sewing, or quilting, or knitting, or whatevering!

Suzie

Sewing? What is that? Who does that? Who has time?

I wish the rollercoaster would slow down!

I keep saying to myself ‘when I have a clear week I shall do this!’ or ‘when things slow down I shall do that!’ and of course, it never happens.  I think I need to resign myself to the fact that I am now living a busy, busy life and it’s messy and unorganised and I’m messy and unorganised and no amount of trying harder will change it!

So I’m trying to get into a ‘go with the flow’ mentality.  I’ll let you know how I go with that. Wish me luck.

I had a really lovely Easter.  We didn’t go away (it’s a thing here in Australia that you go camping over Easter).  We live in a really pretty camping region, so half of the country seems to set up camp here.  I don’t love camping too close to neighbours, so we tend to do the ‘staycation’ or the ‘glamping from home’ thing here.

But we did get out on the river.  My husband has recently purchased himself a new boat – what we call a dinghy, or a ‘tinny’ if you’re a bloke.  It’s nothing flash – there are some very flash speedboats around here but we’ve just gone low key.  It’s fast though, and we took the girls out for a ride on Sunday. 

It was an amazingly glorious day weather-wise.  We had sunblock all over.  The very next day it was 13 degrees and raining.  Weather in Australia is mental.

We have a resident paddlesteamer.  The paddlesteamers were the only means of transport back before roads and cars, and this one has been restored and now goes out on joyrides on weekends.  On this day it was listing badly to one side as all the tourists were on the other side taking photos of the riverbank.

Our river is big and wide, and I adore it.  I never want to live anywhere else.  I saw a thousand black swans, white swans, pelicans – all sorts of birdlife but the navigator (my husband) kept saying ‘We’ll go back for photos in a minute’ and of course, we never did. 

Throughout the river, there are many creeks.  The creeks are where you go for the fish and the yabbies.  They are full of what we locals call snags (the branches and older trees that have died and fallen underwater) and the fish love to live in their little nooks and crannies.  Of course it makes life interesting, boating through there.  And the local boys go as fast as they can through it.  As young boys will do.

Such amazing trees.  These are river red gums, and this one is a baby.

I tried to be techy (and can I just put it out there that it has taken me ALL morning!) and I have uploaded my video of our jaunt through the creek system.  Please watch and enjoy.

And then, you can watch how the silly young men do it. They are so clever.  I'd be scared silly.  

Hopefully I will be able to sew today.  So hopefully some quilty photos to show you.

Suzie