Crafty things

Here's a wrap up of some recent crafty activity. I knitted another pair of socks! These fit much better - I made them a bit smaller and they hold up better after a day's wear. The first ones stretched a bit and ended up enormous. 

The wool is also a bit softer and nicer on the foot. I will make more....

And I finished a little medallion quilt but it was too windy to put it on the clothesline for photos so I just did the kitchen floor. 

I started with that floral print and worked from there. It ended up quite pretty but a bit darker than I thought it would; the print has a lot of navy.

I quilted it in baptist fans - old favourite - and called it "Hiding from the party".

And here is the sofa at the moment - full of quilts for the quilt show next weekend. I am storing them all before the show; most of the quilts are from people out of town so we have a few drop-off places and I've been collecting them or taking delivery before they all go to the hall on Wednesday. Possibly. If all goes according to plan. 

Battery warning

This quilt is called "battery warning" because something must have been going flat at the time. I'm not sure what, but it was probably a garden tool ... although it could have been the ride-on mower. We just got it back from the auto-electrician today and it needed something electrical done. Just in the nick of time too - the grass is looking very shaggy.

This was started at a Saturday quilters meeting - the Tuesdays we just drop in and sew whatever we are working on but Saturdays one of the group will run a lesson on something they do or have seen. So this was about making hexagons by folding circles, not over papers or using a running stitch. 

It was great fun but it requires a certain precision in folding and stitching, which I do not have! So I couldn't really put them together in any normal way so I just sewed them onto a background square and used them in the middle of a medallion quilt. 

This was glue basted again, which is still awesome! The quilting is just a squiggle because I don't love the colours enough to do anything time-consuming, but it turned out fine.

Another quilt finish

Here is another little quilt finish. Tiktok made me sew it ... or at least the creator that I saw using the $4 IKEA fleece throw as batting. Batting is expensive, so I bought three $4 throws and thought that if it works it will be a good alternative! It's quite thin polar fleece, so could be OK or could be dreadful .. and it was really good. The main problem is it's only 120 x 160 cm, so you're limited to a small quilt, although I suppose there's no reason you couldn't join them? Hmmm, might think about that one some more.

It quilted up nicely and will probably wash as well as anything else I do. I might give it a wash and experiment, although I don't pre-wash any of my fabrics either, despite what the internet says, so it's likely to ruffle up. 

The fabric is largely from the scrap bin with some yardage to pull it together. It's very bright and cheerful and I like it. It's called "Rules for drinking" because I was listening to Annie Lou's song "Grandma's rules for drinking" while I did the binding, and I couldn't fit the word "grandma" on as well. Great song, ordinary quilt name.

The Crisp Crack

I finally finished this solids quilt that I started last July - it got overtaken by weaving then sat in the queue while I got distracted with new things and has now been finally bordered, quilted, bound, photographed (and carefully folded up and put in the cupboard with 400 of its brothers and sisters). This was inspired by Bonnie Hunter's unity quilt along - I didn't follow the quilt along or do the really complex piecing of her beautiful quilt - but I just liked the vibe. Limited colours, stars, triangles... what's not to love.

It is called "The Crisp Crack" because I was watching the latest season of the Great British Bake Off. I can't even remember what had to have it, some kind of biscuit? I have gone and googled it now, which took half an hour because I got distracted into episode by episode reviews and twitter reactions, god people are funny, and I think the florentines required a crisp crack.

It is quilted with an all-over swirl meander because I Couldn't Be Bothered with anything else and I'm still using the $10 IKEA doona covers for the backings...

Chained and pacified

I had a UB40 earworm when sewing the binding on this quilt so it's called Chained and Pacified - largely because I googled the lyrics to King for the first time, and suddenly it all made so much sense to me! But it also made it stick in my head much more, which is bad. The quilt itself is another medallion quilt, in slightly unexpected colours for me. I took these photos a couple of weeks ago when there was still smoke but haven't had a chance to post them yet, what with the conference and all.



The centre fabric is about a half-metre that I picked up at the de-stash sale in the middle of the year for $2. It is very cute, with owls, so I built the quilt around it. The colours are not my normal bright clear colours at all - bluey-pink, grey, beige and purple - but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Classier than the normal yellow!



It's allover quilted in a swirly thing, and there's a few dyed fabrics in there too, where I had exactly the right purply-pink shade. The colours aren't quite right in the photo because of the weird orange light. You can see in the photo below that although the quilt is clear, the trees over the road are hazy, and you couldn't see the hills behind at all. It was horrible, but clearer now, and we even had some rain ... accompanied by a horrific hail storm, which is a story of its own for another day....

Apple Bottom Jeans

Another medallion! There is something very enjoyable and soothing about picking out eight - twelve different fabrics that look good together, putting them in a pile and then going around and around with borders until you're done. This time I decided not to do any triangles; just squares and rectangles. Which I think has made it quite boring, although that could be the slightly subdued colour palette.



It's a bit smaller than the last one because I wasn't finding it very interesting, so stopped. It's quilted in a rectangular meander - I haven't done it before but might use it again. Good coverage and a reasonable amount of visual interest but not difficult to do.



The name is yet another ear worm that I couldn't get rid of! Such a catchy song, and vaguely relevant because of the apple-green .... maybe? They are not apples in the middle square, they are tomatoes. Green tomatoes.

I had a lot of trouble trying to focus a photo on this quilt. I think my phone is getting a bit old ... but I refuse to upgrade dammit, new phones are way too expensive. Here is a blurry distance shot.

A Domestic Conversation

This is what the pink and yellow medallion I was working on turned into. I like it a lot - it is cheerful and pretty and was fun to make. I thought when I started it it would turn into more of a purple quilt, picking up the purple and pink in the middle, but it ended up quite yellow. Which my quilts are prone to do.

We've been having some serious spring winds lately! There's only one photo of the whole quilt because every other one I took was like the photo below. Great weather for drying the washing, but not for quilt photography. You can see the drifts of blossoms blown up against the stairs.

I quilted it in a random swirl type thing.  You can't really tell from the front so I wasn't going to put too much effort in. And it is called "A Domestic Conversation" - I meant domestic as opposed to international, rather than domestic as opposed to outside the home ... but it doesn't really mean anything so I don't think it matters.

Quilting again

I picked my broken sewing machine up on the weekend - all fixed and good as new. At least as far as I can tell ... it is certainly a lovely machine. My new bargain one had been doing very well, but the Janome is such a powerhouse. Super fast and a lovely straight stitch. I finished up the trip around the world top, but I wasn't feeling very scrappy for the next project, so I thought I would start a medallion. In bright happy colours (I don't know why, I wasn't feeling very bright and happy, but maybe that's the point?). The central squares are printed on the fabric, not pieced by me, it's very straightforward.

So that's the top so far. I probably won't add much more to it, just leave it single bed sized. The weather here hasn't improved much - I went for a run at lunchtime and the apparent temperature was 1.5! Actual temperature was 5, but there was a nasty wind chill even with the fog. Horrible, but luckily for me I have a thick layer of subcutaneous fat and it warmed up in the first two minutes. Short sleeves and short leggings (that is, knee length, I'm not talking short shorts here, that would be revolting) and I was just fine. Yay for blubber.

And I had to catch the bus home because number one son dropped me off at work and took his newly-minted P plates to school. ON MY CAR. I am trying not to be nervous about this, because it means I don't have to pick him up from uni tonight and can stay by the fire ... but still, so much to be nervous about .... MY BABY AND MY CAR.

The come-back quilt

I have finished my return-to-quilting quilt - it was lots of fun, and nice and bright and loud - and all on that same wonky half-log-cabin theme. It is called (unsurprisingly) "I'm Back Bitches". I didn't mean to, honestly, it just came out.



I quilted it in the same spiral idea as the piecing, in a bright blue thread. It's a bolder look than I normally go for, and not particularly even. But that was the point of this quilt, to whack something together than made me smile and enjoy the feeling of quilting again.

I don't know how much sewing I'll get done this weekend - I've brought my loom home to try and catch up. I've had to work late the past two Wednesdays and I haven't finished threading my individual project yet ... miles behind. I'll finish the threading and sley the reed this weekend ready to start (finally) weaving next Wednesday. The threading is a bit more complex than anything I'll try on my own! I'm not sure what my first solo project will be when the course is finished and my loom comes home permanently; but there's another couple of months to worry about it. In the meantime I am going to do more bodgy quilting.

 

 

Memory quilt

I am in a better frame of mind today, which is probably just as well for me and everyone around me.  So no more whining, despite the fact that today is the last day of my six weeks leave!!! NOOOOOOO how did that go so quickly? I am a bit worried about going back to work next week, and how I will adjust. I got very used to doing whatever I wanted, and having lots of nice time to myself.

I am also a bit worried that I have picked up the kids' cold - my nose is runny and my throat is a bit sore. I was meant to do the full 10km run today but I piked out and just did the usual 5km around the lake. It was a beautiful sparkling day, so no hardship, but it did feel like the whole way was uphill, which may mean the start of a cold. Or it might just be me.



I think I mentioned I was making a memory quilt for a friend from her mother's dresses. I have finally finished it and she picked it up today. After some hesitation I went with a simple medallion and not very complex piecing. Old clothes are lovely and soft, but have a lot of give in them and I find it hard to use very small pieces. There was one knit dress, and one lace, so I backed and stabilised them with fusible, but it does get quite bulky even with the lightest weight stabiliser. And I quilted it a bit more heavily than I normally would to make sure that everything stays in its proper place! But my friend liked it, which is the main thing, and she will use it, and think of her mother, and her cats will love it too, because they are cats ...

Too pretty for you

I don't think I have shown this quilt at any of its stages - but here it is now, completed. I was trying to stuff scraps into my scrap bin a few weeks ago, and it was completely full, so I thought I would make more crumb blocks ... and then I looked in the drawer where I keep my crumb blocks and there were hundreds of the damn things ... so I made a quilt using them.



Quite random, and not as good as I thought it would be. I used narrow strips to frame the plain borders, but it doesn't look very good. I should have used the strips to frame the crumb borders, it just doesn't work in the way that I had hoped.



The quilting is also random because I wanted to try out different things on different parts of it, as practice. You certainly can't tell much from the front. As I was quilting away I said to the quilt "You're not very pretty, are you" to which it quite rightly replied "Too pretty for you" and so that it what I called it.



Another advantage of my new job is that it is within walking distance from home - about 4 km or 55 minutes. I can't do it every day, but one day a week when I don't pick the boys up I can walk home, leaving the car at work, and then the next morning I get up a bit earlier and walk back in. It makes a nice change and is about the right distance for a walk. I got a cheerful wave from the Transact guys this week - I thought "they seem very jolly" and turned the corner to find their tipped over ute. Someone misjudged the angle on that dirt bank....

Five foot high and bouncy

I finished quilting my next one - the medallion with a dresden plate edged in ricrac that I started a while ago. Plain borders, with one half square triangle border and one tumbler border. And then I stopped - I am still a bit put off by big quilts since my giant "If" adventure, and I thought this one was the right sort of size to be a cheerful sofa quilt, or for the kids.

Despite taking forever to do the backtracking quilting on "Sheep Stations", I ended up using another reasonably ornate design, largely of my own invention. You can't really see it clearly because of the piecing, except on the back (dust ruffle!). It's a swirl with pebbles in it and then kind of echo in-fill. Kind of.

This quilt is called "Five foot high and bouncy". It's slightly more than five feet square, and not particularly bouncy, but it seemed like an apt name for a cheerful wee quilt.

A few more rounds

Rounds on the medallion that is, not rounds at the bar. Which would be awesome, to be in a bar, with friends, having beers! A few people at work are doing dry July, and good for them, but I'm not doing it. I did have a booze-free February and March because I spent all December and January eating and drinking, but that was to stop me being such a bloated booze-hound, and not for charity. Anyway here is the medallion in progress - half square triangles, plain borders, and some pink and yellow and orange tumblers.



I think perhaps another plain border and then stop, I have had enough of big quilts for the moment. I picked my sewing machine up today from its annual service and I asked the lady in the shop what they recommend to prevent thread shredding and she suggested some without hesitation - says it makes a big difference and it's a brand I haven't tried before, so I will give it a go. Fingers crossed!

I have had a lovely Wednesday - a run, some errands and some chores which were all boring - but then some unnecessary clothes shopping in the sales where I found all sorts of pretty things to buy. It is my last Wednesday of leisure because I am going back to full-time - how will I cope? I haven't worked full time since 2007, and I'm not sure it's such a good idea...

Some actual sewing

Our child-free week is sadly coming to a close - after the Blue Mountains we came back and worked for a few days. My husband managed to go to a cocktail event ("it wasn't a party! There was powerpoint!") but I spent most of my non-working hours sitting quietly, and doing some sewing. Which is a treat, don't get me wrong. Although we went out for lunch today as a last hurrah.



My sewing is the start of another medallion quilt as I've been in the mood for something bright and unstructured. So this is the central dresden plate - or possibly wheel thing - bordered in ricrac. This is something I saw in the Little Quilts book that my Dad gave me for Christmas - it is a great book with lots of lovely ideas, even though I don't make small quilts as such. But I've been meaning to try this one since I first read the book.



You make a big circle from dresden wedges then finish it with ricrac by sewing down the middle of the ricrac along the edge of the fabric on the right side, then just turn it over and topstitch down. It is quite simple and makes a very pretty finish. I'm not sure what the next border will be but that's the fun of medallion quilts.

A gift

I made this quick quilt as a gift - for someone who likes purple!!! Aaaargh!!! It is probably the one colour I really struggle with; I don't mind burgundy or maroon and I can probably be enticed into a lavender if I'm doing something dainty ... but real purple leaves me cold. And I never buy it either, so I really had to do some deep digging through the piles to get together everything that was even remotely purple.



Not a great photo - I took it quickly inside - but you get the idea. The central floral fabric is lovely, and the recipient likes it, which is all that matters! I thought it was more of a sofa quilt but she reckons it's big enough for her bed.

Much more me

After the pointless quilt I made another one. I made it quickly, and technically quite poorly, and I put together whatever I felt like and stopped when I thought it was done.



And of course I like it heaps better. It is much more me, in colour and design and eye-ball burning luridness. Colours that don't really go so well, and lots of scrap blocks. And pink chevrons! Yellow lemons! Yay! Making this quilt made me happy. I quilted it all over in a random kind of design thing. Movement and curves, not lines.

And it also passed the not-very-rigorous boy and cat test.



In case you're wondering why this photo seems a bit close up, we are currently living in very close quarters crammed into our family room - off the kitchen - while we re-do the floors in the living and dining rooms. We had to move all the furniture out because they need to do a new thin concrete layer on the slab; so we stuffed ourselves into the wee family room ... apart from the sofa, which wouldn't fit. So we put it outside with the TV table and the rabbits. What could possibly go wrong?



Here we are having some quality evening family time. It's actually quite cosy, but almost impossible to keep clean and we keep losing things as they get piled on top of other things. More space is much easier to live in.

A day off

I took the day off today to make up for the last two Saturdays spent in planes - and it was a cracker of a day. Much like the rest of the week it's been typical Canberra winter weather; minus 3 or 4 in the morning then sunny and clear and still. It was so lovely I decided to go for a walk rather than a swim, and do round the lake rather than my usual walk from home. It was absolutely sparkling, even our small artificial lake looked like a proper body of water. That's the National Library on the right, and the High Court to the left.



It was a very nice start to the day. Then I took my sewing machine in to be serviced which is always a bit traumatic (how can I live for a week without it?) but then took the opportunity to tidy up the sewing room and even poke a vacuum into some very dark and dusty corners. It sounds boring but with the sun bucketing in and music on it was a pleasant way to spend a couple of quiet hours. Number one son has been home all week with a really vicious cold, but he was recovered enough to be packed off to school today. He survived fine, and I enjoyed the peace and quiet at home...



I also finished the binding on the big traditional quilt (now called Fluffy Lop-Eared Bunnies for obvious reasons). I quilted each border differently and some worked better than others, but overall I am really pleased with it.

I did feathers round the central dresden plate and all that practice on the Mauri quilt paid off! Much more even and I managed to go around a couple of corners. This quilt is for friends (who don't read this blog. Not many people do) so I will give it to them hopefully over the next couple of weeks.