WIP Wednesday - 2 finishes

This week I have finished off two quilts - the two I got pin basted at Patchwork last week. It was great to get them both finished off - wonderful for my stash reports and great to get them both done. They have both been in the almost finished stage for quite a while. That is Pink Pizzazz and Going Green. I have already posted Going Green off to my friend who has had surgery recently and Pink Pizzazz is up at our quilt rooms. They want to hang it there for a bit before we hand it on to a breast cancer charity to use as they wish

Obviously quilting them took up much of my sewing time at home but I have worked on a few other things

First of all the horse costume. No, this wasn't a costume for a horse but the costume of a horse. It was needed for a play my husband is in. They had one already at the theatre but the rough treatment it got during rehearsals meant that it was ripped to well not quite shreds but certainly enough to make it unusable. It was 16 or so years old and wasn't made from new fabric to start with. So... I remade it for the start of performances but I used fabric found at the theatre and it wasn't new. After the first night it ripped and I had to do some major repairs. Then after the 4th performance they once again managed to destroy it beyond use.

So with only 2 performances to go (they do 2 performances a weekend for 3 weekends) I have had to remake the body of it completely. The guys do have to be very rough on the costume - charge around the stage, going in different directions and then fall over spectacularly so they do have to be very rough with it. Hopefully this new fabric (whilst not brand new, newer than the other fabric) will last better. It has some stretch in it so won't rip as easily either.

Found Pippin on the horse costume this morning. With the red staining on the legs (from the actor who uses it's rouged cheeks) it looks like he has killed it and dragged it in and is proudly displaying it

Then there are the raggy hearts. We swapped our raggy hearts last week at Patchwork Group and I came home and immediately started putting my half hearts together and making the extra ones that someone had given us the fabric for. She hadn't had time to make any but donated the fabric for us to make some to go towards a quilt for charity. I made a few more using background fabric from our group stash so probably made 15 raggy hearts altogether.

I put my raggy hearts quilt together. I sashed all the hearts in purple and put in red corner stones. Since this is going to a friend undergoing treatment for breast cancer I used some pink quilt for a cure fabric in the border. I am really happy with how the top. Now I need to make the backing. I'd like to get this finished this week and off to my friend as soon as possible.

I had planned to piece a backing but I wanted to use really soft fabric and have a some minky that would be suitable. Its a fawny brown so not really in the colour family of the sashing and borders but will be fine. I think the feel of the quilt is more important in this case than the look. Its only just wide enough... I have about 1.5" on each side so am going to have to be careful.

After I put the borders on my quilt today at our patchwork group gathering I worked on some more hearts for the group quilt. We have a bit of a problem in that one of our elderly members made her hearts the wrong way around. The background fabric was 7 x 6.5 and you need to put the heart so that it is wider than it is long. She put hers so it was longer than wide. This means that when they are sewn together the blocks will be narrower than they are high instead of square... and they will be narrower than all the other blocks made with the correct fabric. We are working out whether we will trim all the blocks in the donation quilt down to the smaller size or if we alter the sashing... still trying to get our heads around what to do. We have 21 blocks that will be smaller... we could make 3 rows of 7 that are narrower or make 2 rows of 8 and put the leftovers on the back... or... yeah. Its a pain. But we will get there

Hexagons. I've been plugging away on my hexagons. I managed to get about 25 done so far this week. I might get back to some tonight whilst I watch tv... but then again I might work on something else

How has your week been? Have you be productive? Hope you have enjoyed your quilting and patchworking or other crafting.




  

Monday Musings - did I do the right thing?

Yesterday (or early this morning) I finished off Going Green. I added it to my spreadsheet and counted it in yesterday's stash report. It meant I got a lovely finish and good numbers on the spreadsheet. This morning I labelled it and posted it off to my friend

Today my order from Massdrop arrived. I really am going to ban myself from that website. Its wonderful treasure trove of lovely things at great prices. And they are getting more and more quilting supplies. The Aussie Dollar has dipped alarmingly of late and so the prices, once converted are no longer quite as attractive (we were under 60c against the green back last week) so that will probably help slow me down

This morning my latest fabric purchase arrived - a bundle of 8 half yard pieces from Camelot Design Studio - The fabric is scented and supposed to last through 30 washes or something like that. I don't mind really I loved the fabric. There's peach, lemon, pineapple, watermelon (that's what attracted me to the drop... looking for watermelon fabric for Sam's party) strawberry, apple, honey and one I can't make out. To be honest, whilst there is a lovely sweet fruity smell to the bundle, none of them are that distinct... except maybe the lemon. Probably because they have all been packaged up together sealed in plastic.

What do you think that pink with little marks on it is supposed to be? Edit Someone has suggested that the pink is icing with sprinkles. That makes sense

None the less they are gorgeous and I will add them to my spreadsheet and hope to get at least one more finish this week so as to not record a negative number for the week.

If you want to check out Massdrop go here (note if you use this link and order something I do get credit for it. If 5 people use this link I get a box of goodies)

Sunday Stash report

I thought that this was going to be another nil all draw. In fact I had started writing this a day early as I didn't think that I was going to get anything finished but then I decided if I put my mind to it I would be able to get Going Green quilted. Its been touch and go... in fact it is now early Monday morning and by rights I should put this finish in next weeks report but since I hadn't posted it... I am putting it in... and its still Sunday in most of the world 

So - I have a finish. Going Green is DONE Yay. I stippled it all over. Recently on a podcast I was listening to the "host" of the podcast referred to stippling as "Phoning it in". I was a bit offended by this remark but then I reasoned she was talking about herself and not judging other people. And I thought about it and realised that whilst I admire the heavily quilted designs that many quilters put on their quilts and the emphasis on the quilting that many modern quilters put on their quilts - its not for me. I don't like it on quilts that I make and I love stippling. I love the walzing of the fabric under the needle and I don't like doing the heavy lines of quilting that many quilters put on their work and I don't enjoy doing it. I find it boring. Since I got my super slider and my Machingers gloves I love it even more.

The first time I used the super slider and the gloves I was really enjoying the process but my machine was playing up and I got some awful tangles and ugliness on the back of the quilt. This time though everything worked beautifully 

So I have a finish to record. I haven't got photos as its late and I'm tired and I need to get this done so I can go to bed.

Going Green - it was a free pattern on Little Miss Shabby's website that I found it through Bonnie Hunter's facebook group. The finished size of the quilt was 200cm x 170cm for a total usage of 7.83m. I had no person in mind when I made the quilt but during its construction a friend of mine has had a gall bladder operation that had a series of complications resulting her being seriously ill. Her favourite colour is green and so I knew that the quilt should go to her. I am really pleased that I have finally got it completed and can now send it off to her (well I do have to label it)

And I have had no purchases this week at all. Go me.

Week 35

         Fabric Used                     7.83
            Fabric Added                   0

Year To Date
         Fabric Used                    122.19
         Fabric Added                    42.40        

Net Used/Added                       79.80m

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times

Fitness Friday - Progress continues

Can't say that the diet part of my fitness program has made any headway at all but I have been making much better efforts for the second week running with my steps.

I still haven't managed to make 70 000 steps for the week but there was only one day that I failed to make my 10 000 steps. Once again there were a few nights where I was jogging in the bathroom or in front of the tv to try to get myself over the line.

This week's stats
Friday 10 004
Saturday 4 277
Sunday 10 130
Monday 10 021
Tuesday 10 037
Wednesday  10 243
Thursday 12 336

I've slowly been creeping up my list of fitbit friends. I have almost made it into the top 10 a couple of times. If I achieved my 10 000 steps every day I would  be there. Hoping that I will do that this week. I have to make 10 000 steps today and tomorrow and I will have finally cracked it... first time in months and months. 

Fixit Guy and I have been really busy in the lead up to our Little Theatre's latest production. He's in the cast and I have been the prompt, stage hand, costume and prop person. Our opening night was last Friday and we have 6 performances, 2 each weekend - last weekend, this weekend and next weekend so after tonight we'll be half way through. This week has been much quieter than we had been in the lead up. We had rehearsals times a week for the last 2 weeks before we opened but this week they only did a read through on Wednesday and I didn't have to go since they didn't need prompting when they were just reading!!

Now that the weather is warming up we are hoping to get back to having morning walks as well as afternoons. Have been saying that for a few weeks now. Just have to get myself out of bed and actually doing it.

Above is the hollow tree we saw burning last week. 

Below is the same view after the fire, the trunk was completely burned out. I loved the reflections I captured. We have had a bit of rain since then and I am hoping that shortly I will take a photo that will show a lot more greenery over there. We desperately need follow up rain

WIP Wednesday - progress in all sorts of directions

Its been another bits and pieces week.

"Pink Pizzazz" (the quilt I am working on for our quilting group) was pinned today after our monthly meeting. No one rushed me for it and so I will quilt it myself. Its pretty small so won't take long. We decided that we would give it to our Neighbourhood Centre who run fundraising events for Breast Cancer research. We don't mind if it is used as a raffle prize or given to someone in need. They can choose.

"Going Green"  I also got pin basted today at the rooms assisted by 3 of the women there. I sure did appreciate their help. Pinning can take ages! I didn't stop to take a photo of the process. You will have to trust me on this

Hexies - have been beavering away making more of these. I now have 18 flowers made plus another little bag of basted hexies not sewn into flowers plus a heap more pinned. I found a website during the week that had a calculator on it for working out how many hexies you need for quilts.  Its here on CDDesigns.com You can select the dimension of the hexies and the dimensions of the quilt. Tells you how many half hexies you need too. Problem with it was that it told me if I want a queen bed quilt I am going to need 1523 hexies. ATM once I have put together all the hexies I have pinned, basted and sewn together that comes to about 300 hexies.... so I have a long way to go!! Last night a cut out a pile of hexie papers. I used a free pdf download from here on Love Patchwork and Quilting I have saved the PDF and only print out the page I wanted (1.5" sides) I printed out 10 pages. There are 8 hexies on each page I would use one page as the pattern and load up 5 pieces of scrap paper behind and cut them out together. I wish that there were more than just 8 hexies per page as it wastes a lot of paper but feel that they are more accurate than me tracking around my plastic hexie template. I have quite a pile of hexies cut out ready to pin to fabric.

Scrap Basket
This was probably my biggest achievement for the week. As per Pam, from Hip To Be a Square Podcast, I took before and after photos to document my progress. Here are my scraps both in and out of the basket

 It took me a day and a half to get it all done and one of those days was pretty solid going. It was good to get it all cut up and organised!  You can see how I organise myself in the photo below where my daughter's 2 cats who are visiting this week are Helpingering (that's another Pam phrase) I have my ironing board set up close to the cutting table (usually its over next to my sewing machine and set to a seated level so I can just swing around from my sewing machine to press the seams as required) I iron a pile of scraps and then cut them up to size. I have a number of shoe boxes, one for each of the sizes I cut to, set up along the back of the cutting table (resting on the back of the couch) I can watch tv whilst I cut although to be honest I listened to a number of podcasts and radio plays (lots on the bbc website if you are wanting to listen to good stuff) and also an audio book.

I cut my scraps into units from 1.5 - 5" (going up in .5" increments), 6.5"  squares and strips and 10" squares. I also make bricks in some sizes (rectangles where the length is 2 x width - .5" Good for making flying geese units)

See an empty basket. I put all the scraps back into it after I tipped them out for the earlier photo - 

In resorting some of my boxes of scraps and other bits and pieces as part of this scrap cutting I found some left over hexies from my QAYG hexie quilt I made 9 years ago. I had cut them out but not used them and was very pleased to to find that they were the right size... that's saved me some cutting (and is using up some scraps. Bonus)

What have you  been working on this week?

  

September Goals

September is already under way.... Spring is Sprung in Australia.

 Time for some new goals to see us through this month.

1) POD quilt. Make the last "weekly" block (no 30) Remake block 11 and work on some other extras to go around the bookshelf.

2) "Going Green" Finish this quilt - its pinned. Needs quilting and binding.

3) "Pink Pizzazz" Quilt and bind this club quilt

4) Hexagon Quilt Continue to work on hexagon quilt - make 100 hexies

5) Mend 2006 hexagon year quilt

6) UFO Finish or at least work on one UFO from sidebar list

7) Work on Christmas Project

8) Make extra Raggy Hearts.

The last two of these are pretty open ended so will give me lots of scope to work on some things that have been sitting there without having to be too specific. Gives me the opportunity to test the water and see what is going to excite me.

Have you set some Goals for September

End of the Month Goal Review - August,

Just read someone else's goal review and they gave themselves a C- for this month and I got a feeling I am going to do worse than that.

My big failure has been POD. I haven't worked on it AT ALL. I blame my hexagons that have kind of taken over my home sewing time. Anyway Lets go through all of them

1) POD Block. I wanted to complete block 30, remake block 11 and also make the broomstick, the sword of Griffindor, the flying key, photo frame and Dobby. I did nix - nothing - zip

2) Amy Gibson Blocks. I didn't specify a number in the original post but did on my sidebar (6) and that might have freed me up cause I went crazy on these and got HEAPS of them made. - I made 11 including one that I made twice. I only have the curved piecing blocks to go on this one. Its looking great.

3) Bag for my friend Sereana. I got this made. I don't think it is quite what she had wanted (she had asked me to make it) but it was so long between when she had asked and when I did it I had forgotten. Anyway she seemed fairly happy with it in the end. (It had some of my favourite fabric in it so hope she was)

4) Pink Pizzazz. I already had the top done at the beginning of the month although I was wondering about making it bigger. Well I didn't make it any bigger but I did piece a back for it and it is ready to be pinned and quilted. I had hoped to have it pinned by now but....

5) Going Green. At the beginning of the month I had the centre completed but was still thinking about what to do with the borders. I ended up making flying geese borders and also adding a mostly plain green border. I then got the back pieced which as usual seemed to take me a while. Now to pin baste it and get it quilted.

So that is it - overachieved on one goal, completed another, partially achieved 2 more (although I don't think I put  finish Going Green, just work on it so maybe that is actually achieved) and abjectly failed one. Hmmm not TOO bad. Not an overall failure... perhaps a C+ after all or even B-

How about you? Did you set yourself some goals? How did you go? Are you game to rate yourself... or then again maybe you shouldn't... its not a competition sport (at least not at home in your own sewing space. ) Are you satisfied with what you achieved this month?