Happy New Year

Happy New Year - yes a bit late but well... its still January at any rate. I haven't blogged much since April last year. All sorts of reasons for that mostly I have been incredibly busy.

With the new year I am hoping that I can get myself motivated and back into it.

I have been on Instagram a fair bit (going over to the dark side?) My handle there is @Handmadewithloveorh so if you Instagram why not check me out and start following me.

In September last year Handmade With Love had a stall at Brisbane Comic Con. It was lots of work and lots of fun too. I shared the table with Earthyyu, my son's partner (formerly known on this blog as Gamer Girl). I was selling zipper pouches and bags made from a range of licensed geeky fabrics. Check out her Instagram account here and her online shop at Store Envy

Earthyyu sold prints, stickers and charms which she had designed and produced. We worked hard and enjoyed the amazing spectacle that is Cosplay. 

We did it all again in November at Brisbane Supanova. We've signed up for Gold Coast Supanova in April, (super excited cause Peter Capaldi the 12th Doctor from Doctor Who is going to be there.) We have also applied for Brisbane Comic Con in September. Currently sewing madly to get my stock up - especially lots of Doctor Who fabrics.

Loved meeting this friendly dalek at Brisbane. He was pretty cheeky though.

I have also, with the help of my daughter, Fangirl (from Fangirl Stitches) set up an Etsy shop for Handmade With Love. So far it has only got the stuff that I have sewn in it - the things I make to sell at Comic Con and Supanova but I am planning to also put some of the other "non geeky" products we have sewn....when I get some time. The shop is https://www.etsy.com/shop/handmadewithloveorh. I'd love you to check it out... maybe favourite a few items... or buy something! All profits go to support Our Rainbow House

WIP Wednesday

This week I worked on paper piecing and completed the first 2 blocks in Fandom Stitches POD 30 week challenge. I also completed a paper pieced TARDIS from a pattern on their website. I have downloaded a heap of others which I may or may not get around to doing sometime soon.

I completed the 3 little zipper pouches using the MSQ tutorial and really enjoyed making them... so much so that I have ordered 20 pretty zips from eBay and keenly waiting their arrival in a couple of weeks. (ordered from Hong Kong so have to wait for them to be shipped here) After I had posted on this blog about running out of zippers a local friend, Lindy,  told me that she had a box of zips that she had been carrying around for 20 years or so and she was happy for me to help myself to a few. She bought them to Patchwork today and I gladly took 6. 1 which I used straight away and 5 to make into pouches.

Fangirl (my daughter) asked me to make a cushion out of a cross stitch that she made in 2005. I sashed it in 3 borders and then made the back and (get this) inserted a zip. I made it today at Patchwork using one of the zips Lindy gave me. I don't have a photo of the finished cushion. I wish I had fussy cut the 3rd border but by the time realised I should have done that the top was already together and I wasn't remaking it.

I am waiting on a bolt of batting to arrive in order to be able to complete some more projects. Ive made the backing for the Tardis Tree and also for the Orphan Block Quilt. I thought I would piece a backing for it but in the end I had a piece big enough and so used it. I have decided to call it Annie's Quilt... you know Little Orphan Annie.... also our dog who died early last year was called Annie so I like the name.

       

I have been working on Vanishing Hours. I got all the borders on and so now the top is finished. YAY

I've started on the backing, using up extra blocks that didn't make it onto the front - including one vanishing pinwheel that I made by mistake instead of the vanishing hourglass. Also some extra hourglass blocks and some left over piano key border. Its got a way to go but hopefully I will get it done by the end of the week so I can post it off to my friend Kym to get quilted.

 So its been a very busy and successful week. How have you gone this week.

   

Tuesday Museday - my word for 2015

Sandy at "Quilting For the Rest of Us" is once again running a Quilty Resolutions Challenge and this year she has challenged her listeners to complete this sentence The one thing I have always wanted to do (textile/fiber-wise) that I resolve to do in 2015 is... 

I thought about this for a while and realised that paper piecing has always been something I have skirted around the edges of. I have done a very little bit in a couple of projects (Kombi Boys quilt had a little paper piecing in it. See it here. The windows were paper pieced). Its something I have always wanted to have a real go at but  never have. So Foundation Paper Piecing is my goal for this year.

A few things have confirmed that this will be my resolution for 2015.

I bought a paper piecing class on Craftsy. Its a Jenny Doak class called Mastering Foundation Piecing and I have even listened to the first couple of lessons. I don't thave the equipment that she uses but am getting very tempted by the quarter inch ruler thingy. That would be very useful. I also do use copier paper for my paper piecing and she doesn't recommend this but its handy and cheap and its what is loaded in my printer. 

Also Pam from Hip to Be a Square has joined in a 30 week challenge listed on the Fandom in Stitches website. Its a Harry Potter book shelf quilt with a pattern issued every week for 30 weeks. Its all paper pieced. I had a look and have joined in the Project of Doom (POD) challenge and have completed the first two blocks in the bookshelf.

Actually they are not complete. I want to put some titles on the books so a bit of embroidery left to do.

There are lots of geeky patterns on this website covering a range of interests and subjects. There are lots of Doctor Who patterns. I had explored this website on other occasions and had downloaded a heap of patterns, some paper pieced and some embroidery. 

I decided to have a go at one of the patterns from the Doctor Who file - the TARDIS. I really loved how it turned out.

 Couldn't believe that I managed all these tiny pieces. Its not perfect but I love it and I get a thrill out of looking at it (and the mistakes don't annoy me too much) I am not sure what I will do with it. There are a heap more Doctor Who blocks so perhaps I will make a heap more and make another quilt... or just a few more and make a wall hanging.

Alongside the Quilty Resolution Sandy invited us to choose a word for the year to guide us in our resolution. I chose the word Do. Originally I was going to choose Try and then (in true geeky household style) I remembered the quote from Yoda in Star Wars. "Do or Do not. There is no Try" Hence my word for this year is DO. 

I am pretty pleased with the start that I have made. What about you? Have you made a craft related resolution this year?

Final WIP Wednesday for 2014

New Years Eve is upon us and it's time for one more WIP Wednesday report

This week I have been working on a new project. It's been one I have been contemplating it for a year or 2. Fangirl made her dad a set of Doctor Who figures a for Christmas 2 years ago. They were designed to hang on a tree. I decided to use them on a log cabin tree that I had just completed. I also completed an advent hanger with little pockets for you to put little gifts in. I decided to use it to it the decorations for the tree in and the Doctor Who figures fitted pretty a a perfectly. trouble was that there weren't enough figures so Fangirl made some more over the next year and gave them to me when I visited her in the UK (where she lived for 2012-2013) she gave them to me. I wrote a blog post about the tree, the decorations and the advent pocket here

The wall hanging I made was in creams and green and was based upon a quilt that my friend Dawn had made.

 I had to draft the pattern myself and it took a bit of doing working out how many pieces of each size I needed. I was pleased with how it turned out but to be honest... It didn't really suit s Doctor Who themed decorations. So I went searching around for the calculations that I had made but I couldn't find them. Just thinking about redesigning it made my head ache

Then on a Facebook page I am s member of someone posted a picture of a tree wall hanging made from small square.


 I decided that I would make it the same size as the log cabin tree. I calculated that I was going to need just under 1600 1.5" pieces. The tree would be in blues and the background whites with a black stem. I wasn't going to go with the star or the presents... or the sleigh.

Firstly I sorted through my scrap bins for all my 1.5" squares in blues and whites. I also got out all my 1.5" strips in those colours. I pulled out 3", 4.5" and 6" strips. I sewed strips together sliced them across and built up strips. I also made a heap of half square triangles in blue and white.

I built the tree in groups of 6 strips 38 squares wide. Each strip had white and blue squares with the blue In the centre Starting with 2 half square triangles to be the peak I increased the row by 2 blues in each row. The 7th row i decreased the blues by 4 and then built it out again for 6 rows. I made a total of 5 sets this way. The last row the blue stretched right across the 38 squares

The trunk of the tree was made from black squares. 4 squares wide. I made it 10 rows. Looking at it I might have made the trunk a bit long but it's pretty good

Its not quite finished. I will put a border on it. I will probably do a tonal white 1' finished border on it first and then dark blue 2' border and will bind it in the same colour.

Apart from the Tardis Tree as I have called it, I have also done a bit of embroidery. We drove into the city to have a look at couches, shoes, clothes for a wedding we are off to. Its a 3 hour trip in and out and I did a bit stitching whilst going in and out (in between snoozing) and before it got too dark.

Its almost midnight so nearly the new year. Hope you are all having a great time where ever you are celebrating. I will do my New Year goals in another post.

  

Friday Fitness

Friday again .This week has zoomed around so fast. Less than a week till Christmas. Must get those Christmas presents wrapped and finally pin down whether or not I have covered all my bases.

Fixit Guy and I have been walking regularly this past week and I have made my steps each day, for which I am pleased. Some of my friends though have been making huge steps so I haven't made as much progress on my Fitbit friends ladder but not too bad

Friday No walks on this busy day. Not sure why we didn't go in the morning but we  had our Walk Through Bethlehem on at night. We had to go up and set that up... and then when the rain was obviously coming we had to move everything into the hall. We set up our church yard to look like a street in Bethlehem. We have market stalls with a carpenter, leather worker, weaver and spinner, baker, pottery, and grocery stall. I was on the bakers stall. I had to learn to make Narn bread from our friend Charlotte who being Fijian Indian makes it all the time. She won't be there tonight for the second walk so I had to learn to do it so I can do it on my own tonight. I hope I remember how its done... might go practice again this morning. Fixit Guy is the carpenter. Fangirl was in the angelic choir who sang some carols and Boyo was a Roman Soldier. I did a fair bit of jogging on the spot before bed to get me over my target 10 314

I was the baker with my offsider Ben

Saturday 11 017 I think there was one walk in there and some jogging on the spot to get me over at the end. We had to clean the church so tidying that and mopping and dusting added some steps. Fixit Guy does the vacuuming

Sunday Very busy day and I don't think we managed any walks. We had church in the morning. In the afternoon Fixit Guy and I were on serving at the aged care  home's cafe. At night our friend Bek came to dinner along with Fangirl. Together we put together a gingerbread house and then the girls made Minion baubles. There was a fair bit of running around at the cafe but I still did a bit of on the spot jogging to get me over the line. Some of that was done out side late at night watching the comet shower that Australia was experiencing 10 630 steps

Monday Big day. Two walks and shopping does it to you. We also cleaned the house.16 378
Tuesday morning walk (at least I think there was) We got one walk in anyway. I think there was a bit of jogging on the spot to get me over the line though. 11 005 steps

Wednesday Big Day. Got a morning and evening walk in so the fact that for most of the day I was at our patchwork group for our final pre Christmas gathering and then our present exchange and lunch. Lovely day. . Not going to think about the kgs just yet. 14 625



Thursday  We got in a morning walk but in the afternoon we had visitors coming for tea so that makes walking a bit hard. I did do some shopping though and that can put on the steps. Fangirl came over in the afternoon to finish off making the gingerbread Tardis she had started making here earlier in the week. Made the dough one day. Rolled and baked it another and Finished it on the 3rd day
10 818

Boo was the closest we could come to an alien. The Dorothy the Dinosaur figure was in reference to a meme we had seen re if you gingerbread house falls down, add a dinosaur. Not sure that this inoffensive little dinosaur was quite what anyone had in mind.

Tuesday Museday - Doctor Who and stuff

Fixit Guy and I both enjoy watching Doctor Who. We are old enough and coming from Australia where the show was aired back in the 60s,  to remember the original Doctor Who. My siblings and I recall watching it whilst growing up. This week I am on holidays in Sydney and seeing my family so with a number of them (ok 2) the subject of Doctor Who came up. 

This is mostly because the new season is currently airing here but since FG and I are travelling in our camper trailer we don't have access to a tv so we missed the previous week's episode so this week, knowing I was in close proximity to my family I put out an appeal for someone who would have us to dinner on Sunday night and watch Doctor Who with us (or at least let us watch it at their place.) My brother George answered the call (yay for big brothers) and FG and I went there, had dinner with him and then we watched the latest episode. We still have to watch the previous week's episode. We could watch it on iView - the web site where our ABC has the shows from the previous 2 weeks for people to catch up on. However as we are operating on data from our phone we thought that might chew through it at a rate of knots.

Last night (Monday night) we had dinner with another sibling, my sister Patricia. Brother George came too (Well we gate crashed his weekly dinner with them) The subject of Doctor Who came up again. What did we think of the new Doctor?This question had also come up when we were having dinner with my friend Allison (waves again - she reads this) the week previously, and also at dinner with George. Then listening to Nonie on The Quilting Pot, she also mentioned watching Doctor Who and not being taken by this new guy.

This current doctor is so much more abrasive than the affable, lovable, almost buffoon like Matt Smith's doctor. As we discussed it - his abrasiveness, his rudeness, is bluntness to the point of nastiness it seems, I mentioned that initially I hadn't like Matt Smith's doctor very much. He was to silly and such a ... well buffoon. He grew on me. The common consensus we reached was that it was deliberate. Some of us oldies recalled that the earliest doctors weren't warm and fuzzy types either, so perhaps he is a deliberate throwback to those times.

And we were all intrigued by the mysterious woman who keeps popping in now and then at the end of the shows with little comments about Paradise and Heaven. This week she made allusion to Clara, as having been chosen well. Who is she? What is she going to contribute? She is the continuing story arch in this series, just like Bad Wolf was in another series, the crack in time in another series and the weird woman with the eye patch who kept appearing to Amy in yet another series. Intriguing and will definitely keep us watching avidly when we can.

The new series has inspired a few new projects by my daughter Fangirl. She has designed some new cross stitches based on sentences and themes from various episodes. She has heaps of other Doctor Who themed cross stitches as well as ones from Diskworld, Harry Potter, and other geeky tv shows, books and games. Check out her Etsy Shop here or her blog  Fangirl Stitches here





This one doesn't have the new doctor on it but its very cool




Are you watching the new series? What do you think?

Throwback Thursday - Log Cabin Christmas Tree and Doctor Who cross stitches

My friend Dawn has the most magnificent Christmas Quilt. It features a huge christmas tree made out of log cabin blocks and decorated with appliqued toys, all needle turned, and a beautiful bow. There are also elves dancing around the tree. Its superb... and I don't have a picture of it. It fascinated me, not so much for the gorgeous embellishments but for the tree itself, and the way it was shaped by the log cabin blocks, a combination of green, cream background, red pot and brown for the trunk. Some were all one colour and others were a mix of the two. I loved it. Dawn no longer had the pattern nor could she remember the name of it. She had made it many years ago in a workshop/class situation in another town. So while it was hanging in our club rooms for Christmas decorations, I took careful note of it and recorded the arrangement of the blocks. I didn't want to make mine as big as hers. Mine was to be a wall hanging. Hers was big enough to be a bed quilt. I was also not interested in the embellishments... just the tree itself.

With Dawn's tree details as a guide I worked out my own pattern for a tree. I decided on my scale  (1 inch cut squares coming down to half inch finished) and worked out how many of each sized piece I would need for my blocks in each colour. I cut my pieces and stored them in individual zip lock bags till I got to sewing them up. I got the tree finished in the lead up to Christmas 2012.

 At the same time I also finished an advent calendar Christmas wall hanging with pockets for you to put whatever you liked in. I decided that I would put Christmas decorations in the pockets and "hang" them on my log cabin tree. (using little gold safety pins) I  started to look for suitable small decorations for me to use.

Our daughter, known on the blog as Fangirl had been living in the UK for 13 months and flew home for Christmas. She is an brilliant cross stitcher and designs her own patterns around her geeky interests of Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Diskworld etc Her dad, Fixit Guy, also loves Doctor Who and she had made for him a set of Doctor Who character Christmas Decoration. She had made them on plastic canvas and we realised that they were perfect to go into the pockets of the Advent calendar and hang on the log cabin Christmas tree. Fangirl has her own blog here and an Etsy shop where she sells her patterns by PDF download. She has some great patterns available for the Geek in you life. There is a selection of her patterns on this page in the side bar

She hadn't made enough different characters. Over her time in Australia before she returned to her job in the UK we brain stormed what other Doctor Who characters she could include. Her knowledge and love of Doctor Who was mainly centred around the new series ie from the 9th Doctor. Her dad and I have a more extensive background in it so were able to come up with a few that she didn't know about.

For Christmas the next year there were more figures to fill all the pockets. Such fun. My photographs aren't the best but hopefully you will get the idea. I tried to put them in orcder but when I then went to label them they all jumped out of order again and not sure how to

The 1st Doctor

the 2nd Doctor

The 3rd Doctor

The 4th Doctor

    

The 6th Doctor

The 7th Doctor

The 8th Doctor

The 9th Doctor

The 11th Doctor

                            

Donna

Ros

River

The TARDIS

 

Martha