I'm Baaaack

Its been a month almost since I have posted something on my blog. Its been a combination of being ill (although that had started before my last blog post), being away:- we went to Brisbane for Gamer Girl, our middle son's partner university graduation 13-17Dec and then we went away again for Christmas from 22nd Dec till 2nd January, being busy but mostly being without my laptop. On the 18th of December (9 days after my last post... ) my laptop screen was cracked in an unfortunate accident. Fixit Guy had borrowed my laptop to use at an activity at our church. It was an outdoor activity and afterwards whilst we were packing up a gust of wind blew over something that hit my laptop and... yeah cracked screen. We dropped it to (oohh not good choice of words when talking about a laptop - make that left it with  the repair place 2 days later (closed over weekend) and then went away for Christmas... It was fixed whilst we were away and I picked it up Monday, after we got home.

So... I could have accessed the blog from other devices but.... its harder and ... we were away... and there was no motivation... so... now I am back here with you all.

Not having my computer also meant that I couldn't update my stash inputs (quite a few) and outputs (a good deal less...) So I officially have given up on that for 2015 and will draw a line under it as at the end of November. I did rather well in the stash front for Christmas. KombiBoy (middle son) and his partner gave me fat quarters for Christmas as did my Non-Secret Santa nephew. Both of them had no idea what Fat Quarters were, what tone on tone fabric was. My nephew admitted he thought I might have been scamming him - the sewing equivalent of sending someone to the hardware store for a left handed hammer or a can of striped paint. They both did very well though... by bailing up a shop assistant and asking them. My son said he actually had my text message with details of what I would like. I'd sent it to him at his request. He read it out to the assistant who showed him a selection of fat quarters which matched my description and he chose. 

I have also done little  sewing in the last month which has meant that 

I finished off a quilt for a baby... Elephant Parade. I was pleased to get it to the family when he was under a month old. The one I made for his sister a couple of years earlier was delivered when she was about 6 months old. Mind you Grace was born the same year as several great nieces and nephews and 2 other friends babies... had quite a rush that year. Michael's has been pretty much the only quilt required this year.

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I thought that the rainbow striped binding was just perfect for the quilt - it caught up all the colours from the top.

 I had heaps of fun piecing the back of the quilt using up left over fabric from what I had used on the front 

I  got my Harry Potter POD quilt top finished. This involved making a few extra blocks for the side, top and bottom of the bookshelf. I was very pleased to get it done. Now we are back home after our trip away for Christmas I need to get the backing made for it and then I am going to send it off to my friend Kym to get it quilted. Fangirl (daughter) has claimed it so it will be her birthday (and everything else) present. That's the 6th of February so I had better get busy with it.



I made a couple of gifts for great nieces too. I saw the idea on Pinterest but now I can't find the original site to link to. The girls loved them. I am not sure if Elaine's is going to make it back to Western Australia with her or if she will leave it with her Grandparents for when she visites over here. It wasn't the kindest of gifts to give to someone who has to fly home..... There was no sewing in this project. It was all glued. If I make it again I think I will do a bit of stitching... it would be more secure.


 

Hmm - that is a reasonable amount of sewing when I add it all up! I haven't done much since we went away on the 22nd Dec though. I took hand sewing to do in the car. Had dreams of finishing off all the hexies I have left to do. I thought I had finished all the whole hexies but found a bundle still to be finished off. With over 3 000 kms driving in the car plus lots of socialising time whilst we were away I was sure I would knock them over, and all the half hexies, plus do the design for the quilt AND start to sew the hexies together. NOPE. I got about 20 hexies done in total. I got back into reading and finished 4 books I had with me. I slept a lot in the car as well.

I was getting rather antsy about missing my sewing machine whilst we were away and thought I would fall on my machine with great joy and much productivity once I got home but I haven't. I seem to have lost my mojo! I got the Christmas stuff packed up and put away (and am playing the oh look what got left out ever since) so that was something. Yesterday I got the go slows again... did nothing but watch shows on iview and listen to my audio book. I have a list of stuff I want to get stuck into both household and sewing related. Just have to get some oomph back.

Funny thing is I really missed my computer and my sewing machine whilst I was away but back home it took me 2 days to fire up the laptop (ie till an hour ago) once I got it back and I still haven't touched my machine!
 

WIP Wednesday

I have had a really slow week. I haven't put up any posts all week. I have been sick for over a week with a fatigue that I feel is related to my bout of Barmah Forest virus a few years ago.

Anyway I have done a little sewing but not as much as I had hoped.

This week I have made great progress on the Elephant Parade Quilt. I had to make a few extra blocks to go with the blocks from the Elephant Parade stitch along that I was involved with at the beginning of the year. I chose to use pinwheels... I love pinwheels to fill in some of the spaces and some strips of bright fabric. I also used up some blue and white half square triangles to make flying geese. It was like a patchwork jigsaw puzzle - I kept making blocks to fit the spaces

For the borders I used first simple 3" squares in white, dark and light grey greens for the inner border and then wide orange with pinwheels in the corners. 

I pieced the backing using large squares of the inner border fabric and stips of 3" squares. The green squares had come in a bundle I purchased from Ebay years ago when I started quilting. I really liked the way it turned out. I used the remaining orange fabric from the range borders along the bottom of the quilt to make it large enough. Originally I had planned to slash the quilt and insert it else where but I really liked the look of the large squares and the strips of smaller squares and felt that an orange slash would look wrong so I used it to be the base of the blocks. Not sure I really liked it but it won't be as big once I trim the quilt after its quilted so trying not to worry about it too much

Today at Patchwork I got it pinned and hopefully I will get it quilted tomorrow and then binding on so I can give it to the little boy it is for on Friday night.

I have done a couple of projects for friends this week. A friend had asked for some advice on the quilting on a project she had underway for her twin grand daughters. She had done some in the ditch quilting but was concerned that it wasn't enough to hold the project together and I agreed that it wasn't enough and said that I would do a little extra quilting for her since she didn't know how to use her "pogo stick" foot and I wasn't feeling well enough to explain. I got it done easily for her yesterday.

Then another friend asked if I could help her complete a project she had underway which involved sewing men's ties around the neckline of t shirts. She had them all pinned but her machine wasn't working properly so I sewed them on for her - which took only half an hour.

Today I got busy sewing another casserole cover - a gift for someone for Christmas. Unlike the first one I made, this one took me about 2 hours from start to finish. I still have to put the handles in. I have a few more to make before Christmas including one for myself. I really do want one but everyone I make is for someone else.



I found a stitchery amongst my projects to work on whilst I have spent so much time in bed. It was good to have something else to work on now I have finished sewing my whole hexies. Still have those half ones to make though. Must work on them.

   

WIP Wednesday on Thursday

I haven't got much sewing done this week at all. I blogged about the casserole carrier I made in my stash report. I did some alterations for a friend to 3 kaftans that were too big around the top (I took them up at the shoulders and they are sitting much better she assures me) 

I have done a lot of hand stitching. We drove into Yeppoon on Sunday and home on Monday afternoon so that was 7 hours of sewing time as well as an hour during church. I was also feeling rather unwell yesterday so spent the afternoon and evening in bed and have finished all the hexies I had prepped. I think that means I have enough for the quilt I was planning. I still have to make the half hexagons to fill in the edges. For some time I have been convinced that I needed 1536 hexagons plus 41 half hexagons for this quilt. I went back through my blogs to find the link to the page where I did my calculations and found that in fact I needed 1523 hexagons (at least that is what I had on my blog post) Now I don't know which number is correct... guess when I start to put it together I will find out.

The other project I have been fiddling with the week is the Elephant Parade quilt. I made these blocks at the beginning of the year. One block a week was released over a couple of months. You could make multiples of any one of them but I chose to only make one of each. Now I have to work out how I will put them together to make a reasonable size quilt for a new baby born to friends recently.

Unfortunately since we got home from our trip to Rockhampton to see a dear friend in hospital and to go bridal shopping with a good friend, I have been sick with a low grade virus. I have been left feeling exhausted - achy, headache, bit nauseous but mostly just exhausted. Ever since I have had Barmah Forest virus 2 years ago (and glandular fever 15 years before that) this feeling really scares me. I keep thinking maybe I am just "bunging it on" that there is nothing wrong with me and I should just buck up and get out of bed and get moving. But it isn't like me to want to do nothing. I have sewing projects I am keen to get going with, some cooking projects likewise that I want to do, commitments I have made that I want to keep. So I know that there is something not right and rest is what I currently need. But I don't listen too well to myself. I wrote about having Barmah Forrest here

Twice I went downstairs to take a photo of my Elephant Parade Quilt but each time I got distracted and didn't get the photo so this too is going up without any photos. Sorry. I'm already a day late posting so I had better not waste any more time

   

Q is for Quilt Alongs

I've been out of the country and away from regular reliable internet connections. I've only had my phone on which I could receive emails but not reply for some reason. Grrr. So I knew I was getting comments but wasn't able to reply. So... if you have left a comment I am sorry if I've seemed rude and not replied. I did appreciate all comments I just couldn't respond. Anyway... on with the challenge



QALs or Quilt a longs are a feature of modern online quilting. They are modern day sewing bees and a way of making links with other quilters. Quilters join in sewing the same pattern across the internet. Some times the pattern is free and is released on a website on a certain schedule - weekly, fortnightly, monthly. Sometimes the pattern is for sale on the website. There are often opportunities to share progress via comments and photos on the website or a specially set up Flickr groups or special linky parties.

This year I have joined in a couple of Quilt Alongs

The first is a 30 week one on Fandom in Stitches Called the Project of Doom (or POD) The patterns are posted each week and are free. The blocks build into a bookcase filled not only with books but with various magical objects as well. Its a paper pieced pattern and has fitted in well with my plan this year to become comfortable with Paper Piecing.

The other QAL that I joined was Elephant Parade which I blogged about on the 5th April for E. This was also a free one with a new pattern released each. It was only an 8 week one. There was the option to buy the pattern as well.










I have found a great website that lists a heap of current and upcoming Its called Quiltalong.net and as well as links to quilt alongs it has links to here

E is for Elephant Parade

This year I have been pushing my quilting boundaries by taking part in a number of quilt alongs and quilting challenges. They are all internet based.

One such challenge has been the Elephant Parade and was run by Sew Fresh Quilts. I stumbled across it one day at the beginning of the year when linking up with a new linky party called Let's Bee Social. I found a link to this Elephant Parade quiltalong.

The pattern was designed by the Lorna, the owner of the blog. She had a pdf version of the pattern for sale but you could also come back each week and get the next block. That's what I did

First week was the large elephant and the second week it was the baby elephant.

If you wanted to make the quilt as per pattern you made more than one of each animal and some of them you could make facing the other way. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my quilt so I only made one of each. I could still go back and make more of each. The elephants also look a bit naked without a tail so maybe when I put the quilt (or whatever it is I make) together I will add tails.

The third week we made the frog. For some reason I found this one a bit off putting and for a week or more he sat like this ... with no eyes....

when you think about it.. that look is even more off putting

Eventually I manned up... personed up and finished froggy

I just had to cut some circles and applique them on... shouldn't have been a problem but I made it one. I went straight on and made the next block... cute turtle

He had to have an appliqued and button eye too and I got it done no fuss. Still can't work out why I left froggy eyeless for so long

The next week it was time for this super cute little bird. I loved it

And then it was time for the flowers. I am not sure what the go was but there was some problem with copyright over one of the flowers. It was very similar to one that someone had put or was putting into a book and so the blue one pictured here is no longer available to make.

 You can tell I'm not a professional blogger or photographer. Look at all the threads etc on the picture. Tut tut. (nah get over it)

The blocks all still look like this... ie they are all blocks and not a finished article. They are all pretty easy to make and so I should be able to whip up a few more should I wish to make the full quilt as pictured in the pattern but so far the urge hasn't hit me.

 I don't want to leave it as a UFO or a WIP. We shall see what happens. If you dont' know what a UFO or WIP is... come back here for U and W and all will be revealed... or leave a comment below and I'll fess up (or look back through my blog and see for yourself.) Hint. They have nothing to do with aliens or 50 Shades of Grey

A commentor on my B is for Bear blog  mentioned how much they loved Elephants and how excited she gets when she sees them when out and about. This was in reference to me getting excited to see the decorated bears in Berlin. That reminded me of the decorated elephants we saw in London when we were there in 2010. I hunted out my photos of them. I didn't take very many but Grazona, these photos are especially for you

WIP Wednesday

Its been another busy week with a variety of projects on the go. And too many is never enough...

I have started work on the 2012 Craftsy Block of the Month quilt. I watched all the shows in 2013 after I joined Craftsty. At the time I was sick in bed with Barmah Forrest Virus. Thats a mosquito born disease found only in Australia. It is not all that well known but is becoming so. Symptoms are aches and pains in joints, swelling of joints, rash, fatigue. I had the aches and pains and the fatigue but no rash or swelling. It left me feeling wiped out.

Anyway I was spending a lot of time lying down and I enjoyed watching the whole Craftsy class right through but didn't have the energy or inclination to actually get up and do any sewing. Its been on my To Do list for a while now and I put making at least one block from the class on my goals for March and am delighted to say that I have completed both of the blocks for January and have cut the fabric for February's blocks. Go me

I was able to go to Spotlight whilst in Rockhampton earlier on in the week and take advantage of their 30% off everything. I got the navy blue fabric I wanted to finish off the Pinwheel quilt I have been working on for our Patchwork Group. I should have enough to do the back and binding as well. At Patchwork today I was able to get the narrow borders on the front to finish the top off. It looks great.

 I also got to back pieced. I was able to work into it the 3 12" blocks that were made for other BOM's we had but in the wrong colour way. Originally we had been going to do all the BOM's for the year in blue and white but then they decided no, each one would be a different colour. However not all of us got to message and a few of us made subsequent blocks in blue and white too. So.... we had these spare blocks. 3 x 12" blocks and an 8" pinwheel. I am really pleased with how the back worked out - not to mention pleased to have the quilt ready to be basted and quilted.

The Tea Shop quilt has been sitting pinned and ready to go near my machine all week but haven't started on it yet. I really need to get a move on because I would like it finished to hang at the Our Rainbow House afternoon tea at the end of the month.

I was able to complete the last 2 blocks in the Elephant Parade quilt. They were two flowers. I have only made one of each of the blocks (apart from the flowers which I made 2 of the blue flowers as per instructions) I am not sure what I am going to do with the finished blocks. To make the whole quilt I will need to make more of all the blocks but I am not convinced I want to do that. I might make them into a bag or a wall hanging... not sure yet so have packed them up and put them away till I decide.

I made the next block in the Harry Potter POD QAL. That means that  I have enough blocks to complete 2 rows of the bookshelf. I started to sew  names on the books but that is a slow process. I don;t want to sew the blocks together as that will make it hard to embroider the blocks... but I am not sure now if I want to sew names on all the books. But perhaps it will look stupid if only some of the books have names on them... I can't decide. I could probably sew the blocks into long strips and still work on the blocks... but then.. I don't know. I can't decide so at the moment I haven't sewn them together.

The next clue in Scrapitude was released last week and I got the steps all completed. I had to cut more squares cause I misinterpreted an earlier clue but it was ok. It was a little bit tricky this time but managed it ok. Apparently there are only two more sets of clues to go and the last lot includes putting it all together. I am intrigued at how it is going to come out. All of it has come out of my stash and most of it has come out of my scrap stash. Funny thing is that the drawers with my cut scraps in still seem to be jam packed. Considering all the scraps that have come out of them......

And that brings me to my last WIP. I am once again working my way through my basket of scraps cutting them into useful units ready to be utilised in future projects. I really love having my scraps dealt with in this way. My choice of useful units are 1.5"through to 5" going up in half inch increments in squares or strips of that width, then 6.5" squares and strips and 10" squares. Having my units already cut has made preparation for various mystery quilts much quicker than it otherwise might have been. Yes sometimes I have to cut my units down (or cut units from my stash) if they are a bit more unusual eg 5.5" or 1/4" units but on the whole it has saved me so much time. Recently I was preparing for a mystery quilt to be held at a retreat I am off to in June. It called for about 300 1.5" squares. Would you believe I didn't have to cut any of them? They were all in my scrap stash already. 

Anyway - this week I have once again started to work on emptying my scrap basket. It was overflowing and then some.... I didn't think to take a photo initially. The photo is from today when I have already been working on it for a day or 2.

I have shallow boxes labelled with the various sized cuts to sort into. The tv set up means that I can watch shows whilst trimming my scraps. Today though I listened to a Craftsy class

I 

I used to try to keep the squares and the strips separated in the boxes but now I realise its much simpler to sort them at the end when putting them into the plastic drawers I keep them in. The drawers have shoe boxes fitted into them into, one for strips and one for squares usually. 

That's been my week. Pretty busy all in all. 

Linking up with WIP Wednesday,WOW- WIPs on Wednesday and Lets Bee Social