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.




  

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

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?

  

Sunday Stash Report

Its been another crazy busy week with so much going on here and not all that much time to sew... well not as much time as usual to sew.

It was another week with rehearsals - full dress rehearsals at that Sunday afternoon, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and first performances Friday and Saturday nights. Had a bit of sewing for that... had to fix up the cat costume... add elastic to waist band so the size 18 pants fitted out size 10 pregnant actress, also add a sign saying "Cat" to the back of the shirt and put velcro on it so the tail could be attached and removed as per script. Then after the performance on Friday had to do major repairs to the horse costume as the actors stepped on it and ripped it... I was also busy blinging up two hand bags for the leading lady. One I made fabric flowers for (that was fun) and the other I glued a packet of plastic "gems" too. In total I used about half a metre of fabric.

I managed to get Going Green's backing fabric completed as well as Pink Pizzazz. They both now need to be pinned and quilted. Since Pink Pizzazz is a group project I might ask and see if someone else in our patchwork group will quilt it (I quilted one earlier this year) If they will I get to count it as finished and so can calculate fabric usage... what I donated which will be all the backing.

And then there are the hexies... been making a bit of progress there too

Week 35

         Fabric Used                     0.51
         Fabric Added                   0

Year To Date
         Fabric Used                    114.37
         Fabric Added                    42.40        

Net Used/Added                       71.97m   

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times

WIP Wednesday Another Crazy week

I've had another really crazy creative week!

Last week I told you about making a horse costume for the play that my husband, Fixit Guy is in and for which I am prompt. This week the making and fixing for the play has continued. I have added

Making a pair of breasts - well 2 pink cushions

Decorating 2 handbags - blinging them to within an inch of their life (yay for hot glue guns and fake rhinestones )

Working out how to attach a cats tail to a costume so it can be easily removed and reattached.

Making a "CAT" sign to attach to said cat costume

Putting new elastic into the pants of  cat's costume

Attaching elastic to a bowtie to allow for a quick costume change.

Its all been rather fun but time consuming. I know some patchworkers get annoyed when asked to mend things or make non patchwork items for family friends and in my case the wider community, but I don't mind at all. Its been fun to be part of the process.

I have done a little patchworking. Having put the flying geese borders on Going Green last week I went ahead and added a 5" (4.5" finished) green border with multicoloured 9 patches in the corners

and mid way (top and bottom) and 1/3 intervals  (sides) - so that was 10 9 patches in total. I have also started to make the backing for it. I am piecing the backing (as has been my habit of late) and its taking almost as long as the front because I am designing it as I go. I have used up the rest of the green I had bought for the borders on the front as well as a piece featuring birds and  bird houses. I have no idea where it came from but it fits in with the Going Green theme.

It's still not big enough so I"ll add strips of the lovely Robert Kaufman fabric I used in the centre of the birdhouse fabric. I've had it for ages but never quite known what to do with it. Its still not going to be quite big enough. I have a heap of half square triangles measuring something under 2" - leftovers from the flying geese made for the front border. I think I will make a sawtooth border with those. Its not going to add much but will add a little.

I have also been beavering away on my hexagons. I used to be able to work on them a bit during the play because during rehearsals I didn't have to sit in the dark in the wings. I used to sit in the audience, in the light and could stitch away during the breaks when the director and cast were discussing things. Not any more though. I can stitch during interval though so might get a few done.

I now have 14 flowers made, 23 more hexies basted and a heap of hexies cut!

Still not sure of the pattern I am going to make with them but thus far have been making colour centric flowers. I am using all scraps (3" squares) and putting together 6 hexies which "read" the same colour with a lighter (or darker occasionally) one in the centre. I think I will wait till I have finished sewing the hexies before deciding on a design. It will depend on the coloured flowers that I end up with.

I do love the crazy little cameos that are coming up on the scrappy blocks. So many reminders of quilts past

And today I started work on making a tablet cover (ipad etc) for Fangirl to send off in a swap. She has done a lovely cross stitch design and I have to sew it into the cover. The process has been delayed somewhat cause she forgot to wash the design before she gave it to me and it still had the marker pen on it so I've quickly rinsed it out and waiting for it to dry before proceeding further.

My POD paper piecing project hasn't been touched in a month. I must get back to it. It was on my goals for this month but nothing has shifted there.

I had hoped to work on Pink Pizzaz too but nothing happening there either. Will have to get my skates on if I am to get it done by next Wednesday which was my plan.

How has your week gone? What have you been working on?

 

WIP Wednesday - a little bit of everything

I've had a go at quite a few projects this week.

Got stuck into my Amy Gibson 2012 Craftsy BOM blocks. I made 2 dresden plate blocks,

 2 paper pieced blocks

 I had an issue with one of the paper pieced blocks... didn't realise that there were 2 circle of geese patterns... one going clockwise and one counter clockwise. Needless to say I made 2 from one and 1 from the other and it was only when I was trying to put them together so as to work out the order of the colour of geese I wanted to sew on my last block that I realised what I had done... and even then it took me a while.. couldn't work out why the geese weren't lining up. Yes the patterns were labelled. No I hadn't taken any notice of the labels. Eventually figured out what I had done wrong and made the other 2 blocks I needed going the right way and am contemplating making another 3 going the other way now... but we will see.

And 2 hexagon blocks

Speaking of hexagons... I plan to write a separate blog post about them... but I have started a hand project and am currently sewing away madly on English paper pieced hexagons. Haven't quite worked out what the heck I am doing... but so far have about 70 basted

 and started to stitch my first 7 piece "flower" together. 

I have another 110 cut out and pinned to their papers so am making great progress. 

I have been doing them whilst sitting in my seat and doing my job as prompt at rehearsals for our Little Theatre play. I won't be able to do them any more as we are into our final week of rehearsal and so I shall have to go up on stage and be in my prompters box... in the dark with my torch reading my script. 

Speaking of the play... that brings me to my most unusual sewing project for this week. I had to repair the horse costume... not a costume for a horse but the costume that is a horse. The one they had was falling apart... the fabric had perished. It was made for a panto the Little Theatre put on when The Beast was about 12. He's now almost 28. Funny thing... when it was made he got to play the front end of the horse. This time his father is playing the back end.....For part of the play anyway. The costume was getting more and more wrecked and at Tuesday's rehearsal one of the legs came off so I bought it home with me and basically remade it for rehearsal tonight. I gave up my day at patchwork to do it. Its no great work of art and basically I just followed the pattern that old one had been. I even reused the legs. 

 

Its not particularly realistic but then... horse costumes usually aren't are they? I didn't get a photo of the guys in it tonight but will try to on Sunday at our next rehearsal

The other project I have been working on this week has been the borders for Going Green. 

I decided to add one more border, using the green fabric I purchased in Rockhampton on Friday. Initially I was going to just do plain green all around... then I got to thinking and decided to add some nine patches in the corners... and then one in the middle of the side borders... no 2 nine patches spread out on the side borders... and one strip of blocks in the very centre (to make them long enough) and perhaps one more nine patch centred on both ends. 

So far I have the side borders on but the horse costume took over today.

And then tonight I put the bow tie needed in the play on elastic to make it easier to get on and off....and that's been my week

How have you gone this week? What projects have you been working on?

Mid month Goal review

Its half way through the month so time to review my goals that I set for August.

POD Quilt. I haven't worked on this at all. I have to make the last block (block 30) and remake block 10 as well as make several extra blocks. I have printed out the block patterns so that is a start. I had thought that I would take this project away with me but I realised that I would need to take too much fabric with me so I didn't take it.

Amy Gibson Block of the Month blocks - I've made huge progress on this one. I made 5 different blocks (one twice) and I did take this project with me when we went away for 10 days and I got 5 made including 2 using hexagons and 2 using dresden plate. I was thinking I wouldn't make these particular blocks but in the end I did and I really enjoyed making them. In fact I have cut out a heap more papers and am planning on having it as an on the go project.

 

Going Green. I have put on the first two borders and have bought some more fabric to add a third plain border.

Pink Pizzazz. I have started to put the backing together. I've made a strip to insert in the fabric I am using to make it wider, using a variety of hearts and pinwheels. The pieced hearts were made using "Made" fabric from another project and the other two hearts were ones made for a raggy hearts swap our group is having next month but which were made the wrong size


Make a Bag for my friend. I have made two bags for two friends :) A watermelon bag for my friend Sam and a green bag for another friend.