Sunday Stash Report

Apart from my big blow out early in January, when I purchased a heap of fabric to make things for my Comic Con stall, I hadn't purchased any fabric. I had been in the red since that purchase and last week is the first time I had been in the black all year. Finishing off Stringen' 'Em Along had finally erased all my "redness". I had been determined that I wasn't going to buy any fabric till I was back in the black.

Having achieved that goal last week this week I was prepared to make a purchase, safe in the knowledge I would not be getting a sunburnt stash again. On Tuesday a parcel arrived for me from Sandi of Quilting for the Rest of Us. I had won a prize in a draw she had on her blog - 4 fat quarters! .92m

Then on Wednesday I bought the fabric I calculated I needed to do the sashing on my A to Z Quilt. I had been holding out till I was in the black. I chose a plain grey solid. 1.7m. No photo - it wasn't that exciting.

So - two inputs this week!

But to make up for that I've had some finishes.
4 messenger bags for my Comic Con stall. They are all slightly different sizes, but used approximately the same amount of fabric. 2.86m I've now run out of the magnetic clasps I use on them and have had to order more. They are coming but in the meantime I will work on some zipper purses. Lyndi has offered to give me some clasps to tide me over if I need it. I am going to run out of zippers too so have ordered more of them.

I've also had 2 major quilt finishes. 

I was able to finish off Handwork Heritage. I am really thrilled with how it worked out, despite a few hassles along the way with the quilting. I had to unpick and redo a small section for one thing. The lace on the quilt top proved a bit troublesome at times too as the foot of the quilting machine slipped under it and was anchored to the quilt. I had to do some deft unpicking to free it. I did this no less than 3 times. Sigh. You would think I would learn!! 7.99m

My big Ta Dah is my hexagon quilt which I finally finished off. It too proved a little problematic in the quilting. The appliqued strip down the back of it as well as the pieced backing meant it had different stretch in it so needed to be carefully handled in the quilting to avoid pleats.

 I ended up with a couple of pleats in the back and along the edge, most of which I was able to unpick and ease out. It was a massive finish. It measured 200 x 252cms  (over 3000 hand pieced hexies)and with the pieced back as well it ended up using up 12.46m of fabric. 

The great thing about it is that it was all from my stash, mostly my scrap stash at that. I am so thrilled to have it finished. 12.46m.

Once I get the sashing and first border on the A to Z quilt (the plain grey) I am thinking of putting another border on. If I can find fabric with the alphabet on it in a suitable colour (and not too expensive) I think I will get that. Now that I have a cushion of credit in my stash usage I think I can be crazy and buy a bit more. 

Week 7
Fabric used        23.31
Fabric added        2.69
Net usage          20.62m

Year to Date     
Fabric used       36.65
Fabric Added     11.74
Net Usage        24.91m

linking up with Patchwork Times

WIP Wednesday... lots of progress

Despite still not being 100% energy wise (but maybe that's age and heat related too) I have accomplished "Great Things" this week! I am so pleased. I haven't finished any of the WIPs but have advanced a lot.

Hexagon Quilt.

I have had the backing made for this for ages and even the batting cut but when I went to load it onto the quilting frame at Patchwork I found I had cut it too small. I finally cut it again and HOPEFULLY its the right size this time. I also made the binding for it. I blogged here about how I didn't really like it any more. I am still a bit unsure of it but its such a massive undertaking I will certainly finish it. I've arranged with my friend Lyndi to quilt this next Thursday. Woot.

Handwork Heritage

I attached the piano key borders. The centre is made from doilies that I inherited from various family members. I only cut up the ones that were stained or had holes in them, or were shop bought. These were sashed in various 1" finished pink scraps. The borders were made from the scraps left over from the centre blocks and more pink scraps. I had kept on making the piano key borders till I ran out of doily scraps. When I went to put them on I had enough to go around 1.75 times almost. Oops. They went into the backing. The leftovers I put into the backing interspersing them between strips made from vintage sheets. Having finished the backing I also made the binding (pink checked) and cut the batting.

If I get time next Thursday after I have quilted the hexagon quilt I may try to get this one loaded and quilted too.

Sparkle Sparkle

My latest baby quilt finish! There are 2 babies due this half of the year to whom I will gift a quilt. This is another adapted from Jenny Doen's Sparkle quilt pattern. I am not sure which of the bub's it will go to. The top for this one has been finished for a while. This week I made the backing, a simple affair this time. I added 2 strips to a wildly colourful width of fabric animal print to make it wide enough. I made the binding too. Today at Patchwork I got it pinned ready for me to quilt it on my domestic machine. (One of the 3 I got pinned today)

Stringen' 'Em Along.

This quilt made to Bonnie Hunter's String X pattern is for our Japanese Granddaughter (daughter of our Japanese host son) She will be just over one when we get to see her in July this year. I finished the top last year and wasn't sure who was going to get it - I made the pattern cause I fell in love with it. I hadn't gotten around to making the backing. When I decided that I loved it so much it had to go to someone special, our grand daughter was the obvious choice. 

Because the front wasn't very baby orientated I wanted the backing to have more pictures and fun stuff, and also reflect the Australian side of things. I fussy cut out heaps of Australian Animals from various fabrics I had on hand, framed the pictures with various 1" finished strips and then made them up to 10" size with an assortment of fabric including plains and Australian fabrics. A couple I framed with some Japanese fabric I had used on the year quilt I had made the year Sho was with us.

I pinned it ready for quilting today at Patchwork. It was one of 3 I pinned up there today.

Club Mystery Quilt

Last year our club ran a mystery quilt. Each month we were given instructions for a particular unit for 6 months. It was fat quarter friendly - in fact we were told to choose 6 coordinating fat quarters for it. In the end we were given a design we could use but were also invited to make up our own design which is what I did. Mine had ended up being very dark so I added some extra orange to lift it a bit. 

I had put the centre together last year but was yet to finish it off. Looking at it this past week I decided it needed more orange so put in a final border. Monday I worked on the backing for it. I wanted to use up the left over scraps of fabric and left over blocks too so I made them into strips. Then I raided my scrap drawers and pulled out all the 5" strips that were in the colour scheme of the front.

The result isn't all that striking or wonderful but I am happy with it. It took the best part of the day to put together but you get that. Now the batting for it is cut too and the binding (more orange) made. And at Patchwork today I also got it pinned. 

That makes a total of 5 quilts ready to be quilted.

En Provence

I finally got around to assembling a couple of the blocks on the design wall. I have cut all the yellow squares needed to complete them. I have yet to sew any together but at least I know what I am aiming for now

I've also worked on a few things for the Comic Con stall I will be having in September. I've now made one zipper bag and 3 satchels/messenger bags featuring Star Trek, Star Wars and skeleton cat fabric. 

I started work on another project today. Its going to be a secret project so I won't be posting any photos - but I did start work on it today.

And finally I did a bit of a clean up of my sewing area on the weekend. I spent Saturday morning cleaning up the cutting table and sewing table and then sorting through all my notions and redistributing stuff to places where they will be most useful. Its been great to be able to put my hand on various things as I have needed them as soon as I have wanted them. 4 days later and I have managed to mislay my fabric marking pen and one of my quick unpicks (seam ripper)

How have you gone with your WIPs this week?

Linking up with 

WIP Wednesday

I've had a busy few days sewing this week.

Last week Charlotte Hawkes released the cutting instructions for her mystery quilt that begins in January. I got it all cut over the weekend. Its called "Surrounded By Scraps" and you can find details here if you would like to join in.

The 4th clue in En Provence, the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt for 2016 came out on Friday - very late in Australia so I didn't even look at it till Saturday but had no chance to work on it till Monday. I blogged about it here 

Today at Patchwork group, between having a super yummy morning tea and lunch to celebrate Christmas, I worked on the piano key border for Handwork Heritage. I got the borders done - there is oodles of it. I got a bit carried away.

I also worked on "Stringen Em Along", my Bonnie Hunter String X quilt. I got the borders on it - I went with the same fabric I'd used as my background. And then I made the binding. I decided on a scrappy border. I might have gone with a binding in the lavender background fabric if I'd had any of it left but I'd used it all up. Again I went a little crazy and I think I will have enough binding fabric for a couple of quilts!!

Just yesterday I heard that my niece is having another baby, due in May. This will be the 3rd grandbaby in just over a year for my sister and followed on 3 weddings in 6 months - they overlapped somewhat. Given that she only has 4 children that was good going. The single childless sibling is not feeling any pressure to join the club!!

Anyway - my baby quilt choice this year has been the sparkle quilt pattern from Missouri Star quilt company. I had some left over pieces and so this evening I have been working on making a quilt for the expected bub. I have the 9 star blocks made and working on the off setting borders now.

I also worked on the Craftsy BOM quilt that I have been working on - the Amy Gibson one (2012 I think) I didn't start it in 2012 but it has been a long slow cooker one. Anyway. I finished off the quilting on my domestic machine and got the binding on. Still have to do the label but since I haven't come up with a special name for it nor a place for it to go I am not in a hurry to do that. (No photos yet... perhaps for Stash report on Sunday)

Hope you have made some progress on your projects this week if that is what you have wanted to do. But maybe you have been prepping for Christmas not sewing. Whatever you have been doing I hope you have enjoyed it.

Linking up with 

Wip Wednesday - progress

I've been back to working on some of my larger projects these last few days now that my son has returned to Melbourne and the Handmade With Love stocks are high. (HWL is the craft group that I belong to that sews for a charity called Our Rainbow House. We sell our goods at craft fairs etc and to friends )

Having said that, this morning I got an order for another 2 sets of the Darlek pot holders this morning and worked on them at Patchwork today. I didn't take enough matching fabric to finish off the 2nd pair but they won't take long to do. I need to get some more labels from Handmade With Love to finish them off as well.

I have made some good progress on Strippy X, a Bonnie Hunter pattern. I added all the triangles to the corners of the strippy pieces. I chose a lavendar and it looks great. All the blocks are now done. Next up is sewing them together

I worked a little on Handwork Heritage. I started to cut to size the off cuts from the doilies to make the border. Turns out there isn't as much as I thought once I eliminated all the plain fabric - that wasn't going to make much impact in the border. I decided to not try to use the crocheted edging in the border as I have to back it and its a lot of fiddling about. I decided to make the border 5" wide but like I say - there wasn't very much once I had sorted them out and trimmed them up. I would like to work in some pinks into a piano key border. I'll see how I go.

Handwork Heritage Too is now finished! I had wanted to get it done to use in Church for Advent. Well Sunday just past was the first Sunday in Advent and it wasn't finished for that. However there is another 3 Sundays before Advent concludes on Christmas Eve! Today at Patchwork Group I put a dark purple around it - its finished at just under 2". Since it was to be a tablecloth I decided not to use an wadding but just to pack it. I didn't want to do a binding so instead I finished it via the "envelope", "pillowcase" or "birthing method". That is, I put it, right sides together and sewed a 1/2 seam all the way around, leaving a 12" gap through which I turned the quilt right sides out, pressed the seams and then stitched the gap shut. 

I am very pleased with how it turned out although its not laying flat at the moment. I think I will give it a really steamy press and see how it sits then. I will take it up to church on Sunday and see how it goes then

And then because it isn't as if I have enough quilts on the go... I joined in the newest Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt that started last Friday. I have managed to complete the first clue - make 221 neutral 4 patches from 2" squares. I was wondering how I was going to manage the fabric for the rest of it when I am going to be trying to pull from my scraps (I am NOT going to buy any fabric) Peggy, our glorious leader at HWL has said I can raid the fabric bins up there. I sorted them all out a year or so ago so know that there is a nice box of purples and quite a few yellows. I am not sure that I will have much at all in the way of purple in my scrap bins as I have made a number of scrappy quilts featuring purple lately. Ah well....

How have you gone with your WIPs this week/Month?

 

WIP Wednesday

What a busy week it has been!

Up untill today all my sewing had revolved around the Christmas Craft Fair which is on this coming weekend. Handmade With Love has a stall there and I have been sewing things to sell there. I made up a bunch of tissue packet covers (25 in all) and hair scrunchies (27 I think) and a couple more pot holders. (Minecraft fabric this time but no photo. I forgot to take any before I handed them in to stall coordinator).

Today was our weekly Patchwork Group sewing days. We are very blessed to have our own room in the local council art's complex. I took up 4 of my project boxes and pleased to sew I worked on stuff from 3 of them.

Handmade Heritage Too
I assembled the strips together. 

I found one minor mistake that I decided to ignore 

and one more major one that I fixed up. 

I wanted all 4 corner pieces which I'd cut from the one doily to be going out, with the curved piece facing out of the corner... not like this.

I like how the centre is working out. HH2 will be made into a table cloth that I will use at church during Advent as it has lots of purple in it, the colour for Advent. That has put me on a bit of a time line to get it done - first Sunday of Advent is the 4th of December - just over 2 weeks away.

Stringen Em Along
This quilt, based on the pattern String X by Bonnie Hunter, had a little work done on it today, first time I've worked on it in over a month. I have chosen a lilac as the background for it. Today I cut out the squares that I will then cut in half to be the corners of the block. 

The instructions were to cut 4 and 7/8ths squares and slice them in half diagonally but I cut 5" instead... I'm NOT the most accurate cutter so always prefer to have a little wiggle and trim room.

Getting Along - the club mystery quilt.
Today I got the borders on. 

I am not entirely happy with it. Its too small to be much use I reckon so will add another border. I am looking at perhaps a wide orange border. I am not sure what I am going to do with this quilt. I'm thinking it may get tucked away for a birthday quilt for someone in a couple of years.

The project I had with me that I didn't touch was the bits and pieces for the border of Handmade Heritage. I was thinking I might start to trim them to a uniform size and start working on a border but I ran out of oomph before then. I hadn't taken my lunch with me, thinking I would leave at midday but then I was enjoying my work and wanted to get the last rows of HH2 on. I could have kept on working BUT I was getting hungry and I had a message to say that my new glasses were in at the optometrist so wanted to get them. 

I am really happy with how they look too. 

All in all its been a good week

PS I also made heaps of bottles of sugar coated peanuts, toffee coated peanuts and spicy sugar coated peanuts. And some jam drops too! No photos of the peanuts but here are the jam drops.

 Hope you have had fun this week too.

WIP Wednesday

Its been great to be able to get back to work on my Handmade Heritage project. My sister Joy sent me a parcel of doilies and other embroideries to add to the project. I have put together one quilt top centre (ie no borders as yet) with the pink strips. I wrote about about it in a blog a few days ago here

Having decided not to include the blocks onto which I had stitched purple sides in the first quilt I am now working on a second quilt which I will call Handwork Heritage Too. I have completed 56 blocks with purple strips and have sewn them into 7 rows of 8 but have yet to put them together.

As is my way, after I got the strips together I realised that I had 2 identical ones next to each other so did a bit of unpicking and rearranging. That resulted in 2 strips of the same colour being next to each other but I decided to just leave it. Ho hum

Today I put Getting Along at Patchwork on the design wall in the club rooms. With Lyndi's help I worked out what I had to do with the borders I had made to get them to fit properly - it didn't take much. I got as far as adding the dark cream inner board (1.5" finished) but packed it in and came home when I ran out of cream thread in my bobbin with about 20" to go. I finished it up this evening. 

Still have to add the crazy outer boarder and then probably another plain border in orange. I will bind it in orange as well.

I bought back a stack of items that are for our Handmade With Love stall at the Christmas Craft Fair coming up in 10 days. I didn't have any Velcro with me whilst I was away and I had also left the "Handmade With Love" labels at home. Tuesday at Handmade with Love 2 of the newer members of our group helped to get the labels stitched on whilst I sewed the velcro onto the hanging towels and bandanna bibs. Some others ironed labels onto some of the other items we couldn't sew onto. It was great to get them all done.

I finished off the Christmas stockings I was making under commission

 as well as the potholders, another commission which had needed their labels stitched on. I made another 2 sets of potholders to complete this order. 

I posted them off today.

I've been browsing through Pinterest to find some more ideas for things to make for our craft stall. I'm keen to try some scrunchies and tissue packet covers. I'm having fun looking anyway! I am also thinking about making a few more baby bibs.

I am under orders though to make some of my savoury sugar coated peanuts before I do any more sewing for the stall. I bought the peanuts and sugars today. I am going to have to look for the recipe I used last year. If I find it I will save it to Pinterest so I can find it again.

Hope you have had fun this week and working on lots of stuff.

Handmade Heritage

We are home again! Its 5 weeks today that we left for our trip and we got home yesterday so we had 34 days in our caravan. I must admit I did enjoy our big bed last night. The one in the van is just a bit shorter and narrower. I also liked making the one at home better. The van bed is pretty good but... the one at home was better!

Last night we had pizza for tea... we drove the 600kms home from Fixit Guy's brother's cattle station in one hit. Yeah we talked about how we might stop along the way but we are way too used to doing it in one hit and we spent all the time we could with family. So..... we drove on through and stopped only to buy a burger for lunch.

Pizza for tea and then an evening blobbing in front of our tv. We had gotten most of the van unpacked after we got home but there was still some unpacking to do this morning and of course there is the cleaning still waiting for me.

I was excited to get my Handwork Heritage quilt out... the one made from cut up doilies that I have collected from my mum, my aunt and my mother in law. It was great to be able to spread the blocks out on the design wall (well the ones that would fit) and get a photo of how it looks. I cut more strips to go on the other side and started sorting through the 1.5" box of squares for the corner stones. 

I was tossing up about how to sew the other side on. I could sew what I have made (ie the blocks with one side on) into strips and then sew strips of the other side strips with cornerstones between and put it together like that. In the end I finished off each block individually and then played around with the block placement. Trying to keep the different colours of the strips and corner stones apart as well as the different pieces from the same doilies was pretty tricky and despite my best efforts I ended up with some next to each other but you get that. (or you do if you are me)

I tossed up whether to include the blocks that had the dark purple in them for ages but in the end have left them off. My sister Joy sent me some more doilies and other old embroideries that she was given by a friend at craft and I have decided that I will edge those ones in purple and together with ones I already have it will be enough for a small quilt.

What to do with the quilt when I finish it is another thing that has been causing me concern. It really isn't going to be suitable for a bed quilt - or only a bed that never gets lain on during the day. It has too many loose pieces of lace that could get caught up in and some of the fabrics are pretty fragile. For the same reason it is not suited to being a cuddle quilt.

I think I will make it into a table cloth. 

Talking of my design wall not fitting all the blocks onto it. FG asked me what I would like for Christmas (Our family starts thinking about it early as we have 2 sons born in November and so we are needing ideas for their presents and whilst we are on the job there we ask everyone else what they would like) I said I would like my design wall extended, an idea he had not long after he had made me my first one. We have started discussing options and hopefully he will come up with something that is going to do do the job beautifully. It is great having a handy husband.