WIP Wednesday. An unexpected project

Since my big finish last week (Jean's Jeans is done whoot again... sorry will stop it soon) I have been working away when I have had the chance on making the borders for Vanishing Hours, my Disappearing Pinwheel quilt from Missouri Star Quilt Company here I didn't bring the top with me on this trip but I did have the measurements of the blocks put together so I could make the borders... only for some reason I deleted the note off my phone when I was cleaning up one day. I don't know why I did it. But I did. So I have been mentally calculating how big I think it is (or it will be. Do you know I can't even remember if I have put the blocks together... I don't think I have... but maybe I did...)

I bought all the leftover scraps from the blocks with me the big and the small pieces so I could work on the borders. Firstly I made the piano key borders. I decided that they would be 5" wide. I cut my scraps... well some of them anyway ... into strips varying between 2" and 1" and sewed them together then cross cut them into 5 " strips and ended up with 4 long strips of piano keys totalling 330". I made each strip 70-80"plus a 5th that I can add to any strip to make longer. So... piano key done (I hope)

 I also wanted to do an hour glass border. I like to feature the block that was "disappeared" in the border if I can (well that is what I did with my Disappearing Pinwheel) so started to make those whilst camped at Duck Point. I was able to cut 51 5" squares from my remaining green scraps and when I did the calculations I think I am going to need 52 so that is pretty good. I have more green fabric at home. I was able to cut 20 x 5"cream squares also so am going to need to buy about 25" of cream tone on tone at some point on this trip. Actually I am visiting a quilting friend when I am in Adelaide so might be able to scrounge a 5" square from her if I need to.

I have done a little hand sewing on Teashop Quilt but not much. We did visit a little teashop in a small town we came through when travelling from Duck Point to Melbourne. We had the most enormous scones with a bucket (It seemed) of jam and cream. Pretty good.


My other major project here in Melbourne has been curtains. Massage Man, our oldest son whom we are visiting here in Melbourne has recently moved into a new flat with his cousin Peter(whom I keep calling Pete, which he doesn't like but lets me get away with it... but I should stop it if he doesn't like it... if only I could remember)  and so I have been making a few curtains for him. Not the most exciting sewing but I am pleased to be able to do something for him whilst we are here.



He chose the fabric by instant messaging. I photographed some and sent them to him. He chose the green


Sewing them has been a bit of a challenge. We had to take one of our folding tables with us to his flat as he has no tables. Getting curtain rail up was a challenge for Fixit Guy but he managed it. Then whilst I sewed the second curtain, FG and later our son, put the hooks on, drew the cords in and hung the first one. I have the second one ready for their attention now but still have two more to get sewn. Hopefully will manage to get them done this evening when we are over there as we leave town tomorrow. They  might not get hemmed!! I'll add more photos when I get them this afternoon.


So... what have you been working on this week

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Wrapping up my September Monthly Goals

Only one more day of September to go so time to review how I went with my September Goals

1) Jeans quilt. The circles are all cut and 190 of them have the 5" square traced onto them. I want to get the other 65 circles marked and the 255 5" squares selected. Completed

 


2) Finish tracing off the applique pieces for the tea shop quilt. Select fabric and get the applique ironed onto background fabric ready for our trip. Sort out embroidery threads to take with us. Completed apart from sorting out the threads. I have worked out a design for the quilt and will be able to work out what extra blocks I need to make, hopefully tomorrow and get them packed for our trip

3) continue working on Disappearing Hourglass Vanishing Hours quilt. I completed 30 blocks which I thought would be enough with sashing but have since decided to do a different arrangement without sashing so needed to make another 10 blocks. I have completed two and have the other hour glass blocks made. Still have to cut them up and remake them into the disappearing aspect

4) put together the quilt that is currently on my design wall. The Orphan Block Quilt - Orphan Annie is completed

5) Do that Photography class on Craftsy. I have rewatched parts of this class. I have found my disk for my camera and starting to make work of understanding it. Not got far but have started.

6)  So Make curtains as required for Fangirl's townhouse. Completed! She moved in Friday (well that was the first night she slept there. She had the keys from Wednesday) The curtains were all hanging by then although she then decided she needed another sheer curtain for a window that she had previously thought that she would just have a block out curtain on so we got that done Saturday. They really are very basic curtains but she is happy with them.

So with just one day left in the month I can say I have covered all my goals for September. Well the Craftsy class isn't complete but have worked on it a bit

Now to work out what I want to accomplish for October. How are your goals for the year coming along?

Sunday Stash Report - a couple of little finishes

I surprised myself this week with a couple of finishes that I wasn't expecting at all. Earlier on in the week I made 2 new cloths for the head of my steam mop. I made them out of towelling. One was an old towel my husband had from before we were married and the other was from some towelling my aunt had in her things that I was given when I helped her daughter-in-law clean out her things after her death. (I talked about making them in this blog post)

I also made a postcard for a Fall swap organised by Sandi@QuiltcabanaPatterns That shouldn't have been unexpected as I knew it was coming up however it suddenly hit me that I would need to get the postcard finished before I left for our camping trip so I had to speed things up a bit. Still can't show you pictures of the finished product as my swap partner won't have received it yet (waves to Nonnie) However as soon as she lets me know that it has arrived safely I will post my pictures. I was rather pleased with how it turned out.

It was hard to calculate fabric used in these two projects as neither of them was straight sided but I did a bit of a guesstimate on them and came up with .57m for the mop heads and .28 for the postcard so the grand total used was .85m

No fabric bought... no surprise packets in the mail of forgotten Massdrop purchases so my YTD figures are


Used this week:                               0.85m

Added this week                              0.00m

Year to Date Used                       123.13m
Year to Date added                      90.82m
Net Used                                          32.31m


Fangirls curtains are hung and looking good. She decided she needed another sheer curtain in a window that faces the street. Its at the top of the stairs and gives a lot of natural light to the stairs and the hallway upstairs. She had a heavier curtain that would be good there at night and in the afternoon when the westerly sun streams in but needed the sheer curtain as well to give her privacy during the day. I just have to shorten it for her and my curtaining duties are DONE. I wasn't able to get decent photos of the other curtains I've completed due to the light coming in the windows but it is good to have the done and Fangirl is pleased with them so all good.

Linking up with Stash Report@patchwork times

WIP Wednesday

This week
Made my postcard for the Fall Postcard Swap run by Sandy@ QuiltCabanaPatterns. I got it made yesterday and then did a bit of extra tweaking on it this morning. No pictures though until my postcard partner receives it. I posted it to Nonnie, my swap partner today so she should have it in a week or so and when she lets me know she's received it then I will post photos here. Got to keep the surprise. I also made two cloths

Vanishing Hours Disappearing Hourglass.
I posted two photos of my blocks on a Facebook group I belong to. In one I had arranged the blocks without sashing and in the second I had left a space so the cream of the design wall's wadding would show through to mimic the sashing. I asked for opinions as to which one to go for. I have received heaps of comments and people are reasonably evenly divided as to which they prefer. Some people were quite strong in their opinion and offered other comments as to what I should and shouldn't do which amused me somewhat.

Then someone on Facebook suggested this arrangement (which apparently is on Missouri Star)

Alternate arrangement for the block

I really really like it. Its not as busy as the other arrangement. I liked the idea of sashing because it was less busy and I love the cream spaces. This has the cream spaces but also has some interesting secondary patterns. I think I will do this one. I am going to do another 14 or so which will mean that I can swap out some of the blocks I am not so happy with particularly the one on the far right of the 2nd row. Its so pale it is reading white/cream

I have cut up the cream fabric and have selected 14 green squares from my stash so am right to go. Not sure when I will get to make them though... would love to get them made before I leave next week but we shall see.


Tea Shop Applique quilt.
I have made up all the blocks I had traced off. Working out how many more I will need to do to have enough for a quilt. I was figuring out alternatives in my design book the other day but haven't reached any conclusions.

My other project this week has been to get curtains made for Fangirl's new home. She officially took possession of it today. She and Fixit Guy spent a good bit of the afternoon putting together some of the furniture that she had bought and which got delivered today as well. They have been having fun with the directions... not always particularly clear. Tomorrow they are going to put up the curtain rails so I can hang the curtains and work out the hemline.

bedroom and loungeroom curtains

So that is my work in progress for this week. What have you been up to?

Linking up with
 

Updating September Quilty Goals

Since we are over half way through the month I thought that it would be good to check in on my goals for September

1) Jeans quilt. The circles are all cut and 190 of them have the 5" square traced onto them. I want to get the other 65 circles marked and the 255 5" squares selected. The circles are all cut and marked. the 5" squares selected. Now call this quilt Jean's Jeans Quilt.

 


2) Finish tracing off the applique pieces for the tea shop quilt. Select fabric and get the applique ironed onto background fabric ready for our trip. Sort out embroidery threads to take with us. All the applique squares are prepped. I am still hoping to get more of the backing fabric cut up for the finished quilt so I can make more blocks if I finish off what I have already made. I will take patterns, backing fabric and fabric with me.

3) continue working on Disappearing Hourglass Vanishing Hours quilt. All the blocks for the quilt are made (unless I decide to make another 10) I have only 2 more quilting days left before we leave and not sure I will get to spend much time there on these days. Working out if I am going to sash the blocks or not

4) put together the quilt that is currently on my design wall. This was my orphan block quilt. The top is finished. I am not going to give it away as a donation quilt as making it made it rather special and so want to give it to someone special. Would have loved to have gotten it quilted before I go on holidays but that is not to be. (this is photo of it unfinished)

5) Do that Photography class on Craftsy. No progress made on this. Sigh

6)  So Make curtains as required for Fangirl's townhouse. Have started to make these. Fortunately she has chosen blinds for several windows so it is only two sets of window that need curtains. I have one set made apart from the hems which I won't do till I can check them off on the actual windows. The other set are started. I have the gathering tape pinned along the tops of the curtains but have to sew them on.

So two thirds of the way through the month I have made good progress. I have completed 4 of the 6 goals - ie 1,2,3 and 4. One has been started - 6. Only one not done at all. I am wondering if I should just give up on that Craftsy class and move on.

What progress have you made this month?

Quilty Resolutions Update

At the beginning of the year Sandy from Quilting for the Rest of Us challenged us(encouraged us... there was bribery involved :)... well rewards anyway) to come up with three quilt related resolutions for the year. (actually they were quilting monkeys on our backs)

My Three were

1 Make a quilt for my great nephew Lukas. He was born in August and I was overseas and since I got back just haven't managed to get to it.

2. Sort my stash to get out all my little bits out of the stash and into my scrap bins cut into the sizes that I use

3.Sort through my 2nd hand fabrics or repurposed fabrics and get them into usable piles.

I am very pleased to be able to announce that I have fulfilled all three of my resolutions.

Actually when I did my first quarter update in late March here I had already completed the first two resolutions and I had started on the 3rd ie getting my repurposed fabrics sorted. I completed that not all that long after I wrote the post.

Having completed the three of them I am thinking I should come up with a few more. I did try writing goals for the next month a couple of times. I should do that again. Since its the end of June on Monday its a good time to do it. I

My May goals were

May Goals

1. Finish Not So Sombre Stars for Derek

2. Tidy my sewing room (photo of the current mess will be posted here soon)

3 Make the Curtains for the Spare Room

4 Empty Scrap basket again

5 Order Tea Room Pattern (my Mothers' Day gift to myself perhaps)

6 Do at least one of my Craftsy Classes

So now its the end of June how did I go?

1.  I finished Not So Sombre Stars for Derek. Waiting for the signature squares from other people held me up a bit but eventually I got them in and got the quilt put together and quilted. I gave it to him last Sunday in church. I wish I had taken a photo of him with it. ... might have to go visit him to get that.

II 

2. I tidied my sewing room at least once but it  has deteriorated somewhat and needs it all again.

3. I made the curtains for the spare room. Got these finished early May and I am very grateful for them now as Fixit Guy  and I are currently sleeping in there whilst our en suite is being remodelled. Means the builders can get in there a bit earlier and can leave their stuff in there etc

4 I emptied my scrap basket again but it is full again. I will have to have a day cutting them up and putting them away 

5. I have just ordered this pattern. It will be good to have a hand project now that my Fixit Guy is about to retire and we might be doing a fair bit of travelling in the near future. I will be taking my little Platinum Gem with me but can't actually use that whilst we are driving along. Not sure how long it will take to get to me as it is coming from the UK (From Puddleducks, the shop I bought the original pattern from and then lost. More information on this blog post

                                                             

6 Craftsy classes. I haven't completed any although I have watched most of 2 of them. I haven't done the projects. The two I have watched most of are Wendy Butler Bern' Machine Quilting and Caro Sheridan's "Shoot It" I have found myself applying some of the stuff I heard to my quilting and my photography but I do want to do them properly. Sandy sets a high standard as to what she has to achieve before she declares a class done and I want to emulate her... I just don't seem to reach there.

So... for the next month (or 2) what do I want to achieve? What will my goals be. 

July Goals 

1. Finish the top for my Disappearing into the Blue quilt and make the backing. I am going to piece it from leftover fabric I got for the top. Then send it out to get quilted. Its going to be 90"x100" and too big for me to enjoy working on. I'll probably send it to my friend Kym at Professional Quilting Service

2. Trim up the half square triangles and start assembling my Black and White (with a touch of red) trip around the world quilt. (waiting for my special ruler to arrive)

3. Make Gamer Girl's Christmas Stocking (She's my son's partner and she doesn't have her own Christmas stocking at our place. We currently use one of the "spares" for her but she definitely needs her own special one) I want to have it done well and truly before Christmas!!

4. Finish Teddies and Pinwheels quilt (top and back made. Needs pinning and quilting)

5. Finish Twist and Disappear (Disappearing 9 patch with a twist quilt) Needs pinning and quilting.

6. Finish the two Craftsy Classes I have almost finished. Do some of the projects/exercises mentioned in them!!

7. Start Teashop wall hanging when it arrives.

8. Make seasonal wall hanging from the stitcheries my mum made for me

I had better stop there before I get way too adventurous and over commit myself 

A finish which won't win prizes

I have a finish. 

Yes! Yay. Not a quilt but still a finish.

 The curtains for the spare room are done and hung and ready for the visitors who arrive tomorrow. They are not the best curtains I have ever made. They are in fact rather dodgey. In January I oversaw the making of curtains for our church manse (the name of the house where the minister lives in the Uniting Church of Australia. Manse is used in a number of different denominations... Baptist's call their minister's house a manse too.In fact most denominations that I know do... except for Anglicans who have vicarage and or parsonage, and Catholics.... ) 

Anyway in January we made curtains for our manse for the lounge and master bedroom and repaired and switched around some other curtains. They all went fine. I got lots of credit there (not all of it due mind you but still.....) So I wasn't at all worried about these curtains. One set of sill length curtains, self patterned so no stripes or patterns to match. Easy

Well I think that they cut them wrong in the shop for a start. I had measured the drop, added the hem and the turning for the top and then ordered 3 drops. When I started to make the curtains I realised that one drop was a bit shorter than the others but I wasn't worried.But I DIDN'T CHECK I was confident I had over estimated, added more than I needed for the hem and the header cause I always do.  I needed to cut one of the drops in half and sew one half to each of the other drops. when I sewed it to one, it was okay, bit out but not too bad but when I sewed the second half it was out by about 15 cms. I unpicked it and sewed it again, trying to stretch the short side out a bit but no good. I still wasn't worried cause I thought I had allowed heaps extra for the hem.

My machine didn't seem to like sewing the plastic backed curtains. It wouldn't feed through properly and it was seeming to gather it Now not sure what was happening with my machine but it sure didn't like sewing that plastic backed curtain It did seem to gather it a bit. It got worse as I tried to fix it. (Think now that this was due to me trying to stretch it out when with the plastic backed curtaining there is no stretch. so just like with quilting if you over stretch the backing when clamping it to the table or taping it to the floor, when you release the clamps the back retracts to where it was and causes puckering cause the top isn't as stretched out. So in trying to fix the problem I made it worse)

I hung the curtains without turning the hem for a couple of days to let them drop. Thursday morning I took them down in order to try to get them sewn in time for my visitors who arrive Friday night. I measured where I want the hem to turn and took the curtains down... and that is where I ran into problems. I found that the short seam, the one where one side was 15cm shorter than the other, ended at the window sill with no fabric left for the turn up for the hem.  What a mess. I couldn't trim to curtains off to be even as they would be 15cms too short.

What I should have done was added some fabric to the bottom in order to make a false hem but I was in a hurry and not really thinking straight. For those following my blog or on twitter or facebook will know that I am not really well at the moment. I seem to be suffering a resurgence of the Barmah Forrest Virus I had last year. (go here for my whinge about it earlier this week)

SO I did a really bodgey job SOO... I turned a narrow fold over on the short bit all the way to the edge of the curtain. (following the bottom of the fabric to just give it the first turn Then turned the hem up to where it needed to be on the edge of the curtain  and got the bottom even so it was straight across. I then sewed across in a straight line  to the other side of the curtain even though that meant that after a point I wasn't actually catching the bottom of the curtain.but the hem looks like it is sewn straight.

 Once my visitors are gone and I feel better I might take them down and fix them up. But for now they are up and they look okay. The bed head is higher than the window ledge so you can't see the bottom of the curtains anyway. Guess its really a case of Fake it Till You Make It... or in this case Fake it WHEN you make it

You can see what I mean here with people not really being able to see the hems  

The photo would have been better if I had pulled the bed forward but it is so heavy I could hardly move it

Ta Dah

I am not going to photograph my disgusting hemming. You get photos of the curtains hanging in the spare room and that is it. If you want to see my dirty little secret you have to come visit and ask to see them. That way I will know who reads my blog. (My sister in law reads my blog. But I am pretty safe. She has only visited me once in this house and we have lived here 25 years. She does like me... well she says she does. Well she reads my blog anyway... sometimes)

I could just keep quiet about all this... not mention it to anyone. Who would notice. Who is going to look at the hems of the curtains in my spare room. Least said soonest mended. But that is not my way... oh no... why spoil a good story... lets just put it out there. Mention it on my blog that is read by hundreds the world over. OK I exaggerate. This blog is read by about 15 people on a regular basis. None of you live locally. Some live across the world. Some of you I know I have completely confused by using words like Dodgey and Bodgey (both mean basically the same... not a good quality - way less than perfect, pretty hit and miss, B-grade. Dodgey or dodgie is usually an adjective... He's a bit dodgey (untrustworthy) or He did a dodgey job (unreliable) Bodgiey is more likely to be a verb... bodgied it up... fixed something but not properly, using poor materials or made it look ok on the surface but not really fixed. Well that is how I use them and how my family does. Other people might dispute these interpretations. 

Linking up with Thank Goodness its Finished Friday and Can I get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict