January OMG goal met!

Today I completed my OMG goal. At the beginning of the month when I set out my monthly goals (see the sidebar of the blog to determine what they are) I selected one to be my OMG... my One Monthly Goal for the purposes of the OMG challenge.

This month the one goal I chose was to make 8 blocks towards my A to Z challenge. The A to Z Blog challenge is to blog every day for April, apart from Sundays. The topics of the blog are to follow the letters of the alphabet. I have participated in this challenge (that has a couple of thousand bloggers sign up each year) 2 years in a row choosing to blog on quilting subjects. 

This year I decided to step it up and to actually make something for each day. My daughter Fangirl has done this each year she has participated in the challenge. She has designed and then stitched cross stitch alphabet on one of the geeky/pop culture things she is interested in. Last year it was Pokemon and Supernatural. AND she did a travel one as well on a different blog. Overachiever much.

I am not a pattern designer so instead I have decided to find pattern blocks for each letter of the alphabet and to make them. To start with I assembled patterns for each letter of the alphabet, usually a couple so I had some choice. I did this last year, soon after the last Blog challenge finished and this month I have made 8 of them - ones starting with A to H. I'm making them 12" and will make the quilt in a 5 by 5 grid. I am yet to decide if I will put the extra block on the back or if I will try to make 2 blocks 6" finished and put them on the one block to get them all on the front. So far all my blocks have come from the same website Quilter's Cache however others may come from elsewhere.

Ideally I would love to have the quilt finished by the end of April... blocks together, quilted, bound, labelled already for the final reveal. So I am going to have to get a wriggle on and not just make the blocks ahead of time. So if I can I want to have half of the blocks done by the end of the month - that is make another 5. Not sure I can manage it but willing to give it a try. So I had better get off the computer and get on with the sewing.

Now I am facing a dilemma. The A to Z blog is kind of a big thing for me and I want my blocks to be special when I reveal them on there so I don't want to give too much away early BUT I really need to have a photo here for the purpose of the OMG goal... so... I will post a photo but I am not going to go into any detail about the blocks or tell you there names (now you are all devastated)

How did you go with your OMG project?

 Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal January Linkup .

An unexpected Project - Fitted Table Cloth tutorial

This week I am staying with our oldest child, Fangirl. She is a wonderful crafter, designing amazing pop culture cross stitches. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter and mostly on Instagram by that name

As well as having a blog, and a store on Etsy where she sells her patterns and more recently kits as well, she also goes to craft markets that have a geek theme and has had a stall at the big conventions like Comi Con (Brisbane and Melbourne) and this year will go to Supa Nova as well. 

She asked me if I could make her a fitted table cloth for her stall. They are required to have table cloths and she has been using a queen sized flat sheet that she had clipped into sort of shape but was wanting something a bit more professional looking. A fitted cloth that went to the ground would mean she could hide her extra stock, suitcase etc under the table out of the way and out of sight.

The fabric I had to use was her fitted sheet. I could have bought more fabric but what was the point? That was just going to be extra cost. It worked out pretty well.

The table that she has which she takes to craft markets when she has to supply her own table is 1.8m which is the size of the tables that she is supplied at the bigger conventions so making the table cloth to fit it would work well for both. We decided it would be best to make it a little loose fitting to allow for tables that might be a bit bigger.

I measured the width of the table and cut a strip of fabric that width , plus 4cm from the sheet, cutting it across the shorter of the sides and then trimmed it back to the length of the table plus 4 cms. This was for the tablecloth top.

I cut the remaining part of the sheet into two stips, again width ways which I then joined to make one long strip. This was for the table cloth skirt.

I found the centre of the longer side of table cloth top and pinned the centre seam of the skirt to the centre of the top, right sides together. I pinned it along the front of the top piece  and stitched from one front corner to the other front corner. 

Stitching the corner was tricky and there is probably a better way to do this but I just tried to work it around as neatly as I could. I sort of did it like a mitred corner.

Then I sewed to the next corner and worked my way around it and sewed till I ran out of skirt. Then I went back to my starting point and worked back the other way around the corner and sides and along the back till once again I ran out of skirt.

 I was left with a gap of about 24". Fangirl was happy with this as it gave her access but then we realised that the piece we had trimmed off the table top piece was about the right size for the gap. I hemmed the sides and the bottom and trimmed it to fit the gap and then sewed it table top, leaving it loose on the sides and creating a flap.

And that was it. Done. In about an hour. Its not the neatest job in the world and surely wouldn't win awards. There are no doubt ways to make it neater. Maybe if I had rounded the corners a little it would have been better (suggestions for fixing this are welcome) I did warn my daughter that I am not the greatest seamstress and she laughed and said "and asking a quilter to mend is like asking Picasso to paint your garage" (a meme I had recently shared on Facebook) However it will do the job. No doubt it might benefit from having all the seams neatened and if I had an overlocker that would have made things easier. But it is done and she is pleased with it and so am I. 

When I made it I had no intention of making a tutorial for it so there are no step out photos but hopefully this describes what I did well enough to inspire you should you have need to make something similar.

I am now thinking that I will make something similar for our Handmade With Love stalls. With our glorious leader Peg on the job I won't get away with such dodgy corners so will have to come up with an improvement.

Wip Wednesday

I finally got myself motivated to get moving on the POD quilt. I've only had one block to do - the last block and one block to redo... block 10. I'd messed up the labels on the books so decided to remake. A fellow PODer, Cassandra, from the facebook  group "Project of Doom"  kindly offered to send me some fabrics that she had used in the block. Block 10 is the one with the Standard Book of Spells, volume 1-7 (or 1-6 if you preferred cause Harry didn't do his last year) and she had 7 coordinating fabrics that looked great as the book spines. I got both the box for the jelly beans (Block 30) and the Spell Books (block 10) done Sunday.

I thought I hadn't printed them out yet and the printer wouldn't talk to my pc despite lots of stuffing about so I put the files I wanted for the blocks onto a memory stick and Fixit Guy used his pc to print them off for me. Then when I went to the box with my fabrics and completed blocks in it ... yeah you guessed it I found that I had already printed most of them off already. As well as Block 30 and block 10 I want to do some special blocks to go on and beside the book shelf. I want to do the broom stick, the sword, Dobby, flying keys and perhaps a cornish pixie or 2. I had trouble finding the Dobby pattern I wanted ... printed the wrong one twice but have found it now. I'll have to get it printed out.

In the meantime I have sewn all the book blocks together into rows and have started removing the paper from them. What a painful task that is. They look good on my design board

On Tuesday at Handmade Love I made some baby bibs. I had found the pattern on April Rosenthal's website here

They are really simple. We didn't use a charm pack but took 2.5" from the fabric we have been donated... there is heaps of it. (our co-ordinator said we are going to have to sew till we die to use it all up. Lol) I was going to cut some units but found some already cut. I got 2 made and working on a 3rd with the help of one of the other women who comes. The bias I used was pretty narrow but it was the best I had... no photos sorry. Forgot to take any. We will make some of our own bias at some point... but didn't worry about it today. I did end up cutting some more 2.5" squares from the scrap stash to use in future bibs. Have one young mum in our group and she loved choosing funky colour combinations so we'll make sure we do some of those too as well as some more traditional colour combos that the grandmas seem to prefer.

I have made good progress with some hexies.... have basted just about all the ones that I had pinned (think there are 3 left) so have to get some more prepped and ready to go. My aim was to make 100 this month and I've made in excess of 160 so pleased with that. Still a long way to go. 

Last year I made a panel of the 23rd Psalm into a wall hanging for the worship area of the aged care facility that Fixit Guy and I help out with on a weekly basis. The residents loved it. Recently I was able to purchase another religiously themed panel featuring a Lion and Lamb. I decided to make it into a wall hanging for there as well. I would like to have it finished to take up tomorrow but I had some assistants today whilst I was working on it. Haven't got as far as I would have liked!

The reason I have had these two helpers this week is that our daughter, Fangirl has been in Brisbane for the Comic Convention there. She had a stall there selling her cross stitch patterns, some kits and some made up items. She dressed up in her Hogwarts cloak for the occasion and Boyo, our youngest who was her assistant was also decked out as a Hogwarts school boy. If you want to see her patterns visit her Etsy shop... she's into all things geeky

 

Sunday Stash report

Haven't had much in the way of completions this week.... just the one bag. It was super cute though.

On Saturday night we went to a 30th birthday party - Fangirl, Fixit Guy and myself. It was also her housewarming and she had a watermelon theme. I worked on presents for her last week - but I wasn't able to show the results in case she visited my blog (which I don't think that she would but.....)



I can't find the link to the pattern I used for this... or at least based it on was from All People Quilt








On Friday I worked on using up lots of my scraps to make her a bag as my final thing. I didn't have a pattern - just made it up as I went along. Had a few booboos so did some unpicking (reverse sewing) but in the end I was really happy with how it turned out. I had a couple of little 6.5" squares featuring watermelons that I was able to work into the bag. I also had a watermelon applique (left over from the appliques I made for the towels and tea towels) 



I tried to make one side like the wonky log cabin that Amy Gibson had in her Craftsy class (2012 BOM class) but I just don't seem to get the hang of it. I really need to watch that month's lesson again. Still it worked out pretty well



I lined it and had a pocket on the inside. I still have some bits and pieces left over of the watermelon fabric and the other fabrics but I called it quilts after I made it. Ran out of time. I was still trimming the threads off the bag on Saturday.

Fangirl and I decided that since she was turning 30 we would give her 30 gifts, as much as possible with a watermelon theme. As well as the coasters, placemats, table runner, tea towels and hanging towels pictured above, her other hand made gifts included a turned wood bowl that Fixit Guy made her (which we wrapped to look like half a watermelon using red, green and white paper) and watermelon key ring and earrings designed and made by Fangirl.

We found watermelon flavoured chewing gum, tic tacs and lollies and watermelon print on a reusable shopping bag. We did have to throw in a few non watermelon related products too including the plastic crate that we put the gifts in... but it was red, We then wrapped the present in green red and white paper.

Fangirl watches her friend open our gift 

 It really was a watermelon themed party!!

The bag was my only finish for the week and used .86m of fabric.

And I had no purchases for the week. Despite visiting Spotlight and another fabric shop I only bought the iron on interfacing that I needed and a saucepan for the boys!

So this weeks stats are

Week 32

         Fabric Used                     0.86m
         Fabric Added                   0

Year To Date
         Fabric Used                    112.97m
         Fabric Added                    39.21m         

Net Used/Added                       73,76m   

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times

Stash Report

Its been another week of little projects finished.

A fellow Twilter DDR (I don't know her name or even what DDR stands for ! -now know the D is for Dianne) had tweeted a link pattern from Dog Under my Desk. The pattern was for this Earbud Pouch tutorial. 

It looked really cute and easy. Better still it used small zips. I bought a bundle of zips on eBay a few months back. The bundle included 12x7" zips which I had yet to find a useful pattern for. This was perfect. I didn't bother to print out the pattern sheet as I had decided that I would make my pouches from the contents of my 5" squares scrap draw. Using my compass I drew 2 x 5" circles on paper and cut one in half to be my pattern. I think the circles in the tutorial were smaller but I hate wasting fabric and figured that if the pouches were a little bigger then they could be coin purses or whatever.

I sewed 2 of the pouches during the week and have 10 more cut out ready to go. I don't have any rings to slip over the tab at the moment but will see if I can source them



Each pouch uses 4 x 5" squares and 2"x3" rectangle so not big fabric use but cute non the less. Used .12m

I made a boxy pouch during the week as well. 

I used plastic back curtaining for the outside of this one which will make it water resistant on the outside I hope Used  .3m

My daughter Fangirl asked me to make a cross stitch she had designed and stitched into a wall hanging. The pattern is available here from her Etsy shop here. It used .39m of fabric



My other stash usage for the week has been 6 hearts for 3 quilts for the children of a friend who died from cancer recently. She was a member of an online community I am part of and we are making these quilts for her 3 children aged 10 - 19. As well as my own 3 (below right)  I made the heart blocks for another member of our group (below left) who is not a crafter (who had been sick herself and feeling really snowed under). She sent me the fabric to use for her hearts. I supplied the background fabrics for her hearts. Don't you love the aboriginal print fabric she sourced? Used .24m

 

I had to go to Spotlight on Friday to get some vliesofix for the applique and whilst I was there I found some lovely Australian fabric so I bought half a metre of it. That was my only purchase for the week. Bought .51m

So my stats are

Week 30

         Fabric Used                     1.01m
         Fabric Added                   0.51m

Year To Date
         Fabric Used                    97.75m
         Fabric Added                  36.64m
         Net Used/Added             61.11m   

As a side issue I just looked at my excel spread sheet on which I record my finished projects and purchases. I am up to line 69 on my projects made page - and some of those line entries are for multiple things (but usually things like 6 hearts, or 10 serivettes or 2 boxy  bags) I am only up to line 19 on my fabric purchases sheet. Admittedly some of them were for fat quarter bundles but still - I like that I am running over 3 to 1 projects to purchases.     

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times

Sunday Stash Report - a little finish

This week I have been really busy and sewed heaps. I got my 2nd quilt for the month ready to send off to the long armer. I got the top  mystery quilt from Patch n Peace finished off with a couple of borders and then I pieced a back for it. I really pieced the back. I used up most of the extra units that I had pulled for the mystery quilt blocks as well as various other random left over bits from  various projects. It took me ages but I had fun. 

But its not yet quilted or bound or labelled so I don't get to count it as a finish so can't use the fabric from that

I also made 63 raggy hearts for a swap I am in with my Patchwork Group... but again... not able to be counted yet.

I DID have one finish though. Fangirl (my daughter) bought me over a cross stitched picture that she had completed for a swap she is in and asked if I would make it into wall hanging for her... which I did. It was only tiny but it was a finish so that is good. .28m The design is one of her originals and she sells the pattern on Etsy store - go here 



I also got some fabric in... an order that I had put in on Equilter turned up. Which is nice ... but it means I have to count it on a week there hasn't been much usage at all so I'm going backwards AGAIN. I got 5 half yards of fabric for a special secret project. I don't think that the person I am making it for reads my blog but just in case I won't say anything more. It metric that was  2.34m

So my stats for this week Week 25

Fabric Used                                0.28

Fabric Added                              2.34

Year to Date

Fabric Used                               69.26

Fabric Added                             35.35

Net Fabric used                        33.91m

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times

X as in x(cross) Stitching

I bet I am not alone is struggling with X for this blog. Often in this Blogging challenge the challenge for me has been choosing between any one of a number or equally excellent topics to write about for a particular letter. But for today's X, its been coming up with anything!

I am going to cheat and I bet I'm not alone in that! And in cheating I have two choices. (Well perhaps not cheat, but certainly stretch a point!)

The first is X stitching... ie cross stitching. I am not totally cheating with that use as I once belonged to an online group that used to used that short form in their name and we referred to ourselves as Xers (interestingly, since it was written I would pronounce that as Exers whilst others, when we had a meet up in person called us Crossers). I can't find it or any reference to it on line now so its probably folded long since. 

Anyway... I used to do a lot of cross stitching. I was a cross stitcher way before I got into patchwork. I taught or at least encouraged my daughter (known as Fangirl on this blog) in her cross stitching. I know that whilst she was learning and for a few years there after (a good few years thereafter) she had free reign over my cross stitching stash.I ended up giving it all to her in the finish as I had stopped doing it and she was forging ahead.

 Now she is the cross stitcher in the family and completes amazing projects. She designs and sell her own patterns. Check out her blog fangirlstitches.blogspot.com.au and her Etsy shop (there is a link in my side bar) I don't do much cross stitching any more. Anything I need I ask Fangirl to do (as they say Why have a dog and bark yourself). I do a bit of needlework occasionally, mainly to incorporate into my patchwork designs but cross stitching is a bit fine for me.

My last major cross stitch pattern completed in 2002

The other X is in SEX
Don't get excited. Or shocked if you are one of my regular readers who didn't think I was that sort of person to talk about sex on my blog. In quilting circles it can have a whole different meaning

SEX = Stash Enhancing eXperience (or eXcursion)  Definition from Slikstitchers

Patchwork groups sometimes arrange Sex tours when they are on a retreat or at a conference or national gathering. Its when the group tours a number of local quilting and patchwork shops. Sometimes there are special deals or discounts offered. Sometimes morning or afternoon tea is organised to happen at the shop. Sometimes there is a mini class or tutorial organised. It totally depends on the organisers and local shops as to what they come up with. I have never been on one fo these organised tours as such so can't really comment too much. 

I have been on some private seX tours.... when we took our oldest son to Brisbane for university Fixit Guy and I stayed on for a week whilst he settled in. I was still pretty new to quilting then and had looked up a number of Local Quilt Shops (LQS) and worked out how to get from one to another. Fixit Guy patiently drove me from one to another whilst I had a little browse in each one.

Trouble is - I really prefer shopping when there is something I want or need. I have never been overly good at buying things for the sake of getting something but when we had gone to all the trouble to visit a place it seemed a wasted opportunity not to buy something. Ideally if I ever get the opportunity to go on a private or organised seX tour I think I would enjoy it more if I were to have a project picked out - or else buy a pattern at the first stop and then look for something to use in that pattern at each stop. Or else have a list of things I need/want and again look for that at each shop.

When Fixit Guy and I had a 3 week tour of NSW back in 2013 after I got back from my trip to the UK I had such a pattern. I had bought the pattern in the UK just before this trip and when visiting patchwork shops in Canberra, Wagga and Coonabarabran I was looking for fabric to use in the quilt. You can read about the quilt that I made then in Teashop Open for Business

Friday (Lack of) Fitness

How embarrassing. Another Friday come around and I have failed to meet my goal of going to bed at 10 pm completely. I don't think I managed it once this week. Will start again on Monday and try really hard to meet it 5 out of 7 nights. Sigh. I did have a few excuses this week. It was Fangirl's 30th birthday last Friday and we went out to dinner as a family (well what family we had in town ie Fixit Guy, Fangirl, Boyo and me) We had played a game after we got home - a card game Boyo had that was way too complicated for my poor old brain. When we finished I ducked downstairs and proceeded to do some sewing to prove to myself that I still had it... that I really wasn't past it... that my brain did work. As a consequence it got a bit late.

Saturday was the big bbq here in the backyard to celebrate said birthday with extended friends (no family though... all our extended family lives minimum of 7 hours drive away). Spent the day preparing for it and then the party and then cleaning up from it. It was fun though (She had a suitably geeky theme of Adventures in Time and Space. We decorated in TARDIS blue, she wore the TARDIS dress I had altered for her and we decorated in blues and silver)  Her dad made and decorated her cake which we thought was pretty cool

And the rest of the week I seemed to stay up late sewing or watching tv or both. It was a productive sewing week but not so productive sleepwise.

My Steps have taken a bit of a battering as well. Not too bad but no extra big step days to make up for the few days where I missed the mark. Still only walking once a day and usually not at all on the weekend so lots of marching or jogging on the spot for me. I try to make sure I get 1 000 steps an hour on the days I don't walk at all or which I am being very sedentary. I'll sew for 10 minutes say and then jog to get 100 or 200 steps. It helps me keep the numbers up during the day when I'm sewing a lot... and this week I have done a lot of sewing

Friday                      10 109
Saturday                    9 608
Sunday                      8 232
Monday                  10 639
Tuesday                  10 103
Wednesday               8 118
Thursday                 12 310

I've developed a tummy bug these last few days - nothing major but feel a bit nauseous and tired so that hasn't helped too much. Fixit Guy has had it as well. When he gets a funny tummy he stops eating completely. Me... I always think that maybe if I eat something I will feel better. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. So he always loses weight (which he doesn't need to) when he is unwell and me... I often put some on!

 We are off to Brisbane for the weekend with Fangirl and a few friends to continue celebrating her birthday. Tonight we are going to Eat Street markets for dinner. Tomorrow afternoon we are going to a Chocolate High Tea at The Stamford in Brisbane. 

We are going late in the afternoon so it will do us for dinner before the show... we are going to see Wicked.



 We will no doubt go out for supper afterwards as well. Then Sunday we are meeting up with our son and his partner, Kombi Boy and Gamer Girl for breakfast in the city... so its going to be a weekend of good food so I am not going to pretend that any diet is  happening. I will try to make healthy choices where possibly... and when there isn't something more tempting on offer.

Throwback Thursday on a Friday

Running late with this blog post... by about 3 months and a day. However I wanted to write one today to throwback to something that happened 30 years ago.

30 years ago today I became a mum for the first time. Yes my darling daughter, known on this blog as Fangirl, turns 30 today. Happy birthday sweetheart.

Its been an amazing 30 years filled with lots of adventures, a few misadventures, travel, challenges, ups and downs. Here's a few photos from over the years

 

  She's a much respected professional in her role as an Occupational Therapist; a new home owner, She has her own mini craft business selling cross stitch patterns (Fangirlstitches.blogspot.com.au) She's  my go to technical advisor for all things blog related (and computer program related) She's my favourite person to ring up and go for a coffee or a quick lunch, a keen companion for movie trips and always willing to be co-opted for a shopping trip or a theatre outing. So pleased that she lives locally. Love you darling girl