WIP Wednesday on Thursday

I was flicking through my Pinterest feed (as you do) and checked out a link to "20 Great Ideas to Do with Denim" or something similar. As I have a box full of denim bits left over from my Jean's Jeans quilt from a few years ago, I clicked on it and fell down that rabbit hole and came across a raggy denim quilt tutorial. Now I would do the right thing and link to it BUT I didn't save it so I can't. But... it was pretty basic. Cut a piece of denim and a piece of colourful fabric to whatever dimension you want (I chose 8") and cut a piece of batting 1" smaller, sew an X to secure the 3 pieces together 

then sew these units, denim sides together into a quilt of whatever size you want, clip the exposed raw edges, 

wash and dry 

and clean your machine out and the filter on the dryer

and voila - a picnic rug.

Digby gave it the doggy seal of approval but Jack stayed clear. He's been in trouble for getting on quilts before.

Can you see the pockets and seams? I love those bits the most

The tutorial writer encouraged the maker to use all parts of the jeans including the pockets, seams and zips. I had a heap of pockets left over from my previous jeans project (called Jean's Jeans)* as it needed straight denim, no extra bits. Unfortunately the pieces I had with zippers in them weren't big enough to be used in this project.

I did have a few hassles. My machine had "no sew" spots at different times, some of which I picked up on at the times, others I found whilst clipping the seam allowance and others afters I had washed and dried it. I am not sure why it was playing up. I kept finding more spots that had to be resewn whilst showing the quilt to friends at Patchwork. That aside it was a great project.

It was fun to get a quilt started and finished in the same week - basically over the weekend.

I got 2 other finishes this week (as reported in my Stash Report) I finished off my club mystery quilt, now known as "Chillingworth Mystery" named after the fabric line it was mostly made from. 

I also finished Sparkle, the last of the Sparkle baby quilts I have had on the go for almost a year.

At Handmade With Love yesterday Peggy, our glorious leader had me on signature bear production! The other ladies present were working on cushion covers and a personal project. I finished cutting out 2 more bears and got the legs and arms sewed and stuffed and the body and ears sewn! I have done the head before but Peggy already had these done. I don't do features - I leave that to her to do as she is a bit more creative than me. Faces of stuffed animals and dolls I have made end up looking like the toy is a little demented or a sandwhich short of a picnic!

Two finished signature bears, which I helped work on last week and which Peggy finished off. They are now waiting delivery to our minister on Sunday for use at baptismal services.

Usually when I come home from HWL I spend the rest of the day sewing other projects for the group - recently I have been concentrating on things for Comic Con but yesterday I started cutting up my flannels to make a backing for a quilt. I have had the  this flannel for years and years but not used them so decided to make a backing out of them. 

They are a pretty mixed bag and to be honest the resulting strips are pretty hodge podge and not very attractive. Having cut them up I am determined to press on but... to be honest... its ugly. Luckily its just the back. Oh and I don't have enough. Maybe I will make a lap quilt out of what I have cut up and make something else (or eh gad buy something) for the backing. I was going to finish working on it today and see what a mess I have ended up with and decide then.

My A to Z quilt is at a standstill as I need to buy fabric for the borders and maybe backing, although I do have some stuff in my stash that would do for the backing. We are going to be going to Rocky this weekend so I will visit Spotlight then and hopefully find something not too expensive that will do.

I worked on a Secret Project at Patchwork. Got lots of blocks made, came home and starting sashing and arranging them. I am still a couple of blocks short. I could change the layout from 5x5 and put the extra blocks I have on the back or I could come up with the blocks that I need for the front. I have come up with 2 more (still need to be finished off but I know what they are) but am one short. I am prowling the house seeing if I can find just one more to complete the quilt

I have sewn up a pile of plastic backed curtain off cuts into cushions to be stuffed with fabric off cuts and made into dog beds. I got one finished this week which I've put into the laundry where our dog sleeps at night but I think its over stuffed and I am going to have to do some unpicking to remove some of the fabric and batting off cuts. I collected another full grocery bag of scraps from Patchwork yesterday so will have the stuffing for another cushion or two before long. The dogs don't really need more beds but I can always give them away.

see what I mean... its a bit too full to be comfy

And that has basically been it for the week. 

Linking up with 

* for some reason quite a few of the photos I used have disappeared off the post. I am not really sure why nor how to fix it but there are enough photos for you to get the idea.

WIP Wednesday

Just realised that I could have done my WIP Wednesday post for my W post this week as the days neatly coincided however I have already written and posted my W contribution so this is a bonus issue. If you are here for the A to Z blogging challenge post go back a post.... or stay and read this one instead.

We are on the road at the moment and its been difficult to find sewing time. Last week we were staying in Sydney with my oldest sister (a very young 70+ woman who runs rings around most of the rest in our family) We visited my mum (93 and in an aged care facility) and some other friends whilst we were there. We also caught up with 3 of my sister's grandchildren and some other special friends. No time to sew.

On Friday we drove north an hour or 2 to a place just north of Newcastle for the wedding of my niece Cristy. It was a beautiful wedding full of so many special moments - the most tear inducing one for me was when the groom made some special promises to his Step daughter (8 year old Charlie) as part of the ceremony and she announced that she was taking his name. 

Anyway it was a great afternoon and evening catching up with 6 of my 7 siblings and partners and a good few nieces and nephews as well. A great time was had by all.

The next day we drove for almost 12 hours (with stops) to get to Melbourne. We wanted to get here so as to be able to spend some of the weekend with our oldest son (The Beast). He works during the week.

Sunday he took us to the zoo which was a really fun day although the Melbourne families were out in force taking advantage of the beautiful weather and the long weekend. The zoo was crowded with heaps of prams too. There was one family group whom we kept encountering who had some very loud and boisterous children who were basically ignored by parents. Mostly though the kids were having fun and doing the right thing and people were polite and everyone was having a good time.

Monday was a public holiday in Australia for the Anzac Day - our national day or remembrance for all those who served in wars. At home we usually attend the local parade but we didn't feel like braving the crowds in the city for the big parade and didn't know where the community based parades were being held. Instead we went for a drive down to Frankston and enjoyed the sand sculptures there. It was the last day of the 4 month exhibition and a few of the sculptures were showing some wear but it was a great show called A Day At the Zoo

 My Yetti (The Beast) with the Sandscupture Yetti

The sand sculture Steam punk structure

A sculpture from The Petting Zoo

Tuesday we packed up our unit and drove across the city (after Fixit Guy had fixed the indicators that had stopped working) and..... we picked up our NEW CARAVAN (am I excited - you bet) The company we got it from did a very thorough induction into the caravan so we knew what we were getting and how it all works. Then we towed it to a van park and set it up.

Fixit Guy enjoying the bed upon which I had spread my "Jean's Jeans" quilt which I made during our last extended camping trip (October - December 2014)

I was itching to set up my sewing space. I unpacked the car and settled us in and then got my machine out and plugged in... and Fixit Guy suggested we go shopping to get some food and other bits and pieces. I reluctantly dragged myself away.

Tuesday was also Fixit Guy's birthday. He got a van from me. Pretty good present. Our son The Beast and his girlfriend Beauty came over to check out the van and then take us out to dinner. Beauty had given him a door mat for the van (It is a perfect fit) and the Beast gave him an electric jug and toaster for the van.

Home again for cake (baked by Beauty and decorated with crumbled Violet CrumbleBars (Honey comb... FGs favourite chocolate) and then they left and .... I didn't go to bed. I got that machine out and did a little bit of sewing. I had been missing it so much.

Today we have stayed home all day apart from another walk over to the supermarket for a few extra things and a coffee as the power went out at the van park for 2 hours (scheduled outage)

Apart from that time I have sewn. I have been working on the piano key border for Onya Bike, (T Intersection Quilt pattern by Missouri Star.) I have used up all the scraps from the blocks plus cut up more fabric. 

I am still a bit short having put it all together. Not very much - perhaps 15" over all. I have a 3 bike trees that I was thinking of using as corner stones.... but I am going to need 4... so maybe I won't use them as corner stones after all. I am still wondering what I shall do and that is why I have stopped sewing and am instead writing my blog.

I have been posting daily for the A to Z  Blogging Challenge all through April. It was W today so only have 3 more posts. Mostly I had them prewritten and scheduled their posting. I did have to go in and fix up a few and had Y and Z still to write this week but they are done. Part of the challenge is to visit other blogs on the challenge which has been very interesting (and time consuming) 

sunday Stash report... some movement at last

I'm so excited to write this post. At last I have another finish. Its been a long haul... week after week of reporting in to say that there has been no changes cause I hadn't had a finish and while I wasn't having a finish I wasn't going to go buy anything either... well no fabric

However as of Tuesday this week I have a finish. I have spoken about this finish in the last 3 blog posts I have written so won't go on about it any more but if you haven't been following the blog then if you look here or here you will be able to read about the story of this finish.

The stuff for today's post though is how much fabric I used. The quilt measured 212 cm  wide by 222 cms long - or for those of you playing along in inches that's . Putting that into the Excel spreadsheet using Pam from Hip to Be a Square Podcast trusty formula and the settings my Fixit Guy set up means I used a whopping 10.72 metres of fabric used. Whoot Very excited by that number! I didn't buy any actual fabric for this quilt. I did buy a few pairs of jeans from the Op Shops and some friends gave me their old jeans as well - or in Jean's case she gave me a bag of jeans from the op shop she volunteers at that were going to be discarded.

I didn't count the fabric from the jeans as fabric in because I didn't know how to calculate it and some of it I already had and some I got in extra... so in a way I am cheating by counting it all. My FG thinks I should only count half of it but stuff it... I'm counting the lot... so sue me!

So my figures for this week are

Used this week:                               10.72m (whoot whoot)

Added this week                              0.00m

Year to Date Used                       133.31m
Year to Date added                      90.82m
Net Used                                          42.491m

The entire quilt has been sewn on my Janome Jem whilst I have been travelling with my husband in our camper trailer. We've been on the road since early in October. I have sewn it in lots of different locations. Here are some of them

on the desk in the spare room at the town house my younger sons share in Brisbane

in the camper trailer in Lane Cove National Park, Sydney

Sewing in the camp kitchen at Gambell's rest, Morton National Park near Bundanoon

Beachcombers Resort, Potato Point Bodalla, NSW

Bega

Lake Tyers

Linking up with Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times

Finish It Up Friday - Jean's Jean Quilt is done

It was so great to get a finish this week. I have already blogged about it on WIP Wednesday but when you haven't had a finish for a while its hard to let a good thing go.

Jean's Jeans Quilt.
This quilt has been my machine project for our camping holiday. Fixit Guy and I left our home in Central Queensland October 4th and have been on the road ever since... well sort of. We have had lots of stops along the way. (for between 2 and 7 days ... we did have had a couple of overnight stops that we haven't put the tent up for. One time we stayed in a motel and once we stayed with my sister)

I did all the prep for this quilt it before I left home... cutting up the jeans, marking out the circles, marking the square inside the circle, cutting all the square fabric (well they mostly came from my 5" square scrap drawer). I didn't do any sewing though and I was busting to get down to it

 

THe pattern I used was The Blue Jean Quilt by Penny Halgren as demonstrated on her YouTube video here

I started sewing the circles together Monday October 6th and finished it on Wednesday November 6th so that was pretty organised of me now wasn't it
         
I had planned to make the quilt 17 rows by 15 rows. To make the quilt I sewed 4 circles together to make one "flower". I then sewed in the coloured squares os, zigzagging the petals down on two sides to secure them.


Because there was to be originally an odd number of rows both length and breadth of the quilt I also made some 6 circle units and one 9 circle unit. Then I sewed the 4 circle units into strips with one 6 circle unit to make 7 strips 2 circle x 15 circles long. I also sewed one strip using all 6 circle unit strips plus the 9 circle unit to make one strip 3 x 15 circles.

 

Once I had all the strips completed  I decided I would like it a little wider. I had enough extra circles with me and almost enough of the 5 " squares. I had some other scrap fabric with me to do another project and was able to cut enough squares from that to enable me to make all the extra units. So eventually the quilt was 17 circles by 16 circles, a total of 272 circles.
 
I sewed all this using my little Janome Jem which, whilst being a work horse, doesn't have a very big harp to squish fabric through. Its been made a bit smaller by Fixit Guy adding some extra lights there for me. I had to be very particular how I sewed things together adding one strip at a time to the next - not making it any more than 2 or 3 units being squished under the harp to be zigzagged down. Usually I tend to keep adding to multiple units and then sew some bigger units together but this had to be just one getting added to the bigger unit at a time.
 
I did run into a few problems along the way. The main was that I kept getting little holes where the 4 circles would meet up. It didn't all fit neatly together like Penny's did in her video. The main reason for this I believe is that my initial circle wasn't drawn out properly. I wanted to use my 5" squares that I already had cut. So the circle had to fit the square. After some difficulty trying to work out what the radius of such a circle was my FG pointed out that I already had the diameter... just fold the 5"square on the diagonal and measure that... simple really. I did that and then halved it. However when drawing my circle I just used the "tie a pencil to a bit of string and pin the string at the length you want the radius to be  and trace around" trick... and I did it on my own and in a hurry and... I think my circle was a bit wonky. I traced off heaps of circles and then started to draw off my square and I knew straight away that the circle wasn't quite right... but since I had already traced and cut out a heap I just kept going... and as a result it wasn't accurate and so it didn't fit properly.

It meant a bit more fiddling around... a bit of darning of holes. It meant that not all the petals are the same size and its not all nicely matched up. BUT... it is done. Its on the bed. It looks lovely and its been keeping us warm. It was never going to be a show quilt. Being a bit vain I didn't take photos of the holes.

Anyway its done and on the bed and I love it








I've sewn this quilt whilst we have travelled down the Australian Eastern Seaboard from Maroochydoore to Lakes Entrance. I have sewn it  in my sons' town house, 3 National Parks, and 3 caravan parks so its been a well travelled quilt. My sewing room has been in a lot of different places. I have photographed most of them... flick back through my blog over the last month if you don't usually follow me and you can see some of the lovely places that I have been

We still have another month on the road so I have moved on to another project although it won't be a finish this trip... making the borders for a quilt that is at home still 


Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday

and Mrs Sew and Sows blog

WIP Wednesday - a finish

We have had 4 camping here at Lake Tyers and its been a powered sight which means... yes I could sew away. So... lots of progress. So much so that I have a finish. Yes Jean's Jean Quilt is done. Whoot. I had it prepped and read to go when we hit the road a month ago but had done no sewing so it has been totally put together as we have travelled down the Eastern Coast of Australia from Brisbane to Lakes Entrance in Victoria (with a slight detours up to Maroochydore and out to Bundanoon)

I completed it yesterday and I am so excited to be able to finally have a finish to count next Sunday in my Stash Report.

Partly put together - 4 strips sewn together on the bed in the camper

pressing open the last of the seams before I zigzagged them down

ironing in the laundry at Lake Tyers

All done! Laid out on the lawn at Lake Tyers

Front and back of the Jean's Jeans Quilt

Showing the back of the quilt

So now I have to find another machine project to do work on this trip. My next one will be the border for Vanishing Hours. I bought all the left overs from the blocks and plan to make a piano keyboard. I am not sure if I have to dimensions with me but will make it as big as I can and can put left overs into the backing or if there's not enough make some more when I get home.

Tea Shop Quilt. 

Whilst we were at Croajingalong National Park and without power I got a couple of blocks on this completed but didn't work on it any more once we left there. I will do a bit on it in Melbourne as we will be visiting friends and family and I can do that whilst I sit and chat.

So how about you? What have you been up to this week? Do comment please either here or on Facebook or Twitter. Love to see and hear of other things underway

Linking up with 

   and