Finish it Friday

I have had 2 finishes this week. I am so pleased. I have been travelling a lot and so busy when home and then the fatigue that has hit me (we think its a hangover from the Barmah Forrest virus I had in 2013) I just haven't had the energy to sew and it has been frustrating lying in bed or sitting in the chair planning what I would like to make with the stuff I have purchased but not having the oomph to get up and do it.

My finishes this week have been a little top to go with a pair of leggings someone else made for the Handmade With Love stall. There were 3 pairs of pants or trousers (in size 2) that had been made and Peggy, our coordinator decided that they would be more saleable if they had tops to go with them. We chose coordinating fabric and then she told me that I could do the top for the navy leggings and she would take care of the little pink shorts. The trouble is... I haven't sewn clothes for many years AND when I did it was stretch fabric. The last time I made something from an ordinary dress pattern was in high school. So......

The pattern was Burda Start. My friend Lindi was a great help in cutting it out. Looking at it I can see all these faults with it but its still pretty cute 

especially when put with the leggings.

My other finish was a baby quilt. I started it back in June. I had 4 baby quilts to make (and then before I got them all done found I actually needed to make a 5th). I used the Missouri Star Sparkle pattern. I altered it a bit for each quilt - mostly in what width (if any) sashing and borders I put in. 

This one (which I called Twinkle Twinkle) was for the granddaughter of a friend. She was actually born last year and so is now 15 months old. However the family were in the process of moving from the USA to Australia and the grandma said to hold off till they got here. They actually didn't arrive till a few months ago so I finally needed to get on with it and make the now almost toddler her quilt. 

I realise that the white background wasn't the best choice for a child's quilt but it showed off the stars the best and its machine washable.

When I dropped it off the baby herself was having a morning nap but her 4 year old brother was there and he really enjoyed it - finding and naming the animals in the centres of the stars.

Linking up with TGIFF

Finish up Friday - 5 finishes

Yes you heard it... 5 finishes this week. Doesn't that sound impressive. When I tell you that they are all mini quilts, that the embroideries were done by my mother (4 of them) and myself (1) some time ago it doesn't sound quite so impressive. I did piece the borders... but in 2 cases the piecing was already done and in the other 3 all the half square triangles were done some time ago as well. So... this week I finished them but not from start to finish.

The 4 my mum embroidered were a set of seasonal ones. I have made them separately (they were in one quilt according to the pattern) so as to be able to hang them according to their season in the foyer of my home. At the beginning of the year I decided I would make 12, one for each month to hang in the foyer. Pam on Hip to be a Square did somet thing along this line. However as a family (and generally as a society) Australians don't widely celebrate some of the  "days" that are so widely celebrate in the US. We know about Valentines Day, St Paddy's day, and Halloween and some people do celebrate them but they aren't nearly as big a thing here. I would prefer to put emphasis on things that are more important to us as a family and as Australians. These seasonal ones are more appropriate (although living in Central Queensland, on the Tropic of Capricorn we don't really get very distinctive seasons anyway)

Winter: I used the red and green border around winter cause it matched the picture better. Its NOT Christmas! That's in summer for us)

Summer:The yellow is for the sand and the hot summer sun

Autumn. Used the green and yellow hsts because I had them and they went with the picture.... 

Spring. Loved the purple hst that I had heaps of and they went so well with the embroidery

Here they are all together. Aren't they gorgeous

The Outhouse. Embroidered by me

These are only small wall hangings. Nor more than 10" wide and the largest about 12" long. I used a method I had read about on another website to insert hanging triangles into the corners. The video about it is to be found here Now a pencil, a skewer or small piece of dowel can be inserted into the top and bottom if required and it can be hung on a nail. I was so pleased to be able to use this method. Now all 5 wall hangings are good to go... apart from labels. I think I might just write directly onto the backing fabric rather than stitch on individual labels.

I used the same fabric as the backing to make the hanging triangles so it is  harder to see them in the picture but you should be able to make it out.

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  this time being hosted by Ms Midge and     

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