WIP Wednesday

Being retired is wonderful. I heartily recommend it. Fixit Guy and I are enjoying our week and a bit away.


Well actually I lie... the last couple of days FG hasn't enjoyed it as much as he might as he has been laid low with a nasty gastric bug. He woke up unwell on Sunday when we were at the town house in Brisbane with our family - Kombi Boy, Gamer Girl, Boyo and Fangirl. He stayed home whilst we all went out for breakfast and then back home we were joined via Facetime by The Beast, our oldest son who lives in Melbourne. He and KB were playing Grand Theft Auto on the net but as neither of them have the fancy headsets required to talk to each other through the game they just facetime it and chat that way. It was actually loads of fun ... but not so much for FG who was asleep upstairs.

Mid afternoon we packed up and drove up here to the Sunshine Coast hinterland where he and I were booked into a lovely Bed and Breakfast/ Adults retreat called Treetops Seaview at Montville. FG was still unwell. I drove the whole way up here and he basically slept and crashed into bed when we got here.

He's been recovering slowly but we have taken things pretty gently. We walked up to a cafe for lunch and then at night went to the tavern nearby Monday but for the rest of the day we stayed in our lovely cabin. We enjoyed the double spa and the open fire and whilst he slept I sewed. I got the bag made that I wrote about here.

Tuesday he thought he was well again and suggested we go out. I had started sewing and asked if I could just finish of the 10 flying geese I was working on.

They took about 10 minutes. By the time I had sewn them he had fallen asleep on the couch and slept for 2.5 hours. Needless to say I had enough time to sew all the flying geese together. They are for the border of my "Going Green" quilt.

 I also got the first border for it sewn on... just a narrow 1.5" strip of lime green spotted fabric. In the evening after we got back from our lovely meal at a local restaurant (where he managed soup and desert) I was able to sew the flying geese borders on as well.

So.... barring me deciding that it isn't big enough Going green top is finished. I certainly can't do anything more with it whilst we are away as I have run out of fabric for it and I'm not going to buy more for it when I have a cupboard full of possible choices at home.

Today we are leaving our little nest (our cabin is called Eagle) and driving to... not sure. We have to be in Rocky tomorrow after lunch. We hope to call in on FG's elderly aunt on the way. So... we might make it all the way to Rockhampton or we might stop somewhere on the way. We'll see. Not sure that I will get anything more done.

Oh yes - I''ve made 2 beanies on my loom and have another underway. My cousin Jo cut her hair recently as a fund raiser for cancer and a local charity. She is now finding the winter air a bit cool. She lives in Victoria so its much chillier than here in Sunny Queensland. I said I'd make her a beanie and I've made her one and made another while I was on the job. No photos (FG is fussing about a bit wanting us to get packed up and on our way so better finish off and not stop to take more photos :) )

How has your week been? Tell me about what you are working on!

 

Bags

Fixit Guy and I are away from home for 10 days on a little vacation that is covering a number of basis. Our first 2 days were spent at friends in Kingaroy, a small country town 8 hours from where we live. Our friends have been there for 18 months and keen for us to visit them. We used to look after their dog Bumbles on a regular basis when they lived closer to us and we are very fond of the dog and our friends too.

We arrived late afternoon on Thursday and they next morning they both had to go to work but we happily amused ourselves at home. Fixit GUy went for a walk for some of the time but I spent all my spare time with my machine whirring trying to finish off one last gift for the watermelon themed birthday party the next night. I talked about that in my previous blog post here.

I had seen various bag patterns along the lines of what I wanted to accomplish so decided to just wing it and see how I went. I made a few boo boos but got there in the end

I wanted to make another one so last night and this morning whilst Fixit Guy was recovering from a nasty gastric bug that hit him yesterday morning I decided to have a go at it. I thought that this time I would be fine, having bumbled my way through the watermelon bag

And this time I didn't make the same mistakes. I didn't sew the front and back together too early, I remembered to put a pocket on the outside, I did a much better job of making the handles, I measured more accurately where the handles had to go

I did however make a few new errors instead!! I forgot to iron on the interfacing before assembling the interior of the bag. I remembered to put the outside pocket on first.... but forgot to put the inside pocket on so had to fiddle about to get that one on. And those handles... I stitched one on the wrong way around and in unpicking it and putting it on the right way I managed to move them so they got stitched a bit off kilter. Sigh.

And both times I sewed the bottom together and left the gap where I had to turn the bag the right way around on the seam where I was joining the lining and the outside together. It would have been better to have left the turning seam on the bottom of the lining. Never mind. It worked and next time I will take better notes and who knows I might even end up with a tutorial.

 

The colours in the photos are really washed out for some reason. I fixed them up in my photo program but somehow they have lost it all again in the transfer. Never mind. You can see the colours better in the photo of the fabrics below.

The fabric I used was (well the large print, the hedgehogs and the green from the front of the bag pictured on the left) was from the line Bluebird Park by Kate and Birdie Paper Co for Moda I bought it in Adelaide on our trip last year. I blogged about it here. 

I didn't use the fabrics with the bikes in it. I've put them aside for another project. It was hard to cut into these fat quarters. I love them so much. I have about a 15" square of the green left, a 2.5" strip of the hedgehogs and a very chopped up piece of the larger print fabric

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

WIP Wednesday

I finally got stuck into some more blocks from the Amy Gibson 2012  BOM Craftsy Class. I first listened to this class right through when I had Barmah Forrest virus in 2013. I sat in bed and watched them all through. I loved them... well most of them but I was in no position to actually do any of the sewing. I wanted to though but even once well there were enough other challenges and projects in my life to keep me busy. At the beginning of this year I put completing the blocks in this class on my to do list. Doing blocks from this class have appeared regularly on my monthly goals. For the first few months I even achieved them but..... for several months (the last 3 I think or maybe 4) they got bumped to the next month. I would add an extra 2 blocks to how many I had to get done but I stopped doing that even after a couple of months.

I had intended to take the project with me when I went to Yeppoon last week but it got left behind by accident and as it turned out I probably wouldn't have gotten through them if I'd taken them. 

Writing my goals for this month (see here) they once again came up on the list and something clicked and I was determined to get some done and over the last couple of days I have smashed my way through 5 of them. I've actually done 6 blocks but one of them I did twice. I didn't rewatch the classes - I just worked off the patterns for the class and have to say I ran into some problems in doing that. There were a couple of places where the instructions were a little obscure and in others they were plain wrong (miss printed or something) The reason I redid the block (the wonky 5 sided log cabin. ) was mine didn't turn out quite like hers cause I hadn't read the instructions properly. I made it like a crazy quilt. I redid and the same thing happened. I didn't get the instruction when I did read them. The 2 blocks I did were more like crazy quilt blocks and I liked them well enough so... that is what we have. One day I might listen to the lesson and have another go.

The blocks I have done this week are the ones from May and August plus one from July. (she gives 2 per month) I had decided I was not going to do the hexagonal blocks she has in the quilt.and was tossing up about the dresden plate blocks but... trying to convince myself to have a go.

I took Pink Pizzazz to Patchwork today and showed the other ladies. The wavy border was bugging me and they agreed it needed to come off. Sigh. It only needed to come off on two sides and be adjusted... reduced them by half an inch each and reattached them and now they are sitting nicely. I started work on the backing. 

it doesn't look smooth on the wall but it is... well much better than it had been. The blocks were all made by different people in our group.

Originally I was going to incorporate a vintage sheet I had in my stash but looking at it more closely I realised that it was perished in a couple of places and stained in others so decided not to use it at all... in fact it might go into the rubbish which would be a shame as it is lovely (pink background with big white daisies with yellow centres scattered all over it) but its no good using a fabric that might disintegrate after a wash or two.  

Isn't it lovely. I have cut the best bits out of it to save but there are great chunks of it that I've had to toss. It was only a cot sheet size which meant that there wasn't much good left in the end

Instead I decided to use some fabric I got from Patch n Peace this year - that I "won" in the silent auction. it has a pink background with yellow and blue threads. 

I incorporated some other bits and pieces in the backing as is my want! I had some hearts and a pinwheel so I have made a strip to put down the centre of the backing. I think its going to be great. Haven't finished it yet.

I made these heart blocks out of left over scraps from pieced hearts I made for another quilt. I was really delighted to be able to use them up.

We are goign away for 10 days and I am taking my sewing machine (cause I can) Now I'm trying to work out what projects to take with me and then getting them organised.

Going Green is going... haven't worked on it since I got back from Yeppoon. I'm up to the borders on it.

Will take Pink Pizzazz to finish it up the backing. I won't take the wadding etc cause I am not going to try to pin it without the big table at the craft rooms. Plus since it is a group project I will get some of the other ladies there to help me pin baste it

I want to make a couple of bags. Both are presents for birthdays coming up so won't go into detail here just in case they read this.

I'd like to work on my POD blocks but they are all paper pieced and will take a fair bit of fabric but not sure what... they would be much easier to make at home where I have my whole stash available So its staying home. 

Amy Gibson blocks. I have printed off the templates I need for the remaining blocks and will take them. It would be awesome to get all the blocks done. 

I'll report in next Wednesday and let you know how far I got with all these great intentions. I might end up chilling out and eating  drinking too much good coffee and enjoying my husband's company too much to do anything. But I have packed it all up so will see how I go

Linking up with


 

Playing in Sunshine

I finally got this quilted on the weekend and the label stitched on it today. I hope to post it off to its new home on Wednesday.

The pattern was Charlotte from Scrapitudequilts.com "Playing with Nine-Patches" one she offered free to her followers on facebook but which she now has for sale on her website.

Initially I was just sewing ninepatches using blocks from my 2.5" drawer of squares of that size. However I then decided that I would try have one block with yellow in it in each trio of blocks I sewed together.

 Some squares were all yellow but as I was getting low on them I allowed that any yellow would qualify. 

I didn't cut any blocks for the centre of this quilt - using just what I had in my drawer. I tried not to use any white or cream blocks, nor any black ones, at least not in the centre of the quilt. 

When I did the border I did use some of the black blocks. I did cut a few squares for the corner blocks on the border to get a bit of variety. By the time I got to there the selection was getting very limited and there were very few bright ones left. Now I have just some cream, white and a few black ones left!! I worked out that I used almost 1000 2.5" squares in the quilt.

I chose a tan kona solid for the background - a fabric that I had in my stash. I bought it  using a coupon I won in an online competition. It went well with the yellows in the quilt. I wanted a light for the background - more restful with the busyness of the scrappy ninepatches.

I got the quilt top together relatively quickly. I started it around 20th June and by the 1st July I had the centre of the quilt and the first yellow border on. It took me 2 weeks to get the next border on

And once that was on I got it pinned out, choosing a golden browny orange for the backing. And then I let it sit... and sit for a few weeks. Finally, having bought fabric whilst I was away during last week I was keen to get a big finish in to balance out my stash numbers... I am not kidding. I don't like going backwards with my stash usage. I was also going away for 10 days and I really wanted to get it done. I am planning on giving it to a friend who has had a tough time lately so needed to get it done.

So....finally late Saturday morning I got started. I had some new quilting tools, purchased from Massdrop.com that I was keen to try out including Supreme Slider, Little Magic Bobbin Genies, Quilt Halo and Machinger gloves. I haven't used any of these before, although I have used a slider of another brand. I chose to do an all over stipple.

I loved all the items and I am glad that I got to use them... but I had a really frustrating time of it. My sewing machine's tension was playing up. The sulky thread, a lovely variegated yellow I was using for the top thread kept snapping so I swapped it for the plain yellow Rassant that I had in the bobbin. I had cobbles at times and other times I had great patches of eyelashing. One time the slider shifted and I stitched it. Then another time a piece of fabric I had on the table stuck to the quilt and got stitched in. And then there was the broken needle. Oh and the full bobbin of thread that became cobbled and had to be carefully cut out to get it out. Then I realised that I was running low on thread. By this time the sewing shops in town were closed and so when I pulled out the cobbles I did so very carefully so I could wind up the top thread again and reuse it. I wound each piece onto its own bobbin (so there was less chance of knots etc). Later I had to carefully unwind the wrecked bobbin I'd cut out... In the end I wound the sulky thread onto bobbins and found that this worked better and didn't snap as often when I used it on the spooler. 

It was all very painful and the results weren't perfect but I got it done. I trimmed it down, made the binding from the same fabric as the backing and got it sewn on. I machined it to the back and then folded it over and machined it down again with a wavy stitch. I got it finished last night rather late and was delighted to get the stash report written (with that lovely 10.36m of fabric used)

This was the biggest quilt that I have quilted on my own domestic machine for a good while - I think that I had forgotten what a job it was to do. It was 200cm x 227cm (approx 80" x 90") It is a shame that I had so much hassle with it. It took away a lot of the joy I felt using my new gadgets which I am sure made the difficult job that much easier.

Review of my monthly goals and setting some new ones for August

Its the start of a new month so time to go back over those goals I set myself and see how I went.

My July goals got added to a little during the month but in the end this is what they were (as listed in my side bar)

• make 6 heart blocks COMPLETE
• Quilt Playing in Sunshine
• Make bag - this was for a birthday gift for a friend. I didn't get the one made for her that I had planned due to leaving the pattern and fabric behind when I went away to Yeppoon. However I gave her another one I had made earlier - a zipper one that I had used some Fijian fabric on and as my friend is from Fiji she loved it. I might transfer this goal to next month though and make her the one I intended
• complete 6 Amy Gibson BOM blocks. Absolutely no joy with this one. I left them behind too when I was away which frustrated me so much.
• Finish Newspaper Mama - top and back made. My friend Lindy now has this to get it quilted. My part is done although I will do the binding if required.
• make zipper pouches for Handmade Love stall I ended up making 2 brick bags and 12 zipper pouches
• make hand towels for Handmade Love stall - 13 completed
• Complete Growing in Christ banner. This was finished off early in the month and has been hanging at church ever since
• make Kombi Boy a beanie COMPLETE
• Make Beast's beanie COMPLETE
• Complete POD blocks 26-30. I have yet to complete the last block. I have found some jelly bead fabric for the last block and will get it made shortly. 
• Finish Crop Circles This is done and on the bed
• Finish Scrap in a Box This is also completed and on the bed.

So I have done very well with all my goals for the month with only the Amy Gibson blocks, one bag and the last POD block not accomplished. I have started another quilt and made a number of other projects that never made it to my goals list so am well pleased.

Now for August!

I want to complete the POD quilt. As well as Block 30 I want to remake one block (waiting on fabric coming from the USA for that) I would also like to make the broomstick, the sword of Griffindor, the flying key, a photo frame and Dobby. I am going away for 10 days shortly and perhaps can work on them then.

Amy Gibson Blocks I will take this with me too. I might have more luck with them than the paper piecing - need so many little bits for the paper piecing.

Going Green - a quilt I am currently working on. I have the centre together but working on the borders. I would like to have the top completed this month and if possible get the back done and the quilt ready to quilt.

Bag for my friend

Pink Pizzazz - the community quilt I have been working on. I have the top together for this. I need to make the backing and get it quilted. At least I think the top is together. I may yet decide to make it a bit bigger to be a useful size but its not too bad as is. 

I might leave it there for now. No doubt a few other projects will come up over the next month and I will add them to my goals as they come up

How about you? Have you set yourself some goals for this month? What do you want to accomplish?

Sunday Stash Report

I made 10 more little zipper bag this week. Yup 10 of the little suckers. I used the pattern I linked to last week. Well I based it on that pattern but made them a bit bigger so as to use as much of the 5" charm square as I could. Problem with that was that I didn't have enough left over for the little tab so made it out of either another charm square of the same or coordinating fabric. (I only had charm squares with me. Otherwise I could have used some of my 2.5" bits and pieces) Used .60m


I also made a zipper pouch using some cat fabric. I used some plastic backed curtain fabric for the lining. It worked pretty well and I didn't need any batting or stiffening to give the bag structure. Problem I had was the dimensions I used for the bag. The initial pieces were square and so the bag is a bit of an odd shape for a bag. Still hope someone likes it enough to buy from our stall this weekend. I didn't take a photo of it ... oops. Used .2m  

Playing In Sunshine. I finally got this finished today. It was quite an effort. Everything went wrong that could go wrong. I think my machine needs a service. I had all sorts of tension issues and it was one of my most frustrating experiences but I finally got it finished.


To make it that much more frustrating I was running low on thread so when unpicking the messes such as this I had to carefully roll up the top thread and put it onto bobbins so I could use it again. I did  have some sulky thread that I had started using which kept breaking so I had stopped using it but in the end had to resort to it again. I found that winding it from the spool to bobbins and then using the wound bobbins in the top gave a much better result with almost no breakages. As well as thread breaking and the eyelashing and the running low on thread  I also broke a needle AND stitched on my super slider.  

 The quilting isn't all that great BUT it is done. I haven't quilted a big quilt myself for quite some time (2mx2.27 or approx 80"x90") and maybe I have just forgotten what it is like. I did get to use my new quilting gear -  machinger gloves,  supreme slider, bobbin washer and quilting ring... from a Massdrop bundle I bought a few months ago. They were all great ... although added to my frustration a bit when I had to keep checking my bobbin etc... taking off the gloves and then having to remove the slider to get to the bobbin case.
 
Anyway despite all the frustrations I finally got it done and its big size meant 10.36m of fabric used.

My cat Pippin showed lots of interest in this quilt. He hasn't been as interested in my quilting for a long time


I shot a video of him demanding lots of petting at one point. I even put it on facebook but the quality is pretty crap and some how I changed to slow mo during the shooting... no idea how so its pretty crumby... but cute at the time.

I have also been super busy making birthday gifts for a friend. I can't reveal what they are just yet. I don't think she reads my blog at all but she is my facebook friend and my blog alerts go on facebook and twitter so she might decide to take a peak. There were a number of items and together they used 3.21m of fabric

I have had a few purchases this week whilst in Rocky. I visited a new LQS - well new for me although I think its been there a while. They had a great deal on some batik fat quarters and I ended up with 6 - it was 6 for $20 and in Australia that is a good bargain. I bought 4 dark ones - navy blue for a swap at PnP next year. I got 2 for the projects I made for the birthday. I got some more special fabric for these projects at Spotlight too... a metre of it. I am pleased to say that I used just about all of it up. I have a few little bits left over of the 3 fabrics and if I can think of something suitable I will try to use them up in the next few days too.

So this weeks stats are

Week 31

         Fabric Used                     14.37m
         Fabric Added                     2.57 m

Year To Date
         Fabric Used                    112.11m
         Fabric Added                  39.21m         Net Used/Added             72.91m   

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times