Stash Update

This is one of my regular posts, not a part of the A to Z blogging challenge. Just go to the previous post for N or read this anyway... you are welcome. 

I wanted to get on with my bike quilt. I've decided to call it On Your Bike. (It features bike fabrics) I hadn't cut enough strips for it, having totally miscalculated in my preparation. I was so sure I had cut the required 64 of both sized strips to complete all the blocks... 2.5" wide cut 10" and 11.5"  but when I started sewing I found I had only cut 32 of both. 

Grrrr. I had some width of fabric 2.5" strips with me (we are currently travelling) that I was going to use for the first border but even if I cut them up I wasn't going have enough to complete the quilt. The irritating thing is that I had more of the fabric back home. I can't remember exactly where I put it away so sending the house sitter to find it and post it on became problematic. It might have been in a really obvious place or anywhere in my fabric storage.

And then I would have to wait for the fabric to catch up with us and I was in the groove to sew this NOW.

I went with going to another Spotlight (The shop where I had bought the fabric just last week) and seeing if I could match it... no luck but I did find another fabric which was VERY similar so I got that. Its now been cut into the required size and the blocks made.  I have 64 finished blocks which means that I will end up with a quilt that is 8 blocks by 8 blocks. The blocks are 11" x 11.5" finished so the quilt will be 88" x 92" plus borders approximately 95"x 99" finished. 

With great difficulty (may my back forgive me) I laid them out on the bed we are currently sleeping on. It wasn't ideal... not being big enough.

 But I laid out 6 rows, then packed away 3 of them (carefully labelling the rows) and then moved the rest over and laid out the final 2. I think it looks ok... but it was hard to tell. 

Anyway.... they are all ready to be sewn into strips. I would love to stay home and sew them all today but my Fixit Guy has other plans. (we are car shopping for Boyo. I find it boring... I know nothing about cars and trust FG implicitly to choose the right one... just wish he would go out and do it on his own... shhhhh he doesn't read my blog so don't tell him)

I'm working on the T or Intersection quilt as designed by the Missouri Star Quilt company in this video  

Thinking that I had bought just enough of the fabric (or a few cms extra) I merrily cut it all up and then found I had 3 2.5" strips left over.  I thought I needed 48" (which was approx 1.25m allowing a little extra for crooked cutting by me... it always pays) but really I only needed 40" which is slightly over 1 m. Never mind - I might use them in the border or else will incorporate them on the back.

This means I have bought yet more fabric without a finish in sight. I got 1.25m (or 48") I'm still in positive territory (for the moment) but haven't got much wiggle room. I suspect I will well and truly fall into the red by the time we get home. Hopefully by then I will have 3 or 4 quilts ready to go "under the needle" (once they get basted) I have one pinned and ready to go at home but ran out of time to finish before we left.

I expect to visit quilt shops along the way as we travel for the next 6 weeks or so and it would be rude not to buy something now wouldn't it. I have a few small projects with me so maybe I will get a few finishes whilst we are away.

Stats from Weeks 15

                 Fabric used            0.00m

                 Fabric added          1.29m

Year to Date                 

                 Fabric used         33.37m                 

                 Fabric added       28.78m

Net Used                                4.60m  

Linking up with Patchwork Times

N is for Nine Patch

The nine patch is one of the simplest of blocks for the beginner patchworker. The first block swaps I participated in as a novice quilter were 9 Patch swaps. 

Nine patches are a traditional quilt block made with nine simple squares. Three rows of three squares create quilt design that is versatile, traditional and trendy — all at the same time. For many years, nine patches were one of the first blocks taught to young girls learning how to quilt. Today, most beginner quilt classes include a nine patch block. (www.Craftsy.com)  

The swaps I participated in were through an online group I had joined called Southern Cross Quilters, a group for patchworkers in Australia and New Zealand or expats living abroard. Each month we had a different theme, sometimes a colour was stipulated and we would send our blocks into the co-ordinator and get the same number of blocks back. I was a very keen participator although I eventually pulled out as I wasn't doing anything with the blocks once I'd received them. Eventually I set to and made a good few nine patch quilts.

a Christmas quilt I made for my mum and dad using some of the nine patches from the swap

This quilt was made using green nine patches

I made this quilt for my niece who had been ill

I discovered that there were many variations of the nine patch, not just the one I was making which was usually just 2 different  and contrasting fabrics arranged.

These 2 quits were giant nine patches in them selves

 When my mum turned 80 I co-ordinated the family making her a quilt. It was a giant nine patch and all but 2 of the blocks were also nine patches. 8 patches represented her children with the centre patch being for Dad and her.

Even the back was a nine patch

Mum loved her quilt and its still on her bed in her nursing home today

Craftsy has a great article here out lining how to make the traditional nine patch as well as the many different types of nine patch blocks.

WIP Wednesday on Friday

This isn't my blog post for A to Z challenge. Its a regular one. Go forwards or backwards if you are looking for it... but stay and read too. 

Man I am running really late this week. Blame the A to Z challenge. I am keeping up with it - have all my posts scheduled to post up till the last 2 letters of the month. Y and Z. Where possible I have high lighted quilting podcasts that I enjoy. Check back through the posts I have put up... C for Craft Sanity and Craft Planner, H for Hip to be a Square, L for Lazy Daisy and M for Modern Sewciety. They are great. Other than that I have written about various quilt related things. I have blogs planned for O is for Off Kilter quilter and W for Weezy Works.

Sewing wise... I have been hand stitching my left over hexies into a strip that will go onto the back of the Hexie quilt. I am up to stitching half hexies along the side (I'm actually using a full hexie and folding it over with the paper removed) but will have some left over still so will add them to both ends I think....

Last night I started my holiday sewing. Fixit Guy and I left home on Wednesday morning to drive to Brisbane where were are staying first with our daughter Fangirl and then with our 2 younger boys before heading down to Sydney for a family wedding and onto Melbourne where we will catch up with our oldest boy (The Beast) and his partner Beauty. Also we will pick up our new caravan. Whoopee.

Anyway I have my sewing machine with me and prepped a number of projects to bring with me. Last night I chose to start work on the T Intersection quilt (Bike fabrics... now called On Your Bike). I was making great headway and then ran out of the pre cut strips... well short of the finish. Turns out I only cut 32 of them instead of the 64 I need. 

32 completed T intersection blocks for On Your Bike

I did bring some full strips (ie width of fabric) that I was going to use as the first border which I can cut. That will give me another 18 but will still be 14 short. Its very frustrating as I have heaps of the fabric at home. I'm going to try to find some more of it today at the chain store (Spotlight) that I bought it at. Otherwise I will try to get the lady who is housesitting for us to find it and post it down to my son's place. I can't believe that I miscounted so badly... think I doubled it and doubled again... I was cutting the fabric folded over two at a time... I must have doubled one too many times. Grrrrrr

My daughters cats were of great help in the production of this blog post.... NOT. You can see Eevee's paw in the photo above. This is where she was standing before I moved her

Skimbles is on my right arm as I am trying to type this. You can't see the laptop but its on my knees out of sight... he's watching it intently.

 

M is for Modern Sewciety

Modern Sewciety is a podcast produced by Stephanie, a stay at home mum (or Mom since she's from the USA) with 2 young daughters who lives in Florida. 

She's up to episode 84 so I think she's been going about 2 years now. Hers is an interview style show.

A self confessed Instagram addict and long time blog lover she started the podcast so as to be able to get to know her favourite bloggers and instagramers. Her podcasts are pretty long as she usually has 2 -3 guests each episode. 

Stephanie is very bright and vivacious and her enthuisiasm for her craft comes across in her interviews and as she chats with the listeners before and after the interviews, revealing snippets of her life in the suburbs.

I started listening to her podcasts right from when she started. She was one I didn't have to binge listen to in order to get up to date. Its been intriguing to follow her development, both as a podcaster and as a quilter. She has become well known to  people in the industry and has been invited to test patterns, sew quilts for other designers, been given access to fabric before it is released and has started designing her own patterns.

For a while she was also doing a B side, another style of podcast that fed into her pod stream. It was much more chatty and off topic and generally it was like listening in to 2 friends yarning away... which is what it was as Stephanie talked to her friend Chris, the tattooed quilter. Unfortunately due to time constraints with Chris this has fallen away of late.

I enjoy listening to Stephanie chat away - her southern drawl is of interest to this little Aussie. Her podcasts are available on her website Modern Sewciety and on iTunes. She's also on instagram (of course) under that title too.

Mid Month Update on my monthly Goals

This is not my official  A to Z post. Its a regular one for my regular readers (all 4 of them he he he) and for myself. Its my mid month Goal check in. But now its the 15th April it could be my M post! Go back for today's letter or stay and read this one as well. You are welcome

My goals for April 
Work on Handmade Love Projects: Whilst I haven't done any sewing on these I have cut out 5 casserole carriers, the large rectangular ones. I've used the African fabric our director brought back with her on various trips. The fabric is a bit slippery and despite my best efforts the cutting is not real straight. Still I will be able to fudge it. Stay tuned for photos.

Sew left over hexies into a strip for backing. These are the hexagons left over from the front of the quilt top I recently finished. I am making good progress with it. I have just got the side ones to stitch in and I will have the strip completed... although I still have some left over hexies. I will have to do something else with them. Sigh.

Cut fabric for Square in a Square quilt. This is done. It is one of the projects I have with me to sew on this trip.

Cut fabric for T Intersection quilt. Again, this is done and packed in the car for the trip. I might even get the machine out today and do a bit of sewing.

Complete A to Z blogging challenge. This is underway. Today is L so we are almost half way through the month and it is going well. I have just 2 posts still to write and I am struggling with the last 2 Y and Z. Leave suggestions for quilty topics I could address using them. I thought about Z for zippers but I did that last year. And Y for Y seams but... I have only sewn one quilt with Y seams and I had a tutor at my shoulder whilst I did it. Sigh

Do you have goals for this month? How are you going with them? Are you doing the A to Z challenge? How is it going? Do you write each day or like me have you scheduled ahead. I am not sure if that is cheating a bit but the way my April was shaping up... scheduling ahead was the only way it was going to get done.

L is for Lazy Daisy Quilts (and Reads)

Time to drum up business for another of my favourite podcasters.

L is for Lazy Daisy Quilts (and Reads). 

I went looking for some information on Daisy to augment what I had to say and I found that she had this on her web page http://ldq.outlandishthreads.com/ and it says it all...

Lazy Daisy

I am a frugal, scrappy quilter. In this blog and podcast, I talk about my quilting projects, works in progress, and my new ventures into pattern writing and teaching. I try to offer info and tips that you can use in your own quiltmaking. I also talk about my life as a wife and mother.  I currently work in my local quilt shop, and I love helping beginners find their way into this addiction hobbyart form. Basically, I’m giving my two cents about whatever comes up. I sing a little, and I ramble a lot. They don’t call me motormouth for nuttin. This is a casual, conversational podcast. 

Daisy comes from Louisianna and I enjoy her accent. As an Australian I find the different accents on podcasts intriguiging. Most of the quilting podcasts I listen to are from the US and so I have gotten used to hearing an accent. Funny thing is when some of the podcasters interview someone from Australia I struggle to identify the accent.

I also enjoy her plain speaking. She doesn't mess around. If something annoys her she says so. She doesn't tolerate fools is probably one way of saying it. On her Facebook page she describes herself as "The friend you don't want to put on speaker phone". She doesn't swear or anything like that... but she doesn't mince her words either.

Daisy is currently designing embroideries for a stitch along. If you like the Outlander series of books and like to embroider then check them out. Her patterns are free and available to download from her website

 

Daisy has become a little haphazard in posting of late. She had some family issues (her dad got very sick) and she lost her quilting mojo so she didn't feel she had much to talk about but she still pops up occasionally. She is a member of the Twilters Group and so pops up on our Facebook page periodically too so we keep in touch there. However she has a heap of back issues of the podcast so if you haven't listened to her before there is plenty to listen to.

K is for Kits

In a quilt kit the pattern is put together with the fabrics to make that particular item. Someone (usually the quilt shop owner) has gone ahead and chosen the fabrics and cut the amounts required. All the fabric to make the quilt top is included in the kit. The purchaser usually has to supply the thread, the batting and the backing fabric. Sometimes the binding is included but usually not.

Some quilters when they are starting out are rather nervous about choosing the fabric for a project. They don't trust their colour judgement. They aren't sure about colour values and volumes that they hear other quilters and bloggers talking about when choosing fabrics to go into a project. For them quilt Kits are a godsend. An experienced quilter has gone ahead and made all the choices for them.

As to whether or not the kit is good value is debatable. There is usually  a little extra of each fabric included in the kit, to allow for a bit of miss cutting but the purchaser pays for this... so you are buying more fabric than you may need. You are also paying a bit extra for the time and effort of the person choosing and cutting up the fabric. For the beginner quilter, who doesn't have much of a stash as yet, if she had to purchase all the fabric required may find it worthwhile as if you need just a 5" square of one fabric you would have to buy whatever the minimum cut of fabric that the shop has (the smallest amount they will cut off... 10 - 20cm usually) by the width of the fabric. In a kit though smaller pieces are sometimes cut already for you.

Advantages of Kits

• ready to go - everything provided - saves the purchaser time
• no need to worry about fabric choices - decisions have already been made for you. Often you will know exactly what your quilt will look like as there is a display quilt available for you to look at in the store
• may save you money if you don't have a stash from which to take smaller pieces

Disadvantages

• generally more expensive.
• the quilter doesn't get to put their stamp on the project in the fabric  selections.
• the quilt will be the same as a number of others - depending on how many kits were made up and if there were a range of colour choices in the kits

I know of many quilters who have bought quilt kits at shows and in stores but to be honest I don't know many who have made them up. The kits go into the stash.

Personally I have never bought a quilt kit. Right from the start I tended to like scrappy quilts. I have a fabric stash and I like to work from that. These days I am actively working on using up my stash. I have a policy of only buying fabric for specific projects. I am not into stash building.

I googled quilt kits and there are heaps of them available on line. These are just a few of the places they can be purchased

    

I asked on a Facebook group that I am on what people's opinions of kits were and basically they all agreed with me as far as the advantages and disadvantages were which was good since I don't have much personal experience with them!