Sunday stash

It looks like I've been buying up a storm to make up for a few months of not being tempted. I don't normally go for sewing themed fabrics but I just had to get a metre each of these retro prints. I can see all sorts of uses for these.Click on the pics to see them larger.

I've been on the look out for some cheap vintage embroidered cloths and found these for a few dollars each as that's all I'm prepared to spend on them.

I'm always on the look out for good greens and these ones are a good mix.

I'll put these ones in the box with my other fabrics for the Vine quilt. The reds with a black overprint have been hard for me to get my hands on.

The next four packs of fabric are from a shopping trip to Quiltsmith a couple of weeks ago.  I've got the pattern for Sue Garman's Friends of Baltimore quilt and I'm resisting a start as I must keep on with a couple of other projects first. I'm being very disciplined, how unlike me. Shopping for extra fabrics is allowed and when I give in to temptation, I'll have what I need.

Click on the photos to see what the packs are.

A new quilt

I did say I was going to do something colourful. I had a blast cutting out these snowballs and they all came from the stash so it's a real mix of lots of different fabrics.
This quilt was one that Lizzie over over at Broderie had been working on and then Jean over at Linen and Raspberry started one too and I was sold, I needed one of my own and Lizzie kindly allowed me to use her idea. The blue links will take you to their posts showing their quilts.

I bought a charcoal Kaffe spot for the squares and initially thought it would be too dark and swallow up the florals so I ordered the same funky Kaffe spot that Lizzie and Jean were using which is in the photo below.

Out of curiosity, I thought I'd put a selection of both spots on the wall just to note the different effects the two spots gave.

I decided on the darker charcoal spot after all,  not because one is better than the other. I just liked the contrast. Excuse the photo taken in my dark sewing room, the editing shows the fabrics a bit brighter than they are but the charcoal looks about right. I have edited out about four of the snowballs that were bothering me and replaced them.

I'm going to mindlessly hand piece this one while I'm away in New Zealand for several weeks. I'm leaving on Thursday and I get to see my family and four grandchildren so I'm a bit excited. I have some other things to work on as well so I have variety. I'll try to keep you updated if possible.

It's all about the fabric

If you've followed my blog for awhile, you'd know that I don't have a particular type or style of quilt that I couldn't say is uniquely me. That means that I have a stash that has bits of all sorts of fabrics.
It's time I sorted myself out here, I have bins of black and whites, little stacks of designer fabrics, brights, 30's, repros, batiks, Kaffes etc, etc. I've run out of room, eek, that means I might have to stop buying fabric.

I have to show you some of my latest acquisitions though. I thought these would be great for bags or pouches.

Japanese fabrics which have a very unique look to them.

I gravitate towards red and whites and got a pack of small cuts along with the Japanese Giraffes that I had to have 'cause they're too cute.

Random happy ones.

I was excited and thrilled to bits when I won these beauties in a giveaway from Rachael over at Blue Mountain Daisy. They're all Suzuko Koseki fabrics plus one of her books. I've been hankering after some of these fabrics you know.  I love the things that Rachael has on her blog, she makes her mark on everything she does and is very clever with her ideas and puts a lot of thought into her creations.

Another blogger that I love is Kathie from Inspired By Antique Quilts. Kathie was the one that inspired me to start my own blog when I had just barely found out what a blog was. I think it's her fault that I made a little detour into reproduction style quilts and I learnt a lot from her. She and I have kept up the contact and sent each other things from time to time. This is a big stack of 6" squares I received from her last week and are for my little basket blocks. Thanks again Kathie!

I see her as a master of the scrappy quilt, I love them all and they'd be great stash busters. Her latest one would be great in so many different types of fabrics. Go have a look.

On the sewing front, I don't have anything to show, I've been spending a lot of time hand quilting, starting a secret dolly quilt and I finally finished my drawings for the Baltimore borders. I wanted to have the top two corners turning differently and came up with this.

I think it's time I got something organised so I can do a bit more sewing.

Bits on the side

If you read my blog you probably remember that little adventure with cathedral windows back here. I couldn't really leave it languishing without turning it into something useful and now it's a 16" cushion.  when I saw the cushions on Little Miss Shabby, I fell for them, I'd like all of them actually. Oh boy, that makes me such a copy cat.

You never know what I get up to over here, I'm not biased. Sometimes I do stuff  bit more modern and sometimes it's a bit more traditional. Actually it's all traditional, what changes is the fabrics and colours. I know I hang around blog land and get enthused and inspired by what others are doing. I've had my beady little eyes on Sue Garman's Baltimore pattern for awhile and I just had to have it, you understand right?

The patterns are available at Quakertown Quilts.

I made a promise to myself not to make a start until I have all my blocks done for my other Baltimore. That doesn't stop me thinking about fabrics. I picked up a few fruit fabrics from J and O Fabrics by looking under the fruit and vegetable section. They had an awesome strawberry and a perfect pineapple print.
The strawberry fabric is a lovely orange red rather than a tomato red. I may use the watermelon skin if I dye it to tone the brightness down. The aubergines are great for grapes.
Perhaps I could prep some freezer paper templates, that's not officially starting.

I did run out of prepped applique blocks for the flower garden quilt so picked these baskets up and got four done in front of the television. They are my bit on the side and now all my other oldies but goodies are calling to me. They'll just have to wait their turn.

Seuss loot

I see fabric lines coming out and I usually pass it by and then months later I decide I really need it. That's when it starts getting thin on the ground and I have to search for what I want. Oh the thrill of the chase.

I have in my hot little hands a fat quarter bundle of the Dr Seuss Cat In The Hat fabric plus some other pieces of Seuss yardage.

It's not easy coming up with stuff to make for boys so this is just the ticket. I found some very good ideas like This pillow from Nova

This quilt from Gone Aussie Quilting

How about these place mats made by Rita?

I made this quilt about eight years ago when my son was a teenager, he wanted bright and that's what he got although it looks pretty faded to me now.

I was hand quilting it and snipping off the plastic tags that I'd used to baste it, when I cut through the top. Luckily it was in a bottom corner. The first thing quilters think of is what can be appliqued over that cut. I had a piece of the Cat In The Hat fabric and it added that little surprise in the quilt that looked like it belonged.

Now if I had more of this fabric, I could even whip up some pillowcases, somehow I don't think I have enough for it all.

It's all about the fabric

I have a fabric crush on Moomin. I only just found out about it recently because I never grew up with these troll characters.  I needed some of course so got it from here. 

I bought just a few pieces but I'm pretty certain it's not enough.

This is my first reject prototype bag that turned out to be a bit too wide on the top and needed top stitching to stop the zip getting caught up in  the lining. I should have known that.

Prototype #2  I wanted it to be tall enough to accommodate my donut of threads I use for applique. That's much better, I think I'll be making maybe two sizes, one small cosmetic bag size and a larger one for stuff. These aren't loved up hippos, they're trolls, can you imagine it? I still think of hippos.

The weather conditions are so crazy in Australia at the moment but at least the cyclone didn't cause as much destruction as first thought. The last I heard, there was one life lost, two missing and three babies born. There is a lot of damage in some smaller towns. We are in the middle of a energy draining heat wave so it's hard to do much of anything. Lets hope for respite from all this and the snow blizzards on the other side of the globe.
Until next time, Janet

I'm getting back into it.

From the mailbox, I recieved this gorgeous Phillip Jacobs fabric which is going on the back of the Stars and Sprigs quilt. I also got some Kimono silk thread ( #100 weight) to try and thought I might as well get the colour cards while I was at it. I order things online and spend way too long looking around at what else could go in the parcel to make the postage worthwhile. I bet I'm not the only one who does that.

I've been meaning to make myself a firm pressing board for ages and went shopping at the hardware store to get myself a staple gun to do the job. I not only came out with the gun, I got some laser levels that will help me square up my quilts. I've been watching Sharon Schamber's videos online and now I want/need all this stuff you know. The video for making the board is free here on this page. Maybe now my patchwork won't distort on the ironing board. I live in hope. If I keep going, I may just need a tool belt.

There's no frantic sewing going on but I've been playing around with the machine quilting and had to have a go at this bug by Irena Bluhm. Who knows when I may need a bug on a quilt.

I've been doodling and drawing out some ideas for machine stitching with this eight pointed star and liked it enough to roughly stitch it out to see how it would translate to fabric.

I like some of it but not the feathers in the center, I think it looks too thready for me, I'll put the thinking cap back on. Thinking up ideas for hand quilting is easy for me, not this though. Practice and experience needed here. I did try out a cream and a pink thread as well as a couple of different stipples.

I think I should leave the points of the star unquilted and not flatten them down.

I was concentrating so much on the stitches that I didn't pay attention to where the fingers were. The needle broke in my finger and left the thread inside. It didn't hurt much but the thread was also still attached to the machine and the scissors fell on the floor. What to do, what to do, I tried to pull the needle out but it was stuck. I eventually extricated myself and decide I was too chicken to pull the needle out. I went to the doctor and let her do the honours. The worst part was that I ended up with a tetanus and whooping cough vaccination at the same time.

Only a blogger would get the camera out at a time like this. I'm going to do some hand stitching now.

I'm late for a very important date.

I was hoping to get back into some serious machine bonding until I was told the secret Santa swap for my sewing group was in a week. I've only had a whole year to make a small Christmas decoration to swap and I did think I still had a few weeks up my sleeve but it's been bought forward. Tick tock, tick tock, there's nothing like a deadline to get me going.
A quick but frantic search in the dark archives of the sewing room and I've found something suitable. You'll have to do with a sneak peek because who knows who might be lurking on my blog.

I still snuck in some time on the machine because I don't want to slip backwards on my machine quilting practice and get all rusty again, after all  how many times can I call myself a beginner?? I'm going for intermediate status here people.

Since I'm close to finishing that applique thing I've been working on for ages, I think it's about time I thought about how it's going to get quilted.  Grand ideas are brewing but I need a bit of guidance, not having that much quilting under the belt you know. Wendy over at Ivory Spring is a quilting goddess and  I want to stitch like her so I asked for some advice and she's sharing her wisdom over here.

My very first attempt at McTavishing is on the bottom and another wiggly worm filler on the top.

So I've learnt a lot just with this attempt. The stitching is a bit close together than what I'd like.

I have to pay attention to the puffy bits in between the stitches and I better practice some more, it's looking a bit busy so maybe I need to simplify it. I darkened the photo to show up the quilting a bit better.

While I was on holiday, I met  my daughter's talented friend Christine and gave her a very basic lesson on needleturn applique. What a quick learner, she got it pretty much straight away. This is what she made for me as a thank you, gosh I'm just happy if I can pass on anything useful. This pincushion was made out of New Zealand fabrics and has a metal pot scrubber inside which is supposed to be good for the pins. I love pincushions!

 I was pretty restrained and only went to a few patchwork shops on holiday. I can't get the lime green of this fabric to photograph the right colour. If you saw it in real life, you might need sunglasses.

 A few brights to add to the stash for future kids quilts cause I don't see many around here so grabbed a sampling of them. I found it interesting that not one of the shops had any reproduction style fabrics, not a one.
I guess that style is more popular in Australia.

Back to that Christmas stitching, I'll be able to show it next week.

Before and after

It might have scared you if I'd shown you the during photos of the great fabric stash clean up so I'm happy to just say that it's done and the five bags of orphaned fabrics will be going to a worthy cause soon I hope.

I don't have the fortitude to go diving into the bins under the table just yet.

I've been testing again, I did a barter with a blog buddy and got these Crayola washable markers a while back which I've been using. I haven't found the fine tipped ones here in Australia, just the thick ones and they're no good for my purposes.



 I recently read about these pens from England.  They are Berol handwriting pens that are designed to wash out of clothing and used by young children learning to write with a pen. They make a nice fine line but again, not available here.

I bought a pile off EBay which was the cheapest option and they cost around $AU 1.60 each including postage. You can get dark blue, light blue and black.

Both test samples went into cool water but then I decided to switch them to a bowl of warm soapy water. I used the dish washing liquid that was sitting on the bench since it was handy.

They sat in the water for 45 minutes while I went and did other things. I did swish them a few times at the beginning.

The results speak for themselves, not a skerrick of a mark on either sample. You can read more test results on the Berol pens over on the Feather On A Wire blog here.

As always, I'd recommend that you do your own testing.

And just because I'd like a progress photo on my blog.

No free motion Friday today, I haven't organised myself, maybe I'll get on the machine today.