Swap reveal

Look at what I got in the mail, a Nosegay wallhanging. I love this block but have never made one. Jessica over at Scrappy n' Happy offered to make me one in return for something to hang out at her place.

I happily obliged and I love what she made me. I have a crush on red and aqua and I have a crush on these fabrics too, thank you Jessica, it's beautifully made.

And a cute little ring pincushion was a bonus gift in the package, love it.

Here's what I sent, some more Kaffe love and a block from Kim's pattern The Garden Quilt.

I free motion quilted this one and had a lot of fun. I did all sorts of quilting designs on it. I'm calling this my smorgasboard quilting.

I knew Jessica had a spot all picked out to hang it so I took the liberty of adding some hanging gizmos on the back using these picture hanging strips and some twill tape.

This method is fabulous because it means you don't have to have any holes in the wall and it can easily be removed. Now I need to find some time to do all my doll quilts the same way.

The information for doing the strips is over on Quilt Otaku with a video link and in the video, you can see how to remove the quilt off the wall without straining any stitches on the quilt.

I just have one more swap to get my skates on and finish, no sneak peeks or you'll be able to guess what it is.

Over at Manaiba's blog, Sewjournal, there is a special quilt auction happening for a 1930's reproduction quilt, It's for a very worth cause, go have a look over here.

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.

Not a lot happening here.

I did finish the not so secret Santa gift for swapping with my sewing group, actually on the morning of the swap (phew). Not so secret because we can all guess who made what but it was a lot of fun and we had a nice dinner out to boot.

The Hardanger heart is a pattern by Emie Bishop.

The gift I received is this gorgeous felt wool heart, all hand beaded which must have taken for-EVER. What a hoot to give a heart and get one back.

I got another wee gift in the mail, I love the look of the Zentangle on the card but I have no plans to start another addiction. If you don't know what the Zentangle craze is, where have you been? The ladybird bookmark is a cutie too, thank you friend, you know who you are.

I feel like I've been possessed by a need, an obsession to sort out how I would quilt the Stars and Sprigs before I've even finished the top. I'm killing two birds with one stone here and keeping up my practice on the machine. While I like what's happening here, I think not for the quilt. You'd think I could do something simple but no, not me, I have to try the fancy pants stuff, just because.
The truth is I may be in one of those sewing slumps, I haven't done any sewing in the evenings for the last three days. I must be sick or needing some battery recharging. Hopefully, I can get back into gear this weekend and get that applique going again.



Have a wonderful weekend.

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.

A finish

You might remember this scrap quilt I had made a couple of months ago for my 11 year old granddaughter.

I'm showing it again because........................ 

I finished it just yesterday.

I knew you'd want to know how I machine quilted it but really with a scrappy quilt, it's more about texture since whatever you do doesn't show up that well. Great for when you're still in the learning stages of trying to manage a larger quilt on the machine and very forgiving of any little quirky bits that might end up happening.
I saw  Patsy Thompson had posted about her pattern for exploding feathers on her blog so had a go and then ordered the second feather DVD that it's featured on. I can now quilt the feather shape in any direction, my stitches are becoming more even and I can even backtrack pretty well now.

I got this backing fabric online for $3.50 a yard, I love a bargain and perfect since apparently yellow is now the favourite colour and pink is so last year.

 I washed it in the washing machine, hung it out on the line for about 15 minutes just to start off the drying and then lay it flat on the lounge room carpet with the overhead fan to finish drying it and get it as flat as it could be. It's quilted with Hobbs Heirloom wool batting and #60 Mettler 2 ply cotton.
 It's about 80" square.

Got that done in time before this storm with thunder, lightening, rain and hail hit. It was all a bit rushed but I really raced to get this finished so I can deliver this one in person.

I'm taking off to New Zealand in the morning to catch up with all the family, Mr Quiltsalott is joining me in a week and so the blog could get pretty quiet for the next few weeks. Forgive me if it takes me a couple of days or more to catch up with comments and your blogs. I'm off to bed, I have to drag myself up at 3a.m.

I'm busy quilting

Sometimes you just have to step away from the computer so sewing can happen. This is what I've had my head down doing. I'm half way through  quilting the scrap quilt which is 81 inches square. I wanted to show you this picture so you can see that I still have a ton of room under the arm so it would accomodate a king sized quilt no problem.

I forgot to put the Supreme Slider on at one point and wondered why it was harder to push the quilt along so it gets the big thumbs up from me. I have a Hobbs Heirloom batting in this one which is so light and beautiful to use.

 I was good and finished the quilted pillow first otherwise it might not have got done.

I went to a small quilt show last weekend and captured a few shots of bits and pieces. Amongst these are  some machine quilted motifs for ideas.

 Can you believe I didn't buy any fabric? It's true but I couldn't resist this sewing box.

On the way home, we stopped off at the OfficeWorks store. I was looking to replace my office chair which is on the way out with the hydraulics. I couldn't find a replacement I liked but did get some gadgets. This lumber support fits over the back of the chair and will also help keep my back cool in summer when it gets hot.

I have hips that need chiropractic intervention every few weeks, along with other body parts. When I have longer periods on the machine, I can really do myself some damage. It's such a pain having short legs. I rest my left foot on this footstool while the right foot is operating and it evens up the hips. I've had no pain since using it.

On the machine

I'm quite enjoying this machine quilting lark but I still have to schedule time for it otherwise it's just not going to happen. Ok, free motion Fridays are hard to keep up with but a regular play is still needed to keep practicing. After seeing this post by Jenny Bowker, I decided to run with the idea, killing two birds with one stone, I could make a good sampler piece that I could turn into a cushion. Jenny is teaching a class at Houston for her idea and demonstrated this in Australia at the quilt shows for Bernina. With her permission I am able to share this.

I had loads of fun playing around with different motifs as well as some background fillers.

The texture looks so good in the photos, I just need to wash it and turn it into a really useful item.

The next thing I want to get a grip of is to pay attention to the regularity of the gaps between the stitched lines. I still have to force myself to stop at certain points so I don't lose control of what I'm doing . I also have issues with deciding where to go next and how to get in and out of spots, for me this is the hardest of all.

I've been reading these two books authored by Diane Gaudynski and learning a lot. I didn't pay a lot of attention to my varied stitch lengths when I started practicing and as I've done more, it has improved enormously. It wasn't easy to learn to drive a car and this is similar, I find myself listening to the sound of the motor and adjusting the speed of my hands and the foot on the pedal. Co-ordinating them all takes time.

Just for fun, I thought I'd share my Grandaughter's fifth birthday cake story. All the kids get to choose their birthday cake and Sophie asked for a list of must haves.
1. A princess.
2. Some sheep.
3. A dog.
Then it got even more specific, the princess had to have a hat and be standing behind the sheep. The dog had to be chasing the sheep. The dog had to be black. This is while the decorating was in full swing. My daughter is a Mum that rocks! By the way, the sheep are made of cupcakes. Jeez, I only ever asked for a banana cake.

Spring at my house.

It could be a little warmer since it's spring but the season has given me a boot up the backside to get going on a few things.

I finally finished border number 2 for the Stars and Sprigs quilt and I'm raring to go on the next one.

After that, I whipped up this hand pieced block. The fabrics and the quilt are on the wild side for me but I like to do something new, stretch the repertoire a bit, get out of the comfort zone. It's the block of the month from Amitie. I'm not an experienced  hand piecer so Crispy's new blog Hand Piecing With Crispy has been a big help. If you look on her sidebar, there are  lots of tutorials to check out.

Since Friday has rolled around again, that means it's free motion Friday at my place. The only sewing I did was some more on the cushion top that I started at the Don't Look Now workshop. I'm still not able to stitch this one the way I envisage, it's tough going and as a result, I find myself spending time on doing something I don't love. We all know how to solve that problem. I may just have to accept that this particular filler pattern is not my thing and move onto something else that I find easier.

I've been trying out this Supreme slider, a teflon sheet that sits on the bed of the machine when free motion quilting. It's lived up to the claims and I really like it a lot. It helps the quilt sandwhich move under the needle and it's very noticeable when I don't use it. It pays to tape the sheet to the bed of the machine so it doesn't accidentally get flipped when manoevering a big quilt under it.

Spring can make us do rash things and I think I acted a bit hastily when I decided it was time to destash and reorganise the main fabric cupboard.

Now I can hardly move around in the sewing room and I've only emptied the bottom two shelves. It really needs to get done. Hopefully I can make the stash work better for me. I'm not even going to go into the bins or drawers, that'd be scary because I think I must have twice as much stuff hidden away.

Bits and pieces

One of my little grandaughters is about to turn five soon. One day when her Mum was sitting and stitching, she expressed her need to do the same but a four year old with a sharp needle isn't the best idea when there are younger ones hanging around.
I remembered the sewing cards we played with when we were young and on one of my excursions, I scored this adorable Moda set complete with two plastic needles and some wool. Perfect for popping in the birthday parcel.

My daughter has since found this site that has some colourful cards you can print out for the young ones. They can use a large tapestry needle which doesn't have a sharp point.

Check out these ribbons I couldn't leave without, I thought they'd be great for the gathered clutches so many are making. The tutorial is over at Noodlehead. Or maybe something else?

I've also had some lovely mail after some button pushing lately. This fat quarter collection is McKenzie by Dena Designs.

I love how the black plays with the pastels, it takes the sweetness level down a notch.

I'm all for some of the simpler patchwork designs with a scrappy look and wow fabric so also felt the need for some reading material to inspire me.

I did promise myself  free motion Fridays and today I have been playing with leaves and filler designs in the one piece. It's starting to feel like thread doodling with a needle. I didn't find the leaves hard to do at all and just followed the instructions on the Patsy Thompson Vines And Leaves Vol 2.

I hatching a plan and that's to make the next piece cushion sized, I think it's about time these threads went into something other than practice now.

Stitch, stitch, quilt

The bobbins for my Bernina 820 are a lot bigger than a normal bobbin and they've been rattling around in a tin which is not good for the senser thingymigig part. You know what they say, "neccesity is the mother of invention"

Mr Quiltsalott and I got our heads together and came up with this simple little number. It's made from a scrap piece of wood and some dowling. No Nails, no glue because he has power tools to do the job. As soon as the prototype was knocked up, I ordered another one quick smart because there's no flies on me.

I suggested some stain to flash it up but the comment was that then I wouldn't be able to smell the wood. Silly me, what was I thinking.

I just about wrecked myself getting all the blocks made for the scrapalicious quilt so I'll just wait for a little bit before I sew the them together. I'm glad I got this far because in the middle of sewing, I was beginning to doubt it was anything but a mish mash. I'm sure it'll look great on a bed, it's not art people!

Some thought I was really dedicated to make pieced blocks, sorry to dissapoint you but this is cheater fabric, it's pretty effective and did a lot of work for me.

What else have I been up to? Well I've spent a fair bit of time practicing some more machine quilting which means that my applique was put on the back burner.

I'm going to keep it real and show the good, the bad and the plain ugly. I'm going to be self critiqueing so that I can improve and learn.

The lesson here is to figure out better paths from one motif to another so it flows more naturally.

This one was a play with a feather and look, look, circles blobs! We shouldn't be afraid to experiment, it could lead to something great.

This piece has a wool batting and I washed it to see how it would look. I was attempting to make a branched feather. More circular blobs this time.

With every bit of practice, I'm learning. To keep it up, I've decided to try and give myself time at the machine. I'm calling it free motion Friday. I may just have ordered some bits and pieces to help me. I'll wait to tell you when they get here.

I think my next goal will be to do something that's not so heavy with thread and more casual and airy.

There are a couple of generous bloggers who are helping us with free motion quilting. Leah has a blog called 365 days of free motion quilting and Christina over at A Few Scraps is hosting a beginners machine quilting party you can join.

So why do I want to learn?

Because I can't afford to send the tops out  to get done by a proffessional.

I want to retain ownership of the quilt by doing it by myself.

It's a challenge and a new skill to learn.
I have more quilt tops than I can get through by hand quilting even though it's still my preference.

Thanks for visiting, until next time, find some time for stitching.