hop skip jump

1 year, 10 months and 23 days later...

We have quilt. A finished quilt, that is. It's shameful really, how long it has taken, this little 128x112cm quilt. And I'm not sure why, other than slackness, it has taken me so long - it's been picked up and put down far too many times since April 2008(!!)

I had hoped to bind it in the solid orange but could not for the life of me find an exact match anywhere. But - for purposes of completion - the red works just fine, I think. The backing dots are a Lecien print - Mrs March the 30's found at Superbuzzy long ago.

Anyway, it's all finished now. Yipee! Just in time for this cold snap that has settled on Adelaide (let's not talk about all the cold snaps that passed in the interim, ok?) Most importantly, even though her short-lived 'pink phase' has long passed, the recipient loves it, sleeps with it and carts it around the house with her. Bless. I just hope the next one doesn't take me about a third of her life to make!

triangular

Now that I'm no longer sewing madly around the clock for the market, there is a little more time for sewing of the fun variety. Last week I finished quilting the cross quilt, so while I'm waiting for the binding fabric to arrive, I thought I'd start another.

So with this beautiful poster (found via Door Sixteen) as inspiration, the blue-green fabrics have been piled-up. A few extra have been ordered too (ahem... they 'helped' justify the shipping cost for the binding on the other quilt). I'm planning triangles. Lots of them in solids - indigo, green, grey and blue, with a couple of patterns thrown in for good measure. It's a bit of an experiment - darker colours and no white, not what I am usually drawn to. Hope it works!

Sorry about the creased mess in the second photo. I excitedly went to iron the squares just now (because excitement and ironing only come together when sewing) only to find that our washing machine has overflowed, and the iron cord has somehow dropped into the water. So no ironing until we sort that one out.

Oh! And Nan's been making triangles as well. Very ace they are, too.

cozying

With three out of the four of us sick at the moment, we are taking it very slowly around the house. Pajamas all day for the small people. Trying to keep the cabin fever at bay with quiet games. Henry amused himself for a short while trying to balance this woolen ball on his head; he looked so sweet I wish it had kept him entertained for longer. I even pulled out some slippers that my Nanna gave me a few years ago (they always surprise me when I look down and see them - oh! i am wearing pink slippers!) A bad cold is a good reason to snuggle up under the couch with a quilt, so I have pulled out Audrey's quilt in progress yet again. Determined to finally finish it for her before this winter hits.

obsession of the week

 

Tiel is posting about her current obsessions, so I thought I might join in. 

We are just winding up the second week of school holidays, and between fun stuff (playdates, pajama days, botanic gardens, an ice skating party for Audrey's birthday), and not so fun stuff (sick kids - again, aargh!), I haven't seen much of the inside of my work room.

So my obsession this week has been something I would like to make. I'm itching to start another quilt, and have lately been drawn to those using only solid fabrics. Particularly inspiring:

This incredible set of colour studies by Daintytime on Flickr. This one has been in my flickr favorites for ages, I'm pretty sure I gasp every time I see it.

The work of Simply Robin - wow! and wowza!

Also (not above because it wouldn't go into the mosaic), this triangular beauty from Little Red Hen on Flickr. So, so good.

and it was all yellow

Yellow, specimen one: Mervyn. To go in a hamper for silent auction organised by Shannon, to raise money for PANDA. Do you know they don't receive government funding? Pretty astounding. If you've ever been afflicted with PND, or know someone who is struggling with it, you'll know how important an organisation this is. 

Yellow, specimen two: quilt! The top is finished and needs a jolly good iron. I am nonplussed with it, but hope the love grows after I take all the time to baste, quilt and bind the bugger. No quilting for a while though, as we are right in the middle of school holidays. Bike riding supervision calls. :)

status report

Well, I didn't mean to go missing for over a week like that. There has been some quiet progress in these parts, interspersed with procrastination, many cups of tea, freaking out about not-having-enough-time-to-do-anything and being rained on (hurrah to that!)

I think I might have cracked the mustard quilt on the weekend. Three blocks sewn, six to go.

Also, moving piles of fabric around while making some bunnies for Easter.

And! I finally finished writing up my doll pattern... but I was wondering if there might be a couple of lovely people out there who wouldn't mind testing it out for me? Before I unleash it. I'll send you the pattern and some other goodies to show my appreciation. I would be so grateful - the only other patterns I've written before have been edited before publication so this is uncharted territory for me. Thankyou!

edited to add - wow! thankyou so much for your kindness, everyone - you blow me away. And thanks again to Cindy and Jessica for testing the doll for me. xo

cutting the mustard

I've been thinking about a mustard/grey/white quilt for a while, and once christmas was past us I couldn't get it out of my mind. Last Saturday Matt took the kids to his sisters for a few hours and I cut up some mustard for the Hop Skip and a Jump quilt (another from the Denyse Schmidt book). The bottom photo is where I last left off. It needs more work. More grey, maybe? Less of the dark solid? A little of this? Taking photos (even rubbish ones!) and looking back on them like this is so useful. Anyway, progress is s-l-o-w. It's carefully stacked on my desk at the moment because Henry loves to fling fabric about and it wouldn't last a minute on the floor. But a long weekend is ahead, so perhaps some sewing time then.

getting the hand

I'm getting old. After the kids are tucked up in bed every night this week, I've been making a quick beeline for the kettle and then with cup of tea in hand, another beeline for the couch with my hand quilting. 

I've stalled over this quilt top for so long, waiting for the perfect backing, then wondering how to quilt it. On the cusp of shelling out for a free motion quilting foot for my machine, I started quilting it by hand and haven't looked back. It's a good thing I'm enjoying it because at an average of 2 crosses a night, it's going to take some time. No matter, it's exactly the perfect pace for these post-christmas summer evenings. And isn't that the point of doing things by hand? Plus I love seeing the quilty crinkle (that's a technical term, you know) slowly edge across the top. Does it get any better?

finito

I've just spent the past two evenings on the couch watching the olympics while sewing on binding, and - finally - my first proper quilt is complete. It's not perfect, but I don't care! It's big(ish)! It's crinkly! I made it!

This is the best photo of the whole thing I could manage today while Henry was sleeping. Those are Audrey's 4 year old hands for scale (she wanted to be in the photo). For me, obsessive sewer of small toys, this was a big project. Like reading a fat novel - it took ages to get through, but has been incredibly satisfying to finish.

The back. Ack, terrible photo - it only looks puckered like that in the middle because it's been folded in half over a chair - it's really not that bad. It's quilted in zig zags and some vertical stripes with white thread on top and red on the bottom. All of the fabric for this was from my stash, apart from the two solid red cottons and a quick dash to the fabric shop to stock up on some more white.

Thanks so much for all your suggestions and input into this one meagre blanket. I can't believe how much I've blogged about this single project! Now? I'm off to plot the next one.

a mat for rolling

During my machine quilting euphoria last week, I decided to make Henry a simple quilted playmat. I've stashed away this print for ages, intending to do something special with it. Originally, my intention was to hand quilt around each animal - a grand plan indeed until I realised that my hand quilting is - shall we say - crap. Anyway, he needed something soft and larger than a sheepskin to accommodate his new found fondness for rolling about. So a blanket it was.

I know I've mentioned it before but I love this print, and didn't really want to cut into the only yard I had of it, which quite neatly fit into my lazy plans for a quick project. So I quilted it in a wavy pattern (with varied success, but it's ok), backed and bound it with some greens from the stash.

I considered adding loops and whatnot for toys, but thought it might be nice if he could use this as a lap quilt/blankie as he grows. A mother can but dream, eh?