Let the Hand Quilting Begin.....

Ohhhhh, this is going to be harder than I thought. This metallic thread is a PITA to work with! Each strand frays into 6 seperate strands again... Its fiddly, took me like 2 hours just to do these 4 outlines, can you even see them in this photo? Am I imagining they are there??

WIP Wednesday - Week 40 - The start of hand quilting the Squid Eye!

Just a small ekkk as I typed Week 40 as the title of the post! Ekkk! Look at this view into my sewing room! This is what I see as I stand at the door. My flickr dolls quilt ready to wash and label. Lisa's lovely mini of triangles. A stuffed doll Grace has been asking me to sew the arm back on for months! That blue and green quilt top I made in August for no real reason, waiting to be sandwiched and quilted. I thought I might use it to practise stippling on? Or just diagonal lines? Anyway, something for another day.

With the end of the year approaching I want to finish two projects before starting 2009. Being a bit ambious maybe, but you have to start somewhere. I had a mantra in high school, the sooner you start something, the sooner you finished it. And I want to finish this quilt and the Squid Eye Quilt!

All I had to do was sew an inch strip around the top and it was finished and then spent the day sandwiching it and hand basting it. I want to hand quilt this one. I have never attempted hand quilting before, I'm after a long term hand work project to take along to the girls swimming and gym classes, something to work on when we go to Rottnest and I can't take my machine, something to do at night in front of the telly when I don't want to do any machine sewing. So I have decided to tackle this one as it will most likely be a wall hanging, its big, 50 inches square. Wonder how long it will take me? I picked some pretty metallic DMC threads to contrast.

I have hand basted it with just a strand of DMC thread, that took 2 nights! I figured I couldn't use pins as I'll need the pins before I am finished I am sure. Daz was watching with interest as I was doing it at the dining room table, although he had his "she's crazy but I'll support her in her little hobby" face on and when I said I'm hand quilting this, he raised his eyebrows and I made him promise to remind me what a good idea I thought this was in a few months/years when I am cursing myself for even attempting this!

Last Nights Sewing and a Small Stash Sunday.

Last night I turned off the computer and actually sewed! Too many night's I just sit on the net looking at blogs and flickr and admiring other peoples amazing work and dreaming and then next thing I know its midnight and I have done no sewing! So last night I turned it off and sewed. The TV was on in the background and Rockwiz was on, Daz loves that show. One of last nights guests was Tony Hadley. *sigh* I loved this guy in the 80's in early high school, had the Spandau Ballet poster, t shirt, the album, *sigh* Hearing him sing True again had me stopped in my sewing tracks. What a classic, just had to find it on You Tube and paste it here so I can simply play it over and over again while I post it.


And so when he had finished singing I returned my attention back to this little dolls quilt and finished it! I ended up going for strippey binding cause there is something so yummy about stripes on binding! I especially like the back, I did it white thread on purpose, add a bit of contrast. I sewed down the binding today.

I have sewed down the binding on 2 sides to my second version of this design in pink and oranges. Once again undecided which one to send. Typical Helen....

And for Sunday Stash seeing as thought it is Sunday, I got this fat quarter from Ads today from Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy range. Very nice indeed.

"Why do I find it hard to write the next line? When I want the truth to be saidddddd. I know this much , I know this much is trueeeeee!

EB Dolls Quilt Sent!

Well as Mands has recieved her quilt I made for her, I can post a photo. Her preferences were familiar, something bright and modern to hang above her sewing area. It was a journey as I did start out with a colour pallette which ended in this quilt. But then when I finished I thought too bright so I picked out these colours. Being the Mum of two girls as well, one can never have enough pink and purple in the house!

This one was also in the running but as I was quilting it two of the light brown seams popped out. The result of making my fabric peices too small and edges being too close to the foundation paper lines! Arg! I fixed it but it wasn't swap worthy so Milly will get this one on her wall in her little collection.

It was a great swap. Shall we do it again next year?

EB Dolls Quilt Swap Recieved!

Today is the day! The grand opening of the second annual EB Quilters Dolls Quilt Swap! I recieved this cute little quilt from Ingrid K. Its a chalk board quilt! Sew many projects, sew little time, never a wiser word spoken! And its sew true Ingrid!


The blanket stitching is lovely and I love the spotty binding! Its such a unique idea, chalk board material, its kinda hard to write on and washes the chalk off perfectly, its amazing, I didn't even know such stuff exisited. Thank you Ingrid, its just lovely!

Usually I don't let the girls near my fabric with a texta or pen but in this case, I gave Milly a pencil of tailors chalk and away she could go! We'll make a quilter out of her yet. Thanks again Ingrid.

WIP Wednesday - Week 39 - Wonky Dolls Quilt Progress.

Its about this time of year when I do a WIP post and realize its week 39?? Nearly in the 40's?? Where has the year flown too again? I have finished the top for my FLickr DQS#5. Its wonky! I have started to quilt it which is making it go even more wonky! But its supposed to be wonky, embrace the wonkiness!

I have done just a straight white stitch in each of the white squares, making the coloured squares pop out. And then some random straight stitching in that white space. Little bit arty, little bit modern. My swapee said she liked that sort if stuff, here is hoping!

But because I always like to make two dolls quilts in a swap, one for me, one for my swapee, one to stuff up first before I do the real thing, one just for the fun of it, one just because..... Well I sewed up this one too, in a different colourway. Hot pink, orange and a floral I love which I have just enough of to do this. So this is on the backburner while I turn back to this one to work out the binding...

I was thinking the same Jump Rope Katie print as I used in the blocks. That was the first thought. Then had a rummage in the orange drawer and pulled out some stripes or another floral, bringing in a lighter orange/yellow? Hmmmm, I am unsure about this. I left it all drapped over the ironing board last night hoping that when I had a look this morning I would be inspired, but nope, still scratching my head. Am leaning just a little towards the stripes. What do you think out there in blogging land?

Stash Sunday - Week 5.

I have reached the last drawer of my stash tower! Rather a mixture of fabric in this drawer, sort of the stuff that doesn't belong anywhere else. A growing collection of black and whites. Some browns, some florals, some stripes, some charm square packs. And these funky chickens!


I have made two quilts from these chickens, I got the squares off ebay ages ago and then a few weeks after they arrived I discovered the print at my local patchwork shop, sold by the metre for like a third of the price! Anyway I still have 8 different chicken prints to do something with.

Ads arrived back from Melbourne yesterday bearing gifts! A pile of Spotlight Fat Flats which funnily enough I did pick up the pink, green and yellow one at my local Spotlight last week only to put them back at the last minute as I didn't really need them. Well I need them now!

And look what else! These stunning Kaffe Fassett charm squares and white on white to make this cushion. Beautiful fabric, ugly cushion, think I'll make something else! Thanks Ad, I'll be popping that in the bottom drawer till then!

Our 4 Year Old Mini Milly Moo.

*sigh* Today I become the mother of a 4 year old, how did that happen? A beautiful, funny, loving little Miss who is constantly amazing us with how fast she is learning and she hasn't started school yet. She is a joy to have as a daughter. Looking back through all my photos to make this mosaic made me realize I'd do it all again in a flash as she was such a delightlful baby.

"Hey Milly, you rock!"
"No Mummy, you ROCK!"
"Milly rocks!"
"Mummy ROCKS!"
"Milly rocks the best!!"
"Okay, okay, okay, okay! We both can rock."

WIP Wednesday - Week 38 - Three Wonky Squares

I'm cross with blogger tonight. This photo in photoshop is crystal clear and its blurred here. And why can't it be as wide as the photo in the last post? Booger blogger!

So one square has become three....

Stash Sunday - Week 4.

Yes I know its Tuesday and I am only posting my Stash Sunday post now.... opps! We went away for a few days to Rotto and although it is beautiful over there, no internet access for us. I tell Daz if he ever end up living over there we are soooooo getting one of those mobile broadband thumb drive scuzzy drive thingies!

So without any further ado, this week we are up to the blue drawer! The think I noticed about this collection is there is a lot of blue spots, a lot!

This one is a favourite, it is the only snowflake material I own! It doesn't really go with anything, I have no idea what to do with it besides look at it and admire how pretty it is. :)

DQS Five - Starting again....

Thanks for all your lovely comments about my ideas for the start of the latest Dolls Quilt Swap. But it is just not w.o.r.k.i.n.g! It is not turning into reality how I imagined! I realized after I did the above circles and wondered what zing was missing, it was cause I have done these dark on the outer to lightest ib the middle, so it looses that fresh, crisp look I was aiming for. But after spending time cutting these out I thought I don't want to cut out any more to realize it is still not working so I pushed it aside and thought later!

I have this little mini quilt hanging on my wall below my notice board in my sewing nook. I look at it every day and love the colours in it. I've used that as the inspiration behind this block.

I love the orange Jump Rope Katie print, although it looks black in this photo, its actually a dark brown. It's a wonky square, feels nice to fall back into wonkiness after so much foundation peicing lately. I really like this, I have 3 more on the go. I'm thinking maybe 4 blocks? Maybe 6?? Maybe 3?? I'm going to keep sewing a few then have a play. That's the plan, plan B!

DQS Five - Started!!

It started with the above doodle.... Circles, lines, more circles.... I don't want to do any foundation peicing for this one, its applique time!

And then sat down and doodled in Quark.... I was thinking rainbow gradiation, like giant spots of colour on plain white, something fresh and simple. It wasn't quite working and I left it up on the screen, went away and came back an hour later and thought, ahhh, just a simple line to connect the spots. And yep, I think it works.

And so to the scrap box I go! This is the fun part.

WIP Wednesday - Week 37 - Binding, Label.

I am so close to finishing two projects. I am not allowing myself to start anything new till they are done, I'm itching to get started on my Flickr Dolls Quilt #5 Swap but have to finish these two swaps first.....

I have finished the quilting on this Round Robin and just need to attach 4 metres of pink binding. 4 metres, no problems!

And I have the label to cut and blanket stitch down on this dolls quilt for the EB Quilters DQ Swap. That should only take 10 minutes. 10 minutes? What is 10 minutes? So time poor lately, if only one didn't have to sleep.....

Sunday Stash - Week 3.

Sunday has come around quickly again. I feel like a presenter on Play School, today we are looking in the green window. Not much contrast in this section of the stash, all mid toned greens.... Interesting!

I picked up some of the above Farmer's Market print on Thursday and it has become a favourite already.

Happy Birthday AJ!

Yesterday was AJ's birthday and she has recieved and opened her pressie, so I can now blog this dolls quilt I sent over for her. Happy Birthday AJ! I hope you had a fantastic day and I hope even more that this is your year! I say dolls quilt but I sewed a hanger in the back, quilts this size deserve to be hung I think. I have really loved doing these twirly spiral quilts but I think its time to move onto spots and dots.

WIP Wednesday - Week 36 - Me and Milly.

Recognize me? No WIP shots today as its just swirly quilting for someone's Round Robin. This is Milly and I shopping. She drew it this morning. That's me holding the bag, wonder if its full of fabric?

Sunday Stash - Week 2

Drawer #2 for todays stash post. Red, orange and yellows, the sunset drawer.

This is my favourite piece in this draw, it was half a metre originally but now down to a scrappy 30 x 20 cm bit. I'm a bit scared to use it in anything as then it will be gone forever! I brought it ages, like aggggggges ago from the USA from this lady here off ebay in a FQ pack. I think it may have been my first overseas ebay purchase, thats how long ago it was! I trawl her site every now and again for a look, the orange is so vibrant and the little circles and lines are the finest gold print that sparkles. It is pretty.

WIP Wednesday - Week 36 - EB Dolls Quilt getting there...

Getting tired of swirly, twisting blocks? Here's yet another? I have 4 of these ready to sew together, just working out which direction. The browns look nicer in real life than this hurried snap.

Nicholas's Quilt All Fixed!

Look at this poor little quilt! It is a well loved and cuddled quilt this one. My first attempt in quilt making beyound simple squares. It is a Jan Mullen pattern from a fantastic magazine called Kids Quilts, one of those one off special editions magazines, from Quilters Companion. I think its supposed to be an annual mag, but I haven't seen another since I got this copy and that was in late 2004 I'd say. I made this back in early 2005 but didn't give it to the baby in question until August when he was born.

The pattern was of course different to what I ended up with. It was 5 by 5 rectangle blocks, I did 3 by 4 and added some sashing and little squares to match up. I look at it now and cringe as it is all wrinkly, I backed it with flanelette! It's puckered everywhere! I hand quilted around each diamond shape and little yellow square, suppose that doesn't help the puffiness. But the colours are still bright and intense, still love the choices I made there. And the thing that really makes me smile about this quilt? It is so loved and cherished by the little boy who it was made for, he takes it everywhere, everyday! Every time I see them, his Mum has his quilt poking out the top of the nappy bag, and this little boy has just turned 3.

So when a quilt is this well loved, it is bound to get a rip! I spotted this 2 inch gap a few weeks ago and immediately confiscated the quilt for a fix it job.

I just folded over the green and slip stitched it down.

And the quilt hadn't got a label either back in 2005, so I added one on. Sorry the label took 3 years Nicholas! He loves Sportacus from Lazy Town, I think this will be the extra cherished corner of the quilt now.

September Mini Quilt Wrap Up.

I signed up for another round of 6 - 12 inch Mini Quilt Swap at the start of September and got Kay. This was her first swap ever! Look at the beauty she made me!

A mixture of feed sack, vintage and new her little note said. Can I quietly whisper I don't know what feed sack is though! *blush* She also enclosed some pink floral material for the stash. I didn't get a chance to get it in the photo as apparantly it was the perfect length and colour for a certain nearly 4 year old Miss's teddy. Thank you Kay, its lovely! Your not a swap virgin any more!

And this is what I sent Kay in return. A chance to practise my FMQ and use up some left over sanil trail blocks from a certain recent Round Robin quilt....

Sunday Stash - Week 1

I was blog surfing last night, as you do and I came across Tamara's blog. She has come up with a cool idea of Sunday Stash, a lazy Sunday post showing off your stash. I'm in! So here I go for the first week.

I would class my stash as modest, not massive, but not small. I store 80% off it in this storage unit, $20 from one of those Red Dot type of places. Its also a handy place to store WIP's too on top. Each drawer is divided into colours, pink and purple at the top, orange, red and yellow next, green in the third drawer, then blue below and the bottom drawer is a bit mix and match, charm packs, black and whites and a few novelty prints which fall in no colour group. Mainly its FQ's and half metres, a few metre lots folded tightly. Anything bigger goes in another storage tub.

So this is the first drawer. Enough squeezed in? Maybe its time pink had its own drawer...

These are two of my favourites. The pink spots is a KP Kids print, used this in heaps of things and the floral is an Alexander Henry print. I love it but am too scared to use it. So it just sits in the drawer to be admired. See you next Sunday!