Scrappy Table Runner.

  

Thinking of renaming this blog. How does confessions of a weekend quilter sound? Thats all the sewing action that is happening around here at the moment which does annoy me as if I just get off the computer and sew then next thing I know the hour has whizzed past and I feel happy as I have been creative and it just feels right. But the other side of my brain is saying "oh, your too tired Helen, just sit down and check Facebook, Flickr, your emails and a few blogs, oh, back to Facebook?" And then that hour has passed and I could have been sewing and I am still tired! I need to get my act into gear. I have folded and hung the Green Windows quilt top ready to sandwich and quilt later on in the year when I can devote a week of the dining room table to the machine. So that is hung out of sight and I felt the need for a quick project. So I turned to my scrap bin which has a lot of pink and green and white in it at the moment and started cutting and sewing chinese coin style strips.

 It turned out quite theraputic as I soon had a few strips. It was all very rough. Rougly an inch of white between roughly 1 to 2 inches of pink or green.

And then after setting the timer in the kitchen today and telling myself, right I will sew for a straight 40 minutes, I had this complete. All I have to do is trim and sew on the sides of white. I stopped here because of guilt though. I have two seperate sewing bee blocks to complete by the end of April, a flag to sew for Daz's swim next weekend and I also need to start a birthday present table runner for a friend who's birthday is creeping up in May and I am still pondering her favourite colours and a design! So I shouldn't really be sewing for my own table. So on that note I'll wrote up a list of action.

Green Windows - Top Finished!

The school holidays end for us on Monday, well for Daz and I on Monday, the girls don't go back till Thursday lucky things! So I have managed to finish the top for this quilt this week. Can I admit I am a bit over it? There has been a few times where I have wanted to fold it up and pack it away for later, I kept on sewing though. I have't enough for the backing so am going to sew fat quarters and 1 metre lengths together to make a patchy backing.

Blue and Orange Square Baby Quilt Finished.

I finished sewing down the binding and the label on this quilt last night. There are so many documentaries on the Titanic at the moment on telly, I have been watching and sewing.

It measures 32 x 44 inches. I am a bit dissappointed with how the quilting has dragged down that strip of light blue at the top. Its not so noticeable in real life, but as always photos make it look worse than it is! Makes me wonder if I had just stippled it would it have been like this?

It has been a great stash buster quilt.

Best get it in the mail before this baby gets any bigger!

Photos of a hard day in the Kimberley from yesterday can be found here.

Mary Poppins.

With the pink and purple zig zag quilt folded away it was time to turn the attention to a new project. One without white fabric. One not intended for a baby! The sister of the Miss C who got this quilt last Christmas is 14 and she likes green. She babysits for us when we need it and I'd like to make her something, she's lovely. The kind of teenager I hope my girls will grow up into. So I pulled some green from the stash, even broke into some of the fabric purchased over the holidays. Added some yellow because I couldn't do it all green. I have been admiring Lynne's "Pick Up Sticks" red cross quilt as she has sewed it. And I have had this photo in my favourites for ages, so I had a rough idea what to do.

Within a very short time I had half of the first seven blocks sewn and with a quick cut in half again....

All these blocks started tumbling out of the sewing machine! I didn't have time to stop and take a progress photo for the blog! Milly commented "You making a windows quilt Mummy?" Ummm, I thought it was "modern liberated improv crosses" Milly but windows works too! I've moved the machine onto the dining table to spread out and the ironing board is just to the left outside this photo to save me walking back and forth to the laundry.

So now I have all these and more cut ready to sew. I'm aiming for double bed size. And what does the lovely Mary Poppins have to do with this quilt? Well she has been a Nanny to the girls while I have sewn this. Mum sent up the DVD for Grace's birthday and they have been absolutely captivated by her and watched it twice allowing me to sew in peace! Thanks Miss Poppins!

Pink and Purple Zig Zag Quilt Top Finished!

I finished this quilt top yesterday just as the sun was setting so I could rush out and take some photos. It measures 90 by 120 cms which maybe is a bit big for a baby, but they grow so fast! And up here quilts are more for playing on rather than snuggling under. I did unpick that row although I did appreciate the comments that it added some visual interest. Thanks ladies. :)

Grace likes it which is good as it is for her ex teacher that is having this baby.

Some points don't match and some are perfect. Thats the way it goes! I'm waitng on some thread from here so for the moment it is folded up and packed away and I can start on the next project!! I don't know if this tree in the backyard is dead or its going to spring to life as the weather starts to cool. Looks great in the background though.

Half Square Triangles.

Sewed all the half square triangles together yesterday. All ready to trim tomorrow and sew into strips. Love school holidays! We have eased out of birthday celbrations for Grace into a balance of sewing and whatever else the family wants to do so I can keep on sewing!

There has been a lot of pinning... a lot! Pressing seams open, trimming and pinning. Its all a bit too precise for my usual style, but the end result will be worth it.

And here is my d'oh moment. Just when I am getting into the groove of it, thinking how clever I am, how all this trimming and pinning is paying off when I flip open the seam I have just sewn to realize I have pinned it wrong and created a row of squares instead of my zig zag. That to me indicates its time for a coffee and blogging break before I reach for the unpicker.

Happy 9th Birthday Grace!

Grace celebrated her ninth birthday today. I have spent the week leading up today wailing "Nooooo! You can't be! Stay eight please!!!" To which I would get either a roll of her eyes and a reply of "Mummy! Please!!" or sometimes a hug and "It's okay Mummy, I'm still eight for a few more days." *sigh* Growing up too fast Gracie Lou, but you still call me Mummy! Today we did what ever you wanted which involved eating potato bake for dinner and going on the boat to Sandy Beach for lunch. In the words of a nine year old going to bed tonight, "It was awesome Mummy!"

Pink and Purple Strippy Square Photo Shot.

I realized earlier this year that I hadn't sewn a label on this quilt, nor had I taken any photos of it finished. I rectified both of those issues today. After the label was sewn on, it was time for the photo shot. Miss C is a friend of Milly's, in the same year at school, they were both the new girls in class on that first day of pre primary two years ago. Her family is lovely, we socialize with them a lot, it's great.

Standing outside, trying to get it to hang straight, just one more photo, it doesn't matter if you arms are killing you, hold it still! Nearly done...

I lay it on the grass for the last shot and Miss C came running over and said, "You can't put it on the grass! It will get dirty then we'll have to wash it!" I look at her Mum and ask "Haven't you washed it yet?" She got it for Christmas!! We have had this conversation before, she think it is too precious to throw in the washing machine, pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I'm chuffed that they think it is too precious to wash but the greatest thing I love is the fact that a quilt is washed as then its loved and used. After quilting the blue square baby quilt yesterday and blogging this now, I realize that I do a lot of quilts with white sashing around squares of colour..... Good thing or bad thing?

Easter Quilting.

Staying at home this Easter holiday. Planning a few day trips out on the boat with friends, a bit of fishing, some play dates for the girls and lots of sewing!

Inspired!

I decided to start a new quilt for my friend who is not having a boy! I took some inspiration from Liberated Quiltmaking II, sketched up some possibilties from this block as I just love this quilt.

I selected my fabric and went to sew a block for a trial. And it didn't even get to sewing a block! It just wasn't going to work. Too many prints, spots and not enough colours to contrast like my inspiration example. So pondering what to do now... And then I saw this quilt on Jacqui's blog and it was like ohhhhhhhh! I knew the direction to go now. So how many ever half square triangles later, I could start to play.

Something like Jacqui??

Or flying geese this way? No, not quite.....

Or squares? Making a sort of zig zag in the white space? Getting there.....

Then I settled on coloured zig zags. I still have more half square triangles to go. My maths is terrible, I sew like about 15, then lay everything out and double check I'm still on track. Holidays are in three days, so should be able to get into the swing of it then!

In other news, check out here how we have been spending our last few weekends.