17 in 2017 - Tablerunner #2 finished!

I have finished the binding on the second table runner for 2017. For those of you who pop into my blog regularly (hi Ruth!) you will know that we have recently moved again, twice in four months. So in this house I am still finding the perfect background to photograph a runner. The outside wall with an interesting rendered effect?

Or the side fence?

Or inside on my table?

Holiday Sewing

We have moved house these school holidays. For the last time for a long time I hope! I didn't want our two weeks to be consumed with unpacking so I booked a house in Fremantle for a 5 day "city break". It was lovely, we ate out every day, drunk too much and caught up with some shows on ABC iview! But I also packed my sewing machine. This was my view from the machine.

I purchased this material last year while in Vegas, time to cut it up. I trimmed it to a rectangle then placed the four prints on top of each other and sliced it in three.

Added a 3/4th of an inch to break up each of the prints and then sewed them all back together.

The quilting was up and down till I reached the point of no return, so reversed and made some sharp triangles. All that it needs now is the binding.

17 in 2017 - Tablerunner #1 finished!

Well its April and I have finally finished a tablerunner, only 16 to go! I'm happy with this, be nice to do some in different colourways or even a rainbow?

My sewing time is about to increase again. We are moving house again to a new town due to my husbands employment. I am taking the rest of the year off from my job to get everyone settled and sew!

Wordless WIP Wednesday #6

Wordless WIP Wednesday #5

Wordless WIP Wednesday #4

Sunday Sewing

Yesterday as I was looking for the perfect deep blue for the binding of my latest table runner I had a lightbulb moment. I wanted a solid, so I got out my tub of solids and I am pulling out all this beautiful coloured fabric and thinking why aren't I using it? What special project am I saving all this for? Why isn't my current project that special project? What am I waiting for?! So I pulled out all of my yellow, reds and oranges with the intention that they would be for the next table runner.

Then I sliced a bit off each. I even rummaged through my scrap tub and found a few orphaned jelly roll strips. Then I cut them into four groups, each roughly 12, 8, 5 or 3 inches

Then taking each group, started randomly sewing them together. Just had them piled up by my machine, grab one, sew, next! The ones above are from the 5 inch group. 

And here is the view taken earlier this week on my afternoon walk.

Wordless WIP Wednesday #3

Wordless WIP Wednesday #2

Wordless WIP Wednesday #1

Star Progress

Table runner #1 is progressing nicely. Not what I imagined.... but I'm going with the flow. I like the stars on point rather that just placed next to each other.

Hello 2017!

Hello 2017. We ended 2016 sadly with leaving Kununurra. I'll admit I was sad to say goodbye to the beautiful landscape and the lovely friends that we had come to call family, but it was time to go. So now we live 3,500kms south in a farming town. A small farming town with a population of about 65. Lots of things are different, we are all adapting. Part of the process for me has been unpacking my sewing machine at last! It was the first thing I packed when we moved as I wanted to keep it safe and it has been the last thing to be unpacked as I knew once it was out the box not much else would be done! So I have it set up, ready to go and I'm filled with such confidence that I declared to my sister on the weekend, "17 table runners for 2017? That should be doable! Right?"

Why not? Lets give it a go! So I pulled some fabrics with a friend who has a birthday in May in mind, got inspired by this block in a magazine and let the sewing begin!

A Rainbow Finish!

As mentioned in my last post I finished this quilt recently.
It ended up measuring 45 x 50 inches.

I'm really happy with the machine quilting despite going in an anti clockwise direction...

And it ended up with a first in the local Ag Show in the Jelly Roll Quilt category. Should I mention that it was the ONLY quilt to be entered in that category?!

Here are my quilting specs for next time:

Pressure dial on the back of the machine - 1. Upper thread tension - 4.
Stitch width - 2. Stitch length - 3. Top thread - Aurifil 50.
Bottom thread - Aurifil 50. Direction of quilting - Anti clockwise spiral.

Nailing the Spiral Quilting!

Well I finished the rainbow jelly roll quilt and it's at the Ag Show as I type. Made the deadline, yahh. If only I was that conscience with baby due dates! So not to let the sewing machine think its on holidays, I trimmed these mod mosaic blocks down to 13 inches, sashed the internal borders with 1.5 inches and the outer borders with 6.5 inches. Laid it out on the floor and sandwiched it. Just like that. No folding it up for a year and moving onto the next project, lets sandwich it now!

I learnt my lesson from the last quilt. Clockwise this time Helen, clockwise. Also lowered my foot pressure from 2 down to 1. Both have made a huge improvement in the movement of the fabric. Above is after two bobbins have been use, look at the outer rim of the spiral, hardly any puckering at all. I'm using exactly the same thread as from the rainbow jelly roll quilt in the last post, a pale grey of Aurifil. Its quilting like a dream, I think I have nailed the giant spiral quilting technique!

WIP Wednesday #10 - Rainbow Spiral Quilting

The local Ag Show is coming up this weekend and I would really like to win a first prize in the Patchwork Quilt category. I've won second prize a few times, I've won first prize in the "Patchwork - Other Article" category and also "Appliqued Wall Hanging" but I would really like to take home the certificate saying first prize Patchwork Quilt. Saying that though, there is a new category, "Jelly Roll Quilt" this year. Not exactly the Patchwork Quilt category but getting close. So I pulled out this quilt top which has been sitting on the shelf unfinished since the Quilting Retreat in March last year.

The plan was to put it up and see if I could turn it into a few quick table runners. But when I spread it out on the floor, I thought hmmmm, this is actually not too bad. So I put together some rainbow spotty fabric for the backing and had it taped to the floor before you could say "lets watch another episode of Downton Abbey" as Grace and I got through a few seasons in the time Daz and Milly were away! We started back at the beginning and cried all over again when Sybil and Matthew died.

I ended up going a big spiral. I misread my notes though and went in an anti clockwise direction so by the end it was getting bulky through the neck of the machine. Above is how far I got after one bobbin change.

This is after three bobbin changes. Look how much movement there is around the edges. Fortunately there was no puckering underneath. Lucky!

And despite all that movement my lines of white are straight. This is after the fourth bobbin change. I'm going to keep on going and get the quilting down and the binding on tonight! Nothing like a deadline to get you going!

First Finish for the School Holidays!

I love school holidays as it means I can sew! We aren't going anywhere for the next two weeks which makes a change, I guess we can't go to Vegas every school holidays! Daz is going off on a few shirt (opps! short!!) fishing trips but I put forward my case of I want to stay home and do some sewing to see if I can enter a few quilts in the upcoming Ag Show. I quickly sandwiched this quilt, quilted it, squared it up and put the binding on.

Its all ready for its new home. It ended up measuring 46 x 38 inches,

The quilting was just up and down, Simple but effective.

Just after I took these shots of the quilt laying on the grass in the backyard, I stepped on a dead cane toad/ Well it had the legs of a cane toad but the body was long like a blue tongue lizard. It was bloated and freaked me out. When Daz got home I said something is dead on the back lawn, I trod on it, can you put it in the bin? Being the dutiful husband he is, he went out to remove the dead thing, only to come back inside minutes later laughing as I had stepped on a toy from the neighbors that had somehow been thrown over the back fence!

WIP Wednesday #9 - Rays of Sunshine

I sewed this on the weekend.The squares are from a layer cake I purchased in Vegas. The strips are from my stash. I needed a quick baby quilt for a lovely lady. I've decided to call this one "Rays of Sunshine". Since I took these photos on the weekend I have sandwiched it and am half way through quilting it. Hope she likes orange!

Nine Mod Mosaic Blocks

I have finished nine Mod Mosaic quilt blocks for Jack's quilt.

For some reason I had in my head they were cathedral window blocks. Something about the white looking like the lead light in a stain glass window maybe?

Anyway, I was wrong!

Next step is to trim them and sash them with 2 inch white,

A very productive Sunday. Do I have to go back to work tomorrow?

WIP Wednesday #8 - Blue Cathedral Windows - No make that Mod Mosaic Blocks!

A lot of blue happening around the sewing machine lately. Jacks quilt is slowly progressing.

I have four blocks done. These will trim down to 13.5inches. Not sure yet if it will be 9 blocks, 3x3 or 16 blocks, 4x4. I get to babysit him tomorrow afternoon, that should inspire me to work faster!

Vegas Baby!

I have just come back from 7 nights in Las Vegas. My best girlfriend turned 40 in early April and it has been her dream to go to Las Vegas for her 40th. Back in December we booked and finally the day came on the 10th. It was a whirlwind girls trip, there was 5 of us in total. Lots of cocktails, dancing, shopping. Saw some shows - Elton John!! - went to the Grand Canyon via helicopter, just amazing. Before we left though I did some research into quilt shops of the area and was pleasantly suprised to find a lady who actually runs a quilt shop tour! So she picked me up from my hotel in her mini van with a quilt painted on the side, went to another hotel to pick up another quilter and then drove us to Quiltique. OMG, such a beautiful shop. I exercised the credit card there!

This is just a handful of what I purchased there. I mainly went for charm squares but did get a few yards of blues and two layer cakes and some magazines as well. Then after that we went to the Christmas Goose quilt shop. Going from their website I didn't think I would find anything there I liked, bit to brown for me. But I was wrong..... Came out with quite a few fat quarter bundles.

This was all my haul! Now to start sewing!