Too Hot

It's another sweltering day in Melbourne.

I went for an early walk while the air was still crisp, practised my new yoga moves, cooked, cleaned, did some school work and finally sat down to do some stitching but now I am just plain hot!

This weather doesn't mix with my internal temperature control. Hot from inside and out. I keep reading about snow and freezing on the other side of the world and it is hard to imagine. 

I machine stitched this quilt a few weeks ago around the main blocks.

Every block is the same but they look so different.

I love that!

 So, before I got too heated up, I hand stitched my first star.

This is the back of the quilt

And here is the front.

I decided to hand stitch the insides of each star rather than keep machine quilting.

There is nothing like using old cotton fabrics. They feel so cuddly and soft from all the wearing.

Holidays are Almost Over

With the holidays drawing to an end, I am looking around me and seeing so many plans still unfulfilled. I'm not complaining though because I have had the most quiet, relaxing, easy holiday in a long time. Being a teacher, I get lots of holidays, unlike when I was in the retail world. I appreciate them totally. These holidays saw knitting projects finished,  and quilts started, finished and in the middle of, and a few other bits and pieces. I had my first yoga class (and found it really hard - BUT I AM NOT GIVING UP!), walked on the beach and around the local parks, met friends, drank coffee, spent time with my family, did the crossword every day, worked a little, cleaned a lot, got accepted into university to study my Masters part time (am I crazy?), bought some great bargains, cleaned out the back veranda (and found a red back spider), read books, tried new recipes and generally did whatever I wanted whenever I felt like it and it was so relaxing and regenerating. 

I guess I am now ready to enter the world of reality and go back to work. 19 new students to get to know, 19 new sets of parents to meet and remember their names. Organised chaos, here we come!

One of my last two projects stitched on the machine has been these oven gloves.

My son wants to take them back to Sydney as a present for his girl friend's family.

I like them now that they are finished but they were a pain to make!

The other one has been quilting the Keiko Goke improv quilt I started with Gwen Marston.

I have just made up the stitching as I have gone along and it has been lots of fun.

I think I know what the binding will be, but I am not 100% so I will leave it for a while and have another look with fresh eyes in my next term break.

Play time for me is over.

Holiday Quilting

My friend Rivka, who has commissioned me to make quite a few quilts now, delivered her Liberty Quilt back to me, after having had it professionally quilted. The final binding was added and after many months, was ready to live on her bed. We made this quilt together, cutting, ironing and stitching. This one took ages to put together and in the end I had to scrap together every last square inch of fabric to complete the last few blocks.

It's queen size, but looks like a single from the photo. I didn't get a chance to photograph the binding which was mainly charcoal and really defined the border.

Next, Rivka pulled out of her bag a whole stack of blocks that she had made in a fit of creativity and then stopped. As per her usual style, nothing was measured, pinned or uniform. As free spirited as she is herself!

A few hours later, we had everything cut to a slightly more regular fit, many more blocks made and the horizontal sashings attached. 

The aim of this quilt was that it was going to be used for her TV watching evenings. It is so long, it can totally wrap around you for snuggling up on cold winter evenings.

 It is so bright and happy.

Getting all inspired to do my own stitching I added another border to the Denyse Schmidt medallion.

Can't decide whether I should do any more.

Making a Medallion using Flea Market Fancy

I've been playing with these blocks for ages and really not liking them very much but now that I am on school holidays, I have had a bit more time to think and play. The Flea Market Fancy quilt blocks have been joint together to be the centre of a medallion quilt.

A couple of borders were added

 Flying ducks were prepared

Added,

With another border too.

I'm liking the look of this a whole lot more now and the next few rows of blocks are nearly ready to join.

I just love holidays!

A Couple More Pot Mitts

I love using old scrap fabric and breathing new life into it.

Here are a couple of pot mitts that will be end of year presents.

 This is where I first used the fabric by Laurie Wisbrun.

It is fun going through the scrap pile. You find all sorts of old friends and can get a tiny bit nostalgic.

Scrappy Quilting

I like to read other people's blogs but unfortunately I don't always get the chance and time to do that. One blogger that keeps my blog roll moving is im a ginger monkey . 

There is always something going on there. One day, looking for inspiration, I fell upon her tutorials page and found the famous "Scrap Vomit" quilt which led me to looking up her Scrappy Trip Along photos on Flickr . 

The light bulb went on. Get rid of scraps. I need to do that. 

I've been cutting and sewing for weeks and weeks and have made the biggest quilt ever! 

I think I could go on for ever. I can't believe how much yucky fabric I have and how many scraps I have accumulated. 

I have bought no new material and am holding back until I make some inroads to my stash.

I have even more blocks made. 49 in all and about 16" square each. Enough for a king bed.

It has been so much fun playing with the blocks.

Every time I lay down the blocks I have found another way to make a pattern.

Once I decide on the final lay out I will put it together.

Meanwhile... I am trying to make a few gifts for end of year thank you's.

These dogs are for my co year level teacher.

She is mad about dogs.

Anyway, if you are looking for an idea to dig into your stash, follow the link to the Flickr photos and you might become as addicted to making these scrappy blocks as I have been lately.

Decisions Made

Liberated quilting is all very well but if you get too liberated and free, your fabric starts to ripple and warp which does not bode well for a flat piece of fabric to quilt. So after adding on a couple more borders, the patchwork I began in the Gwen Marston class has had to stop growing. 

My second decision, after months of procrastinating, was to join these blocks

into a 4 x 4 centrepiece

The Quilts in the Barn show inspired me to join these guys up and then add a series of borders.

I'm not sure what the borders will be.

Maybe flying ducks.

I have quite a few extra blocks made, each one different, that will also go on as a border.

It has been hard to get myself moving with my quilting these days.

The main thing is that I am beginning to use up some of my fabric.