The Wind Blew

More Blocks from the Shirts

Over the week I have had snippets of time where I could cut and pin some more patches for the shirt quilt. I was a little unhappy with the first batch. They looked rather dreary but with the addition of 8 more blocks, it is starting to look a bit more lively.

Besides that,

I've been reading Kaffe Fassett's Book

'Dreaming in Colour.'

It is quite a good read!

I  bought it for the colour, the inspiration, the pictures but have found the story that goes with it is very entertaining.

Bonus.

On my trip overseas with my husband last year, we spent 3 days in Bangkok. We were totally scammed by a guy who pretended to take us to a shopping mall. Unfortunately all we managed to find was a tailor's company that made suits and shirts and things. I was so cross but started to laugh when I found another family, equally baffled at being there. In the end, despite my protests my husband ordered 3 shirts to be made for himself. 

On returning home, he discovered that along with all the other things he bought, his cupboard was overly full. His old shirts were so much nicer that the new ones but he started cleaning and clearing and lucky me was the recipient of some great checks and stripes.

It has taken me nearly 6 months to cut them all up and this weekend I decided to start making blocks.

I've got heaps of fabric so I will make a few more blocks and then decide if I will add sashing and borders. Quite a tone down from my usual colours.

A friend from my stitching group has become a grandmother and to celebrate I thought I would give her a quilt I made quite a while ago just because I loved the fabric but not for any real reason.

I am so glad I have found a recipient.

I still love this print.

And to continue the theme I backed it with this...

The last bit of stitching was actually a redo.

 No more touching blocks.

Happy now.

A Few Things

Yesterday was hot. So was the day before and the day before and........

We are not used to this weather in Melbourne.

Melbourne is the city that can have 4 seasons in a day and yet here we are in Autumn still experiencing Summer heat without the beautiful changes we are so used to enjoying. 

Not wanting  to really get stuck into anything in particular, I noticed my hat looking a bit bereft.

This hat was bought in Cambodia and travelled to India last holidays. It is usually my 'yard duty' hat that I have to wear when watching students outside at play time. We have a 'No hat, no play' policy so my hat gets lots of use. It had recently lost its headband and acquired a slightly battered look from being squashed into suitcases so I decided to add a new head band. 

The buttons are a bit twee but the kids will like it and they were a good way to keep the band sewn onto the hat.

I was really wanting something else to do but had not real idea. I decided to open my cupboard that I keep half done things in and found some old log cabin blocks from May 2011.

I tried all sorts of backgrounds and decided it was annoying me and packed them off to the cupboard.

Yesterday was the first time they had seen the light of day for a long time.

Without much thought or planning I used some of the Michael Miller fabric I had left over from another quilt and joined it up.

Happy?

Not particularly but it kept me amused for a couple of hours and also made me feel like at least things were being finished.

I'm really annoyed by the two blocks that actually touch each other. I feel like it should be cut up and another band added.

Maybe next weekend. 

Girl's Night In

Despite the unseasonal heat, I had my "Knitters Inc" friends over for a knit, crochet, stitch or just plain chat.

As much as I love my stitching, I find the smaller crafts so much more portable.

Here are some of the things we worked on.

Rag Rug by Judy

Baby Blanket by Linda

Baby Blanket by Sue which she finished the last touches of as we chatted.

The shiny bits are beads she threaded through the wool before knitting.

 Crochet throw by Helen.

There was more but I just didn't get a chance to snap it all.

Do any of you have other craft loves besides patchwork?

Colourful but a Mess

My little pigs quilt held so much promise but I completely messed up my usage of them. 

The main part of the quilt top is done.

I used a lovely block pattern.

  A few extra rows of fabric squares were added to make the quilt bigger.

 The process just caused even more chaos to an already jumbled monster of colour and noise.

 You can see the swirls and pattern of the blocks but the colour is just running aimlessly and your eyes don't know what to look at first.

Remy didn't mind and had to test it out.

The plus side is that I used a stack of scraps because all the little squares are 2".

The other plus is that from close up there are a whole lot of the cutest fabrics to spy out and the pigs are doing their thing as well.

You win some, you lose some.