Making all Sorts of Things

Not much time for words so here are some pictures to make up for the last 2 weeks.

I washed and shrunk some gorgeous french linen and sewed on the hand crocheted lace (made by my husband's grandmother over 40 years ago.)

Added a border to the Shirt Quilt

Made another shirt quilt top from my Dad's old shirts.

I had been planning to do this for ages for my Mum but have been a bit lazy.

Now I have 2 backs to make.

Made this little quilt top from scraps and some white squares I found already cut.

It looked so colourful before it was sewn together.

It is a lot more white now.

And finished this little cardigan from Rowan Felted Tweed.

I saw brilliant mosaics gracing an underpass in Bentleigh.

Met my friends from Knitters Inc.

We downloaded this pattern from Ravelry and 2 of the members

were well on the way to finishing this little baby blanket.

And Sue decided she was going to upsize hers.

This sign was in the window of a wool and patchwork shop in Kyneton.

My husband took it because I was actually in there for ages and he patiently went to wait in the car.

He understands!

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?

I know I have been going on about this but it's finished now

I've finished my little crochet project. It was a bit like patchwork because I had to sew up all the squares and I put some lining in it. My husband said it was ugly and my son said, "It's very you Mum." My friend thought it was cool so I'll go with her comment! Anyway the weather has been really hot and although I have been craving the warm weather, it's been bad for my hands so I had a day of rest from sewing today.

Quilt Show, Stitching and Crochet

I went to the local quilt show this weekend and spent a pleasant few hours wandering around but I can't say it was a great show. There were very few exhibitors and most of them showed the same old stuff. Nevertheless I was very excited to buy the last 2 packs of Moda's Malka Dubrawsky fabric. I have been following her blog for a while. She dyes her own fabric and Moda have copied her designs and are making it possible for us to buy these vibrant prints. I received one of her books for my birthday in April. I love how vibrant and energetic her stitching is.

I also bought a crochet book. It is written in US instructions but the illustrations are so good and they explain what the stitches are in both UK and US stitches.

My sister came over and this is the bag I am trying to copy.

I can see that my centres are larger than hers but they are close enough for me.

So what else have I been up to?

Some stitching.

Some binding.

And some elephants.

More Crochet

I've been experimenting.

Once up a time my sister bought home a crazy crochet bag from Nepal. Apart from the fact that she should have bought more of them, the work in it is fabulous. I have envied and studied that bag for years now. It is old and shabby and yet she still wears it wherever she goes. It is made up of crochet squares.

I experimented with regular wool trying to get the basic pattern of the block. I am a very new crochet person so I really did not have a clue what I was doing. To make matters worse I have discovered that Americans and the English use different names for the same stitches. What a pain.

Anyway the regular wool just looked ordinary. The wool in her bag is made up of all sorts of blends of fibres.

I solved the wool problem in a dream. This is quite normal for me. I wake up and know what to do. About 30 years ago I studied how to do tapestry weaving. It's an awesome textile skill. I did about 3 short courses with the Australian Tapestry Workshop and still had, locked away somewhere, a fair amount of their reject wools that I just couldn't bear to part with. My loom is still hidden in my brother's cellar. I will have to rescue that one day.

Anyway, I found the wools and started making them into little 3 ply bundles and began making the crochet blocks. I have made enough blocks for the body of the bag. They are all sewn together  so now I need to stretch them as they are a bit lumpy. A wooden frame and some water spray should do the trick.

Recycling and a Variegated Wool

It was Grand Final Weekend this weekend and that means chilling at home and enjoying all the hype around the game. I love footy, unlike most of my friends and I love it when my team wins and plays well.  I love sewing with the TV on, half concentrating on what is happening in the game while making things. 

On Thursday I was at my Mum's house and I found one of my Dad's old cashmere vests, hanging in the cupboard, full of moth holes. Mum doesn't throw out much. My son was rummaging through Dad's stuff too because these days his clothes are known as 'vintage'. It was a bit lean in the cupboard as my nephew had already raided Dad's stuff a few months earlier. Mum is thrilled to have her grandsons wearing Dad's clothes. I decided I wanted to wear something of his too so I took the old cashmere vest and cut it up, sewed some fabric on to it and made a scarf.

It is so beautiful and soft and took me about an hour to put together.

I am so besotted with granny squares but not into the changing of colours and sewing in loose ends. I bought a ball of variegated wool to avoid those annoyances. It is called Zauberwool and it is dreadfully expensive, as all wool seems to be these days. It makes the craziest squares and I am in love with the stuff.

Finished Granny Squares and a New Quilt Top

Making the squares was fun. They are portable and can be easily picked up and put away but be warned, the sewing in of loose threads is a nightmare.

I think I will do some more crochet but I am searching for a less tedious finish.

I have been slowly building up my collection of Moda Happy Camper and Punctuation fabrics.

Yesterday I pulled them out and built this little quilt around a set of 5" squares I bought on sale.

As usual I went to Judy Hopkin's Book,"501 Rotary Cut Quilt Blocks," for a block that would fit.

It took me most of the weekend to get the top put together.

As usual the floor was a 'no go zone' which was a bit of bad luck because my husband was doing the vacuuming and the areas where I was sewing was in desperate need of cleaning.

New Fabric, New Blocks but Problems Ahead

I bought this beautiful fabric from Amitie

Lucky me, it was on sale!

And started to make some blocks.

I had bought a roll of linen from Spotlight months ago and used it for all sorts of projects. Unfortunately I have run out of it with half my blocks unfinished. A dash to Spotlight was unsuccessful as they had run out of the plain colour. I now have to wait for a new shipment and of course the dye lot is bound to be different.

Meanwhile I started hand quilting my Snowball Quilt. I had meant to machine it but the machine has been playing up big time. I think it needs a major service but I have no idea where to get one. Last time I found a wonderful man who comes to your house, has a cuppa and lovingly cleans and revitalises your machine. Alas he is nowhere to be found.

I am quilting Snowball with perle 12 as it has a thin batting and I wanted it to be a bit more delicate. I got out the trusty freezer paper, traced some plates to make circles, ironed my stencils on the snowball and sewed around it. Freezer paper makes great templates. I would never draw on the quilt in pencil, which is what I saw a lady do in a store. She said that she washes the quilt afterwards and the pencil comes out. My templates can be reused lots of times. The only pain is that I have to keep getting up to iron another few on.

The granny squares have been progressing too. They are so portable and easy to pick up for a few minutes that they are my school day time filler (not that I have much spare time).

I'm just going to keep going with these till I run out of wool. Actually they are more bamboo than wool. Really soft. I bought 8 balls for about $25. They had a great sale on and as this was a first time project I didn't want to spend too much. Wool is so expensive these days. 

My issue with these squares is that you have to sew in all the loose ends (boring) and also my tension is terrible. Sometimes it's nice and tight and sometimes really loose so the final sizes of the squares are all different.

Holiday Sewing

At Last the Wheel of Fortune quilt top is finished. It's not very big but those diamonds were such a pain, I was glad to see the last squares being stitched in.

I had about 20 squares left and a few diamonds and I laid them out and arranged them in a neat little square with the diamonds acting as a border. My no. 2 son, who loves tessellations, asked if he could play with them. He created a fantastic new pattern that I have never seen before. I spent the next day cutting more fabric to complete his idea. Now I will have to be working with diamonds again. I'm not showing his lay out yet. I need to psych myself up to drawing all the seams and pinning them all together. May be a few months away yet.

I also made a square block which I will be sending to Japan to be part of the Tokyo Quilt Festival. It was originally blogged about by Ayumills . The thing I like about this idea is that the block will be joined to other blocks, sent in from around the world. The blocks will be made into quilts which will be shown and then auctioned off with all proceeds going to the tsunami victims. Last show they put together 86 quilts!

What else have I been doing these holidays besides freezing?

I've started a quilt using some of my 30's reproduction fabrics. They have been sitting on the shelf for way too long. I have 19 blocks finished and 11 half done.

I made a couple of pot mitts for a teacher friend who just got married. The teachers all pitched in with money for a big present but I just wanted to add a little something extra for her on a personal level as we team teach our class and I was dying to use some new fabrics I bought.

I added an extra pocket at the back to fit your fingers in to get a better grip but stupidly quilted the mitts vertically whereas had I done it horizontally the mitts would have folded in your hand much more easily. Live and learn.

Diamond quilt is being hand quilted and it is looking beautiful.

Snowball Quilt is stretched.

I guess that is where most of my sewing time has gone. I can't believe I go back to work on Monday. I do have a crochet class to look forward to on Monday night though! Wish me luck.

Some of the Things I Bought

I have been dreamily passing the days since I have come home. Domestic chores, exercise, taxi driving my children, reading, doing crosswords - really anything except sewing. I am not sure if it's because I am still feeling too relaxed or if I just had so much stimulation from being away that my mind is at peace.
When I am working at school, I am so tired and so time poor that sewing is like an indulgence that I snatch greedily when given the slimmest opportunity. Now I have so much time but am frittering it away on seemingly useless projects.
So I have very little to show or tell except that I did buy some things with a textile flavour whilst away.
A lot of the places we went to were total tourist traps and consequently all the stores sold mostly the same thing. We picked up the expression 'same same' as we wandered through the old city in Hanoi. They were even printing t-shirts that said 'same same' on them.
When I would accidentally find a store that sold things that were different I would get really excited. If that store sold anything mildly crafty I would buy it, not really visualising how it would translate to everyday Melbourne usage. So here is some of what I bought.

Button Necklace and crochet bracelet with buttons

Woollen top with crochet flowers

This is a hand bag. It is ridiculously kitch. It has way too many bling bits, buttons, beads, crochet and trimmings. The colours are blah altogether. It's leather, handmade, and the inside has all sorts of pockets and special places sewn into it. The photos don't make it look any better but it is really quite wild in the flesh and I think if I wear it with very plain clothes I may have some fun using it. I just couldn't resist.