Snowball Stress

I've had some Philip Jacobs fabric sitting around for about a year now. I really didn't like it when it arrived and didn't know what to do with it. So yesterday I started cutting it up to make a snowball quilt. I sewed for hours and at the end of it realised how disgusting the colours were that I had chosen. Not the Philip Jacobs but the pink and eggshell blue corners I had sewn around it. It really was awful. All hideously pink and baby blue.

As I slept on it, the family tiptoed around it in disgust. 

Today was unpicking day. Most of the pink and blue had to go. It was replaced with browns, greens and denim blues. 

The unpicking took hours. It was so wasteful but worth it. It's still not my favourite but at least I can look at it!

I hated all the waste from the chopped off corners so I've started sewing them together to add a border.

Echino Bike Quilt

One of the beautiful fabrics my son brought back from Japan was some Echino bike fabric. It is so special, I have been a bit scared to cut  into it. I chose a few fabrics that highlighted the colours of it.

 I cut them into 7.5" squares and made 9 sets of 9 patches.

Cut each 9 patch into quarters,

 rearranged them, and sewed them back together.

It's a bit random but I finished it in an afternoon. I really needed to get something done because last weekend was almost a right off for sewing and I was pining all week.

In between all the grocery shopping last weekend I snuck off to Patchwork on Central . 

"It was on the way home"

They were having a sale.

I had been searching for a backing fabric for my diamond quilt for a few months now and I think I did well.

It's the green one in the middle. $32 a metre reduced to $10 a metre.

Should go well with this:

I bought these too. Not sure what for.

Fabric is getting cheaper to buy in Australia, but I do love a bargain.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

               It's the Blogger's Quilt Festival and here is my entry.

The quilt was originally a kit.  It came with instructions and the most glorious range of fruity fabrics and checks and stripes. 

I didn't know many tricks of the trade so it is full of mistakes. The knots from my hand quilting are still visible because I didn't know how to hide them between the layers and the binding was put on back to front with awful corners. I didn't use perle cotton so the stitching thread is not as soft as it should be but I don't care!

The kit was was given to me for a birthday by my sadly missed sister-in-law Susan, who died  a few years ago. We used to go to all the craft fairs together, did our first quilting classes together, had sewing afternoons, knitted, stitched and shopped together. We both had a total love of textiles. 

Susan bought me this kit from Patchwork on Central's stall at a quilt show. She knew I couldn't afford it and bought it for my birthday. It's very special because it reminds me of our fun together. 

I've Fallen Weeks Behind

I've been so lazy with my blogging these last few weeks. I had a marvelous school holiday and even escaped to the beach for a couple of days. It was crispy autumn weather. We went to Point Nepean. On the left is the peaceful bay and on the right is the open ocean. We walked through the park and caught the shuttle. It used to be an old army base. There were some very cool rusty relics.

We sat on the beach and walked and drank coffee and ate yummy food.

The boys are studying for their mid years. Hard Life!

I took my hexies with me. They are so portable.

There is no plan with these guys. I am just adding on scraps as I go. No paper piecing. I'm just drawing the lines and sewing them together with running stitch. My textile teacher way back at uni would be horrified but it works! 

I loathe to throw away even the tiniest bits of fabric which is why I am getting so much pleasure out of this project. I also have been using my scraps to make these.

I got the idea from One Shabby Chick. I have linked her straight to her tutorial on how to make these little purses. They are so easy to make and use up lots of scraps.

I think they will make great end of year presents for some of the teachers I work with.

During the holidays I had to baby sit Phil, my class pet. When I first introduced him he looked like this.

During the December holidays he lost his exoskeleton and now looks like this.

He is no longer brown and 'twig like' but green with yellow horny legs and hard to find amongst the eucalyptus leaves. He is also nearing the end of his days. I found out that he is a Goliath Stick Insect which makes sense because he is probably 10" long.

I finished Rivka's quilt for her brother. It really is fun. It's binding was from Denyse Schmidt's new range. Although I can't say I love the range, the colour was perfect for the binding.

I think there is still more to tell but that is for another day.

It Works Upside Down

I am going back to work on Monday. I'm so sad because I love holidays. In a frenzy of, 'I must make more before I go back,' I started working on a quilt. I wanted it to be quick and I wanted to use up some of my old fabric and combine it with some beautiful stripy fabric I bought on sale.

In about four hours I had it all pieced together but it ended up being totally warped! (Excuse the concrete background). I know in photos the base always looks wider but this base really is wider, about 8 inches on each side. I have never made this style of quilt before so I am not sure if it was the stripy fabric, which is not standard cotton and a bit stretchy, or the style of the quilt that has made it sag in the middle.

I took a photo of it upside down and the shape is perfect - no distortion despite the angle.

My sons think it's awful. "Sorry Mum, but it's not one of my favourite ones."

It feels really soft and cuddly and I used up some really lovely linen fabric.

I am going through a phase of not trying to be so exact in my work and enjoying the liberty. 

A bit of Hand Stitching

I'm not really sure how I will finally quilt this but I just couldn't resist doing a bit of hand stitching.

I used my new marking tool to trace out the leaf shapes.

And I used lots of different Perle cottons because I couldn't decide which one I like best.

Maybe I'll just hand quilt in the ditch around all the window panes. Winter is coming and hand stitching will keep me warm. If anyone has any good ideas, please let me know what you would do.

Free and Quick

With a few hours free I thought I might work on my wonky autumn quilt. It is so liberating not to have to think about straight lines and even blocks. It took me about 2 hours to straight (crooked) line quilt the whole piece. I didn't plan, just tried to quilt in the ditch wherever possible.

I had a bit of sewing thread left on the bobbin so did a few extra lines around the edge.

Now I just need to buy some binding. Nothing seemed to work from my stash.