New Stuff

I just had to get the fat quarter bundle of Paula Prass' Botanika range when Fabricworm went on sale. I saw it for $24 a mt locally but when this went out at $7.65 a yard I just had to get some backing as well. Love birds and butterflies.

I also bought some Piece O' Cake Designs Treasures and Tidbits backing and binding for the quilt on the right.
I have been so good using up old stuff from my stash but every now and again a little bit of shopping goes a long way. Work has been very, very stressful of late and I needed some cheering up. It helps!

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.

Linen and Shot Cottons

I really liked this when I started.

It was all pretty and each block made a little story.

I used Kaffe shot cottons and Kokka's Heather Ross designs.

But when it came to putting it together it became a bit messy.

Overall, I guess it's okay.

Sons no1 & 3 said they liked it which is surprising because they really don't notice much except the TV and their food. They said it without me even asking! Maybe because it was on the dining room floor all day and they had to tread carefully around it to get from the TV to the kitchen.

It is really big. A full single bed I think. I might send it to be quilted because I didn't pin it or anything which means it probably won't stretch flat. The shot cotton and the linen is very mobile.

A happy few hours were spent sewing and that is just what I needed this weekend.

Diamonds are Finished

All finished and already in great demand. The Kaffe inspired diamond quilt is finally in use.

To all those dads out there. Happy Father's Day.

My sons decided at 1am in the morning to create a little scavenger hunt for their dad. They had him hunting all over the house with post it notes giving clues for where to look next. It was hilarious to watch. Shame they were all tucked in and slept through the fun as teenagers are prone to do on a Sunday morning.

The funny spelling on some of the notes were puns on shoes where about 5 of the notes were hidden.

Lost and Found

Once, a while ago, I was trawling through other people's blogs when I found some clever crafters creating little embroidered pieces from vintage designs. 

I used to have some of those transfer designs but where were they?

A search brought nothing until, months later, I was looking for something else and I found the transfers instead.

They had been packed away, none too carefully, in a crumpled paper bag.

Here are some of the things I found.

Check out the date on this one. 1960!

My mum used to buy about 6 women's magazines a week. She followed all the love stories which used to come as serials. There were always little gifts in the magazines. We collected and actually made some of the embroideries from the transfers.

Here is one I found that I had made in my teens. I think I gave up on it because I realised that it should have been made on a larger piece of fabric. My skills have improved enough for me to save and finish this little piece. 

I could have so easily thrown these out when we shifted house. So glad I didn't. I do enjoy big clean outs and I think I threw out some things that perhaps I should have kept. It is so hard to tell what you will miss. I understand the hoarders mentality.

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.