Around the block in november

This months “around the block” blocks were a pleasant challenge.

Lara requested stars and whirling things. I used two 12.5″ patterns from quilters cache. I have made the star before as part of my joint quilt with Sheridan.

They were simple and fun to make and all of her blocks together look fantastic so far. (see her post here)

Lynn had a zig zag theme. I found this a little more challenging. I wanted one to be wide zig zags and the other to be a liitle more “out there”.
I found these harder to make because the block size was so big (15.5″). I stuffed up my maths and i am not real happy with the wide zig zags.

The second one came out just how I designed it. Except in my mind the zig zag was more noticeable.

I am really enjoying this swap. It can be quite a challenge.
I already have the fabric for next month which is for Sheridan, her theme is squares.

My month isn’t until februray. I have collected all the fabrics but haven’t yet decided on what pattern or theme I would like.

Moral dilemma

I have a huge problem.

A very good friend has asked me to make her a quilt. I won’t just make a queen size quilt for anyone, but she is a dear friend and I adore the idea of her wanting something I have made.

I struggled for a long time to decide on fabrics and patterns. In the end I went with Sheridans suggestion of making something that I would like to make.

I just started to cut the fabrics tonight and the problem is that I am falling in love with this quilt.  So much so, that I am not sure I want to give it away.

It is a slight variation on a prints charming kit using their fabrics and hand screen printed panels.  I was inspired by Sheridans pink version.

I want to make a new queen size quilt for our room – and have a collection of navy fabrics for that.  But this one is starting to look so PERFECT!!!

So do I keep this quilt and make her something new. She has asked it to be a surprise so she is not expecting this particular quilt. And do I use the navy fabrics that I  had put aside.

What do I do?

 

Pedal to the metal – 9 patch style

I have been working extremely hard at the sewing table to get this quilt done.

I have fabric and supplies sitting in the wings for a few quilts that I am dying to start. But I have been quite strict on myself to finish some WIPs first.

This quilt is the result of my chaletgirl block swap. During the swap I thought that the cream squares were a little boring and compared to other participants, not the best fabric choice. But once together and framed with a simple cream border, I am pleased with the end result.

I also wanted a simple pieced back using mainly stash fabric. The plan was to do the square pieced border and then use the cream fabric all the way to the edges. BUT ….  the shop that I bought it from didn’t have any left and I couldn’t even find a decent match at spotlight.

I ended up using what I had, which was almost enough, but not quite. The patchy Kokka fabric was a gift from Sheridan for my birthday last year.

To make matters worse I did the maths wrong on the initial centre square. Which is why there is a great big strip of taupe at the bottom to make it big enough.

In the pieced border I included a few labels. There are also pieces of fabric from the other participants with their name written next to them.

I had fun being part of this project and I got a great quilt out of it. This quilt is destined as my “doggo” quilt. I plan on taking it to work when I work overnight to keep me warm.

Thanks Sheridan. Good job. I would love to say that I can’t wait to be part of the next one. But I already am!

I’m back

I took the kids on a road trip and thought I would bore you with some photos.

I had a great time and it was nice just to hang out with the kids away from home, with not so many rules.  We split the trip into smaller chunks and only drove about 4 hours each day.

We headed south to see the sights of sydney and spend some time with friends.

Then we spent a couple of days at a Farm Stay at Nelson Bay (near Newcastle).

It was very basic but it was very fun.

We had our own chook pen to collect eggs from.  And you know that you are in trouble when in front of your cabin is an assortment of Gumboots for you all to wear.

Every afternoon we did the rounds with farmer Scott.  We milked the cow; bottle fed the baby calf and goat; played with the baby chicks; fed the ducks, geese, chickens, sheep, goats, alpacas and pony; sat on the donkey, brushed the pig (with a toilet brush!) and threw the ball to Bob the dog.  Good ‘not so’ clean fun.

The kids became so confident and mature around the animals very quickly.

Nelson bay is a beautiful spot and I fell in love with the beach at Shoal Bay.  We went every chance we had.

This was one holiday that I didn’t want to come home from.  (except to see my darling husband – who had to work).

 

 

 

 

quick show and tell …. before I go

Last month I made a Jumper – pattern and wool by Jo Sharp.

It is really daggy, comfy and warm.  I love it.  I hadn’t blogged about it because I was going to take some better photos.  This was taken about a minute after I finished sewing the ends in, over my pjs.

I have also done this months around the block blocks for Louise.

BTW I am on holidays at the moment, and in two days I finished two quilts that have been hiding in my UFO box for way too long.

I don’t love this quilt.  It was all about the process.  I had fun picking out the fabrics at a craft show.  I enjoyed making the “Yellow Brick Road” pattern.  Then because I don’t love it I wasn’t too scared to quilt it myself.  I did ok.  Just don’t look too closely.

Quilting that gave me some confidence quillting the bug quilt.  I really couldn’t have sent it away for quilting because I wouldn’t have been happy with an all over pattern.  First I did the book shelves, and I was going to leave it at that.  Then I did the border.  Then I couldn’t just leave the black around the bottles.  Now it is almost quilted to death.   I don’t like the feel of quilts with this type of dense quilting.  Nothing beats the feel of a quilt that is hand quilted.  But maybe with a few washes it might soften up.

(OMG – doesn’t the black show the cat hair!!)

So now I am packing madly.  I am taking the kids on a road trip staring tomorrow, heading south.  Unfortunately I will be solo as hubby has to work.  We will eventually end up in Sydney to spend some time with Sheridan and Henry.   Can’t wait.

Crafty iphone

I love my iPhone. I am addicted and I pretty much use it for everything.

I wanted to share some of my favourite crafty apps (applications).

Knitting apps that I love and use are stitch minder and knit gauge.
Stitch minder is a little more than basic row counter. It allows you have simultanous counters like total rows, pattern rows and increase rows. I use it to keep track of how many rows, how many rows of the pattern and how many pattern repeats I have done.

Knit gauge is very cool. I am hopeless at figuring out gauge. Basically knit a swatch, count some stitches and put a pin at either end. Then input the number you counted and move the “sliders” to match up with your pins. It gives your guage for 1,2 and 4 in (also cms). You can use it for row gauge too. So easy.

HiConverter is something that I use heaps. Especially to convert fabric and yarn yardage measurements to metric.  It is a conversion calculator and you can customise it to have all of your most commonly used ones.  It also has a currency converter which will display mutiple currencies at once.  I like it to compare the cost of books on amazon/book depository/fishpond.

I also use pixelpipe to upload photos I have taken with my iPhone to flickr. You can also use it for facebook and other communities too.  It is cool because you can also input the tags and titles as you go.

And Sheridan put me on to bread and milk which is a shopping list. I didn’t like it at first but after spending some time setting it up I have found it to be awesome.

I am a prolific list maker and use todo by appigo to keep my lists in order.  It allows you to have projects and lists of lists and lots of other useful reminders.  Amongst my regular chores and errand lists I have a craft wish list, a craft shopping list and a list of my crafty things “to do”.

Other crafty apps that I use to acess my normal crafty sites are

• Etsy addict
• WordPress
• eBay
• Facebook.

You can find these simply searching the “app store” on your phone or in itunes.

There are also some other sites that are optimised for mobile use which means that when you view them on your iPhone they are reconfigured to be easier to use.  eg Flickr and bloglines.  Basically just type the normal URL into safari and you will be automatically redirected to the mobile site.  I have then bookmarked these pages to my home screen for easy access.

There are so many cool things out there.  Do you have a favourite?

Celebrity Knitting

I knew that knitting was popular with celebrities.

But flipping though my little girls “Princess” magazine,

I had no idea that Cinderella was part of the group.

On an unrelated topic ….

Over the last couple of days I have been trying to make a skirt.  I made a special trip to buy a pattern. I patiently traced out my size.  I cut the fabric.  These few steps have taken me a few precious child free sessions.  And then as I was about the sew it together, I realise that there was no way it was going to fit me.  I have cut the wrong size.  AGGGHHHHH.

And to add insult to injury.  I patiently put it away and started on a nightie for my little girl. When I got all the pattern pieces out, I noticed I had bought the wrong size (6,7,8 instead of 3,4,5)!!!  Stamped boldly on the front is “NO EXCHANGE OR REFUND”.

fcuk it. I should stick to quilts, bags and toys.  It doesn’t really matter if they don’t fit.

Around the block

I am part of another chaletgirl swap – “Around the Block”.
I have always avoided pink fabric.  I have even been trying to ween my little girl off wearing pink clothes.

But when it comes to wanting to make her a quilt that I know she will love – it has to be pink.

I bought a few fat quarters from australian etsy shop freshfabric.

And a few half yards from another etsy seller fabricsupplies.

Basically for the swap you send fabric to all of the other swap members and they make you a block to your specifications.  I haven’t decided what type of block I want yet.  All I know is that it will be pink.

I have already received and sent back two sets so far.
These square blocks were for Kate

and my wonky house on a hill was for Helen.

I was a little worried about making the house.  I think the trick is to make sure that you cut the pieces straight. I had to do a few seams again because they were a little curved.

I made a practice block first which will eventually become a quilted placemat for my little girl,

and of course I had to make one for my little boy too.

some finished stuff

I don’t blog much anymore but I still do a lot of making.

This last week I finished my Milobo Cardigan.  The ribbon is black velvet.  I like the look of it through the eyelets but don’t really know how to tie it to look nice.

I made a needle roll for my circular needles.  The green fabric was a gift from Sheridan long ago.

And I got all of my blocks back from the Chaletgirl block swap.

I really enjoyed being part of this swap.  It was such a small commitment and really easy to do.  And look what I got in return.  I have no idea how I am going to lay them out but I want it to be a little more interesting than a simple 9 patch quilt.

I have also cast on for a Jo Sharp jumper (a few times).  It should be going faster than it is but I am taking my time.  I have also had to rip back a few times too because I want it to be just right.

The yarn for the project is so yummy, and the most that I have ever spent for one knitting project.

so much to do

This is what is sitting waiting for me to sew.

16 nine patch blocks for chaletgirls block party

an envelop of fabric to create 2 blocks for the around the block swap

1 robot in pieces ready to assemble

1 mailsack cut and ready to interface and sew

And today is the first of two days final training checks at work. I have been training for over 3 months for this new (to me) position. I would be lying if I said no pressure.

edit- just saw the weather and thunderstorms predicted!

I’d rather be sewing.