Sewing Again

I've dusted off the sewing machine and started to sew. I had in mind I would make this for my nephew Daniel, but first I will see how it turns out, I think. If it isn't too girly I'll give it to him. I have a lot more blues and yellows and greens to go in it, so maybe it will be ok.

This is Bricks and Stones from the Quiltville site and as you can see I have only just started really. But I plan to not muck around with it and get it finished without delay. On that note though, I have 2 nights of work now, so next week I will finish it, I SWEAR.

Hope you all had a nice Christmas - I had a low key day which was very nice. Caught up with all the rellies over the break. Mum and Dad gave me a $50 voucher for my favourite quilt store, so that will be fun to spend.

Otherwise nothing to report - the weather has been quite pleasant, not too hot for a change. We have also had some rain, thrashed the Poms at cricket, and I am still plodding on with the hexagons...

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas from Australia - here is a shot of the weather taken at o7.30 - it is going to be hot and fine with a storm this afternoon.

I am off to my Sister's place on the 08.30 Waterbus, so the fun hasn't started yet. I can hear some kids screeching with delight down the road - obviously getting some good stuff! It was very windy here last night, but Santa obviously didn't get blown off course.

Hope you all have a nice day, and just know we are dreaming of snow here!

Cane Toads

Well, somebody asked to see one... They are awful looking things, and so well camoflagued that you almost step on them before you see them. Shudder shudder.

I'll put the link only so you don't have to look if you don't want to. Cane toad.

Otherwise on I plug with my hexagons. I'm getting there. I have my 7 yo nephew staying the night tonight for the first time, so I have been busy keeping him busy. I have never had any kids so it is all a bit different for me. As for when I was a kid, all I remember is Mum getting on with whatever she had to do and we kids amusing ourselves. It isn't quite the same these days.

We have been for a quick dip in the sea - the tide was going out - had his alloted 1 hr on the computer, been for a walk with the dogs, eaten morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, had a bit of tv time, and then it was bed time at 7.30pm. I'm going to go to bed early too, as apparently it all starts again at the crack of dawn. Much smarter to have a nice beagle I think, but we are having a good time.

Sanity has prevailed re the birthday quilts - I'll do it in my own time, not for the Jan 8 deadline. And Daniel, bless his little heart, told me today that he really likes my hexagons, especially all the nice patterns on the fabric. He told me he thinks it is my best quilt yet! I might make his quilt first just for that comment, sweet child. I asked him what colour he would like, and he said he would have anything as long as it wasn't pink. So I asked him what his favourite colour is, and he said he likes lots of colours. Red, blue, yellow, green - primary colours. But did I know that green isn't a primary colour, as of course you use blue and yellow to make green? Yes he is 7.

Non Quilty Stuff

Today I plan to watch the cricket and do more hexagons - I'm on a roll. But before I sat on the couch and stayed there all day, I thought we would go outside, fiddle in the garden and go for a walk. I started planting this bit of front garden 12 months ago, and it is starting to get going now. The purple cordyline in the front of the photo has about tripled in size. That's a 5 foot fence.


We had storms and lots of rain yesterday and overnight, so there will be more new growth in a week or so. I have just put my little pond in, so I will get some little White Cloud fish to eat the mosquito larvae. The first day I filled it up I came home to find a cane toad relaxing in there, unable to get out, so now that I have put some plants in there, I will plant tall grassy plants around it too, to try and keep them out. Horrible things.




See the Crow's Nest going yellow in the centre of the leaves - it really needs more shade. Hopefully next summer the surrounding plants will have grown up enough to shade it. Last summer when it went in it had a chair over it draped with shade cloth.



Then we went for our walk... This is Swampy who jumped in the mud today. The mud around here is very black and sticky, and does not come off. As children when we spent a lot of time in the Bay on a boat, our Mother spent half her life (or so it seemed) saying "don't get your clothes covered in Moreton Bay Mud, as it won't come out". It doesn't. We would head off with Dad to the nearest mud bank to pump yabbies, stand in the wrong spot and next minute would have our t-shirts covered in black mud. Oh and it smells too.



Swampy has had a wash under the hose but it has only half come off. She is currently outside with her bone and bowl of water. And there she will stay. I'll have to try and find some dog shampoo somewhere, or she will be an outside dog til it all falls off.


Yes, she looks very proud of herself. She must have been in full flight with her tail in the air when she went in, as her tail is clean.

Anxieties

Check this block out. Don't you like the name? As good as Death Penalty from my last post. Anxieties are what I'll be having working this one out. Those stripes are very thin. It's a 6 inch block.

As for Blogger, I tried a number of times to do the word verification thing and it still wouldn't come up. I don't know if you've noticed, but Quilt Junkie has gone over to Typepad under a new name Thee Handworks, so I'll be watching with interest. I also notice that some of the really nice blogs I look at are Typepad blogs, like Soulemama and Posy Gets Cosy, and you never see them complaining about blog problems. I had a look and it's US$50 per year...

Otherwise, off to bed for me. The aircon man came and fixed the machine. At 4 pm I went to turn it on and grab a few hours sleep before work, and guess what? The power went out! Aah you gotta laugh!

Blogger on Blink

I have just been trying to visit some blogs, but on many of them Blogger won't show me the letters to type for the verification! Hopeless - I give up. We might go for a walk if I can wake the dogs up.

Gift from the States

My friend Di has just been to the USA on a short holiday (with her husband on a business trip). She knows of my fabric obsession and asked if she could bring me something home. What do you say to that? Di is not a quilter, but one of the friends she stays with in Oregan is a quilter. Where to begin? So I asked her if she would get me this book which I haven't found here, and it would be much better value for money if she bought it, then there would be no postage to pay.


I am very lucky to have such a nice friend. Here it is. I have been looking at it, and realise that some of the blocks look quite complicated (to me), and it looks like I will have to have a go at foundation piecing eeeek! Look at this block which is 6 inches finished. What you see here is the sum total of the instructions
I have discovered a Yahoo group run by the author, who each week gives advice on the order of sewing a block using the foundation method. There is also a CD which will run on EQ5 which I suppose would allow me to print out a foundation sheet? Of course it is US$10 for the CD and US$9 for the postage! I know it isn't that much money, but it really irks me to pay that much for postage. Then there is the exchange rate..


In fact it is quite an expensive business living on an island - postage from the only place that has any exciting quilting stuff (US) to this island (Australia), and the $220 I will be paying the aircon man tomorrow for coming to 'this' island to fix my broken aircon which is UNDER WARRANTY! Oh yes, I have to pay for the barge, then compensate him for the time he has to spend while sitting in the fresh air on the barge reading the paper. The I have to pay for the time he spends driving from the factory to the barge and home again. And all of this is contingent on whether or not his girlfriend has a baby today!

Sorry to whinge, but to me the bottom line is that if their inferior product didn't break down less than 12 months after being installed, there would be no need to come out at all.

Back to the quilting... Any advice on foundation piecing? I was interested to read about Tazzie's post about freezer paper templates. The link she gave was good too. Maybe this would work. All experiences gratefully received. I imagine the Dear Jane-ers would know too?

Hexagon Photos

Here are the photos I tried to post yesterday that blogger wouldn't allow. I think there is a bit of a hexagon trend rippling around the world. The latest Patchwork Tsushin magazine that I have features hexagons, so the Japanese are into it too. These photos are from that magazine. Isn't the bag nice with the hexagon quilting and then what looks like the hexagons sewn on with raw edges? The quilt is pretty amazing too - I like how the centre section is a big hexagon.

I buy my hexagon papers too as I would rather spend the time sewing. They are quite cheap really, so I'm quite happy with that. I do recycle them sometimes too.

I have been out nearly all day today "doing lunch with the girls". I have one friend on the island here who I see a few times a week - we walk the dogs together and talk about gardens and work and stuff (she is also a nurse). I went to her place today and she invited 2 other women who I don't really know. One lady I had never even seen, and the other I say hello to when I see her, but haven't been introduced to. We had a lovely afternoon sitting on the deck eating beautiful Lebanese food and talking about all and sundry. I was there for over 5 hours! The dogs came too and cruised around with Neddy and Lucy.


We all have an interest in trees and plants and not cutting down every tree on the island, and the lady I've never met before was an art teacher and has a lot of arty crafty interests. She told me today she is interested in antique/vintage fabrics which was cool. So we talked about fabric for a while and both agreed that the internet was going to be our downfall! She is a bit scared to start looking on ebay for more fabrics as she is worried she won't stop. She doesn't really sew, but just likes to have them - I can relate to that. I feel the same way about buying antique quilt tops - I'd love to own some, but fear that once I started I wouldn't stop.

The other lady lives a simple life with no electricity and is a vegetarian. How could you manage? No internet or sewing machine? I think she plays the guitar and listens to the radio a fair bit. She also has a kayak. So, it is taking a while, but I am meeting some interesting women here, which is nice. But I would still like to meet some quilters.

Anyway enough rambling. I did some hexagons while I was there, so some sewing was done these days off!

More Hexagons

Sadly blogger isn't playing tonight, as I was going to put up some hexagon photos I took from the latest Patchwork Tsushin Magazine. I'll try again tomorrow.

As for the hexagons, they are quite large ones - I thought I would get too discouraged if I started with tiny ones. They are 1 1/2 inches along each straight side. I have a template that is just a bit bigger so as to add seam allowance. It can be used with the rotary cutter, but I find I just trace around the template with a pen onto the wrong side of the fabric, cut it out and then tack it to the paper. I have tried to tack it so that the needle and thread don't go through the paper, but I can't seem to get it straight.

I don't have a method as such, it depends on where I am. I will often cut out fabric and baste while watching TV at night as this requires less precision. Sometimes I will cut out and baste, then sew the hexagons one by one. I usually only cut a couple of each colour as I go. This is a slow way for sure, but I think the whole method is slow, so what the hell? Anyway, this is the first time I have done them, so as usual I am just making it up as I go along.

I am quite surprised that so many people said 'no border'. You know - I have never made a quilt without a border! What a thought. I take the point about not having too stark a border against the mellow repro colours. I was thinking of a dull purple, but maybe a 'natural' looking border by just gradually sewing random colours getting darker as they go out? Or I could break with tradition and have no border. The problem with this house is that it is very 'casual', and if I draped the quilt over the couch the dog would sit on it, so we can't have that. It is pretty silly really making these lovely things that either won't get used, or will get abused. I've been thinking of getting a glass front cabinet to store quilts in.

As for Alex's quilt, I bought 6m of lime green plain for the sashing today - just because I bought it doesn't mean I have to make it asap. This is what I tell myself. I could have it done in a flash if only I applied myself to it...

Ruth - have you tried to email from the profile page?

Hexagons

I haven't posted much lately - been a bit slack. But I 'have' been sewing hexagons. I have been glued to the TV the last few days watching Australia THRASH the Poms in the 2nd match of the Ashes Series (that's the cricket for those who don't know). So I have managed a few hexagons while on the couch. I have about 6 or 7 big groups sewn together, but they are all uneven around the edges, so I have been trying to square them up for joining together. Probably next time I will make more of an effort to keep them organised as I go. Anyway, this is a photo I just took (had to use the flash) of the groups layed out on the table. The table is 35 inches wide, and the hexagons stretch 60 inches up the table.

I started sewing the hexagons with no real plan, or even confidence that I would get the bug, so now I have to decide where to go from here. Maybe make a square quilt that would just sit on top of a queen sized bed. Or maybe just make a quilt with no intention to use it for anything in particular?

The other thing is borders - originally I thought about a plain straight border, but now I am thinking a dark one colour hexagon border with a single different colour hexagon evenly placed (separated by a hexagon of the dark colour) in the centre of the border. Does that make sense? It would look like a coloured spot border all the way around in the centre of the dark border. But then how long would this take? Long long time. Hmmm. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I have to stop trying to make huge quilts all the time (or aiming to make huge quilts). This is why I don't get much finished, then feel like I am not accomplishing anything much.

I might go back downstairs and rearrange them to make something more square, then rethink the idea. I would have to buy more fabric from the States to have enough of one colour for the border, as all the fabrics are 1800s repros, and I wouldn't be able to afford the fabric if I bought it here. It would probably take a long time to arrive at this time of the year. Or I could make a border of random fabrics, but making them all dark fabrics...

As for everything else, I am a bit stalled. I have been toying with the idea of making a quilt for each of my 4 nieces and nephew for their birthdays in 2007. The only problem is that Alex will be 14 in the first week in January. I know what I would make for her if I decide to go for it, but this is probably a silly thing to start now. I could probably make the top pretty quickly, but then I would have to quilt it, which would be the problem. The thing is I have to decide pretty quickly as I would need to buy the sashing fabric tomorrow. Decisions decisions!

More Things Japanese

My Mum recently went to Japan for a holiday - she is into Ikebana (Japanese Flower Arranging), but can be relied upon to look out for interesting fabric. These are some of the pieces she brought home. There were a few others, but I seem to have left them at her place.

Mum went to a Shibori factory, where the 4 blue and white pieces and the red and white piece came from. The solid red piece seems to be quite large - I just love the way the Japanese package things, so I haven't undone the thread to see how big it is.


The metallic pieces are scraps from Obi, I think. So beautiful, but what to do with them all?

I think I will just own them for a while, and see what comes to mind. I love the pack of small striped fabrics in the top photo too. I folded the top ones under so all the colours are visible. The texture is like that of a fine seersucker.

Feeling a bit more with it now. I will work a short shift tonight which is a pretty easy one, then I have about 5 days off, so hopefully I will get some sewing done. As my airconditioner in my bedroom has broken down again and won't be looked at for another 2 weeks, I have moved into the spare room. I have my old bed in here, plus the sewing machine and computer, so I lie in bed right beside the design wall. I have been looking up at the Aqua and Lime wallhanging, and have been thinking about it again. I will tackle that this week I hope.

I have also been having network problems with my laptop, but I think I've sorted that out today by disconnecting everything, turning everything off, and starting again from the router up. It seems to be ok now, so fingers crossed.

I miss blogging, so have to get going again.