Fabric Costs

It's interesting to hear that Australia isn't the only country that must have lots of taxes on fabric. I buy from a few online stores. I have bought from Fabric Shack many times, also Quilter's Quarter. Hancocks too, but sometimes things don't arrive, or you get 2 of something and not something else, and it seems to take a lot longer to arrive. There are others, and I certainly look at a lot of different sites, but I find that Fabric Shack and Quilter's Quarter are my favourites.

To get value for money with postage you need to order a few yards (terrible shame), so you need a store that has a wide range of the stuff you like. I love the Repros, and many of them go on sale in the US, which never happens here. There is 1 store in my city that stocks Repros, so sometimes I go there and look at the fabric, but usually I've already seen it online or in a magazine. Occasionally I will go and look at a particular fabric to see the colour, but generally I find I am pretty good at choosing what I like online now. The hard part is saving up and not buying little bits here and there, so that you can get a heap all at once (for the postage you understand LOL!). I also occasionally buy a magazine, as they can be up to A$20 here, when they are about A$8 on the cover.

I buy half yard pieces when I am stash building, which seems to work well for me. I will put a few of the new ones in the nearly completed hexagon quilt, then in the NOT nearly completed 4 patch, then dream about what to do next. I would like to start the Civil War Diary quilt too.

How to Save $383 in Just a Few Clicks

Yes it's true. If I had bought this fabric at my LQS it would have cost me an extra A$383. Isn't that a scandal?

Any Aussies out there - if you're not buying from the States you're missing out on a lot of fabric. I know this is a favourite rant of mine, but how come everything here is so expensive? I'm all for the concept of supporting your LQS, but how can you compare? A$157 (including postage) to my door in 5 DAYS, or A$540 from the LQS? What would you do?

They are all lovely 1800s reproductions from The Fabric Shack who I can highly recommend. 5 days to Australia?? I'm supposed to be tidying up and cooking dinner for guests tonight, but there will need to be a bit of fabric fondling first...

Sock Tantrum

Does this look right all of you sock gurus? I'm not 100% sure about it. I hope I've not stuffed it up, as I could very easily get discouraged right about now. I have finished (I think) decreasing for the instep, and now have to keep going til I think it will be long enough to do the toe part.

How far that will be I don't really know. How long is the toe part? I think I read somewhere about 2 inches?

It all looks fairly big - I really think I could have used 0.5mm smaller needles, but too late now. The other thing is that I have HUGE feet, so I probably need the room. I had a tantrum the other night after picking up the stitches for the - well I don't really know - how are you supposed to do all that with these fiddly little needles? Crochet hook for the next one I think. Anyway I had 9 stitches on needles 1 & 3, 32 on needle 2. I had to pick up 18 along each side adding them to the 9, which gave me 27 x2 and 32. I counted and counted and counted. I had it right I swear! Then around the whole lot with one row of knit to pull it all together - 1 stitch too many. I tell ya! I had Speed on the TV, things were getting pretty full-on on the bus, I had a bit of a headache that was rapidly increasing, I was hot and sweaty and hadn't had a proper night's sleep the night before. It was also the day of the lizard 'surprise' (see previous post), and frankly, it all got a bit much. I looked and looked to see where I had picked up this 'extra' stitch which I swear wasn't there before - no go. So, as I thought to myself "bad habits are starting early, aren't they my Girl?", I knit 2 together, finished the row, put it down and went to bed.

It was that or out the window to be ravaged by a cane toad in the night.

But on I went the next day, and here we are. I'm just going to keep going, and if it isn't right I will do a better job on the next one. One of the Doctors at work was talking about her knitting last night, so I showed her my sock and she was very impressed. So that made me feel better LOL. She has never done socks though, so anyone who has not wrestled the 4 satay sticks before is always impressed in my experience!

I continue to chant my mantra of Progress not Perfection.

It's Pink Alright

Finally the Girl Guide Flimsy is done. I found the dark pink inner border in the stash which was a bonus - it has pink bubbles on it. I went back to the shop to get more of the plain mauve that is in the quilt to make the outer border... well you can guess can't you? None left. So I bought the next darkest, which is a funny sort of purple colour, but no one will probably know but me. And you if anyone's reading. 'We' all know that this is the nature of quilts like this, but not all people do. There are a couple of Quilt Police types around, but they won't know I made it.

Now for my least favourite part. I really don't like the pinning and getting it all straight. I'll have to clear the kitchen table which is a constant FlyLady disaster area, find the pins (which are always in some other UFO, so I never have enough and I'm always robbing pins from said UFO, and then from the centre of this quilt to try and pin the border), try and iron the thing without getting it covered in dog hair, try not to scratch the table with the pins, and so it goes on. There is a little voice inside my head going "what about the basting spray? No one will ever know", then I think the timber floor will be covered in sticky stuff which will then attract the tumbleweeds of dog hair that are floating by, and I've got people coming for dinner on Wednesday night and the place is dirty enough without THAT. Oh and did I mention that I haven't finished the curtains? Yes they're still hanging there 'resting' with the hems not done. Plus I have to work Sun night which cancels out Monday? Oh God...

Well, I don't have a deadline for the quilt, but I really do need to get it done so that I can finish Daniel's. I keep looking at blogs all over the place and am fighting the urge to start new things all the time. If you go back up and read the byline for this blog, you would have to agree that never a truer word was spoken.

Today I went to Neilsen's Native Nursery with my friend from the other end of the island, to buy some plants. I embarrassed myself by screeching loudly when a 40cm lizard sprung out of the plant I was looking at, and dropped to the ground touching me as it went (shudder shudder). I don't mind the dry native looking lizard when I see it at a distance and have tabs on it, but the surprise attack is not welcome.

It is still very hot here, but our first cool change for autumn is forecast for tomorrow afternoon. With it are Strong Wind Warnings for the Bay, so the trip to work on the ferry tomorrow night will be another fine example of getting back to nature. But I don't mind it - in fact I love the ferry trip, especially coming home in the morning when you can sit out the back (if you're not knitting) in what is affectionately called The Beer Garden, and get a bit of wind in your hair. It will be especially nice when it starts to cool down, and you sometimes see some dolphins or a turtle.

I'm really just stalling now. I might go downstairs and have a look at the table, and think it over.

Between Me and Insanity

lies the humble mosquito coil. I have never in my life seen so many mosquitoes. I took the dogs for a walk late this afternoon, covered in insect spray, and in the end I couldn't bear it - I had swarms of them buzzing around my head, and biting me all over. Despite having fly screens, the house seems full of them. They come in with you, and I'm sure a few sneak in through the dog flap. Then you get into bed, turn out the light.... and bbzzzzz. Bbbzzzzz. Bbbzzzz-zzzz-zzZZZ-zzzz. All around your head. Aarrgghhh, the agony! So the old Earth Tiger coil is going non stop. Do you like Ms Redhead in a snow globe with Australia-shaped hair?

Anyway, back to the socks! I got a bit of knitting done at work last night as I had to sit with one patient a lot of the night. I am up to the heel turning bit, so it's all happening. I just love the magic stripes in the sockyarn. My rib is not very good - a bit loose, but I was struggling with the live hedgehog that lives in the double point needles (see previous post). However I am confident that I am improving. Progress not perfection. Thanks for all your suggestions and help. The Come to Silver sock tutorial that Quilting Fitzy suggested was very helpful, and Anne and Diana thanks for the loop switching advice. My ladder is less noticeable now, and it is getting tighter. Tazzie has been very helpful too, and speaking of knitting have you read about Ruth's announcement yet?


All this talk of finished UFOs around the blogs has me feeling a little guilty about neglecting the hexagons. So I got them out tonight to reassure myself how close I am to finishing (this is what I tell myself). They look a bit crumpled as I have started folding the whole thing up in a tablecloth so that the parts stay fairly close to where they need to go. The dark border probably would have been finished by now, except that I have gone around and added another row of hexagons as I have decided to slice the tops off the outermost row and bind the quilt with a straight binding. So time consuming, and I am a bit sick of the dark colours.

So I haven't forgotten it, just having some time out. Also it has become too big and unwieldy (is that a word?) to take along as a mobile project, hence the knitting. They must call me the crazy crafty lady on the ferry. Or as someone said to me last night "That's interesting. Knittting with Satay Sticks now. What's next?" Hmmm.

Progress

I know this is supposed to be a quilting blog (being in the Q4P ring), but I hope you will allow me this little knitting interlude. I think I've figured out the needles now - see my little tube there on the left. I'm still getting the 'needle change ladder' effect, but only in the ribbing, not in the stocking stitch. Don't know why.

I've decided to start a sample piece as per the sock pattern to try to master the techniques, but not putting the length required for a normal sock into it. Make sense? I have just looked at the heel instructions, and it makes no sense at all, so I will look at some tutorials before going on.

Doubt there will be much quilting done today, as there is plenty to be done in the yard and the house. Maybe tomorrow I'll get onto that Girl Guide quilt. I have to put the borders on and quilt it. I hope the Irish among you didn't overdo it yesterday, and are suffering now...

Double Points

I've just found this quote on Knitty while looking for a tutorial on how to use those infernal double pointed needles. I can really identify...

"Until you become accustomed to knitting with double points,
it may feel like you've got an unruly hedgehog in your
hands."

Touche!

Comments

Thanks heaps for all the helpful comments regarding my first applique attempt. I don't feel so bad about it now.

I always try something new (applique, setting up stuff on computer etc) with the thought "How hard can it be?", only to find that it is quite hard after all. I think I should be able to get it on the first go. Not so, obviously. I suppose I thought that I wouldn't need to do too much preparation, but now I see that I do. That's cool, as long as I know. When you see other people's work you don't often get to see what goes on behind the scenes. "The one I prepared earlier" gets whipped out, and it just seems so easy! Joke's on me I guess!

While thinking about the applique I thought I'd try the sock knitting. The real reason was that I was in the vicinity of the very nice wool and thread shop Threads and More last week, so I went in and asked for the basic sock pattern. The lady also sold me a set of double ended needles that were so small they looked like the skewers you thread meat on to make satay sticks (they were bamboo). Anyway, I got home and opened the pattern, expecting to see a couple of sizes, which I thought was indicated on the back of the packet. Wrong. Then I measured my (HUGE) foot, to find it is 2cm longer than the larger of 3 foot sizes for the One Size Fits All pattern.

At this point a bizarre and evil thought came over me.... "Perhaps I should knit the tension square?" Now I have to tell you that this concept goes totally against my philosophy in life ie. "Work smart, not hard". I mean to say - does anyone ever knit the tension square?? That's just extra work as far as I can see it, for not much pay off. But I did it. Well I started to. Just enough to establish that it wasn't going to be big enough. Blast. I found some old needles of my Nana's that were a 3.5 not 2.25, and started again. I did that bit you see in the photo, and think that they are probably the more appropriate size. So tomorrow I will be near the shop again, so I will buy some more pointy skewer sticks. Then I will start asking for help! I think I'll be able to get to the heel if I can get my 4 needles working. After that I will be needing help. Keeps me off the streets.

Adventures in Applique

This picture is as close as you're going to get to my first ever needle turn applique attempt. Talk about fingers and thumbs - I nearly 'sewed' my finger to my thumb. I did sew my finger to the back of the fabric 8 times though...

As you can see when I ran out of thread down the bottom I used this as the perfect excuse to stop. I had troubles with my bends. I got this great book out of the library which has really clear instructions for all types of applique, so first I tried the Freezer Paper on Top method. This was going well til I got to the right hand bend at the top of the heart. I had enough to contend with without an extra bit of paper on top. So I took that off and sketched the line on the red fabric. The pointy inside bit in the middle at the top I clipped, but the fabric went all frayed, so I gave up on that bit and kept going. I was doing ok with the stitching; it is the turning under part that was hard. I tried to pin it, but hmmmm... not so good.

I have looked back in the book - there is a Freezer Paper on the Bottom technique where you pre turn the seam allowance to the back and baste it, which looks easier, but then it would be a lot more work. There is another interesting one where they make a proper template out of Templar, put it on the wrong side of the fabric, then 'paint' the seam allowance with spray starch squirted into a little cup, using a cotton bud. The seam allowance is then ironed over the template. Again, more work. Perhaps I had better keep practising, but maybe using an easier shape. Any suggestions gratefully received.

The Sniff of Approval

Man, I'm on Fire! Well not literally. That's a football saying we have here - I wonder if it is everywhere? What I mean to say is that I've achieved a lot (for me) over the last 2 days. Not only have I changed my cutter blade (grin), but I have finished the Flimsy of the Girl Guide quilt, minus borders.

And it has received the official Sniff of Approval from Simon. He is probably really just freezing, as I have the temperature set so cold in the sewing room that it is almost Antarctic.

As for the borders I will have to buy more fabric tomorrow. I thought the solid mauve for the outer border, and ? for the inner. Depends on what they've got I suppose. I used all sorts of fabric, and am pleased that I am getting a bit more adventurous with my choices. I tend to 'hang on too tight', but this quilt has a Japanese fabric, 2 different stripes, 2 solid colours, a spot, a squiggle, cat paws, retro floral and more. Oh and I put the pink with bikinis in too.

Plus I didn't obsess about what goes next to what. I just made an effort to put the 2 darkest fabrics next to a light and went for it. Very liberating, and it turned out fine (IMHO).

As for credits, this is Bonnie's Bricks and Stepping Stones from Quiltville, which as many of you know I also made recently in brights for my nephew.