The Original

This is the original photo of the quilt that I'm making. I have this photo in my photo album but I have no idea where it came from. There is a secondary design in the half-square triangles if you look closely, but I've decided not to go with it.

I have included a few blue and cheddar triangles for a bit of a break from the red. Clare likes the cream with the blue on it, but I have to admit I've been leaning toward the dark brown the whole time.



I'm even thinking of making a smallish quilt so that I can finish it (fancy that) and try some utility quilting by hand with perle cotton. This will be new for me so a smaller project might be the best plan.

Triangles

I've actually been doing some sewing. I seem to have a 'thing' about the sewing room at the moment, so I brought the sewing machine downstairs and put it on the end of the kitchen table and did some mindless chain piecing while watching the cricket.



As I have no pattern to go by, just a photograph which is on the ipad, I'm not sure how many blocks I'll need, but I guess I'll work it out as I go along. I had a look in the stash and found these 3 big pieces of fabric, so gave them an audition for the plain blocks in between the triangles. The original quilt has dark brown which is what I'm most likely going to use, but I thought I'd try the others.



This particular dark brown fabric I bought from ebay some years ago as a large piece for backings. I used it on the back of the couch quilt which has been washed many times, and when I hang it out I always hang it back to the sun to protect the front. The back has faded terribly, so I don't know if I should use it, but this quilt won't be getting the wear. One or two of the red and cream fabrics are a bit on the thin side as I sort of started it as an experiment and have used up some fabrics I wanted to get rid of. Don't know, will think about it.

Computer is Fixed

Thank goodness my computer is fixed at last. It has been very sick for some time, getting slower and slower and doing the big freeze and occasionally giving me the Blue Screen of Death. My response? Do nothing and just use the ipad instead. I love my ipad - best thing ever invented, but for the 2% of things you can't do on it, life becomes very difficult.

I've posted the last two posts from it, but the fiddling with photos was very difficult. For that reason alone I'm happy to have the ancient laptop back. I've become very used to auto punctuation and capital letters though... I'm also a bit dissapointed because while it was at the computer man's place I had big dreams that maybe it was dead; it isn't young you know. I have frequent flyer points that I'm planning to cash in and I have enough to buy a Mac Air; so slim and sleek, light and beautiful, logical and reliable. I had it all picked out. I was quite sad when the old one was fixed, but with my job on shaky ground at the moment I should be saving the points for more useful things. Oh well, we can dream.



Here is the photo of the little quilt from Quiltmania that prompted the English Paper Piecing from my previous post. Nice isn't it?



I've also been experimenting with my Sizzix BigShot. I bought it before Christmas when it was on sale, but I haven't really used it until now. I really don't like the cutting part of a quilt. I find that I cut just enough to do some sewing, then cut a bit more and so on, even not moving on with things because I don't want to do more cutting. I've looked at these machines in magazines for a while, but after doing some research decided to buy one. In Australia it's easier to buy the Accuquilt gear, but as you can use some of the Accuquilt dies on the Sizzix I went in that direction. The Sizzix distributers here are all Scrapbookers, but I have found 2 or 3 online stores that carry some of the quilting dies. I have talked to my local store and they are happy to order whatever I want for quilting with their next order though, so that's good to know.



Anyway, I have been cutting these half square triangles from an Accuquilt die, and it's amazing how easy it is! I bought a new pair of cutting plates (extra long which will be required if I buy a long Sizzix die in the future) and put some extra sheets of paper under the die to make it thicker. I also put one sheet of paper on top of the fabric (I use the junk mail that would normally go in the bin), and have worked out that I can cut 7 layers of fabric at once. If you arrange the fabric right sides together as you want to sew it this saves time later.



There's very little waste and the rabbit ears are already cut off. The red fabric looks very fluoro in this photo - not its true colour at all. There are some things to look out for when choosing which Accuquilt die to buy as not all will fit in the BigShot machine, so if anyone's interested I will post more complete details.

Cutting Strips

I've been working on Mum's hexagons but had to stop because I didn't have the stuff to put in the middle. I've decided on using some Pellon - not sure what the rest of the world calls it - I managed to buy some yesterday.


I've been watching the cricket on TV, but with no handwork I felt like I was sort of wasting the day. I don't like the cutting fabric part of any project, so I decided to do some strip cutting while watching TV. I've been cutting 2 inch strips for the Checkerboard quilt plus some random strips for future use. Then I cut a 2 1/2 inch strip from each fabric before I put it away. I love looking in my fabric boxes which I've sorted into colour groups. I love this blue toned one, but I realise that I hardly use blue repro fabrics - I'll have to make a red white and blue quilt. Or maybe blue and cream.


Then there is this purple box which I love. I have had a bit of trouble cutting some of the fabrics, because if I use it, then it's gone! I've also tried very hard to cut strips from the fabrics I don't really like.
I buy most of my fabric online from the US (so cheap), and I pretty well know what things are going to look like in the flesh. Occasionally I go to the LQS to have a look at everything, but I rarely buy anything. It's not right really, but I just can't pay the big money. Most fabric here costs A$22 = US$19.70 a metre, where I can buy fabric from the US for US$4 = A$4.45 a yard or US$8. What can you do? I also find that you get spoilt seeing things on the internet that the shops here haven't got in yet. I went to the LQS ready to buy some of the Rouenneries fabric I'm using for Mum's hexagons, but although it was available on the net they didn't have it yet. It had arrived to my house from the US and they still didn't have it.


Anyway, where I was going with this is that occasionally I buy something online that isn't that nice in the flesh. I wouldn't have bought the 2 blue fabrics in this photo, but then the black and cream fabric is really lovely, but when I ordered it I wasn't too sure.

The cricket is on again today but delayed due to rain at the moment, and it's going to be too windy to go sailing. I'll keep cutting strips and pinning Checkerboard blocks.

No Promises I'm Afraid

Its been 7 months since my last blog entry... do I sound suitably ashamed? I've lost the blog mojo and even the sewing mojo really. I've been reading a few blogs and occasionally making a comment, but then I end up in this weird place that has equal parts motivation and then almost shame that I can't get back into it. It makes me feel inadequate, like I just don't love it enough. It's not like I'm flat out, just worn out I think. Too much night shift maybe?


But then who wants to hear about that? No-one - pictures are what we come here for, right?
I have made some more Checkerboard Blocks and have abandoned 3 attempts to make a quilt for my 6 yo niece. I'm now on Quilt 4, which is totally different to the first 3 attempts, but of course not finished. I think it will be the last version.

Here are some more of the checkerboard blocks.

Checkerboard Blocks

I've made a few more checkerboard blocks. I thought I'd make some that have a few different fabrics in them, as in the original quilt. How hard could it be? Well I have to tell you that they are going in the 'how hard can it be?' file.


The incorrect sewing together of strips mentioned in the last post was just the begining. I certainly don't think that I have an incorrect impression of my skill level as a quilter. I mean I've never made anything with curvy or circular seams and 'set in seams' do not live here. I can't do applique, hand quilt, do paper/foundation piecing with any ability (this is why the Civil War Diary Quilt is in limbo). I've never made an art quilt, sewn anything by hand except hexagons, can only machine quilt in straight lines and am generally pretty slow when it comes to sewing.

So why do I look at pictures in books and magazines and think 'how hard can it be?' Thinking on it now, these things aren't that hard, it's just that I sew by the seat of my pants most of the time, make things up as I go along, and cut and sew with my mind NOT on the job at hand. The blocks are 9 x 9, and each strip is 10 1/2 inches in length. We can all see that this means you usually end up with one extra strip after cutting. Now I know this, but do I cut off that extra piece and put it aside? No. I sew all the strips together, and then wonder why I have a block that is 10 x 10. Or in the case of the blue one above, I ended up with an 8 x 8 block for the centre, and wondered how that happened. So then I took off the last strip I had added to the already completed checkerboard block, and went about adding the outer strips. Why then did I have a block that was 9 x 10 before the addition of the last strip?? How stupid can you be? As I had been so diligent ironing the seams the right way etc, I had to undo the seams for each row so that I could get the extra row of blocks off. Then I had to resew the ends of the seams, re-iron the seam allowances and add the outer row of squares.

So what starts out as the easiest type of block you can sew, ends up taking for ever as I haven't been paying attention. I've just finished another block which is red and yellow, with a row of a different red running diagonally across the corners and I can't begin to explain the making of that! In the end I had to draw a 9 x 9 grid on a piece of paper and colour in the different fabrics, and set the block out almost square by square to get it right. I haven't taken a photo of that one as my new camera is doing something weird with the colours. I'll have to have a look in the manual - something to do with white balancing I think.

So I made this blue one to give myself a break. How embarrassing.


I followed a link from someone's blog to Jenny Bowker's blog today, where she writes about a quilter who has lost the lot in the bushfires here in Australia. Once you get used to the miracle of being alive, imagine thinking about the loss of your stash? When these natural disasters happen you always hear about people who aren't insured (!) or under-insured for their house and contents. It usually makes me think about my insurance, and whether it's enough to replace it all. How do you put a price on your stash? I mean it's hard enough thinking about the value of sheets, towels, kitchen dishes, books and furniture etc. What has been spent on the stuff that quietly sits in the stash cupboard? Not that you could replace most of it anyway - out of production etc.


There are very motivated people making blocks for bushfire relief, but for the slack ones like me you can send a few pieces of fabric to help this lady rebuild, especially as she is hoping to teach other women in her situation how to quilt.

Out of Practise

It's a bit scary isn't it? Stop sewing for a while and end up right back at the beginning. At least I had the right sides together I suppose.


I had a good think earlier about cleaning out the walk in pantry (ie pretty big with a bench in there etc), then I thought 'or I can sew, even though the temp up there is about 36 deg C'. It only took about a nanosecond to make up my mind. I am making these blocks with 2 inch strips (1 1/2 inch finished squares). The original has 1 inch finished squares. There are some checkerboard blocks with only 2 fabrics, and quite a few with more fabrics, but they are still laid out with some sort of order. I can imagine the original maker with all her little squares trying to make the blocks look planned, and she has done a good job. Some blocks have fabrics of almost the same value, some are bordered in a dark blue, one has a 9 patch right in the middle of the block with a lighter fabric, then the rest of the block has just the 2 fabrics.

I need something easy and fast to get going again, but then I spend so much time trying to choose fabrics that I have decided to just go to the stash and choose something quickly, and just go for it.

Then all I need to do is sew them together right...