Checkerboard quilt

So I put my foot down on the quilting accelerator and finished one of my 7 quilt tops in various stages of development.  I've given myself a bit of a talking to and decided it's high time they got finished as tops at least - the sandwiching, quilting and binding can happen later.  Perhaps I'm just missing the wonderful feeling when you step back and view the finished top.  It's a lovely stage of the whole wonderful process for me.

I had a styling assistant help with the photos....or is it what you call photo-bombing?  Tilly takes such and interest in everything I do and likes to help at all times.

The Year in Books

I have joined up to The Year in Books.  I stumbled over it via Millefeuilles. 

I'm in a book club, but I'm always looking out for more books to read, and to diversify my reading.  I am only too conscious of how my little world is only a micro dot in the greater world, and I yearn for knowledge of the greater world, new surroundings and to open my mind to all the different lifestyles and worlds out ''there''.  I worry that in my comfortable western life, I will become too narrow in my thinking.  My upbringing was conservative, middle class (I am totally blessed for this and so thankful for it - please don't think for a minute I'm disappointed by it). I lead a comfortable life is suburban Perth, a very isolated city.  It's not easy to leave Perth and experience lots of varied cultures. Everywhere is a flight of several hours away and with only 4 weeks leave a year, not readily accessible, so I fuel my senses by reading.  It's the only way of immersing myself in other's stories and lives in my day-to-day world.

So I'm excited to hear of lots more books, that I may not ordinarily stumble across and add to my reading list.  Thank you!

Here's what I'm currently reading and enjoying. 

It is perhaps particularly relevant as we read of the theories currently surrounding the missing Malaysian airline.

and here's what I've been doing in my craft world this weekend

putting the binding on my retro squares quilt.  I'm nearly done.  It will be my first FINISHED quilt this year.  Hooray!

Bits and bobs

 

My weekend was busy with bits and bobs.  I had minimal time for my crafty pursuits and spent time dreaming of an extra day at home, just to be and sew.  Anyhoo, not to be...so here's a quick reflection of what I did have time for.

 

New cushion covers for the day bed seat in the lounge room.  The colour scheme is aqua/blue/red to match the kitchen colours so I went on the hunt for some cushion covers, even though I am making some.  I've bought half a dozen inserts from Ikea, along with the red sheet that covers the mattresses.  I do plan to make an aqua/red quilt, but a $9 sheet will do in the meantime.  You know me, it could be years before the quilt is ready for action!  I found these great Union Jack covers on special at Bed, Bath and Table, my all time favourite store in the universe of the world...and thought 'YES'.  After my fantastic holiday in Scotland and England, I am honouring my heritage and love of the country!  Don't they look great?  I am happy, happy with them and love looking at them.

 

 

The smaller Hare-y cushion came from Kelso, Scotland as a gift from family when I celebrated my birthday with them while I was there.  I have a very soft spot for bunnies, rabbits and hares.

 

Now here's a pic of the first of the cushions I'm making to add to the Union Jacks.

 

 

They are going to be so fun...I'm going to quilt around the large flowers...eeek it will be my first attempt...wish me luck :)

 

And all I managed of the hexies was about 4 this weekend, but I did spread it over the bed to guage the size....still a lot to go really!  Lucky I LOVE making it.  Yep totally addicted to hexies....

 

 

 

Looking good, don't you think?

 

 

I love donkeys

You may remember me waxing lyrical about donkeys in a previous post when I bumped into one on Mallorca last year, but just in case you're a new reader/visitor and don't know ........ I lurve donkeys. 

So this dress brought a smile to my dial when I stumbled upon it on the Anthropologie website..

Now I don't want to own it - it wouldn't suit me - I couldn't carry it off and do the donkeys justice.  But I am really excited by it.  There are obviously other people out there that share my love and appreciation for these gorgeous stubbon creatures, cousin to the glorious horse.  Now I did know that there are like minded souls who share my love, but to think to take it to this level?  A chic silk shift!  Fantastico!  Bravo!

I'm pretty certain all the elegance of the garment would be lost if I was to wear it (I would just look like Major Frumptown),  but if I did adorn my body with it ... I think high heeled brown boots and a scarf tied at the neck may well complete the look.

I'm going to google donkey fabric and see what I find.......

Russian Doll Blocks

I've sewn the solid colour border around all 25 blocks now and am starting on the the outer strips to build up the block. 

I'm not sure I have enough of the Russian Doll fabric to go round every block.  If I do I will ahve to eek it out by joining bits.  I have lots of plain fabric so I'll be using it to build up the blocks. They are all a bit wonky!

I haven't quite worked out in my mind yet how I'm going to bring it all together.  I just want to do the fabric justice with my quilt and not be disappointed in the end result.

Russian Doll Quilt

Guess who's come out to play this long weekend?

They've been hiding away for eons, waiting patiently for another outing and finally the day arrived. They've had a wonderful time out in the sunshine.  Deciding who to sit next to and what colour they'd like to be dressed in! Still lots more play time required before it's a finished quilt top.

I love the plain borders - my first foray into using plains in a quilt.  Every block is a different size, as the centre doll was fussy cut from the fabric, so I have to work out a way to make every finished block the same size.  Some of the blocks are very wobbly too, so will need to be squared up. All in all it's a very "organic" quilt, growing at its own pace, no strict conditions attached. It's full of home grown goodness and really really good soul food.

Weekend Review 2

so how did I go this weekend?  It felt really busy. Starting Friday night when I went to a friend's for dinner.  It was her birthday, but she insisted on cooking for us.  It's her favourite thing.  She loves to cook, so we just went along for her entertainment!  It was the least we could do! Armed with a great bottle of champers - thank you Mr Verve and a 2001 Shiraz...so good for a winter's feast night... and stunning flowers for the birthday girl! It was a gourmet thrill of an evening.

Saturday was eaten up by taxi duties and grocery shopping, although I did sneak a coffee at Jamaica Blue on one taxi run (shhhh!) and read a bit of the paper.  Then it was rugby night.  We popped into Northbridge for burgers at Jus Burgers before the game.  They make a great burger, although the chips were my fave this time. The aioli dipping sauce was dee-lish!  Very unusual night at the rugby - our team won! Which was lucky because just between me and me, I didn't really want to go.  I was quite keen to have a sofa bound night with my crochet rug for company!

Georgia asked for my help making a prop for her performance on Sunday night.  Her technical stage unit final assessment was a show in the Hayman Theatre at Uni.  So I whipped up a stuffed bird, reminiscent of the bird from "Are You My Mother?" which their performance was based around.  Then it was taxi duties again.  A chat with my sister Angela (she lives in Chicago) so we don't get to chat that often!  Some cooking - this weekend was Bacon and Lentil soup.  A very simple Donna Hay recipe. Easy peasy japaneasy! Then some more taxi duties - George to Uni and Bridge to the library for an afternoon of study.  I popped out with a girlfriend.  Back to Northbridge to a bar where we had a couple of ciders and played Scrabble - I got THRASHED.  Then off to watch Georgia's production/assessment on Sunday night.  It was very entertaining.  AND my bird was the lead/starring role!  And I have no photos of my sweet little bird. 

I forgot to mention.  I was trying to print off an image from the computer to use to draft a pattern, but the printer has died, so I gave the tracing paper to George to put up to the computer screen.  I don't think she's ever used it before!  Kids in the digital age - what they've missed.  I grew up using tracing paper!  It's so useful!  My sister was very funny when I told her what we were doing.  Analog mother, digital children I think she said or something to that effect!

Somewhere in amongst all that I found time to make these littlies!

Four little itty bitty yo-yos or suffolk puffs.  I've had a yen to make them for a long time now and finally I just did it!  I have no plan for them.  They are just going to hang around until I decide what they would be the perfect embellishment for.  Meanwhile I have no doubts they will multiply.

One of my inspirational creative books is this one

Quilting in No Time by Emma Hardy.  I haven't made any specific projects out of it and I'm not sure I will, but it gives me lots of ideas.  Like this lavendar pillow.  See the connection?

Later, dudettes!

Weekend in Review

Weekends pass by in a blur just as the weeks do.  I sometimes think I put too much pressure on "the weekend".  I want it to be the classic storybook kind of relaxing and fun time - you know a proper weekend ... off on a picnic, eating delicious home made food, lying on a rug, soaking up the outdoors, walking through beautiful scenery...yep I'm delusional!  That happens NEVER in my life.  My weekends are so rarely restful and rejuvenating. They can be busier than the week I just made it through and I end up completely happy to go to work where I get to see the stuff in the Inbox go to the Outbox.  My weekends are filled with errands, jobs, taxi-ing the girls and catching up so I'm ready for the next week.  But Monday comes and I don't feel ready for the week?  I haven't had my PROPER weekend.  But is there any such things these days where we're all so busy juggling, work, kids, home, fun? I don't know but I'm trying to deliniate between the 2. To find someway where I feel there is a little indulgence or down time or break from craziness.
This weekend was very rare though - my girls went away to a music festival, so I had a few hours alone in the house (except for the pets).  It was bliss.  I was conscious though that there is a lot more of this to come as they are both talking of travelling and living away in the coming years. So before too long I'll be missing them and having lots of alone time. So enjoy the busy times now.  Although I look at my mother who is one of the busiest people I know.
I actually felt as though I had a bit of a weekend.  I still did groceries, cooking and jobs, but I also sewed and crocheted more than usual . 

One border finished on the quilt - my first attempt at mitred corners.  Okay, I know lots of room for improvement. The black border really finishes the quilt off.  I'm loving the quilt all the more for the border. It makes it so much ...bolder.  The black fabric has some terrible fraying disease - I've never sewn with a cotton fabric like it.  Now for the backing...thought I had that sorted, but the piece isn't nearly big enough, so I'm going to have to piece the back as well.  I am going to attempt to hand quilt this one, so check back in a year or two to see how I'm going!  Ha!

Several rows of the border for my rug done.  Loving it too.  Sounds obvious probably but it is really really adding another dimension to the rug and I'm loving it all the more too. I'm not sure how many rows I will do.  I'm just trusting that the rug will tell me when there's enough.  Then an edging of some description.  Something new.

A bit of cooking - all scrummy.  A chicken curry on Friday night, a good ol' fashioned beef stew on Saturday, absolutely DElishous.  The smell filling the house whilst I sewed was divine.  The anticpation of the meal to come...

Saturday night watching New Tricks on telly crocheting away.  My colourful leftover quilt spread over me.

Sunday morning coffee with girlfriends at a patisserie in the Perth CBD. 

www.jpsancho.com.au

We hadn't been there before - well worth a vist.  Busy and vib-ey on a Sunday morning.  I bought the girls a treat...ah memories of Paris last year....

Some more baking - my current favourite soup, Sweet Potato and Lentil and a banana cake. 

And some herb patch admiring...planted in an old wheelbarrow about a month ago and THRIVING.

And a then a Sunday afternoon rugby match in glorious sunshine.  My team lost by a point - their 5th straight loss. 

And then settling in with a cuppa and Sunday night tv viewing - the return of Downtown Abbey and some more happy hooking!

Knock me socks off... if it wasn't a proper weekend!  It just snuck up on me... just like that!

Fabric Stash

Me thinks my stash needs a bit of organising!  My dilemma is .... HOW...?  Anyone got any helpful suggestions? 

The problem is I regularly play with it.  I pull out different fabrics and put them beside others and rearrange them.  Then another colour catches my eye and I start on another pile of cuts that might make a great quilt.

Like these... I so want to put these in a quilt. It will be a very dramatic colourful quilt.  The colours don't quite work for me just yet, a bit more playing and arranging...and I'll finalise it.  Squares  I think surrounded by a border, surrounded by rectangles, surrounded by a border.  Or is it time for me to branch out to triangles....?

Away I play, then I run out of time and realise I'm overdue to cook a meal or pick up a child or go to work, so I throw them back in the cupboard and shut the door.  And I don't think any amount of organising is going to change that habit.  My stash is destined to be one colourful, chaotic, temptress of a pile.

I'm beginning to think there will never be enough time for me to use all this fabric.  I had a one-day-a-week  job at a fabric shop where I got paid in fabric which is when I accumulated the bulk of it.  The job completely and utterly fed my fabric addiction, which had festered for years, but the job meant I completely lost myself to it.

And then there is my box of Liberty...

I think it's time to USE it not just admire it...

Then there's the Christmas stash and the black and white pile and the retro cowgirl range and a few pieces of Chinese brocade floating around the mezzanine.

I think this stash says a lot about me.  Chaotic, full of ideas and possibilities ......



Works in Progress continued...

Item No 2 is  a black and white quilt. 

The square are left over from my crazy 9 patch black and white plus one quilt, completed some time ago.  I have all these bits that I'm going to throw together.

Item No 3 is my blue and brown quilt.  I have the backing and the wadding.  I'm going to have it machine quilted as it is HUGE and I'm yet to hand or machine quilt any of my quilts.  I aspire to quilting myself however, my lil ol Janome is not up to the task and I want to add a few more to my finished pile, before I embark on a hand quilting project.  I think my first will be my hexie hand pieced quilt.  Somehow I think it would be sarcreligious to do anything other than hand quilt it. It's going to be a big job for my first! 

This is a snippet of it..... and another view

Item No 4 is another finished quilt top.  My Flea Market Fancy quilt.

I just need to finish the backing.  I have the wadding and then it needs to be quilted.  So it's not far off.

Item No 5...  the centre piece is done and a lot of the fabric is cut... just needs to be put together in a couple of sessions...

This one needs a good iron!

Item/Quilt No 6 in progress. My reverie to William Morris.



Which needs backing fabric bought for it, all 7 meters of it!!

So that's the WIP quilt list.  I will list all the other projects on the go too, but for now, there I have my quilts that I aim to finish this year - oh no - I forgot Quilt No 7 - the hexie quilt.  So 7 quilts to finish this year.  And then there's all the others - in my head or fabric bought etc etc etc.. best get finishing.

Works in Progress

Years ago, when I was first married, I lived in a house with a small sleepout tacked on the back of the house.  It was MY room for projects and study and sometimes guest room.  It became a trur reflection of my life at the time I think.  Busy with babies and toddlers, lots of ideas and projects started.  It had a bit of everything, relics from my single life, craft supplies, books, sewing machine, toys, bed.  A hastily made curtain acted as the door.  Of course my girls loved it.  They'd toddle or crawl and busy themselves amongst the "busy-ness' of it.  Exploring and discovering to their heart's content! 

After a while I lovingly christened it "The Temple of the Unfinished Project".  Somethings are destined to be finished over time, others... well they pass their use by date and just represent an exploration into some new creative cupboard of my brain, but destined to stay in the cupboard or become a building block for another creative idea.  Very occasionally I'd admonish myself for so many things started and not finished, but really I'm quite comfortable having many things on the go.

I've moved several times since and again I have a room where all my ideas and projects seem to come to rest for a while.  The Witch's attic it is now, tucked behind my the mezzanine creative space.  I've been in the throes of "organising" it.  Getting things out of boxes that have been stored for 7 years through the renovation process.  I can now group them together and see exactly what I have.  It's very interesting....!

But through this process I've thought I would chronicle the current works in progress.  All of which I want to complete in 2012, so that I can enjoy them around the house and as part of my life.



 

So here is the start of my WIP list.

1. Russian/Babushka/Matroyska Doll Quilt

The blocks are in various stages of completion.  The black are the closest to being finished.  I have plains to add to the other blocks.  I think the plain borders really make it 'POP, and as usual am excited to see it coming together.

 



My Kitchen

My sister Angela who lives in Chicago, mentioned that I have never sent any photos of my new kitchen which celebrates its first anniversary this January, so I snapped the following photos on my phone and emailed them off to her. 

Angela gave me the witch sign which I LOVE!

This side not finished - window yet to go in, but had to show you Christmas Tree Corner.



My cafe curtain for my "Mr Ed door". I swing the top half  open to let the fresh air in.
I love this fabric... "Domestic Goddess".... I am so not!!



So there you have it... the hub of the house.

Lavender Hearts

December is rushing away from me at a very scary rate of knots....the tree is up, I've been to a carol service, one parcel has gone, the fruit is (still) soaking for the Christmas cake.... a few gifts have been made... not a scrap of shopping has been done, no menu decided upon.....and this is my first post for the month! Doesn't sound too bad when I list it like this, but I'm not feeling organised at all.  8 more days of work until we break until the 9th of January....

Yesterday I stole a couple of hours at my sewing machine and made up these lavender pouches.  I've used scraps of fabric of which I have an abundance!! No surprise there! Family and friends are all going to get a couple for Christmas, either as their gift or adjunct to.  I am staying true to my using up resources commitment.  It is amazing what I've found stashed away in all the different boxes that have been packed away for years while we renovated (the still-in-progress 7 year renovation).  I am slowly sorting them into 1. rubbish, 2. garage sale 3. usable/giveable!  I will be free of clutter and junk. I will, I will, I will....

It was so lovely to sit at my machine for a couple of hours and I'm planning on getting quite a lot of sewing time in on my break.  Finally making headway on several quilts and aprons I have planned.  Also a couple of bags....I am really excited about being at home for a couple of weeks. Normally I long to get away, but I think thanks to our European adventure, I'm happy to hang in Perth and my home and the beach!




Group shot of heart shaped lavender pouches



A pretty floral ....

Amy Butler scraps

Pottery Barn Quilts

I dream of a house filled with quilts.  Every room to have its own quilt and/or crocheted or knitted throw.  For years now I've watched the inspiration rooms on the Pottery Barn website.  Every one of their bedrooms looks so inviting.  They present beautifully, if not a little unrealistic for this little black duck.  I don't think I can ever live their reality - I'm way too messy.

There's a formula to their rooms I think... great looking bed, lots of pillows, bedside tables usually piled with an enticing stack of books, walls adorned with interesting finds or artwork - (I love the giant buttons), a sensational lamp and great light in the photo and evidence of a cuppa.  They just sing to me, relax and loose yourself in the comfort and luxury that I am - your bedroom, your haven.  A bit different to my reality...I do try to make my bed everyday but I forget as my mind screams coffeeeeee and I stumble to the kitchen to put the kettle on. Yes I am working towards my bedroom evoking all these positive feelings, but there always seems to be a pile of discarded clothes, odd shoes, towel, handbags....perhaps I'll share a photo, perhaps not!

Anyway I digress, I'm not doing too badly, there's a quilt for 4 rooms.  Perhaps one day I'll manage a B&B and it will give me an excuse to dress up more beds, or maybe there's a job going somewhere for a bed dresser... eh, Pottery Barn??  Quilts supplied. 

But aren't some of these quilts just fantastic.  PB have embraced American quilt history - you can watch a video on their website.  They've collaborated with the American Craft and Folk Museums, Gee's Bends and Denyse Schmidt, I love how they are so proud of their quilting heritage.

BTW all the above images are from the Pottery Barn website either recently or saved to my inspiration file over the years - I am not responsible for any of the images and am not pretending to be!