Stichin' Sunday

I took the day for myself today - well some of it anyway.  My youngest fractured his ankle on Friday during his 3rd game of sport out of 5 in a 48 hour period, so spent many hours on Friday night and Saturday organising x-rays and seeing doctors.  There goes his apprearance at state highjump and the balance of the football season.  He is very frustrated with himself and wondering how his suit pants will fit over his cast at next weekend's formal.

I also ended up with a houseful last night, unexpected and a juggle with feeding and bedding for all.  After getting everyone fed and organised and out the door this morning I spent some time making this...

 with this...

I'm putting it aside to quilt on my Gammil when it arrives and will then put up for sale on Etsy.

I wonder what this week will bring!

J

First listing on etsy

Another first for me - I have listed my first item on ebay etsy!!  Yay!!  One of my 'baby quilts' in brights. You can check it out here.  Now back to the sewing machine!

J

I've just got to...

show you this!  How good are these pencils and pastels? 

 

After lots of thought I will have to applique over the painted purple vine so I can colour it properly.

 

What a difference.  I am so excited with the way this is turning out I just had to show you..

J

 

On the road again

After last fortnights gardening, my back strongly objected and has let me know about it ever since.  Not much sewing, gardening, walking etc since.    I got the binding on the two baby quilts

And when I went back to the Hunter this weekend the Newcastle Craft Show was on....

So I rang a good friend and arranged to meet for a bit of a catchup and a look around.  We had a lovely time and got to meet the marvellous Kim Bradley who one day, I am sure, I will finally get to do a class with.  But in the meantime I purchased a couple of things to get me going.....

 

Now that I have the Inktense pencils and Cretacolor Pastels, I can get back to work on my cushion cover.  Stay tuned.

J

In my travels

Left to our other house on Thursday night for a big weekend of pruning roses.  By the time I had packed up, did all my jobs and loaded the car I didn't leave until 7pm not getting home till nearly 10.  Friday dawned sunny and warm but husband sick, so I shipped him into town to the doctors whilst I got stuck into the garden.  I mowed the front lawn first so it looked so much better to start with then the roses... about 30 down, 20 left for Saturday.

Magnolia

Before

Work in progress

After a big day in the garden I did get to my sewing machine, over the weekend I got 2 baby quilts quilted on my grand quilter!

Work in progress





Now off to do the binding, and maybe a couple of Sylvia blocks!

J 

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler

What a week!  Very busy at work, my house has sold, and I have finally taken a huge jump in my life by ordering a Gammil Longarm Quilting machine.  I have so wanted to do this for a long long time but now, with the profit from the sale of the house, I can take this step towards being self employed.  It will take around 3 months until my machine arrives and then lots of practice, then bring it on!  Quilting for a living!  I don't now whether to be excited or terrified.  I suppose only taking the leap will give me the answer.  As I have finished all the quilts for people, photos etc that are due in July, I have taken some me time and have been working on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler and am now up to 33 blocks.  Hopefully I can get another 7 done this weekend, and another 10 during the week.  Here are some photos of my first 30 blocks.

J



Finished 4

Glenn's 21st birthday quilt.

Glenn is my daughters' partner and a great guy.  This quilt was made whilst getting the house ready for my first open house which was only a backup plan as I have sold my house already!  Now to find somewhere else to live.  My daughter had requested a log cabin style denim quilt with the jeans labels at the centre of each block, with half of my fabrics in our other house 220 klms away and a mad rush (as usual) to get a quilt made in a short space of time, this was the best I could do.  I think it turned out pretty good and Glenn's comment was 'awesome!'  Got to be happy with that.  Just a little bit of binding to sew down tonight and then he can take it home.  Also have to say that Glenn took out the Senior Herdsman Championship at the SA Heifer Expo last week!  Congratulations on both counts!  

A baby quilt for Jo.



I haven't listed this one as a new finished quilt as it has been finished for quite some time.  As are quite a few of my baby quilts.  I hope to get about 30 finished and then advertise and sell them!  Only problem so far is that I keep giving them away!

J

Finished 3

Gidget is finished!  Woohoo!  In the final rush to get it on a bed for photographs (my house goes on sale next weekend) this is my first view of it all together.  So happy, I just love it!

Now to keep cleaning and decluttering and kids packing to go back to school/uni.

J

Finished 1 and 2

Ireland - Finished

Denim Quilt - Finished

Ready for my daughters swag

2 down, one to go!  Had a mad rush to get the denim quilt done, started Wednesday night and delivered Friday night.  Nothing like a deadline!  These 2 items are the first things sewn on my new machine - it sews like a dream, didn't baulk at the demin and satin stitched so smoothly for Ireland.  I even added a few embroidery details for a bit of fun to highlight Steph's quilt...

Ants

Now back to work!

J

Quilt Show and a new toy

Last weekend I went to the Sydney Quilt Show.  Wow! my congratulations to every entrant and especially to the winners. We spent so much time examing every quilt and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.  There are so many talented people out there.  We saved some time for the marketplace and bought lots of fabrics, some new scissors, gadgets and books.  I was very pleased to get a signed (by Brenda Gael Smith) copy of Twelve by Twelve.  A group of inspirational women across the globe, check out their website http://www.twelveby12.org/.  Also had a lovely chat with Michelle Hill at the Pfaff stand and checked out the Quilt Expression 4.0.  After getting a quote at the show I then placed my order through Busy Needles in Singleton and it has now arrived.  Hubby has it in his vehicle as I write this and it should be on my sewing table around 7pm tonight.  In anticipation this week I also bought an open toe free motion foot, 1/4 foot with guide and extra needles.  I am spending today getting things up to date around the house and some sewing prepared so that as soon as it is unpacked I am ready to go.  The day is just dragging though.  My faithful old Janome 4000 is really struggling at the moment and will be serviced and donated to someone appropriate.  This machine has been an absolute workhorse and not missed a beat, I will miss it but keep the memories we have created together.

Accomplishments this last week or so include, sending off my Zentangles ATC's; working on my second Journal quilt, Ireland, just need to add some satin stitch to highlight the Celtic style, and finished the 2nd and 3rd sides of the 2nd border of Gidget, and reading Twelve by Twelve cover to cover.  My goals for the upcoming week include finishing IRELAND, finishing GIDGET and completing a denim quilt for my daughter. 

Rainbow ATC's

Quilt Show purchases

Ireland, just needing some satin stitch



Rainy Sunday

With a cold and rainy long weekend, it was too wet to go away so then plans changed, as they do, to staying at home and catching up on the things that keep getting put off.  Not much sewing has been happening lately with other things jumping the queue but I plan to get a few things done with the remainder of the long weekend.  I have started the final border of Gidget, even though I haven't finished the 2nd border.  Here's how things are looking so far:

I have yet to finish the applique and then quilt the 2nd border and trim the quilt as you go strips on the final border which is 72" without the corner blocks. 

The mail has also brought the first 2 rainbow ATC swaps..yellow and violet

I found this label whilst clearing out the kids clothes.  Extremely appropriate as it was on my 20 year old son's shirt.  So appropriate!

I can only hope he followed the directions!

J

I'm not a hippy???

Last night I watched the movie 'Love Actually' (again, and it is just a coincidence that Hugh Grant and Liam Neeson are in it).  I hadn't seen it in such a long time and although I was stitching I was paying a lot of attention to the soundtrack.  So what does a girl do when she has a song in her head?  Gets on itunes of course.  My neighbours have spent the day listening to my 'Old Girls' playlist whilst I worked in the garden.  You forget how music can take you to a place and time and Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell were my partners in crime today.  Who are you listening to?

A busy week

Another busy week has gone by, I have finished all four corners for the 2nd border of Gidget, started a new ATC swap 'Zentangles' - another new technique and if nothing else is good practice for my free motion quilting, some more colour on my pillow cover and I'm now up to 11 blocks on my new project - Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. This quilt has a total of 140 6" square blocks, my goal is 99 and I will post some photos soon!  But here are a couple of other works in progress....

Blue and Browns added

My interpretation of zentangles???

A baby quilt finished off and donated as a fundraiser for Biggest Morning Tea Raffle.

 

And some autumn leaves.

J

It's nearly Friday

It's nearly Friday.  This week my background fabric has finally turned up, I have finished all my ATC's and I have been working on the corner blocks which I am doing all by hand - the applique that is - and I have decided on my next journal quilt and shh I have started another quilt.  So.....my family have booked me for most of the next 3 days!  Looks like it will be a busy night tonight! I am also having a play date with my sewing buddy Cathy between commitments tomorrow.

Journal quilt - on paper

Applique finished on first corner block.

Have a great weekend everyone!

J

Winter is early

Well, the fires' been lit, it's cold and windy outside and perfect for quilting.  My background fabric hasn't arrived yet, but my order has been located and is in the mail on Monday!  I'm continuing with the hand applique on border 2 of Gidget, and plodding along with the painting.  And i've made some ATC's for a SCQATC swap on my Featherweight.

The theme is rainbow and I am 'blue'.  Yeh, I had a couple of blue fabrics in the stash, pity I didn't buy more thread for the satin stitch binding.  I made some fabric paper flowers as my embellishment and highlighted with yellow gold and dark blue. 

So I'm back to painting and thinking about my next journal quilt - Canada/Silver Star maybe?  Painted? Fabric paper applique? Maybe a map to my brothers house?  Hmmm.. 

USA

Red and white embroidery done

Binding fabric

Close up of the Stars and Stripes

Finished!

I finally finished my journal quilt.  I coloured the flag using free motion stitching which was so much fun, I had a little bit of trouble getting the tension right using the Sulky thread, the amount of stitching also sucked up the fabric - lesson for next time - use a hoop, then sewed some US flag fabric on for the binding and topping the flag with some tumbled stones to represent the stars.  It's a lot of red white and blue but I think it is a good representation of the country.  The patriotism shown there is amazing.

Change of plans

It's Friday afternoon and my background fabric hasn't turned up so I can't finish the 2nd border of Gidget!  Okay, so I'll have to work on something else.....  I have done the red paint on my pillow cover and although I am certainly not a paint artist, I'm pretty happy with the results so far. 

I have also started my journal quilt for my artquilt group - the theme for the year is Countrys outside Australia. After our North American holiday and the red white and blue fabrics I bought over there I thought I would use that for inspiration...

 I have used 1/2 inch strips with vliesofix on the back and have woven them over a piece of white homespun.  Now for the thread painting, lots of firsts in this mini quilt.

J

Getting there

Wow, a busy couple of weeks!  With dislocated elbows, moving into first flats, driving lessons - and that's just the kids.  Work is very busy but I still have been finding the time to stitch!  I have quilted my white on white cushion cover and am now in the process of 'painting' it.  I buy the paint but when I get home I decide I should have a different colour, it's like building the stash but now with paint!  I have also bitten the bullet and started 'Gidget' a design by Monica Poole of Moon Shine designs ( http://www.moonshine-designs.com/ )- I have had the pattern for ages but spotted the perfect fabric in Sydney.  There is a lot more in this quilt than I expected, but having fun doing lots of hand work, if only I hadn't started appliqueing onto the backing fabric, not the background fabric.  Some reverse sewing and I'm now back on track.  My goals for this week include quilting another baby quilt, 2 more colours on the cushion cover and at least half of the 2nd border completed on Gidget.  Oh and some housework (maybe - hehe). And I've got my featherweight back, so will need to put some time aside for a play....

Pinning the frame on then with the first border

J

Green and gold paint

Sewing the bias strips by hand, I love this background fabric.

Back to the real world.

Arrived back from Sydney last night.  I  dropped the Featherweight off for Neil to service before I start using it.  What a lovely little machine.  I can't wait to have a play.  The show went well - 2 firsts, 1 second and 1 third with the cattle, and got to watch Max play soccer at Newington College yesterday morning, although they lost they were matching it with the favourites.  I also got to stop at Craft Depot!!  Lots of backing fabrics for my baby quilts.  Now to get to Singleton to use my Pfaff Grandquilter to quilt them.

Off to the Show

So excited, I just bought a Singer Featherweight 221K today on ebay.  Was most upset that I missed out on purchasing one on Sunday but I saved $210 on the one I bought today.  Can't wait to pick it up and try it out.  We are off to the Sydney Show in the morning so will get to deliver Zoe and Cooper's quilts.  Hope they like them.

J