Busy couple of weeks

When I gave up work I thought I would have more time for myself.  Wrong!  All the retired people told me this, but I thought they were just not organised :-)  I am so busy this week, and really until the end of August.

This week I had to do double duties, as I am heading to Sydney for the Quilt show, and have no free days before I go or when I get back.  So everything I would have done leisurely next week, is all crammed into this week.

On Friday,  Penny and I are having a "finishing off" day.  Anyone who has done a workshop with us, and wants to get the quilt finished, can come along and join us for the day.  Strike out Friday!  Good part is that I don;t have to write notes.

Saturday we have a Trunk Show at Tanunda, in the Barossa Valley.  All the girls want to do our workshops so I have just printed, cut and packaged 27 kits!..  It takes ages.

The Antique Sampler BOM is also due by the end of the week - might as well cut those as well!

When I get back on the 24th, my flight arrives home about 9pm, next morning I have a class at Patchwork by Sea at Brighton.  Well, better gets those class notes done while I think if it, eh? 

I might be able to take it easy for the rest of the day now, and catch up on a bit of of hand sewing.  I have fallen behind with my own blocks for the Antique Sampler, so perhaps I can pack that for my travel sewing.

Must be cup of tea time.....

Oh yeah, forgot, I have two online shop orders to fill.  Must not forget those....

By the way,  I am going to be at the Sydney show doing my white gloves duty on Wednesday 22nd, from 11 am to 1pm.  Anyone in the area, please come and say hello to me.  I will have my badge on.  Love to meet other quilters.

Sampler quilt, red and white and Maltaville - Big Week

My sampler quilt - Pieces of the Past - it is all finished!  After the quilting and binding I washed the quilt in the washing machine, on gentle cycle, then blocked it.  I use to fret about making wobbly quilts, after I saw one of my earliest quilts hanging in a show.  I was so embarrassed about how wobbly it was.  Now I don't worry - since I found out about blocking.

While the quilt is still quite wet, I lay it on a sheet on the carpet.  Down on my hands and knees, I move about the quilt and pin it along the edge, with straight pins, into the carpet.  I pull it, and pat it, and smooth it until it is nice and smooth, and flat, and square and keep re-pinning.  Leave it there for a couple of days, with the ceiling fan on in the summer, or a blow heater in the winter.  Hey presto!  you take it up and there is your square flat quilt.  It always works, even on really bad quilts.

 

I took some close up shots of the quilting.  In the border I used a Baptist Fan template.  These lines are 1" apart.  I would like them to be closer, but I ran out of time.

In the sashing I did a little template - think it is called egg and dart.  Fitted in - that is all that matters.

I got a few of the red and white blocks done.  They are not quick to make and as I am using lots of different fabrics, it is not even worth trying to cut up heaps and just string piece them.  As I make them, I am finding easier ways to do it, including the quick method for Flyer Geese.. These blocks are suppose to be 8" finished, but they are coming out at 7 3/4" - every one of them.  Guess if they are all the same then it does not matter.

Finally with the quilting done on the other quilt, I have room to work on the Maltaville blocks from Quiltstation.

So far there have been 16 blocks released, and I have managed to do 12, which is not too bad.  I can catch up.  Must admit that it has been the easier ones I have done first.  The flower block in the centre, has a bird missing.  I was looking for a bird to Broderie Perse, but can't find one small enough.  So I had better just practice my applique skills.

Red and White Quilt

After all the turmoil of the last few weeks, it was so nice to move my machine back to where it belongs, and actually use it.  This is my new project - red and white - inspired by the Red and White exhibition in New York recently.

This block has lots of names - Devils Claw, Turkey Tracks, Botch Handle, Crows feet.  Not sure what I will call mine.  They are 8" finished, and I think they are going to be one of those blocks that are not going to turn out so perfect, with the tricky piecing.

I saw the quilt pictured on the front of Betsy Chutchian's book, Gone to Texas

It is called Crowfoot in this book, and has a slightly different piecing in the centre. Don't you like the way the blocks different set on point or square?  Not sure where I will go with that yet.

Then I saw it in the book Home on the Plains.  I don't have an image of the inside of the book, as I do not own it (but I am going to!) but you can click on Pickledish store and have a look at the pages.

Finally, this week I received this book in the post - all the way from Rochester, NY, from my friend Ava.  The quilt was actually owned by her friend, and made by the friend's mother and grandmother.  Wow!

This made up my mind!  I have two boxes of red fabrics to choose from, and I found a heap - (I mean yards and yards), of white shirting with a tiny red print,  in my clean up.  I bought it for another project and it did not happen.

So my reds will get an airing, and i will feel like I have achieved something this week.  I printed my pattern on Block Base where you will find it called Botch Handle.  I made the blocks 8", but in some of the patterns I have seen it is quite large.  The one in the books above are 11".

I might even make two of these, the red one 8" and a multi-coloured quilt with larger blocks. 

Progress

Don't you just love it when something that you expect to take ages, is done in no time?  That is how my sewing room re-fit is happening.

this whole set of shelves is now empty, and moved to their new home

I have been making heaps of colours and putting them into the new boxes.  These fabrics came from boxes I had put aside for certain projects.  I still have the projects unfinished, but have stored them seperately.

 the top is now complete, with the sliding doors in place.  The doors will be painted, but I am moving in - can;t wait!

Trying to keep the colours together

this is where I left it today.  Gets a bit tiring after a while, but I love the look of it.  One set of drawers, and 2 book cases are empty.

Still have to tackle this corner, but in the words of Scarlet O'Hara, I will think about that tomorrow!  There is a new quilt I want to start, in assorted red and white.  I can;t start until this is all sorted.  That is my reward - a new project.

On a lighter side, I heard this squawking in my palm tree, and went out to find these parrots.  Don;t know what the variety is, but they were positively beautiful.  This time of year they come for the seeds in the trees.  When they flew away, there had been 4 of them hiding there.

I love it when I get photos

Rosie did our Mystery Quilt and made my Hidden Stars quilt.  For the class I gave instructions for a 48" square quilt, with 4 16" stars plus a 4" border.  Rose made the quilt as per the class, then went home and finished all the parts, and added this border.  Looks great!  You can even pick out the "hidden star" right in the middle.  Great job Rosie, and thanks for the photo to share.

Mystery Quilt Days

Last Friday and Saturday Penny and I ran a Mystery Quilt Class.  Actually it was two classes - two different quilts.  Penny's was a set design, with chosen fabrics, mine was made from scraps - heaps of them.

Mystery quilt classes can be a bit stressful for the participants, and for the tutors.  The students do not have a photo or image to help them along, and the tutors do not know if they really have got the instructions correct, or if they have produced something that will be liked.  This was my first time at doing a mystery class - I was a bit nervous on the first day, but it all worked out well, and I had a bit more confidence on the second day.

At this point in time the girls are all working along happily, just following instructions, not know what they will get in the end.

We start to put the segments together, and reveal the block.  This is Laurena's version of a "scrap" quilt.  She brought along only 2 fabrics, and they looked fantastic!

This is the finished block - there are quite a few to go yet.

this is my finished quilt - I called it Hidden Stars   ......because there are quite a few hidden stars in there.

 Pam made a great choice of colours for her mystery.  Penny is showing it off with her.

Another version, with one of Jenni's stars

Jenni decided to make hers all a bit smaller - just to make us all think a bit more.

this is Penny's finished quilt.  Beautiful!

Should anyone be interested in coming to one of our workshops, please email me Wendy@legendandlace.com, and we will add your name to our mailing list.  The next workshop is likely to be a Christmas quilt, in about August or September.

Also, both these patterns are now available to purchase.  Email me for details

This did not take long

 So here we are with movable shelves in.  Amazing it has happened so quickly.  John is a real "handy man" and can not bare to have anyone do something he thinks he can do himself. 

There is so much space to fill.  The prospect of doing it is quite daunting. Above this top shelf, the cupboard will go right to the ceiling - another metre I think it is, and there will be more sliding doors.  This is where I will keep battings and other bulky, light weight stuff.

 The doors are on, and now is the task of filling the shelves.  Looks pretty good so far. 

Trying to keep the larger pieces of fabric on one spot, and in colour groups.  Not sure what will happen when I get to the smaller pieces and projects under way, as well as all the "shop" stuff.  I will probably resort to plastic baskets.

All this still has to be moved into new neat piles.  I can feel a garage sale coming on!

It has started!

this hole in the wall is where my wonderful new wardrobe is going to be in the sewing room. It will be right along one wall, floor to ceiling.  My dear John is building it himself, but he well need to get the doors made by someone.

Two months ago I started looking at quotes for shutters on all my windows.  It has taken ages, but they were installed yesterday.  This is the sewing room window, which faces North, and I get all this wonderful winter sun.  I do not even have to turn the light on to sew!

I feel like I am in a tropical paradise - Singapore at the very least.  I love the look of this room.  It is so exciting to see this done, after so many years of doing very little except maintenance about the house.  The vines are wisteria, and in the the spring they hang down like bunches of grapes.  I can't stop admiring.

While the lovely young men were here, I could do nothing but sit and hand sew.   I am trying something different - using the backing fabric as the binding.  I know is an old style, but it occurred to me when I realised the backing on the quilt was quite compatible with the border.  This is my Mystery quilt for our class next Friday, and Saturday, so I can't show the whole thing.

It took a while for me to get my mind around the concept, but you make sure that you quilt right to the edge, leave 1/4" batting, then at least 1/2" of  the backing, turn under and under again onto the front of the quilt, and slip stitch in place.  I am taking the stitches very slightly into the back of the quilt to hold in all in place, and so far it looks ok.  This is great if you are in a hurry to finish something, and you have compatible fabrics.  

 

Once again, the machine quilting was done by Elaine, at Quilting in the Vines at McLarenVale

Thanks Elaine, for such a great job - so fast! (I know she pops in from time to time)

Beyond the Cherry Tree

This was a lovely block to make.  Gave me the chance to use my lovely fabric that I got from Helene Juul in Denmark.  Helene is a quilter and quilt shop owner.  She is a member of our Yahoo group, and showed the fabric in a block she had made.  I was in love with the fabric from some time agao, and never thought I would see it again.  We did a deal - I got the fabric, and sent her some scraps for one of her projects, plus some Australian magazines.

There are 19 blocks made so far, and the quilt has 25, plus a large border.  \It is very tempting to stop at 20.  It is still a large quilt, as the blocks are 16 1/2" plus a big border.  The borders always kill me!  You think once you have all the blocks done - well that is finished!  but it is not, still the border to go.  Guess I will keep plodding along!