String piece finish.

 It's so nice to finish something, here's Harry modelling my latest finish!  Day or night he's on call for any photographic work whether he's asked or not.  I free motion quilted this on my machine, not very well but at least its finished.  The backing was given to me by a friend and is a great match for the front I think.  I found the binding in my stash and really like the contrast of the black with all the brights.  Very satisfying to use some of my stash too.

Here's a better photo of the quilt.  I really love making string quilts and want to start another one soon.  I've got heaps more strings waiting to be used too.

Today was very exciting, I bought myself a new laptop cause I was so fed up with my old one not working properly.  Now I'll be able to get back to more regular posts I hope.

I've had another major reorganisation of my sewing room, this time I took some of my fabric storage out and bought myself a new desk to make more working space, its really great now.  My biggest challenge now is which project to work on first.  I'm still hand quilting my Pink Lemonade quilt, I don't think I'll ever get it finished but I'll keep working on it anyway.

Happy stitching,

Debra.

What I've been up to....

Hi there, here's a snapshot of some of the things that I've been doing since my last post.  I think I've mentioned before that I've started an online art journalling course.  21 Secrets has 21 teachers each teaching a class that can be done in your own time and any order you wish.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to share my work cause I'm no artist more of a wannabe but I'm really enjoying what I've done so far.  This is the front page of my journal and it is one of the activities in a watercolour class with Tammy Garcia.  I really enjoyed the class, I love painting with watercolours though they are harder to use than I first thought.  I did improve as I did each exercise, I nearly gave up after the first one cause I found it very challenging.  I had forgotten what it's like to be a beginner learning new skills.

I'm still having problems with my laptop for the life of me I have no idea what I'm doing wrong.  It's the reason I haven't been posting more regulary it's very frustrating.

As you can see Harry's not letting the stress get to him, relaxing is his specialty.  If only he was so relaxed about getting his hair cut!

I survived the four weeks that Jack was away, it was very quiet but I made the most of my time.  It's great to have him home again even if it now means we are sharing my car.  While Jack was away I had to take the photos of my quilts as best as I could.  I'm really loving the cake stand quilt though I haven't made any more progress on that one at the moment.  I've got the centre of the Flowering Vines quilt sewn together just need to put the borders on next.

I've been doing some more decluttering with mixed results.  My priorities have changed and I would rather make space for my art supplies and find a space where I can work.  I've found it quite difficult to part with some of my collections and books and things but in a way it's a relief as well.  I'll never be living in a minimalist house but it was time to let go of my country style decor.  Another reason for getting rid of my excess stuff is that Aleisha will be moving back home for a couple of weeks.  Finding room for her and all her things is going to be quite a challenge, the next couple of weeks should be lively if nothing else.  I'm going to her place tomorrow to help her with her packing wish me luck!

Happy Stitching till next time,

Debra.

Medallion Quilt update.

More technical issues with my laptop tonight, I have the photos loaded but the words have a mind of their own.  I have no control over where they're going but I think the photos are fairly self explanatory anyway. 

The next round on my medallion that I've done since the workshop with Gwen Marston is the pink and red half square triangles.  Remembering that this is being made without a lot of the rules and regualtions of what you can and can not do, I was pretty happy with it.  I think this is going to make much more interesting quilts - that's my story anyway.

For the next round I considered a few different colour options.  I think the only downside with making a quilt border by border is that the options are endless and each decision is going to make the outcome completely different.  I really liked all the options but in the end decided I just better choose one fabric and get on with it.  I am concerned about getting wobbly edges so I think the whole fabric borders will help control the wobbles.  I haven't made up my mind what to do for the next border, Different triangles, a row of strings or 2" squares....


I have stitched together the cake stand blocks and will add a border of half square triangles to finish it off.  I'll post a photo when I've pressed the seams.  I've also been doing a bit of hand quilting on my pink lemonade quilt.  There's nothing like having plenty of projects to keep you going.

Till next time, Happy Stitching

Debra.

Gwen Marston Workshop.

 I had a really lovely day today at a workshop with Gwen Marston hosted by Amitie Textiles.  I have been looking forward to this day for months and it was just as good as I hoped it would be.  This quilt is on the cover of Gwen's book Liberated Medallion Quilts, it was fabulous to see it in person.  Gwen gave us a detailed description of her designing process which was a lot of fun.  Her ideas on quiltmaking ensure that her quilts are full of interest with plenty of colour and inspiration.  Quilt police watch out!!  Some lessons I need to remember when my inner critic starts nagging.  A great reminder that quilting is supposed to be an enjoyable process not adding to your stress levels.

I was very fortunate to be seated on a table with some other enthusiastic ladies. Marie, Myself, Barb and Heather with the beginnings of our medallion quilts.  It was such a great group of quilters and such a large variety of quilts being made incorporating Gwens liberated style.  At the end of the day we had show and tell with the progress everyone had made, 20 quilts all completely individual it was really inspiring to see them all.  I did take photos but I'm having some challenges downloading the photos so for the moment this will have to do.
Here is Gwen with my centre block, I'm looking forward to adding some more borders and seeing where this adventure takes me.

Jack has been in Los Angelos for 10 days now, only another 22 days to go.  Yes I'm counting down the days till he comes home.  Thanks to the internet we have been messaging each other but I am missing our daily chats.  Home is very quiet without him.  Lucky I have plenty to keep me busy while he's gone.  I have been gathering supplies for an art journalling course I'm doing online.  I've been doing a bit of playing around with paints etc. so far I've done a couple of classes.  Its quite challenging to go back to being a beginner and learning new skills, it is fun too.  I've discovered art supplies are just as appealing as fabric and there seems to be an endless list of supplies to try out.

Thats it for now, Happy Stitching.

Debra.

Cake Stand Blocks

 Twenty nine cake stand blocks, 3 more to go.  I was fed up with the design boards being stuck on my wardrobe doors, they didn't work very well to see a whole quilt up on the wall.  I've moved them onto the wall in the hallway, still not an ideal solution but at least I can get all the blocks up together.  It does make it very hard to take photos though cause there's not much space for photo taking. 

The blocks certainly brighten up the hallway, ideally a large freestanding board would be best for a design wall but for now this is going to have to do.  Its been fun using my old florals, there's a couple of new fabrics in there but mostly they are oldies.  Now I need to cut the setting triangles out, mostly pinks I think.

Till next time Happy Stitching,

Debra.

New blocks

I've been working on a new project during the last couple of weeks.  This is my first batch of basket blocks, its the cake  stand block and it is a quilt that I've always loved and wanted to make.  The quilt that has inspired my version is from a book by Roberta Horton called Scrap Quilts The Art of Making Do.  I've had the book for years and its a great source of inspiration. I love Roberta's quilts.  I was reminded a few weeks ago of this quilt by a discussion on Kathie of Inspired by Antique Quilts blog.here. Kathie had a picture of the cake stand quilt on her notice board the quilt is called Cake Crumbs by George Taylor. Since I was cutting up my old fabrics for scraps I decided to have a go at the block. 

I have been cutting the triangles for the block using my go cutter which has been working out really well.  I don't think my way of cutting the fabrics for the blocks has been any quicker than any other way but the accuracy is a lot better.  The inspiration quilt has an interesting mix of fabrics, a lot of pale pinks and washed out colours with some bold prints mixed in.  Some of the blocks are high contrast and a few are very low contrast.  I decided it would be perfect for using up some of my old florals that I've been hoarding for years.  So even though I think these blocks have been quite time consuming to make I have enjoyed the process of choosing the backgrounds and the baskets, its been like visiting with old friends. 

I've finished the first part of my applique border for my Jubilee Quilt.  I'm glad I didn't change the size of the letters or numbers I'm really pleased with how its turned out.  The challenge now is to decide what to do for the next side!

I had intended to make this border the bottom of the quilt but when I pinned it on I pinned it the wrong side round, so now its the top.  Good thing its not going to make any difference.

I hadn't realised that my border was a bit too long so my flower has ended up right on the edge, this really has been a learning experience.  I like to believe there's no such thing as a mistake in quilting just a design opportunity!

Happy Stitching,

Debra.

Joys of Machine Quilting.

Its been a while since I've posted somehow I keep running out of time.  Jack has taken over my laptop for his uni studies since his is playing up.  I mostly use my ipad now but I've never done a blog post using it and I haven't figured out how to put my photos on it yet either.  As I've mentioned before I'm not very good with technology so it all seems a bit overwhelming at times.  Not to mention time consuming.  I lost hours today trying to figure out a couple of my technical hitches and didn't get anything figured out and might have deleted one of my favourite blogs from my reader account!

This is the quilt that has had me questioning my quilting abilities.  I mentioned in my last post that its been basted for 2 years and I couldn't figure out how I wanted to quilt it.  Well I thought I'd figured it out so I machine quilted diagonal lines through the blocks and double straight lines through the block centres.  I hated doing the machine quilting I think stitching straight lines is a lot harder than doing free motion quilting.  I'm not overly happy with how it turned out (I've photographed its good side).  I ended up with a couple of nasty pleats in a couple of the blocks.  I haven't put the binding on yet but when it is finished I think I'm going to try washing it and putting it in the clothes dryer so at least all my quilting might look wrinkled.  I need this quilt finished I don't want to spend any more time on it.  Now I'm thinking maybe I should have tried to fmq it, it probably would have turned out better.

 I added the left over strips across the middle of the backing.  The fabric is called Chelsea Boutique from Blackbird Designs, its a few years old now.  The pattern was from an Ankas Treasures book.  It turned out quite well but its not really the type of quilt I would usually make.  Can you tell I've spent too much time obsessing over this one?

The reorganising of my sewing room is coming along slowly.  I did rearrange my fabric and got rid of a few pieces.  I cleared the floor of boxes but within days they were back in there.  Quite a lot of my storage containers have crept into my very small bedroom.  I got Jack to help me get the storage boxes out from under my bed as I was sure I could move some of them out and put some of my excess fabric boxes under there.  Seventeen containers under my bed!!  And worse than that there were only about 4 I wanted to get rid of.  I'm expecting a visit from the producers of Hoarders any day now :)

My laptop is  misbehaving so I think I better stop before I lose everything.

Bye for now

Debra.