Happy New Year and turning Vintage...

Hi there and Happy New Year.  I hope 2013 is kind to us.

As you can see the stash enhancement programme at the palace is still going strong.  If I believed in new years resolutions there might be mention of going on a fabric diet.  Unfortunately I have zero will power when it comes to any form of dieting, something to work on in 2013.

I am doing my personal best and feel I have a responsibility to help keep the quilting economy here and overseas afloat!!  That's my excuse anyway.  I ordered the fabric above from the Fat Quarter Shop during their pre Christmas sales.  I love them all, the colours of the yardage pieces are very inspiring

Yesterday I went to Amitie with Tracey, I bought a lovely selection of fabric, wool and bits and pieces.  It is a very nice shop to visit.  I really needed some retail therapy and felt much better when I got home.

I was really overwhelmed by the lovely present Tracey gave me for my birthday.  This dog is just adorable, he's very soft and has such personality and he's sooo cute.  

 I just love the kitty needlecase by Hensteethart, I love her work and am thrilled to own a piece.  Quilters do give the best presents!  Thanks again Tracey.

Today we went out for lunch at a local hotel for my birthday, this was the view from our table.  We've had some very hot days lately but it was pleasant sitting outside with a sea breeze to help keep cool.  We had a lovely lunch.

Next post I'll have a photo of the lovely canvaswork picture my Mum made for me.

Tomorrow I'll be back to working on my Easy Street quilt blocks among other projects.

Happy Stitching

Debra. 

Clue No. 5

Here are my blocks for Easy Street clue No. 5.  I had trouble finding time to do any sewing this week.  I'm sure I'm not the only one in danger of falling behind.  Lucky for us Bonnie made allowances for this happening and when I finally did manage to get my cutting mat back out it didn't take too long to get the pieces cut and then sewn today.  At least I don't have long to wait for the next clue.  Click here to see the progress being made on the East Street Mystery.

I hope everyone had a very happy peaceful Christmas.  I went to my parents house with Jack and Aleisha for Christmas lunch, we had a really nice time together.  I haven't felt very Christmassy this year and didn't really do much decorating at home.  I will have to try and do better next year.

Now that Christmas is over I'm planning to get stuck into some sewing.  The list is long as always I hope I have something to show for my holidays!

Happy Stitching

Debra.

   

Hitting a bump in the road on Easy Street...

This week hasn't gone as I'd planned and I haven't been able to do as much sewing as I'd hoped.  I guess that's bound to happen at some stage. 

I was surprised and disappointed when I came to join my geese together, I thought my geese where looking really good.  When I put them together I realised they weren't as good as I thought and some were quite wobbly.  I sewed the pairs of geese together and then I squared them up so that they measured 31/2" like they were supposed to.  They didn't have to be trimmed very much and they do look better now.  I have a few with missing beaks etc. but I'll let them stay.  I think that's part of the joy of scrap quilts, they don't have to be perfect.  (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!).

I got these flowers at my work Christmas lunch from the Committee who run the Op Shop.  Aren't they lovely?  The day of the lunch was very hot and I thought the flowers mightn't survive the ride home in the car.  Tomorrow is my last day at work till we close for our Christmas holidays.  I'm very excited about having 3 weeks at home.  I'm looking forward to doing lots of sewing and maybe a bit of scrapbooking and journaling as well.  Of course I always plan to do heaps more than is humanly possible.  Maybe I might manage to finish something!

I put my string blocks back up on my design wall to see how they look.  I finished sewing the corners on another dozen of them on the weekend.  I might start sewing them together so I can get a better idea how many more I want to make.  See how that big black spot in some of the corners really stands out?  I'll make sure they are distributed all over the quilt before I start stitching blocks together.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the next clue for East Street is tomorrow night, must be time to do something with the green fabrics.  If you want to see how the other Easy Street quilters are going just visit Bonnie Hunters blog here.

Happy Stitching

Debra.

Having Fun on Easy Street.

 Hi there, as you can see I'm up to date with clue no. 3 for Easy Street.  As I don't want to make the quilt as big as Bonnie's I'm guestimating the amount of blocks for each step.  I've made 50 of these blocks.  I'm really pleased with the results I'm getting from the 2 rulers Bonnie uses and the colours are combining really well.

I had a fairly quiet weekend and managed to fit in a few hours of sewing.  I made a few more of the scrappy trip around the world blocks.  I managed to catch a bit of Bonnie on Quiltcam.  Her night time quiltcam is afternoon here.  Jack caught me watching on my ipad as I made his lunch, much headshaking and sighing followed.  It's hard being the son of a quilt tragic!

 Today I received half of my black and white order of fabric, gotta love seeing the Aust Post delivery van pull up out the front.  Again more sighing and head shaking from No. 1 Son.  Taking a bit of adjusting to having him home now school's finished. 

I'm really loving these fabrics I ordered from Canton Village Quiltworks.  I don't need to worry about running out of black and whites any time soon!

It was a really lovely sunny day today and not too hot so I decided I might spend a little time stitching outside.  Guess who broke the chair!!!  I had just sat down when the leg broke tipping me and my sewing backwards onto the paving.  I'm very lucky I didn't hit my head, my back was a bit sore, it really gave me a fright.  

A few weeks ago when I set my table up outside to cut some fabric, the leg on the table collapsed.  Now I really need Santa to bring me a new chair.... or maybe I'll stay inside till I lose weight or it's safe to go outside again.

Happy Stitching

Debra.

Crumb sewing and Easy Street

 Hi there,  I've been working on the 2nd clue of Bonnie Hunter's
Easy Street mystery quilt.  I've got about 1/2 the geese sewn.  I'm using the Companion Angle and Easy Angle rulers to cut the triangles for the geese.  Thanks to Bonnie's really good instructions and video I've found they are working really well.  I had tried using the rulers previously and wasn't really happy with my results, it makes a big difference with some clear instructions.  Thanks Bonnie!

I've also been working on a couple of other projects at the same time.  Not such a good thing when I accidently cut my 2 1/2" strips into 2" pieces cause I got mixed up with measurements.  Easy mistake if you're not concentrating on which project you're working on.

 It was really sunny earlier this morning, here's Dougal enjoying some rays.   There are big grey clouds out now, its only going to be 18 degrees today.  A good day to stay inside, I'm hoping to get my christmas decorations put up today.

I received my copy of 15 Minutes of Play by Victoria Findlay Wolfe I've been reading her blog for ages and really love her work.  I decided I'd have a go at using my crumbs to make some blocks, Victoria has a couple of suggestions for sewing "made fabric".  I made these 2 blocks using telephone book pages as foundations.  When I do string piecing I like using foundations.  It was a bit tedious getting all the paper out so I might have a go next just at stitching the fabrics together. 

I thought I'd show you my earliest patchwork fabrics before I cut them up to go into my scrap strip bins.  I bought these fabrics when I had my first patchwork lessons at eighteen which makes them over 30 years old!  Back then I went to a local ladies house to be taught the basics of hand piecing and I made a variety of cushions for my Grandma and my Mum.  I was very keen on brown obviously cause all the cushions were brown!  For some reason I didn't make a quilt, back then I don't remember anyone making lap quilts or wall quilts.  I think the idea of making a full size quilt must have been too daunting so I didn't do any more patchwork until I had my daughter 11 years later.  (Maybe I didn't want a quilt all done in browns).  I do remember driving my Mum and I to look at the local quilt show that was held every year in peoples homes.  Times sure have changed.

Do you still have pieces of your earlies fabrics in your stash?  I wonder what the colours where?

Happy sewing

Debra.

Fabrics for Easy Street

 Hi there, as you can see I've made a bit of progress on my scrappy trip around the world top.  I'm liking the colours of the blocks better, there's a bit more prettiness in the fabrics.  There's more pinks and less yellows which helps I think.  I would really like to add some much brighter fabrics but my challange was to use my old fabrics so I'll keep going with them.  The colours are a lot deeper in real life and I don't think the pattern really shows up much except from a distance.  I've decided I want to make it with 3 pattern repeats square so that means I've got 21 more blocks to go.  That should help eat up all those 2 1/2" strips. 
. 

I had the house to myself over the weekend Jack has gone to Byron Bay for "schoolies" (end of school holiday with his mates).  It has been really great to get my kitchen table back and get all of Jacks study things packed away.  I was able to do some fabric cutting on the table.  I've cut about 3/4s of my older fabrics into strips.  It will be fun to make some more quilts with them.

I decided I wanted to do Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt called

Easy Street.  The colours she has used are lime green, aqua, purple, grey with black and white prints for backgrounds.  I loved her colours, I knew I had plenty of the lime greens and purples but I really didn't think I had much aqua/turquoise or grey.  I surprised myself when I went through my stash that I did have enough aquas, and although I did have greys they were very dirty greys and I decided against using them.  I've gone with orange instead and I'll just have to hope it works out okay.  I like all those colours together so it should be right.  Thats the fun of a mystery right? 

Here is the first clue.  2" strips made into 4 patches.  Instead of greys I've got my orange fabric, it is a good contrast against the black on white background fabrics.  I don't want to make my quilt as big as Bonnie's so I won't be making as many blocks as she did.  There is 71 4 patches so far.  I'm aiming to do as she suggested and make some of each step so I don't get left behind and I will have part of the quilt done at the end.  Last years mystery is still in a box waiting to be finished.  What's another UFO here or there?  Most of the fabrics I've pulled out for this quilt are older ones too so thats a bonus.  I won't count the 8 or 9 metres of black on white prints that I ordered this week to replace the ones I'm using.  Some fabrics are just staples right?

Happy Stitching

Debra. 

 

Scrappy Trip Around the World progress.

Hi there, I'm still busy cutting up my basket of old fabrics.  It's going to take a while to get through them but there's no rush so I do a few every day or so.  I've got so many strips I'll have a headstart on quite a few scrappy quilts.

The photo above shows the blocks I've finished so far for Bonnie Hunters'  Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt.  I'm liking how it is turning out.  I am finding it a bit challenging working with the colours in these older fabrics.  It is an interesting exercise to see if I can "pretty" the blocks up.
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Here is the link to the Bonnie Hunter pattern.  Her patterns are very easy to follow with plenty of photos.

I've sorted out a bit more of my stash but I'm not quite finished yet.  I've got a stack of storage boxes in the hallway and I'm still not sure where they are going to go.  Might be a hop skip and a jump to an episode of Hoarders!!  I haven't bought any fabric for about 3 or 4 weeks which is a record for me I'm sure.  I am trying to be good but its not easy.

I went out on Sunday with Tracey and we had a really enjoyable day.  We went to our favourite scrapbooking shop in Mornington and kidded ourselves that we weren't going to buy very much.  We now realise thats an impossibility.  They have so much gorgeous paper and all kinds of creative arty stuff.

It really is hard to find time to do everything I want to do.  I bought a nice selection of supplies (I do realise the money I didn't spend on fabric I spent on art supplies) hahaha. Then because it was 2.30 and we hadn't had lunch we decided to stop at Lintons Nursery on the way home for lunch and a look around.  There were lots of people out enjoying the lovely day.  The cafe was very popular and our lunch was really good.  We had a wander around outside and admired the plants then spent quite a while inside where there is a really great selection of homewares and lovely gifty things.  I did manage to resist buying anything, there were lots of things I would have liked though.  Remembering I should be downsizing helps.

That's all for now its getting late and I have work tomorrow.

Happy Stitching

Debra.