On Reflection

The moral of the story is that it's good to think up all the things you think you'll have even a chance of making at the beginning of the quarter, because I have actually made a couple of other things which I didn't list. So actually I haven't been quite as unproductive as I thought. But overall it's a great thing for me to have a deadline!

This is my second finish for this quarter's Finish Along.

This quilt is my last and most recent finish for DoGood Stitches Cherish Bee.  (I blogged about the first one here) I based my request for blocks on Leanne's lovely quilt Reflections. It's always interesting to analyse what makes a successful quilt, or at least one that I particularly like and I don't think I managed to give instructions to end up with the effect that I love in Leanne's. While ours is bold and effective in its way, it doesn't have the subtlety of Leanne's. I think Leanne's quilt is particularly effective because of the variation in value she has used. I asked for red and blue tones and these perhaps weren't quite as varied in value as I'd anticipated. It was a good block for  bee members to use scraps and I suggested people could vary the width of their strips to suit what they had, so it's a bit more random.

I'd like to have another go at something like this to see if I can get closer to the original Reflections quilt on my own.

For the back I used a piece of blue Kona (Copen I think) I had in my stash and made up the width of this square quilt with the red check and an extra block.

This time I used the Nummer print for the binding.

I quilted the diagonal lines to form diamonds first, with the walking foot then in lines, (free motion and a bit wobbly if we're honest!) horizontally in line with the piecing across each diamond and really I should have done it more densely, but I admit to being in a rush before the finish deadline. Anyway I hope it'll add a bit of cheer to the recipient who will be at the Hospice or Women's Refuge or Night Shelter. I have one quilt to donate to each organisation from our bee.

Deadlines!

Right down to wire of the Finish Along deadline, I've finished this quilt for our Cherish Circle of Do. Good Stitches

and as we speak I'm stitching the binding on another.

We have had a bit going on personally lately in the old circle of life with a Golden Wedding, 21st Birthday and a funeral in our close family so I haven't got much done, which I kind of anticipated here, but these quilts have been hanging over me a bit, so it's been really good to have the deadline of the Finish Along

This one was made with Ashley's (from Film in the Fridge) String quilt instructions and was always going to be wild with a free for all amongst the bee members, in terms of colour, with the only proviso being to use white or low volume centre string.

I made a backing using two extra blocks and good old Ikea Nummer print

I was pleased with the binding which is a Carolyn Friedlander Architextures crosshatch.

I quilted a grid along the low volume crosses then a simple free motion square spiral for two rounds of each coloured square.  Once I wash a dry this it should be a bit more textural.

I have three quilts to gift from my months as part of Cherish Circle and I think one will be going to the Women's Refuge, one to the Hospice and one to the Night Shelter locally, where they should add a bit of cheer.

Bits and Pieces

I'm just finishing off a few odds and ends for Do. Good Stitches Bee:

 

My sewing time was eroded yesterday by three trips to the sewing machine shop. The feed dogs wouldn't go back up having been dropped for the free motion quilting. Anyway I've had very little trouble from my machine in the last nearly 30 years so I guess I can't complain.

So there was a short delay before getting the binding made.

I began hand sewing while movie watching last night. 

But I'll need to watch another...! I'm not very speedy!

Here are my untrimmed blocks for November. Kathryn requested red crosses on a low volume background. I'm quite fond of these. They'd make a great baby quilt. I'll file that idea away for a future gift.

Next up a backing for the shirt quilt. The top is done and I really like it.

I have so many things I want to make at the moment, hope I can hold onto the ideas for when the time is available...?

Linking up with Freshly Pieced today. 

Busy Bee

If you're a regular reader you'll know we're on the brink of moving overseas, so our house is on the market and we're busy doing all the sorts of things one has to do to finish off life in one spot before taking it up again in another; so consequently I have little time to sew at the moment.

However I did finish off a few bee blocks lately for The Simply Solids and Do. Good Stitches groups I'm part of.

This was November's Simply Solids block. Everyone had been sent the same background fabric and added a coloured solid from our stash.

I was rushing to make a couple of wonky cross blocks in "manly solid colours" for Do Good Stitches November. I wanted to get them done and put the machine away and generally tidy up for our open home so I was doing these before breakfast, thinking Oh this'll be easy, just smash them out...

Never a good plan - ended up misaligning the block on the wrong line when trimming to 12 1/2" and suddenly it was 11 1/2"! ***# never mind sew it on again, by the time it's with the others and quilted no-one will notice...!??

then didn't quite have enough fabric for the other one so was a bit loose with instructions and ended up with this wonky cross interpretation.

The Anna Maria Horner feathers blocks for Sharon for October's Do. Good Stitches were a bit of a fiddle, but fun to do.  Quite happy with how they turned out; although there's always something... I didn't notice until I'd uploaded my photos that the filaments on one feather were upside-down!

Great to be able to use pieced trimmings from my Wrenly runner and my (so far) unresolved Oakshott experiment.

The last block was for Tracey for October's Simply Solids bee.

She asked for us each to choose a block from the Summer Sampler and make it up in summery colours. I chose this Rocky Road to Kansas which is a paper pieced block.  I quite enjoy paper piecing. I haven't done heaps, but I enjoy the precise results and have gradually evolved a way which works for me to minimise the fiddling.

I can't remember where I came across the various tips which make it easier but thought I'd share the one I find the most helpful tip:

When you've put your first two pieces right sides together behind the paper I like to trim my seam allowance first. So- find yourself a(n appropriate!) postcard and line it up with the seam line and fold the paper back along the seam line.

Trim 1/4" along the line.

This is how it looks from the other side.

 Then sew and do the same for the next side.

I find it makes it easier to neaten up and I can sort of see where I'm up to somehow.

Do you have any favourite paper piecing tips?

Catching Up

Our younger son and I just got back from a brief school and house reconnaissance trip to NZ. And we had good friends visit from interstate and they gave us a hand in readying the house for sale. 

Some tidying jobs are more fun than others!

Not much to report on the sewing front here. I had a chance to sew today for the first time in ages-just a couple of (late) bee blocks for Do. Good Stitches September.

The request was any block we like but in green and cream.

Actually I lie, that wasn't all: my daughter (who only has two weeks of her school life left to run) and I did begin cutting up her school uniform (!) for the traditional end of school uniform makeover. More details in due course!

Open Wide Pouch

I was delighted today to have a painting reprieve and get together with Liz and have a bit of time for sewing.

So satisfying to complete a small project all in one hit and make this zippy pouch for my mother-in-law, to cheer her up a bit after long months of illness, culminating in an operation this week.

 

It's Anna's Open Wide Pouch tutorial in the 10" (medium) size  and it does open nice and wide to fill with a few pampering goodies

This great Ikea print is so cheery, it has a few incarnations at our house!





I like the way you can fold the sides down to make a more boxy shape too.

The other day I had a lovely couple of hours with another friend and managed to make a start on this month's "do.Good Stitches" bee blocks; for which two 12 1/2" blocks in green and cream have been requested.  Being a bit short of time just lately meant I didn't look too far and enjoyed making another x and + block like the ones that were so successful for Kirsten's solids' quilt

A bit of a press and a trim wouldn't have gone amiss...

I chose the fabrics for the other block, but didn't quite manage to finish the cutting out. Will have to make time to finish this off shortly...

Since this is Slow Bloggers link up week (see that nice snail in the sidebar?), I thought I'd edit this to add what else I've been up to/justify myself as a slow blogger! 

Some of you may know we're shortly heading home to NZ (via Cambodia, as you do...) after a 6 year sojourn here in Australia. So life has been supplemented by such fun things as: clearing out cupboards, showing moving companies around, preparing house and cars (not that we've done much on that yet) for sale (entailing painting, extra gardening and getting around to those gazillions of little jobs, one doesn't for oneself). It has been a fun diversion planning the Cambodia itinerary actually! Also, the day job (which seems to have had a burst of busyness lately) serves very well to keep life in perspective, (since the day job entails consulting with people about problems they face); next week a quick new school surveillance trip is planned to NZ, just after a 24hour Pedal Prix event next weekend with our son's school team,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=UUorrxaDL1jO1ZZoRCBJe0Yw&v=CqpLZJcGvi4

(how do you put the actual video in the post?!)

which will require earplugs to drown out the noise for snatches of sleep-can catch up on the plane we figure...

So sewing? Blogging? Not so much...

By Jove I think She's Got It!

The wonders of the information available on the internet never cease to amaze me. Not to mention the fantastic interaction in the blogging community.  The lovely Annabella (who blogs at Life's Rich Pattern all the way from Morocco) left me a comment on my last post which simply said "I hope you don't pin...pinning is bad news for sure...much easier to ease", which sent me searching for answers.

I did press this, but it clearly needs another go, this was my first effort with the pins

In desperation after too many pins, puckers, unsmooth curves and consequent unpicking, I looked for tutorials on how to piece small tight curves and with in milliseconds (seemingly) had located Leanne's fantastic little video. Of course I'd come across Leanne's blog before and have been following for a while, so I wasn't surprised she'd posted this great little no-fuss tute.

Curves on the second attempt are much smoother

My curved piecing improved exponentially as soon as I tried this method. I think some of the difficulty was also caused by the compounding error of me making my own not-quite-up-to-the-mark templates.

Living and learning (yet again)!

The Path to Drunkenness

Now I know why this block is called this (Drunkard's Path for those not in the know)! 

It'll drive me to drink I swear!

I've been procrastinating on this one for July's do. Good Stitches.  Still a few days left in July...Two blocks is enough! One warm and one cool. Good to have the opportunity to try something I'd never do on my own! Never say never!

That said, I did do this quilt incorporating curved piecing, but the bits were a bit lot bigger! Like maybe three times the size

I laid out the Wonky Crosses so far. I think I'll need about 10 more blocks and am pondering what I need more of? Have some ideas, but canvassing opinions?

And I'm enjoying doing some forward planning

Now I'm off to make Osso Buco or we'll be having dinner at midnight!

Has anything been driving you to drink?

~Camilla

Linking up for the first time with Needle and Thread Thursday 

Slow Slow Quick Quick Slow

Things have been kinda slow over here. 

My work's been a bit slow, which has been good coz it's the school holidays.

And it's been good to be about with the kids, including the oldest home from NZ for Uni holidays, hanging out with his brother in the kitchen in these photos, evidence for the fact that he even cooked us a few meals while he was home :-)

We're sorting out towards a move back to NZ at the end of the year. 

That's a slow process. 

I'm in the midst of instituting a new and efficient filing system (hmm I fear in my secret self that however good the system is, it's the filer here who's not so efficient) and going through every cupboard and drawer. Sorting out's been slow, I'm not good at making long term decisions about what to chuck out. I've been burnt in the past by chucking out things I shouldn't have and consequently now probably keep too much. That, and I'm super indecisive and can't bear to waste something that might come in useful later. It probably won't, but as soon as I chuck it out I'll think, now where's that little box that'd  be perfect for this....!

We also have to prepare the house for sale, which means means tons of little jobs, yet keeping the big picture in view, so not being too detailed about it.

Even tho' things have been slow, time's going fast somehow and I don't want to live towards next year while I'm preparing. We're here now and I want to savour it. So in a way I want to slow down.

I've been slow sewing and blogging too.

I'm still playing with the Oakshotts and ideas are synthesising for a quilt with them. I have some sketches, but really I just have to take the plunge with my idea. I'll show you bits soon.

Altogether I'm slightly stuck in my creative decisions...

This quilt which has been stalled for ages at the quilting stage is finished except for the binding, but now I've decided (almost) to remake it!

I think I've been stuck with the quilting, not so much because I got bored with doing it, as because I'm disappointed with the quilt as a whole.

I love that feature 60s floral so much that I didn't want to cut it up too much. Liz made a stunning quilt with big pieces of Japanese fabric which inspired me- here's just a section of it

But even though  I love I'm happy with the back of my new one and even the quilting in the end...

It just doesn't do it for me. Last weekend I finished the quilting and then straightaway I SOOO nearly cut it up to make this inspiration of Ashley's.  

From Ashley at Film in the Fridge

Which I'm sure is a much better use of the lovely big scale. I'd convinced myself to cut up the finished quilt to make it quilt as you go and just add a new backing over the top of the old one and stitch in the ditch around the hexagons. But...then I waste the strip of floral on the back. I suspect the solution is to unpick the quilting and re-make it properly. Not sure I've got the energy for that yet, having just finished all that quilting after so much procrastinating; so maybe I should just bind it and use it and re-do it down the track?!

Do you ever have dilemmas like this or is it just me? 

I have made the July block for the Simply Solids Bee

And I've started on the July do.Good Stitches Drunkards Path blocks

Just as well there's a Slow Blogger linky to join!