Trying Out the 2015 Finish Along

I've never linked up before, but at the end of last year when I was thinking about how overwhelmed all my should-be-doing thoughts and projects were making me feel I decided to approach this year in a larger-scale format. I broke it down into quarters and popped two or three quilts to work on or finish into each quarter. If I actually follow the plan then I'll triple my output compared to last year (just 2.5 quilts). But I'm still not sure how good my attention span actually is, so we'll all see together!

On my short-term temporary design wall, that's been up for 7 months.

I wasn't sure if I'd hold myself up against a to-do list on the blog. But my compromise is that it's a short to-do list, and it's totally on me whether or not I get berated for sticking to it or floating off down a separate alley of making. I make this fun, or not :) Then Adrianne at On the Windy Side was hosting the FAL 2015 and it all seemed providential!

So here they are, my quilts in progress this quarter:

The Texas Quilt.

This has one final block needed before I can finish the top. The big problem will be the back of the quilt which is supposed to be a lonestar, but that already went wrong, so it's going to be a recovered lonestar. I have all the pieces, I just have to get through the unpicking and perfecting of the 60° piecing!

Neon Quilt

This quilt is currently a pile of fabric that I specifically bought for a self-drafted pattern more than a year ago. This will be my first applique quilt, something I'm planning on being a bit of a theme this year. I want to level up my applique skills and learn what I can. This is the start - I'm hoping it will be the most straightforward of the quilts I have planned in this vein.

The top shouldn't take that long to put together, but I'm still not sure if I'll manage to get beyond top stage this quarter. So I'll be happy to get that far, and anything more is pure bonus!

Staring at me from my sewing table

Now, there should have been another picture post from the IQF 2014 yesterday but there wasn't. It's partly written and the pictures are ready. I've just been flattened this week by some sort of cold/flu thing (I'm currently thanking the flu shot that I haven't been completely knocked sideways). Hopefully I'll have the post up so we can ogle the pretties by the end of weekend! Have a good one, x

Unable to Settle

I had a reminder to back-up my laptop the other day, and it also prompted me to organise my photos into folders, sorted by month. I needed this more than I knew, I had been writing myself and this year off as unproductive but it turns out I was wrong. Up to a point. And that point was late June. Yep, I fell off the productivity/sewing mojo/whatever you want to call it bandwagon at Midsummer.

Stash pull for bed runner.

Since then I've covered every available surface, the corner of the sofa, our rarely used for the actual purpose dining table, sewing table, sideboard, etc... with must start projects. I've started each of them. None of them are finished. Few of them have been picked back up beyond the first week of starting. Honestly, I've never felt like this. I don't know what I'm doing. I do know I can't force myself to finish them all, I'll end up like a toddler or teenager rebelling against the overbearing strictures of my own self. Which is too much internal strife to bother with.

Some are more important to me than others. For instance, my dad does need a hat. His hair really is falling out, he's distracting the other bridge players and it was 5°C/41°F when he got up to walk the dog last weekend. So even though I barely ever knit, I'm the world's slowest (two Christmases passed before Paul got the scarf I promised), I've never knitted in the round before (but the newly bald shouldn't have to deal with seams), and I have real trouble paying attention to which stitch I'm on, this project is a definite priority.

I've had a 5 month hiatus from the Farmer's Wife quilt. I miss it, this block is not the most fun colours of the ten I've prepped. And that was my mistake. I meant to only prep 5 at a time from now on. But the colours distracted me and I selected for ten before I knew it, and then felt compelled to cut them all out. It went swimmingly till I reached the templates. They took me two months, and stared at me accusingly from the dining table all the while (yes, we eat on our laps).

I also knocked into it scattering the nicely laid out pieces...

I still love my colourful Death Star idea. When I started I got intrigued by trying to make my stitches less noticeable, so I tried some stuff. I got some good results, but finding a new stitch and then getting a rhythm with it is not easy. So I put this down again. Now I'm in two minds. Do I continue trying to make my stitches invisible, noble sure, I guess, but super time-consuming? Or do I go back to my FWQ regular whipstitch which I can bust out like nobody's business? I'll enjoy the process of the latter more, but will I feel annoyed with myself at the result, or once I'm more than a foot from the quilt will I even see the stitches if they're in a grey or matching thread? Ugh, these are the questions that have left this project sitting on a tray on couch, neglected for more than a month.

The others are all little projects, a giant cushion cover from leftover hourglass blocks, an elongated quilted cushion in Echino as a draught excluder, and a stash pulled bundle to make a simple bed runner just like the ones I made as wedding gifts.

One final thing, I've recently taken up and have found surprisingly meditative is free motion quilting. The #dailyfmq tag appeared on instagram, set in motion by the Crafty Planner. I've only spent like 3 ten-minute chunks at it, but I've enjoyed each of them, learned something each time, and discovered it's possible to slip into a nice peaceful state while you're at it, until you get too peaceful, make a mistake and then it all goes to hell! But everyone at the hastag is so lovely and helpful, I've definitely been encouraged to keep going. Which is amazing, because I swore right off FMQ the last time I tried (February) until I had a better machine (still the same machine).

Rio Grande Valley Turtle, pattern by Melissa of My Fabric Relish

So, I do have three big quilts in the works, one approaching top completion, one approaching block completion, and one with half the top fabrics washed (not my normal game but these fabrics apparently require it - more to come!). You've already seen Texas, so no more till I have something actually finished. The other two I'll blabber about in the next few weeks as I get a chance to take photos and get them in order in my head, more than anything else.

It's going to be interesting to see what I do manage to settle to in the rest of 2014. This year has been a test for me in very many ways, and I'm eager to see how I fare coming out of it. I think I might be growing up.

An Unfinish Saturday

But lots of other people finished their Deep in the Heart of Texas Roadtrip quilts and you should totally go check them out at Cristina's or Melissa's blogs, because they're gorgeous and who doesn't love a bit of weekend eye candy!

Northeast Texas, including Fort Worth, Dallas, and Tyler

I didn't finish mine, even with the linky extension that the ladies laid on this week. I think 2014 is shaping up to be my year of almosts, not quites, and where on earth did my motivation/productivity/day/week/month go. However, I have been enjoying myself making this quilt and that's a first in a little while and so I'm very grateful. This week I've taken my time laying out my squares, choosing colours, lining up seams (not that it's always obvious in the finish...), and even unpicking! Normally, I just say "it'll do!" and steam on. It's been lovely, very zen, I don't know where it's come from and so I'm not going to rush it out the door. Instead I'm relishing it a little, without frightening it away.

Northwest Texas, including Amarillo and Lubbock

I have the two northern quadrants completed. And most of the two southern ones on my make-shift design wall, it's not quite big enough to fit all of south Texas. Hardly surprising, it's a big state!

Western 2/3s of Southern Texas

I only have three of the 10 city blocks from the south made, El Paso, San Antonio, and Beaumont. The city bocks have been a revelation. Such a diverse array of techniques, some I'd never tried before. I'll admit to putting off starting a few out of fear, but I'd forgotten how amazing it feels to accomplish something new! It's been really great, though it hasn't reduced the amount of build up time I seem to need before I'll tackle a new technique. There's a lot of talking myself into things.

L-R: Beaumont, San Antonio, and El Paso

I'm loving how the two finished quadrants look beside each other, and I've decided that this quilt will live in our car and be our picnic blanket from here on out. Lori Whitlock's Lazy Day is just such a happy fabric collection, I'm really glad I used it here.

Northern Texas

I know it's been a while, the one quilt I've finished this summer is currently winging it's way over the Atlantic so hopefully I can post about it soon. And otherwise I've been starting lots of small projects, but completing none. My plan is to be back next week with a little round up of all the fabric bits that have been distracting me, then we can see what sticks over the next few months. And whether the last few months of 2014 will see me in a more finishing mood than up till now!

Amarillo, Deep in the Heart of Texas QAL & Giveaway

Hi all,

Welcome to thREDhead! I'm Aoife, and I'm from Ireland. I've been living in the US on and off now since 2011, and my husband and I moved to Texas at the start of this year. So far we've been loving it, how could we not with how welcoming and friendly everyone is down here! First things first, I'm sure you've no idea how to say my name, well there's a video on my About to page to help with that. No time for the video, it's like Eva, but with an 'f', 'eefa'. If you get a chance after the blocks and the giveaway and want to have a look around, then I recommend maybe having a look at my crazy English paper piecing attempt at a Farmer's Wife Quilt and the wedding quilt I made for Paul!!

So, Amarillo. It was established as a town in 1887 as a stop on the railroad they were building from Fort Worth to Denver City. Originally called Oneida, the name was changed to Amarillo (Spanish for yellow) because of the local yellow wildflowers that grew throughout! Amarillo is the largest city in the Panhandle, and what I think is particularly cool used to be the Helium Capital of the World.

There are three quilt shops in Amarillo. Quilted Bliss, Sisters' Scraps, and Pam's Quilting Corner! They all offer a good range of classes and fabrics, and are all a bit different from each other. They're all really lovely, and very ready to help with anything you might want. The Top of Texas Shop Hop is taking place in July and you can have a look at their newsletters for more details, but it looks like lots of fun and comes with prizes!

Other places on my wishlist to visit in Amarillo are Palo Duro Canyon - totally stunning piece of geology and nature! Texas' answer to the Grand Canyon, and the Lighthouse Rock is the inspiration for my second block option today. Stanley Marsh 3's crazy art installations around Amarillo would definitely also be worth a peep - like the Cadillac Ranch and the mock traffic signs all about town. Amarillo is also on Route 66, something I know my in-laws are planning on doing in the next two years! These are just my highlights, Amarillo has lots of museums, theatres, and restaurants too - enough to fill a holiday of any length!

As you may have guessed already, I've got two blocks for you to choose from today. First I designed a yellow rose block, as Amarillo means yellow in Spanish and Amarillo is apparently known as the Yellow Rose of Texas! However, lots of you took Colleen's Tyler block as the perfect opportunity for a yellow rose block. And I can't blame you - her block was so art deco and gorgeous! It didn't require much push from my brain as I'd completely fallen in love with the pictures of Lighthouse Rock in Palo Duro Canyon. So, you get to make a choice - rose or rock, paper piecing or traditional block!

First up, the Amarillo Rose Block! This one is paper pieced. I often find that whenever I go back to paper piece something I need a refresher on how to go about it, and in fact when I needed to learn how to paper piece this is the youtube tutorial that got me through! This is a pretty straight forward block, the same quadrant four times, just rotated to give a swirling effect. Here are some photos I took along my piecing journey as I made my block!

Your second option is the Amarillo Lighthouse Block! This one is pieced regularly, though you have the option to strip, crazy, or improv piece the fabric for the Lighthouse rock itself. In my block I strip pieced using orange and yellow fabrics, to give the illusion of layers within the rock (that's my inner geologist coming right out there!). The rest of the block is put together as strips, giving you the option to give the background sky a lovely ombré graded colour if you like. I've also gone for a 1970s/hipster-ish thin white photograph frame on the block. I thought it would be fun if it looked like a family holiday snap since this is a roadtrip after all! However, the instructions have options if you don't want to do that!

If you have problems with any of the instructions, or just any questions at any point then drop me a line. You can catch me here in the comments, or on instagram, or by email!

And last but not least, Aurifil has generously offered a pack of designer thread (like the one pictured), a thread color chart (want!), and then a sample pack (a 5 pack of different weight threads in the same color). Jeni Baker's thread is pictured here, but for the giveaway the designer thread is a mystery!!!

If you want to be in with a chance to win this awesome loot, then just leave a comment here - let me know where you live or where you're from, be it Texas or not, and where would be the first place you would want to bring someone who came to visit you!? Paul and I eventually want to do a belated honeymoon roadtrip ourselves in America, so this might get us some stops to add to it - but if you're not in America, we have the rest of our lives to get to you too!

The giveaway will close on Wednesday at 9pm CT, and I'll draw a winner from the commenters at random. If you're a no-reply blogger and I really can't find you, I'll draw again! Otherwise, good luck!!

UPDATE June 18th 9pm CT: giveaway is now closed to entries!

Knowing When to Throw In The Towel (or bag)

Months ago, my sister-in-law asked me to make a doll's nappy (diaper) bag for my 2½ year old niece. She hasn't been able to find one for her in Australia. I picked up fabric for it ages ago, but with lacking sewjo and nerves about re-sizing a bag pattern when I've only made one bag it's taken me too long to get around to starting.

Skipped stitches because my machine didn't like using a denim needle
when sewing denim...

This was the week, and up until the last hour of yesterday afternoon it was going swimmingly. I'm making Sew Sweetness' Velocity Girl bag. I've made it before, in fact I took it out for its photoshoot last Memorial Day! And when my sister-in-law saw it she told me that with a flap it and a little bigger it would look just like the expensive real-life diaper bags that were all the rage. So when she requested a doll version for Grace, I thought, well I'll just make a scaled down version of Velocity Girl, add a flap - how hard can it be!??

And the answer is not that hard, there's some maths and counting, but Sara's pattern is so well written that it actually makes putting it all together still really easy when you're taking your little added extras into account. A fact I'm now eternally grateful for, because I find bags really difficult to keep a hold of in my head. It's their 3D-ness. I can't quite grasp the why, until twenty steps later I'm like, 'OHHHHHHH, that's really frickin' clever!!'.

Fighting the Pins

Anyway, the balls up. I made all the various panels and pockets, and added piping (a first - yay!) and it went grand. Then, I started to assemble them, into a bag form. It was when I was adding the second outer wall that I realised I was using half the recommended seam allowance, cos I'd gotten kinda cocky with how well it was going. Part of me was like, well, it would be a pain to unpick and it's fine so far, so maybe we'll just go with it.

Offending Hole

But, no. I missed the underneath layer in three spots, and one was a whopper. I was so cross. Grumpy for well over an hour. That feeling of wanting to break a piece of china, or maybe kick a wall... Grrrr. But, a rant at Paul, a stomp around the supermarket, dinner, Dr Who, and a walk all improved my mood. As did, surprisingly, turning the offending item right side out. It needs to be unpicked, and sewn with the correct seam allowance. But it's shaping up to be really cute when done right, so it will be worth it.

Mollified by the Cute

But it won't be worth it today. Or for the next week. Too much frustration. It's time to metaphorically throw it at the wall. Wait for pay day, grab some Joann's vouchers, take Sara's instagram advice of yesterday and buy some Clover Wonder Clips. So that instead of bending my lovely quilting pins, and trying to figure why I can't push one through, only to discover I've created a small groove in my thumbnail, I can just clip and unclip, and not curse.

Let's Not Forget the Hole of Shame

Last night, after I'd ranted and stomped and walked it out, I had 45 minutes and so I continued the calm with a little bit of English paper piecing. I've been cutting one square from every scrap of the Farmer's Wife Quilt that's large enough, and I'm beginning to sew them together. There's no plan to the colours, and I'm finding the outcome very cottage-y cosy.

This post is getting unwieldy now, but one more picture and a couple of links. The Deep in the Heart of Texas Roadtrip QAL kicks off on Sunday, June 1st. Melissa has cutting directions and the quilt layout up on her blog as of yesterday. Today I got out the fabrics I've chosen for this quilt. I bought a lot of Lazy Day charm and mini-charm packs (one of my oldest friends is having a baby, and I panicked earlier in the year) which were going spare, but which I think on a navy background are going to make a lovely Texas. I've only bought a few extra half yards for the city blocks so far, but this morning I ordered a few more colours for variety. I'm excited to get going and will check in once a week with my progress, and links if you're following along :)

Have a good weekend y'all, x

(did you see what I did there!??!?)

Exciting - Deep in the Heart of Texas Roadtrip QAL

Kicking off next week, and organised by the brilliant Melissa at My Fabric Relish and Cristina at Pretty Little Quilts the Deep in the Heart of Texas Roadtrip QAL is more than just its super cute button.

I couldn't believe when I they let me get involved as an honorary brand new Texan! Have you see the quilt yet??

Cristina made it, she was inspired by this quilt by Dana Michaelsen (who you can find on instagram @danahannah310 for further inspiration!).

The idea of the quilt along is that each stop is with a different blogger who will tell you about their local (or assigned) Texan town or city!  The what to sees, the what to eats, the where to find the fabrics!! And each blogger has designed a block to represent their town. Blocks slot into the above quilt in their rough geographic location and you use scraps, jelly rolls, charm packs, mini charms, whatever you've got! to fill in the rest of Texas!!

I love it! I'm super nervous and excited. I've been checking out the other bloggers and everyone is so different! I can't wait to see all the different blocks and all the interpretations we make on them. It's going to be so much fun.

But more than that - I can't wait to see what YOU come up with!!

The link to the Official QAL Page is in the button above, and it's at the top of my sidebar for the duration of the summer! This is all going to be quite relaxed, running from next week until the middle of August.

I wanted to show you pictures of the bits and bobs I'm prepping, but we're having thunderstorms galore this morning and the lighting is terrible - so I'll save it for little check-ins during the week. Also, this is getting long!

Oh, oh!!! I forgot! There are prizes and giveaways, and so many things that I can't quite believe how big these ladies have gone with this - it's so awesome. Lots of local Texas quilt shops getting in on the act, and each blogger is giving away some Aurifil - that's Aurifil at each and every stop on this roadtrip - I need a Holy Cow! emoticon.

Here are all the dates and stops, in case you feel the need for some further exploring!! I really hope I see some of you popping in and out along the way :)

June 2 - Dallas - Ashley at Urban Spools

June 5 - Tyler - Colleen guest blogger at Pretty Little Quilts

June 12 - Fort Worth - Lindsey and Jodie at Fort Worth Fabric Studio

June 16 - Amarillo - Aoife at thREDhead

June 19 - Lubbock - Jada (guest blogger) at My Fabric Relish

June 23 - El Paso - Jennie at Porch Swing Quilts

June 26 - Midland/Odessa - Donna at Donna's Lavender Nest

June 30 - Big Bend - Cristina at Pretty Little Quilts

July 7 - Houston - Teresa at Third Floor Quilts

July 10 - Beaumont - Taryn at Pixels to Patchwork

July 14 - Austin - Amanda at What the Bobbin

July 17 - College Station - Hilary at Young Texan Mama

July 21 - San Antonio - Ellyn at Ellyn's Place

July 24 - Hill Country - Lissa at Moda Fabrics

July 28 - Rio Grande Valley - Melissa at My Fabric Relish