stuff and bother

So I've been very quiet for a couple of weeks. I'm in DC now, for another week and a half. Before I'm back to Ireland for an indeterminate amount of time and then it's DC for good. All this moving around and lack of certainty is starting to drive me bonkers. And my back, while getting better, is restricting the amount of time I can spend doing any one thing (including sewing or housework or sitting watching tv...). The inability to be consistently productive sucks! I make a bad patient, that's for sure.

My sewing has been restricted. But I've also felt an urge to rebel against lists and aims. I only end up beating myself over the head when I don't meet them. So I've been staying away from the blog. Only sewing when I wanted to. Resisting writing about it, because once I say it, I'll feel the need to make progress so I can update the blog. But I can't make sure progress, so it's extra stress I put on myself when it's the last thing I need.

I'm rambling now. I have made one cushion cover in the last two weeks.

The Orange Peel cushion for Curves Class. The last project I wanted to get done during class time. I'm really glad that it accidentally ended up last. It was supposed to be our practise project for precise curves before tackling the curves in the final quilt - the Wheel Quilt. I did these in the opposite order. Thank God! The orange peel block was challenging. Bizarrely, the curved piecing was the least frustrating part for me. The seams get bulky where the curves end and when you try to sew all four blocks together to form the cushion... well, my sewing machine had a slight knicker-fit, there was cursing, but I got there. It's not perfect. It was never going to be.

And now, 10 days later I can admire the cushion for the colours and shapes. The horror of sewing those seams together is fading. I still don't think I'll be attempting that block again. I'd have to really love the idea of the project or really love the person who wanted it to go back there. It definitely would have put me off tackling the precise curves in the wheel quilt if I'd done it first. But I didn't, so now I have both done - yay for procrastination (this time) !!!

I pieced the back, envelope style (I was in no frame of mind to tackle an invisible zipper).

Yesterday was a snow day in DC, and while that made no difference to my day, it did mean Paul was home all day! He bought some Kokka airplanes in black a little while back and wanted to learn how to sew a cushion cover to get over his fear of the sewing machine's needle. In the end I got out all the Kokka linens I have (scraps and the odd fat quarter) for Paul to choose from. The whole thing went more smoothly than I anticipated, and he only got stuck with a pin once and we both still have all our fingers - success! And the cushion turned out great!

If this is really slightly fuzzy, I'm very sorry!

Here are the airplanes on the back (envelope style again!).

All the cushions living happily on our sofa.

In the interests of taking the stress off sewing, and not giving myself hard deadlines. I decided to play with the leftovers of Paul's Rainbow Skittle Quilt. I'm enjoying it. I had not plan when I started. I just laid out the pieces and rearranged till I was happy. Here's a shot of what the dining room table looks like right now.

Hopefully, I'll have a top made before I head back to Ireland. I'll do my very best to respond to comments, as always :)

A Wheel Quilt of my very own!

Morning all!

A year after heavily crushing on this pattern by Rachel of Stitched in Color and seriously doubting I'd ever have the sewing skills to make one, I have completed my very own Wheel Quilt. It is one of the final week's projects for Curves Class.

I love it. I love it a lot more than I expected to.

I did not use fabrics that were 'oh my god I love these so much anything they go in will be perfect!'. Instead I had two charm packs I was kind of meh about, that I'd bought early last summer. One, Good Fortune by Kate Spain, I really loved online, but when I got the charm pack I was a bit put off by the size of the prints and the punch you in the face colours confusingly (to me) combined with a wishy-washy beige-grey. The other charm pack was Birds and Berries by Lauren & Jessi Jung. It is a lovely collection, but I found the amount of turquoise in it overwhelming. Neither inspired me to come up with a pattern I really wanted to make. So they sat. And sat.

I signed up to do Curves Class and then realised I had no money to buy new fabrics for the projects. I had to rely on my stash and whatever old sheets and fabrics I had lying around my parent's house. Thankfully, I have been buying fabrics since I was a teenager and hoarding them. Way before I started sewing or quilting. But this is I think the greatest revelation of Curves Class to me. (Well, it's on a par with overcoming my fear of curves and discovering how much fun improv piecing is - seriously! Why have I not been doing this already???) Yeah, the other greatest revelation: This quilt was living in my stash AND I HAD NO IDEA!

The backing is Turtle Bay from Prince Charming by Tula Pink. I have tonnes of this for some reason...

It begs the question - what else is living in my stash?? How do I get the vision to see the possibilities?? It's exciting and overwhelming!

This quilt finished at 38" square. The binding is the remaining charms cut into 2.5" strips. I successfully attached the binding using a combination of Rachel's zig-zag binding tutorial and Canoe Ridge Creations' double fold binding tutorial. I had tried before and failed miserably, so yay!! I can only continue to improve now I have the technique right.

I have no one to give this to, and no baby of my own to put it aside for. I will keep it though and eventually I'll find the perfect recipient for it. I'm not finished stroking it and looking at it just yet anyway!

I'm off now to try and finish up the Orange Peel Cushion for Curves Class. Then it's onwards to various horribly delayed BOM blocks over the weekend. That may be wishful thinking, but maybe by this time next week I'll have them done :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Linking up to TGIFF at Gingersnaps Quilts this week.

And to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

blergh

I've been missing in action from the internet this last week or more. I had my driving test this last Wednesday and everything went out the window while I practised and dealt with the nerves. Despite crying at my instructor the hour before (slightly mortified by that), I passed. Woop!!

In the last couple of weeks I've also managed to sort out my visa for getting back to the US and Paul! So despite the insanity of January, it really has all been worth it. But I've been dying for it all to calm down. So I can sew. Get moving. Start producing. Get my head back above water, which I've barely been managing to doggy paddle through.

Today was supposed to be my first day of uninterrupted sewing and planning and blogging. Back into what I've been missing! But instead, I've done my back in again :( Physio says no doing anything that causes pain (that's everything right now). So instead I try to find a non-pain position and stay there until the pain comes back, and I find a new one. This makes working on the laptop ok in very small bursts. It makes driving, sewing, cutting fabric, tidying, almost anything else... totally impossible. Grrrr argh!

I can however, check in. Say hi. I haven't fallen off the planet. And show you some stuff I did manage to do pre-driving madness and now back-crap.

This is as far as I've managed to get with Curves Class.

Supposed Front - initially my favourite side.

Back!

It's a drunkard's path pot-holder, made form part of a charm pack of Good Fortune from Moda. The curved path was actually quite easy with Rachel's tutorials. The binding is where the disaster happened. I tried to do the zig-zag machine binding on Rachel's site, but I went wrong. Very wrong. I've been trying to figure it out at the back of my head, but it wasn't until I saw this tutorial today on Canoe Ridge Creations that I realised where it all fell down. I didn't realise you had to double the binding to start with, and I didn't get the join of the two ends of binding at all right! I should probably rip it out and do it again, but it was supposed to be a learning project, and it is happily living as a mug rug by the laptop now, so I'm going to leave it and just do better next time!

Next up was an orange peel cushion. I chose my fabrics, and cut out the non-peel central shapes, but that was it. I am dying to make it though, the fabrics are gorgeous - a combination of the QuiltCon solids, a tiny bit of Salt Air and some Floressence (Fragrant Corsage in Snow).

See!!?

I finally have caught up with the Sew Solid Crew Stash Club! I have eight x and + blocks made now, and waiting for February's orange to arrive to add another four! I love them.

The background is Dictionary Sewing Guide in cream and concrete from Mama Said Sew.

I'm off to lie down on the ground again. But I'll leave you with a phone picture of the sunset this evening as I came home from the physio :) The only February picture on here!

I'm linking up with the Small Blog Meet at Lily's Quilts!

Improv Curves feat. yet more bunting!

Curves class is amazing. I'm having a little trouble finding good sewing time during the week, but each week is better than the last and soon I'll feel totally organised! And class will be over - boo!

Last week was learning to sew improv curves. Of the three projects on offer I chose to do Rainbow Road! This is a quilted table runner. I don't really have a use for a table runner, but my mother said she'd like one for her coffee table. So I took the measurements (38" x 15.5"), got out my stash, and selected fabrics that matched her living room. These included some Flights of Fancy tonal in cream and coral, and some Liberty Lifestyle Bloomsbury Gardens!!! I really love my mother :) As well as some fabric I bought 8 years ago and two old pillow cases.

I was quite scared to begin with, and then progressively bolder followed by minor freak outs when I hadn't a clue where to go next! Then I realised, it's improv! There's not really a right answer, just the techniques Rachel had laid out to use. I ended up really liking the result, even if the colour scheme isn't one I'd choose first off by myself...

Front

And back!

My first pieced back as well!

In the end, Mammy liked the coffee table runner so much she asked for a matching placemat for the dining table, which lives at the other end of the same room. I decided I could use my scraps to make it, and it was even more challenging. But I loved it! I can't wait to do some more improv piecing, and have even had a bit of a brainwave, which I'll ruminate on some more before trying to execute! Here's the placemat:

Slightly more chaotic!

I also made up two more strings of the scalloped bunting from the first week of the class.

All three together - surprisingly hard to get a semi-decent photo of them all...

I've been thinking I need a bit more of an organised approach to posting... But right now life is not at all organised. I'll have to mull it over, and in the meantime I shall try to link up to as many things as I can! For this post I want to link up to one of my favourite blogs weekly linky; Anything Goes at Stitch By Stitch! And to the Let's Get Acquainted linky at Plum and June :)

Here's on final picture, the table runner in its new home. I love seeing things used :)

What's next?

It turns out that despite not signing up to too many things over Christmas so I would be happily busy and not crazy busy this month and next, I am. Very busy. I haven't signed up to tonnes of sewing things, one class, one BOM, and one stash club. The second two run all year and I'll enter 2014 with two very lovely, almost finished quilts! And the class finishes before the end of February.

However, in the rest of life I signed up for a chair making course, doing my driving test slightly too soon, the local quilters group, and a pilates course. The driving is taking over. But in just over two weeks that will calm down, one way or the other! So all I have to do is cling on and I'll get through the crazy within a month. It's been hard to find any sewing time in the last week, which is the first week I've had even the sniff of a sewing chance since Christmas. Lots of organising is required, but I'm starting to crest the hill (I think). So what exactly, have I got going on?

Well, the class first. I took Rachel's, from Stitched in Color, Handstitched Class in the summer. I still haven't finished the class quilt, but am planning it, alongside one other handstitched project, to run throughout this year. Something for my evenings. I'll finish, but it might be this time next year when I complete! I loved the class though. Loved it. It pushed me, and it has made handstitching part of my regular quilting repertoire. Even just as quilt labels. So when she offered her Curves Class again I jumped at the chance. I checked online when I got home from a New Year's Eve party, and again at 6am, so I could make sure I got a place on the course! It worked - woop! The second week is just beginning, so I only have my one easy-peasy project to show from last week (so little sewing time - want to do ALL the projects!).

It really was easy-peasy!

As you might see from my side-bar, I've also signed up for the Lucky Stars Block of the Month run by Don't Call Me Betsy! The blocks will be foundation paper pieced. I have never ever done this before. This will make it interesting. I am behind on this, I feel. Though technically I have till February 1st to make the first two blocks (a practice block sent out in December, and the January block)... I am also seriously daunted by starting. I want a whole day where I don't have to run off and do anything else to sit down and work this one out. I am doing the 12.5" blocks - partly cos I want something lap-sized at the end and also cos I reckon biggest will be the least fiddly... We'll see :) I have gotten as far as choosing my fabrics for this BOM - check it out!

A charm pack of Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket and coordinating Moda Bella solids!!

The next bit of fabric-y loveliness comes courtesy of Justine at Simply Solids. She's running a monthly stash club, called the Sew Solids Crew Stash Club. December was purples and January dark greens. I wanted a plan, and then I needed good backing fabric to arrive from the fabric fairies! So I could carry out the x and + quilt of my dreams:

Woop!!

I just started cutting the fabrics today! I've already made mistakes, and need to cut some more, but I'm really excited about this quilt. I'll be making four blocks of one colour range each month. I get three fat quarters of varying shades of the colour every month. Here are December and January:

Backing fabric is the grey and cream versions of Dictionary Sewing Guide from the Mama Said Sew collection:

And even though I have to cut slightly more of each, I have leftovers! Enough for maybe another small, colourful quilt (crib-size, maybe....?)!

LEFTOVERS!!!!!!

And, one more quilt in the works! My uncle discovered I make quilts and requested one that is exactly 5' by 7', warm, heavy, and won't slip off his bed. Thankfully, my mother was on hand to help me buy the fabrics. Nothing flowery or overly-patterned would do at all for this man! I foresee problems learning how to quilt through heavier than usual fabrics, and even piecing will be interesting. But the fabrics were definitely voted a success by all!

I have come up with a pattern to sew it all together with, keeping all the pieces as large as possible to reduce bulky seams - hopefully. Let me know what you think!

The light blue represents the patterned fabric. Each square is 12" x 12" finished.

And finally, you'll be delighted to hear, I wanted a handstitching project, easy to transport, and one I could bring to any quilting meetings I get to. I fell in love with the farmer's wife quilt when I saw it on Camille Roskelley's blog in September! Paul bought me the book, after much sending of pictures and talk about it. And I decided the charm packs I've been hoarding would be used up perfectly in this, along with some Kona Snow.

And here are the two blocks I've been working on since last week, one finished, one started...

Autumn Tints and Attic Windows!

Phew, that is actually a lot! I just realised while writing it out, because I kept forgetting which project I hadn't talked about yet.... But, to be fair (talking myself into this one), but 3 of these will take at least the rest of this year - I expect the Farmer's Wife to take a couple of months longer. So, maybe not too mental... Maybe :)

I'm linking up to the brand new (to me, only!) Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-Up!!