A Few Days Away: Muncie, Indiana

A week or more ago I got the chance to visit Muncie, Indiana for a long weekend. I'd never been to Indiana before and I have to say everyone we met there was really lovely and very chatty, even the cop who pulled us over took us on a mini tour of the village we were in before letting us go on our way with a warning to pay more attention to stop signs and less attention to our gps when lost (duly noted, first time pulled over, fully lighted up chevy suburbans are kinda terrifying tbh). In light of recent events and laws passed in Indiana I do realise that this straight Irish couple are always going to have it easy in the getting a warm welcome department though.

Ball State University, home of the weeping angels?

I got a chance to visit Muncie's quilt shop, Cotton Candy Quilt Shoppe! They were genuinely lovely people and chatted for ages, told us lots about the area and sold me this bevy of neutral beauties. I'm collecting for the background of a quilt I'm making my parents, hopefully this year! They even invited me upstairs to join in on their class that was on, but we were in the middle of touring our way back to Indianapolis that day and I didn't have the time :(

Hard to tell, but the one in front is a Moda Grunge fabric.

I brought some handstitching for the plane and the hotel evenings (that one didn't happen, just conked straight out each night after walking the feet off myself). But the planes required entertainment, and I got this block finished!

I have this next block all ready, the final block in this batch of ten for the Farmer's Wife quilt, but I don't know how long I'm going to take to make it. I do love the colours so it's at least enticing still! I need to get back into the habit of stitching in the evenings, or find a lot of time in waiting rooms soon...

I was going to say let's time me! But let's not!! It would sap the joy. And right now I'm all about the fun in sewing :)

xx

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!??!?)

A Slow Week

It's been a slow one, sewing wise, life wise. Met my new neurologist on Monday, have a change in medication, the navigation of the American health care system began, it's been confusing and surprising (in good ways, so far). The bad parts are all in the withdrawal and new side effects, sleep is being stolen from me among others, but hopefully this is the low point.

I was prepared Monday, left out some easy to piece blocks from an oft put down project, continued on them on Tuesday.

Laid out my progress, over a year so far, 14 blocks left, seeing it all out is encouraging, such lovely colours - all courtesy of Justine at Simply Solids and her Sew Solids Crew stash club last year.

Since Wednesday I've tried to push myself to get to what I really should be doing - but like any time that word, should, is involved it isn't happening. My brain is not up for altering patterns as I go, and my machine has decided that skipping stitches is so in vogue right now. I've walked away. Though I'm eyeing up a potential couple of hours of alone time on Sunday morning for a thorough machine clean and re-thread! I'm actually enthusiastic about that, another surprise.

Yesterday I gave up on the shoulds completely, and started cutting out the fabrics for my next set of Farmer's Wife blocks. It's slow, requires little brain power (apart from the ones that involve mirrored blocks - why, why!?!), and is filled with colour. I'm loving it.

Very much looking forward to this long weekend (magical words), hoping that I will enter next week more refreshed and more human-feeling. Hoping you all enjoy your weekends, wherever you happen to be!

Emerging

I have been beating myself over the head for a few weeks now for not posting more often, for not sewing every day, for not having a finished project or even a started project to share with you. I thought last week would be the week when I would catch up with all my sewing and, of course, last week I was sick, then I got better, then the fire alarm on our 10ft ceiling decided to run out of battery and start to shriek at 130am, every 40 seconds, for the next twelve hours. Somehow Paul got back to sleep. I couldn't. So I decided to do something I've been putting off until I felt more caught up, on track, on top of everything. I started to do the Wardrobe Architect over at Coletterie.

Sleep deprived, grumpy, and with a stonking headache (considering there wasn't any alcohol involved) I realised last Friday that I need to let go, lighten up, and do things as I come to them and not force myself to do them to some crazy internal schedule that a clearly batshit dictator/drill sergeant came up with.

Something I put together on Polyvore, which I don't really understand
but do like quite a lot. I am looking forward to when Spring has sprung.

So I'm taking this week off. This is my week of fun, of whatever, and next week I'll add in little bits of more time-sensitive projects again. But in small doses, and with no invented hard deadlines.

So here's where I am. I finished the top of the Riley Blake Challenge, the night before the deadline. I still haven't finished the quilting. There are a lot of threads to bury (first time burying threads - how fancy!), and after forcing myself to work on only this for too many days in a row, until I started to actively avoid the machine (hello, awful daytime reality television) I have stopped. It is now pinned on a wall, until I mellow towards it again and return happily to bring it to a finish.

I will eventually show my inspiration and explanation behind this!

The one thing I have been doing is doodling, making quilt plans, loving them, hating them, colouring them in, and generally enjoying the possibilities. The other guilty pleasure has been pinterest - no required interaction, and lots of possibility.

On the cutting table this week, are some leftover Amy Butler WOF strips, the remaining x and + blocks waiting to be pieced, skull fabric I won almost a year ago paired with an AMH Pastry voile (bought before I knew what voile was), and a stack of solids to be cut up so I can practice my new-found appreciation for paper piecing with last years forgotten Lucky Stars blocks!

I don't know if it's clear, but my unused, almost 1 year-old,
darning foot is out - this week I shall try my hand at some FMQ!

I have a new needle in my machine, and new blade in my rotary cutter, and a new found enthusiasm for doing what ever the hell I please! If I wasn't six months or so late, I'd be joining Made with Moxie on her Selfish Sewing Week - here's to fresh starts :)

Cuzco Charm Crossing

In early July I shared the top of this quilt, and estimated that it would all be quilted and bound in a month. Well, it's been over 4 months since then and it's finally finished. Yay!!

Cold, clear, crisp Winter's day.

When I started quilting it I had plans of using bright pink and bright orange thread to do a double grid on the diagonal across the front. By the time I got to the end of making the grid in the pink thread I'd had enough, so I said done and started binding.

Phone pic, but love the binding all rolled up!!

Do you ever start a post and just not know the most coherent order to say things? That's me today, so I apologise if this is a little all over the shop.

The front of the quilt is Charm Crossing, a Moda Bake Shop recipe by Crafty Tammie. I was trying to figure out how to make a charm pack of Cuzco by Kate Spain into something big enough for me to keep and use when I came across the pattern. I have to say I found the making of the hourglass blocks horrifically boring, though Tammie does warn you and give you good ideas on how to make it more enjoyable! But now that the quilt is finished I actually wish I'd gone nuts and made it twice the size...

I love this quilt though. It's already keeping my toes warm on the bottom of my bed at night!

The backing is the solid colours recommended by Tammie to go with the quilt pattern. They're fabulously bold and vibrant. I made up strips at varying widths and then sewed them together like a jelly roll strip quilt for the backing. Adding in a few of the leftover Cuzco hourglasses - the leftover solid hourglasses are all grouped together in a wee bag, and waiting to be made into a baby quilt at some point in the future!

Then I took my leftovers and made scrappy binding!! I love scrappy binding.

I have to say I found the quilting on this really frustrating. The sewing machine here is really reliant on constant speed for regular stitches and even with a walking foot I found it hard to get this quilt going smoothly. It didn't help that my machine backs onto a wall, and that by deciding to make a diagonal grid I ended up with a long roll of quilt going through the machine.

I'm also trying out all-machine binding, as practice. I like to do it on baby quilts for security, and thought I'd practice on this quilt because I'm keeping it so it doesn't matter if there are lumps, bumps, and wobbles. I know it's practice, but I get quite frustrated when the result is a lot poorer than I'd like. However, Maureen Cracknell wrote a post this week which helped ease those frustrations a little, and I'm feeling slightly more upbeat now about practicing and improving.

One more for the road!

I've run out of things to say now, so this is probably a good place to leave it! Linking up with TGIFF over at Never Too Hot To Stitch and Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

WIP: Max's Quilt

I've been making two quilts from the same materials since the middle-ish of October. They're going to end up at just over 50" square and are fairly simple patterns that I decided on myself. However, I totally got into a rut with Max's quilt a couple of weeks ago. I tried to force myself to work on it for a week and ended up browsing the internet, eating, going for walks, tidying around, basically anything that wasn't working on the quilt.

I had gotten this far.

It took me that whole week of self-annoyance and beration before I just decided to do something else. And it worked. I spent a week quilting and binding a quilt top that I finished in July (more this Friday). And this week I've been speeding along and now have Max's quilt top finished and am about to start the second quilt top this afternoon!! Woohoo!!

I'm using a fat quarter bundle of Urban Zoologie by Ann Kelle, a variety of colours in Sketch and some white solids in both quilts. Max's quilt features fussy-ish cut prints of the Urban Zoologie surrounded by the bright colours of Sketch and then sashed in white.

Slightly odd angle, but I couldn't resist the pretty morning light on the final seam!

I designed the patterns, worked out yardage, and ordered it all. Which worked great, thank god. Because since then I have made multiple mistakes in piecing and cutting maths. I have had to cut extra strips of both the Sketch and the white fabrics because I calculated wrong first time round. And annoyingly it wasn't just one mistake that I kept repeating, but I managed to make whole different mistakes each and every time.

And the last night, when I was ironing my finished blocks I notice these two:

Yep, I sewed the sashing on backwards with a lovely big seam on the front of two blocks... Either this quilt is haunted or I'm losing my marbles this month.

And the final piece of annoyance. Sketch, in my experience which is just with these two quilts, frays like a mad thing. It has been driving me crazy. Even when I go along and clip the threads away they just return to get caught in seams and snag and generally make me growl in frustration. This experience has turned me off buying Sketch again.

I'm going to do a final clip of threads right before basting, but I am a little worried about how the quilt will hold up in the long term. I've been thinking about it the last couple of days, and have decided that instead of quilting on either side of the seams, I'm going to zig-zag stitch over the seams in the hopes that it will reinforce them. But really, I shouldn't have to worry about this sort of thing with modern quilting fabrics. In my opinion.

Admiring the look of the sashing before bed last night.

Enough ranting, it looks pretty and there are solutions to the problems so all in all this is a happy work in progress!!

Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced!

Conor's Quilt

I think I need to start actually naming my quilts and not just calling them after the person I gift them to, but I'm not starting today :) I made this quilt back in March/April time, for a little boy who just turned 3 last week! Conor loves all things farm, including tractors and has his own little one to 'drive' around just like his grandad.

When I saw Oink-A-Doodle-Moo by Jenn Ski, I knew it was the one for him. I bought my first ever layer cake, and set about sorting the fabrics and pairing them off.

I decided to sew them into giant HSTs, using the no-loss method.  One blender and one print to make up each one. Then layout deciding took a few days, and the whole of my bed.

Realising I want the blenders as diamonds, but feeling a bit messy.

Till I found the perfect one!

Paired blenders in each diamond, much more cohesive and still crazy colourful!

From this point the quilt was easy to sew together. And I had a lot of fun making the back. I used the end of the green Ikea sheet that has been in almost all of my first ten quilts, some leftover blocks (that ended up too small because the rotary cutter got carried away by itself - totally the rotary cutter's fault) and a lovely soft deep orange fabric.

Please excuse my jumper in the top right of these, running up and down
stairs was hot work!

Then came the marathon basting day, when we moved all the furniture in our dining room.

I've slowly been adding more and more quilting to my projects as I've along. I quilted all the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines on this one - with a line of stitching a ¼" on either side of the seams. It turned out so soft and beautiful to touch.

I bound it in a sort of denim blue solid, and then put it through the wash!

I don't think that if left to my own devices I would ever have put this amount of colours and prints and patterns into one quilt, but I love how this turned out. It feels to me like it's right on the edge of crazy, and exactly suited to an exuberant 3 year old.

This one's been really hard to keep under my hat for so long, so I'm really glad to send it out today. It was very cheerful to work on during the sometimes grey and dreary spring.

Hoping to be back again in a few more days, with yet another finished hidden quilt. Have a great weekend!!

In the works...

So, I just finished a project, but it's secret for the moment but I really really love it so I'm impatient to get to sharing it here :)

I have two other projects that are about to get going, and since the guild meeting on Saturday I've been jumpstarted into my Farmer's Wife again! So here are a few photos and descriptions of my plans.

This is going to be a St Louis 16 patch, either for a about-to-be-born
baby, or as a charity quilt for 100 Quilts for Kids!

These blocks are using some of the new charm packs
I've added: Happy-Go-Lucky, Simply Color, and PB&J!
They're a bit darker than I started with, but I'm hoping
as I go along they'll blend in over all.

Next block is ready to go on the end of the sofa - Corn & Beans!

I'm finally starting to make Retro Flowers for my sister using AMH Field
Study and some Kona solids. I'm really nervous. The fabrics are so pretty
and the pattern so awesome, that I'm really worried I won't do it justice...
Fingers crossed, deep breath, and dive in!

I hope I can keep up a good momentum on these two quilts, and not get too sidetracked by other ideas. If I can get these done, then I can focus on some stuff for me again (another dress and a bag, maybe...!?).

Wish me luck!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

Sunday Stash: Dresses and Japanese Fabrics

The last couple of weeks I've added some patterns to my stash. I plan on trying to make a few dresses this summer. You've already seen the fabric! But here are the patterns that have caught my eye.

I bought two patterns from Sewaholic, one supposedly easy and one intermediate (for when I feel super confident!). I love Colette's patterns and opted for Peony because it's gorgeous and is supposedly for beginners!! Stitch with Style is the first sewing magazine I've every bought. I was swayed when Sara at Sew Sweetness posted that she had three patterns in this issue of the magazine. I also got the pattern for that dress on the cover! As well as patterns for all sorts of other bits of clothing and accessories - good value for less than $15. This is Sara's bag that I'm contemplating most (though I just made another one of her patterns, keep your eyes peeled for the outcome later in the week!).

And here's the Sewaholic 'easy' pattern I'm planning on making first, and the fabric I have in mind!

The fabric is by Dan Bennett for Westminster Fabrics

I got my May Bundle of Japanese fabrics from Blossom Heart Quilts' Etsy shop!

May's theme was Sweet Spring!

I've been getting these bundles for a few months now and I'm building up a lovely collection. The fabrics are so soft and vibrant. Alyce has a great eye!

I've even been coming up with plans for a Japanese fabric quilt! I think I'm still a little short on fabric for the whole thing though... (cough cough). I might dip in and out of the months as money allows. There's no recipient in mind for this quilt. Though I've drawn out the plan so I can remind myself every so often what I'm aiming for!

It's based on Imagine Gnats' Blast quilt. I've blown up one of her blocks to baby quilt size. I really like it, so I hope when the time comes I do it justice!

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend. I'm linking up with Fiona at Finding Fifth for the Sunday Stash and am off to peek at your stashes now!

Oh, and don't forget to go and vote in the Blogger's Quilt Festival - there is some spectacularly awesome talent on show there! Amy's doing a great job and I've learned things I never knew before, totally worth it :)

Sunday Stash: Part 2

Happy Sunday!!

This has been a strange week. I might be finding my groove, though actual sewing has yet to take place. But every day more things are getting done, leaving less in the way between me and the sewing machine! However, blogs have been getting neglected and I just realised I've about 100 unread posts from all you lovely people. Which also means my commenting on other blogs has plummeted (that and I've realised that using Feedly from my Kindle Fire means I can't comment - I need my phone or laptop for that (typing on the phone is too irritating and I've largely been avoiding the laptop because once I sit down I won't get back up for hours!! too much internet goodness).

Anyway, hopefully this coming week will see the start of me being slightly more on top of things!

Onwards, to the photos of fabric goodness. These first fabrics are destined to become clothes for my own wardrobe. This is my summer of starting to make clothes! First time doing so unsupervised so it's going to be interesting. I just need my first two patterns to arrive and then I can get started on dress #1!!

Clockwise from top: Airplanes in cream from Piper by Dear Stella; Sinister Swarm in Vivacious from Field Study by Anna Maria Horner; Soft Serve in candy green from Asbury by Thomas Knauer; and, Whirl in warm from Asbury by Thomas Knauer.

I have no plans for the next fabrics.

Clockwise from top: Crystalline Cobalt from Luxe in Bloom; Delicate Sautoir Grey from Splendor 1920; Trellis in Gentian from Floressence; Extravagarden Hush from Luxe in Bloom; and, Flights of Fancy in Day from Splendor 1920 (centre).

The navy fabrics might get used in a quilt I have planned as a baby boy quilt. I really love the two Splendor 1920 fabrics, but still no inspiration yet. I'll just have to stroke them for a while longer. In the grey fabric there are geckos on the branches, they make me smile!

Geckos!!

Then we have some fabrics that are planned as future backings, most likely!

L-R: Red Mosaic from Frippery by Thomas Knauer; and, Sew Stitchy by Aneela Hoey

And, finally, another bundle that I bought as a cohesive unit in the Black Friday sales but now I'm not so sure of them all together. Also, no quilt idea has popped out at me as would normally happen... I'm loath to separate them, but stymied by the idea of keeping them together. Any ideas??

From left to right: Submarines and Seaweed in coral from Salt Water; Topograph in tangerine from Architextures; Star Charts in purple from Constellations; Crosshatch in peach from Architextures; Bike Path in peacock from Lucky Penny; Blueprint in grass from Architextures; Sketch in Denim; Sketch in Kiss; Leafy Stripe in navy blue from Simply Color; Annie's Farm Stand Seed Catalogue in white on white; and, The Block in cream and mist.

Seed Catalogue in white on white is amazing. Here it is on it's own catching the light at an oblique angle!

So lots to play with here thanks to pretty much any fabric sale in the last six months! Hopefully I'll be back on Wednesday with some sewing progress on something :)

Linking up to Sunday Stash over on Finding Fifth!!