Blogtoberfest Day 25

You need no introduction....the weather wasn't great, but at least I got some ok pics!!

*sigh* I hope it makes the couple very happy!!

All the deets here

Blogtoberfest day 23 & 24

It's done! 

I tried a new thing with the binding, as learnt by Rita at our MMQG day;It works well, helps it sit nice and flat, I think.

I snapped these tonight after a final once over; I'll take it to work tomorrow and get some outdoor daylight shots! I only have it 1 more night and I hand it over! Eeeek!

Phew!!

Blogtoberfest Day 13 and 14

I'm not apologising today for running the 2 days together- cos i feel it was a whole weekend's worth! And today's jobs of lots of washing aren't blog worthy, really! So back to  yesterday...

Our Spring Sewing Retreat at GJ's fabrics was fan-bloody-tastic! a great bunch of people, excellent organisation, and a great guest speaker! Not to mention the day ran from 9am until 10pm! 

Rita was a great guest speaker, it was such a thrill to meet her, and I was definitely a little star struck! Especially when she wanted to watch me do some quilting! Eeek! She gave us a chat about how she started, and some show and tell of her amazing quilts.

She'd even made a little quilt up to show us her binding technique. We all wanted to absorb that technique and skill I think!

Eye candy galore!

there was also food. And plenty of it! I'm a bit puzzled that I wasn't very hungry, I managed a good serve of lunch, some snacking at arvo tea, then yummy gourmet pizza's for dinner, with salad- there was a lot left over too! Next time I'll take a doggy bag container....

Someone went snuck off and got some bubbles too, which def kept us giggling and stitching along!

I managed a quarter of my custom quilt quilting... 

and took my Dresden quilt along to pick the centre flower fabric. I'm pretty happy with it!

Back tomorrow with more pics from the day!

Blogtoberfest Day 8

 So I got my batting delivered today, and I pulled some energy (after a flat out day at work) out of my ass from somewhere to do some basting! It's always a good way of cleaning the lounge room anyway!

So there's the backing...see my little helper sitting still for 2 secs? (he got kicked out soon after, ants in his pants tonight)

different angle. Exciting, I know.

then the layer of batting, and....

  

 and I managed to forget one of the quilt top on top. Look over here for that!

And it took under 2 hours!

'

 And I thought I shared this, but don't think I did (or it's the crap filing system I call my labels- I really need to work on them!) I read on Jeni's blog in her great post about crafting with arthritis, and I'm always for tips for saving the aches and pains that can come with the extreme sport I call quilting!

Not having one of these tools, and really not believing it would do anything, I found something similar in my tools, and gave it a whirl. O.M.G.

It really makes a huge difference!

I still can't work out how, and that bugs me as i like to know how things work! But, as Jeni says, 'It minimises stress on your fingers and wrists and simply makes the whole process faster.'

It's definitely sped my basting up. Really less painful!

 In fact, the basting was so quick (I think I was traumatised by the single girl quilt having to be stuck to the floor for a week while I thread basted it) I may have it quilted in a few nights! Then what am I going to do on Saturday?

Still going....

Still going on the custom quilt, it's getting to the pointy end!

I layed it out the other night; 

after trimming them all and admiring :)

I was admiring the yummy scraps that came off too! So bright and cherry in the bin.

  

after the borders, I layed it out and check the fit. I was going for about a king size, and my bed is queen, so I'm pretty happy! 

The hardest thing about a custom order is keeping the balance! Creatively, I like lots of different projects on the hop, for different moods, or dependant on whether I can get off the couch or not at the end of the day!

I have been looking at these gorgeous bag patterns for a while, having followed Anna's blog for a while. I have tried a few of her tutorials and liked them, so I splurged on the weekend and bought her bag patterns 241 and Sidekick.

I started with the 241 pattern the other night. So quick- a 2hr movie on the laptop (the amazing Aussie movie Beautiful Kate) and it was printed, cut out and half finished! The rest done this morning.

I used denim, some DS Quilts print from Spotlight, and some of my fave honeycomb red spot. Vintage floral lining.

 And the denim? Chopped from a pair of my sister's old jeans! They came from my bad habit of looking through her bag of stuff for the op shop I had in the car boot! Hmmm, I'll add them to the pile! and they were very handy!

For the side panels I used the bottoms of the legs, and for the strap the upper part. So they are different shades as well. Which I think looks really nice!

Hmm, now to decide whether to keep or sell! It's pretty cute....

In progress....part 1

So after my last post, I thought I'd try and document this quilt making caper a bit better, so I can show people what it is, and  how I do it! Warts and all I'm afraid, as in "the stylist was on their day off" I doubt I'll teach anyone what to do, but it's fun to document the process! And this is all the 'self taught' stuff I've found that works for me.

So I'm making another one of this, as I said at the bottom of the post, it's not for me, but another custom order (yippee!) My Layer cake and Jelly Roll of this arrived, and I got stuck in yesterday morning.

So the 'den' is semi prepared for the big event. Vacuumed, at least! The desk is in THE best spot for a lovely spring day, I even had the windows open- and the heating OFF! That is such a hard habit to break at the end of winter, right? Machine moved off the table so I have optimum space!

 I have some table protectors on top of the desk, both from IKEA, but the cutting mat fits OK as well. I got cutting- this pattern makes lots of blocks, and lots of cutting! So as I'm cutting (and I sit and rotary cut, which I didn't think was unusual until I went to a few classes. No table is ever high enough for me not to have an aching back after 5mins!) I'm using the old hot pink Post-It notes to keeps track of the sizes and piles....

Oh, a sneak peak of the 'extra' space- music is very important to me while I work, I can't stand the tv on in the day, plus there's never anything that important I need to watch. So the laptop and Cd's it is! night time is different though, trashy TV and Twitter chat keeps me going! My next big purchase will be a 'wheely' chair and chair mat so I can 'scoot' from machine to iron without having to stand and shift the chair!

So the reason behind all my labelling- I know exactly what bits to join to what! This cutting took about 4-5 hrs all up.

But the piecing together is a lot quicker when everything's marked! Today called for A + B + C.

I had a very unhelpful 'cat stop' that insisted on sitting at the back of the machine, where the fabric usually falls down . Unhelpful that I got attacked when I tried to move her!

And the simplest way I've found to sew ALL those seams? Chain piecing, So one continuous strip of sewing, then snip it all and move on to the next line. I used to try and join it all together without the snipping after each line- tangled mess, I'm afraid.

So there's a little start to the quilt. I pressed these ones, and got the D + E block done as well today, then had the rest of the afternoon off!