Magazine Fun and Scrapping Indecisively

My Dogtooth Violets quilt came back to me in the mail yesterday. And tucked into the box was a copy of the magazine. Here's a little sneaky peek for you all to see.

The magazine is Australian Patchwork and Quilting - Volume 18, Number 4. I notice they've stopped putting the month and the year on the magazine again - I wonder why? In any case, they've photographed the quilt beautifully, if only I could arrange things at home so artfully :-)

And on the weekend I had a few minutes to myself late at night. It was too late to organise another top for quilting, so instead I took a look at my 'leaders and enders'. I'm not usually completely indecisive, but I thought I had a better idea with the layout. I ripped the four blocks apart that I showed a few days ago, and added squares around the edge of all of them.

This morning I thought about them some more. Maybe I could set them on point with this yellow reproduction as sashing strips. I'll then have a little think about what I could use as setting triangles.

I wonder if this project will banish all the 2" reproduction fabrics from my scrap box? I have a feeling ... not!

An Important Step

On Thursday morning, a big step was taken toward an important project for this year. I started making the blocks for my 'Turning Four-T' quilt.

It's quite the milestone, so I'm using some of my favourite fabrics. Amongst those are some precious conversationals that my wonderful friend Linda sent me quite a while back. I have seven fat quarters, which is not quite enough, so I'm going to intersperse them with a light tea dye fabric. Had I decided not to make a pieced border, the conversations may have been plenty, but I'm a scrappy quilt girl, so I'll love 'making do'.

In other news, my 'Dogtooth Violets' quilt has just come out in print in Australian Patchwork and Quilting. I haven't received my copy in the mail just yet, but I'll share as soon as I have it. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled - I just love the quilt!

Purple Stars - now known as Dogtooth Violets :-)

The quilting on my 'Dogtooth Violet' quilt is finished, and the binding applied. It's all done. I'll be writing the directions this weekend and making up the 'in progress' pieces in readiness for the mail on Monday.

In the picture, I've folded the quilt so you can see the binding and backing fabrics I used. I had originally planned to use a purple print I purchased recently for the back - but when I went to the closet, the funky paisley fabric was calling to me - so I answered it's call.

I quite like it :-) It probably doesn't fit the era, but I think it works anyway. Isn't it funny how our tastes in fabric change over time - I'm sure a few years ago I would have walked right past that fabric - and now there are other fabrics in my own stash that make me wonder 'what was I thinking?'

There are already ideas forming in my mind about my next scrap quilt, but first I have another top to quilt, and then another after that. How wonderful it is to have my hobby as work, and my work as a hobby :-)

Be sure to have a great weekend.

Gone quilting ...

Last night I started quilting on the Purple Stars quilt - I expect I'll get it finished tonight if Bernie cooperates.

The strangest thing has been happening - and I'm interested to know if anyone else has ever had a similar experience ... Every time I quilt on the navy and white print, I'm holding my breath, because often when I get to a seam in that fabric, the top thread breaks. The needle makes a banging sound, and then - snap the thread is gone. I thought maybe I'd blunted the needle, so swapped a couple of times - but it didn't seem to make a difference. I've made the problem a little less severe by changing to a Janome blue-tip needle. I don't know what is different with the blue-tips and the regular Schmetz needles I use, but for now, I'm still getting a little of the sound, but so far *touch wood* no thread breakage.

This quilt needs to be finished in it's entirety by Monday next week, with directions and 'in progress' pieces etc. It's destined for Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine - I can't remember the issue number, but I'll definitely fill you in. Back to quilting for me - I'll check back soon :-)

Scrappy Log Cabins

I wanted a piecing project to dive right into once I finished the 'Purple Stars' top - and given that I'm seriously into cutting up my scraps, I thought a Log Cabin quilt that I'd envisioned would be the perfect thing.

Judy Martin is a wonder at piecing blocks that have other blocks inserted into them, and I thought I'd give it a try on a small scale. I'll have fun playing with the light and dark fabrics.

All blocks will have the same red print in the centre. I found the fat quarter in my stash and set about cutting up the 36 x 3 1/2" squares that I needed. I was only able to get 30 from the fq, but didn't worry too much, I just resolved to choose another 30's style print from my DJ box. I don't know if I had a psychic episode or something, but when I opened the box, there was another fat quarter of the exact same fabric in there. It had been a gift from Linda. I purchased my original fq in Paducah, I wonder if she had done the same. It was all a very happy accident.

I made up four blocks to see if I liked the pattern, and I do very much. What I don't like is that I wasn't careful enough with my seam allowance while making up the blocks, and the outside row is a little rumpled. I'm not going to pick the blocks apart however, I'll just let them be. I'm sure it'll all quilt out.

Yesterday I set about making up the other 32 blocks that I need, and I've made up all the blocks to the point where the last four rounds need to be attached. I'll need to make up eleventy-four half square triangles first. This is going to be the time consuming part. I've also paid better attention to my seams and these blocks are lovely and flat. I can't believe after all my years of quilting I can still sometimes err with silly things like seams!

These blocks have all been made up using the contents of my 2" scrap box. I'm thrilled to say that I can actually notice a visible reduction in the contents of the box. I did have to add some light fabric however, as I'd pillaged most of the lights for the green and cream leader and ender nine patches. (Ohh, and I have made up 51 nine patches so far!) I'll keep you posted with my progress :-)

Also, a big thank you to Shasta who has identified the purple block I was working on. I had no idea, and I'm thrilled to know it's called 'Dogtooth Violet'. I have found a similar free block pattern at Quilter's Cache - be sure to check it out. Thank you once again Shasta - I think I'll be renaming my quilt!

C'est fini!

Yaaaay! The top is finished!! I'm not going to add borders - I like the way the top looks kind of vintage just ending like that. I'm entirely thrilled with how it's come out.

Ohhh heavens ... what am I going to do now?? (just kidding) :-)

Three rows

Finally, I have finished all the blocks (except for the one I'm going to take one corner off and do a quick fabric change). What a relief! The triangle corners weren't hard to do, but just endless - because of all the tricky bias edges I pinned as I went which seemed to make it take ages!

Last night I wanted to see if I could put all the rows together, and because there were a couple of good games to watch on the Aussie Open Tennis, I thought I'd have a pretty good chance to get it done. In the picture you can see how far I got - three rows assembled.

It was quarter past midnight, and I just ran out of energy and had to go to bed. I don't even know if Roger Federer won his game - but I'm thinking it's unlikely he lost. But back to the quilt - when I put the first row together with the sashing strips, I thought I had made a terrible mistake. It looked all wrong. I decided to plug on regardless, and now I'm happy that I did - the fabric has really grown on me, and I love the 'pop' of the pink cornerstones. I'm not sure that this quilt will actually have a border - I had envisioned it without one, but I'll see if I change my mind. I'll definitely be binding it with one of the darker purple reproduction prints - one that I used a lot in my Sisters Choice Medallion quilt.

Well - it's getting late in the morning here, and I haven't had breakfast - my body is calling for a morning coffee, and I'm going to oblige it. I'll chatter to you all soon!

More Purple Stars

Are you growing weary of these pictures yet? As a rule, I work on a project methodically from start to finish without putting it aside too much. But I always wonder if the endless photos of the same project at various stages of construction bores a person to tears ...

And so I present ... another picture of my purple stars blocks! This is how many I've made so far, and the remaining twelve blocks are so close to finished that you'll be seeing them by the end of the day - I'm sure of it!

I'm excited to see how the blocks will look with the sashing strips in between. I'm not sure that I've chosen the right fabric, but it'll be great to test it for real - and I'd like to use a double pink cornerstone - just for a little pop!

We had a great night on Friday night - a gathering of friends for Marty's birthday - but also to break in the new outdoor suite. A great night was had by all - way too much wine, and so much fun. Yesterday we were all feeling very tired and flat. So, what did we do? - Have friends over for dinner last night to polish off some of the leftovers, and we'll be out again tonight! We'll rest another day :-)

What's on your bed?

I'm not sure that I've ever given anyone a peek into our bedroom before! So, what's on your bed?? Because it's summer here, we have a quilt rather than a doona. This is one of my favourites - a scrappy Sisters Choice quilt that Linda and I made. It's one of Bonnie's Scrap Users System projects. Linda made 100 blocks, I made 100 blocks, and we swapped 50 over. It has wonderful memories and our taste in fabric is so similar that it's sometimes hard to tell who's blocks belong to who.

And so you know I haven't been slacking off, here's two of my 'purple stars' blocks with what I'm thinking about using for the sashing strips. You can also see the alternate background fabric I elected to go with. It's one of the double wide backs from the Sturbridge Village range. How I love the reproduction fabrics!

All the triangle segments of the blocks have now been constructed, and I'd say I've finished 10 to 15 of the blocks entirely. I think tomorrow will be the day that I complete the blocks.

And though there is absolutely no chance that Marty will be reading this ... Happy Birthday hon. Love you to bits :-)

Pointy!

Last night I was plugging away at the 'purple stars' points. The most time consuming part of this section of the block is the cutting - they're such funny shapes. But as I was cutting, I got this ominous feeling ... I was running very low on the background fabric.

I cut up all that I had, and got busy sewing ... and when I was done making up the points, I had exactly 50 point units. I need 100. Oops!

Rather than panic, I took it as a sign from the fabric gods that I was being too conservative with this quilt, I'm just going to be a little bit maverick and use something else. My blocks will still have symmetry after all, half the points will have one background fabric, and half will have the other one (when I decide which one it will be).

Summer daze ...

I'm still sewing the 'purple stars' blocks when I have the chance, and I've now finished the middle parts of all 25 blocks. It's fun to chain piece away, and because they're scrap blocks, I've also managed to deplete many of my leftover bobbin threads. I don't know why, but I always feel very virtuous when they start disappearing. Next, onto the triangle outer points.

On the stove right now, just over 3kgs of apricots. I'm stewing them this time - and when they're done, I'll put them in the Fowlers jars and preserve (can) them. Super nice served with ice-cream and we'll really appreciate them in winter months when stone fruits are just a memory. There are still a few more apricots left on the tree, and I'll pull the ladder out tomorrow and get the last few. I may bake something with the last ones - that will be an adventure, something I've never done before!

In the mail yesterday, some fabric I ordered just over a week ago. It always amazes me how fast fabric can get here from the US. All reproductions, the purplish/blueish print is destined to be sashing strips for the purple stars quilt, and also will be put with my 'buck a block' Thangles project (thank you so much Linda and Donna for gathering the components for me!). The others are 'justin' fabrics. You know - just in case I need them sometime. Well, to be fair, I don't actually have any yellow in my stash, and very little pink. I think you'd all be very surprised at the massive gaps in my stash - I'm working at filling them ... in a responsible way of course :-)

I also received fabulous mail from my wonderful friend Linda, and I'll share that in my next post. Chatter soon :-)

Could take a while ...

I've been slowly plugging away at the components for the 'purple stars' blocks. I don't have huge amounts of purple fabric, so some of the time has been spent hunting down pieces from my stash that will be suitable. I have to make up 100 of these units for the stars - I guess I'm around two thirds done now. I'm really looking forward to putting some more blocks together.

I haven't been idle however - I talked about pinning a quilt in my last post - and true to my word, that quilt has been pinned, quilted, and I've machine sewed the binding on for my customer. All she needs to do is hand sew the binding down.

And yesterday, my friend Kath, Amy and I went to Harbour Town for a little retail therapy. I found this cute little pair of slides that had to come home with me. Aren't they adorable, and super comfortable too. They were on sale in a huge way - 80% off, so it would have been irresponsible to leave them at the store, right?? :-)

I'm heading back to the sewing room now, I'll check back in soon.

New Quilt for the New Year

Happy New Year! To all my buddies who've stopped by and said Hi, and to those who love to lurk, I wish you all good things in 2009. We saw in the new year at home with wonderful friends, more than a few drinks and nibbles and really good times. And for those of you wondering - no new outdoor setting (I've ordered the favourite one) and no-one minded our less than perfect furniture.

And the New Year deserves a new project, so here is a start. At the moment I'm calling it Purple Stars - but it definitely deserves a better name. I enjoyed putting the first block together, and now I'm finalising all the cutting before making up more.

This evening I'll be pinning a customer quilt, a project for quilting tomorrow, in addition to making up more jam. I picked a few kgs of apricots today, and there is still a lot more on the tree. This has been our best apricot season ever. Shari asked how we protect our fruit from birds - well, we do have our fair share of blackbird troubles, but we net our tree, and it helps a lot. If you look at the picture of the tree, you can see the netting. It's not a perfect solution, but it means that the birds must be more determined.

I'm looking forward to catching up on blogs, I've been busy for a couple of days, and it's amazing how the new entries build up.

Drawing

I have a new quilt in my head that I'd like to get busy making. Instead of sewing, I drew it up today, and when I get the opportunity, I'll start chopping up the fabric. Perhaps I'll fire up the Bernina when I finish the Back Home Again top.

It's based on a vintage quilt I saw somewhere, and I'm thinking I'll make it up in scraps. I have no idea what I'll call it ... ideas anyone??

In health news - still resting as much as I can, and I'm on my fourth course of antibiotics - the chest x-ray came back 'inconclusive'. Don't know what to think really, it would be nice to have some answers. In good news though, the kids have finished school for the year, so there is a lot less running around to be done.

It's getting late, so I'll say goodnite ... and I promise to chatter soon :-)