When You Think You Have Nothing To Sew!

Saturday night, whilst watching crap tv, I was thinking to myself "I don't have anything to sew this week".  And then lightning struck, thunder cracked, and a tonne of sewing projects seemed to appear from nowhere!  Apparently whilst taking a few days to prepare for the rainbow party to end all rainbow parties (You can see the baking efforts HERE), I had failed to remember a couple of birthdays coming up, the fact I would be meeting a friend's twins for the first time, oh, and then the husband asked if I could make some sort of cover for his iPad? Sure.

So I went to my day job Sunday and Monday, and then this morning got cracking on my list.  And this is what I have achieved so far......

It is my Mother-in-law's birthday today - Happy Birthday Anne! - and although we have put towards Michael Buble tickets for her, that's not until April, so I needed something small to give to her tonight.  I'd never made a mug rug before (which is quite obvious given the bloody horrible job of binding I did!) so I did a quick Pinterest search to find out how big they were meant to be.  This one has ended up being around 5" x 9.5".  I had some of the backing leftover from my Swoon quilt, and lots of scraps also, so began working out how to incorporate them in to my mug rug.  I made 2.5" HST's from triangle scraps and then sewed them into the little blocks.  Free motioned the swirls through the middle and added some script - the ever so obvious "coffee" and "cake", and in the corners, I have added the names of her four grandchildren.

I have never worked on such a small scale before when it comes to binding, and really struggled!  It is literally the worst job I have ever done joining my binding, but I am hoping that Anne will forgive me, and I will promise to perfect it for another one!  Overall though, I was pretty happy with this quick little project!

I whipped out to the hairdresser after lunch, and had this mop of mine chopped and coloured, then straight back home and on to the iPad cover.  I made THIS iPad cover last year, so I found the pattern I bought and went with that.  Except this time I omitted the button and loop for a snap closure, thinking the husband would prefer it.

Much to my pain and horror, I cut in to my much coveted and loved Architextures bundle.  It hurt me greatly, but I figured it was for the greater good, and my husband would surely love me and appreciate the sacrifice I made for him thank me for making it, and probably shrug at my fabric choice.

I LOVE how it turned out!  I only did some simple straight line quilting around the top part, after I realised the text print is not printed straight (!!!!!!!).

And I pulled out a co-ordinating aqua blue print I picked up from the remnant bin on Sunday at Spotlight!  Winning!  It went beautifully with the snap.

The only thing wrong?  I failed to remember that the husband's iPad also has a bloody keyboard and cover attached to it for taking to Uni.  Which means the cover I have made is around half an inch too small.  Devastation ensued.  But then I shrugged.  I will unpick it once he returns from his Manager's Conference "work holiday" in Bangkok.  Yes, the poor love departs 15 degrees in Melbourne tomorrow, and doesn't return until Monday.  Shame.

So although it was a productive day, both projects were not perfect!  But I do recall  when I asked a couple of weeks ago why you all stuck around here on my blog, a few of you mentioned you liked my honesty and the fact that I point out when I get things wrong royally stuff up!

A QUICK CHANGE OF SUBJECT - Suzanne Seniore from Sewpony popped up a post yesterday sharing her excitement as being among five bloggers considered for the final spot to take part in the upcoming season of Project Run & Play!  I told her I would share her good news and send you all to her BLOG POST as well as consider voting for her HERE!  She is a fellow Aussie blogger and a Melbourne girl to boot!  So if you have a couple of minutes, it would be fabulous if you could go and check it out, and vote if you will!

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday - You can too!

Sunday Stash #21 - The One Where I Get Co-ordinated!

This week's Sunday Stash is to basically explain that I had no idea what was in my stash.  When I decided to make my Pink Posy quilt, I thought I wouldn't have enough pink prints, so made the trip to Spotlight, who were having a sale on quilting fabrics (Ok, when I got there, found out the sale had finished the day before, but they graciously gave me the discount anyway!).  I went about pulling half a dozen pink prints, and a bunch of other gorgeous selections to take home with me.

 The grey and white chevron is for a quilt back on another project in my mind - it's gorgeous!

Once home, I started going through my stash, which I have always had "organised" in collections of fabrics.  So if I have a complete or part range of fabrics, regardless of what colours they are, they would be sitting on the shelf together.  In doing this pink fabric pull, I was taking fabrics out of every nook and cranny in my tiny sewing room, and before I knew it, I had discovered pink prints I never even knew I owned!

Exhibit A.  Plenty of pink.  Around 60 in total!

This discovery (and serious lack of memory) led me to do a bit of rearranging later that day.  I remember seeing that Gemma from Pretty Bobbins stashes her fabrics according to colour, so I got busy.

To say I was surprised at what I found would be putting it mildly!  I have all sorts of colours in that little room!

Apologies for the crap photo - but this room is so tiny that I am stuck in between a wall and my desk with my iPhone to take this photo!

And now they are all living together in harmony.  All fabric yardage is still stored wrapped around boards, and mostly in collections, however, the pinks are still all sitting together (not in this photo).  But as you can see, I have sorted my fat quarters and up to hard yards in to pinks, purples, greens, blues, reds/oranges, yellows, brown/greys, low volumes and black & whites.

I am hoping and praying that this will make finding fabrics for projects a whole lot easier!

I'm linking up with Sunday Stash @ Finding Fifth - You can too!

Ps. I'm hosting Sunday Stash next week - so be sure to link up!

T.G.I.F.F. - Pink Posy

It's a late night edition of T.G.I.F.F. tonight! I finished my gorgeous little Pink Posy quilt yesterday and I am hopelessly in love with it!  This darling little quilt will be up for sale at The Handmade Library's Pretty in Pink Showcase on 11th of September.  I'm feeling incredibly efficient having it finished now!

 

Isn't she lovely?  As I mentioned previously, I have never used this much pink in a quilt before, but am thoroughly pleased with the end result!  I basically went through my stash, after adding another half a dozen pink prints from a quick trip to Spotlight, and pulled out every single pink fabric I could find!  From each print, I cut 4.5" squares.  There are a few duplicates in there, but overall, there are 57 (if i counted correctly!) different pink prints here.  The white fabric is a Kona charm pack I bought ages ago, trimmed down.

 

I stuck with a really simple quilting design.  Lots of straight lines on the diagonals, and then around the border, I got my free motion on!  Gorgeous little flowers and meandering paths between them.  All the piecing and quilting has been done in a very pretty baby pink Gutermann thread.  I have almost completely run out of Aurifil and am waiting on my friends (YOU know who you are lol) to decide which ones they would like before I put my next bulk order in - so the Gutermann was called upon!  What I like about piecing with the pink, is that on the fabrics with a white background or just plain white, the pink almost shimmers through.  It's a lovely effect, and totally unplanned!

 

 I managed to fussy cut quite a few of them, which almost makes it like a little "I spy" quilt!

 

Pretty little pinwheels in the corners, that unfortunately lost some of their points in the process!

 

And one of the prettiest views of a quilt - all rolled up and yummy.

I'm linking up with T.G.I.F.F. being hosted over at Bedtime Quilting this week - You can too!

W.I.P. Wednesday - Pink

Short and very sweet post tonight.  I started working on a project for a "Pretty in Pink Showcase" on Monday........ Now I don't generally do much pinky pink, but I pulled out all stops for this one!  In fact, this project led me to a few stash observations and a bit of stash renovation.  I'll talk about that in another post!  But for now, here's the beginning of something beautiful.....

I'm halfway through quilting, will get it finished tomorrow with any luck.  Keeping it simple.  And hopefully understated.

Are you a pinky pink kind of gal?

I'm linking up with W.I.P.  Wednesday - You can too!

The BIG Swoon Reveal!

The day has finally come - I can share my biggest finish with you all!  That's right - my Swoon is done and dusted!  I managed to bind it on the weekend, and Saturday night, got my little minions to work, using muscles they never thought they had.  This baby is HEAVY!  I could have waited for delightful sunshine and dry skies - but you wouldn't have seen photos of it for about a month - Melbourne's Winter is in full force at present!  So, without further ado - here she is - "Swoon".....

Bella the cat appreciates a good quilt when she sees one.

Minion's muscles fading fast.  I LOVE how the pieced back shines.  And I LOVE the fact that you can hardly tell where I have joined the prints!

But most of all, I LOVE the beautiful quilting that Jeanette over at Gone Aussie Quilting did for me!  This is the first time I have sent a quilt away to be quilted.  It took me days of looking at digital designs, making a short list, and then asking my quilty friends for their votes, before I went with this vine design.  It is literally PERFECT in every sense.  I didn't want a dense quilting pattern, I wanted it to skim over the blocks and not take away from their brilliance.  I think my choice has achieved that!

And here it is on our queen size bed.  I took a gazillion 50 photos that night, but thought I would spare you!  I could sit and look at this quilt all day, but alas, I have other quilts to make now.

Through the process of making my Swoon, I've had many people ask me if it is a difficult pattern?  My answer?  It really is a fairly simply pattern to make.  It is made up of HST's and Geese, and a bunch of squares and rectangles.  The cutting for the blocks is a little tedious, but once I made the first block, I then worked on three blocks at a time, chain piecing them to make the process run smoother.  The blocks then came together relatively quickly.  In fact, I made all nine blocks in around four days.  Yes, they were big days, but it's very do-able!

In the details:  Machine pieced and machine bound.  SIZE - The finished size of the pattern is 80" x 80", I made my sashing 5" wide, which brought the finished size up to 90" x 90".  As you can see, that is plenty big for a queen size bed!  It will shrink up a few inches on its first wash, and will still be big enough.  FABRIC - I used Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry.  I bought the entire fat quarter collection - which you can still get HERE, HERE and HERE (just to name a few!).  This pattern is perfect for fat quarters - you only need 18 in total.  QUILTING - Jeanette from Gone Aussie Quilting is situated in New South Wales.  I posted the front and back to her, and she supplied the batting.  She has a TONNE of digital designs to choose from for her edge to edge service.  And she has a fabulous special price for quilting Swoon quilts.  And she's also super quick!  If you're in the USA, there is a special quilting offer for edge to edge quilting from a lady in New York.  If you join the Swooning on a Hop Along Flickr group HERE you will find that offer too.  And if you want to buy the pattern for yourself, you can find it HERE.

So.  Where to now?  More quilting I guess!

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday AND Show & Tell Tuesday - You can too!

T.G.I.F.F. - Circa is Finito!

Hoorah!  Another finish!  I put the binding on this baby yesterday morning and had it washed and dried by afternoon.  Unfortunately the lighting in our neck of the woods was atrocious, so the beautiful gem tones of the Circa fabrics just aren't showing as well as they could be.  But here she is....

I'm not usually one to wash a quilt before it finds a new home, but given that I used chalk stencils and hairspray whilst quilting, it was in desperate need of a wash!  I will write up a post and my review of the stencils I used, so you can see if it's something you might like to try!

It's come up beautifully - nice and crinkly all over.

 

And the back - a TONNE of negative white space for the quilting to show!  I LOVE it!

This photo is probably the best representation of colour - and it was pre-wash!

And now?  Well it just needs to find a home!  I have submitted it in to a gorgeous Jennifer Paganelli Showcase over at Fabric Love Australia.  There are some stunning handmade items in the showcase, so be sure to check it out!  It begins tomorrow night and runs for a week - hopefully somebody loves it enough to make a purchase!

The need to know bit - Measures 75" x 54" after being washed.  Fabric - Circa by Jennifer Paganelli and white broadcloth.  Design - Simple 9 patch and reverse 9 patch on top and bottom.  Bamboo batting.  Aurifil white thread for quilting!

*** I know I said yesterday that I would have my Swoon quilt finished to show you today - but it just didn't happen!  But here's a sneak peek for you.....

I am incredibly happy with it and just can't wait to get the binding on and have some good weather to take the big finale photos!  Watch this space!

I'm linking up with T.G.I.F.F. over at Quokka Quilts - You can too!

Fresh Sewing Day - July Round Up!

It would be fair to say that I've had a pretty big month!  In fact, it's the biggest July I have EVER had in my life!  Apart from all the interesting side stories happening, I managed to sew up an absolute storm hurricane.  It truly is amazing how much you can get done when you put your mind to it AND desperately use sewing as therapy!  Here's a little old round up for you......

Clockwise from top left: My first Fat Quarter Shop Mystery Block of The Month - I forgot to post about this one!  Admittedly, it is not my usual style at all - but I'm going to stick with it, and at the end will have a lovely little semi-traditional quilt to give to someone!

My 9 Patch Mash Up Cushion - boredom with a block got the better of me, so I tried something different, and showed you a little tutorial of sorts.

Goldilocks & The Three Bears paper pieced block - for Gina's month in our Wombat Stew Bee.

A sweet little Field Study Pinnafore ordered by a friend for a gift.  I love it when my customers see something someone else has ordered, and have to have one themselves!  I now have two more of these beauties to make - in the blue colour way.

I somehow managed to start AND finish my Swoon quilt!  I'm still wondering where and how that happened?  I think someone must have slipped me something in my cereal for a few weeks??  I am VERY pleased to say that this humungous quilt arrived back on my doorstep this morning, from Jeanette, who did the quilting for me!  Come back tomorrow and you will see the completely finished quilt!  Eeeek!

And just because I bought new fabric and had to sew with it - I also started and finished this divine Circa quilt top!  The quilting was completed yesterday, and today I did the binding.  Another big reveal for tomorrow!

I also snuck in plenty of repairs and alterations for work - the only people I will willingly do that for!  And made a couple of gorgeous dresses for my girls.  It's certainly been a productive month!

Hello August!

I'm linking up with Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily's Quilts - You can too!