Honey put down that fly swatter

Here's James (which I did in reverse to be clever because I'm silly. But I actually angled like this.)
 

And here's Nancy.

 

The lunchtime park stitching continues, with company.





And without.



The scrappy trip around the world grows on my design wall.



And so does the Chester Criswell Quilt.



Life is good.

Dear Nancy

Dear Nancy,

You've been a delight to have around.  I've enjoyed your sunny colour, and your gentle curves. But I have to admit to having a wandering eye this last day or so. And I'm sorry.  It's not you. It's me.



It all started when I laid you out with the others on the design wall ther other day, and started auditioning fabrics for the next three blocks.  A certain young man called James caught my eye. I think he might be a broccoli farmer.

Or something. I can't quite explain his shape.



But dear Nancy, I think it's love. From his rich deep orange colouring, to his bold background, to his wicked twists and turns. He tends to unravel before my eyes when put under pressure, but he has my heart. And therefore I'm sorry to tell you that block five may be finished before block four is.

I can't help it, Nancy, I'm weak. Please forgive me.

Yours sincerely
Michelle xoxo

Elizabeth and Priscilla

When my workmates and I first moved to a dingy, dirty, ill-equipped building on the other side of the CBD last May, the only blessings we could see were that a) we would be closer to the shops and b) we were right across the road from a pretty little park.

And then two days later they tore that park up to re-landscape it.



Seven long months later, the park opened again so I've been spending every lunch hour there to eat my sandwich and work on my Chester Criswell Quilt. Sometimes I have company, but most often I don't. I don't listen to music, or play games on my phone. It's just me and the sounds of birds, traffic and those bloody boot campers.





On Saturday I missed my park sitting, so I sat under the elm tree at home.



Then on the deck to supervise the BBQing going on.



By the end of the week, I had block 2 (Elizabeth Cowan) sewn.



And block 3 (Priscilla and Joseph Turner) as well.



I really love the fabrics I've chosen so far. I spend a lot of time auditioning different combinations, and I think it's paying off. What I'm not so happy about is the technique I was using for the blocks 2 and 3. Sadly the soluble stabiliser I used turned out to not be soluble at all, but because it's fused to the applique pieces I can't cut it out of the back and remove it. I like my applique to not be stiff. So it's back to freezer paper for me, until the perfect solution (and I have a couple in of options) presents itself.

Now onwards to Nancy and James R Smith! Whee!!

The Chester Criswell Quilt

This year for me is the year of the quilt. I'm going great guns getting through my stash, planning some classes and setting myself new challenges.

I would like to finish more than I start, but apparently I wasn't born with the finishing gene so I'll just have to accept the gift (aka the starting gene) that God granted me.

Late last year someone on an Australian quilting list I'm on was talking about a block of the month program they were establishing, using an old quilt they had reproduced the blocks from. The quilt was called the Chester Criswell quilt. It was an old album quilt, made for a wedding in 1852 and made in the traditional greens and reds of the time.

Photo from http://chestercriswellquilt.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/introduction-to-quilt.html

Those traditional colours aren't really my thing anymore - my country and civil war reproduction fabric period had long passed (which you will notice if you come to my trash and treasure stall on Sunday) but I wondered if it was the kind of quilt I could do with some unique fabrics - a bit brighter, a bit cheekier, a bit more clashy.

A bit, dare I say it,  modern. Gasp! She used the "m" word, mum!

So after Christmas I signed up. I had been following the blocks on Sharon's blog as she released them each month and it all became too tempting. And I'm so glad I did - each block has a history of the person who made it, and it's just such a great read and very entertaining.



This is Block 1, originally made by Jane Wilson 150 years ago. My preferred method of applique is the freezer paper technique. But I hadn't appliqued anything for years. Talk about nerve wracking.



Each day I would head over to the park across the road from work and spend an hour stitching.



And here's my first block done! It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's mine and I love it. And that fabric by Kumiko Fujita? Dying over here.



Block 2 was by Elizabeth Cowan. I'm using a different technique this time - washable fusible interfacing. It's certainly less crunchy but doesn't give as clean an edge as the freezer paper technique. I'll practice a bit more before deciding whether to go back to freezer paper. Or trying another technique altogether. I really don't know - I'm just enjoying my lunchtimes in the park too much.

I love how the different fabrics are making these blocks something a bit unusual, and I'll get a quilt at the end of the process which is more in keeping with my style. Plus I'm learning some new things as I sew (I'm already nervous about Nancy Smith's Block and how tiny those seam allowances are going to be) and that's a win in my book.

If you're interested in applique and want to give this a go, I can highly recommend it. After my last applique quilt I swore I would never do it again, and yet here I am, enjoying myself thoroughly. The first block is actually free, and all the other blocks after that are a measly $2.50 each. $2.50 for a good read and a bit of history AND a quilt block pattern? Bargain.

One girl's trash is another's ...

For months now a friend and I have been talking about having a couple of trash and treasure stalls to sell all our crap unwanted household sewing room items.  We've sorted and cleaned and sorted and then we'd finally had enough and wanted it all out of our houses.

So our stalls will be this Sunday. Gulp.

If you're in Canberra, please help me get my laundry and back door back. Both my husband and the cleaning lady would appreciate it.



I wouldn't mind having my spare bed back.  



And stop me tripping over these every time I raise the blinds.



There'll be LOTS of fabric and lots of craft books and magazines and lots of packets of buttons and little bits and pieces and some household items like IKEA Lack shelves and perfectly perfect roman blinds. Some vintage doilies. Also craft stuff like Jo Sonia paints and things I just don't have any use for anymore.  Maybe also some yarn - I haven't sorted through that yet. But I'd love to be able to go home with a mostly empty car and walk into my decluttered house and finally breathe again. 

Where: Jamison Trash and Treasure, Jamison Shopping Centre car park, Macquarie ACT
When: Sunday 3 February from 6.30 am till about 1 pm I think? Or unless I sell out and can hightail it out of there sooner and OMG I'm so going to Edgar's for a beer after that.

A second trip around the world

Eight days ago I finished this quilt top.

 

(which is on my NEW DESIGN WALL oh yes!) 

 But I've decided I'm not done with this trip around the world thing yet. I have a motherload of Japanese and oriental prints in my stash which I started collecting in 2003 when I was visiting California. In California at that time there was a huge thing for American quilt fabric with oriental designs. It's all pretty garish - mostly gold infused floral prints - but I loved it. Still love it. I visited San Francisco Quilt Guild meeting that trip and they were all about the Japanese fabrics. I loved those women! And then I found a Kitty Pippen book at Powell's Books in Portland, and then another and I was off and racing on my fabric obsession. Over the years I bought more Japanese fabrics (imported from Japan, rather than America), spent a lot of money at my friend Shuji's market stalls, and had some scraps of fabric from dressmaking. 

So I have this rather large Japanese/oriental stash, and I wondered if it was possible to make a bright and happy, almost "modern" quilt with the fabrics.



I have 16 blocks so far - I'm hoping to get 42 or 48 blocks. The stash has been almost halved, but I still have so much more fabric. This is my favourite block so far.



And I have all these sentimental fabrics in the quilt, like the fabric I bought when I first started this crazy collection, bought in Pacific Grove, California.



And the fabric my niece used to wrap her wedding invitations.



And the fabric I used to make two favourite skirts.





While I sew more blocks over the next few weeks, behind me on the design wall (!) I have the blocks already made. And I need to decide on a layout. Ah Trip Around the World - you have so many possible layouts!

I can go with this one - but it's like my first one though which is why I'm not keen.



Or this one, with the chevrons.



Or this one which radiates out from the top corner. I can do the same from the middle of the quilt too, making one massive trip around the world.



I think this is my favourite though. I will have to play with how it works for 6 blocks across, and not 4.



I don't think I got a true "modern" quilt (really - what does that mean anyway? It's all a load of dog doodah if you ask me). But I did get a very rich, lush quilt and goodness it makes me happy!

Now that I have less room to stand back and look at my design wall (it's a narrow room, and there is a massive sewing table on the other side of the room), I've been using this old thing more often. It's a door peep hole, and it allows me to see colour and value at the same time. I've had it since I started quilting. I love this tool!

Inactivity OVER

This morning I woke up, changed into my togs, swam 30 laps, had coffee with a friend, had coffee
another friend and then went home to do some more sorting of my sewing room.

Yes, the sorting has been going on forever. And this morning I kind of lost my temper at it. Or got overly enthused. I cleaned the last of the stuff out of the low cabinet, and moved it out of the sewing room.  The Mister removed the hooks and nails from the wall and then it was ready to start moving things.



Before:



After:



(Stuff was all over the house. It's true. It made me twitchy.)

We slowly moved the Expedit shelf to the other side of the room. Heavy blighter.



I like it so much better. I'm still sorting it all out, and I still have piles of stuff to sell all over the house, and i still have to install the design wall to the wall where the shelf used to be (directly behind where I sit at the sewing machine) but I think this is going to be such an improvement and I'll be so much merge productive and happy as a result.



Photos when it's all done! And this time I promise.

Inactivity

Except for 20-30 laps I do here each morning ...



...things have been pretty slow going around these parts.  We are both still on holidays.  It has been wonderful.

I'd like to blame the heat for our inactivity but for the first time in my life the heat hasn't affected me for some reason. And the heat has been horrendous for more than a week - we still have at least another 5 days of it. I suspect all that early morning swimming has a bit to do with it.



We are doing a little gardening each morning. We saw a couple of movies last week. I did do a little tidying of my sewing room the other night. A whole new shelf is sorted. Unfortunately the rest of the house is fairly frightful.

But I haven't done any sewing for a week and it feels a little odd.  But good, a "I'm on holidays and I'll do what I like" kind of good.

Hopefully will be back in a few days with some sewing and quilting results.

But no promises!

Drinking the scrappy, trippy KoolAid

I woke up on Sunday morning and logged onto Instagram, and it seemed that overnight all my quilting Instagram buddies were making these amazing Trip Around the World quilts. Out of scraps.

"Insane people", I thought. This quilt would require 2.5 inch squares, and accurate piecing.  Not being one for small fiddly squares of fabric, and an acknowledged abuser of the 1/4 inch foot, I wasn't at all tempted.

Until I took a closer look at the blocks they were making. And a peek at the instructions. And that's when I totally drank the KoolAid.



I chose a jelly roll (Just Wing It by Momo) from my stash, as well as some gorgeous hexagons fabric by Curlypops. Later on I would hit the scrap shelf - hard - to add extra fabrics to the mix.



I finished the first two blocks quickly and realised THIS IS WHAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT! I was addicted.



By the end of the first day I had 4 5/6 blocks. 5/6 because someone didn't cut correctly and came up short. Lucky I found some scraps to fix it with.

I worked on it a little more on New Year's Eve. I was just slowly plugging away in between gardening and my daily swim, and yet these blocks kept materialising. So much fun. We're not ones for celebrating New Years around here, but at midnight last night, there I was at the sewing machine, Gregory Porter on the stereo, Baileys on ice at hand, sewing happily.



Tonight I finished all the blocks and set to arranging. You like? I like.



On sewing them together I started thinking I had done something awfully wrong. But I couldn't put my finger on it. And then, after sewing two rows and pinning them both to sew together it hit me.



I hadn't squared the blocks and bugger me if they all weren't different variations of 12 1/2 inches square.

I shall plug on. Still having fun. Always.