Best Laid Plans

 

Photo of: The lighthouse on Griffiths Island – Port Fairy, Victoria – taken 23/1/08

Well, today being a day off I did have plans to do a bit of sewing however, we all know what sometimes happens when you plan to do something….

It doesn’t happen!

In the morning I had an appointment but I thought I could perhaps sneak an hour in before taking my Gma to her appointment. That was until I got home and she had a list of groceries that she wanted me to get from Foodland cause they were out cheap!

In total I had about 15 minutes which I used to work out that I could make my pinwheel quilt 9×9 but then I have 8 blocks spare. So now I’m wondering if I should change the pattern. Perhaps do a whole heap of 4×4 blocks and then put a border around them and then put a different border up the top? Not sure how many blocks that will use though….

Then Gma’s appointment took longer than I anticipated but I did take my placemats with me so I got 1.5 bound.

After that we had to go to West Lakes to Medicare and Kmart.

So, I thought now I can do some sewing before I go to the gym.

But no. The GFM sms’d me about an hour before I had to leave asking me if I wanted to teach a track (um, no! I’m sooo not ready!) but could I please teach her the track that I learnt when I did the training?

Ack! So I hastily dragged out Sept 07’s brain cells and rapidly relearnt my track before haring off the gym.

And now, I’ve just got home am trying to wind down so I can go to bed cause I have to work tomorrow.

So I did have plans, but they just didn’t work out.

The next couple of days are going to be the same; busy, busy, busy.

I do have an hour or two here and there that I may be able to bind some more placemats but that’s about it!

Hope everyone else is getting more sewing time than what I am

More Pinwheels!

Today was busy again and I did have plans to bind on the machine 2 placemats but when I sat down I just couldn’t handle the thought of touching them so instead I pieced.

I think that truly I’m a piecer. I like finishing things cause that’s what I also like to do but if you were to give me the option of only finishing quilts or just piecing them I would piece every.single.time.

I sewed a few squares together for the next scrap quilt “Easy Double 4 Patch” from Mary’s blog. I know that I didn’t need to start another project but I do need something to just do mindlessly

I got all the asian pinwheels sewn together so they are a complete set and am now thinking that it is going to be too big for a table runner so am now thinking about borders.

Perhaps a (finished) 2′ first border, a 1′ or 1.5′ second border and a 3′ or bigger third border. What do you think? I’m so not good creating stuff out of my own head. I am a follower of other peoples patterns through and through

So, I was thinking about what fabric I would use for the border and was thinking of making a quick trip to Quiltaholics to suss out some fabric when I remembered that I am now saving money not spending it.

I pulled out some green and blue fabric from the pile that I bought the other day for $3/m.

So a couple of questions:

1. Do you like the colours with the pinwheels?
2. Option (a) or Option (b)?

I’m not sure how big this is going to be just yet but I do know that it is going to be square. I also don’t know if it will be very useful as I am thinking that it not going to be very big.

Perhaps I can just increase the border width and maybe put a white 1′ border before the first border?

I guess I’m going to have to wait and see how big it is first and go from there.

However, I’m still going to need answers to the above questions so please tell me what you think!

Option (a)

 

Option (b)

Hi!

Hi Guys

Life has certainly started getting busy for me the last couple of days which means that I won’t have as much time to do my quilting

Which also means that I guess I won’t be posting that much either unless you want to hear what I’m doing?

I’ll still try and post about one of my finished quilts a day until I have done them all though so that should keep you entertained for oh about a week!

I went to the gym tonight (did RPM and Pump) and got home at 8pm and had dinner and I was going to finish quilting 1 placemat however, the couch called me so I curled up under 2 quilts and just watch tv.

I haven’t done that in a while and had forgotten of how cozy it is

Thank you all so much for your comments, they do mean a lot to me.

Rose, my Bloglines is now back up so perhaps yours has decided to play ball too?

And before I go I’ll just post a pic of last night’s sunset from the beach to distract you all from the fact that I don’t have anything new in terms of quilts!

Scrap Basket Lattice – Quick Note

I was just reading Tara’s blog and due the amount of Google hits I’m getting for the pattern for the Scrap Basket Lattice I thought I’d copy and paste her note regarding the pattern here:

“I checked with the girls at the quilt shop this morning, and they tell me that Susan doesn’t actually sell the pattern for that quilt – it’s one that she only teaches as a workshop. I’m so sorry to disappoint, I know the quilt has been a big hit with so many of you.”

Is it just me or is Bloglines being a pain again?  I haven’t had any updated feeds all day and I just know that that can’t be right!

*Update 10pm* Bloglines is working for me again, yay!!

Lantern Block

Finished Size: 41.5″ x 50″

I started making this quilt in October 2005 after finding the pattern in AP&Q Vol 11 No 1 – 2003 Annual.

At this point I did have a stash that I worked from but I got the fabric for the borders and binding from Spotlight way before I even finished making the top.

I don’t really have that many memories of making this quilt.

However, I do remember:

That until I put the borders on it I wasn’t very impressed with it and didn’t like it very much. I decided that it looked much better with borders and as the months went by it did grow on me. Now that it is finished I love it and wouldn’t even think about giving it away!

It is now the quilt that is in the header of this blog.

That I was going to sew all the blocks together as is until I showed them to my sewing teacher Peta who recommended I trim them all to the same size – first time I heard of that. And with 80 blocks to trim I wasn’t happy with that idea either!

I machine quilted this quilt not once, but twice! I stitched in the ditch and tried to do a pattern in the border both times but I totally sucked at it and Grandma had to unpick it for me; twice!

Although, in my defense, the last time was cause the tension on the machine went and the quilting was absolutely awful.

After that try I threw in the towel and decided to get it professionally done.

It was machine quilted in a variagated green thread with a butterfly pattern, it has wool wadding and cost $50 for the machine quilting.

Which, for the price of my sanity I thought was rather cheap

It was one of the first of my quilts to be professionally quilted.

I got it back from the quilter in about August 06 and put the binding on it but didn’t actually finish hand quilting it until May 07 when my Dad came over from NSW and I had to find something to do to keep my occupied whilst he drove me nuts as he is so scatterbrained it isn’t funny.

I was a bit slack and didn’t get around to putting a label on it till November ‘07 when I then called it done.

Contrary!

First of all, I would like to thank you so much for the comments and encouragement that I’m getting. Please keep it up as I love receiving your comments.

Yesterday’s offer still stands as well: I won’t bite!

***

So this afternoon I’m sitting at work, tired of sitting in the one spot wishing I could be at home and I was thinking about what I wanted to do once 3.20pm rolled around.

One one hand I felt like going out and doing something, which I haven’t felt for a few weeks. However, on the other hand I didn’t want to go out cause then I wouldn’t get any sewing done!

Weird much?

Anyways, one of my friends is currently in Melbourne visiting her boyfriend, I rang my other friend and he was busy so it was settled that I’d come home and do sewing.

So, I got another 7 placemats up to the same point as the other 3. Now I just need to finish half of the quilting and attach the binding to all 10.

I was going to power on with them but then I got to a point where I felt like I was going to attack them with scissors if I had to spend another minute on them so as I didn’t feel that that was a good idea I switched projects

I set up the ironing board so that I could iron Doreen’s Hearts when I was also ironing my asian pinwheels – which are the left overs from the Doreen’s Hearts quilt.

I finished sewing all half square triangles into pairs and then started sewing each pair with another to complete the pinwheel. I then decided I wanted to see what 4 would look like together (picture above).

I’ve worked it out that I’m going to end up with 22.5 of these blocks which then means that for a table runner I’ll end up with 2 rows of 11 – but I think it is going to be too big for what I want it to be.

Or if I make it into a quilt, then it will be 4 rows of 5 which isn’t very big.

Perhaps with some chunky borders? Like Mary has done with this quilt?

I think I’ll have to wait and see how big it will be and work it out from there

Memories of Spring #2

Finished Size: 43″ square 

This quilt was about the 4th one that I pieced and 3rd that I finished completely.

I started it in October 2005 and finished it in February 2006.

It is made completely out of Jinny Beyer fabric, my favourite!

I had made this quilt to the exact instructions that I got from AP&Q Vol 12 No 11 – Jan/Feb 2005 – however, at that stage I was still very much a beginner and didn’t realise just how big the quilt was going to end up!

I liked the pattern and so I decided to make it again, just smaller this time.

So off I set once again cutting out squares and sewing them together.  During this time one of my best friend’s from work left and moved to NZ so I went out for going away drinks with her but I can remember thinking that I didn’t really want to go out as I just wanted to sew my squares together!

I had a bit of a problem with the borders.  I couldn’t get it to look right but, after a few tries I had it the way that I wanted it and then moved on to quilting and binding it.

The binding on it is dodgey (to me) in that the joins are bulky and the beginning/ending is noticable.  I would love to take it off and put it on again but every other time I’ve done that with other quilts I’ve regretted doing it halfway through.

And, let’s face it, it’s not like I don’t have enough to keep me occupied!

So for the moment, it will stay as is but don’t be too surprised if you see this post come back up in the next 18mths cause I’ve redone it!

4 & 8!

Ok, to start today’s post off I thought we would play “Who Can Spot Ginger?”

Do you see him?

There he is!!

With the mouse that I bought him cause he kept on stealing mine!

***

I had another busy day today. I don’t think you guys would believe me if I said that I didn’t have a busy day would you?

I ran around doing errands in morning and got into my sewing room around 2pm.

First, I finished making bindings for the 4 quilts (I need to quilt 1) that I have ready to go:

The purple is for Heaven Scent, the black for Heart Love, the red for Scrap Basket Lattice and the blue for 16 Patch.

Then, it was on to the placemats.

There are 8 pictured here ready for me to sew the binding down by hand.

Plus the 4 that I’ve finished and given away and the 2 that I’ve finished but haven’t given away means that I’ve now done 14.

By my math, that means that I only have 10 more to go! I’m going to try and get them up to this point by the end of the weekend.

Then it will be getting the 7 that I’ve promised a family friend up to this point.

After that, I’ll sew the binding onto the 3 quilts that are ready.

And then, I’ll start hand sewing.

Phew! My fingers are worn out by just typing all of that! I think I need some cake and a cup of tea!

Grandma’s been busy today as well:

It’s chocolate cake for work for Monday Munchies.

Mmmmmmmmm……….

See you all tomorrow and please don’t be scared to comment, I promise I won’t bite

How Excitement

Well, today was full of excitement.

First off, was a quick stop at Gloria Jeans for my favourite drink, Very Vanilla Chiller, that is now rationed to twice a week instead of the every day habit that it’s become.

Then it was a phone call to a gym to find out if I can become a group fitness trainer there (in my spare(!) time).  Which I can!  Yay!!

Then it was to pick up my machine – I must name it one day.  It was very, very, very good to see my Preciousssss – oops there ya go, I’ve got one already

After that it was to quilt class and to see the loverley Miss Tara.  Yay!!!

Who, with much fanfare taught me how to machine quilt a quilt.  It pretty much is like I’ve been doing my wallhangings but on a much, much larger scale.  It took me all of class and about another hour(ish) when I got home to finish it.

I’m very excited that I’ve learnt how to do this and can see many of the quilts that I have cut up into kits being finished by myself.  Now I’ve just got to find the time to do them!

However, my “meander” is more of a ferny grab meander.  It doesn’t look as pretty as Tara’s but I figure if I don’t tell people they wont know!

Class was much fun and I’ve now booked in for a further 2 classes in March when my work lets me out for good behaviour.

From there I rushed to a place that has helped me work out a budget so that I can save for a house deposit.  It’s not going to happen overnight but it will happen!

And finally, I’ll leave you with a pic of Ginger yet again jumping on a quilt that has only just been put down.  He’s such a scally wag but I love him to bits!

No Sewing Today

 

Today I went back to work which was a bit sad as I love staying home and pottering around my sewing room.

However, bills do need to be paid, hair has to be highlighted and fabric has to be bought so……

Today we had some V8 drivers at work today who were a bit cute. Much shorter than what I thought they would be but I guess they have to be to fit into the car.

After that I dropped into my friend’s house and picked up my camera. Oh, how I missed it!

Then it was on to the PT who was quite horrified at some of the stuff that I thought was ok to eat. Whoopsies!

After that, it was off to do the food shopping where by the imagination of my PT’s face if I bought and ate some of the food that was tempting me I had to leave it behind for other people to buy.

All I could think of was “he will soooo kill me if I eat that… and that…. and that…”

Oh, the restraint! The agony!

I was starving by the time I reached home, had dinner watched some tv and what do ya know? It’s bed time.

Tomorrow I have quilt class with the loverley Tazzie which I can’t wait for. I also get to pick up my machine. Yay!!!

So stay tuned cause I will have pretty pictures – from a real camera! – tomorrow for you

Until then, I’ll just leave you with a pic of my buddy Ginger for your viewing pleasure!