Playing with my new toys.

Hi Jane, Sharon and Shawne, nice to see you popping in so regularly.  Motivates me to keep posting about my sewing adventures :-)
Today I spent some time playing with my new quilting ruler/templates.  Here is what I came up with using the Wave ruler.  I cut two pieces of fabric (sorry they are both yellow, one should have been darker for contrast,duh) with one straight edge and one wavy edge.  Then I machined them together.  The first photo shows how I sewed the straight edge of one piece to the top piece, using one straight line of stitching sewn on the other (wrong) side.
The second photo shows how I used zig zag, then blanket stitch to join the same fabrics, but by sewing on the wavy edge of the top fabric.

Then I cut two more pieces and sewed them together on the straight edge.  I just wanted to see what I could do, that gives me ideas of what I might achieve using better coloured fabric and various stitching.

Then  I played with my Scalloped edge ruler.
I'm glad I stayed to watch Robyn, the demonstrator, as this was a bit more tricky.  I made a scalloped edge using different fabrics the way she showed.  It makes a lovely edge and I think I might use this for a cushion.  I took a photo of the cushions she had made, and I'll post one here.
So this is my scalloped edge.

I was going to discard the offcuts, but played around with them too:

Here is Robyn at her stall, with a beautiful crinoline lady quilt behind her.  She is a lady after my own heart - specialising in old fashioned embroidery designs :-)

 And here are Robyn's pillows - aren't they gorgeous!

If you want to know more, you can visit her website at Bella Embroidery Designs.

2016 Australian Quilt Convention.

In the past when I go to craft shows I  usually go with a friend, but this year everyone I asked about going to the AQC was either working or doing something else, so I went on my own.  With apologies to the friends who have accompanied me on previous occasions, it was much better without company!  I arrived at 10.30 am and set off to look at the sellers stands first before inspecting the Quilt Show.  I was able to browse the stands at my leisure without distractions, and I found everything that was on my shopping list.  I had been keeping a note for the last month, of things I wanted that aren't available in the local shops, and I knew I'd find them at the AQC. 

Around 12 noon I was started to feel hungry, so headed over to the eating area, but all the tables were packed, and there were long queues to the coffee and food stands.  So I decided to look at the quilts instead and it was just as well because otherwise I would have missed out on a very interesting talk by"Brenda Gael Smith,  the curator of one of the show categories "A Matter Of Time".  There were 32 entries from Australia, USA, UK and New Zealand.  Several of the quilters were there to give a brief talk about their work, and I was privileged to hear my favourite quilter Linda Steele, explain how she created her stunning quilt "Life On The Reef".   Here she is pointing out some detail on the quilt.

I took about 40 photos and will post them on my Needlecraft Shows blog shortly.  I have posted about half of them now, and I will do another post here when I've completed them.  In the meantime, here are my purchases.  Spent a lot more than what I'd planned of course...but as it is the day before my birthday, Ken was forgiving!

1.  Wave ruler that I saw demonstrated last year, but the rulers were sold out before I could get one. Now I can't remember what to do with it!  Never mind, I'm sure I'll find something on YouTube.
The other is a scalloped edge ruler, which was being demonstrated as I was walking past the stand on the way out, so I stopped and watched.  Can't wait to make something with it!  The lady had a lovely cushion cover and other items which she allowed me to photograph.

2.  I  had a small rotary cutter but it broke, and even though it has been put together again, it is a bit wobbly, so I bought this one along with the wave ruler, because I'll need it to use that ruler.

These weren't on my list, but I do need them to complete other projects.  The Japanese print will be perfect for a border for a Japanese panel I've had for a while.  And I have been after clouds fabric for years, to make a cute pattern with umbrellas appliqued over it.  Can't wait to do that now!

These weren't on my list either, but how cute is this owl panel!

 I have more than enough cats fabric, but couldn't leave this behind.  Just as well there were no chook fabrics anywhere this year!

   Classic bike fabric to keep the husband happy....

I've seen these old time prints in advertisements before, but when I saw what the stall holder had done with them to embellish them, well, they joined my other purchases, didn't they.

One stall had thousands of laces, ric rac and braids.  I always stop and look but haven't bought any in previous years because I have so much in my stash.  But I don't have any Elvis braid!  Do now though ;-)

And here is what it looked like as the day wore on.  I thought the first day would be quiet, but no, it was busy.  Hate to think what it will be like on the weekend, just glad I won't be there!

Easter Bunny table mat finished.

To finish this off, I added some bunny braid which had been sitting my stash for years.  The green fabric for the borders and back was left over from another project last year.

I just posted a pic to my apron blog here of an apron I have made for a swap on the Down To Earth Forum, if anyone is interested.
My handkie quilt top is finished and waiting to be taken to a professional quilter, hopefully next week.  The UFO quilt has come to a standstill at the moment, because I am too lazy to continue making up all the little blocks left over from the Flying Geese blocks.  I have a stack of them which all need to be trimmed down to 2"square, and after doing a dozen I thought, no way, this has got whiskers on it (meaning it's too much trouble to keep going!).  And there aren't enough to go all around the quilt once they have been trimmed, so it means I would have to cut more fabric up to make more HSTs.  So I am just going to put another border on it, then finish it.  I am not really concerned about the end result, as it was just somebody else's UFO that I took on as an experiment, and while I have learned from it, the novelty has worn off and I want to move on to other things!

Other WIPs.

My Easter Bunny stitchery is all done, just need to add border fabric.  It was just a bit of simple stitching as a break from other bigger projects, so I have no plans for it other than to make it into a mat for the coffee table.

My friend G. will be over the moon with the snow scenes runner that I completed last week!  Hope to give it to her after the Easter weekend.

   I think I forgot to post pics of this apron when I made it.  It was for a swap on the Down To Earth forum, for a lady in Glasgow, Scotland.  I discovered she is an Elvis fan, and I had this fabric in my stash, so I whipped this up for her.  She LOOOOOVED it - lol!

Progress on UFO quilt.

Last week at the Quilt Shop UFO workshop, Leanne and I played around with my completed blocks until we agreed on a layout.   Then we discussed how I could do the borders.  I took photos with my Ipad but can't post them here (computer illiterate after 15 years, lol) so I took some photos at home once I had sewn all the blocks together and added the first border.  I am restricting myself to only using the fabrics that were in the bag when I found the makings of this quilt.  I had enough of the small print burgundy/green fabric to use for the first border.   Leanne suggested I used all the half square triangles to make the second border, as I had already sewn them into 2 inch squares.  But I doubt if there will be enough to go all around the quilt, so I will just add them to the top and bottom.  The third border will be the plain green, as I have enough of that to do the backing as well.  The binding will be in a small length of burgundy which was in the bag and probably intended for binding anyway.

Current projects.

Like most of us, I have a few things on the go at the moment.  The two quilts are in limbo for a short time.   I am going to get the Handkie quilt professionally quilted as I think it will look better.   I've been given the name of a lady not far from me, but she is overseas at the moment, so I will wait until she returns.

The UFO quilt blocks are all done, and I laid them out on the floor to see how they would look when sewn together.  The blocks might not be laid out exactly as they are here, as the centre flowers are slightly different, and could be better organised than this.

I was going to use the green fabric to put sashing between all the blocks, but I realise now, looking at this, that it doesn't need sashing at all.  So I am planning to add several borders, in the green and maroon fabrics, with another maroon material for the binding.  There is a lot of the green fabric left, so I might even have enough to use for the backing.  This will all be decided next Thursday night at the Quilt Shop, when the next UFO workshop will be held.

Sharon and Alison at the Quilt Shop had some fabric samples spread out on a table last week, and invited us to take any we wanted for 50 cents a piece.  I found some lovely bits, including a couple of panels.  I made up this table runner from the pictures that were printed next to each other.  I separated them, and used green fabric from my stash for the borders.  I will bind it with black, and give it to a friend who loves the snow scenes because they remind her of where she grew up.

I found a cute Easter Bunny stitchery in an old magazine recently, and as I felt like doing a bit of light stitching for a change, I decided to have a go at it and see if I could finish it before Easter (this year...)  I got quite a bit done at the Sit and Sew session this morning, and hope to finish it next week, so I can put it out on display by Easter!  Not that anyone else will see it, but I'll feel good about it - ha!  This pic was taken last week, so the eggs have more colour  on them now.

Handkie quilt top finished.

It was a great help to be able to put my handkie blocks on the design wall at the Quilt Shop last Friday.  Sharon (one of the owners) moved them around until she thought they looked about right, and I took some photos before I took them off the wall.

There were two extra blocks, and when I got home, I had another look at the photo, and decided to replace one block in the layout with one of the extra blocks.   Other than that I didn't change anything, and got to work finishing the sashing and the border. I'm not going to quilt this one myself, as I think it needs professional quilting on the proper machines, to make the most of it.  I would just quilt around the edge of each block, or diagonally through them, and I don't think it would look as nice.
Here is Ken holding the top up for me in the kitchen at 1 am this morning!

Elvis quilt with new owner!

Last night I presented my Elvis quilt to the lady I'd made it for - Simone.  She was delighted!

Slow progress on the Handkie quilt.

I chose a toned blue fabric for the sashing and have started cutting the strips.  When I laid the blocks out on the floor again with some sashing strips between, I was quite happy with the look.  But I am still undecided about how many handkie squares to use - will I use them all and make a bigger quilt?  Ken says the darker handkies drown out the lighter floral ones, and I tend to agree, although once I have sashing between all of them, it might look better.  I have enough handkies to make a brighter coloured small quilt and a light one.  I'm going to take the lot to the Quilt shop on Friday morning and get them to put the blocks on their quilt wall where we can move them around to see what looks best.  I don't have the space to hang a flannel sheet anywhere at home, otherwise I would do it myself.

Slow progress with the UFO quilt.

I am so glad that I have made a start on this project.  I have learned quite a lot in the short time I've been working on it.

Part of the block consists of Flying Geese.  I have been shown how to make these before, but not had the chance to use them in the things I've made in the past.    I ''chain pieced" the blocks with some success and one or two messes.

I have heard about quilters who save all those little triangles that have to be cut away from the Flying Geese, and thought to myself, what on earth for?  I'll just chuck them out.  Fortunately before I had thrown too many in the bin, it dawned on me how easy it was to stitch the little triangles together, as when they are cut off the main piece, the two bits of fabric stay together and all you have to do is run them through the machine.

And come up with these!   I have a few ideas on how I might use them - possibly in the border of this quilt, or maybe as a completely separate item down the track later on.

So here are my Flying Geese pieces (still to be trimmed).

And here is my first block - the first one I've made, I mean.  I was relieved to find it matched the original blocks that were in the parcel....phew!

Old UFO quilt now a WIP quilt!

The handkie quilt might have to wait for a little while now, as I have something else I want to work on first.  I won't finish this completely, as  there is a lot to work on, but I want to make inroads into it before I lose interest!
A few years ago I found this bag of blocks and fabrics in an opshop and rescued it, thinking I would be able to finish it myself. 

No instructions, no pattern, nothing except six completed blocks and a pile of matching fabrics.  When I got home, I spread everything out and tried to make sense of it, but at that point in time, I lacked the experience to figure out how to make more blocks out of the fabrics.  But last night I finally got the help I needed.  Our lovely new Quilt Shop in Eltham has various classes up and running, and one of them is a once a month 2 hour workshop for those who have UFOs that they have got stuck and can't go any further.  I was the first person to sign up for this workshop,  and could hardly wait for Thursday night!  I took along my bag of blocks and fabrics, and spread it all out on the table for our tutor Leanne, to have a look.  She is indeed an expert quilter and stitcher - there were eight of us there and we all benefitted from her knowledge and experience, even though we had different projects to discuss with her.  It was fun seeing what everyone else had, and most of us learned more than what we expected, simply by watching as she advised each individual.


With my project, she showed me how part of the block was made up with flying geese, and the easiest way to make them.  Then she worked out how much fabric I would need, and how many pieces to cut, to make up more blocks.  Of course without a pattern, we had no way of knowing how many blocks were in the original design, but I said it didn't matter to me, I would just make up as many blocks as I could with the available fabric, and make up a quilt top with them.  So I was kept busy for the rest of the session, cutting my fabrics up into the required shapes and sizes.  I hadn't finished doing that by 9 pm, but at least I knew what I had to do once I got home.  So I was very happy indeed - went in with a UFO and came out with a WIP!

Links to quilts made with handkies and vintage doilies.

I have had a few people ask me where I found the idea for making a quilt with handkies, so I am providing a link to my Pinterest board for quilts using handkies and doilies:
https://www.pinterest.com/gandkwil/ideas-for-vintage-doilies-and-handkies/

Cross stitch and other items going cheap!

More moments of reality in this household as I opened the cupboard to look for something and everything else fell out....too much stuff!  So I went through it all AGAIN and decided what to keep and what to get rid of.  I am long over eBay, it has got so huge that it is hardly worth listing anything on there.  I don't even look at it these days (rather spend an hour on Pinterest, at least I can't spend money on there!).  So, getting back to my cull.   I took my bag of unwanted goodies to the Quilt Shop on Friday, and one lady took some vintage tablecloth UFOs off my hands, but nobody was interested in the cross stitch.  So I photographed everything and am posting it here, so my blog readers as well as Down To Earth members will be able to have a look and let me know if there is anything they would like.

I was going to give away everything and just ask for postage, but there are a few complete new kits that I have put a price on because they originally cost quite a bit, and I'm sure you will agree that it is only fair that I get something back!   If you see something you want, let me know by email and I will work out the postage cost.
Here we go:

The four kits above come complete with everything needed to do the project.  The Juniper ones have "Flower Threads" which I discovered cost a bit more than the usual stranded cotton!  So I have put a price of $10 on each of these.

The Indian chief has been started, just a bit of the headress has been done.  I am posting this pic to show that it is a pre painted canvas, not counted cross stitch kit.

The old cushion cover above was started by someone who was an excellent stitcher - not me! ...there are no threads with it.

Supper cloth above, a bit done, some threads were with it when I got it.

Tea cosy.  I would love to keep this and finish it, but my stitching is not up to this standard, and I don't feel like unpicking it all and starting again.

Handkerchief quilt

Ever since I saw a quilt made of vintage handkies on the internet a year or so ago, I knew I had to try it.  After giving away most of my handkie collection last year, I kept enough to make a quilt or two, and decided this weekend was a good time to start.  I've been working on chicken stitcheries and patchwork for months, and it was time for a break. 
There are several variations of handkie quilts in books and on the internet, and I'm planning to make two.  The first one that I started last night is with the printed handkies.  I bought two metres of off-white cotton, cut it up into 14" squares, and used quilt spray to adhere the handkies to the squares.  Then I machine stitched around the border of each handkie to hold them permanently.  The reason I cut the background squares into 14" is because the largest handkie was 12.5 " square, so taking into account seam allowance  for joining the blocks, I cut them all the same size for the rest of the handkies.  Here they are spread out on the floor in the layout I have chosen (with help from my husband who has a good eye for these things, I am finding!).

Because they are all so light coloured, I think I will buy some slightly darker fabric to use for sashing and the border.  Ken suggested much darker fabric but I don't want to 'drown' the handkies in a very dark border.  What do you think?

The other handkie quilt I want to do will use the embroidered handkies I have.  They mostly have something embroidered in just one corner, and to use them like I have with the ones above, it would be just a big expanse of white handkies, so I found a pattern which has them folded diagonally, with the stitched corner showing, and attached to background fabric in a different way.

Still in chook mode.

I have made a few changes to my No Eggs Today wall hanger.   I decided to add a thin black border after I'd quilted the back and wadding to the front, instead of doing the envelope finish.  Someone had suggested adding a border of lace to the stitchery, so after playing with various laces from my stash, I decided to use a red and white trim.  It still has to be hand sewn on, and I think it looks rather sweet.

I started the runner below on a whim after I saw a similar styled runner on Pinterest, with a chook print surrounded by chicken wire print fabric.  I received the panel from a friend in France, and I didn't have enough of the chicken wire fabric, so I bordered the centre section with black, and added a red gingham border, and will use a plain red for the binding.