July has been a funny month... Normally I would take have a break from work in July, but we had a restructure which left us one staff member down, so I worked right through the term break. To be honest, I am not sure that was a good idea, I haven't taken time off since January and I can sure feel it... However, sometimes you just need to create your own opportunities, so Suz and I enjoyed a Sew Day at the Country Yard as well as a road trip to the Apple Basket. I had been 'good' for such a long time, using up my stash (which hasn't been looking very 'stashy' lately), so some money was spent and a few new projects started...
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| very 'pretty' collection to make a baby quilt |
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| Nice to find some NZ themed prints - yet to be decided what this bundle will make |
Hubby got a new desk at the end of lockdown and we have now reorganised the sewing room / office OMG how much space we now have! Parallel to his sort out mission, I reorganised all my WIPs only to realise that you can never buy enough shoes for the shoe boxes to house your WIPs in...
Let's go through the June goals for starters:
Metrorings: Quilt the remaining 13 white diamond shapes - still some way to go...
Patchworkcity: Add remaining row of blocks - YES
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| I'll have to play around with the outside border width until I am happy with the final size |
Rainbow at Sea: Finish all yellow block parts - YEAH-NAH (it's a Kiwi thing...) still some more to do
Linedried: Piece Section 4B - COMPLETED
Summer Sampler 2017: Week 6 Marine Star (6") - COMPLETED
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| At 6" this blocks was rather fiddly... |
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| Obviously still some way to go but I like where it is heading. I just hope I have enough material :) |
Venus: Continue (leader/ender) - no progress lately. I think this project is out of sight, therefore out of mind. I will come up with a different solution so I can actually see it, it's really not a hard project and it looks so bright and happy, just right for a Kiwi winter's day.
Mini Sparkler: Piece four more blocks - no progress lately; to be honest, the blocks I have pieced so far simply don't excite me, so I will put this project away for now.
Celebration: FMQ the rest of this section - COMPLETED, and I have made a start on the coloured blocks.
This is turning out to be a great learning experience, for example I have several gazillions of thread ends all over this quilt because I haven't learnt to think through where to go from one place to another. For now I am following Judi Madsen's example from a picture I have seen online and I am very happy with the look the quilting achieves (and I will be even happier in the future when I can minimised the threads that need burying lol)
EPP: This is really a 'tv watching activity' so I will just set myself a minimum of completing the Stairway to Heaven top. Now this has turned out into an unexpected win - I actually get quite a bit done!
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| Clever fabric choices from Fabrics by Three |
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| Basted, ready for quilting (by machine!) |
I have since started a new project by joining the #paperlanternssal with @suedaleydesigns on IG. I started out with eppiflex templates in 1 3/4" (the largest set I could order at the time), but I have since found myself cutting additional jewel shapes from Manila folders.
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| Ready for week 1 |
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| Week 2 took me about 14 days |
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| Week 3 under way |
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| Week 4 just missing a couple of jewels top right |
My colour choices were inspired by images of fractals found online, and I'm going the easy way with no fussy cutting. I can't really picture where it is heading which is quite unlike me, but I am enjoying the process (though I've realise I probably need to update my prescription again, threading needles is harder than it used to be lol).
If you're still with me, here are three of my new projects:
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| Brisbane MQG arranged a Zoom workshop for Cogs and Thistles with Jenny Haynes @pappersaxsten - not only great fun, but lots of helpful techniques, I can highly recommend it |
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| Recognise the pretty bundle from the top of the post? |
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| 20 Tilted Star blocks from VQR with sashing should make a nice size baby quilt. |
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| This started from an idea over coffee, drawn on the back of a docket lol... |
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| ...using a stack of muted batiks I have collated over the years it looks a bit like stained glass.. |
So now that's me caught up. Definitely not a miss, but my progress was rather 'bitsy'. I enjoyed the idea of working on whatever whenever, but it's easy to get lost between too many WIPs.
Here are my goals for August:
Quilting:
- Metrorings: Quilt the remaining white diamond shapes
- Celebration: Quilt the yellow areas
- Rainbow at Sea: Finish all yellow blocks
- Linedried: Section 5
- Summer Sampler 2017: Week 7 Turning Star (12")
- Tilted Star baby quilt: Piece 3 blocks for total of 6
- Stained glass quilt: Piece 4 blocks for total of 8
Misc:
- Cogs and Thistles: Work out where to from here - buy more background and turn into large top or finish as wall hanging?
- Patchworkcity: Decided on width of outer borders and cut material
- Venus: Make project more visible
- EPP: Continue with Paper Lanterns
Happy Sewing!
