MiA from Blogland

I feel like that a bit, there has been so much on lately that I just haven't had time to post!

Work has been really good-crazily busy if you know what I mean, I have been on the road heaps but I feel I am making progress (if you like to know, this year I am working as e-Learning Facilitator, that means I work with currently 6 primary schools in Northland, New Zealand, about implementing a blend of traditional and digital learning in their classrooms for increased student engagement and achievement - big words I know, but great fun!). Still I got quite a bit done on the sewing front, so here are some photos:

 The Sewing Circle Tote is done and I am very pleased about it!

It is large and heavy - about 1100g empty lol

Lots of pockets inside - 3 zipped pockets and 5 with elastic, plus 4 pockets outside

The smaller elastic pockets easily fit an iPad Mini lol

See my feature fabric peeking out? Not my usual choice but I love it!

This comes in very handy because the Kerikeri Patchwork Club have decided to run a monthly Stitch and Chat every 3rd Saturday, 11am - 4pm at Cherry Park House. We had great fun last month, so if you are in the area, bring your sewing and lunch and join in ($1 contribution towards the room hire). There were oldies and newbies, and I am sad I won't be able to make the next two but I will definitely be back. But as you could see from one of the above pics, this bag might come in very handy in my work also to take some of my tech geeky stuff to my schools :-)

Next we have...

Mended Heart, my contribution towards the Red Challenge of the Aotearoa Quilters at this years Quilt Symposium in Taupo. The lovely Ms Lottie had been experimenting with a few different projects for this and as usual she got me into mischief she inspired me to get going, too (between Suz and her I have gotten my a into g a few times!). I wanted to play with quilting with contrasting thread following a piece Rona made a few years ago. It consists of a layer of dropcloth, then two slightly differently painted pieces of silk chiffon behind a piece of red batik, using reverse applique method. The cut out shape is a broken heart, and I wanted to show how after a heart was broken it might never quite be the same, but it grows, stronger, bigger, maybe slightly out of shape but nevertheless the heart and therefore we are still there. Is this ok to send in I wonder??

Then there was...

another oven mitt to take with us to Germany - 5 completed now (I have cut out one more and fabric for two after that. I am getting a bit over them, though!)

Out of the blue...

I decided to make a rag quilt from some gorgeous flannels I bought from Ngaire at The Apple Basket. I didn't really look at any instructions so I have batting coming out right to the ends of the squares which made the piecing a bit challenging...

With some of the joints needing a bit of hiding, in good scrapbooking tradition I put a button over them :-)

and as middle DS just got a new sofa in his room, this will probably live there! Need to measure it first, but from recollection its about 40x55" and there are some leftovers to make a cushion cover eventually.

Last but not least, DP4 has a name: "(I wish it was) Summer all year long". I have pulled it out again and have completed just under half of the feathers. I got pickier with the shapes, though, so I have started unpicking some of the wonky ones - after all it's meant to be a present! - and I will continue working on this for a while still:

I hope you have a lovely weekend and a productive week whatever you might be up to!
Happy Sewing!

General update

Third post today - whoot-whoot! Well, I had sort of saved them up, but I better get off here soon before DH returns from work and finds the house just as messy as he left it this morning (probably worse...). I have not been completely useless today though, this morning I made the discovery how to combine my Craftsy classes and exercise: Take iPad mini with Craftsy app and with the help of a book prop it up where the exercycle display thingy-ma-bob is and you can watch your Cratsy class while exercising. Clever, aye?

What have I been up to? The "Seasons of" quilt safely out the way I had to get my head back to other UFOs:

I attempted to work on the D4P but found that the 40wt white Aurifil did not want to play with the 50wt. Signature in the bobbin so I have just order some more 50wt Aurifil as earlier this year they had worked together just fine. For now I just rolled it into a big ball and returned it to it's place on top of the filing cabinet :-)

Tokyo Subway Map: I had not gotten around to April's blocks (16 and 17), so I have now laid them out ready to piece. Suz, what blocks are we going to do for May? Lucky Todd already has put his top together!

Birthday Love Stash: It has been raining and even thundering when I got up, so no use in thinking about doing a tidy in the garden or the washing... just an excuse I know, but any excuse will do! Today I just wanted to get something small done so I made these two oven mitts to take with us to Germany this winter. I have 6 more to do, better start a production line on them...

one from the front, one from the back and yes, the right one is smaller, it's coincidence, that fq must have been smaller

I used 3 fqs - one for each of the mitts and one for both the pockets. Not much left over :-)

These are following the same idea as the ones I made last year, for example here. I quilted the left one with all over feathers, the right one with Angela Walter spirals.

What's the plans for May?

• Finish the Sewing Circle Tote
• Complete the remaining 6 ovenmitts
• Complete the quilting on the D4P (and finally come up with a name!!!)
• Start working on Firework again (due in August - but might have to make that 2014??)

I better get that vacuum cleaner out first though :-)

Happy Sewing!

Linking up to Leah Day's FMQ Friday 

"Seasons of" completed!

There's lots to report from my whirlwind trip to Melbourne last weekend, but right now I just want to show off my latest finish, the 2012 BoM from Sew It's Finished:

'artfully' draped across the swimming pool fence (note the scooter in the background...)

 - and from the back; it is actually upside down, but I wanted you to see the feather

with DH at work I did not want to enlist the help of my DSs so I pinned it back up on the design wall

some of the details: April and May up top, July and August underneath

see the flowers on the border? I had to hide something :-)

and here is the feather at the top!

You might recall that I started on this last year; all SiF members received the instructions to a block every month they finished one of their UFOs. Using QAYG I slowly worked my way through them. Eventually I put them all together and started quilting diamonds in the sashing. As my vertical sashing didn't line up perfectly I decided to use circles in the horizontal sashing. For both of them I marked the 'straight' lines and then fmqed them (as well as microstipple, pebbles and wavy lines). I had gotten a bit ahead of myself and quilted a big fmq feather up the top, but it did not seem to fit the rest of the rather 'architectural' quilting design so I started unpicking (...) from both sides. When Suz came over on Friday, we decided that I would keep the feather  in the middle of the top after all (I am quite proud how it had turned out and it was a $%##*@ hard job to even unpick those 5" on either side!). For some unknown reason I ended up with a little cut in the border bottom left so I ended up appliqueing a few flowers on the border. Last night I had it all put together and while watching TV managed to bury a gazillion thread ends. I have to admit I yet have to finish stitching down three sides of the binding on the back but that will happen tonight and with work starting up again tomorrow who knows when I will get to post next! Finished size is approx 43"x55" and I am mightly proud of it! And just look how many labels this covers... Linking up with Leah Day's FMS Friday Saturday!

Otherwise it's the school holidays and today the boys have been little ----- (starts with s, but it's not 'sunshines'!). I have no leave as we have a big overseas trip planned this winter so I am working from home. The weather has been very kind (not that the boys would note much, right now they're watching DVDs). I'll be back with a report from my Melbourne visit soon (I hope)!

Happy Sewing!

"Seasons of"...

• EXHILARATION: (I checked in the dictionary, it's not a word I normally use lol): My "Frei" quilt has been selected-selected and will be shown in Melbourne weekend after next and then around AUS and NZ for the rest of the year with the possibility of traveling beyond in 2014 :-)

• HARVEST: While summer is my only one favourite season, I enjoy the gluttony of autumn and have bottled peaches, frozen stewed apple, there is apple wine bubbling (while we are enjoying elder berry wine and plum wine :D) and today I waxed Gouda cheese I made last weekend. I am also in the process of emptying out the freezer as our cattle are definitely at home kill stage (age, size - and stupidity! We have had to chase them out of the garden a few times lately!)

• GETTING SEWING DONE: My BoM from last year, "Seasons of" is all in one piece and I have started quilting. I took plenty of pics for a possible QAYG tutorial, it all went so well together, I was very pleased with myself today!

approx 43 1/2" x 56"

Sorry for the blurry pic, the back of the blocks are various NZ prints, sashing / borders is a grey Moda Marble

My first attempt at Orange Peel / Postage Stamp (is there a difference?), while not perfect I like the effect

Have you seen the tutorial for Diamond Sashing from The Green Quilt Fairy Judi? It worked out quite well except -

- the grey bobbin thread was very visible so I ended up ripping the whole section out again. I will do it again, after my orange peels are all done, but this time using white on top and bottom (too bad for the grey fabric on the back :-)

• STARTING SOMETHING NEW: Are you a Bag Lady / Guy? I certainly am, a gal (guy) never has enough bags! Elizabeth Hartman from Oh Fransson! has just released a new bag pattern for her Sewing Circle Tote. Join Suz and I in our little Bag Along to get this finished before the end of June! First, purchase the pattern from her shop here for US$12.50 (I also bought the Margaret Bag pattern and took advantage of the 25% off, an offer that unfortunately just expired). The pattern is as detailed as you would expect from Elizabeth Hartmann. She has a detailed list of materials, so please raid your stash and purchase remainders to join us in completing the outside of the bag before the end of April. I am yet to learn how to do a linky, so if you are keen to join us, please leave a comment to this post including your blog address or email me (check my profile).

Linking up to Birthday Love Stash over at Sugarlane Quilts and FMQ Friday over at Leah Day's.

Happy Sewing!

Long overdue catch up

Real life has taken up most waking hours lately, but for my sanity I have kept on working on some of my WIPs. Sorry for the iPhone post which dumps all pics at the bottom, just hoping I might get to my machine soon (and a laptop post requires shifting photos fr phone to laptop and picasa - one day...).
My 'Frei' quilt has arrived in AUS, I don't know if it has been accepted to be exhibited and I don't know when they'll let us know. I have booked my flight to Melbourne and am looking forward to getting to the AQV! Obviously I haven't booked into any workshops, I'll just go for the exhibitions, merchants and the whole atmosphere :-)

So what have I been working on?

Tokyo Subway Quilt:
I finally pieced my two February blocks, have laid out three for March with one pieced so far (only a little behind :D).

Sew it's Finished BoM from 2012:
I now have 9 blocks completed, with a bit of luck I get the remaining three done over Easter. As I go QAYG, I'll then have to decide on sashing width (2" like the squares or maybe 3"??). Judi, the green quilt fairy, had a fun tutorial on diamonds, so I I thought that might get applied here (the squares will get postage stamp treatment). One finished it will travel with us to Germany this winter as a present - hence linking up to Wendy for the BLS for March.

Yesterday Suz, Ms Lottie and I had a playdate at Ms. Lottie's place. We made a glorious creative mess, but more about this another time. IT WAS LOTS OF FUN!!!

I'm getting a bit over appliqué and piecing umpteen squares so I'll soon pull out some other WIPs and BLS projects... Did I mention the flannels I bought at The Apple Basket last month or the fabric plus jelly roll from Grandmother's Garden earlier this month (waiting for Elizabeth Hartman to publish her sewing circle tote pattern...) - now doubt there are choices :-)

What are you doing to stay sane?

Happy Sewing!

A 'Birthday-Love Stash and Sew It's Finished' Finish

It's already 8 January and I have not completely fallen off the resolution wagon yet (just wait for it, it's bound to happen!). In my usual disorganised manner [hence my joining the BLS!] I realised 2 days before a friend's birthday party (Sunday) that I would need a present . Admittedly, my sewing room is at the moment the messiest room in the house (right after the garage...), but having a pile of mending and UFOs lying on the floor came in handy as I found my present! In little time I had sewn the already trimmed piece of satin, fmqed with feathers, into a cushion cover, utilising another recycled zip - only to realise that I had turned the front inside out... So out came the seam ripper, through the seam and the zigzag and I put it back together(this time the right way around!) using nifty stitch 19 on my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0 which sewed and overlocked in one go. I hope my friend will find the finished cushion to her liking (picture is without the inner). Linking to BLS and SIF for January:-)

In regards to my long list of resolutions I am happy to report that I have

• Found the woven wallhanging UFO and I don't think it should take too long to complete
• Pieced a few more blocks of the D4P - 61 are now completed with a further 7 needing one more step of piecing and then trimming to size. I have found that taking great care when cutting, pressing seams before piecing and piecing individually, not chain piecing, seem to help with those nasty corners that need matching lol

I have been swimming at least every other day and I am making plans to go for a bike ride with DH but without children soon :-) so my fitness will hopefully improve! Eating less and cutting down on after dinner glass of wine to just every other day should hopefully help me work on my weight loss goal!

How are your resolutions going?