I lost my mind...

...somewhere, and picked up an AWFUL cold instead! It's no fun, especially now that the weather has fined up! So while I would love to show you some fancy no project, it's just some more mindless piecing:

See what I meant about the seam allowances in my last post? To the left block 13 completely pieced, to the right block 14 with the first lot of string piecing done. Of course I know how much the 1/4" sesm allowance is, but every now and then it still surprises me! I'll try to get block 14 done tomorrow, and then I better find out from Suz what's on for October :)

I promised you some pics of my German fabric purchases; remember that I had a hard time finding material and I never found any 'German' themed ones at all? These came from Ikea, not necessarily patchwork fabrics but they will work:

Just 3m of cream and 1m of cream with black handwriting. At Ikea you had to cut your own fabric. this was then weighed by the attendant and the machine spat out that little sticky. The prices were incredibly cheap (1€ approx. NZ$1.60, and with my SiL's family card they took another € off per metre!). I had two more pieces but they have come to live with Suz and with our housesitter Donna.

I also bought some curtain material to replace the cute but outdated Dino blinds in the boys' bedrooms :) One (two!) of the when I get (a) 'round to it' projects!

I really liked these fabrics though they are nothing like my 'normal' colour palette. However, I have since realised that they are polycottons, so I am not quite sure yet what I will do with them.

I also got something very special, my MiL gave me some Damask for duvet covers from her hope chest. I need to make a start on these :)

Last but not least Suz gave me this for my bday last month: 

All about music - I love it! Will have to save it for something special!

In between coughing and sniffing I haven't achieved much today, I tied up some of the piles in my sewing room and mended a few shorts etc. but nothing that would be obvious to anyone but me. I think I need to start some little creative project - middle DS' Great Barrier Reef quilt? A Germany inspired piece? Make a start on the next AQC Challenge (I better check dates)? I have a nice pile of pinks, but inspiration hasn't struck yet.

Then there are these grey/black/white/reds (not 100% sure about the ones on the left). Hmmm...

Lastly a saddish photo: My Mended Heart didn't sell so was returned to me (that's not the sad part yet!). This is what it now looks like: 

Can you see the hole in the right half of the heart? It must have happened in the mail, as the envelope has the same hole through and through:

I still haven't done anything about it, I don't think there is anything that can be done. However, I will email the organiser to please return quilts in bubble wrap envelopes in the future to better protect them.

I hope you have a productive weekend! Happy Sewing!

Seam Allowance Shrinkage

It's amazing sometimes how much material you can loose in the seams. Compare this picture of blocks 13&14 (set out) to the picture of blocks 21&22 (pieced) from yesterday:

Slowly but surely the blocks are accumulating....

Happy Sewing!

Another Month Bites the Dust

Well, I've caught up a bit on my Tokyo Subway Map Quilt, blocks 21 and 22 (for August) are finished!

On to September next - Suz gave me a bag of pinks last month, I better check on her blog what the September blocks were :) Somehow this quilt has been whispering to me "quilt every colour in a different fmq pattern"...

If my cold lets off tomorrow, I might get around to posting pics of the fabrics I bought in Germany back in July.

Happy Sewing!

Two finishes!

My quilting blog is getting heavily neglected nowadays, but I love reading what everyone else is up to. I have been blogging more on my e-learning blog which I have now moved over to thebelbird.blogspot.com - if you have blogging questions, I have started a page on there titled "GAFE how to's" - have a look, if your question is not answered there, feel free to contact me and I will find the answer for you:)

Last night a lot of the pressure lifted, not only has term 3 finished (which has been incredibly busy!), I also finished not just one but two items!

[I wish it was] Summer All Year Long is finished, and today I handed it to the happy recipient! Just use the label D4P (and apparently also DP4 as I have just reliased!) to see my previous posts about this. I started this project about a year ago when I finished in an emotionally very stressful job as a thank you for a friend and colleague who kept me sane! She had never seen it before today, her only requests were 'bright' and to include a pillow flap. The pattern is a disappearing four patch, I fmqed feathers and loopy squiggles (I suppose it has a proper name??), using the secondary pattern developing after piecing. I am happy to say that the recipient likes it :-)

On my bed which is a bit larger than my friend's. Finished size is 86"square.

Detail of quilting

The same block from a different angle, now you can see the four patch

I have washed it a couple of times, I like how the cotton wrinkles up.

I pieced a disappearing four patch into the back, too :)

I also made a little baby throw for Baby Chloe, the daughter of an ex-student who now lives in Melbourne (I stayed with them when I went to the AQC back in April). Chloe was not due until 11 October, but she made her entrance a bit early last Wednesday so I better get this into the mail soon!

28 1/2"square, just a little throw for a little girl :)

Some loops and butterflies in the hanky linen with just a straight outline on the Melka Dubrowski jelly roll

Striped minky on the back (no batting)

Unfortunately in my current position, term break does not equal holidays, and I will be very busy preparing my workshop for ULearn13, NZs biggest e-learning conference in Hamilton 9-11 October. On my sewing list I have my August and September (and October) blocks of the Tokyo Subway Map. I am looking forward to some 'mind-less' piecing!

Happy Sewing!

Rain, rain go away...

It's yet another rainy weekend.... maybe it would be easier if it wasn't cold and miserable, too! Did I really grow up with frost and snow and the likes between October and May?! Must be getting old lol!

Anyway, with DH on late shift last night I joined FNSI over at Wendy's (sugarlanequilts.blogspot.com). I wanted to get another Bag done and - taadaah! - I finished it this afternoon:

As with all Elizabeth Hartman's pattern I have tried, this came together without any sweat. It isn't easy to get the right kind of interfacing around here, but this time I got some cheap light iron-on interfacing from Spotlight (at $7.99 for the lot I can't complain!) which worked a treat. The outer is duck Indian cotton, the inner a batik I bought when Grandmother's Garden last came to Whangarei (another purchase from that occasion that has become a bag ;D). This will replace my current bag from Applebottoms which looks cute but is starting to fall apart (the outer fake leather is separating from the material underneath - sorry, not very technical here!).

What else have I been up to?

Blocks 21 and 22 of Tokyo Subway have been laid out and are ready to sew (tomorrow?).

I am still stitching down the binding for the quilt for oldest DS' fundraising at school but here are some slightly better pics until the weather improves (Monday I would guess - Murphy's law...):

I have tried to continue the quilting on "Summer all year long" but despite a recent service, my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0 still seem to have the old issues of tension problems, skipped stitches and breaking thread. I am using my favourite, Aurifil 50 weight, in the top and Signature in the bottom - this had worked beautifully originally.  It will work for a bit, and then everything will go haywire, there is a scratching sound as if the thread is catching on some rough bits on the inside. I have been trying to get some screwdrivers to have a look inside (as the machine came from oversea's I have no warranty on it anyway) but have been unable to get the right kind. Somewhere in blogland I had read about someone else having a similar issue where a part needed polishing or exchanging - I have used the machine intensively since I got it, but you would think it takes more than 1 year to wear things out?! I will try to give the technician a call on Monday and see what he says. The bill for the service didn't break the bank, but my issue is not resolved either...

So what else is going on around here?

Work is great but really busy. My schools are making great progress, but my biggest worry remains juggling work with children pick up etc. with DH on shifts - but if he worked 8-5 they would have to go to OSCAR most days which is not really what we want either... Speaking of shifts, him being at work this weekend meant no Stitch and Chat for me - again! Well, might just have to continue talking to myself...

We have to make some serious decisions about school choices for our two oldest boys: Our 13y old brought home their option choices for 2014 (they have to take 4 out of 5 options on offer). With him being at a very small school with only 16 students in his year level we knew this would happen eventually... The 10y old is in his last year at primary school and somehow I don't fancy having three boys at three different schools - but will he be happy where his brother might be happy?!

New Zealand just had another big earthquake yesterday, very unsettling for everyone down there - something I can't even imagine really! Thinking of all you down there! Time to thank our lucky stars that they brought us to the Far North all those years ago - now if we could have public transport, more opportunity for cultural things and more school choices please... Speaking of cultural things, since our recent trip to Germany I miss playing music more so than before. The children are getting older and are no longer taking up all our time - but then all too soon they will be off during their own thing... Hmmm, something to keep on thinking about...

Anyway, time to get going! Happy sewing everyone!

I'm back!

We had a great holiday in Germany, caught up with lots of family and friends but even better the kids enjoyed our showing them where we grew up and want to go back! There were stressful times, e.g. when Mstr 13y old decided that it was time to go home to New Zealand at around day 25 of 36 and continued to tell us so at any occasion for the next 10 days, or when same boy and Mstr 8y old got quite airsick on the way home or when the nights after 36degC during the day just were unbearably hot and all three Mstrs (short for monsters?!) would not go to sleep until just before midnight... There was plenty of hearty food and drink which my hips have taken a liking to (a moment on the lips...), we have visited castles and churches, rode on trains, buses and subways etc. etc. While still not complete, you can see some of what we have been up to on our travel blog - kernzholidayingermany.blogspot.co.nz.

I have only been to ONE quilting shop in Germany - I simply couldn't see any! There used to be plenty of material shops when I grew up (about 500y ago, I know...), but the one shop I found had no fabrics I couldn't get anywhere else and just as expensive as here! I asked at one material shop that carry some quilting fabrics, the owner didn't think there were any specific German lines of quilting fabrics (here in NZ we have Kiwiana fabrics, batiks with NZ motifs etc.). Overall I was very disappointed! The only highlight in this regard was my visit to Ikea, the spoils of which will hopefully arrive per parcel soon (the suitcases must have shrunk between arrival and departure, just like my clothes while I think of it, so I had to send a parcel).

I didn't get much done as you can imagine, but one afternoon I got into some EPP:

One day this will go onto the Great Barrier Reef Quilt I plan to one day (!) make for middle DS :-)

I had a weekend at home before I went back to work, and on the second day back oldest DS came home with a request for a fundraiser item to go into their Auction of Promises, so after some checking of my stash I launched into what I think I have seen called a race quilt? Very quick and painless, backed with light polarfleece with a layer of polyester batting and by now already quilted with freehand swirls, ready to bind:

I'll take some better pics at day, the quilting shows up better on the back. Not sure that I want to make another one, it would get boring I think?

What next: Firework and Summer All Year Long need finishing, I have picked my materials for my next bag for the Bag Along, and Suz has cut the strips for the next two blocks of the Tokyo Subway quilt. Do I really have to go to work tomorrow???

Happy Sewing!

Countdown...

Just  three more days at work before our big holiday - first time ever taking the boys to Germany (the oldest one had his first birthday over there but that barely counts as he can't remember!). First time back for us in 12 years, too! We have gotten through most of the preparations without too much hassle, eventually found a fellow quilter to house sit - yay for Donna!, some bills still need to be paid, the car park at the airport booked, about half the packing is done, I have even dropped off my big Pfaff for a service! Now it's just getting through the next 3 days at work - thanks goodness my laptop needs sending in for some much needed TLC so I can't possibly be working until midnight on Wednesday!

Work has been especially busy as I have tried to squeeze 10 weeks work into 7 1/2 weeks so quilting has once again taken a step back. I still have to reply to the lovely comments from the last little while (another thing to add to the to-do-list..), but just to give you a little update, "Mended Heart" has been sent off, the Sewing Circle Tote become my steady companion at work as it nicely fits iPads, gadgets, papers, books, laptop, extension lead, speakers - it's simply bottomless!, and I have even constructed a few more Firework blocks!

I had the best intentions of completing my fmq feathers on "Summer all year long" but my Pfaff was not amused and threw one hissyfit after the other even with new needles so I have given in and sent it off to the service. In the meantime I have pieced some more of my Tokyo Subway, of the two June ones I have block 11 almost done which takes me half way there, and if I get around to it I might cut a few more black squares to also get block 20 done - once you have them set out, piecing does not take all that long.

I have taken worse photos - but not many! Might look better f you step ten paces back and squint?

There won't be many updates from me until early August, but if you are interested to see what we are up to, head on over here which is my attempt at getting my boys to keep in touch with their friends and get some 'school work type stuff' done - 5 weeks is a loonnnggg time!

Stay warm and happy sewing!