Behind!!!

I am so behind in my quilting it's not funny! I started my new job four weeks ago and I love it, but it is a lot of work (well, it's full-time and pay and perks have to be earnt somehow!). Since my last post I have...

• Quilted some more on my D4P - but obviously still not named it lol. I really love the feathers which came from a suggestion Suz made, I also like the wiggly lines that I have tested on one of the strips between the triangle (not a sashing strip but looks like one) - it will bring out the star. But will it be soft enough to sleep under?? Advice, please!!! See, I only use my quilts as day covers, in keeping with my German upbringing lol

I have made my way three quarters across the first two rows of blocks - 6 more rows to go :-)

• 

There'll be lots of threads to bury... and I am yet to quilt feathers in the partial squares around the edges.

• I have also (finally) picked up again on my Free Challenge Piece for the AQC - pictures are due by 1 March, so I better get to hurry up! I am not entirely sure how much I am allowed to share about it, I have shown you the background here and the chainlink fence here. I have experimented with painting silk chiffon yesterday to layer on top of the green part of the background to give an impression of a flower meadow. As I have powered through my paid work without any break today, I might get into this again before dinner. I have also organised my backing and batting, as well as my template for the sign which will have particular significance in the finished piece - if I ever get it finished!!! It's quite different to what i would make without the self-inflicted threat incentive of entering the competition!
• My two Tokyo Subway Quilts blocks are still sitting there set out awaiting piecing.

What have you been up to? Linking up to FMQ project UFO Sunday.

Happy Sewing!

A few more feathers...

Following on from my post earlier today - I think it's going to work out:

Feathers sneak peak

Today I finished the SiD of the still nameless D4P and quickly tried out some feathers - what do you think? Can you see the white stars in the sashing, I will repeat these in the centre of the blocks (where you can see the hourglass). The white sashing in between the stars will get some dense quilting, too, maybe some wavy lines. So glad to be fmqing again!!!

Start of February

Work has taken up a lot of my focus, but I managed to get a little sewing done.

The D4P - which is yet to be named properly - is on hold until the thread I have ordered arrives - beauty of living where we are, everything - and everyone travels...

I finally made a fluffy cushion cover from the fluffy blanket DH bought - picture below.

If I want to submit 'Free' for the AQS, I better get cracking, so I stitched the wire fence onto washaway fusible and below you can see how it turned out.

I have also laid out my next two Subway Map blocks ready to piece - maybe on Wednesday = Waitangi Day?

I am spending 2 days in The Big Smoke = Auckland - I absolutely despise the traffic, but I am envious to the access to services, shops, schools, people you have down here. This evening I managed to have a brief catch up with the lovely Chris from Diet Coke Rocks and her family, and I even got a cuddle with her second newest grandson, 7 week old Dante - so cute! Chris took some pics, so I'll have to borrow one when she posts them. In between work schedule and traffic this was way too short a visit, but if I get down here more often, I might be able to have the odd catchup with more of the lovely Auckland Quilters / Bloggers - Rona, I hope your term has started well, I hope we can organise sth. towards the end of February?
Tomorrow afternoon I go on the return journey home, with Waitangi Day on Wednesday I hope I can run away before the masses - I don't fancy another good 4h drive (crawl) for a 260km journey (which you can manage in 3h)...

Happy Sewing!

Busy, busy

I have been rather busy the last little while - not that I have much to show for! The house needs a proper clean, I don't dare to mention the windows, there's weeds in the garden etc. While the sun is still shining, the weather has been uncomfortably windy, reminding me of autumn way too early, while at the same time drying out the garden and paddocks horribly!

My D4P has made some progress, it is in one big piece now, sandwiched and pin basted, and yesterday I have started to SiD the horizontal lines. I don't usually SiD but I have read it helps stabilise things, and as this is a present I really want it to be right! Not that tidy SiD is all that easy (sigh)...Here are some pics from the sandwiching stage:

Here is also a picture of my second block from the Tokyo Subway Map Quilt - block 5. This has brought me up to target, two new ones to do next month;-)

My new job has kept me busy though at this point in time I'm just working from home. It's amazing how many intesting and relevant education documents are out there that people in my position need to know about! Thank goodness for webinars, Google Hangouts and skype sessions to discuss things with colleagues! [some of these I had barely ever come across before last week - so it's learning all around!]

In case there are any avid iOs users reading this:
Is there a way to include pix from my Picasa web albums into a post created on the blogger app? (I'm using the rather longwinded approach of drafting on the iPad, then adding pics on the laptop & publish). I am just having a play with inserting these in Google Chrome (still on the iPad), but it's not without pitfalls (maybe that's the operator, not the programme?). What I hate the most is that I don't seem to be able to scroll through all of my post - arrrgghhh!
Also, I am after a good app that can read docs, pdfs, maybe websites to me; I read about Speakably but I'm keen to hear from someone before I buy it. My idea is that like with foreign language learning I could be listening to important information over and over while I do other things like drive etc.

Happy Sewing!

Pottering along

I had written a post and put it in draft ten days ago - and here it still is today! Summer has finally been simmering and we have had some amazing weather in the last little while though this week it has cooled down again, especially at night. A sure sign to tell a nice summer day here is when our pool already shows 29degC by the time I get up ;-) Admittedly when it then rises up to 31 or even 32degC during the day, it's not all that refreshing anymore - but now that it's back to 28degC or so I feel it's cold!

The other day I had the urgent urge to reorganise parts of my home; I moved drawers, a chest, a cabinet - found an impressive amount of (very dusty) Wine and Schnaps Glasses - and now my still messy creatively organised sewing room looks like this:

Trying to be organised this year - thanks to Wendy from Sew it's Finished!

My drawers are more organised

my WIP drawer

we're getting a bit less organised here...

can you see how small my stash has gotten?

Bags and bags of scraps...

"The Pile" - mending and UFOs...

Last weekend our local Patchwork Club had their annual exhibition. As I had left my camera at home on the charger (...) I am very thankful that friends have kindly offered me copies of theirs - in the meantime though, here is Suz's post with the pics she took.

Lovely Suz had invited Rona from Layer upon Layer to come up from Auckland so we had lots of fun jabbering about quilting (while the men were just rolling their eyes). Thanks heaps to Suz for the organisation and accommodation and to Rona for travelling so far! Rona brought some of her various fabric painting supplies and we also had great fun with those. We ended with doing some microwave dying - sporting matching red hands now (must be some sort of secret club lol - Suz suggested a name to do with "tutuu" which is lent from the Maori language and usually means to muck or potter around).

Learnings:

• I need to save some money to buy Fabrico Dual Markers by Tsukeneko and Derwent Inktense Blocks
• Using more Procion powder to water results in a darker colour - yippieh!
• Just to stay on the 'save money to buy xyz' part, I also want to get my hot little hands onto some Lumi Inkodye at a reasonable price - can't wait to try that out! Please let me know if you have seen it or even tried it out. (I have seen Inkodye and the Fabrico Markers on Dharma Trading, but now I need to wait for pay day next month).
• It pays to feed my visitors first and then show them the mess I make in the kitchen with my microwave dying - not sure that anyone wants to eat at my place again;-)

Since then Suz, Miss Lottie and I had a play date at my place (kids occupied themselves - great! while we played :D) and today Suz and I had a little shopping spree at our ex-LQS ;-) Can't wait to use these batiks....

Adding to my stash!!!

I also received the remaining supplies for the Tokyo Subway Map Quilt in the mail and have laid out and pieced my first two blocks, here is the first:

My D4P has made a lot of progress, currently I am putting the sashing strips in:

Top half

with sashing strips

This week I have spent away from home for Induction to my new job as Blended e-Learning Facilitator. Lots to learn before I can start working with local schools! As it is fulltime it should be paying the bills better even though it will limit the time I have to quilt. I might just have to make up for it at night or on the weekends!

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?