Almost May - already!

Didn't realise I'd bought so many grey threads.

Since my last blog post, I’ve hardly been home, with a couple of short and two longer trips away from home. And when I was home, I seemed to be unpacking and washing, or working, or packing for the next trip - so very little sewing was done at all.  In ten weeks, I was home only 14 nights, split into several short stints.  And while away, sadly, I did very little hand sewing, being busy with sightseeing, etc.  

Seen in a museum in Charters Towers

Our most recent trip was four weeks in Queensland, so we drove through lots of small (and larger) towns, where of course I wanted to support the local patchwork shops.  They vary so much in how they’re presented, the stock they hold, and the warmth of the welcome. Some shops held so many fabrics that it was hard to choose.  One of the smallest towns had a shop with an amazingly wide assortment of fabrics and notions.  

These are the shops I would recommend a visit to:

• Just Country Crafts - in Gulliver, a suburb of Townsville - such friendly, helpful staff 
• The Quilters Store - in Salisbury, a suburb of Brisbane (I have gone to this shop each time I visit Brisbane, and was sad to hear that it is becoming an internet only store in June)
• Needleworx - Mackay
• Brown’s Craft Shed - Charters Towers

Unpacking from this trip was great, finding all the goodies I’d purchased. Sadly this means my fabric tally is definitely not in the black!  But I have ideas for so many more quilts, utlising these fabrics.  Other than fabric I also bought a few different threads and I succumbed and bought a couple of patterns. I did buy more grey threads than intended!  

More cat fabrics! for my teeny tiny collection! 😆

Novelty fabrics for kids' quilts

    

Useful sashing & border fabrics

             So I really supported local patchwork shops!  😄

I was also given a large bag of craft fabrics from a deceased estate, which I won’t include in my monthly fabric tally - mainly because I haven't looked at them yet.  I might include them after I've sorted them.  They are mainly checks and plaids, and I have an idea for making some donation quilts with them.  

April fabric tally

Fabric used:  - 0.0m         Fabric acquired:  + 31.5 m

2022 fabric tally so far:     + 31 m

At last, a finish for 2022!

 

Sawtooth star quilt

Fabrics used were mainly from two fat quarter bundles, which complemented each other.  I really should record the fabrics I use.  As I go along with the blog, I will get better at those sort of details, I'm sure.  They weren't recent fabric collections, I can tell you that much.  

Finished size:  49" x 59" (125cm x 150cm)

Backing was pieced from fat quarters left over from the quilt front's fat quarter bundles, as well as some other complementary fabrics, and one spare block.  And I had just enough of the perfect binding fabric.  (I wish I had more of that fabric, it has been great in so many quilts.)

I machine quilted this relatively heavily and am sort of happy with it.  I ran out of top thread twice! so was not happy with the third colour I used.  With the quilting, the top shrunk by at least an inch each way.  

I finished the final stitches to the binding last night, as we head off on holidays today, and I wanted it done.  I'm taking some hand stitching with me on the holiday, not sure if I will get much done but it is there, just in case, with my good portable rechargeable light.  

No fabric tally in this blog as I actually recorded the fabric used in this quilt back last year!  Naughty of me as my intention is that fabric use is not recorded until the item is a finish.

A slow start to 2022!

2022 has started well for me, although I don't have a finish yet, which has frustrated me a bit.  I quilted the sawtooth star quilt, spending time quilting it with various free-motion patterns in the blocks.  Looking back over my blog posts, I realised that I actually pinned it back in July.  However, I haven't made the binding or attached that yet, so that will be a February finish and photos.  

I've been working on the next round of the Quatro quilt, cutting pieces using the templates and starting to glue baste them onto the papers.  I have worked out how many pieces I need to cut for each round, and am pretty hopeful that the fabric I have will be enough.  

I'm still working intermittently on the elephant wall hanging for my friend.  I'm much closer to finishing now; but I find it hard to work on for long lengths of time.  I keep on needing to make so many decisions on which way to go - which colour, block, size, up or down, left or right, too much or too little, etc. - that I need to walk away regularly to give my brain a break.  When I come back to it feeling fairly "fresh", it is easier to work on it.  My friend's birthday is in August - I'm really hoping it is finished well before then!

January 2022 fabric tally

Sadly my daughter lost the apron I made for her business, so I made a quick new one last week for her - once I had bought some new printable fabric sheets.  No picture of the finished apron though.  That's the only finish for the month though.  

 

Fabric brought in:  + 0   m                 Fabric used:   - 0.5 m

January fabric tally:   - 0.5 m

Year to date:   - 0.5 m

2021 - done and dusted!

Happy New Year to all my readers - all two? of you!  

2021 was supposed to be better than 2020.  Not sure that it actually was, in some ways it was worse, other ways a little bit better.  We certainly didn't think we'd still be worrying about this Covid pandemic by now, did we?  However, I have designs on 2022 being much better - fingers crossed!

Something happened with the photo I used a couple of posts ago to show the dress that I made for my granddaughter.  I had edited the photo to hide her face and it didn't come up properly in the blog post.  I tried to fix it but that didn't work either.  So here is try number three!

And here is the new top I've made for her from the same pattern - this time with sleeves.  Butterick pattern number B4176 - size 5.  I will try something else from the pattern, maybe the shorts for summer?

The granddaughter's official Christmas present is a reversible apron and chef's hat.  Made from Bluey fabric because I want to use it up before she grows out of loving Bluey.  The hat was much easier to make than I thought it would be and fairly quickly done too.

    

I've finished the first medium grey round of the Quatro quilt top.  When I started this quilt (in 2018?), I decided the original pattern was too small so I bought some more grey fabrics for extra rounds of crosses.   There was enough fabrics in the kit for heaps of "flowers".  Now to make enough multi-coloured "flowers" and medium grey crosses for the next round.   There will be more "flowers" and light grey crosses after the second medium grey round.  That will be followed by another round of "flowers" and then white 3/4 crosses, after which it will be appliqued onto the border fabric.  Currently it is about 1.25m square and should finish over 2m square.  So still heaps of sewing to do.  But it has been quite enjoyable so far, seeing it grow.  And now that I have a friend in mind to gift it to, it is easy to continue going round and round.

 

2021 finishes

Baskets:

Christmas things:

Quilts: 

Clothing:

Miscellaneous:

(OK, so the hexagon blocks aren't really a finish.  But they're part of the way to a finish!)

2021 fabric tally

So this year was good as far as fabric use outweighed my fabric purchases.  A bonus for the stash.  I can feel pleased about the final tally.  

I was down in Melbourne for a few days just before Christmas and desperately needed some retail therapy.  The local quilt shop was keen to have my business - of course.  I went through their remnants and found a few nice pieces, suitable for bindings/borders - 2.5m in total.  I mainly went there to top up on threads and found a few Signature threads at half price.  So I felt that it was a really worthwhile visit.  

0.5 m used for the apron and hat.  1.5 m used for the purple top for the grandchild.  

    Fabric brought in:    + 2.5 m             Fabric used:   - 2 m

    Total for second half of Dec:      + 0.5  m       

    Running total for 2021:    - 20.5 m

2022 goals - or maybe they should be called aspirations?

I don't want to commit myself entirely this year, however it will be nice to get a few things finished and out of the way.  So these are written in pencil! and can be amended at any time I want - OK?  😀  And there will be nothing wrong if I start a new project, with lots of my goals unfinished.

• Finish elephant wallhanging for my girlfriend
• Make backing, sandwich and quilt the music quilt
• Quilt and bind sawtooth star quilt
• Make baby quilt for Kat's baby due in April
• Finally finish the blue strips QAYG quilt, with the sashing lined up properly - I will get it right eventually!
• Go through finished quilt tops and get some of them finished as donation quilts
• Make some I Spy quilts to have on hand as gifts for friends' babies
• I'm also keen to do some more fabric printing with linocuts

December - a busy month!

Very proud of my daughter for seeing a need in her regional town and starting up a market stall, which will help eliminate excess plastic packaging.  I made a quick apron for her, with her logo printed on a pocket.  The fabric is an old thick cotton sheet which fits in well with my daughter's way of living.   Will have to make one for the granddaughter as well.  

Some visiting children at my daughter's house needed Christmas stockings for Christmas Eve, otherwise how will Santa find them? so I whipped up a couple fairly quickly.  Most of the Christmas fabrics in my stash are more than twenty years old and are a bit old-fashioned.  However the thought is still there and Santa won't mind, will he?  

Stockings finished size:  approx. 67cm x 46cm

       

I've made quite a few Christmas stockings over the years.  I made the first two for my children, back in the early 1990s.  Then it was a thing for me to make them for all the nieces and nephews in my husband's family during the 1990s.  Maybe 12 all up?  I may have made them for the nephews on my side but I can't remember, and my records don't show that.  

Then I had a big gap until I made this one for the granddaughter in 2018.  Choice of fabrics and their orientation on the base make a big difference.  

While searching through the box of Christmas fabrics for strips for stockings, I found some half made oven mitts.  I didn't want to put them back in the box so finished them off in an hour or so.  Pretty rough finishing but at least they are now out of the box and can be used/donated.  

                        

I'm still working through the wall hanging for my friend.  It is a very organic process and I'm enjoying it, although it does take time.  And I've almost finished the latest round of the Quattro quilt, although with an increase in evening social activities due to lockdown finishing and the festive season coming up, I've not spent as much time hand sewing in front of the TV as I would like.  

Some of my blog readers had trouble seeing the photo of the granddaughter in her new dress.  I've updated that post so please have a look on the website:  www.patchmaggie.blogspot.com  if you're reading this as an email.

I'm not talking about sewing goals for a while.  Since I've failed miserably the last few months at completing many, or even any, of the month's sewing goals, I've decided to just go with the flow and be happy with what I do achieve.  

December 2021 fabric tally:

The apron used about 1m of stash fabric, and the two new stockings and two oven mitts used about 2m total of stash fabrics.    (I have too much Christmas fabric in the stash, considering I hardly ever use it these days, although it has come in handy this month!)

And I admit that I did visit a fabric shop - just because it was there: Gail's Patchwork Emporium in Sebastopol, and I had time to kill while the Handy Helper was working - so I bought 4.5m of fabrics - a couple of new (to me) cat fabrics and some useful border and binding fabrics.  

I'm still way ahead this year on using up fabric from the stash, so am proud of myself for that.  

    Fabric brought in:    + 4.5 m             Fabric used:   - 3 m

    Total for Dec:      + 1.5  m       

    Running total for 2021:    - 21 m

Nothing much done in November - or October for that matter!

 

I promised my three year old granddaughter a summer dress, so bought some dress patterns online, and started playing.  I didn't want to buy new fabric for the dresses straightaway so using some of my stash, I started on one of the designs.  I had to make bias binding from the fabric, but that wasn't too difficult.   I was very happy with how the dress turned out.  And it fitted the granddaughter too!  She's three and a half years old, but I had to make a size 5 for her measurements.  Didn't plan this pattern well, as the top size in the pack is 5.  I will try another dress pattern in the next couple of weeks.  Before she grows too big.   

Here's the elephant wallhanging so far - lots of different blocks placed on the design wall, just to see how much more I need to make.  The idea is that the elephants will be moving through the wall hanging, so the flying geese and other blocks are intended to give that feeling of movement.  The final size should be around 1m wide by 50cm high - just depends on what I add to it.  My initial pull of fabrics from my stash of batiks was too samey, so I broadened the pool of colours.   Although now I look at the photo, I'm not sure that I've solved the problem.  I am planning to machine quilt it first, then hand quilt with perle threads and maybe add some beads?  I will see what it seems to need.

A good friend visited a couple of weeks ago and I said to her she could have any of my quilts.  I showed her a few, both finished and in progress, and she decided she liked the Quatro quilt.  J realises it will take me at least another year before I finish it and seems happy to wait.  It is nice to have a person in mind for the quilt while I'm working on it.  The quilt has grown a little since this photo was taken but is still two full rounds from completion.  

Goals for October and November - how did I go?

These were the goals for October and November.  Haven't really achieved any of them, but I have made the granddaughter's dress - so that is a win.  I have been away a bit, and worked quite a bit, and not done as much sewing as I would like - sadly.  

1. Quilt the Sawtooth Star quilt; add binding and label - still waiting
2. Finish sewing the elephant wallhanging top - getting there
3. Pin baste music quilt ready for quilting in November - didn't even start!

I'm not going to bother setting goals for December.   Always a social month!  

October/November 2021 fabric tally:

The dress used 1.75m of a stash fabric.  And I went to my local quilt shop to get threads and ended up buying fabric!  Only one metre so I shouldn't feel too bad.  They had some new (to me) cat fabrics in stock and I can almost never walk past a cute cat fabric.  

    Fabric brought in:    + 1 m             Fabric used:   - 1.75 m

    Total for Oct/Nov:   - .75  m       

    Running total for 2021:    - 22.5 m

September sewing

Well, September disappeared somehow and I don't have much to show for it - not as much as expected anyway.  I have done a fair bit of sewing though, so am pleased enough with that.  We're now half way through October, so I had better get a wriggle on to finish some things by the end of the month.  

The second of the "good" baskets for my granddaughter.  Now to make some for myself.   It is still tricky to get them stiff enough to work properly when pulling in and out of the shelves.  Rather than cardboard inside, it probably needs something like a very thin plywood or perhaps Corflute?

A finished I Spy quilt for a young friend's son, who turned one last month.  A bit late for his birthday but I had issues with this quilt that were so frustrating.  Stupid mistakes that I made and had to spend time to fix, including most of the original free motion quilting.  I tried to match up the coloured borders of each block to make it look like it is woven but I think I won't worry too much about matching the colours in a line through the blocks in future quilts.  

I made too many blocks for this quilt so now have almost enough for a second quilt, ready to make for another young person.  

Not sure about the border on this one - it may be too light - but it is finished, so that's the main thing. Eli's quilt.  Finished size:  52" x 68".  Made from stash fabrics, including backing.  Not sure of the name of the pattern - Woven something?  Quilted with a large meander in the main area of the quilt and straight line meander in the border.  Batting is Legacy 80/20 cotton/polyester.  

Pictures of some of the blocks in my ongoing evening handwork - Sue Daley's Quatro quilt.  Rather than row by row, I am sewing it in rounds.  For each round, I make enough of both the coloured blocks and the plain blocks and plan where they will go in that round.  Then I attach the blocks into four edge lengths and attach each length one by one to the quilt.  Each round is of course bigger than the previous one, so it will take a while.  Once I finish this round, I have another two rounds to go before it is bordered.  Then of course comes the sandwiching and quilting.  I'm still of two minds whether I hand quilt it or not.  

I worked on my QAYG quilt but the sashing still isn't lining up nicely, so I have to try again, I think, or do I just put up with it as it is?  It is a donation quilt but I do want to master this QAYG method of adding sashing to quilted blocks.  

How have I done so far with the goals for September:

1. Make one or more fabric baskets - for my granddaughter and/or me.  I've made one more for the grandy.  
2. Make a knitting needle roll for a friend -  this looks like it won't happen in the near future so I am taking it off my goals list.  
3. Re-join QAYG blocks into sashed finished quilt - have done this but the sashing still isn't lining up nicely.  
4. Finish sewing the elephant wallhanging top - still at the planning stage!
5. Quilt the Sawtooth Star quilt; add binding and label - spent time on Eli's quilt instead.  This one is next to be quilted.    

Goals for October

Not much left of October so I won't be too ambitious.

1. Quilt the Sawtooth Star quilt; add binding and label
2. Finish sewing the elephant wallhanging top
3. Pin baste music quilt ready for quilting in November

September 2021 fabric tally:

I've bought no fabric this month!  With lockdown, I haven't been near any shops to speak of.  

The fabric basket used 2m of fabric.  The I Spy quilt used 3.5m backing, and approx 4m for the front.  

    Fabric brought in:    + 0 m             Fabric used:   - 9.5 m

    Total for September:    - 9.5 m       

    Running total for 2021:    -  21.8 m