October Friday Night Sew In

FNSI is coming up again this friday!

I didn't want to commit until I was certain I'd be able to do something especially after my disappointing FNSI last month but I think it was understandable given I had just a few days to prepare for a hospital admission!

I'll be doing one of two things. If I'm able to machine piece, I'll be piecing a large block for the centre of a table mat which will be the class sample for my scallop edging class in early November.

If not I'll continue with either Lizzy Mae or my Aster Manor sampler.

Click on the pick to join in the fun!

Another block done!

I finally finished the Rose and Tulip block for my Aster Manor Sampler.  It felt like I've been workin on it forever.

It's supposed to have a heart between each tulip but I didn't position them well enough so I decided to leave them out.

Today I'm frantically browsing Stampin Up! galleries for some inspiration for an anniversary card for DH.  I only have today to do it.  The pressure!!

A Very Crafty Weekend

On Friday DS had a friend from school over to play.  They decorated my plaster and I made stove top pizzas and apple cakes for lunch.

On Saturday I baked one of DH's favourites - orange and poppyseed cake.

On Sunday I was finally brave enough to pick up a needle and thread!  Despite the plaster it was still fairly painful but necessary to get rid of the swelling in my fingers.

I worked on my Aster Manor Sampler.  I completed the almost finished Rolling Stone block and made the Bow Tie block (also called Old Maid's Puzzle) from start to finish.

I'm all out of template plastic so I can't do anymore pieced blocks.  I'll have to work on some of the applique blocks which already have all the shapes cut out.

It's here!!!

After only 10 days my lovely Aster Manor yardage has arrived from the US!

Draped over the couch

Close up

As usual, click on the pics for a bigger one with more detail!  I'm fairly sure I will FM quilt around the big asters in the outer border.  Lots of selvage to squirrel away too! :-)

Hand Pieced Samplers

Crafty Pug asked me about hand pieced samplers.

The first one I started in May 2009 after my 2nd wrist op.  My fingers kept swelling after the plaster was put on so I needed some meaningful movements to keep the swelling down.

I asked a friend to show me the basics and she pulled out some templates she had made for Fat Cat Patterns BOM Pinwheel Sampler.  My irrational fear of samplers was somewhat overcome by the fact that all the blocks are pinwheel variations and therefore not really samplerish.

I dug out some fabrics I didn't think I'd ever use for anything in particular but they were pretty enough so I started and pretty soon I realised I wanted to use an on point setting with sashing and plain alternate blocks to fit a QS bed.  I bought fabric for the sashing and outer border and it was on clearance at that so a VERY economical quilt!

It eventually fell by the wayside as other more exciting things took over.

In March 2010 I signed up for a hand piecing course at Drapers of Mt Macedon (see this post) to learn properly since I had been fudging my way through and yes you guessed it - I was in plaster again after surgery #3 and needed to keep swelling down!

This one was a proper sampler so valium needed to be added to the list of class supplies (not really but painkillers for the arm worked just as well!).  I decided to disregard instructions to buy "background" fabric since this  makes a sampler really samplerish and bought an Aster Manor FQ bundle which was heavily reduced and absolutely delicious!

I worked out the maths and it would yield a QS quilt with leftovers.

Varying the background fabric and using a co-ordinated fabric range made the sampler unsamplerish enough for me to cope with it without having a panic attack!

The course included Y-seams, curved piecing and needleturn applique all of which I needed for Dear Jane since I want to hand piece it rather than foundation piece it.

I'd definitely recommend taking a class and learning properly!

Shopping!

This weekend has turned out pretty well considering the Nemesis has been in top form!

Saturday involved a trip to Spotlight for batting, backing and quilting thread for Chocolate and Aqua plus a few browns which may or may not go with the table runner for my class.

I hoped for a chocolate brown backing but there was nothing remotely close so I got a light blue one instead.  Not exactly aqua but at least any dodgy quilting wont show up on the back!

The cute birdie fabric was on the clearance wrack (yes I still have bird phobia) so it'll make a cute charity quilt for a little girl.

Today was even better.  I love online shopping!!  I placed one US order at The Quilted Castle for my Aster Manor yardage and an Australian one at Oz Quilts for a quilting stencil and a FQ pack of browns.

Here are my Aster Manor borders - red for the wide outer border and pink for the narrower inner one.  The sashing is cream with tiny brown spots.

I'm hoping the Aussie order arrives this week so I can pre-wash and work out whether I have a good selection of colours.  I suspect I'll still need to pop into Quilters Bazaar this week for the final selection!

Andrew will drop in on monday to pay for my Table runner class but I'm hoping to be able to drive by Tuesday to get the rest!

What a nice hubby!  I'm stocking up now while it lasts! *lol*

I'm also plodding on with Chocolate and Aqua - 12 sections complete and only 3 to go!!!

ETA - On closer examination I discovered a grave piecing error which required not only unpicking but re-matching colours as well. 

I blame those boys entirely.  It's very difficult to sew with "light sabres" crashing around you.  DS aka Darth Vader graciously allows his father to be Luke Skywalker and...well I'm so mortified I can hardly say it...was called...Jar Jar Binks.

The indignity!  The injustice!  EVERYONE knows I'm the Yoda of the house.  OK so I don't have hairy ears but I'm about the same height and right at least as often.  UGH BOYS!!

D9P = Dino 9 Patch!

Well it certainly does in this case!

On Friday I cut all the fabric for both sets of blocks and finished piecing the D9Ps.  I also started piecing the alternate blocks (reconfigured Lorna's 12 FQ Class ones).  The difference was not just the measurements.  I also wanted the largest square to be the dino print and since I was using various sized scraps, I had to work out the colours as I went.  I also decided to make 2 variations of this block by placing the large square either towards the top of the block or bottom so I'd have some flexibility when placing them around the central panel.

Saturday saw the completion of all my blocks and I worked out the order.  DH gave his comments, screwed up the entire thing and I couldn't re-do it exactly as I had before.  Not Happy Jan Andrew!

Thanks to my nemesis (which I'll blog about sometime) I'm REALLY sore so as much as I'd love to finish a quilt top Saturday night, I don't think I will.

After loads of umming and ahhing, I'll piece the backing to save $ since I really need to buy the remaining Aster Manor yardage online soon but I will need WOOL batting since I only have cotton at home and want this quilt to be wool to keep my Lil Man all toasty

The inner borders will be a plain chocolate brown (at least I hope I have enough length of the fabric I'm thinking of) and I'll quilt little dinosaurs in variegated thread on them.  Outer borders will be small scraps of block fabric.

I'm pleased with how it's coming along so far but I need to be sure the borders look OK and am a little nervous of the quilting - haven't done any FM stuff since last year!

This morning I discovered more problems with the block layout and had to redo them for my own sanity.   It's definitely not as  good as the very first attempt but looks OK.

My "rules" for block placement are:

1. No dino prints should be touching each other even if they're different
2. No two blocks with the same dinos can be next to each other (even if dino squares not touching)
3. No two coloured scraps can be touching
4. And finally, a fairly even spread of the two types of blocks  

I don't think I could ever be a liberated quilter tho I break enough rules in my own way.  Most rules are there for a reason I feel!

Anyway here are some examples of my blocks

D9P block:

Lorna's Block:

Lorna's Block variation:

Again the photos are terrible.  It's such a drama taking them.  The rechargable batteries for the camera are leaking acid, software to directly upload pics from my phone can't be installed on the desktop PC because it's running Linux so it all has to be done on my dinosaur laptop and transferred on a flash drive. 

Anyway so I'll see how I go today in terms of stitching the blocks together.  I get the verdict from the surgeon on Thursday regarding my Nemesis so I shouldn't sew too hard before then!

Gisborne Quilters Meeting

Last night I went along to my first (hopefully of many!!) evenings with the Gisborne Quilters.

After the obligatory bargaining with DH he agreed to letting me go.  He is concerned (understandably) about me taking the car out alone especially at night in the cold and wet when my wrist is still definitely worse for wear.

His other concern was his pants! The button fell off (again!!) and since I'm a quilter I apparently do repairs!

I came up with what I felt was a very generous compromise - I offered to take his pants and sew on the button as my first order of business.

He had 2 objections - the first was that he didn't trust me (totally understandable given what happened last time I mended his pants! )

I was so furious at having been asked to do mending that I appliqued little dogs all over his pants including a very strategically placed fire hydrant

His other concern was that bringing mending would not be a good first impression (bless his heart!) I couldn't care less and promised him faithfully I wouldn't desecrate his pants but off I went leaving his pants at home! woohoo!

Upon arriving and being welcomed by fellow patchworker Sue we waited for Tania to open the room and Donna arrived shortly after.  We were quickly overcome by gas fumes from the faulty heater so Donna very kindly offered to host the evening at her house.

We bumped into Lorraine and Rosie who followed us while poor Tania went home as she wasn't well but she did present us with a fantastic newsletter first.  Thank you, Tania!

At Donna's house we got comfy and Donna kindly make us all hot cups of tea and we got down to business.  I pulled out some of the applique blocks from my Aster Manor Sampler to see how I'd go.  I hadn't touched hand-piecing or applique since I was in plaster and really hadn't sewn at all since my altercation with the soap dispenser .  It took me a while to get into the rhythm and remember how it all went but things progressed quickly.  I was shocked to discover my stitches were a lot better than before - pretty much invisible and a perfect straight line on the back!    I can confidently say that a plaster cast up to the armpit is NOT conducive to hand piecing and being without it was almost certainly the key to my new found success!

At around 9:30pm we headed home.  Usually on the homefront we're lucky to have our Energiser Bunny alseep by then (and true to form he was still awake when I returned!) so any evening sewing I do at home usually doesn't even start before 9:30 it does mean I can come to the meetings and be home at a reasonable time so the 6am starts on school mornings can still happen.

Once I got home I finished off the evening with a few hours of unpicking the Handbag quilt.  It was pieced and quilted while in plaster (LAST year!).  It seems like I've been in plaster for almost 6 months together between April 2009 and May 2010. 

Anyways my progress is definitely not worth photographing (yet!) and my successful stitching was balanced with dodgy placement so some of the tulips will be lop-sided but my excuse is the stems were stitched in place while I was still in plaster (yes that old excuse again!

Hopefully I'll come along again next week!

Hand piecing class

I figured since I enjoy having a portable project on the go that I should do a hand piecing class to learn properly.

It was a matter of bumbling my way through and hoping for the best before.

The class was run by Mary of Drapers of Mount Macedon and my first class was on 13 March - 13 days after my major wrist op and 2 days since I was put in plaster - well past my elbow!!

I managed well enough although I would have been happier if my points matched more often but then again I was effectively doing it one handed so I decided to cut myself some slack.

My delicious Aster Manor FQ bundle was used to make the quilt and it's turning out nicely!

Here is a pic of my block from Mary's blog:

OK I've succumbed...

I picked up a repro FQ pack today so I guess I'm officially doing a Dear Jane.  I don't yet know when.  I also picked up an Aster Manor FQ bundle for my hand piecing class.  I hoped not to have them both running at the same time but I might not have a choice.

Will post some pics of my lovely purchases soon!