UFO Domination 2011

The Confused Quilter has started a flickr group and given me just what I need.

My UFO situation is fairly dire and we got a bill for DS's school fees for 2011 last week.  We're still picking up our jaws off the floor.  Let's just say they're a little more than we expected!

So...I'm guessing quilt classes and fabric shopping will be one of the first things to cut back on.

I'm going to do the odd class and I still need to finish collecting Sandi Henderson FQs for 2 specific quilt but other than that it's stash shopping and UFO finishing!

Click on pic below for more info

I'm not totally certain which UFOs will be targeted or how many.  If I'm not realistic, I'll get all disappointed and discouraged.

Here's what I have so far:
Handbag quilt - needs unquilting, requilting, binding and test washing

Aqua and Chocolate quilt - needs basting, quilting, binding and test washing

Lizzie Mae's Medallion quilt - finish centre applique, piece blocks and assemble top (not
 quilting this as yet) (pic is of original pattern)

Max's Dinosaurs - needs quilting finished, binding and test wash

Max's car quilt - applique blocks finished, assemble top, basting, binding, test washing.  I'm using this pattern by The Country Quilter

My fabrics are quite different.  I first saw this quilt in a magazine made up by Magic Patch Quilting which is where I bought the pattern and mine looks more like theirs.

Max's Monster Trucks Tote Bag - finish cutting fabric and make it! The pic below is the original pattern by Natalie Ross that I'm using.  It will obviously be made up of non-girly fabrics given the recipient!!

 

DaChintzy Code Mystery Quilt - finish piecing (not quilting at this stage) 

Pinwheel Sampler - finish remaining blocks by hand or machine and assemble quilt top (ideally quilt and bind but probably too ambitious!)

Aster Manor Sampler - finish remaining blocks by hand and assemble top (ideally quilt and bind but probably too ambitious!)

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.

Pure Bliss

The weather is lovely and warm, windows open letting in the sweet spring air and i'm watching Jane Austen films and hand sewing while the boys are busy outside.

What could be better?

September Friday Night Sew In

Will be held on the 17th this month.

Click on the piccie above to go to Heidi's blog where all the info is!

I'm still undecided as to what I'm working on.  September is a very busy month in terms of projects.  I may try to do DH's potholder. 

If I have surgery in October as I'm suspecting then he wont get his potholders until next year probably!  Hand piecing is OK in plaster and machine piecing is do-able towards the end when the pain subsides but I don't dare quilt anything for months afterwards.  It's just too painful.

Actually I haven't tried machine piecing in a above-the-elbow cast.  Only did it last year when I had a smaller forearm cast.  Should be interesting given my Lizzy Mae is a monthly class until December and the remaining classes are all machine piecing!

Aug Quilt Block Swap II Arrived!

My second August Block Swap block has arrived!!!

Linden has sent me a magnificent block and fantastic quilty card.  I LOVE historical quilts and more importantly her block is stunning with 2 gorgeous fabrics.

Thank you for your sweet words in the card, Linden!  And don't worry about the sewline pencil - I've used biro on mine when hand piecing (not on anything to give away tho!)!  I think I even used it on the front of a needleturn applique! (gulp).  I'm sure it'll wash out!

Your points are perfect.  It's only mine I have issue with!  I honestly don't mind less than perfect piecing since I regard all blocks received as a gift and I don't look a quilt horse in the mouth so I don't want any future swap partners out there to panic!!

In other news:
I've actually been doing some quilty stuff this afternoon!  I can't remember the last time I felt well enough! Admittedly I have my first Lizzy Mae class tomorrow at Quilters Bazaar.

I've cut out all my freezer paper bits and washed my fabrics.  I learned two things:

1.  Small bits of fabric that accidentally end up in the washing maching with FQs fare surprisingly well!

2.  When this process is repeated with all remaining small applique pieces the above outcome does not apply to bias strips!!!!

I guess this means I'm making new bias strips before tomorrow!  I'm not too upset since I'd prefer brown ones anyway.

I have also traced the applique pattern onto the background fabric (more or less straight - hopefully it will square up OK) with he aid of a large north-facing window and of course micropore tape!

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!

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!

Dear Jane gets a mention

But hardly more than that!

I've been meaning to take some pics of my fabrics so I can keep tracks of what I have and what I need more of.

The quality is awful since it had to be done with my phone but here goes.

The browns and tans:

Yellows and Oranges (definitely need more of these!

Blues:

Pinks and Greens:

Reds and Purples (a few more purples I think!)

And lastly the Fabric Inspector pays a visit:

I'm really looking forward to starting this quilt but ideally I'd like to join a group because I know I'll lose my mojo otherwise and I want to hand piece it and would like to finish at least one of my hand pieced UFOs first!

Meanwhile there is still a bit of shopping to be done before I have all my fabrics! ;-P

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!