Half a month of Sundays, and a Sunday Stash

I am on school holidays, which is very very sweet. I work at a preschool with a bunch of three and four year olds who are gorgeous, but exhausting. I relish the two week term break every 10 weeks. I have my three kiddos at home, but they're pretty self sufficient, and they enjoy the downtime too.

We've had lots on the go round here lately and I've been thinking I need a month of Sundays to get caught up. I don't have a month of them, but I do have half a month of them, with almost nothing scheduled. So we've been sorting, tidying, organising... general catch up stuff.

I do suspect, however, that I may already be planning on breaking one of my 100 Day Hustle resolutions - my mum is visiting and she asked for a new quilt. Who am I to say no? She will be providing the extra fabric I don't have in the stash, so it doesn't count as fabric buying, but I will be starting something new. But I very rarely quilt with a particular purpose in mind, and she hasn't had a new quilt in years, so it's okay.

And because it's a month of Sundays, which technically makes it Tues-Sun-day here, I feel completely justified in bringing you a rather late Sunday stash.

Rather late being the operative words, since this little collection came into my hands a few weeks ago and I've just been too totally busy to blog about them. As happens, two parcels arrived on the same day. And being the good little international shopper that I am, I had to pack those flat rate envelopes as full as possible.

First up, the full range of Stockholm hexagons, and the full range of Happy Drawing curly scribbles, plus a few other fillers to add to some of my other collections. I have been coveting the hexies and scribbles for a while, so when I found a shop that had both, I snapped them up.

And then a bunch of brightness that contained a fair bit of Patty Young, and some other bits and pieces. To be honest, I don't pay a massive amount of attention to designers so I'm not the kind of person to buy a whole line by one particular designer. I tend to buy lots of blenders, but I do love to get them in every possible colourway.

 Don't they look fabulous together?

Now I really must get on with some sewing because the sooner I get through my to-do list, the sooner I can start playing with all the beautiful new fabric I've bought lately.

Linking up with Sunday Stash

Jane xxx

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A Studio Restyle and the 100 Day Hustle

First, a massive thank you to everyone who commented on my TGIFF finish or linked up projects of their own - so many great finishes this week.

I have to admit, the exhilaration of finishing such a long term project has got me itching to get more done. Then this morning I stumbled across Kelsey Sews 100 Day Hustle and I am sooooo there. I really need to get some stuff finished, and she promises that if we work hard we'll get to start the new year with a clean slate, doesn't that sound nice?

So here are my goals for the last 100 days of the year:

1. Keep my sewing space tidy and workable.
2. Don't buy any more fabric this year.
3. Don't start any new projects.
4. Finish fabric storage boxes.
5. Finish Phoebe's bed quilt.
6. Finish piecing at least five current tops.
7. Finish quilting at least five quilts.
8. Empty the mending/refashioning basket.

You'll see these are pretty general goals, but I am trying to focus on where I fall down - buying fabric, having a messy space, the never ending mending nemesis basket and starting new things. The only quilt I really need to complete is my daughter's new bed quilt because she's now got a double bed and has NO quilt - the horror of it!

Meeting these goals won't get me totally out of the woods, but they'll be a very good start.

Linking up to:

100 Day Hustle

 This weekend, there's been some exciting restructuring in the Craft Room/Studio. We recently redid an little-used room into a study so my computer got moved, taking the desk out of this room. Then my husband had the idea of moving my crafting table out of the centre of the room and against a wall. It's fantastic, because there is now heaps more space all around.

The removal of the desk also meant I had a spare wall - design wall here I come! For now I've just tacked up a flannelette sheet, we'll see how that goes. If I need to I'll switch to batting. Hubby coped with the no-cost factor, but there was some muttering about 'another wall having more holes than a sieve in it'. He's a patient sort!

 I wanted to share the side shot of my craft table with you. These are similar to the IKEA Expedit shelves, we don't have an IKEA locally and I couldn't get them into the truck on my last trip there, so these will do. We topped them with two doors, nice and strong, pre-painted and cheap.

I am making fabric boxes for them using upcycled jeans and vintage sheets. Half the table is meant to belong to the kids, but we're going to have to work very hard to make sure a certain child keeps it clean. When the others say the mess in the craft room is 80% Brooke's, 10% Phoebe's and 10% Nathan's, they're not joking!

This is in the corner under my design wall and behind my machine - scrap central. The baskets contain general scraps in prints and solids. Those little boxes on the shelves contain scraps sorted by colour. The blue box is my regularly used sewing supplies.

I am hoping having my scraps on hand will encourage me to use them more.

And finally, measurement central. Two tape measures, one in inches because I'm a quilter, one in centimetres because I'm Australian. And I've hung my rulers on hooks, totally copying Quilt Jane's awesome idea with that one.

Hope you're a having a productive weekend in your creative life!

Jane xx

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TGIFF - An Oldie

Happy Friday, and thanks for dropping by. There's coffee and choc-chip cookies, I even restocked the fridge just for you! If you're dropping by from TGIFF, a big hello, and stay a while and check my little, very new blog out. Regulars, welcome back :).

Now, when some people talk about long term WIPs, they talk about things that have been sitting round for six months or so. Not me - when I say old, I mean old. Like, maybe a decade, but I'm not really sure.

This quilt was a BOM project back around 2002 or 2003. I mean, this is back in the days before blogs, if you can believe it! If you're curious, here's a link to the book made from the BOM, Moondance by Applewood Farms.

I started this project way back then, when my kids were small or not even around at all (and the baby is 8 now). I love these blocks, they're very intricate and some of the most complicated piecing I've done so far. I love the colours too, my only regret (live and learn) is the lack of values in my print selection. I didn't have enough contrast in the prints and it all sorts of washes in together, which doesn't do the piecing justice. This is why value is so important, peeps!

I got most of the blocks made years ago, then put them away for a while very long time. Then I pulled the project out again and decided that while it's a beautiful pattern it was more than I wanted to tackle. So instead I just turned it into a regular sampler and used the scraps to make a strippy border. Then I put it away again (recurring theme here). 

Fast forward another rather long while and I decided to baste it. Which is how it sat for another year or so. Then I walked past it last Friday and suddenly decided it was time to get this baby finished.

After much pondering (browsing Pinterest and Google), I decided to do a fun, improv loop the loop style. I nearly went for good old stippling a million times, but I'm glad I decided on something different. The quilting is far from perfect (especially on the back which I am strategically not showing you) and I did have to unpick a great chunk when the bobbin turned evil on me. There were some hairy moments (ha ha) when I felt like I was quilting though a persian cat - quilters should not have long haired fabric loving kitties! - and I was a bit rusty for a while, but even still it was less than an evening's work. Seriously, 10 years in the making and it's finished off in a night. When will I ever learn not to procrastinate? Then I bound it in black, and here it is.

Don't mind the somewhat dodgy pictures, my quilt holders are all fast asleep under their other quilts.

Good thing I'm doing TGIFF and needed a finish, otherwise I reckon this quilt would be kicking around for another 10 years. Now, it's going into the wash and then onto the lounge to do duty as a snuggly quilt. This has at least motivated me to revisit my older projects and get them finished.

Thanks for stopping by - Jane xx

Now it's your turn - link up here!

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TGIFF - Coming soon

It's been a hectic few weeks around here, but I am finally getting on top of the mountains of everything that's been going on lately. Except the laundry mountain, that's still more like a mountain range.

This Friday, I'll be hosting TGIFF - which stands for Thank God It's Finally Finished and right now I'm not sure if that statement refers to a sewing project or the whole school term... possibly the latter. I am very much looking forward to two weeks holiday and hopefully some sewing time.

I am excited that in the midst of the crazy I've been able to get a very long term project finished. I had planned on doing something else for this deadline, but then I looked at my stack of quilt tops and decided I should really quilt something that's been lying around for years (I kid you not).

Come back Friday for full details and some pics of the finish - not sure how good they'll be as we've had rain the last couple of days, but after weeks and weeks of dry the wet is a very welcome change.

See you Friday!

TGIFF

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A bit of this and that

Life is a little overwhelming right now, and I'm trying not to focus on everything that needs to be done between now and the spring school holidays in 3 weeks time just in case my head explodes doing so.... but between work, freelance writing, additonal paperwork for work, study, school plays, kids camps, renovating a study and a bedroom or two, not to mention two months worth of quilt block commitments.... it's doing my head in.

But that's enough keeping it real - today I wanted to share a quick Studio Snippet with you, and one of those sparks of inspiration for a new quilt (which I'll get to one day, eventually).

This is a little wall in my craft room between the hallway and the kitchen door. It's the perfect home for my vintage Pinnock treadle machine, which may or may not be functional. (I've never used it!)

Hanging above is the thread holder that my very clever husband and his three little helpers made me recently. I love it!

On top is a little collection of notions and my jars of selvedges. 

It's a happy little corner.

I also wanted to share a piece of inspiration with you - Diane at From Blank Pages has a cute little linky party happening called From Blank Pages where you can share the beginnings of projects.

A few months ago when we were on holidays in Queensland, we kept driving past this cool sculpture on a street corner. I eventually got around to snapping a pic out the window with my phone. However, I must have had the phone upside down at the time, and while I can rotate it on my computer, it won't load the right way up. So please just turn your head and imagine the grass is on the ground, okay?

Now can't you just imagine a quilt made of lots of solid bars at different heights, floating on a white background?

To top it off, we got to our hotel on the same holiday and this is the decoration in the foyer. It is, of course, the quilting for the negative space on the above quilt, is it not? I'm not sure if I should be concerned that nobody in the family batted an eyelid when I took a photo of it.

So one day I'm going to get around to raiding my solids bin and making this funky little quilt!

I love it when you find quilty inspiration in unusual places, don't you?

Hope everyone has a fabulously stitchy weekend, I am hoping for a bit of time to catch up on some stuff on my to do list.

Linking up to From Blank Pages

xxx Jane

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Practically Paper Piecing Giveaway Winner

Just a quick note, since it would seem that real life is getting in the way of all my creative fun this week.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my Hunger Games paper pieced quilt and entered the giveaway.

So the premise of The Hunger Games is 24 kids go into the games, one comes out. Echoing that, I had 24 comments, and only one victor! I haven't figured out random.org or the like yet, so my method of drawing was to ask my completely impartial friend who I was chatting with on Facebook to pick a number between 1 and 24 (I'd have asked my kids, but they're in bed and would probably have to be bribed with something anyway).


And she chose #7, so the lucky winner of the Carol Doak book, Show Me How To Paper Piece, is Gill, who said:

GillAugust 15, 2012 12:56 AM

Wow! I like the red block best!
Thanks for all the tips! I'm new to paper piecing!

I like the red block best too, Gill - I'll be emailing you! Congratulations!

Jane

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Sunday Stash

Oh boy, it would seem I've been on a bit of a fabric bender again....

Okay, not totally, maybe a bit more like everything's arriving at once (except the two parcels that haven't arrived yet, but shhh about those). And I can seriously justify it all. I am full of excuses.

This week saw the arrival of another Travelling Stash swap, this one was a little FQ swap in a 500g postbag. I took 8 FQs out and put 8 new ones in.... hardly counts as new fabric when you do it that way does it?

I also joined a rainbow charm swap a while ago and got my charms back from that. Luscious colours and a serendipitous little collection, since I have nearly used them all up on the perfect project already. Again, since it was a swap it's not exactly new fabric.

Then I was at Quilt Group today and Kristy gave me my bit of an order we did together... when you're sneaking in on the end of someone else's order to help them fill their flat rate envelope to maximise postage then that doesn't really count, right? Okay, maybe I'm stretching it now...

Then Marieka lovingly shared some of her new Denyse Schmidt prints from Spotlight. Our Spotlight has a 1 metre minimum cut on clearance fabrics which drives me nuts because I don't want yardage these days. So it was very nice for Marieka to share.

Marieka also had an order from overseas and helped me feed my Lizzy House Pearl Bracelets obsession. The front three fabrics I already had, the back ones are new. Kristy also got me a FQ of the pink, though that one was meant to be lavender, oh well. Since these are one of my must have fabrics, I don't mind how much I have of it.

There was a bit of new bargain fabric coming in via my destashing group on Facebook, which I really must stop looking at since I'm not actively destashing my stuff at the moment.

And the biggest bonus - a total surprise - was the "Free to Good Home" fabric that showed up at quilt group today. One of the ladies had been given a huge packing box of fabric from a friend, and she bought it in for us to pick through. Okay, it's old school and it smelt musty (anyone know how to get that smell out, it still smells after washing), but there were some gems in there. Lots of solid and some great prints. Now I'm doing more paper piecing and more scrap quilting, I am learning to look at all fabric for its potential. There were plenty of bits I took with my Harry Potter quilt in mind, because a lot of my stash won't work for that kind of project. And they were lots of small, scrappy bits, which is totally what I'm into at the moment. There were some great old-style selvedges for my collection obsession too. Happy, happy days! Astoundingly, hubby wasn't happy to hear about more new fabric, even when it was free!

This photo totally doesn't do it justice, it just needs a little TLC before I  can share it with you further.

So all in all, a great week for stash building, and not too much money spent either.

Linking up to Fiona at Finding Fifth as usual.

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