Paper Piecing: Marvel Superheroes

I have this brother Stuart, he is tall and very geeky. He really likes Superheroes. Like, way more than a 30 something man should. (Like my Charlie and Lola reference there?)

Stu is the only person I know with a collection of Iron Man bobbleheads and he's raising two adorable little superhero loving boys who share their dad's passion. Either that or they just love being loud and smashing things. Could go either way.

He recently brought his family up to visit us and I was introduced to the world of Marvel Superheroes on PlayStation. The cries of 'Olverine (the W is silent, you know), and Hulk Smash! all week brought back vague memories of a conversation I had with the lovely Kristy of Quiet Play about designing Lego Marvel Superhero paper piecing blocks when she was done with Lego Star Wars.

So I asked her if she'd think about drawing up some blocks that I could test for her. I had visions of making cushions for the twins' birthday in May, then decided daddy shouldn't miss out either, since he had a birthday coming up too. Before I knew it, patterns for Wolverine, Hulk and Iron Man were waiting in my inbox, and I didn't even have to threaten to sic Thor on her (though I suspect she'd take that as a gift). Fabric was pulled and the fun began....

These are the Amish (faceless versions):

As usual, Kristy's patterns were awesome to put together. Some of the angles are a little tricky, but I got there. Aside from a moment of using completely the wrong fabric because I was too tired, I had no problems with these.

I mainly used solids, with the exception of a bit of yellow sketch for Iron Man's mouth and two mottled greens for Hulk (I figure his complexion isn't the smoothest.

Here they are with their faces on:

I used a Sharpie Stained marker and white fabric paint to draw their faces. Honestly, I don't know how painters do it - the angst I felt as I was permanently marking their faces was extreme. At least I usually have a seam ripper to back me up if I stuff up. But I think I did an okay job, and their intended audience will approve.

Now I just need to turn them into cushions.

Kristy is going to have these patterns available in her Craftsy shop as a freebie very soon.

Today I'm linking this up to Kristy's paper piecing linky party.

Tweet

Scrapbooking Update, January

While I tend to share more of my sewing antics around here, my other passion is scrapbooking. This tends to be a more personal endeavor as it's very much something I do for my family, but I thought I'd share a little of what I've been up to.

My work space is a large table that is used for either scrapping or sewing. Meaning I have to pack everything away from one craft before I start on the other. Therefore, I tend to either be 100% into the scrapbooking or 100% into the quilting, which happens to suit my Crafty ADHD perfectly. Plus I suspect it's more psychological than just the physical space issue, I'm mentally incapable of shifting from one craft to another. Does anyone else find that?

The first couple of weeks were spent on some heavy duty scrapbooking. I am pleased that I completed 30 layouts, some of them multiple pages. I am well aware that my style is very quick and simple and I'm not obsessed with the latest products (mostly), and this suits me fine. Quick means more happens.

I spent a lot of time getting the last of my photos from 2013 sorted and printed, and I spent hours going through my albums and making sure that my lists of what's in each album is actually there (yes, I'm THAT anal). I have started to scan my albums to pdf, my husband has an A3 scanner at his office and it's easy peasy. I should have done it years ago.

Last year was a very good scrapbooking year for me, with over 200 layouts completed. I got the kids albums mostly up to date and made progress on the family albums. This year I'm on track to make more progress with the family albums - this month I finished 2007 and most of 2008 (yes, I am aware it's 2014, at least I'm getting somewhere).

I'm really happy with the progress I've made so far, even though I have shifted to quilting in the second half of the month.

Tweet

A Plan for Creativity for 2014

Happy New Year!

I won't be doing a rundown of everything I made in 2013, because - to be honest - I sucked on the documenting part of it. Scrapbooking took a lot of my creative time in 2013, and I produced over 200 12x12 layouts and kept up on Project Life. I am more than happy with that. Quilting took a backseat with only four quilts finished, but I made over 20 blocks for others and worked my way through more projects. All in all, a good creative year.

For the last couple of weeks I have been spending a lot of time thinking about my plans for 2014. I have adopted a 'word' for the year - Simplify. This will take me through work, housekeeping, parenting, crafting, shopping, finances, cooking... all facets of my life.

From a creative point of view, I have mapped out a rough plan for the year. No doubt I'll deviate, but it's good to go in with a plan....

1. I'm on a craft buying ban - no fabric, no scrapbooking supplies. I will USE THE STASH! The only exceptions to this are blades/adhesives/batting/thread/photo processing/backing fabric (as a last resort). I am staying accountable with the Fabriholics Anonymous group.

2. I am continuing Project Life for 2014 but streamlining to make it simpler. I will be printing a month's worth of photos at a time and doing my weekly PL layouts once a month. I will scrapbook one set night a week and organise/scan photos and memorabilia one set night a week. (I am still 'catching up' on all this, but in time I will not need to dedicate as much time to this.)

3. As I shift my focus to quilting, I am aiming to finish more projects. My WIP pile, without going into too much detail, is such that I can set myself the task of finishing piecing one top a month and quilting and binding one quilt a month and I'm not going to run out of things to do any time soon. To keep myself motivated, and accountable, I am joining A Lovely Year of Finishes 2014. I am not saying I won't start anything new, as long as I finish it too...

4. I have reduced my Bee committments to my Wombat Stew paper piecing bee. I have found that participating in lots of bees or BOMs is not for me (no matter how tempting they are) and I have decided to simplify to a single bee with my quilting besties. I love making things for other people, but I like making things for these girls the most.

5. I want to encourage my girls to craft more. I will work with them on their sampler quilts and let them have free reign on my stash.

6. In the interest of slowing down and making progress, I'm going to dig out my Dear Jane - the ultimate WIP! - and do some hand piecing.

7. I will give this blog, and finding my place in the online quilting world, a bigger effort. I also want to work on my own designs.

8. I will not compare my blog, work or productivity to other peoples, even my friends. This is my journey and not a contest.

So to start, my goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes for January is to bind the four (!) quilts I have sitting around that only need binding. And I'm going to decimate my mending pile and sort out the Girl Guide badges too.

- Jane

Tweet

Fabriholics Anonymous - Fabric Fasting in 2014

Have you seen that Jess of the Elven Garden and Rebecca of Making Rebecca Lynne are hosting a six month fabric buying ban starting January 1? For me, the timing on this is pretty well perfect. 

Now I'm on holidays from work and doing the end-of-year mad-dash cleaning and organising, I'm reflecting a lot on the concept of simplicity and having and needing less. I'm a stuff person, as is reflected in my stash, so this is not an easy road for me. And I can fully justify that most of my discretionary income is spent on craft supplies... but if I have more than I need (honestly) then why not save that money instead? 

I haven't bought a massive amount of fabric this year, but I have bought some. I am not obsessive about new lines and particular designers, but I am a sucker for a good sale. I have cut back on my blog reading this year and this has helped a lot with not knowing about all the latest lines and wanting them - ignorance can be bliss.

So here's the stash.... 
And yes, I am super anal-retentive about the organisation of my stash. 

The multicolours and warms

The cools

The neutrals

Scraps sorted by colour

Random little scraps and solid scraps

So that's what I have to work with.... plenty. Even with not buying much this year, I also haven't had a lot of time for quilting this year, so the stash is growing faster than I can get through it. I still have a huge pile of UFOs kicking around the craft room too. 

In addition to quilting, I also scrapbook, which has been taking most of my creative time this year - I am making good progress on my albums and can see a time in my future when I am pretty well 'caught up' which is really exciting. But of course, I also buy scrapbooking supplies too, and my buying ban would extend to that. 

So with this in mind, I am pledging to stop buying craft supplies. Full stop. Which is scary as hell. I am following the fabric fast rules, below. 

The only exceptions to the fast will be to buy batting and maybe backing fabric (big maybe as I have yardage of some solids and should be able to pull something together) and possibly thread, though I have plenty. On the scrapbooking front, I am allowing myself to buy adhesives, blades and page protectors and I will continue to print photos regularly.

GOALS:

- To use the Stash I already have!

- Finish UFOs without distraction by shifting to other new beautiful fabric.

- Stop the insanity of constantly buying the latest and greatest fabric.

- Save the $$ I spend on stashing.

- Destash the fabrics that I realize I am never going to use.

FABRIC FAST RULES:

1) No fabric purchases for 6 months beginning January 1, 2014.   

2) At 6 months reevaluate status and decide whether to keep going for full year.  Evaluation July 1, 2014.

3) Create a UFO list and complete them!

4) Exceptions

• Backing: purchasing a backing to finish a quilt top is permissible.  However, attempting to use fabric in your possession for a backing is preferable.
• Books and Magazine purchases are allowed as they are not fabric.  Notions acceptable too.
• Swap Mama Fabric: if hosting a swap you are permitted to by fabric to execute swap duties, but you may not join a swap simply for the sake of being able to buy fabric!
• Quilts for Publication: if you are making a quilt for a publication and need certain fabric to execute it correctly then that is a major exception - who can blame you?

I'm joining up to the linky party and will report back regularly. Wish me luck!

- Jane

Tweet

Sunday Stash - One Last Big Haul

I have been pretty good with fabric buying this year and actually only did two big internet orders - one from the US and one within Australia. As fate would have it, they arrived a day apart, which meant for a very big fabric week!

These parcels were both bought on very good sales, and lots of the fabric was clearance - my goal was to do some stash building. I bought from Hypernoodle Fabrics in the US, who not only had a significant discount on all stock, they also offered international shipping at domestic rates. I'd never bought anything from there before, but their service was great and I found their website very easy to navigate. I also bought a nice selection from Craft Depot in Sydney, who I have visited IRL a few times as they are two suburbs away from my dad's place. I usually stop in there when I'm in Sydney and check out their extensive range of $9.99m fabrics. Their website is also nice to navigate and the postage was pretty good too.

Wanna see what I got?

I'm always looking to add to my low volume collection.

Some Jennifer Paganelli goodness. In all the colours. And on sale no less!

Random warm tones for stash building.

Random neutrals for stash building.

Random cool tones for stash building.

I don't often buy multi-coloured prints, but these were all irresistible.

Dandelion goodness in my girls' favourite colours.

Girl #2 love purple. Since good purples are hard to find, I always, always buy it when I see good stuff. 

More neutral goodness.

And a few more pretty little stash builders.

Chevron meets sketch... what more could you ask for? 

 A lot of these prints are typically me, blenders in geometric patterns seem to make my heart sing. But one thing I'm pleased with is that a lot of them are a bit lighter or darker than I would usually choose, and I am really glad I am extending my tonal comfort zone.

This will be the last Sunday Stash post out of me for quite some time... now I've had this little binge I've decided that next year will be time for a fabric diet - but that's something for another post.

Meanwhile, I'm linking up with the lovely Fiona, who is hosting her second last Sunday Stash before handing the reins over to Molli Sparkles in 2014.

I

Tweet

Sunday Stash - Blender Love

Just a little something for Sunday Stash this week. I spotted these basics at Spotlight the other week for just $10 a metre (cheap for Australia!) and decided when they went on sale I'd get some - as Spotlight always has sales I didn't have to wait long, all fabric was 30% off this week. So for $7 a metre, I scored me some useful little blenders.

They had a few more colours, but I just grabbed the colours I liked most and needed in my stash. (*Cough cough*, like I NEED anything in my stash).

I can't resist a good oversize dot, or a chevron. Even it's just to hear my 11 year old say Chevron over and over again - for some reason it amuses her.

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE a good blender. A huge amount of my stash is made up of blender prints, because they are so very versatile.

 In the past I have got a lot of colour and white blenders, but I'm really happy to also me some more modern tone-on-tone prints coming out.

I'm linking up with Sunday Stash, over at Lisa in Port Hope this week.

Tweet

Working On My FMQ

Last weekend, when I was meant to be cleaning up the craft room (oh, how I love to get sidetracked), I finally decided to do something with the adorable teeny weeny mini charm pack of Sweetwater's Noteworthy that's been sitting on the shelf for about a year.

Yup, a year on the shelf, unopened, and suddenly I had to play. That's so me. But as I am working very very hard to break my UFO habit, I started and finished my new project all in one day. The end result was this sweet cushion:

Excuse the crappy photos - no rain in six months and this week we've had afternoon thunderstorms every day. No outdoor photography for me this week!

Really, this was an excuse to test out the new generic sewing machine feet I bought off eBay (here). Ever since I first saw a 1/4 inch foot that was the same width on the left and right, I have coveted one (some girls like shoes... what can I say?). And I have also wanted a nice, sturdy darning foot for free motion quilting. I looked for Brother ones that fitted the bill with no luck, so I decided to try generic. Naturally I had to piece something that allowed me to use both sides of my 1/4 inch foot, and then stretch my FMQ skills.

To be honest, I have been unhappy with my (not cheap) Brother's FMQ performance lately. Maybe it is my skill level and confidence, but it was getting me down. Since a new machine is out of the question right now I decided to try a few different things to see if I could improve results. Enter the sturdier darning foot and new thread - I used a Rasant, though I recently bought some Aurifil and Isacord to try too. I have been using Connecting Threads thread which is fine for piecing, but I don't think my machine likes it for quilting since much shredding, breaking and swearing seemed to accompany every quilting session. After a few troubleshooting tips from Gemma last week (really, who knew thread was meant to come off in a certain direction?) I was ready to go.

I am excited to say that this was my best free motion effort to date. It's not perfect, but in terms of running smoothly, using only one strand of thread until I ran out of bobbin, and a distinct lack of swearing, I am super happy with the results. The only thing I regret a little is my thread choice - it blends in so well with the fabric range that the quilting is hard to see. Sometimes this is good, but in this case I wanted it to pop a little more.

I quilted each plus with a different quilting pattern, pretty much just making it up as I went along. Old standbys - stippling and pebble quilting - featured, and I added a few more new designs, turning to Pinterest for inspiration, of course. I did organic lines for the border.

Pebble quilting is my favourite.

But organic diagonals has a place too.

Lines, lines and more lines the other way.

Stippling I can do, but I so want to move beyond it.

Loving the loop the looping.

I love the texture the organic stripe border creates.

Gemma is talking about confidence over at her I Quilt linky this week, and this is something I'm really working towards boosting in my FMQ. I know it takes practice, but I really believe the other factor is tools. Regardless of your machine, it is important to consider needles, thread and machine feet - these little things are making a big difference to my quilting. I love m new darning foot and I am enjoying playing around with threads to see what works and doesn't work in my machine.

 And on that note, I'm linking up to I Quilt for the very first time this week!

Tweet