Love is all around

A new colour scheme for Project Spectrum this month: green, yellow and pink. How appropriate that I have just finished this baby quilt! I did one in blue and green earlier that worked out very well, I think. When I needed one for a baby girl I decided to use the same pattern, but I'm not quite sure about this one. I love the combination of pink and yellow, but the colours are probably too similair in value for it to work as well as the previous one did. Or maybe the pink fabric is too busy. With the blue one you really get a 3D-feeling with those squares and frames popping out, but not as much in this one, though. I still like it - nice colours and as you can see from the close-up, it's full of love ;-) and that's what a baby girl needs, right! The colour goes well with her name as well - Ruby. No jokes about "Ruby don't take your Love to town" please, though that song has been spinning around in my head while I've been quilting. Let's stick with "Love is all around"!
There's more pink in store for this month as well, as I'm happily quilting my Amy Butler quilt - yes, finally! It's been waiting in the wings for far too long, but I'm getting there now. It's a reversible quilt - both sides are pieced, so it was a nightmare to line up straight on my own. When shall I learn to ask for help? I spent Saturday at the quilt shop (where thay have large tables in the back room) helping a friend to layer and baste her bed sized quilt, and it was such a breeze, there being two of us for the job. Remind me that I ask for help on my next quilt!
I've been doing a lot of small projects lately, and that's not really "me" so it's about time that I get back on track - lots of lovely fabric waiting for the projects I have planned for them, and my sewing room is organized enough to have space to work, but not so much that it kills the creativity. I'm hoping to get a head start this Easter with a few days off from work. Just one more day at the office and my sewing machine and I are off on our next jaunt!

Old work, new work

With the purchase of all that new fabric lately, I really needed to tidy up a bit, and you know what happens then, don't you? Of course: all those UFOs appear! I'm not talking about extra terrestrials or anything weird like that, but those pesky UnFinished Objects that have been lurking in teetering piles of stuff. What I found this time was a lot of stitching. Five pieces in fact! They were all finished as far as the stitching went, but needed to be framed or finished one way or another.

This sampler is from an embroidery class I took a while ago and is full of French Knots, Lacy Daisies, Seed Stitch and Bullion stitch – a nice way to try out all those stitches and keep them for easy reference later. I found a floater frame at a sale, which I thought was just perfect and decided to stretch and mount the piece myself. It turned out that the frame was too big, but after considering it for a while I ended up cutting the mounting board to the size of the back-opening in the frame, cut another, larger piece of mounting board to stick to the back of the frame to hold it in place, and covered the holes for the screws with buttons. I’m quite happy with the result!

This kitten was stitched during a long summer of convalescence three years ago. A serious infection in my leg left me fairly immobile for the whole summer and in between hobbling to the loo and to the kitchen to get drinks of water all I could do was read and stitch. I have never finished a cross-stitched piece so fast before, but once it was done and I was back on my feet again I couldn’t stand the sight of the poor thing. Now, when I came across it again, I realized that it was quite sweet and really deserves a space on my wall somewhere.
I also had two pictures of cat’s eyes (one domestic and one wild) lying about. I had thought that because of the dimensions of these I would have to have mats and frames made especially and that would be quite expensive, so I hadn’t worked up the courage to inquire about it yet. However, at the same sale as the first one I found two photo frames I decided I could use. There was not enough fabric around the stitching, so I stitched a strip of green leaf fabric and a strip of black fabric top and bottom of each and used that to stretch around the mounting boards, and it worked out quite well. Ideally the frames should have been wider so there could have been some “air” at the sides of the motifs as well, but I decided to go with what I had, and now the pictures are up on my walls instead of lying unfinished in my workroom. There is one piece yet to go, a blackwork picture of five cats (Why on earth have I been buying all those cat patterns?), which will become part of a small quilt for a friend. I have just the right fabric to go with it – hmm; maybe I should get started right away…

On to an entirely different subject: My mother and I visited an exhibition of the designs and drawings of Alphonse Mucha last week. I loved the drawings, but what really floored me at this visit was the colour of the walls! I have been looking for this exact shade of subdued blue-green for ages, but not been able to find it. Seeing it on the gallery walls and seeing how well it worked both in direct sunlight and in areas with more shade was great, and I knew that it would be perfect on my living room walls. I phoned the gallery the next day, and they were ever so sweet about it and came back to me later in the day with the colour reference number for the paint, so now I know how I’ll spend my days off at Easter!

True Granny squares

There has been a lot of talk about granny square afghans in Blogland lately. Thought I'd share mine. Crochet is not my kind of thing, I must say I prefer quilting, and I have come a long way from my very first quilt, which can be glimpsed in this picture.
It doesn't bear further inspection, as I knew nothing whatsoever about quilting when I made it! I had seen a small photo in "Better Homes and Gardens" or whatever, of a bedroom with a quilt on the bed, and decided to make one just like it (the best way to learn a new craft is to start with an enormous project, right?). The quilt part of the photo was about a square inch, so I had to do a lot of guesswork to find out how the blocks were put together. Then there was the challenge of finding fabric. Not the right kind of fabric, just any cotton fabric at all - it was that scarce. Eventually I had rounded up four different fabrics and set to work. Precise measurements and even seam allowances were totally unfamiliar expressions, and I ended up with no two blocks the same size. But with a bit of pulling and ruching and creative use of language, I managed to get them together into a quilt top anyway. I had worked out that there needed to be some kind of batting, but thought I couldn't add a backing fabric to the equation at this stage, 'cause then the stitches would show on the back... duh! So with a quilt top fastened to the cheapest kind of polyester batting with tiny pins I fought my mother's sewing machine all the way and managed to stitch in the ditch along most major seams, while scattering pins all over the room. I then added a backing fabric and tied it to the top at intervals with crochet cotton before rolling the edges of the batting into the outer border and slip stitching it to the back. I still remember the feeling of double knotted shoulder muscles when I was done, but I also remembered the pride of the achievement. It took many years before I attempted another quilt though, but when I did I had picked up a few tips along the way, fabric was more easily available, I found a guild, and the rest is history.
Talk about getting distracted - I was going to talk about that afghan! Well, I can't take credit for it, that's for sure. But while I was struggling with that quilt, my grandmother used all my leftover yarn (she probably realized that I would switch from knitting to quilting...) and made lots and lots of granny squares. She did a lot of crochet and embroidery in her time, but this was her last ever project, before she became to feeble to do any hand work, and she made it for me, which is why I treasure it so much.
I have made lots of quilts, but most of them for others, so I have never got around to making a new one for my bed. This old one is way too short (somehow it ended up much smaller than I had planned...), so I usually drape the afghan over the edge of the bed to hide that fact and to remind me of my grandmother's love.
So there you go - that's why I'm not going to make a granny square afghan - I've got the one my granny made for me :-)

Fabric, fabric everywhere

-but when am I actually going to sew anything...? I usually hate shopping. Not so when it comes to fabric, though. It is all too easy to pop out that little piece of plastic with the magic word "VISA" on it when I come across tempting pieces of cotton. I have great plans for some of them, but others are bought on a "need to have" basis.

The first group here looked so good together, I couldn't bear to split them up, and I decided they would look good in a table runner - brown, tan and cream with turquoise binding. The question was when I'd get round to making it, though. Yesterday I signed up for a workshop at my local quilt shop where we will make table runners in just the kind of technique I wanted to try out. I usually work on my own, and I could probably work out how to make that particular pattern as well, but then I'd miss out on the community feeling and fun of spending a day among people just like me - people who don't think of me as funny-peculiar just because I spend my time cutting fabric into pieces and stitching them back together again... So that fabric may rest until April.

I try to support my local shop, but the lure of the internet is there, and occasionally I succumb. I started seeing those "measuring stick fabrics" on blogs everywhere and just had to find them for myself. A quick search later I found them at eQuilter and in four different colourways too, so I just had to get them all!

I also came across those turquoise and brown fabrics there, and as turquoise is a colour I can't resist, I just had to have some of those as well. The one to the right got a bit too much light so it doesn't show up to well - I'll have to take a new picture. It has pieces of newsprint in a collage-style all over, and looks really great. I love fabric with any kind of writing on them: newsprint, numbers, measurements, "handwriting", whatever - I'm building up quite a stash of these. I have seen them used to great effect in Japanese quilts, talked about in Juju's blog a while ago, and I intend to let them show up more frequently in mine as well - because I will cut into them, I will....
The last lot was a clearance offer at my quilt shop and are part of Jan Mullen's great fabric line, which for some reason never was a success here. I love them and have used them to great effect before, so these will fit in quite well with the rest of my stash.

I realize that this is beginning to sound a bit defensive ;-) But I suppose that's to do with not finding enough time to do any actual sewing lately. I have decided to take a day off my usual chores today though, and maybe finish quilting that baby quilt I'm working on.

Off to the sewing machine!

Taupe

My quilt shop got a new line of fabrics last week. I have been admiring those Japanese taupe fabrics from afar for a while, thinking that they weren't really my cup of tea - "I'm more into bright and cheerful colours, really", is what I have been telling myself. But then I saw this bundle lying there so innocently...
"Hm, that's nice", I said to myself on Tuesday (when I popped in to buy a birthday present for a friend), "but I'm not buying...".
On Thursday I had to pop in again to get some pink quilting thread for my current project, and I noticed that same bundle again. "Hm, that's ever so much nicer than the others with those pinks and blues included" I told myself, paid for my thread and left.
On Saturday however (yes, I know - three days a week - I confess - I'm an addict!) most of the other bundles were sold, but "mine" was still there. And what do you know - before I knew it it was mine!
Not a big surprise really - I'm a pushover when it comes to fabric! So now I'll have to come up with a project to justify the purchase. I'm thinking handbag/tote or something - these nice subdued colours work so well together and won't clash with whatever I'm wearing, is what I'm telling myself. I have been noticing a lot of nice Japanese handbags in magazines and books lately, so now I'm on the lookout for a nice pattern. There was mention of a new book that would be in at "my" quiltshop this week - but I'm not even going in just to look - I think...

So far so good

I've been promising to post pictures of my scrap quilt, and here it is. The first twelve blocks are ready and I'm more than halfway on the next twelve. I decided to make it in batches of twelve at a time to allow for string piecing without getting too bored.There is something said for actually finishing some blocks so you can show them off - it makes it seem like you have actually accomplished something. The blocks are 11 x 11" and "extremely scrappy". I was worried at first, because I didn't really like the look of them up close, but laying them out on the floor and getting gut reactions from people around me has convinced me that I am on the right track after all. This was going to be a predominantly blue quilt (in keeping with Project Spectrum guidelines), and I think I'll use less of the contrasting greens, yellows and pinks in the last 24 blocks and then alternate them with the colourful ones I have made so far, to give a slightly calmer impression. I like how the varying widths of the strips set the blocks off from each other by not letting the seams match, while still giving the overall impression of big blocks.
The funny thing about piecing with scraps though - as I'm sure others have noticed before me - is that they multiply! I started with a full bag of strips. I have made almost 24 blocks and been ruthless about throwing out the smaller pieces and the bag is still full! How does this happen? The whole point here was getting rid of some fabric, but by the looks of it I can make several quilts from what I have left in the bag ;-).

Almost snowed in

I'm back from our quilter's retreat. We had a wonderful time at a rented house out in the country. The drive there was great - a lot of snow on the ground, but the sun was shining. Once we got there though, it started snowing... This is the view from the front door on Sunday morning. And then it snowed some more. The drive back home wasn't that great! Whatever happened to that greenhouse effect?
Enough about the weather, As I said we had a great time. Everybody just brought along projects we were working on and we all worked at our own speed, chatting and enjoying ourselves. No pressure, no deadlines, just a lot of fun. I got a lot of work done on my scrap quilt, so I'm nearly halfway there. I'm still not sure about it, but the blocks met with some "wows" from the others, so I might be on to something... Pictures later! We have already planned a new trip in March, so if I don't finish the blocks anytime soon, there's always a chance I might later...

Will this work in a quilt?

When I first started out as a quilter, I bought "scrap bags" to start building my stash, because there wasn't that much fabric available in the local shops, and I knew I needed some kind of palette to experiment with. I did use many of those early fabrics, but some I have never cut into - the shade has never fit in anywhere, they are too floral, too theme related (teacups, nautical flags etc) or whatever. I love blue, but it is not always an easy colour to work with, so more often than not, when blue is called for in a quilt I find nothing in my stash that I can use, and end up buying new fabric. While I have some turnover in most of the other colours, the blue crates were so full I'd need a shoehorn to fit any more in...
I have long been thinking about making a blue scrap quilt, and now seems to be the perfect time: a whole bunch of us are going on a quilter's retreat next weekend and I need a project. Mindless cutting and stitching while chatting away into the small hours and I could end up with a new lap quilt - that's the general idea, anyway. So I have pulled out all the blue fabric I know I'll never use in another project, added a few greens and some yellow and hot pink for interest and the result is this heap on the floor. Far too many for that quilt, I know, but I'll use as much of them as I can, and see if I can find new homes for the rest. The remaining fabric in the blue crate can breathe more easily and I actually have room to add some more...
What I have in mind is a scrappy log cabin variation from this pattern by Pie in the Sky. With lots of different widths of strips and a pick-strips-as-you-go attitude I just might make it work... Or Not.

Clapotis

clapotis
Originally uploaded by crafty mathea.

I was so eager to start using my new Clapotis that I almost forgot to show and tell :-) This is my second one, the first was knitted from a much thinner yarn and turned out quite short and skinny, so that's nothing to write home about - or blog about for that matter. I found the pattern at Knitty of course, but was not familiar with the yarn and I just couldn't seem to find anything similair in my neighbourhood. I loved the pattern and drape of the scarf though, so I knew right away that I wanted to make a new one. I ordered Lion & Lamb online, the colourway is Lakeview and I just love it! It is made from 50 % wool and 50 % silk and has a really luxurious feel to it. It is a bit brighter in real life. The second picture does it more justice I think - I'm still getting used to my new camera, and the heavy rain clouds all the time makes it difficult to take pictures (at least I hope that's the reason, not just the **** photographer!)

It turned out that I needed more than the three skeins originally called for in the pattern it has later been amended). When I discovered that I needed more, that colourway was sold out, so I had to do some detective work to find another online shop which carried the yarn, but eventually I did, and was able to finish the thing. So here it is, and I'm ready to face the world in it. If only it would stop raining...

Time to let go

It's really time to let go of Christmas now! All the decorations went back in their boxes up in the attic a week ago, but I have kept this picture up until today. Now it will be wrapped in a sheet and tucked away until December. I stitched this picture eight years ago - I spent a few years stitching it... so it must be at least ten years since I bought the chart - and it is such a treat to take it out and put it on the wall in the beginning of December each year. It's like the official opening of the Holiday season here, when this old friend comes out of hiding. I fell in love with it at a Needlecraft fair in London and just had to buy the pattern from Lavender and Lace. It was a real challenge to stitch with lots of different shades of red, gold thread and beads. I splurged on a really ornate frame - not the kind of thing I usually go for, but this picture deserved someting extra, and for Christmas it is sort of all right even if it is a bit over the top. I have been trying to get some close-ups lately, but the light just isn't good enough to get a good shot.
Well, we are way into the new year and I'll have a quick look back at 2006 and what I accomplished. The blog has really helped me keep track of all the things I have made, and I have had a look through the previous twelve months and picked a picture for each month and created this little sampler of my work. Not too bad I think! One of he real accomplishements for me was finishing the project I had going over several years of making bed quilts for all my nieces and nephews. Upon finishing the kite quilt for the youngest in August I felt free to do whatever I like in future.
Of course I keep adding new stuff to my "to do"-list, so it is as long as ever - lots of fun waiting in the wings! There is that Amy Butler quilt - I have finally decided on the borders, so that looks promising.
The "Café de Paris"-top I finished in June is still waiting to be quilted. I put it aside because I couldn't decide on how to quilt it, but why keep worrying about that? Better finished than perfect, I think!
Then there is that tree skirt that didn't get finished before Christmas. I have promised myself that I wil finish it now before I put it away, but of course something else popped up, like it does... This time it was the arrival of a dear friend's first-born, and such a grand occasion calls for a quilt, of course, so I'm in the midst of a new project. But I will go back to the tree skirt when it is finished - I have promised myself that I will!
And all the other projects I have planned? I'll do them one step at the time and remind myself that the important thing is to keep having fun!

New year, new habits

Let me begin by saying that I don't really believe in New Year Resolutions - not the ones about diets, exercise, giving up smoking or whatever (not that I am a smoker, but I have enough of other vices...). Why ruin the already bleak months of January and February by making life even tougher? Let's talk about that in March or April when the promise of Spring and longer days make such major changes easier. But resolutions to make this a colourful and creative period, however - now we're talking!
I am going to begin by looking back on this past year - my first full year of blogging and congratulate myself on what I have accomplished so far. The only resolution I have is to try to be a little bit tidier ;-) and this basket is one of the objects that I hope will help me with that. Behold my new craft basket! I used some of my scraps from the Amy Butler-quilt (still in progress...) to make a matching basket liner complete with pockets and all. So how is this going to help? Well, I tend to walk between my sewing area in the bedroom where my sewing machine, cutting board and my considerable stash is, to my comfortable sofa with my half-finished projects to do my pinning and hand sewing or whatever in front of the TV. And of course there is always some knitting, some sketches and notes about new projects and things like that, making my living room look rather messy.


So I have made this basket to contain all that mess which I move from room to room. It's pretty enough to sit on the sofa even when company arrives. (And once my quilt is finished it will even match!) It shows that I am in the middle of some creative process and that's OK, that's part of who I am, but it helps keeping the room reasonably tidy, avoiding the mad scramble to pick things up when the doorbell rings. And instead of the torn paper pieces and pink post-its scattered around I have bought a moleskin notebook to contain my ideas, and I'll really make an effort to be more tidy so that the mess doesn't impede on my creativity. (Big words ;-))Look, there is a New Year's Resolution after all! Weeeell, at least it will be a little practical help in getting there, but I won't expect miracles over night... Tomorrow I'll clear the mess on my cutting table so I can get started on a new project - a new arrival at the end of the year will need a little something to keep his cot warm - oh what fun, a new quilt! But first it's off to my Mother's for dinner.

From all of us to all of you -

- a Merry Merry Christmas!!!

The angelic guest

Bella aims to be the best kind of houseguest. Never intrusive, but prepared to be a good sport whatever happens. She waits quietly in her room in the morning for the family to finish using the bathroom. She has donned her new bathrobe with hand embroidered flowers over her gingham PJs that she bought especially for this Christmas holiday visiting friends in the country. She has a crick in her neck after sleeping in an unfamiliar bed with her hair wound round pieces of paper tissue and tied with ribbons, to give her otherwise straight hair some semblance of curls for tonight's party. - Now, was that the bathroom door? Yes, time to rush across the hall........ but, too late, one of the teenage girls beat her to it. Oh well, she'll just have to wait outside the door- one of the other guests popped out of her room at the same time, it would be silly to go back to her room now. And she may be an angel, but she is keeping her place in the queue, because she just has to go....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Old St. Nick is back! He has been hiding out in the attic since January, but promises of fresh baked cookies tempted him downstairs today.
I don't usually decorate until the last week before Christmas, so that it all will be new and fresh when the holidays start. That means that a lot of my homemade creatures and decorations are hidden away for about 49 weeks a year. When I finally get the boxes down and start opening them, it is like meeting old friends again, and I find myself chatting with them, asking them where they want to sit this year and comiserating with them about having been squashed together in a dark box for months and months - quite batty, don't you think?
Never mind! I'm still a kid at heart, and who wouldn't be cheered by the sweet little faces of these cherubs? Never mind about those chubby, less than perfect hands and feet.
And what about my snow family? Covered in artificial snow and getting all tangled up in those Christmas lights - who can blame them, having to make do with those akward branches instead of hands? And still they're smiling! I must admit I have a thing abut snowmen, so they tend to turn up everywhere at this time of the year. The great thing about them is that they can stay on a bit longer as well, since snowmen aren't out of season until March or April. These two seem to think they have been hanging in there for ages already, politely hiding heir yawns, but quite ready to go to bed in their little PJs, thank you! Yes, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here, but I still have boxes to get out of the attic, some cleaning to do and a few presents to wrap. My bathroom angels are almost finished, and I only have the binding left on my Christmas table mats. Now if only I could get the rest of the quilting done on that tree skirt I'd be ready for the holidays, but there's nothing like some last-minute stress and I might get there yet... ;-)

Bathrobes for angels...

It's the Twilight Zone here...
The weather has been so bad lately that I feel I haven't seen daylight for weeks. But that doesn't stop some angels from seeing the light of day - the little light there is...
Things seemed a bit akward at first, but these bits of wire sticking through her head didn't seem to bother Bella much. Until her eyes were added, that is... Then she started looking accusingly at me, so I had to help her with her hair. Lots of pigtails with ginham ribbons in them. She seemed happy with that, until she realized that she had next to nothing on - hence the blush. I'd better get a move on with her bathrobe so she can keep her modesty intact and get her a set of wings. Because she is to become a Bathroom Angel, waiting in line to do her morning "toilette".

Well, I did say that I wouldn't make that many Christmas pressies this year, but I just had to make two of these angels to go with the Sleepy Angels I made and gave away last year. I'm proud to say I have done most of my Christmas shopping today, so now I have a pile of books and other presents to wrap. I'll do some more baking tomorrow, and then I should be all set- I think... No doubt I'll come up with something I Just Have To Do at the very last minute. We cant have Christmas without some Traditional Seasonal Stress, now can we? But that's half the fun of the Holidays, isn't it ;-)

WIP report

My sewing space is a continuous work in progress - well, my whole flat is for that matter. It seems I'm constantly tidying, sorting and getting rid of stuff in order to create a more structured living environment. Living in a small flat is a challenge in itself, if you are a craft person - where do you put all your stuff? And if you are a craft person who loves books as well, it becomes even more of a challenge - books tend to pile up everywhere! I seem to be perpetually moving things from one location to another, and current craft projects tend to spill into other rooms as I move about, do a bit of stitching in front of the TV, or iron my fabric in the kitchen. When company arrives it's a mad rush to clear the living room of all the paraphernalia of my current project(s). That sometimes leaves my sewing space looking like this. I feel quite brave to show you this, actually, as it is a sight I rarely let my friends see. I have an ambition to keep a home that is tidy enough to avoid all that panicky clearing of clutter when the doorbell rings, and I feel that I am gradually getting there. This is a question of storage, and of actually getting rid of things I don't need. But as you can see I have some way to go before getting myself properly organized. I have started by getting these great boxes from IKEA. They are great for storing all the bits and pieces that a crafter needs to have at hand, but proper labelling is essential so that I find the things I need right without going through all the boxes...
So my current project is all about finding my sewing machine under all the stuff I have piled up on my table. I have made some headway in this project by sorting through everything, so far ending up with a pile of unfinished projects at one end of the table. One challenge now is to reduce that pile before starting too many new projects.
I couldn't help myself though, once I unearthed my sewing machine under all that clutter, so this is my current and new WIP: a basket liner with pockets. If it looks familiar, it's because I have used leftovers from my Amy Butler quilt (still in progress). This is quite deliberate, I'm proud to say! The quilt will grace my sofa once it is finished, and I thought up this basket idea as a way of keeping my sewing equipment in one place when I bring it into the living room to do a bit of hand stitching, knitting or whatever in front of the TV. I have found a nice sea grass basket, which is big enough to hold a few projects, as I tend to work on more than one thing at a time, and with the new quilt and matching basket, things should look a bit more tidy when company arrives. And the process of getting more organized continues as my biggest WIP...

Present production

I have started my Christmas preparations. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not going to make a lot of presents this year - I have had to many holidays being stressed out because of all the tasks I have given myself to finish before the event only to find myself completely knackered at the end and the holidays being over before I have had a chance to enjoy them. But I have made a few presents. These two make-up purses for my cousin's daughters. They are 10 and 13 and I hope they'll enjoy affirmation that I see them as "big girls" now of the make-up wearing kind ;-) So their little twin brothers (5) wont feel left out, I have made them each a drawstring bag with their names on, stitched in "glow-in-the-dark" thread, to use for PJs and toothbrushes when going away or for toys - whatever!

We don't have a very large family, I only have two cousins, and only one who has kids, so this means that a lot of the family presents are taken care of!
I'm making a "coffee-maker cosy" for my mother (you'll see...) + a couple of angels and that about does it when it comes to making presents this year, the rest will be bought. I do intend to finish my tree skirt this year though + make some christmasy table mats for myself. There won't be an awful lot of baking - just enough to make it feel fun, and that's about it I think. For now, anyway - knowing me I'll probably think of something I 'll just have to make one of the last days before Christrmas, but so far so good ;-)
Today is a dark and stormy day and the rain is pouring down, so there is no point in going out. Much better to keep my sewing machine company - I think I'll get started on those place mats...

I 've had a look around the shops and have been doing some research online for that new camera lately, and right now a Nikon Coolpix L3 or L4 are at the top of my list. I have also been considering a HP CM525 which is on special offer, but I'm not too sure - any suggestions? I'm trying not be sidetracked by those showy (more expensive) cameras by Olympus and Minolta which come in a choice of colours (always a soft spot for colours...) - it's the colours of my photos that should matter, right? Not the colour of the camera...

Bowls, boxes and more

I mentioned a while ago that I was to hold a class in making fabric bowls. The class went well, and in addition to the finished bowls I brought along I made some half finished samples to show each step of the progress. I put these away when I got home and forgot all about them, as one does... Recently they were "rediscovered" during the excavation of my sewing area and I decided to finish them. I even remembered to take a few pictures before I gave them to my friends at the quilt shop - they might bring in some more business that way - people see them at the shop and want to take a class... Crafty huh? ;-)
They are quite easy to make once you get the hang of it. I have used Fast2Fuse interfacing to make them sturdy and they are totally reversible.

We got enough time to make fabric boxes as well, and here's the one I made. Everything is from the books "Fast Fun and Easy Fabric boxes" and "Fast Fun and Easy Fabric bowls" by Linda Johansen (all my "students" have to buy their own copies of course!) I made several of these boxes last year as Christmas presents, so this year I'll have to think of something else - I have some ideas, the question is: do I have enough time? ...

I have promised myself to take things easy this year, no last minute sewing. I'm trying not to "overwhelm" my family and friends with quilted gifts, but luckily some of them really appreciate the stuff I make and to me that means they deserve it as well. I visited a friend of mine recently and found that the placemats I gave her some Christmases ago were torn to shreds - well, not literally, but they were showing a lot of wear and tear - proof that she has really used them and that they have seen a lot of spin cycles. She says she loves them, and the fact that I have spent a lot of time making them just for her. She is definitely going to get a new set this year. Wheras my mother's friend who got a tablecloth ten years ago and has never once used it because "it's too nice to be used" will not be getting another quilted gift from me! Most of the things I make are not art, they are made to be used and loved, and I'm not wasting precious quilting time on gifts for those who don't realize the time and effort that goes into these things.

And then there was nothing...

It was veeeery quiet for a loooong time...




I'm still here, though, but have not been in a blogging mood lately. Too much to do at work and little crafting going on makes it hard to think about a topic for a blog. But I have been doing some research, visited all my favourite blogs and tried to analyze why I like them so much. So far I have been very coy about myself and my surroundings, but I have realized that the blogs I like the most are interesting because the writers share glimpses of their lives with us, and maybe it's about time I start sharing as well.

If I have anything interesting to write about, that is... I'm still doing a bit of research into digital cameras (being a Scorpio I always do lots of research... - when I don't just throw myself recklessly into something, that is - I'm such a complex person... :-P ) , I would love to take better pictures - the on e I have now doesn't cope well with close-ups.

I have done a little crafting though - just finished a small quilt for my bedroom wall. I'll take a picture when I have got it up there and the light is better Right now my sewing area needs a bit of organizing (understatement of the year...) so I can find my sewing machine and get back to crafting again. So I'm off - see you later!

Remains

I have had a great week - last Tuesday was my birthday and I spent the day with my nearest and dearest around me. It made me feel really lucky to have these people in my life and having them care enough about me to make the effort to come from near and afar to spend an evening with me. Later in the week there was the monthly get-together at the quilt shop, old and new friends of all ages sharing the same interests, being generous with their help and inspiration - crafters truly are wonderful, giving people!
On Friday my big sister generously spent an afternoon driving me around town shopping for a new hoover after the old one finally gave up the ghost the day before my party after weeks of having dust bunnies stuffed down its throat manually. On Saturday my friends gathered to celebrate my day. I made couscous salad with lamb and chocolate mousse for dessert - forgot to take pictures before the party, nothing left to photograph after.... - and we spent a great evening chatting, drinking wine and laughing so much that my stomach muscles hurt afterwards.
And now the whirlwind of a week has passed. There's still some fudge cake left, and my old camera does really not make it justice - it's sooo moist and "fudgy", almost irresistible, I must say, and it really tells a lot about my self control that there is so much left of it still... I also got to bring out that old turquoise cake platter that was always on the table at my grandmother's parties, so she kind of took part as well. The wine will keep until more company arrives, though , I was never one for drinking on my own.
The birthday celebrations also brought some cash rewards, so now I'll stop moaning about my blurry photos - I'll just have to decide which camera to buy - lucky me :-D

More bliss

I did what I set out to do today, I finished my quilt top, and I like it! I was worried for a while because I thought all those florals might beat each other to death, mainly because everyone I have shown the fabrics to have cringed at the idea of using them all together. The more I thought about it the more I let myself believe they were right, and I put them aside for a while. But being a stubborn girl, I eventually got back on track, and I'm glad I did! This quilt makes me feel giddy and happy so who cares what "everbody else" says? I'll remind myself to trust my gut feeling in future, and not leave a project unfinished because the feedback isn't all I'd want it to be.
I pieced the other side a while ago, but that's a bit smaller, so I have to add a border to it. I'm not quite sure about that yet, but I'll have a few days to mull it over in the back of my mind while doing other things. My birthday is coming up and I have a bit of baking and cooking to do. I always use that day as an excuse to gather friends and family, and because I haven't got a lot of room, it means at least three days of parties - oh what fun!
Now I only have to decide on the menu, hm let's see, there is that raspberry torte, the fudge cake I used to make... mmm. Lets think of something else to give the old tastebuds a happy few days, something savoury for the girls' night... - I'm off to check my cook books!

Bliss

I'm doing what I said I would for once... I'm spending quality time with my sewing machine! This is my WIP at the moment - the back of my Amy Butler quilt, or it might be the front...
I'm planning on making this a reversible quilt, so I can choose from day to day which side is the front. The fabrics (from the Ginger Bliss collection) have quite large patterns, so I'm making big blocks - this one is 14" square. I have all the pieces sorted and several stitched, so I hope I'll finish it on Sunday.

Tomorrow I have different plans - I am to teach a class in making fabric bowls at my local quilt shop.


I made some of these ages ago, and when I took them to my guild's show-and-tell the only responce was a polite, scattered applause. That didn't worry me at all - people have different tastes, after all - and I have been using them to keep spools, fabric pieces, etc in when stitching at guild meetings ever since. Lately people have started taking notice and asking about them, so I talked to my quilt shop friends and we decided to create a class this autumn, and would you believe it: it is full! I had to make a new bowl to remember the details, it has been so long since I made the last one, but I'm confident that I have the details down pat now and we'll have a fun day tomorrow!

Is it still hip to be square?

Well my quilt top finally is, anyway! Square, that is. This is an excercise in using curved lines and has been quite fun to work with, until this morning... I had pieced the center, but wasn't quite happy with it, so I took the four blocks apart and restitched them. Much better. But after adding the triangles it was impossible to get the piece to be square. I kept measuring and cutting and would have ended up with a tiny yellow piece if I hadn't stopped myself. I started wondering about using Melody Johnson's escape hatch finish, but I had carefully calculated that my last scrap of that lovely floral Kaffe Fasset fabric was just big enough to use for the binding and would give the perfect finishing touch, so I was not going to choose that route. Not this time, anyway.
The solution was to remove the black triangles, cut the square in the middle with straight lines and making sure it was excactly square before stitching the triangles back on. After all my "adjustments" (not mistakes...) two of the triangles were too small, so additional scraps were added, and here it is.
I should have straightened it out a bit before I took the picture, because it does actually lie flat in real life. Now I'm off to find some backing fabric, and prepare it for quilting, and then it's on to the next pile of fabrics, to finish that Amy Butler quilt:

I went on a wild internet shopping spree when I heard that her Ginger Bliss collection was discontinued, and I have gathered so much of it that I have decided to make a pieced backing as well,making it a totally reversible lap quilt. I really need to add a border or two to this, but I can't quite decide on what I'll do. I'll piece the backing first, and then see how wide a border I need before I decide. The problem is finding colours that match if I go outside her collection. I'll have to get back to you on that one, the fabric is calling me back to the sewing table...

Still here...

Now you might be wondering where I got to. I have been rather busy, but I don't have much to show for it, I'm afraid. I started that piece with curved lines and was all excited about it, as you probably gathered from the previous post, but all of a sudden the air just disappeared and I was left on the settee like a deflated balloon. No energy and no urge to do anything "crafty", so I spent days cleaning and clearing up. But that was last week, and now the gremlins have been here so the place is messy again, but I have decided not to let that bother me this weekend, because the urge to create is back! It was helped a lot by the quilters' retreat I went to last weekend with some of my friends. We rented a cabin and had a great time, drinking wine and talking into the night. During the day there were classes, and I started this fabric collage.

Now, because of my creative slump, I didn't really want to go on this trip, but I had signed up ages ago and everything was pre-paid and non-refundable, so I thought I might as well go. And of course it turned out that it was just what I needed! Spend a weekend with 200 likeminded people and lots of beautiful fabric and quilts, quilts, quilts, and inspiration is your friend again!
On the first morning with a piece of batting like a blank canvas in front of me, I nearly walked away. But after having torn strips of fabric into pieces and started moving them about for a while, something clicked and I knew what I wanted to do. After a while I started wondering if I had piled on too much, but I decided to continue. I was just trying out new techniques after all, so I kept at it. After quilting the piece I cut holes into it and placed water-soluble fabric behind them before machine stitching grids to fill the holes. Now I have some more beads to add before I wash it and I'll take some close-ups. It's not exactly great art or anything, but it is a proof to me that I can work my way out of a slump by just going through the motions of cutting fabric and quilting different patterns, and that's what matters. The last couple of days I have been aching to sew, but haven't had time to do so, so this weekend is mine. Let the dust bunnies live; I'll be spending quality time with my sewing machine!

I know what I did this weekend...

You might think I was about to come out with some interesting tidbits about a hot date or something, wouldn't you :-D Sorry, that was just a teaser - I just had to share those great paper napkins I picked up at a clearance sale a couple of days ago!

Rather, my weekend has been spent in the company of this book by Japanese quilt artist Keiko Goke. I have had the book for quite a while, but was inspired to pick it up again after seing a quilt in the recent issue of Magic Patch magazine. The quilt reminded me of one of Goke's quilts, so much so, that there was no doubt in my mind that the quilter had been inspired by her work, although the article with pattern didn't mention this... I got the book out and found several quilts I had wanted to try out.
In particular this floral quilt which isn't too big and would give an opportunity to practice curved seams. I have been thinking about making something for my bedroom wall - I have two quilts there, but need a third to get the right balance. I decided to make one in similar colours to the ones hanging there already, and before you knew it, I was immersed in fabric and having lots of fun! The great thing about this approach is that there is no real pattern - I had the general layout and that's it. The rest is made up as I go along. The instructions (if there are any) are in Japanese, a language I'm not too familiar with... But I got the general idea, and have been walking back and forth between cutting table, sewing machine and ironing board all day (I keep my ironing board in the kitchen so I'll have to get up and move about now and then), completely losing track of time. I realized at some point that the yucky feeling in my stomach was due to not having eaten since breakfast, so I had to stop to prepare a light meal. Eating the slightly burnt chicken a while later (I couldn't just leave the cutting table in the middle of a block, now, could I?) I realized that I haven't had this much fun in ages!
Oh, it's great to have that creative vibe again after a rather lazy few weeks. Well, maybe not so lazy, but I have been telling myself that I had to clean the dishes/mop the floors etc. first, and before you knew it the day was gone. That won't do! I am getting my home organized little by little, but I need to schedule some more play time for myself, and that means jumping right in, leaving the dirty dishes in the sink. They won't run away, but my inspiration might!

And I really want to try my hand at something like this as well. Those curved seams are getting easier by the minute and I'm beginning to feel confident that I'll be able to do it!


This is how far I have got today, please ignore the wobbly bit in the middle; a slight adjustment with an iron, and it should lie flat. I'm going to add black triangles or borders tomorrow, I haven't quite decided. I was thinking triangles, but as my piece so far is rectangular, I'm not sure anymore. I could add a strip of blue at the top to make it square I suppose..., hmmm ..., now what if...
Oh what fun!