I finished this quilt. Finally.

I thought I would never finish this quilt, but today I did it. I started it back in August 2013 and thought it wouldn't take long. Do I always think that? I love it. I love the fabric. I love the circles. I love the flowers. I love the quilting. I quilted circles around (and in some of) the circles, pebbles in all the frames, and a large free motion flower in each of the "empty" circles.

In other news, my friend who I gifted this quilt to two years ago (I was surprised that it was so long ago when I looked back through my blog, it seems like the other day.) passed away last week. She lived across the road from us in Melbourne and it's a little bit heartbreaking that I couldn't just walk next door this week and attend her funeral. (We used to live next door to the church her funeral service was conducted in) The last time I spoke to her was in a paddock here. I missed her a lot. We had lots in common and thought the same way about lots of things despite a 25 year age gap. Just looking at the photo of this quilt reminds me of life two years ago. It was such a good time!

Circle Quilt

This is what I'm working on today. I bought some backing yesterday afternoon. Basting is next and then a little quilting and some appliqué. 

It's June, and I finished a quilt.

I finished the binding on this quilt on Saturday. It took me all day, which is not to say that this is a big quilt (it's not) but that I had a very interrupted day of sewing. Asher12 had his very first migraine as well and I was quite busy reassuring him that visual disturbances, numbness, pain and vomiting are quite normal for a migraine. I think I am safe in saying that it was the first time he had experienced such pain and he didn't like it. It was an enlightening experience for him!

It's hard to believe that it is June already. I'm not quite sure what happened to May, but I'm sure it's the same at your house. Even now with all of June stretching before me I'm sure it will pass in a flash and I will be bemoaning it's quick passing in four short weeks! We have the countdown of the last four weeks of term two happening here. Lily16 is in year 12 and is desperate for the year to be over! I have a dress to make for her formal (less than three weeks away now) so that will keep me busy I'm sure. We also have our son Joseph24 visiting us this month. We can't wait to spend some time with him! 

The weightloss progression has been slow of late. I am still concentrating on it and had a mental obstacle to overcome which took ages! I am hoping that now that I am under the 100kg mark that things may be more easy for a time. I have lost 24kg to date (30kg since we moved to Melbourne two years ago) and easily have that much more to go to reach an acceptable BMI. (Body Mass Index) Before I began the great weightloss endeavour my BMI was in the "morbidly obese" category and I have now progressed to the "obese" category, which doesn't sound a whole lot better! My Bradley assures me that it is and is encouraging me to stick with it! So, in June I hope to lose more weight, sew a formal dress (it's going to be red and ruffly!), and finish something else quilty. There. Goals. Better go get started!

A Ziggy Finish

A dreadful photo, but it's finished! (It has been grey here ever since I finished this quilt. Grey and chilly! I am sitting here loving my ducted gas heating as I write this!) I agonised over how to quilt this one. I over-thought it I think. Once I just started on the quilting it worked out quite well. I'm really happy with it. I decided to use a black and white fabric for the binding and really love the look it has given the quilt.

Back to my grey and rainy day. Luckily I have a spring fresh quilt to work on, that will cheer my day up. Progress photos to come!

It's Finished (finally)

I was rushing to finish this quilt today so that I would have some sunlight in which to photograph it. I finished it at 4:30pm and then promptly got busy and forgot to photograph it. This is the zig-zaggity quilt I put together for the care group of do. Good stitches. I quilted it with hearts and flowers. So, tomorrow I will photograph this quilt in some sunshine and upload it to our flickr group. So glad to have this ticked off my list finally. I stretched it way back in November. I think I have lived through a serious mojo funk since then. I stretched two other quilts that day in November, so they are next on my list to finish. So glad to have a finish in January!

2012, the reflective post.

Normally I have my goals for the new year all worked out by December 31st. Not this year. All of a sudden December is finishing and I'm not ready for January, which pretty much sums up my 2012 I think. It all happened well before I was ready for it. Over and over! (Every month!) I'd like 2013 to be different, but it's not looking good so far.

one of the new quilts I finished

one of the WIP quilts I finished

 I managed to finish two quilts that I started in 2012, and four WIP quilts. Halfway to my goal for the year. Twice as many quilt finishes as 2011 though so not too bad. It's hard to feel too disappointed when there has been improvement. I did blog much more in 2012 too which met my goal in regard to blogging. I'm not sure where my goals for 2013 will take me. I'm sure I will be posting surprise every month that the previous month is over (time flies!). I have a project in the upcoming January Homespun magazine which I am looking forward to seeing in print! Stay tuned for the 2013 goals.

This week. Gone in a flash, and a finish.

Pebbles, finished.

 October is slipping away! We have three birthdays this month in our family and all have happened which makes October feel done to me. Fortunately it's not November for another week because I have no where near completed my October goals. I'm happy with this finish though. I think I cut the backing and wadding for this baby in 2010, just didn't get it stretched! Pebbles is 41" by 58 1/2" and I'm going to put it in my etsy shop. I finished it up yesterday, but didn't blog it because I wanted to get it into the shop first. This morning I realised that probably wasn't going to happen today so figured I would blog it. (It doesn't really feel finished until I've blogged it!) So here it is!

And the back!

It's Finished! (She said with glee!)

My Bradley, right before holding it up

 I thought I was never going to be able to say that this quilt is finished. Hooray! So glad it's done because I was so done! Here it is, with it's Denyse Schmidt clearance special fabrics I bought from Spotlight.

Here you can see the quilting. Straight lines on the stripey fabric and pebbles in the border.

The squares were made by a bunch of teenagers as an activity at a birthday party. (Oh look! There's one my kid made!)  I am glad to be done. I did choose fabrics I really like thinking that it would be easier to finish if I liked the quilt. I think that worked! Phew! Now on to something else! (I have a list for October!)

Two and a half inch squares.

 Remember my Scarlett O'Hara moment this week? (fiddle-de-dee) Well, I had a bit of a think about these offending blocks (they are too small to make the cut for my do. Good Stitches group) and decided that they are not offensive at all, I just need more of them.

the offending granny blocks

So, in the spirit of more, last night saw me cutting out a whole heap more two and a half inch squares so that I can turn these cheerful blocks into a quilt.

pile, ready to sew

lots of squares

There are not quite enough little squares yet, but I ran out of night! (Pretty much night is finished at midnight and morning starts to happen at 12:01am - or so my son tells me.) Don't you love the spray glue and basting pins in the background of this shot? Like I'm just about to baste a quilt top or five. (Any minute now!) Of course, a new project is just what I need right about now. It's not like I have quilt tops backing up waiting to be finished or anything. Well, I am having fun, and that's what counts!

August, and I'm a great aunt!

I am a great aunt! I thought that statement might sound boastful, but then I thought about my blog and decided that pretty much the whole thing is boastful (I like to think of it as sharing my good things!) so this statement would fit in pretty well here! Last week my niece had a little boy. He was four weeks early which was a bit of a surprise! He wasn't on my radar at all yet. He was early, but well thankfully! He is a darling little brother for my great niece, which means that I already was a great aunt!

1930's quilt

Being completely unprepared for his arrival I thought I might have to quickly whip up a quilt for him. Then I remembered this finish which I had no purpose for. Someone commented on my lack of purpose and said I should put it in the cupboard and wait for a baby who would need it. Thank you commenter, because that's what I did and now there is a Samuel who needs it. My Sophie (Miss 26) has knitted him a blue and white cotton cardigan and we will post them off tomorrow. My niece is a quilter, so she probably has already made a quilt for him, but extra rugs are always welcome for a newborn I think!

As for the August bit, phew! It still feels like May to me and I definitely haven't completed everything I had to do in July, but I'm working on it. My sewing has been pretty much non-existent for the last couple of months and my sewing desk had become piled high with all sorts of things, sewing related and not! Does that happen to your sewing area if it isn't used to it's fullest capacity? So this week I have been wading through it all and tidying and re-organising my sewing space. Finally I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. (Why do things have to get so much worse before they can get better?) Wednesday saw me make a trip to Ikea to buy a couple of shelves to put in some existing pax cupboards that just weren't working hard enough for me. It turned out that a trip to Ikea was just what I needed. I love Ikea and all the inspiration that is to be had there! (Let's face it. In my lounge/sewing room where I am sitting right now there are only two pieces of furniture that are not from Ikea, the piano and my purpose built sewing desk I got a couple of months ago.) Now that everything is almost organised the temptation to stop work and sew is very strong. Trying to resist! Must get finished!

Yesterday's sewing...

Shhhh!

 So there is quite a bit of secret sewing going on here. This was yesterday's lot, and today I plan to sew a bunch more!

I did manage to quickly piece this starflower. I think I will piece this quilt by stealth. This is the third block. These blocks are really big, 16.5" square, so I won't need too many to make a decent sized quilt. But that's the question. What is a "decent sized" quilt? What is your favourite size?

A finish...

 I finished this quilt today. I am pleased with it. It is lovely. There's something magical about a quilt with many different fabrics in it. This has over a hundred different fabrics.

Reproduction nine patch swap quilt, in my front garden.

My Bradley held it up for me in the garden. I think he must have ape arms too! (See this post for the ape arm discussion.) I love the back of this quilt too. A fabric I have had for simply squillions of years. "Holly Hill" by Thimbleberries. I had exactly the right amount. It was like I had purchased it for this quilt.

The back isn't wonderful (the quilting I mean) but it is ok, and I'm still happy with it.

I love this quilt so much, and the bit I love best now is that it is no longer here. I have given it to a friend this afternoon who has been so kind to me. We have been so fortunate since moving to Melbourne. We seem to have been in contact with the kindest people here. My friend wasn't in when I dropped it off, so I hope she likes it!

My favourite photo of this quilt.

A closer view. The most interesting thing about finishing a quilt is the emotions you go through. Relief and happiness when it is finished, through to a strange emptiness and then a sudden need to begin something else. (Or finish something else!) I guess tonight I will be wandering around aimlessly in my sewing room until I settle on the next project.

Finished

I pieced this quilt sometime in 2010 I think. I had a use for it then, but not now, so I'm not sure what I am going to do with it. Nevertheless, I have finished it! I have quite a lot of quilt tops or almost quilt tops lying around. I get overwhelmed by putting borders on large quilts and by basting and quilting. This year is the year I plan to change all that! I am pleased to have another old project finished. On to the next one!

Shhhhh! Finished, one quilt.

The colours are much pinker in real life I think.

A blue with white spot back.

Lucky Mr 18 is 6' 5" tall with ape arms. (Those are his fingers in the photo above) Well, it's finished. I thought the binding would be quick (I machine bound it) but it seemed not to be so quick today. I will be posting it off tonight, it is a secret gift!  Glad to be finished it, and glad to have an old project dealt with! Must get something up on my sidebar to record my finished projects and remind me of my goals for this  year.

Treasure!

A co-operative quilt top by picklesticks and me designed by Christine Book.

I have been discovering all sorts of treasures as I unpack. The storage spaces I have here are different so I need to go through most of my boxes in order to get the storage right. It has been a lot of fun because I keep discovering treasure. This lovely little quilt was started many years ago by a teenaged Mrs 27 (picklesticks). It is from a Christine Book book of patterns. She progressed so far with it and then gave it to me saying she had no desire to ever finish it, so I finished off a little of the stitching and sewed the buttons on. The next step is to quilt it I think. This is where lots of my quilt tops get stuck. I really loathe the basting process and until recently was not confident with quilting at all. I have become more confident with my quilting, but still have to improve or 'get over' the basting side of things! I really like this little quilt and intend to finish it soon! (As soon as I finish this unpacking and setting up! And finish my Tis the Season quilt too of course!)

So pretty!

Two quilt tops in the making.

Some of you may remember that I am to become a grandmother again later this year. We know the sex of the baby and I picked up an appropriate charm pack from Hettie's Patch a couple of visits to Adelaide ago. I think it is Pom Pom de something? By French General. Anyway, when I was in Foothill Fabric and Threads more recently I saw that they had some of the same range so I bought some to go with my charm pack. Then I thought about it. I decided to make half square triangles and had a layout in my head, but didn't like that once I placed it on the floor. Tonight I arranged this layout and I think this is the one I will go with. I'm still deciding if I want borders. I will probably go with borders because I don't think this quilt will be big enough otherwise.
These are my finished Tis the Season blocks. They are put together like this in Natalie Bird's book. I am thinking sashing and corner stones and maybe some flying geese borders? Lol! Can you tell I have fabric left? I did go to Spotlight yesterday to get some homespun, but they didn't have any! Well, ok. They had brown. This so is not a brown quilt!!! Anyway. I'm still thinking about it. More sewing tomorrow I think. Sweet dreams!

I am in love with Moda's Bar Harbour

This is the layer cake quilt in progress. (From Saturday's class at the patchwork apple) The layer cake I used was Bar Harbour. I had bought a Bliss layer cake for the class, but left it at home. (And since I live about an hour away from my favourite shop I had to buy another.) So I started off with Bar harbour. The more I sewed with it, the more I liked it. In fact I liked it so much that partway through the class I bought another layer cake so that I could make a really big quilt instead of a lap quilt. So far I have just four rows together. There are another five rows to go. We have had a busy week this week so there hasn't been much time to quilt. I hope to sew tomorrow though. Roll on tomorrow!

Scrappy Quilt

I have been working on this small scrappy quilt. I was unhappy with it's size/proportions and so started on something else (After throwing this across the room of course. Gosh I'm grumpy sometimes!) which is how I like to do it. I work on something until I strike a problem. Then I start something new! Today as it hung over my ironing board I looked at it and thought about it. See, it's a scrappy quilt and this is all the fabric I have, cause they were just scraps. Anyway, I decided to put a border on it and even found a fabric to do it. I have cut the border out and will probably sew it on later tonight. So, scrappy quilt resolved. This happened because the other quilt struck a problem too. I so badly wanted to start a third project (starting is THE best!) but thought I should probably finish something! Anyway, the second project is a scrappy one too. I spread that one out on my bed this morning and after much thought have resolved that one too! I feel like a miracle worker today, although I am not any further advanced physically than I was last night. See, perception is so important! So tomorrow I can sew and sew and sew and sew.....

1930's quilt top.

So, this is what those blocks look like all together. I couldn't wait till tomorrow to share this with you so this nighttime photo will have to suffice. I love this quilt top. It is exactly what I have been thinking about lately. I am really pleased with it. I am thinking this will be another heart quilt for RMCH. Just have to quilt it now.

Brown quilt finished

I finished this quilt this afternoon and my Bradley was kind enough to hold it up for me while I photographed it. The patterned fabrics are an old Moda range. I bought a jelly roll (It was my first ever!) and used it, and used it, and used it. And I still had strips left. I had no idea what I was going to do with the leftovers. Fast forward three years. Mrs 26 (picklesticks) was making small quilts for a good cause (check hers out here) and I thought I would make one too. I searched through my fabrics, came across these strips and thought they would make a great small quilt. (80cmx80cm-ish) And it's not bad. I will take it round to Mrs 26's house tomorrow so we can send our quilts off. Sewing day tomorrow! Can't wait.