Fabric Play - Musings At 5am

So yes my day began at 5am....no, noone else in the house was awake, just me.

In the attempt to try and go back to sleep I started mentally planning my Black & White quilt swap...which then lead to thinking about skills I needed to learn...which then lead to curves.....aaaand yes I am now wide awake searching Drunkards path quilts on Google!!!

According to Instagram these were purchased via Massdrop in August last year! High time they were used and curves are mastered I think!

 Excuse the superlight pic...afternoon sun :)

Always choose the fabric first....done!

Now there are quite a few tutorials, and initially I was looking at glue basting....but then I saw that the master piecer of ANY crazy tricky block had a tutorial that showcased a technique void of pins or glue!!

Red Pepper Quilts, one of my favourite blogs and a super nice lady (Rita let me use her Hummingbird block for a Bee at no extra charge ) has a great pic filled tute that shows you exactly how she does it.

So while you're supposed to be cooking dinner....run downstairs to the garage and sew a block LOLOLOL

I must be learning something....test on not so favourite fabric first!

It was relatively stress free, shorten the stitch, go slowly and voila!!

About 1/8" out at the finishing end....I might've stretched the large piece just a smidge

Next attempt....starch the background.......beginning and ends meet beautifully...YAY!

I pressed the seams to the darker fabric and there was no resistance or puckering regardless of the orientation of the curve...bonus!

And although both came up slightly smaller than the expected 7 1/2" unfinished block... I'm pretty happy with the result

The curved seams match beautifully ....so starching may be helpful but not a game changer, at least not at this size....the 3 1/2" template could be a whole different ball game?!

So the next step when I'm not supposed to be sewing something else???.....is to get some more Drunk blocks under my belt...drinking may or may not be recommended after a few...

I will let you know.......

WIP Wednesday - Make Friends With Your Seam Ripper

We made friends, my little seam ripper and I

 

So now it seems

 



that I have

 



a new WIP.......sigh

 



 

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday

 

 

 

Work in Progress Peek - Buzzing Around

I don't know about you guys but I have a weird thing about buying magazines and/or books on my iPad....sometimes it's ok and sometimes I just have to have the paper in my hand...but I can't tell you what defines whether or not it's a must have in my hand or ok to have digitally?

 

image from Diary Of A Quilter

 

I bought this book by Amy Smart on my iPad.....I think this one was ok because I really didn't need another quilt book right now but the Title appealed to me so much and if it's not winking at me from my shelf I don't feel so greedy

 

Using this fabric for colour inspiration...trying to challenge myself by using Purple....very hard!

 

I'm working on Modern Buzz Saw from Amy's book...lots of fun! and it is a Fabulously Fast Quilt!

 

 

Easy to piece and so quick to come together

 

 

It's good to work with a different colour palette for a change it seems to keep me more engaged with the process rather than drifting off

 

I think I will change the borders...can never follow a pattern exactly OCD...but I want to highlight the black/white contrast...not sure what I have in mind will work but you don't know until you try LOL

 

 

Also April's Stashbee blocks....I know...very late and I've already done May's, but am not sending them until I've done these ones....they look finished but they're not I screwed up the size!!!

 

 

So cross with myself but I will be finishing them in the next couple of days just have to get the seam ripper out....grrrr...too busy watching TV and not measuring as I went, just like the kids?

 

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday

 

 

 

 

 

Organised Chaos - Otherwise Known As WIP Wednesday

It's Wednesday again...where are the weeks going???

 

Kisses blocks for the baby quilt are pieced and ready to go

 

  I'm hoping to have this sewn together tonight so I can drop it off to my longarmer tomorrow, mum-to-be would like a chenille backing and even Lady Muck won't handle that on top of wadding and a top

 

This is the state of my kitchen table as we speak...two projects being sewn simultaneously...that's normal right?....and your family eats their tea on their laps don't they??

 

When you're on a roll and the stars are aligning you just have to get jiggy wid it and sew, sew sew!

 

Super Crochet Woman aka my darling friend dropped off wee girl's larger sized crochet Bear Beanie...she would not cooperate for photos...or take out the "nummy"

 

 

And it came with these!!!.....CUTE!...and baby OneWeeBird loves them...so spoilt

 

 

I wonder if she would make me a pair.....If I make her a Quilt maybe....

 

linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday

 

 

And while we're at it pop on over to Lorna and Bee Social...it's a fun thing to do!

 

And...Fort Worth Fabric Studio Fabrics because it's Fabric Frenzy Friday

WIP Wednesday

 

Am I the only one who likes taking photos or looking at little piles of shnizzles...that's what I call the little shavings you get when squaring up half square triangles?

 

They look so pretty...even if the job is mind numbingly boring, but you are oh so happy with yourself when you sew them together and everything matches.......you know you smirk to yourself...No?...,just me?

 

 

If you haven't already, invest in a small spinning mat it makes the job sooo much easier when you can spin the block in front of you while catching up on all the TV you've missed and recorded but never sat down to watch and now the MySKY is filling up.....come on I know I'm not the only one here

 

The one I have is a Fiskars 8" mat and seems to be the best size for most of my trimming needs, anything larger I would do on my cutting mat.FYI schnizzles are from a WIP flying geese quilt, that hopefully I can show you some progress on soon.

 

Excuse the shiny weird night time photos...what's that about? This is a baby quilt WIP and it's to a colour scheme chosen by the new Mummy to be

 

Doesn't chain piecing and lining everything up in a row make you feel productive and organised?

 

She's a significantly younger mum than me ,cough cough and very arty and talented in her own right so I was surprised and delighted when she chose quite retro, vintage, granny chic colours.

Brown,Cream, Deep Salmon and a lovely green which on the colour card is called "Hippie Green"

It was fun going through my stash to see what fitted the bill, Bluebird Park lemon...perfect

Some FMF, Denyse Schmidt and a gorgeous voile that I forgot I had even stashed, with Kona Snow ( I think) as the complimenting solid.....I'm doing a kisses block with 5" squares and 2 1/2"solid squares, to get a not too skinny or chunky Kiss.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday


 

 

 

WIP Wednesday and Keeping It Real

Can you believe it's Wednesday again?? Actually it's Thursday Downunder but I've been behind since Friday it feels....Xmas is coming and so the paid job is keeping me very busy as everyone gears up for a holiday, which leaves me knackered like an old lady at night, but I have managed a little sewing

This is for my partner in DQS14, I used this tutorial by RPQ, Rita is a legend and don't be a smarty pants like me and not follow her instructions properly....didn't put the triangle down first as per instructions and started with the diamond so my seams didn't nest properly, but once I re read said instructions and did it correctly mine looked almost as good as hers....

Yucky horrible day here so photos are a bit yellow...sorry

This is Gracie Girl and some Architextures and the most delicious cross weave that is definitely not showing true to colour

Still not right it's actually a beautiful silver/grey...shreds like maniac as all crossweaves and shot cottons do I find, but the hand is soooo soft and delicious

Now to the keeping it real bit...kinda a telling off for myself...brace yourself I'm going to show you something...I'm not proud but seriously how can anybody work in this disaster?

Poor little Bernette no cover and now she has become a shelf??

Piles of fabric for future projects?/ Seriously when?

This was an organised sorted scrap bin under that disaster is a bucket full of neatly colour sorted bags....I know that you don't believe me

From a distance it looks creative but now you know why I'm only allowed in the basement!!!

So no more crossed off my list of WIP's but two added...please tell me I'm not alone in this ADD fabric behaviour?

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday and belatedly with Heather and Megan for Fabric Tuesday and Alyce for Sew Cute Tuesday