Made in a Day

Do you ever have those days when you want to put aside all your major craft projects to start something brand, spanking new?  You know that you have a gazillion hours left to finish on each and every one, so you want to choose new fabric or wool, or paper and start playing.  You want to sit down and go through the entire process in one day, and at the end have a finished product.  Do you have these days?  It's not just me being fickle, is it?

Sometimes it doesn't matter what it is.  It's simply the newness and the satifsfaction of creating something in a small space of time.  Well that hit me today!  What to make?  I found inspiration on my Pinterest boards from creative people such as Julie Arkell, Cathy Cullis, Jessie Chorley and Rebecca Sower.  Absolutely adore these gorgeous creative women.

I gathered some wrinkly linen, old doileys, buttons and thread and started sewing it all together.  This red button didn't make the distance, although it looks rather pretty here.  Any clues as to what I'm making?

 

 

Blue button instead of the red.  It's so much fun, just doing exactly what I want.  This stitch here, a running thread of red there.  One more photo, then I'll tell you what it is, or have you guessed already?

It's a cuff.  For around a wrist!  Purely decorative and fun.  To make a statement, of the Granny Chic kind.  Bit tricky to photograph without my wrist in it, but you'll just have to visualise how fun it looks!!

 

 

 

Okay, I'm happy now.  I have had a play today and thoroughly enjoyed the process.  I've started something, designed it, tweaked it, finished it ready to wear, and now I'm ready to get back into my long-haul projects.

 

 

Bye for now!

Trudy

Haiku etc.

the back was not shown

however did I miss it

horses running fast

 

A friend asked me what fabric I used on the back of my dolly quilt and I'm really surprised that I forgot to show you, because it is such a quirky piece of fabric and I knew immediately that this was what I wanted.  I purchased it especially for the dolly quilt, a piece just the right size.  How zany is it?  A horse race!!

 

 

Can you imagine how it fits well with the colours of the front?

 

 

I really, really love choosing fabric.  It's definitely one of the best bits of making a quilt.  Some people are scared off by it, but I relish in the throwing of fabrics together bit.  Thought I'd share with you a couple of hints and tips I've picked up when choosing backing fabric, so here goes :

 

It's on the back, so why not make it fun, a surprise even and not a fabric that necessarily matches in every way to your top.  I love this idea!  Every backing fabric I choose now has a slight surprise element to it and no more labouring over perfect colour choices.

 

If you've found a backing fabric you love, but don't have enough, use what you have and patch the rest, in fact make a feature of the patching.  Good use of stash fabrics too.

 

When starting out on hand-quilting choose a "busy" fabric on the back and your stitches won't be as noticeable.  Very good tip, who wants to see shabby stitches all over the back of your quilt?!!

 

Example of patched backing, in this case because I couldn't afford all stripes!

 

Can I share with you what I've just been playing with on Adobe Photoshop?  Colour variations for my Tri-Coloured Dolly Quilt, not that I ever need to make another one like it, all that applique, yikes!  But just in case ... (or "just in cases" if you adore the movie "Love Actually" as much as I do and quote from it!!)

 

 

Fun, eh?  Have a fabulously, colourful weekend!!

Seeya tomorrow.  This Blogtoberfest could do me in!!

 

Trudy 



100th Post Give-away

Hi.  This is my 100th post.  A great big thank you to all the people who pop in here and to those who leave such lovely and encouraging comments, and thank you to those who have hit the follow button too!!

One hundred times I've sat down here at my little table and babbled on and uploaded photos and hit the 'publish' button.  Hard to believe it's been quite that many.  I am enjoying myself immensely and feel very lucky to be a part of this fabulous on-line community and being connected worldwide with like-minded people.  So, again thank you, with a big "most-viewed post" Lalaloopsy smile.  Yup, lots of kids on-line I'm guessing and not you dear peeps going back to this post over and over again?!!

 

Most people who come visiting at my blog are from Australia, England and the United States, but it's also very exciting to see people from Spain, Belgium, Argentina, South Africa and other corners of the world popping in ... hello!!  My post about Teacup making brought the most comments.  That was nice.

 

 

Since beginning my blog I've taken hundreds more photos and am really enjoying playing with my camera, and hopefully improving my skills, looking at ordinary things in a different way.  Also by announcing that I would finish a WIP (work in progress) each month, I'm still on track because of your generous comments and encouragement.  Okay, and a bit of "yikes-I-haven't-finished-my-month's-project-and-I-need-to-blog-about-it"!!!

 

 

Okay, enough rambling and back to the give-away.  I have a stack of beautiful fat quarters of pale, dreamy cotton fabrics I would like to send someone.  Perfect to make a lovely, soft quilt, or whatever takes your fancy.

 

 

 

There will be chocolate.  Because we all need a little chocolate in our day!  And there is a little - handmade by me - vintage doiley brooch.   I used someone else's fine stitches in the linen and sewed it onto some lovely wool felt.

 

 

Please join in the fun.  All you need to do is leave me a comment to go in the draw.  To make this a bit interesting, tell me about your dream craft room/studio.  Is it a beach hut, treehouse, a little shed in the backyard, is it under the eaves in the attic, in the cellar, in the bush?

 

I think my ideal place to create would be in a retro caravan parked in a far corner of a paddock, which you had to walk through a field of daffodils to get to.  It would be filled with cushions and books, and maybe I wouldn't do too much creating in there, but I would certainly spend a lot of hours daydreaming.

 

Pop back on October 1 and I will pick a winner.  Go on, join in the fun!!

Trudy

A Favourite Quilt

With spring here, it was time to pack away my winter quilt and put on the bed a softer, lighter coloured one.  And this is one of my favourites, with lots of dreamy, faded fabrics in both linen and cotton and a few feedsack fabrics thrown into the mix too.  This one is called Faded Secrets.

The quilt had an interesting beginning as I had set out to make an advent calender.  I had carefully chosen all the fabrics from my stash ready to make little advent pockets, but when I saw the collection of fabrics all over the table I loved it so much I wanted it to become a quilt, not just something we brought out once a year.

It is a very simple grid of 11 x 11 squares, of 5 inches.  I love squares so much, but when it came time to quilt it, I wanted something a bit different, to make these quaint fabrics a little more contemporary and had the idea of quilting in circles all over it.   And I think I set a record with this one, because I hand quilted it in 28 days - obviously nothing else got done in those days between April and June of 2010!

On the border I quilted in diamonds, and when I had finished, I calculated that the quilt had approximately 13,860 hand-quilted stitches in it.

The backing fabric of stripes was rather expensive, so rather than buying enough to cover the entire back, I patched that too.  The binding fabric was a gift from a friend's stash, she no longer wanted, and the feedsack fabric was also a gift from a friend, so I have lots of lovely memories of friendships sewn into the quilt.

 

I love that within this quilt there are sheep and little houses, and girls tucked up in bed.  There are red roses and little cottages and the Eiffel Tower.  I love to run my hands over all those stitches and dream about the little girl in bed and wonder if she has been to Paris and seen the Eiffel Tower, and whether the roses have been painted red by a pack of cards and who lives in those sweet little cottages with the blue trees in the yard.

 

 

Enough, I'm rambling now and this post is just covering up the fact that I don't have anything new to share with you today!!

 

Hope you're enjoying your Tuesday.

Trudy

 

 

 

Let's talk Quilts

Yes, I talk wool for a while and then I want to talk fabric, love flicking between the two, love creating with both.  I have a couple of quilt tops ready for the sandwiching stage, where quilt top, wadding, backing and thousands of stitches becomes a finished quilt.  Thought I'd share a couple with you in the hope that it inspires me to finish them.  Good thought, let's see if it works!!

This first one, 'Hopscotch Harriet' is a stash buster, using a favourite pattern called 'Rebekah Amy Quilt' by Rosalie Quinlan.  Maybe it's still in its unfinished state because I cut out and sewed three versions of this same pattern at the same time ... whatever was I thinking?

Love the colours.  Want to see the other two versions, the other two finished versions?  I think it's just the 300 squares of hand quilting required on each quilt that I'm resisting.  This next one, made for Girl 1, is called 'Milk and Honey'.

 

And for Girl 2, 'Strawberries a Go-Go'.  They look so completely different in the different colourways.  Do you have a favourite?

 

 

Then there is 'Iced Cupcakes' which I started in 2003 ... yikes, that's a confession and a half.  Designed by Leanne Beasley of Leanne's House, it consists of lots of stitchery and applique, neither of which I had done before.  It was a monumental task!!

 

 

And of course, my recent 'I See Red' quilt is in the queue, and may just jump to the front!

My current hand-quilting project really needs some time devoted to it. I've almost missed the best time of year to hand quilt, when it's cold and the near-finished quilt is all snuggly on your lap ... ahh, bliss. Looking over in the corner there, I see a very sad sight. My neglected project sitting sadly on its hoop ... like an old party frock that no longer fits, but still hangs in your cupboard reminding you of slimmer days.  Constantly reminding you!

So armed with all those reminders of unfinished quilts, I really shouldn't be thinking of making any more right now, should I?!!  But.  My two girls are now wanting their own bedrooms and when girls go into new bedrooms they want to decorate it exactly as they want (yes, I'm scared already!!) and they have asked their Mum/Mummy to make them a special quilt for their new rooms, one will be green and one will be pink, I know this already.  So the other day, out came the necessary tubs of fabric.

 

And from those tubs of fabric, young fingers picked favourite pieces of fabric.  And we ended up with a green pile of fabric and a pink pile of fabric.  A little tweaking needs to happen, shh don't tell them!!

 

 

Okay, now just to find a few more hours in each day, and I'll be set!!

 

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend.

It will be fabulous here, hubby's home from hospital, and we're celebrating Fathers Day!!

 

Cheers, Trudy



Project X

Because I haven't thought of a name for this particular quilt, it is affectionately known as Project X, which makes it sound like something it really isn't ... something more secretive, something that should be worked on in the dead of night!!

In keeping with my love of all things "in the beginning stages" I have been having a hoot of a time in the Make and Do Room pulling out fabrics from my stash and putting together a small collection for Project X.

I'm veering towards a reddish, mustard earthy colour combination, and my idea for the design is to make a sampler quilt.  The choice of more vibrant and contemporary fabrics will make it look very different to a traditional sampler quilt giving it a modern twist.

These are the fabrics chosen for the first block.  The leaf design is a Liberty fabric that has been sitting in my stash for a number of years, waiting for such an occasion to come out and play.  I just love it!

I've drawn up the first block and made plastic templates for each different shape.  Here's a handy hint:  chopping mats from the $2 shop - they do a fabulous job and are finer than template plastic so easier to cut through.

First block complete, sewn by hand. 

Block two fabrics chosen, cut, templates made, sewn up.

And now back to playing with fabrics for Block 3 and thinking up a design.  The designs, below, came by way of Girl 2.  Love how she takes such an interest in anything I am making and likes to come up with her own ideas and to make suggestions.

Hope you're having fun with the things you are making.
Trudy

Finished Project for January

In keeping with The Plan to finish a WIP Project a month, here is my project for January.  It is a small lavender sachet, inspired by the work of Melbourne designer Shannon Lamden from Aunty Cookie.  I have made lots of these lavender sachets to give away, and had done the stitching on one for myself but had never spent the time to finish it.  It was such a quick job to complete that I didn't even bother to sit down at the sewing machine, I stood up to sew those seams!!

I used a lovely piece of vintage teatowel fabric that I had bought at a garage sale, and the lavender came from a friend's garden.  Easy-peasey, and a fun project.  Here's a sneak peek at February's project, something else that is 90% done!!

I'm starting with the small projects that are almost complete, to get me powered up for the other monthly finished projects that are a bit weightier!!  I'm feeling better already, I might just have to do the happy dance!!

Trudy

An Enviable Fabric Stash

It's always good to see someone else's stash, for different reasons, depending on how you want to feel about your own stash, at that moment in time!!  If your friend's fabric stash is large then you may feel you have room for expansion of your own, or you could feel virtuous that yours is somewhat under control, or you could feel downright envy!!  Or you could feel all those emotions mixed up together all at once.  This is how it was today.

It was a little bit like being in a candy store.  Everywhere I looked there were treasures.  A vintage cupboard with pretty china cups sitting amongst tins and boxes of sewing goodies, a collection of silver scissors next to a bowl of luscious red French thread, a silver cake stand filled with charm packs ready for a future project.

And the fabric stash, oh-my!!  I was going to share with you the fabric stash, but I don't want you to feel all those mixed up emotions of need, virtue, smugness or envy (and besides, I'm a tease!), so let's have a look at the projects my friends were working on instead.

We met, we stitched, we laughed and chatted, we enjoyed a delicious meal.  We had a gorgeous host.  And just to complete the perfect day, we had this beautiful view to look at.

Bye for now,
Trudy