...like a hole in the head

That is how much I need the project I just started now... but I have no-one to blame other than myself.

Like many other people at this time of year I have a Christmas crafting list longer than my arm and a work list even longer than that and with a shorter deadline. In fact this afternoon I sat at the kitchen table alternating between Christmas crafts, work tasks and a very healthy dose of procrastination, all the while achieving very little a new quilt design kept crowing into my thoughts.

I tried to ignore it, I tried to pacify it by drawing some of it out.

It didn't work. It kept pointing out it was Sunday afternoon and I should do something just for fun.

I decided that it had a point. So I have sewed up a block. Too soon to tell yet if this will be enough to keep it at bay while the other lists are attended to and hopefully get a little shorter.

It  is all machine pieced, and for the record I think Y seams are completely achievable with some accurate cutting and a little marking. As a square it would measure almost 20".

Fabric is Saffron Craig Imaginary Flowers and Beetle Bugs

...WiP Wednesday

This Week
This week the Christmas gift list sewing started in ernest. I am hoping to keep the new tradition of bags for wrapping going and at least one handmade item (even if small) for all recipients. I aim big, no doubt about it. 

Curclicue Crush Quilt
More pinning on this one this week but no sewing. I am thinking that I may have to revise my December 1st finish date and aim for a before Christmas top finish!


BSPDU Quilt
I also finally finished the embroidery on the signature labels for this bee quilt. I have pieced the back, prepared the batting and I am just waiting for the motivation/inspiration to get this basted.dfe

A laptop sleeve
using this tutorial 

I made a change or two so that all the seams were enclosed but altogether if was a reasonable quick and well designed project that yielded a great finished product.

November blocks for do good stitches
blogged previously here

Some Christmas Gifts and stocking stuffers
Tea holder - tutorial

I have also made the bulk of an art folio from Growing Up Sew Liberated. I am really happy with how it has turned out and with how the fabric work. There was only one part where I found the instructions confusing and I am not sure I did it the way it was written but all in all I'm pleased.

In the tubs 
Whimsy Hexie Quilt
Curclicue Crush Quilt - All cut out and ready to sew
Blue and White Quilt
Grey Tone Kaleidoscope 
Postage Stamp QA Quilt
X Marks the Pirate Quilt
Farmers Wife QA
BSPDU Quilt - Just waiting on a backing!

New projects (started anything new?)
Christmas gifts!
Finished this week
Tea pocket

Laptop Sleeve

...fine for ducks...and quilting

When I was 15 my family and I went on our first (and to date, only) overseas trip as a family travelled the massive distance to New Zealand. Come to think of it it wasn't such a short trip, we were coming from Perth and had top stop over in Sydney making the travel time quite awhile.

But I digress, sort of. At the time my brother must have been about 11 and had a little travel diary that he filled in. At the top of the page were spaces for a whole lot of information that the printers of the diary though essential for the traveller to record but the only stat I remember specifically is where you had to record the weather. I can't remember all the descriptions now but the one for rain was described as 'fine for ducks'. There were a lot of days that little box was ticked.

Today in Melbourne has been wonderful for ducks....and sewing.

So I have made my November blocks for do. Good Stitches Cherish circle. We had free rain this month on the block design but an aqua, orange and grey palette.

This block is Potager by Yvonne and featured in Modern Blocks.

The second is a Cracker Jack rip-off. The centre section of the block is actually a quarter of a block designed by Angela in this tutorial. I was all set to make the whole block until I came to the part where you trim the quarter and confirmed my suspicion that what I had was too big to be trimmed to 6.5". Note to self, read through the whole tutorial before starting in future.

I added the border to my 10" unit and am still quite pleased with it, and also quite sure I might put this tutorial to use for a quilt in the not too distant future.

...WiP Wednesday

This Week
Not a lot of different projects on the go this week, work has been really busy and in my sewing time I have really focussed on the Curclicue Crush Christmas Quilt

Curclicue Crush Quilt
I started piecing this with gusto at the MMQG Sit and Sew day on Saturday. The pinning is a killer and takes ages but the time is really worth it. I am loving the way it is turning out but I'm not sure it will be all done by my 1st of December self-imposed deadline. 

In the tubs 
Whimsy Hexie Quilt
Curclicue Crush Quilt - All cut out and ready to sew
Blue and White Quilt
Grey Tone Kaleidoscope 
Postage Stamp QA Quilt
X Marks the Pirate Quilt
Farmers Wife QA
BSPDU Quilt - Just waiting on a backing!

New projects (started anything new?)
Nope, none. 

Finished this week
A Mini Kaleidoscope I started ages ago. 

From Scraps and Linen, the blocks finish at 3" for a square quilt of 15"

...a short departure to the kitchen

I consider myself a slightly aspirational cook, not because I have the urge to make a soufflé never having boiled an egg... it is more to do with the idea that in my mind I make everything from scratch (which is generally possible) but time and tiredness generally result in the pasta we eat in our house being the dreid stuff from Woolworths rather than fresh from the pasta maker.

image here

In my mind the cupboards and freezer as so well stocked, should it be necessary, I could feed us good, tasty food for the week. In reality dinner ingredients are usually bought from Woolworths on the way home, and more often than not N does the cooking.

I started young, apricots from our tree circa 1988

In the last few weeks I have been musing more on preserves and the like. Perhaps it is the time of year that the Pick your Own farms are churning out the things I love, peaches, cherries and blueberries. BTW, if you live in Victoria have you seen this site. Very helpful, just make sure you scroll down the page awhile to get to the information.

But in the absence of the need for countless jars of jam (really, I very rarely eat the stuff, and never fast enough to finish a jar) I have tried to think about what would actually be useful for us to preserve. The best way I could think about it really was what non-perishable food we buy now. Canned tomatoes. End of list. I think.

From top to the bottom:
Good Home Preserving, Country Women's Association Preserves, Jam Jelly & Relish, Ball Blue Book, Jamie at Home

Certainly there is a fair bit of bacon, but I am not ready to start curing meat. And the vegies we eat don't come from a can - living in such a temprate climate as Australia fresh stuff really is avaliable most of the time. But still there is something in considering preserving. A feeling of capability perhaps?

Having said that if there was a jar of cherries in the cupboard you could bet I'd eat them. Maybe I would make more pies.

So while I have been considering these things I have started to make some bread using the techniques set out in Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I have the other one too but I'm sticking with the basics for now so I don't have to hunt out exotic flour (considered to be anything not already in the cupboard).

For my forst effort from this cookbook I scorned the idea of starting with the basic recipe and went straight for the Brioche dough. We have had two batches of chocolate centre brioche and I also made a Lemon Curd and Blueberry Ring (with the Lemon Curd recipe from the book)

I have made up a batch of the basic bread dough but I'm yet to bake any so we'll see how that goes. For now I think it is going to spend some time chilling in the freezer with the balls of pizza dough.

...do. Good Stitches - the local connection

Last year sometime I joined do.good Stitches, it was/is another Flickr based bee but instead of participants requesting blocks to be made into a quilt for themselves the resulting quilts donated to various charities or to individuals who are going through difficult times.

Earlier this year I was given the opportunity to form part of an Australian based circle, I jumped at the chance, charity beginning at home and all that.

The second month with this new circle was my chance to design a quilt, or the second time. I had previously been given special dispensation to make this quilt for Claire after the floods in Queensland but prior to the beginning of the interbational circle all the quilters (and quilt donations) were made in the US.

I had been inspired by blocks published here, here, here and here on the Lark crafts blog and after gaining permission to trace and send the templates for various blocks I went out and bought the book, spent a lot more time than I expected would be necessary tracing them and then sent them off to my other bee mates.

I asked that all blocks be made in solids or nearly solids and that the animal blocks that finished at various sizes accoring to the templates, be sashed in primary or secondary colours to a 12.5" unfinished block.

The blocks were not 'easy', when I originally planned the quilt I thought they were paper pieced and I wasn't until I was fully committed to the theme I realised they were all cut from templates. I came to realise many of the bee mates were not so familiar with pieces of fabric that small cut with templates and embroidery or with the applique that about half the blocks included - but without fail everyone gave the challenge a try and the blocks all turned out wonderfully!! I appreciate their effort all the more with the little added challenge.

Sewing the top together was ver straight forward. The sizing borders on each of the block meant their was no need for sashing and I think the whole exercise only took about 20 minutes!

Backing was 2/3 Lizzy House Red Letter Day ducks that I found in the cupboard having bought for a steal at spotlight and a Spotlight Solid in yello mustard colour.

Quilting was 1/4 inch inside each of the frames and 14inch outside the animal blocks. This seems to have kept the whole thing stong enough without needing to sew all over everyone careful piecing.

It has been delivered to Needy Stitches and will soon been delivered to a little girl who is jest beginning her chemotherapy journey. Hopefully this will add a little brightness to a drab time.

...WiP Wednesday

This Week
Curclicue Crush Quilt
After the marathon cutting last week I needed to sit on this one a little bit. I have worked a little on the layout to try to get a good but not too regular distribution of colour. I have ended up with two options. 

I'm still deciding but I have started piecing. I can see already that I am going to really really  wish for a design wall soon. I was dreaming of a roller blind style one to hand above the cupboard doors in the shower this morning. 

do. Good Stitches Animal Quilt

DELIVERED! It is kind of cheating having this on here again I think but I photographed and packaged it the other day and that took a little while. I have a post scheduled for the next few days that details all the wonderful and generous work that went into this quilt in the next few days. 

The Circle Game

Block 1 - Done!

The third method was the charm. I traced around the template (that doesn't include seam allowance), used the template with method 1 (that had the seam allowance on it) then pinned carefully and sewed on the line).  I am machine piecing this quilt and I can see I'm going to have each block slow and steady but I am really enjoying the challenge so far!

November Blocks for Sew Australia

Alissa asked for Kaleidoscope blocks made using this and this tutorial from Don't Call me Betsy. 

X & + blocks for a Special Project

This one has to have a little secrecy attached at the moment but they have made it where they need to go. 

handprinted: fabric

I joined a swap recently - printing a fat quarter of fabric for four others so on Sunday I got printing. There will be more on this later in the week too, as soon as I get them all fixed, packaged and in the mail. 


In the tubs 
Whimsy Hexie Quilt
Curclicue Crush Quilt - All cut out and ready to sew
Blue and White Quilt
Grey Tone Kaleidoscope 
Postage Stamp QA Quilt
X Marks the Pirate Quilt
Farmers Wife QA
BSPDU Quilt - Just waiting on a backing!

New projects (started anything new?)
Nope, none that I can think of just now. Well nothing that isn't already finished!

Finished this week
Quilted Snap Pouch - Started at the craft show. 
I quite literally had to press and sew two seams and then insert the snap closure to finish this one. Done now!

...WiP Wednesday

This Week
Curclicue Crush Quilt
All cut! This was no mean feat...I'm not sure at this point how many pieces there are in this quilt but rest assured by the time it is done they will be counted and I will tell you....likely many times. The next step for this one is to finalise the colour and pront placement before I start pinning ans sewing the curved units. This is one of those times I wish I  had a huge design wall but pencil and paper will have to do!

do. Good Stitches Animal Quilt
Quilting and binding completed this week. A post on this quilt will follow. For now I am arranging delivery to Needy Stitches.

Pinning
I also spent a huge amont of time adding a lot of my items starred in Google Reader to my Pinterest boards. I am already finding a lot of things I had forgotten about and finidng the remembered ones so much easier!

Classes at the Craft and Sewing Show
On Saturday I went to the Craft and Sewing Show at the Caulfied Racecoursee in Melbourne. I didn't find as much there to interst me as I thought but I had already predermined that there were three classes I wanted to take.

The first I attended was to make this little pouch with a snap closure with Patchwork Mariko Japan. Because It was only and hour long class and all the seams were hand sewn at the venue I didn't get a change to sew the last two seams and insert the closure. I am intending to finish it soon and make a couple more, one from their pattern and one using this tutorial from Ayumi.

I also went to a class held by Bernina using their overlockers - I have one and was hoping to learn a little more about the features so I can do more on it than just sew up garment seams. That was limited but I made this little quilted placemat roll. There were a lot of exposed seams and quick finishing that I don't love but i have already adapted the design a little and made one for N. I have a tutorial hald written up so that should be coming your way soon hopefully!

My last class of the day was one on EPP with Blue Willow Cottage, since I have started a couple of quilts recently using this technique I thought a lesson wouldn't go astray. But I have to say I didn't enjoy this one for a number of different reasons and I don't really feel like I came away with any new skills or techniques. It was a pretty disappointing end to the day but that is sometimes the way life goes!

Amitie - The Circle Game BOM
I have four packages (with directions and fabric for 6/16 blocks) so I thought I had better make a start. I'm not scared of curves so I just traced the template, added the seam allowance and cut. You can see from the completed circle this did not result in a perfect block. For attempt 2 I ironed on some freezer and then pinned and sewed where the paper finished but the stiffness meant a lot of movement and that didn't work well either. In the end I traced the seing line, pinned and sewed slowly. That seems to have worked. I need to finish the other units and that will be the final test.


In the tubs Whimsy Hexie Quilt
Curclicue Crush Quilt - All cut out and ready to sew
Blue and White Quilt
Grey Tone Kaleidoscope
Postage Stamp QA Quilt
X Marks the Pirate Quilt
Farmers Wife QA
BSPDU Quilt - Just waiting on a backing!

New projects (started anything new?)
12 Days of Christmas Sampler
The Circle Game - Amite BOM quilt
Finished this week
PJ pants for N