My first machine

My parents gave me this machine for my 13th of 14th birthday. And it was my only machine until last year.

Mum was determined to find me a second hand Elna, this one came from The Sewing Machine Man in Mt Lawley. She is a Contessa 710.

She is a great, robust machine but I wouldn't call her quiet.

She requires some unusualy bobbins, if you know where I can get any I'd be grateful for the information!

She might not be new and slick and fancy (and have only one foot and no accessories) but I love her!

Finishing and tidying.

In the corner of my lounge room there is a chair that never gets sat in. It is one of those chairs where things get piled, not necessarily untidily but certainly not in a way that could be dscribed with the rhyme 'a place for everything, and everything in its place'.

So this weekend, with the upcoming move as the incentive again I put the finishing touches on the three quilts that had been sitting there. Two needed the binding sewn to the back and labels and the third needed only the label.

It got me thinking about a question that is often asked of quilters in interviews 'what is your favorite part of the quilting process' and I think I would have to say it is the designing and piecing followed by the quilting. The least favorite? Sewing the binding and making the quilt sandwich.

I think it has something to do with the fact those stages don't change the 'look' of the quilt so much, where as in completing the other stages, you can see something come together before your eyes.

Quilt 1: Luv U Pinwheels
This was made with one charm pack and some scraps I had from an earlier project. It was the first quilt I designed completely myself and I love the way the perle cotton hand quilting works with it.





Quilt 2: X Block Kaleidoscope
I made this quilt top in April using the X Block template I bought at the Craft Expo at Homebush in March. I made this whole quilt top using only one layer cake and a tiny bit of extra solid. The back is solid (I thought there was enough colour on the top) and the quilting around the X's makes a X and windmill pattern on the back.





Quilt 3: Carnival Critters
I also made this one in April I think, using my first Etsy fabric purchase from Lucky Kaeru
It has a pieced back and circular free motion quilting.




There are in my MadeIt shop.

Bee {a little bit} Japanese - August Blocks for Jennifer

My package arrived for this bee a few weeks ago and I was excited. It contained a great range of linen fabics and some Kaffe Fasset shot cotton and Kona solids, all in colours I love.

I had also been eagerly waiting for the package because the inspiration mosaic Jennifer had put together was wonderful.

And boy did I have ideas. I spent a Friday evening when I was a little too zonked to sew on the couch in front of the TV sketching out some ideas.

I don't know what it is about my bee blocks (perhaps it is that I have to make only one or two of each style rather that enough for a whole quilt top) but in my designs I tend to piece them much more heavily than I would do otherwise.

The first two ideas I had were ultimately the ones I decided to go ahead and make.

The first was designed to be a block with 3 small squares down the left side and one long rectangle down the right side.

The second was a log cabin style, with each of the logs being a pieced sqaure or retangle.

I started first in the Three Sqaure and Rectangle block and chose three of the fabrics to work with, the Kona solid and two different linen spot prints.

The three squares came together really well but when I came to do the longer rectangle I realised I had made a serious error in estimating the amount of fabric I had and would need to change the design, I decided to do two retangles instead. All was going well until I got really concerned I was going to run out of the Kona solid.

In a slightly panicked state I put that block aside and made the Log Cabin block, with two if the other three linen prints (I love the little houses)and the shot cotton which came together really well.


Feeling slightly more emboldened I went back to the first block and realised, as I had feared, that there was just no way I was going to have enough of the Kona to finish the block.

I thought about using some of the fabric used in the other block to complete it but as I had made two very differnt coloured blocks I didn't want to add a new fabric for only one section of the block. So I took out my Kona colour card and held up my scraps to try to work out which colour it was with the inention of trying to buy some more to finish it. I thought it was Espresso (which turned out to be correct), and rang several LQS trying to find it. In speaking to my LQS, The Remnamt Warehouse I discovred that, while they stocked the entire range availiable in Australia this was only 100 or so fabrics and none were the Espresso. :(

I emailed Jennifer and explained the bind and she very graciously pointed out the second block was a bonus anyhow and that she would add some more to complete the block when it arrived.

So this is the mostly completed second block.

And while I really like the Log Cabin idea and execution I can't help but be disppointed with the finish of the Three Sqaure and Rectangle block. It feels terrible not being able to execute a vision and send back something half completed. But I will, with a little surprise added to the package.


Have you ever run out of something at exactly the wrong moment?

Giveaways and competitions

One of the things I love about the Internet and blogging is the sense of community it can create. My friends love seeing what I have made but they aren't what you would call crafty. So I love joining in in an online community where I can made other friends that share my crafty interests.

So today, while I wasn't feeling so crash hot I spent some time in blogland.

I'm excited about the Modern Quilt guild challenge


I've entered the 44th Street Fabric Giveaway and Jaybird Quilts giveaway with the Fat Quarter Shop.

Resting has never been my strong point.
I hope none of you are feeling under the weather as well.

A present and a party.

Last week the first daughter of some friends turned one, and as she is also the first child in our close group of friends she has, quite naturally, been spoilt rotten.

Her birthday party, at the weekend, was no exception.

While my friend is a great mum she is no crafter and no baker. In the very helpful words of her mother yesterday, she just doesn't have the patience for it! So, as soon as she announced she was pregnant she asked me if I would make her child's birthday cake and on the weekend I got to do that for the first time.

I love making novelty cakes and have been known to make children's birthday cakes in the past for adults! So during last week I sat down with my Woman's Weekly books to choose a cake.

For any overseas readers you may not be familiar with these Australian tradition books. The one with the train on the cover is now a collectors item and I was lucky enough to be given my copy by my mother when I moved out of home. In the past few years the original has been expanded and revised with the result being the other three pictured.

I made the Blocks cake form the Little Party Cakes book.



We also had a full array of party food, I made some Top Deck cupcakes, Strawberries and Cream cakes and these great icecream cones made from a meringue mix that is spread thinly on a cookie sheet, baked quickly and rolled into shape while still warm.




And didn't I promise presents?
I made this bed for my dog many years ago and slightly ignored the instructions in that I filled with with foam shapes suit to size rather than stuff it with poly fill as was recommended. I'm glad I spent the extra money at the time as it has lasted SO very well.

During a recent trip we took away my dog, Mollie, stayed with these friends. Their daughter thought the Mollie's bed made a great reading couch and Mollie was shooed off. As she got to sleep on a real bed I don't think she minded that much though.

So for her birthday she got a book nook couch of her very own.

Made with IKEA fabric, and again filled with cut to order foam shapes from the Foam Booth it should be robust enough to take the traffic of the next few years.

Happy Birthday!

I sew...here

I don't have a sewing/craft room.

I read a lot of blogs from a lot of talented and creative people. And often they mention the sewing room or the craft room and occasionally show pictures of these wonderful spaces. And I get, I'm not too proud to mention, really jealous.

In my house I have half a cupboard in the study (which is really a spare bedroom) and my sewing machine is more or less permanently set up on one end of the dining table.
While this is OK in theory the cutting mat almost always ends up gracing the other end and we eat sitting on the couch in front of the TV, which drives my partner crazy. And pulling everything in and out of the cupboard all the time really cuts into my limited sewing/crafting time.

So over the last few months I have been trying to make thing more organized and accessible and keep my bits and pieces a little more contained, for everyone sake. I like a clean and tidy house as much as the next person (my mum thinks maybe more so... if she could see it now).

The first thing I did was take out some huge tubs I had in the hanging section of the robe and get these little hanging shelves with drawers from IKEA to make my (ever growing) fabric collection a little more organized and easy to access.


I have drawers for garment fabric, upholstery fabric, scraps of batting and interfacing, scraps, pre-cuts and yardage.

The tubs underneath hold patterns, separated into craft and garment and form an essential purpose to provide some stability to the handing drawers.

Then last weekend I took the scrap drawer out,


pressed everything that I had just shoved in there over the last little while,


and cut them into 10, 5, 3 or 2.5 inch squares.


There are still quite a few scraps left I can't bear to part with but I have some ideas of how they might be used.

I have stored the smallest two squares in these little boxes, again from IKEA.



Why all this effort? Well, recently my partner got a new job which will mean a move for us from Sydney to Melbourne in the next few months. And I am hoping against hope with without much foundation that we can move somewhere with a sewing room. I have wonderful ideas about how I could organize it and work in it and how I could shut the door on all the little bits and pieces that, however well organized, make a craft area look messy at the end of the day.

Bee Seam Piecing Downunder - August Blocks for Abi

I know it is only just August. And that many of the other Bee participants have not got their packages yet.

But mine arrived on Monday. And I had a really long day and would have started right there and then if I hadn't been just a little bit too tired.

As it was I made these blocks for Abi last night.

Abi's packages came with just the right amount of vinatge sheets and pillowslips pre-cut into 1 3/4" strips to make two 9.5" log cabin blocks.

I really like log cabins and find myself making a version of them often. So I was really excited to make these blocks. I had also never used vintage sheets before.

I had always read about these on blogs and internet posts and heard about people finding stashes in op shops and had thought it was one of those things that was the domain of quilters from America, Canada and Europe. I have really no idea why.



And then came Abi's package from New Zealand with all of these vibrant sheets. And they reminded me of sheets I had slept on at my Grandma and Grandad's house as a child, and sheets at the bottom of the linen cupborad I used to play in at my house (it was a lareg old farmhouse with big cavernous cupboards and not at all as horrifying as it sounds inside the cupboard).



I think the blocks are wonderful and I am especially glad because it is something that I would never have thought to do for myself and that is one of the things I love about Bees.

And then as I climed into my bed after I finished them last night I found myself wondering why we don't have patterened sheets anymore. Is it just fashion do you think? Or something else?

Now I think I might go and enter the giveaway at Simply Solids so I can make some more Log Cabins!