Sixth mini quilt

Here it is. The last shelf liner for my cupboard. The fabric is Denyse Schmidt's 'Hope Valley' in a stacked book design. I delved into a scrap pack I bought on etsy and basically used the pieces as they were, squaring up when necessary. I used an orange polka dot fat quarter for the back and most of the binding.

Phew. It feels like I've been working on this cupboard - painting and sewing - for a very long time. Now it's time to fill the shelves and reorganise the house!

Grab your sunnies!

Mini quilt number five is complete! Boy, is this one bright! Not totally to my current taste, but it's got rid of some scraps and will be hidden in the cupboard. It is quite joyous and exuberant, though - but I couldn't live with it everyday.

Here's the back. I used up a fat quarter of the pink and orange print and included it in the scrappy binding. I've never tried a scrappy binding before, but it works well on this quilt and ties everything together. I quilted it in a simple diagonal.

Five down, one to go. Today was my deadline to have all of them finished, and I'm ok with not meeting it. The last one will get done by the end of the weekend. I am sooooo looking forward to filling the cupboard and hiding away my clutter.

I would love a dedicated studio - even a small spare room would be a luxury. Maybe one day. In the meantime I can admire Anna Maria Horner's magnificent studio here. I don't know how she manages to run a successful business and look after six children. What a superwoman!

Shoo Fly

Mini quilt number five is under way. It's the shoo fly block from Quilt-in-a-day 'Underground Railroad Sampler'. I'll do another half a block and it should fit the shelf perfectly. I'll have just enough pink to finish it off. It feels really good to be using up all these scraps. I tend to buy individual bits of fabric that I really like (rather than pieces from a complete collection), and often the bits don't mix and match particularly well. The colours might be right, but the styles don't fit or vice versa. So it's good to be putting lots of scraps into these little quilts.

This is the first block I've made from this book and the instructions were really easy to follow with lots of clever short cuts. I really like tradition quilt patterns. I admire the women who have put all these patterns together. It's like maths in fabric - the geometry is genius.

Two new mugs from Habitat. So pretty. The peacock mug is so rich and luscious, and the blue mug fits in with my little aqua-themed collection.

I bought running shoes today. My old trainers were twenty years old... which is an indication of how little I actually used them! I'm inspired this year to increase my cardio fitness. I'm not a swimmer, or a cyclist, or a gym person - which leaves power walking and light jogging. There. I've announced my intentions to the world, so I have to follow through. But I'd always rather be crafting...

Greens and blues

Two finished pieces today. Yesterday's little quilt is now quilted and bound. I'm liking the Japanese style still life here. The pouch at the back is an old one I made a few years ago, combining sashiko embroidery with Japanese and vintage wool fabric and a vintage button fastener. The gorgeous old green vase is a junk shop find.

I was loving the greens and blues so much, I decided to use up some scraps and make an improvised and messy scrap quilt. I went to my Denyse Schmidt book to get some inspiration for the quilting and decided on random zig zags.

Here's another view of the green and blue pinwheel. I really like this little quilt but am disappointed at the colours in the photo. I played around with my camera setting and couldn't get much better than this. Oh, well!

Four down, two to go!

Only one coat of paint in the kitchen today, due to the cold and the fact that I'm getting really sick of painting. I opened a shocker of a plumber's bill in the afternoon and used the adrenalin rush to paint that one coat! Over $200 for less than an hour's work - can you believe it? I rang the company straight away and the person responsible for the billing will ring me in the morning to discuss. Wish me luck...

Is that another pinwheel?

It's finished! Mini-quilt number two.

I'm very happy with the quilting. I did a simple diagonal grid. Then bound it in white. I'd have loved to have a mint green binding to match the floral, but didn't have anything suitable in my stash.

Two down, four to go.

The 'Row by Row' quilt now has a backing. I chose an unbleached calico (pictured) as a compromise - no suitable blues in Hobart. Time to get it to the Quilted Crow for quilting!

I've had this block sitting around for nearly two years. It was a challenge to myself when I first starting quilting to see if I could do something more complicated than squares. And, yes, by coincidence it happens to be a sort of pinwheel. I sashed it and now it's become mini-quilt number three.

It's all sandwiched and ready to quilt and I'll bind it in the small floral. It's really hard to photograph these colours. There's a soft lime green in there, but you can't quite make it out - it blends with the beige. You can just make out the green in the previous photo. I'll play around with my camera settings some more tomorrow and see if I can do better.

The kitchen. Second wall scrubbed. Cutting in started. But the weather's about to turn cold, so unfortunately I won't be able to do as many coats tomorrow as I'd like. Each coat will need longer to dry. It's just started raining now, and apparently we're expecting highland snow on Wednesday! After the heat wave last week!

Challenging myself to sew and paint and blog has been really good. I'm tired because I'm pushing myself, but hopefully at the end of my holidays I'll have achieved a lot - and will be able to see what I've done by looking back at my blog entries. It's a good motivator!

Pinwheels on a windy day

Well, I had a slow day today. On closer inspection in the morning daylight, the kitchen wall needed a FIFTH coat of white paint to cover the old green stuff. So I did that and then manged a bit of sewing in the afternoon. Also, a visit to Spotlight increased my fabric stash somewhat (but more of that another time after I've had a chance to iron it all. The wind today was good for drying, though.) I managed to finish a tiny, tiny pinwheel quilt in Civil War browns and blacks. It just needed binding. And I pieced and layered another mini-quilt ready for quilting.

This quilt really is tiny. You can get a sense of scale from the fifty cent piece. It measures just 17 X 14cm, and each pinwheel is 3cm square. I pieced it in an evening using a quick pinwheel technique (can't remember where I found it now). Then it sat around waiting to be hand-quilted for many months. I don't know what I'll do with it - I think it's more of a novelty than anything practical. But I'm really fond of it. It's quite thick and lumpy as you can imagine from all those close seams, and has a lovely tactile quality. You can lean it up against a wall and it supports its own weight!

This is my next shelf liner. More pinwheels! It's turned out pretty well and the pinwheels are fairly neat and accurate. I didn't quite have enough of the green floral, hence the odd, but hopefully quirky, pinwheel in the corner. I'm unsure how to quilt it, though. I feel like any quilting will spoil its nice smooth finish.

This is an iPad cover I made for my mum last year. I used French General's 'Maison de Garance' and hand quilted it. I like hand quilting small projects. It's very meditative.

 Here is a close-up of the reverse showing two appliqued hearts.

And here is the last of my unblogged finished pieces. A Doctor Who lavender sleep pillow for my oldest nephew. I just love that tardis pattern. It's one that's floating around on the web and congratulations to the designer whoever you are - it's just magnificent!

A busy day with a retro flavour

 

Here is my first shelf liner mini-quilt. I used leftover jelly roll pieces from my 'Row by Row' quilt (more of that below!). The fabric is 'Punctuation' by American Jane and has a lovely retro thirties feel to it which compliments my small collection of vintage 'girls adventure' hardbacks. You can see some vintage knitting needles there too.

The quilt is quite busy but it's growing on me. I quilted it in parallel lines either side of the seams.

 

I think I like the back better than the front! I had fun making this and am looking forward to the next five. I don't know what they'll be like yet and am itching to use up bits of my stash - and maybe try some things I wouldn't be game to do in a larger piece.

  

The top is pieced! Here is my almost finished 'Row by Row' quilt. I finished it just before Christmas and need to find some suitable backing. I'd like a warmish mid-blue, but am not having much luck finding any...

When the backing is ready I'll take it to the Quilted Crow girls for machine quilting. 

I finally finished this shawl - sewing the last lot of squares together this morning. This one's been on the go for about 3 or 4 years now and I'm SOOOO glad I managed to finish it! I'm determined to finish all my projects these holidays before I start TOO many other things.... But it's always intoxicating to start something new - choosing a project, the colours, casting on the first stitches or playing with fabrics.

The pattern is a Jo Sharp from her 'Village' book and the yarn is a very fine mohair - Kid Seta by Madil. I didn't use the recommended Jo Sharp yarn because I wanted a finer shawl and it turned out to be much more economical too. I think you'll agree it's a beautiful pattern and the result is quite lovely. I'm very pleased with it.

In between the shawl and the quilt I did another two coats of paint in the kitchen. I think that wall is done now - after four coats it should be! Tomorrow I'll move the fridge and the stove and get started on the next wall. Bit by bit it's getting done.

Foxes for Murphy

Well, it's been a while since I last posted! I seem to lose 'creative steam' throughout the year, and it takes a long lot of holidays to get my energy back. I'm on annual leave at the moment and am looking forward to lots of crafting and lots of blogging - as well as some more improvements around the house.

I have two beautiful nephews. You were introduced to Marcel in the previous post, and today I am showing you some items I made for my two year old nephew, Murphy.

This quilt is a birthday present to Murphy and is from Kajsa Wikman's beautiful book 'Scandinavian Stitches'. It was my first attempt at free motion quilting, and I'm really pleased with the result. (Apologies for the wavy photo - I need to find a way to photograph bigger items - maybe peg them to the washing line?)

This lovely fellow is my first toy from Fiona Dalton's gorgeous book 'Hop Skip Jump'. He was Murphy's Christmas present, and the nose, in particular, was a big hit!

There are changes afoot in the flat. I have had a cupboard made to give me some much needed extra storage and am currently painting the kitchen. New taps went into the kitchen this morning, and tiling is to come.

 This sliver of wall has gone from this....

To this in less than a week. The cupboard cuts out quite a bit of light and the tiny kitchen will be painted the same shade of white to try and lighten things up a bit. That blank panel in the top right has shelves facing the kitchen to give me some more storage there too.

The cupboard needs to stay empty for a week to allow the paint to thoroughly cure, so I'm hoping in that time to make six mini quilts to fit the six bottom shelves. It's my aim to make and post one a day starting tomorrow... in between coats of paint in the kitchen. Wish me luck!

This is why the storage is necessary. My dining table has increasingly become my 'craft room', and I'm hoping all of this will go into the cupboard and free up the table for entertaining. And it will be nice to hide away the clutter. The flat is very small with one tiny bedroom and it's hard to keep things hidden away.

The ironing board has increasingly become a repository for craft stuff too, and I'm hoping to declutter that bookshelf as well! The new shelves are double depth and I ought to easily get all my paperbacks into the new shelves.

Speaking of paperbacks, I have just finished reading Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca' and what a thrilling ride it was! I got half way though and just could not put it down. It was discussed on the 'First Tuesday Book Club' and I was inspired to read it. I'm now keen to read more of du Maurier's books.

It won't be so long between posts. I have a few finished pieces to share, lots of time over the next few weeks and no excuses not to blog!