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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!
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!
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...
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...
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!
