And now for something completely different...

I've been working on a lot of little things in the past few days, so today I decided to piece together some blocks I won from the block lotto on the quilting forum at about.com. I won them a few months ago, but didn't get them until my mother came over in December. I decided today (having encountered this problem at Christmas) that I could really do with a tablecloth for my dining room table and thought that it would make sense to make one. So I decided to use the blocks in a long, row layout, using 28 of the 8 inch blocks (I had 30), with some other batiks from my stash as borders, including a striped batik I've had for a while and not been inspired to use in other projects. Notice the nicely mitred corner!

Anyway, it obviously still has to be quilted, but I'm very happy with the layout at least.

I did also edge and back the little house postcards from yesterday, but as they look essentially the same, only with a little zigzag on the edges, I won't bother with another picture.

Arch revisted, box in detail - and a great postcard

Well, remember I said yesterday that the line above the archway bothered me? After auditioning about a million embellishments (ok, maybe a dozen) I decided to add this lace flower, which I think helps tone it down. I promise this is done now and I won't touch it again except to write something on the back. I promise!



A lot of people have talked about having a "word for the year" rather than a resolution, and while I haven't really got one per se, I was thinking that "listen" might be a good one for me - not listen to others, so much, as I like to think I do a fair bit of that already, but listen to myself and my instincts and trust a little more than my artistic sense knows what it's doing. I'm sure most of you can appreciate how hard that can be to do - in fact, it's one of the things that I like about blogging - getting feedback on things. Not that I get much negative feedback (if any) but of course some things get more positive feedback than others, which accomplishes a similar purpose - it tells me what works and what doesn't work so well...

I've had a number of people ask about the box I did yesterday - I didn't take photos to do a step-by-step tutorial, but I promise, it was very simple - here are the basics:

1. Decide on the size of your box and cut the following pieces of stiff interfacing/craft vilene/timtex: 2 for box top/bottom (mine were 8"x5"); 2 for box front/back (mine were 8 wide x4 high) and 2 for box sides (mine were, you may have worked this out, 4x5. (You could also make one big piece and cut it apart before step 5 if you wanted to. I didn't, because I did the pieces a few at a time while doing other stuff and because I didn't think of it until just now while typing this!)
2. Fuse fusible adhesive to each side of each piece of the box. If you are using one without paper (like mistyfuse) I would only do one side at a time; if you are using one with paper (like bondaweb), leave the paper on the side you aren't working on.
3. Lay your scraps on top of the fusible until you are happy with the arrangement; it doesn't matter if they extend off the edge or if they overlap a bit. When happy, iron down, then trim back to the size of the interfacing. Repeat this step until all pieces have scraps fused to both sides.
4. Stitch down the scraps. With nice thread in bobbin and on the top of the machine, either do some FMQ, or just stich some simple lines, etc. The purpose here is simply to hold the scraps down, the stitching can be as dense (or not) as you like - mine was very simple as I wanted a quick project, and also, I didn't think the box would get much wear, so it doesn't matter if the scraps are mainly held down by fusible. If you wanted to, you could also embellish further at this stage - add buttons, beads, sequins, glitter, you name it. Just leave a gap around the edges so you can...
5. Finish the edges. This is the slowest part of this project - satin stitching the edges of each piece of the box. Boring, I know, but worth it in the end.
6. Now, to join the pieces together. This is the part that's going to be a little hard to describe without pictures, but I'll give it a go. Take the bottom and one of the front/back pieces and align them. Using a wide zigzag, fairly long stitch length, zigzag along where the two pieces abut (be sure to backstitch at both ends to keep it from unraveling). This should give you a piece which is joined up, but which hinges back and forth fairly easily. Now do the same with the other front/back piece. And then attach the side pieces to the bottom in the same way - this yields a piece which looks a bit like a "T" or a cross but which is still flat. I'd also attach the top to one of the front/back pieces at this stage in the same manner (though I didn't when I did my box as I was orignally thinking I'd leave it open, like a square bowl, then changed my mind).
7. Now the tricky bit - sew the sides to the front/back, to make the box 3-D. If you are not a lazy person, the easiest way to sew the sides together is to whipstich them in place by hand. (Simply lift one side and one frontbback upright and stitch) If, however, you are lazy like me, you CAN do this on the machine - here's how - lift the side and the f/b piece upright to make them meet in a corner, then lay them flat on your machine bed, squishing the bottom of the box flattish as you go, as necessary. Now, using the same wide zigzag, stitch down the two piece, being sure to have the stitch extend off the edge of the piece, so that the zigzag isn't too tight - if it IS too tight, the corner won't unfold nicely and meet in a right angle. This probably sounds a bit convoluted, but it should make sense if you actually have the piece in hand at this point. Carry on around the other three corners of the box.
8. Now it's time to make the fastening for the box - I'm sure there are lots of options, but I went with the easy one - sew a button onto the front of the box, approximately in the middle (I used one with a shank, to make it easier to fasten), then take a piece yarn/cord/etc (I used some gold elastic cord I had leftover from something) and make it into a loop. Loop it around the button to determine where you will need to sew the cord onto the top of the box, then stitch it down either by machine or hand, as you prefer). If desired, you could put another button or something on top to cover this stitching. If you are lazy like me, you'll just leave it.

And that's it. I promise it's not hard - and of course, if you want a faster option, you could use a single piece of fabric on the box pieces rather than scraps, but part of the point of the exercise for me was to use the scraps...

And finally - lookie what I got in the post today. It's even more pretty in real life than in the photo - isn't it lovely? It's from my friend Kandy and is simply an RAK - a thank you for co-moderating on BQL. Aren't I lucky!

Couldn't resist this one...

I've been resisting a lot of the quizzes going around, but those who know me will be entirely unsurprised to see I was unable to resist finding out which Austen heroine I am. And I'm delighted to say,



Take the Quiz here!

Thanks to Sophie (Emma) for the tip-off on this one.

Arch, box, houses

Well, here's what I did today - I worked on an arch page for a swap with a new (to me) group Textile Challenges, which is run by the lovely Carol T. The swap is for the whole year, one page a month to a different person; we each have expressed some preferences about colours and themes and so on. This month, I am making an arch for Judy, who said that she liked trees, doorways, leaves, ancient artefacts, oceans and I forget what else. She didn't specify colours. Given that I'm into trees at the moment, I thought that was a sign, and decided to make a tree the focus of the page (which, I should say, is essentially 4x8 inches, only arch shaped, of course). The tree is done the same way as yesterday's tree - free motion embroidery with brown thread and then over top with the neutral variegated.

The background behind the tree didn't photograph well - it's done with Stewart Gill MetaMica paints - a blue and a green together and looks a lot less silver in reality than in the photo. The archway is German scrap with some views from an ArtChix sheet behind it; the bird is also German scrap. [Looking at it again now, I think the line at the top of the archway piece is a bit harsh - I might play around with it and see if I can soften it somehow.] The charms in the trees are silver keys and parts of an old earring - I loved those earrings - they had the three dangles shown, plus two other longer ones in different colours. Unforunately, as is so often the case with favourite earrings, I lost one of them. This was about 10 years ago and I have been hanging on to the other one ever since, because I knew I'd find something to do with it - and look, I did!

I have stamped in the bottom right corner with a fern stamp and then added some pressed flowers - these were pressed for me by my lovely DD2, Olivia, last summer. Again with the whole "using things someday" lark!

I hope Judy will like it - as this is the first month, I'm flying a little blind, but I had fun making it. The back is a piece of shibori-ed fabric, on which I will write something (not sure what yet); thought it best to keep it simple.




Another thing I did today is this box (which I actually started yesterday) which is made from scraps from the Hawaiian shirts - I had a big freezer bag of scraps; this has barely made a dent in it. But I think it's fun, and I have promptly put it to use holding scraps of pre-fused fabric. It's 8"wide x 5" deep x 4" high. A nice compact size, but big enough to be useful. This was inspired by the scrapbag challenge on the Fibre and Stitch group - I have actually already done one thing for this challenge, but hey, another one gives me another chance in the draw...



And finally, I worked on my postcards for the Little Houses swap. I knew from the time I signed up for this that I wanted to make the basic houses in the same way I did the ones for the Inching Artists challenge, but wasn't sure what else I wanted to do with them. Given my tree theme this week, I decided to add some trees, and some lawn/grass in variegated green. It remains to edge and back the cards, but the basic work is done. And that was my today!

Journal Quilt Week 8, and lots more

Well, after the paucity of offerings on yesterday's blog, today I have lots to show - firstly, this week's journal quilt, which is a tree, free motion embroidered on tree batik fabric. My surface embellishment group is doing a class called Tempting the Muse with Laura Cater-Woods. One of the assignments this week is to think of an image you'd like to feature in your work and reduce it to a basic form. I haven't done that here, but I have been thinking of trees, and playing with them - here I first stitched with brown thread, then went back over the piece with a neutral variegated to make it seem more wintery. I like this a lot and am thinking I might do some more like it...


I also did these things today - finished the last four log-cabin blocks from the shirts and made my "M is for" cards - inspired by my kids on this one, especially Alex, who got some new gloves with little monsters on the fingers.

And I got not one but four cards in the post (it never rains but it pours) - a belated birthday card from Nancy, some little houses from Brigitte,



An M is for (Mask) from Jeannette and a recycled card from Michelle. What a nice haul!

A nothing kind of day

Look what Julie gave me - isn't it a nice thought? The rules of this award are apparently: “Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on. Beware! You may get the award several times! ”

It's particularly useful today, because I have nothing to show - nothing in the post, and no work done at all - just had one of those days where I didn't much feel like working. Did a few errands, spent some time on the computer, did some laundry, and so on.

Anyway, if you are a regular reader here, you know I'm not that keen on passing on awards and memes (this is mostly because I am lazy) but there are a number of blogs I read regularly which I really enjoy - and they are all listed in the "some blogs I read" sidebar. Click on some and see what happens! And I promise some proper pictures tomorrow.

A little edit - apparently I was nominated for this award by someone else, too - the lovely Sandra, of The Dyer's Hand. Technically, she got there first, as she was the one who nominated Julie, too. So there you go!

More shirts and a giveaway

I did some more of the log cabin blocks today from the shirts - there are four more to come, partly finished, but thought I'd share a photo of the 12 that are done. And a photo of the blocks I finished up yesterday. Ta da! Not much to say, really, today. As this is such as short post, I think I'll put the giveaway here as well:






The leftover two snowflake blocks from the winter quilt from the Four Seasons Quilt Swap. These are only fused onto the background, so they'll need something to hold them down - but I'm betting someone out there can find a good way to use them. The rules for the giveaway are as usual - if you are interested in winning the blocks, leave a comment on this post before Sunday.

Shirt quilts, cardinal winner

Worked again today on the blocks made from my dad's shirts - I did about 10 of the style on the left, though I have spared you photos of all of them. There are now 24 of these, so I can put them together into a top at some point - maybe tomorrow.

And then I decided to do some log cabin blocks from the shirts as well - using the red one as the centre, and a solid blue on one side. I won't use the shirts with the really large patters in these log cabin blocks, as I don't think they will work too well, but the smaller prints should work ok - here are two finished blocks (they are 15") and I have several others started, and bits cut for more. I think I will work on them again tomorrow, before reverting later in the week to some smaller things I have due this month, like postcards, etc. I love log cabin blocks and have been debating doing some with these shirts - I hope they'll work out ok!

And the lucky winner of the little cardinal block is... Penny in Australia! Congratulations Penny. I will email you to let you know as well. New giveaway tomorrow - not sure what yet, but I have a stack of stuff...

Discharged!

Today felt like a piecing sort of day, so I decided to do some more blocks from my dad's shirts - finished four which were partly done before and did another four. Sarah came up to chat and wanted to work on her quilt, so she stitched another block (below) while I did some of the cutting for these blocks and some more for tomorrow.



There were some fun things in the post, too - this card, which is not for Valentine's Day, but in honour of the first heart transplant in the 1960s, for that swap. It's from Anne R.

And also in the post - the pieces from the discharge swap, which are below - some great variety. Not sure what I will do with them, but they are lovely... I do like discharging.

Journal Quilt Project - Week 7 (and other stuff)

Finished the applique leaf today for the group quilt with my swap group. Good thing the individual quilt (challenge theme: Forest) doesn't have to be finished until August or so (though I have an idea what I'd like to do, which is often one of the hardest parts). Here's a nice gingko leaf. I do love the shape of this leaf, and thought it wouldn't be too hard to machine applique as it doesn't have lots of points to it. And here it is with its fellows.



Then I did an outstanding (as in, it's past the deadline, not as in it's fantastic, lol) block for the birthday swap - this is Julie's December block. Her theme was "white christmas" - she asked for blue, white, silver snowflakes, etc. Not a problem for me, I have lots of that sort of stuff knocking about (though apparently, not as much white as I thought, as I nearly didn't have enough - must find some more WOW snowflake fabric, I guess).

And finally, I did my Journal Quilt for the week - here's what I wrote about it on the back:

• This has been an odd week –started with being up at my mother-in-law’s house, then back home but no school, then school. A bit all over the place. The little bit of work I’ve done this week has also been a bit patchy and all over the place, as I try to get all the bits finished for deadlines, etc. So I thought that for my Journal Quilt, I would show that patchy, all over the place kind of feeling. Starting with bits from the top of my scrap basket, I log-cabin pieced a kind of mock-crazy quilt square – all these fabrics are things I’ve used recently in blocks, projects, swaps, etc (including in two different bags, birthday swap blocks, the orange swap, a Christmas project, the Hever group quilt, and the little fabric boxes I’ve been making). I then added some embellishments – ribbons, etc and some of the heart brads I used on the Valentine’s ornaments I made this week. The paper on the back is what I used to back my 1960s postcards.

Just in case you are interested, here's how the fabrics were used, from the centre out:

1. art nouveau centre: bag lining & hearts & handles for February test bag
2. gold geometric print: supermarket shopper bag
3. green batik: leaves (see above)
4. orange trees: orange block swap
5. turquoise shibori: postcard background
6. pink floral: used then rejected (i.e. ripped out and replaced) for choc & pink bday block
7. pink & orange stars: orange block swap
8. brown circles: choc & pink block
9. muted sage green tonal: outside of Feb test bag
10. orange print: orange block swap
11. blue stars: snowflake quilt, various christmassy things
12. dark green batik: leaves (see above)
13. multi-coloured purple hand-dye: little boxes, insides mostly
14. also used the pink lace and brads on the Valentine's ornaments; the other laces, ribbons, etc are random

Back to school, back to work!

A lovely productive day today with the kids back to school, this despite a nagging headache for most of the day... First thing I did was finish the last box I needed for the swap with my surface embellishment group - those can go in the post tomorrow. (I had to put them under a heavy book today in order to get them flat enough to get in an envelope - the hazard of keeping them folded up is they do not want to lie flat!)

I also made a label for my snowflake quilt for the Four Season's quilt swap - and I even remembered to take a photo of it with something obscuring the name of who it's for. The label is actually slightly darker than the photo, but you get the general idea.

I also made a couple of things I had hanging over me - some blocks for a group quilt - three pieced leaves - I still have to do one appliqued leaf, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. And two Dear Jane blocks for my swap with Cathi - the middle is a tiny bit wonky, but on the whole, I'm quite pleased with them, especially as they are free pieced (not paper pieced) and the centre square is only 1 and an eighth inches - including the seam allowance.

And the other thing I worked on - indeed, what took most of the time - was testing a bag pattern for the bag challenge on BQL - the February bag. As the bag is not public yet (what with it not being February and all) I'll only offer this little sneaky peak here - and will try to remember to share the whole thing with you when it actually gets to be February...

Peace and love...

Today was the last day of the kids' holiday before going back to school tomorrow, and they decided to spend it in their favourite manner - lounging around, playing odd role-play games, watching telly, playing on the computer and fighting with each other (well, 4 out of five ain't bad!). Which meant, you guessed it, sewing time for Mummy. WooHoo.

One thing I did was some Valentine's ornaments for the swap on Creative Swaps - these aren't due until the 2nd of Feb, but given the slowness of the post these days, I thought, why take chances. I started with a bit of tie-dyed fabric (the rest of the FQ I used on the 60s postcards below) which I quilted heavily with circles and loops in a variegated pink thread. I then couched on some pink yarns. All that, I did while the piece was still one large piece - I then cut out the hearts, added some ribbon, beads, sequin waste, lace, or whatever. Some heart shaped brads, a lace flower, a little face and there you go. I forgot to take a photo of the back, but what I did was add another piece of batting, and a double layer of sheer fabric and stitch around the edge. Then I put a heart shaped piece of paper with my name and details on it and some heart shaped sequins between the sheer fabric and a layer of multi-coloured mesh and satin stitched the edges. I didn't want to really do anything elaborate on the back, but I did want the back to be attractive... Anyway, I think they turned out well - I sort of wish I'd made an extra for myself, but that's ok, I have the photos!



The other thing I did today was the postcards for the 1960s swap - which means I am all caught up with my postcard swaps (until the 15th of January anyway!) . I was writing out a list of various things I have committed to in the early months of 2008, and I actually feel a bit better now, because it's not as many things as I thought it was - and there is a wide variety of stuff, too, which is always more fun. I have very few PC swaps on at the moment, but that's ok - I'm sure I will do at least one or two a month, just not quite so many as last year.

Anyway, all I did with the 60s PCs was to take some tie-dyed fabric, add a peace symbol and quilt peace symbols and the words "Peace, man" onto them. Simple, but definitely 60s!

And finally - last but by no means least, my postcard from Vicki has FINALLY arrived - only took nearly a month to get here (it's postmarked in Virginia on the 4th of December). I'm just glad it's not lost because I really like it. (I knew I would when I saw it on her blog.)

I'm back...

Well, remarkably enough, I have managed to survive my few days without internet access or a sewing machine, and come out of it more or less sane (or at least, no less sane than I started - about which starting point we will not comment!)

Thanks to not being at home and having tons of things to do, I not only read a book but also made major strides on this cross-stitch I received for my birthday - before the weekend, I had only done the four pot outlines, so you can see how much work I've done. Who knows, I might even finish it before I get tired of winter and Christmas!

I did come home to lots of nice post, though still not the missing postcard from Vicki (dang) - maybe tomorrow! I did, however, receive the other Christmas inchies from my swap with my surface embellishment group - not sure what I am going to do with them yet, at the moment, I think I will put them to the side and have a think about them.



I also got two magazines (woo hoo) and this great card from Heather, which is for the reused swap on BQLPC - I won't go into detail about all the fun things she reused, but the list on the back was long and comprehensive. I do enjoy making those sorts of cards. Maybe when I have some free time (ha ha) I will do a series just for fun - or to swap here.


I did get two more of the postcards from my Christmas swap which hadn't yet arrived - both from down under - the present from Carole in New Zealand and the stocking from Christine in Australia. Both of them will get put away almost straight away, but that's ok, because of course they will come out next year, and for many subsequent years to adorn my house during December...

I have kept a handful of winter postcards out to put in my postcard wallhanging - I'll show those perhaps tomorrow - and then the plan is to pull out lots of favourites - we might make it a family exercise tonight, actually - to go up for a few months. Come spring, I might do a floral theme - I have a lot of spring florals lurking around...

Happy New Year everyone & keep on blogging!