WIP Wednesday - from HK

So, it's been a couple of weeks since I participated in a WIP Wednesday - only partly because I've been away in China and HK, and am technically still there. However, I am GOING TO POST THIS. Because I have had most of this WIP stored up for the last two weeks.



Anyway, since I've been away in China for the last fortnight, I haven't done all that much - although there was some incremental progress on a couple of projects.

But first, the Finishes!

Stepbrother's Supernova

The Stepbrother's Supernova binding was started on the Friday before we left (the 6th), finished on Saturday, and the quilt itself was gifted at the wedding on Sunday 8th Jan. Here it is laying across the bed of my suite in the Sir Stamford Hotel, Circular Quay (just up from the Opera House where the reception was held, amidst the most spectacular of summer storms) where my sis and I stayed after the reception:





Funny story: my sister characterised our table at the wedding as 'the redheaded stepchild' of the guests...and, uh, yeah, other than the hair colour, we kind of were! Both the groom's dad and mum remarried, and the stepkids were all at our table. (We're stepsibs through the groom's dad and our mum, btw.) So, uh, yeah...

But I think the stepbro and step-SIL liked the quilt. I haven't yet dared to ask after it. I'm seeing them tomorrow for lunch before the parentals and I fly back to Sydney (we're presently in Hong Kong), so maybe I can inquire about it then?

The design by Lee of Freshly Pieced is stark, eyecatching, and brilliant - and I'd really like to make this quilt again - only...it's really quite a lot of careful lining-up work, and it kind of killed me to make it the first time!

Thinking it through, this would be a really good scrappy quilt to make, block by block! And I bet you could do some fascinating things with patterned fabrics... Hmm... Maybe I need to make a new box of scraps "Scrappy Supernova"...


The Colour Of Magic

I machine-bound this one, and I think I have to work out a better way of doing it, because machine binding is just not cutting the mustard! I can't seem to get all the edges perfect. :(

...and I don't actually have a finished photo of this - just the one that I took for my Quilts of 2011 mosaic:



I'm not sure you can really see the quilting on this: it's actually this wonderful swirl of floral-leafy patterns in a kind of Central-Asian design.

I don't have a planned recipient for this, but because it's been computer-quilted, I think I'd like to give it as a personal gift rather than sell it on Etsy.


Finished Tops

Dead Simple Quilt

It was to have been the 'Dead Simple Quilt' but it's sort of become the 'Not-so-Dead-Simple Quilt' c/o the question of borders and what to put on it and...stuff.



I'm beginning to think I preferred it without the borders! Or perhaps I should have done it with the borders like Colour Of Magic above - but, alas, 'tis done, and I will try to quilt it (very simply) and see if someone wants to buy it from Etsy. It's not very modern in blogosphere terms, but it might suit someone with more traditional tastes.

Well, I can hope!


In Progress

I'm thinking of making two scrap quilts rather than one - I have that many scraps. However, for the moment I've decided to go with Sally Schneider's 'Askew' from 'Crazy For Scraps'. It's pretty much HSTs with a set of squares inside the lighter HST, which you then just arrange in diamond patterns.

And for a bonus, you can chain-piece this block! (Chain-piecing is awesome - so pleasantly mindless! Except when I make an oopsie and discover I've made that oopsie for the last hundred pieces. Then it sucks...)



This is a bunch of scraps from the 'smaller than FQ' collection of fabrics I have around. I've stuck with strong, saturated colours, because...um...I think those are pretty much the only scraps I have...

My colour tendencies are towards the eye-poppingly bright...



They're pretty much the leftovers from the background Stepbro's Supernova. Yay for scrapness!

On The Planning Table

Silk Quilt Cover

I've been in HK for a week and Shanghai before that, and while in China, I went and bought a whole lot of Chinese silk brocade, which I intend to turn into a quilt or a quilt-cover.

I self-assembled two 'colourways':

This one is "Violet Nights":


And I'm calling this one "Dragon's Blood":


Both sets together, bound by the black bamboo silk:


Lots of different colours, lots of different patterns, lots of possibilities! In all, there's at least 16m (17.5 yards) of fabric in that pic - and it cost me less than $120 AUD. The vendor even threw in a few 'free' yards because I bought so much! (And it was a way of getting rid of stock: he was leaving to go home for the Lunar New Year celebrations the next day.)

My intention is to make either a silk quilt, or a silk quilt-cover for the silk quilt I bought in Suzhou. My mother has already optioned cushions made from the scraps. (Ah, mum - ever the opportunist! It definitely runs in the family. :D) But for the moment, I'm just going to 'ooh' and 'aah' over my fabric. Don't mind me, the fabric is just so preeeeetttyyy!

It's all going in the luggage, and I'm quietly terrified that this could be the time that my luggage gets lost in transit. (Like "this could be the time that the plane crashes" or "this could be the time that a psychopathic maniac releases a virulently infectious virus that kills everyone on the plane"... OKay, I admit, I've been thinking too much about that first episode of Fringe - totally awesome series, btw, although not for the weak of stomach!)

I tell you, though, if QANTAS loses my luggage this time I will be so pissed off... *jinx*

No Movement
- Harvest HST: I should lay this out and start sewing it together when I get back, I want it done and dusted!
- Drunkard's Path (handsewing project): yea, even though I travel through the wintry depths of China, I will do no sewing, for my laptop and my eReader, they entertain me...
- uberquiltfest: I think I need to finish this in the next couple of weeks or i'll be in major trouble and it'll sit around forever and ever...
- Charmed Prints: another one that I just need to get done! I'm at the hard part: sewing the rows together - always a tricky part for me...

So I haven't been able to go around and check other WIP wednesday for the last two weeks. It's kinda hard when you're in China and the internet is a) expensive, b) not always happy to play with the sites you want to play with!

But you should definitely check out all the others at the link-up! There's always amazing work to be seen around and about the blogosphere!