Hump Day Handover!

Why yes, I do believe it's Wednesday once more!



HUZZAH! (ie. finished)

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner (a.k.a. "Scrap Attack Quilt", "No Problem, Bitches!" - NPBITC) is done!



It's laid out on what space there is on the lounge room floor and I can't stop staring at it. It looks pretty good, don't you think?

But that border!

There was angst. Angst, and HSTs. And HSTs. And more HSTs. And still more HSTs! I was practically drowning in them. But I got them sewed, snipped the corners, pressed them, and then sewed them in long chains of flying geese...

eta: After I posted this, I hassled the stepdad to hold it up for a better pic:

Most of them came from the Supernova Quilt Along I did last year - those itty bitty corners that got cut off and which I started hand-sewing before I got into making Drunkards Path blocks.

Now I just machine sew them. Faster, neater, more convenient.

...and that's about all I've done this week!

Except receive mail:


At least now I can really get into the Books And Bees Block Party!


TO DO

Floating Wildflowers: having all kinds of trouble getting the yardage for the backing. I haven't heard back from the shop I found on the internet at all...

Disappearing Square Harvest: Binding. Uh, yeah... *shifty eyes*


ON YOUR MARKS...

Birthday Blocks: There were three for march and I haven't managed to do any of them, although I've let the people know it'll be late.

Books And Bees Block: I owe at least one block (she's been notified of my tardiness) and April is swiftly soaring in. (OMG. It's APRIL??)

Commission - Baby Quilts: a friend of mine asked me to make a couple of baby quilts for her niece and nephew who are to be born in May-June this year. We've done the fabric shopping already, and now it's just the putting together! Which, of course, is the tricky part!



Festival of HSTs:
From leftovers of the HSTs I used above. I seem to have HUNDREDS of the damn things - all of them from making this Supernova quilt last year:
They are cut, they are bright and pretty, and I still have a whole bunch to sew together! So I have plenty of stuff to work with for the HST Festival!

BACKBURNER
New York Beauty: I want to do this. I really really do. But I don't really have the space or time right now. And I'm intimidated by the so-beautiful work of others!

And the kittehs say "hi!" Well, one kitteh says hi.

You all know Maladicta, right?


Now that my random yardage has the Mal buttstamp of approval, it is acceptable to snooze upon!



Ah, cats!

So shall we take a squiz at what other people have been doing this week over at WIP Wednesday?

To B(order) or not To B(order)?

I always hate getting to the part where I have to add borders in to a quilt. I can never decide whether it needs a border or not. Or even how much border it should have.


I was going to leave it like that. Nice and simple. Focus on the blocks and the layout and the piecing and not complicate it with borders.

But I have a bunch of HSTs, some of which are roughly hand-sewn and which need using, and which are the right colour and suitably scrappy...

Which then brings up the question of the type of border it should have.

These things are never easy to decide!

Boxes?


Blocks?


Zig Zags?


Or Flying Geese?
Ugh. Choices. I am chronically indecisive....at least, I think I am. Am I? Or maybe I'm not?

Ultimately, I picked the one with the least sewing - the Flying Geese. Because the least effort for the best effect is always a good way to go for me!

Plus, I like the 'blank space' effect that the flying geese blocks produce.

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner!

Isn't it preeeeetty? So so preeeeeetty!

It was still a lot of sewing, mind! Two episodes of Castle - the one with the handcuffs and the 2nd half of the one with the national security threat - and three episodes of Sherlock - the one introducing Moriarty, the one with Irene Adler (*OMG LOVE*), and the Hounds of Baskerville.

My day is done. (And nearly gone the sun!)

And that's #5 for the year! And it's not even April!

I even have HSTs left over for the Festival of Half Square Triangles being put on by Megan over at Canoe Ridge Creations!!



HOWZAT?

You've Got Mail! (*bing*)

Our Book Depository, which art in the UK,
Hallowed be thy name,
Thy shipping free o'er land or sea,
In Australia as it is in England.
Give us today our daily mail,
And judge not our purchases,
As we judge you not for charging our card.
And lead us not into the path of exorbitant postage,
But deliver us free packages.
For the ISBN, the barcode, and the pricetag are yours,
Now and forever,
Amen.



Don't you love it when you get mail?

And finally finally finally I can start on my March block for the Modern Books And Blocks Bee which has been stalled for a lack of instruction manual (argh grargh yarg).

Yes, I got the Farmer's Wife Sampler book. I might use it as a doorstop. [KIDDING] We shall see what can be done with it. Once I wrangle those damn one-pattern-piece-per-page pages into some modicum of environmental friendliness.

But I'd like to do something with it like this dear jane quilt (2nd quilt down here if you want to look at the collection of quilts documented in the blogpost)

And the 50 Paper Pieced Stars.

*sigh* So many projects, so little time...

I bought two fiction books at the same time as these - Angels of Darkness (compendium, Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, and Meljean Brooks), and Heart of Steel (Meljean Brooks).

Book Depository is great for purchasing books these days. Free shipping! There's no quilt shop in the world will offer you that. Unless you know the proprieter and she's coming by for dinner on Saturday. Different kettle of chips.

Amazon may be wonderful if you're in the US, but in Australia I end up paying more for Amazon's shipping than I do for the books themselves. There's something intrinsically wrong with that.

Strangely, all got delivered in separate packages instead of one big one.

Scrap Attack QAL: Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner

"Things are gonna get a little interesting around here..."
"Define 'interesting'."
"Oh God, Oh God, we're all gonna die?"
Wash & Mal, Serenity
So, spent yesterday afternoon watching episodes of Castle, Sherlock, and Lost Girl, and sewing 'Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner' together.

Sherlock is actually really very difficult to watch while sewing - there's a lot of visual stuff on the screen which you have to keep an eye on. Castle is easy to watch and Lost Girl nearly as simple.

But you don't want to hear about my fannish viewing habits. You've come for my Scrap Attack quilt!

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner (a.k.a. NPBITC or "no problem, bitches!") is nearly done!



It's very...scrappy. Which is the intention, I know, only I'm not used to this kind of scrappiness in my quilts - they usually look a lot more organised and colour co-ordinated!

It's not a bad look, it just takes some getting used to.



It is rather fun playing 'I Spy' with the fabrics though. "That's Terrain and that's Odyssea and that's Swoon and that's Central Park..."

It needs a border. I just have to decide what. I'm thinking one wide plain one in creams/whites, and one thin one composed of scrappy HSTs.

And then I have to sew it all together. Before the 28th.

It may not be interesting to the level of "oh God, Oh God, we're all gonna die" but it will certainly be 'interesting' for me!

WIP Wednesday (again)!

A highly unproductive week in the end. I did a few bits and pieces, but nothing that amounts to much of a WIP Wednesday.

Done this week

Scrap Attack: Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner

(I swear, my names for these quilts varies according to mood and/or what I remember to call it...)



Don't they look awesome all squared up? I had to make them 4.25" because they wouldn't neatly square up to 4.5" and I'd rather have them all neatly square and the same size.

I also ironed out some HSTs that were my handsewing project for most of last year before I went on to the Drunkard's Path blocks. They might do as a border around the edge?

And the squared-up blocks laid out:



I think I'm going to have to go through the blocks and try to make sure that the directional blocks all face the same direction.

Then it's just a matter of sewing it all together.

Floating Wildflowers

I've started piecing the back, using the leftover charm squares and making a small section in the Plus Quilt Layout (tutorial by Jeni of In Color Order:



It's not very bright or contrast-y, but they were what I had left over.

There'll be another section that's in a Jelly Roll Race, but I only sewed the jelly roll strips together in prep for that.

There's not enough leftover charm squares or jelly rolls to back it, let alone bind it, so I've had to order more Wildflower Serenade II fabric (and while I was at it, I went and got some Kansas Winter and Harmony to match the fabric sets I have of those collections - many birds, one stone).

It's going to be tight to finish this before the 17th April. Real tight.


No Movement
Disappearing Harvest - binding!

New York Beauty QAL - have papers, have fabric, haven't time/organisation/space.

Paper Pieced Stars: The Starry Night - haven't touched it.

The link party post is up! Go forth, seek, and comment!

WIP Wednesday!

w00t! (finished)

Floating Wildflowers

I know it's not the done thing to say you like traditional quilts anymore. With the popularity of the quilting blogosphere and the advent of the loud-and-proud modern quilter, traditional fabrics and the quilts they're made from have become distinctly passe.



But I can't help myself. I love this quilt.



Maybe it's the richness of the colours. Maybe it's the way the blocks dance across the quilt top, their jazz-hands out and waggling.

Maybe it's just that for all that I love the bright colours of modern fabrics, there's something about traditional fabrics that just goes directly to the conservative traditionalist in my soul and says, "Hey, you're gonna love this!"



And, you know, maybe it's just that my kittehs are made of adorable when they refuse to walk on the finished quilt top, but sit down on it the instant I fold it up.



Don't you love Mal's expression?

What? You meant you didn't put this down for me to sit on?

So this is finished top #4 for 2012 - HUZZAH!

February Birthday Block

This is late, but I did let the mods know that it would be late. I'm a little worried that they haven't contacted me at all, though.

Of course, I stupidly packed it up and sent it off without taking a photo of it first. So no pics.

*facepalm*


:/ (WIP)

Scrap Attack: Dirty Dancing - layout and piecing together - will do this week, because need to get a move along!

Disappearing Harvest - still needs binding - will do this week

New York Beauty QAL - have papers, have started picking fabrics, haven't started putting it together yet - will do Block 0 this week!

Paper Pieced Stars: The Starry Night - I've actually ordered this book so I don't have to keep borrowing my friend's copy! I should try to do a block every couple of weeks at least...


Kitchen is still in a state of disarray, although we're looking to start picking up again later this week. And the kittehs say 'hi!' and 'what are you doing interrupting our nap for your stupid blog photos!'



Pet the kittehs (unless you're allergic to cat hair, or a dog person, in which case, don't) and then run along and check out all the other WIP Wednesdays linked up at Freshly Pieced!

New York Beauty

10 blocks, lots of scraps, paper piecing, curves...

I love this block. I love the Art-Deco-ness of it, the sharp lines and crisp edges. And those curves are going to be a challenge!

Plus, I've always wanted to make this quilt.

So I've decided to join this quilt-along. A little late, perhaps, since the first two blocks are already out, but that's okay. I never manage to keep up with these things.

WIP Wednesday!

And once again it's Hump Day!


A quiet week. Only progress was on the Floating Wildflowers for Simone's wedding. And that wasn't as much progress as I would have liked.

Progress

Floating Wildflowers

Modern or Traditional?

Blocks are made and laid!


They're not quite as floaty as I'd like, but the design carries off, overall, I think.

I plan for a thin framing border in a dark colour (or possibly several) and then some small coloured squares as a border to widen it just that little bit more.



It's been more difficult laying them out and sewing it together because of the new kittehs:

They look cute and quiet here, but they have a tendency to play with anything that is fabric and loose, or which has a trailing edge...like a string of blocks being carried to the sewing table...

*sigh*

No Progress
- Paper Pieced Stars: I'm going to add more stars to this and make it a lap quilt, or possibly a wall hanging.
- Scrap Attack: Dirty Dancing: need to lay it out again and sew the blocks together
- Disappearing Harvest: still needs binding

Finally, I'm going to sell a couple of my quilts because my finances are running out and things are looking grim in the job market over here:

The Colour Of Magic


Modern Rail Fence


I'll have the details up on Etsy in a few days once I work out shipping costs, etc.

Keep an eye out for them!

And go forth and check out the linky post over at Freshly Pieced!

Modern Quilts with Traditional Fabrics?

Is it possible to do Modern quilting with Traditional fabrics?

Or does the fabric chosen for a given project necessarily feed into the definition of modern vs. traditional?



The plan for my friend's wedding quilt was to develop an abstract look: the floating dark squares in the yellowish background. (What colour is that, anyway. Mustard? I always thought mustard would be more green or more brown...)



There was much angst and worry over cutting the jelly roll up - would I have enough? What if I didn't - where would I find enough fabric to make up the difference?

I made 81 blocks for a 9x9 quilt...only to discover that I didn't have quite enough fabric for the last block and had to piece together some ends...

Only, as it turned out, I'd made 91 squares. *facepalm*

So the quilt is now 9x10 blocks.



And in the process of putting blocks together, sometimes you do something amazing:


I swear, I couldn't have done that if I tried!

the post of desirable objects!

Any Fringe fans here? No? Just me?

It's an awesome show, btw. Plus, the lead actress is Australian! (We're taking over your screens: first it was Nicole, Russell, Hugh, Cate, and Geoffrey, now it's Alex [O'Loughlin] and Anna [Torv]...)

Anyway, this is just a post of all those bits and pieces that I'd like to get at some stage - kind of like a shopping list with no due date.

EZ Quilting Tri-Recs Ruler

Groovin' Fat Quarter Bundle
Jane Spolar of Quilt Poetry for Northcott Fabrics


Avalon Excalibur


Bespoken Lush


Blue Eden


Cabana Blooms


Classic Jurassic



Hawaiian Crazy Daisy


Crisp Pear Decadence


Speckled Pear Decadence


Dress Up


Finally Free


Seagull Flock


Parrot Flock


Dragonfly Flying Colours


Hummingbird Flying Colours


French Court
Magnolia Fresh Cut
Mount Gould Garden Wall
Bishops Cap Garden Wall
Good Fortune
Spice Market
Gumdrop Tonga Batiks
Imperial Pheasant
Misty Impressions
Opalescent Impression
Sea Foam Impressions
Lemon Grove
Dreamer Lark
Sweet Lush
Sunny Lush

Citrus/Tangerine/Sky Ooh La La
Azure Pear Tree

Moroccan Mirage by Khristian A Howell

Hello Luscious by Basic Grey

To Market To Market by Marie Perkins