WIP Wednesday: the one with French Generals backing up

I'm making backings. That's really about it right now. If I can get a bunch of backings and tops to the quilter before I go, then I can come back to a helluva lotta binding, and start from there.

JS chose the Laid-back Plaidish (I'm thinking of calling it the Glad-ish Plaidish because it's definitely not "laid-back". It's not really a "Lad-ish Plaidish" either which would be my alternative name for it.) which is this quilt:

And the Grandmother's Birthday Puzzle (which his wife N chose):

I'll back both the Glad-ish Plaidish and Grandmother's Puzzle with this French General print which I've had for at least a decade. 

Unfortunately, my tastes changed significantly within a couple of years of buying it and I've never quite reconciled myself to using it. Never been able to sell it. Never known quite what to do with it. So it's going into a full chequered backing.

And I will steadfastly deny the quilter when she asks, "But this is too nice for a backing, don't you want to make it into another quilt?" 

No. No, I do not. Is this the face of a woman with not enough quilts? Let me assure you in case you feel inclined to say 'yes', IT IS IN FACT THE FACE OF A WOMAN WITH TOO MANY QUILTS AND WAY TOO MUCH MATERIAL. Which I am using in pattered backings because this is me and a pretty backing means a quilt can be turned over and used just the same.

WIP Wednesday - the one with backings!

In honour of the style of my WIP Wednesday titles: RIP Matthew Perry. I was a HUGE fan of 'Friends' back in my early 20s, but lost interest long before the end.

Thus passes our youth! (sic gloria transit mundi, etc., etc.)

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In more mundane news: two more quilts have homes!

1. The orange Penny Patch - LG.

I was a bit surprised that L chose this, I would have thought she'd go for the Rainbow Around The World.

2. Grandmother's puzzle - NS - needs a backing.

Another surprise - this is a somewhat traditional quilt with one 'odd' block. The blocks were gifted to me in a 'birthday block swap' but I found I didn't like the fabrics once I'd received them. Then one block was missing and one block was the wrong side, so the blocks sat around languishing forever, until I finally decided I'd make up the missing blocks and sew it all together as a top.

Still to offer to: JS, SG, AG, KR, RR, DP, DP.

In fact, about 3/4 of the quilts I'm offering still need backings, which I'm thinking should mean I sew a bunch of FQs together... I mean, that's the theory. 

Although I just pulled out a slew of 'old collections' that I've been 'saving for a rainy day'. Eh. Screw that. They're going out as backings!

(Except what that really means is that I'm about to have a whole new generation of scraps turning up and ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH. Oh well, I guess I can further stuff the pouffle.)

If I can get the selected quilts and their backings and their battings to the quilter before I go away, then I can bind them when I get back. (ahahaha, or, y'know, in a year's time when I actually get around to it). 

Still have the binding on multiple quilts to do. Oy.

WIP Wednesday: the one with learning

Last Wednesday, I found myself in the middle of Frocktails panic. As usual. There was an event on Saturday night and I'd been planning to make a dress for it for, oh, six months.

Life happened. As it inevitably does, and the actual process of doing came down to the last couple of weeks.

Anyway, I pulled out the pattern template, copied the pattern onto some pattern-piecing, and read through the pattern instructions. Turns out working with silk and chiffon and silky fabrics is a little tricksy. I mean, I knew that, but I never really gave it a lot of thought before. This time, I didn't want to screw it up, so I decided to make a toile to practice my techniques, and then went looking for YouTube advice.

The toile was a very good idea, and it gave me practice with fabric techniques - french seams, zippers, bias-binding clothing edges, and rolled hems - so that was really useful and I'm glad I did. Additionally, I now have another nice top to wear in summer. Must remember to wear it.

Checking out the YouTube advice was also a very good idea - it's been invaluable in dealing with the loose-weave, sheer fabric that I chose for the toile.

The major changes that needed making were: the reduction of the width of the dress (it needed more fitting around my bust), and using home-made bias-binding for the neckline and armholes.

I also chose to sew a rolled hem, and while it's not the neatest thing, after wearing the dress on Saturday night to the Frocktails event, I received some excellent advice about how to do rolled hems more neatly (basically: zigzag stitch them, rather than straight stitch.

I think I will try to make the full dress out of the nice material with the facing from the pattern. However, I will still need to make the pattern somewhat slimmer. (And now I'm trying to remember if I removed one inch or two from the pattern...)

Otherwise, I'm in the middle of a cousin quilt (cousin M4 - 4th cousin, name starts with M, I can never remember how I number the cousins tbh) and it got interrupted in the midst of the plan for Frocktails, so everything's a little scatterd all around the place right now. I even had calculations on a shet of paper and now that I've set them aside, I'm not entirely sure I understand what the calculations actually mean...

Otherwise, it's all about getting the study/sewing room sorted out right now, including putting things away in filing cabinets and drawers, giving or throwing away things that aren't needed, and generally trying to be more organised before I go away for six weeks.

Mind you, that hasn't stopped me from trying to sew on some bindings, ready to get quilts out...

a question of degrees?

I've been in the same church study group for the last four? five? years.

We're a bit of an oddball bunch, tbh, but we've become friends and maybe a little bit confidantes over the years. It's a space where we can ask questions about matters where there's room for grace, and receive answers that maybe aren't entirely orthodox according to the staunchly conservative tradition and leadership of our church.

We have a lot of space for grace.

I've been intended to give the other members of the group (okay, the couples in the groups) quilts for a while now, but kept on putting it off...

Well, this term we've just been asked to take a newer couple into the study, and while we finally agreed to do so, it puts me in a bit of a bind! (haha)

Under other circumstances, I would have brought quilts along to our group's end-of-year party and gotten people to choose one they liked. Except now the end of year party is likely to feature this new couple who I've only just met (in fact, haven't even met the man, he's been off on a mission trip thingy) and...I don't know them, and I don't really want to give them a quilt.

Sorry, but a lot of time and energy and effort goes into these things and I don't bother trying to sell them anymore, I gift them to charities or to people I know and love. 

Anyway, the tricky part.

How to ask people what quilt they want, and then get them to choose one (or two), and then gift it to them but without doing it all in front of this new couple (because that would be really impolite)? Also: what if the quilts aren't ready by Christmas? I really only have six weeks before I go on holidays, and tbh, it's a little terrifying how FAST this is all coming up!

Maybe I could just message the members one by one and ask them if they'd like a quilt and offer them what I have? Then at least I know which ones to prioritise.

the list:
2x rainbow curves
2x break free or build upon
1x rainbow around-the-world
1x woodland dead simple
1x penny patch
1x scarlet split-square

I also still have these tops:
2x laid-back plaidish
2x postage stamp

Sheeeeeeeeeeesh. So many of these to get done, still. And that's before you calculate the entirety of the fabric I have stored in my study/sewing room...

Finish...uh...Monday?

It was supposed to be 'Finish Friday' but I entirely forgot about it on Friday!

Finished (trimmed and bound, etc.) two quilts over the last couple of weeks.

The Valley of Kings has been on the list for about 12 years.

I bought the fabric (Robert Kaufman's Valley of Kings) because I loved the shiny, pretty, drama of the prints, and then realised it would probably be difficult to find a pattern that would showcase it properly. 

I don't know that this pattern particularly does the job, but by the time I put this together, I didn't really care. I just wanted the quilt done!

It was originally intended for a friend I knew back in 2010 who held an interest in all things Egypt. I never mentioned it to her, and over the years we grew apart to the point where we're no longer in contact. As a result, I have this fabric and a quilt that I don't have a use for...

I was giving away quilts to a number of friends and added some that had been only just quilted (but weren't yet bound) and Valley of the Kings was in one of those lists. A friend promptly claimed it.

WOOHOO.

Okay, not quite 'woohoo' because I still had to bind the darn thing!

Which I did. Eventually. About a year after actually promising her the quilt. *sigh*

Oh well, she's happy with it. And so is the recipient of this one: the Classic Dead Simple.

So-named because it's pretty much just 5" squares arranged and sewn together. Easiest quilt in the world to make, right?

Well, unless you're like me and you angst over what should go where and whether it's all balanced enough and maybe I shouldn't do the colourwave but arrange it in another configuration...

I've had these fabrics for at least as long as I've had quilting as a moderately serious hobby (ie. taking up serious shelving in my house). I bought a number of charm packs of 'reconstruction' fabrics and mixed and melded them until I had a reasonable colourwash. The original plan was to sew them together as hexagons with either neutral triangles in the corner or a contrasting colour to the hexagon. And then, over the years, I realised it was too ambitious and I was never going to do it.

Cue the pandemic.

I had time on my hands, and all that fabric. I started putting together quilts that I'd only ever planned out. And the Dead Simple Classic was one of them. No muss, no fuss, just line up all the squares and sew them into rows and then into columns. BINGO.

The friend who requested this one was delighted to discover that the individual prints had some oddities to it - it's not just solid colour, it's got some prints and patterns: a map of the world, some paisley flowers, odd geometric designs...

Anyway, two quilts out.

I still have a whole bunch more to be bound and gifted. And something of a conundrum which I might ask for your help in solving. But that's for next post.

WIP Wednesday: the one with nephlets

Am working on bindings lately: all the quilts I have which are quilted but not bound.

Gave the nephlet quilts to my stepbrothers. Old quilts, made years back.

SB1's son got this one:

I'll see if I can find a pic of the quilt I gave to SB2's son, but it's very old and has been sitting around for far too long.

Next up are M and C's quilts, who I asked if they wanted a quilt back in 2020, and...just didn't quite manage to deliver. Oy.

M asked for the Dead Simple Classic:

C asked for the Valley of Kings:

TBH, Valley of Kings was originally made for someone else, but I haven't really spoken with her in about 10 years and we don't really keep in touch, so...sorry!

I'm starting to look at scraps again, though, for scrap quilts... I think I'll do one of those scrap quilts made up of 2.5" x 3.5" rectangles. I mean, I always say this, but actually finishing a scrap quilt...

WIP Wednesday: The One After A Really Long Break

Whew! How long has it been since I posted here? I haven't had any WIPs in ages, haven't done any quilting work or binding or anything in IDEK how long. Anyway, I finally have some updates to post about.

The loooooong WIP of my show quilt was completed on Wednesday, sleeved on Thursday, and labelled and handed off to the pickup lady on Friday. She lives 45 minutes away, in an outer suburb of Sydney. I'm not sure if it's just that they didn't think that the person 20 minutes away was actually closer, or if I was blackballed by 20-mins-away lady after we had trouble matching up schedules last year. She seemed very terse and not very pleased when I dropped my quilt off last year.

Anyway, it's done. Show is in a couple of weeks. On to the next projects!

1. BIND ALL THE THINGS

I have this pile of quilts to bind!

I have these two kinds of bindings to bind them with!

Almost certainly, I'm going to need more binding. I'm also going to need more types of bindings, because those two aren't going to match with all of the different types of quilts I have.

Just gotta get it done. Also: it's not difficult, just finicky over time.

2. Restless Hands of Sel

Restless Hands of Sel:

I'm starting to think that the stars are just going to get lost in the colours, you know? Although it will be very pretty, it won't be very distinct! Oh well, I'm going to be a bit less stringent about the colours of the stars now, spotting in a couple of randos to give the quilt some unexpected pop. That's the theory anyway; it may end up looking awful!

3. Cousin Quilts

Cousin M got married in late July, then had a wedding lunch in Sydney mid-August. We gave him and his wife money as a gift, but I was planning a quilt for them.

It was also a chance to chat with all the cousins, and one of them mentioned to her new partner that I made "the most gorgeous quilts ever!" And that both she and her sister still use the zipper bags that I gave them for Christmas maybe a decade ago!

So nice to know!

Anyawy, I have Cousin M's quilt pattern picked out, the fabrics for his quilt chosen, and it's just a matter of putting it all together. If I can get it done by the time I go to the UK, then it can be a belated wedding-gift-slash-Christmas-present.

That's the plan at any rate.

WIP Wednesday: the one with binding

Still haven't put everything back together in the house or the study. I keep saying I'll get my sewing things out, but I never quite manage it.

But I did put my quilt into the NSW Guild Quilt Show.

I have a bag of two quilts with binding ready to be sewn on. Then I have a airless/compression bag of quilts that still need binding.

Cousin M4 is going to be in town in August with his wife for their in-Australia wedding celebration, so I have until then to work out a quilt for them.

In the meantime, I have sewn two more stars for the Restless Hands quilt.

WIP WORLD: the one with windows

Windows are here. Not installed, but here!

In the process of preparing for the windows being replaced, however, I have packed up almost every single piece of fabric that I own. All the boxes. All the fabrics. All of it. WHEW.

I have a lot more fabric than I remember, though! And am all the more determined to make things of them and give them away to people!

WIP: the one with Pouffles

Windows are likely going to be in the next three-ish weeks.

Therefore, in a rush to clear my sewing room, I finished up the Scrap-Filled Pouffle.

And then discovered I didn't have enough scraps for it...

I mean, who'd have ever thought that I didn't have enough scraps to fill it! Anyway, I added a cushion and a bunch of larger scraps and paddings to fill it out, and it's looking a little better:

Still not great, though!

With the windows due for replacement, pretty much all quilting is going on hold for the next month. I might have to do a really swift quilt of Surplus To Requirement in May, just to get it sufficiently done for the Quilt Show, and I would really like to edge the quilts that I have still waiting so it can all go out in the next few weeks.

One of the things the sorting/tidying/boxing thing is doing is getting me to go through stuff and sort it out - eg. the pouffle, which I've been intending to make for a couple of years now, but have only just done through necessity. But I have two boxes of fabric to be rid of and the struggle is going to be finding anyone to take it. Apparently people aren't buying right now.

I put this collection of scrap blocks up on the board, though, just to get something up there, because it was looking really blank when I did my TikTok videos.

WIP Wednesday: the one with battings and backings

The auctioned-off Rainbow Interconnected (which I apparently called Retro Rainbow on the label) went to a friend who I thought I might give a quilt to, but now don't have to. She did pay $150 for it, which is more than the last 'auctioned-off' quilt went for ($30!) - although that one also went to a friend, so I'm not wholly unhappy about that.

The thing that I'm miffed about is that they didn't ask me for a description, so it just appeared as "homey quilt" instead of anything about the design and what I think of it. If I'd known they'd be printing something like that, I'd have put together a blurb:

We are not islands, nor wholly discrete individuals; we influence others and are influenced by them in turn, in ways both subtle and unsubtle. None of us knows the full dimensions of our influence upon others and the world around us, we can only be what we are and what we choose to be.

Anyway. Auction done, one more quilt off my hands, and - moreover - gone to a friend.

I did a lot of backings in the last week:

Oh so many backings! And then I cut a lot of batting - enough batting that I ran out of the half-roll I bought a couple of years ago! I bought it with another quilting friend, and we divided it into two. I think it was about 15m worth? Or thereabouts? But anyway, I used up my portion of it. I still have two quilts to find batting for, and am contemplating just going down to Spotlight and buying the polyester batting there. Not my first choice (cotton/bamboo batting, from a small Aussie-owned quilt show) but might be necessary for getting things done.

Tomorrow (Thursday), I'll go visit the quilter, pick up the quilts she's already done, hand over the ones that are yet undone. I'll also hand over a bunch of quilts that are finished to some friends who I promised them to a while ago. Except I look at them and think "they're not very pretty quilts", so I'm not entirely pleased about giving them to my friends. IDK. Do I offer them nicer-but-not-yet-finished ones? What do I do with these ones, then?

I think I'm going to offer them the nicer-but-not-yet-finished ones.

At some point, I'll need to sort and store the stuff in the sewing room so the windows guys can come and do their work. It's a neverending job, though, honestly; endless scraps upon scraps upon abandoned projects, upon heaven only knows what...

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Thing to definitely make before the windows change: the denim pouffle for scrap-stuffing.

WIP Wednesday: I like big backs and I cannot lie...

WIP Wednesday (okay, so it's Thursday here)

I finished a quilt top: Surplus To Requirement:

It's made up of a bunch of leftover quilt blocks from the last ten years, with a fat quarter of 'filler fabric' and a bunch of random jelly roll strips. 

I had so much trouble working out the layout, particularly because this is v2.0, and v1.0 was about half the size - the middle section. Then I found a whole lot more quilt blocks that could be used and then the issue of balancing the business, the design, the values, and the redistribution of the 'filler fabric' so it was all across the quilt and not just in the middle.

All things considered, I'm pretty happy with it. Going to put a backing on it, quilt it, and enter it into the Sydney Quilt Show.

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I made a bunch of backings for quilt tops, ready to go to my quilter, who hasn't heard from me since January. (Time just slips away.)

I still have backings to make for at least four quilt tops to get done this year, two quilts to quilt myself (can't hand them off to a quilter, they were one quilt that got sliced in half because I made the shift from GINORMOUS LARGE QUILTS to medium sized ones, and this one was too much of a monster to quilt myself, so I just kinda cut it in half and added a strip to the backing.

Do I quilt these two before or after I quilt the show quilt? Choices choices.

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I finally got a good pic of the Interconnected quilt I submitted for the quilt show in 2021:

It's going to an auction at the church trivia night on Sunday.

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WIP Wednesday: the one with dressmaking

So many thing to do, so little time:

The 100 Days Project (started 22nd Feb), IG Quilt Fest (March), Me Made March (instead of May, possibly warmer for us in the southern hemisphere)

100 Days Project: quilting every day? Sow at least one seam, if not several?

What if I committed to do one quilting thing a day, even if it's only sow a single seam? Obviously, some things need a little more than one seam to be finished. But I can do those things when I have time.

I kind of wish I'd started up the 100 Days Project on my Restless Hands quilt, which is going nowhere very rapidly.

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So I completed a dress during the week - the Tea House Dress by Sew House Seven - it took me two and a half years, if not more, but it's finally done. I think I won that pattern at a previous Frocktails (2018? 2019?) and I finished it in time for the Blue Mountains Frocktails 2023 event!

I think I'll make a few more of these, they're pretty comfortable and nice and light and casual. I wonder how good it would be in something a little softer and thicker, not quite a nightdress fleece.

I ended up wearing another Sicily Slip because  it looked really good with my back tattoo.

The Blue Mountains Frocktails event was heaps of fun - great to meet fellow sewists, to sit and talk with a few people that I knew and got to know better, and also to better link names to faces...

Didn't win anything, but bought some fabric at Minerva's Bower on the way home.

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There's also this dress still to make – the pattern I won at the last Frocktails:

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Today, this afternoon, I'm going to sew together the striped binding for the last (couple of) quilt(s) that need binding for this collection. This year, I just really want to finish these quilts and get them out the door.

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I think I've worked out the balance of blocks for The Spare - a.k.a.”Harry of Windsor” which is entirely made up of the 'spare' blocks of various quilts that I've made through the years.

If I actually manage to finish it in time, it could go for the Sydney Quilt Show, perhaps?

wip wednesday: the one with the spares

So this quilt - if quilt it is - is either going to be called The Harry or The Backing.

It's made up of leftover blocks from a dozen quilts and more over the last ten years. If you go back through my quilts of 2012-2014, you'l more than likely see a few designs that match the blocks in the quilt.

The thing that I don't know: Is it a backing? Or is it a quilt?

What are your thoughts, both on the name, and on whether or not it's a quilt?

WIP Wednesday

It's a new year, full of WIPs to be completed!

This year, my cousin M gets married, and I'd like to actually give him a quilt for a gift. This year, the friends from my bible studies who've been promised quilts for YEARS are finally going to get them. This year, I'm going to enter something in the Sydney Quilt Show (somehow). And I'm going to get quilts finished and bound right, left, and centre!

I am! I am! I am!

*sigh*

So, what we have right now on our plate:

Planned List:
- M's quilt
- Sydney Quilt Show Quilt (whatever that turns out to be)
- ALL THE COUSIN QUILTS

(Oh cripes that's a lot of quilts to make in addition to all the WIPs that I've got listed below. SSSSSHEEEEEESSSSSHHHHHHH)

WIP - in pieces
- scrappy trip around the world
- scrappy leftover block quilt
- plaid-ish quilt 2
- another cousin-quilt (finished top)
- Restless Hands Of Sel

WIP - to be backed
- scrappy postage stamp 2
- plaid-ish quilt
- birthday grandmother's puzzle quilt
- 2x rainbow curves

WIP - to be quilted
- two green quilts

WIP - to be bound
- scrappy postage stamp 1
- 2x penny patches
- 1x red & black diagonals

FINISHED: to be given away!
- rainbow interconnection
- 2x purple squares quilt

I gave away Universe Of Wonk to my hosts for New Year's Eve. So that's one less quilt that I need to deal with.

Look, I know I could give away quilts right left and centre and there would be plenty of friends who'd be lining up for them. But, whew, the difficulty of trying to be fair about it is REALLY TRICKSY.

Dear heavens, I have a lot of quilts. In progress, in pieces, planned, being quilted, being bound... I guess at least having the list means I have a good idea of what needs to be done, and possibly an inkling of how long it will take me. But ARGH.

2023, here we come!