WIP Whatever!

Did I mention I liked the colours in this? Because I really really do!

Planning the kaleidoscope QAL borders:


And the actual borders:


I couldn't match the cream in the kaleidoscope blocks perfectly, but it's fairly close.

The batting is purchased, the back is planned. Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to complete it before the 4th. I'd have to sew every day from now until the 4th and I have some deadlines that need seeing to. No cigar.

A pity; I was looking forward to actually completing a quilt from go to whoa without handing it off at any point. It's been a while.

finished
- Chris and Kate's wedding quilt: Forest Chain

other UFOs
- Octarine Batiks
- Batik String cushion covers
- Shaz and Drew's wedding quilt: Sunshine and Lollipops (to be bound)

To Do
- Mum's quilt
- Scrappy Mountain Harvest (those fabrics have been sitting there for forever!

I have a Fabric Friday post for tomorrow - boy, do I ever!

And uh-oh... I just went and looked and the Fat Quarter shop is having an 8-day sale...

Another Finished Quilt!

Two finished quilts in July! Two!

*whoops*

This is a very conservative Double Irish Chain for my bible study leaders who got married back in December 2009. They've been my study leaders in 2010 and 2011 as well, so it's a good gift to give them.



In the original plan, the 'double chain' was going to be the white/brown/gold fabric. Except that I miscalc'd when putting it all together, and it ended up as the 'single chain' fabric, which blends the dark green with the green-and-gold-flower-print. It still looks fine, but I keep thinking that it's not quite what I envisioned when I bought the fabric...

I've had the quilted quilt for at least four months now, and have been putting off binding it (like with the last quilt I finished - the Batik boxes). But with the encouragement of a RL quilting friend, and the cheery helpfulness of a local coffeehouse, I've been sitting down and finishing these babies.

It feels goooood.

And now I can wrap it and take it along to bible study tomorrow night! :)

I have a fabric post, but I might let that wait for Fabric Friday.

I'm going to submit this for the Gen X Quilter's Summer Fair Quilt And Recipe Show:

WIP Wednesday

started
1. The binding on Kate and Chris' quilt.

That's a very old pic of the raw quilt top. It's since been quilted. It's coming along a lot faster than one for Owen and Megs I finished earlier this week. I think it's because this backing is pure cotton. I think that the backing for Owen and Megs' quilt was polycotton. Will have to warn them about that.

2. String Block cushion cover:



Made from scraps leftover from trimming the "Cathedral Windows Quilt" I made for Rachel L in 2007, and the corresponding quilt I made for myself in 2008.

3. Batik 'coins' cushion cover:



Also made from the scraps of those two quilts. The black works really well as a background - but I think the fabric could be a problem since I think it's a polycotton blend. Oops?

4. Don't Call Me Betsy Kaleidoscope Quilt - Colour Attempt #2



The change in colour scheme has totally enthused me about this quilt. Given how cold, rainy, and grey Sydney is right now, it's very much needed!

A pic of the layout:


The current state of play:


It's a bit of a mess, but hey - WIP, right?

A focus on the blocks that are actually sewn together.


Look at those points! I don't think I've ever had anything match up so perfectly before!


I still have all the pieces I cut for the original colour scheme - I think I might mix it all up and see how it works. Perhaps with some golds and patterns to move things along?

What I Did On My Weekend

Saturday:

Went to North Sydney Produce Markets:


I mostly buy meats from the Produce Markets - specialised meats that are hard to find elsewhere, since the local butcher doesn't always carry them.

Sorted my quilting scraps and found a bunch of batik strips left over from when I trimmed my Cathedral Windows several years ago! (I need to make another Cathedral Windows quilt, really.)

Made my first string quilt blocks with the batik strings.


Turned them into a pillow cover:


Realised the pillow cover was too small for the pillow, and used more batik strips and black fabric to make a bigger pillow cover:


Sunday

1. Went to Kazbah for their breakfast tagine. Tagine was delicious, but restaurant service was very bad.
2. Bought three winter knits for under $100.
3. Bought supplemental fabrics for quilt along, and batting for the back of my Disappearing Harvest Quilt.
4. Put together a colour scheme for the Kaleidoscope QAL Take 2:


5. Played hockey. Drew 1-1 when we probably should have won. Discovered that I play better when I'm challenged.
6. Went to church and got an unusual sermon on a non-literal interpretation of 1 Corinthians 14 - the gift of prophecy, and the gift of tongues.
7. Helped out with church dinner.
8. Cooked delicious baked ginger-and-soy marinated chicken on a bed of brussel sprouts lightly cooked in butter, garlic, and white wine. (Highly recommended meal.)

finished quilt! and Blogger ugh

I just spent the last 90 minutes jiggling Blogger to display my new header properly - by which I mean, not off the page, approximately centered, and with the blog body and the widgets column correctly aligned under it.

What a bloody circus! And I'm a computer programmer by trade, too!

Anyway, I now have a header that actually displays a few of my finished quilts - since it is a quilting blog!

Which brings me to my next finished quilt!



It's 18 months late, but at least it's done. Poor Megs, probably wonder if she was ever going to get that quilt!

Just in time for the worst of winter, perhaps?

--

I've picked new colours for the Kaleidoscope Quilt-Along:



The colour values aren't so dark this time, so I'm hoping it'll fit the pale fabric better.

kaleidoscope argh

So I laid out a few blocks this evening to get a feel for the colours of the quilt.



I don't like the colours. Maybe because the pencils I used to colour in the plan were more saturated and so, brighter. I thought it would be okay.

It's not.

This quilt is speaking to me, but all it's saying right now is MEH.

*wonders where to now*

Working Wednesday

Alliteration is such an amusing thing for my small mind!

First, the scarf for Tina:


Made from the Tea Rose Home Five Fat Quarters Scarf. I changed the pattern a bit because I couldn't find a fifth fabric that matched the others.

It's a bit modern for my tastes, but hopefully Tina likes it. If not, I can always make her another, more classically coloured one.

Also, a churn dash block for the 2011 Birthday Block swap on LJ and Flickr:


Very late June birthday. And July is a rather complicated one with flying geese and HSTs all over the shop! That's definitely gonna be a challenge.

I also sewed about 20 corners to kaleidoscope isos. More later, perhaps.

WIP Wednesday

Right, so finally a WIP Wednesday again!



It's a long edition this time. I've had WIPs for the last couple of weeks, just no time to get the pictures taken and up.

I signed up for Don't Call Me Betsy's Kaleidoscope QA and then got no further than picking out the fabrics.

Cutting? Hah! Piecing? Double hah! Finishing blocks? Nuh-uh!

Until today.



I'm way behind - still only at the cutting stage. Hopefully I'll have the corners on by Friday, though.

The Plan and The Pieces!


The pattern paper is thanks to my friend Jenn who sketched me out a kaleidoscope pattern for designing after watching me sketch quilting designs on a paper tablecloth in the restaurant we were having lunch in during our fabric shop crawl the other week - thanks, Jenn!

Jenn is my quilting partner-in-crime; we sat in a cafe today for two hours and did quilt-y things - she was quilting, I was binding. It's nice to have a friend in the locality who you can hang with while quilting!

And another pic, sans Plan:


Still Piecing

The Octarine batik quilt:


Still in pieces, although not laid out right now. Must get to sewing the squares together, then putting it together with a border.

I wonder if I could get away with hand-quilting 'WIZZARD' all over this one... *geeky giggle*

Also still being pieced: the back of the Sanctuary Kaleidoscope.

Yet To Be Quilted
Disappearing Harvest Charms:


I'm going to baste and quilt this one by hand myself I think, with a really simple design. After I swore I'd never hand-quilt again, too! We'll see how it goes...

To Finish Binding
Meg and Owen's wedding quilt - Bold Batik Boxes - 85% done!
Shaz and Andrew's wedding quilt - Sunshine And Lollipops
Kate and Chris' wedding quilt - Irish Chain

Being Quilted (at Thirroul Custom Quilting)
- The Penny Batik (postage stamp)
- Rail Fence
- Supernova

In The Planning Stages
Tina's scarf
Mum's quilt (RK Imperial collection)
Harvest Mountain Magic quilt (probably for Sue)

my cousin, cancer, and patchwork ideas

My cousin Tina was diagnosed with cancer a couple of months ago and is presently undergoing chemo, which is having the expected result on her hair.

Tina and I are the same age - in fact, she's only two weeks older than me, and we were in the same high school for Year 11 and 12 - junior and senior years to the Americans, fifth and sixth form for the Brits. We drifted apart in our twenties, she got married to a lovely guy, moved to London, moved back to Sydney, had a kid...

We lost touch: she's a big social butterfly and I'm...me. :)

Her cancer has hit her hard, especially given her son is barely a year old. However, with the grace of God and the support of her family and friends, she's getting through it.

The reason I'm posting this here is because she's asked for ideas for covering her bald head after chemo and I suddenly realised I could make her something.

Tina's always been fashionable. My memories of Tina are always of her being impeccably dressed, the picture of a gracious hostess and elegant woman. I can put on the elegance when I want/need to - with Tina, it was natural as breathing.

So I'm looking at patterns (free, right now) to make hats or scarves from my fabric collections.

- Sunhat with a bias tape brim
- Bucket hat.
- a nice scalloped-brim hat
- a scarf from Amy Butler's Free Patterns
- Boho chic patchwork scarf pattern
- a lovely fat-quarters scarf from Tea Rose Home

I might start with a scarf and then work my way around to the hats.

Do you have any other suggestions?

charm pack confusion

Back when I first started getting into precuts (about 3 years ago), I bought up a bunch of charm square packs - just colours and styles that appealed to me, with no real idea of what I was going to use them for.

Over the years, I continued to have very little idea of what I should create with them...

One set I turned into HSTs for a darks/lights quilt, which has never been finished. I buried my cat in it earlier this year, sort of as a reminder of all those quilts she parked herself upon through the years.

Then I sorted several 'classic' charm packs into a shade-oriented layout...and then never worked out how to put it together. The original plan was for hexagons in rows, offset by triangles in contrasting solids.



However, I believe the hexagon blocks I had in mind require fairly careful and precise quilting, so not an option.

Right now, I'm tending towards making a Li'l Twister out of it.

That left at least two charm packs that still haven't been used.

And yesterday, I decided I'd just turn them into a disappearing nine-patch lap quilt.

Cue: dropping everything and sewing!





It'll be a cot quilt - not more than 40" square, if that. I might consider hand-quilting it for a change. Or else practise my machine-quilting skills on it (such as they are).

I'm still deciding what to do with the remaining three blocks. Perhaps put them on the back of the quilt? Or else add them to my 'orphan blocks' and finally end up putting them all together in a 'random block quilt'?