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

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!

WIP Wednesday: the one with Things To Do

Works In Progress
- postage stamp
- plaidish
- cousin quilt

Daily: Sew one block of something (postage stamp, if nothing else), sew 1 seam of paper-piecing

Weekend (Saturday and/or Sunday): sew four blocks together
- make a backing for a quilt top

Weekly: WIP Wednesday post from now until Christmas

Thinking Forward: design for Quilt Show 2023
I'm absolutely blank on this one right now. They want the quilt finished by entry time - but for the binding. I don't know if it's trying to kick incidental/casual quilters out of the show, or to prioritise/preference non-modern stuff (because modern designs and patterns are more likely to be utilised by younger women who are short on time), or if they really have that many dropouts each year.

I have dropped out of the Quilt Show once. And that was the year I tore a calf ligament two weeks before and my cunning plan to self-quilt Swarm ended up on the couch along with me.

Actually, that's an idea - Swarm II, seeing as I gave away Swarm to a couple who I'm not sure are talking to me anymore after 2016, 2020, and now the 2022 mid-terms.

Quilting ladies don't like to get political for the most part - the thing about being Largely White Ladies means you can ignore politics for the most part, or trust that the White Men will protect you (so long as you fit into their norm of what White Ladies Should Be Like). Being able to ignore politics is something that many others can't do, because the shift and sway of politics affects them, even when the actual policies don't.

For instance, you might have denigrated "the Chinese (government)" for COVID-19. After all, China is a long way off, and 'the Chinese' are a big body of people that you don't usually see or having to interact with, and even so it's mostly people like myself who are culturally integrated.

Unfortunately for people like me, we might very well be culturally integrated, but the way certain people will treat us face to face is as though we're not. And it's no good to say, "well, they're just bad people" because 'they're just bad people' does not eliminate the bruises, the physical injuries, the trembling shock of being openly abused on the street, or the feeling that you'll never be safe again among white people whose smiles disguise their dislike.

By the way, black and brown quilters - whatever their background - have had to live with this treatment for, oh, as long as White America has been ignoring that their society was not only built on the back of black slavery, and by the enforced efforts of black slaves, but that it created a socially stratified (as well as segregated) society.

I digress, but I feel like it's needed. Sure, there aren't too many people reading this, and after 2016 and 2020, I'm fairly sure y'all know where I land on the political spectrum, and most of you haven't gone running away yet...

Anyway. Swarm II. That's the plan. It's going to be messy AF, though. So many small pieces. But maybe it's also time to work up a pattern...

WIP Wednesday: the one with drafting

Trying to draft a slip undergarment using the Sicily Slip Dress pattern. It's not going quite as well as I'd hoped. Also, things are little crazy this week so I'm not doing great.

It's an undergarment, so I could probably fill in the gappy back bits just by sewing extra pieces on. It just means cutting them and adding stuff and...yeah. *sigh*

WIPs B Gone!

WIPs B Gone got at least two things off the list:

1. Mum's handbag (for Christmas)

2. Stepbro's wedding quilt (only the binding needed)

I made some progress on the Laid-back Plaidish, but everything else on the list was a bust!

One thing I did manage to do was to split my quilt 'Break Free Or Build Upon' into half, providing two smaller quilts instead of one massive one.

But seriously, I have boxes of jelly rolls strips, a drawer of the slice-and-diced strips ready to be made into blocks, and I just have to put the time in one evening. Or else start sewing log cabin blocks. I've never managed to work out the order that log cabin blocks should go in, though...

WIPS-B-GONE

Devoted Quilter is hosting a finishing challenge: WIPS-B-GONE! A 100 Day Challenge

I have WIPS all over the place in boxes, and I'd like to get a few done and out the door.

1. Mum's handbag (for Christmas)

2. Stepbro's wedding quilt (only the binding needed)

3. The Laidback Plaidish

4. 3:10 to Mendocino (only the binding)

5. Rainbow Swerve (rainbow batiks in the 'placid curves' pattern from Modern Neutrals

6. Scrappy Bard of Avon

7. Rainbow Selvages

8. The Quilt Is Lava

9. Dark Drunkards Block

10. Scrappy Postage Stamp

11. Kitchen Curtains

12. Log Cabin:

...golly, that's a lot of WIPs...

Guess I'd better get started!

WIP Wednesday: 18th August

Many moons ago, there was a regular WIP Wednesday post by...I don't remember whom. Possibly Lee from Freshly Pieced.

It kept me going, kept me accountable, and I quite enjoyed it. Admittedly, it started during a period of my life when I had more time to do quilting, and wasn't so squished in with everything else going on: gardening, writing, keeping house, activism. But it was good to post things and have people see what I was doing, and see what they were doing in return.

I'm going to try doing that again. I've got a little tag on my wfh computer, that says: Monday - gardening, Wednesday - quilting, Friday - cooking. The visual reminder will help me remember to post. That's the theory, anyway.

So the main thing I'm working on right now is the kitchen curtains. The ones that I've been planning to complete for, oh, around 7 years now. I made curtains for the study, for my bedroom, for the dining room, and for one set of lounge room windows (with the other yet to be completed). Now it's time to do the kitchen. But not just curtains; I want blinds - ones that sit close to the window frame and which can be lifted to various levels to allow a little bit of sun or a full flood of it.

For it, I'm using the Robert Kaufman linen blend range in navy, and the Reece Scannell shot cotton series that I've had lying around for a decade or so. I've used it in the Plain Jane Passacaglia, and in some of the other pieced curtains, so it's time to use more of it for the kitchen:

For pattern, I've chosen the Power Of Three. It's one of those designs that look stunning, but are really quite fiddly when you're trying to put all the pieces together. And there's a lot of measuring of bits and pieces, trying to use as much of the fabric as possible. But that just adds more fiddlyness.

I'm thinking that this pattern is probably best with all the pieces pre-cut before starting, and then done a few blocks at a time rather than all at once. The small squares are pretty dainty (the small block fits in the palm of my hand) and doing it chain-piecing would probably be less mentally tiring. Then again, everything is mentally tiring lately.

I hope to have some decent progress by next Wednesday. Until then, as the ladies of the Pantsuit Politics podcast like to say: have the best week available to you.

WIP Wednesday: the one with progress!

I haven't done one of these for a couple of weeks. Life just seems too busy. And too cold.

(Hint: I'm not a fan of winter.)

But I did get four quilt backings put together and sent off to my quilter. It made a mighty package:



And I signed up for the Lizzy House Meadow Quilt workshop later this year:



However, I have gotten a few things started, and a number of projects are in WIP status right now, waiting to be finished.

WIPs

Soroptimists Raffle Quilt

My mother retired a couple of years ago, spent a year poking about, working out what kind of clubs she would join in her old age, and decided on the local chapter of Soroptimists International: an international volunteer organisation that helps women and girls all over the world in various ways.

She's asked me to make a quilt for them to raffle off for fundraising.



I've had this layer cake of Domestic Bliss for a couple of years now, and when paired with Kona White in a Camille Roskelley pattern, it makes a pretty, modern quilt that should interest enough people to buy a raffle ticket or a dozen!



I better put a costing sheet together for this quilt, because I anticipate lots of women asking, "How much do you charge to make a quilt?" and then being doubtful about my pricing.

You know the type I mean.

Plain Jane Passacaglia

Still going - another rosette completed!



The cocktail is because it was completed at my hockey trivia night down at the RSL Club (RSL = Retired Soldier's League - the club is like a pub/sports bar/bistro combination, all under one roof). I sat at the table all night, with my hands busy while I chatted and answered trivia questions!

My hockey team-mates are accustomed to my sewing peccadiloes. (I made one of the coaches a quilt a couple of years back - she'd coached me for two or three years at that point - although it was a gift to her from the whole team, we collected money for it and they paid me.)

Hexie Flowers Down Under

Bendigo Lioness has started a Hexie Flowers Swap for Australian sewists, and I've decided to join in. (Passacaglia notwithstanding.)

We've been divided into 'thread basters' and 'glue basters'. I listed myself as 'didn't mind either way' and got sorted into the 'thread basters' group. I take it lots of people like the ease of glue basting, then. (I do: all those teeny tiny star points in the Passacaglia? Totally glue basted. But I thread-baste the larger pieces.)

There are 18 people in the thread-basters group, and a week later, some have already finished all their hexies!



I think I'm going to be taking just a wee smidge longer than that...

Other things

Okay, so you know when you keep putting something off because you're scared of it and then it just becomes overwhelming?

That's kind of where I've decided my Birthday Swaps have gone. I'm three months behind and struggling to get on top of it all.

All I want to do is snuggle down under a quilt with my cats.



Well, me under the quilt, the cats on top of the quilt and me...

*sigh*

--

What have you been working on this week?

Linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

Must Make List for 2015

Inspired by GnomeAngel's Must Make List of 2015! Because if you aim for nothing, you'll hit it every time!

So here's aiming high. I'd like to make at least one regular-sized quilt per month, and at least three scrap quilts during the year. I want backings for all my current quilt tops so I can at least get them quilted and made up. And I want to clear all my ongoing WIPs from the board.

We may succeed, we may fail. Either way, at least with a plan, I have a hope of getting things done. Maybe. :)

Forthwith, the program for 2015.

JANUARY
All the quilt backings ever:


Theoretically, these should not be difficult.

Theoretically. *sigh*

Baby Quilt Commission
A friend has commissioned me to make a baby quilt for a friend of hers. It'll just be basic squares, and I might try some fancy FMQ patterns on my domestic machine.

Greens and white. The baby room is cool as a cucumber green with white furniture. I'll send you a pick tomorrow. I would like the quilt to match the room but still stand out. Solid colour patches. Although a single repeated pattern patch throughout looks cool.

FEBRUARY
Swarm
I've been planning and planning and planning to get this done (complete with pattern) for the Make Modern Magazine, but first there was Work Project Of Doom, then there was The Renovations, then Moving House, and finally Christmas.

I'll try to finish it at the Sydney Modern Quilt Group's sewing day on 8th Feb!

Scrap Quilt: Log Cabin
I think I'm going to go with a basic scrappy log cabin. I have a bunch of 'black and white' 2.5" squares that were gifted to me which will be perfect for the centres, and I can work colours in around them - hopefully colour and value combinations that will look good! I may have to cut a few more 1.5" and 2" strips from the stash, though!

MARCH
Rainbow Mini Swap #rainbowminiswap
This mini swap must be mailed off by the 30th March, so this needs doing!

Instagram Mini Swap Oz #igminioz
This mini swap must be mailed off by 10th April, so the sooner the better! (I have a solid idea for this, I just have to get it done. IRON THE HSTs, SEL! DOOO EEET!!!)

One or both of mini swaps will be made with scraps. But they will be beautiful, I promise!

Valley of the Kings
A gift for a friend that is a couple of years late. *sigh*

APRIL
Red Letter Day
I need to make another Red Letter Day quilt - to match King Of Bling:

Sister B2 wants King Of Bling, and if I'm going to gift one, I might as well gift both! I'll do it with the dark background again, but different focus fabrics. A little more class-y, a little less bling-y, though!

The last time I gave my sisters quilts was for their 21st birthday...and they received the quilts when they were 28! This time, I shall be a little faster with the quilting. Really.

The Sydney Modern Quilt Group's sewing day on the first Sunday in April should be ideal for this!

Rainbow Snowflakes Quilt
Something I started putting together back in September/October last year and which I haven't finished. The prospect of Y-seams is terrifying me!


MAY
Imagine Greater
This is "the Heather Ross quilt" that I've had in mind for a while - kind of a scrap quilt, only the 'scraps' are my Heather Ross Mendocino leftovers from the mermaids quilt I made. This one will probably be in a log cabin style - a center block with a fantasy creature in the middle, and then strips around and around and around.

JUNE
Magic Stars
Aneela Hoey's Magic Stars pattern in Kate Spains Cuzco collection. Perfection.

JULY
Starry Starry Night


Foundation Paper Piecing Stars. Advantage: the next range of C+S solids should be out, and hopefully the dark blue matches with the backgrounds of the other paper-pieced stars.

Although I still have to work out how to get the star 'angles' with a decent contrast.

AUGUST
Swell
Another Camille Roskelley quilt that I have the layer cake all cut and ready to go, but not actually done.

SEPTEMBER
Framed
Let's just make this the Camille Roskelley section of the year, shall we? Like 'Swell', I have some layer cakes that I cut up for this pattern a while back and haven't done anything more.

So let's do this thing!

OCTOBER
Scrap Quilt: Rainbow Selvages
This one:


I have a lot of coloured selvages already gathered and bagged, but I need to add a whole heap more from the current scrap sorting. And actually do this thing.

NOVEMBER
Scrap Quilt: Oh, Crumbs!
All year, I'll have been sewing together "crumbs" of fabric in colour blocks. And now comes the time to put them together in a single quilt!

DECEMBER
classic batik log cabin
I have ridiculous amounts of batiks lying around. Like the 'crumbs' blocks, I should have been sewing these between projects all year.

ALL YEAR

The projects that will be worked on all year long.

Aussie Handmade Birthday Club
I signed up for this in July last year, and have some lovely lovely presents from the women of AHBC Party #3. It's a good opportunity to stretch my sewing skills to accessories and suchlike - I've mostly made bags and zippered pouches so far. We'll see if anything more complicated comes along.

Aviatrix Medallion
Penny Poppleton would like me to get mine done by the time the 2015 Sydney Quilt Show rolls around. I'm kinda doubtful that I'll have the time to do so, but...we'll see.

Millefiori Madness: Passacaglia
I need to get back on this again. Cutting pieces and bagging them so the pieces for each rosette are all stored together.


Dancing Stars
From a foundation paper piecing pattern - I forget by whom, but there's no shortage of scraps for this. Right? Right?


Quilt Uberfest 2012
I started this, realised I don't like the blocks themselves, and stopped. But I still have the blocks and they need to be put together. And they need a bit of contrast colour in there - too much red and purple, needs a pop of yellow and maybe some grey.




Various Scrap Quilts
All year, I plan to sew scrap quilts together - easy designs and ideas:
- Interwoven (Crazy For Scraps: Sally Schneider)
- Monkey Business (Scrap-Basket Surprises: Kim Bracket)
- Lava Flow (Successful Scrap Quilts: Judy Turner and Margaret Rolfe)
- The Dead Simple quilt
- Modern Dis9Patch

But the first thing is to get my quilt backings done and my quilts out of the way!

2015, here we come!

To Do for November/December 2014

Unpacking the workroom has made me realise just how much fabric I have. And how much of it is half-finished projects and/or scraps.

So, I think, for the rest of the year, I may have to do nothing but scrap quilts and half-done projects. This may or may not be very successful, but if you aim for nothing you hit it every time, right?

WIPs - in pieces
- batik log cabins
- kaleidoscopes of autumn (was Don't Call Me Betsy's kaleidoscope QAL before I changed it up)
- comparing apples and pears
- violet crumble (was Blogger's Block Party 2012)

WIPs - borders
- Build Me Up Buttercup
- Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

WIPs - needs backing
- USA Hurray
- Radiant Orchid
- Farmhouse Stars

And then there are the scraps! Basically, all the quilts out of all the scraps ever for the next two months. (Possibly the next two years.)

Even simple quilts like Licorice Allsorts are good - all those little charm squares lying around.



Or the Scrap Vomit quilt by imagingermonkey.

Or the Rainbow Coins Quilt at Pile O'Fabric.

At some point I need to take photos of the four quilts I finished (read: finally got bound) during September/October.

The problem with getting anything done right now is that it's pretty much a recursive function:

I can't unpack because I'm running out of space due to having UFOs taking up so much of the storage area.
I can't finish the UFOs because I don't have the space to pull them out and start working on them.

Repeat ad infinitum...