Lessons learnt....the hard way

I was recently inspired to make the strip quilt that appeared in the May edition of Australian Better Homes and Gardens. I started work on it during the week and was having a lovely time matching the gorgeous Woodland Delight in coral and aqua and Flights of Fancy fabrics by Paula Prass. Everything was going swimmingly until I realised that the little bits on the end that I was trimming as I was going were getting bigger. Sadly it was late at night and I was tired....my head wasn't joining the dots so to speak. Whilst I was aligning one side of my fabrics, or so I thought, I was actually coming in slightly with each strip, so the other end was being trimmed far more than it should have been. The next bit was a disaster. Once I realised what I'd been doing, I had to rectify the alignment as best I could. So trim away I did. What should have been a 111cm(43") wide quilt ended up being 93cm (around 36"). This meant that the length was all out of proportion, so I had to adjust that too by taking out several rows.

I've rescued the quilt as best I can but I am worried that the sides may still be a little on the diagonal and not sit as straight as I would like.

I'm thinking that for future strip quilts I'll iron the strips in half (or finger press) and align from the middle.

The left over bits have not gone to waste. I've used them in a peiced strip of piano keys on the back.

I'm quilting in straight lines of quilting using my walking foot and aligning the rows either side of the seams and if the strip is wide enough, just in again the width of the foot.

Looking at it now, this was probably not the ideal quilting method for the pieced back because the quilt lines haven't matched up perfectly on the back with the pieced section. I should probably have stippled and then it would not have been so obvious. So whilst I haven't wasted any fabric in the scheme of things, I'm not totally thrilled with the outcome. Just lucky I haven't any plans for a recipient just yet. I'm holding out that it still might all work out in the wash but if not, I'll put it down to a very big learning experience!

Party on.....

L celebrated his 9th birthday with his school friends today. It's funny....parties seem to be standard fare these days, most often outsourced at a huge price per person, sometimes competitive, and with a winter baby, hard to come up with something that's out of the elements and different from what has already been done.

We decided to have his party at home this year. Guess what....everyone said 'yes' and after chatting with the parents, an 'at home' party was a major reason behind them all coming. A few mums stayed, most left with a sly grin and a 'have fun' blessing! But with the plethora of 'stuff' we have in our back yard...not one of the 13 little boys was bored. The trampoline got a major work out but sadly left a lot of socks very, very muddy!

L had one game request. The donut game. We tied donuts to the clothes line at strategically appropriate heights. Oh....the power of asking 9 year olds to take a step back, hands behind your back, ready, steady.....GO! Too funny and a great game every time!

L asked for an Iron Man cake, so all the rest of the food had a red and yellow theme (albiet lost on 9 year olds but I like to do it....). We had.....red jelly with cream....mini chocolate cup cakes in red patty pans and yellow icing....honey joys in red patty pans....mini red toffees in yellow patty pans and of course.........the cake. He was a little pink thanks to cochineal and not pillar box red food colouring....but apart from looking a little like the Phantom.....no-one complained.

We also had the Twisted Balloon lady who made a balloon for everyone....including me! My bunch of flowers and R's lady bug were a pleasant surprise amongst the boy bazooka's. A great party!

Eye candy....

Just arrived in the mail. Lots of inspiration, lovely images and 'how to's'.

I've only had a chance to look through Jane Brocket's 'Gentle Art of Quiltmaking', it took so long I ran out of time for Kaffe's 'Simple Shapes'! Mind you, if I hadn't spent so long stroking and staring at the cover, I might have used my time a little more wisely.....then again....

9. 9. 9. How many is 9?

It's funny how you remember things from your childhood. For me, I will always remember the Sesame Street song for nine. And when someone is nine, that's what you sing.....all day. And because my baby is nine it will be a long time before I sing it again.We had a great day, thanks to public holiday day off and thoroughly enjoyed by a little person who had been counting down the days till he was actually nine, who loved his presents and really appreciated his big sister's cake making efforts.Happy birthday L.

Sweet baby marmalade

This is a little quilt that had been on the no-go pile for a couple of weeks. I had it cut, pieced and basted before the self imposed hiatus. Being small it was a great project to pick up and finish.

It's made of the orange and green strips from my Sweet jelly rolls (I had 2 sets) and measures around 1m x 1.2m. Looking at it now I realise that I should have walked away after I laid them out and had another look. I've ended up with all the birds in one corner. I remember at the time trying to mix up one of the other patterns and this was the result. Oh well....I'm sure the recipient won't notice.

The binding uses the last of the green strips - polka dots, stripes and flowers and it's quilted in free motion stipple.

Baby Hunter is the new baby of one of Joe's work colleagues. I've popped his initial on the back....I'm glad his name had a straight letter instead of an 'O' or an 'S' or a 'U'!

Getting to the other side.....

There hasn't been any sewing going on lately which I'm not very happy about but it was a choice I had to make. You see, I'd been shirking my study responsibilities because of said sewing and fallen way behind. I hadn't done particularly well in the assignments so the pressure was really on for the exam. But I'm pleased to announce that the aforementioned exam is over and it went pretty well and therefore the self imposed sewing ban has now been lifted. I've taken this next study period off so I don't have to launch straight into (or to choose to ignore depending on which way you approach it) a fresh text book. But I did have to go interstate the very same day of my exam for work and spent all of yesterday working from start to finish to hop on an evening flight home. So up until now I still haven't had a chance to fire up the Husqvana or caress any fabric. But that should all change tonight with our weekly Sew & Sew's catch up.

The photo I've used for this blog post makes me laugh. As I was trying to negotiate myself back to Sydney airport yesterday afternoon, I found myself ON the harbour bridge instead of taking the underpass. It's such a spectacular bridge so I reached across to my bag, grabbed my camera, opened it one handed, pointed and shot. Now I wouldn't recommend the technique whilst driving over the harbour bridge but when I finally sat down at the airport to look at it I thought it was a pretty good shot. Sometimes you just have to do things and it all works out OK.

A gift for a quilter...

Joe has just returned from an interstate conference bringing back a lovely gift of three antique wooden cotton reels.

I'm going to wind my left over binding and ribbon on them.....way tidier and prettier than the zip lock bag that's currently employed!

They're from an amazing antique shop called Tarlo & Graham in Chapel St, Melbourne. You'll be surprised what you can find there! They have job lots of lots of 'stuff'.

He also bought back a box of cup cakes from Little Cupcakes in Degraves St. They're a bit dinged and worse for wear (a bit like him!) from the flight home but I'm sure still just as yummy. Now for a nice cup of tea.