Putting a Line under 2-0-1-9

DH Retired December 31st, 2018 and I thought we were to spend our early "Getting to know ourselves again" time Wandering Wineries and Windswept Beaches.  

The 2019 Bushfires put those ideas on hold. 

2019 was also the Year we decided to start a Temperature Quilt.  

He meticulously recorded the Highs and Lows each day of his first Retirement year and whether we had Rain or Shine.

I started pulling Fabrics and piecing Blocks and even made a couple of Progress Posts on my Blog. 

The Blocks started to become a Quilt over the year and early 2020.

Somewhere between my Post of the 5th March and the next on the 18th March Covid had made it's way here and it was time to take it seriously. 

Monash University had been planning for On-line and Remote learning since February, with many of their Students stranded overseas. 

And making working from Home possible became the top priority.

Work on my Quilt also stopped, Like so many of us - At the Borders!  

It was in danger of becoming a UFO - Unable to decide on how to finish it, It was put Aside but not Away.

I went to move it the other day and thought "What is Stopping me Finishing This?"  

My newly acquired Very Empty Workspace soon filled with a Very large Quilt.  It may just be the biggest Temperature Quilt ever made.

The Final wide Yellow Border 
(For Hope for the Future) was now sewn to the Grey Smoke - a Reminder of the Horrific Bushfires of 2019

Hexagon "Stepping Stones" recording the Wonderful Weather on our Trip to Darwin, and Our Retirement treat of the return Journey on The Ghan are Appliqued onto it - 

With a Celebration for the Last Stitch!

It is now Pressed and waiting now Lockdown No 5 is over so I can get it to the Quilter.  

I look at it and I think that This was to be the start of New Beginnings for Us.

And now it is a Reminder of the Precious Freedom we enjoyed -      -Before Covid.

And May-be I did some sewing

Looking back at the things I did during May (before June gets ahead of me)...
Winding up a few loose ends - or rather FINALLY being able to finish a UFO.

Yoshiko's Garden was a pattern from the (now closed) Kona Bay website.

It was one of those patterns that was designed to showcase a range of fabric, and well.... it didn't quite work.

Fabric ranges are very nice but I think using EVERY single fabric in the one quilt can be a bit overwhelming.

Since deciding to make the pattern - I have been struggling with the design.

For me it was incomplete.
It just didn't look right!

It is a reasonably good pattern for showcasing Two feature prints or a Feature and Companion Print.

The blocks that draw your eye are the large dark framed snowballs.
Yet there are only two complete blocks in the whole quilt, the rest are chopped off at the edges!

They HAD to be complete for it to make sense.
So I happily went about sewing up full blocks...
Not enough Pink fabric to finish, so back into the UFO box it went - again.

Determined to finish it, I took another look into the UFO box and found I had enough Pink scraps to join together the missing pieces.

For this Quilt it doesn't matter if there are a few more joins, that most probably will be hidden in the quilting and not ever noticed.

Oh No!   Now there isn't enough Blue Butterfly Fabric to complete the edges...

A complimentary print found in my stash helped fill the gaps.

So it needs a darker border to frame it off.

Three Cheers for a Sale at Spotlight - That all over Butterfly print I had my eye on is now a reasonable price.

The quality of the fabric is not brilliant, but good enough to finish the Quilt.

I am finally happy with it - And now I can move it into the "To Be Quilted When Needed" box.

And the finished size?   64" x 73"

Perfect for the Guest Emergency Bed, some extra warmth for the Kids or to just Cuddle under.

Time to call it a WOMBAT

Yes Friends - this is certainly a momentous occasion.
My first ever WOMBAT.

I have UFOs, but they are all,
in one way or another - Redeemable.

After the Week that I have had, (see last post). 

I have decided Life is far too Precious

 to persevere with a Quilt that I am not enjoying making. 

Not everyone who embarks on a Mystery Quilt is thrilled with the reveal and for those who have stuck with this one and finished it-  I salute you,
    but I will not be joining you.

There are still way too many components to make.
And that is before I can even begin to put the required 50 Blocks together!

I am not going to be discarding the work that I have done so far - MAYBE one day,
I will sit down with EQ7 and design something that I actually DO like with the blocks I have already made.


But for now - it is time to call it Quits - Bag it up - Change "Hats" and Move on.

I have a Wedding Cake to Make!

SCQuilters Mystery BOM - 2016

UFO # 3

Finished!

My post from last week was left with a dilemma - I had a pile of fabric squares and no instructions.

I spent a LOT of time playing in EQ7 with these 9 patches

Should I make them up like this?

Or like this?

I thought this looked better.
Is it what the designer had in mind?

No idea!
But after 'wasting' so much valuable sewing time I settled on this design

And so now I can happily place this UFO into the "Quilt when you have the time - or when it is needed" pile.

Maybe I will use it to showcase (practice) using my Westalee Rulers - then it can be a true sample Quilt!

Shooting Down UFO's

- almost...

I pulled this one out from last year.

It was a Mystery BOTW

Block of the Week?
or maybe it was a Block of the Whenever

Anyway it was a mystery

It was started and put aside
and started again

And then I got a set of Block Loc rulers and it came out to play again...

(BTW -
They are awesome and worth their place in my "Tool for a job" box.)

And then I got to Block 9

Um - looks like I will be 'winging it' from here as I do not have any more instructions.

Oh well - It remains a Mystery right to the very end!

PIGS can fly . . .

Twelve Moons by Robert Kaufman

I can remember
where I bought this panel...
and I can remember
who I bought it from...
I just can't remember
WHEN I bought it!




Needless to say it has been sitting in my cupboard for a while
and now it is finished!

(Well, it will be once it is quilted - but I usually leave that part until the quilt is actually needed.)

Now to find another PIG to set free ;)

Dear Timeless Treasures.... I am NOT happy.

My Aunt has suffered a Stroke and  I decided to make a quick quilt.
Moving past the ordeal of not being able to find pretty floral prints at any of my LQ Stores I chose something that I liked and hoped she would too.

* * *

I chose a pattern that I could QAYG. Carefully fussycut all my blocks and sashing and sat to sew my first block - a 'sample' before chain piecing the rest.
Everything was going beautifully, I pressed the seams to the dark side and picked up the next piece to add and.... WHY did it not fit?

In all the years I have been sewing I have NEVER found a fabric that actually shrank when it was pressed - until today!
I showed DD and we did the experiment. First we pressed, and again it shrank - then we spritzed a new block with water and watched in utter disbelief as the corners of the fabric started to curl.  Pressing the block dry with the iron resulted in the fabric shrinking HALF AN INCH across the 9.5" block!

This photo is of 3 of my 9.5" blocks - the furthest away is as it was cut, the middle fabric has been pressed and the closest to the ruler is what I ended up with once it was wet and pressed!

I am FAR from impressed, at $24 a meter, this was not cheap fabric and I bought 5 fabrics in the range, each one tested and with the same results.

Maybe it was a 'one off' issue, so to be fair - I took another length of Timeless Treasures fabric from my stash - removed the selvages and measured it ....

Then to simulate the worst treatment this fabric would endure (in it's life as a table runner) washed it in warm to hot water
-I was surprised to see how much dye was shed - and then ironed it dry.

The result was a loss of 2 inches across the width of the fabric.

In my opinion, 5% shrinkage across the width of the fabric (the length was unaffected), would not result in a good looking and enduring finished product.

Oh horror! What about those folk you see in Quilt shops that buy this fabric to make clothing from ????

* * *

So dear Timeless Treasures - you have lost this customer.
I am left with the wonderful task of washing / pre-shrinking and pressing a substantial amount of *4 1/2" blocks, re-cutting or re-drafting what was a simple and quick pattern to enable me to use the reduced sized fabric or put it all in the too hard basket and waste the $120.00 that the fabric cost.

Worst of all - my Aunt will not have her quilt any time soon.






*Footnote -
The 4 1/2" blocks are now 4 1/4" x 4 1/2"
The 9 1/2" blocks are 9" x 9 1/2"
and my sashing... a beautiful Duck Egg Blue Moda solid - They are still as cut

Another UFO bites the dust ...

Jinny Beyer's Crystal Star was started so long ago I can barely remember buying the kit.

I have plodded along with this, often a distraction from what I was meant to be doing - making mistakes along the way until finally finishing the centre May last year.

Jinny Beyer - Crystal Star
150 Colours

The borders proved to be a challenge. 

Firstly, the fabric chosen when I bought the Kit didn't compliment my recently painted sewing room, requiring new fabric to be found.  

Then, even though I followed the instructions to the letter - they were too short! 

What a relief to discover that my mitred borders (the black ones in the photo) were not exactly 45 degrees and once they were unpicked and re-sewn the feature border fitted.

I can't say that my heart has been with this quilt towards the end, so I am happy that it is finished and can be folded and put away for now.  Once it is quilted I will decide whether to hang it above my cutting table or throw it over an armchair.

Time to Tame those Scraps . . .

It doesn't happen very often (only once in 4 years) but this week I got an extra day in my week!  Decisions.. decisions... what will I do with all that time?

Take a great big LEAP into that Scrap box!

In the grand scheme of things my Fabric Scrap Stash isn't that big - but it still needed some decisions to be made and some sorting out.

For Quilters, scraps are sorted into usable pieces - things you can make another block from - That is the easy part.

But what happens when you dabble in Appliqué?

I decided to set a benchmark -

If I could wrap the fabric around a 5 cent coin it would make a sweet 2 cm (3/4") circle, dot or flower centre.
So it can stay!


These bits were also quite big enough for one of the La Passacaglia pieces....

And the strips?

If a strip off cut would fit the smallest bias tape maker in my set (that's about 1/2") ...

It too can stay.


There you have it - decisions made and just how much "Usable Fabric" did I salvage from that box of Batik scraps?
I have done the maths ....

770 gm of Fabric lengths

1 meter fabric (16 Jelly Roll pieces) = 125 grams
My scraps weighed 770 grams
that equals a staggering 6.2 meters of fabric or 24 fat Quarters or 2 1/2 Jelly Rolls!
At a conservative $4:00 per fat 1/4 that works out at .......
$ 96.00 worth of fabric that was heading for the bin!

I shudder to think what my Robert Kaufman scraps are worth... but I shall leave them for another day!

I shot down a UFO . . .

UFO #2
Jinny Beyer's FACETS Quilt

I pulled it out of the UFO drawer yesterday to see what needed to be done to this small quilt -

I have obviously made a start and have completed one set of diamonds.

Just need to start to cross-cut the next set and ...
Oh my!
A little moment of distraction and my strips were cut 2 1/4" instead of the required 2 1/2"

Just as well I had lots of fabric left over and I can cut some more.

Well - I would have cut some more...
It seems someone else had other ideas!


Once I was able to move 'His Lordship' off the cutting mat, the quilt went together very easily.

I started putting the blocks together this morning and was happily attaching the borders this afternoon!

Now all I need to do is QUILT IT!

Oh Blah . . . . .

Southern Cross Quilters have been chatting about clearing out UFOs recently  - so I decided it was time I took a look at just how many I have.

I try and keep my projects moving along, and I don't THINK I have that many..... So let's have a look at them - in no particular order to see just WHY they are officially a UFO.

UFO #1

Yoshiko's Garden by Kona Bay

Sometime early last year, I thought I would run up a quick quilt.
Found some pretty fabric in my stash and downloaded a pattern from one of those companies that give out free patterns to showcase a range of fabric.

I worked on it for a bit, but something wasn't quite right with the design. I couldn't put my finger on the problem so it was neatly packed up and put on the shelf.

Almost a year later it comes out to be stared at intently once again -

I like the colours - I used Jinny Beyer's Colour Palette to choose them.  Not too thrilled about the quality of the Tone on Tone, it has a bit too much stretch for my liking.
But that wasn't enough to keep it in the UFO box.

Then I realised it was the pattern itself!
Beautiful big framed Snowball blocks to showcase a pretty large print fabric in the centre of the quilt that were chopped off at the edges!
The lattice that the Tone on Tone created had nowhere to go!!

I know what to do ..
I can fix it
I can finish this UFO
I   ... don't have enough (pink) fabric......

Oh BLAH!
Back on the UFO shelf it goes!

Esther's Oma

In a previous post I shared that I am currently 'brushing up' on my Appliqué skills by making Esther Aliu's latest BOM - Oma's Blues.

I haven't stuck exactly to the original pattern.
The most noticeable difference is my Quilt is not traditional Delft Blue and White.

Instead I am using the warmer pallet which include Greens, Orange, Red, Yellow and of course Blue and White.

The next section of Esther's quilt calls for a series of borders and appliquéd dishes in traditional Dutch Style, however for my quilt, I have chosen to showcase as much of Leesa Chandler's Dutch Cottage fabric as possible.

I have used two different sections of the same striped print for borders two and three and the small tiles from the feature panel in the Spice colour-way instead of making appliqué dishes.

My next challenge will be to incorporate these beautiful 9" feature plates into the design, without upsetting the balance of the Quilt.

* * * * *

Footnote:

Oma's Blues is a free BOM from Esther Aliu.