Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Progress over 2 months


Progress so far for the past two months that I haven't blogged is dismal. I've found more fabric that I had planned for a quilt, so that's another kit, and the diamonds and hexagons quilt, instead of being paper pieced, is now being hand pieced. It helps that it's more portable, but it's my first hand pieced project so the quality may be poor. I'm enjoying it though and that's what matters.

Tilde's thread on Santa is pretty much non-existent. There was a period of time when my parents were away that I moved the frame, the threads, scissors and the pattern out to the living room and seeing it every day motivated me. Currently, Santa is on the frame in my room, and while I see it every day, I have to be pretty unhealthy to stitch in my room, so the motivation is not there.

I started a gorgeous purple cross stitch by Dracolair designs on Stitches and Spice sparkly fabric. His name is Ouroborus and I'm stitching him on 16 count aida in case I ever want to make him a show piece. I've incorporated metallic threads in with the other threads to give it even more sparkle, but I'm being careful not to overdo it. He's the pretty picture at the start of this post. He's coming along slowly, he's on a different frame that is much more portable, and I keep his pattern and his threads in a bag right near him so I can pick him up if I ever get the urge.

Apart from Ouroborus, the now hand pieced hexagon/diamond quilt has been enjoying a bit of progress. I've cut out strips and diamonds to make stars, and I'm marking a stitching line as I go along. I'm yet to cut out and sew one of the hexagons, but I'll get there eventually. I've got to work out how many diamonds I need, and how many hexagons I can get out of the meter of white fabric that I purchased. I'll have enough, I just haven't sat down to work out the metrics yet.

So yeah, that's my progress. It'll be funny when I get my own house next year and get to annoy my partner with all my crafty messes. At least I'll be motivated if I see them all the time.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

WIP List

Yesterday after blogging I went and hunted all my WIPs. As predicted, there were a few that were forgotten, but I have my total list now. I also went and found my kit pile, which amounted to over 50 kits (and I thought there was only 30). Most of my kits are cross stitches, that will be added to this list when they're started.

WIP List (active ones on top)
  • Lucie Heaton's Santa Sack cross stitch (Tilde thread)
  • The English paper pieced hexagon quilt
  • Shadow Play DJ
  • The bee stitchery
  • Red, black and white quilt (on the quilting frame)
  • The Blueberry Muffin DJ for mum
  • The koala cross stitch
  • The lion cross stitch
  • The Mocha/PaddlePop quilt
  • The jelly roll pineapple quilt
  • The pink cupcake pincushion
  • The cheetah mystery quilt
  • The Amy Butler fabric quilt
  • The minkee baby quilt
  • The starfish cross stitch mini
  • The beaded cross stitch pin pillow
  • The decoupage plaster puppy
  • The rose ribbon embroidery
  • The hexagon/diamond English paper pieced quilt
  • The stained glass frog (fine line between WIP and UFO)

As you can see, I have quite a while ahead of me (not even thinking about those yet-to-be-started kits...)

Currently, my most active projects are my Shadow Play DJ, the Santa cross stitch, and the English PP hexagon quilt. I'm doing a Tilde thread (one thread a day) on the Santa cross stitch. Hopefully I'll see progress soon!!

Saturday, February 07, 2009

A new direction in life and quilting

Today I make a bold move. Earlier this week I joined a club on Yahoo groups named WIProducers. While I still live at home and constantly fight for craft-room space with my mother, I'm grateful that she puts up with my mess. The group acts as a supportive environment for those who 'suffer' the urge to start everything and finish one or two things, and have many projects 'breeding' in their sewing rooms until they get to an unmanageable rate. I myself find that my room is a particulary good environment for English Paper Piecing projects to breed. In the weeks I had off during Christmas, the single hexagon quilt I had in progress somehow grew to 3 different PP variations, with fabric piles to match.

I have WIPs and UFOs all over the place. I can't even remember half of the kits I have, and what my current WIPs are. Mostly they are hidden out of sight, so they become forgotten. I plan on attending the craft show we have in Melbourne during February, and I know I'll buy more kits/supplies then, even though my boyfriend usually comes with me and before each purchase gives me the horrible "tell me why you really need this" talk. Most of the time I can convince him (which is probably a bad thing) but he has talked me out of several huge purchases which I really didn't need.

Last year when I was buying my new bed, he made me promise that I'd clean out my room as I was still living in boxes from when we moved house 5 years ago. It took me a week, but I got rid of so much stuff and had so much space and a brand new bed (it's the prettiest in the house- but I still got the 'how many pillows do you really need?" talk). The bed takes up most of the space in the room, but I'm trying to think of ways that I can move things around to maybe have a comfy chair that I can spend nights sewing in. I have one corner where the TV is, but I don't want to throw out the TV because then I won't have to buy a new one when I move out in a year or so after I've finished my teaching degree.

My last job had taught me to keep a long list of daily tasks (because on average I was performing around 30 tasks per day), and the WIProducers also suggest that a list of 'Finishes' is maintained to encourage motivation. The list primarily focuses on quilters, but my other love is cross stitch so I will also include that. I do have a few stitcheries lying around but they can be turned into quilts so they still count! Blogging, in my eyes, is the new-age version of journalling, so I will continue to maintain the blog as much as I can. Now that I'm back at uni I'm hoping to get more craft time and less stress time.

The current challenge at the WIProducers group is something referred to as 'Cinderella-ing' which I'm going to have to do today. The basic premise of this challenge is to have a clean creative environment in which to work. I'm also going to sort through and find as many WIPs and kits as I can so I can start making a list. My boyfriend remembers more projects that I'm working on that I do! I currently only have one UFO to my knowledge, a stained glass frog wall hanging that I've completely fallen out of love with. I acknowledge that as a quilter, some techniques will appeal to me more than others, and unfortunately, stained glass quilting is just one of those techniques that doesn't appeal.

I'm off now to create that WIP list!