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.

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!!

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!

Re-opening Old Wounds

I know this blog has been long gone, dead and buried... but I've revived it. My last post was Dec 06, so it's been less than a full year away.

Reading back through my archives I haven't actually finished much of what was outstanding in 06, but instead I've actually started a few new things. My wonderful boyfriend Dan and I have been slowly but surely completing a paper-pieced hexagon quilt with 1" sided hexagons. We're still basting them now, and have been for a year, but they're coming along quite well. We need something like 3,000 hexagons to complete the quilt, and we've gotten over half-way. When we start sewing them all together I'll post a photo. =)

Mum and I have made a few baby quilts together, she's gotten over her fear of the rotary cutter (but Dan loves it!) and I've bought a long-arm machine. I've been quilting mum's baby quilts for her, and all her friends are saying they want me to finish off their quilts too, which is good. There's a post in this blog about how afraid I was when I first started stippling, now I can do it easily and probably with my eyes closed!

Hope everyone is well. =)

The Unfinished Frog

The Stained Glass Frog

This was started a long time ago and has been put on hold. In fact, I'm not even sure if this ever will be finished. It's not that I don't like the frog anymore, I still love it, but it's just too much work. I can't be bothered with it and my interest has moved on. I think I'll just stick to 'quilts' and not specialise in anything else until I master the basics. I'm surprised the frog actually got so far. I think it's just too advanced for me and I got bored with the challenge. One day, he might get finished. One day, maybe.

Cheetah Quilt

The Cheetah Fabric

Wow, I nearly haven't posted at all this month. I've been very slack. But I've still been busy quilting! I started a new mystery quilt out of Australian Patchwork & Quilting, and it uses the cheetah print above as it's feature fabric. As soon as I get the first few blocks done (I've only just cut it out) I'm going to post more pictures. I'm 30cms (1 foot) short of the feature fabric, so I've been needing to go back to the fabric store to buy more, as well as background fabric. I'd hate to run out. It's the stupid silly season though, where things are a bit messed up until after New Year's. Seeing as it's so close to Christmas, I'm going to have to put off my next quilt shopping trip. =/

The Charity Quilt

The Charity Quilt

This was made in a day at an Inspirational Quilts Quilting Bee that I went to last Saturday. The day was spent doing a quilt top, and the coordinater, Nancy Gheno, supplied everyone with a quilt kit that made a top to donate. Mum went to the quilting bee with me, and she didn't get her quilt top finished. We have another quilting bee on the 9th, so she has to have it finished by then!

The quilt top I made was a stack 'n whack. I'd never done one of these before, so it was good to learn something new. Also, mum took my machine and we left her one at home, but Nancy had organised for me to use an overlocker (yes, I made this quilt with an overlocker). I was working with Nancy's daugher Jasmine, who was making the same quilt as me, only in blue. The quilt blocks were quite large (17" square) so it all came together quickly. There wasn't much wastage either as the scraps were large offcuts, big enough to use in another quilt. I did get a lot of scraps from Nancy to make another quilt top to donate, which I might do one day this week with my friend Kate, depending on scheduling.

Hopefully on the 9th I can get another quilt top donated, as I'm on school holidays and I don't have a job, doing charity work makes my time kinda meaningful.

Inspirational Quilts' website: http://www.inspirationalquilts.com.au/

Simon & Cathy's Baby Quilt

Simon & Cathy's Baby Quilt

This quilt was made for a baby shower mum went to two weeks ago (I know, slack with the updating). I was meant to go but uni assignments were dragging me down. So I never got to see the reactions of everyone to this quilt. I didn't have that much part in it anyway, mum did most of it. I just cut everything out (she's afraid of the rotary cutter, for some reason) and I did the label. I chose the quilting design, but mum quilted it. The pattern is the 'Amish diamond'. We had to use neutral colours (as in, not 'girl' pinks or 'boy' blues) as we didn't know the sex of the baby. I hope they get good use out of this quilt though!

After seeing this quilt come together so quickly (we estimate that it took about less than 30 hours) mum's starting to think she wants a long-arm machine so she can quilt faster and we can get better and sell them. She's always wanted a long-arm, I'm sure when I move out my room will be used for that. She's loved quilting since we started, and it shows. Pretty good for only her third quilt! =)