I'm stalled on  a quilt that I've been making for, ooh,  about 2 years, mainly because it was roughly planned, but not in fine detail.

It's has been called a few things in it's life...from,

I "heart" Paisley,

Mariners Compass,

Paisley Nightmare,

to, That Giant UFO that I'm not quite sure what to do next with...

This is where I am up to with it....

 and the next border is what's holding me up.

I want to use this material for the border,

but I don't have enough (this is a fine example of buying  fabric without a plan)...

So does anyone know what it is?...and where I might be able to get another 20 inches/a half metre?

I've "auditioned" these two fabric, but they just don't quite have the correct balance of red and green or 'pizzazz' of the first one...and I'd probably go nuts trying to get the stripes to work properly.

If you know what that fabric is called, and which range it is from, I'd be really grateful...

(you might even solve the quilt naming dilemma?!?)

Pointing you in the direction of other Blogtoberfest 2012 bloggers

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Foundation...Blogtoberfest Day 7

Piecing... for the MugRugAdventure Swap3

I had the beginning of a migrane today, but managed to sleep it off in the afternoon.
Nice to be able to do, but it makes a big hole in the day!

I've havent' managed to visit more Blogtoberfest bloggers, but you'll find an ever-expanding list here

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Living in a material world...

Material: A lovely parcel of vintage sheeting arrived recently and were a lovely surprise after a hard days work and some of the emotional upheaval I've been through.

There are 5 lovely crisp fat quarters. I have been playing with them and photographing them in different ways (no I didn't win two sets!). I fear that I have now been bitten by the "vintage sheet lovin' bug" and am holding Jacqui totally responsible. I have to admit that I thought it was a bit funny - all the hype around the sheets, but I totally understand it now - there is something quite exciting about the colours, the texture, the history...I have even already picked out a couple of solid colours that will be used to go with some of the fabrics...there will be a least one cushion cover being whipped up soon. Thanks so much Jacqui for these beauties...you really brightened up my day in more ways than one.

Materialistic...Nic from CreativeDisorganization blogged about some lovely fat quarters she found at Spotlight and me being the copycat I am just needed them as well. I went after my visit to the dentist (oh yes I've had a great week!) but couldn't find them for the "special" price. Never mind...I found this lot instead...Paisley and Christmas in the one piece....ooh yeah!

Materialism...Fluffy pom poms destined for Meet Me at Mikes:

Mental...And finally one of the best things for keeping sane in the face of the madness that can be family life...the last of the square in a square blocks for the next border of the quilt variously known as... 

"I <3 Paisley"

"Mariners Compass"

"The Paisley Nightmare"

"That Giant UFO that I'm not quite sure what to do next with..."

It is actually coming together and I'm a really getting quite fond of it, fiddly blocks and all!!

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Weekend Worrier...er I mean Warrior

Thank you for your comments after my last post. I was cheered up just to know that you cared enough to think of me.
After my little whinge, I decided to get myself more organised.
I didn't get more free time, just made me use the free bits I had a bit better.
The weekend still got eaten up by stuff I had to do: 

• go to a 10yr old netball final (they won - Grand finals next Saturday morning(the bad mummy in me is groaning at the thought of one more netball game*smacks hand*)).
• go to a brother-in-law's 50th.
• clean the bathroom (job I hate the most!).
• wash ( 4 full loads , onto the line, and bring them in again. and just between you and me there will be 5 children folding clothes while they watch tv tonight!).
• umpteen day to day "circular" jobs: eg fill dishwasher, put dishwasher on, empty dishwasher.

I rushed everything  so I could announe that from 1pm onwards on Sunday,

I WOULD BE QUILTING.

Here is what I was working on today.

This is the square-in-a-square border of the Mariners Compass quilt. 

I have 96 of these to make and I didn't realise how much work is involved in them.

I have to cut 96 X 2 3/4" light value centre squares. Then cut 192 x 2 5/8" dark value squares and cut them once for half-square triangles.

They end up slightly bigger than 3 1/2", so they then have to be trimmed to size.

Don't you just love a little bit of maths with your quilting? I know I do!!!!

I also was going for the 'light centre, dark outer' look, which I think I've achieved, but now don't like the dark value 'cause it's...well...too gloomy looking.

I spent some of my time cutting medium value triangles and mixing them up with the dark value ones. I am much happier with the way they look.
I even managed to think ahead and take photos to show a shortcut that evolved when I got sick of pinning and unpinning each of the triangles.


First, fold the centre square into half and finger crease each side. Then repeat with the other side.

Line up the first triangles with outer edges matching and the point in line with the crease on the opposite edge.

Sew this down, open out the triangle and finger press. Then repeat with the opposite side triangle.

Do this for the 3rd and 4th sides, keeping the seams pushed flat with your finger.

See these little corner triangles...

Well you MUST cut them off...

Otherwise you end up with a sad looking seam...and I really don't want to start more un-sewing

So there you have it. A sort of  square-in-a-square tutorial.

This isn't the end of these little beasties...I have to trim them to 3 1/2 inches, so they will fit in with the borders...and I still have about 50 to go! I hope to knock them off tonight - fingers crossed.

98 blog posts sitting on the wall, what would happen if another one was published? There'd be 99 blog posts sitting on the wall...

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

My Creative Space

*humming to self*"Wet washing hanging on the line, drying very quickly when the weather's fine" 

My creative space could have been filled with catching up on sleep, washing, cleaning and drying from the ski trip, but luckily I finally got around to a little bit of creating.

Mmm...circular needles - I don't think so. At least I tried.

Sewing the 'square in a square' for the Mariners Compass and/or Paisley quilt (depending on what I feel like calling it at the time). This feels like a much more productive and creative space.

only a few! more to go (88 to be exact).

...stop looking at me...you know you are beyond my skill level just yet...

Take a trip on over to Kootoyoo for plenty of creative people, who could whip up this little bloke in the blink of an eye.

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Mariners Compass is coming...and going...along

It's been a bit of a while between posts. I didn't realise how much I need a weekly 'play along' to keep me posting. That means having ideas, access to the computer, and time - and daylight -  to take photos of what I'm working on.
Although I will spare you the 'hippy costume' for last weeks 50th Math and I went to. (Maybe it's just taken me a week to catch up from lost sleep after staying out waaaaayyyyy to late at that party?!?) 


I've been doing a bit of looking around and might just jump in for the 2010 Challenge (starting for me with February March challenge)

This however is worth the wait...

... except now I can see a flaw or two , so back to the unsewing...

Thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Oh Brother!

Here is a picture of my Brother sewing machine...or rather the space where my sewing machine belongs.

It went to 'hospital' on Monday and it still hasn't called in (I do worry about the children when they don't keep in contact). I sympathise with The Handmaden who has had a similar story in the past week.

All I have to console myself with is what I managed to get done before the 'breakdown'

Here's me madly chain piecing Minky's quilt (remember the new year resolutions)

She might have even had a complete quilt top before her birthday (Feb 5) if I could have sewn 24 hrs a day for the past 3 days (self-delusion is one of my more attractive traits!)


The Mariners Compass is waiting patiently for it's next border. The border will have 29 pieced  paisley hearts in red and reddish tones.

I had almost finished this lot - only the few in the background to go *sob*.

Luckily I have some hand piecing that I can happily go on with.

Thanks for taking a peek over the fence... 

...of holidays and happiness...of paisley and perfection

I have been away for a week visiting the area that my Dad grew up in. My Aunt still lives there and I wanted to make the trip to see her too.
We spent time at Tathra Beach, Candelo and walking in the national parks. It was the strangest sight to see the area so brown and drought ridden, when my memories are of a full and flowing (and at times flooding) Bega river and lush green hillsides. 
We stayed in 'eco' cabins on the edge of the Bournda National Park. Every morning and evening King Parrots, galahs, cockatoos, rainbow lorikeets and kangaroos would come down and could be fed seed and pellets by hand.

We were even visited by this big fellow, probably after eggs in a nest!




The owners of the park must have know something about me. This is what I found on the bed spread!


I was very tempted to cut out a bit to put into the 'paisley quilt'.


Fortunately there was a 'therapy centre' not far away - Mandeni Needlecraft and it is truly as inviting as the pictures on the website show.


Here is the haul from there - 
(actually the magazines came from the newsagent in Merimbula). Yes, you can see 2 pairs of thread snips and no, I'm not that bad at unsewing...the yellow pair is for Marisew, cause as Miss Bee says 'we like to have everything the same'!


So...what have I been doing since I got back from holidays..........


....TA...DAAAA....

...and as soon as I post this I'm off to do some more. (If I can sneak past Diva because she reckons I should be finishing her quilt off...she's probably right, but we all need a WIP to come back to, don't we?).

Thanks for taking a peek over the fence....

Resolving one Resolution

That idea floating about in my head with the paisley fabrics might just have floated out into the real world. I have something on paper with the help of Quilt Design Wizard (this is the baby program to EQsixtyzillion and has been great for a baby quilter!).

At first was simply going to do colourwash squares to let the 'fabric do the talking'...but that just didn't seem right - with all those beautiful, whimsical, colourful, gorgeous patterns and designs. So I am going all out with a medallion quilt that will include a Mariners Compass, log cabin blocks, pieced hearts and square-in -a-square blocks. I can't even show the full design because QDW doesn't actually have the capabilities to show it properly, so the design is a mix of on-paper and on-computer mish mash. I do know the NUMBERS add up though!.

Now to master the finer points of paper piecing! (Didn't I mention that there would be paper piecing, template and rotary cutting as well as inset seams?)

Can you believe that I have done this much already?

The photos show one half and what the light/dark blue point looks like and the lt/dk pink points will look like when put together (this is one quarter of the block). Toooooooo excited for words.

It took a while to find a 'compass' that I both, liked the look of and that was the right size. (I knew MATH  would come in handy for resizing the printout - he has even taken to calling himself the in-house IT guy!). I have some patterns in books and magazines, but either all the points were not the right length, too skinny, too fat, didn't go to the edge of the compass, had a circle in the middle etc - in short were NOT what I had in my head. In the end I settled on the Bear Paw one and have just adjusted it to square it off, rather than the separate 'template A'. (If you hear a scream from the vicinity of quilary-land you will know I stuffed up somewhere...).

For some Mariners Compass goodness try looking here at Quilted with Love or here at Bear Paw Productions.

This should be a piece of cake if I pin carefully, sew in the correct sequence, sew along the marked lines, finger press the folded fabric, keep the loose fabric out of the way, match points and remember to trim the seams before going onto the next piece.

                                          

Yeah, paper pieceing and I can be good friends for a while yet (*maniacally crossing fingers*).

Thanks for taking a peek over the fence...