FAL Quarter 2- Results !

We're at the end of the second quarter of the Finish Along hosted by Katy at The Littlest Thistle and it's time to 'fess up about whether or not I bit off more than I could chew again...

Having learnt my lesson last quarter, I made my goals a tad more realistic this time around and chucked in the possibility of a nudie run down the main street of Adelaide to motivate me to a finish on at least one of those projects. Adelaide breathed a collective sigh of relief when the last stitch was sunk into the Dresden quilt binding because it meant people didn't have to disinfect their eyeballs or seek therapy after having seen me running naked down Rundle Mall wearing only a feather boa. You can see the original post for my goals and threat here.

So without further ado or waffle here's the skinny on what went down at Maison Pyjamas in April, May and June. 

Project 1 - Dresden Quilt -DONE

Project 2 - Hexie Flower Garden Quilt -DONE

Project 3 - Stupid Triangles ! (now renamed The Craptastic Quilt) -DONE

I'm never touching triangles again .... 

Project 4 - Seville Quilt -FAIL

So close and nearly done but Katy informs me that nearly doesn't count unless I'm planning to use it unquilted with the basting pins still in it. (I once used a quilt for 18 months without any binding on it - so dont tempt me)  I was planning to take the easy road with this quilt and I started some echo quilting around the peels last week. But something somewhere in the back of my head told me I could do better than slightly curved lines for this quilt so I unpicked , and unpicked and then unpicked some more. Come back later this week to see what I'm planning for this quilt ...I'm equal parts elated and terrified and it could make for some very interesting reading. 

So Im sitting at 75 % success for the quarter, but Im happy those WIP's are disappearing off my sidebar list. Since the start of the year I've knocked 7 off there and only have two to go. One more finish and I swear I'm starting something new..or several somethings. 

The Quilt that Every Man and His Dog Had a Hand In

Once upon a time, (in 2011 to be precise) I fell in love with the idea of making a hand sewn hexagon quilt. I must have been temporarily insane at the time because I'd never hand sewn a whole quilt in my life....

I consulted everyone I know about paper piecing and debated the merits of  glue basting or thread basting and read so many tutorials on the subject that I almost went blind.

I finally screwed up the courage to make a start in October 2011, when I went to visit Little Miss Sunshine for the very first time.  Her daughter, BP was pressed into service and admirably basted about 170 hexies for me (without complaint might I add !) and the hand sewing began. 

And went on and on and on ....forever.

Somewhere in there I decided that I was going to applique the individual hexagon "flowers" to backing blocks because I knew if I tried to hand sew an entire quilt of hexagons I'd still be doing it in the retirement village, or handing it down to Little P to finish as an ancestral WIP.

When it came time to take the hexagons out of their basting papers, I realised that I'm a classic over gluer. I pretty much needed a crow bar to pry those things out. The Not The Farmers Wife sewing group girls took pity on me and helped me take all the papers out one day, while making rude comments about how much glue I'd used.  Suckers...I had the last laugh because I didn't have to tackle that little job all on my lonesome.

I was all for machine sewing those suckers onto the backing blocks but a couple of my "friends" (I'm looking at you Val and Tara ) made "that's the most stupid idea ever" faces when I mentioned it so I bowed to peer pressure and started hand appliqueing them onto the backing blocks. I've never hand appliqued anything in my life so Val taught me how to do that after I made it look incredibly difficult one day at another one of our sewing days. I think the phrase she used was "Do you want me to show you how to do that an easier way" which roughly translates to "I cant stand to see you doing that completely wrong you idiot".  After my success in suckering them all in to taking out the backing papers I was kind of hoping if I made the applique part of the process look hard that they'd all take pity on me and do a few each but alas that was not to be. I think they'd gotten wise to me by that stage.

So hand applique I did - and that went on and on and on- forever. 

I finally finished (amid loud vows to never listen to well meaning "you must hand applique" friends again) and ignored it for a couple more months then screwed up the internal fortitude to sew the whole hot mess together into a top. 

By that stage I was really liking it again and since I was shit scared if I quilted it I'd do something to completely wreck it I prevailed on Val to quilt it for me with the brief to do whatever she wanted.  And I'm oh so glad I did ...

Look at this utter feast for the eyes ....

Variegated dragonflies - adorable!

The back 

In all her glory on my king sized bed. 

I'm thrilled with how it looks so thank you to everyone who helped, cajoled and threatened me into this finish but a special thanks to Val who really made this quilt come alive. 

This is my first finish for the 2nd quarter of Katy's FAL 

 and I'm also linking to Elizabeth's finishes linky party for May

Now I just need to get that Dresden finished since there was the small matter of the threat of a nudey run down our main shopping precinct if it was still lurking by the end of June...

You can see my original FAL goal list for the quarter here 

Finish Along-Quarter 2 List

Dear Blog Buddies, 

I apologise in advance for assaulting your eyeballs with the same unfinished quilts that you've already seen approximately a million times before and further inane chatter about how I really WILL finish them this quarter. 

If I had been more organised in the first quarter of this little linky party you may have had the pleasure of seeing at least one or two projects that hadn't been the subject of umpteen million previous blog posts. I started the year with the best of intentions to finish a goodly chunk of the projects on my WIP list before I started anything new, and while I've resisted the urge to start any aforementioned new projects it appears my will to finish the remaining WIPS has fled along with just a teeny bit more of my sanity. 

When I wrote my list for the first Quarter of 2014 , I was clearly delirious because I put 7 projects on it. I'm going to get a bit more sensible for Quarter 2 and make a list that is rooted in some form of reality. Football season has recommenced Down Under so I am officially a sport widow until Grand Final Day (late September in case you were wanting to book tickets- my team won't be there based on what I've seen so far this season)and since I find no pleasure in watching 8 matches of football over the weekend(and listening to Mr. P's armchair umpiring antics) this is the start of prime quilting season for yours truly. 

So here is my list for the second quarter....

Project 1 - Dresden Quilt.  If this isn't finished by the end of the quarter I'll strip naked and walk down Rundle Mall wearing only a feather boa. 

Project 2 -Hexie Flower Garden. I'm not making any promises about getting naked if this isn't finished because its being quilted by a friend who would hold up the process just to make me follow through ... 

Project 3- Stupid Triangles. Our wonderful hostess Katy has suggested I give this away to some other poor unsuspecting sucker.  My return suggestion was that I use it as a firestarter for a bonfire in the back yard. Mmmmmmmmmm...better not. I'm going to finish this one if it kills me because I don't intend to ever make a triangle quilt again. 

Project 4 - Seville Quilt. 31 peels left to go ...then I have to sew it together, baste it, quilt it and put the binding on. What could possibly go wrong?  

Stick around for tears, tantrums and lots of whining ! 

Finish Along -First Quarter 2014

Katy over at The Littlest Thistle is hosting the FAL for 2014 and since I have WIP's coming out my wazoo I figured I'd better come up with a plan for finishing stuff. There is nothing like publicly committing to finishing things to get you off your arse and moving. Plus I can procrastinate for ages with this FAL because we only have to 'fess up 3 monthly.

So here, in no particular order, are the projects I'm vowing to finish in either January, February or March. Goals and I tend not to be friends but I'm determined to get rid of some of this stuff - sorry, finish these works of art -so I can start other cool stuff .

Dresden quilt 

If you started following my blog after October 2011 you wont have seen this one. It's been a completed top for so long now it's pretty much an antique. Unfortunately I only have pictures of the blocks so you'll have to imagine this with pink sashing. This one needs to be quilted ( And I've sent this out to the quilter - sue me if you think that's cheating) and when it gets back I have to put the binding put on.

Hexagon Flower Garden Quilt

I started this quilt in October 2011 but didn't finish the top until last October...This one is going off to the quilter too ...so for me the only thing that has to be done is put the binding on...I reckon I can blitz these two projects. 

Triangle Quilt

Started this one in February last year - quickly got sick of it because it had bias edges and when I put the first 5 rows together it resembled a Mexican wave...I unpicked the lot and have so far managed to sew two whole rows back together. This is going to require a bit of patience. Don't expect the points to meet up!

Tshirt Quilt

Poor Mr. P's Tshirt quilt - started with such enthusiasm, and then chucked in a corner when it was less than half quilted. There is probably a few hours quilting left on this and then it'll be close to done. 

Postage Stamp Quilt

Started as a way to use up my scraps which appeared to be breeding in their plastic tubs. I did three trial blocks  and then ignored for about four months until January 1st. This has been getting a lot of attention since new year so I'm quietly confident this may be my first quilt finish for 2014.

Pom Pom De Paris Dog Blanket

Once upon a time (last November) I decided on the spur of the moment to make Indy and Lola a new dog blanket because two of their other ones were so putrid I had to throw them out. I got to the "finished a flimsy" stage on the same day and then and totally piked. Indy and Lola don't care about fancy quilting so in theory this one should be a snap to finish!

Chenille Baby Blanket

I have so much chenille lurking around Maison Pyjamas I'm drowning in the stuff. I've just pulled the fabrics for a baby blanket for one of the girls at work who is having a baby in a couple of months. Lets see if I can get this to the mother to be before the baby starts school.

My list looks pretty full but with three weeks holidays stretching in front of me I feel like I can achieve  at least some of this...and there's still plenty of time to link up if you want to play along.

Slowly but Surely ....

2013 will go down as the year that felt like creative groundhog day. Since I last bitched and whined showcased my creative efforts I've been moving along one very small step at a time on a number of projects. The theory is that at some point I'll have a plethora of finishes to show. Goodness knows there's enough WIP's lurking round here to sink a battleship.  

Since I last showed you the chaotic creativity that was happening at Maison Pyjamas I've moved along a little bit on a few things and this post is mainly a motivational record!

I've put together half the hexagon flower quilt top and made the binding 

I've been playing with 16 patches from my scraps for a postage stamp style quilt. This is far from finished because I need another 78 of these to actually finish a decent sized quilt top. Unfortunately all the scrap busting I've been doing lately doesn't seem to have made a discernible dent in my scrap bin. Do those suckers breed in there or something? 

I finished the last two rows on Mr. P's T-shirt quilt and then whacked it together into a top. Just showing you a sneak peek today so I can do a big reveal when it's done and amaze you all with my brilliance. The back is done and I'm at the quilting end of the process. I'm aiming for that to be done today. I've got the cutest binding in mind and cant wait to see it on the quilt. 

I finished the clamshell mini top and I'm hand quilting it with perle thread . My hand quilting skills need a ton of refinement but it's all part of the learning experience. I'm going for finished not perfect . The best part is that this has completely knocked the will out of me to ever make a large clamshell quilt. 

And I've been basting and appliqueing peels for the Seville quilt. If this doesn't come together like I've been imagining I'm going to shoot myself. 

There's a wild rumour running round Adelaide that my Irish Chain Quilt may just sneak in under the wire for an actual September finish ...stay tuned. 

You win some - You lose some...

It was my brother in law's 40th birthday on Friday so I guess the question on everybody's lips is whether he liked the quilt I made for him.

You know- the one I've been blathering on about since about February? The one I vowed to finish in time for his birthday in July. The one I've been endlessly showing as I theoretically progress through to completion?  Yeah -ummm...that's still in bits. We copped out and gave him money in a card instead because apparently I cant finish anything when working to a deadline. Gotta say - Im not really arse kicking myself over it- I have come to dislike the putting together of that quilt intensely. Maybe it'll get finished and maybe not. I've never not finished a quilt before but the jury is still out on this one.

It hasn't all been doom and gloom and ignoring stuff on the quilting front . My Irish Chain quilt top is finished and I love how it looks. I have some cream embossed damask for the back that will pull everything together to give this an antique feel and best of all I'm sending it out to be quilted so in my head that means this one is almost done. I've even made the binding for it. My job is pretty much done! 

I waged an inner war with myself on Saturday over whether to unpick the 5 rows of the triangle quilt I'd already sewn because I wasn't really happy with the way they were sewing up into a top. I've learned that triangles cut on the bias stretch out of shape and by the time you sew stretched triangles into row you can end up with some very interesting results. (Curved quilt top anyone?) My inner perfectionist spoke louder than my slack arse personality and I spent Saturday unsewing and re-sewing and first time sewing and squaring all my triangles post sewing into little rows . (Does anyone else think this talk of squaring triangles sounds odd or am I just having a moment of silliness?) 

I got two rows sewn back together over the weekend and this is where I left the rest of it. I must confess looking at that pile waiting to be sewn into a recognisable quilt top makes me feel like I'm going to be mindlessly sewing triangles just about forever...

And to prove there's more than one way to skin a cat (ugh -I don't know why anyone would want to do that ) I finished this too. I saw this idea on Pinterest where someone had embroidered directly onto a paper map. I decided to go one better and print the map onto fabric and then embroider -but my hand stitches looked funky so I unpicked it and went the slacker way and used my machine. At this point I don't care that I sort of cheated ...its a finish. 

And in other creative type news ...I have 1 and a half of these left to do before I can start making them into a quilt top ...hallelujah!

Couldn't resist the lure of a new project ...started cutting scraps but since I haven't start actually sewing them it doesn't really count. This could be the one that finally tips me over the edge. 

Distractions

At some point during  a period of intense crafty inspiration you get so many great ideas in your head that your brain simply cant keep them all in there and so you have to try and translate them into reality. Its like a law of the universe or something.  I mention this only because I seem to be working happily on so many projects at the moment - somethings gotta give - but I 'll take it where I can get it. 

I was  inspired to start hand quilting a quilt. I got 12 inches in before I realised three stitches to an inch is pretty crap  and I’ve since  managed to convince myself that only an insane woman starts her first hand quilting project with a full sized quilt.  I’m thinking a mini quilt is a good place to start my hand quilting experience. Naturally I'll have to make the mini first so I've moved on to other things. Goodness knows I have plenty of unfinished projects laying round begging to be finished things.   

I finished quilting the Gelati quilt  (thanks for the name Ms. Nerida ) by machine  this past weekend.  I think I made the right call because I’m really happy with how it’s turning  out. This is going to be a lay around, drag on the floor , drop whatever you happen to be munching on at the time quilt for my house so it doesn't have to be fancy. I'm half way through finishing the binding so I'll show you the whole thing in all it's glory soon. 

Last week I allowed myself to be distracted by Pinterest and all the pretty scarves there. There I was inspired to knit an infinity scarf because I was formerly inspired to make a gingham knitted blanket  that I haven’t got  right yarn for (and that is seriously going to take forever to make ) and I just wanted to knit something. Then I got distracted by the idea of buying a scarf on Ebay instead. My moral conscience kicked in when I realised that 4 dollar scarf I wanted to buy (with free shipping no less ) was  made by someone in China working for 12 cents an hour .  Eventually I went back and cast on my stitches for the infinity scarf and have managed to get this far. Assuming my interest doesn’t wane too much I could conceivably be wearing this before the end of winter.

Tazz and AusRose made faces like this at a recent sewing day when I mentioned I was going to machine appliqué my hexie flowers onto their backing blocks. 

I took those looks to mean "Crap-est idea you've ever had " and so I have succumbed to peer pressure and wiser heads than my own and I’m hand appliquéing them onto the blocks. I've done 12 this past week and I'm not finding it as mind numbingly boring as I thought it would be. In fact -it's quite relaxing.  

"Beep Beep" is finished, washed and crinkled so it looks well loved and is off to Master Jack this week. This kid lives in the tropics so I imagining this will be decorative rather than strictly functional.  

Onwards and upwards...dont want to lose that mojo!