Frenzy

My days off this past week have been filled with pleasant stuff, faffing about and doing pretty much exactly what I felt like. That included a lot of sewing, minor amounts of housework, limited cooking and a fair bit of sleeping. I had one day in my pyjamas and forced myself to get dressed in actual clothes the rest of the time. I swear if I didn't ever have to go to work, pyjamas would be my uniform. 

During my week off, my grand sewing plans mostly came to fruition, and I even managed to squish in a shopping trip for fabric, dragging Patty Pie (Mother of Pyjamas) along for the ride.  It took 3 shops to get everything I needed, but I'm all set for another three quilts to be started (and finished-fingers crossed). I've left out the boring white fabric I bought and well as a ton of batting, which is currently residing on the sewing room floor being used by Lola as an impromptu dog bed. Miss Lola is such an opportunist.

My rather eclectic and out of character purchases 

I started and finished a simple baby blanket/play mat /change mat on Monday. I think I've nailed this FM meandering gig and need to move on to something else. One side is for a girl and one side is for a boy because I don't know what kind of baby its going to be, as the parents have chosen to be surprised. I'm assuming they have had an ultrasound and already know they aren't having twins because that'd be one heck of a surprise and I've only made one quilt.

My second Irish Chain quilt is done and ready to be donated to the Mary Potter Foundation. Quilted in a simple diagonal serpentine stitch in wonderful 50 weight Aurifil thread. I've started using Aurifil for piecing as well not just quilting because yes - it just rocks that much.  As an aside , having now made two Irish Chain quilts in a row , I am so over them that I'm ready to move onto something completely different. I see curves in my future. And swearing and tantrums due to the curves. 

I've made progress on a third donation quilt as well. The postage stamp sized bits were driving me slightly batty but I finally have enough cut and sewed to the point where I can sew them into 16 patches. Once this quilt is finished I'm going to give donation quilting a rest for a bit and concentrate on some of the projects on my FAL list for the last quarter (my efforts on that list for this quarter have been seriously abysmal)

Lucy Boston has been stuffed in a bag and I'm now working on Miss Elizabeth instead from a pattern by Cherry Pie Designs that I saw at the Quilt Show in Melbourne in April and immediately fell in love with. Progress has been made cutting a bajillion hexies and honeycombs. Mental note to self: When glue basting these suckers don't forget all the rude things everyone said last time they had to help you unpick the paper bits from the hexies.You probably don't need to glue everything to within an inch of its life. I'm feeling more optimistic about this project, although I'm sure it wont be finished until sometime in 2016. That's OK -hand sewing is all about slow going in my book. Its the journey - not the destination. 

And this morning I sucked it up and cut out all the bits for the Moroccan tile quilt that is meant to be finished by the end of September and I'm delusional optimistic enough to still think I can pull that off. 

This is where I left things before calling it a day. 

I'll leave you with some gratuitous food shots...I made up for my lack of cooking this week by pulling my finger out and hand making pot stickers from scratch for dinner tonight with a honey ginger sauce. My confidence took a battering the first time I made these which was some time last year I think. The hot sauce was so f****** hot even Mr. P had tears streaming down his face. His power of speech was affected for about two hours after dinner, or perhaps that's because he couldn't think of anything nice to say about them?  I gave up and ate a sandwich and have been too chicken to make them again up until now. New recipe- much better result! 

And for dessert we had chocolate cupcakes with mint cream cheese frosting dipped in chocolate. You can never have enough chocolate.....

And while I'm on a sugar theme- this should send you into overload. I received a care parcel this week from Little Miss Sunshine which contained all the Halloween Candy I never had as a child in one box. For my Northern Hemisphere friends- don't bother looking for any Halloween Candy in your neck of the woods- I have the worlds supply at my house. I'm kind of hoping we get some Trick or Treaters this year because I will have the best supply of candy in Australia to give them. I'm pretty sure it will make me a neighbourhood legend. 

I'm back at work tomorrow but I'm determined to finish that Moroccan tile quilt under my self imposed deadline so it looks like its going to be a busy week. Enjoys yours. May it bring sunshine and good things. 

Contemplation

I had to take a reality check this week and pony up to the fact that my fussy cutting skills kind of suck. I started my Lucy Boston block prep in July and as I've started to put them together I've realised I'm not as thrilled with mine as I am with all the other ones I've seen around the Internet. The only thing I can put it down to is that I'm not "fussy" enough with my cutting. I'm also finding it really difficult to choose complementary fabrics for my block choices despite having two bins full of the stuff picked out. And I'm having a really hard time visualising what this might look like finished. (never a good sign!) My overriding inclination is to stuff Lucy in a plastic box, hope she doesn't suffocate and do something else as a sewing hand project until I unsuck at fussy cutting or change my mind about fabric choices. 

The Irish Chain Quilt is all quilted up and I'm on the last side of the binding, which as you can see is a vibrant green, which frames the pops of colour in the quilt beautifully. Not quite so sure it goes well with the apricot chenille I used to back the quilt with, but that's for snuggling under not showing off, so I'm not too broken hearted about it. I sense a finish on this quilt by the end of the week, which is just as well since it's officially Spring and if I don't get this to the recipient tout suite it may start to get too warm to use it. It's be nice if she could curl under it for a week or so before she has to pack it away until next autumn. Aussie Summers aren't conducive to snuggling under quilts by a long shot. 

And deja vu- I had a few 9 patches left over from the Big Irish Chain so I'm making a smaller version as a donation quilt for the Mary Potter Foundation.  It didn't take long to whip up a few more blocks and its coming along fairly quickly. 

It also gave me a chance to go through one of my scrap bins and cut everything into 2.5 inch strips which I'm planning to use to make another postage stamp quilt and the leftovers got chucked into the string bag so I can work on another string quilt later in the year ( although since it's September there isn't much "later" left really of 2014 is there?) I'm feeling pretty darn organised at the moment. 

Fabrics picked for a baby quilt that needs to be made. Simple whole cloth design that the mum to be can use as a reversible quilt depending on her mood or whether or not there's baby chuck on one side.  

In the "organised"  vein I finally got around to cleaning up my sewing room over the weekend. It was so much worse than these pictures show. I'd taken to jumping over  a mountain of stuff to get to the sewing machine which was the only semi clear part of the room. 

And I cleaned out my sewing machine and found enough fluff to pretty much stuff a pillow. I hesitate to show this picture because it probably constitutes sewing machine abuse. 

And from the weird but true files , I noticed what looked like stuffing on my loungeroom carpet last week and assumed one of the dogs had ripped open one of their stuffed toys but on closer inspection discovered that their dog blanket was shedding its guts. There were no popped seams and the whole quilt looked like this. This has never happened to me before and I'm at a loss to explain it ( although I'm betting a couple of possibilities ) 1....Bad batting 2) Mr. P washed it by banging it on rocks and then boiled it in the washing machine for good measure? Your thoughts, suggestions and ideas please?? It's as if the quilt wants to commit slow hari kari by internally shedding it's insides. 

Another planned project in the works is a sampler quilt. I've wanted to one for a long time and the Farmer's Wife Quilt I started ended up as two potholders. Amanda over at Seabreeze Quilts is offering a free monthly quiltalong sampler project that she has named the Chocolate Marshmallow Sampler and it's going to run over 6 months. Free instructions for the two blocks of the month will be on her blog from the 15th of each month starting this month. Pop on over a have a look at her post if you want to play along.