plenty of sewing time

Just popping in with a short post …

Mum is doing well; she has improved physically in the week she has been here which is a good sign. She is no longer stooped and shuffling; being undernourished will do that to you! Instead, she is eating very well and has regained her usual stride. Yesterday she even worked out in the garden with WM for a couple of hours.

Her biggest interest is reading and she spends hours absorbed in books. This frees me up to be in the sewing room so I am getting quite a bit done.

A couple of weeks ago, my quilting teacher donated a partially completed quilt to Caring Hearts Community Quilters – all I had to do was finish the quilting, make binding, attach it and sew it down. I have done all but the last task, so no photos until I show you the finished project!

My Jacob’s Ladder Goes Barn Raising is quilted. Life is so much easier when I think about the quilting before I pin baste; then I can position the pins out of the way of stitching lines. The quilting was done in no time but it seemed to take almost as long to sew in all the ends! You can’t see it here (because the photo is pre-quilting); I sewed diagonal lines about 5” apart through the centres of the squares that make up the diagonals.


The binding is cut and waiting for the strips to be joined.


I have also been knitting! Shock of shocks!!

In the past three days, I have worked on Crinkles Hoodie by doing a three needle bind off on the shoulders and starting the first sleeve (the photo, which is of the back, is really not worth showing but I know you like pictures! LOL)


Last December, I started knitting Charley Bear for my great-niece who will be two next month; I began on the train on 16 December and haven’t touched it since. On Monday, I stuffed the body and head. I am so not enjoying this! There are so many fiddly little pieces to come, of the type: CO 4 stitches, K 2 rows, increase either end of next row, knit 1 row. Bind off! I have no desire to be a toy maker! The head is on the left; it seems proportionally too large for the body!


And I’ve finished a pair of small women’s socks which were started on 21 February. The second sock was cast on 6 March.


My current reading is varied, but includes 100 Days of Real Food by Lisa Leake. She started a blog a few years ago and it led to a book! Our copy only arrived yesterday so I’m not really in a position to write a review just yet. It certainly is an interesting read.

There are some advantages to having had to cut back on my away-from-home activities, at least for a few weeks! ;-)

Linking up with WiP Wednesday and Yarn Along when they go live.
         


PS Is anyone else having trouble with Firefox working very slowly or is just us?

blue, blue, blue

No, I’m not suffering from depression; I have three projects to talk about and they’re all blue.

The first is my blue scraps project, Crumbed Churn Dash, for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at SoScrappy blog.

In this post, I talked about the twenty-two 4” crumb blocks I made on 3 January.

Before I could proceed, I had to choose the fabric for the churn dash motif. I had thought I would use solid black but, in my eyes, it didn’t enhance the colours in the crumb blocks, and I thought it made the blocks seem flat and lifeless. (I’ve changed my opinion now that it’s too late!)

Then I thought I’d try a pale blue background, even though I was pretty sure I knew what the outcome would be!

I needed quite a large amount of a darkish fabric to make those medium blues stand out. This was the only blue I could find that served my purposes (I tried others but they really didn’t work!). 

I thought it looked good and I had an adequate amount of fabric but I just wasn’t sure… working with checks can be a problem – one needs to keep them straight to look good and there 160 units in the quilt!

I wonder what you would have chosen? I had decided to go with the solid black but was still restless – I have a philosophy that I live by: “if in doubt, don’t!” I really didn’t want to use the black but what could I do? Then I had a brain-wave!

Brown, being a shade of orange, adds some warmth to the quilt and I quite like the combination of chocolate brown and medium blue so I went with that. Of course, I wasn’t going to cut 160 pieces in case it didn’t work so I did four of each unit to begin with; enough to make one block! (The brown is actually much darker than this photo shows)

I was hoping that I’d be able to tell you today that I had finished making all 160 sub-units for twenty churn dash blocks.

But, I was wrong.

On Friday, I finished all twenty blocks! I started the day with eight done, worked consistently all day, and finished all twenty around 4pm.

I love how the brown churn dashes make a grid for the large blue diamonds to hang off!

As you can see, it’s planned scrappiness. I spent quite a bit of time determining the placement of each piece of ‘rag’ (as my teacher calls them)! I’m looking forward to having a ‘proper’ design wall soon so I don’t have to keep working on the floor in another room.

I pressed away from the centre but I think I’ll have to go back and press all the seams joining the top and bottom rows to the centre rows of each block; in this way, I’m hoping I’ll avoid the problems of too much bulk where the blocks meet. It’s a hassle but better than the alternative!

Yesterday, WM and I discussed possibilities for basting. We have carpet throughout the house. I’ve tried basting on carpet and usually end up pinning my project to it! Besides, it’s too hard on my knees and back. Our dining table is timber so I can’t use that for fear of scratching the surface with pins. WM told me that I could use the kitchen bench/breakfast bar  so I tried it out with the Bargello table runner. The bench-top is Caesar-stone so it will be interesting to see how it stands up whilst having pins pushed against it. When I removed the table runner, the bench-top didn’t seem any worse for wear – I was very careful not to push the pins too hard! The only marks I can see are from the masking tape and I’m assuming they will wash off.

Not only did I get the table runner basted, I also got it quilted, trimmed and bound. Woo-hoo! This is the fifth finish of 2015 and the first of five of my own projects that I had waiting to baste, quilt and finish.

There will probably be another post for this project: I wanted to say more but this post is already quite long enough!

With all those to-be-quilted projects, I need another scrap piecing project so I’m joining Sharon’s Let’s Book It challenge this month. 

While I had my blue scraps out, I started a quilt based on a pattern called “Slices” from the book Scrap Republic by Emily Cier. That quilt is only 30” square; I need to make mine 48” x 64” so there’ll be twelve triangles of most colours not the four shown here.

It’s a new project but it will take me all year to complete given that the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is one colour a month. Interestingly, Emily Cier recommends making one triangle at a time; I’m thinking it might be easier to sew a whole lot of scraps together then cut the triangles from the resulting fabric. Of course, doing it Ms Cier’s way means that every scrap is followed by a different scrap; doing it my way, while possibly faster and with less wastage, will result in the same scrap combination over and over. I’ll have to think on it some more. Here is the first ‘triangle’ I made. I’m not cutting the triangle properly until I have all the triangles for a row – bias edges are tricky things!

If you’ve got a few minutes, why not drop into Angela’s blog to see what people have been doing with their blue scraps; and/or Sharon’s blog to see what projects people are making from the long neglected patterns in the books on their shelves?

Also, I’ve now edited my previous post and linked it to JulieK’s Binding Blitz link-up. Please check out that link too; and if you’ve bound a quilt this month, add yours to the party! You know what they say, ‘the more the merrier’!

Time for pink – the colour of February… stay tuned! ;-)

gifts and give-aways

Before the year closes, I’d like to show you some of the quilt-related things I have received in the last few weeks.

You may remember that, in November, I joined the linky party over at Vrooman’s Quilts called “Let’s Book It!”. This was the first time I had joined the party and, much to my surprise, I won that month’s give-away: a beautiful little quilt barn pin and a quilt charm to attach to it. So cute! Thanks so much, Sharon.

Sharon was one of the most regular followers of my now-defunct linky party, “Something Old, Something New” and her blog inspires me with quilting ideas and links to other “scrappy quilters” that it should be me sending her a gift not the other way around!

Christmas has been and gone for another year (although in my family tradition, Christmas begins on 25 December and ends on the Feast of the Epiphany, 6 January, so our lights, decorations and tree are still up. That may change this weekend!). It’s time to show you the quilt-related gifts I received (exactly when did this blog stop being primarily about knitting? LOL) :

Firstly, my mum gave me a book called Scrap Quilt Sensations by Kim Brackett.

I first saw this book on Sharon’s blog and fell in love with this quilt called “Island Chain”.

Sharon made hers in a very different (and prettier IMHO) colour combination. I just had to have the book so that I could make my scrappy version. I would have been happy to find one pattern that I liked; there are several so that’s a bonus. You can expect to see quilts made from patterns in this book (or at least inspired by them) over the next couple of years.

Then WM surprised me with EQ7 software – since I am an inveterate computer-user (DD says I am not a nerd but I love computers and my iPad; I have to force myself to stay away from them to do other things, even the things I love – luckily my sewing machine is also a form of computer! LOL) and like to design my own quilts, this is a perfect gift for me (when I make the time to read the 250+ pages of the manual!) I am looking forward to playing with it but first I have projects I need to bring to completion. (No, I didn’t get a design wall but I have a birthday in April – if I can wait that long!)

DD bought WM and I Lindt Lindor chocolate balls packaged in a giant Lindor shaped container. To give you some idea of scale, I have photographed it with my 4” red-work pin-cushion (made by Anorina who blogs at Samelia’s Mum – another give-away win! I love it and use it a lot, Anorina – thanks heaps! BTW, Anorina has made the pattern for this embroidery available on her blog)

DD also gave each of us a class from Craftsy – WM got a photography-related one, I got Art Quilting 101. I can’t show you a photo because the picture on Craftsy is a hyperlink to my class!

If you’ve never tried Craftsy and you’re into Sewing, Quilting, Knitting, Drawing, Photography, Gardening, Woodwork or Cooking (to name a few) you really should have a look. There are many free mini-classes to whet your appetite; they are always available after you enrol and Craftsy has some great sale prices at frequent intervals! They also do patterns (both free and available for purchase), kits and supplies, as well as showing projects and having their own blog. And, as a disclaimer, I am not being paid for this, I have no affiliation with Craftsy except as a very happy consumer. I have had reason to experience their customer service (I ordered a class for WM and it ended up on my classes because I pressed the wrong purchase button) and it was unbelievably fast and excellent!

We spent Christmas Day with SIL’s parents. They gave me six fat quarters of Christmas fabric – what a lovely, thoughtful present for a quilter. Thank you, J&A.

Finally, a Christmas present from “Santa”; an item that has been on my Book Depository wishlist for quite some time: Connecting Quilts, Art & Textiles by M. Joan Lintault. This only arrived yesterday so I haven’t even opened it yet!

I believe in shopping locally where possible but sometimes I can get books from The Book Depository for almost half of what I would pay for them in Australia. The Book Depository has free shipping worldwide so there is a great saving to made. Plus books are delivered right to my door!

So, I’m set with quilting-related material for the New Year. (Speaking of the new year, I hope you’re all enjoying my new blog header – that view was taken from my deck! Gotta love those trees!)

Knitting? What’s that? LOL

Did you receive any books or other items related to your hobbies recently?

PS Thanks, WM, for the photos!

bronchitis and books

Since I came home from mum’s late last week, I have been knocked about with a bout of bronchitis. Yesterday was the first day that I felt able to do more than sit in a chair and cough!

Today I have plans and the first of those is to write this post!

The past twelve days have given me a chance to participate in a hobby I rarely indulge: reading!

It started while I was at my mum’s. I received an email from my second cousin, who told me that he had just published his first book -- “a golden age mystery novel”. Of course, being a fan of mysteries, I went straight to Amazon and bought An Echo and a Light for my Kindle; which I read through the app on my iPad (poor Kindle, it rarely sees the light of day now; in fact, since we moved, I don’t even know where it is!)

Richard (his nom-de-plume) has even included a character with our mutual family name – Loder! What fun!

The fictional town of Chadfield is based on the town of Lichfield where “Richard” lives. Here is a video he created of photographs of his town as a promotion for his book.


After reading Richard's novel, which I enjoyed, I set off on a quest to find more books to read – this time from the digital collection of my local library. In a week I have borrowed five ebooks and two audiobooks. I enjoyed all but one of them and would recommend them to you if you are a fan of the mystery/suspense genre. (The one I didn't enjoy I have not included here.)

They are seen here in the order I read them. Some I enjoyed more than others (as is always the case) but I have no qualms in letting you make up your own minds. Because of my own particular tastes in books, none of these books has erotic scenes, all have at least a hint of romance and only one (Seven Kinds of Death) has repeated use of “foul” language. The Prayer Box is not a mystery/suspense novel although there are several mysteries that are unravelled through this gentle story.
   

What have you been reading lately?

new quilting books

Given that Christmas was five weeks ago, I guess it's time for me to show my new books!

They are all very different and each will challenge me in different ways as I work through my "new" skills challenge for Something Old, Something New during the year.

To expand my skills in free motion quilting, I have First Steps to Free Motion Quilting by Christine Cameli, recommended by Deb at a simple life quilts. I haven't even opened the book yet, I'm waiting until it's time to add FMQ to my challenge. If I open it now, I may want to get stuck into it!

To introduce me to the techniques of trapunto, I have Shadow Trapunto Quilts by Geta Grama. I have followed Geta's blog for a few years now and the work she does in trapunto always amazes me. Again, I have not yet opened this book -- I will wait until the month comes to try this technique.

My quilting class begins next Monday after a seven-week Christmas/summer break. We are going to learn foundation (or paper) piecing and this book will help with that. I have admired the work of Mary Lou Weidman for a couple of years and this book brings my collection of her books to four. I am looking forward to trying a couple of the blocks in Out of the Box with Easy Blocks.

That reminds me, I haven't showed you another of her books that I bought from eBay. I think it was her very first book. It is called Whimsies and Whynots. I love the whole concept of a "story" quilt although they don't seem like the thing I would do for our charity quilting group due to the time and amount of work involved.

I've had Log Cabins Today in my collection for a while but I can't see that I've posted about it. Log cabin blocks are so versatile but what got my attention was the setting of the one on the cover.

What about you?

Have you added any new books to your crafting library lately?

the joy of belonging to a local library

Having access to free books from the local library is such a blessing! I have borrowed from a local library since my earliest school days and I tend to take it for granted.

Now, in this wonderful age of the internet, I can (and do) borrow audio-books, ebooks and print books. In this way, I get to read books that I would otherwise never knew existed.

This month, I have borrowed the following from the library:

• the books in print

• I have yet to open The Quilt: a history and a celebration of an American art form
• I really liked Cut the Scraps – in fact, I might even put it on my wish-list (I have a birthday in April)
• The book about Kaffe Fassett’s V&A Quilts was interesting but I won’t be adding to to my collection
• I have yet to open Kaffe Knits Again
• Prayer Shawl Companion has some interesting patterns (including one by Kaffe Fassett) but I won’t be adding it to my collection; readers who consider “prayer shawls” a peculiarly Christian expression may be surprised by the inclusion of all faiths and eastern mysticisms

For entertainment, I have a tendency to gravitate towards mysteries and romance novels, as well as biographies and non-fiction books on subjects that interest me – e.g. history, culture.
I have borrowed this digital media (listed alphabetically by title for convenience):

• A Lady of Expectations by Stephanie Laurens (e-book) -- finished
  - Jack Lester has to find a bride but where can he find the perfect woman?
• A Man’s Heart by Lori Copeland (audiobook) -- finished
  - after the death of her father and her best friend, a young woman struggles to salvage the farm, honour a promise and win back the man whose heart she broke
• Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady by Carol Baxter (e-book) -- slowly reading
  - the story of Australian bushrangers Frederick Ward and Mary Ann Bugg; I’ve only read a couple of chapters and am finding it fairly dry
• Old Tokyo by Sumiko Enbutso (e-book) -- so far I have only read the introduction
  - a walking tour of Tokyo’s old downtown
• The Golden Mountain by Irene Kai (audiobook) -- reading
  - the story of four generations of Chinese women and their relationship to USA (the “golden mountain”)
• Town in a Blueberry Jam by B.B. Haywood -- finished
  the first book in a mystery series featuring amateur sleuth, Candy Holliday
• Under the Summer Sky by Lori Copeland (e-book) -- finished
  - a romance set in North Dakota in the late 1800s; written by a Christian author, there is a list of discussion questions at the end of the book

What have you been reading lately?

knitting books

Welcome to my four new followers! If you came in from "Grow Your Blog", here's my "this is me" post. Thanks for dropping by.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I received only one stitching-related book for Christmas. It is The Knitter’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters: Basic Designs in Multiple Sizes and Gauges, by Ann Budd.

There are several patterns in the book I like. I have only shown you details of the patterns but I have provided links to the garments where I could. If you are not a member of Ravelry, I apologise that you can’t access some of these links.

Alpine Tweed By Jared Flood (from his website)

Fibonacci Rings by Ann Budd (Ravelry link)

Cable Love Henley by Ann Budd (or here for Ravelry link)

India Print Henley by Anne Hanson (modelled here by my blog friend Jocelyn, from Knitting Linguist)

Feather and Fan Flare by Ann Budd (Ravelry link)

I don’t know if I would wear either of the first two, I am too well endowed to want to draw attention to my bust area (says she whose Westall cardigan has lace panels you-know-where) but I certainly can admire the designs.

DD borrowed French Girl Knits (by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes) from the library. I have fallen for a couple of the patterns, particularly Anjou and Celeste.

 

Have you seen any new-to-you stitching books lately?

I've been reading

Because I mostly read ebooks, I don't have photos of book covers and don't want to take them from other locations on the web without permission. I apologise for the lack of pictures but it is, after all, a post about reading! LOL

 The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society is the one fiction book that I have read lately which stands out; not because the writing was particularly brilliant, but because it is set in post-war, previously German-occupied Guernsey -- something I've not thought about before. It's a simple story, told well enough to become compulsive but easy reading.

The book is obviously popular, over 10,000 people on LibraryThing have read The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society. The book was written by Mary Ann Schaffer, a retired librarian in her seventies who died before the book was published. The revisions were done by her niece, Annie Barrows. Written in the format of letters, it is an unusual format but works well in this case.

While travelling to my mother’s earlier this month, I finished the first section of Mao’s Last Dancer (by Li Cunxin), the autobiography of a poor Chinese boy who became a famous classical ballet dancer. I have not seen the movie and probably never will now that I am reading the book. I am actually reading this book in print format; perhaps that's why it's taking me so long to get through it! ;-0

While sitting around the motel room in Moree after mum's surgery, I read Head Over Heels (by Sam and Jenny Bailey). It is the biography of an Australian country boy who dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps and becoming a farmer – and how he reached his goal despite becoming a quadriplegic in a dreadful car accident when he was just nineteen.

Currently I’m reading another Australian book: In Search of A Wild Brumby by Michael Keenan. Brumbies are wild horses, introduced to Australia and considered by some as pests.

I also have in my pile of non-fiction books, Life at the Edge and Beyond: Living with ADHD and Asperger Syndrome (Jan Greenman) -- this directly impacts on my family and I really need to take the time to read this carefully.

But wait .... there's more!

How can one go to the library and not borrow craft books, more specifically books related to stitching! At the moment I am being inspired by these four:

• French Girl Knits (Kristen Griffen-Grimes) -- a book of patterns, two of which I would like to knit
• Design Your Own Knits in 5 easy steps (Debbie Abrahams) -- I need more time to take this one in!
• Long and Short Stitch Embroidery (Trish Burr) -- also known as needle painting, thread painting or silk painting; I would love to learn how to do this but not right now!
• Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again (Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston) -- a book written by two well known quilters with two very different styles; I love it and have added it and its predecessor to my wishlist!

 If you're over at LibraryThing and want to take a look at my whole book-list (I am adding to it slowly), I am, not surprisingly, ellebee57.

What are you reading?
Did anyone give you books this Christmas? 

drum roll please!

I have some finished objects to share with you.

The first is a Christmas present for our grandsons. Their grandad, my WM, is a keen gardener and Older Grandson particularly loves helping with the watering so I thought this “I Spy” book would be fun for them. Cloth books are appropriate because Younger Grandson still chews things and cloth books are more forgiving than cardboard!

I have a part-finish: today I completed the backing for the Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt. I plan to get this basted in class next Monday and quilted next week; that will mean another Christmas present done and dusted!

And now for the biggie!

Drum roll please!

After twelve months of on-and-off knitting, hundreds of ends to secure, 5.50 metres (220 inches – a little over 18 feet) of i-cord to knit and attach, my intarsia blanket is finally done!

Specifications

• Dimensions:  1.0 metre x 1.75 metre (40” x 70”)
• Yarn: 8ply (DK) acrylics
• Needles: 3.50mm (US 4)

Here are some close-ups of the striping pattern (which I love) and the multi-coloured i-cord.

Last week, I posted about my current WiPs. Here’s the list:

1. Christmas Angel – almost finished
2. Cloth Book – finished
3. Christmas Tree Embroidery #3 – a small amount of progress
4. Baby Blanket – at least 40 rows knitted; I am working on the seventh 32-row repeat (I’m not sure if I’ll need 10 or 11 repeats)
5. Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt – backing finished today
6. Intarsia Blanket – finished
7. scrappy blocks – 16 blocks made: there will be a post about these on Sunday

At last, I’m making some progress!
ETA linking up Thank Goodness it's Finished Friday