Sew....it's Summer Time !

The third day of a Tasmanian 'summer' and this is what I experienced at our fishing cabin in the Central Highlands this past weekend.

4-5 inches of snow everywhere and on our walk in the snow you could hear and see huge branches crack and fall from the trees under the weight of the snow.

This is the view from our back door, I love how the snow is clinging to the outside wall and the trees were so pretty.

Of course, it wouldn't be fun if you didn't take a walk in the snow so we donned layers of clothes, beanies, gloves and walked up the road in vehicle tracks, although these disappeared half way around our 'block' walk and then the walking got hard.  I even had to take off my glasses as the snow covered them making it impossible to see where I was walking.

We weren't sure we were going to get home yesterday but when the power went out and I couldn't get any sewing done, we packed up and drove in convoy with 6-8 other vehicles down the mountain, passing cars stuck in the snow as they attempted to get up the mountain.  Crazy !

I did get some hand sewing done in the evenings and another dozen or so bags made during the couple of days I spent inside because of the rain and snow.  I did spend one day sitting on the verandah on a very warm day stitching and reading - such a contrast in the weather conditions but not unusual for this time of the year.

Happy Quilting !

Street Directory Quilt - Ready for Quilting

The street names have been added to the Street Directory and I spent yesterday afternoon basting this mammoth quilt ready for quilting.

I could have waited and went to a hall and used more tables to lay it out, but no it had to be done yesterday and so my dining room table was pulled into the middle of the room for the task.   I used a wideback black fabric for the backing which seemed to take forever to iron.  

Then the pinning began, hundred of pins went into basting this quilt top and it took a few hours to get it all basted.

 Here is a closer view of the street names written on the quilt.  I didn't want them to stand out too much so they are printed on with a Sharpie Permanent Marking Pen.   The highway name will be hand embroidered on after the quilt has been quilted.

I will also applique 'Ulverstone' and the year onto the quilt after it is quilted.  I want to quilt the ocean are where the name will go before I add the applique, which will be hand done.

Now will come the almighty challenge of quilting this beauty on my trusty Janome domestic sewing machine.   Stay tuned !

Happy quilting !

Yoga Monkeys Quilt

I couldn't resist buying this piece of fabric off an online destash site, it is so cute.  Here is the finished quilt hanging outside as I tried to take a decent photo of it as a slight breeze blew.

I didn't want to cut into the fabric so I quilted around each of the monkey poses and then highlighted the blue circles.

I added a nice bright backing fabric to it.

And with the leftover piece of fabric there was enough to make a carry bag for the quilt.

My son's partner is mad keen on yoga so this will be gifted to her when we visit in a couple of weeks time.

Happy quilting !

Street Directory Quilt - Top Done !

It's huge and needs 'squaring up' but the top is finally finished.  I am yet to decide whether to put a border around the whole quilt or not.

I will now start the mammoth job of adding the street names.  The word 'Ulverstone' will also be appliqued at the top section of the quilt before quilting takes place.

Happy quilting  !

Street Directory Quilt - Update

The Street Directory Quilt is starting to come together, 3 sides done and roughly straightened.

Now to tackle the sandy beaches, ocean and rocky outcrops of the coastline.

Bags, Bags and More Bags

Bags, Bags, Bags.  I love making them and over two weekends at our highlands cabin, I have made 18 bags from scrap fabrics passed onto me.  Each bag is lined.  Over the summer months, this will be my project, making bags,  when we spend time at the cabin.  The bags can be used as shopping bags and will be given away.

I am also using up some of my selvedges to make this same bag pattern but quilting the side panel and main outer bag sections.   These quilted bags will be sold.

I have done a little tutorial to show just how quick and easy it is to put together one of these bags.  Check it out and make up a bag for yourself.

Happy quilting !

Wholecloth Quilt - a UFO done and dusted !

Once upon a time, many many years ago (26 years to be precise), I started hand quilting a wholecloth quilt.  It was started when funds were limited so the wadding was scrappy pieces hand sewn together and all different textures.

Earlier this year, I dragged it out from the back of the cupboard where it had been 'hiding' for many many years to show a quilter friend who was doing a wholecloth quilt on her long-arm machine.    The quilt was hand quilted but for one whole border and about a quarter of another border.   

I can no longer hand quilt so instead of folding it back up and putting it back into the cupboard, I decided to finish the quilting on my domestic sewing machine.

It was hard work, I am definitely not used to throwing around a huge king sized quilt under my machine but I persisted and eventually got the quilting done.

Here it is with the quilting done.  The binding came with the quilt top, cut on the bias and only two inches wide.  I like to do my binding at least 3-1/2 inches folded in half.  So I carefully pinned the single binding to the quilt, sewed it on, turned it over and sewed it down, turning under as I went.  

Next dilemma - would the blue markings wash out after so many years.  It worried me so I took it along to a drycleaning firm, armed with a list of do's and do not's.  They assured me they would take good care of it and after a 3 day wait, I picked it up.

The blue markings had all washed out, the quilt hadn't lost it's shape and it looked amazing.

 

Why had it taken me so long to get this gorgeous quilt finished.  

And the next day I ordered another wholecloth quilt online, a smaller version this time (40" x 40") and this one will be machine quilted and definitely won't take 26 years to complete.

Happy Quilting !

Mother and Baby Giraffe

This is my mother and baby giraffe quilt.  I had a big bag of little black and white scraps, left over from other projects, and I wanted to use them up.  Cleaning out a bin of patterns, paper and old templates one day, I came across a page torn from one of my children's colouring in books of an outline of the mother and baby giraffe.    Here was a good idea for those black and white scraps !

I enlarged to about 36" long and traced my drawing onto tracing Vilene.  

Mamma Giraffe is coming together.  

Mamma and Baby Giraffe are all fused onto the background fabric and sewn down by machine applique using a buttonhole stitch.

This quilt is now ready to quilt. 

Happy quilting !

Street Directory Quilt

Wow ! It has been over 2 years since I last blogged.  Life (or should I say) and Sewing takes over and I must admit I am not a great one for taking progress photos as I sew.  But for the past few weeks I have been working on my local town's Street Directory, turning it into a quilt.

It started out like this - the A4 street directory enlarged many times and joined together.

I then transferred the whole map onto tracing Vilene because it is a lot easier to manage and can be folded up when not in use

The map was then divided into a number of sections, again traced onto the Vilene, and I proceeded to work on the first section.  The aim for doing this project was to use only fabric scraps from my stash, I won't be buying any fabrics to complete the project.  

This is the first section under way.  For the 'houses' I am foundation piecing each 'block of houses' using scrappy pieces of fabric.  The schools are yellow sections, parks / recreations grounds/ fields are done using green scraps.  

Here is a close up after I had added the streets.  The streets are made using grey scrap pieces and are fused down over the 'house blocks'  I have then machine appliqued using blanket stitch along each side of the streets / roads.

Here is the first two sections joined together and ready for quilting.   But before I can start the quilting process, I need to write the name of each street onto the quilt.  

Then came the first section of highway, a little bit of a challenge but I am really happy with how it came together.  I can't wait to add little extras to the quilt when quilting like the recreation grounds, the fishing lake (blue area) and the white lines on the highway.  

The next section has the major portion of the river running through town in it so I spent a whole day gluing varying blues onto the river outline and sewing them down.  Oh how I hate using glue, I somehow manage to get it everywhere but where it needs to go !

The quilt, when complete, will measure over 2 metres long and over a metre wide.  Halfway through the project and it has been so much fun to do, quite addictive really  

Happy quilting !