i spy, with my little eye…

…a special gift for a special boy.

Sometimes, things happen that knock you sideways, and leave you breathless. A week before Christmas, I received such a message. I had to read it twice, and still, I struggled to make sense of a seemingly well little boy, one my children had played with not a week earlier, suddenly whisked away and ensconced in hospital. Then it sunk in, and the tears fell as I held my babies close. I wandered aimlessly through the house, full of urgent action, but feeling useless with nowhere to direct it. There was nothing to say, nothing to do, nothing that anyone could do to make this better. And so I decided to do the only thing I can. I decided to make something. I made up this little iSpy-style quilt one weekend while Mr Dove was at home on holidays. Nothing fancy, 4.5″ squares, white sashing, and a basic loop-the-loop all over quilting. But hopefully it will be a little piece of bright comfort in what is looking like a pretty long-term stay.

And this little finish is the first of 2013, which means it’s eligible for counting in:

Opening balance : +7
Out: 8 FQ in prints, maybe 3m for sashing/backing etc? Say 12FQ for the white, and maybe 2 for the binding
Current balance : -15FQ

That’s not a bad little negative balance there, really!

{linking up with the And Sew We Craft linky party for the first time in months, since, you know, I actually have something to share for the first time in months!}

Block of the Month. In theory.

It seemed like a good idea. Every month I’d get a pretty packet, and make up a block. How hard could it be to do one block in a month?

Yeah, famous last words. I now have 8 pretty packets sitting in my BOM drawer. At least, four of them, I have opened.

When I first signed up for the BOM, someone asked who was joining the Flickr group, and someone else (Becky, I think), asked what the point of a group of the same blocks would be. And I agreed. And then thought to myself, that I wanted my quilt to be a bit less formulaic, and a bit more me. The first block arrived, I looked at it, and I pondered. Should I reverse some colors? Or would that screw with the balance of the whole quilt. Block two arrived, and still no idea, and it was tucked away with block one. Then block three. I liked the block, but I most confess, as much as I love Vintage Modern as a whole, the large florals are my less favourite. And Block Three had a lot of those florals. And it was very red. I got to wondering, what would a small green flange around the middle look like?

And like that, I was set. A small addition, an embellishment to each block. Still the same blocks and same colors, just with a touch of “me” added. A couple of weeks after that, around the time block four arrived, I had an afternoon spare, so I pulled out the four packets, and cut all the pieces for all four blocks. And then put them back in the packet. I ended up taking them to camp, and got the first one finished there, and this last week, have managed another two.

Block One, at camp. Small green off-centre ruffle added to centre diamond.

Block Three, this week just gone. The one that started it all, with a 1/4″ flange around the centre.

Block Four, this past week also. I added corners to the centre block in Red Snickerdoodle, and at the last minute, also reversed the direction of the green flying geese so they were pointing in instead of out. And so glad I did. Love love love this block!

Three down, five to go. Block two will be next, as it’s cut out, and then we’ll see how the mojo goes. At least I know I’m not the only one behind on the blocks!

 

{flogging my blogging today over at With Some Grace for FYBF}

how many quilts can a quilter quilt, when the quilter needs to quilt?

It was one of those “oh drats” moments, really. A last minute invitation to afternoon tea saw me adding “make a mug rug” to my Friday to-do list, and somehow it was 2.15 before I reached that part of my list. With 45 minutes until I needed to leave, I grabbed some fabric and started cutting. 35 minutes later, I had a mug rug.

{please excuse the instagram photo, that’s how much of a rush I was in!}

I did simple echo quilting inside the pink pinwheels, and then FMQed feathers down each side panel, before machining down a fold over binding. Which, admittedly, had far more puckers in it than I would normally allow through, but I’m hoping my grandmother appreciated the thought more than the accuracy (or lack thereof).

Monday is poking me in the ribs, and pushing me onwards to get more done. The last full week of school sees a full diary and a long to-do list. Hopefully a night of relaxing and crafting tonight before the real storm of the second half of the week hits. The sooner these holidays come the better! Have a lovely Monday everyone.

not your average quilt block…

This quilt camp gifty was one of my hardest ones to decide on. Having been to Kayscha’s place back in August for the brilliant weekend that was Camp Kayscha, you would think that would make it easier, when in fact, I found it made it harder! Miss Kayscha has a very clear vision and sense of style, and knowing how beautiful her home is made deciding on a gifty quite daunting. I settled on something for her sewing room, maybe a mini canvas to pop in her little typesetters drawer… And so I let that sit and percolate for a week or two. I had a colour scheme in mind, but the actual execution eluded me. Then, pottering around one night, making other gifties and doing a spot of blog browsing, the design popped fully formed into my mind. An offset swoon block. With three swoon quilts under her belt, Swoon was the perfect fit. I chose a slightly larger canvas than I originally planned, and I “quickly” ruled up a scale copy of the block, before transferring it onto the red canvas with the aid of some carbon paper. The colours changed slightly as I went through, starting with the gold accents, then a coffee centre, a touch of white, and then I stood back and looked, and decided the charcoal I was planning on wouldn’t work where I had planned. I pulled out a couple more tubes, and slowly mixed up a close approximation to my memory of the duck egg blue the room that this canvas is intended for, will be painted in. But even as late as Thursday night, I was nervous about it, and had I had more time, I would likely have done a replacement gift. But that time wasn’t to eventuate, and so this was it, thankfully well received!

 

Today’s creativity has been limited ways to beat the heat. I’m glad we did our baking yesterday, it’s far to hot to even think about turning on an oven today. I’m using the same excuse to avoid the ironing (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it anyway!). With a sore throat niggling, I spent nap time on the lounge, under the fan, and with Pursuit of Happyness to keep me company, stitched away a lovely chunk of the afternoon. The weekend is threatening to be just as hot, so we are setting up the pool tomorrow, and I’m am planning on parking myself in it and not moving a great deal. Except for some craft, of course. I can always make allowances for craft time.

EQDQS2012 :: the reveal.

I have to say, this time, I’ve been quite impressed by Australia Post. I’ve been burnt BADLY by them in the past, but on Friday, I popped into my local, rural Northern NSW post office to entrust our national carrier of hard copy information with a little quilt that I’d been working on, and despite being told that even with express post, it wouldn’t get to it’s Victorian destination for three business days, today, ONE business day after sending it regular post, it has arrived safe and sound. IMPRESSED, MR POSTIE. VERY VERY IMPRESSED.

Anyway. The quilt. I was making for Anna, of TillyTom fame. A quick cruise of her Pinterest board confirmed my initial design hunch. Modern, minimal, lots of negative space, feature hand quilting. I also knew she is a bit of a chevron fan, and straight up, I hit on the idea of a wonky chevron, based around this book cover:

(inspiration via the lovely Red In Oz).

And I also knew pretty well straight away I wanted to do a raindrop quilting that I’d seen via Anna’s Pinterest, created by the talented Katie at Sew Katie Did.

Then it was just a matter of assembling a collection of fabrics and threads, printing foundations, and stealing five minutes where I could to get it done. Except I was almost finished the quilting when I realised I’d trimmed one piece of the foundationed chevrons too tight, and had an exposed edge. So some careful unpicking, replacing and a wee bit of handstitching, I was back on track. I then raced like mad to get the binding attached before I went on holidays, so I could take it with me and finish off – except I forgot my scissors to trim the excess batting/binding! But in the end, it got in the post, and only four days past posting date!

Honourable mention must also go to AJ for hosting this years swap! Hopefully AP will be as fast with my quilt, and I’ll have something pretty to show off soon!

(apologies for the bad photos – I finished literally five minutes before I had to race to the post office, and a yucky rainy day gave me limited options for styled shoots and nice light!)

(added over at Creatively Tuesday at The Rustic Pig)

tick tock

That is the sound of the clock ticking the moments away, as the dolls quilt swap deadline nears. I’m close, so very close, but at he same time, I’m thinking it will be a tight finish. But it’s worth it, and I am really chuffed with how it’s turning out, so I hope my swap partner likes it.

In other news. I need to buy more bobbins. {please tell me I’m not the only one who does this?}

And one bites the dust.

Well after yesterday’s post about my WIPs, I decided it was high time I finished something. This skirt has been sitting on my WIP rack just waiting for me to hem and add elastic. So while the children played happily after school, I pulled it out and pinned it up, then today’s nap time saw me have just enough time to finish it off and photograph while the girl slept and the little boy pottered nearby with his camera. It was inspired by a skirt of my daughter’s from tillytom, in my favourite fabric range of the moment, Vintage Modern by Bonnie & Camille.  I have had a mention or two of a tutorial for this easy summer skirt, is anyone interested if I put one together?

The skirt is a little large on my around the waist/hips, but it is intended for a friend who is a size larger than I, and so it should fit perfectly. And of course, it comes complete with the perfect amount of twirl.

Today has been a lovely mix of productive housework, playing and reading and singing with my babies, having sword fights, and sewing. Just the way we like it. The children are stirring and it’s time to take off the crafter hat and put on the mummy hat ready for afternoon shift, and hopefully some dolls quilt sewing tonight. Downhill run to the weekend is officially on. Thanks for playing nice, Wednesday.

whoops.

 

I know nothing about how this fabric got in my suitcase, I swear. I promised I would never ever ever break a craft ban. Nope, not me. Ok, so maybe I know a little bit about it. But in my defense, it’s for a dolls quilt swap, and I get a FREE QUILT out of it. So really it’s not breaking the ban, because I get something FREE!

 

I’m pushing it a bit, aren’t I? But aren’t they pretty? I hope my partner likes what I have in mind. I found these lovelies while on holiday last week, and they should work well with my chosen design. I’m hoping to get the foundations printed today and get cracking on it soon-ish. Today is also the post-holiday-washathon, so if I fail to post tomorrow, come hunting for me, I may be trapped under rioting washing piles. I have a little book waiting to be bound. New paint  supplies. Beads. Hats waiting to be finished and flash fiction prompts waiting to be written. I also have fresh biscuits, hot coffee and awesome friends. It’s just a normal Monday butt kicking kind of day around here.

 

dear jane.

Dear Jane,

I wonder sometimes how your quilt progress looked. Were you a methodical patchworker, doing a bit each night? Did you sew when a pile of scraps took your fancy? Did you stockpile fabric and scraps and wait for inspiration to strike, and do your blocks in groups?

It’s been almost six months since I picked up my blocks, it seems life and other projects have intervened. My blocks and fabric have been “stored” in my studio, tucked away and slipped from my mind. But there they are, just begging for my attention. So with spring comes motivation, and for now, at least, motivation in the form of quiet contemplative hand work.

In my flurry of organising, one small but critical space is yet to be decluttered. On the bookcase that anchors the heart of our home, lives a brown wicker basket. Originally holding a couple of hooks and some yarn, it seems to have becoming a holding pen for my now-overflowing yarn stash in it’s entirety. My next move is to clear it out, sending ugly unused yarn to the children’s craft box, sewing a roll to hold my needles and hooks, and maybe a cute fabric to replace the drab black lining. Then, the basket clear, and with it my headspace, slowly start packing it, not with every single ball of yarn I own, but with a mix of handwork projects. My ripple blanket. Some embroidery. A wee dragon almost finished. And a block or two towards the quilt.

KISS. Keep. It. Simple. Silly.

a bit.

Over on Facebook, the And Sew We Craft crew asked, what have we been crafting? I was kind of glum to admit, not much really. I’ve been away from home for two weekends in a row, so I’m madly playing catch up at home, which means less crafting, and thus blogging. But when I thought about it, it’s less of “not much really”, and more of “bits when I can”.

 

A bit of embroidery while watching tv:

 

or some crochet. I actually had to frog a couple of rows due to minor errors that probably could have been fixed, but it was only two rows.
I do LOVE how it looks with the green added in though!

 

And very high on my priority is getting 240 orange strips sewn together! Tonight’s project, I swear!

 

Some fabric delivered ready to make a skirt. A cake that was actually a bit of a flop. Crafting with the small people. Planning a mixed media challenge with Car. A wordsprint here and there to build on the L&P story. Big projects will come with time. For now, this season in my life means my crafting is “just a little bit”. But that little bit is enough. And enough is good enough.