My year in photos

Flowers from Andrew 2011

Pictures of me 2011

Andrew & me 2011

Charlie 2011

A Year of Craft in Photos

Mixed projects for 2011

Post Cards from Paris quilt 2011

Lachlan's quilt 2011

Roman Blinds for Andrew 2011

Sampler quilt 2011

A quilt for a special girl

This year I have been a kids hope mentor. With my little girl I decided to make a quilt with her. Every week we sat and hand stitched our blocks together and at the end of the year she had a special quilt that would be a reminder of out time together.

Pinning the top to the batting and backing.

The finished quilt

A very proud little girl

Mani's quilt

Mani's quilt

I was asked to sew a quilt for a girlfriend and decided to make it for her 50th birthday. Unfortunately I didn't get it finished for her birthday but I don't think she'll mind if it's a little bit (well a lot!) late.

This is only the second quilt that I have sewn on the machine. Machine sewing is definitely a lot faster than hand stitching! I've sewn the top using a quilt kit and have added extra fabric to make the border. I just have to put the quilt together and will machine quilt it using a shadow stitch around the blocks.

A wide border helps make the quilt  a bit bigger.

Charlie just had to try out the top of the quilt

Update on my 'Postcards from Paris' quilt

I have my Postcards from Paris quilt ready to be machine quilted in the new year. My family have given me some money towards finishing the quilt for Christmas which was lovely as the quilt will always be a reminder of Christmas gifts from my family.

Mary, a friend from my craft group has been using my pattern to make a quilt for herself. Mary has sewn her quilt using blanket stitch whereas I have used needle-turn appliqué. She has also used different fabrics and on some blocks added her own design.  It's amazing how different and yet similar the quilts look.

Mary's 'Postcards from Paris' quit

Mary's 'Postcards from Paris' quilt

I am looking forward to Mary sewing her blocks together and finishing her borders so that we can take our quilts to the quilter to have quilted.

Quilting my sampler quilt

I have put together my sampler quilt and am really pleased with how it looks. I've decided to try and quilt it on the machine - mostly shadow quilting around the blocks with some hand quilting around the teapot and Dresden plate.

My first attempt at machine quilting is going well. I have used basting glue but will also use quilting safety pins to help keep the pieces together.

In my last quilting class my teacher showed me how she lays her quilt over a trestle table and uses monster bulldog clips to hold the quilt in place while she pins the layers together. This method looks much easier than laying the quilt out on a large table. I have been using 3 dress making cutting board to make my table big enough to fit the quilt which worked well but leaves me very little space to walk around the room.

Another great tip for quilting was to use rubber dish washing gloves when your machine quilting. Simple but great as the material doesn't slip under your hands!

Charlie testing out the quilt

I'm hoping to get more machine quilting done this week and get the quilt finished. It would have been great to finish it before the new year but I'm not sure that's likely to happen.

sampler quilt top finished

Front of quilt - machine quilted

The back of the quilt - My first attempt at machine quilting 

Borders completed

I've now finished the borders on my Postcards from Paris quilt!!

It is ready to be quilted but this time I am breaking from tradition and am going to have it professionally quilted. I love hand quilting but with this quilt being over 80 inch square its far to big for me to manage.

Charlie giving the quilt his stamp of approval..

This is one of the biggest projects I've undertaken and I can't wait until it's finished!

I'm not sure how I will use the quilt yet but I'm thinking I will hang this quilt on the wall and use the Charm Tumbler quilt on my bed.

Andrew's jumper finsihed

I finished Andrews jumper three weeks ago and gave it to him on our six month anniversary.

It was great to see him try it on and best of all to see that it fitted him.  It's the first time I've knitter a shawl neck line and found it much easier than knitting a 'V' or 'round' neck where you have to pick up stitches.

proud in his new jumper... 

Exciting week - a little bit closer to finishing my Postcards from Paris Quilt

This week has been exciting as I'm a little bit closer to finishing my Postcards from Paris quilt.

I finished the checkerboard and borders on the centre medallion block and have now sewn all the blocks together!  Yesterday I cut out the final borders and am hoping to sew them onto the quilt today.

Butterflies

This week I made some more butterflies using a pattern called 'Blossom' by Melly & Me.  I've made these butterflies before but this time I decided to try and make them smaller so I reduced the pattern to 69% on my photocopier.  I was not sure how they would work out or how I would go making the antennas as last time they caused me no end of grief.

To my surprise they have turned out fantastic! I think they are better in the smaller size than the original size.

One of these is for my great niece Jessica and the other for my home help ladies granddaughter.

I now have orders to make them for people so it looks like I'll be getting to know the pattern very well.

'Blossom' butterflies

Sampler Quilt

I've now finished all the blocks of my sampler quilt - 9 in total.  The last two finished were Jacobs Ladder and a free block where we could choose what we wanted.

Block 8 - Jacobs Ladder 

This block can be hand-pieced or machine pieced. In the class everyone machine pieced their blocks but as I didn't take my sewing machine I hand pieced my block.

Block 8: Jacobs Ladder - hand pieced

 Block 9 - Block of your own choice

Block 9: Block of our own choice

For the block of my own choice I decided to applique a teapot and cup and saucer onto a plain white backing.

Sampler quilt laid out to check placement of blocks

In the next class we are cutting and sewing the sashings and hopefully finishing the top of the quilt ready for the batting and backing. I am planning to try my hand at quilting on my sewing machine using my walking foot.

Postcards from Paris quilt

I can't believe that I am up to putting the top of my Postcards from Paris quilt together.

Last week I completed the Centre Medallion and did the borders of the hat boxes and two of the other blocks. I still have the checker blocks of the centre medallion to sew before I can put all the blocks together. So far I have sewn the top and bottom row of blocks. Can't wait to finish the rest of it.

Centre medallion (needing an iron!)

roses with a floral top

Hat box 1

Hat box 2

flowers with lace

flowers with white & green borders



top & bottom row of quilt sewn together



Charlie thought it was time he tried out the quilt

The Roman Blinds are finished!

It was a pretty exciting last weekend when we hung the last three roman blinds. After the first two I'd learnt so many easier ways of sewing them that I am really happy with these ones.

Taking down the old curtain fittings

Nearly up - kitchen window



first of the small sun room blinds up

Sun room windows

A great view from the sun room window - amazing how much more light comes in without the old curtains

Happy with these roman blinds on the sun room windows

Butterflies & Bags

In between my other projects I've been busy making 'butterfly' blocks for a quilt and bags for children.

At church we recently heard of an lady come and talk about the Butterfly Children's Hospice that they had set up in China. One of the ladies at church decided that it would be lovely to make a big 'Butterfly' quilt for them to out on the wall so at Brink (my craft group) we are all making blocks for the quilts. I've made three so far and have one more to make.



September is also time for Christmas boxed to be filled for the Samaritan's Purse Australia. This year instead of filling boxes I've decided to make material bags, like a library bag, for the children so that they can have a bag to keep their presents and treasures in after the boxes break.  I've made 15 so far and have enough material to make another 20 or more.

bags for Samaritans Purse Christmas boxes



The loungeroom roman blind is finished!!

I can't believe that I have finished the biggest of the roman blinds for Andrew's house. It looks fairly good although I can see the slightly crooked stitching lines, little pins marks and of course all the creased from being folded up after a little delay with my hand and foot.

The blind measures 314cm wide and 133 cm long. I had to put five pulleys along the top for the cords and as you can't buy doweling that long I had to join pieces into the pockets.  

I am so pleased that the blind is fairly easy to put up and down. I was worried that the width would cause a problem but I guess with t only being 133cm long there is not to much curtain weight going through each pulley.

I have three more roman blinds to make. After this one they have been a breeze to sew. The blinds are all sewn and the pockets for the rods are ironed and ready to sew... my planned job for today.

  

this is the old yellow curtain that I'm replacing with the roman blind.





Starting the mammoth technical operation to get the blind up



..almost there





..being swallowed by the blind



It's finally up.. a little creased but hopefully they'll drop out



one very happy man