scrappy log cabin blocks came to a screaming halt!

The colour for this month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at SoScrappy blog was light neutrals.

I didn’t really want to make light neutral blocks. Just before going to sleep one night (why is it I get my best ideas then?) I realised I could combine my light neutral scraps with darker printed scraps that don’t fit into any particular colour group and make log cabin blocks.

But what would I use for the centre?

Suddenly I remembered the scraps of 2 1/2 inch squares made with red half HSTs that Kate sent me last year when she was de-stashing. Perfect!

I had 24 of these little squares left so my quilt would have to use a maximum of twenty four blocks. The ideal size for the quilts we give to the palliative care units of the local hospitals is 54” x 64”, but it’s not a problem if we go a little bit outside those dimensions (larger or smaller). I decided to make ten inch blocks making 40” x 50” with a seven inch wide border (or borders).  That would require 20 blocks, the other four would be put in a panel on the back (which seems to have become my signature way of getting extra width from the backing).

Being scraps, not every piece of my light neutral fabric was the same width, so I decided to go with whatever happened. After all, I could always add the extra width in the last round if need be.

What you see here are some of my blocks; I don’t think you need to see all twenty four!

And the “screaming halt” mentioned in the title of this post. After just two rounds (of four), I have run out of light neutral scraps (in fabrics that I haven’t already used) so I will have to wait until the group meets next Thursday to raid the store cupboard for more!

linking up with Rainbow Challenge 2012

finished a “flimsy”

linking up with Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday

 

The blocks/strings for this quilt were donated to our quilting group and I brought them home from the first meeting I attended, having been asked to “do something” with them.

They were all different sizes. Some were complete blocks, some were partial blocks and some were strings. The first thing I had to do was match the black fabric. You know, of course, that not all blacks are the same.

Last month I completed the blocks and squared them all to 5 3/4 inches. Deciding on the layout and sewing the blocks together was the easy part.

Then came the search for the perfect border fabric. At the group meeting two months ago I acquired a bag full of bright “children’s” fabric. The surfing fabric that forms the inner border was part of that acquisition.

When I sewed that border on, the whole quilt looked flat. I was tempted to rip the border off but I knew it would work if I could just find the right outer border. I brought these two fabrics home from the group’s store cupboard. In theory they should both work as they have many of the colours that are in the body of the quilt but – up close and personal with the quilt top – no way!

I thought yellow would do the trick so I scoured the cupboard, my stash and the local “Big Box Store” but bright yellow is either very popular or completely out of fashion – I couldn’t find any! On Tuesday this week, I bought this fabric in desperation.

It has white stars on it but from a distance it reads as yellow. My intention had been to put a thin border of the yellow around the surfing fabric then add one of the two blue fabrics shown above. Just as I was heading to the cutting counter, I spied this fabric and thought it might be useful.

I bought half a metre (20”).

On Wednesday DD and I auditioned the yellow fabric. To my surprise and horror, it didn’t work at all. Then, in desperation, I tried the black. You can see for yourself what a perfect match it was!

Back to the Big Box Store on Wednesday afternoon for another metre (40”). I attached the borders yesterday. I am yet to find the perfect backing fabric. I don’t have enough of the blues above, nor will the half metre of the black border work.

I want to get on to the quilting. It won’t be done on the quilting frame because DD and family are going away for three weeks and it takes two of us to work the frame properly. It will have to be done on my Janome machine with the walking foot as my FMQ is not good enough for a real quilt yet.

Any suggestions?

ANZAC Day -- lest we forget

On 25th April 1915, Australian and New Zealand troops were landed in the pre-dawn dark on the beach at Gallipoli in Turkey. In the following days and weeks, hundreds of men were killed and injured by the Turkish troops waiting on the cliffs above the beach.

In military terms, the campaign was a disaster but it was the first time that the newly-formed Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) fought a major battle in WWI.

Australians commemorate this anniversary as a day of national remembrance. It is a public holiday across our country. Dawn services and marches are held across the nation. We remember all those who have served in war, especially those who gave their lives, from WWI to the present day.

Lest we forget!

now you see it…

This partially completed quilt top was donated to our quilting group.It even contains a strip of millennium fabric (top right dark strip with reddish coloured text) which I've heard about but never seen in "real life".

Several members suggested this would be better as two separate quilts – one in the blues and yellows, one in the mixed prints. I’ve had the “flimsy” draped over a doorway for a few days and I think I agree. However, I thought I might make “the solids” more of a rainbow because I don’t have enough scraps to stick with only soft colours.

What do you think? Please leave a comment - this is a genuine request for advice!

Do you believe you can’t draw?

All my life I have had a fear of drawing. When I was about ten, I drew a picture of a horse. I knew it didn’t look right so I took it to my father for advice. “It’s out of proportion” he said…

… and that was it. I carefully rolled that picture, along with all my other drawings of that time, put a rubber band around them, and put them in the bottom of the sock drawer. When I was about thirteen or fourteen, the art teacher at school basically told me to “stick to maths” when I tried to make a (compulsory) poster for the upcoming school fete. My younger brother is one of those naturally talented people who draws beautifully and seemingly effortlessly, while I struggled. I watched him and convinced myself that “I couldn’t draw”.

In 1996, a friend convinced me to attend folk art painting classes with her. The classes were inexpensive and to stop her nagging, I decided to give it a go. I enjoyed it but it stirred up a longing in me to create something of my own. Folk art was just copying someone else’s creative work (as was knitting, crochet, embroidery and cross stitch for me at that time).

After a chat with Kym Hart (son of the late Pro Hart) while on a trip to Broken Hill, I enrolled in a landscape painting class in 1998. I nearly quit - the teacher knew nothing about working in acrylics; she was an oil painter and didn’t realise that one can’t mix a colour in acrylics in the height of summer then wait ten minutes for the teacher to return while the paint dries rock hard on the brush. But, unfortunately for her and fortunately for me, she became quite ill and we got a new teacher – one who not only knew his mediums but could teach and encourage.

I spent two years under his tutelage then, with his encouragement, applied to do a fine arts course at TAFE (I really only wanted to do painting but had to take the whole course not just the one subject). The entry requirements included a portfolio, an interview and a drawing test. I cried for the full hour it took me to make a poor copy of the still life in front of me but, somehow, the two teachers who interviewed me saw some potential and I was offered a place. Here was a God-given opportunity I could not pass up.

I attended TAFE for eighteen months until our financial situation pushed me back into the workforce. In those three semesters, I did three drawing classes (each three hours of agony long) and one print making class (which is heavily reliant on drawing). I struggled with each and every one of them – especially the life drawing and printmaking classes. Some days I had to force myself just to stay in the classroom and it was difficult for me to put a mark on the paper and keep breathing!

There have been some great drawing moments in my life. In 2006 I participated in this mural with a group of artists under the tutelage of Graham Cheney. It was drawn in graphite and charcoal on a white painted plaster-board wall. Some of my work includes the lettering and part of the building in the centre of the mural.

I have not really tried to draw since then. I still panic when I have to copy something. Older Grandson accepts my cartoonish drawings and can even recognise what I have drawn but I know my scribblings are far from “good”.

In March, DD and I attended the Craft Fair at Rosehill. A bubbly lady named Jane Davenport gave a demonstration on how to draw pretty faces. I watched that demonstration with great interest but only tried what I had learnt once.

Which brings me back to the distraction of the creative retreat at Gilburra mentioned in last Wednesday's post. One of the many creative activities on offer was “the paint shed”. I painted for the sheer pleasure of painting – at home, although I am retired, and have the materials, the easel and the room, I never give myself time to paint because there are more “useful” things to be done –- knitting and making quilts for charity for example. It was great fun to paint that weekend. But the thing that gave me the most joy was done using those big fat chalks used by children in a very limited colour range of pink, lemon, light blue, light green, light orange and light brown.

Look what I did (metre square – 40” x 40”)!


To all those who reinforced the lie, I have only one thing to say:

I can draw! So there!

today’s post brought to you by the colour pink

I’m a month behind with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at soscrappy. The colour for March was pink and the colour for April is light neutrals.

I spent all day Wednesday playing catch-up and this is what I achieved:
two four patch blocks

two string blocks

ten improv blocks

and one wonky window block

A total of fifteen pink blocks.

I have started an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my blocks – I have to make a lot more to have even a single (twin) bed quilt!

a tale of good intentions (part 2)

Well, as I said in yesterday’s post, the past two months have been full of good intentions.

I intended to deal with most, if not all, of my UFO's but I got distracted.

I intended to make a number of things for the Charity of the Month (NSW Women’s Refuges) for March. I finished a beanie started by DD and two slouch hats (both modifications of original patterns on Ravelry). They didn’t work as well as I had hoped so I knitted one. from. the. pattern.

Yes, you read that correctly, I followed a pattern. I should have finished the hat in two days but I was away on a creative retreat at the end of March and, you guessed it, I got distracted. More of that in a later post.

The hat was finished last night. There is a deadline looming and a promise is a promise. This model has never appeared on my blog before. She is twelve years old but looks much older but it is the hat you came to see, not her.
However, there have been other distractions from UFOs and charity knitting.

The biggest distraction through March was my research of my family history. One of my great-great-grandmothers married my great-great-grandfather before she was twenty-one. Five weeks before she gave birth to their only child, great-great-grandfather James died of pleuro-pneumonia. They had been married about fifteen months. Great-great-grandmother Emma remarried several years later. She and step-great-great-grandfather George had five children. It was the descendants from that line that I was researching and I found some previously unknown cousins, some of whom I have had contact with, which has been very exciting. But I have gone as far as I can with that family line for now so I have dropped the research for a while.

Back on the crafting front (here comes the quilting, Cindy):

Last weekend, Caring Hearts Community Quilt Group, of which I am a member, held their annual Airing of the Quilts. DD and I worked at the show as volunteers on Sunday. Apparently it had been much busier on Saturday but we had a steady flow of visitors for much of the time. I worked on our fabric sale stand and had to work hard with my maths. It’s amazing how fast we lose our skills when we don’t use them all the time! Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera so have no photos of the day.

But the busy time was the lead up to “the Airing”. I had to baste, quilt (in the ditch around both sides of the turquoise sashing and about every four inches between the strips), sew in all the ends and learn how to do a binding with mitred corners; then there was ten hours of hand sewing the binding down. Now that I have learnt to do needle-turn appliqué, my hand stitching has become even finer and I found myself sewing the binding every eighth of an inch (or less)! Because I didn't take my camera, I have no photos of the finished quilt but you may remember the finished top (48” x 64”):


DD and I also finished the quilt we had on the quilting frame but, once again, I forgot to take photos and we no longer have the quilt. It turned out very well considering the troubles we had.

We also made eight wheat bags with calico (muslin) inner bags and removable cotton covers.

The other very pleasurable distraction has been my renewed interest in embroidery. I started monthly embroidery classes with my current sewing teacher on 14th March. My second class was last Wednesday (11th April). I have been enjoying it so much that I took it to “Sit and Sew” class on Monday this week instead of the project I should have been doing.

Here is my progress so far:

Stitches used: stem stitch, whipped stem stitch, back stitch, whipped back stitch, fly stitch, buttonhole stitch, lazy daisy stitch and coral stitch. Only the last was new to me, I just needed to be reminded of the others. There has been some deviation from the teacher’s pattern – I just can’t help myself! The choice of colours are my own.

My teacher is off on a tour to Canada and America next week, including a trip to Paducah, so there will be no embroidery class next month. I hope to have this project finished and sewed into a cover for either my fan heater or my cutting mat before Kerry returns.  I’ll try to remember to bring you progress reports as I continue to enjoy the process.

Now, I'm off to make some pink scrappy blocks; care to join me?

a story of good intentions (part 1)

Hello! It’s been way too long. When I don’t write on my blog, it’s very easy to form a habit of not writing on my blog! Many times I have had a great idea for a blog post but somehow, I just didn’t get to it.

I was going to write on the first day of March about how February had been my month for getting projects finished. I had written earlier in February about my “feeling flat” and that my solution to this issue was to finish some UFOs. It occurred to me that there were just to many UFOs around, and that if something were to happen to me, DD would be stuck with the task of deciding whether to finish them or throw them out. Since she can’t bear waste, she would feel obliged to finish them. We don’t knit to the same gauge so finishing my knitting projects would be a challenge, which would be made even harder by the fact that I rarely use patterns either!

So, in February I got stuck into some of my UFOs and even managed to finish a couple. The quilt and the blanket I have already shown in a previous post. These socks were started on 11th January so they could only be described as UFOs because I got second sock syndrome and cast them aside for something new!
This shawl was a WIP rather than a UFO since Ravelry shows me that I only started it on 16th February!

I am easily distracted. We had a crochet workshop at the Knitters’ Guild in mid-February and I caught the bug again. I made a small baby rug from 200g of 8ply (DK) acrylic yarn in girlie colours. I thought it was too small to be useful and too heavy for a baby (I had forgotten that crochet consumes yarn much more voraciously than knitting!). But my worst crochet nightmare came back to haunt me – it would not lie flat. I talked to the tutor of the crochet workshop. I emailed a blog-friend who crochets (Hi, Maria). I took my completed work to the LYS and asked for help. I was encouraged to block it and try my next project with less chains in the corners.

And so, of course, I began another crochet project while WM and were away in mid-March visiting Taronga Western Plains Zoo (hopefully, I’ll write a post about that later). No matter what I did, the curling continued. The acrylic yarn felt stiff and hard and, ultimately, I decided to rip out both projects. Well, actually, DD ripped out the first one for me while I fixed a problem with her knitting, and the second one sits forlornly in the frogpond! Of course, no photos were taken before ripping the first one but here are two photos of the second attempt. The second photo shows the curling problem.

 

Then, I suddenly realised that the Charity of the Month (CotM) over at Knit4Charities was for NSW Women’s Refuges. My good intentions to finish my UFOs were waylaid by my good intentions to knit a few things for this charity. While watching Castle one evening, I became aware that slouch hats were in fashion with younger women and so I looked on Ravelry for some patterns. Here is 2yo Older Grandson modelling my first attempt on varying someone’s perfectly good pattern to suit myself!
You can read my comments about my attempt on my Ravelry projects page. I haven’t taken photos of my other hats and I need to get them in the post so I doubt you’ll see any more of them.

I plan to write the second half of this post soon, but you have already seen where my good intentions lead!