I don't have enough hobbies

I went for coffee with a friend and somehow managed to get myself enrolled at a crochet class.  I have no idea what I'm doing and I know I'm doing something wrong.  In addition, I'm finding it quite boring.  Shhh! Don't tell my friend!

I've been working on The Land Down Under quilt and that song is annoyingly stuck in my head!

Shapes are all traced and are ready for the fabric.

Fabric is cut out.

I've started the flying geese borders.  There are 96 geese!  Yikes!  And no, I have no idea why I'm sewing the borders before I've even started on the middle!

Will I get it finished in time??

Land down under

 I was very brave and put the camera quilt on the frame!  The automation I have can come with this wonderful program called GOLD.  One of the best things about GOLD is that you can tell the machine where to quilt so, for instance, if you have an appliqué shape you want to avoid you can tell the machine to sew around it.  GOLD is a wonderful tool.  But unfortunately I don't have it!!!  I have to start and stop the machine myself and for some reason every time I press stop the machine continues sewing for longer than I want and then finishes off by sewing a billion stitches in the one spot.  It's a nightmare but the look is what I want so I'll have to persevere.  This is going to take quite some time I think!

I started making another quilt!  We have a new great nephew, Noah, so I'm making this little Irish lad an Australian quilt! 

This is The Land Down Under quilt by the Red Boot Quilt Company

I already had some fat quarters left from the sheep baby quilt so I bought similar ones and the basics to make the animals.

I started tracing the shapes onto appliqué paper.  This pattern has 25 pages of instructions so quite a bit of tracing needs to be done.  Look how blunt my pencil is!

I've helped quite a few people with appliqué over the years and I always tell them to try to use the paper wisely but at the same time to make sure there's a clear gap between the shapes.  I don't follow my own advice!  I've crammed this sheet full of shapes!  More paper was the one thing I forgot to buy while I was at Spotlight buying fabrics.

I have a few blocks I can get started on before I need to rush off and steal Judy's appliqué paper buy more paper.  

Oh and guess when this quilt needs to be finished by!  May!  Yep, not the quickest design to make hey? Wish me luck!  Or as Judy said...I'm going to be very busy at retreat soon!

Boring

 Four posts in January and I've barely done a thing since.  I haven't touched my scrappy Irish Chain quilt except when I picked it up off the floor after it fell off my design wall!  I'm going to retreat soon so maybe I'll take it there.  It's either that or the greyhound cross stitch and as the one involves carting a table, chair and heavy machine and the other just a frame and a small bag I suspect I already know which one I'm going to be working on!  Yep, I'll definitely be working my way through that bottle of wine! Oh, I mean, I'll definitely be taking the cross stitch!

So, my sewing this month.  A button...  

A dog bed...

 

Big ugly stitches but it worked.

I woke up one morning to find my greyhound embroidery thread torn to pieces.  

And here is what I'm up to with the cross stitch.  I did a lot of the stitching recently whilst listening to a Jack Heath audio book.  It's about a consultant for the FBI whom is "paid" whenever he solves crime with a body...that he eats.  It is a strange yet humorous and compelling series!  I did a lot of sewing!

Squaring up nine patches

I decided to trim my Irish chain edges in the cream.  I couldn't bear to waste all that fabric but I do want to make the version where I trim in the colours so I'll keep that in mind for another project (one day!) and design it with little waste.

So, I've had to square up a lot of my nine patches but not all of them are big enough to trim.  Oops!  I think I'm going to have to invest in a better fabric cutting system now that my hands aren't coping as well with the cutting.  I haven't sewn many more of the blocks together but there's no rush ;-)

I have been cross stitching though!  This is page 1, 2 and 3 of the greyhound finished.  I celebrated finishing half the picture!  Then I looked at pages 4, 5 and 6 and there's a lot more crosses on those pages!  No!!!

But I'm plodding on...

Speaking of greyhounds, this little angel was 10 yesterday.  She wasn't always an angel mind you.

And she did get carried away with her birthday celebrations!

I've been sewing.  Hems!  Grrrrrrrrrr!

Decisions, decisions

The Irish Chain is coming along.  I chose the on point layout because I had the correct amount of blocks sewn already.

Now I have to decide where I want to trim my edges.  Into the cream edges?

Or half way through the colours?  I must admit I do like the look of this even thought there's more waste and I also put my (too light) lilacs along the outer edges so they'd be cut away saving me some unpicking and resewing.

Wonders will never cease to amaze me

Another post in January!  I am on a roll!  An Irish Chain roll!  I believe that I may have sewn quite a number of Irish Chain quilts over the years. In fact, I made a couple last year.  

Many years ago I bought this book while I was in the US.  I love this book.  I love lots of books actually but this must be my favourite.  In fact, when I was flicking through it to find the picture I was looking for I was drawn in and oohed and ahhed over all the quilts in it.  Again.

I particularly liked this Irish Chain quilt so when I needed a gift for my brother when he married I made my own blue and cream version using homespun fabric.  I started the quilt and then had to put it aside because I then made the bride's dress, 2 bridesmaid dresses, several vests, bow ties and cummerbunds for the wedding.  After this event my new sister in law was annoyed with me because she hadn't received a gift for the wedding.  These days my reaction to that would be vastly different but back then I was very much a people pleaser and I rushed to complete the quilt.  Do you think I could find it?!  After searching high and low I remembered that I'd stored it in a bin liner and therefore it must have been thrown out by mistake.  So I started again!

The quilt was beautiful.  I even hand quilted it!!  It wasn't quite so beautiful when I next saw it casually thrown and scrunched up on their bedroom floor. 

Ooh I went off on a tangent there!  Back to my latest Irish Chain quilt!  I finished sewing all my blocks and ended up with an extra and I couldn't work out why.  You'd think that by now I'd know how to make this pattern wouldn't you?

So I spread them out on my design wall and used up all my blocks.  But wait!  It's not square!  I have a preference for square quilts so what shall I do?  On closer inspection those very pale lilac squares have to come out too.  I guess I haven't finished all my blocks after all but it's certainly coming along.  I'll have to decide if I want my blocks on point too but all that thinking is for another day.

My greyhound cross stitch is coming along too.  Here it is with Minnie the greyhound.  She makes it quite difficult to sew!

And not to be outdone, here it is with Wellington the greyhound. 

Something was bugging me about this area.  I eventually found the mistake where I hadn't crossed my stitch.  I'd ask you to point it out but I'm too afraid you'd find quite a few of them so, in this case, ignorance is bliss.

Happy 2025!

I visited New Zealand recently and noticed that they commonly used feathers in their cushion pads.  I found this more comfortable for my back so I decided to buy feather pads and make new covers for them.  I went to my stash several times and nothing I had inspired me so I thought I'd go fabric shopping but when I looked I noticed that I could buy ready made covers for a fraction of the cost! 

I went to IKEA for the covers as I already had some rectangular shaped cushions I'd bought from there that needed new covers.  I found a nice selection for the square cushions but not a single cover for the rectangular pads.  And yet, they still sell that size.  Hmmm...  

So I bought some large square covers with the intention of making two covers out of them. Here is one of them all laid out and pinned ready for sewing.  I ended up with one with a zipper and the other side had to be sewn closed.

Ta da!  All sewn and looking very smart.

Minnie gives them the tick of approval!

Feather cushions are a nuisance!  But they're so comfy!

I've sewn a few more Irish Chain blocks too and I've booked my next retreat to Ballarat in March.  Are you excited Annie?!