Retreat...in my living room!

My family has gone to the UK and I'm at home enjoying the peace and quiet dogsitting.  My one and only goal during this time was to sort out my sewing studio.  It's a terrible mess and I'd even purchased some extra boxes to make my life easier.  

Then this happened.

Wellington managed to tear a big hole in his shoulder whilst out in the garden so now he has to be kept quiet and calm.  Easy to do with three dogs in the house right?  Ha ha!  I'm currently letting them out in the garden one at a time so I've mostly been playing doorman so far.  The $1,000 stitches come out in 12 days.  It's going to be a loooong 12 days!

Anyway, the studio sorting is out of the question so instead I brought my retreat sewing gear into the living room and I've been sewing!

I've positioned myself right in front of the television!

This is one of Debbie's quilts I'm finishing off to give back to her family or to donate to charity.  This is how much I did the first day. My design floor is very handy.

The next day I was determined to finish the quilt so I sewed it together and I actually liked it as it was but before I started I had this idea of putting on a border...white, then more colourful patches then white.

I did the first white border. Then it seemed to take all day to trim the squares to make the second border but I got it done.

I decided against the last white border.  The quilt is big enough to be useful either as a lap quilt or as a child's quilt and if it's going to be donated this is probably what it would be used for.

I tried to take a picture.  Meet Midas!

       

Here is the quilt top all finished with binding.  I don't know when I'll get around to quilting it.

Today's plan is to work on these blocks which are also Debbie's.  I haven't had a chance to play with them yet but I think I can just add sashing to the blocks and it'll be good.

What curtains?

My bathroom is finished!  I wanted a new vanity but the one I liked was over two thousand dollars so I stuck with the old one!  I can buy nice new towels now ha ha!

I went to an open house recently and the beds were beautifully styled.  What I noticed was that they'd used European pillows on the bed so I thought I'd use the leftover curtain top fabric to make the covers.  Originally, the curtains were for my living room and the leftover fabric was going to cover a pair of ottomans.  I was glad to use up the fabric on the European pillows.

I told myself to take my time and not rush making the covers but my brain told me it's just two squares and a zipper so how difficult can it be?  So I rushed ahead and got into a bit of a pickle. It was the zippers that threw me because I haven't sewn zippers for several years.  Anyway, I made one and it was ok so I finished the second.

Then I had to make my bed to see if it looked ok.  It's not quite as stylish as the bedrooms I saw at the open house but some people have the knack and clearly I was hiding when they handed that skill out.  Anyway, my bedroom looks lovely and it just needs some pictures or something and eventually new carpet.

And curtains.  Those dratted curtains!!  I do have to confess that I have ummed and ahhed about putting the curtains back up because the view outside is so lovely I don't want to cover it.  But I can't have a bedroom with no curtains!!

And those European pillows?  Well take a good look at them because from tonight onwards they'll probably live on my bedroom floor!

I still plan on making some quilts for this room although these two on the bed will do nicely for now.

I quilted a small table topper for Anna.

Anna wanted the same quilting design I'd used on her quilt recently so I scaled it down.  Because it was so small it took forever to sew!  Ah well, it does look lovely.

 I'm not sure what I'll do next.  I have enough projects started I could crack on with!

A quilting spree!

I had a couple of quilts to quilt so I had to decide which to do first.  I'll be seeing Anna on Tuesday so I thought I'd start with her quilt.  When I was half way through Anna's quilt I remembered that Gail said she'd try to pop in to the sewing group on Tuesday so I knew I had to do her quilt once Anna's was finished.  I managed to finish both of them and then I saw another of Debbie's quilts sitting there waiting to be quilted and as I need to do some sewing on Tuesday I thought I'd quilt the quilt, get the binding on and do boring binding at sewing on Tuesday!  Phew!  Busy! Busy!

Anna's quilt is a large patchwork squares quilt with lots of flowery fabrics so I chose a flower quilting pattern for this one.  All of those lovely squares helped me keep the quilt square on the frame and although it took me a while it went well.

Gabriella quilt panto.

While it was quilting I cut out all my fabrics for my new bedroom quilt.  No, the bedroom is not finished!

I wanted something quick and easy so I decided to try drafting a large star.  I drew guide lines first.

Then filled them in and coloured them.  Yes, I was procrastinating but shh don't tell anyone!  Later, I found a design I liked online but I couldn't justify paying for a pattern when it was so similar to mine.  Hopefully, I'll like mine if it ever gets finished once it's finished.

Anna's quilt is done.  I have threads to bury then I'll trim the quilt ready for binding which, thankfully, I won't be doing!

Gail's quilt is this lovely Harry Potter quilt for a grandchild.  I have to be honest, these are my least favourite quilts to quilt!  The backing is pieced and that makes it trickier to use, the panel has no nice easy lines to follow to keep straight and square and I never know what colour thread to use!  I went with a mid grey in the end so that Harry's face wouldn't look like someone had whipped him.

I didn't have threads to bury on this one but I do need to trim it.

I've just finished Debbie's quilting on her bookcase quilt.  My quilting system wasn't cooperating and I couldn't find the design I wanted on my USB so I tried a straight line designs that looks a bit like bricks and it came out nicer than expected.  Truthfully, this quilt needed custom quilting with something fancy on the books and around the vase and cat but I can't do that so an all over design it was.

This needs binding.  And I'll be the one doing it.  Waah!

Retreat is the best place for binding!

Six of us went to retreat in Gisborne last weekend and I took two quilts to bind.  There is so much going on at retreat that, although the quilts appear to be twenty miles square while you're hand sewing the bindings, they aren't boring to do.  Here I am in my pyjamas sewing the binding onto Debbie's quilt.

Here's her finished quilt.

The back turned out okay too.  I think it's the photo that makes those lines look wonky!

I also finished binding my Sunflower Farm quilt and I added the label.  It's amazing what holding up quilts in photos can do to disguise a double chin and wobbly belly!  So, that quilt will be flying off to the UK next month.  Yeah!

Here's the quilt you got a sneak peak of in the last photo.  Judy made this one.  She just has a few small strips to go on those gaps along the edges.  Knowing Judy, it's already done, quilted and bound by now!

Barb was sat next to me while I did all that binding and she started working on this English paper pieced quilt.

I helped Rosie add borders to this quilt.  There were six of them so 24 strips to sew!  The borders didn't end up particularly flat so Rosie and I must have made mistakes along the way but I won't be quilting it.  Sorry future quilter!  Rosie has some more detail to sew in the borders.  We tried to persuade her that the quilt was great without them but Rosie has already sewn them together and doesn't want to waste all that work!

We went to quite a few shops and I bought lots with my birthday gift money. I also bought two more fabrics but they were in the washing machine when I took this picture.  They're going to be turned into a circular quilt topper for my lazy Susan and match the Easter fabrics I previously made table linen with.  The charm pack will also go well with those fabrics but I have no plans for it yet.  The Tilda fat quarters were a bargain that I couldn't resist and the pink and white fabric is for my new bedroom quilts which I haven't started even thinking about.  The yarn jumped into my basket while I was buying milk.  Ahem.

Retreat was great AND I booked the next Ballarat one while I was there so that's something to look forward to!

More of nothing

But I finished quilting two quilts so my crystal ball tells me I have a lot of binding to do at retreat!  I wonder if I can palm one of the quilt binding off on to some other unsuspecting soul while I'm there? Ha ha!

This quilt was another made by Debbie.  It's a Leesa Chandler design that's brilliant for showcasing fabrics.  The quilt came to me sandwiched but not quilted.  Debbie used to quilt using her domestic machine and the quilt top and wadding fit perfectly fine on this wonky pieced backing but it wouldn't work on my quilting frame so I had to fix it.

I needed to make it a bit bigger and I found some of the green in my stash so I just added a four inch strip of that inside the chunk of cream.  I only had to unpick one of the lengths of fabric so it wasn't too bad and then the rest was sewing and straightening up.

Because I needed the backing to be much larger than the quilt top I added borders of scraps of blue fabric around the backing.  You can see in this picture that the clamps holding the sides go onto the blue borders leaving the green free for quilting.  With all of those seams I was expecting to have trouble putting the backing onto the frame but it went on fairly smoothly.  I was reminded, however, of the reason why I like to use sheets as my backings!

I was on a roll so I loaded the quilt top...and started quilting!  It didn't exactly go as quickly as that and I did have to have stern words with my laptop that was misbehaving.

I chose to do this simple leaf design. 

It was very difficult keeping this quilt square but I was fairly happy with the (wonky) bottom edge when I got to that part.  

Ta da!  All quilted and ready for binding.  I had some of the purple fabric in my stash but it was handkerchief sized so that was no good.  I asked Barb if she had some and she did...a few small scraps of it but she did have a slightly darker purple so I'm going to use that if there's enough.  That purple must have been a popular colour ten years ago!

I blanket stitched around some more circles.

Embroidered a label for the baby quilt.

Cute hey?

Stitches some more squares.

And celebrated Mother's Day with breakfast.  My Easter tableware came in handy!

Two sleeps until retreat!  Woo!!

Busy finishing nothing

My friend, Debbie, passed away recently and I have several of her projects to finish.  They'll probably be charity quilts because Debbie loved donating her work and I think her family will want to honour her by doing the same.  This is one of her projects.  It's a lot of squares sewn into pairs and there is one, I'm guessing, finished block.

I just wanted to do some mindless chain piecing so I grabbed this project and started sewing the paired squares together.  Unfortunately, the squares aren't square so I soon ran into some trouble!  I decided to trim the squares so they were better and instead of unpicking all the work Debbie has already done I folded the paired squares in half so they became one square and trimmed them both together.  It's not ideal because Debbie and I have different seam allowances but it's a lot better than it was.  

I put masking tape on the measurement I wanted so that it was easier to see.

Because of all the trimming I didn't get to do much of the mindless chain sewing I'd been planning but I made two blocks and at some point I'm going to have to decide what to do with them.

Will I sew them all together?

Or add sashing?

I didn't do much because I wasn't in the mood for trimming so I started blanket stitching around the circle appliqués for the foster girl's cushion.

I got distracted looking for lilac thread so went back to the house where I did some crochet.  This will be a serviceable poncho.  It probably won't look great but it should be warm!

I think I did two rows and then I was back in the studio sewing binding onto my baby quilt.  I sewed half of it and gave up.  It really was one of those days!!

Another year older

There wasn't much to celebrate but there was wine!  And a delicious Italian dinner.

Back to the Sunflower Farm quilt!  I did rather messy knots for the eyes and whatever those things are called on top of those stick things.

Bzzzz...

I finished all the appliqué and checked it at least seven times.  If I find anything I didn't blanket stitch after I've quilted it I am going to scream!

I decided not to do the border suggested by the designer even though it is pretty.  I just wanted something simple.  I decided to sew it all on in rows rather than the traditional way of sewing borders.

Almost done...

Ta da!

Quilting next.  I couldn't work out which thread to use.  It's difficult when you have so many colours in a quilt but the beige one stood out the least so I went for that.

It didn't take me long to attach it to the frame.  

I chose a simple wavy line.

This is what it was supposed to look like but I had giant gaps in the quilting and I thought I'd messed up by making my pattern too large. But it turned out to be a fault of the computerised system and once I'd finished quilting the whole top with the missing lines I rolled the quilt back up and quilted it again.  It was a quick design and it hardly used any thread.  I think the prep needed for each row took more time than the actual quilting on this quilt.

I finished it!  Yeah!

I managed to sew through my laser light cord.  Very annoying but it made a pleasant change from sewing my finger! 

I've cut my binding and attaching that will be a job for another day.  It'll be good to do the hand sewing part at retreat in just over a week's time.  I had been considering taking the blocks to finish off the appliqué at retreat so I'm very happy that I'm much closer to the finish than that!