Little Things are Happening

What little things well, baby sized little things. I have finished the first cot quilt using a bought panel featuring a frog, owl, little birds. I bought it before we knew that Miss Le Coiffure was having a girl, but it is the colors that she likes.

Miss Le Coiffure and I spent Monday cutting out nappies yes you sew nappies nowadays. So I have bought a very large cane basket to store our sewing til it is completed and Miss Le Coiffure can take them home.

What have I been doing

Well what have I been doing, after my parents when home then Miss Fish went into respite my time is my own till next Wednesday.

Oh Bliss !

So I have been nailing down some of my runners lol

Two of them I have been finished and yesterday I free motion quilted 2 others.

This is some of the quilting detail on the puppy runner.

The 2 other runners I used a piece of scrap damask that Mum gave me and created one with holly leaves and berries. Which really isn't relevant in Australia but we still use it as a symbol of Christmas.

The other one I have put on 2 have circle using fan shaped pieces. After it has been bound, todays job. I will make pleated fabric centre, it is a bit ahrd to explain, but when I have finished it, I will post a photo to show the detail

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The runner with the half circle flowers.

Runners, runners , runners everywhere

Now it not what you think there are no hairy white legs in shorts running about my house, but there are table runners.

A couple of weeks ago I went to my parents house and I wanted to go to a fabric shop that has cheap fabric, I was looking for specific colours for a quilt I had designed. My Mum said 'why don't we go through my fabric as I have too much", she didn't say this in my Dad's earshot !

So through her fabric we went, well Miss Fish thought it was heaven she came home with 2 large plastic bags groaning under the weight of all her new fabric. I also came home with a large amount. so much so that it is sitting in piles on the spare table in my sewing room ! lol

Some of the fabric that Mum gave me was half or not started at all Christmas projects, so I have been busy last week sewing them together to make some table runners. The runner top above started out as 4 squares of cute puppies dressed for Christmas, I have added to them and now finished a completed top.

This is one of the cute doggies.

Another idea I had was to sew a whole lot of 2 1/2" squares together then free motion applique some holly leave and berries on. Once I got all the squares together it was far to busy and bright for the applique, so I am only going to free motion quilt leaves and berries in a bright red cotton I bought recently.

Lots and lots of little squares.

Another find from Mum's was some fan shaped pieces that I have sewn together to create 2 halves of a flower, these are also in Christmas colors. Mum also gave me a piece of dark green damask, I am going to cut in half and applique the 2 flower half one the other half I am going to applique holly and berries.

This was going to be my enjoyment for today, but I have woken up with my back bent in pain, goodness only knows what I have done to it, some I am restricted to my chair, never mind I can cut out my holly and berry shapes.

This is the runner I made to cover the very ugly mantelpiece in our kitchen/dining area.

A Present for my Mum

Now this is a very belated Birthday present for my Mum, not that I forgot her birthday or anything, but unfortunately her birthday occurred just after our family tragedy, so it wasn't the time to celebrate.

Well we are off to Melbourne this weekend and things have settled some, so I thought it would be a good time to give her, her gift, even if it is a bit late ( her birthday was in June).

What it is is a small quilt that she can either hang on the wall or use as a table topper.

My Mum loves and collects different teapot sets, so I thought it would be nice to make it with different teapot designs. The fabric I used I made her a small wall hanging with, so I know she will like the colors.

These are a couple of the applique squares. I am off to make her a nice card, so I better be going now.

Easy Bean Salad and Another 2 Bite the dust

Not only have I managed to finish one quilt in the last month I have just finished the second one.

I am quite proud of my achievements as I have had some of these quilt tops sitting around for a while as I thought the process of preparing then quilting them to be quite daunting.

But as it turned out it wasn't that hard you just need time to prepare the quilt and make sure you don't spray your ironing starch about with gay abandon as Miss Fish found out last week when she went skidding across the kitchen tiles , and came crashing to the ground. I felt a bit guilty about that I must remember to put a towel under then ironing board first to catch the over spray.

So now just to sell them to fund more quilts.

Now to the bean salad this is what I served with my chicken dish for my Anniversary dinner. It is very simple and only takes about 5 minutes to make. I served it on some sliced baby cos lettuce leaves, the crunch of the leaves went well with the creaminess of the beans. You can use any canned beans you like, I choose a can of 4 bean mix.

Bean salad

1 x 380 - 400 can beans, drained and rinsed, 1/2 stick celery finely diced, 1/4 capsicum finely diced, 1 tbsp finely diced cucumber, 1 tbsps chopped fresh mint, champagne or white wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

In a small bowl mix together first 5 ingredients. Pour over just enough oil to make the beans glisten, approx 1 dessertspoon, season with salt and pepper. Add approx 2 tsps vinegar, stir then taste you want a slight tang but not a biting sharpness from the vinegar.

Well It's Finally Finished

Miss Fish the reluctant quilt holder she kept moving so I had to take several photos to get all the quilt in the photo.

After 4 days of intense free motion quilting it is finally finished. This is the first quilt that I have free motion appliqued and quilted.

After watching a DVD by Deborah Louie, several times I felt confident enough to give it a go and it is complete. Now to sell it so I can buy more batting to finish some of the other quilt tops.

This is a close up of a leaf free motion appliqued.

The flowers

The quilt is for sale on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220842646767&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:AU:1123#ht_500wt_1156

http://www.deborahlouie.com.au/

So So Sewing

Well there hasn't been much exciting cooking happening this week.

I have been trying to get some sewing done. I sew most of my quilts , table runners and small table cloths together by hand, then I quilt them on my new purpose built machine.

I soon discovered that trying to quilt a large bed quilt on a domestic sewing machine was a nightmare, so I made the decision to purchase a purpose built domestic sewing machine for quilting that has a large throat plate, which enables me to get a large amount of quilt between the foot and machine.

I bought a Brother QC 1000

Now I must finish and sell some quilts to help pay for the machine. I have several ready to quilt but the process of getting the 3 layers of the quilt together is quite daunting. So I decided this was the week that I was going to get at least one quilted.

So have I succeeded, no with interuptions from family members and getting the blessed washing done I am still trying to get the quilt together. Yesterday I ironed everything. So today is the day to put it all together.

So I must be off and get into it, if I stay on my laptop too long I will lose interest.

So until next time have a good weekend and forget about the boring chores do something enjoyable.

Knitting Madness

As Miss Le Coiffure isn't working at the moment,we are spending considerable time together. Which means many trips to the shops, one of which was Lincraft.

Now they were having a big sale on wool, so an hour later we walked out with 2 large bags of wool and many free patterns. Also some how I had volunteered to knit 2 shawls, one in a very soft wool, which I have half knitted.

The other one is done in a yarn called Mega, which is like a ribbon cross woven yarn, which is very slippy.

Now after 3 attempts to knit this shawl on very large needles, think fatter than your finger, I settled down to get the blessed thing knitted the other night. Two and half hours later, with my shoulder throbbing and my eyes stinging, I knitted the last row. Now all I had to do was cast off, then put on the fringe.

So I merrily casted off the stitches, when I only had about 20 to go I looked at the shawl and to my horror the centre of the shawl had unravelled ! How I will probably never know, in all the years of knitting I have never had that happen. I looked at in horror and disgust, then threw it to the ground :(

I was going to call Miss Le Coiffure, but a look at the clock told me at 11.05 pm it was a bit late to be ringing her.

So what have I done with the mess, I have tried to untangle it and roll it into a ball, but this hasn't turned it to a success either !

A search on the internet has provided me with a pattern that I can use this yarn with, and also another less slippy yarn to knit a shawl. This is what I am going to do. As for the tangled ball I will use it for the fringe.

Have you had any knitting disasters, that might be lurking in the back of your cupboard, or do they get binned straight away in disgust.

The Jewels of Decoration

What are the jewels of decoration, they are something that the eye travels to when you first walk into a room.

This could be a picture on a wall, a fancy lamp on the side table or an interesting cushion on your chair.

Now I have been crafting for as long as I can remember. My first set of knitting needles, were metal ones that my Pa shortened for me when I was about 5 or 6 years old.

At the moment I am trying to create enough handmade items to start a shop online, hence the stack of quilt tops waiting to be quilted. I am also enjoying the process of designing quilt tops with stitcheries in them.

One of the many things I am creating are cushions I have done crazy patchwork, knitted and beaded. Here is an example of the beaded cushion, here is a close up of the beading.

It is reversable, the back is a different material and I used matching ribbon as the fasteners.

So if I am not pottering in the kitchen I am sitting and hand stitching my quilt tops. Which I enjoy immensely.

Well I am off now to finish stitching the last panels of my new design, before I cut and sew it into a quilt top.

Do you remember when ...

Well one of my other strings to my bow is sewing/craft. This is one of the cushions I have made. I am trying to get all the cushions and quilts finished so I can sell them on the internet.

I have been sewing and into craft since I was about 7 or 8 years old. My Mum would rule the lines on the garment we where making and I would sew it.

Then I learnt to knit and crochet, as my Mum is a leftie, she bought me a book to teach me and she would oversee my knitting and crocheting. My Nana who knitted, crochered and sewed used to help me when I was little. My Pa actually took a pair of metal knitting needles and shortened them so that I had needles short enough to knit with when I was little.

Then along came the seventies, so it was macrame, we had many plants in pots hanging in macrame hangers. It is actually quite therapeutic once you have mastered the knots. I used to sit and watch a movie, while I was knotting away.

Then there was wool spinning . You spend days carding the wool, this is the process of dragging the wool through 2 metals brushes against each other to tease the fibres out so it can be spun into wool. Once spun it was onto knitting it into interesting items like scarves and jumpers. If you have ever spun wool you will know that after you have finished your foot still seems to bob up an down like it is working the pedal.

Then along came the eighties and patchwork. Well my Mum took this up and still to this day teaches a class of beginners how to patchwork. I must confess that I have 2 unfinished quilts from the late 80's early 90's. One is an applique quilt which only has to have the centre square finished, but as I am fussy about the stitching and I never quite like what I have done it is still sitting next to my chair waiting to be finished. The other one has 9 squares of crazy patchwork which are all completed, all I have to do is join them together with borders, back and quilt it.

Also during this time especially when my girls where little, there was doll making, teddies, small rabbits, and who can forget the tissue box covers using metres of synthetic lace. What about cover light shades, I made a few of those in my time, spending days with my fingers stuck together with craft glue.

I have tried to teach my eldest daughter La Coiffure (she is a hairdresser) she can crochet really well, but when it comes to sewing - we have had the sewing machine needle in the finger incident- a she literally gets into a tangle when trying to knit. As she is an excellent hairdresser, her talent with her fingers is being used there. Now Miss Fish if you want something cut from paper she is your girl, it took me 18 months to teach her to use scissors, and now 18 years later she is still cutting things out. Sometimes so quickly that I fear for her fingers. Over the years we have had the odd item of clothing snipped by mistake.

This cushion I have beaded some of the flowers and made the back different it is tied together with ribbon.

I wonder do you have any funny or interesting crafting memories while trying learn or even when you first started to cook ?