Off to a Flying Start

After I added my post here yesterday, it was time to make those Rainbow Scrap Challenge Blocks.  

Ta da!  Nice and simple.  Pop over to So Scrappy to see what else has been achieved.

Then, it was time to start making a beautiful mess.  I’m having a lovely time playing with these scraps.

When the weather cooled down in the evening we ventured into the garden.

It was time to dig the potatoes we planted in the tyres back in September.  This was the first time we have grown potatoes, although my Dad always grew them, so I had been involved as a kid.

We filled a bucket with 6.5kgs of potatoes from five seed potatoes.  A lot of them are quite small.  Was it an economical project?  We probably broke even.  I think I paid about $7 for the seed potatoes.  However, we didn’t plant them all and gave some to out neighbour.  It would have been profitable if we had planted them all.  Will we do it again?  Yes, probably, as they are easy to grow and fairly maintenance free.  And of course, it is always nice to have home grown anything.  Now to enjoy eating them.

OK, back to the sewing room to play.

Well, That Wasn’t Expected

This morning, at breakfast I was reading the comments on my blog post about my hexy quilt.  

One comment suggested that I could make a design wall using flannelette on a rod, suspended over a door using hooks.  Well, my first reaction was, I wish, but I haven’t got a flat surface suitable.  It’s not as though I haven’t thought of every possibility already.

A design wall is something I’ve coveted for some time, but there is no flat surface in my sewing room and all our wardrobes have sliding doors. It is just something that is not possible.

Well, while sitting at the breakfast table, my eyes fell on our large glass display cabinet in the sitting room, just beside my sewing room and the cogs started ticking over.  It wasn’t long and Mick and I had the tape measure out and decided that it could possibly work.  

A trip was then made to Spotlight. We bought a lightweight curtain rod, some flannelette and some plastic over door hooks.

The start.

The curtain rod was 2 metres long, so two widths of fabric would be perfect, with just a seam up the middle and no need for side hems………..except, when I got it home I discovered the fabric was 60 inches wide, not 42.  Blast!  Now there were side hems to sew, as I still wanted a centre seam for lining things up.

After a bit of work it was ready to hang.  

Ta da!  One design curtain.  It only seemed fitting that the last hexy flower that I appliquéd should be the first placed on it.

Then it was time to play.

All done.

This quilt is a biggie, so one row still ended up on the floor.  I love it.

I don’t think I will have a chance to start sewing the blocks together tomorrow, but now that they aren’t on the floor, I doesn’t matter if they stay there for a couple of days.  The best thing is that my sewing room is right next door to this cabinet.

Once the blocks are all together, I can pack everything up.  There is the minor matter that we can’t open the cabinet doors while curtain rod is hanging there.  Mick joked that he can bring a motorcycle into the sitting room and put it on the coffee table to work on, now that I have encroached on the space.  I know that is the last thing he would want to do.  Also, despite what I said in my last post, he would not mind me having the blocks on the floor, as long as he could get around them.

I’m so grateful for the comment that had me thinking again, as now I have a really useful addition to my toolbox.

My Plans for January

As mentioned in my last post, I intend to wind back my goals this year, but still hope to achieve quite a bit.

Deana has announce the Chookshed Challenge number for January.

But first, I’ve been having a little play.  I now have ten little tubs with their numbered project, ready to pick up and go.  Aren’t I organised!!!

I even pulled out my baggies of blue and green crumbs in readiness for the Sea Glass Mini Quilt.

OK, well one isn’t exactly ready to go.  Hopefully, it will turn up before its number is picked. 

Also, I'm definitely not organised.  As usual, my sewing room is out of control. It doesn’t really look that bad in the photos, but believe me, I can’t find anything, there is no room to put some of those things and I find it somewhat paralysing.  

Back to the challenge.......

The number selected is NUMBER 6.

For me, this is to make some crumb blocks. “No goal as to how many to make.  Just have fun.”  That is perfect for this month, as I have to get a wriggle on with some planning for the church Bicentennial.

This is how many I have already made last year.  Just as well I’m not joining in with Rainbow Scrap Challenge, as the colour is pink and I have sufficient of those for now.

Let’s see if I can fill my pretty little tin.  It’s a good thing I added all those extra scraps to their tubs recently.

I do have one other little project to complete very soon.  Our patchwork group is making a raffle quilt and I need to make one more square.  It will be a two inch hexy flower, similar to what I have been making for my quilt.  These are the colours I will use.  There will be a cream low volume background and the quilt sashing are going to be navy. 

My hand stitching for the month will be continuing with appliquéing my hexies.  All the two inch ones are now completed.  

That was done while I was on Zoom with the girls on New Years Eve.

I have 40 one inch hexies to appliqué.  I am setting myself the goal to have them all done by the end of the month.  That should be doable, as I can get quite a few stitched at my patchwork days.

And here is my way to light for photos, as the ceiling lights create a huge shadow. A bit how’s your uncle, but it works.

Of course, there are other things that I wish to happen, but they will be bonuses.

While I was getting out my hexy papers for the block I need to make I noticed my full cotton reel jar.  I have two of these lolly jars and always add my empty reels.  I’ve no idea why, I just do.

Well, on the spur of the moment I decided that I will see how many reels I can empty this year.  The empty jar is now in position, ready to go.  I’ll try to check in every now and then.  Do you like my cute little silver fish eaten picture?  This was a craft project we made at school when I was in 4th class.  The picture was the cover of a writing pad.  I found it when Mum moved out of her house and couldn’t throw it away.  It suits my sewing room so well, despite showing its age.

Anyway, enough waffle, time to get stitching.

Stitching in December

I just had a look at my goals for this month and think I did rather well.

I’ve already posted about the Three Yard Dog quilt that was my goal for the Chookshed Stitchers and One Monthly Goal, and the Christmas decorations.  

In addition, I completed a long term UFO, being a little quilt to donate to the neo natal unit at the hospital.  I made its matching one a couple of years ago.  Can you spot the boo boo?  I couldn’t until I was in the process of quilting the cross hatch.  I had cut the second row from the right half an inch too wide.  Oh well, it will stay as it is.

I also added the final two borders to the Dr Seuss Quilt.  It is now waiting in the wings to be quilted.

Remember how I sorted out my sewing threads.

Well, at the same time I actually got my overflowing little scrap tub that lives on my cutting table and took it out into the kitchen and sorted the scraps by colour.

The scraps were then put in their designated coloured box.  That looks better.

While on a roll, I went through Mum’s embroidery threads that now live here and pulled out all her DMC threads.  Any that were on cards are now in the containers with mine and any duplicate skeins are put aside, so that, like my sewing threads, when I run out of a colour I can shop the duplicates first.  Add to this, all the odds and sods that Mum has and I think I have a lifetime’s supply.

My final project start for the year is a kit that I purchased at Baradine at Spring in the Scrub.  I made a promise to myself that I would make it between Christmas and New Year.  I’m pleased to report that I succeeded.

My one comment on this make is “What a Cow”.

I had my first go a spray basting.  It went well, but made the machine needle sticky, so had to keep wiping it down.

The bag stiffening is really stiff, like a hard felt.  It was incredibly difficult to manoeuvre under my machine.   Even to quilt it was rather difficult. Maybe, foam such as Soft and Stable would be easier.

Also, when stitching the sides to the base, there were three layers of batting and eight layers of fabric.  My machine really struggled with it.  However, we got there in the end.  It is definitely not my finest work, but finished is better than perfect.  

After all the trials and tribulations of this project, I like it very much.  It is really pretty and will be good for taking my projects to my stitching days.

Lastly, my hexies.  Yes, I did manage to get all the remaining hexy flowers stitched.  A long session on Zoom one day certainly helped.  I then proceeded to get them all glue basted and have already appliquéd lots of the one inch hexies onto their background.  Tomorrow will be a Zoom day for the Chookshed Stitchers, and I plan to have a very long sewing session, so should get quite a few more done.  Getting the quilt top made before Scrub Stitchin’ is looking very promising.

Rearranging the Deck Chairs

So, it is less than a week until Christmas.  I should be organising things for the big day, or I should be doing some housework, or I should be tidying my sewing room, or doing some sewing.  But I’m not. 

I seem to be in a bit of a slump.  This is mainly due the fact that Monique is still not playing nicely, despite her visit to the spa.  I want to finish quilting the Three Yard Dog quilt, but it keeps getting put back.

What is a girl to do?  My equivalent of rearranging the sock drawer.  I’ve been organising my sewing threads.  Such a high priority….not.

This is my little set of drawers that sits beside my sewing table.  We bought them at an auction years ago.  They were originally lever arch files.  My Dad enjoyed making little timber boxes, so for one birthday I requested he convert them to drawers.  He did a lovely job of them and even made little divider boxes for a couple of them.

The top drawer houses my cotton threads and the second drawer houses the polyester ones.  Yes, I have way too many threads.  In addition to mine, both my Mum’s, Mick’s Mum’s and ones that have accumulated from various other sources are all crammed in.

Oh, what a mess.  Every now and then I tidy it, but it doesn’t take long to get out of control.  I knew there were duplicates of some colours, so my main aim was to get those duplicates removed and stored separately, so that I would shop for them before actually going shopping.

This is the great setup that Dad made.

Now, doesn’t that look better. I do use lots of colours when I do my machine appliqué, so can justify such a variety of colours.

These were all duplicates.  I didn’t realise the problem was quite that bad.  Removing them has created a bit of space.

These older threads are still fine, and are now kept separately, but in the same drawer.  My aim will be to use them first, where possible.

I seem to have a collection of hand quilting threads, that I didn’t buy.  The other tiny bits left on spools are now sitting beside my machine to get used up in piecing wherever possible.  I have two reels of monofilament, which I have never used.

Now onto the drawer of poly threads.  I forgot to take a before photo, but you can picture it.  It may have even been more out of control than the cotton drawer.  For the record, I very rarely use or buy poly threads.  I occasionally buy one if there is a colour I want for appliqué that isn’t in the cotton range.  Mum did buy me a box of a large collection of Gutermann threads for Christmas one year, so that is where a lot came from.

This is how I ended up.

If I want to use a poly thread I generally just look for a reel in the appropriate colour with no rhyme or reason.  I figured, if I sort them into reel and brand styles, I could try to actually use one sort up first and eventually empty some reels, rather than using a bit off lots of reels of the same or similar colour.  That’s the theory anyway. Also, the little bag at the front of the drawer holds duplicates of poly threads as well.  They will be put aside.

My other plan is to actually use some poly threads for piecing quilts.  I know a lot say you should always use cotton, which I have in the past, as the hot iron can cause the stitches to come apart.  Well, I figure that my clothes are sewn with poly thread and they don’t fall apart when I iron them and I don’t use the hottest setting on my iron.  It just makes sense to get some of these threads used up.

That looks so much better.  Wish me luck in keeping it tidy.

Now to put those duplicates somewhere that I will remember…….

EDIT: For when I can’t remember, the duplicates are in the top of my cream chest of drawers.