Torpid Tuesday

Uck. It's one of those nothing days. I finally decided to stipple the white borders of Sweetie Pie and sat down to do it, but after 16 borders decided that. it's. just. too. boring. 40 to go. Dire.

In order to feel like I'd accomplished something I dragged myself downstairs to the real computer so that I could prettify the blog with all the little things I have been thinking about. As I am strictly a mobile blogger, this required actual computer time. I changed the heading about three times until I got bored with that too, so we're all stuck with it as is. I hope you like lots of white!

I then dragged the wee man out to get some black and white fabric for the border of Sweetie Pie. Despite buying MASSES of fabric recently, including a cute pink and red stripe intended for Sweetie Pie's border, I have now changed my mind. Black and white it is. Well for now, anyway. While at Spotlight I decided it would be a good idea to get Teeny Weeny some new needles. So far I have only changed the needle once ever, and that was when I had a special moment and managed to ram the needle into the foot. Ka-boom. Yay for me. I see from my extensive bloggy reading that is good behaviour to change the needle for each quilt. Of course only the expensive needles would fit into Teeny Weeny. I should have known. We will see how long the new needle changing lasts.

I also took photos of my first two quilts for my new finishes page. I look back at the first quilt and roll my eyes. I think the colours just don't work well together and the values are wrong. And the piecing and quilting is atrocious. I didn't have a 1/4 inch foot or a walking foot when putting it together and boy does that make things harder. But I'll never get rid of it, because it will always be my first! It has three important jobs - having picnics with Princess, looking after her Mickey and Minnie collection, and making me realise how much my quilting has improved.

Hey ho hey ho, it's off to quilt I go

Can you tell I'm catching up on the first season of Once Upon a Time?

All invigorated from actually finishing something (go go Henry Fish's pillowcase), I am enthusiastically tackling the next task - Princess' quilt, now finally named Sweetie Pie. We have a little game where I call her sweetie pie, then she says "I'm not a sweetie pie, YOU'RE a sweetie pie mummy" so I say that she is, and so on. It's very cute. And apt for the quilt.

The unanimous verdict was no batting (thanks for your help!), so I basted it up yesterday. No batting = money saved, which is alllll good in my world. I was pretty nervous about it stretching all over the place, so I spray basted it silly. The spray didn't work particularly well on the backing, but was sticky enough for me to smooth it nicely before pinning heaps. I then stitched in the ditch down the length of the fabric (ie the way the backing doesn't give) to make it stable. This seems to have worked because I'm now ditch stitching across and am pucker and stretch free so far (fingers crossed). I will then decide how to finish the quilting. It doesn't really show on the patterned fabrics or the back, so I will keep it quick and simple.

The quilt feels soooo snugly and delicious. I will absolutely use this backing again. It hasn't been nearly as disastrous as I anticipated. Although I am pretty sure Spotlight only has baby blue and this pink, so I don't think it will be going on hubby's zombie quilt. Heh.

And look, my first label. This wasn't a massive success for two reasons. First, I am a spaz and didn't iron the fusible web properly. I am too embarrassed to tell you the gory details, but let's just say the excessive steam meant the fabric marker blurred a bit. Then, and no surprise here, it didn't really stick to the backing. My blanket stitch around the edge didn't seem strong enough so then I did it again with a different stitch length. Blergh. I strategically decided I'm going for the rustic (aka sloppy) home sewn look. But I think I've sussed it, so hopefully better luck with the next one. Princess can't even read yet, so it won't bother her.

Henry Fish is off the list

Well, not the quilt. But I have managed to get the pillow case ALL DONE. Don't scoff - you must let me be proud of my little achievements!

This is to be a Mother's Day gift while I continue to procrastinate on the epic task that is basting and quilting the quilt. I think it looks pretty cute and was a good way of using up all the 2.5" strip scraps I had left over from the quilt. Perfect for jelly roll scraps I guess too.

If you can't be bothered working out the measurements yourself, this little baby took 42 pieces 2.5" x 4.5", which were sewn into 6 columns of 7. I then pressed the seams open and sewed the columns together. It was sashed with a white border, again 2.5" wide. I ended up with a pillow case approximately 28" x 18", which seems pretty standard. You could put a wider border on for a larger pillow or if you like a flatter look. I prefer a puffy pillow!

I have backed and bound this with the same DS fabric I have for the quilt. The quilting was some straight line borders on the sashing and stippled over the patterns. I'm sew happy (groan - but who can resist a sewing pun, right?).

In case you are wondering, mother doesn't read the blog. I figure she can't know about it until Henry Fish is done. But then she will know how much I whined and complained about it, so she may never be told!

In other news, hubby has been designing his zombie quilt pattern. It's hilarious. It turns out that us quilters don't just whip things together and they miraculously turn out right. Who knew? But that's a story for another day!

Quilting crisis - help needed

So I have managed to finish the sickly sweet quilt top. Finally. The wee man decided to nap today, bless him. It took all of an hour. No photos though. It is POURING with rain in Auckland today so there is no chance of it looking as fabulous as it deserves. I am thinking of calling it "sweets for my sweet". Too naff?

But that is not the crisis. Oh no. I have this lovely thick pink candlewick backing for it, chosen by hers truly. I really did not think this through. It is soft and snugly and so I thought it was a fabulous idea when Princess proposed it for the back in the shop. Who listens to a three year old for fabric choices? I have gotten over the irritation of the fabric being a mere 1.5" too narrow for the quilt top by sewing a strip on to make it wide enough. Grrrrrrr.

But now I've realised I have no idea how to quilt it. It will be so thick there is little chance of it fitting in my machine easily, so it will have to be straight lined. Perhaps around the charm squares. But more than that, should I use batting? Then it will be super thick. Has anyone tried this before? What do you recommend? I need help, my clever quilty friends. To bat or not to bat?

Zombie attack (viewer discretion advised)

My Spoonflower fabric turned up today. Can I say again how much I loooove Spoonflower. And it seems the fabric was printed in Australia, so it didn't take very long to get here.

Anyway it included hubby's zombie fabric. Nothing tasteful going on there. I have to say, I quite enjoy The Walking Dead though. Not your usual quilting fare. Although I also like Downton Abbey, which hubby insists on calling Downtown Abbey just to annoy me. And it does, although I don't know why.

As well as the zombie madness, my delicious little Japanese inspired fabrics are here too. My Kitchenaid should feel very special. I think these are fantastic.

I'd better get to finishing Princess's quilt top, eh. Then I can start on one of these.

Busy Lizzie

Well the Sugar Overload quilt top isn't quite done, but what a week it's been. I do have all the blocks finished and ready to be wonkified (that's a technical term). Then I'll just sew them together and the top will be done. I suspect the most time consuming part will be organising the layout of the blocks. Random block placement requires careful thought!

I have also finished crocheting my first granny square. Yay for me. When I say "first" I really mean "first presentable", as there was a trial run which had some significant issues. I discovered crochet is really easy to undo - so no yarn wastage. And good old Spotlight is having a yarn sale tomorrow. So I sense supplies for my first wee bed throw will be bought. I think granny squares must be like 9 square blocks in quilting. You feel like you've learned how to piece a block. Then you find out about appliqué and English paper piecing, and you realise it's only the beginning!

But the real work around the house has been in the front entrance. Carpet is up, the floor de-stapled, wooden beams sealed, random hole in wall gibbed up, plastering finished, flooring booked for next week and wallpaper chosen. We are all ready to finish painting this weekend, and then we will have our floor put down next week. Hopefully it will all be complete for the delivery of the stripped back quilt cabinet next Friday. I'm very excited. Not excited enough to get a quilt finished to put in it though. Perhaps the wee man will think about sleeping next week, to help me out. He tells me he doesn't sleep because he likes to hang out with mummy. Who can blame him, really.

Finally, I thought I should write out my current to do list, for posterity. Here goes:
* make backing, baste, quilt and bind Henry Fish
* quilt Cherish Nature, bind.
* finish Sugar Overload quilt top
* make Henry Fish pillow case in time for Mothers Day (heh)
* finish puff quilt

Then:
* Kitchenaid cover
* zombie quilt for the hubby

That'll do!

More secrets

Look what I was doing when I was supposed to be getting to sleep early tonight (sleep is a big deal with an 8 week old, as you can imagine). The picture is dark because I was pretending to hubby that I had turned the light out.

Yep, that's right. Learning to crochet with Craftsy, my new love. First thing this morning I had never picked up a crochet hook. This is the start of my second square. I'm very proud, wonky and all.

If my team at work ever find out, any remaining shred of cool will be gone. Who am I kidding? I lost the cool with quilting, anyway. I will have to practice saying "I craft, and I'm proud". Repeat after me...