slow progress...

I've neglected my blog of late... Most of my thoughts are taken up with thoughts of our house that is in it's very early stages and all that goes with it (colour choices, loans, deposits, conveyancing, where we want power points....)

I am slowing getting the hand-stitching done on Sue's Japanese Quilt and only have 2 and 3/4 blocks to go. That's about the equivalent of 3 movies worth of stitching (as long as the movie doesn't have sub-titles as last nights choice did...)

I've also cut out fabric for 2 handbags and 2 zippered purses which I've been working on bit-by-bit. I'm currently up to ironing on the interfacing and have been grabbing time whilst I take a lunch break to do a bit. (I'm struggling between wanting to sew bags and wanting/needing to get the handsewing of the quilt finished). I also have a few other bags planned but thought I'd better not get too far ahead of myself!

So as nothing's finished and you've seen enough of the quilt, I'll leave you with a pic of Tyler - the Supervisor in her new and very UPSIZED bed!!

Look what's finished (well almost!!) - Photo overload

Sue's Japanese quilt is now fully bound! I'm so happy that the end is near, but I'm even more happy with how it's turned out.

So happy that (whisper) "I wanna keep it!"...

No, I love giving things I've made away to ther people, expecially when I see their reaction, and I K-N-O-W what kind of reaction I'll get with this one!

It's taken a long time in the making (Sue asked me to make a quilt for her in August last year - I blogged about it here).

So I present to you the *almost* finished quilt - I've yet to finish hand-stitching around the red and black Japanese blocks - but the rest is done.

Here it is spread out on my queen size bed - it covers it edge to edge perfectly. It was designed to cover a queen (as it does - to the edges) but it's primary use as a throw rug for the lounge.

At last we have pictures...

One of the japanes text blocks is done... well almost - it needs it's English transation but that'll come later.

I was going to do back-stitch around the word but was worried what it might look like on the back so went with a running stitch just outside the outline. Turns out the backs not that flash anyway, but it's not that visible either so no matter!

I wanted to use sashiko thread but could only find navy in the shop I went to last week. Instead I've used crochet cotton or perle cotton and it works nicely. The translation will be embroidery cotton as the perle is too thick.

I really like the effect I've achieved (unintentionally!)... It has the appearance of reverse applique but it is a single piece.

One down, six more to go!

First stitches for 2 weeks...

Has it really been that long?!!!

I got started on the binding of Sue's Japanese Quilt on Sunday evening (after another weekend of house-stuff that I promise to reveal soon). I've trimmed the excess and squared it us (as best I can) and cut the strips ready to be joined for the binding.

I also made a start on the hand-stitching on the blocks where I didn't do any machine quilting - the japanese word blocks. So far I've just done a running stitch around the outside and will stitch around the the black letter as well. Finally I will hand embroider the English meaning of the word on each block.

Sue's Japanese Quilt - binding...

I decided that the fabric that I'd originally bought for the binding of Sue's quilt wasn't quite what I had pictured and so I sent an email to Kimono House in Melbourne (They have the most amazing location in the really old but interesting central city building that is like a rabbit warren) asking if they had any black(ish) fabrics with dragonflies. Leanne promptly sent a reply saying that she only had one fabric that fit my description and attached a photo...



PERFECT!! This is great! It features the little dragonflies that are similar to some of the other fabrics but the fabric is different to any that I have used. It also has the black and red which is the theme of the quilt (and I hadn't thought to ask for red dragonflies). I think that the random patterning will also create an interesting binding.

I rang yesterday and ordered this fabric, which was also interesting because Leanne is now overseas in Japan on a purchasing trip and I had to describe the fabric to the lady who answered the phone who then went to the shelves, found what she thought I was looking for and described it back to me. How do I know that I'm getting the right fabric? I don't but I'm pretty sure because all I said I was looking for was a fabric that had a black base with dragonflies - I left out the colours of the dragonflies. When the lady described it back to me, she mentioned the colour and so I knew it was right. Leanne had also told me that this was the only fabric that matched my description so I'm pretty sure that it'll be right. If not, it doesn't matter because the colours and the nature will be what I was looking for.

Now I just have to wait by the mailbox for it to arrive (I love you Australia Post - sending good vibes their way so that all goes well and the fabric arrives quickly!).

You will all be glad when this quilt is done and I can move onto something different I'll bet!!

Ahhhhh!!!! (Breathing a really BIG sigh of relief!!!)

The machine quilting on Sue's Japanese Quilt is...

D-O-N-E ! ! ! !

After 2 hours of solid stitching this evening I finally got there. My audio book finished 5 minutes later so I'd say it was good timing!

My right hand is still numb an hour later - I'm hoping that the feeling will return soon!!

I can't celebrate yet though, there's still the binding and the hand-stitching to go (did I mention that I had plans for hand-stitching...) and some serious d-fluffing is in order too!!

The plan is to hand stitch around these Japanese letters and to embroider their English meaning on the panel. There's no machine stitching on these panels - there's about 9 of these and they're about 6" x 4" (I'm guessing here - too lazy to go and get tape measure).

The goal is to get this beauty (monster!) done by Christmas - there's still a bit of time left...

A word about quilting

As you might recall, a few weeks ago I made a comment about not liking the quilting phase, hence why I had several projects completed to that point.

I would now like to say that I am converting. I have actually begun to to enjoy quilting Sue's Japanese quilt. I think that this is for a couple of reasons...

1. I've managed to relax - this is aided by the use of audio books which give me something to concentrate on as well as something to keep me stitching (I loose interest without them). Somehow
2. I've worked out a 'good' speed that gives nice even stitches
3. I've worked out that I don't need to rush - I used to get panicked by the speed of the machine and feel that I needed to move quickly but this always ended in rough, jaggered looking stitches. I think that this is where the audio books come in because I can concentrate on the story and just keep my hands moving.
4. I've discovered that a rubber glove gives me grip and therefore more control. With the rubber glove, I can keep my hand flat but have complete control over the fabric and the direction allowing smooth lines.
5. I need to get back into the 'rythym' each time I go back to it. The time that it takes to get my rythm back depends on how long since I was last working on it. After a day I've usually still got it, but after a week or more, it takes me longer to pick up again.
6. Most importantly - I CAN do it and i can do it WELL! This is by far the most important factor because as long as I feel that I am doing well, I'm inclined to keep going. If I don't like what I'm doing, it's very easy to stop and hide it in the bottom of the cupboard.

And the news on Sue's Japanese Quilt?... Had I not run out of cotton I would have been finished with the quilting yesterday, but I did and so I'm off now to make the run for the finish line. If all goes well today, I should be all set to hand-stitch the binding on during tomorrow's Bathurst race.

Yesterday...

Yesterday... I got about 80% of the quilting done on Sue's Japanese Quilt. I have sore shoulders and a sore neck but it's a fair effort I think.

Yesterday... I put up the design wall so that I can display some pieces of work and get inspired. It's one of those big sticky sheets of ??... ummm... well it's kinda like a thin sheet of quilt wadding that's sticky on both sides - one side sticks to the wall and the other you stick up quilt bits and other stuff and it just stays... well mostly. I've already had a few kamakaze pieces leap off the wall onto the worktable - perhaps they're just telling me it's time I worked on them...

Yesterday... I joined Blogtoberfest. This is the brainchild of Big Cat of Big Cat's Emporium who thought it would be fun to celebrate the month of October with festivities and blogorific fun! I think it has grown well beyond what Big Cat imagined but there are some great blogs listed there - you should check them out.

Yesterday... I cooked a yummy dinner - Lamb backstrap fillo parcels. Sorry, it was too yum to take the time to photograph it. I discovered the recipe (actually I combined two recipes) a few weeks ago and have made it several times since. The original idea was to try some new recipes, but it seems that each time I make this pact with myself I find a recipe that I like and just keep going back to it. Oh well, I did find (or make up) a good one :)

Yesteday... I discovered that Bryan didn't know what I meant by "deadly treadly"... I was mortified that a fellow Aussie didn't know this 'ockerism' (Aussie slang). I'd told Bryan that "I was going to jump onto my deadly treadly and duck down to the shops", to which he replied... "huh?". A deadly treadly, for the uninitiated is, the term of endearment I use when referring to my bicycle. I could have said that "I'm going to ride my bicycle down to the shops" but what's the fun in that? It got me thinking about all of the other 'okerisms' (Aussie slang) and 'Lanham-isms' (Lanham family slang) that I use frequently but that's a post for another day.

Binding delimma...

I dropped into Patchwork on Central Park on Monday on my way home from work (yes another detour) to get some fabric for the binding of Sue's Japanese Quilt. They have some wonderful fabrics and I was very tempted by these heavyweight fabrics which would be great for bags... But I was very good and only walked out with enough fabric for the binding. I ended up deciding on this fabric...

I'm not sure if it is right though? The colours fit, but it's not really 'Japanese' like the rest of the fabrics, and it doesn't match any of the others in the quilt - is that a problem? A couple of others that I've since found at Sanshi are..

I like the dragonfly fabrics, because I love dragonflies, and because there are other dragonfly fabrics in the quilt already and so they are relevant and less 'quilterly' than the piece I bought on Monday. (Not that that piece will be wasted because I have some other fabric that matches it perfectly and would make great purses...). I just need to check that they are black or 'near black' and not indigo (blue) because the quilt is predominantly reds and blacks.

A rubber glove, a Weimaraner and a plan...

That's what helped me today to work on Sue's Japanese quilt...

A rubber glove you say? A rubber glove with the fingertips chopped off!


As I struggled with the quilt today, I remembered seeing a quilter's glove in the quilt shop some time ago and thinking at the time - what is the point. Today I discovered the point! With the huge bulk of the quilt rolled up to stay on the extension table there is no hand-hold and when I placed my hand flat on the quilt I had no grip. Off to the computer to google an alternative. I came up with this site with lots of helpful quilting suggestions, including the rubber glove idea. The finger tips are chopped off (as suggested by the hint) because the fingers are too long and bulky making it hard to thread needles etc, and it encourages you to use the palm of your hand rather than finger tips, preventing cramps.

On the other hand I had my lycra "Handeze" glove to help stop the cramping and carpal tunnel syndrome that I get in my right hand.


The Weimaraner?... well she supervises. She's been sick this week so I was keeping her close to monitor her. Today she seems much better (thank goodness) and avoided a harrowing and expensive trip to the vet.

And the plan?... this is my plan...


It won't make much sense to you, suffice to say that I've mapped out the squares of the quilt and the direction it goes into the machine and I'm shadding the blocks as I go. This way I know where I'm up to and I can work out which direction I should stitch so that I don't end up quilting myself into a corner. It's working really well this way because I know exactly where I am all the time.

Sue's Japanese Quilt

From Projects on the go...

I made some progress on the quilting of the Japanese quilt for Sue today.

I've been avoiding it for some time now, and after cleaning up the worktable (again) I finally took it out of it's safe pillowslip and edged it into the machine. I think I've finally got into the "groove" of it and seem to be progressing nicely. I'd already layed it out and had done a little bit of quilting, but at least now I have a plan and it seems to be working. It's still tough working with so much bulk!

The other thing that works for me is audio books. They give me something to keep my mind busy while my hands are occupied with the quilt. They also keep me from getting bored and remove the drone of the sewing maching enabling me to stay with it for much longer than I would without. This is how I got through the machine embroidered landscapes too.

Currently I'm listening to Justice Hall by Laurie R King.