It's too hot

It's hot today...

It was hot yesterday...

It's gonna be hot again tomorrow...

It's gonna be hot again on Friday and Saturday...

And the two textile pieces that are currently sitting beside the couch for me to work on are a quilt with a heavy wool blanket for batting (the Japanese Kimono Quilt) and a pair of knitted (to be felted) slippers for Bryan. It's too hot to work on either!

I do have another project that is in the planning stages. Jeana of Unbecoming Lily has a long to-do-list and I'm helping her out by making a backpack for her daughter for kinder. I've been trawling the net looking for images and an some ideas are emerging...

I'm off to try and cool down (fat chance!!)

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.

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.

Look what I did!!!

OK, I set myself some goals and whilst I didn't acheive everything (and no I did not get up at 5.30 - that was a rediculous idea!), I did manage this....

The detached chain stitch sample - random and circular


Another stitch sample (which wasn't on my list) - Eyelet stitch, regular and square


And....

My first journal quilt... "Keeping it together..."

Made with hand-dyed fabrics in cotton and flannel


Detail of beads and faces


Detail of stitching. I was so please with how this turned out that I almost stopped at that (some people have trouble knowing when to stop, I howeverhave a tendency of stopping too soon) but didn't.


Back to work for a week and then a weekend away with the girls.....