Sunday, July 31, 2011

Life happens.

I've just realised it's been 2 weeks since I last posted. Oops.

So what have I been doing recently? Not a great deal.

I spent all of last weekend with my extended family as it was my Nan's 70th party on Saturday night. So my very large family came from all areas QLD down to VIC to get together and celebrate. It was great to see everyone and catch up, meet the new partners and see how big children have gotten etc etc.

I sorted out my classes for uni this semester. I managed to plan them for an overnighter again. I'll spend my wednesday mornings on trains, wednesday night with my nephew, thursday in class and come home thursday nights. Exhausting yes but its only for 13 weeks and then I'm officially finished with my degree and UWS and can carry on my Diploma of Education anywhere I want. Oh the possibilities. I do have family all over Australia you know ;) Melbourne is looking really good.

Last week my housemate from last year came to visit and we caught up and stayed up talking most of the night. I havent seen her since uni finished 2 months ago so there were a lot of things to talk about.

As far as crafty stuff goes, I've been working on the stippling of my ZigZag quilt and my cute giraffe cross stitch. Both of which are ongoing projects that are going to take a while but its good to chip away at them.

Hmmmm what else? Oh yea, I get my student bonus this week so I can FINALLY buy myself a convection oven and return to the days of scones, muffins and late night pastries. Not to mention chicken kiev, wedges and lasagne.

Plus, with said bonus I'll be able to spend some time in Spotlight. *rubbing hands together in glee*

I believe that's just about all you need to read about me for now. The only thing I've missed is the fact that my lovely Nan left me her cold when she was here last weekend so I spent all of yesterday in bed.

That's all for now.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

900 > 1

I realised after I put it together that some of the colour patches are next to each other. They must have been hiding when I was scoping it out earlier.


All pinned and good to go.

this quilting is gonna take a looooooong time.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Progress on the twisted zig zag quilt.

 This is what I have so far. I've decided this is definitely a top you could do in a weekend. I technically didnt do all of it on weekend days but thats because I'm a rebel.
The completed coloured pieces cut.

The piles of fabric to snip threads from after chain stitching 90% my pieces

colour matching. This is why I'm glad I live alone.

A finished block. 1 down, 39 to go.

Friday, July 8, 2011

a quilt just for me.

Now I know a lot of you ladies out there have met my friend Ron and probably have your very own round Tuit. Well yesterday I told good old Ron to get off my back. I came across a pattern yesterday I fell in love with and have now started cutting fabric for.


I often hang out in my local library skimming through quilty mags and drawing sketches of what I could/would do and how I could use it etc. Ordinarily those sketches stay in the book until i have the time/money/patience to actually do something with them. The one i found yesterday didnt even get that chance. 


The moment I got home I went straight to my fabric cupboard to see what I could use and work out how I could make the pattern work with what i wanted.


The pattern was a queen size quilt with a zig zag pattern done in a pale brown linen contrasted with 40 brights. I wasnt a huge fan of the brown, it kinda looked like there was something missing. but i loved the pattern. the block is quite simple even thought it uses HSTs. however i thought the overall design looked like it was facing the wrong way. the reason i say that is because it was square and the zig zags were going top to bottom in a column type way and it wasnt long enough. it felt like it was cut short a little.   


Anyway, to fix that issue and actually be able to make the quilt with what i have, i changed the measurements to suit a single bed and turned the zig zags around so theyre horizontal instead. also, i changed the block size from 9" to 12". because i can. and because i loathe cutting and sewing teeny tiny pieces. plus, changing both the quilt and block size means less squares. the original involved 900 squares, mine has only 360.






also, i dont have 4metres of the same fabric so instead of bright vs plain im doing bright and lights. The lights are different creams, whites and a pale brown. some with patterns, some without. either way, they will contrast nicely with the bright fabrics i have floating around in my stash. so this is officially a stashbuster quilt. im so proud.


so yes i spent the evening rifling through my stash and cutting all the lights. todays plan is the brights. and possibly starting on the chain stitching of the HSTs.


and just FYI this quilt is for me. it has my name written all over it. it will be my couch snuggle blanket and will most probably be backed in flannel for that purpose. i havent yet made a quilt for myself. ive done them for my siblings and my nephew as well as a crib quilt and a couple of singles for selling or charity but this one will be made of teeny tiny squares and lots of patience, therefore it will be mine. plus it will have all of the fabrics ive used over the past few years for different projects so i feel it's fitting.


my very exciting cutting table and the fantastic progress ive made so far.


yea so i should have rotated this in images before uploading it here, i always forget to do that. anyway, you can see the block and the overall design from my sketch. the rest of it is just notes about the measurements.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Holiday pics


I apologise for the photos being out of order but blogger and I just dont get along.

The Good Times band.

our teeny tiny and quite bright room.

at the first port Noumea (New Caledonia)

Souvineers from the first port.

Mystery Island (Vanuatu)

Isle of Pines (New Caledonia)

Isle of Pines. A cross between Narnia and Oz....

mum and I at the Captains Cocktail party

Pacific Cirque

island dancers in Noumea

taking the stage on Country and Western night for karaoke

pirate night. because we could...

The completed rag rug. well one of them anyway...

my house gradually getting decorated with holiday souvineers.

up close of the round rug.

the completed door mat. its a big wonky but in hindsight I'll be a little more careful about the edges. i still like it tho :)