I had a cutting marathon on Sunday, stockpiling pieces so that I will be able to sew in any spare time this week. 

I cut more than 130 of the elongated hexagons, using the ruler and rotary cutter. The triangles I cut with  the Go cutter, and it made life so much easier.  I stood for hours, cutting the hexagons, and the triangles were done in minutes.  I'm rapt!
I've cut between a third and a half of the pieces needed, and I'll sew all those into blocks before I cut any more.  I will need to see how the colours look, and whether I need to add in specific colours or fabrics when I cut the rest of the blocks. They are so easy to piece, I usually do 10 at a time, and they mount up quickly.  I really like the way this looks so far.

Of course I can't stop fiddling with the different dies, and whipped up these two blocks just to test how accurate they were. 

I seem to have started a pink and brown set of blocks now; my subconcious is telling me to use up some of the three drawers of pink fabric.  I don't have any plan for these blocks, they are just experiments.  Whenever I want to try something out I'll keep using pink and brown , eventually I'll have enough blocks for a quilt.

Spring arrived last Thursday.  On Wednesday I was looking at the gardens around town and thinking 'Not long till Spring gets here..." and the next day everything seemed to have happened over night; daisies blooming, roses budding, butterflies dancing.  That's Spring all right.  I'm not ready to say goodbye to winter, but then I never am.  I just hope it's a nice mild summer like last year.

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The dies for the Go cutter arrived last Monday, but I had such a busy week that I couldn't even  unpack them.  It made me work all the harder, knowing that when I finished my projects I would be able to play with my new toys.  So I hurried to fill a really big pattern order, and slaved away at a custom quilt, and by Friday afternoon I could afford some time off to unpack the box, cut up some fabric and put the cutter through it's paces.

This is the die that I really wanted.

It was an experimental die, and they took it off the website the day after I ordered it, so I was really lucky to get it.  I have to say that this HST die was the reason I decided to actually buy the cutter in the first place.　I don't like the dies that cut the triangles in a long strip; there is too much waste that way.  But this group of triangles is very economical because they share sides with each other.  I'm really pleased with this, and it's going to be very useful.  If they get enough interest in this die it will be added to their catalogue, so I will leave  a message on their site telling them how much I approve of this design.  If you would like to buy one too, you could go tell them so that they know people want it.

The other die that I was waiting for was this one;

again, it's economical because the triangles are grouped together to minimise waste fabric.  It makes a triangle that works with the 2" finished HST die to make Flying Geese units.  I've made some FG units that turned out the correct size, and some Hourglass units that worked perfectly too.  I'm going to put this die to work cutting pieces for a Flying Geese scrap quilt.  I'll also be able to make Sawtooth Star blocks,
either cutting the squares with a rotary cutter, or with the die that came with the Go.

Even Mereth is happily cutting pieces with the cutter and planning how she can use them.  It's not as accurate as she likes, so she will only use the units for things where that doesn't matter so much.  I'm not such a stickler for accuracy, I just fudge and fiddle, so I don't really mind if the odd piece is a smidgeon too small.  I make inaccurate cuts with the rotary cutter too, so it's all par for the course.

I have triangles everywhere, and none of them required any thought or effort to cut.  I'm really enjoying myself with my new toy.

The tree guys were having fun with their toys too, including a chainsaw on a 12' pole. 

I would hate to think how much trouble I could get into with things like that.  Good thing they did it all.  The bobcat guy showed up on Friday to do his bit, and now I have a site prepared. 

With any luck I should have my shed within a fortnight, fingers crossed.....

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My elongated hexagon quilt is coming along slowly.  I've had a couple of major cutting sessions, so there are pieces to sew when I have time.  I fine-tuned the cutting of the hexagons, so that they would all come out the same size, and I worked out the best way to press all those seam allowances.  I've sewn a couple of trial rows together, to make sure that it all fitted. 

Now I will have to get busy and cut up a mountain of more fabric, because I need 324 of these blocks if I want to reproduce the size of the antique one (90" x 82"). 

I ended up making the units 3" x 7.5" finished, so I won't need as many as the original (390 !), I would rather have the units a little larger to show off some of the prints that I'm including.  The photo in the book shows a lot of plaids and homespuns and stripes, and while I'll include some of those, I don't want it to read like a farm quilt.  I want mine to look a bit more like a town quilt than a country quilt.

This would be a lovely quilt to handpiece, the only thing stopping me is the thought of having to trace all those shapes onto fabric; I just don't have enough time in the day to add that little extra step.  Maybe one day I will have some more free time to spend on simple little chores like that.

I spent yesterday in the garden, potting and repotting flowers that are just itching for spring to get here so they can grow out of their pots all over again.  I've been longing for years to have a garden on my own land, and this year I will finally be able to do that. Last week a team of guys came and shifted the fence on the side block back to the true boundary, giving me another 4m of land that my neighbour was borrowing. 

Next week a guy is coming to take out three or four trees, clearing the way for another guy to prepare the site for a shed.  Then yet another set of guys will construct a 7m x 6m shed for me.  Once all that is done, I can survey what's left of the block and decide where to put garden beds and replacement trees.  It's all very exciting, but it doesn't seem real, especially as it's taken 8 months to get this far.

And the shed?  I haven't decided what is going in there yet.  I could set it up as a little flat, with a kitchen and laundry and bathroom, leaving the front room of the hall free to become a classroom and shop again.  I could invest in another quilting machine, and maybe have the shop back there, but no room to teach.  I may even be able to rent a house, so I could have the new machine and the classroom and shop.  But it's all undecided as yet.  Still, it's nice to have some options and new directions to go in.

Dolly and Pippi really love having a larger yard to explore, and more gound to dig into enormous holes and mountains.  I can't wait to get all this cleaned up and sorted out.  My word for this year was Onward!  And that's where we're going now.

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It was a hectic weekend, but in a good way.

First up, DD Seonaid arrived on Wednesday for a few days off.  By sheer good luck Mereth's DS1 John was in town, and we had a wonderful family get together with our brother and sister-in-law.  Lots of laughter and good food.
On Saturday it was the Crystal Brook show, and we spent an enjoyable morning visiting the exhibits and the vendors. 

I even went up on the Ferris wheel with Seonaid; the last time we did this she was 7 years old, and gave me a heart attack by kneeling on the seat and hanging over the edge.  That was the last ride I took her on!  The seats in this ferris wheel had railings, making it much safer, and she's way more sensible now.
We left at midday and drove to Adelaide, meeting up again with John and Liz, for an appointment with Harry Potter. 

I really enjoyed the film, but I was sad that it was the end of the series; it felt like the end of an era.  Now we will wait till the final one is released on DVD, and then we can have our own marathon of Harry Potter.

Honestly, is this year's crop of films more than usually idiotic?  The trailers were just rubbish, nothing that I could even be bribed to see.  Absolute bunkum.

While we were at John's place he insisted we watch an episode of Hoarders.   Truly, we're not as bad as those people, we just have  a lot more fabric than the average quilter.  And it's all stored neatly, so what is wrong with that?  Nothing, but I'm still going to get rid of a lot of my scraps and older pieces, mainly to make room for new purchases.  I've fallen off the No-Buy wagon this year, so I will have to downsize to accommodate the new arrivals.

In between work projects I've been cutting and sewing HSTs made with the Go cutter.

I'm having fun with it, and the finished units are accummulating rapidly, with hardly any work on my part; got to love that!
I don't know what I'll use these for, so they will just sit in the drawer for now; when I have a good idea for a quilt that uses lots of 2" finished HSTs I'll be all set to start churning out the blocks.

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I said in my last post that I was a Gadgeteer, and today my biggest gadget purchase arrived.

I've wanted one of these for ages, but I couldn't really convince myself that it was necessary, or an economical way to cut shapes. Then I saw that there are new die shapes that combine the pieces with very little wastage, and that decided it for me. The die that comes with the cutter is OK, but I don't know that I'll use it much, once my other dies arrive from the US. It's very wasteful if you cut all the shapes from one big piece, and too fiddly to position individual scraps of fabric over each shape.  However, it's all I've got, so I'm playing with it.

I cut enough pieces for 12 HSTs with each pass, and built up a satisfying stack of pieces in no time at all.

  Now I'll sew them all, and see how accurate they are.  I'm quite erratic with my rotary cutting at times, so all I'm looking for is an acceptable degree of accuray; I'm used to fudging.  Mereth took a stack home to sew on her machine; if she likes them we'll have a big scrap cutting session one weekend.

A year ago I was tempted, but didn't buy the Accuquilt Go; 12 months later I'm thinking that it can save my wrists from the pain of a lot of rotary cutting, make life easier on my hands and eyes, and get me off my feet during long cutting sessions.  Some days it just hurts all over to stand at the cutting table; I must be getting old.

A die cutter can't replace a rotary cutter in my sewing room, but I hope that it will be useful for all the repetitive fiddly bits that are so tiring on the hands and eyes.  And I certainly hope it helps reduce the stack of scraps laying around!

I've been doing a bit of sewing, trying to find the perfect measurement for the elongated hexagon quilt.

This is close, but I'll try again with an extra 1/2" in the height;  It probably won't make a lot of diference, but the proportions will be closer to the original in the book.  It's lots of fun to sew, I'm looking forward to getting this underway soon.

I've decided to pack away all the distracting bits and pieces that I use as leader-enders, and just sew some 16-patches.  I've always wanted to make this quilt, in a 1985 Ladies Circle Patchwork Quilts.

It's so simple to whip up the 6" blocks, I think they will work well as a secondary project.

The weather is cold and rainy again, which makes working in the garden undesirable.  I limit my gardening to picking the latest flowers, including lots of daffodils and jonquils.  Pulling up weeds can wait for a nice sunny day.

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I'm torn between finishing some longterm projects or starting something new, just for fun.  My conscience is telling me to deal with an existing project, and yet I'm relentlessly drawn to working on a new pattern.  It doesn't help that I've been shopping online for all sorts of things, templates and rulers and books and gadgets.  I'm a Gadgeteer through and through.

I've wanted to do this quilt for years, (in Massachusetts Quilts) but I knew I couldn't face doing it with flippy corners.

The other day I came across this ruler, and I couldn't resist.

I got mine from here, but there are Aussie sellers as well.

It will make short work of cutting these blocks, and the test blocks I made were super-accurate.  It's all I can do not to abandon everything else and start cutting like a mad thing. I need to fine tune the dimensions so that they are similar to the quilt in the book, skinnier and longer than the trial ones. I don't think I'll be able to relegate this to a leader-ender, it will have to be centre stage. 

I have lots of other things to use as leader-enders, the problem is I keep changing them, so I don't make much progress.  I need to buckle down and concentrate on one thing.  Bonnie has just started a new quilt and I love the antique quilt she's reproducing.  I save  all my 2.5" scraplets too, and I think this would be a great way to turn them into blocks. I think I"ll be adding this to my list of ideas.

But before I do any of those things I must clean up my sewing table and cutting table; I'm overwhelmed by the mess, so I wouldn't really enjoy pulling out more fabrics with the room in it's current state. A tidy up is in order. 

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There are Jacob's Ladder quilts all over Blogland at the moment; I originally saw Lucy's and had to make my own, then Quiltville's  Bonnie put up the instructions for her Florabunda quilt, and then lots of people made one. Yankee Quilter  has one, and so does Lynn, and Subee as well.  This block can look so different when it's coloured in different ways, and there are even more variations when the colouring is reversed in half the blocks.

One thing that can really annoy me when putting blocks together side by side is the way the seam allowances build up.  I took care to press the seams a certain way to eliminate that problem, and when the time came to put the blocks together there wasn't a single seam that didn't butt neatly together. 

I had to draw a little diagram and leave it by the ironing board, because I forgot what I was doing every single day.  I found the idea for this little note holder on Sew many Ways blog.  She has a ton of good ideas on how to use everyday items in the sewing room or office; just click on the Tool Time button on the side. 

This is a double-sided photo frame from Ikea, but it's also useful to display notes and reminders on a crowded desk.  I slipped my diagram into the frame behind the photo, so whenever I needed to check what I was doing I could just swivel the frame around.

I'll have to do a series of posts on how Ikea has revolutionised my sewing room; everywhere I look I see something from that store!  It's one of my favourite places to visit.

Basically what I did was press the dark chain blocks one way, and the light chain blocks the opposite way.  I made sure to position all the four patches so that both seam allowances that touched the outside edge went to the dark fabric.  It was no extra work to position them like this, and it certainly paid off when I put the blocks together.  I just hate having to mash seam allowances flat and hope they stay that way.

Bonnie's instructions show how to fan the seam allowances so that they match up at the edge of the block; I didn't bother with that, because on this block the fourpatches can be positioned so that the seam allowances mesh together anyway.

Because I didn't add a border I ran a line of stitching around the outside of the quilt, so that all those seams would be held tight.

My tops tend to wait a while before they get quilted, and if they don't have a border and are handled too much  the seams can start coming apart.  It was the work of minutes to stabilise the edges, and now I don't have to worry about those seams unravelling anymore.

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Finally I have time to write a post, and I've finished something and I have the photos.  It's so hard to get all three things lined up, that's why two weeks have gone by since the last entry.  This year is going so quickly, everyone I talk to says the same thing.  It will be Christmas before we know it.

 The Jacob's Ladder is in one piece and I love the way it turned out.  I made 63 blocks, which was quite enough.  It will make a nice large single bed quilt, and I enjoyed them enough to think that I will one day make a larger quilt from these blocks.  I think a blue and white one would be really stunning, so that will go into the ideas file for later.

I love all these fabrics together, I tried to use ones that I treasured and hadn't cut into before, but I also used up the very last scraps of some of my favourites.  That material in the top right of the photo was bought in 1981, and I have eked it out over the last 30 years.  This is it's last time in the scrap drawer, all gone now!

My garden is putting on a brave show in this cold, rainy weather.  Everything is rather waterlogged, but the pansies are battling the conditions to put a little colour into my life. 

I just love these antique ruffled ones, I will definitely look out for them next year.  I love the plain ones, but these look to be straight off a Victorian postcard. 

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Life has been insanely busy just lately, and this weekend will be no exception.  I'm just taking a moment to post a few pictures before I go back to work.  I have a monthly digital pattern club that is due out in two days time, so I have to get all those designs tidied up and ready to send.  Busy busy busy.

I have done so much travelling lately, and that cuts into my time in a big way, but it's unavoidable.  I've had to take both computers to the computer guy, in two separate trips, and he lives 45 minutes away.  Then there have been trips to drop things off for customers, and shopping excursions for essentials.  I love the scenery and and the actual driving, but it means I have to stay up late catching up on work.  I'm seriously sleep deprived.


We popped into an op-shop the other day, in between other chores, and I spied a couple of handmade cushions high up on top of a set of shelves.

I had to climb up and get them, but I'm glad I did.  I can't believe all the work in these, and the colours are just wonderful.

Someone took so much trouble to stitch the needlepoint, but then not so much trouble to finish them.

  Very dodgy way to make a cushion cover....

But for my $2.50 I got a huge section of needlepoint, a pillow form and a metre of cream homespun that is very good quality.

Bargain.  The other cushion was put together with a bit of sheeting and a commercial pillow from the '60s, that was stuffed with shredded stockings and underwear.  EWWW!! That lot went in the bin quicksmart.  I will block the needlepoint to square it up and get rid of those ripples, and then I think I'll have both pieces framed.  I know it will be a loong, long time before I get to stitch any needlepoint pictures of my own.

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My girl is settled in at her new job, and my house seems very empty without her.  She has started a blog, which is a great way for her to record her time up there, and to keep her friends updated as well. If I can get her blogging, I'm sure that I can get her quilting soon...

I'm busy with taxes right now, but hopefully the end is in sight, and then I'll be able to spend a lot more time sewing. 

I'm up to 21 of the Jacob's Ladder blocks, with another 10 just waiting to be sewn together.  I figured I'd need 63, so I'll only be halfway once all the kitted blocks are sewn up.  I'll try and cut out a heap more tonight, because its such a help to have all the pieces cut and waiting.

I need to decide on borders for the plaid quilt, so I can get that quilted and into use.  I think I have to start another one straight away; I opened a drawer and found 8 blocks that I'd put away for safe-keeping.  The drawer was even labelled, so there is no excuse for forgetting they were there.  I think I'll just kit up another set of blocks, they were brilliant leader-enders and used up so many of my scrap strips.

I really miss keeping track of my yardage in and out, so I'm going to start that again.  I really have no idea what I've used this year, so I feel like I'm getting nowhere.  I've bought a fair bit, but probably not as much as I think.  Instead of discounting what I've used, and blowing my acquisitions out of all proportion, I'd like to  know the actual  figures.

It's time to choose another UFO to finish, and I think it will be my blue and green tumbler quilt. 

Seonaid admired it and said she'd like it, so I have a reason to get it finished now.  I love it when I can make a quilt specifically for someone, it's lovely to know that it's going to someone who wants it.  It only needs another two rows and a border, so it shouldn't take long.

I know someone else who misses Seonaid;

Dolly searched for her when I came home, but there was only me.  I'm better than nothing I guess, but Seonaid was the light of Dolly's world there for a while.  There will be much excitement when she comes to visit..

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This is the hotel at Parachilna, a typical old Aussie pub. 

We arrived at dusk on Saturday, and had a drink in the bar to unwind.  It was a good drive, but right at the end there were a few kangaroos with no road sense.  The wildlife is always a hazard on out back roads, luckily we managed to avoid them.  If I lived out here I would probably drive a great big 4WD like the one in the photo.

The decorations in the bar were decidedly rural, including this magnificent skull. 
Once it was dark they lit a fire out the front, and everyone stood round with their drinks, toasting themselves in the heat and admiring the night sky full of stars. Two of the guests were setting off the next morning on a 6 day bushwalk, which sounded wonderful.  The scenery is magnificent, and when you cover it on foot you have  time to admire it properly.  There are two pilots based here who offer scenic flights, and they were interesting to talk to as well.

One of the features of this pub is the food, which features 'feral' meat; goat, camel, emu, kangaroo and rabbit.  Seonaid has always been a cautious eater, so the menu was a bit daunting for her.  We settled for antipasto, which was unadventurous, but delicious anyway.

In the morning I wandered around by myself while Seonaid was touring the whole place and learning more about the job. 

I watched the pilots fussing over the planes before the first flight of the day; if I was brave enough I would go up in one of these tiny planes, but I'm a chicken.  About 10 years ago I had a very scary flight in a little 16 seater, and once it was over I vowed I would never again fly in a plane where I could touch both sides at once.
I was reading this information poster when I noticed something interesting.

 At first I only noticed the men, railway workers from 1905,

then I saw there was a child in the photo as well, and when I looked closer there is a dog curled up at one man's feet.  It really brings those times to life, to think of the family life behind this image.  In those days it would have been a rare privilege to have your photo taken, and some mother was probably tickled pink to have her child in the photograph.
We were on the road again by lunchtime, and had a good trip home. It's great to get away from everyday life and visit some place new. 

Seonaid was impressed by the hotel and the people who run it, and decided she'd like to give it a go, so this weekend we'll be going back to get her settled in the staff quarters.  I'll miss my girl dreadfully, but I'm sure she will have an amazing time working in this incredible spot.  And I'll  visit as often as I can.

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It pays to be flexible when planning long weekends.  You just never know what opportunities are going to come along.  Seonaid has a few job applications in the works, and was invited to visit one place to see what it was like.  So that found us on the road Saturday afternoon, intead of in front of the TV or sewing machine.  As much as I would have loved to spend the weekend at home, I wasn't going to pass up the chance to visit a true outback pub.

We were headed for the Prairie Hotel at Parachilna, a mere 300 kilometres away, which isn't really all that far.

What makes the trip memorable is the isolation.  After Port Augusta there are only two small towns, Quorn and Hawker, and then just miles of empty landscape with the occasional sideroad leading to a homestead.
Luckily the scenery is spectacular,

and we were constantly exclaiming over the hills of the Flinders Ranges, and the ruins left behind from the 1870s.

One spot I really wanted to visit was the ruined Kanyacka homestead.

We made many trips up here when we were in high school, some with school camps but mostly with our older brother, who loves this area and has explored most of it on foot.  I wanted to see how the ruins were holding up, it's been nearly 40 years since our last visit.

They have been tidied up, and for safety's sake some have been fenced off, but overall they were the same, a monument to a time when this area was a thriving sheep station and home to 70 families.

We went down to see the sheepshed, which in the 1860's was shearing 40,000 sheep; it's hard to imagine the activity this place has seen, and the number of men who must have worked here.

We had a laugh over this sign; the poor little pictogram guy was having a bad day.
Seonaid demonstrates how to fall over in style...

Have to go to work, will be back with the rest of the photos soon.

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