We are having the most disgusting weather, it's blisteringly hot, blowing a gale, a thunderstorm threatening. It's just horrible. I'm confined to the workroom in the Ac, waiting for the promised cool change. I've read enough books this year, and surfed enough websites, and now I just want to sew.

I don't want to sew my main projects on the workroom machine, too scared of different seam allowances wrecking my blocks. I pulled out a big tub of scraps from my blue and green tops, and I've been sorting them with an eye to making donation quilts. 

It will be interesting to see how many quilts I can conjure out of this lot.

I'm sewing all these off cuts from my tumbler quilt first, and I'll put them together in strips like a Chinese Coin. 

It probably won't be very big, but I think it would be a cheerful baby or boy quilt. I have a piece of cat material that can be the backing, and it will be good to get rid of that: I've had it for 20 years!

I'm feeling quite obsessed with bright scraps, thinking about donation quilts that could bring a smile to some child's face. After all the bleak black and grey of the bushfire scenes a colorful quilt is just what's needed. 

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Oh dear, I seem to have started a new project.  That list is not going to get shorter anytime soon.  I don't call it a UFO list, it's called Ongoing Projects.  That sounds a lot more positive.

I saw an antique quilt in a book and thought it would make a good leader-ender for this year.  So I cut a heap of 3" Quarter Square Triangles with the Go Cutter, and started making blocks.

They are really nice to sew, easy to press, and because they are going to be set with alternate plain squares I don't have to worry about how the seams fall.  One of my goals this year is to use up more of the yardage I have.  There are some really beautiful pieces in my stash cupboard, and I've hoarded them for years because they are so Precious.  I want a lot of my quilts this year to have wide sashing, alternate plain squares, or wide borders.  Time to put the Precious fabric into quilts.

I hated the white setting squares when I put the blocks up on the wall, so I substituted a pale pink.  It looks just like I want it to, antique and like a scrappy farm quilt.  So now I can cut a lot more pieces, and kit a lot more blocks, and at least I know how I want it set together and with what fabric.  I really need to know where I"m going with a project to feel happy with it.

What to call it?  Blockbase calls it Big Dipper or Electric Fan.  I don't like either of those names, so I'll have to come up with something of my own.  It's made up of Hour Glass blocks, so maybe I can come up with a name that plays off that.  I'll think about that while I 'm making another dozen blocks.

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One day when it was very hot I was in the workroom, wishing I felt energetic enough to actually do something.Then my eye fell upon my Dear Jane quilt, languishing on a laundry rack.

Hmmm, I thought, that's a nice block

I grabbed a couple of scraps and whipped up a single block, to see if it was fun to piece and press.  I reversed the placement of the light and dark pieces, but I still like the DJ block, so there may be another one of these later on.  I was so happy to be sewing, and enthusiastic, that I cut out a lot more blocks, and sewed a few of them up.

Blue and green is much more my style; looks like the original block will go in the orphan box for now.

Lying on the table was this piece of fabric that I bought on spec last year, thinking that it would make a good backing for one of my quilts. I think it will be perfect for this one.

So one off the list, a new one to replace it.  Never mind, it still feels like progress to me.

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One down

25 to go.

This set of blocks had been put away with their sashing, and I just needed to set them together. I built the whole top plus borders in two sewing sessions.

It was a good idea to take a rest from the Ohio Stars, because this top went together really quickly and gave me an easy finish. Now I feel enthusiastic about tackling another UFO on the list. 

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Ohio Star progress

This has been my main project for months.

I love it, but I'm stuck. I just can't decide on the right sashing fabric, and I don't want to work on it until I have that figured out.  I need to cut out more pieces soon, and I feel like I need to know the fabric I'll use for the sashing before I do that.  There's a few pieces of a likely candidate on the design wall already, but it seems too yellow, and the print on it makes me think of men's pajamas, and it's just not right.

I'm annoyed with myself because I can't overlook that and move on, keep making blocks, choose  a fabric from the stash or buy something.  Surely I'd be able to solve the problem later on, even if it means rejecting a few blocks.  But I'm not going to ignore the voices on this, so it's off the design wall.  We're on a break.

There's 40 completed blocks, and 18 kitted ready to assemble.  I'll use them as leader-enders while I work on something else.

I'm not jumping into a new project just yet.  There are UFOs that need to be dealt with, not out of duty but because I'm eager to see them in one piece.  So I'm spending a bit of time reviewing the projects in my stack of boxes, and I'll choose one soon to work on. It's actually really enjoyable, to go through things I haven't seen in months (or years) and decide what will become of them.  Some of them will be finished in a much smaller version, because I don't need them as a full size quilt; others will be reworked into something quite different, and some will even be abandoned.  I was quite surprised to discover that several were just a single block and a collection of FQs.  I'm not sure that even qualifies as a UFO.

I only have 26 things on my list, and I'm determined to keep that number dwindling.  Several only need to be assembled, the blocks are done and just waiting.  My plan is to put together an easy UFO, and then work on something more challenging, and then go back to an easy finish UFO.  That should keep me interested and the list will keep shrinking.

How long till I start something new? That's the big question, but my aim is for there to be a whole lot of different things on the UFO list at the end of the year, not the same old ones that have been there for 5 years. Not as many stalled quilts, and a lot more Works In Progress.

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The year is picking up speed already, we're half way through January and it's happened in the blink of an eye. I've really enjoyed my time at home, working in the sewing room and the workroom, but I don't have much to show for it.  It's been a lot of leisurely sorting and rediscovery and thinking about how I could rearrange things a bit better.  Once the year gathers momentum I rarely have time to potter about like that, so I'm enjoying it.

I've just returned from 5 days in Adelaide.  Shonny and Hayden went off with the adults from his family on a no-kids weekend, and I baby-sat Isla and Thomas.  It was fun, no dramas, and we did a few things that Mum and Dad would have frowned on, like getting out ALL the colours of Playdough instead of just 2 at a time.  Thomas had to kick things up a notch by eating the pink playdough with a fork, despite me telling him not to. It was obvious from his face that it tasted dreadful, but he kept doing it, until he was banished to observer status.  The next day he ate a handful of sand from the sandpit, and that was mayhem when it reappeared in his nappy.  Kids!

Perhaps you recognise this scenario if you have a bossy child in your life. We were drawing, and Isla wanted me to draw a circle on her page.
" Please draw me a circle all round there." All sweetness and light.
" No, not like that, a Circle.  Not there, I didn't want that. I need a circle. It doesn't match up, you need to make it join up!. No, it's not a circle anymore, it's not right!!!" And much sobbing ensued. I know I'm not much of an artist, but I did think that I could manage a circle.  Apparently not.  We patched things up, and I drew a flower and a butterfly that mollified her, and Thomas chewed the end off a crayon, and life went on.

She starts kindy in two weeks time, and then the world starts having a say in her life.  I love having her all to myself, and being such a big part of her life.  Soon she will be full of tales of her teachers and friends and new exploits; it's all a part of growing up, but I'll miss the little girl she was.

However, there's always Thomas, who is a juggernaut of risk and danger and daredevil adventure.  Which is bad, because he's also extremely clumsy and accident prone and doesn't seem to learn from each disaster. And soon a new baby to add to the family. I don't think there will be much quiet time in the coming year, but that's OK. Being a good Nan to my babies is the important thing right now.

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Simple 4 patches

This pile of 4patches is leftover from a quilt I made at least 13 years ago.

It's one of my favourite quilts, I just love the soft colours.

I don't know what I planned to do with these bits, but I got sick of seeing them in the spare parts drawer, so I just sewed them all into one piece. 

I still don't know what I'll do with it, but it needs some borders and then it can be quilted and maybe donated. It's too soon to be thinking about quilts for survivors of bushfires, but later in the year when people are resettled, I will be sending some off.

I'm not making much progress on my major projects, but I am getting some things dealt with.  Not a bad start to the year so far.

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An empty container

I found a container with a few random pieces in it (the one on the right), and decided that I needed to whip them up into blocks, or just get rid of them.

I combined them with some 9-patches made from the basket of 1.5" squares, and created these blocks.

I didn't love them enough to want to go on making them, especially as the original pieces weren't the right size.  My seam allowance was way off, which meant matching them to the accurate 9-patches was a chore. these will go into the Orphan Box.

I sewed the wonky pieces together and mashed the resulting piece flat with the iron.  Then I decided it needed a little border, so I hunted out the container of Half Square Triangles and added some Flying Geese.

It looks pretty cute, and took all of an hour to finish.  I'll see if I can quilt it as quickly in the next few days.  I'm so glad I didn't go off on a tangent and start a big quilt to use up these pieces; it's lovely to just deal with them and move on.

This is a good start to the year; Mereth is always telling me I should be making small quilts, and this proves I can. May there be many more.

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A new year

After the busy end to 2019 I've been taking it easy, and not pressuring myself to jump back into sewing, or cleaning, or fixing up the garden.  Things need doing, but I'm going to take my time and make a plan about how I'll spend my time.  My friend Helen is like an Energiser Bunny; if she has 15 minutes to spare she will jump right into a project; I'm more likely to have a cup of coffee. But in some cases it's better to sit and have a coffee and a think, rather than race off and not know where you're actually going!

Several times I sat in the sewing room and tried to create some momentum; each time I didn't feel any affinity with what I was doing.  The whole time I was away, I missed my quilting; now that I"m home, I just can't get started.

Every year at this time I become convinced that I need to clean up, use up or throw out all my scraps.  Last year that derailed the first quarter of the year, as I made endless 9-patches and rail fence blocks for this quilt;

and string blocks for this quilt.

I'm not going to do that this year.  I'm going to ignore the scraps, and I won't start any projects just to use them up. I'm going to sew on my existing projects, or start things that I'm really enthusiastic about.  I'm going to make a huge effort to deal with scraps as I create them, and try to visit the scrap drawers first when I need strips, but I'm not going to focus on them.  I love cutting yardage, so that's what I plan to do.

In 2019 I finished 13 quilt tops, and quilted 8 quilts.  That was a splendid result, seeing I spent half my time in Adelaide, instead of home.  This year should be a bit more relaxed, so I'm confident that I could actually achieve a goal of 20 tops in 2020.  I have 26 UFOs in the spreadsheet, and I'd like to cut that down to around 15 or 16. 

I finished these two very old UFOs last year,

and that felt wonderful, so I"ll try and get that list whittled down before I start too many new things.

It's stinking hot today, so I'm off to the air-conditioned workroom.  I'm going to put the finishing touches to my 4th jigsaw for these holidays, and I'm going to trawl through Pinterest looking for my next quilt project. That's a pretty good way to spend the day.

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Home again

What a whirlwind end to the year! Our trip to visit family went off so well, I can't quite believe it.  Isla and Thomas were on their best behaviour, people complimented us on them at every gathering.

At Grandma's party all her friends approached me throughout the day and told me what a delight the children were.  One lady said darkly, 'We get some real little monsters in here." Oh dear....

We stayed at a lovely Air B&B just around the corner from the house Grandma and Grandad lived in while my kids were growing up, so it was a very nostalgic visit to our old haunts.  Thomas blotted his copybook by locking himself in one of the bedrooms, but luckily the lock could be turned from outside with a butter knife.  Shonny came flying into the kitchen to get one, and I gave a sigh of relief that it was one of those locks; there were hefty grills on all the windows, so we would have had to call a locksmith to get him out.  Kids!

At the end of the week Shonny and the kids flew home without incident, and I went back to Rhys's apartment to stay until after Christmas.  We visited the dog park every day with Daisy, who is just the sweetest puppy ever; 

we went to farmers markets, to the movies, and to some of the best brunches I've ever had.  We had some wonderful meals out.  

At home we played trivia and did two jigsaws and watched Netflix, and it was so relaxed.  I cooked corned beef with all the trimmings on Christmas Eve, and made sure Rhys paid attention to how to do it, so he can make it for himself in future. On Christmas day we had a spread of cold meat and salads, just like our old Christmases. We had a wonderful time.

I came back home much refreshed, and stayed with Shonny and family for two days.  Unfortunately Isla is sick,hopefully just a tummy bug, but it sort of ruined Christmas for her.  I was going to bring her back home with me, but she's too ill to travel, and we're in the middle of a heat wave, so I'm home on my own.  I don't know what to tackle first, the sewing room is too hot to work in, so I'll have to hope the AC in the workroom can cope with the 45(113) ° temperature tomorrow. I think another jigsaw would be a good idea.

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I've been spending my nights kitting up Ohio Star blocks, and thought I'd show you how I do it.

I cut the triangles out with my Go die; it cuts 8 of each fabric at a time, which is enough for the star points of a block, or the background bits for 2 blocks, or the inner triangles for 2 blocks. The squares are cut 2.5", and I already have a big stash of those from previous projects.

I cut out heaps of triangles and then sit down and sort out what I want to put together.  Each little set of pieces gets put in a snack sized baggie, and 10 of them go into a sandwich size bag.  It makes counting kits easy, I can see at a glance I have 22 in this tray.

When I have time to sew, I will concentrate on sewing the Hour Glass units first.

I make Hour Glass units for up to 10 blocks at a time.  I have to be in the mood for precision sewing to do this, so that they are accurate and measure 2.5" exactly.

Here they're all laid out with their matching pieces, waiting to go back into their snack bags.

When I don't feel like precision sewing, or I only have a few minutes between other chores, I grab a block or two and put them together.

It's just as easy as sewing a nine-patch now, and if I've sewn the Hour Glasses properly then everything matches perfectly.

By doing it in stages like this I make the best use of my time and I match the sewing to how I feel.  The good thing is that some nights I suddenly have 10 blocks finished, without much effort, and that's like magic.

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I don't quite know what to do in the few remaining days before we go away.  None of my projects are anywhere near finishing, so it seems pointless to work hard on them.  I can't do anything in the garden because it will languish on it's own for two weeks, so no use repotting or shifting stuff around.  I do have to clean out the fridge and put the rubbish bin out, but that's hardly fulfilling.

I did get another quilt quilted, because I finally found a suitable backing for it.  A nice turquoise wideback fitted it perfectly, and I quilted it with a blue-green variegated thread.

I'm so pleased with how it turned out, I cant wait to start another one of these next year.  I'm cutting all my blue-green fabric into 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles already.

The panto is one of mine called Swell; I wanted something a bit seaweedy, and this fit the bill nicely.

I just love these colours and I'm hoping someone else will too, as it's now bound and down the shop.  But I'm not in a hurry for it to sell, because I just love looking at it.

This is my 8th quilt quilted this year, I'm pretty chuffed about that.  Three still need bindings, so that's what I could be doing till I go away. Even if I only get the bindings attached to the quilts it would be progress.  Then when I come back I'll have something to start work on straight away.  It's a plan.

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Something needed to be done about organising the quilt tops on hand.  After all, there are more than a hundred stored in various boxes and cupboards, and I needed an easy way to document them and keep track of where they are. I made up this information sheet in Word, and printed out one for each top.

I know I could have made it all as Word files, but there's something satisfying about having a paper copy, and I can keep these in the workroom and scribble over them as needed.  I'm going to work my way through and measure each top, work out the size backing I need, and what meterage I need to make that backing.  Then I'll make a file of the backing lengths needed and I'll keep that on my phone.  When I'm shopping and find cheap backing fabric I'll be able  to look at my file and see exactly how much I'll need for any particular quilt.

I hope this helps me buy wisely; buying too much for a backing is almost as annoying as not buying enough, so having the info available will be so useful.

I've got a backing stash already, and a lot of these quilts already have backings allotted to them.  Still, that's quite a pile of quilt tops in that stack.  These information sheets will also help me prioritise what gets quilted next; as I've discovered already, if I don't prepare the tops, backing and batting ahead of time, I don't get a quilt on the machine.  I've quilted 7 this year just by being prepared, and I hope to double that number in 2020.  Or maybe I should aim to quilt 20 quilts in 2020.  Sounds achievable!

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It's going to be a busy month

This is the state of my design wall. 

I'm trying very hard to come up with a plan for these 6" Ohio Stars blocks, and it's taking longer than I expected. I think I know where I'm going, but I may end up changing my mind later. Who knows. 

There's also these blocks from a few years ago.

I like them, but I don't know if I want a whole quilt of them. I think I'm going to make a wall hanging out of what I already have, and then all the fabrics earmarked for this can go back into the stash. 

December is going to be a busy month, I only have a couple of free days.  First is a 4 day visit to Seonaid's, to catch up with the grandchildren.  The main reason is to go with Isla to her first day of kindy.  I can't believe that next year she'll be in kindy and the year after that she'll be in school.  I thought time flew by with my own kids, but it's at warp speed with the grand kids.  I need to plan lots of trips to my house for her, because once she's in the school system there's no running away on a whim anymore.

I'll come home for the weekend, and I'll be manning the shop while we have a pre-Christmas sale.  Then a week later it's off to Adelaide again, and then up to Brisbane to see the family there.  It's Grandma's 90th birthday, and we're all looking forward to a big birthday bash with people coming from all over. Then Seonaid and the kids will fly home, and I'm staying to have Christmas with DS Rhys, for the first time in 11 years.  I'll fly home on Boxing Day, have a second Christmas with Seonaid and Co., then we'll all come up here for New Years.  So there's the whole of 2019 mapped out.  

It's going to be a lot of fun, but there won't be much sewing time, and I should just give up on the idea of finishing anything else this year.  But I won't; there will be some late nights I'm sure, while I try to cram in some time at the machine.

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Mereth and I are trying hard to fit our own quilts in between customer quilts, even if it means getting to work when we don't particularly feel like it. We alternate using the machine, so I feel a bit guilty if I don't get a quilt done quickly, because then it's holding up her quilt from being quilted.  Guilt aside, it feels great to be making a dent in the pile of quilt tops at last.

I've been itching to get this Checkered Lattice quilted, I just love those colours.

I knew right from the start that I wanted to use my Sassy pantograph on this, it's a pattern that looks wonderful on any style quilt. I started quilting this at about 4pm, and finished at 8.30.

Then it came off the frame, and onto the design wall for me to admire.

And now the Statler is free for Mereth to load her next quilt.  We're both making excellent progress on our stockpile of tops, but now the quilts needing bindings are piling up.  

Looks like we won't be taking it easy anytime soon.

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Keeping busy

I've been using my time wisely just lately, trying to get a few more things ticked off the list.

3 nights of sewing saw the second Disappearing 9 Patch top finished.  I think it's even prettier than the first one, much more pink.

I have one more quilt to complete and the Christmas gifts will be done, or ready for quilting I should say.

These fabrics came mostly from Facebook destashing groups, and there were lots of prints that I would never have bought.  But I had to use them because I don't have a pretty modern stash, and I think the odd fabrics really add to the overall effect.  I still wouldn't choose them at a quilt shop tho...

I relied heavily on this gorgeous floral print, luckily there were 3 FQs in the bundles,

and then I picked up 2 FQs of this lovely polka dot and floral on my last trip to Spotlight.

I cut all the FQs and scrap bundles into 6.5 and 4.5" strips, and I'll continue making quilts out of that pile until they're gone.  I have no idea if I'll replace them in future, but I've got enough for a few more quilts in those strips.

And then there are the scraps..... I'll hold off deciding what to do with these until I've finished the next quilt.  Maybe crumb quilting wouldn't be so irritating with such cheerful scraps.

I also spent some time renewing the upholstery on 6 dining room chairs. The original covers were put on by a maniac with an electric stapler.  It takes half an hour to dig out the staples and remove the old cover; 93 staples in one chair seat, and it wasn't the worst. It's just that I couldn't be bothered counting any more.  I wondered if I should save all that metal for the scrap metal guy.....

The finished chairs look so lovely and clean, ready for another 20 years.  But it won't be me doing the recovering next time.

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