My design wall is an utter mess right now, but I'm sewing madly in every spare minute and I haven't taken the time to sort it all out. 

I'm still enjoying these spiderweb blocks, and I have 14 now, only two more needed. 

In the comments on the last post Kerri asked about how I was going to fill in the squares between the octogons; I haven't really decided yet, there are several options.  The easiest is to make triangles to fit on the corners, half the blocks with light corners, half with dark. 

Or I could add a further small triangle after that, and create this sort of spool shape. 

I'm still trying to work out colours, and decide if it's all too fussy.  I'm just making it up as I go along.

The colours look pretty disgusting, I just snapped some photos at night; it looks better by the light of day.

And here's an approximation of what it will look like thanks to EQ6, though mine will be only 16 blocks instead of 25.  And the EQ block is simpler than mine.  I love being able to rough out variations in EQ6, it saves me so much time.

And now to sew some more, in the last few minutes in the day.

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 This is my stash post, a couple of days late.  Blogger wouldn't let me publish before this. 

Stash totals for last week are not very exciting, but at least I don't have to add anything; That parcel from America isn't here yet, so I can safely pretend that I'm actually making progress.

Fabric Used this week; 4.7m
Fabric Used Year-to-date;  107.3
Fabric Bought this week; 0.0
Fabric bought Total; 21.0
Net  Used for 2010; 86.3

I have a few more backings to make this week, that always make the figures look impressive, and there will be bindings after that. 

I've made several more strip sets for the spiderweb, I'm still having fun with that.  I need more hours in the day for sewing.

How does Judy get it all done?

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The weather is lovely at this time of year, not cold yet, but the heat of the summer is over.  Last Friday it was a lovely evening, so when we went out to visit Matt I decided to walk Dolly home.  It's an easy 5 kilometres, along a backroad that is part of the Heysen trail. 

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and so did Dolly, even though for safety's sake she had to be on her leash.

She was most intruiged by the cows, and they were equally fascinated by her.  She wouldn't be so brave if she was on the same side of the fence.

I've never been one for sports or mindless activity,  except for walking.  It's great therapy to get out in the open air and take notice of what is happening in the world outside. 

There are tiny shoots of grass appearing everywhere, and in a few weeks time these hills will be covered in grass, and wonderfully green.  The cows will appreciate that.

By the time we got home the sun was close to setting, and I felt pleasantly virtuous at all the exercise and fresh air.  Dolly just fell asleep straight away on the bathroom floor, cooling her belly on the tiles.  No photos, I have to leave her some dignity.

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The Chain quilt is all ready for the customer to collect, I get to admire it on my spare bed till then. 

I really like the back of it, where the patterns form a wholecloth quilt effect.  It's such a pleasure when the quilting works out so well; I usually take a lot of time choosing what to quilt, and it's always good when it turns out exactly as I planned.

I have two more tops that I have to quilt this weekend, and I'm procrastinating.  I would rather be in my sewing room playing with the pile of strips I cut for the Spiderweb blocks.

 I'm really loving the colours, no pale fabrics, only rich, warm and luscious stuff need apply.  I let myself sew up one strip set this morning, but that's all till one of the duty quilts is quilted. 

I love this block, the options are endless, and they are always surprising.  I'm considering doing one with all the dark points in the centre, so that the colours form concentric octagons, instead of alternating the wedges to form a kaleidoscope pattern.  I could just play with this for days, if I had the time.  And I seriously need to do one in blues and greys and blacks, but that will have to wait for a while.

This piece of William Morris fabric came home with me from Jamestown a while ago. 

I love it so much, I can't bear to put it in the stash drawers.  So it sits on my cutting table, where I keep seeing it and dreaming of starting a quilt in lovely soft blues and reds and browny-greens.... It certainly can't hurt to plan ahead.

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It was my turn to quilt on Millhouse, and I spent two days working on this quilt.  The customer had tried to quilt it herself, and then pulled out all her stitching and gave us the pinned quilt.  She gave us no instructions other than to make it pretty.  The piecing is simple and there are only two fabrics in the whole quilt, so I thought the quilting had better be elaborate to pique the interest.  I'll show a picture of the entire quilt later, it's too dark now for the quilting to show up in the picture of the whole thing.  I love how it turned out, I will definitely be using these quilting patterns on a quilt of my own.

Over the weekend I sewed whenever I could, and finally cut out the pieces for a Spiderweb quilt that I've been wanting to make for ages.  I haven't sewn the pieces together yet, still deciding if I like the strip widths I chose, but I'm glad this is underway at last.  It's a favourite block, so easy to put together, and it uses a heap of fabric; 11" for each block, and that adds up real quick.

This is the other project I'm working on.

The blocks have various names; Chimney Sweep, Album, Courthouse Steps.  I haven't decided what to call it yet.  I have a photo of an antique quilt saved from Ebay about 7 years ago, and it has a very peculiar setting, with the corners of each block joining each other and the alternate setting squares joined with set in seams.  It wouldn't be easy to put together, and I'm still deciding whether it would be worth the effort.  I'll let you know about that; I don't have to make my mind up just yet.

I've seen several antique quilts with blocks set like this, easy enough with hand piecing, not so easy by machine.

I may have trashed my stash drawers looking for the perfect double pink to set this with, and I may have snapped and ordered three yards from some place in the US, but I don't have to count that until it arrives on my doorstep.  I'll use it straight away for this project, but I think I may have ordered more material to fill up the parcel and make it all worthwhile.  As you do.......

I'd better cut out a lot of those Spiderweb blocks and use up a heap of stash quick smart.

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I have nothing to report on the stash numbers for this week; 2.5m in, and 2.5m out, so nothing much has changed.  I've used 102.6 metres this year and bought 21 metres for a net usage of 81.6 metres.

I finished the Milky Way top, and it turned out exactly as I wanted it to, which was a relief. 

Imagine having kept the fabric all these years, and dreamed of making it, only to have it turn out ho-hum.  But it didn't, and I can hardly wait to quilt this and start using it.  It's been a very satisfying project from start to finish. The fabrics all came from stash, none at all were purchased for this, although I did 'borrow' half a metre from Mereth to finish off the four-patches.

 

It's Autumn, and I'm loving the cooler weather.  So is Dolly, she's been racing around like a mad thing, full of energy and determined to make up for the months of inactivity over the hot summer.  I think her convalesence is officially over!  

It rained last night, and it's raining again now, which is wonderful.  We took a little drive tonight, to see the heavy clouds and just enjoy the scenery. 

 This is my favourite time of year, and I'm happy as a clam right now.  Look at the colour of those clouds!

Of course the rain means there are puddles, and Dolly found one on our evening walk. 

I hear it's very soothing on the feet....

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I've been quilting this embroidery quilt for the last two days, so there has been no time for sewing or blogging or anything else.  It turned out very pretty, I will have to take photos tomorrow when the light is better. 

Lots of things arrived in the post this week, books that I indulged in, and tops from customers, and a belated order from Hancocks, which I'd totally forgotten.  I put a Moda scrap bag in the cart, and they were out of stock.  I never gave it another thought until this showed up.  It's very pretty, Fig Tree & Co Fresh Cottons.  It's not someting I'd ever choose for myself, but I'll enjoy using these pretty fabrics in a scrap project sooner or later.  I guess I'd better include this in my stash usage as fabric purchased, even though technically I bought it last year.

Another purchase was this music book from Sheet Music Plus, which has some great songs in it.  I would have killed for this book when I was a teenager and Celtic music was really unfashionable.  There are a thousand songs here, enough to keep me busy for a while.  I'm still playing my recorder, a little better than when I started, but not much.  When I pick it up Dolly is like a cartoon dog, scrabbling for traction in her haste to get out the door and far away.  Nobody appreciates me!

I've been boring Mereth rigid with my talk about getting a digital SLR camera. The thing is, my current point and shoot will take good pictures, if I just take the time to learn to use it properly.  I've been taking photos in manual mode, trying to understand how it all works.  Honestly, if I can't do it with this camera then a more expensive, complicated one isn't going to solve the problem.  I hate being sensible, it's not fun.  But I've promised myself a better camera, if and when I learn how to use the settings properly.  That's an incentive.

In my quest to take a portrait shot of Dolly I've been sittting with her in the back garden trying to get all the conditions right.  The only outcome is that Dolly now puts her ears flat on her head when she sees the camera, and when I make her sit and stay so I can focus on her, she shuffles around until her back is to me.  Silly dog!

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Poor Dolly is not her usual happy self, and it will be a while before we get back to our nightly walks.  She's a very subdued little dog, and thinks twice about moving anywhere at all.  

We took her to the vet to be spayed on Wednesday, and it's been a tough few days as she recovers.  The vet commented on how tightly muscled she is, which has to be due to Macca, her Dad; her mum is a barrel of blubber.The tight muscles means she's very sore, and lets us know; I do believe she's getting even more spoiled now.   But it's hard to resist her woebegone little face.

We had a joint garage sale with friends today, so no sewing was achieved.  I'm working away at the Milky Way blocks, nearly three-quarters finished now. My sewing room is covered in a layer of navy and cream fabrics, which will take a lot of tidying up; I wish I could learn to pack things away as I go, but I don't seem to work that way.

I should probably start thinking about the next piecing project, seeing this is nearly done.  Time to go through the books and choose something new, something colourful I think.  I'm a bit tired of two colour quilts.

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I seem to have started another project on the weekend, quite out of the blue. Literally.

For years and years I've been collecting fabrics for this navy and white Milky Way quilt.  For all those years I've looked at that pile of FQs and said to myself 'You can't use them, they're for your Milky Way quilt, no touching them until that project is done'.  And last Saturday I was so sick of the enormous pile of fabric which I wasn't allowed to use, that I decided I"d better make the quilt once and for all and be done with it .

Thankfully it's turning out just like it's supposed to, and I have plenty of material. 

More than enough for this one quilt, so from now on I'll be able to include these navies in my current projects without any guilt or nagging about 'saving' them.  And I truly hope that I don't go straight out and buy more, which is what I usually do when I use a swag of material and deplete the stash.

The pattern is from this old book; it's an excellent pattern book, there are several quilts in there that I still want to do, after all these years. 

You can just see the Post-it notes at the top marking all the quilts I like.  I don't think any of them have a whole fabric drawer devoted to them, like my Milky Way did.

I have to set it out on the design wall and sew it piece by piece, but it's going together surprisingly quickly.  Mereth suggested that I am shallow enough to have cut the whole thing out just so that I could write it up in my fabric book as used.  Hah!  As if I would do that.  But the 6 metres I cut up for this bumped my figures over the 100 metre mark, which is a milestone.  It's an achievement to use that much material two months into the year, but I'm also pleased that I am still keeping track of the stash.  And I suppose the downside of that is that I also know how much fabric I've bought (18.5 metres)  and how much it cost.  Yes, well, we might gloss over that......

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I added another machine to the collection last week.  

I've wanted a Bernina 730 for ages, and this one was at the local sewing machine shop.  It's not in pristine condition, having come from a school; it must have had a very hard life judging from the chipped paint, bent foot and missing accessories.  But it still sews a beautiful stitch, so it's worth having.  I just love the shape of the early Berninas, very stylish.

I sewed some more Lady of the Lake blocks, I have 16 made now.  This is the way I've decided to press the seams.

I haven't been able to figure out a way that all the seams between blocks interlock nicely, but with this method there are only 4 seams that go the same way and I can live with that.

I press all the triangle seams open, to reduce the bulk, then add the two strips of 3 triangles at either end.

Then I add the sets of 5 triangles across the top and bottom.

And I twirl two of the intersections so that the seams between blocks nest together.

I was making each block from just two fabrics, I always think that it should be easier if you don't have to make decisions as you piece.  But then I get bored, and I'm tempted into making a few scrap blocks, and before you know it, the only blocks I like are the scrappy ones.

I like these so much I don't think I'll make anymore in just two fabrics.  Scrap is so much better.

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The saga of the zucchini continues; just one plant is producing way too much for me to deal with, but I'm valiantly trying to keep up. The problem is that if I skip picking them for one day then I'm greeted by monsters like this the next day; I've never seen anything grow so quick.

This morning I found 4 of them, so I spent the morning grating them, and salted them to get a lot of the water out. Then I made fritters and a double batch of Zucchini slice, and froze the rest for later. And tomorrow there will be more of them to deal with.

I'm leaving the squash to dry on the vine, and see if they develop thicker skins; it will help if I can just leave them for a while and give me a chance to use some of the ones on my kitchen table. The problem with really prolific plants is that all my friends have their own harvest, so I can't unload mine anywhere.

The recipe for the Zucchini relish was really easy, and it makes a nice fresh tasting accompaniment to cold meats. It's really wonderful with cheese though, I can eat half a jar with cheese and crackers for lunch, and Mereth has it on a cheese sandwich. We've gone through three jars already, so I may have to make another batch quick smart.

Don't you just love those little Mason jars? I got them from the Redback Trading Company here in Australia, and I'd like to invest in a few more of these smaller sizes. It makes no sense for me to open a big jar of anything, so it's wonderful to have a serving that's just right for me on my own.

Zucchini Relish

Use the coarse blade of the food processor to mince all the vegetables.

4 cups minced zucchini

3 cups minced carrots

4.5 cups minced onions

1.5 cups minced red or green peppers

1/4 cup salt (this is necessary for preserving, and it's spread amongst 13 cups of veggies)

2.25 cups vinegar

.75 cup sugar

1 tbspn celery seed

1 tbspn white mustard seed

3/4 tspn dry mustard ( put a whole tspn in, why muck about!)

Put everything in a large saucepan and cook for half an hour, or till the liquid is reduced by half. (It should look like a wet veggie mix rather than a soup.) Pack into sterilised jars while still hot, seal and process in a water bath for 20 minutes.

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Week 6 Stash Report;

Used this Week: 11.5 metres
Used year to Date: 75.00 metres
Added this Week: .25 metres
Added Year to Date: 15.25 metres
Net Used for 2010: 74.75 metres

I'm doing well at not adding to the stash, at recording my usage, and actually using some fabric. It's starting to look hopeful that I'll hit the 100 metre mark sometime in February, which will please me greatly. I know I use lots of fabric, and make lots of quilts, but I never kept track of any of it before. It's nice to be able to see what's happening with my stash.

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I've been working on my Lady of the Lake blocks, slowly building up the numbers. They are a good leader-ender project; I sew all the triangles for each block, then pack them into individual sandwich bags ready to iron when I have time. I like to sew the blocks all at once, as the pressing is a bit complicated, and I need to concentrate. It's nice to build up a collection of pieced units just waiting to be put together, it feels like all the hard work has already been done.

On the quilting front, I'm helping Mereth do a custom quilt, lots of feathers and more feathers. The top is beautifully put together, with lovely fabrics, and that makes working on it much more fun. I can't wait to see this when it comes off the frame, it should look absolutely gorgeous.

I finished my small quilt top, now to finalise the quilting designs to put on it. Mereth and I are giving a little talk at a quilting day, about how quilting changes the look of a quilt. So we are making several quilts of the same pattern, and each one will have a different style of quilting. It's fun working out what we're going to do; I have to piece another one like this, but it may be in different colours. I get too bored if I have to do the same thing all over again.

My garden is flourishing in the milder summer weather, and I'm getting overwhelmed by the few plants I have. One zucchini and one squash plant have taken over the whole garden bed, and they've produced an avalanche of fruit. I've bottled some relish, and frozen the puree, and eaten zucchini every day for a fortnight, and there's still loads left. The eggplant is ready to go mad as well, so I'm going to spend some time in the kitchen, trying to deal with it all. It's a good problem to have.

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It's been such nice weather lately, it's been a pleasure to take Dolly walking each evening. These photos are of the golf course, which is set out along the creek that wanders through the edge of the town. It's a nice safe walk, no cars to worry about, and lots of wildlife to admire.

Our 'greens' are not green at all; the black stuff is slag from the local lead smelters, and I think there's sump oil in there too, just to deter the weeds and keep the whole lot from blowing away. It's rough and ready, but dedicated golfers don't seem to mind.

This gum tree looks like an Ent, about to stride across the creek. It's amazing that it's still growing, with such a slim hold on the earth.A lovely sunset, birds settling in the branches overhead, and bunnies to chase; evening walks are the best.

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