Moore Patchwork & Quilting

Sew and Sew

The last of the stitcheries from the Sew and Sew quilt:
Another two of my favourite blocks that I seem to use in a lot of my projects are the Pin Wheel and the Shoo Fly blocks.

Not sure what attracts me to them but it's probably that they work so well in scrappy quilts.  They look good in any project in fact!

The best part of sewing for me is the chance to do something creative.  It's very satisfying when I get an idea and see it turned into something that I like.  (Sometimes it starts out as one thing and becomes another.) I'm happiest when I'm creating.

 

 

The finished quilt:

This is the quilt all put together.  Finished size is 29" x 29".

I pieced left over pieces for the border and binding.  For the quilting I did what I often do - machine stitched  around the stitcheries and then did an stipple design over the rest of the quilt.

I had some fabric left over which I was able to piece for the backing (had to add a couple of extra pieces from my stash) so it also fulfills my SBS (Stash Busting Summer) requirements.

The pattern is available as a 3 part block of the month in printed format on my website.

Giveaway...

For the last week I've been telling you what I like about sewing so now it's your turn.

Just leave a comment about what you like about sewing between now and Monday afternoon, and you will go in the draw to win a copy of the Sew and Sew patterns. 

Until next time

Lyn

Sew and Sew blocks

Two more Sew and Sew blocks:

One of the best things about being involved in quilting is the friends I've made - not only in person but also on the internet. It's so nice having people who share the same interest to give you encouragement when you want to throw away the latest project or who will tell you if a fabric really doesn't belong 'there'!

And of course there are project bags.  Considering how many projects I seem to have on the go at once, I can never have too many project bags to keep myself organised. It makes life so much simpler if everything belong to a project is kept in the one place.

I've finished the quilt and next time will show you the finished item.

Fabric Club..

In the meantime, I received another lovely parcel of fabrics from my fabric club at Threadbear.

(Remember these don't count as 'purchases' for my SBS (Stash Busting Summer))

I just love the fabric in front.  It's a lovely red fabric with splashes of green.  I also like the greyish fabric behind it - it has dashes of red in it as well.

In fact, as usual I like all of the fabrics and know that they will come in very handy.

Until next time

Lyn

 

 

Even more Sew and Sew

Here are a couple of more blocks of my Sew and Sew quilt:

Back Stitch, Blanket Stitch and Lazy Daisy stitch, are three of my favourite stitches.  I use them in almost all my stitchery designs and find them to be very versatile.  It's funny how when I'm stuck on a stitchery I always turn to the tried and true and these are definitely tried and true!

As for Buttons - I love them - all shapes, sizes and colours. While clearing out my mother-in-law's sewing room I found heaps of lovely vintage buttons.  I now have them in a container in my studio and have started using them in my mixed-media art.  They always add dimension and a bit of interest to anything I'm doing.

 

Another three old favourite stitches of mine are Cross Stitch, Chain Stitch and Colonial Knots.  I use these a lot too especially Colonial Knots.  I used to use French Knots all the time until years ago in an Embroidery Class at Berrima Patchwork Shop I learned how to do Colonial Knots.  I find they sit flatter than French Knots and are much neater as well.

Chain Stitch is a stitch I've 'rediscovered' - I'm using it more and more for outlines.  Love the dimension it gives to stitcheries.

And the I Love to Sew block? Says it all!

Until next time

Lyn

More Sew and Sew

Another block from my Sew and Sew quilt:

What do you like to sew?

When I first started sewing I was about 16 - still at high school - and a friend introduced me to making my own clothes.  I really enjoyed it at the time because clothes were expensive to buy and fabric was cheap to buy so it made economic sense to make your own clothes.I kept doing this for years after that and then when the boys came along I made their clothes as well.

After I discovered patchwork my interest shifted a bit - also economically things changed as well - fabric became expensive and clothes became cheaper.  Then one day I realised that I actually didn't enjoy making clothes but enjoyed making quilts, bags, anything else and so my clothes making days came to an end.  Every now and then I think I should make myself 'something' but it always ends in disappointment (wrong size, colour, style etc) and I vow not to do it again!

Anniversary...

Well today is our 35th - yes 35th - wedding anniversary.  On this day in 1977 Robin and I were married in a church in Brisbane.  We can't believe how quickly time has flown and we both agree that we wouldn't change anything.  I have a wonderful husband and my boys a wonderful Dad.  We look forward to many more happy years ahead.

A few other history making things that happened in 1977:

1. Elvis Presley died.

2. Cadel Evans was born.

3. World Series Cricket started

4. Fleetwood Mac released Rumours album and Billy Joel released The Stranger (both favourites of mine).

5. Star Wars (the movie) was released.

6. Joh Bjelke Petersen was Premier of Queensland

7. Malcolm Fraser was Prime Minister and John Howard was Treasurer.

8. The average weekly wage for a man was $148 and the average weekly wage for a woman was $138.

Until next time

Lyn

Fabric

Still on my new stitchery quilt - Sew and Sew - thinking about what sewing means to me -

Baskets of fabric!  Yes, I know I'm trying to reduce my stash, but I still love fabric.  I just love the feel of it and the colours and the possibilities.  I can remember when I first did a patchwork class (more years ago than I like to admit), I was told that 'yellow' was a colour to avoid.  Now I think yellow is a colour that gives 'zing' to a project. 

The other stitchery block shows two of my favourite patchwork blocks - the Four Patch and the Nine Patch.  Both are so versatile and can be made in a jif. I like simple when it comes to sewing and they fit the bill.

You can see how I fussy cut some of the fabric to make the blocks - there were so many nice 'pictures' on the fabric that it seemed a shame to waste them.

Rain...

It's raining buckets up here in paradise. Not very good considering how much water we had last summer.  Hope you are dry where you are.

Until next time

Lyn

Relax

At the start of the year I always write out a list of goals I want to achieve in the year and then at the end of the year check back and see how I went.  I surprised myself last year - I actually achieved most of my goals and the ones I didn't reach are in progress. Last year I went a bit further and chose a 'word' to reflect what I wanted to achieve.  The word for 2011 was Bloom.

For 2012, I've chosen Relax.

Sometimes life gets very busy and there always seems to be a million things to do and not enough time to do them.  I compound this myself by trying to do more than I need to. This just makes me tired and stressed.  So this year I'm going to do things a bit differently. I'm going to relax.  Relaxing for me involves taking time out to do something creative especially something with my hands. For example, knitting or stitchery or drawing.  Helps me to slow down, take a deep breath, and re-group which helps me to get things in perspective and focus on those things which are most important.  The funny thing is, those days when I feel like I don't have time to stop and relax, that's usually when I need to!

But things are going to be different this year, when I feel my blood pressure rising and I'm breaking out in a cold sweat - I'm going to reach for the knitting needles/stitchery/pencil - and take a break.

I made a mixed-media poster for my studio noticeboard to remind me to refresh, renew, revive - in other words Relax!

Until next time

Lyn

Sew and Sew

Over the holidays, I started a new stitchery design called Sew and Sew.  It started with a selection of fat eighths from Lynette Anderson's Stitches range.  The fabrics are bright and fresh and have some lovely sewing related images on them.  They sat on my work table for a while until one day I decided that they would look nice in a small quilt to hang in my studio.  For the theme, I looked to the fabric for inspiration and settled on 12  stitcheries with each stitchery depicting something I like about sewing. 

I debated about what colour thread to use but in the end went for a single colour - DMC 107 - which is a nice variegated red.

The first stitchery is 'dream'. For me sewing is very relaxing and gives me a chance to slow down and let my mind wander.  I sometimes find myself in a world of my own thinking through problems or just dreaming about things I would like to do. It leaves me feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the world again.

In the next few days, I'll show you some more of the stitcheries.

Until next time

Lyn

Noddy

Last week on Life Matters (ABC Radio National) there was story of a man who collects jaffle irons.  He started off innocently enough when he found an old jaffle iron in a op shop. It brought back lots of fond childhood memories so he took it home and cleaned up. He then found himself looking for jaffle irons wherever he went until now he has a collection of over 70.  I laughed the whole way through the story especially how he tried to hide his purchases from his wife (how do you hide 70 jaffle irons?) and the lengths he went to to secure his next 'find'.

The reason I found it funny?  Confession time - I am a collector of Noddy books!  Not just any old Noddy books but vintage Noddy books.

Like the man in the story, my collection started innocently enough when I found a Noddy book in the secondhand shop.  It  brought back those lovely warm memories of sitting on Dad's lap and listening to the latest exploits of Noddy and Big Ears and then later on, cuddling my boys on my lap and reading them the same stories.

I just couldn't resist buying it.  It sat alone on my bookshelf for a few months until I discovered a whole world of collectors and collections on EBay. 

Now, my collection is steadily growing and I even set aside its very own shelf with a special security guard!

Until next time

Lyn

Another small quilt

A few months ago I bought a pack of charm squares from the Little Apples range with the intention of making a baby quilt but despite my good intentions, the charm squares sat waiting patiently in my stash.

I was looking for some inspiration when I came across this pattern from a Patchwork and Quilting magazine.

Ruth Buchanan had done a series of quiltlets and each one was named after an Australian place with a different letter of the alphabet.  This one is N is for Nuriootpa made from 5" charm squares. Just to digress - I loved that series - they were all such handy little quilts each featuring a different technique. As an added bonus, she also had a description of the place the quiltlet was named after. Nuriootpa is a town in South Australia.

Anyway, back to the quilt.

It was very quick to make and I had just enough charm squares for the top.

 

I quilted it all over with grey thread and the binding is some red fabric from my stash. (For the backing I managed to use a couple of fat quarters.)

Finished size is 20.5" x 20.5" - a handy little table topper.

Meanwhile, I'm still cutting out the little corner squares for my Snowball quilt.  I might actually start sewing sometime tomorrow.

Until next time

Lyn

Snowball Quilt

I was trying to think of another SBS project when I stumbled across a quilt on Cluck Cluck Sew's blog featuring a snowball block. She had used 5" charm squares and made a table runner, but I'm going to make mine bigger and make a quilt about 36-40" square.

I'm not using pre-cut squares, but cut my own 5" squares from fabric in my stash.  I'm mainly using reproduction fabrics but noticed that there are a few 'stray' fabrics in the mix as well.

The only problem I had was the corner squares.  They are cut at 1 3/4" and you need 4 for each block. That works out to a lot of little squares.  I realised that I didn't have enough of any one light fabric to make all of the squares but sticking to my resolve of only using my stash fabrics, I've chosen to use a couple of similiar but different shirting fabrics. I think it will work okay. 

Soap...

Aaron returned from his holiday in Malaysia and Thailand and brought me back a couple of gifts.

One of the gifts is this beautiful hand painted circular box.

The box is approx. 3" in diameter and is a lovely polished wood.  The detail in the painting is just amazing.

 

 

The surprise is when you open the box.

 

 

 

Inside is a hand carved and painted soap.

Isn't it amazing.  The detail and colours are just magnificent.  The added bonus is that smells good as well.

 

 

Until next time

Lyn