WIP: City Samper and a Planning Sheet

Better late than never - almost 3 weeks in to the #100Days100Blocks Instagram sew-along I decided to join in ... and right from the first block I created (Block 20), I just couldn't help but rebel... Only one of the following 4 blocks was pieced strictly by the book.  Can you spot the rebellions?

This sew-along may just have helped me find my sewjo again.

Being late to the party means I need to do a bit of catchup, plus I have no time to sew on Tuesdays so I thought I would do a bit of planning and get the Tuesday blocks done ahead of time.  This means I'm doing the blocks all out of order and needed to keep track of which ones I've done ... so the planning sheet was born!  Born to be wild perhaps?

If you're interested in using this planning sheet, you can download it here (it's A4 - you may need to scale it):

• In Microsoft Word format
• In PDF format

Around the World Blog Hop

I was tagged by Carol of Happy Turtle in the Around the World Blog Hop, so here is my stop in all its glory.

What am I working on? 

In the studio there's not a lot happening at the moment, sadly.  There are a few reasons for this: 1) our forest garden, 2) my sewing classes and 3) sick kids.

One of my few WIPS - random HST cushion cover

1) Our Forest Garden

We are in the very early stages of planting/building/creating a forest garden.  The forest garden is designed as a whole system, so all plants (trees, shrubs, ground covers, etc) each have a role to play in either supporting the system or providing edible crops.  It will ultimately reach a point where it is self fertile (hopefully).  We fenced off an area of about 1100 square metres in our paddock, and are currently planting the bulk of the canopy layer, which is primarily fruit and nut trees, and some native nitrogen fixing trees.  We have heavy clay soil, so we hired a digger and dug HUGE holes for the fruit and nut trees, and then added lots of compost, rotted manure, roadkill, sand, gypsum and other lovely things all with the intention of improving the soil.  And by "we", I mean "me".  My husband drove the digger and I've been the one doing the hard labour to fill in the holes and plant the trees. 

Don't be fooled into thinking I know what I'm doing - I don't.  I bought a book, I read the book, I have a dream.  Now I'm moving barrow loads of dirt around our steep paddock.  And loving every minute. I have grown vegetables and berry fruit on a very small scale for over a decade now, and I have long had a dream of growing edible crops on a self-sufficient scale.  It is very exciting to be making that dream a reality. 

2) My sewing classes

The classes and workshops I offer are run from my home studio, I like my studio to be tidy at the start of a class, and as I am not a tidy person by nature I have found myself not wanting to start new things when a sewing class is coming up for fear of having to clean up after myself.  One of the classes I'm currently developing is a crazy piecing class, the WIP below will eventually be a class sample (yet another cushion cover probably).

How does my work differ from others of its genre? 

I wouldn't say I have a unique style, I make what I feel like making.  In terms of quilting style, I consider myself very definitely a Modern Quilter.  Negative space, asymmetrical composition, bold colours, lots of solids, minimalist, improv.  I love improv.  As far as I'm concerned I was born to improv.

Why do I write/create what I do? 

Well now here is where I may be a bit different.  After my daughter died, I found myself being drawn (even more so than before) to handcrafts.  The act of making something with your hands, I believe, is very beneficial at a number of levels.  I feel very strongly that a creative outlet can support those of us who have experienced profound grief as we adjust to life after loss.

Oh, you're still reading.  Thanks so much for sticking with it.  I am tagging the lovely Liz from Shush, I very much enjoy following Liz on Instagram, her posts have personality, she likes to share photos of good looking men (#shushhottie - most of whom I've never heard of as we don't have a TV), she makes magnificent sew together bags and she's a little bit crazy.  If, god forbid, you've never checked her out then I suggest you do.

 Linking up to:

Anything Goes Monday

WIP Wednesday

Lets Bee Social

Radiant Explosion: The Process

This is for those of you interested in how my Radiant Explosion quilt went from an idea to a finished quilt. My inspiration for the quilt came from Quilting Modern - I read the following phrase regarding their Supernova quilt and an idea popped into my head:  "Supernova dazzles with its explosive design and vibrant color palette.  Random fragments spin off ..." (p105, Quilting Modern: Techniques and Projects for Improvisational Quilts).

The original idea

After deciding what size I wanted the quilt to be (50" x 60"), I worked out the location of the epicentre.  I then marked out the quilt and epicentre on my design wall. I pulled the fabrics I wanted to use and then then crazy pieced panels.

Crazy pieced panels

I started cutting up the panels and sticking them on my design wall.  At some point between sewing the crazy panels together and then cutting them back up again, I realised that the pieces needed to be kind of wedge shaped, whereby the end closest to the epicentre should be narrower than the other end of the wedge.  I played around with it focussing on how it looked, with absolutely no consideration for how I was going to join it all together.  In the following pictures, all the coloured pieces are pinned to the design wall [aka cot flannel sheet hung from wall with coat hangers], I haven't started sewing them together yet.

So then I sat in front of it for quite a while thinking, hmmm, now what do I do?  I sewed them together in sections, by first adding white scraps to the top and bottom of each shard/wedge, and/or the sides of the wedge.  I would then trim to straighten the edges for sewing together.  When I removed a piece from the wall I put pins in my design wall/sheet so I could return them to the right place. I went through a cycle of  joining sections then pinning them back up on the wall, and moving onto another section, until I had large chunks pieced that could be joined together into a large circle.  Here is an example of a section sewn together.

Some sections pieced together

At some point I realised that joining all of these in the centre needed to be thought through.  I tried to do an improv curve when I'd joined part of the explosion together.  I knew I was on the right track but it didn't really cut the mustard.  I made sure I had lots of seam allowance in the centre, which looked like a big fat mess for a while.

I googled "circle shape in quilt" and ended up at Craftsy watching Sarah Fielke show me how to create perfect applique circles with ease.   So I appliqued a circle on my epicentre.  I machine stitched around the edge of the circle (as opposed to needle-turn applique - is that what it's called?), mama doesn't hand-sew. The centre of the explosion is where my inexperience let me down, and is definitely the one area that I would do differently if I did something similar again. 

Before applique

After - much better but an area to work on in the future

The negative space isn't all white with the odd shard of colour - that would have been much easier but for some reason mama decided to include some rays of Moda Bella Ivory.  My thinking was that it was a subtle way to extend the explosion, which I think it does (you'll just have to believe me, because you can't really tell from the photos).  In the photo below you can see the spacing of the rays.  I used the stitch and flip technique to turn the long rectangles into long triangles.

From here it was a matter of trying to square up the explosion and then piece the background into panels which could then be sewn together.  That one sentence sounds easy but in reality it took me longer than I thought it would, mostly because of the rays set on an angle.

I originally quilted it with a variegated thread, the thread was perfect from a palette perspective (orange, pink, purple) but it was far from perfect from a quilting perspective - the coloured thread highlighted the wonky/crazy shaped pieces but in a bad way, it didn't enhance the piecing - it contradicted it and made the crazy piecing seem all wrong.  So I unpicked it, it took quite a few hours to unpick then re-quilt (basically at the end of the day on Sunday, I was at the same point I was at the start of the day but quilted with a different coloured thread).  It was definitely worth it.

When I quilted it again, I started at the edge of the applique circle, with off-white thread (Wonderfil Konfetti 50wt - colour KT101).

Here is what I learnt:
- I want to do a dresden plate, or similar design with wedges joined in a central circle, so that I know the "proper" way to do it!
- I need more practice with Y seams (seeing as this is the first time I've ever done one)
- I need to remember to square up, it happens as part of the process when you make a quilt with rows of equal length, but is easily omitted when making a quilt like this.
- Sometimes its better if you don't know how much you don't know, otherwise you might not try things.
- I don't like the look of coloured thread quilted on white/light background.
- I really need to get my camera serviced because that black spot on all my photos is driving me crazy.
- Did you just go back and check each photo for the black spot?  I crop it out sometimes.

Thanks for reading!

Linking up to:

Anything Goes Monday at Stitch by Stitch
Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts 
Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

WIP Wednesday: February wrap-up

Last Wednesday of February, which means Spring is ever so closer for many of you, for us it means Autumn will soon be making it's presence felt.  I've got an awful lot on the go at the moment - here's a quick round up.

The girls and I dug up the last of our Rocket potatoes this morning, this is our haul from the four plants that were still in the ground:

Most days we get 6 eggs, they are usually still warm when I collect them, they all lay in one nesting box, even though there are 4 boxes to choose from! 

In the studio, there are many things in progress - taking priority is my entry for the Radiant Orchid challenge, I told myself I wouldn't give out any sneak peaks, to try and capitalise on the wow factor, but I can't talk about it and not show something, so here is a little snippet:

Scraps 101: we've got a guest post coming in the next few days, so stay tuned for that.  I'm currently trying out some things with selvedge scraps, so far I've sewn them onto some cardstock, and I think I'll slice it up and make some improv style cards with it.

I've got two bed-sized quilts in progress and two new patterns to go with them, one of them is for Pepper-Mae using the lovely Charley Harper fabric:

Also, in January I set a goal of completing a set of 4 improv pieced placemats - I haven't finished them, but I've got 5 of them pieced (made an extra one), here's a peak at them:

Finally, there's still time to enter our current giveaway - so check it out.

Linking up to:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced 

Fixing FMQ bloopers

I recently free motion quilted an entire bed-size quilt, this was quite a leap as previously I had only free motion quilted either practice pads or these bowls.  I quilted it in a mostly all-over meandering and ended up with a few "whoops" that I needed to fix.  On other things I've quilted I have thought to myself "I'll fix that at the end" and then haven't been able to find the bits that needed fixing, so this time I thought I'd mark the bits that need fixing by putting a bit of washi tape through some basting pins, so once I move a little away from the blooper, I put in a washi-ed basting pin and then carry on my merry way.

Once I'd meandered my way over the whole quilt, I went back and fixed things one by one.  Here's an example of how I fixed some of them.

1. Find the problem

2. Redo the quilting, making sure you stitch over existing quilting to lock the stitches

3. Unpick the original stitching

The repair doesn't look perfect (I'm still an FMQ beginner!) but it's only noticeable in the photos, when viewing the quilt in its entirety it would probably take me quite a while to find the repair.

What do you do with quilting that needs to be redone?  Do you fix it at the time or do you fix it later?  How do you mark the bits that need fixing?

Linking up to:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins

January Goal and plans for Scraps 101

I'm linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes this year, my first goal for January is to:

Complete a set of four improv-pieced placemats.

Sounds formidable, doesn't it?  I have started two of them and here is a sneak peak:

I also want to get up to project 30 of Scraps 101.

My most recent project I blogged about was project 21, so there's a few to get through.  In the coming weeks I'll have some guest posts from some special bloggers to share with you, which I'm really excited about. Also, as part of my Scraps 101 series I am planning a link party in February, and everyone who links up a recent scrappy project will go in the draw to win a great prize which will include (among other things) a 28mm Clover Rotary Cutter (a great size for working with scraps) and a pack of refill blades. Hopefully that will give you some motivation to rummage around in your scrap bins!

Linking up to:

 A Lovely Year of Finishes

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

WIP Wednesday: Basting and backing questions

I basted Ruby's quilt last week and have two questions for quilters out there:

1. Do you baste beyond the top?  I usually baste to the edge of the quilt top, but recently wondered whether perhaps I should baste the back and batting together where they extend out past the quilt top.

2. Do you cut the selvedges off your backing?  I decided not to cut the selvedges off when making Ruby's quilt and this seemed cute smart because a) it meant less work, and b) it saved some fabric.  But I thought maybe there's a reason it should be cut off, like it may affect the give of the backing or something???  The selvedges end up being cut off with all the excess when binding of course, but I was hoping to cut down on some wastage. 

I've been having a little fun with some improv quilting, here's a sneak peak:

Apart from making my husband's cake and basting quilts, here's some other happenings from around here:

I'm picking lovelies like these fresh from the garden at the moment, usually they don't last long enough to be photographed as Ruby and Pepper-Mae eat them straight from the garden but these ones cried out to be shared with the world.

This is my husband's biggest WIP - building a chicken house. We picked up 6 point of lay pullets on Monday, but their house isn't quite ready so they're a bit crowded in a little A frame coop, this is the poultry equivalent of living in a caravan while your dream house is being built. 

Note the lack of Christmas sewing.  One week to go and apart from a superhero cape for Ruby I have yet to make any Christmas gifts.

Linking up to:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

WIP: Scrappy Bits & Bobs

If you're new or haven't visited for a while, you may not have read about my Scraps 101 Series - I'm making 101 things out of scraps (or partly out of scraps), inspired by Crazy Mom Quilt's current 101 Scraps project.  Here are a couple more Scraps 101 projects as well as some other random WIP bits and bobs.

Scrappy tomatoes ... my tomatoes will need staking soon, I've completely forgotten to pinch out the laterals so they're a bit unruly.  I'm tying them to the stake with selvedge scraps and long strip scraps from squaring up fabric - this is project 8 of Scraps 101.  

Some of you will remember the Sewing Card activity I tried with Ruby - the other day she asked to do it again, I suggested a butterfly but she wanted to do another house.  I punched the holes, threaded the blunt needle and handed it over.  I told her which holes to put the needle through and she did the rest.  She managed this much of it, and we'll pick it up again another day.  So proud of her, that's a pretty good fine motor skill workout for a 3 year old (those are her hands in the photo).

Also, Ruby is making quilts out of lego!! (She calls them quilts, might not be too cosy for her dolls to snuggle under though)  So my recent doll's quilt inspiration has come full circle.

One of my WIPs is a festive lap quilt which has blocks framed in different colours.  I used some selvedge scraps pinned to the blocks so I wouldn't forget which colour to frame the blocks in.  Project 9 of Scraps 101 - and a very handy idea that I'll use again.

A couple of the trees on our town's main street are in bloom at the moment:

Finally, I'm busy getting giveaways ready for Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day - so be sure to come back here on December 9.  That's a slice of my life at the moment, what's happening in yours?

Linking up with:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

WIP Wednesday: Quilting Bloopers

I've been quilting the Winter's Lane quilt I mentioned a few weeks ago.  After the problems I had with the brown bag doll's quilt, Lorna suggested using a fresh needle or a bigger needle - I did both those things it definitely made a difference but I've still experienced some bloopers.  Can anyone suggest why I have the problems below, I'm guessing some of it is down to me, and some of it down to my machine/equipment.

1. Loop-da-loop - where did this loop come from?

2. Inconsistent stitch length - it's like my walking foot is encountering some resistance and decides to take baby steps, I moved my desk away from the wall so that the quit didn't bunch up behind the sewing machine but it still happened.  I also think this happens when I go too fast, so I tried hard to slow down and sew at an even pace. It mostly seemed to happen I was quilting the middle of the quilt, and so there was a lot of bulk sitting in the arm of the machine.

In the photo below, the horizontal line is the correct stitch length, and the vertical line (obviously) is the problem baby steps.

An update on sewing with Ruby, she loves using my measuring tape, so we made her one of her own out of a plain selvedge on which I wrote 1 - 20 in a range of colours, she loves using it.

Ruby also has asked to make another doll's quilt with the brown bag, awesome!  I wasn't ready at the moment she asked but I've been putting specific scraps into a brown bag so that we can sew another doll's quilt together soon.

I hope you're all having a great week!

Linking up with:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins

PS - if you'd like to see the finished quilt it is now up on the blog here!  Also, I'm having a giveaway to celebrate finishing the quilt, you can find the giveaway here.

A quick-quilt WiP and other random tidbits

I got hold of a charm pack of Kate & Birdie Paper Co Winter's Lane, played around to make some smallish blocks and am now working on a layout - this will be a quick-quilt with lots of negative space, I'm all about things that come together quickly at the moment.

I'm paying particular attention to an accurate 1/4 inch seam allowance, and have come up with this easy, albeit crude seam guide:

After sewing each seam I then check it against my rotary cutter ruler, I've been pleased with the results.  My new machine will have a 1/4 inch foot, but until then I'll be 'sticking' with this.

I needed a grocery bag holder; I have a ridiculous amount of vintage sheets - I put the two together and made this, which looked lovely sitting next to this retro coffee pot I thrifted recently.

My sister wanted a headband, so I rummaged around in my stash and made these - the thinner, pink one looks great on Pepper-Mae.

Finally, yesterday afternoon my brother dropped off a surprise (to us all) gift for the girls - twin orphan lambs, only 3 days old.  Ruby wants to name her lamb Ruby.  I suggested that perhaps this could get a bit confusing, how would I know which Ruby to take to kindergarten?

 

Linking up to:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Op Shop Show Off at Blackbird has Spoken