moving on from the lounge room

My favourite thing in this house other than the floorboards, are these swing doors between the lounge room and the bedrooms and bathroom. 

They swing back and forth but are mostly propped open.

The handles are lovely and modernist too.

moving home

So I've lived in my current home for 13 years now, and Camp Hill for the last 35 years or so. Ive enjoyed the closeness to the city, the easy transport solutions and relative quietness of the neighbourhood. The constant construction in the past 5 years hasnt been fun and I've enjoyed the absence of incessant airplane noise this past year of covid. 

And now its time to leave. Now that the suburb ive loved is just starting to come alive with antique stores and bars and little boutique cafes and all sorts of nice neighbourhood amenities.

Time to find sonewhere for myself in the Worst. Real Estate. Market. Ever. Seasoned, cashed-up Buyers are out there doing it tough and my oblivious-ass is joining them soon.

I feel i need to record my house. Before it goes. Im sure it will get flipped into a Hampton-esque soulless family-box, or demolished and replaced with a Hampton-esque soulless family-box.

Ill start with the backyard. Today was a great Spring Saturday morning. Bright, damp and a warm sunny day brewing. Washing in the machine, pottering in the gardens, checking on plants and flowers.

This is the last of the garden path that used to connect my laundry with a rotary washing line that used to be in the middle of the neighbours backyard before the neighbouring house was moved there when the backyard was subdivided.

The house is pretty original to how the first family left it. The glass window to under the house is a favourite quirk, as is the only sash window from the kitchen to the backyard that the geckoes run across at night.

Under the backstairs is a great place to store my gardening bits and the lounger i found by the side of the road. Moss grows great on the concrete there and Sol lurks beneath the stairs to survey her world and swipe at ankles.

Lockdown quilt fest

So, I'm using my time in this Brisbane Lockdown to work on the first quilt I've actually made specifically for myself. I started this quilt back in 2018 when on impulse I went into the Mar Stitches and Craft fair one Saturday or Sunday to purposefully kick-start my sewjo. I found most of these fabrics in a fat quarter stall. It was when fat quarters were on the way out for most quilt shops. I understand why independant quilt shops have discontinued this wasteful and time consuming practise, but there is something fun about playing with lots of different fabric swatches, matching up colours and patterns. And this really kicked my sewjo back into gear back then.  

I used a free quilt pattern that I saw through Pinterest, and sat down and sewed.

Only last year did I pin baste the quilt together with help from my youngest Sister A. I've converted her to the cult of quilting since I started this quilt. Yay me! It was so nice having some help pinning the quilt. She doesn't make quilts of this size, just baby and lap quilts as "new baby" gifts. So she was taken aback by the size of this one. The quilt with borders is roughly 79" x 79", so it's big. But I have the backroom setup with the fabric table on dolleys which makes manuevering things easy. 

Early this year I decided to finish off a quilt that I'd started back in the 90's and when it was done I moved onto this purple beast while the sewjo was still fresh and flowing. Then .. LOCKDOWN. And now my work computer has pushed the sewing machine aside. There was a mad cleaning and re-arranging frenzy Tuesday night as I struggled with having my sewing space invaded. I have somewhat acclimatised to the invader, but I've made sure that I can push the "work stuff" aside in the evenings and get sewing quickly with music or streaming media playing beside me. 

You can see that the edge to edge quilting motif with the horizontal leaks and troughs works really well. A bit of a challenge with the ole domestic sewing machine. Bernina900 does her best though. And she's had a few more clean outs and oil treatments since I've started quilting this last month, than she's ever had before, so she's not complaining too much. I will need to get her a spa day this year though. 

I basically quilt back and forth with the edge of the walking foot as the spacing guide until the bobbin runs out.

The below fabric with the purple and blue pointilism swirls is one of the first quilting fabrics I bought when I visit my first quilting show with my Godmother who introduced me to the dangerous hobby of quilting by taking me to The Patchwork Tree that used to be right by the Motorway on Juliette Street. It's painted black and has townhouses built all around in now, but it used to have a bare dirt backyard where you could park and walk into a fabric wonderland. 

And done. We have a finished quilt.

Quilt is finally finished. Longarm quilted, bound, date and initials embroidered and wrapped for Mother's Day. 

Borders are on!

Borders are now on and ive made the leap to send thia quilt out for longarm quilting. Mad dash down to Cleveland on Anzac Day and maybe ill have a quilted top for Mother's Day.

Two borders, the first inner border echoing the stripes within the quilt. The outer green and blue border and nice 3" wide border with a fabric ive had since 2013. Shopping the stash for a win. 

The quilter said it was a pretty quilt when she saw it so im not alone in thinking its appealing. Yay! Hoping the chosen quilting design with complement the orderly block layout. 

And we're back - still Orange and Blue Stars

Its been an extra long Easter weekend. I planned to have the week before Easter off work so I could do some things like shop during the quiet of the day, to wash and sew fabric that I had bought at The Remnant Warehouse's pre-Easter sale, to get the lawns tidied and garden beds weeded. And then we had lockdown to stop a Covid19 outbreak, and then the rain set in. And rain it has. A lot. And then more. 

So, i tried to focus on what i could do with my time at home when my plans had to change. I was forced to do a little rearrange in my sewing room because of a zoom call Holy Thursday, so i found instead of putting things back as they were I started to find new homes or put these things away where they truly belonged. And then i started to play. And the tidy/creative mood hit. I finished a few incomplete jobs that have been partially cut or partially created for years and that ive just moved around when i needed space back. 

I finished a cutout Christmas stocking that was hanging around for 3 years. I then made the piping that ive been wanting to finish my quilted star cushion squares, and attached it and then lost my mojo for the back of the cushions. So, i have three 20.5" cushion tops waiting for backs to be finally complete. They will look good when done. 

And then I started the Swoon Patterns Bonnie bucket bag I've had cutout for 5 years. Big yay getting this done. I even sewed vinyl for the first time. Love this fabric so i hope it holds up a while, but I have tentative plans to make another sometime, now ive got it done once. 

So today, my last day, I decided to finish the quilt top i last blogged about. The orange and blue star quilt top i started in 2017. 

Last night I laid out the seven rows and found the seventh wasn't joined so changed the layout to be six rows of six blocks, which meant a new block was required. I searched for the notes i had made originally and rediscovered the no-waste flying geese instructions to make another block. During the search, which took a while, i moved and rearranged things to make things tidier. Now I'd like a large blanket box or garden storage bench to store my rolls of vinyl in the fabric room rather than keeping them on top of the fabric boxes where they get squished regularly. So marketplace has some great listings but the boxea wont fit in my nifty Fiat 500, and then there's the rain. Had to cancel on a great option cos of the car and rain. 

So I put things away and got on with completing the quilt top. 

I think I'll put one 2-3" border around the quilt top to frame it, using a blue fabric already in the quilt. Then use a different colour fabric that will balance the quilt top as the outer. I have a few scraps of blue sashing strips left so I may make some scrappy bias binding for the edge but it could be too shallow for binding. 

And I'll see how long it takes to get borders on and then a backing and pinning for quilting. I have one pinned quilt at the moment so i should quilt that first unless I send it out for longarm quilting. My Sis knows and uses someone. This quilt top size is just about beyond my patience and endurance thresholds. 

So, I'm pleased with my sewing progress this break, especially the handbag made, and I'm not sorry I didn't do clothes sewing this break. The weather isnt great for sewing and fitting. And I feel mentally cleared to move onto clothes sewing when the opportunity arises. 

Orange and Blue Stars

In progress shot of the orange and blue stars I've made using the no waste, flying geese method.
I've decided to give this finished quilt to my parents as they both like blue, and the orange works well as they often have an orange tomcat bringing muddy red paw prints onto their bed. Shouldn't show too much, I hope.