The last quarter of 2012 became a blur after a little while with a manic work schedule, the new James Bond movie Skyfall, and Christmas celebrations, and then all of a sudden it's the 31st December. Phew! (See Skyfall if you haven't already, it's a brilliant Bond movie!)
But I realise that there are some quilting/sewing projects I have neglected to post about. One of the unfinished quilt projects I started in August 2012 from left over quilt scraps has become a quilt in need of a border, and the Rose Quilt that I made for my Aunt M's 60th birthday was finally machine quilted and bound with a lovely scrap binding of fabrics used within the quilt.
And then in October I decided to make a counted cross-stitch embroidery sampler for a dear friend of mine as her Christmas present. I found a delightful Etsy dealer PopSoupSupplies who designed samplers of two favourite movie quotes my friend adores, but alas I was only able to complete one, and not the cushion that I had first envisioned. It became a wall hanging, but turned out pretty elfin good for elle-adhoc sewing. (Picture to follow soon).
So I've only really made one new quilted item since August, and that's the wall-hanging, and then with my job being advertised and the need to spend time writing an EXCELLENT job application, the quilt project I wanted to start over the Christmas/New Year break was delayed until this weekend. But I've started it. It's a 30's print quilt kit that I bought in 1999 from Patchwork Products in Rydalmere, Sydney when I went for my first sole holiday. (I'd like to point out that Ansett collapsed the weekend I flew to Sydney. Yes, my flights were booked with Ansett)I've spent the day cutting fabric into squares and strips. The good thing about waiting so long to start a kit is that I have amassed a larger 30's fabric fabric stash since 1999. I think 30's fabric reproduction fabrics were only new at the time, so there's a lot of similarity between the fabrics in the kit. Basically the same print in different colours.
But because I've taken so long to start the kit, I can now swap in different fabrics from my stash to increase the scrap variety of the quilt. It's a scrap quilt, after all. I trend towards scrap quilts and scrap styles of quilting. That's my signature I suppose.
A lot of my substituted in 30's fabrics came from St Charles, Missouri when I found a great place when I visited Missouri in 2005 - Kalico Patch, and came away with swarms of 30's and reproduction Civil Wars prints. It was a brilliant experience, and I still haven't used most of the fabrics I purchased so long ago. I think I bought them with the intention to make a Wedding Ring quilt for my Mum as the colours I bought were her favourites; Purple, Yellow and Green. (Needless to say I haven't started a Wedding Ring quilt. Curves are so in the Too Hard Basket!). And at the end of today I have a shoe box of 2" red squares; a shoe box of 2" strips that only needs the green and blue fabrics cut up, and then I can start on the white background fabric cutting.
Shoe boxes are so invaluable for quilting. Keep them. Don't throw them away. Keep them and use them for your quilting projects. They're an excellent way to store cut pieces of fabric waiting for assembly. Usually they're of a large rectangle size so your fabric pieces don't get folded or warped and need further ironing which can cause them to stretch.
And I've found them to be great as I re-use them for each new project I start, saving the previous projects scraps and leftovers within large ziplock bags which are then stored within plastic storage boxes. (I love the storage section of Big W and Bunnings, I really do!)
And just so you can see one of the 30's fabrics I'm using for this project, to see what fun it is to play with 30's reproduction fabrics, here's one of the red fabrics which is prevalent within the pattern. It's 30's white highland terriers' like my sister V's dog Harry who's a little love bug that likes to bite!
