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.

Lifeline thrift crafting

Passed by a new to me Lifeline (Carina) and found two vintage 60s sheets ( still with the QA sticker on one) and two Tilda Fabrics cushion kits. Nice find.
I'm thinking a nice loose 60s blouse or fitted wiggle dress for the fabric. I was checking out my Gertie pattern books during the week so it might be fate.

Lone star block

I spent the evening playing around with a Lone Star quilt block tutorial as I'd seen a few excellent examples on Pinterest recently that sparked my quiltspiration, so I went searching for an online tutorial that could get me started in flexing my piecing skills.

It's taken all week to finally decide on the 5 fabrics I would use in the block. I thought it would be an easy pick but instead of the various shades of green I thought I'd be using I've ended up with a candy pink and blue collection. Fortunately all the fabrics were drawn from my existing stash and I didn't purchase any new fabrics. Though there were a few moments when I thought about caving and finding an open fabric store to "get something new" which has sort of confirmed a belief I've been thinking for a  while, that I've turned into the bad kind of hoarder - the kind that is always buying and never using!

So, I'm glad for that reason that I didn't buy anything new and could finally decide on a combination of dark and light and textured fabrics so that I could finally begin.

I have wanted to try this block design for a long while, probably since I first started quilting and noticing quilt patterns. It's a striking pattern that can be remarkably different with various colour and print combinations. Because I've noticed that I haven't been "using" my stash I tried to play with colours that aren't my favourite palette. I bought a lot of pink fabrics years ago for my Aunt M's Rose Quilt and I've still got an awful lot leftover because it's not a colour I enjoy.

It's also a technically challenging block using bias cut strip piecing, and requiring precision piecing with all the seams and triangles to align and match, and then finally because of the Y-seam sewing. I'm completely in the hands of online tutorials too. I've never been one for classes and workshops so the rise of online tutorials on YouTube and through Pinterest for craft is a godsend for me. I enjoy the teach myself as I go experience. Even though, at the same time, I really do wish I had a quilting buddy to work along with for these projects. I'm just never in step with anyone else.

Anyways, I had a successful evening strip sewing then cutting 45 degree angle strips to combine into diamond star points. I'm a pinner so I didn't hesitate to pin my strip seams, but I found it useful to rule and 1/4 inch line on the strips to help guide my seam matching after a few mis-alignments that ended with a destroyed set of strips. Good thing there was extra leftover from the strip sets to cut replacements! It's always better to have more than enough for those just in case moments.

Fabric-a-brac Brisbane 20th September 2014

So, a friend and I have decided the best way to move some of our craft stash is to sell it. !
And so we've signed on for a table at the Brisbane Fabric-a-brac (held on the Sunshine Coast and not Brisbane) to try and move some stash.

And so my issue now, after agreeing, is so what do I part with. Gulp.

Anyways, please come along because it's a great market. I've bought some fabulous stuff from the previous two (no, I haven't used them yet, and no I'm not going to be selling it) markets and I have no hesitation in recommending the market. If you like vintage fabrics get yourself some!

So once I've worked out what you can have, it'll be a great market. I have no expectation that I'll make some money so there will be no surprises for me. But I'm looking forward to seeing what others will be selling. My interest in vintage fabrics and textiles has more than doubled in the past year, so I'm keen to see what'll be there.

Fabric-A-Brac Facebook

The Hexie journey so far - Tula Pink's Saltwater

Over the past year I've become obsessed with Hexagon Paper Piecing. I discovered the fabric designer Tula Pink and her fabrics are now forever entwined with the notion of paper piecing for me. Here are the first five rows for my Hexie project, Tula Pink's kit Hex on the Beach.
Just have sew them together now before I move onto making more Hexies.
 

 

In January 2013 I bought the kit online from Fabricworm because I couldn't find anyone here in Australia who knew about it or put it on their websites, and it was already selling out in the US. I found Tula Pink's fabrics, especially her Saltwater range through Facebook I think or through another US-based online Quilting store, The Fat Quarter Shop when I used them to source some foundation piecing papers for another project I found online and had to have. Facebook has hooked me up with some great Quilting resources.

 

 

 

What really impressed me with the project was the terrific rhythm in using each of the fabrics in each of the colours in the Saltwater collection to create a beautiful colour wash picture of sun, land and water. I'm a big fan of Tula Pink Fabrics now. I just love her style and colour and whimsy. I totally understand how her kits sell out so quickly. I missed out on her Peaks & Valley's kit with her Acacia fabrics. Just lovely!

 

I've never been interested in hand piecing patchwork before. I've always considered it too small and slow. Which was stupid of me. For too long I've been trapped into using one room of my home for sewing and longing for a project I could travel with me or keep my hands occupied in front of the TV and my best movie collection. And here it was! 

 

I've been combing online sewing sources and learning about Hexie sewing for the past year. I know it's taken a year to complete two rows of Hexies but I'm not rushing this project. It's a long haul project. It always was going to be. 

 

It is weird that this week while my eyes have been assaulted with conjunctivitis I've done the most work on it. Blinking blearily through my stitches and unpicking. (Always check the placement of your rows before you begin sewing the rows together. )

 

I know I'm hooked because I've already looked up the Accuquilt Go! die block cutting machine and Hexagon dies and added them to my Amazon wishlist. One day!

Sew sew sew - holiday sewing

Using up some indigo print charm squares that I've had since I began quilting, so over 10 years old. I had a number in three tone prints, only thirteen, and each star block calls for eight. And today, for the life of me, I couldn't find more to round up my numbers. The problem with keeping things for so long. But buried in my stash were a few other bits I was able to work in to solve the issue. The red background fabric came from a fabric binge in Sydney last year. Using it up is helping with my buyer's guilt.
I also modified the pattern, increasing the square to 6 inches. I think I could end up with two cushion sized blocks.

Finished

Backing and Binding

Sebastian's Quilt is Quilted

Finished!

Well, all except the binding. I have to make the binding now. I have kept all the leftover strips from piecing the quilt top, so I have strips already cut to sew together. I do like the scrap-look so I don't have a problem with creating binding out of these pieces. Mind you, I also have some blue fabrics left too, so I'll have a play and see what's best for the quilt.

First hitch I ran into with quilting the top was the thread colour I chose. I used the dark navy blue I had onhand to ditch and when I'd finished that I noticed that it wasn't perfect choice. I really should have found a dusty medium blue thread which would have worked better with the lighter fabrics.

And to this calamity, my godmother came to the rescue with her Aladdin's Cave of threads. She shared a fantastic variegated red-white-blue-green-yellow thread which I used to finish quilting the top. If I had continued using the dark navy blue it really would have ruined the whole quilt. As it is there are some VERY wavy diagonal lines throughout the quilt top and I'm just going to live with them. After all, it's for a boy and it will be used not preserved, so the wavy lines are my perfectionist hangups to get over.

The second issue I encountered was after ditching and straight stitching the inner border I went to start free-motion quilting the outer border and found my machine wouldn't keep a stitch in the fabric. The top thread frayed apart after two loops. Disaster! 

I haven't free motioned in a long while so I wondered if I'd remembered everything correctly. Was I causing the problem myself? What tension should the machine be set at? Was it the variegated thread? What was causing the issue? The machine has just been serviced and I wasn't looking forward to taking it back and saying you've broken my machine, did you change it so I couldn't quilt anymore? So I quickly jumped online to search for an answer.

And low and behold there was the answer halfway through a post from Don't Call Me Betsy's blog. That's two weeks in a row she's helped me out. Change the needle. I couldn't remember when I'd changed the needle, but I did it anyway and tested it out on my scrap of fabric, and immediately I was at last free motion quilting. Phew! Thank you Elizabeth!

So I finished free-motioning the outer border and trimmed the excess wadding and backing fabric away and so I'm ready to get binding and then embroider my nephew's name on the back.

Weathervane block

So, I was browsing the web Sunday afternoon for free bag patterns to spark my interest and then I found some great free quilt patterns which I decided to download and in the process discovered a great new stitching blog. Don't call me Betsy. 

Specifically, I found her post about the Weathervane Block and the little experiment she tried out which she made into a tutorial. And it looked easy enough to follow as well as being a bit challenging. So I gave it a go!

I'm a fan of traditional straight edged blocks and I like playing with fabric colours and patterns to see what happens. I've loved this yellow paisley fabric since I bought in Sydney last April and the gelato striped fabric I think came to me as a scrap from my Great-Aunt M's stash. I've had a terrible experience with striped fabric in the past so I needed to try again. And the soft green teacup fabric I bought in a great store in St Charles Missouri in 2005 and I've been dying to use it in something fun. 

I'm really impressed with the pattern and how easy it was to pull together, though I'm not a fan of pressed open seams.

I thought that I could use this as practice piece for machine quilting designs being small enough to be a manageable quilting piece on the machine, but also have the scope to try quilting around shapes and filling in spaces with different patterns rather than free motion stippling. I haven't really progressed past the basic beginner level of quilting so I need to make an effort to practice these aspects. And I'm better when there's a product at the end of a task rather than quilting blank space on scraps. The waste kinda gets to me. What do I do with the quilted scraps? Hence, the mini-quilt quilting project idea inspired by Don't Call Me Betsy's weathervane block tutorial.

BTW - I totally get the Betsy thing, cos I'm the same about being called Ellie instead of Elle. Urgh!

Diversion - Vintage Stylin'

So, I ran into a hitch with my nephews' quilt quilting. Basically, I was using the wrong coloured thread and thereby ruining the look of the patchwork top. 

Here's a quilt I had started quilting many years ago. It was made quickly from a grey vintage cotton fabric I found in my thrifting along with some great 30style red flower print and complementing green and yellow prints. And since then it's been languishing and being moved around the sewing room. 

Rather than put everything away I decided to quilt my old project. So far its tricky and I'm wishing I knew more about quilting patterns rather than ditching everything.

Let the quilting commence!

Sebbie's quilt - almost there

I've finally sewn together a quilt for my nephew and it's pinned now. Quilting is just around the corner.

Upcycled textiles - sewing for profit

I'm in the middle of a project sewing together handbags, totes and clutch purses out of vintage and repurposed textiles to sell through the local not-for-profit recycling organization Reverse Garbage.

The label I'm sewing under is Made by Midge Lloyd, which is a name that I've been kicking around for a few years now. 

In September I bought this fabulous book of bag patterns from which I made a birthday present for my mum. She lived it and even better it was super easy to make and really stylish too. And then suddenly there was this invite for new artists for an upcoming exhibition, so it all seemed like a confluence of good omens that I just had to run with. 

So here I am at 1am making a tote bag out of an upcycled curtain, jeans pockets, thrift store found zippers and destashed cotton fabric donated from my great aunt M. This will be bag number 6, and tomorrow I need to make a couple more to bring the total closer to 10 items for the upcoming exhibition opening next Saturday the 30th.

I think I'm using up my own stash, but at the moment it's hard to tell. Each time I start a new bag I begin with a ritual of reorganizing all the boxes and piles of fabrics and assorted tools before commencing cutting out. I'm laughing at my OCD as I do it, but also don't feel comfortable with the new project until things are just-so around me.
I've bought two new pairs of scissors and two new rotary cutting tools since I got going. The extra expense was definitely not meant to be the aim of this exercise. It was meant to be about reducing my own fabric stash and make some income from sewing.  I have that terrible feeling that no-one will buy my bags and it will all end in crushing failure. Go me! Way to keep the positive flowing.