We are in!!

Its been a huge few weeks of packing and unpacking and settling in to our new house.  I am exhausted to say the least.

My fabric and other assorted crafty stuff has been reappearing from storage and is now up in my room. Unfortunately thats is as far as its gone as I haven't had the time or energy to deal with it.  Have to have it set up by early August when my crafty girlfriends come over for our regular get together.

This is what it looks like at the moment.

And thats just the stuff you can see in the pic!!  There is more!!

That white thing near the bottom right hand corner is actually a table that I haven't even put together yet...lol.  At least I have chairs!

I am curiously not feeling very craft minded at all at the moment.  I am sure its just tiredness and that once my room is up and functioning I may never come out again except to eat and pee...ok and maybe take the kids to school.

Still alive

Been ages since I posted, we have been flat out getting ready to shift house.  Among the preparations has been the dismantling of my sewing area which is a bummer but necessary.  We have a fantastic house to move into and I have the most amazing sewing room in it. Here is a before picture.

Those fluro lights are going light that room up for sure!!  I get my own split system heater/cooler too.
See my house blog if you want a better look.  Two weeks to go and we are in.

Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt Along

No idea at all what week we are at with the quilt along but I am just plugging along getting my blocks done.

Today I have finished Block 96 Tulip.  This was a pretty quick block to do and I quite like how its turned out.

Block number 97 is called Waste Not.  I had already printed out the paper piecing pattern when I realised that I should have reversed the image.  Taking the blocks name into account I decided to use the pattern I had printed as well as print another reversed image.  

This is the block as it should be, printed in reverse to make the block this way.

This is the block using the original pattern I printed.   The colors I chose in this block have more contrast and thats probably why I like it better!

FWQAL On a Roll

Have been sewing again today so decided to post straight away.

Earlier I was chatting about how to set out the quilt and when I worked it out I need 144 blocks, 72 on point and 72 square.

So I went through the patterns for the 111 blocks provided and worked out how I would place each.  Some blocks I have done twice, either because I forgot to reverse them, they were original hand pieced ones or I just didn't like the first version.   I really don't want to use the two latter types of blocks but the reversed blocks are no problem.   So I need to find about 30 or so other blocks to add in.

I am going to do a second version of some of my fave blocks in the book but I don't really want to have heaps of repeats.   I went trawling through the meagre supply of block books I still have here at our rental and came across a Carol Doak book I got for Christmas.  It has 300 block patterns which is fantastic.  They only have numbers for each block not names which is a bit of a bummer but also allows me to make up my own names.  Ok I could go and google each picture or something similar but that wouldn't be as much fun now would it?

This first block is from the FWS book called Temperance Tree.  It made me think of my late father Jim.  When he was 12 the Temperance Union came to his school and he signed a pledge to abstain from alcohol until he was 21.  He kept his promise and was never a big or regular drinker.  When we cleared out his house we found a cask of port with a 1979 expiry date among other bottles of wine and spirits that were clearly beyond consumption.  Why he kept them is anyone's guess but he obviously didn't check out his drinks cupboard very often.  LOL  I still have his pledge certificate, its a huge elaborate thing about A3 size.  When they gave out certificates back then they sure knew how to do it right!

Temperance Tree

This second block is from Carol Doak's book 300 Paper Pieced Quilt Blocks.  Its quite an amazing book with a CD that allows you to change the size of the blocks.
Anyway I chose block 278 but have changed the name to Geese in Pud's Garden.

Who is Pud and why are there geese in her garden I hear you ask?   Ok I didn't actually hear you but I am sure you did!

Pud (also known as Sue) is married to my eldest brother (I have a few) and they have 4 acres about an hour or so from where I live.  Pud is her nickname from her side of the family.  Anyway they have all manner of animals wandering around, geese, ducks, guinea fowl, chooks, peahens, guinea pigs, birds, turtles, rabbits, sheep, cats and a massive dog that I am sure the kids could ride if he would only stay still long enough.

This is Pud/Sue and I preparing for the 2011 Melbourne Marathon 10km run. Thats me on the left btw.  We didn't actually run the course, get serious we would have been in the ambulance after the first km. We walked the whole thing at a fast pace....then a medium pace, then a "I'm just going to put my head down and get to the end if it kills me" pace.  We took so long they were taking down the marker posts as we were approaching them!  It took us 2 hours and 38 minutes but dammit we did it!  This year we are doing the 3km walk instead!  ROFL

 Pud/Sue may be my sister in law but she is also one of my best friends.  She is a very talented crafter, be it stamping, embroidery, or quilting to name a few. She is a bit nuts but so am I.   We have a lot of fun together and are both enablers for each others worst habits....not sure this is a good thing though!  LOL   When we get a chance to hang out this is usually what we look like:

So in honor of my sis in law Pud/Sue and her crazy farm and her crazy self I have made this block for my Farmers Wife Sampler.

Farmers Wife Pony Club

While I have been working on my farmers wife sampler I have also done more blocks for my pony club quilt.  I've had two BOM parcels for this so far and these blocks are from both parcels.  They are sent out in order of the letters in the book rather than in alphabetical order as the farmer wife sampler was.

Arizona
I just love this block, so bright and alot easier to do than I thought it would be.

Home Treasure
more sedate but the brown batik has a really nice yellow through it.

At the Depot
the original had horses on it, this one is much plainer but I like it.  I think the blue will pop in a  quilt.

I am enjoying these blocks so far but am definitely concentrating on getting the farmers wife sampler finished before I turn my full attention to it.  I like the bigger blocks alot.

FWQAL week something or other...maybe 31?

Really have to work on keeping track of what week this quilt-along is at!!

Its school holidays here in Melbourne and for us its a chance to kick back and do as little as possible.  It feels like during school term we are so busy running around to different activities that we don't get time to spend at home just playing.   So other than our week at the beach and a few days of get togethers with family and friends we have just hung out.  The boys have been having a ball on the water slide we bought their father for his birthday last week.  Yep he is my biggest kid.  Unfortunately he is too big a kid for the slide so he has had to miss out on the fun.

Right now back to the Farmers wife Sampler.

Here are the blocks I have finished since my last post.

Block 57 Morning
I had a lot of trouble piecing this one which is why its only just being finished now.  Its my humility block....its going in to remind me not to get too cocky about my abilities.

Block 91 Strawberry basket
I really like how the yellow and red pop with each other.

Block 92 Streak of Lightning
Would do this again but in a black/white combo next time, more stormy

Block 8 Bouquet version 2
This is the block that made me switch from hand piecing to paper /foundation piecing!  I  had tried so hard and the original came out so wonky it was really depressing.  Thats when I discovered Carol Doak's method of paper piecing and I haven't looked back.

Block 93 Swallow
I have really grown to like this block, it does bring the image to mind of a diving bird doesn't it.

Block 94 Tall Pine Tree
this has just turned out so pretty, very happy.
 

Getting close to finishing now which is pretty exciting and also a little daunting.  Now I have to put it all together!!
I have been debating just how to do it and what layout to use.  Although I like the sashing that Laurie has used on the original quilt its not what I want to do.   Debating using this layout by Michelle from the City Studio.  Just need to pick a background fabric.  White makes the most sense but I want to use this quilt on my bed and a white quilt anywhere near a male is not a great idea.   I have pink/purple/blue/green and yellow moda 1930's solids so I could choose one of them.  I would need to buy a few more yards of it though.  Yellow would work I think.  Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Farmers Wife Pony Club

Really wanted to do this quilt, had intended on splitting the blocks up to make a quilt each for my young sons.  I thought it would be great for them but they weren't interested.

So instead I have started it using Batiks as a BOM from Homestead Hearth.   So far I have received the fabric for 10 blocks but have only managed one.  They are a great size at 8 1/2" and very easy to make.  Paper piecing them again and haven't printed up more foundations so thats why only one block!!  LOL

A Dandy  (ad)

FWQAL Week 27

Well I am waaaayy behind on posting for this quilt along but here is what I have been doing in the meantime.

2nd version of Block 9 Box.  The original is a reversed image

2nd version of block 16 Calico Puzzle, another one where the first block was the reverse image

and yep another one, block 41 Friendship Star

Block 81 Snowball

Block 82 Spider Legs

Block 83 Spider Web  (this one is a bit mushy looking, not enough contrast)

Block 84 Spool  Not sure if the spool should go this way

or this way?

Block 85 Square Dance

Block 86 Squash Blossom

Block 87 Star Gardener

Block 88 Star of Hope 

Block 89 Steps to the Altar

Block 90 Storm Signal

I have really enjoyed this quilt so far.  There are only 21 more blocks in my BOM, I have all bar 5 of them here, just have to put them together.  My last parcel should also have the sashing in it.  I have chosen a 30's purple but not sure I will end up using it.  I already have yardage of the Moda 1930's pink, green, blue and yellow so I can play around a bit until I am sure what I want.  Leaning a little to the yellow because its just so damn cheerful!

A long time ago.....

Yes I have been a total slacker and have not posted in ages!!  It has been a combination of the camera having a flat battery and me just not being bothered.

So why now you ask?

Well here in Melbourne it is bloody hot!  Too hot to go outside and too hot too do anything much at all but sit in front of a fan and suck up the cooling air.  How hot I hear you ask....well yesterday it got to 42 degrees Celsius (thats about 107 degrees Fahrenheit) and today its about 36 degrees (or around 98 degrees).  Thankfully a cool change should come in tonight sometime and we will be back to the mid 20's (or mid 70's).

We had a wonderful Christmas eve celebrating with both sides of our family.  We were looking forward to a pretty relaxed Christmas Day when our part of Melbourne was hit by a massive hail storm and an enormous downpour.   End result was all our cars are now hail damaged but thankfully our house was fine.

As for building our new house, well it now has a roof!!  You can read all about our build here.