Monday 30 June 2014

Quilt bombing


I have been seeing a whole lot of cars covered in quilts. I think it is an amazing concept. If someone could yarn-bomb a sub-marine then surely we should all be quilt-bombing objects, like cars.
Here is a picture of the yarn-bombed sub-marine, I think it looks quite fetching in orange. Far less angry than the normal grey that they get shown in. Click on the picture if you want to see the original post.

I have a huge tub of extra blocks that I have made for each of the quilts that I have constructed. I think it shows that I don't exactly plan as well as I should. I also change my mind when it comes to things like the back of quilts and borders.
I have tried to do the thing that I have seem many other quilters do and that is throw their extra bits together and hey presto an amazing quilt appears. I have tried to do this and all that I achieved was a slight feeling of nausea as the cacophony of colours and shapes bombarded my eyeballs. I will quickly take a picture and share. Should you feel bad, just think, I did warn you. I got bored with making a mess,but, I am sure you can see what I mean.
So now I think covering unsuspecting cars may just be the way to go. I have found a whole lot of examples to inspire. Should anyone who own these delights, view them here, I hope you don't mind me sharing your genius.

Muscle car!
 Sweet
 mom's taxi
 Nice bug. I love the soft colours. See how nice this is, I have a horrid feeling that if I made a quilt for my car, I would get a fine for lewd behaviour.
This one looks like Cadillac









Hope you will join me in this concept. I think it is the way to go.

Have an amazing day

Sunday 29 June 2014

Granny's garden progress

Work on the granny's garden is now in its 3rd week and progress is slow. I have covered a whole lot of paper and made 22 flowers. I need to make at least 218 so I am currently at 10%. I have only covered enough papers to make 40 flowers, so I will need to cycle back into covering paper with fabric.

I have  once again used the same tub that I used for Dear Jane. These flowers are slightly smaller, to finish the top without a border this tub will need to be filled to the top with flowers.

I have a cedar block in with the blocks. This is just for the fun of it and to make sure that the flowers are not snacked on before they appear on a bed. I hope it doesn't get snacked on once it is a full quilt, but that is a whole different concern.

I once again am keeping stats on progress. I think having worked in the corporate world for too many years has corrupted my mind. There is a bit of satisfaction seeing progress being made.
When I took off work to have my youngest, I did a cross-stitch picture every 20 days. This was done due to pressure I put on myself. I try to be zen and one day I may even achieve this.

I am looking a barns as I want to do an appliqué border and if you have flowers then surely you should be able to have a barn in the corners. Barns are gorgeous and they are one of those things I would love to have. I have always lived in the suburbs and probably always will so I will just collect pictures of them.

Hope you make progress on whatever project you are currently working on.

Have an amazing day.


Friday 27 June 2014

Pressies Received


Last month there was a blogger's festival. I entered and was lucky enough to get stuff. It arrived today.

I love receiving parcels through the post. 

It is my eldest child's 30th birthday today, so I like to see that the universe is observing both labour day and mother's day all rolled into one.

I entered my ridiculously loud Dear Jane. To see the post that I had click Here

It was the first time that I participated and I must say that it was a whole lot of fun. 

I think there is another competition later in the year. I don't think my granny'e garden will be ready yet. I could always enter my Cathedral window quilt






Have an amazing day

Saturday 21 June 2014

Happy Winter/Summer Solstice 2014

Happy Winter/Summer Solstice. All I can say is yay and that our Sun is coming home. I hope it enjoyed it's little European vacation but it is time to come back where we allow it to shine. 



I used to be hung up that the Solstice was the beginning of Winter (which academically it is), but, in all reality it is in the middle and winter is on it's way out.

The thing is that we live in a summer rainfall region, so winter is quite horrid, with everything dead and brown. Veld fire happen all the time and static can make you electrocute yourself.

I find it amazing how quickly the sun starts coming up earlier and earlier. I can just think of over the horizon when it will be warm and the air quality will be good.

I hope all in the North enjoyed the closer tilt towards the sun. Get prepared for freezing cold and we need the sun down here.

Have an amazing day.

Sunday 15 June 2014

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers out there.








A special father's Day to my husband who has exceeded my expectation as to what a good father could be. 

 A happy father's day to my own father who lives so very far away.

I hope that everyone has at least some good memories of a father or at least a good father figure. To all the mom's who are doing it by themselves, well happy father's day to you too.


Have an amazing day!
Fascinating Happy Fathers Day Glitter

Sunday 8 June 2014

Cathedral window finished

Cathedral Window wall hanging
The Cathedral window wall hanging is now complete and hanging in the dining room.

I thought I needed something quick and easy between doing my Dear Jane and the next quilt. I have actually started the next quilt and the decision was, now wait for it..... A Granny's Garden with appliqué around the border.

The decision was partly due to have been given quite a few jelly rolls and thinking this would be a stylish way to use them. The hexies are going to be 7/8th of an inch or 2 cm so they will be fun.


Sleeve and wood
Back to the hanging up of the Cathedral window. This is the sleeve that I stitched on the back of the wall hanging. The wood was a wedge shaped piece of wood we picked up at the DIY store. Who knows what it should actually be used for. It looked like something that should be part of hanging up a quilt, so it was purchased.

Husband Drawing on the wall
This is my husband drawing on the wall, with wood bit and bubble thing showing...Ok a spirit level. Spirit level, bubble thing, (same thing) whatever the name is, as long as it does the job. When I was single I used to enjoy going into a hardware store to find the things I needed. I grew up in a house where all of the home maintenance articles were present. The thing is that I never did learn the name of things even though I knew how to used them.
Quilt level

I see the levelling thing did work as it should as the quit is obviously on the level.

Label
I had a whole lot of labels made. I added one onto the back of the wall hanging.




Wall friends
The wall hanging and its companion. Hope they enjoy living in close proximity to each other.
Have an amazing day!



Sunday 1 June 2014

June !

Wow the 6th month of the year is here. We are now using my Irish chain quilt as it has wool batting. This seems to be holding the cold at bay, but, as soon as it gets colder we are going to have to add a layer.
The temperature still warms up to an excellent temperature by about 10 in the morning.
I see that next week is going to be quite chilly. We will definitely going to be adding an extra layer. Possibly the Dear Jane can start earning her keep.

May was fun. I did something I had never thought I would do and that was enter my quilt into a festival. I was lucky enough to come second in hand made quilts and third on Viewers choice. Thanks to all who added their vote. I do appreciate it. There is even a prize which is quite exciting. The other quilt got 38 votes and that was fine seeing as it was the first quilt that I had made. 

I have made progress on my wall hanging. I have done the top of the cathedral window. I am now adding buttons. Oh the boredom of sewing on more than 100 buttons. Each button had 6 crossing strands and the a stay knot. On and on and on. I stole all of the buttons off my husband's shirts(old shirts not the ones he currently wears). Some of the buttons that come off expensive shirts are quite beautiful.
I bought some old fashioned buttons on Ebay, but, I think I will have finished this item before they arrive. I may add one or two on the border. Today I may work on the border. If I spend another whole day, stitching on buttons, it may render me incapable of ever sewing on another button on anyone's shirt and then my husband would be sad.

I have been going through Dear Jane withdrawal. I need to find the next large quilt project to do. I started the Dear Jane on the 1st of June 2012.
I want to decide today what my next large project will be.
What did you do as a follow up quilt to Dear Jane?
I don't want to end up in an endless cycle of making Dear Jane quilts.
It feels almost as bad as when you are studying. Once you have finished it takes an effort to give yourself permission to do something else. Quilting is the something else that I chose to do.
I have seen these two pictures each time I looked up a block when I was making my Dear Jane. 

I have been gathering pictures to try and spark the creative juices as it were. I thought a granny's garden may be fun. A stained glass window would be dramatic. A fully appliquéd quilt may be a challenge.  A mandala quilt would be Zennish. My husband wants me to do a fresh and original design. This would be fine if I just knew on which path my next quilt lay. I think this is the problem with hand piecing and hand quilting quilts, they take a long time and should not be entered into lightly. See I even think of quilts in the same way as I think of marriage. You should only start a quilt once you know that you can faithfully complete it. I think if everyone was committed to their projects, then no abandoned projects would exist. :D

I have been thinking of doing some mug rugs and some oven gloves. I don't know if this is considered a project as they should not take me too long to do. Maybe inter-project tasks are a good idea.

Hope all in the north are enjoying their summer and that all of us in the south are enjoying the cool weather.

Have a good one.

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