Turning Twenty, restaged

I am anal about how my quilts are folded, amongst a lot of other things. Last night, our aupair not only didn't fold it right but also didn't put it back where it belonged. This morning as the light shone on it, I gained a new appreciation for all the hand quilting that went into it.

This was the first quilt I made for myself - and the only one so far - and I've always been unsure about it. It's nice to see it in a different light after all the anguish over this.

Out of the slump

Whenever I finish one quilt, I fall into a quilting slump and struggle to get out of it. This time was no different but thankfully I had my knitting to tide me over.

Finishing a quilt is always a challenge for me, either because I am stitching away to meet a deadline or because I have a hard time deciding when to stop, like with my Turning Twenty which we are getting a lot of mileage from:



Today I'll spend some time on my new old project: the Friendly Dragon Quilt. I have said in the past that quilting saved my sanity when my girls were babies. The same is still true. I like seeing a result at the end of a session and creating something that others like using increases my sense of self-worth and accomplishment.

Fiddle-dee-dee

Instead of folding laundry last night, I attempted to mark the swirly lines with my aforementioned colour pencils, no dice! Apparently, they only really work on plain FLAT cotton. Oh well, so I wielded my needle and used thread to mark the lines. I'm quite pleased with the result, less so with the photo:

Such a fiddler

I am! I found a few spots on my Turning Twenty quilt where more of the white thread was showing than I would have liked. So I added more beads. And at the rate I am going, I have to un-declare it done, because I just know I will add beading to the center.

Ages ago, I bought cheap-oh coloured pencils at our local Aldi in Didsbury, Manchester. They smell funny but they are just GREAT for marking fabric. I guess it is because they are a bit soft ... but the yellow works really well on dark fabrics. And I will probably add a swirly design picking up on the lines pre-determined by the earlier bits of beading.

So the TT saga continues.

Turning Twenty Done!

Nothing like finishing one quilt only to avoid working on another one ...

I love that it's wrinkly and looking "old and used". And I'mn pleased with my embellishments. I will reshoot the top photo because it is awfully blurry.

Changed my mind again ...

So, here I am beading this flower to go onto my Turning Twenty quilt, that I already used during a quick nap yesterday and found it to be very comfy and just-warm-enough. The flower in and of itself is coming along nicely but I had second thoughts about it going with the quilt, so I unfolded it and looked at the whole thing and decided: naw!



I have now decided to apply leaves lightly adorned with beads. The leaves are made from left-overs of the fabrics used in the quilt. I may even venture into my laundry room to fiddle with bondaweb or similar to help with the fraying. Also, for the embroidery, I may indulge in some thread other than the one pictured because I'm looking for something more chunky.

What will become of the half-finished flower? I do not know!

Treading water ...

I do not know what it is but whenever I go away on holiday, it really very much disrupts my quilting. Remember how I went away in late August? Well, I'm only now getting back onto the horse. It is ridiculous!



And instead of working on what I am supposed to be working, I'm embellishing, which is nice and fun and all, but will not get my project finished by late November.



What is she doing, you wonder? Above photo shows one area where I trimmed too much and now the seams are unravelling. So - much in the same way as here - I am fixing by adding encrustations:



Only that so far, I am much happier with my earlier attempt. That bloom - yes, that is what it is - will have to become a lot more bloom-like. Maybe by adding foilage? Stay tuned to find out.

Embellishing my UFOs

I'm finally getting the hang of embellishing ...



This is a little sample I made back in Manchester in 2002. We cut out really cheap sweet shp paper bags in shapes we liked (hearts, very inventive there) and using a steam iron transfered the colour onto white cotton fabric. Since I purchased an abundance of beads and pearls and such at ebay ...



I thought this would be a nice little project to do when sitting on the patio, slurping strawberry punch.



Turning Twenty will have to wait, I guess.

Turning Twenty? Turning Sixty, more like ...

Well, I'm guessing I'll be fast approaching senior citizenship before this one's done:



My stop-gap quilt is fully assembled and quilted, now I'm busy fixing all the messes I've made, mainly from not cutting right. One block got hacked off and because I didn't have enough fabric, I had to re-attached what I cut off:



To cover the cut, I've decided to embellish with Bohemian beads that I get off ebay. Purchased another whole lot on Monday and it arrived by Tuesday, ebay on speed, basically.



And then there are some parts where the seams are unravelling, again from not measuring properly before cutting. I'll also experiment a little with fabric flowers or petals, we'll see.

In that sense, it's a good project, I can pick it up in between other projects and fiddle around with the beads. Only problem is my posture when beading, I seem to bend over to see properly and reach the beads. Must work on that too.

Another one bites the dust ...

well, we've kicked out another aupair ... who apparently thought getting her parcel out of customs was more important than doing her job, such as picking up my 5-year-old from school on time. And then she got snotty and hung up the phone on me. So out she went ... Those weren't the first problems we've had. She's put enormous mileage on our car and used the phone excessively - which in itself are solvable problems. But her relationship with hygiene and the truth were rather casual. She only did the absolute minimun at the absolutely last minute and after about a zillion reminders. She was discourteous and generally disinterested in making an effort. Funnily enough, her profile at the aupair website says: "I am dependable and accurate" - true, you can depend on her to be lazy and grumpy but she's very accurate at making sure she does work the tiniest bit beyond the absolut minimum.

While most of my environment is still in shock and awe, I'm in a really good mood because now I don't have to face a moody and grumpy face every morning, trying to be sunny and smiley when I'm not a morning person myself.

In fact, I'm so worry-free that I've decided to ignore all deadlines on Baby Quilt No 3 and go back to work on Turning Twenty. Will post results soon.

Georgia Marie Wood (1917 - 2003)

Georgia Marie Wood (1917 - 2003)
Originally uploaded by daintytime

Jan from bemused.typepad.com referred to this photo and it's an ideal pattern to use up my Turning Twenty and Hannah's Quilt scraps. Thanks, Jan!

Simultaneous Engineering

Currently I'm working on two quilts at the same time ...



The Safari themed baby quilt whose receiver is due in late April and my lap quilt that is due whenever ...



The baby quilt is moving along fine now that I finally broke out my sewing machine and started assembling it. Until earlier this weekend, I had busied myself mainly with pinning and prepping, but now I'm getting a bit spooked because time is getting away from me here. I'll finish machine-assembly tonight and then I'll hand-applique the animals and have a think about the dimensions of the quilted sun that's to go into the centre. Wish me luck!

PS: as you can see, the most important thing's already in place - my label!

Happily quilting along

on my Turning Twenty and as I quilt I ponder the embellishing that I want to do. This is good fun because it keeps my imagination busy and relaxing because it's just straight lines to hand-quilt - not that difficult.



Very soon though, I need to either be done or put this project to one side to start the first baby quilt of this Year of the Baby. I'm guessing it will either be 100 * 100 cm or 120 * 120 cm, definitely square with the measurements depending on the amount of fabric I bought for this project.

This baby quilt will also be the project I intend to take on Easter hols with me when we go to Teneriffe with the entire clan. This will not be an entirely stress-free experience and quilting may prove to be a verrrry good distraction from my Mother-in-Law.

Back to quilting ...

With the new year picking up in speed, I've started quilting again to save my sanity. In the past few (rocky) years, especially hand quilting has helped me save my sanity because of its evident progress and result at the end of each session. I am a very results-oriented person and while I can lose myself in small details and intricacies, I want to see RESULTS!

So I'm quite happily quilting away on my Turning Twenty. I've decided to not obsess about the fact that a lot of corners don't line up. What's bothering me at the moment is that the hand quilting does not really show up on the back all that much. I'm therefore considering embellishing it with beads. We shall see ...

One thing is clear though: as much as I attempt to "plan" my quilts for a better result, they always evolve into something I didn't envision at the planning stage. So far, I'm pleased with the outcome.



(and will post more up-to-date photos soon!)

Binding done ...

Well, sort of: I have attached it to the top to see how big the whole thing will be in order to cut the backing and wadding to size.



I'm quite pleased with the colour and pattern ... the binding is a Red Rooster fabric with just leaves and the backing will be from that same range, just in green. My hand quilting yarn is a delightfull pink to provide some contrast to the otherwise "simple" (aka boring) back.



And see, this is the reason why I will not be doing a Turning Twenty quilt again. I've taken such care to square off the blocks and sew them all precisely ... yet the points are not aligning, sigh. I'm sure it'll be fine once it's quilted. I can always apply my favorite excuse: handmade!

Assembled!

I've had to redo two blocks because of colour considerations and then assembled the whole thing while watching American Dreamz and slurping white wine. Perfect Friday night, given that hubby was out of the country.

Moving right along ...

thanks to a new quilters' group I've joined. Sadly - but mercifully - it only meets once a month - I couldn't possibly squeeze in more appointments. But it's finally a group that meets to work. All the others I've visited meet to chat. And I don't like that.

It's a diverse group of women, predominantly local with a few US Americans thrown in. All seem to be working mums, most a good ten to twenty years older than myself and much more experienced too. Some are stitchers, one owns the quilt shop where we meet - insta-supply!

And this is how I'm getting on with things.



Following Jan's advice, I popped down the road to my local DIY store and bought insulating boards. Sadly they don't come in the size I require so I bought two and taped them together. Hubby's now promised to make a frame of sorts for them.

They came as a godsent, I shuffled the blocks around and around and then around some more. Then I turned the board on its side and on its head and shuffled the blocks around some more. For the most part, the design wall resides in my laundry room so that I can stare at it while folding laundry ...


And this is my largest oeuvre to date: Carola with chocolate sauce on her face ...

Much happier with the layout!

It's not perfect, it will never be perfect and therefore it will be an excellent exercise in letting go.

Tomorrow, I will buy fabric.

Oh, the hard graft!

For days now, I've been mentally going over the final layout of my Turning Twenty quilt. I'm just not happy with the dark red. But it's there and the idea of quilting is to use up old scraps of fabric, so it stays. But what to do with it?!?

On Friday, I hope to go and purchase the fabric needed for the edging and the backing of the quilt. Until then I need to have a viable layout. Recently, I've been toying with the idea of having Scottish-style checkered or pastel/cremy tartan fabrics for the backing and a leafy style fabric for the edge. But to counter the red, I might use red edging ... then, what to do with the backing.

It's endless ... oh well, I'll go and finish squaring them off so that I can tinker with the layout. And I'm thinking that on Friday, I need to swing by the DIY store to pick up some insulating board to make myself a design wall Jan-style.

(And Blogger is acting up, threatening to eat this post not once but twice ....!)

Happily squaring away

... is what I'm up to. I've grabbed my cutting mat, my rotary cutter and my ruler with its little gripper spotty thingies underneath and am squaring away. Naturally, my heart bleeds at having to discard the cut-offs, but really, there is no point in saving 5 mm slim scraps, is there?

Now, I'm debating additional fabrics for the backing and the edge. I'm probably going to go with some small dotty fabric, irregular tiny flowers or something, plus checkers for the backing but in pastels please. That'll be fun to find.

I had hoped to swing by our local fabric retailer but my boss threw me a curb ball by setting up an appointment in the office. I had planned on working frmo home and running some errands ... but ey, at least I got my contract extended. So it was worth it.