A Sunshiny Day

 Summertime: 2020  (Started: 2016)

This quilt was something of a mis-adventure.  I just loved being able to paper-piece these wonderful Sue Ross circles and so, for quilt #3 in this design, decided on using a selection of blacks and whites I had acquired over the years.  Yes, including a stash of FQ’s purchased from Keepsake Quilting in 1999.  So, in early 2016, I began piecing up my B&W Circles of Fun.

I kept at it for a while but something was just not working and so it was stuffed, forthwith into the UFO Box.  Fun it was not.  March 2019 must have been a watershed moment because I don’t often unpick a quilt to basics.  But this one needed it. 

Thus, after lingering for another 12 months, it assumed priority as a project to complete during my “early pandemic” therapy.  I really just wanted this B & W monstrosity finished and off the books.  So as to speak!  Its rebirth took most of 2020; I trimmed down the size, removed those hideous pink circles, and turned the border into the backing.  And voilà, all ready for quilting.  By 25^th December 2020, I had another long-term UFO finished.  I added a final touch of bling with some of my grandmother's black buttons to tone down the little yellow centre circle. In honour of it's December finish and bright vibe, it was named “Summertime”. 

A holding photo until I can get a better shot - I'm learning lots about photographing quilts too!
And now that I look at it, I think that centre yellow circle may have to go too...

View the top pre-makeover.  All I can say is, that at the time, it was getting there.  Where-ever "there" is.  Now, I know for sure it’s not the best thing I’ve ever done, but at least its finished and was fun to make.  A foray, if you will, into the world of modern quilting that de-railed a bit but as it’s often said, “the next quilt is your best one”.  That’s rather like “free beer tomorrow” offered at your local.  We’ll see.  

And if you want to share some sunshiny too, here's Jimmy Cliff.

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 131 x 131cm
Block Sizes: 21”
Cut in: 13 Feb 2016 (started)
Pieced (1^st try): 8 Apr 2016
Still in Work Box: 24 Jan 2017 (not loving it)
Reconstruction: 26 Mar 2019
Top Pieced: 20 Feb 2020
Basted: 25 Feb 2020
Quilted: Machine: 20 & 22 Dec 2020
Quilt Type: Mostly Modern
Quilt Finished: 25 Dec 2020
Exhibited:
Collection: Gifted 3 Oct 2023
Pattern Name: Circles of Fun
Pattern Source: Sue Ross
Fabrics Purchased: The Stash & B&W Medley purchased in 1999…
Fabric Design: Prints, Stripes & Ethnic prints
Fabric Style: High Contrast B & W with a dash of yellow
Materials Type: Printed Cottons
Wadding Type: Cotton
Backing: Pieced using left-over remnants of original borders

Beyond Super-Slow

Windom Variation: 2020  (Started: 2013)

(Warning: I’ve included dates just to emphasise, to myself more than anything, how really “slow” this quilt was in the making!)

In 2012 we visited the Southern Highlands Quilt Show held at the local RSL and after, dropped in as you do, to our favourite shop, Timeless Threads.  I purchased a charming “Windom Quilt” pattern along with a Moda Charm pack that just could not be left on the shelf.  Sadly, Timeless Threads in Mittagong, closed in March, 2013.  (31/3/2013).  Our group had, over many years established quite a tradition of visiting the Southern Highlands to work our way along a quilt/craft shop “trail” that included visiting the villages of Berrima, Mittagong, and Bowral.  We tried for Moss Vale too, lunch and coffee stops permitting. 

This photo is from the quilt pattern showing the finished quilt

Timeless Threads had a sample quilt made up in the Windom pattern and I just loved the scrappy design.  I immediately imagined it useful for my many aging left-overs!  In the main, most of the blocks were small, 4” squares.  This appealed as a highly portable project, easy to take to group meetings, either the shorter evening sessions or even our longer monthly meetings.  The central medallion, a tree, did not suit me though, and I eventually decided to make good use of a semi-finished applique block that had been sitting in my UFO stash (since 1988, gasp!) for rather too many years! 

This applique block has a story all of its own – one of those dreadful blue marking pen stories.  The pen lines had heat set on the fabric (from sitting in my car on a rather warm summer’s day) and refused to budge.  In order to save the nearly finished block, a sampler block from Elizabeth Kennedy’s class at the 1989 Armidale Symposium, I embroidered over the lines and added a few decorative flourishes around the applique, including a few of my grandmother's buttons.  Pleased with my efforts, I felt the block did rather need a wash.  Well, my tub of Vanish took those blue lines right out!  I still shake my head to think of it.  This “magic” became a discussion point of our next (October 2014) meeting. 

Meanwhile I kept working on the blocks for the Windom quilt during both 2014 & 2015 even managing to take some away with us on holidays.  I had enough blocks for a photo shoot on my design wall in March 2015.  Aren’t mobile phones sooo handy!  Anyway, after fiddling around with the colours and preferring a pale colourway, I removed most “strong” or contrasting blocks and had the top being sewn up & basted by April 2016.

It took another 2 years to get that quilt machine quilted and bound.  Don’t think it was finished with me yet, though!  The central medallion still caused me grief and hand quilting seemed to be the only solution.  A pattern on the BeBe Bold packaging lent itself to an interesting quilting design.  One that took another 2 years to finish.  Joy of joys, I finished my Windom Variation on 14 June 2020, only eight years later.

Not the best of photos as light was fading from my verandah
& the holder was complaining. Windom Variation: finally finished 2020

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 178 x 178 cm
Medallion: Cut in 1998; continued in Feb 2012
Block Size: 4”
Cut in: Mar 2013
Pieced: 2 Dec 2015
Basted: 13 Apr 2016
Quilted: Machine: started 15 Mar 2017
Bound: Jul 2018
Quilted: Hand: started 30 May 2018 & finished 8 Jun 2020
Quilt Type: Vintage
Quilt Finished: 14 June 2020
Exhibited:
Collection: Gifted 3 Oct 2023
Pattern Name: The Windom Quilt
Pattern Source: Timeless Threads, 31 March 2013
Fabrics Purchased: From Timeless Threads (a Moda Charm Pack) & my Stash…
Fabric Design: Mixed
Fabric Style: Soft
Materials Type: Printed Cottons
Wadding Type: Cotton
Backing: Pieced using left-over remnants 

Sea Change

In February 2020, we began planning for our usual overseas adventure.  It always takes a few months to organise ourselves.  I’d found some great fares for our flights and consulted the captain (only of our ship).  “I’d wait,” he said.  “Things don’t look good.”  So here we are in 2021.  Still waiting.  Still not looking good…

Meanwhile, he turned his hand to those many outstanding home repairs (long neglected) and I began a major photo re-organisation project.  (It’s finally nearing completion in 2021; I know, I’m leaning towards the OCD type.)  However, with a gentle slide into 2021, Autumn and cooler weather, it was time to take a (sanity) break and hit the Garden Shed, my quilt room in the garden, before winter sent me back inside to a warm cosy fire. 

I dusted off the UFO box, sent Bertie Bernina away for a service and made a few lists to help me work out where I was at.  I also had a spring clean, putting unwanted items aside to give away and thinned out the growing magazine collections.  Spotlight had a few sales and my fabric boxes were full to the brim with wadding and the odd piece of fabric or two.  I was all set for a bit of action.  So, there I’ve been since, happily avoiding my computer (and those never-ending photo piles). Zoom Zoom!

Getting Cross

Black & White Circles: 2016    A Progress Report

Inspired to actually do some sewing, I hit the box of the Great Unfinished and dragged out my black and white circles.  Again.  It's always lacked a little something and nothing I do to improve it seems to fit.  My last effort was to sew some bright pink centres to give it a bit of a lift.  Then I decided that an applique of some large-ish pineapples would make a difference.  Nope!  That grand idea didn't even get past the pinning stage.

So I finally decided to hang it up and take a photo - a chance to get a bit further away from it and spend time in contemplation and study.  I've decided that there's just too much "white" space in that middle border between the circles and the outer wavy border. The thin yellow border is not enough - it only looks lost and lonely. 

You can understand my dilemma?

The outcome has been pinks removed, pineapples binned and the centre section of the quilt unpicked and in pieces again.   Just sometimes, don't you have to go backwards to go forwards?

Missing Home

Looking forward to doing this all over again...

Nothing better than warm slippers, a raging fire and a few colourful yarns to get one relaxed and ready to stitch.

Starting All Over 2012 & 2013

2012 & 2013

Last year we decided to forge on ahead with the last 1/3 of our cosmetic renovations.  That meant lounge, dining & kitchen.  All that stuff is now strewn around the rest of the house which we swear has given us a serious list towards the west.  Mr DIY is nearing the end of laying a brushbox floor and has offered to do my garden shed with the left overs.  Too right! 

The thing is of course, that the shed has to be emptied out.  I am now trying to move rather too “many” boxes of fabric stash, habby, dyeing equipment, and silkscreen frames into the house.  Not to mention the odd few sewing machines.  Just where does it all come from?  The other difficulty is trying to make it all look less than it really is…..as you must!  I keep pointing at the frames saying, “They’ll be on the wall soon.”  As if!!  The reality is however, that it could be another month or more before I get to do some sewing.  Sew, what to do?

My Garden Shed - more garden than shed in 2003

Garden & shed much improved but still not sewing, 2008

The answer I’ve decided, rests in the many old reference materials that I’ve brought in from my garden shed.  You know, the lot that you might need someday…  As a consequence, I’ve revisited my blog terms of reference to include a couple of additional goals.  It will continue to be a log of one quilter’s progress that is, mine.  However to add a bit of depth, I plan to include:

Significant influences – those ah-ha moments that set you off exploring down another path.  For some time I’ve read “The Books that Changed Me” in the Sunday paper.  Interesting choices.  What would I choose in my list?  Better yet, what were the occasions that changed my quilting life?

A bit of Art History.  Groan.  Well maybe not.  I’ve kept years (and years) of notes thinking they would come in handy and as we plan to do a bit of touring Europe, I can reacquaint myself with what’s to see and do.  A sort of a Grand Tour inspired to some degree by the indefatigable Sister Wendy and Kevin McCloud.  Only I’ll add my photos as I take them and use words from my notes.  Don’t worry, they’re descriptive and fairly simple.  We weren't taught to think for ourselves way back then.  My teacher in year 11 described herself (a lot) as “Rubenesque”.  It’s the only thing I remember, except for thinking that that wasn’t much to live up too.

(For those wondering where all this is going, be assured that where possible some reference will be made to resources used, including books – remember them?  Main texts used over 7 years of schooling/college were Gardener’s Art through the Ages 1964, Herbert Read’s The Meaning of Art and Carl Roebuck’s The World of Ancient Times 1966.  College was slow death by a flood of slides.  A lot of the notes we were given were roneod, a method of copying first introduced in 1906 and still being used in the 70’s.  Remember that smell of metho in the classroom?)

Updated and going strong in 2021...

Never Give Up...

Floral Wreath: 2014

The completed block minus blue lines now part of my Windom Quilt

Finally, my floral wreath sample block started in Elizabeth Kennedy's class in 1989 at the Armidale Symposium has been completed.  Yes, it's only one block but really something to get excited about....it's been a long time in the making!

Part of the reason I disliked this block was that I had left blue fabric marking pen lines covering the design.  And they had heat set - a nightmare....  Nothing seemed to help remove them so I just gave up.  Finally, I decided that the only course of action (after some 16 years!!) was to embroider or applique strategically over the lines and splotches.  Besides, I had purchased a pattern in Mittagong at Timeless Threads - if I recall it was at their closing sale - called the Windom Quilt and I wanted a central medallion.  Why not use this block and get it off the UFO list?

Ah, but those dreaded blue lines!  Then of course I threw it in the washing machine with a good dose of "Vanish" waiting for the worst to happen.  But true to name, those lines just vanished.  Now, finished in 2014, it has a home.

Home# 021: 1989 started

Size: 51 x 51cm (without border)

Getting Organised…And in SLOW Order

I’m now at the stage of having more unfinished than finished quilts to document and it’s playing havoc with my plan to list them by the year I started them…and then post in that same order.  My plan has reached the term of its natural life and I’m starting to worry about OCD tendencies…  You know, running to my garden shed late at night to finish a quilt so that it features in serial order, by blog post.  Sad indeed!  Yep.

So, after much thought, chaos theory (order in chaos?) reigns.  I will now post as I finish.  And perhaps along the way  - as I’m sooooo very slow these days – I’ll post a few progress notes, a la “slow quilting movement”.  Perhaps I can sleep at night.

Slow sewing is part of the Slow Movement (we subscribe to slow boating, especially when the wind isn't blowing) but it does make you stop and think about the pace of life and need to dumb everything down to achieve more in your day... 

You might enjoy finding out more about the concept:

Mark Lipinski's Slow Stitching Movement; Sew Slowly's Manifesto on her Blog; Knotted Cotton invites us to be a slow blogger & this discussion on the Modern Quilt Movement by Leni Wiener.  All most interesting food for thought...chew slowly, mind!

Flower of Life....

Tea Reading: 2009  (Started: 1999)

My favourite quilts are made with scraps.  This one is made from a mixed bag of left-overs, charm squares and friends’ donations.  The background is made up of a selection of “scrap” creams too, some from a tea dying episode.  This quilt, though not huge seemed to use an enormous amount of fabric – probably because of the shaped piecing.  Not that that is a bad thing; one just has to work harder to keep one’s stash at a healthy level!

This traditional tea leaves pattern by Judie Rothermel in “Aunt Grace’s Scrapbag” was sourced by Erica (who incidentally made 2 quilts of this particular pattern in lovely 30’s prints no less!) and they were my inspiration to try one.  The top is all hand pieced and kept me busy during those long hot Delhi summers!

For the backing, I used a cotton sarong I had purchased in Kathmandu, and a complementary fabric purchased in Mr Singh’s store, Nehru Place.

Once basted, I started to hand quilt the plain background pieces, but cotton wadding makes for better machining, so I did a small stipple using a variety of cream shades.  This had a nice effect of accentuating each tea leaf shape as I left them unquilted.

This quilt allowed me to try a scalloped edge – and thus the need to cut & make miles of ½ inch bias for a pretty binding.  It wasn’t as difficult as I expected and the bias sat nicely in the tight curves. 

I put my Tea Leaves on show for the Dangar Island Australia Day celebration in 2010.  One of our visitors said that the pattern was an ancient design called “Flower of Life” and is heavily symbolic.

Australia Day Quilt Exhibition Dangar Island 2010

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 177x 200cm
Block Size: 12“ circle
Cut in: 1999
Pieced & Basted: Hand 2005
Quilted: Machine 2009
Quilt Type: Group
Quilt Finished: 2009
Exhibited:  Australia Day 2010
Collection: Home# 034
Pattern Name: Tea Leaves
Pattern Source: Judie Rothermel
Fabrics Purchased: Stash
Fabric Design: Mixed
Fabric Style: Cotton
Materials Type: Cotton
Wadding Type: Cotton
Backing: Cotton

Lessons Learned:
I hadn’t hand pieced a quilt for ages and this one seemed to take forever ; ).  The blocks were very “portable” however, so this became an easy project to work on in those spare moments when life can be dull (eg driving 12 hours to visit relatives in another state).  I also seemed to use up heaps of fabric due to the shape of the leaves, which wasn’t so bad for the scraps but somehow I was always scavenging for backgrounds as I didn’t want them noticeably different from each other.