Inspired By The Show

After my last post I was moved to get out the quilt I had started some years ago after our school production of 'Annie'. As well as stage managing, I was in charge of costumes and was moved to create a palette of faded glory for our orphans. I loved these fabrics and therefore, for my first sojourn into quilt making I decided to use the leftovers. It's kind of olde worlde and perhaps not to everyone's taste, but it is my 'Annie' quilt with the memories of rehearsals, recalcitrant sewing machines and singing along backstage (badly ) that come with it. I'm happy it's done.

Crafty Tuesday: Trial and Error Quilting

It's Crafty Tuesday and I am pleased to report that as a part of my debrief from a week with Slugger, I spent most of the weekend sewing, or thinking about it!

For all crafty types I'll cut to the chase and show you what I've done.

Yes, it looks familiar! It is my 'Annie' quilt from two years ago. That is how long it has been sitting, pinned together and waiting for me to have the confidence, or the nerve, to attempt the job of 'stitch in the ditch' quilting it together. I have to tell you it took me most of the weekend and a huge amount of quick unpicking and bicep work to get the thing to this stage.

I would hate to have been making a double quilt because trying to get this thing rolled up and under my sewing machine, was not fun!

I had wanted to be fancy with the quilting pattern,


but a few misplaced twiddly bits ( and the quick unpick) taught me to 'keep it simple' and, as you can see, I have.

I was surprised (and frustrated) by how difficult it was to keep the thing from puckering. I gave up in the end , after pulling out a few key rows and doing them again with differing tensions. Seemed to make NO difference at all! If any of you are quilters, I'd love to know your secrets.

Next up is the binding but it may be after Christmas before I get to that, for reasons I am about to explain. I am about to ramble now, so if you are here mostly to see craft you can probably click back over to Carrie's and check out the talent!

The other sewing project I've started is a dress for the BA's next Formal. She has been asked to partner an old friend's brother and the date is fast approaching. She has very definite ideas about what she wants to wear nowadays (no! really?????) and had her heart set on
a) something Grecian and
b) something black.
Needless to say, mother (moi) did not approve.

I've got to admit I feel sad when I see lovely young gals draped in black. They are so beautiful, they can wear any colour, why do they feel the need to widow themselves prematurely? Anyhoo, to this end I encouraged the BA to try on this dress when we went out browsing the other day.

She was mildly receptive and it was kind of within the price range (ok...there isn't really a price range and the tag on this one would pay my Teacher's Registration but hey....better than some!) but we both had to agree that the top did not fit well and was not overly flattering.

Thus we found ourselves in Spotlight searching out glamour material and a suitable pattern. There were a number of contenders but sizing and availability conspired against us; and then when we had finally chosen a pattern, we realised that it could only be done in extremely wide fabric (140cm+) and the fabric we'd chosen only came in a 114cm roll. :-( We eventually left in disgust but, as I had to return for more quilting thread, I did a bit more searching and made a unilateral decision.

She had identifed a few things she 'required' from her dress. It had to be long, it had to be slightly draped, it had to have a feature back. This one
fit the bill but didn't lend itself to the chosen fabric so I picked another one. Just like that. Well, the dance is in three weeks!

So we have a midnight blue satin jersey with a smoke grey chiffon to do that central version (in black and white). The BA echoes my own concern, which is that some of these patterns don't look like the drawings, but as we finally agreed, we can't afford a flash dress for this one. At least it will be unique. I have to say I am a little nervous about it but at approx $70 all up vs the $300 for the one she tried on in the shop......it's all about perspective.

And as a last comment on 'craftiness', which I interpret more and more liberally nowadays, here is one of the three holes I have to fill in our front room since the electrician came.
Anyone want to take a sweep on when I'll get them done?

Play It Clean*

Well, nothing since Tuesday...what have I been doing with myself? Painting tables in Kidzone (Sunday School) and making up Kids' Kits for use in church when there's no Kidzone if truth be known.

Oh and quilting.

Predictably things did not go to plan; I decided the top of the quilt was too narrow so I rearranged everything again. But I am much happier with it now and I spent Friday sewing it together. Only got about half done though. Phew, it's hard work! Fiddly! Mind you, I was working under stressful conditions; Himself had a deadline and he was waaaaay cutting it fine. He sat through in the other room effing and blinding and calling the computer, the files, the internet and the clients just about every name you can think of. It was not pretty and not conducive to relaxing quilting. I shut the door on him after awhile.

He was pretty stressed and sleep deprived. He spent two allnighters on this animated presentation for the North Adelaide Football Club's presentation night. He came to bed at 4.30am the first night and after a few snatched hours went at it again all day and came to bed at 5.30am the second night! That man lives on caffiene. Still, last night was the 'do' and it all went very well. I was really proud of him and all his hard work although I was mildly surprised and relieved to see that not one 'f@#&' had slipped into the presentation! Miraculous really considering the amount that were flying through the air. Fortunately we are 'kidfree' at the moment :-D

He made a little bit of history too as the club screened the presentation over the internet in real time as the audience were watching it. It was a record of the matches that year and a count down of the votes gained by each player in the 'Best and Fairest' Competition. The AFL (big league) do a similar thing on Brownlow Medal night but as far as we know, in Australia, no other clubs or State Competitions have done it. This meant that ex pat fans of the club (and we know there are many because the site stats tell us we get hits from places as diverse as London, Singapore and Dubai!) could watch a round up of the year's matches and player performances, leading to the announcement of the B&F winner, from the comfort of their own laptops. Next year we want him to do a live webcam of the acceptance speeches! Then again, knowing how riveting the speeches of young footballers are...maybe it's not worth it!
("....And I'd like to thank the coach and the back up team and the massuesse and my parents...")

Oh and if you've got nothing else to do, see if you can find anyone familiar in this gallery of elegant diners......

Off to quilt some more and enjoy my last few days of childfree time and holidays :-(

* The Club Song

Crafty Tuesday: Top of the Quilt

Sorry I'm late! Here's the top ready to go together. The farthest row has been sewn into 3 blocks of 4 but I will get into the rest of it with a vengeance tonight. I am due to meet the Doyenne of Quilting on Friday when I will purchase wadding and backing (under her supervision) and retire to her place for the next lesson. She is determined that I have at least most of it done before the end of the holidays otherwise as we all know, it won't ever progress any further!

If you like craft, check out Crafty Tuesday at Carrie's.

Quilt Update!

Hold the call on suggestions for patterns....Himself and I think we have 'cracked it' tonight! We are feeling v pleased with ourselves. pics to follow.

And now to bed as the government has stolen an hour from us and will not give it back until Autumn!!!!!!

SOOC Saturday: What I'm Doing In My Holidays

Thought I'd show you how far I have got on my quilt this week. I haven't sewn any of the blocks together yet as I am still fiddling with the arrangement of the darks. I have a lot less of the pale green fabric left so I am leaning towards this idea of a dark green/pink alternate with a random pale green thrown into every row/column. It's a bit like doing a giant suduko. Except not.

I dunno I may change my mind. Himself and I were looking at it yesterday and he was casting his designer's eye over things. We decided that I'll do 6 quares by 10 squares all up and he suggests doing something 'different' or themed at any rate, for the four central squares. Like, maybe four of the pale greens altogether although I'm not all that keen on that idea. I am also toying with one of the background fabrics which is darker than the other three and wondering whether to make it a 'dark' for some of the blocks. Maybe that could be at the centre?

If anyone has any ideas or opinions, do chip in here. I am a complete novice and open to suggestion.

Meanwhile, we have been on a campaign to find a dress for the BA to wear in the Bestie's wedding......but that's a whole other post.

Learning To Quilt

In a belated Crafty Tuesday (Carrie hasn't even posted herself I noticed!!) I thought I'd show you what I've been working on. With the sunset of The Musical and the mammoth job of packing up 'the sweatshop' I have been suffering from sewing withdrawal. I always had it in the back of my mind that I might be able to do something with the scraps of material left over from the orphan costumes; they were chosen as a 'palette' and they were essentially quilting materials so the obvious choice was to try quilting with them!

Now I have dabbled in many crafts over the years: sewing, knitting, embroidery, cross stitch, raffia work (thanks to my Grade 5 teacher), pottery, decoupage, origami and even tie-dye but I've never attempted quilting. I know nothing about it! A quick consultation of my 'Traditional Country Crafts' book was in order. There was mention of wadding and running stitch and even cutting a template for 'blocks' but the whole section was a little thin and there was nothing about patchwork and the various kinds of patchwork options you could toy with. So, where to next?

Of course my beautiful friend the Quilting Queen from Jindabyne is no longer with us so I couldn't go there for advice (ouch, grief kind of catches up with you doesn't it?)...but wait! I have an awesome friend right here in Adelaide who is the Doyenne of Quilting! She bestowed upon us a wonderful quilt for our wedding/housewarming and, when I was picking The BA up from swimming years ago, could always be seen with a needle in hand waiting for one of her brood to emerge from the pool. The obvious choice. I made arrangements for coffee and quilting advice.

On Monday we met for coffee and I brought the bag containing all my off cuts. I also brought a pathetic sketch of the kind of thing I had in mind and she was most gracious in refraining from laughing out loud at my naivety. "Right," she said,"You're going to need some tools and a visit to my place for some lessons." Errrrrr......tools? What do you need apart from scissors and thread?

Oh foolish Arizaphale.

By the end of the afternoon I had purchased a rotary cutter and quiting ruler.

I 'passed' on the cutting mat as I thought Himself had one at home and I had arranged for a demo session the following morning. There is a lot more to quilting than I thought. *sheepish grin* Like, did you know that the easiest way to sew two triangles together is to put two squares face to face, rule a diagonal line from corner to corner, sew 1/4 inch either side of that line and then cut down the line? Voila! Press open and you have two squares formed by triangles! (I may do a photo tute on this later...it is so clever and my 'Traditional Country Crafts' book did not mention it at all!!!)

We ended up spending a lovely couple of hours yesterday, me mastering the rotary cutter and her sewing little blocks together for me. I'm on my own now.......wish me luck!