The customer quilt is finished, Yay!!!! I had to quilt it really simply because they didn't want me to stitch over all the embroidered messages. That meant a lot of empty space and close quilting in the border would have pulled it in too much. So I just did a sort of wonky vine and left it at that.



As a reward I let myself make lots more of my new blocks, don't they look fun?

Some of the browns are mouthwatering, yum!

I'm having a lot of fun with these blocks, and can hardly wait to get the setting material and turn them into a top. Some quilts are enjoyable from start to finish, and this looks like being one of them.
















I know Keryn will study these photos closely and then mutter "I didn't get any of that brown, OR that one....".


I'll give you the scraps, I promise!

Read more...

Happy Birthday me. Whenever I tell people that Keryn and I have different birthdays they all assume that we must have been born around midnight, and about ten minutes apart. But Keryn was born at ten on Tuesday morning and I was born 36 hours later at ten on Wednesday night.
Keryn told the full story yesterday on her blog.

I think it's a wonder my Mum and I survived at all, and marvel at the procedures these days that would make the delay unnecessary.

While we were all recovering from that traumatic experience another woman in the ward gave birth to a baby who unfortunately lived for only a few minutes. The woman was put in a room nearby and her sobbing eventually got to Mum, still shocked from her own experience.

"It’s not fair” she told the nurse, I have two babies and she has none. Give her one of my mine.” Today no-one could conceive of such an action in case the mother became deluded and fixated on the baby, but they were much simpler days. So dear kind Sister Lewis, who had worked so hard to save my life, gave me to the woman to hold, trying to ease her pain. She cuddled me for hours afterwards, and I like to think it was some sort of comfort.

Years later, when I was a mother myself, I suddenly thought What if that woman had been holding me and thinking “Why did YOU live and my baby died?” When I voiced this to Mum she scoffed at such a notion. “If she’d been thinking that then why did she call her first daughter Meredith?” So I had been a great comfort after all.

Mum also used to like telling us that when we came home from hospital (we were both around 5 pounds) Dad took one of us into the nursery to change a nappy. After a while there was a cry of "Help!! I’ve lost the baby!" The nappies were so big and cumbersome for us that they were all cut in half, and he fared much better after that.

I've always loved that story because those were the days when a father usually didn't bother to involve himself with things like changing nappies, in fact it would have been greeted with absolute horror by all of my uncles. But Dad was not going to miss out on the day to day chores of his two new daughters, and participated in the feedings and burpings and nappies with great enthusiasm.

A couple of years ago I was at the checkout behind an elderly lady who I recognised as Sister Lewis, now in her nineties. She was trying to use a card, but had confused her pin number, and got more and more flustered as the girl lost patience with her. “Sorry love” the girl finally snapped, “You only get three tries” and motioned her through. I was incensed that this woman, who had brought hundreds, if not thousands of babies into the world, full of commonsense and knowledge and kindness, was being dismissed as a doddery old fool.

I pointed to the few groceries she’d been trying to buy and said to the girl ”I’ll pay for those!” She grimaced at me as if I were mad and said “You don’t have to do that”.

"I know I don't" I retorted, "But I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for that woman!" I was hard pressed to get Sister Lewis to accept the gesture, but as I said, it was the least I could do for her.

Read more...

It's Keryn's birthday today. For one day she's technically a year older than I am, until I catch up on Sunday. She's told the story of our birth on her blog, and I'll continue it tomorrow.

It was good having separate birthdays because we always got the same presents, and when Keryn opened hers, I knew exactly what I was getting. So that I'd have a surprise Mum gave us another gift on my birthday- excellent stuff!


This is a customer quilt I'm doing, a signature quilt and it's full of nice messages. The recipient will love it, but I'll have to get a move on and have it done by Monday or Tuesday.

It doesn't look possible to feed that big quilt (it's 87" square) through that throat space, but I love my Janome 6500. I've done a quilt that was 108" square on it, and though it wasn't easy it turned out very nicely. Of course I'd love a long arm, but in the meantime I'm quite happy with this set up.

Read more...

I'm still having fun with my little square in square units. I must admit I have several quilts in the planning stages that will use truckloads of these, so there's method in my madness.

I forgot to point out that when I trim the 'ears' off the triangles the length is not exactly that of the square. I just make sure there is the same amount of the square material showing on either end, and that means it's centred. I did try to trim them the exact size, but having them smaller actually seems to work better for me.

Sheila made a comment about a special tool to trim the triangles, but no matter what the size I just muck around with the little square ruler until I find the perfect mark to use.


The units with light backgrounds are finding their way into these blocks. I have enough for 16 already, but I think I want 20. So I might just make some extra now, rather than waiting for the scraps to mount up again. I'm all enthused about this design, which is taken from a picture of an antique quilt I saved about 4 years ago. Time to get me a finished top.

But.... there are still 128 units with dark backgrounds, so I have to thnk about the design I wanted to put those into. I can't believe there were so many in the drawer, but it's certainly a painless way to acquire them, just sewing on a few scraps every now and then.

My son Matthew is 18 and has been helping me a lot in the garden. He and Mum were great mates, and when he was tiny he could be found next to her, companionably chatting and pulling up weeds. (he's the only male around here I'd trust to actually recognise a weed from a petunia!) Yesterday he wandered around with the camera and took lots of shots of the flowers, he must feel proud to have had a hand in creating the garden. I think a love of growing things is a valuable interest, there's always something to look out for and watch and tend, and I hope he keeps it. Neither of my other sons has any affinity with plants, but Mum taught Matt well.

Read more...

When I cut my scraps into pieces one of the things
I do are the shapes for 3 1/2" square in square units.

The centre squares are 2 5/8"and the corner triangles are 2 3/8". I cut these in squares too and then cut in half diagonally. I always have the back of the fabric facing up, because you can usually see the markings on the ruler better.

Then I trim the corners using the 2" mark on my ruler.


These shapes are cut from the small scraps I can't get strips from and I keep them all in a small plastic drawer.

Recently I noticed that the drawer wasn't shutting very well and the pieces had begun to invade the drawer above- time to do some sewing.



So when I worked at the local quilt shop this week I took the little drawer and it's neighbour and in the quiet times I made these - 52 square in sqare units.You'd think this would make a difference in the fullness or otherwise of the drawer, but look! It still looks full. Not bursting at the seams as it was before, but heck, I thought I would have had some space for the next lot of cut pieces. Keryn says they all just breathe out and go "Phew! Now we've got some room!"

So I'll have to sew some more before I can see the bottom of the container, but first I need to cut more centre squares, which will ADD to the fullness of said drawer before I can start emptying it....again.







And in another drawer, far far away.......

Read more...

When Keryn was working out her colour sampler class I made a set of blocks too. Initially we tried to make it all totally random, with numbers for each shape in the block and a sort of lucky dip process of finding out which fabric to use where. Rather complicated, and it also resulted in some wishy washy blocks, as you can see.

Now it's easier to play with the fabric pieces and put them wherever you like, which is much more fun. I must make another set, with a slightly more complicated block like Keryn's, because you get a more varied effect. But I still quite like these.

Read more...

More rose pictures were requested, so here they are. (Keryn has been begging, not to say whingeing about the lack of them). I live in the mid north of South Australia, and the climate is classed as semi-arid. It seems to be perfect for roses, as long as you keep the water up to them, and fungal diseases are rarely a problem. Unlike Keryn 's garden in the tropics.
Yes these are the roses Keryn and I pruned back to stumps in June or July, and now I can barely squeeze between them and some are almost over my head. Some of the David Austen's are heartbreakingly beautiful, I keep coming back to gaze at the clusters of heavy blooms and sometimes I have to tell them out loud how gorgeous they are. (Yes, I talk to my plants!)

The dark rose is a Burgandy Iceburg, the yellow one is Charles Austin(I think), the yellow and peach one is Reknown's Samaritan and I don't know the name of the little pink-tinged cream one as it was in the garden when we came.

What a pity Mum didn't get to enjoy the first spring here with all these glorious flowers, but the roses and gerberas and ferns we brought from her garden are flourishing and remind me of her constantly. Which is a fitting tribute to be sure.

Read more...

Spring has come here and the roses have been beautiful. I've been working in the garden a lot and so no sewing or blogging has been achieved either. I want to get everything well mulched before it gets any hotter, and that means I end up pretty tired and dirty and without much urge to sew or knit.

I know this won't last and once the garden chores are done I'll get back into my other persuits and have something to blog about.

Read more...

No one can accuse these socks of being boring to knit! This was from ebay too, and I was a bit dubious because the skein looked a real hodgepodge of colours, but it's really good fun to knit. Love that red stripe.


I decided I had to get a new leader ender project because I've amassed 44 of these blocks and I didn't want it to be a particularly big quilt. ( the blocks are 6" finished) So I'm interviewing candidates for the next L-E position and trying to chose a setting material for these blocks. As they are made from a selection of dregs from my 2" drawer ( no strips, just the pieces less than 8" long) I kinda want to use some material for the setting that I'll be glad to see the back of.Nothing too precious because the blocks are sooo scrappy and jumbled. I'm sure I've got a piece of 80's calico that will fit the bill- somewhere- all I have to do is look for it. And as we got rain for the first time in months last night, and the day has dawned cool and grey, I think it would be a perfect time to pull out boxes and containers and look through all my stash.


Keryn and I used to love rainy winter days when we were young. Mum would let us go through her material drawers and ransack her wool stash and we'd get all her old knitting magazines from the 40's to look through. We had a slow combustion fire in the kitchen and we'd settle down in front of that, sipping tea and looking at our pile of books while we decided what we were going to cast on for next. Even this morning, as soon as I saw the wet ground and the deep grey-blue clouds outside I thought "Oh, it would be a good day to go through my wool!"

I've been collecting these fabrics for a few months, and something's stewing in my mind. Don't quite know what yet...... There are some rusty bricky reds that go with this pile and a few more of those strange blues. I'm leaving them out so they can speak to me, but I think this will be my next project, if I can stop the leader-enders from taking over.

Read more...

My completed blocks are growing in number, in fact I think I'm going to have enough for more than one quilt if I make all the pieces I've cut out. Never mind,it's a nice block to make, but I should have made it 9" instead of 12". This quilt is going to be BIG if I do what I originally intended.

I may use a lightning streak setting like this instead of a plain alternate block like the antique quilt I'm copying. There's still plenty of room for some vines or feathers to wind around, and it will use up a few more blocks. Bad thing is I'll have to make half blocks to fill out the edge, but I'm sure I'll manage.

Keryn's photo on her blog of all the little half square triangles laid out so neatly made me smile. This is a batch of triangle units, finger pressed open and waiting next to the iron to be pressed properly. They look like a tray of little sandwiches ready to go to a party! I quite often leave a project at a stage like this so that when I can work at my sewing again I've got a nice easy job to do first up.

Here are the latest pair of socks, ready to be cast off. These were really quite boring to knit because the stripe was so predictable. It took some discipline to do the second one, but finally I can cast on something more exciting. I always do a toe-up sock with a short-row heel when I'm using self patterning wool, but I love the traditional sock that starts at the cuff and has a french flap heel. I could knit them in my sleep I've made so many over the years. But the self striping wool looks much better in a short row heel and it's easier to judge the amount of wool you have for each sock.

It's suddenly turned quite hot here, and I'm hoping my knitting days aren't numbered. I shall have to knit regularly throughout the summer, even if it's only a few rows at a time, just to keeep my hands in training. This winter when I started to knit after a break of several years I found my hands ached quite badly until they got used to it. I'll have to do ten minutes knitting training in the cool of the morning this summer!

Read more...

Lookee what I got at the local antique shop! A pair of 40's shoes in perfect condition. The flash makes them look a bit greyed out but they're jet black suede and sooo comfortable I will definitely wear them.

I've always loved shoes from that era, and indeed others pairs have come to my attention before. But Keryn and I have little feet and nothing ever fitted, so I couldn't justify buying them just to look at. These will be worn to special occasions, but definitely not for walking very much. I don't want to be the one that ruins them after they've been looked after for 50 odd years.

Excuse the picture of my fat leg, it's just the angle of the camera, I swear!












And some irresponsible person put sock wool on ebay and look what they made me do! How dare they tempt me like that! There's enough here for another 7 pairs of socks at least! And because Keryn and I have the aforementioned little hooves I don't use up the whole 100g ball. Already I'm getting a collection of oddments that I might combine to make truly lairy socks. I've noticed on some knitting blogs that people are making blankets out of leftover sock wool, but my patchwork is for making lap quilts and throws and crib quilts and such. I refuse to knit them as well. It's getting hot early this year, but I will endeavour to knit as many pairs as I can before it truly swelters and my sock drawer will be stuffed ready for next winter.

Read more...

Life goes on and I have to do the things that make me feel better. And of course that involves sewing...My good blocks are slowly coming together, but it's hard to get back to feeling enthusiastic somehow. Part of me wants to hack up huge swathes of material and chainsew like mad, for hours on end- what strange sort of therapy is that? I don't know, but I feel as if I need to see some really quick progress on something after months of devoting my time to others.

I plan to rearrange my quilting tables and make my space more efficient, that always makes me feel better too. Sometimes even if I can't sew, I sit and refold fabric, or shuffle it from one drawer to the next, and the feeling of the fabric, the mechanical movements of my hands sorting it out are soothing and help me sort my thoughts out too. And the best thing about tidying my sewing space is that it inspires me to get in and mess it up again with some new project! Even more therapeutic.....

Read more...

Sowing

It was a perfect day.......
Nothing undone
Remained; the early seeds
All safely sown.

And now, hark at the rain,
Windless and light,
Half a kiss, half a tear,
Saying goodnight.

Edward Thomas (1878 - 1917)

Keryn's blog

Read more...

Thanks for the comments on the pink quilt. I don't know the name of the pattern, it was a doodle on graph paper, along with about four variations that didn't make it past the trial block stage. I did the quilting myself on a Janome 4000, and the pattern was from one of Keryn's pattern packs which I'm too lazy to go and look up. Care to tell us Keryn?

This is a quilt my local patchwork group made as a fundraiser recently. Everyone joined in the piecing and I quilted the finished top. It's reversible, and I can't decide which side I like more. I did it very simply, a wavy crosshatch in the main part and a very easy leaf shape in the little border.

I'm still plugging away at my blocks and they're looking very nice, but the leader -ender blocks are so simple they're enticing me away from the matter in hand. Didn't I want to put time and effort into something worthwhile and soul satisfying? Somehow the heap of bias seams in the 'nice' block have none of the appeal of the hundreds of little 2" seams that just zip through the machine like no-one's business. Concentrate! Focus! This is going to be a 'good' quilt, remember?


It makes me realise how much I love the 'process' of what I do. I rarely think of the finished product, nor do I have a specific purpose for it. I don't NEED more quilts, or handmade socks but that doesn't even give me pause to think when I'm deciding what to do next. I've had some people say to me that they've got a quilt on every bed, so they don't need to do any more. It makes me go cold all over to think I'd have to justify my sewing like that!

Keryn and I were saying the other day that if we end up in a nursing home together we'd be fine as long as they let us have some pointy objects to keep our hands busy- knitting needles, sewing needles, pins.....whatever.


My auntie was the last of ten children during the depression and money was very scarce. At school she did sewing and craft and they had to learn to knit. She duly got her ball of wool and needles and made a scarf, a hat and a pair of socks, one after the other. At the end of term the teacher wanted all the objects bought in to be marked, and Gwenda had to explain that her parents couldn't afford more wool, so she'd unpulled the scarf to make the hat and unpulled the hat to make the socks..... I think if I had just one ball of wool I'd do that too, the making is more important than the result!

Read more...

Here's the picture of the pink and white quilt as requested. I was making blocks to try out a few of my ideas and decided to use up some pinks on this design. It turned out alright, and the big white spaces left plenty of room for some of Keryn's quilting designs. I love getting a free copy of everything she does, one of the perks of being family!

I've heard of shoe fetishes, but I think I have a hand-knitted sock fetish. I can't stop making the things! They're just so portable and mindless, I can sit next to Mum's bed in the hospital and click away without disturbing her or needing much light. I can take them to a friends house and do a few rows, I even took the blue and yellow faux fair isle to a committee meeting and knitted in between voting on issues.

The worrying thing is I'll probably make them through all but the hottest days of summer, so next winter I may have drawers full of them. Oh well, I'll have to start a shawl or go back to knitting cotton lace like I did in my teens, if my hands will stand it. Somehow handpiecing isn't as convenient; I have to have a lot more equipment and I need my glasses for handsewing now, whereas I mostly knit by feel. I love keeping my hands busy, even winding wool into balls from the skein is therapeutic and soothing.

Read more...

One of my little mantras that run through my head is "When things get back to normal......" and you'd think by now that I would have realised there IS no 'normal'. There just seems to be a succession of upheavals and events and my mythical 'normal' existance retreats into the distance. Oh well, what am I gonna do, cry about it?

As Keryn mentioned on her blog Mum is in hospital, and will be there for some time. She's comfortable and seems happy enough, and it's a lovely little place. The nurses are kind and familiar and the kitchen staff remember she doesn't like chicken so they've got to have something else for Marj. I go up at five every evening to help her with tea, and we watch the sunset over the trees at the

end of the drive. A comforting little ritual.

But in protest at my disrupted existence I decided to start a "good" quilt, one that I've had drawn up in my ideas book for some time. I had a picture of an antique one , and I wanted nothing but gorgeous reproductions for this. The loot I got from Keryn's trip finally made me realise that (a), they are going to keep on making ever more beautiful fabric and (b), I'm going to keep on owning at least some of it. Therefore I have to start using my most precious bits or risk being inundated with these pristine fat quarters, some of which have not even been nibbled at in 5 or 6 years.

So I've started the process I really like the best, working out the trial block, deciding the pressing order (remember I'm a bit obsessive about pressing seams?), cutting strips and stacking them with military precision. I love the organising part of a new project, and the control of my fabric makes up for the things in my life I can't change. The world can be falling apart but at least my seams are pressed the right way!

Yes, a 'good' quilt. A 'nice' quilt. Not the usual scraps and castoffs thing I've been doing , but one that I can take care over. I want to make sure that each block is a creation I've thought about and not just slapped together.

Not that I haven't enjoyed my 'slung together' quilts, I have. But like my heroine Talula, I sometimes feel the need to put a bit more effort into what I'm doing, be a bit more precise about the final result. And I daresay if this ends up as a pile of blocks in a drawer I'll at least have made a dent in the gorgeous reproductions that I have so many of.

And there are always socks to be knitted.....

Read more...