I hate it when you walk into your sewing room, look at the projects that haven't been touched for so long you can't remember where you were and say to them "Do I know you? Do we mean something to each other?" I need to spend a few hours reacquainting myself with the blocks in progress, or I'm going to make mistakes, so I turned to one of the old completed sets of album blocks. This is the variation I mentioned and was based on a very tattered ebay quilt from many years ago. It was in such bad shape I don't even think it could still exist, so I feel like I'm preserving it. I've sewed all the brown triangles to turn the blocks on point, and later today I'll start on the pieced sashing. I know exactly where I'm going with this, so I don't have to agonise about choices.

I have to go and concentrate on customer quilts now, but I thought I'd show you what I turn to when I'm too busy to get into my own sewing. Last thing before I turn the lights out at night I spend a half hour drawing- anything that takes my fancy. Which is usually animals or faces. I have to do something creative for myself every day or I'd go nuts, and if there isn't time for anything else, there's always my trusty pen and sketchbook, just before I go to sleep.
I used to use pencil, but I've learnt that a pen makes me think about exactly what marks I'm making. I used to worry about mistakes, but now I just draw over the top of them. It's like machine quilting, there is no substitute for Practice, Practice, Practice! I use photos at night, because I don't want to share my bed with dogs, no matter how cute, but I like to draw from life even better.

This is a page of Jessie drawings, nothing finished, nothing perfect, but invaluable in learning about her anatomy and the poses she naturally falls into.

I think we all worry about perfection too much, we should shift the aim to Learning. Knowledge is the true benefit, even if things don't quite work out- the next project will be a little better, and the one after that. Practice is the foundation of Skill.

(Gee, it's too early in the day to be Profound, I'd better drink more coffee and get to work!)

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Here are the cutting dimensions for anyone interested in the Album block.

8 x 2 1/2" squares of main colour

4 rectangles 2 1/2" by 6 1/2"

1 red centre square 2 1/2"

6 x 2 1/2" squares of background cream ( I made the centre four a different print, just for a bit of variety)

3 x 4 1/8" squares of background cream

Cut the 4 1/8" squares twice on the diagonal. Cut two of the cream 2 1/2" squares once on the diagonal.Make the centre nine patch and press the seams like this.

(Forgot to take a picture of this step, so here's one I didn't prepare ealier) Sew the quarter square triangles to TWO of the rectangles. When I first made this block I efficiently sewed them to all four and then had to unpick two. Just warning you. Press the seams towards the dark material.Sew the remaining triangles to the dark squares and add the half square triangles to make corners for the block. You can make four of these.
I used to trim the corners of these triangles, but now I just make sure I always line up the 90 degree corners and sew downwards. The extra fabric at the point just hangs over and is trimmed off later.
When I sew the other side the dark fabric is on top and I'm still sewing from the 90 degree corner.

Some people don't like pressing these triangles because of the bias edge. Just don't go near it; press from the top of the corner right along the seam - the rest of the fabric doesn't even need to be ironed.

Here are the bits laid out ready to be joined. The corners and the rectangle pieces will have no nice matching 90 degree corners to line up but you can either find the centre of each piece and pin, or do what I do, make sure there is an equal little background triangle sticking out at either end and sew.

Join the centre strip like this, press seams towards the rectangles.Sew the other corners and join (forgot pictures of that too, sorry)

And this is a simpler album block which results if you leave out the rectangle pieces. This variation is so easy I've made three sets and I still want to make more, I think I'm addicted to it.Here is the pressing scheme I use, this all lays nice and flat and unlumpy.
The block finishes at about 11 1/4" . It always looks clean and sharp, and there's so many variations I just love it.

Two more things I love.... We're thinking of making a sitcom called "Everyone Loves Curtis", but on the other hand it could also be titled "Curtis Loves Everyone". Aw.

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This is the longest I've been without sewing my own projects for quite a while and I'm going crazy, peoples!! We've been in socialising, business, family mode and while those are all good things, I need the balance of personal time in the sewing room or I start feeling really Deprived. And I have nothing to show here either which makes me feel really guilty. What a bad blogger, but I don't mean to be!
Keryn mentioned the dust storm we had last week, it was a doozy. The wind was horrible, and when I saw the racing clouds of dirt in the sky I had to go outside and take a picture. The camera had better visibility than I did, it was all just brown fog to me. Yuck.

I've been knitting because that's portable and easy, and I'm really entertained by knitting green wool on red needles. Shallow, yes?

It's acrylic/nylon because I can't handle wool or mohair next to my skin, but it's working up nicely and is very soft.

I took the following photos last year, and I said to Keryn "If I ever use these on the blog, you'll know I'm absolutely desperate!" Well that time is here, I've got nothing else to show you lot, so here goes......

A funny Fruit picture for your enjoyment.

Conjoined bananas....

And look what was inside! Like they're tucked up in a little sleeping bag.

What? You don't buy mutated fruit so you can take Emergency Blog photos? Well you should!

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Judy asked what pattern source I'm using for my album blocks. I never use patterns, I seem to be most inspired by photos of antique quilts, and out comes the graph paper so I can calculate my own size and cutting requirements. I actually love this process and look forward to getting it all nailed down and ready to start cutting. I never have to wonder where I can find a pattern or be at a standstill while I wait to find what I want.

I guess this attitude came from the fact that Keryn and I started doing patchwork in the seventies, and there was nothing to buy in Australia, precious little patchwork fabric, a few magazines and no patterns at all. So we just learnt to draft our own, and make the templates for handpiecing from scratch. You young-uns have it so easy!!

My paisley album is round at Keryns, but I thought I had another block to illustrate this post, so I went hunting. I seem to have been enamored of the album block and one of it's variations for a while. I found these two orphan blocks; the grey one is just like Bonnies and was made by Keryn many years ago and donated to me.

These blocks (there are six of them)were made from the scrap drawer as an ongoing project which has been forgotten for a while. But I adore the scrap look and might resurrect them now. This is a smaller variation and I went through a stage of obsession with this pattern. I was working and the whole family had to be out the door by 7.30 in the morning, at the very latest. I began getting up at 5, just so I could have an hour or so of piecing time every morning. Without that sewing time I would have been very grumpy, because sometimes I was far too tired to machine sew at night and often fell asleep over my handpiecing.

I made this set of blocks, a variation with less peices, from a photo of a tattered ebay quilt
this set to use up pink and blues...
and this set from another ebay quilt.
My early morning sewing sessions were great for feeding the pieces through the machine and building the blocks, but I felt too rushed when it came to setting them, so I'd just start another set. And they're still here, all those years later. But as I keep telling people, they don't eat much.

Now, if I could get organised I might post some cutting requirements, I'll see what I can do. And by the way, back in the seventies this block was more often referred to as Chimney Sweep and sometimes Courthouse Steps.

I've got a nagging feeling that there's another blue set somewhere, I might have to start thinking about finishing these up. Thanks for the motivation Judy.

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The little Jacob's Ladder top is done and I really like how the blocks and setting turned out. I wish I'd made the dark border narrower- I meant to but a glass of wine at lunch had a marked befuddling effect on my intentions and I cut the strips wider. It looks a bit heavy, but let that be a lesson, don't drink and sew!
I really thought these blocks were the ugliest things I'd ever seen, so scrappy and disjointed, but once again setting them has worked some strange alchemy and I suddenly like them very much. (Except that dark border).The reason I used that particular fabric was because it's been in the stash for around 20 years and has turned up in all sorts of projects, but this is the end of it. Gone now.

And as a follow up to the peacock story, Matt's friend gathered up the fallen feathers and put them in a jar in his room. Jessie, the Dog of Little Brain just cannot be persuaded that it's not Mr Peacock himself sitting up there.

GRRRR!!!
I'm watching you!!
Just don't make a move or I'll Have you!!

Thus endeth the Tale of a Tail......

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If I did titles for my posts this one would be called "Trouble at the Waterhole!"Matt has seen this fine fellow in the tree above the dog's bath quite a few times- perhaps he likes a sip of dog-flavoured water too. We thought nothing of it until one day Matt heard a fine ruckus going on outside. When he investigated he discovered a dishevelled and grumpy Mr Peacocok sitting on the fence, and the goanna with three of it's tail feathers in his mouth. It seems he had an ulterior motive for hanging out above the pool, but the bird was just too big for him.

It was quite a tussle though, lots of soft feathers lying on the ground and big indentations where they'd wrestled around. Matt likes the goannas but he's very fond of Mr Peacock, so he chased this one away and up another tree to make sure it didn't have a second try.This specimen is about 4 feet long (that's a big gum tree he's hanging onto) and he's shedding his skin; his new upholstery is very shiny and smart.

In sewing news the customer top is pieced, using every last skerrick of fabric and I had fun with colour combinations that I hadn't used before. These sort of random settings are very popular for stitchery quilts, but I find them harder to do than a pattern. Trying not to get two of the same pieces touching, worrying about the lights and darks making strange patterns, making sure you don't sew rows together upside down- it all seems to take more time and angst. But worth it in the end.

The little Jacob's Ladder blocks are sewn together but now they need a border, which I'll tackle this afternoon. I've made the binding for the customer quilt and that will go on the Statler soon and the Lost Ships is ready to bind too. I've got the projects lined up and waiting so I'd better get busy.

And sadly, this is what Mr Peacock looks like now. I don't know whether he would have lost his tail at this time of year anyway, or the shock of being attacked made him drop it, but his trailing beauty is gone. Oh well, it will grow again.

Pretty.

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I've been locked in the sewing room this weekend, trying to stay cool and get some work done. I finished a customer quilt and bound it, then cut out another one. Not only do we quilt tops, sometimes we make them from scratch for the non-sewers in life.
It's always interesting to work with someone else's fabric choices, and I had fun cutting up this lot. I'll start putting this together today, and the quilting will be very simple so it shouldn't take too long.

Then I made more of the hourglass blocks, great piles of them in fact, and I love them intensely. Sometimes I make blocks one at a time, parcelling all the bits into ziplock bags when I cut them out and making little kits of each one. At other times I like working like this, making all the units of a block first in great piles and then putting the blocks together later. I love this way of sewing, because it seems to go so quickly, you feed bits through the machine mindlessly, get into the rythym of pressing and trimming and end up with a huge dollop of Progress.

Just as well Curtis wasn't around this weekend because I did a huge amount of cutting and while some scraps hit the bin, an awful lot didn't. I wouldn't want him gobbling up that lot! I feel a great sense of achievement when my floor looks like this, because it means I've cut up heaps of material. I made three bindings, cut nearly three metres of fabric up for kits and strip drawers and dealt with a pile of scraps as well. I love a good cutting session.
It's still stinking hot, and supposed to be so for another two or three days. I passed a friend in the supermarket yesterday and she looked positively murderous. "What's the matter?" I asked, wondering what had happened. She stared at me then shrieked "I've had it!! I've completely had it!!I HATE this heat!!" Ok, tempers are getting frayed, and she has four little children to keep cool and amused inside. Be careful around Mummy when she's like this, kids!

Keryn and I went for a walk at sunset, just to get out of the house, and while it was still very hot at least there was a bit of a breeze and pretty clouds to look at. The grain silos turned a gorgeous pink in the sun's last light and we tramped home in the dusk, happy to have got a bit of exercise and fresh air. I love living in a town so small that a two minute walk in any direction will bring you to open paddocks and an uninterupted view of the sky stretching above you. I love the country.

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The Lost Ships top has a border, but I didn't manage to get it quilted this week because we *gasp* ran out of batting! I got some delivered yesterday, the backing is ironed and waiting and it should only take me a few hours to get this done in between customer quilts.The ghastly hot weather has made sewing a trial- lots of batting and layers mean warmth and is not what I want at the moment! But that's our business, so the quilting goes on. For relaxation I come home and...sew some more- is that weird?

I made this top based on an old farm quilt I saw on ebay and the pattern used up some bleh eighties fabric I wanted to get rid of. I think it might get the triple border treatment later.

These tiny 6" Jacobs Ladder blocks were my Leader-Enders for a while last year, and now I'm sewing the sashing on them in between setting other blocks. When this top's done I'll have made it almost without thought- I can hardly remember doing the blocks (all 42 of them).And that was just from sewing together the short bits from the 1 1/2" strip drawer and some 2 1/2" half square triangles. Utterly painless.

An old rainwater tank out at the park has been turned into a makeshift swimming pool for the dogs in this stinking weather, and Mac likes to cool off there. It's deep enough for him to actually swim around in it, and I suppose it's refreshing, even though the colour of the water leaves a lot to be desired!

A Dog and his Duck........

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