I finally finished the quilting on this old top and now I just have to bind it. This was all done using computerised designs so Keryn has to take all the credit for creating the patterns on this one.
I'm getting the hang of using the new system Creative Studio, after putting all these blocks in place. It's like anything, there's skill involved and you can still place designs badly or make mistakes. Having the computer stitching option doesn't guarantee perfect results - a lot still depends on the operator.


I've been busy freehanding all the stitchery tops we're getting, that seems to be my area of preference and what I love doing. Each to their own!
This is on the machine at the moment and the colours are so pretty and fresh. I love working on these tops, so different to those I make for myself.

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I had a surprise visit on the weekend from Rob and Elisa, it was lovely to see them again. He made a quick trip home just for a couple of days, and seems to be liking his new job.





And look who came to visit too- Curtis!!


Don't they look nice and calm and happy.......


But that didn't last long....


Let's RUN!!
And JUMP!!

and frolic.......

till we're absolutely stuffed. Yeah!

I finally finished handsewing the binding on this stitchery quilt, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. It was a block of the month by Anni Downes and the customer did the embroidery beautifully. Keryn and I constructed the top and it was such fun to use these colours. We haven't got these fresh pretty fabrics in our stashes, which are mostly full of reproductions.

I hope the customer likes it too!

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Bonnie recently wote a post about using new fabric versus scraps, and I really do identify with what she said. At no time in my life have I owned so much beautiful fabric, and had the resources to buy more when I felt like it. I should be sewing up these new fabrics in a frenzy, and yet over and over again I'm drawn back to the scraps, the leftovers, the old projects and the bits that have been given to me. I've been thinking about it quite a bit, because it doesn't make sense on the surface.

When I was really struggling, bringing up three boys on my own and counting every penny, I would have loved to be in this position now. To have bolts of new fabric sitting on the shelves, plenty for borders, for setting blocks, for backings; never having to worry about running out before the project was finished.I would have regarded this as heaven, and if I'd been told that I'd go back to my scraps in preference to this bounty I would have been sceptical.

Yet that's what I've been doing. I guess I feel attatched to this earlier stash in a way that I don't with the new fabrics, even though they are so beautiful. Back then I knew every fabric in my possession, where every piece had come from, and who had given me the smallest scraps. I handled them constantly and each piece had so many possibilities it was tantalising. I dreamed about them and drew quilt plans for them and thought about them in a way that I haven't with the new stuff.

I don't know if it is a question of having too much, or that I just don't have the same emotional investment. But I like the scraps that people are still giving me because they tie me to that 'past', when I needed to treasure and appreciate every tiny thing. The new fabric is lovely and tempting and delicious, but so often it gets stuffed in the drawers and doesn't really imprint itself on me before the next lot comes along. I probably 'play' with my scraps more than fondling the new fabric, which is strange.

I can't say I'm just busier now I've got my own business because I was run off my feet and stressed beyond belief back then. Life's a doddle now compared to what I used to fit in every day. Perhaps I needed my quilting more in those times as a way of being grounded and clinging to something that was just for me, a lifeline to sanity in some instances.

What ever the reasons, I can't abandon my scraps and move on solely to "The Good Stuff". I need my boxes of odd-bod strips and strange bits and pieces, and I still happily accept all the remnants that are offered to me. Keryn was looking through a new quilt book the other day and burst out laughing at this illustration. She says it reminds her of me.....

Well Bonnie, we can be 'rag muffins' together!

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Sara asked about my heel-less socks. I got the pattern from this wonderful book, full of lots of ideas. This edition is 1955 and I picked it up in a second hand bookshop for about $10. Bargain.

I've got no idea what wool I'm supposed to be using, but I had a couple of skeins of 5-ply blend that I thought I'd experiment with. I'm using size 12 needles(what's that in American sizes?) and I think I could have used 11's or even 10's to make a softer fabric. This is pretty firm, and because there's only 64 stitches and I made them really long they have to stretch a lot at the top.

The pattern is pretty simple,

a k2 p2 rib, for three rows,

every fourth row slip the first knit stitch of each rib, knit the second then pass the slipped stitch over and knit that too.

The next row is back to the k2 p2 rib, but moved one stitch to the right so it makes a sloping pattern. Quite easy, but my hands got sick of it in the end and closer to the toe I decided to just try the rib without the twisted stitches. I think I like this just as much and it's so much easier to do. The spiral pattern helps with the fit of the sock, and even though I want to make more of these simple ones for round the house they'd never replace my 'proper' sock knitting.Now, long time readers might remember my Crosses and Losses blocks from this post. And that links to an even earlier post in 2006.

I was having trouble deciding on a setting and had a vivid dream about what to do. It all worked perfectly until I ran out of a certain fabric and didn't have enough of the border I wanted and suddenly the top and I weren't speaking to each other and the lines of communication have been down for a while. Every now and then I'd make a half-hearted attempt to make amends, offering this fabric or that for it's approval, waking up in the morning thinking "What about the piece of new fabric Keryn bought?I wonder if that's the 'right' one....", but nothing was good enough for these cranky blues. I really felt that all the effort was on my part, and they weren't even meeting me half way. Sometimes I hadn't even got the fabric unfolded before they were saying "No! We don't like that one either!"

So I gave up and the top, minus the borders has sat in the cupboard ever since. If I felt a little twinge of regret over not finishing it I instantly got a defensive rush of justification- I'd tried my darndest, auditioned every blue fabric I possessed, raided Keryn's stash, even bought three new lengths for this wilful thing, and I'd been rejected at every turn. Let it sit and think about how it was going nowhere. Hmphh!

Then Keryn finished this top, and used her very special toile that had been out of bounds on previous stash raids. I was looking at the leftover strips that she hadn't needed and the disgraced Crosses and Losses top suddenly seemed like it might get a reprieve.

I laid the strips out next to it with a grim attitude, if this didn't work I was going to wash my hands of it altogether. There was a moments silence, and then I heard the blocks say grudgingly...."Well, it's not what we had in mind, but it will do...."

Just as well!

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Well, I don't know how I did that, but two readers told me that when they clicked on the photo of the customer quilt in the last post, another quilt came up. I had originally loaded this picture to the post and then deleted it because I thought it looked too boring to blog about. Nothing for it but to tell you about it now I suppose.

Keryn is absolutely sick of me playing with my revolting old fabrics and the boring bits from my quilting past. We have so much beautiful fabric and so many inspiring ideas, and I still go back out of a sense of duty and try to finish these abandoned projects. And I can't say I loved them once because the only reason I ever started them was to use fabric I no longer liked.

I made these blocks about three years ago, and I wanted them to look like an old farm quilt I saw on ebay. I wanted to use up funny lights and bits of blues and greens that were hanging around. I like blocks that are just two colours, a light and a dark- simple to sew and then just whack them all together.

I came up with the brainwave that I'll use this as the backing for the double reel top that I just finished, again using up fabric I wanted to get rid of. But I needed two more blocks to make it longer, so I went back to the Drawer of Abandonment.

This time it turned out to be the Drawer of Requirement, because I found a practice block (really yecchy fabric) and another that had the dark and light reversed. I should have made them all like this, they're much more interesting. So the top(backing) was finally long enough but I had to add borders all around so that it can be loaded on Millhouse and centre the top properly on it. Most of the border fabric top and bottom will be cut away, which is why it looks so incongruous- I just used stuff that could be discarded.

Keryn is away in Melbourne teaching, but I can feel her shaking her head and muttering."Use the Good Stuff, for pity's sake!!" Soon, master, soon!

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Today was patchwork and I took my Stack and Whack to work on. One of the group had her head screwed on right because she brought her little TV and so I got to sew and watch the Equestrian at the same time. Excellent!

I still didn't get much done because I helped a friend who'd missed the class last time- we got her blocks cut and three hexagons sewed before she had to leave.I do love seeing the different fabric choices; three people had their blocks sewn into rows and not once did I think to get my camera out. What a twit! I must take photos when they're all finished.I ditched the wishy washy cream I was going to set these with and chose a vibrant dark red instead. Much more interesting, but the light was so bad I couldn't see what I was doing and gave up in favour of helping the others and watching telly. After all, the Olympics only comes every 4 years, doesn't it?
Got a new customer quilt too, this is someone's first attempt at patchwork! Pretty good stuff, and I have some new purple variegated thread that will look wonderful on this. This should liven up the bedroom of the little girl it's intended for.

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Earlier this week I decided to go through my project boxes for something to handsew during the Olympics. I have my little hexagons, but I've been working on them a while, and wanted some variety. Wouldn't do to get bored during the Olympics! I found these Feathered 16 Patches that I started years ago and despite thinking that I only had about 8 done, the sewing elves had been busy and there were 23 blocks finished.(!!?How? I can't remember doing that many!) I sorted them out, cut the remaining 5 blocks I needed, even the triangles for the setting and generally got myself organised.
Except then I kept sewing them every night and now they're all done and ready to be set together, so I guess it's back to the rosettes and my spiral heel-less sock. I figured this would be the ultimate in mindless knitting, just a tube and then a toe. No need to miss any of the action following a pattern.

And this is a customer quilt, from a kit by Pam Holland. The lady wanted it stippled, and by gum she got it! Death by Stippling....?
The backing had been cut the same size as the top and couldn't be loaded on Millhouse, so I went back to my Janome 6500 to do this. My wrists are still aching, but it was only a small project, thank goodness.

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Here are some more photos from my trip, this place rejoices in the name of Nobby's Head, and is really stunning. But those two little black specks are people surfing- far too cold and wet for me. I love to look at the sea, but I don't like being on it or in it.Can you see the rainbow trailing from the wave? And another silly black speck of a someone.
Lovely scenery.


I'm having trouble getting back into the swing of things, I feel like I'm scrambling to catch up after my interlude away. Customer quilts are building up to a level I'm not comfortable with and we're doing our best to get them down to a workable number. I think I'd be happy with any single digit number at the moment, perhaps that should be the goal next week.

I'm not happy in my sewing room either, I've lost my way on the projects I was doing, and while I continue putting the pieces together, I think I need to have a big think about them soon. We need Direction, people!

Keryn taught a Stack and Whack class last week at the patchwork group, so I have a new project too. I wish I'd thought to take photos of everyone's work, there were so many different fabrics and they all turned out great. We didn't want to go home and ended up staying an hour and a half past the normal break up time because no-one wanted to stop. That's the sign of a good class!

I bought this fabric ten years ago when Keryn and I were in America at the Machine Quilters Showcase. I think it was a Paula Nadelstern design that was made especially for cutting up into kaleidoscope quilts, and it's sat in my stash ever since. I knew I would use it one day, and suffice it to say I want more but there's no hope of getting this again!I'll have enough for a small quilt, and I have some other gorgeous fabric I want to make a large Stack and Whack from, so it's really only a test piece. I just love the possibilities of twisting and turning these bits, sometimes it's hard to decide which you like best.

The following pictures are the same triangles, just turned in different directions.

I chose the latter one but I like the others too. See why I want more of this fabric?

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I got back home on Sunday afternoon, boy delivered safely to Newcastle and settled in to new space. Here he is modelling the quilt for the benefit of Aunty Keryn- he even put it on the bed in the hotel room where we stayed, so I think he likes it!

I only had a morning to look around before I flew home, and we went to the beach- glorious sand and surf and sun...I was very impressed with the place and think he and Elisa will love it there.
I don't know where I'm at; got 200 photos to look at and 5 new customer quilts came while I was gone- I'll post properly soon but at the moment I don't know whether I'm Arthur or Martha, as my Mum used to say! (That seems strange now that I think of it. Implies a bit of gender confusion, but she meant that everything was disorganised and chaotic. Might have to do some research...)

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I don't think I posted a picture of the quilt that was on the frame in Keryn's picture here. I started it many years ago when I was preganant with Matt (that makes it at least 20 years- yikes)and I can't remember the name. I only set the blocks together 2 years ago, so it was a long time in the finishing, and now it's been taken off the frame half-done, (thank goodness for zippers), so that an urgent quilt can be finished.

Isn't it strange how you can be cruising along thinking you know where everything's headed and then life decides to change?

I'd been enjoying Second son Rob's visits with fiance Elisa and the ever lovable Curtis - he lives in Adelaide 200k away, but she lives in our old hometown just 25k from here. So he visited quite regularly, and it was nice to have them drop in.

But now he's moving to Newcastle, which is about 1500k from here, to start a new job. There won't be any more 'drop in' visits, and when Elisa moves over to join him next year there won't be any more Curtis stories either. Double bummer!

He's driving over, and planned to do it non-stop and alone, which sent me into a tail-spin. I'm not a very protective mother, I believe in letting them get on with their lives and not interfering. Sometimes they tell me of incidents that I would have worried about, but since everything turned out ok (or they wouldn't be telling me), it makes no sense to get upset after the fact.
But Rob is a diabetic, and one who doesn't really display warning signs of a 'low' until he's well and truly in it. And then, because low blood sugar affects your reasoning processes, sometimes he's a bit disorientated about what to do.

He's been a diabetic since he was 11, so he knows the ropes pretty well. Twice he's been so low he had seizures and had to be hospitalised, something I hope never happens again.Over the years he's told me stories of monster lows that I knew nothing about- the time when he was out walking with friends (exercise makes blood sugar go down) and got so low that they had to drag him bodily into a shop to get some food for him, and the owner refused to serve him because she thought he was drunk.

Or the time someone at Uni found him wandering around and, thankfully, took him to the nurses station because he was so confused.... The sad thing is some people do think the confusion and staggering and being unable to say what's wrong means someone drunk or on drugs.
I'm not over-reacting when I feel anxiety about him driving all this way on his own as well as navigating and remembering to eat enough to keep concious. So.... I'm going with him. I'll be away until Sunday, and then I'll be home, wondering where I was and what was I doing? Send safe thoughts for us!

Oh well, at least the other two are settled.... what's that? Matt and the dogs are moving back home for a while?! O....K..... I guess it really is miserable out at Bowman's Park in the middle of winter and it will be nice having such a good cook around and I do love seeing the dogs every day....

And that leaves just the First-Born son, good dependable John just cruising along....... until I get this phone call two days ago. "Hi Mum, I'll see you on Wednesday won't I? Great, I can say good-bye before I fly out to America...."

WHATTT!!!! Apparently his work is flying him to America for two months and he doesn't even know where he's going yet. He'll live in some hotel and do the work he's doing here, ...but on the other side of the world.
So All my sons have pulled a whammy on me in the last few weeks and have taken new directions, how funny. I'll get back on Sunday and Rob will be in Newcastle, John will be in America, and hopefully Matt will have the coffee on and Bacon Wrapped Jalopeno Thingies waiting for me. I'm going to need them.

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Never let it be said we're not up for a challenge! We got an unusual request from a local lady who had heard we had a quilting machine; namely, to repair a woolen underlay that she wanted to keep on using. The cotton liner on one side had shredded but the wool part was still good, and new ones of this quality are in the hundreds of dollars.

She brought it to us hoping it would go on the gammill, but it was far too thick for the hopping foot, and we didn't want to risk throwing the timing off by even trying.

Enter Ethel, the ancient industrial Singer. I bought this years ago, hoping I'd be able to free motion on it, but I suspect that she didn't like the frivolous nature of the request and refused to co-operate. (And you can't drop the feed dogs which was probably the real reason.)

As an aside, this machine was named after Aunty Ethel, the seamstress who sewed our Mum's wedding dress. She never married so hence had no children of her own and was reputed to be a no-nonsense, rather severe type. Mum's cousins were always sent to stay with her when their mother was in a 'delicate' condition, so the older ones knew a stint at Aunty Ethel's meant a new sibling when they returned home. Apparently it was a relief on both sides when the baby finally appeared, because she wasn't exactly equipped for entertaining small children, and at least one of the cousins wasn't good at behaving under any circunstances.

We thought this sturdy capable workhorse would have been cast along the no-nonsense lines of Aunty , so Ethel she became.

We weren't quite sure how to best go about this, so it was all guesswork. The new liner was pressed into lengths to give us lines to sew along, then pinned to the underlay (Queensize, by the way)to keep it in place.And it's over to Ethel.....

Can you see why we've been referring to this as "The dead sheep" all weekend?

Keryn and I are both in awe of this old machine.She sewed beautifully over the lumpy bumpy wool, and never missed a beat, as long as we didn't let the horribly heavy mass pull against her. At one stage I said it was like sewing through a gigantic cheese sandwich, it was just so thick and spongy, but Ethel trundled steadily along and completed the task beautifully. Sometimes people wonder why we have so many machines, but we can always find one to suit a particular job, and I admire them all for their different strengths.

Look at that, it must be at least 3/4" thick! This morning we're going to whip around the edge, and hope the lady is pleased with our result- she didn't think it would be possible.

Here's my project of the moment, but it's going to stay secret for a while. (Looks a bit like a centipede, doesn't it?)There are hundreds and hundreds of little 1" hst involved, so it will take a LOT of sewing. Don't expect a finished object any time soon.

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Matt and the dogs stayed in the other night and I introduced him to The Pioneer Woman Cooks site. We have some straggling jalopeno bushes still bearing a few chilis, so he decided to make Bacon Wrapped Jalopeno Thingies. Everything she says about them is true, they were so delicious we couldn't stop eating them. (If you like chilis, that is)

Macca thought they smelled pretty wonderful and did his best to get a taste, but we weren't going to waste them on him, because they were too hot for him to eat.
(Please excuse the dreadful photos, but the camera was on a strange setting and I didn't notice until it was too late. I thought I'd use them anyway, you'll get the idea)

Oh, the groans and moans and pleading that went on here! (And that was just me begging Matt for another one!) We felt really mean , and Matt gave him three doggy treats, but the smell of that bacon was irresistible.He was such a good boy, sitting up very straight and minding his manners (he'll never take food unless he's told he can have it), but nothing worked on us old stony-hearts.
PLEEEEEase!!!!!!!! *sigh*

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