For some reason I was a bit resistant to the idea of jelly rolls, and didn't succumb to their temptation until a few months ago, when Keryn and I bought three or four in rapid succession. Then mine sat on the shelf while I pondered what pattern to use and they became more and more precious and unable to be touched. I discovered I was making 'rules' in my mind about what I could and couldn't do- I must use ALL the strips in one quilt, I musn't add any other fabric that wasn't the same range, the pattern had to showcase all the strips, dark-light-medium and I would have to buy yardage from the same range if I wanted a border.

Needless to say I started to get a bit miffed with all these restrictions and all the patterns I found that could use the entire jelly roll seemed too simplistic or there weren't enough lights for the backgrounds of the blocks or some darned thing.

I realised that it was likely the jellyrolls would sit on the shelf, forever precious, untouchable and covered in dust if I didn't change my attitude towards them. So I examined how I like to sew my projects and decided I don't like to work within a single pattern range, I like to add material as the top develops and speaks to me, and I like to use unexpected fabric combinations and colours that don't necessarily 'go'.

With that in mind, and ignoring the 'rules' I went looking through my photo file of antique quilts and found this beauty. I added a cream fabric for the background triangles, and the rest of the block could be cut fron the 2 1/2" strips. So far so good, I had a pattern I liked and was finally ready to start sewing.
Then I found another thing that didn't suit my way of working... the measurements of the strips. Where do you regard the edge to be? From the points on one side of the strip to the points on the other was much more than 2 1/2". How do you sew an accurate 1/4" seam when you can't use the edge as a guide? What about sewing a straight cut edge to the pinked edge- which edge do you line up? Grrr, this is definitely not how I like to sew.
By trial and error I found I had to leave a little of the points showing as I lined the pieces up, but this really goes against the grain. I've worked on my piecing skills for decades, and now I had to fudge and disregard my own working methods. I'm not happy with this level of inaccuracy at all.

But I'm making the blocks and they are turning out nice and the fabric combinations are giving me a lot of happiness.(The range is Garden Party by Blackbird Designs and I truly love all the fabrics and the lovely colours)I'm finally enjoying sewing these, but I don't think I'll become a jellyroll convert.I know everyone else just loves pre-cuts and I'll probably get told there are lots of lovely pattern books out there for jellyrolls and I'm the odd one out... but I really think I'm happier playing with all my scraps and strips and making my own decisions about everything. At least I can say I've tried them now, and I'll know not to buy any more!

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The paisley album finally has it's pieced borders attached, but it's not finished yet. I still have to add another black border (a fussy cut stripe) to frame it and then I might call it quits, or it might need something else. I've lost the photo of the antique quilt I based this on, and I can't remember if it had another border after the pieced one or not.
At least the hard part is done and I can go on to other things.

This is a pretty applique and embroidery quilt I just finished quilting- I don't make feminine dainty tops like this, but I get to enjoy the fabrics and patterns by quilting them.
It was beautifully done- makes me want to get stuck into my applique again.

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We spent the weekend in Adelaide, catching up with Rob and Elisa, and John and Liz and it was lovely to see them all together.

Keryn wrote about the "Scroll -Off" here, and I must say it makes me proud that all of my sons can cook. As teenage boys with colossal appetites they always had a healthy interest in anything edible, but now they can produce the food as well as pack it away.
And the finished product....
John's batch is on the left, Rob's on the right. They were both delicious, especially warm from the oven. Yum!

Elisa and I went shopping together, to Hetties Patch, and bought a little bag of fabric, so that I could make a little quilt, which will eventually cover this little bump, when it makes it's appearance in September.
It's so exciting, I'll be a Granny for the first time! We worked out this baby will have 10 grandparents, and I haven't decided what I want to be called yet. Plenty of time to work that out....
Amazing, isn't it?

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Finally the Irish Waves is done, and I will never add a pieced border on the fly again. If I'd been sensible I would have asked Keryn to work it all out in EQ6 and tell me how it went, but it didn't even occur to me. I worked it out on graph paper, then impulsively decided to first add an extra border of squares, and then a solid border of mid blue. I didn't think at the time of how that would affect the corners, and I ended up just cobbling it all together.

I'm sick of thinking about it, and I've got all bogged down and I just want it finished. This pieced border has added nearly a thousand extra pieces to what was already a heavily pieced top. I need to closely examine my little exclamations of "You know what might look good.....?!" It turned out to be a lot of extra agonising in this case.

But I really like it, and I love the centre pattern which went together beautifully. I want to make another soon, but in a different fabric combination. I have completely used all my light and dark 1 3/4" scrap squares in this, so the drawer is practically emptied, which is what I set out to do. I used no yardage in this, it was all scraps and individually cut pieces. The pink setting squares were oddments of fat quarters left from our early quilting days, but sad to say there are still a few of them left. We did go a bit overboard on that dusty pink, which looks soooo dated now.

One top down, one more pieced border left to do and then I can devote my time to something else entirely.....

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Keryn has been badgering me to do another blog post- "I'm sick of that damned piece of toast!" were her exact words. Yes, the weeks have flown away and we're still busy, but the main problem was I don't have a good camera these days, and a post without photos isn't much chop in my opinion. I bought a new camera last week, but it's only a cheapie, and it remains to be seen if that will solve the problem.

I wasn't surprised that the jaffle irons are available under different names, they're too good an idea not to be widespread. I don't think Australians have ever put sweet fillings in them as Laura said, but we may try that at our next breakfast. My favourite was always spaghetti and cheese, tasty but rather messy to eat. And I'm sorry, but the square ones don't taste the same, I think because the crust gets cut off with the round ones, much nicer.

On the quilting front I've been plodding away at pieced borders for two quilts, and I think I've put myself off them for life. Hopefully they will both be finished this weekend and I can go on to other interesting projects. I've never felt so mired down and bored with everything, but I'm making myself go on. I may be so relieved when I get these done that I start a couple of new things, that always revives my enthusiasm.

I have two customer tops to do, beautiful applique patterns, both queensize and with lots of wideopen white space for feathers. I've been puzzling about what sort to put there, and decided to see if I could something along the lines of Jamie Wallen, really closepacked feathers with no background showing.

So I did a bit of a practice to see what felt comfortable and it was so much fun.
Sometimes one direction that you stitch will have better results than others, so I need to experiment and work out a pattern of movements.
I'm going to fill up this piece of homespun until I know what I'm doing, ditchstitch the applique and then go to town. I'll let you know how it turns out!
And yes Meggie, Macca is a gorgeous boof, but he's a boof with a flowerpot on his head at the moment.
He keeps scratching his ears until they bleed so he's been wearing this natty headgear until we could get to the vet. It's not kind to laugh at him, but he's hysterical to watch. He still plays all his fastpaced games, but he can't see where he's going half the time, and blunders around trying to find his toys. He's discovered that he can use the edge of the pot to flip the ball into his mouth, and that he can even catch it behind his head and let it roll round into his waiting jaws. This dog is unfailingly good natured, adaptable and ready to get on with life and fun no matter what. He has a lovely personality.

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On Friday afternoon I had removed a large quilt from the frame and was pinning on the second one of the day when all the power went off. Some work was being done down the end of the road involving the local waterworks, the phone company and now electricity was turned off. I didn't even feel the slightest bit annoyed, instead Keryn and I got in the car and went for a drive. We couldn't use the computers, the phones, the longarm, the sewing machines, nothing. So off we went in the beautiful sunshine, on a backroad to a neighbouring town, and admired the clouds and green fields and didn't even feel a bit guilty.

This morning I got a call from Matt that he was starting a fire, and did we want to cook breakfast out at the park. That sounded pretty good too, so we grabbed our supplies and headed off.
There's something about toast cooked over the coals, it was absolutely delicious spread with real butter and Rose's Old English Marmalade. Then sausages and bacon, and a childhood favourite, Jaffles.
I don't know if anyone else in the world has these, or a version of them; we call them Jaffle Irons. I can't use them on my electric stove, they need gas flames or hot coals to work properly. We laid a piece of buttered bread on one side, cracked an egg onto it and then laid another piece of buttered bread on top. Into the coals, and five minutes later, perfection..
This particular jaffle iron is nearly sixty years old and still going strong, it's seen a lot of use over the years.

The dogs had a great breakfast too, there was a lot of very nice 'sitting' and perfect 'staying' going on. It's amazing how focussed they can be when there's food involved.
And Macca will not believe that he's too big to be a lap dog, he managed to cram himself onto each of us in turn.What a big boof he is!
I think Sunday morning breakfast at the park might become a regular thing, it was just what we needed to relax after all our work.

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Yesterday I left the quilt I was working on ( the second of the day ) and tottered in to Keryn's office, when she was typing frantically at the computer, answering some desperate email and tearing her hair out over a photocopier that won't print nicely. "Do you realise" I asked her "That we have worked 17 days in a row?" She turned a half-crazed face to me and uttered a sort of scream that frightened Dolly - apparently my observation hadn't helped matters any. We can't go on like this....

Years ago, when my boys were little, they used to watch Star Trek, Next Generation at a friend's house. My sci-fi experience had been limited to John Wyndham novels and an enthusiastic embracing of the Star Wars movies when they first came out.

Because the boys enjoyed the series so much we began watching it at home, and then we progressed to Voyager and Deep Space Nine when they began to be shown.I was never taken with the Klingon's bloodthirsty ways, but the boys loved them and there were many bat'leth fights all over the house. (Word of warning, don't start searching Star Trek sites, there are some strange people out there...)

It was always a good weekend when there was a stack of rented episodes next to the main tv and we had our own little marathon. I quilted and pieced many projects to those series, and the boys drew, worked on the computer or played video games on a second tv with the sound turned down. It was very companionable and made for some good family bonding.

However, the boys moved on to other enthusiasms and somehow I was the only one left an ardent fan. I still am to this day, although half of my enjoyment is picking on my least favourite characters and groaning at the "Kill the Extra" mentality. I own all the series except the original, can't come at that somehow, and I regularly revisit them, just for a laugh.

Now those warrior Klingons have a battle cry of "It is a Good Day to Die!!", followed by a blood-curdling "ROAHHRR!!!" After the first seven days of quilting without a break, I tried to whip up some enthusiasm with my own little catch-cry of "It is a Good Day to Quilt!!", followed by the "ROAHHR!" Keryn was a bit non-plussed, and half heartedly repeated the words, but refused to do the roar. Wuuss.
Perhaps we could be the Duras sisters of quilting, Lursa and B'Etor! Except they were the baddies and it's getting too chilly for those outfits (you wouldn't want to get a cold in THOSE chests) and Keryn doesn't like the whole forehead ridges thing.

I'm facing at least three more big quilts before I can take a break, and I don't think I can manage the quilting cry today. I'll do my best, but it's more likely to come out as "It is a good day to quilt; squeak."

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Another pretty customer quilt, I loved the pink and yellow colour combination in this one. I've quilted three of these Gardeners Journal tops, and they are all different, it's amazing how the different fabrics seem to change the pattern.
I put the borders on another long term UFO, and I've made the backing and cut out the binding. How's that for organised? I'm keeping an unofficial record of fabric usage this year and so far I've only gone through 68 metres. Got to get those figures up, and backings are a great way to do it.

I'm piecing borders for two other projects, and the Irish Waves one is in a terrible muddly state. If I don't get this sorted soon I'll chuck the lot away, it's really starting to irritate me. I bet Bonnie never gets in a mess like this, her borders are complicated and tinily pieced and add wonderfully to the design. I'm wondering if this border will even suit the top, now that I've gone to the trouble of actually piecing most of it, sigh. Sometimes things look good on graph paper and it doesn't translate as well into fabric. I'll keep you informed...
I'm still plodding away at my applique at night, but I tend to drift off after a couple of pieces, especially if I've been up since four o'clock. When I press the bits before sewing I often muck around, playing with ideas. And then I can take a photo and record it for later, in case I ever want to develop something.
I love digital cameras, I used to do this with film, but it cost a fortune to print them. Technology has added benefits to the sewing room in so many ways, hasn't it? Perhaps if I'd worked my bloomin' borders out in EQ6 they wouldn't be in such a mess now.....

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Another busy week gone. When we started quilting for other people I felt very strongly about always having the weekend off, as I've seen many longarmers work themselves to burnout point trying to keep customers happy. There are times when I have worked nine or ten days straight, but I hate it, and I'm convinced that if I'm to be in this for the long haul, I have to have regular time off to look forward to.

Even though I have a huge list of things to do, including much hated housework, I need time each weekend to just potter in my room. I love going through my projects and scraps and revisiting the stash, not to mention cutting the pieces I'll need for the next week's sewing. I've been getting up at crazy hours 3.30, 4.30 am, and when my first thought is what needs to go onto Millhouse next, I know it's time to do something for myself. Hence the pottering and pootling in my room.

Before you express dismay at my weird sleeping patterns, just let me say it's not all bad. Yesterday (Saturday) I got up at 3.30 and started cleaning out the backing shelves. I organised the fabric, cut some smaller pieces into 10 1/2" strips ala Bonnie, decided on backings for two tops that haven't even been finished yet and cut a pile of scraps that had built up over the last few weeks. I got all my washing done and overdyed some fabric for another backing, then cleaned out the laundry. By this time I was starving and went into the kitchen to get some lunch, where I discovered it was only 10.30 after all. I felt as if someone had given me another morning, free, and there were so many extra things I could fit in.I love waking early. I didn't even need a nap in the afternoon, although I did fall asleep at nine that night.
I have this reto cake container on my shelf (Billy bookcase from Ikea, need more) and it's the perfect size for this project- also pretty retro. I started it a good ten years ago in an effort to use up all my bland old fabric, a spectacularly unsuccessful attempt as they still haunt the stash to this day. (I realise that this green fabric isn't bland. I must have been rebelling against the lack of contrast in the rest of the blocks...)
I hand-pieced all the hexagons, which went very quickly and if I'd just stopped there I could have had this in one piece all those years ago. But I saw a quilt on ebay that had another round of pieces, so I made a template and begain cutting again.
It turned into a nightmare, finding the bits and pairing them up, and once I'd done that I realised I disliked adding the extra pieces. It would have been much easier to sew them as triangles first, and today I would machine piece them, probably from strip sets. So do we change.
Last year I counted up the remaining blocks left to sew and told myself "Self, if you do one a week, this project will be finished within a year" and I started. I really detest this piecing, and I bribe myself with all sorts of other things I'm looking forward to.. "When you finish that block, you can do some applique."
As I put the latest block away I realised I only have ten left to do, and I could accomplish that in a week if I wanted to. I don't, but the end is really in sight at last. I don't even know that I want to set it like that long ago ebay quilt, but it will be ready to finish, and that's a good thing. Plus I get to put something else in the cake container, woohoo!- is that shallow?

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I set a new Personal Best last week and quilted 7 customer quilts. Two were queen size, one was King size, and the rest were lap to single bed size. I was buttered by Saturday morning, when I unpinned the last one, and slightly bilious. I deserved my weekend off, and today Keryn is working on a huge embroidery quilt, using the Statler side of the machine, so I'm doing other things. I have four of the customer quilts to sew bindings to, so it's it's not as if I can take it easy just yet.

This queen size quilt was made with gorgeous modern fabrics, and it was picked up too quickly for me to get an overall shot.

Another queensize quilt, made with large half-square triangles and some lovely large scale fabrics.

And this was a wedding quilt, with some beautiful embroidery in the centre.

I thought hearts were appropriate as a filler.
And feathers are always special, aren't they?

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There are only two completed tops so far, but it feels good to have these done. I started the Irish Chain some time after we got Millhouse, and I wanted to have a practice top to do continuous curves and some feathers. It isn't particularly attractive, because it's made out of bleh fabric I wanted to get rid of (how often have I done that?!) and I didn't want to have something so nice I'd be afraid of ruining it with my learning stitches.Somehow I didn't have time to 'practice' these things, I just had to do it, sink or swim, and the top never got finished.

The other top is a really old UFO that I started when we lived on the farm, and each block used up the last of some really precious bits. I hand pieced them all, and enjoyed every single minute, but then I didn't know how to set them. I'd just drafted the block on graph paper, so I had no antique quilt to copy, or give me ideas. I sashed it a fair while ago, and then let it mature some more, and now it's finally finished.
In my rummages I found these blocks, which were going to be my Millenium quilt. I started doing this by hand, and it took ages to decide on fabrics for each block, because the pattern relies on tone for effect, and I was limited by not being able to repeat any fabric. Eventually the restrictions were too much, the deadline was past, and I didn't really care anymore. Perhaps I'll machine piece the two extra blocks and make a wallhanging out of it and call it Mereth's Millenium Folly.

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Mary made me laugh with the pictures of her work space after she'd ransacked it. As Keryn said, I love to tidy my sewing areas and keep things fairly organised, but just lately we've been so busy that it's been a choice of tidy OR sew, and I needed to see some progress on a few projects. I've been cutting out extra pieces for about four quilts, and have trays stacked on top of trays on top of boxes. Not my usual style at all.
It came to a head this weekend when I pulled out a stack of tops that needed borders and had a huge audition session.
I had fabric piled everywhere, and tops, and sets of blocks that I thought might make interesting borders in themselves. It was very liberating just reefing out different prints and trying them on all the tops, even if it wasn't what I had in mind in the first place. In this way I made final decisions on three tops, and got lots of ideas for the others. One in particular is quite different from my original concept, but I'm really excited to finish it now.
So this week I'll be cutting up fabric and sewing borders and Tidying until everything is back to the way I like it. And hopefully there will be three (or four) new completed tops in the pile.

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The 4-patch 4-patch has a border now and I'm piecing the backing from some bits and pieces. I think there are a few bright pieces here that don't belong, but I was hoping to use up all of these 1 3/4" strips.
I roughly sorted them out into lengths and sewed pairs together, then cross-cut them into 4 1/2" segments and it went pretty quickly. Much to my disappointment there's still about a third of them left. Is it possible to use up every last skerrick, or will there always be bits left over?

The closest I ever came was this little crib quilt, made from the pastel swatches from a quilt shop. I used all but one of the coloured squares, and used up all the white on white pieces from donated scraps that I'd accumulated. I never buy either of these types of fabric, so I was really chuffed to get almost all of it removed from the scrap stash in one fell swoop. I quilted this two years ago, and I'm ashamed to say it's still not bound.

And remember I bought a little telly for the sewing room? Keryn came in the other day and said"Oh that's really great, I'm so glad the TV is being used......."
What?!! It's a multi- function model!

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