I'm having dreadful computer woes, and am in the process of having a new one built. I'm limping along on the old one, but everything takes ages to load and then freezes or just shuts down. Grrr!I really wanted to blog about my first quilt on Bonnies blog, but I can only refer to an old post as resizing photos and trying to blog here is beyond my ailing technology. I would have liked to show you the first quilt I made entirely on my own, without help from Keryn, but I don't even know where the poor thing is now. Stored at the workshop somewhere, I suppose.

I still love my early quilts, I was so enthusiastic over the whole process. But I guess I would have been thrilled to know that I would one day make my living from finishing other people's quilts, something totally unforeseen back then. Hundreds and hundreds of quilts, and I'm still loving it, that says something....!

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Back to the customer quilts after a much needed break.
This colourwash heart needed extra rows in the centre and the borders added to finish it, which I did last week. Then it was loaded on Millhouse and custom quilted with allover feathers. I had great fun with it, just going where I pleased.
The fabrics in this were beatiful, it must be fun to collect them over time.
Of course more feathers in the border....In my sewing room I returned to these blocks (must see if they have a proper name) and now have twenty sewn.
They were good fun to piece, but now I don't know how to set them.

Straight, with sashing....
or on point, with setting squares?I'm going to have to have an audition session, with fabrics and different settings and probably graph paper involved at some point. I just hope the final decision doesn't involve me making more blocks, because I'm ready to go on to something else.

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Back again, after a ten day stay with Rob and Elisa in New South Wales.
It was lovely spending so much time with them and getting to know Logan properly. He's a good baby, and very cuddly, which suited me fine. He wasn't in the least bit shy of me, he's such a friendly little chap. It's hard to believe he'll be a year old in less than a month, that time seems to have flown so quickly.

Curtis has had a hair cut and looked very well groomed. He doesn't forget me and he needed his share of attention too.
Unfortuneately it rained most of the time, so we didn't get to sightsee as much as we could have. We went to some wineries and a cheese factory and the markets, but even there we were rained out. I'll have to go in summer next time.

I didn't get much sewing done, in fact this is all I accomplished; part of a Carpenter's Star.
(I bought this little case at the cheap shop, and it was perfect to pack all my sewing stuff in.)
I knitted nearly a whole sock, and made an art smock for Logan to wear at daycare, but I was quite content to just spend time playing with him and not doing handwork. I can do that now that I'm home again.

Rob and Elisa's house is in a new development and there was lots of building going on. This view was at the top of their hill, wouldn't it be nice to see this from the lounge room window? It was very nice countryside, lots of horse studs, wineries, and of course coal mines.
Very pretty, and I liked watching the rain storms roll across the hills like this.

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I'm still enjoying sewing my nine-patches, but I thought I'd better start making some decisions about setting them into blocks. I hunted through my extensive collection of photos and it was so hard choosing just one. I want to make them all!!
This is what I was thinking of originally, just a standard double nine-patch, with sashing, pretty straight forward. How about that colour though, I don't think I'm brave enough for all that yellow- wow!
I've always loved this very ordered setting, and it wasn't until I studied it this time that I noticed the chains are made from the white squares. For this I'd need to use five shirting squares in each little block, and four dark squares, but I've done them the other way around. Oh well, next time.

This made me look at my other pictures more closely and I found a lot of the antique ones were made with this configuration, some of the times set on point as well.
Doesn't this simple change in the placement of the light squares create a whole new look? And here's a luscious Amish version, love those darker colours.
This just makes me think I have to create more and more nine-patches in all sorts of fabric placements to try all these different ideas. I'm not sick of them yet and they make great leader-enders- how many nine-patch quilts can you start before you know you've got a problem (hint: obsession!)

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I suppose pikelets are an English thing, along with the scone, which, by the way we pronounce to rhyme with John. The American tv shows we've heard make it rhyme with stone, which we find peculiar. And I've got no idea how the English say it, any British readers out there that can offer their pronounciation?

Anyway, my recipe comes from this book, which is the first cookbook Keryn and I ever owned. Mum gave us each a copy when we were in our early teens, and they were duly placed in the "Glory Box", ready to assist us in our married life. (I should do a seperate post on this out-dated custom, which was virtually a trousseu girls collected over years and years, usually in a big trunk of some kind.) This book is Keryn's, which stayed a lot cleaner than mine did.
I used to make pikelets when the boys had sleepovers, and I can remember standing over the frying pan making batch after batch and watching them all disappear at an incredible rate. They were a great cheap snack to fill up hungry boys, and the ingredients were always at hand. I was happy when the boys graduated to being able to cook them on their own, and then I didn't have stand there, spatula in hand and looking at a child holding a plate out for more, more, More!!
And yes, they are smaller than usual, because I found this cute little ladle at the op-shop, and even though I had no idea what I'd use it for I had to buy it. That's a teaspoon for scale. It makes
dear little pikelets, and I love the fact that they're all the same size, and that I found a use for my purchase.
I'm still flitting from project to project- will I ever settle down to one thing again?
There are nine of the pastel Arrowhead blocks, still being pieced at night while watching telly. (two finished since this photo was taken)
These blocks have been resurrected and now there's ten of them.
There's eight of these blocks, and then there's the nine-patches!

Arggh! the nine-patches! (clutches head and wails...) I can't stop making them......110 at last count and I still haven't decided on the setting!

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Here's a close up of the setting fabric for the Feathered Square blocks. I didn't realise it was a quilting fabric until I read the selvedge, this feels more like a lightweight dress material. I do love the pattern, and when I first saw this there were very few large repro type prints available so I fell on it and bought about four metres.

I'd already used it as a setting fabric in a smaller top and it was flimsy but the straight seams helped control it- no bias to worry about here.
I like the idea of making a pillowcase from the remaining fabric, thanks Henrietta!

It was also Henrietta who said that Dolly and Pippi were such good dogs. Yes they are..... but there have been times when they've been in disgrace. Take for instance this pretty pink and green top of a friends that we ordered a special pink and green thread for....
Pippi pinched the reel from the table and this is what it looked like by the time I found it- unrecognisable. And as it came from America there was no hope of quickly getting another. Bad Pippi! And Dolly has turned out to be a cat chaser which is something we're trying to discourage- but no-one's perfect, are they?

The golf course is so lush in parts that the dogs have to wade through the grass and weeds. This is the last resting place of many golf balls but they love it and it uses up a lot of their excess energy jumping through it.
But there's always enough pep left for attacking a sister when she least expects it...Gotcha!

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The Feathered Square blocks are together, and I'm very relieved to have this done. The fabric I chose for the setting was an old favourite, but it wasn't very good quality and it sagged and stretched and generally misbehaved. Those long bias edges on the triangles were very hard to keep flat, and even after they were sewn to the blocks and stabilised the strips seemed to change lengths as they were pinned on the design wall. I had to bribe myself to keep sewing until it was all done, and I could only do one long seam at a time before I lost patience.Of course I like it now that it's in one piece and all the bias has been contained but there were times that I was ready to stuff it back in the project box and put it on top of the highest cupboard in the sewing room. Where it had been for many years before this.

I've done this Streak of lightning set many times before, and this is the first time I've ever had any trouble. I still have a little bit of this fabric left and even though I like the design the flimsiness might dictate where I use it from now on.
I made pikelets a while ago and everywhere I moved in the kitchen I was concious of this appealing little figure in the background. She knows she has to "sit" before she gets any treat, so she shuffles around on her bottom as she follows me, eyes pleading and the very tip of her tail wagging quickly. "Pleease!" Needless to say I usually give in and she gets a taste of what I'm having.

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The Woven Geese now has a border, and the backing is pieced and pressed, waiting for it's turn on Millhouse. I'm really pleased with this simple pattern and I'm already planning one in different fabrics. Matt will probably end up with this one and I'll make a prettier one for me.

I'm still flitting from one set of blocks to another, and have even begun a new project.
I've always wanted to make another Double Nine Patch, so I've started making the units. I was cutting strips for one of my sets of blocks, and thought I'd just cut the one and a half inch strips while I was at it. Then I thought I'd just "test" a few blocks and suddenly I've got a production line going and the nine patches are all I want to sew.

I don't care, I don't want to feel pressured to stick with any particular project, and I'm having so much fun I can't feel guilty over my flightiness. However I did need a way to keep all my pieces separated nicely, and I found these plastic catering trays in the cheap shop.
They are big enough for the individual sections of the blocks I'm working on, and then I can stack them all neatly depending on what I feel like sewing at the moment.
I think they're great for organising my piecing, even if it was for just one project instead of the three I'm sewing now. As you can see I've got about six trays stacked up there- that's not excessive, surely?

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This is the project that I was hand-cutting pieces for last week. I'm not sure what this pattern is called, Broken Arrow?

These blocks were an old UFO that I wasn't even sure I wanted to finish. They spent some time in the orphan pile before I decided I did want to make more and rescued them. They are terribly wishy-washy, but I wanted that faded, washed-a-hundred-times look, rather like my Rolling Stone top I did last year.
And the hexagon blocks that I finally finished......I think I should stop with the faded wishy-washy theme already! All these blocks are an attempt to use up all my old, old fabric, and I don't seem to be making a huge difference. I decided to go through all my containers and weed out everything from that early era, 1980 to early '9o's, and I was shocked at how much I still had. I think once these tops are all finished then I have to take whatever's left and piece backs for them and hopefully that will use it up entirely.

While I was rummaging in the container of diamonds I'd cut out I decided to try piecing a Carpenter's Star by hand, just to see how tedious it was.
I enjoyed it, even though it was time consuming, so I might start cutting some of these from my nice reproductions. I was hesitant before because I thought I might hate all those set-in squares, but they were a doddle by hand. I've always loved this pattern, now to choose which version to sew...
I don't know that I could use just one fabric, might get a bit boring, even though the results are stunning.Alternate setting blocks so I don't have to make so many...?Mmm, I'm going to have a hard time choosing because I love all the possibilites!

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I'm acting very irresponsibly in my sewing room, working on about five different projects for ten minutes at a time, and then being distracted and wanting to start even more ideas. I can't seem to stay focused at all, and my only consolation is that everything's gradually inching toward the finish line. But there's no one completed quilt to point to, yet.

I applaud Bonnie for deciding to stick with one thing and see it through, and even though I've given myself a stern talking to I'm still flitting here and there as the fancy takes me. I'm quite capable of making myself sew for hours on a less than favourite project, just to see it done, and some of my old UFO's have been conquered this way. But when I'm in this mood I get to a certain point and then feel almost nauseated at the thought of one more seam-ugh!

So the only thing to do is chop and change and not let myself get sick of anything, and after a while I'm able to carry one top through to completion.

I think this one will be put together first, I've got half the rows sewn together, and the rest will go together quickly. It's not as big as I thought it was going to be, but I'm happy with it, and I think it will have a border instead of the extra rows I was planning on.

I call it Woven geese, I don't know if it has a proper name.It's been a lovely pattern to sew,only two fabrics per block, great for scraps, it presses nicely and the rows all nest together, what's not to like?

These Feathered Square blocks are so very nearly a top, but this is one that I had to bribe myself to touch. I did bits here and there and walked off and left it many times in the course of the week it was on the design wall. There are only four main seams left to do, so I know that one evening's sewing will see it done. I have no ideas about borders, but I'm happy to let it sit and stew once it's in one piece. Another very old UFO inching closer to the bed instead of the cupboard...


I returned to these little spinning rails as Leader Enders and after a while I had a niggly feeling that something wasn't quite right. I went and checked the pile of completed blocks and yep! the new ones are spinning in the wrong direction. Sigh. These will have to go on the back or be corners in the borders or something, I'm not pulling them apart.
Last week we went to Wirraberra Forest with Matt and the dogs for a five kilometre hike and Pippi was beside herself with excitement. She and Dolly ran and ran, up hill and down, plunging through the long grass and following exciting trails through the trees. They waded through the creek and raced up the bank and down to cross it again. However it's much deeper and wider in this spot and there was no time to judge the take-off. Pippi gave a mighty leap, but it didn't end well and she landed smack in the middle, absolutely saturated. But it didn't slow her down and she floundered through ready to go again. Dolly was more sensible and splashed her way across without going under, as my silly dog did.

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