Gran's Creative Space

This week's Creative Space is brought to you by my mum.  I promise I have been creating myself though, and will return next time around with some of my own work.

We had a special 'dedication' service for A at church last Sunday.  Its a bit like a christening, but without the water - the Cyclist, the boys and I got up the front and publicly thanked God for our Newbie, and promised to raise her as best we can with the help of the assembled family and friends.  In celebration Mum gave her a blanket to represent the love of her extended family.  Mum would probably say she's not into patchwork, but she has an embroidery machine and can crochet (check out the combined work in both!), and the result certainly looks like a twist on patchwork to me.

Each square is of polar fleece, with a backing of flannel for added warmth and to hide the back of the embroidery.  They're overlocked around the edges, then joined together with several rows of crocheted cotton.  There are nine different bears, plus one square with A's name and birth date.

The blanket's spent the week in the car and the pram, getting maximum exposure on the school run and generally being loved (snuggled into, played peek-a-boo with and drooled on) by its young owner.

Thanks Mum!

Meandering through Paris (?)

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it or not, but my Schoolboy has a fascination with 'Le Tour Eiffel'.  He also barracks for the Magpies (I find myself wanting to type all sorts of jokes in defence of his IQ and number of front teeth, but a fair number of Melbournians would be offended by the stereotype, his aunt and cousins included!).  Last year, when he requested a more grown-up quilt, we combined the two and came up with this design:

I finally finished the quilt top on Friday, and here's a section of it hanging on the line:

Not sure if its just me or not, but the red squares draw my attention more on the finished product than I was expecting.  I think it is more interesting than the original 'just black and white' request.  The main fabric is Map of Paris, and the strapping is Kona Cotton in Snow and Charcoal.  The red I got from Spotlight (Jester Red quilting cotton).

Now I have a dilemma - I have always quilted my quilts myself.  Usually I do it by machine, although I've hand quilted from time to time.  I'm not a huge fan of either to be honest (I'm too impatient, and find it difficult to manoeuvre larger quilts under my machine), and I thought that I'd investigate having this one professionally done.  The problem is that now I'm finished the top I'm reluctant to hand it over to someone else.  I was going to quilt along the ditch on either side of all of the sashes and then do some sort of meandering along the streets through the main squares, but now I look at it I'm not at all confident on that either.  Help!

In the meantime, I've had a first-shot at some stipple quilting, making a cover for the high-chair for the Newbie, the original being rather the worse for wear:

I liked the process more than I expected, and could almost see myself using this on the squares of the 'Map of Paris' quilt.  I just don't want to lose heart half way through.

Have any of you Melbournians had quilts professionally quilted?  How did you find the process?  What sort of time-frame did you have to part with your quilt for, and (if its not too personal) what was the price like?

Christmas stars completed!

This morning I finally finished the 'Christmas Stars' quilt that I started as part of the Chasing Cottons Quilting 101 classes way back in April (two days late according to the Schoolboy, who wanted to put up all the Christmas decorations on Thursday)!  Here it is having been washed and hanging on the line to dry on a dull Melbourne summer's day:
 

 I contributed a tutorial to the course, and thought that participating would be a good way of using up some Christmas fabric to make a quilt for under our tree (we put it on a coffee table, and I'm always worried about scratches).  Part way along I found out that I was pregnant, and didn't want to finish the quilt until I had some fabric to match the Newbie's Christmas stocking to include.  Well, I've made the stocking now, and got extra fabric so I could use some for the quilt binding and behind the label on the back.

Here's some more shots just for good measure...

The fabric's a mixture of leftovers from our stockings, as well as presents I've made for people over the years.  The predominantly red floral is one that I bought as a remnant 'just in case' we had need of a fifth stocking a few years ago and cut into triangles only to find out a couple of weeks later that I should have kept it for its original purpose.

I quilted in the ditch around the stars and squares (its the first time that I've done this, and my work isn't exactly perfect, but I'm reasonably happy with it), then added four-pointed stars in the centre of the stars and the larger coloured squares.

Daydreaming and (re)knitting

Today I'm dreaming of a quilt combining this fabric:

Master Patch, by Susan Winget

This applique:

Tulips on Gingam by Carolyn King in the Sept 07 issue

And this pattern:

Whirligig from "Quilting from little things..." by Sarah Fielke

... but instead I'm re-knitting the first sleeve of my tealeaves cardigan - got nearly to the end before trying it on and realising it was too tight for my arm!  Better now than at the end of the second sleeve I guess!

More projects to dream about over here.

A productive morning

I started this morning's crafty endeavours with a follow-up trip to the Watsonia Wool Shop (no Kinderboy for company this time).  Scored some cotton which will find its way into baby wear, and also this blue yarn.  I've ditched the French Knitting idea, and instead drew inspriration from Kirsty's coat hangers to create this:

At last we're going public this weekend that we're due to have our third baby in December (that makes three December kids - thinking that I need to change my blog to 'December's mother' or something!!).  Each time I'm pregnant my fingers swell  I end up not being able to wear my rings, and I'm at that point already, so I've been trying to work out a safe way of having them with me (the Cyclist wore through the gold chain he was wearing his ring on when out on the bike, so I decided something a bit more durable was warranted). I like the texture and subtle colour variations yarn, and therefore the necklace, so I think this'll be my 'mode of transport' of choice for the rings for a while.  Wasn't quite game to sew them on just in case though...

Oh, and I followed Rebecca's tutorial, and basted the layers of my Christmas quilt together (minus a few pins here, as I went through all the new curvy safety pins I'd bought, all my ordinary straight ones, then had to resort to ordinary sewing pins for now):

Hope you're having a good crafty weekend!

In my creative space today...

... I'm hoping to finish piecing the Christmas tablecloth quilt.  You'll be sick of seeing it I'm sure, so you'll be glad to know that I'm very nearly finished!  I fixed the mis-shapen squares and have been sewing them all together in strips.  I'm planning some pretty simple quilting, so hopefully I can knock the whole thing over in the next couple of weeks and shift back to the curtains I keep procrastinating about.

Check out other creative spaces over here.

Two steps forward, one step back

I had hoped to have a finished Christmas tablecloth quilt-top to show off by now, but thanks to some over-zealous cutting I've managed to create some weirdly shaped blocks which are too small to fit in with the rest, so I spent some time yesterday removing the offending white and cutting more triangles (bigger this time).  The plan is to make squares that are over-sized, then trim them down to 8.5" to fit in to the spaces between my HST squares...

What are you up to today?  Check out more creative spaces over here while you're at it!

Seeing stars

I've been working steadily on my Christmas tablecloth quilt, and the Schoolboy has been really supportive.

"Looks great mum".  Warm glowing feeling from me.

"How do you see the stars mum?".  Hmm... does this mean my layout needs work?

Today in my creative space I'm going to be trimming the last of the half square triangles I've made so far, laying them out and convincing myself that I'm not just seeing stars due to my recent lack of sleep!  Need to cut some more pieces to fill in the gaps, but hopefully by next week I'll have a quilt top to show.

Just do it...

I know, I was going to 'snatch' time to stitch triangles over the next few days, and daydream about layouts...

... but there's no time like the present right? (particularly when the Kinderboy declares that he'd rather have a quiet day at home than go to playgroup).  So, I laid out my triangles as I'd pictured:

... hmm.  Not so much.  If this is going to be a tablecloth, it needs to look good (and Christmasy) from all angles.

... how about stars?

More stars?  I've settled on 13 of them, but I ran out of room on the bed.

And I found a use for those smaller triangles!

I'm off to colour in a layout diagram by hand (Excel doesn't really cope so well with all these triangles).  I need to trim down my squares too, as in my haste my sewing wasn't exactly straight.  Perfect excuse to sit and watch the Royal wedding tomorrow night perhaps?

An abundance of triangles

I think I'm about half way through the half-square triangles for my Christmas quilt/tablecloth.  There's 168 in all, and it feels like they go on forever because I really just want to get to the layout stage!

I have to say that I wish I'd planned things a little more carefully before I started though - I had a bit of this red and gold print, and rather than use it for only 6 triangles I thought I'd piece it with some other bits and make it stretch out.  Good theory, except that after I'd cut it I realised that I needed to piece it so that the seams ran parallel with the diagonal, not the right angled sides of the triangles, and now its too short to do that.  Have spent a fair amount of time kicking myself (hmmm I keep telling the Kinderboy that he's not allowed to kick people...), but haven't come up with the solution yet.

So, my creative space this week will be snatching time to stitch and press more triangles, and pondering the piecing of fabric whilst sitting at red lights.  What will you be up to?  Drop by Kootoyoo and let us see!

Easter and more

Don't you love my 'Easter' presents (given to me this morning)!  Designed by the Schoolboy, and manufactured by him and his dad.  Way more impressive than chocolate in my book.   Easter for me this year has been about contemplating not only the sacrifice that Jesus made in coming to earth, living and dying and the miracle of his resurrection, but also of the importance of family relationships, so the care and joy in the creation of my rings is doubly important.

At the other end of the Christian calendar, I also thought I'd show you the squares that I've cut to take part in the Chasing Cottons Quilting 101 class.  I figured that I needed to make a quilt for underneath the Christmas tree (we put it on a coffee table, and I need something festive to stop it from scratching the table and to replace the old sheet I usually use), so why not take part?  Well not so much an 'I figured' as a readymade excuse if I get questioned about why I'm starting yet another craft project!

I haven't cut a dozen squares of seven fabrics as instructed, because I had more of some fabrics than others and I didn't want to buy new stuff as using all my Christmas fabric scraps was also part of the point.  I do have the requisite 84 squares though, plus a few extras and some smaller half square triangles that were left over from a previous project.  Can't wait until tomorrow's tutorial to take the next step, then start fiddling with their layout (I've peaked at Rebecca's layout in her 'Design' tutorial, and I think I'm going to change it to cater for my uneven fabric choice).

Quilt design using Excel

Welcome if you're here as part of Chasing Cotton's Quilt 101 series!

I have to say that I'm thrilled to be a part of the series, both as a contributor to this week, but also to be able to learn along the way.  I'm self-taught as a quilter, and I'm not always sure that I do things the best/most efficient way, or if there are tools out there which would make life easier.

I love the design process though (I actually think that's the real reason I like to quilt), and I've designed a lot more quilts than I've actually gotten around to cutting fabric for.  I've always been fascinated by pattern, and trying to break down prints into their pattern repeats.  When I'm looking at ideas for quilts I'm also interested in how a quilt might go together - can it be pieced in squares/rectangles/strips?  A lot of the quilts I've designed have been based on square and rectangular patches, and I've found that Microsoft Excel is a quick and easy tool for trialling different colour combinations, layouts, etc.  I use it in much the same way a lot of people use graph paper, and started using it because its quicker and easier to build a design, copy and change things in Excel than having to draw a quilt out from scratch every time.  I've used it to design quilts from scratch and to audition different colour combinations for traditional quilts or quilts I've found patterns for in magazines.

I've divided my design techniques into three separate tutorials:

• The basics 
• Auditioning colour variations (Part 1: How-to and Part 2: Examples)
• Designing your own quilts with Excel

I've been using this process for a number of years now, so I'm hoping that the tutorials are clear and that I haven't assumed too much in the way of knowledge of Excel.  If you have any queries at all feel free to leave a comment on this post, and I'll try and help out.

Jackie