I'm back...at least I hope I am

Yay, finally unpacked (sort of, I still have eleventy hundred boxes in the garage that need to be opened and places found for everything that is in them), but at least the rest of the house is pretty much unpacked, except...............

My sewing room is a total disaster zone.  I'm trying to bribe people with a holiday in paradise so that they can come and organise my sewing room for me.

The day we officially moved in I was greeted by this-

Furry cute cuddly (well kind of cuddly, at least they look cuddly even if they don't particularly like being cuddled) wildlife for a change, instead of great big huge scary spiders, humungous pythons, bats, ticks, and all the other icky creatures that used to be found in and around the old Chez Sunshine.  Contrary to what some people think, yes Shay, I did not cut and paste the koala on to the palm tree.
I lived at the last house out in the country for 13 years and never saw a koala, ever. I move to suburbia, and on the first day, lo and behold, a koala in a palm tree in my garden. I think that must be a very auspicious sign.


Even though my sewing room is a total disaster, I've set up the sewing machine and searched through boxes to find some of my stash so that I could work on the Mouthy Stitches Swap. I've really enjoyed stalking my partner and I hope this reflects both her mosaic and her brief. If not, I'm in trouble.

I still have to embroider the centre and cut out the pieces for the tote but at least I'm on my way to getting it finished.  I spent today trying to find some hardware to make the key fob that is to go with it.  This evening I'm hoping to work on the embroidery or the key fob. Unfortunately this house has no power points in the living area, so all my lamps that I had in the last house are useless. It also makes it difficult to sit and watch tv and hand sew.  I'm crossing my fingers that somehow there will be a solution.

Hopefully I'll be back to regular blogging now that I have the computer set up, internet, and about 5 mins a day where I'm not unpacking or cleaning so that I can take photos and start blogging regularly again. It would be nice too, to be able to sit and enjoy the new view.

PS  I'm really sorry that I haven't been able to catch up on blog posts and leave comments. I tried to at least read a few in between the mayhem of moving but I still have over 1000 posts in google reader. I think it may be time to hit delete, but  yikes, what am I going to miss though?

Call me crazy

I'm in the midst of moving but I've joined the Mouthy Stitches Swap 2.  Fortunately for me, the timing, although in the middle of a move, is not too bad, perfect would have been if it was in a month or so.  I've filled in my form and loaded up a mosaic for inspiration. I don't find out who my partner is until the weekend of the move, which is good as it gives me a week of stalking and planning while I'm moving (ha, I know, I think my expectations are possibly a teensy bit high) and then I'll be able to start on the tote as soon as I'm settled in to the new house. I've already started germinating some ideas, which of course will probably change as soon as I am allocated my partner.





If you click on the mosaic it will take you to Flickr and you will find the information about each photo.

It didn't take me too long to make the mosaic as I already had quite a few of these in my Flickr favourites. Like Kay at Shocking Hocking I had quite some trouble articulating what I like. I think I have a fairly eclectic taste, although it's maybe not shown so much in this mosaic.  I love bright colours and/or muted neutrals.  I love clean graphic lines.  I'm not that keen on linen as the background, I love the colour of natural linen but prefer the firmness of cotton.  When it comes to scrappy, I like it if it's controlled. I'm not a fan of scrap vomit, I know, I'm completely going against the vast majority here. I tried to find projects that would give my partner at any skill level something that they could make, I also tried to find  processes that I aspire to but have not mastered as yet. If you find none of these help you, I have hundreds of images in my Flickr favourites you can use as inspiration. I'm sure I'll be over the moon with whatever you decide to do, as long as you enjoy the process and don't stress over it.

Change

From this

to this

23 sleeps

The sign says it all

Now on to the next roller coaster ride!

Hopscotch

Update on the house.

I have a contract on the house, and a building and pest inspection will be done tomorrow. It "should" be just a formality and then the contract will go unconditional next Monday, fingers crossed and touch wood.


Today has been a day of sewing in my pj's, oh I've missed being able to stay in my pj's most of the day. It actually feels weird as it's been so long.

I started cutting out the pieces for this quilt, last night. I needed to make something bright and cheerful and a Tradewind jelly roll was the perfect antidote for feeling blah.  Lots of colour.

I made a couple of blocks first before I cut all the pieces. I'm glad I did, as one of my templates was not exactly accurate.


Today I cut out the rest of the pieces and started sewing blocks.


25 blocks so far,  52 to go.

Lots of pink and lime green coming up next.


I'm not sure why I started this,  call me crazy, as I'm going to have to start packing and sorting my things in the next few days. I should have picked a hand piecing project instead, that I can take with me.

Chevron? Where?

Oops I didn't mean to disappear for quite so long. Nothing much has changed on the home front, still hoping to sell the house soon, and occasionally I've found the time to do a little bit of sewing, sometimes I have the time but it's the last thing I feel like doing. Anyway, I have a finish, and I'm just going to come out with it. This is not my finest quilting hour. In the interest of keeping it very real on this blog and despite the fact that I would like everyone to think I'm perfect, bwah ha ha haaaaaaa, it's not all plain sailing here.

Many months ago I saw a wonderful quilt that was designed and made by Kirsty from You Had Me At Bonjour (don't you just love that blog name, it's perfect). I love Kirsty's quilt too, Modern Chevron, and thought it would be nice to try and make it in masculine colours.

I chose my fabric, remember these?  Hope Valley, Hometown and various grey solids.


I started cutting and cutting, and cutting some more and laid it out on the "design bed" and thought hmmmmmmmm.  I realised that the value contrast between the greys and the green/blues was not quite at all strong enough.  I soldiered on. Mainly because my stash is already taking over my house and I didn't want to buy any more fabric. Ah, who am I kidding, I love buying more fabric, but I wanted to finish it and didn't want to go in search of more greys, and really, my stash is getting out of control.

It looked ok when I first started sewing the rows,
but by the time it was all sewn together arrgh, where's the pattern?

I hoped the quilting would help differentiate between the grey and the green/blues. It might have if I had chosen to quilt it differently.

When starting the quilting I didn't think about the difference in width at the diagonal sections, that would have been helpful if I'd thought about that. I could have unpicked the quilting. I didn't. The quilting is pretty bad,  especially in the diagonal sections, but it could be worse.

In this section below, the right hand diagonal is not too bad but the left hand side has puckered quite a bit.

Here's the back, a Hometown print and a pieced strip of scraps.




The binding is Pure by Sweetwater.

I'm chalking this up to experience........in what not to do.  I haven't done Kirsty's pattern justice, but I do think it does make a very good masculine quilt. It's a pity the chevron pattern doesn't show up so well, but I do love the pattern and I suppose, to put a positive spin on it, it is interesting that the pattern is not obvious at first, but it kind of sneaks up on you, so I'm going to call it The Disappearing Chevron.


I recommend Kirsty's great design, she does a great tute, but remember to use high value contrast if you want it to look as fabulous as Kirsty's.

Yep, it's me, I'm still here

I think I need to keep that title for every post these days as they are few and far between.

The house has been on the market for a couple of weeks. There has been lots and lots of interest and as of tomorrow I will have had almost 20 inspections. That's 20 separate inspections, not 20 people coming through in an open for inspection time slot.  As you can imagine that means that just about every day I've had to have the house spotless and I've had to leave the house for an hour or two and take the dog with me while prospective buyers come and look see.
I really haven't had a lot of time for anything lately. One evening I thought I would take time out to read some blog posts, when I opened google reader I had over 400 posts to read. I hope you will understand I've tried to keep up with as many posts as possible but it's just not possible to read in full that many posts. I've attempted to comment on a few posts too. I am really sorry if I haven't commented on your post, but I haven't hit the delete button yet and have skimmed through all the posts so far.
In between constant cleaning and tidying and having to leave the house, I haven't had much time to sew either. I really really want to work on a couple of projects that I started recently, but the thought of getting all my fabric out, playing with it, cutting it up and then having to put it away each day, has stopped me.  However I've found that it's been nice to pick up some hand sewing in the evening. It's been good to get back to that while watching tv and unwinding.


I've finished another Amitie Circle Game block. Not bad, not great. The centre could be better, but hopefully by the time I'm up to block eleventy hundred I should have perfected all the techniques I need to make a perfect block!

I've been working away at the starflowers too.  I've had a change of plan with them. Basically, because I couldn't face doing a whole quilt of them. The new plan is to square them up and use them as a centre panel for a quilt. I'm aiming to put a plain border and then a wider border in the same background fabric but with hexies or some other shapes appliquéd on to it.  This is Plan B, stay tuned, because there could be a Plan C or D, we'll just have to wait and see what eventuates.

Lots more to come.

I was able to finish a quilt before the mayhem of inspections started.

This pile of fabric, minus the cat paws,

turned into this, it's the backing.

Unfortunately I've misplaced my camera. I've been using my phone but I keep on taking really crap photos so hopefully I can take some decent ones to show you the rest of it.

I started on a VIQ Very Important Quilt as soon as the above quilt was finished. This one was to be a present for someone for a very special birthday which is only a couple of weeks away. I had every intention of having this finished in the next couple of weeks. I'm a slacker, and I'm annoyed with myself because if I ever get to finish it I think it will look awesome. The idea for this quilt started in September last year, and sat in a bag until the end of May when I suddenly realised I had very little time left to make it. I've thrown in the towel on this one. When will I learn that procrastination is stupid! It will be finished, but probably not until people stop wanting to look at my house or I move.

A tiny peek.

Despite everything I still found some time to quickly surf the net and let my finger slip and purchase these beautiful books from Quiltmania.

Worth every cent, lots more wonderful inspiration for hand piecing and quilting.