Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The Magic Cupboard!

So I have been quiet finishing off the commissioned quilt and it is now done and the client happy. Of Course :)
Then I got the urge to cut up fabric and sew it together again. Ever get that? Well I thought since I am not the best piecer I would just go with something real easy. And I mean easy :)

So this is what I did........


I told you it was basic :) pretty hopefully. I really just want a big space to do my free motion :)

 

This is the one I am working on, ready on my machine


 A red one.....



What I decided to do was pick one stack out of my fabric cupboard and make a quilt out of that. I chose the colour on white, love them, and brought out that stack and cut away. Well I made enough for three quilts and there is still a pile there!!!! I have a magic fabric cupboard hahahahaha
So the bits that are left I am going to use as binding. I am determined to use a whole stack up.


And I wanted to make quilts with my whole fabric cupboard as I though, well it is just sitting there doing nothing. Wow! how many would I make? Maybe I can just cut them up into big squares and join them together that way:) have an never ending quilt that will go into the Guiness Book of Records :)
Imagine trying to get that under a domestic sewing machine hehehehe.

Talking about sewing machines, I tried to enter the Gammill competition where you were to name their new sit down long arm machine and you could win one. Well you entered on facebook and it kept crashing on me when I entered. Sigh, tried so many times and I think that it was because I was not an American citizen. So sad!! I would have totally won and then had a sit down machine :) for freeeee :) (see bedtime stories for reference:)


So out of all my fabric I made three quilts with lots left over. And then to top it off my local quilt shop was having THE best sale, $3.95 a metre!!! Well at least I have some room :) hehehehe but I resisted, well it was more the fact that school has gone back and mega bills and no more money than resistance. 
I am determined to make quilts out of all this, if you have a great pattern let me know. 

On another note, SCHOOL IS BACK!!!! Wow, how amazing does it feel to have a bit of quiet. But I cannot believe how fast the time went and then it was 3pm!!!! Sad face as my daughter says hehehhe
Jane


Sunday, January 13, 2013

Trying to be more creative

Well I finished the whole cloth mini quilt, have a look here and so moved onto another quilt that a client has asked me to make. This one I wanted to add too many things I think and when I started, lining it all up and making sure it was completely in the middle and symmetrical. I then looked at it and realised it did not look good at all. I had put a heart in there and it looked cheesy, bummer!! So I got out the fabric and started again. I had trouble getting back into the good groove, when I felt that I had gotten it wrong with the last one I had real trouble stopping the doubt of thinking this one sucked too :) It took me till about half way through and I stepped back and thought, Ok now it is looking not too bad.

So I have finished painting and now have started the free motion sewing, and I think it looks even better :).  Have a look and see what you think.






So there you have it, half way through and surprisingly ahead of deadline. Which is a great feeling :)

Have been reading some books lately but so far they are all very average and not worth mentioning. I have been watching The Walking Dead tv series and am totally transfixed by it. It is such great writing that I finish an episode and sit there thinking about the characters and what they are going to do to get out of their fix :) absolutely sucks me in and I love it. What about you? Any good tv shows or movies lately?

Jane

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

A New One

Ok, so this is  my new art quilt. It is a whole cloth mini quilt. Start small I say :). I started by finding a basic mandala pattern and then cropped and cut and pasted till it looked like I wanted it to, then I found a tile program on the net, put the picture in and then the program tiled it to how many tiles I wanted it to be, which was 4, then I printed it out and stuck them together!. Very cool and easy. And free :) sweet.

I then got one of the studio lights we use for my videos and carefully laid it down under my glass table, stuck the pattern on the table and then put the fabric on top. It took me about 5 hours to trace the pattern, the light got pretty hot as it is 500 watts :) so I had to turn it off after a while to give the light and me a break. But it is the best light for it as it is so bright. One day I will make myself a light box.

I traced the pattern with a yellow pencil, but unfortunately it started to rub off and fade!! After all that work too, so I went over the design with a black pen, which also started to fade. This was a good thing of course as I don't want black pen left on the pattern. I just made sure I worked real fast to not miss the pattern. Will have to go and find really good marking pens and pencils and try them all out and then I can do a review on them :).

So now I have sewn all the design on with a gorgeous old antique gold thread, nearly used it all so need to buy more, oh no have to buy more thread! :) what a pain. :) And now I am thinking about how to free motion the left over bits. I think it will be lots of bubbles and outlines and tiny swirls. Lots of fun.








All this sewing is helping me to stop eating. Christmas season gave me a taste for yummy delicious food again and now I don't want to go back to the diet. Darn. Addicted to sugar again. Doesn't help when I found a great recipe for a delicious chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies and wow I can't stop eating them mmmmm.

Here's for trying
Jane