My year in Quilts

Old Dairy Lanes:

This quilt was a mystery quilt posted by Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville some time ago she called hers Old Tobacco Roads, as the area she lives in is an old Tobacco growing area. We live in Dairy Country and I chose to use green for the stepping stone blocks hence "Old Dairy Lanes".

This was a fun quilt to make loads of little pieces but all strip pieced so it was quite quick - basically for you quilters out there, it is pinwheels and four patches set on point with alternating bricks of a plain colour - in this case greens. It is completely scrappy all I did was separate lights and darks and just go for it.

This one is Charm Square Swap

We had a swap at quilt group (the one I never get to - or hardly ever! see it isn't just blogging that has been squeezed out of my life). We broke into groups of 10 and each month we all had to bring in ten charm squares (5 x 5inch) all the same so at the end of the year we ended up with 12 sets of 10 scrappy charm squares - 120 in all. My group had just 7 so we had a few less.

They were so different I was at a loss for a while - but then you have to let go of the "colour control" sometimes and just let it happen - tie it together with something darker and plain and this is the result.....

Be Attitudes:

This quilt "Be Attitudes" I have been working on for a while as you can see if you look closely, there is MUCH hand stitching to be done (nobody has any eyes!) Thought I might do that when we go on holidays over Christmas.

So there you go a few of the quilts I ahve staqrted or finsihed in the last 12 months.

Have a fantasitc Monday!

Daisymum

No rhyme or reason just time to think.....

At the last quilting retreat Daisyfriend1 gave me these off cuts from a quilt she was putting together. As you can see they are small but for some reason I couldn't let her throw them ...
I don't think its merely that I hate waste - I suspect that I have a bigger aversion to cutting out and the thought of cutting a zillion little triangles - well anything really - never appeals to me.

But being able to sit at the machine and just sew things together - that is pure bliss!!! As those of you who know quilting can see no quarter inch foot just me and some scraps and a sunny afternoon........................perhaps this will be one of the 18th brithday quilts I need to make who knows.

So I've sewn them together and then sewn two of those squares together and so on and so on.....
I've also unearthed some orphan blocks left over from old quilts and some other bits and pieces I just couldn't throw out becasue they are already cut and ready for an afternoon of sewing.

Some made these they are quite big about 8inches square.

There is something very liberating about just sewing scraps. I have already mentioned I hate cutting out - there is such a responsibility in getting out a new piece of fabric and measuring and cutting and checking - but with scraps it doesn't really matter does it?? After all, they are already just one step away from being binned so if something gorgeous (or I-can-live-with-that) doesn't emerge you can relax but cutting into hundreds of dollars worth of new fabric? You need to think and plan and all that stuff before you get to the fun bit.

So while I sewed - I have composed this blog in my head ready to publish tomorrow (today), worked out what we are having for dinner all this week and what I need to buy, planned my work day and sketched out the week, and decided that this will not be a gift quilt it will be a quillow for daisyson12. I have also worked out what pattern I will make the 18th birthday quilts and what fabrics I will use.

And I have come to the conclusion that sewing scraps is very therapeutic for me, I might even trim them into real sizes (but then again maybe i won't!)

Not sure what they will all look like once they are together but they will all be together soon. All those little bits are now bigger bits, so now it is just nutting out a layout of sorts to accomodate all of them - after all I don't want any leftovers!!!!!!!

Imagine having enough fabric to make a whole quilt top in four or five little ziplock bags!!! It never ceases to amaze me. I even have a name for this quilt "the ruffian" which works on so many levels (lol).

daisymum

PS: the vege garden didn't get a look in, but I did make two loaves of bread, a casserole and a cake.

Progress Report....

I was finishing these off yesterday afternoon at my machine and I realised that things were getting way out of control I needed to clean....so I began.....it is still a bit untidy but at least I have all the fabric that needs to be folded and put back in one place, all the pieces for the quilts I have to quilt and bind in one place, all the BOMs in one place and all my business paperwork in one place. So another hour or so and it will be done.

Cleaning gives you the chance to sort and throw and collect your thoughts I always find so I have finally started my secret santa gift for the my patchworking group.....well it is cut out and I found the coat hangers so I am way ahead of where I was yesterday morning (still deciding what to do!!!)

I also came across the list for this year the things I had decided to make -

-a quillow for each child (daisyboy4 has one, daisygirl's needs to be quilted and bound)

- Be Attitudes BOM (only 3 done so far out of 10 - and I still have hand stitching to do on them)

- Journey of a Quilter (block one finished nothing else)

- Angels Story (three blocks finished, two with appliques fused ready to hand sew, and four together with no applique on them yet - I did much better with this one)

- Carolina Crossroads (from Quiltville) the top is finished just needs quilting and binding

- Orange Crush (from quiltville) same top done quilt and bind

- Old Tobacco Roads (from Quiltville) first units together just need to make the blocks.

Other things that got added along the way:

A strip twist quilt for daisyson21 top together just needs borders and quilt and bind.

Shabby Blooms - top together needs borders and quilt and bind

Finished:

A tablecloth I made ages ago quilted and bound

A baby quilt for a friend

Another baby quilt (the pink heart one) for sons friend

Gardeners Journal quilted and bound

and countless tea cosies, lunch packs, tea towels, hand bags, shopping bags for my market stall

Christmas decorations for the kids and one for the family (minus the hand sewing to put the eyes and features on!)

Two table runners for the stall at the quilt show

A quilt for my friends new home (I won first prize at our local show with that one)

Pj pants for the kids (10)

pj pants for me (1)

pants for me (1)

Still to do:

evening pants for me for daisydads christmas party

2 more pairs of pants for me

a dress for daisygirl

and everything unfinished from above..............................

BIG SIGH -

All I want for Christmas is a week in my sewing room uninterrupted!!!!

Listing it out helps put into perspective what I have finished this year and just how productive I have been in this area of my life whilst not ignoring the other parts. Having a tidy sewing room will help me get all this done faster - but I can't guarantee that it won't be just as messy by the end of it!!!LOL

Off to finish the tidy up I have four clients coming this morning to drop off alterations so I need to look like I am organised!!!!!

daisymum

It's Friday!!!!!!

I love Fridays particularly when I have a couple of days home so that all that is left of the weekly cleaning is the dusting, mopping and cutting flowers to fill the vases.

Today is an extra special Friday as it is daisyboy11's 12th birthday - henceforth he shall be called daisyboy12! Where does that time go he was such a little thing and now he is almost in High School.

Today he has a free dress day then a swim in the college pool and a sausage sizzle for lunch (they are having a fundraising day). Then this afternoon I am picking him and four of his friends up for a birthday afternoon and two of them are sleeping over.

Daisygirl has an exciting day she is off to see some Koalas on a school excurison. And she has taken my camera so the post that I was going to do I will have to wait until Monday and you will have to put up with photos of some of my quilts.

daisyboy7 has swimming.

and daisyson17 has three weeks of school left after today (2 of those exam block where he only has one exam)

daisydad is coming to the end of a frantic work week.

So all in all my lot were quite cheerful as they tottered off this morning.

Hope they come home in happy moods too!!!!!

Yesterday I did get some sewing done and some cleaning and some gardening but I have more of all of the above to do today.

But only a little cleaning and a little gardening so hopefully I can do a lot of sewing.

I picked up some fabric from Spotlight last night to make pj pants (inspired by The Old Dairy ) I rarely buy farbic from Spotlight but I was pleasantly surprised by how much 100% cotton they had for such things.



I also picked some things for daisyboy12s
birthday. And I got some of the grocery shopping done for tonight's Halloween shindig (Halloween biscuits, pumpkin pie, "body part" pizzas)

I choof off to my little job tomorrow and then daisydads family will be here in the afternoon to catch up with those relatives from England. We are having a "picnic in the paddock" which is the easiest entertaining we do everyone brings chairs and rugs and a picnic for their family and away we go!! I think with everyone these days including the in laws and new great neices and nephews we number somewhere in the 70s.

I have been very remiss in welcoming some new commenters to daisy mountain so to anyone who has stumbled upon us - HI there!!!!

I also had an email yesterday from someone who thinks I am "amazing" - I am really not. A few times in my life people have told me I am intimidating and that was another expression this person used yesterday. I really don't feel like that is what I am projecting - and to make sure you all know I am just normal I have a special post on Monday.

It will show you the views of my garden that I deliberately didn't show in my photographs - the fabulous crop of weird grassey weeds in the garden under that gorgeous pink rose bush, the absolute mess in the alley way between the house and water tanks, the inside of my "potting" shed (which to date has NEVER been used for potting anything because it is full of "stuff"), and the real not-sitting-on-my-knees-so-I-can-look-over-the-top-of-the-blue-top-weed view of the dam from those chairs near the vegtable garden.

Unless of course I get to and cover the whole lot with mulch on the weekend and then take photos! LOL

But serioulsy we all try to present the best of our worlds in everything we do - but I don't want anyone to think I am some superhuman entity that gets everything done perfectly all the time every day all - it just isn't like that. One of my favourite quotes was from a woman who had come to Australia to run one of our big retail chains and she said....(not quoting this is just my rememberance of it)

I am a terrific Mother, a fabulous wife and and astute and clever business woman - just not all on the same day

Much of what I do show is probably more about how I view the world rather than the strict reality of it. I am a glass half full person - always have been - I choose to look over the weeds, so I can enjoy the view. I choose to ignore the potting shed so I can sit and have tea with my four year old or play poker with my 12 year old.

So Monday a warts and all view of my world anyone else game to do the same?????

daisymum

oh and PS: Remember two weeks ago when i went off to clean my sewing room????? Well those photos will be here as well - still not clean folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!