I did it, My Way!

I did it - may not take the prize at any show - but I did it my way and I am happy with it!  Now I just need to paint on the faces and the three piggies are complete.  The middle piggy was done with the darning foot and the dogs down - not a pretty picture but I am leaving her as-is as reference to my starting point!  Not all sewing went the way I wanted it but I know I can only improve.

I do believe that by the end of this wall quilt - and the second and third one - I will have the hang of it!  Just loooooots of practice to be done.  I can see myself calling on my mentor for one-on-one teaching.  Will need to speak very nicely and make a 'booking' for when there is a moment vacant!

If you think my first attempt falls way short - please tell me so and offer some advise as well.

Warm regards 

 

It is harder than it looks!

Wow - how disappointing!

I have tried, on some scrap fabric, to practice sewing with the darning foot and dogs down and come to the conclusion that this is not as easy as it looks!

Just when I thought I was coming right and started on the BOM - I came to the above conclusion and stopped.  Poor piggy number two does not look as nice as I would like her to be (oh, yes, these are female piglets).  My short-term remedy?  I am going to do normal straight sewing with a normal foot and the dogs up!  I find I can manipulate the movement of the fabric better when sewing this way and sewing slower.  Yes, I know, this is not the correct way but I am falling waaaaaay short of being a skilled free motion sewer at this stage!

That will be my ongoing exercise - practice free motion sewing.  It is the only way I will get that down pat!  I mean, everybody started somewhere, not so?

My only question to myself is: Do I unpick piggy number two or leave that as testament to my effort of free motion sewing?  Time will tell ...........

Oh, and by the way; I have (I think and hope) managed to sort out the excess feed when sewing with the monofilament thread - I purchased smaller needles and am currently using a number 8 (60) needle with this thread and the tension seems to be spot on.  There is no 'free-flow' of thread anymore.  Hope that was the correct way - if not, well, it worked for me (obviously my fabric is not very thick, even with the fabric stabiliser attached).  I tried playing with the tension initially but that still did not fix my problem.  I think perhaps the smaller eye may 'control' the 'flow' of the thread as well???  If I am off the mark here, please redirect - will be accepted with thanks.

Warm regards

  

Too scared to take the next step ........

OK - I know I can do this but still .........

Here is my first BOM of the Storybook Farm, Pork it Over - which I am very pleased with up to now.  So what is the problem?  Well, this is when I am supposed to start doing the appliquet and THAT is where I have come to a grinding halt - too scared to take the next step - literally putting foot to the pedal!

See how they evolve from - laying out on the appliquet sheet with the placement guide underneath .......

.... and now over the guide to add more pieces ....

...to putting shape to the piggies ....

To the left are the three piglets done minus their faces and the centre photo, getting ready to go under the needle ...... which is where the hold-up is!!

All threaded up and rearing to go but not enough courage to put the foot to the pedal

And that is where a lifesaver called Sally steps in to the rescue!  The advise given is to practice, practice and more practice .... then .... when enough courage has built up ..... put the block under the needle!  Ooooohhhhh, do I have to?????

Watch this space to see what happens!

Thanks, Saddle, for answering my SOS on a Saturday evening!!

Warm regards 

Pondering Moments

Overslept this morning by an hour!  Normally I am first up to get things moving in the house (I nearly said to stoke the stove and start the fire - but we have moved on since those days) LOL

Got my Farm Story's first BOM (the Piggies) out last night and did the copying onto the Steam-to-Seam paper but the pieces of the trough was too wide for my paper and copied it onto the Visa-Fix - but was not too happy with that medium.  Wanted to tape two pieces together but used the V-F.  After consulting with Saddle at work this morning, she also suggested using two pieces to create the one piece - so this evening I will go and do those few pieces over and then fix it to the fabric.

I have not had time to go and replenish my two thread colours to finish the autumn leave applique for the Log Cabin quilt.  Maybe this afternoon after work - fingers crossed!

Sunshine outside!  Yip, it is a beautiful day here in Hobart.  Best place to live in - no doubt about that!  Sorry, no pics today.

Often, when driving to work, the morning scenes are absolutely stunning - especially when Mt Wellington has a petticoat on or the mist hangs low and you can only see the crest with this white woolly cravat covering the bottom half!  OR  When there is absolutely no wind on the Derwent and the reflections are miror-perfect?How do you pull over whilst in morning traffic - especially when there is NO place to pull over!!?  By the time one can pull over, the moment has passed and the scene changed.  But I keep looking!

Spoke to my youngest daughter last night; ended up with her getting upset about my comments and concerns.  I suppose now it will be a while before she wants to talk to me again.  I am seriously getting too old for this type of nonsense!  If only she realised that I dearly love her, care for her and the family's wellbeing and that they need to take responsibility for their actions and not blame everyone from the neighbour's cat to their boa constrictor for their decisions!  Damn, this is very tiring - no wonder I overslept this morning!

Fingers' crossed for a better tomorrow......

Warm regards 

Getting a Move-On

Greetings

Woke up around 4 am this morning - as in WIDE awake!  Without a word of a lie, the first thought that came into my head was - I need to sort out my various BOMs to avoid mixing up patters, losing small bits of fabric, and creating some sort of system for me to work with.

One more large brown and dark pink each autumn leaves to finish applique and then eight small ones.  Also had a look at what is next in the pattern and found, to my delight, that this is where the putting together will begin!  Before I move to that step, I will square each block to the correct size and then get stuck in!

Looking at all my BOMs this morning, I, again, imagined the fun I am going to have with the creation of each project.  All fabric is absolutely stunning and I sure appreciate the time spent on selecting these for each quilt.

Will just have to take some time off in these holidays so that I can give myself more of a kick-start!  I am feeling a bit slow out of the starting blocks when I hear what others are up to - ie Saddle and MJ!!

Now, I must just go and check whether I am the latest millionaire out there - you never know ........

Warm regards 

Too many 'pretty flowers' along the way .....

Hello, anybody miss me yet?

Wow, I feel like a newbie at blogging - been quite a while since I last posted!  Hopefully the lull is behind me now.  Feels like the floodgates are about to open ................

On the journey of working towards completing my Log Cabin quilt, I have been side-tracked by oh, just so many other pretty, pretty pieces of fabric, BOM's and other wall quilts.  It is just not so fair to have so many projects up for grabs and just so little time!  I need to win the Lotto big time so that I can cut down on working for a living and really start living!  Wow, just think, I can work, say, three days a week, maybe two, depending on the winnings - on the other days, I can get up, do a quick touch-here-touch-there house clean, take my puppy for a nice long walk, come back to a slow breakfast and then elevate to the sewing machine and quilting!  On some days I can go fabric hunting - not necessarily to buy - but just to be up to date with what is available (you never know ......).  I can visit quilting friends and we can work on projects together.  Nice thing about this is that it is nice to have good company when you quilt; somebody that understand you even when nobody is saying a word - spending the whole day working, perhaps in silence, could still come down to having a meaningful 'conversation'.  I know one such person.  My dear friend, Saddle (my nickname for her).

I would get a long-arm quilter so that we can do our own quilting and become experts at this; attend classes; go on retreats .... yeah, that could work for me! 

But I better get back from these dizzy height that have my head in the clouds, back to reality .... damn!

On the up side, I have a number of excellent projects that I am really looking forward to getting stuck into.  This week I received block one of my Twilight Gardens.  This BOM is from Faeries in my Garden and has a lot of embroidery involved.  It looks extremely interesting. 

This evening I took the dust-cover off my Elna, threaded her up and continued with the autumn leaves' applique.  Can finish the last three sets tomorrow evening - another lot of blocks closer to finishing the Log Cabin quilt!  Saddle made a passing comment of: "uh ho ... here comes a UFO ..." or something in that line.  Scared the living daylights out of me, she did!!  Got to prove her wrong (fingers crossed!!).

Fingers crossed - may my numbers be the winning Lotto numbers this week ... pleeeeez!

Warm regards

 

Mothers' Day

Happy Mothers' Day, Me!

No kids in Australia and MDH will not do anything special for me since we do not have any kids - but I do remember the Ladies in the family who need remembering on a special day like today.

Took me, myself and I off to Agfest yesterday (agricultural festival) which is about two hours' drive (or thereabout) north from Hobart.  Had a wonderful day admiring things

from Alpacas ...

..... to .....

steam engines

.... to .....

building structures

.... to ....

displays of sheep dog working

There were thousands of people attending even though it was a cool and crisp day.  Good for walking and taking in everything on display.  I think, a few degrees warmer would have given the day that nudge to take it out of the 'comfort' zone.  Anyway, I enjoyed it.

Got up early this morning (Mothers' Day), hoping to continue working on some 'work' work but again, the internet link to my work site has not made that possible (and I will NOT be going into work to download the file and bring home!).

Anyway, that now gives me permission to do Mothers' Day thingies - like working on my quilt.  Talking about quilt ....... yip, I've done it again ......     Yesterday at Agfest, I found the craft shop that I was looking for!  Deb - an absolute beautiful lady - owns The Village Sampler, located in Lilydale, north-north-west-ish from Hobart.  She had, amongst other displays, one BOM that I have been admiring in the magazines for quite some time but have been 'ignoring' because of all my other projects.  Unfortunately, seeing the fabric in real life, I realised that none of the pictures I've seen of this project does it any justice, and ...... yes, alas, ..... I signed up for another BOM - (Story Book Farm)   When I got home and looked it up, I realised that this will be the second project I will be working on from McKenna Ryan - the All Cooped Up project is also one of McKenna's!  Her approach to applique sound just oh-so-easy!

AND

I now learnt about some new quilting tools, namely:

a fusable webbing called Steam-A-Seam

AND

Applique Pressing Sheet!

BUT

What really got me excited was looking out my front door and admiring what Mother Nature dished up for starting my day:

So, if you feel all alone on Mothers' Day - look out to Mother Nature.  She never forgets you :p

Happy Mothers' Day

Warm regards


  

Sleepy yet Awake

Don't you just hate it when you wake up in the night and cannot get back to sleep?  No matter how hard you try to get back into sleep-mode, it eludes you!

Here I am, 4 in the morning and wide awake, yet tired and dying to get to sleep.  Aaargh! 

Sleep ...... I wanna sleep .......

or maybe

sleeeeep ..... your eye lids are getting heavy ........ you try to keep them open but you can't ......... they close .......... your breathing is becoming deeper and more rhythmic ........ you relax your toes ...... you relax your feet ........ you re ...... Oh Sh!t, this is not working!

Phew, Paxton (my dog), that is a very baaaaad whiff you let off ..... that does it, I'm off to bed and you can stay here in the study ....... back door is open ...... no peeing in the house.  See you in the morning.

Warm regards