Bermuda Triangle

Just a note to say I haven't been sucked into a black hole.  I'm visiting (and admiring) my gorgeous brand new nephew!  Actually, I've finished visiting him and moved on to my sister-in-law who kindly looked after my kids while I helped out with the new babe.  I'll be back home and posting again soon. 

Stuck for inspiration?

Random shot, just to boast about what I'm having for dinner!

When I'm making a quilt, I can get stuck.  Because I don't tend to use patterns, and sometimes I don't even have the idea of the finished quilt in my mind when I start, the designing takes place on the hoof.  This has big pros and big cons.

Biggest pro:  When it's finished, it is truly my quilt. 

Biggest con:  The design process can stump me to the point where I put the whole thing away in disgust.

I was getting quite the pile of works-in-progress (WIPs).  To the point where some of them were becoming dreaded unfinished objects (UFOs)!  (After all, if you haven't worked on a project for more than a year, can it really be called a WIP?)

Big, overwhelming pile of WIPs.

But I've been finding some tricks and tips to help me see a project right through from start to finish.  The most important one is dedicated quilting time.  And I'm not that great at self-discipline so dedicated quilting time that I spend with another quilter is the best for me.  I've started spending two hours a week with another guild member.  She has enough room for me to set up my machine, so I always plan to use this two hours as dedicated sewing time.  I also spend an one evening a week at another quilting friend's place.  I can use her machine if I need to but I tend to spend most of this time discussing our respective projects, getting honest feedback and inspiration.  And then I'll squeeze in a little pressing, or thread tying in or drawing.

What we've recently started doing at our evening sessions is a list of what we are each going to work on before our next meeting.  For me it provides a prompt when I'm wondering what to do next and it also keeps me a little more accountable to myself.

Another trick I've been using when I'm stuck on a project is to just make myself pick it up and lay it out and take one more step.  Just one.  Whether that be sewing one more seam, making one more block, or laying out some fabrics to choose from.  If I can make myself do one more step, then I often find myself racing off again, inspired and stimulated to continue.

For example, I've been making an 'I Spy' quilt for my daughter. Nothing too tricky about that. Except I decided to piece the backing out of offcuts of the novelty fabrics I had used. But when I started sewing them together in strips it just wasn't working.

See?  Too many colours, too many patterns, too much going on.

So I packed it all up and haven't touched it for a couple of months.  But it was on my weekly list to do 'something' towards finishing that quilt.  Today I pulled it out, lay it down, changed some of the novelty fabrics for plainer fabrics and divided some busy areas with plain strips - suddenly it was all working and by the afternoon I'd finished piecing the whole back!

Almost finished.

So what tricks do you use when you're uninspired by your current project?

Answer for Tanya

This post is particularly for Tanya who asked me a question about the quilting process of a quilt. Quilting and me is a bit like chickens and me, I could go on and on for ages, so bear with me!

I've never sent a quilt off to be professionally quilted yet as I enjoy the quilting bit and believe it's part of the whole process (plus I don’t like paying!). But I'll never say never and if you have a huge king size quilt then hauling that through your sewing machine can be hard work.


I just use my normal sewing machine. For this one I free-motioned stitched (drop my feed dogs, use my embroidery foot and move my quilt to 'draw') the star in the centre and just kept echoing it. Then I free-motioned the seashell kind of filler around it. I did mark some of the star lines as they got bigger to attempt to keep them straight, but I don't mark fillers, they are all free hand.

For the seashell filler I start at an edge and stitch an oval shape, then I bounce back around that shape, finishing where I first started. Then I bounce around and around that shape and then I start a new shape from where I finished the old one.

This picture is the pattern drawn in pen with the first two shapes having directional arrows on them to show you how I stitched them. I started in the bottom right corner.  It’s easier to see it done than look at pictures and if you have a look at Leah Day’s blog, you can see videos of her stitching her filler patterns. I’m sure she probably has one very similar to the one I’ve used but I originally started using this pattern after reading one of Robbi-Joy Eklow’s books.

And be careful if you do start making quilts, it’s very, very addictive!

Quilting.

After 400 metres of thread, I am beginning to think I am over-quilting this quilt. 

However, I only have about 100 metres left to go around the edges.

And then I can start on this one.

Methinks a flower in the centre with a geometric filler around it.

I think I'll make the filler motif just a tad larger than on that blue and yellow one...

Making the most of the good weather.

When you employ someone, (especially if they are your hard-working neighbour who knows a thing or two about building), things get done.

From a stack of timber to a fully fenced and gated dam in a week.  Wow. 

Hubby has spent the day fencing the top paddock, using the dam fence as the starting point.  He's now lying on the couch groaning about how much he aches!  I've been chopping and stump-swabbing gorse, planting trees, cleaning out rabbit hutches and feeding the bottomless stomachs of my children.

And admiring the baby bunnies.

Amazing how fast they are growing.  Not even a week old and they are furring up and have the fattest tummies.  Fluffy is obviously feeding them well.  She's also uber-protective.  Ever heard a rabbit growl?  Well, they do.  They also bite!