Snap shot Sunday- laying out a quilt top

Having cut out all the charms for the Aqua Pop quilt it was time to arrange the charms into a quilt top. I decided to draw up a colour grid on the computer and print it off for reference. Firstly, to make sure I was arranging the 'pluses' correctly (its not as simple as it looks!), and also to jot down the fabric arrangement.

There are red, pink and aqua fabrics in this quilt so I went for a random, but balanced scatter of colours. I also had to pay attention to the balance of tones as well- not have too many dark tones or light tones next to each other etc.

For this quilt I used a good lot of Riley Blakes "Sugar and Spice' range, some Lecien "flower Sugar", "Sherbet Pips", a fair few polkadots (I stash busted those, but they would mainly be "Ta Dot" I think) and some other random quirky japenese fabrics. At the last minute I popped up to Spotlight and picked out a couple Denise Schmidt "Picnics and Fairgrounds" and some Fat Flats. I cut my fabric into 5.5" charms and arranged them in a 13x20 quilt- this will give a very generous single bed quilt. In hindsight the 5.5" charms were somewhat wasteful as I purchased mainly fat quarters and could only manage 9 charms from each fat quarter. Each 'plus' requires 5 charms- so 9 charms meant that almost half of the fat qarter went to waste! Even accounting for partial crosses at the edges of the quilt there was a lot of wastage :( The maths escapes me right now, but I am sure there is a much more efficient way to cut up fat quarters to get multiple sets of 5 charms. I will use up the charms on the back of the quilt, to make matching pillow covers and perhaps even for the binding.

David and and the two youngest had a very involved game of donimoes going on at the same time. George loves donimoes!

An hour later I has my final arrangement of the 'pluses'. I try not to over think randon quilt arrangements. One could easily spent an extra hour rearranging 'pluses' to try and get a better balance of colours and tones, but I tend to think that in the end, once the quilt is drapped over a bed, with pillows on it it wont really matter. The only area that draws my eye is the 'plus' made out of the large red/white polkadot (top right of pic). n this zooned out picture it doesnt look too bad, but IRL it was really catchign my eye. Elizabeth walked in just as I was taking this photo and said "Mum you need to change the red polkadot. It looks weird".

What do you think? I've left it in for now, but I am tempted to swap it out- probably for another red polkadot, but with smaller white dots to it doesnt catch the eye so much.

After I had finalised the arrangement I made little notes on my grid about what fabric was used for each cross. I used little nicknames like "Scooter" for the Serbet pips fabric featuring the little girl on a scooter etc. I have pinned a row number to each pile and stacked each row into a pile, and then made one megapile from all the row stacks. When I go to sew it all together I can refer back to the paper grid, and even the phot in this blog, to make sure I havent got any of the blocks muddled up.

Care for a snow ball?

Well we are back from our week over to the ACT. We spent 3 nights staying in Jindabyne (which is accross the border into NSW, but anyway!) travelling up to Smiggen Hole ski fields every day. I spent most of my time having show fights with George or sipping Latte's in the Smiggen hotel -while watching the older two and my newpews have their skiing lessons. See that big window in the building behind me? That is the hotel and it looks right out over the 'snow school' area- so we just nabbed ourselves a spot right there and sat and watched.

My kids took to skiing really well. Above is 11 yr old Elizabeth (wearing her Aldi snow gear. Lol. It was so cheap in the Aldi sale that hiring it was silly!). She had never seen snow before and was so excited to go on this trip. She picked up the basic skiing skills reall quickly.

This is Matildas (8yrs) second trip to Perisher snow fields. By the end of the second lesson both kids could take the chair lift or J-bar up the front slope (a green run) and ski down by themselves. I just stood at the bottom (with my latte) to sure they made it down ok.

By the third day George (4.5) had decided he was brave enough to don some skis. We hired him some skis and decided to book him into a 1 hour private lesson. It was the same price as the group lesson and the time slots available suited us more. With about 10 kids in the group lesson we figured he'd get more instruction in a 1 hour lesson on his own, than a 2.5 hour group lesson. By the end of the lesson he could ski down a small slope and sort of get a 'pizza' snow plough thing happening. He was 'ok' enough to manage the magic carpet and the baby run at Smiggen, so long as someone was there to catch him at the end. He thought he was very clever being able to ski.

We got home at Midnight on Sunday. Before I left I'd ordered fabric for a few tin whistle custom orders and it all arrived while I was away. When I walked into the sewing room on Monday morning the pile of fabric was quite intimidating (see below). I got stuck into it straight away and finished the most outstanding order (the star fabric wrapped in plastic). I tend to go into overdrive when I have orders pending. Customers are well aware when they place an order that my time frame for completion is 4-6 weeks. But I still tend to panic and get them done in half the time!

And here is a little update on the Aqua pop quilt I am making for Matilda. I have cut out all the fabric and it's just waiting for me to work out my 'cross' arrangement.

Snowbound

I'm heading over to the slopes for the week. We are staying with my other sister who lives in Canberra with her husband and two boys. They were planning a week in the snow and, since the school holidays in the two states matched up, I decided to fly over with my kids could we tag along with them on their snow trip.

To my customers that have custom-orders pending. Everything is still on track to deliver your orders in normal time frame- I'm just squeezing in a quick holiday with my kids as well :)

You wont be able to see anything on my store- as I have put it to 'sleep' for the week, but I will be able to access my email so if you have any questions you can still get in touch with me.

See you soon!

One brave (or crazy) lady

My sister, the one of giant cardboard castle fame, is up in Perth for the school holidays. For some reason she got it into her head that it would be really fun to buy a tie dye kit and let 6 kids, ranging in age from 12 months to 11 yrs, create their own hand-dyed t-shirts.
Above is George, Elizabeth and two of their cousins (William and Henry). The other 2 kids had gone off with Dad/Uncle David to play soccer.

The dye process turned out much less messy that I thought it was going to be, and the

kids were really pleased with their t-shirts.

Wearing the pants

I thought you might like to see some pics of George in his "pongo" Ottobre pants.

Snapshot Sunday- Ottobre love

Yay--- its school holidays! I love the school holidays because (apart from the obvious of getting to hang out with the kids) tin whistle always goes on holidays too. And that means I get to indulge in a little bit of 'me' sewing.
This morning, I loaded up a good audiobook and off I went. I intended to just finish of these pants- which I started last weekend. They are made using "Pongo', pattern 28 from Ottobre 1/2010. These pants had alot of pocket details, all topstitched in a contrasintg thread, which is why I decided to take my time with them and make them over 2 Sundays.

As you can see the front section features two sets of pockets, which took a bit of time but was worth the effort I think. It also has a zip fly- the insertion of which I am not really that pleased with (up close its a bit messy). I decided to use some snaps instead of buttons- just because George finds snaps easy and the colour matched the thread exactly.

I made a couple of changes from to the pattern, I ommited the silver reinforcing studs and the 'jeans' button (because I didnt have any, and figured that they wouldnt be missed). I also added some elastic in the back waistband instead of attaching the back belt as per the instructions.

I also ommitted the belt loops. That wasnt intentional, I simply ran out of thread! I will pick up some more next time I am at Spotlight and add them later.

Just as I finished off 'Pongo' I reached the climax of the novel I was listening too, so I impulsively flicked through the Ottobre magazine and picked out this top; 'Tipitii', pattern 30 from Ottobre 1/2010. I remembered some pink/red velour that I had bought at a bargain price of $2 per metre, then dug out a scrap of red rib and off I went.

Matilda absolutely loves it. I made a size 134 and Matilda is only around 128cm tall so she will get plenty of wear out of it. It will make a great beach coverup next summer I think too.

Elizabeth is quite envious, and since she is actually 134cm tall I can make her one without having to trace off the pattern again. That will have to be next weeks job- trying to find some more bargain velour!

Here is a close up of the hood and front placket. I love all the contrast binding.

The inset pocket is my favourite detail.

Update on the giant quilt

I have finished sewing the main body of the quilt but have been waiting a few days to show you because I wasnt sure how to photograph something so big! I had to get the kids to stand on the dining room table and hold it up as high as they could. Its still only just clearing the floor though.

The next step is to go over to my folks place and try it on their bed for size. I have a feeling its going to need a border around it to give it the generous overhang that I want it to have.

Stock in the store...

I've been working on adding ready-to-ship stock to the store. Take a look if you are in the market for some bling for your pram.

Red fox Baby Jogger City Select liner

Goldfish/stripe baby jogger City Select liner (sold as a matched pair)

Feeling Groovy Baby Jogger City Select pram liner (sold as a matched set).

If you see something you like but want a matching blanket or want a pair of liners split up etc then just send me an email and I will do my best to accommodate your needs.

Snapshot Sunday- Ottobre Pongo

I have started a project from Ottobre 1/2010. It is pattern 28, Pongo jeans. I am using a medium weight cotton with textured grid pattern. The farbic is khaki and I am top-stitching in a stone coloured thread. This is a stashbuster project. I have lots of 0.5-0.75 cuts of nice 'boy' staples left over from other projects. A piece of fabric this size is perfect for a pair of pants or long shorts for a small boy- so I am trying to use them up before George gets too old.

Racer Shorts

I made George this neato pair of shorts today using this racer shorts tutorial by Dana of Made. I thought it was a really clever adaption of a basic boys shorts pattern. I used a bit of left over denim and some orange quilters cotton for the feature bindings. The shorts are probably a tad long, but I sized up ready for summer in 6 months time. George liked them enough to oblige me by trying them on.

I added some pockets to the bum, and also bound them in bias-binding. You cant really make it out, but I used some orange thread for topstitching, twin rows on all the seams and also a 'faux fly' detail on the front.

I really love the rounded edge detail to the bottom of the legs and the bias-binding strip down the side seam. Speaking of Bias-binding I got to use my new splurge purchase... the Simplicity Bias-tape maker. As well as the 1" bias tape attachment I have the attachment that makes quilt bindings- which was my main justification for the splurge. Now days I lookout for projects that use bias-tape because the machine just takes all the effort out of making your own.

And apparently thats the end of the modelling session...