Merry Month of May

May Finishes

This month has seen me:

• learn the art of handquilting. Makes for a lovely finish.
• cut into my stash of Katie Jump Rope - twice.
• continue to enjoy the projects in the Zakka Sew-Along. And make some new blog friends through it.
• almost finish my second ever bag.
• fall in love with linen.
• finally finish the 'Fussy Fairytales' Quilt.
• Give the QCA Bee#1 Scrappy Log Cabin quilt to a deserved mum.
• Start hosting my own linky called 'Sunday Stash' where folks can exhibit their latest stash additions.
• Learn how to make my own 'button'.
• Hit 100 followers - and have a small give-away to say thank you.

Viewing - 'Titanic - the mini-series', 'Downton Abbey Series 2, Game of Thrones Season 1, The Voice Australia and Silent Witness.

Reading - The Third Reich Day by Day- Christopher Ailsby, Revolutionary Parenting - George Barna and The Hungry Ocean - Linda Greenlaw.

1. 'Fussy Fairytales' - finished 30/5    2. 'Fussy Fairytales' - back    3. 'FF' block and hand-quilting detail 
4. 'FF' - binding detail    5. 'FF' hand-quilting detail    6. 'FF' hand-quilting detail
7. Zakka Style Sew- Along - Raincloud Mug Rug - finished 14/5  8. ZSSA - RMR hand-stitching detail   9. ZSSA - RMR back
10. ZSSA  Itty Bitty Magnets in charcoal - finished 8/5  11. ZSSA - IBM in natural - finished   12. Katie Jump Kites - 56 blocks sewn 30/5
13. KJK block detail   14. ZSSA Patchwork Pencil Case (back)  - finished 1/5   15. KJK PPC front detail
16. Scrappy Log Cabin - binding 4/5  17. SLC - finished 4/5    18. SLC (back)

19. Craftsy May BOM - finished 4/5   20. QCA Bee#1 Disappearing 9 Patch 4/5  21. Five long-sleeved t-shirts - 22/5

So how did you go in May? Are you also linking up with...

The Big Tidy Up

We have a house inspection this week with the real Estate Agent AND the owner so we've decluttered quite a bit. In the past, our experience has been that it's always worse when the landlord comes along for rental inspections. Having lived here for 2 years we are fortunate that this is our first one of these.  Normally the Real Estate just do one every 3 months and that is hard enough to prepare for. Anyway we really want to get a good rating because we really love living here and most importantly we don't want to move again.

So I wrote a list of all that we needed to do and we spent most of our Sunday tackling the biggest jobs. As the the week goes on, we plan to chip away at the rest of the unchecked items on the list.


The Garage

My husband tackled the garage and did a fantastic job in between rugby games on the tv. Believe me it was much worse before...so much so, that I couldn't bring myself to photograph it....but just trust me on that!

This bike rack was the best thing I ever bought for the garage last year. It is free standing and you can add more sections according to how many bikes you have. Great for rental because you can take it with you.


The Family Room
I have spoken before about sorting Lego and today's effort was 3 hours! I banned the kids from playing with it and got into the groove. I think there is something therapeutic about sorting so many items into lots and lots of boxes. Same as with the garage, no before photo, but I wish I had taken one. It was a mess!

I packed away most of the Lego, the Lego table and put most of the boxes into the Lego cupboard. The leftovers went into crates and out to the garage. So now we have back our large space and sliding door to the deck. 

 I put the craft table and round table back there for the time being.

Earlier in the day our 3 kids had built an elaborate cubby house with all the chairs and tables. So that was dismantled and things set to right again. This will last about a day! The 3 bins are for toys that belong to the kids and need to go back to their rooms once they are full. The round tubs hold our crocheted rugs and cushions.

Our meals area is directly behind and is pretty minimal except for my daughter's play kitchen. 

Sewing Room


Even the guest/sewing room got a tweaking. I used some baby quilts to cover my machine and overlocker for the moment. I do plan on making a sewing machine cover at some stage this year.

We shifted the sewing shelves down into the corner.

I put my craft magazines and dressmaking patterns into the bottom of the cupboard. Unfortunately the doors have both fallen off. That is a DIY job for later.

I put all of my quilt patterns into a folder. Most are handouts and photocopies from magazines.

I moved my sewing and quilting books to the top left corner of the expedit unit opposite. The top wicker basket is for art and craft that comes home from school and pre-school. To be sorted later.

We shifted out the 2 filing cabinets and made room for my ever-growing stash! Yikes!

Main Bedroom


Being now Autumn, we have flipped and spun all of our mattresses around. 

I put our autumnal quilt on the bed. This is the double sided 'Astor Manor' quilt that I made last year. 

'Astor Manor D9P' (front)

The colours are so warm and inviting.

Reverse side of 'Astor Manor D9P'

I'm linking up with...


                                     



Meal Planning 


This is what's on the menu this week...

Now because of our huge cleaning schedule I have resorted to a store bought Spinach and Ricotta Canneloni for dinner. I took 2 of the frozen packets...laid them side by side in the baking dish...and filled the gaps with leftover canneloni tubes and an extra bottle of pasta sauce. If you have ever made this dish from scratch you would know that, not only does making the ingredients take time BUT, stuffing the tubes takes twice as long. I think it is worth paying extra for someone else to do that job (although fresh is definitely better).

I'll let you know that the taste verdict is.






I'm linking up with Menu Plan Mondays at Organized Junkie.


                                  

Astor Manor D9P is finished!

Although I finished the front of the quilt more than a week ago, the back was finished only tonight. Normally a quilt back involves calculating an extra 4 inches to each of the front measurements and then buying a wide back fabric with those dimensions. Sometimes you can piece together normal sized fabric to achieve a similar effect. But in general, the back of the quilt is usually one fabric and plain.


Modern quilts have turned quilt backs into their own art form. I have been so impressed with some of the quilt backs on other blogs and sites...so much so that the back is almost as good as the front! At the very least they offer a different interpretation of the original fabrics.


When my mother handed me her Astor Manor scraps...there was certainly enough to make another quilt front, but also nearly enough for a quilt back. 

I had managed to find two floral prints yardage at Easter time when the gorgeous 'Ribbons and Rainbows' at Blackheath was having its closing down sale. 


Moda also produced 3 wideback fabrics for their 'Astor Manor' range. One was a cream, another brown/stone and the last a burgundy. After looking on their website, I rang the lovely Brenda from 'Widebacks Australia' and she happened to have some of the stone in her end of the bolt sale section. She also gave me 20% off the cream as well and delivered it from Western Australia within 2 days! 

But then I had so many scraps and yards and half yards that it made it MORE difficult to decide what to use and how to use it. I kind of agonised over it and there was more than one incarnation. I'd do a bit and then I'd have to leave it to ponder some more...hoping that some time and distance would help the process...sort of evolve into something beautiful.


But it didn't.

So I left it some more. 


Did some scrapbooking and regular sewing and sorting of Lego (it was school holidays afterall).

And then it started to come together.

Piece by piece...

until it was beautiful.

And it is HUGE...a whopping 94" x 76". 

Astor Manor Reprise

My mum, Audrey (the Grandma of Grandma Macs Quilts) came down to look after my boys last week so that I could attend a 3 day course run by Aspect. In the evenings we got a chance to sew and cut. It was lovely to spend time chatting whilst hand sewing bindings on the same quilt, cutting from both sides of the cutting board and having someone else iron the seams as I sewed. 


Audrey had already made a stunning quilt out of the Astor Manor range of prints for her friend's 80th birthday. I secretly coveted that quilt, So when she offered me the leftovers I was more than happy to receive them. 

As we were going through them we both discovered  that she had already sewn 60 squares (she had forgotten)using the Disappearing 9 Patch pattern.  I was gob-smacked. Quilt blocks just begging to be sewn up. This range of fabrics is just divine when you lay them all out.

So after my mum returned home after 3 days, I set about assembling the blocks to sew. I found that I needed to make 3 more D9P blocks to balance it out into 3 rows of 7. If I am wise with the leftovers I will hopefully make it into a stunning queen-sized quilt. 

Next I cut 2.5" strips from my wide back brown fabric (GASP! I know....but I have plan to use more of the scraps to piece my back together) and sashed the rows into equal thirds and completed the first border. I am very happy with that decision. I find the D9P a bit overwhelming all together...plus I need the length and width to bump this out to a queen size.

I actually find sashing and borders a bit of a challenge to be honest. I have miscalculated a few times and come up short and had to piece the border. It takes away the charm and passion for the quilt if you have to cover up your mistakes. This time I made sure that I was over on both ends (as you can see in the photo above).

Now because I am fortunate to have some strips from a jellyroll, I am able to trial a new border for Border #2. It comes from a pattern I found in a library copy of Australian 'Patchwork and Stitching'. Here it is using a white base for the border and the white pieces from the Moda 'Spring Fever' collection.

So I have made my own version.

(I was trying to be cheeky with the bottom row...)


Then after pressing the seams I cut them into 2.5" strips.

But NOW I AM STUCK!


Problem #1 - I was hoping to put a lighter fabric in each corner but that makes the first brown border look like it continues into the pieced border.


Problem #2 - the second border does not a perfect match measurement make. That means I am going to have to fudge the sequence of 2.5" somewhere along the way in order to line up the seams.

So I had to walk away from it last night, unsure of how to solve either. I have put out a mayday to my online quilt buddies at 'Quilt Club Australia'. I had one of my son's classmates come for a playdate today so I am hoping to have the issues resolved tomorrow when the boys are at 'Active Kidz' vacation care and my daughter at Family Day Care ( I so need vacation care for my own sanity as these holidays are 3 weeks for my 2 boys at an Anglican school).