A scrappy quilt for Clem, with quality control by Skylar

 Here's a quilt I made for Clem over the last couple of weeks: the fastest actual pieced quilt I've ever made. (Also only the fourth, so no world records here.)

A scrappy quilt, that's almost all garment scraps, and looking particularly 'scrappy' here because I forgot it was in the washing machine for a few hours before hanging it out to dry, very rumpled. Let's call it 'texture'.

 I started out by organising my fabric stash (whatever came over me?), and putting aside a bunch of cotton flannel pieces, mostly left over from making pyjama pants. But there wasn't enough variety there for a full flannel quilt. Sure, I could have sourced more flannel, but I was on a mission to use up scraps. And I thought my tactile, fabric-loving Clemmy would probably love a quilt with lots of soft bits as well as other interesting prints... and so I widened my scrap search.

As the mother of a 13-year-old now (and that's a whole other topic), I am acutely aware that what might appeal one year can be downright embarrassing the next. If 7y.o. Clem had his pick of fabrics now, it would be all cute, cute, cute. And I'm very ready to indulge that for things with a shorter lifespan, like clothes. But for a quilt, I wanted to choose prints that, I hope, will stay in favour as he grows.

By telling Clem the quilt was for him, I knew I'd have a little project manager on my back, pushing me to get this finished. He also wanted to help.

My other expert helper was Skylar, who has happily settled into being the absolute furry centre of our family. Oh, how we adore her! Do you know, greyhounds barely have any 'doggy' smell at all, so you can totally bury your face in that soft, soft spot just behind her ear and tell her what a gorgeous thing she is. Another thing about greyhounds is they are very good at testing out anything soft-looking that you lay out on the ground.

At strip-piecing stage.

At pin-basting stage.

And at post-quilting, pre-binding stage.

I was tempted as a kind of challenge to use nothing but scraps for the quilt backing, too, but didn't have enough of anything suitable. So I nabbed a bit of this Erin McMorris print from the sale trunk at the shop (it's little houses - I love it), chopped it in half and stuck big chunks of flannel down the centre. And then bound it with some snuggly-feely chocolate brown corduroy scrap from the stash.

My machine quilting is inexpert but better than I've managed previously. I'm thinking it was due to massively easing off the presser foot pressure.

And of course, Skylar has tested out the finished object. Clem's pretty happy with it, too!

As I was making this quilt, I was pondering that there's actually not very much I enjoy about making a quilt. Except that I'm, well, making a quilt. I love what it becomes and seeing it take shape. But the cutting? Blah. The pressing? Blah. The sewing? Dull! The basting? Yawn. The wrangling of masses of fabric under a machine? Sweary. Thank heavens at the end you actually get a quilt.

How do you feel about quilts and quilting, if that's not too massive a question in sewing-land?

- Jane x

picnic

Lots of photos, not many words today...
I finished the picnic rug that I started um, forever ago. It's quite wonk-a-riffic and my machine quilting is terrible but better finished than not! Just in time for autumn which is, to be honest, one of the more picnic-friendly seasons hereabouts. Besides, we now have LAWN! We always thought we were crap lawn gardeners but it turns out that since the neighbours had their two massive scary overhanging eucalypts removed, things actually grow. And look green. With not a lot of effort. So we have been picnicking on the picnic rug on the lawn in front of the chickens under the blue sky and it has been rather nice.
Which makes it sound like the pace is all relaxed around here which indeed it never is. Need more hours in every day. (Or maybe every night.) But we're working, working, working towards a 3-week holiday soon which is quite exciting.
And here's what our single baby chick looks like at 2 weeks old. It has quite a strong sense of self-importance as an only child of two extremely attentive mothers!

- Jane x

stuff we've been up to

Busy, busy. Getting the hang of running a shop. Usual family wrangling. Still holding down a part time office job. Husband bouncing from one time-consuming work project to the next. Something might have to give soon but we're all holding up for now!

It's important to me to keep adding to this space as a personal archive of our family's day-to-day and my sewing, and to keep in touch with lovely bloggy friends :) I do so love reading the same kinds of things on the blogs of others so it's up to me to contribute too! And so, on with a bunch of photos - 'random' as Jasper is so fond of calling everything.

That Charlie - not only does he cut his own fingernails, he can now make my lemon poppyseed cake recipe better than I can, and put together Ikea furniture all by himself. Practically a fully-formed human being! 

What else do we have up there... Clem has some new lights on his bedhead thanks to the theatre show Andy has just finished working on. 

Clem built his first real improvised Lego thing, which I was excited about because none of my kids have ever been huge Lego fans, which I admit I find a little disappointing. 

I made a small whole cloth quilt/throw from some gorgeous Nani Iro double gauze, pure wool batting, linen/cotton on the back and perle cotton hand quilting, as a sample for the shop. The cat, and Clem, really rather wanted it to stay at home.

The dress above was made as a sort of shop sample, and also to wear to the opening of Andy's show. I was really pleased with it. My first fully lined dress! Pattern from Ottobre 5/2012, and if you look carefully at the muslin version you can see how I made sure I avoided awkward placement of the dots on the 'proper' fabric (Anna Maria Horner Field Study velveteen). Texta drawn on 'danger spots' while wearing muslin! The only fitting adjustment I made to the pattern was to make the back darts a little deeper and longer. Oh and I omitted the back zip since the muslin went on and off just fine while all sewn up. Win! 

No photo of me wearing the dress... but this post may never happen if I wait for that. Maybe later. I wore it with a skinny black belt on which I attached an old sparkly buckle of my Granny's. Very swish.

Alright, nuff for now. (Crap, with this sort of photos and shorthand commentary seems like I should take up Instagram instead doesn't it! Fortunately I do not possess the technology. I really don't need another internet time vortex in my life. Do you Instagram? Do you like it?)

- Jane x

If I Blog It, I will Finish It

The Brief: A picnic rug (quilt). Simple construction, darkish prints, not too girly. More aesthetically pleasing and less prone to collecting dead grass than the entirely synthetic, water-proof-backed picnic rug that has been hanging out in the back of our car for years and is currently in a heap in our driveway, possibly growing mould. It's done great service but it's hardly inspiring.

So. I bought my first ever 'fat quarter pack' when Sew Mama Sew was having a big ol' sale not long ago. It's called Splendor 1920, by Bari J for Art Gallery Fabrics. Along the selvedge it says 'feel the difference' and in fact I did; these are quilting cottons of particular soft silkiness. I also bought a couple of other yards to work in. The criss-cross middle bits are Kate Spain's Cuzco. What's his name?

CUZ-CO-OOOO!

(I cannot help mentally yelping out the song from Emperor's New Groove.)

Cut it up last night. Sewed it together this morning. I make that sound quick and easy but you know? Even the most basic of quilts is still a quilt. There are quite a few hours in this baby already. Hence my blog-it-to-keep-up-the-momentum.

Must. Make. Quilt. Back. Rah, rah, go me!

- Jane x

Sunny days, sweeping the clouds away

Another fairly random update, including a little sewing and a lot of sunshine.

Last-minute Christmas gift sewing for two nephews. (I eeked out these lion/tiger pants and Clem's, almost identical, from just one metre of fabric. How satisfying.)

 The junior albino Ugandan soccer team. The shirts were Christmas gifts from Andy's sister Sharon who lives in Uganda. Cousin Ori, far left, was recipient of the lion/tiger pants.

That, friends, would be a grass-seed caterpillar. You might have believed me if I'd said it was a real live haggis or something, mightn't you? It was a gift to Clem from my sister, and is the wonky-cute combo of grass seeds and potting soil in a piece of pantyhose, with a face. Clem added gravel and dirt embellishment in its water, to help it feel at home.

 Boxing Day at the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens with friends.

 Much, much swimming in my parents' pool. Clem is becoming very confident without floaties.

 Apricot and peach.

 Proof I was there, pool-hair and all.

This dinner-plate size sunflower is growing in my parents' garden. They gave us seedlings from the same batch and ours grew about 30cm high with flowers about the size of the palm of my hand. The unintentional bonsai garden strikes again.

 Summer freckles.

Sibling relations have been mostly positive but school holidays bring our fair share of frustrations and squabbles. It's not all pretty pictures around here. But this is still a really beautiful and mostly relaxing time of year.

This is my last sewing project of 2012, a scrap-tastic quilted cushion cover. Even the batting was pieced from scraps. I've never quilted a cushion cover before but it was rather satisfying, like a really useful mini-quilt. I know my fabric combinations are a bit odd. I don't always have the best eye for these things but I don't like to over-think them. As with all cushions around here it was unceremoniously slumped on the floor within about fifteen minutes of hitting the couch.

It's a pity you can't see the bug better but on Clem's hand is a Christmas Beetle, on Christmas day. Andy and I call them 'the ubiquitous' because many years back we looked up the meaning of 'ubiquitous' and in the definition was the example 'the ubiquitous Christmas Beetle'. Really? Are they everywhere, or seeming to be? Do tell, people, please! Do you have Christmas Beetles and do they - like these - only appear around Christmas?

Happy new year! (Charlie and Jasper just saw in their first ever midnight turn-of-the-year!)

- Jane x