My disappearing 9-patch quilt

Mel & Rhys asked us over for a BBQ to celebrate Mel & Mark getting new jobs & Mel's birthday. She is such as sweetie and always is really thoughtful with Xmas & birthday presents so I figured it was a great excuse to jump on board the sew,mama,sew! Quilting Month bandwagon.

I knew the disappearing 9 patch was a groovy and simple way to make a quilt but didn't realize you could make it have an overall pattern, rather than the randomness most of these quilts have. I was inspired Oh, Fransson's Doll quilt I saw on the Quilting Month Flickr Pool. It just took me about 15 min to find the photo but I really wanted to credit her with the inspiration for this quilt. I love the way the center four panels make one big panel. I didn't have any Joel Dewberry's Aviary fabric for the center focal panels so I figured, "I'll embroider something". Geeze, its not like I only had 1 week to make something!!!!! So, for a couple of days, I took the quilt top on the train, tucked my elbows in and finished the birds.

I really must get a better photo of this quilt, I forgot and only had my camera phone the day I gave it to Mel. Hmm, seems to be a recurrent theme here that I need to take better photos and edit these posts.......

If you are interested in how to lay out your blocks to get this effect, go to my Flickr site and check out Before & After photos. Like I said, really easy to get something that looks quite complex.

OK, what else have I got for you...........

Hmm, this isn't really helping Giles....

Geeze, I hope I'm not boring you with all these short posts. I'm  going back through my photos & posting all the ones craft-related. Not terribly interesting, but thorough.......

This project was a 15 minute one, my kind of project these days - particularly when The Boy is awake). I found these polystyrene panels in the garbage bins at work last month and thought they would make great pin-up boards above my sewing machine.

The fabric is a lightweight canvas found in the $2 discount bin at Textile Traders. Come to think of it, nearly all my projects these days are from the $5 or $2 discount bins. Love a bargain.....

Anyhoo, a bit of packing tape and voila' two pinup boards. I haven't mounted them to the wall yet so will show you what the look like later.



I can't get any fabric out without The Boy running off with it, wrapping himself & rolling around in it. Luckily for this project, I had two identical pieces! 

Library bag

I think this was one of the very first things I sewed when I was getting into surfing the many crafty blogs out there. I'll have to dig through and find the tutorial I followed.

OK, I found the tutorial HERE. I was cheap and just did a rectangle shaped bag with a separate handle. Better fabric usage! I learned how to sew a boxed bottom from this tutorial though. Well written & easy to follow. Thanks jenhook.

New Cowboy shirt

I'm getting fancy. A shirt made from Micheal Miller Retro Yipee fabric ($5/m discounted fabric - gotta love it) using the same Simplicity pattern as these pants. I tell ya' its a learning curve using a pattern & instructions! I wouldn't want to look at the sewing too closely, particularly at the skew-wif collar. From a distance, and for a first attempt, not bad me thinks. I chickened out and used snaps for the front. Who wants to sew button-hole manually when you have a snap machine on hand.

That snap machine has just been one of the greatest buys. I love it. I bought it for nappy making but have used it for tonnes of things including hanging block-out curtain in The Boy's room. Who needs velcro when you have snaps?!!?

I had to include this photo because its not often you take one of yourself and like it, plus it shows my new hairdo Jacq. There are some more photos on Flickr of the shirt too.

Lumberjack Pants

OK, here is my 1st attempt at following an actual pattern...with instructions even. I'm the kinda gal that simply lies the clothing that I want to duplicate directly onto the fabric, trace around and wing-it-and-see. It hasn't worked too badly in the past, but I gotta say it was miles easier using a pattern with instructions, even for such a simple thing as elasticated pants. These pants are actually a pj pattern (Simplicity #3856) that Bec purchased ages ago with the hope of making some summer cotton PJs for Amelia.

I'm pretty pleased with the result, as was The Boy. As you can see however, they need to have more room for his nappy to prevent the plumbers crack you see in the photos above. Even in disposables, the rise is too low. Its actually quite difficult to tell front from back so I've made a couple of pockets but haven't sewn them on yet.

The pants were a size 1 with about 4 inches cut off the legs! Yup, he has the same 'ducks-disease' I have. I have redrafted the pattern and plan to make a swath of these for winter. These were cotton drill with my fav Log Cabin print that I bought from Spotlight during a sale where fat quarters were only $1.50 each. The print looks like a bunch of logs side-by-side. cute.

So here you have it - Lumberjack pants.

Felting

My first attempt at felting - a bunny with flat feet. I didn't prefelt it enough so the feet stuck together when I hot washed it. Oh well, it gives me something to clip The Boy's dummy to at night.

The second addition to our felted creatures stash. I so want to make more of these. I love the colour graduations, it worked better than I expected. I thank Barbara for the angler-fish/dreadlock hairdo!

Instructions & patterns if you wish. I can post them later. On a photo uploading binge for you Jacq!