Dragon Rambles

When I first showed up at our twice monthly meet and make at the local craft store, I was asked if I’d bought new shoes.

Then I showed them what was inside the box. Now, I get the comment “you’ve brought your shoes again”.

Last night was make and meet again. I love hanging out with everyone and have made some good friends. Lately we’ve been having the tables full, with a good 15 or so people showing up. Last night was kinda quiet with “just” 9 of us. It’s always fun to see what everyone is working on and the progress on longer term projects. And to see people wearing garments that they had been knitting on in nights past.

Last night I was working on my baby quilts. I had previously managed to sew all those pieces together I last showed you into quarter-blocks. Well, except where there were no matching pieces because of running out of pre-cut black. Last night’s task was to start sewing them together into half-blocks. I got quite a bit done, even with all the chatting.

There are still a few in the box pinned together ready to sew, but there is this little bundle that I left sitting on the couch at home. More quarters to sew together and some pieces that are waiting on the next cutting session to be able to get to this stage.

I am continually amazed with how quickly this project is coming together. And I still smile every time I look at the geckos

Earlier this year I started thinking how I’d like to make quilts for two of my cousins (both sisters) who were expecting their first babies. The first had hers just over a month ago. The second is due in June. I was wondering if I’d have the time and put the idea aside though. Fast forward to the Duxford quilt show and the very cool gecko fabric I found there (with the frogs and fireworks to keep the geckos company) and the idea came back full force. I bought a metre each of the fabric with no idea what sort of quilts I’d make except that I knew that the colours would be “black and brights” and they would use this fabric. Then went hunting through my book for blocks. Now I could’ve picked something faster to make, but I like how these will look.

The plan: make two cot/play quilts, about 50-60″ square, by July. Oh yeah, and I want to hand piece them. Ok, maybe that’s insane but we’ll see. I’ve made some pieces for these quilts before, and shown them to you, but the other week I decided to have a cutting marathon so that I could work on this quilt whenever I had some time. A great idea as it’s growing faster than I expected. Even with a major brain fail which required a fair bit of unpicking and resewing, I still managed to sew together the precut pieces quite quickly.

But I obviously didn’t cut enough black, so these will have towait until I’m ready for another big cutting session.

Last night I pinned a single colour bundle together

And started sewing them into their quarter block pieces

They will eventually be sewn together into full blocks like these I made from the first pieces I cut.

So maybe the idea of having two quilts pieced by hand by the end of June isn’t such an insane idea. We’ll see.

Remember all those pieces I had cut out? Well I’ve packed them all into a shoe box and have been diligently sewing them together in the evenings. I’ve managed to sew together this stack since Sunday afternoon.

Impressive, right? No, not really. You see only half of those were supposed to be sewn together, the other half were supposed to be sewn to adjacent sides of the resulting square to give a bigger diamond.

Idiot!

Ok, so my attempt to get back online didn’t really work. Let’s try that again shall we. Meanwhile, what have I been doing while I haven’t been online? Good question, what HAVE I been doing?!

On the craft front, I finished the pieces for Alta (the multi-colour jumper I was knitting), but haven’t gotten around to blocking the pieces and sewing it up. That seems to be a theme for me, which is really why I should stick to one-piece knits.

I’ve been doing some work on those baby quilts I’m making for my cousins. But mostly in terms of cutting pieces. Man does that take a bit (draw and scissor cut). You can see I’ve been busy with this lovely little pile that was on my living room floor earlier in the week.

Which, of course, I kept trodding in and tracking around the house. But this did eventually result in a nice bundle of pieces ready to start sewing together. There should be enough pieces here for about 20 blocks.

I’ve also been doing more planning for my trip later this year, mostly with trying to track down the right pack and boots. So after having narrowed down the pack to three via lots of online research, I went to London yesterday to try them on, get them fitted and buy one. My next post will be all about the packs, what I did/didn’t like about each, which I chose and why. While I brought a pack home with me, the saga that has become my search for a good pair of hiking boots did not end yesterday. I need to think about that for a little and hopefully will get a pair in the next week or two – as I’ve been without hiking boots now since Jan.

One of my friends from work is having a baby in the next few weeks, so we’re throwing a baby shower for her. She is happily having a boy. Not that I don’t like little girl babies, but now that they make decent boys clothes, it’s so much fun buying for them. I like the types of clothes that make them look like miniature men. And since I always buy size 6-12 months since I know the mum generally has lots of smaller stuff, and bub grows out of the smaller stuff so quickly, I had plenty of choice. A quick visit in Baby Gap yesterday while in London (handily right around the corner from my new favourite outdoor shop), and score!

You also can’t go to London without catching up with Charlotte. I think it’s a law. She was stuck at home on dogsitting duty, so we visited her house instead. And force fed her cake. I don’t think she’ll ever let me come over again

I love her house, it’s in a perfect location and I loved seeing all of her quilts, cushions and other homemade goods around the house. It was a lovely, if short, visit. Next time I’ll try and come to London with just visiting in mind and no pesky shopping trips. As I was leaving though, she did give me a slap on the wrist for not blogging lately. So Charlotte, consider it successful

And as everyone else in the UK has already blogged – Spring has finally arrived. Like everybody else, Macros is enjoying the sun

Yes, I went silent again. I was in a bit of a funk leading up to Easter. That time of the year. We passed the one year anniversary of Granny’s death, and my niece’s birthday. Or what would have been her birthday. If I counted correctly, she would have been 11. Instead she will always be three. So, anyway, that’s why I was in a funk and not online much.

Then, over easter I spent several hours each day online planning, juggling and booking things for my big trip later this year. I’m getting there and will fill you all in once I have the rest sorted out. It’s costing a bit, but this will be my last big spend before I get serious about saving for a house deposit. And my last trip down to Australia and NZ for several years. I’m really looking forward to it.

When I wasn’t online over easter, I started work on the quilts I want to make for my cousins’ babies. I’m sure you recognise the fabric from my recent show haul.

And in the week and a half since easter? Busy with work and stuff. Have hardly been online and am still way behind on my blog reading. That’s what happens when you go mostly offline for a couple of weeks though.

Am on my way to Cardiff today for a meeting regarding my last job. So if I get sick of doing the work I brought with me, I can use some of the long journey each way to start catching up with what you’ve all been doing.

I went for a walk at lunchtime today and took my camera so one of my workmates could take a photo of me wearing Cora to share. Now, I’m really not photogenic, but she did get a nice photo.

You can’t see much of my new jumper here though. So I’ll show you one of the ones where I’m looking and feeling like a dork. This is me laughing at myself. But at least you get a good view of this looking and feeling like a dork. But at least you get a good view of this gorgeous pattern.

Oops, I disappeared there for a bit didn’t I. I think I’ve mostly caught up on blog reading, though to do so I was very economical with commenting. Looks like you’ve all been up to loads.

My time offline has been well spent though. I finished that jumper I was knitting and have worn it a few times. I need to get a pic of me wearing it and will share once I have.

The day I finished that one, I cast on a jumper with my other birthday yarn. A pattern that had just been released a couple of weeks earlier and that I loved: Alta.

I do like this yarn and how it’s knitting up, but I’ve also started thinking that I’d like to make this again with a single colour tonal yarn. Plus, there’s an error in the chart for the front. I spotted it when I started but didn’t follow my gut and instead followed the pattern. By the time I was sure my gut had been right, there was too much to undo. So I’d like to make it again correctly and with a yarn that will showcase the pattern more.

Making these two jumpers I’ve discovered I really like knitting garments with thicker yarn: they knit up so quickly!

I’ve also started planning the two quilts I want to make for my cousins. They are sisters. One has just had her first baby, the other is due with her first in June. I want to make play/cot/lap quilts. You know, a quilt that baby can play on on the floor, that could be used in a cot and later has a quilt to snuggle under on the sofa when they’re a but bigger. I’ve made this sort of quilt before and I love knowing that it’ll be used for at least 5 years. I’m going to make one for each of them probably the same or similar (from the same fabrics at least), aiming to have them done in June/July. I’d like to try and hand piece, but will machine quilt (for speed).

Other news:

I renewed my NZ passport. And got it one week after I sent off the application. That’s a far cry from the 6 weeks my UK passport renewal took in Australia a few years ago. But given the price has gone up and the passport is now only 5 years instead of 10, really, they can afford to be quick.

Work is going well. Very busy, but I like it. This is the first job I’ve had where the weekend comes around very quickly. Week time is still not as fast as weekend time, but the gap has narrowed significantly.

I’m heading to Cardiff in a couple of weeks for a meeting tied up with my old job. Might have to visit a couple of my favourite shops while I’m there. Though it’s a quick trip with more time spent getting there and back than will be spent in Cardiff.

I was asked if I’d like to take a day off work in May and go to France for the day. Trick question? Guess I’d better finally finish putting my kitchen in order so I can let myself buy some le creuset. Now to just whittle down my list. I think at the moment there are 4 of us going. And the whole purpose of the trip is to shop. Looking forward to it already, but something tells me there’ll be no savings that month

I’ve almost narrowed down my itinerary for my mega holiday in Nov-Dec. Am going to try and book flights next weekend. Very exciting.

Think that sums up what’s been happening here. Now off to get ready to visit with friends this afternoon.

This is the post you really wanted from my day out yesterday, I know

But before I show you all my loot, yes, I have changed by blog a little. I know some people have trouble reading white on black so finally took the time to do some CSS editing to reverse the colours. It’ll take a bit for me to get used to, I think, but hopefully it will be easier reading.

Ok, now on to the goodies. I took a very conservative £50 cash in my wallet and told myself that was all I would be spending. Especially as I’d had that large layout for a dishwasher this month, and am still waiting for a phone call telling me my hiking boots are ready. Well, to misquote: the road to lots of quilting fun is paved with good intentions. Very soon after walking through the door of the festival I threw out any ideas of being good. We can all pretend we’re surprised by that

Despite this, I was fairly restrained. There were lots of beautiful fabrics and I only caved a little. I told myself I don’t need to buy batiks when I’ll be in Bali later this year, and I didn’t need to buy lots of yummy fabric just because they gave me ideas, because I currently have several ideas waiting in line.

But I did decide that these two bundles would make a couple of lovely two-colour cushions for my sofa. So I got 1/2m of each. Maybe I should’ve gotten a metre each… I almost did.

I have cousins having babies and have been thinking of making some cot/play quilts (prob hand pieced then machine quilted to speed things up). When I saw this gecko fabric I started getting ideas that it would be perfect for such a quilt. Then they showed me the frogs. I thought the fireworks fabric would be nice to go with them. I’ll probably add in some bright colours and black (all solids) to go with these. Now to decide, a gecko quilt and a frog quilt or both quilts to have both? Luckily I bought a metre of each so I have room to play.

And one stall there had bolts of Kona cotton, so I picked up my alien fabric. Here we have glacier, jade green, candy green and ice frappe. Now I just need to call Annie to get 20m of black and I can get started.

I also picked up some 100% cotton for piecing. I forgot to go back and get some green after getting the fabric, but the blue and wine will work for many of my other projects and the black will be needed for space invaders. Which is why I picked up a couple of 200m reels too. Of course, later I found omeone stocking 800m reels (or 600, can’t remember). Might have to get one of those eventually. I also picked up another reel of black hand quilting thread. I’m going to need a bit for moonglow.

And speaking of quilting moonglow, I almost bought some wool batting. I’ve decided that I’d like to try wool first, I’ve heard it’s lovely to hand quilt. Plus it’s warm. But the place selling it sells online for the same price as they were selling at the show and I was already laden down by this time. But I did buy some great quilting tools from them (before I saw the batting).

I bought an A2 cutting board since mine got buckled in the move from Australia and is a pain to use. And I also picked up some non-slip rulers. I’ve been wanting to get some ever since I saw them on Katy’s blog. I know you can get non-slip stuff to stick on your rulers, but I remember what I was like covering school books, so I’d rather get them already non-slip.

I’ve seen homemade ironing boards for quilting popping up on a few blogs and have been meaning to make one myself. Then I found this one ready made at the show. Along with little irons prefect for using with it in the lounge.

And look what it has on its backside. Very handy for a quilting day on the sofa.

And to round out my tool shopping, I picked up a nice big roll of freezer paper, some template plastic, a special white ceramic lead pencil and spare leads for marking sewing lines and two different types of needles to try for applique.

So, ok, while I was restrained in the fabric buying, I really wasn’t on the tools side. But I did say at the outset that I’d thrown my good intentions out the window upon entering the show

Of course, I went to the show first. Which meant hauling all this around the air museum for the next couple of hours. Not to mention the 2 mile walk back to the bus stop. But I’m still glad I was bad

I went to the Duxford spring quilting festival today. There were some lovely quilts on display. I took photos of a few of them to share. The light seemed good enough not to need a flash, but seems like maybe I should have used one anyway. But still, you can see the loveliness.

Secret garden.
Hand appliqued, embroidered and quilted by Gwenfai Rees Griffiths, Conwy.

And some of the details.

Welsh Dresser
Machine appliqued and hand quilted by Gwenfai Rees Griffiths, Conwy

In the pink
By Hilary Beettie, Lincolnshire

Tatlin’s Tower
By Catherine Millar, Somerset

For more pics, check out my flickr set.

After the quilt festival, I went for a walk around the air museum where the festival was held.

There was a Lancaster, the plane made famous by Dam Busters

A messerschmitt.

A sea hawk

And lots of other cool planes, some of which you can see in this flickr set.

It was a fun day. But a long one and I’m exhausted. But I got lots of goodies. I’ll post about them tomorrow, as they deserve a post of their own.

It’s been quiet around here lately, I know. I’m also behind on blog reading but am trying to catch up.

Yesterday, being the end of Feb, was time for wrapping up Feb’s theme-a-licious progress. So what was Feb’s theme?

Figural February: Who are the people in your neighborhood…your WIP neighborhood, that is? Give your people-populated projects some face time this month.

Ok, that was pretty easy for me. First up, my drunken gnome quilt. I finished appliqueing the gnomes falling down the stairs. The bigger gnome up to the right? Well he’ll be swing from the light when I’ve finished him.

And I finished the see-saw block.

I also started a new jumper with my birthday yarn. I figure since I’ll be wearing this (hopefully soon), I’m the “people” in my project, so it has to count too

Not sure if I’ll be joing in with March’s theme as I still haven’t ordered the fabric I need. And it will probably take a while to get here, so I’ll see.

So, linking up to the Theme-a-licious Feb wrapup.

And, since it’s the first of the month, to fresh sewing day at Lily’s quilts.