Sunlight harvesting

I have a huge project on the horizon.

I work in a biology department where beautiful wonders are everywhere. The latest quilt inspiration has come from an academic's poster outside his office, a vision from an oil painting by Glynn Gorick (Sunlight harvesting). It all starts with tiny photons of sunlight entering the food producing region and ending with the earth's atmosphere. When the academic heard about my desire to make a quilt from his poster he gave me a couple of biology books to perfect my quilting styles of algae!

I know this will be a huge challenge and one I will not take lightly. It will involve a lot of insight and forward planning. I have never done a landscape quilt before. I probably shouldn't start with such a huge project in mind, but hey, life is too short to just chose the easy ones! I will no doubt be searching the web on tutorials on "how to" and inspiration from my fellow sewing group. Sometimes if you dream it, it will come true :)

Paisley purchases

I love paisley fabrics. I think it stems from my paternal grandmother and seeing her wear paisley dresses and anything she made with paisley fabrics. I love their unique patterns. I love the colours, I just love, love, love them! Here are two of my latest purchases I obtained from Cottonfields on Merrin Street, Avonhead. 

My blogs have been short and to the point lately cos I have busy sewing, who hasn't. Sometimes it's hard to find the right words to go with your projects, but hopefully I explain myself properly when I do. At the end of the day this is all so that I can look back and see what I have done visually, my own record of keeping my unpicker at the ready!

I spy quilt

I'm a bit slow off the mark, but I didn't realise an "I spy" quilt meant, "I spy with my little eye..." and that children are usually the receivers of such a gift. But, when my aunty gave me the pattern I thought, hey, I have all these novelty fabrics that I brought and can finally put them to use and make myself a quilt, yes, for me! So far I have cut out all my hexagons and halves. The fabrics are mainly animal themed or cute lil kiddies from an age gone by! I didn't have a small rotary cutter so I ended up cutting my shapes by hand. I hope I don't regret that later on when I go to sew my seams...

Bag editing

After making a very successful bag (my first one) awhile ago I received a request to make two more, but with longer straps. The bags turned out quite good, but I had this uneasy feeling I had made the straps a tad too long. Thus here I am unpicking the seams to get to the straps to lengthen them.... very time consuming, but again my patience makes the end result rewarding.

Inside out and on it goes!

Teddy Bear Collector - complete

Well Wednesday the 30th of July crept up on me sideways! It was the day of my sister's special birthday and I was determined to get my wall hanging finished on time. Unfortunately that was not to be and I decided I would have it complete at the weekend instead and deliver it in person (she lives 1.5 hrs away).  Out of the blue I received a phone call, saying "come on down tomorrow night for tea and stay the night". Eeekkk.... I had the hanging complete except for the binding and frame sleeve.

After putting down the phone I tackled these last minute additions which turned out to be a nightmare. For the life of me (probably quilt brain freeze) I couldn't work out how to end the binding with that special mitre. And as for the frame sleeve, which I had never done before, I made the first one too narrow and the second was a struggle to turn inside out. Midnight arrived after 3.5 hours and only had the hand binding to do. I decided to call it quits and take the quilt to work the next day and to finish off my binding in the lunch break. What a mission for such a little project. I really did underestimate totally!

Here it is all with a love heart frame ready for hanging. 

Teddy bear collector lives here

Bear collector lives here - prep work

I brought this Teddy Bear Collector pattern from Away with the Fairys in Cust a long time ago, but finally I had the occasion to make it, for my sister's 50th birthday and because she is that collector!

The stitching took awhile (count quite a few weeks) cos it's not really my thing, but I got there in the end. The set up below is of my initial choice of placement.

New enrichment for puds

It is very rare that I follow a sewing pattern, but this was for a good cause! Here, my two cats delight in taking turns trying out their new house/igloo. They both charged in, pawed up and down on the soft lining and even did u-turns to ensure they faced the right way!

Bella waiting her turn patiently

Aztec enjoying his time in the house

My turn at last!