BMX Quilt Top No 1

The first of my two BMX quilt tops is now finished.  Doing those mitred corners with matching patterns was almost too much for my sewing skill level. But I'm pleased with the overall effect and the personalization with J's racing number and photos. Now onto the second quilt - same layout but with different number and photos.

Making Progress

What with books to read, TV to watch, lunch dates, sickies to visit and many other things I don't seem to do so much sewing these days. But the centre square of the first of my two BMX quilts is now done and I'm reasonably happy with it.  So far it measures 29" square. Two different borders  come next.

New Projects - Two BMX Quilts

With the Fifties Dresses quilt now ready to have its binding sewn on I've started two quilts for two young boys who are enthusiastic BMX racers.  Here are the first few blocks waiting to be trimmed into 9" squares.  There also  is a narrow strip of bike chains which I will use as sashing and two photo prints showing their racing numbers on shields to be incorporated into the quilt somewhere.

I would also like to include photos of the boys - I've have had my first try at photo printing on fabric and am using purchased prepared fabric.  But I don't know that I'm completely satisfied with the quality of the prints. I used a HP C5280 printer and the normal colour ink cartridges.

I've been reading an article which mentions using Vivera ink and another that mentions Archival inks.

If anyone has any advice or useful links they would me most welcome.  Actually this photo fascinates me as at first glance it looks as though the front bike is about to ride right out of the picture.   So now I'm tempted to juggle that lower piece of fabric to match up the curve of the photo wheel with the fabric wheel to improve the illusion !

Dress Me Up - finished quilt top

I feel as though a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders now that my Dress Me Up embroideries have come together in a quilt top. It's just over twelve months since I started the first dress.

The ladies in the fabric diamonds came from a piece of Springtime in Paris by Michael Miller.

My photography leaves a lot to be desired, but I think you can get the general idea of how it looks.  It measures 55" by 64".

A bit of variety - knitting

To add a bit of variety to life I got this baby shawl out of the cupboard where it has been sitting unfinished for four years. The border on one side and the centre panel both needed finishing.  As I have a habit of putting together bits and pieces from  different patterns it took me a whole evening (with one eye on the TV of course) to work out exactly what I had been doing.

It's knitted in Te Awa 2 ply Baby Merino pure wool, a favourite of mine and measure 54 " square. It will come in handy as a gift but I'm beginning to wonder if young mums these days are so keen or appreciative of something which is hand-made and which just can't be thrown in the washing machine but needs a bit of TLC.

Apart from the knitting I could call it possum week.  What do you think of this little ringtail possum. They are far less common within town boundaries than the brushtail possum

He was found, at midday, sitting in the centre of a suburban side street, sometime with his eyes closed, sometimes with them open.  He just did not want to be encouraged to move off the road. So it was a case of help needed.

 Here you can see the distinctive white tip to its tail at the top of the photo.

We tried to encourage him to climb up a tree. No luck.  So we put in him a front garden and he promptly crawled in under some dense foliage.  Hopefully when it became dark he was able to find his way to suitable territory.

We don't know what he was doing in the middle of the road. He didn't appear to have been hit by a car and we can't work out why he would be out on the road in daylight.

Fifties Dress No 12

Fifties No 12 Dress for "Dress Me Up" is  now finished, for better or worse.  She should keep warm travelling to and fro in her little cape.  Now the problem is  of how to put them together.

I'm trying to decide if I can combine some of the illustrations in this  Paris fabric with the twelve embroideries. The ladies in the fabric are just over half the height of the ones in the embroidery so I'm thinking that  at that size perhaps twelve of these ladies wouldn't dominate the embroideries.

Slow Progress

Marion asked me why I haven't been writing on my blog.  But I don't seem to have been making much progress lately and  it hardly seemed worth writing about.  I have started on  quilting my Pretty in Purple but it's the same old story - I start off with thimbles and other quilting aids but it's not long before I discard them - I like to feel the needle with my fingers. Next thing the quilting has to be put aside while the holes made in my fingers by the needle get a chance to heal !  The front of the quilt is quite patterned so I have used an inexpensive lavender poplin for the backing which will show up the quilting . After all my efforts the seam down the middle is not quite straight !

Then there's the Dress Me Up embroideries.  Here is No 11- a very plain dress with a silver and pearl brooch.

And No 12 turned out to be very plain too. The little cape was supposed to be embroidered to look Christmassy but I decided I didn't want it that way.  So I wondered why couldn't I just applique little capes onto the embroidery to take away the plain look.  After all Marina appliques these wonderful butterflies onto her embroidery and they look fantastic. So I tried  lots of different fabrics .

A little fur cape would be appropriate for the fifties but I think I might make a mess of sewing it on.  And it wouldn't be really practical.  The belt hasn't been embroidered yet.

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Another fabric I was given - the colours match the dress nicely  but it's a bit heavy looking and doesn't exactly look like the fifties.

So I suppose I'll go back to embroidery and perhaps fill in the cape with an embroidered pattern but what stitch would I use.  I am a copier and am not good at creating and at the moment my few creative juices are all dried up.

Of course I might just be prevaricating as when No 12 is finished I am going to have to decide how I am going to put them together into a quilt and I am not looking forward to that decision.

Then just recently there's been the matter of visitors.  I follow my hobbies in the living room, not in a room where I can shut the door on my muddle.  Here  I can pick something up and sew a few stitches while the vegies cook or while having a coffee or at any odd time of the day or night. And for my usual visitors I don't worry about my clutter.  BUT when you know out-of-towners are going to be welcomed in that front door several times in the next few days then everything, and I mean everything, gets shoved away in any old spot where it will fit.  Now I am going to have to try and find things again.

So sorry Marion, hopefully now I can again have a clear creative mind, sensitive healed fingers and my lovely clutter around me again and perhaps do  some craft work  worth writing about !