New starts

I know it has been ages since I blogged. In these intervening months my life has been turned around on it's head and I am just getting my bearings back.
From living a life of solitude on a six and a half acre mango orchard to living amidst hundreds of people who make it their business to chat you up, from doing housework, cooking, gardening to letting others do them all for you, life has indeed changed. I will not say for the better or for worse because there is nothing to compare. Life has just changed. Though right now I have space constraints and cannot take up quilting on the same scale as before, I have already done a block for Esther Liu's BOM - the Queen's garden and also made myself a mobile sling bag.
                  Oh and having something finished came in handy. Invited to a house warming I found this pair of cushion covers a great gift.

Keep it going

The mood is still pink I guess! I managed to sew up a thank you gift for my niece, do the strap for a bag meant for her sister and which has been languishing for about 6 months now. The Jasmine sling bag is by Bagstockpatterns and this is the third one I am sewing and I see a few more in my future. I incorporated the two options provided to get more pockets.

 This was the Chloe saddle bag. I had some issues which put me off finishing it.Now with the strap added it is off to it's new owner.

The fabric basket that troubled me no end is also finally done. Next time I am trying a different pattern as this one did not work for me.And finally one more pouch done yesterday and another all cut out and ready to sew this evening! Feeling good about my determination to keep it going.

Blue to pink

I have been going through one of those moods that see me sewing very little. Things happening on the home front is keeping me distracted. And if that was not enough my Juki is going cranky on me. It does that everytime I do fmq on a large quilt. About half way through it decides ‘I am tired of not going on the straight path’ and whines and howls until it gets on my nerves! With experience I know that sewing some regular stuff can get my machine back on its tracks although at times only a visit to the service centre can do the trick.

 But I have my own weird fixations and one of them is that I hate going onto another project while I have one that needs finishing. (I do have a few UFO s but they are mostly abandoned although I have hopes of resurrecting them sometime in the future.) So I have been twiddling my thumbs and wandering in and out of my sewing room dragging out finishing a fabric basket.  Even putting away the quilt did not help. The quilt is my Splendid sampler and  I am almost at the finish line.

Yesterday I finally managed to get over my lethargy and sew up a couple of gift pouches.

I got some lovely scraps from my tailor the other day ( although I would never dream of discarding anything so large. Well in truth I do not discard which is why my collection of fabrics is now occupying two rooms!) And as I had promised dh gifts for a couple of girls at our grocery shop and also had a pattern from sweetbeebuzzings  that I wanted to try out, I made these pouches. I loved the shocking pink scrap that my tailor gave and teamed it with some fabric from my stash to add to the looks.

I have to admit the pattern really turned out well. The pouches look lovely that I am tempted to make one for myself and maybe a few more as gifts. And the size is pretty decent. I skipped adding the fusible fleece or in my case batting and am happy I did so, as this is well structured with all the layers of fabric. My wrist strap ended up a touch high causing some unseemly bulge inside and next time I plan to place it a bit lower.

Now to cut out something else cashing in on the high of ticking off something off my list of to-do's. That list is long so expect a lot more goodies.

Sunny days

I wanted to set out the process I followed in doing my sunflower wall art. And especially the mistakes I made so someone else who does a similar one can avoid it. The photo that inspired it has been in my collection for about two years now. Who would have guessed that even in a climate like that of England one could grow large sunflowers.

It seemed a pretty simple flower to do and yet I procrastinated using other projects as excuses. Finally I pushed myself to do it a month back. To keep the challenge to a minimum I cropped the picture, editing out the wall and most of the leaves. In hindsight I feel it took away something from my finished work. The flower now looks too big and oversized. So note to self. Next time keep more background!

After tracing the printed picture on to a white background, (a mistake I realised later) I used reverse applique to sew. I started out with simple short straight stitches and switched to narrow satin stitch as I found that on trimming the foreground cloth there was a risk of the straight stitch coming off.

This was after I had trimmed the foreground cloth on all the pieces! There were a lot of loose threads that constantly kept coming out in spite of constant trimming. And the white showing through was also bothering me.So I used a matching colour pencil to shade the white and let it merge. The next step was to use machine embroidery to add the brown color. Looking back it seems that plain yellow looked better. Maybe I should redo this keeping it just yellow.

Since my yellow was a bit anemic I machine embroidered that too with some glowing yellow silk thread. That left the bits in between the bricks. To keep it realistic I had to color it gray. Machine embroidery or fmq seemed a bit daunting. Especially when I had stone gray paint. It was a touch dark but once I add some white it was just right. I would have been better off strating with that grey as foreground cloth.
Then all I needed to do was sandwich the piece and do some fmq on the bricks to give some texture and add some to the flower too.

Since the gray was painted fmq on that was ruled out. After debating on whether the white frame was necessary or not I decided to trim it rather than keep it. Binding and beadwork for the centre and some sleeves to hang it and there it was finished! 

Well not quite! I don't think I did justice to the photo and perhaps will revisit it. Fused raw edge and more background perhaps? Just plain yellow. Freezer paper applique. So many options to explore.

Starting a list again

Last year I decided to make a list of the books I read. Two reasons for that decision. One is simple. I forget names very quickly. That has been a game since the last twenty years. Someone told me it is called selective aphasia. Knowing the name does not make it better. The other reason was that my reading had become non- existent. I had very little access to books but more so hardly any time to read. Quilting occupied all my waking moments. So I though a list of books would give me a impetus to read a bit more.
 The list was started but I never got around to keeping it updated. But I did read a lot. Almost all Kindle of course.
My tablet is now in my hands most of the time. When I am not surfing I am reading. Let me see if I can this year get back to writing too. The list then is part of my writing exercise. I am reading the second volume of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles. It is Red Riding Hood time.
Now to figure out how to add the new standalone page!

Bagged it

The bag bug has bitten me and I have given in to it. I have a sister who loves bags and has to buy one every time she takes a trip. I carry something I bought almost thirty years ago. So I thought I was not a bag person until I came across patterns sewn up by quilters. And I find I have the bug too except I need to make bags not buy them. Here are three that I made recently. The first was a pattern by Bagstock - the Everyday Tote and I made a matching clutch with a swoon pattern.

The second set of bags are from swatches given by a cousin to be made into bags. I like the way they turned out.

Linking them with the Elm street Quilts Bag it entry

Let's s face it.

Last month I never even attempted my OMG though it was meant for a certain special event. My machine came back from servicing a bit too late for me to sew anything. But I did prep a lot of work and this month have been working on them. Two are close to be finished - they will be the gifts for dh for his 60th birthday on saturday. I had intended to one more wall art for him - all birds as he is a avid birdwatcher but I think I may not get it done in the next few days.
Anyway finishing four wall arts that are in various stages is my November goal. First is to add a sleeve to this quilt that I just finished facing yesterday.

Cover up those walls

I think without OMG I might give in to my laziness and not blog at all. Not that I don't have anything to write about. It just never gets prioritised and before I know it the month goes by. I must admit that OMG has also increased the number of blogs I follow and I am constantly amazed by the talent on display. The upside of it is the desire to emulate or at least attempt to emulate. It feeds my desire to make some more art quilts. I was quite happy with these two that I made recently.

And so this month's s OMG will combine my desire to do some more art quilts with the need to make a gift for dh. He is celebrating his 60th this year and it is usually a big celebration in my part of the world. But since dh hates fusses of any sort we will not have the customary celebrations.
And so it seemed I should make an attempt and do something special for him. I am planning to try and make an art quilt out of a photograph of a kingfisher. Bobby was a special bird and one of our first feathered friends here at the farm. He used to follow us as we watered plants waiting for insects to be disturbed and swoop on them. I think we used him as a subject for many of our photographs. It is one such photograph that I hope to render into fabric.

Finding space on a wall will be a problem though! The living room walls are already taken with my framed cross stitches and also paintings by my step- daughter and well loved purchased art. Looks like we may need to build more walls in the house to hang stuff!

And that will be my October OMG! Did I forget to mention that I am hoping to send my machine to be set right next week? I might get a stand-in from a friend on condition I get it working. It should be something minor I think as it is a hardly used new machine!

Cover up those walls

I think without OMG I might give in to my laziness and not blog at all. Not that I don't have anything to write about. It just never gets prioritised and before I know it the month goes by. I must admit that OMG has also increased the number of blogs I follow and I am constantly amazed by the talent on display. The upside of it is the desire to emulate or at least attempt to emulate. It feeds my desire to make some more art quilts. I was quite happy with these two that I made recently.

And so this month's s OMG will combine my desire to do some more art quilts with the need to make a gift for dh. He is celebrating his 60th this year and it is usually a big celebration in my part of the world. But since dh hates fusses of any sort we will not have the customary celebrations.
And so it seemed I should make an attempt and do something special for him. I am planning to try and make an art quilt out of a photograph of a kingfisher. Bobby was a special bird and one of our first feathered friends here at the farm. He used to follow us as we watered plants waiting for insects to be disturbed and swoop on them. I think we used him as a subject for many of our photographs. It is one such photograph that I hope to render into fabric.

Finding space on a wall will be a problem though! The living room walls are already taken with my framed cross stitches and also paintings by my step- daughter and well loved purchased art. Looks like we may need to build more walls in the house to hang stuff!

And that will be my October OMG! Did I forget to mention that I am hoping to send my machine to be set right next week? I might get a stand-in from a friend on condition I get it working. It should be something minor I think as it is a hardly used new machine!

Never too late

It seems like there is some kind of jinx whenever I set a goal for the month. Last month I had no internet service and could neither blog or upload a photo. This month I completed the quilt top very early in the month and spent a week making gifts and stuff for family. I was going to my hometown and nowadays feel like nothing can compete with a handmade gift. Trip over and I was back to quilting the Old McDonald quilt top or flimsy as I believe it is called.

As you can see from the photo it is all applique and I had decided that I did not want to quilt it all over. It would interfere with the applique I felt and decided to tie the quilt using single stitches by machine.
That should have been a simple exercise except my machine started acting up. My needle was going beyond the slit in the needle plate and after breaking about half a dozen needles I am at a standstill. Straight stitch is no problem but for some reason when I thought I would fmq small flowers again a needle broke.
There is no sound more jarring than a needle breaking I feel. I have set aside that quilt for the day and am just catching up on my Splendid Sampler blocks. I often notice that when my machine has issues in fmq going back to regular sewing seems to make my machine sane. Tomorrow I will try the quilt again. I still think that I should be able to complete the quilting at least as this month's target though not the binding.
Linking with OMG
And the good news is that I managed to coax my machine into cooperating and the quilting is done. The quilt is still in need of cleaning and so I won't post a photo of it right now. Like I said it is Never too late to meet your goal. Just got to keep at it.

Come September

I have become quite lazy about writing blogs. Perhaps it is because the keyboard on my laptop has issues and writing on a tablet is not very easy. Last month I waited till the last day to pen out my monthly target and as luck would have it had no internet starting from the 7th till almost the end of the month. Not that I learnt a lesson. This month we are on 7 the and here I am writing my blog!!! But on the other hand I do keep up with my sewing which is all that matters ultimately.
I did finish the train quilt and it has reached the intended recipient!

This month I am working on another quilt for a child and again it has a lot of scope for creativity! The theme is the Old McDonald song and I expect it to be very colourful! Hopefully I will finish it and make a start on a gift for dh who will celebrate his sixtieth this year!
Linking with OMG

July - a train to catch

It is time to share and thankfully this month I have something unlike last month when I did not even attempt to have a go at my target. This month I was to do a train quilt for a two year old and though I would have liked to have finished it in total, I am content that the top is done to my satisfaction. I am waiting to get my hands on batting and so the quilting was delayed.

Linking with OMG

Plans for July

Last month I did not get to do my monthly goal. Forget not finishing I did not even start it. I think it some kind of mind block for I did do other stuff. Anyway this month I have already started a child's quilt and quite realistically if I finish it I would be happy. I have already changed the dimensions of the strips and also some of the design elements and since there is a lot of applique involved it is going to be a protracted project.

So that then is my OMG for July. Linking up with Red Letter Quilts.

OMG it is June!

Time to set myself another target again. I do have a runner to quilt and finish for a birthday coming up this month and my Splendid samplers to catch up with but those are not going to figure as my OMG. I find that the only way to do the ones on my to-do list is to put them on my OMG. That way it won't be years before I get to do them. So here is something I have been wanting to make - a passport holder. There are so many travellers in the family and I should be making them all one of these. But I will start with my mom who is also celebrating her 80 the birthday this month. And she is visiting my sister in UK right after that. So a passport holder would be great for her. ( And also a wallet to carry her meds but I don't want to get too ambitious)
So that is my OMG for June. Linking up with Red letter quilts OMG.
Oh and before I wrap this up here is a look at my ' Sunset in Africa ' all done!

Hanging in there

End of a month again and that is half the year gone. It is a year and a half then since I decided that if I really wanted to do art quilts then I would have to stop making bed quilts. The constant pressure of deadlines to finish was a real issue to start anything creative, anything that required one to stop and think and play with ideas. So this year I finally got around to saying 'no' to bed quilts but there was always other stuff coming in the way. If it was not the house getting painted it was tamarind to be harvested and processed, or a workshop to prepare for.
So I gave myself a deadline - not for a finish but for a start. So here is my work so far on a wall quilt. I have done the piecing after painting the fabrics in colours that seems right and have partly finished the quilting too. If I don't get distracted I should finish it in about three days. The theme is ' An African Sunset' and it is meant for my oldest sister who turned sixty in March and who celebrated it with a week in S.Africa. I could not take up her invite to join her but with this piece I hope to be part of the trip.

Linking this with OMG!

OMG it is May already!

And a week gone too. I have been dithering over my goal for the month! Imsaid yes to a friend who wants some painted fabrics and that takes away the mornings. With thunderstorms disrupting everything in the afternoons most nights we end up with no power. So do I even set up a goal!for the month let alone something that I have been dodging for months now?
Well if I don't pin myself down I will never get it done. So here I go - this month I want to make a start on a wall quilt meant for a special person. She has turned 60/ and celebrated it with a holiday in Africa. I could not join her but wanted to make myself part of it by making a quilt that will echo Africa for her. I have bought shades of red paints and fabric to be painted and will push myself to have a go at it!
That is my goal for the month!

Just made it!

I was sure I was going to miss my deadline this month. Had my machine out for servicing and though I got it back two days back we had long and frequent power cuts. It really put me off my stride when I am interuppted. As it there is a lot of demand on my time and I hate it when I finish all my work and sit at my sewing machine only to find there is no power! Yes it happens all the time and yet never ceases to frustrate me.
In case you are wondering I left it so late, I was caught up teaching a workshop ( a first time venture) in the middle of the month and preparing the kits took a lot of time.
Well I did finish the tote I planned for this month. I have a few more planned and this was to set the mood. I liked the way it turned out and that it was a fairly simple sew.

This was made following a tute by The Inspired Wren and she has made it easy to follow.
Linking this with OMG at Red Letter Quilts.

Too hot to quilt

The thought of handling batting in this weather really makes me feel like giving up quilting. But I still have to keep some promises. Like that matching pillow covers and cushion covers for my sis! I am doing those currently and cheating a little by hand quilting in the comfort of the air-conditioned living room. I also have to prepare kits for a workshop I have promised to do. That's a first  and I am keeping my fingers crossed.
But no quilts this summer which of course could translate to a few more months in my part of the world. But for my OMG I am going to do a tote. I have quite a few fabrics stashed as suitable for totes and I recently stocked up hardware and faux leather. So tote it is this month!

Organised sewing

And so after about two years of procrastination, I finally made myself an organiser. I have to admit putting it as my OMG target really pushed me to do it! And when I saw a pattern as part of the bonus projects in The Splendid Sampler I decided to get it done. I took the bare outlines from that pattern and just changed it to suit my needs. With some favourite fabrics and trims I ended up with a pretty organiser.

I also finished the quilt I was working on for my sister and heaved a sigh of relief. Still got to do matching pillow covers and a pair of cushion covers for her.

And one more project that I managed to complete was a wallet in faux leather for dh. All in all a productive March!

Linking it up with OMG.

As the month marches by

Last month I failed to keep my target. It was a combination of circumstances like running out of fabric for the backing and the shop not having the colour in stock, receiving the border later than I had expected and so spending ten days doing other stuff - yet it is a fact that I could not finish on time.
And already a week has gone by in March and I am still doing free motion quilting on that quilt for my sister.Did I tell you I chose a really close pattern to quilt and it has consumed 2000 metres of thread already! I must be adding to the warp and weft of the fabric I think. And I still have to do a pair of pillow covers and cushion covers to match the quilt.
 I am not going to make these my goal to finish this month though! I will certainly finish them but there is something that I want to sew and have been wanting for a couple of years. An organiser for my sewing stuff! I had drawn the specs last year,kept aside some see through vinyl and yet have-not got around to sewing it. Every time I drop pins and my scissors and other stuff off my sewing table I tell myself I need to get my organiser done. So this month I am doing some selfish sewing. Hoping to share a picture then!
Linking with OMG and Red letter quilts