A tiny slice of my life

This is a look at my life, and the many things I try to learn and do.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Dresden Plate Quilt Update

Well I am still working on getting blogsy working on my ipad so that I can write my blog from there, so in the mean time if I have photos I want to upload I will be continuing to tether my iphone to my laptop to blog !

Well this is an update on the dresden plate quilt that I am making for a lady. My very first quilt order how exciting. lol


Here are some photos of my progress.


This is the setting squares and cornerstones for the quilt blocks, which by the way are very large at 22".


The colors for this quilt are pale pink, cream and a soft green.



Also the quilt will be quilt large when finished , nearly 3 metres wide.




So it is going to be quite a challange to quilt.







Here is one of the Dresden plates pinned ready to be sewn. As you can see there were quite a few pins involved !















Here is the dresden plate after it has been sewn down.


I used a blanket stitch on my sewing machine and I used a Silk finish cotton thread in very light pastel colors.









I will continue to update you as the quilt continues. I have since added to border, with

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Quilted Nappy Bag

Well here it is finally finished the second nappy baby bag.

When I went into my sewing room yesterday I was going to stack things from the floor more neatly and have a ruthless throw out of scrap fabric and rubbish, but when I sat down on my chair to survey the mess my eyes landed on this nappy bag that was nearly completed.

So what did I do, I decided that I really need to get it finished which I did. It only took a little over an hour so I don't know why I had been putting off finishing it, but it is done now.

Now this bag wasn't very hard to make but you had to create the "fabric" from which to cut out the pieces. This would have been easy if we used a piece of fabric for the front and another for the back but we didn't and between Miss Le Coiffure and myself we spent nearly a day sewing together the strips for the fabric then I quilted it, with much swearing as the cotton I was using wasn't very strong and it kept breaking.

Once it was finally done, Miss Le Coiffure cut out the pieces. After that we left it for another day.

The problem was that when you folded over the pocket pieces to make a hem it became very bulky and hard to sew, there was much swearing as I sewed these hems.

When I made the long strap yesterday I used thin pellon instead of batting and this made it much thinner and easier to sew.

The original pattern was from the Moda Bake Shop

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/09/baby-on-go-diaper-bag.html







Another photo as I am so happy to have it finished.


Miss Le coiffure was very happy for it to be finished.








So while I was on my sewing binge I finished binding 4 baby blankets, another tick on my list, but when tidying I found 3 more blankets that need binding. They can keep for another day as I believe Miss Le coiffure already has over a dozen blankets.

Also another dread job was completed we are making some of the new nappies, by some I mean over 2 dozen, they look a bit like a disposable nappy but you have a cloth insert and they are rewashable.

One of the fabrics used is called PUL (Polyurethane Laminate) which is a stretchy fabric that has had polyurethane stuck to one side to keep the moisture in the nappy.

Now don't think this goes against the babies delicate little bottom, oh no we then have special microfleece that is so soft. Also being very green the insert fabric is bamboo, very very soft and delicate for the little bottom.

So I spent yesterday sewing the 2 pieces together, once I get my overlocker to thread properly I will be over locking the edges before inserting elastic, but that is for another day.

Then I sorted through bags of scraps Miss Le Coiffure had kept, in the bin they went.

So after a very long day I have found most of my sewing room floor, have thrown out or sorted piles of fabric from the floor and stacked very neatly the 3 blankets waiting to be bound and the 2 pieces of fabric to be turned into cot sheets. These can wait till Miss Le Coiffure comes because she knows what size she wants her sheets.

So today is a rest and recuperate day.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Cleaning up My Sewing Room ...

Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

My plan for today was to tidy my sewing room, which looks like a fabric breathing dragon had hit it.

Since we found out about about our Grandaughter my sewing room has been taken over by pieces of fabric and cut out waiting to be sewn nappies and bunny rugs.

Trying to work or even find anything has become impossible. So this morning I made the decision that I needed to have a good tidy up.

So I have finished binding 3 baby blankets and finished - with a great big sigh I admit - the number 2 nappy bag.

So my rest time is over and I need to get back to my tidying otherwise if I sit for too long I won't start again.

So till tomorrow , may the force be with you.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Planes, Trains and Automobiles ... In Perth

Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

Well Mr CLI & I are back from our short trip to Perth. Mr CLI for business and me for pleasure.

Having never been to Perth we were both interested to see what it was like, and what greeted us as we left the Airport in our little ( Hyundai i30) hire care - roadworks. Lol

We can't seem to travel any where without the appearance of roadworks, so it made it a little bit trickier to travel around Perth and its surrounds but we managed.

Mr CLI drove on the weekend then my iPad and I took over during the week while Mr CLI attended to business.

I don't think there is a main road, highway, freeway or bridge that I didn't Tavel on or cross.

I have some very funny stories to pass on about out flights. We flew with Virgin and Mr CLI has never flown with them he was very impressed.

I will write some reviews on where we ate and what we saw over the next couple of weeks, but I had better get into the kitchen as Miss Le Coiffure is having a baby shower tomorrow and I am helping her to make the food.

Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

A Quilt Along ...

Well I have been busy along with everything else trying to get the quilt top finished for the lady that has ordered the quilt.

Here are all the cream blocks on which I am going to sew the "flowers".

I also have cut out the corner stones and setting strips.

I am trying to use as much pale pink, soft green and cream as possible.

The actual color for the setting strips is "Baby Pink"






Here is one of the flowers all sewn down only 8 to go.

I am using a button hole stitch on my sewing machine and a very pastel variegated thread by Mettler. It is a cotton that has a silk finish which means the thread is shiny and when sewn it brings a lovely sheen to the work.

I have also just purchased two reels of variegated thread by Signature, it is called "Pastels" and has a lovely variation of pinks, green, cream with a little bit of mauve and lemon.

This will go well with the quilt.

I purchased it online as I only have a Spotlight and Lincraft stores locally neither of which sell these sort of quilting threads.

I bought it from Patchwork Promises.

http://patchworkpromises.com.au/

Well not a lot of exciting cooking was done over the weekend as I was busy, so it was quick meals like toasted sandwiches and chicken stirfry.

So till tomorrow I had better get back to the sewing machine.


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

More sewing

Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

Well I didn't get any sewing done yesterday as I vacuumed. Now I normally don't do this job because of my bad back.

My friend Miss Peru used to do it for me, then she shifted to qld last year, then Miss Le Coiffure took over, but of late she hasn't been able to do it. So it has been on me, after yesterday I remember why I can't do it. I ended up with a migraine and in so much pain, so I had to ret for the afternoon to recover.

Once Miss Fish heads of to work I will get stuck into my sewing, todays job cutting 9 very large squares and lots of strips.

I will report on progress tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Some Good News and a Fix for My Technical Issues

Well technical issue sorted - what was the solution - completely turning of the mobile and back on again and it linked quite happily to the laptop.

If it had been the laptop I would have tried that but I didn't think of it for the mobile. :)

I was lucky enough to sell this quilt to lovely lady in South Australia. After she received the quilt she e-mailed me to see what other quilts I had.


I sent her photos of the only other quilt I had finished. Photo below.







Guess what ? She loved it and bought it.







Then we got emailing and she wanted to know if I had a quilt in soft green, pink and cream. Well I didn't have a completed quilt but I had started one. After a few more e-mails and photos being sent back and forth I am now putting all the baby sewing on hold so I can get it finished, which is going to be the easy part.

The lady would like a rather quilt as she has a very high bed, so the hard part is going to be quilting it, but I am getting ahead of myself I need to finish the top first.

Now I don't have a recipe today as I haven't really cooked in the last week and half with everybody being sick. So now that everybody is well again I can get back into making nice recipes.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Technical Issues

Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

Well when you think everything is going alright, life throws up another speed bump.

For me to post photos that I have taken I need to toggle/ tether my iPhone to my laptop. Everything was going along swimmingly until I recharged my phone last week now it won't work.

So this mornings job is to ring Telstra and ask them what the devil is happening.

So until this little problem is fixed I won't be posting any recipes with photos.

As Mr CLI and Miss Fish are still watching what they eat after last weeks illness, there wasn't much in the way of cooking over the weekend as they just needed plain food.

I hope everyone had a good weekend, it has rained so much here I think we could just about need an ark to get to the car.