Lily Rose: Patchy HSTs

I've cut some strips from assorted fabrics that I've decided to use for Lily Rose. I'm going for a patchy look. Although I now think it would be faster for me to have rotary cut my strips in HSTs, I pulled out my GO Baby to have a play with it.

When selecting my fabrics, I tried to go for an assortment that graduated in light to dark intensity. However, it now appears to me that I am 'mid tone' blind. I always return to selecting mid tone in colour schemes. I don't mind it, I just think it's a curiosity that keeps appearing throughout my quilts and this one is no different. 

and here they are, lined up after cutting

I actually really like my GO Baby cutter and would use it more if I had more dies. The reason I don't is because the shipping from the US to Australia is usually more than the price of the dies themselves. The actual dies are fairly reasonably priced and if I could get free shipping all the way down under, I certainly would use this machine more. There are dies sold closer to home, but they are marked up too high for me to want to support such disparity between pricing. This is one of those realities quilters in Australia have to face a lot - many great products simply cost so much to get. 

However one thing to be said for it is that it does use a lot of fabric. I think the wastage is huge. That said. I have a lot of fabric in my stash and I really don't care if I use a lot of it up in this way. There's so much I have had to get rid of some already, so wasteful stash busting doesn't concern me. You might feel differently if using designer fabrics or starting out with a new stash.

On the fabric scraps that I don't have enough of, I do cut these by hand as I want as many repetitions from them as possible. 

The funny thing is, as I get up and close to these fabrics, I fall in love with them all over again. After folding and refolding fabrics over and over in the meterage, I think they're even nicer in small doses!

Now I just have to arrange their position on the quilt.

Lily Rose: the Oval Frame

Its early morning when I take these images, apologies for the light quality. Today I'm working on the oval frame. I selected a gold fabric for my frame as I am after an antique patchy look. This is a fabric from my stash, its a few years old now but I always knew it would come in useful for something. I'm really pleased I didn't throw it out of my stash during my latest clear out in December. 

As you can see, I have created an oval frame from my template. Here I have selected my fabric. It's really important that your template is accurate, you don't want to have your oval cut at the wrong size. I'm actually gluing my template down onto the fabric to prevent warping. I only use Elmer's disappearing purple glue for this as its not a true 'glue' but rather a starch which makes it suitable for this purpose. You can also pin the template down accurately if you don't have the Elmer's.

Cut away the inside of the oval, 1/4 inch away from the seam (that is, the template)

I made my oval 'template' from Stitch n Wash fusible (that I had stuck together to create a big sheet before cutting out the oval template). This allows me to turn the edges of my seams and go ahead later and add batting (optional) without having the remove the template. I did this for ease and stability. And also, I happen to have a lot of fusible at the moment. If you made your template from paper, you would remove it now, and turn your edges over carefully according to the crease lines made by the paper when it was in position. This is another reason I can't recommend any other glue than Elmer's, because with the Elmer's, your paper template (if that is what you used) will release easily and won't skew your fabric or shape at this stage. 

With the fusible down, I don't need to remove it and this is what you see here. So I clip all the way around the oval carefully and not too deep. This allows me to turn the fabric without any buckling or creasing or ripples. 

Clip and turn all the way around. Your oval should be smooth with no bubbles of other turn indications on the front. When you place it over your paper pattern, it should fit perfectly.

It's time for me to make breakfast now - is a quilter's work never done??- and then I'll be returning to take take over the table once again and make my patchwork HST blocks.

Downsizing Fabric Sale

Well, it's come to this. I have more fabric than I could possibly use in a lifetime. Specifically, in my lifetime. And its been hard for me to accept this as, over the years, whenever I've considered selling any of it, I've fallen in love with it all over again....and simply couldn't part!

But enough is enough. The fact is I have too much fabric and I'm making a start on selling it. In fact, I have too much stuff generally. And I'll be putting those items up for sale as well, including threads and tools. I'll be updating my sales items every few days and will leave them up until they sell.

I have created a specific page to deal with selling these items, and you can view it by clicking here, or simply linking from the top of my page.

Wish me luck!

WOW: Back to Work on Lily Rose

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays

I don't actually like deadlines, but they do have their advantages. The biggest one for me is that when I have to get a quilt done, I usually do it. I've been looking at my diary for the year ahead and its occurred to me that if I don't make and finish Lily Rose this month, then I won't be finishing it before 2016. And given that it will be on display in April this year, that just won't do!

My biggest problem is that I take too much on. I always have 'hungry eyes' concerning my quilts. My biggest solution is that I'm a perfectionist, so even when I'm creating at the last minute, I can't settle for less than perfect and this means that my quilts are always a high standard of workmanship- whether I make them in leisurely afternoons over the course of a year... or in a week or two. 

What about you? 

Last minute race or slow and steady pace?

An InLinkz Link-up

Marsala: the Pantone Colour of 2015

What do you think about Marsala as a colour?

It's the Pantone Colour of the year for 2015. Back in November, I decided that whatever the Pantone yearly colour was, I would use it in my next quilt.But that's not going to happen. My next quilt, released on the 15th will be Oma's Blues which is inspired on the theme of a blue based quilt. Still, I am thinking of ways to use this hue.

Personally I love the shot of it in the banner above as it looks slightly metallic and full of life. In fabric however, I think it might look too muddy or muted. I'm really not sure. Below are the recommended marsala colour pairings.

I think number 5 is my favourite as I am often drawn to warm, woodsy, autumnal tones. Instantly when I see these colours, all I can think about is a quilt full of leaves. Whether or not I want to spend time on such a simple design, I'm not really sure. 

This might be one 2015 resolution I'll put on the back burner for now. 

You can see these images and learn more about the colour selection process over on the Pantone site by clicking here now. 

WOW: Esther Doesn't Know What Day It Is ...

WOW = WIPs On Wednesday

Well, I just realised it was Wednesday a few minutes ago. I even happily posted a post about my Christmas table cloth this morning, all the while thinking I was doing really well to finish a WIP before Christmas and even find time to show it off before Wednesday. Except that I totally didn't know that it IS Wednesday today.

What can I say? I have festivity brain. I don't know if any of you are out there reading this, but for my regular WOWers, here is our usual regular linky. And further proof that I really do need that 2015 calender I keep putting off buying...

Have you forgotten anything this week?

An InLinkz Link-up

My Christmas Tablecloth

I'm happy to share that I did get my fabric edging sewn down around my tablecloth in time for Christmas and went ahead and used this tablecloth on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and now it's folded away again until Easter. So, that's another WIP crossed off my list and just in the nick of time too!

Here I am ironing it on Christmas Eve. Because of the size of my table, its easier for me to iron and starch it on the table itself. I always starch my tablecloths because starching creates resistance to staining. Small spills simply bead off and you can blot them away without any washing.

I re-used my stencils from my 'Red December' quilt and used them on a white wholecloth. I arranged them into position according to my eye. To ensure accuracy, I ironed my fabric into equal lengths and followed the iron seams so that I could iron down my stencils into position nice and straight.

On washing, my ironed in grid lines simply eased out. When I fold my tablecloth after washing now, I still iron down the centre. This makes it easy to place on the table (we use a very large boardroom table and positioning can be a real pain). Once in place, I simply iron these guidelines away.

I always knew we'd have a candle for Christmas and Easter, so I created a space for it in the centre of my tablecloth. Like so.

I love how versatile stencils are, you can create whatever you need to your hearts content. And I alse really love finally getting things done. Especially when they're as long overdue as this tablecloth was.

And all before WOW too :) See you tomorrow...