Chilly weather

The weather is getting so cold. It's almost cold enough to light the fire.

Life as always has been busy. Work is full on, and I've been putting in extra hours recently. The down side is that I have less time to spend on activities at home. Anyway, in the last week I've attempted to make progress on Mum's quilt. The fabric has been sewn onto paper, in sections. The sections have been laid out so that you can get an idea of how it will sit together. The centre hasn't been cut out yet.



I'm currently piecing the outer arc. Very time consuming. Each arc takes about 2-3 hours to make. Another 7 to go.




The circle will be squared up with the cream fabric. Then a border will be added (still mulling over ideas on that one). The finished quilt should be about 60".

On Tuesday I posted my siggie swap blocks - all 190 of them. Exciting. I hope to receive a bundle back in early July. What a big job for the co-ordinator to undertake. I hope everyone gives her the thanks she deserves.

Sewing organiser

In an effort to be more organised, and create less chaos in my life - well in the sewing department, I've been thinking about making a portable sewing organiser.

My theory is that I don't need a lot of stuff for the basics bits and pieces that I do, those being; hand piecing, and hand quilting. If I have the basics with me, then I'm not locked away in a cold sewing room, or having to pull over my sewing box/kit to track down random items. Sounds good in theory :)

So - what do I want my organiser to contain? Hmm... I'm thinking:

• thread (1 spool)
• pin and needles (size 12 betweens for quilting)
• thimbles
  
• small scissors
• threader / cutter
  
• pin cushion
• quilting markers and refills
  
• mini ruler
• spare pocket for odd bits and pieces (like small quilting templates)
  
• mini "rubbish" bag, for used thread etc
  

Can you think of any other must haves? Remember I'm thinking light and portable.

Siggie swap blocks

Last night I started sewing the siggie (signature) swap blocks. I was surprised at how quick it was to sew them together. But I must be honest - I did have a secret weapon. I used the Angler 2 (by Pam Bono). That helped me guide the fabric through at the right position. Sped up the process no end.

If you are interested, I found two reviews of the Angler 2. They can be found at Sister's Choice Quilts blog and at BlackBird Designs.

So here we have it, 192 blocks sewn. Now I need to sign them all, and trim off the surplus fabric :)



To those astute readers out there - you will probably recognise this fabric. Yes, it's the same fabric as the mock cathedral window quilt. I bought 7 metres of it when it was on sale, and I'm looking for every opportunity to use it up. In this case, I'm sharing my good fortune with the world :)

Goodies have arrived

After days of anticipation, the postal parcel finally arrived. Look what treasures awaited me :)



Today I pre-washed, dried, ironed and cut all the fabric required for the signature block swap. I've just started sewing the blocks - which I'm really enjoying. I'm looking forward to June when I receive my swap parcel.

and plans changed...

Well the weekend retreat didn't come together as planned. But all is okay. Instead on Saturday I went out to friends for the afternoon, and we had a sensational time. Lots of good times and laughter.

I went shopping online yesterday too, and spent WAY too much money at www.equilter.com. My purchases included:

• Quilters Companion issue 27
• Sewline trio mechanical pencil
• Sewline pencil refills
• TJs quilk quilter (for hand quilting), and
• 1.5 yards of fabric

Can't wait to receive the goodies. It will take about 2 to 3 weeks to arrive.

I also joined a scrappy siggie block swap. This came about from my membership on the Quilting Board forum. So far they have about 120 participants, covering most of the States, and international participation from; Australia , Brazil , Canada, Japan, Netherlands , Norway, UK. Exciting huh?

Registering interest to participate in the swap doesn't close off until 15 May 2010. The blocks looks relatively easy to make, and they don't have to be received by the swap co-ordinator until 15 June 2010. Block instructions can be found here.

Quilting Retreat

I've decided to live on the wild side and go on a quilting retreat this weekend. Guess what I'll be working on? All going well, I'll have some more photos for you on Sunday. My hope is to get the centre of the quilt completely pieced.

There is so much to do before Saturday. I like coming back to a tidy home and well stocked kitchen. So Friday night will be very busy. Grocery shopping on the way home. Housework in the evening. I know, it doesn't sound very exciting - but I'm hoping that this spurs me on.

Till next time...

Mariners Compass drafting

I started drafting Mum's mariners compass quilt. I have never made one before, and I am daunted at the prospect of doing such an involved pattern. I've read a few books about how to do them. Even in my collection of quilting magazines, there is a pattern or two in there, but drafting from scratch - not an easy thing to do.

I think I mentioned before that Mum selected the quilt Wild Fire, machine pieced and quilted by Alice Bessler, North Powder, Oregon, as illustrated in Stellar Journeys Flying Geese & Star Quilts (author Gail Garber). Wild Fire isn't a traditional mariners compass. I knew I would have to draft from scratch - but I didn't expect the challenge that I had. Making large templates is hard when you do not have a large compass, or a decent sized protractor. It became clear to me that I would have to resort to maths from my school days!

First step for me was to use the original design as inspiration, then work out a modified design that would sit within a 45 degree wedge. From there I had to work out how many sections I needed to divide that segment into. The circle diameter will be 40 inches (the radius is 20 inches). I drew a 20 inch square. After selecting one corner to be the centre of the circle, I made a 17 inch square from that point - so it sat within the 20 inch square. On the 17 inch line I marked off increments based on right angle maths, using Excel.

Here's a picture of the calculations.


The formulas used (in row 5) are as follows:
B5: =TAN(A5*PI()/180)
D5: =ROUND((B5*$A$2)*16,0)/16 [custom cell format 0 #/##]
E5: =ROUND((B5*$A$2)*8,0)/8 [custom cell format 0 #/#]

Cell $A$2 is 17 (the size of the internal square).

After marking off those points on the 17" square lines, I then drew a straight line from them, out to the 20" line, then back to the quilt centre.

Okay - so this sounds really technical, and probably will not make a lot of sense. Hopefully the draft pattern will make it clearer. You can see some of the numbers written on the left hand side those relate to the rounded measurements from Excel.


The arcs were created by holding the ruler at the "zero" point, placing a pencil at a set measurement (e.g. 20"), then carefully moving the ruler an inch or so along, being very careful to keep the ruler fixed at the "zero" point. Yes, painstakingly drawing the arcs "freehand".

I then divided up the wedge into sections based on what was pleasing to my eye, and continued drafting from there.

The process was repeated for another 45 degree wedge (right beside the one I just did). So now I have 1/4 of the pattern done. This 1/4 forms the base pattern.

From there the pattern has been copied onto pre-ironed greaseproof paper. Pre-ironed because it shrinks with heat, and greaseproof paper because freezer paper isn't locally available.


I am currently paper piecing the first quarter of the design. Here's what I have done so far.