My First Post

I've finally decided it's time to create a blog and let folks know what has been happening in my life recently.

The most important thing that is happening at present is my son Bryan's upcoming wedding to Elizabeth on 3 August.  Both are members of SCA and the wedding will be in period garb. So this entails a lot of sewing on my behalf - I need to make the best man's outfit as well as those for my husband and I. Making period outfits is quite a different skill set from the usual dressmaking that I once did a lot of prior to my discovery of patchwork - my main creative outlet. I have been discovering the art of enlarging patterns from tiny drawings as well as resizing patterns. As there are quite a few different pieces of clothing for each person, there is lots to do. I need to make a shirt, doublet with skirt, cloak and cap for the best man, a shirt, doublet with skirt, gown (coat) and cap for my husband and chemise, kirtle (undergown), gown and headdress for myself. Many trips to Spotlight for fabric (it's the only store in or near Canberra to get fabric of the sort I need) and notions have taken place over the last month as I discover one more thing needed.

I have made both shirts and my chemise so far. My husband's shirt may need altering as I'm not sure the fit is quite right but I will leave that till closer to the wedding day. My kirtle has a skirt and a bodice that need joining together and then the final fitting done. I have all the fabric I need for my gown (just a little fiddling to get the sleeves from the silk I bought), and I think I have all I need for the other pieces yet to make. Elizabeth has kindly made a headdress for me.

Because of all of the dressmaking going on, my patchwork has been put on hold. I am still working on my grandmother's flower garden quilt using 1/2 inch hexagons that I started making in January. It has been a very soothing hand-stitching project to do while I have been recovering from stress leave and the resignation from my work that I needed to do in January. I have been using lots of scraps for the hexagons and lots of different creams for the paths between the flowers.

With my Saturday friendship group, I started to make a quilt inspired by one the youngest member of our group is making. She is 10, and decided to make a quilt inspired by a photo discovered on line. Chris, my best friend and person whose home we meet in, also decided to make the quilt. We drafted it up and set to cutting out fabric. I had purchased a charm pack of 100 pieces of Japanese fabric from Patchwork Products in Sydney and there was just enough fabric in the pack to cut out all the pieces for the quilt. I decided to use a very deep navy fabric for alternate fabric and the sashing strips. All my blocks are made and I have started to join them together into rows. I am only working on the quilt at friendship group so it has taken quite a while to get this far as we meet for about 4 hours once a month. I plan on doing some work at home on it after the wedding sewing is complete. My friend Chris decided to make her quilt using Aboriginal prints and yesterday she showed us the quilt, all completed. It looks gorgeous and I can't wait to get mine done.

I have lots of other projects on the go as well. Last year I joined the Canberra Quilters ROWmakers group and worked on a row by row quilt with them. That is still waiting for a few rows to be completed with embroidery and an applique caterpillar, and then each row needs to be quilted and joained together. I am doing this year's ROWmakers quilt as well, making a table runner using a small 4x8 inch rectangle in the centre and I plan on using a black, silver and white jelly roll from my stash to make these rectangles the centre of courthouse step blocks. So far I have completed the centre rectangles for 2 months, two more months are prepared and waiting to do the embroidery part (I am buttonhole appliquing each block) and I need to get the brain into gear to come up with something purple and crazy pieced for June's block.

Over the Mother's Day weekend Chris and I attended a Michele Hill Tile Play workshop run by Canberra Quilters. We both had a great weekend, the best Mother's Day gifts to ourselves ever. I learnt to do machine applique which is something I had not done before and now I have four tile blocks waiting to have the applique completed, again this will wait till after the wedding sewing is done. Michele was very generous with her time and skills and I have lots of other patterns on the wish list to make.

Chris and I started to make one of Michele's designs over 2 years ago as a block a month project. Chris is hand buttonholing her quilt and I decided to hand applique mine. Many of the blocks needed adjusting to enable hand applique as the designs are done with machine applique in mind. I have almost completed the 13th and final block for this, only a few more pieces to sew on and then Chris and I can decide on how to put the blocks together and on the border. The project has taken much longer than anticipated as we often have taken 2 months or more per block depending on what else life has thrown our way.

In 2011 I attended the South Austalian Quilt Show and fell in love with a quilt design by Esther Aliu that a group of quilters had all made, about 20 quilts using the same design were on display. Esther has a blog and yahoo group which I joined and in 2012 a quilt design called "Forget Me Not" was undertaken. I started on the quilt, deciding to make both blocks offered each month, but I have not got very far with the quilt as life became so stressful mid year that it's on hold at present. I have made one block, the sunflower one, have half of the peony block done, and two other blocks all prepped ready to stitch. Esther is planning another quilt for the next 18 months which sounds glorious and I am hoping to make this also. It is Love Entwined and based on a quilt from the 1790's. Her blog is http://estheraliu.blogspot.com.au/ and had lots of info on the quilt. I will collect the pattern as it is released and then I can work on it when I get a few other things out of the way. I certainly can't even think about starting it until after August.

I have lots of other projects on the go as well but won't mention them at present until I get the time/inspiration to work on them.