Feminist much?

I resisted, truly I did. At one point there was no way I'd buy a toy ironing board for my little girl, NO WAY! It's a job I loath and I hate the expectation that boys get tool sets and toy lawn mowers (cool stuff in my books since I love tinkering and gardening) and girls get ironing boards and cleaning trolleys (in my head complete with images of being chained to the laundry and toilet brush). It sets my teeth on edge just thinking about it. And before you jump down my throat, yes I know that you can buy all these toys for boys AND girls but as free thinking and equal as we are it is still implied and more often the norm that females do the vast majority of the washing and cleaning and cooking and other 'home duties' and such toys are targeted accordingly.

Then my sister got my nephew a toy iron which makes steam noises and a little ironing board and Little Lady and my niece just loved it and in all honesty it didn't seem so distasteful once I saw them play. I know, where were my high and mighty principles then? They were watching my baby have a ball playing with another toy which made cool noises, not learning a lesson in 'life roles'. Funny how so much continues to change after you have kids.

But being in a bit of a cash flow situation and still stubbornly adamant about NOT buying an ironing board, I did the next best thing.

I made one.

A quick search on Google found only this which is a vintage toy ironing board plan with some basic measurements for me to start with. Then I read the instructions that went with it...

"While your little girl happily joins mom in doing the family ironing..."

Ahem. Well... lets just say I would not have been popular in the 1950's. But the plans were simple and exactly what I was after... with a few adjustments from me of course.

It took me a couple of hours each day over 3 days with both kids sick and myself and Gorgeous Man sleep deprived as a result though it could easily be finished in a day if I hadn't painted it... or started it at 6pm, and easily in a lazy weekend.

Pink is apparently the flavour of the moment

And God love her she only wants to iron fabric. A future sewer/fabriholic in the making. Gotta love that!

Stained Glass Quilt Backing

The MMQG had a Sit and Sew Evening recently at G.J's in Brunswick which I wrangled time away from the fam to attend. I've lost my sewing mojo recently and while I have ideas for new quilts I'd like to make, in my current frame of mind I thought an easy quick thing to sew would be a pieced backing for the pink and yellow freckled whimsy quilt which has become another UFO of late.

I had a particular fabric in mind

but didn't realise how much I would need and of course didn't have so instead I sketched out an idea that would use almost all of it with the pink and yellow fabrics from the front thrown in. And on paper it looked pretty simple.

Quickly as a side note, I haven't been to a Sit and Sew Day for a while and I'd forgotten how lovely it is to be with other wonderful, talented, sew-insane people. Sewing can be a pretty solitary hobby. My sewing habit looks like I've simply dipped my toe in while they are completely drenched in comparison and I love the inspiration it provides.

I didn't get it all sewn at the SASE as the centre took way longer than I thought to sew up with all the interlocking pieces (and I spent a lot of time chatting and laughing with Rach, Bek and Sally) so even though I didn't get home until after 11:30pm I was still buzzed to keep going and quickly sewed the rest.

Stained Glass Quilt

I think it'd make a great simple quilt front too so I'll definately be making more of these.

There's another Sit and Sew Day mid August so hopefully I'll have this basted by then so I can quilt it and maybe, just maybe it might be finished in time to give to little Emma before she graduates high school!

Long Time Coming

My mum taught me to knit and crochet when I was a girl, something I will one day teach to my kids. I'm a decent knitter and thanks to the wonders of the internet I now know how to sew knitted garments together. But most of my knitting endeavors still get ripped out (my family love to tease me about how I'm unravelling it YET again) or left unfinished and stashed in the cupboard when I run out of knitting steam.

So recently while looking for something else, I stumbled on bags and bags of unfinished knitted projects which all got unravelled as I have no intention of finishing them and hopefully the yarn might have half a chance to unkink if it's stretched around in a ball. Can that happen or do I have to steam it or something to straighten the yarn again?

Anyway, I also found a bag with a whole bunch of crocheted log cabin squares which got stashed because I ran out of the wool having grossly underestimated how much I'd actually need since I wasn't following a pattern. Did I forget to mention that I started this project over 10 years ago? I'm not going to even bother trying to find wool to match now.

Little Lady is in a zone at the moment where all her dolls need naps and everyone and everything gets a blankie which not surprisingly seem to be in short supply here. And not wanting to unravel these squares I got online and found how to join the squares using a flat braid and have been happily sitting at night watching Gorgeous Man play Assassin's Creed II (that is when I haven't been hogging the Xbox myself to play it) and crocheting the squares together.

I still need to sew in all the ends and haven't decided what kind of border to put on it or even if I need a border as the flat braid leaves a small scalloped edge on the squares but it is a bit small for a lap blanket and I think a border would finish it properly. Guess I'll need more wool after all.

Pink Cardigan Finished

I've finally finished the pink cardigan that I started back here. I sewed it up and blocked it before crocheting the hems (row 1: 3 dc into every stitch, row 2: 2 dc into every stitch) to give a ruffle effect. On the 2nd row I incorporated pink and clear beads spaced out every three or four stitches. Then she wanted buttons so I crocheted small chains to attach large heart shaped buttons and also to make a matching loop. I deliberately made both long so that the cardigan would close so you could see both the ruffle and the buttons. She hasn't worn it yet and I'm really hoping it won't be too small. Overall though I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Our first commission

The third quilt I've been flat out making was a commissioned King Single Quilt for a gorgeous little 3 year old, Amelia. I'm slowly unveiling it over at 2 of 4 but here are some sneak peaks.

I learned so many new techniques putting this quilt together, including raw edge applique and trapunto which were inspired by the amazing work of Kelly Wulfsohn of Don't Look Now, and I've gotten so much better at controlling my free motion quilting.

This little guy is the big brother of the caterpillar I made for Little Sir's baby playgym mat and I've also made a pillowcase to match the quilt.

So far I don't have any immediate plans to begin anymore quilts (I can hear my husband sign with relief) as I'd really like to finish Little Lady's cardigan - I'm thinking of changing the edging to a ruffle rather than a picot/scallop. But right now I'm going to wrap my monkeys in beenies and coats and take advantage of the sun and head off to the park before the weather decides to turn crappy again.

Quilting designs

I planned the quilting designs for the freckled whimsy quilts long before I got anywhere near quilting them. I used google images for inspiration and practiced sketching on paper first to work out how to draw them in one continuous line. Next I made templates in cardboard of the general shape and traced these onto the quilt top with the water erasable Clover pen, then basted the quilt.

On the purple and pink quilt I quilted a meandering pattern of swirls and hearts 

 and incorporated each design as I came to it, including a rose,

 

a tulip,

 

 a handbag,

 butterfly,

bumble bee,

and flower.

On the blue quilt I used a meandering pattern of loops, stars,

and occasional waves

to fill in the spaces between crabs,

octopus,

seahorses,

dolphins,

fish,

boats,

and anchors.

The finished quilts measure 1.2m x 1.5m.

For my gorgeous little niece

and my handsome little nephew.

Busy, busy, busy...

I'm still recovering from a massive 2 months sewing in which I've made 3 quilts. My sisters both had theirs bubs - Tammy had a beautiful little girl and Nicole had a tiny handsome little man, and I actually managed to finish both quilts on time.

I sewed the fronts together fairly quickly and then used a blue fine tip Clover water erasable pen to mark on the designs that I wanted to incorporate into the quilting. I bought and tried many, many chalk pencils and other removable pens and markers and the Clover was by far the best. It completely dissolves in a small amount of cold water even after ironing over it which you're not supposed to do. On the blue quilt I had to use a violet marker (Sew Easy brand from Lincraft) which faded quickly so I had to redraw some designs, it took a bit more to come out and I haven't been game enough to iron over it.

Dreading the thought of having to baste them hunched over on the floor for hours on end I tried a technique I came across a while ago while trawling youtube which I conveniently bookmarked and promptly forgot about until these quilts...and am I ever kicking myself that I didn't try this sooner. It's soooo much easier than pin basting and is actually quite therapeutic tho it does take longer. The videos are long and Sharon talks quite a bit but it's well worth it as its full of tips and tricks - my fav is the quilters knot which I now use for everything. Did you know that thread had a grain?



I sourced my boards from Bunnings - they're just painted 2.7m pine boards found with the skirting boards which they kindly cut for me into a 1.1m and 1.6m length. Even tho my boards are shorter than the quilt width it still worked really well.

Here the quilt is 1.2m wide and I'm using the 1.1m boards. It took me 4 hours to baste the first one and 3 hours to baste the second which sounds like a long time but since then I've basted a king single quilt, 160cm x 210cm so almost double the size of these, in 4 hours. One of my main gripes with pin basting was the fiddling I have to do to get top and bottom smooth often involving repinning areas a few times and I absolutely hate fumbling with taking the pins out as I get to them on the machine. With thread basting I just snip the threads and pull them out as I get near them and if I accidentaly run over them they pull out easily and I don't damage anything.

Next up, the finished quilt and quilting designs.