Cutting Remarks.

If you remember last time I blogged I had made a start on my next project with a whole bunch of white fabric cut and sorted into little bags.

And I showed a bundle of pretties waiting to have the same treatment. 

I spent most of my time before work on Tuesday standing at my cutting table sorting and slicing pretty batiks into little pieces.

And here they are.

Lots and lots of little pieces.

That was a lot of cutting.

But I wasn't done yet.

The next job was to prepare foundation papers.

Over 200 of them.

I sat in my arm chair for that task, which didn't take quite as long as I thought. 

By the time I left for work on Tuesday afternoon I was all cut out and ready to start sewing on my days off. 

But as often happens, life got in the way.

Or in this case, COVID, which sadly is becoming a common thing.

I wasn't going to be making more masks. But a colleague wanted some for her children.

And then I made more for Tony and I.

Well, mostly for me.

 We no longer have to wear those awful paper masks at work, we are now permitted to wear our pretty fabric masks.

They must be changed every 3-4 hours and be washed before we wear them again.

So I'll need a few then. 

Sew that was yesterday morning all sewn up!

Incidentally, has anyone tried these things inside their mask?

Think I might get some, as we may end up wearing masks at work for quite some time. 

So I didn't get to make a start on my new project just yet.

*

Lunch was organised by Tony. As we are now in Level 3 of NZ lockdown, that means we can have take away again. Coffee shops and cafes can offer takeout food only, with contactless payment. While many people queued for ages at big name chain stores, friends of ours own a small pie shop and bakery, so Tony ordered pies and cakes for lunch. Yummy treats. He said they were very busy too, which is good to know.

*

After jumping between my table, my sewing machine and my iron all morning, I was ready to sit down and settle for a while, so that is what I did. I sat and watched a movie while I sewed hexie flowers. 

*

Todays plans have to include some domestics, but they shouldn't take long.

Then maybe I'll start sewing pretty fabrics onto foundation papers, or maybe I'll sew more hexies.

Whatever I sew, I'll be back to tell you about it soon.

A New Start.

Well my days off are all gone, and I'm back to work this afternoon.

But that time has been very productive. I don't seem to have a picture to show, but on Friday after the necessary domestics I took the slow and restful option and added some flowers to Edyta's garden before pulling out a pattern and some fabric that have been waiting for about a year. (So not terribly mature, but ready, I think). I thought I might have a read through the pattern and cutting instructions.

As you saw in my last post, Saturday was all about Floral Delights. Once I was finished with that, I worked some more on Edyta's garden. Still no picture. LOL

And did a little more reading up on my next project.

Sunday was a little different. I spent all morning making a start on the cutting for the new project. Cutting up a large piece of white fabric.

There is a lot more cutting to do on this new start, but after 3 hours, I was over it and just wanted to sit down for a while.

So after lunch I spent the afternoon and some of the evening creating more flowers for Edyta's garden.

Finally, a picture.

Today I plan to do some more cutting and create some more little bags of fabric pieces.

Look at all these beautiful batiks I get to play with.

Just cutting up white was quite boring yesterday, I think today will be a lot more interesting. It's a shame I have to go to work really. 

I'm off, to make the most of my me time today.

I hope your weekend was as productive as mine. 

 

Found My Steam Again...

A while ago I saw a quilt on the WWW. It might have been on a blog, on Pinterest or on a quilt shopping page. Lets face it, it could have been anywhere. 

Where ever it was, it caught my eye. It was pretty I quite liked it, I admired it for a while, then moved on. So many quilts, so little time.

But the seed was sewn and my muse began to put ideas into my head. Or maybe it was that damn squirrel again! Who ever it was, she wasn't letting go of this one

Of course, I hadn't bookmarked the page or pinned the image. I couldn't remember what it was called or where I'd seen it.

But that little voice kept on chittering away at me.

I'm not even sure I remember exactly what it looked like.

I looked at blogs and Pinterest and on my facebook groups. I checked all my usual places and just couldn't find it. But that little voice kept on at me.

So today I decided to go it alone. With a vague memory in mind I pulled fabrics and began auditions.

Then started to play with the winners.

Nothing was yelling I don't belong.

So then I started pressing and cutting.

By lunch time I had shuffled the deck on to the sitting room floor.

After a very tasty mushroom omelette I started to put all the pieces together.

And by mid afternoon I had the prettiest of Floral Delights.

This was such an easy top to make. Many of the fabrics were already cut to a convenient size. They came that way, when I adopted them from somewhere. I just added a few more, cutting them to the same size. There were no fancy blocks or seams to match, just good old mindless straight line sewing.

As my pal Janice said, it could almost have been a quilt in a day. I have batting and backing, but alas not enough of what I'd like for binding. So I stopped here at the flimsy stage. Maybe it will be layered and quilted tomorrow. Or maybe it will hang around for a while.

Who knows?

And where was my minder during all of this?

Fast asleep. Tucked up under a cosy quilt, snug against my pillow.

That seems like a good idea, I might have a nap, before I make dinner.

I hope your Saturday is as much fun as mine. 

 

I ran out of steam...

But first, a finish.

On Wednesday I finished closing the binding on the batik hexies. This one has been quite difficult to photograph, but I think I finally managed to get an image showing its true colours.

As you can see, it fits beautifully over the back of this two seater sofa.

Though not shown here, Belle has made it her own. 

Of Course.

While I was doing that, a brownie was cooling in the kitchen.

This is what I found on my return.

It wasn't even cool and almost half had disappeared.

Tony is working from home.

LOL. 

*

After working six of seven shifts without a day off I hit a wall yesterday, (Thursday) I ran out of steam, my get up an go, got up a cleared off! I spent most of the time before going to work just resting.

The one thing I did do was to sew on a pretty patch. Some of you will remember that Tony was made redundant last year. His entire department was let go from this company.

Well, they didn't want their corporate wear back. Tony was all set to throw it into the bin, but it's good quality stuff, and some items have plenty of life left in them. I already put patches onto three other garments. Tony refuses, (Understandably) to wear them, so I made sure they were patches I like. LOL

This shirt is the last one. It's been awaiting treatment for a while and yesterday I finally got to it. I had fussy cut this cute wee Scotty dog a couple of days ago and yesterday I sat and sewed him into place, covering the Alpine logo.

That looks much better.

And...

The courier called to deliver this.

The paper and template set required to make the quilt on the lid of the box.

The full pattern and instructions are in this book, that I purchased back in July.

If I want to start this one, I'll need to go shopping and not just online, I want to stand in the store, templates in hand and play with fabrics.

So not today then, while we are locked down and hiding from COVID.

*

So yesterday I worked shift seven of seven. My boss has put a note on the roster saying I am not available over the weekend if anyone calls in sick.

So I should have three uninterrupted days off.

What do I plan to do?

Aside from a grocery shop, no plans.

I'll rest up and see what calls to me.

With three whole days to rest and play I'm sure something will happen.

 

Are you ready for another update yet?

 Today will be day 5 of 7 shifts. I am filling in for an absent colleague, so yesterday and today are only the shorter 5 - 9 shifts, which in no way impacts on my fun time.

As I have mentioned before, I had started to quilt my batik hexie quilt.

I got on yesterday and completed that.

I had only the border left to do and quilted more wavy lines.

I think they are much better than the quilting in the main body of the top.

I also attached the binding and got about half of it sewn down before heading off to work.

Speaking of fleece, here is a better look at not only the back, but also my quilting.

As I mentioned, no batting layer in this one, just the batik and the fleece. It has a lovely soft feel and drapes beautifully. Hopefully I can finish closing the binding today, before work.

This morning after completing some home chores I set to and made more masks. The top one for a colleague, and the rose for me.

It sure does not hurt to have a few masks, plenty of time to get them washed and dried, especially when you're on a seven shift stint! LOL

And finally Edyta's garden. I've added some more flowers.

It is starting to take shape, maybe I'll have time to do a little more of that before work today too.

I'm learning a lot about paper piecing as I put this together

OK, time to go and whip up some poached eggs on toast, then I might sit in the sun to sew my binding.