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Slow food, slow day, slow sewing - we are having a take-it-easy Sunday in Seattle.
I said that I would show some of the craft-related stuff that I brought back with me from Australia. One of them was a lovely piece of polished cotton with a floral print that has been floating around my life for goodness knows how long. I actually do not know how long I have had it for or where it came from.
Seattle has a wonderful recycling programme, including a weekly yard waste collection into which we put all of our food waste, including meat and fish scraps (they heat treat it apparently). After recycling the tins, glass and paper, we end up with only a couple of supermarket plastic bags of rubbish each week. These click-clack style containers are great for keeping your kitchen scraps in - airtight, a range of sizes, easy to clean. Only drawback compost-wise is that they are see through and all those layers of food scraps - ick.
Lo and behold, the advent of the compost cosy. The fabric is is just the right colour scheme to go in our kitchen, so 
I used some cotton twill that I had lying around to give it some stability, quilting the layers together roughly around the outline of the floral print. Then I made a cylinder from the double layer and applied some binding at both top and bottom. The fabric I used for the binding was leftover from the roses quilt - yes, the one that I did use.
And what is slow sewing about this? Well, I sewed it all by hand. I just felt like it. We were just back from Melbourne, I was too tired to get the sewing machine out, it was too hot to knit at knit night so I took along some hand sewing and it just continued from there. I really enjoyed making it.
Currently in there are the stalks from these beautiful tomatoes, grown here in our very own garden (although I do not hesitate to admit not by us). We have tenant farmers, also known as lovely friends who live in a flat and wanted a veggie patch so they use our garden and share the bounty with us.
I have also finished the koharu top and it has had a test wear. Hence it is in the wash after being covered in dust and cherry dribble. Next time.
I have heard it said by many that with the Japanese craft books you don't need to be able to read the Japanese because the pictures are clear enough and easy to follow. I concur but strongly recommend actually looking at the pictures. 
I just looked at the paper pattern, rued that it was unclear whether the seam allowance was included or not, sewed two very tight narrow seams (in white thread on white linen) and then looked at the pictures. Seam allowance of 15mm was included. Quick-unpick!
I had a search through the fabric stash last night to make the bias tape. I actually had a good idea of what I was searching for, there's only a sliver shown here because the rest is in the wash. Originally purchased to be the binding on my roses quilt I got the fabric home and realised that it was the wrong colour (or rather, not the colour I had intended to purchase). I did subsequently buy the intended colourway online and have had this slightly darker green ever since waiting for a purpose. It's just about the same green as the leaves in the screenprint - excellent. 
And fabulous thing about making bias tape with fabric that has a grid of small spots is that you have ready-made markers for where to cut on the diagonal. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to go shopping for a matching blue fabric to make the bias tape but it is better to use from the stash. And I did get to buy a new spool of matching sewing thread - hooray!
This little top is a bit of a leap of faith (like most of my sewing!). As I have limited fabric I narrowed the hem width by a couple of centimetres and have no hem allowance (so that will need to be bound with bias tape as well). The front neckline is conveniently the selvedge of the fabric but I'm going to need to dream something up for the back neckline (where I also have no seam allowance). The pattern calls for putting in elastic but I'm wondering if a casing with ties would be sweeter?
Ok, so we've all heard about Isaac Mizrahi for Target and Comme des Garcons for H&M or whatever, but what about Ralph Lauren for Ikea? Well, maybe just at my house.
I've put some more of my recycled fabric stash to work making cushion covers - there's the Ralph Lauren bedsheet in there and the Ikea floral one side, coin spot the other. I just cut the sheets up to the dimension of the cushions, which was 26 inches square (actually, no I didn't, I didn't even cut them, I just ripped them) and sewed them up with two fabrics overlapping by about one-third of the width on one side. No zips, no buttons. Each cushion cover features all three fabrics. The fit is a bit wonky here and there but hey, the cushions are wonky too (two from the op shop, four from a garage sale) so that's fine. They will create a nice little reading corner in baby bear's room to snuggle up on and, dare I suggest it, to even take a little nap - please, pretty please?
ps - I started the slip stitching on the roses quilt last night. It's going to be a long haul but very satisfying.
I am making some great progress at the moment on stitching projects, much to my delight. I think it is inevitable that I will be working on many things at once, it just seems to be the way that it happens. What I need to do is just keep working on things in small manageable doses, keep track of things and keep focussed. So, here's a bit of keeping track:
roses quilt
I sewed the last mechanical seam on this yesterday evening, that's the binding attached to all four sides now. Yes, last night's stitches were just to sew that last seam but I got there so it feels good. What remains is some serious pinning and hand slip stitching to completely finish it off!
gentleman's fancy socks for Tim
Yes, I still knit. I have been plugging away at the second sock every chance I get and have just reached the end of the foot. Toe to go (and toe to finish on the other sock because I ran out of yarn just a few rows from the end).
vintage fabrics quilt
I have finally had to add this to the works in progress list - 36 squares chosen, cut out, placed, pinned and now this evening six of them sewn together. I don't think that I can keep pretending that this one is just an idea. So, a little update on that - the Ralph Lauren blue and white stripe with floral bouquets didn't make it in - it's pretty, just a tad insipid for this quilt. I did cut up the dark purple doona cover but regret it - great colour but the texture of the cotton was just too overwashed. I used a dark purple pillowcase that I picked up later instead. The deep red sheet turned out to be a twill and I couldn't cut a square square from it, no matter how hard I tried so it was replaced by another red sheet, not quite such a deep hue but easy to cut.
The curtain swag, blue sheet and polished chintz made it in, as well as three more florals and the purple geometric floral pillowshams. I also added (contrary to my mother's advice but hey, isn't that what mother's advice is for, to lead you in the opposite direction?) the very graphic black on cream print. I think that it will balance out the florals and help to lead the eye around the quilt. We shall see.
Ok, so finally, after much procrastination and thinking about it, I got around to the binding on my quilt. It also took me a while to psych myself up for it. Above is a not-quite-finished shot of the one side that I have done so far. It is not quite finished in the sense that still I need to slip stitch the binding to the quilt back (the dusky rose).
I started by cutting out my strips of binding fabric - Essential Dots from Moda in sage green. I am delighted with this fabric, it is exactly what I envisioned when I thought, hmm, what binding does this quilt need? A good shade of sage green and the dots are not quite tan but maybe a light beige, instead of a stark white, which tones nicely with the quilt top.
And then I used my trusty 2" Clover bias strip maker to make miles and miles of binding. As the quilt is square I didn't actually make it on the bias but on the cross grain instead and where I sewed the strips together I took care to try and match the dots up.
Then the tricky bit - sewing the binding on. I always find myself doing a few mental gymnastics about how the binding should sit to do the first seam and inevitable end up having to place it down a couple of times. Anyway, the drill is that you enfold one edge of the tape and line the raw edge up with the ray edge of the quilt, right sides facing, and sew along the fold line. To get this:
I am thinking though that it might be advisable to line the raw edge of the binding up with the raw edge of the quilt, but slightly overlapping it. This is because the next step is to fold the binding on the seam and wrap it around the edge of the quilt to the other side and you want the edge of the binding to cover the stitches on the back of the quilt. I think that with a little coaxing mine will be fine.
That's one edge almost down, three to go. I am not going to mitre the corners of the binding on this one, just overlapping will suit it fine. So, I'm not actually in a bind about anything at was moment, it just the only title I could think of. It could have been 'the ties that bind' but then I would have ended up writing about my family's recent visit and that is a whole other story ...
Here it is, the low down on the roses quilt and all that has gone into it so far:
darning/free-hand quilting foot
This was the first time that I had used a foot any different from the regular one I think. And it was heaps of fun. With this you can move the fabric around freely underneath the foot, stitching in any direction you like. It requires some practice because the length of the stitch depends on how fast you are sewing and how quickly (or slowly) you are moving the fabric. I did practice a bit but inevitably improved as I went. However, I did enough of the quilting late at night after I was too tired to do it anymore so there is pretty consistent quality throughout!
quilting needles
No idea how these are different from regular sewing machine needles but really, I don't need any excuse to buy sewing stuff. They have a nice green dash on them to distinguish them from other needles.
batting
I chose a 100% cotton backing which you don't need to pre-wash. And as it is bonded (I think that's the term - just means that the fibres are stuck together and don't pull apart from each other as you work with it) you don't need to quilt too closely.
backing
I chose a plain colour fabric as I wanted the freehand quilting to make a pattern of its own on the backing.
basting pins
These pins are great. The curve in them allows you to pick up the layers of the quilt quite easily. I bought two packets with 60 pins in each but still don't think that I had enough for my size of quilt. The layers really do need to be pinned at quite small intervals, otherwise the backing tends to bunch and pucker which happened in a couple of spots for me.
quilting thread
This is special quilting thread, although I can't remember if it was special for hand- or machine-quilting. Regardless, I used it for machine-quilting, in both the bobbin and the needle. One 800m spool was enough for the entire quilt.
As I think I have mentioned previously, for a $4.00 quilt top, this all cost rather a lot of money, although a lot of the items are reusable. For the planned vintage fabrics quilt I want to do something different for the batting (backing is easy enough, just more sheets). I was thinking about a double layer of cotton flannelette sheets or perhaps some kind of cotton waffle weave blanket (like the one from the yard sale). The only difficulty I foresee is finding something large enough - the quilt is going to be 87" square (I can't help it, the Omnigrid is in inches) - and what I want to avoid is having to piece the batting. Queen-size flat sheets should be ok, or a queen-size blanket. I must get into the habit of taking my tape measure along when I go shopping.
tape measure
I shop there a lot.
My blog seems to be in a bit of a slump at the moment, it's all a bit random, rambling, lacking in focus. In this sense it is actually a very precise reflection of my life in general. I finally came to my senses and withdrew from that second uni subject - sigh, bittersweet - and was rewarded with a great sense of relief and wellbeing. Nature, however, not liking a vacuum, swept in with a million little things to fill the void and I somehow seem to be further behind myself than ever.
Part of that is of course a whole new slew of craft ideas and perhaps that's where I should focus on the blog, at least for the moment. Difficulty is that I haven't taken any photos (despite this being on my daily list of things to do. I completed the first thing on my list at 5:45pm today, just before the garage closed at 6:00, if that gives you any idea of what things are like). Might have to use some stock footage:
I love this book - Vintage Fabric Style: Stylish Ideas and Projects Using Quilts and Flea-Market Finds in Your Home (isbn: 1841724165). Love it. It's one of those books where almost every page has me wanting to dig out a doily or an old pillow case or go shopping at Value Village for second-hand bed linens, which is precisely what I did yesterday.
One of the things I love is that quilt on the cover. The simplicity of it - big square blocks, the bold colours, a bit of floral. And now that I know how easy it is to make a quilt (well at least by machine) ...
(intermission for update on roses quilt)
Quilting complete - hooray. Did it free-hand with a darning foot and loved it. Need to trim the edges now. Bought some fabric for the binding - green with small tan dots - and realised after the fact that I had bought the wrong colour (I wanted sage and somehow settled for moss). So I have ordered the sage online, having had no luck finding it in the Seattle area, and hope that it will be a good shade. If not, I can always go with the moss. Have also bought a Clover 2-inch bias tape maker gadget in preparation. I love the accessories.
(return to normal programming)
... I am planning my very own version of that very quilt. Yesterday I picked up a queen-sized fitted sheet, Ralph Lauren no less, blue and white stripe background and some pretty rose bouquets. Another fitted sheet - deep red. A curtain-type attachment thing (I think) - blue and white stripe on one side and floral on the other. I have a lovely blue floral pillowcase and a deep purple doona cover in the cupboard (but what will mum sleep under when she comes to stay if I cut it up?). And some lovely polished chintz somewhere, and two purple geometric floral-type print pillowcases. I'm excited.
I also bought an Omnigrid 15" square template which is perfect because I have calculated that the 36 blocks need to be approx 14" square. And some black hat elastic ...
(intermission for update on recycled shetland wool tam)
I knitted the tam, then I blocked the tam, over a plate. Perhaps this wasn't the best idea because really, it has made the circumference of the opening way too loose. Dismayed, I cast it aside thinking, oh, I'll buy some hat elastic someday. Yesterday was that day - Hancock Fabrics was having a half-price sale (or half-off as they say here) on all their notions and threads and what not.(return to normal programming)
... so I'm just about ready to start cutting out some blocks. Which I'm going to do with my Clover rotary cutter and my Clover self-healing cutting mat (neither of which were purchased yesterday but as I said, I love the accessories).
Ok, I think that I have adequately put the craft back into the craft blog. On the right is a freebie arty photo taken at the Japanese Garden in Washington Park Arboretum. Those decorative carp are huuuuge.
I really hate to admit defeat but it has come to my attention that I can't do everything, or at least, not all at once. I do have a bit of a habit of over-enrolling myself in activities, over-committing myself (even if just to myself). It's just that the world is so exciting and there is so much to do and really, I am interested in so many things.
I had my deferred exam for Introduction to Health Economics yesterday - hooray. It went ok, I'm confident that I passed but the lead-up to it was very stressful. And now I am enrolled in two subjects this semester and I just don't think that I can manage it. I am vacillating at the moment between discontinuing just one of them (already done) and discontinuing them both and just taking a breather. 
The thing is, it really means something to me to be doing this course - makes me feel like while I am taking this year out from my 'career' that I am still achieving 'something'. Because raising a child, moving countries, settling in and setting up a house doesn't count as something? Oh, Amelia!
But when you're snappy at your husband, impatient with your little one and generally at the end of your tether, it's time to stop, take a breather and smell the roses. So, I do admit defeat, it's time to slow down and do some joyful mothering, a bit of crafting, relax a bit and be happy - that's kind of a little victory in itself.
ps. Can you see that I've been quilting? More about that next time.
Ha ha, this topic makes me laugh. A work in progress ... well, what's not? This life, this blog, this post ... all of it, a work in progress.
But oh, the crafty kind? A while ago I attempted to document my works in progress, all tagged with 'best intentions' but really, I couldn't keep up with all of the materials and ideas that I kept coming up with. There's a little list over there in the side bar which I will dash to update as soon as I have hit publish. Some of those things are languishing heaven-knows-where and there are others that I am halfway through which haven't even made it onto the list. Like this:
My quilt is coming along really well. My $3.00 quilt top, with some $25.00 of cotton batting, $15.00 of backing fabric, an $8.00 spool of yarn, a $25.00 freehand embroidery foot,a packet of machine quilting needles, and two packets of basting pins at $10.00 each keeping it all together! Oh well, some of those things are reusable. And I have an idea for recycling some cotton weave blankets that I came across at the op shop as filling for any future quilting projects.
I still haven't worked out how/why it is that some projects just grab you, harness your motivation and practically get themselves done, intruding on any number of other things that are on your to-do list. This is one of them. Perhaps because it is so big (204 cm x 219 cm) I felt that I just had to get it out of the way. I have been machine quilting it and am about three-quarters through. I'm really enjoying the process - the machine quilting is really addictive. Quick, instant results and you think, oh, I'll just do another line ... and another ... and ... (oh dear, I sound like a coke head).
Any ideas for binding it? I'm thinking something a bit whimsical so that it's not too twee - perhaps a sage green with small white or cream polka dots?
I used some cotton twill that I had lying around to give it some stability, quilting the layers together roughly around the outline of the floral print. Then I made a cylinder from the double layer and applied some binding at both top and bottom. The fabric I used for the binding was leftover from the roses quilt - yes, the one that I did use.
And what is slow sewing about this? Well, I sewed it all by hand. I just felt like it. We were just back from Melbourne, I was too tired to get the sewing machine out, it was too hot to knit at knit night so I took along some hand sewing and it just continued from there. I really enjoyed making it.
Currently in there are the stalks from these beautiful tomatoes, grown here in our very own garden (although I do not hesitate to admit not by us). We have tenant farmers, also known as lovely friends who live in a flat and wanted a veggie patch so they use our garden and share the bounty with us.
