Hummingbird Stamp and .......Lest we forget

Lest We Forget

ANZAC DAY

They shall grow not old

As we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them

Nor the years condemn

At the going down of the sun

and in the morning

we shall remember them

Some Australian military paraphernalia :  RAAF  clip and army buttons

...................

Hummingbird Stamp

A while ago I drew a quick picture of a hummingbird and have since intended to carve it out as a stamp. As usual all things take time and weeks later I finally got round to finding the time to carve it.

Just need to decide on a flower to accompany the bird  and then a printing we will go!

If you are interested in stamping / hand printing I have listed all my blog posts with easy links to that blog post in the PAGES sidebar (look to the top right of the post bar)

Hand Printed Fabric - Girls Boat Neck Dress in Kim's Flower

This lovely Pink dress with boat neck has been hand printed with Kim's Flower stamp in pinks. the original seen here was printed in blue hues as a gift for Kim.

The pattern for this dress was thrifted recently and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to print up some pinks in this pattern.

I like the thought of a boat neck, but now having made the dress would probably never do it again from this pattern. Being an old pattern it had no clear indication of where to cut off the scoop of the dress (to remove the rounded collar) and was left guessing the stitching lines - which really needed to be accurate to fit.

The pattern is a Butterick 2194 in size 6 to fit breast 24"

The other minor problem I had with this pattern was to do with my printing. I misread the pattern and thought there was only one large panel for the skirt  so didn't print enough fabric, hence I had to go back for another session of printing. Urgh my aching back.

So all in all about 4 hours of printing and a good morning and part afternoon to make up this dress - that's what I call time consuming. I dont even have anybody that I made it for - made it just because I loved the pattern and thought the print would look cute in it.

I still have buttonholes to go and a few hand stitches to be done, but I should finish that tomorrow.

Having pieced the major section of the center panel of Alena's quilt and laying it out all I see is a big white cross. The star effect has been lost with the placement of the smaller yellow stars in the corners - so do I replace it with a grey star or a block sandwich made of solid colour?

Any opinions?

Thought I'd show how much my feathering has improved with just a few blocks. I'm thinking about replacing this first block and repurposing it into one of the charity quilts
Can I be bothered making another?

Charity quilt well underway - 3 rows joined together, another waiting to be joined to the quilt and a few odd blocks

The back of the quilt looks like paddocks.. I bought a mystery bag of material from the quilt shop full of blues and greens..these are all being joined to form backing blocks.

Visual Play

Using the mosaic maker I made a mock up of the center panel of the quilt. The star points are way off size but it was fun to get a more pictorial idea of what the quilt will look like as a central feature.

My crocuses are currently in bloom and yesterday I went out and collected the stamens for saffron.. the amount I got was miniscule and I had to pick the stamen with teasers. Not sure whether to use them to dye colour into fabric (or if there is even enough of it) of to try to cook with it

The central panel

A visit to the Port of Adelaide yesterday near the old maritime museum led me to spy this old building...an eligible candidate for the next quilt photo shoot - but not sure how I would hang the quilt.
It is lovely any way.

Alena's Quilt - underway

Finally I might have gotten my mathematics right to form the stars. I still managed to muck it up by miscalculating the triangle size for the sawtooth triangles of the star. So I have lots of triangles cut for flying geese blocks for the charity quilt

I took the plunge and just decided that I would machine quilt the entire quilt. Maybe a little too adventurous but I will definitely have honed my free motion quilting skills by the end of it.

Last night I practiced drawing feather patterning for the large triangle surrounding the star just to get an idea of where I should turn and how much curve and generally what looks good.

I dont spend a lot of time deliberating whether I should do something straight off or actually practice it. In for a penny in for a pound,,,feet first.. If I stuff it up I'll just have to make another

So I had some trouble with the first feather looping and found that by changing my needle and re threading the machine solved that problem as I didn't think that I was going to slow with my machine.

The second half of the triangle looks better from behind but I had a couple of sections where my curves did not flow easily.

It certainly is challenging planning ahead where your machine is going and being able to visualise your work. Ideally I should have also done this section in pieces but I don't want a lot of seams showing in the star,

I LOVE The COLOUR!

I laid the pieces outside on the ground to get an idea of overall effect when joined in a strip.

And I couldn't resist photographing this flower at mum's house hanging through the fence from one of her succulent plants. Its beautiful isn't it

I have a lot of projects happening at the moment!

And for anyone interested in giveaway visit Stitch by Stitch for a birthday giveaway here

Hand Printed - Kim's Flower

 Made a new stamp for my internet buddy and new friend Kim.  It kind of reminds me of a hibiscus flower and has a little bit of a Hawaiian feel when printed in blue. I actually didn't know what I was going to print for Kim, I thought a couple of panelled strips and a larger piece of fabric might be able to be utilised together in some project she dreams up. Check out her lovely quilt in progress at Sarah Lizzies

Also completed a new panel for the Lotus Flower Quilt. New one below , followed by original where I dropped my stamp right in the middle of the quilt

Hand Printed - Sunshine Lotus Flower Quilt

In preparation for my nieces 21st I've started to print up panels of lotus flower in yellows and grey  for her quilt.
Might redo the center panel as I dropped the leaf print onto the lotus flower and had to over print the flower.. one mistake and you need to start again. I did prepare to print two panels by cutting out two 21 inch square pieces of cotton right from the start but the printing will have to wait for another day as I do have to get ready for work.

The large panel and these two strips will form the large center star.
The individual lotus flower panels will be cut for the center of the smaller stars.

A rough sketch of what the quilt might look like. i'm not sure what will be in the two upper triangles of the yellow square..perhaps more printed pieces. Anyway it is a start. maybe I will get this quilt done before her birthday and not a year later like my nephews.

Hand Printed Fabric - Shorty PJ Pants

I've made some PJ shorts in the hand printed fabric. I'd like to say that they are for me but sadly  my butt is not that small. Jordy might concede to wearing these for me and allowing a photograph..we will see. Once I'd traced the pattern off they were super quick to make up. I over locked all the edges, a couple of quick seams and voilà a pair of shorty PJ pants

And a quick update...wearing the PJs - i was only allowed to photograph the bottom

Rainbow Monkey Quilt

I've finished ny rainbow monkey quilt. It is absolutely massive and although not king size, it is not far from it. My son, Benjamin complained continually last year of his blanket being too short and that he needs a  bigger quilt. I still need to buy him a queen size doona but have made this for on top of his bed

This evening after work I drove half an hour to get to this ramshackled building. We drove past it on the way to blackberry picking last week and I commented to Richmal that it would make a great place to hang a quilt. As it is, it is not quite high enough to accommodate the whole quilt but it looks great in the sunshine anyway.

Let me tell you I was a naughty girl getting these shots. There were very clear signs saying keep out but I think its more to stop people from hurting themselves in the dilapidated mess of the building interior. Anyway I tore a good pair of jeans on the barbed wire fencing - oh well - the things you do in the name of art!

The other side of the quilt in the making, hanging over the chair.

Standing on the top of the ladder to get the whole quilt in shot

I made this quilt in strips. I sewed one strip of monkeys together then quilted them to wadding and backing and then utilized quilt as you go techniques to piece the strips together. It was very manageable under a regular sewing machine and not at all impossible to piece together. If you wanted you could get quite fancy with you machine quilting with relative ease.

The end