At least it wasn't a finger. . .

You know how they say to be very, very careful when wielding the rotary cutter? (Don't worry - remember what the title of this post is.) Well, I was busy on Saturday night cutting strips for a quilt I am going to be making at our up-coming retreat at the end of the month (yippee, it will be the first weekend of the school holidays - what a great way to start them). I layered up the fabric to cut 2 fabrics at once. When cutting strips it is oh, so, easy to get the ruler not lined up quite correctly, like this:
It's a bit hard to see what is wrong so here is a close-up:
Now can you see? I'm 3 1/2" on one end of the ruler and 3 1/4" on the other end. Blast! I need an extra strip. So I cut one, without checking what was going on at the other end of the fabric. When I flipped back the top fabric this is what I had oh, so, cleverly done:
The perfect 'V' cut!
As my friend Frances said "at least it wasn't your finger". No, it wasn't :-)

But I did manage to take the top off the knuckle off my index finger when closing a door at school today. Ouch!

Frustration!

I know different quilt show clubs/venues/organisations have a different variety of quilt stands available to use, but this is really frustrating. The first set of instructions are for attaching velcro to the back of the quilt for Symposium earlier this year.

You probably can't read the words but it says the soft side of the velcro is sewn to the hanging sleeve of the quilt and the hook side is pressed to that. That was quite easy. The soft side of velcro on the back of my quilt wasn't too hard to sew.

The next set of instructions are for Quilt Aotearoa which is being held in Hamilton in a couple of weeks time.

Notice the difference?

Yep, I had to remove the hanging sleeve from my quilt, remove the soft-sided velcro, remove the name label from the hook side of the velcro, sew the hook side onto the hanging sleeve, sew the hanging sleeve back to the quilt and sew the name label back onto the soft side of the velcro. Let me tell you, hand stitching a hanging sleeve onto the back of a 2.2 metre wide quilt with the hook side of velcro sewn onto it is no fun at all! The thread kept snagging on the hooks of the velcro and I kept cursing :-)

Still, I got it done and sent the quilt off. I just have to wait to see if it has been accepted.

It's a finish!

Yes, I finished a quilt.

No, it's not the Ugly, Ugly one. (But maybe this quilt might be in the running to win the Ugly, Ugly prize??)

This is a quilt for a 7 year boy called Brian who likes sport. I don't know Brian but I hope he likes the quilt he is going to receive. Our community quilts project this year is to make quilts for children who are under the care of the Open Home Foundation. They provide respite foster care for children at risk. We were given a list of first names, ages and interests from which we could choose someone to make a quilt for. I really like this idea of making it more personal.
The name of the quilt is "Golf Plaid Here". The green fabric is a print of golfing motifs. Sporting themed fabric (indeed, any 'boys' fabric) is a bit hard to come by. I found the golf fabric in one of our local shops. I had probably been there for a while because it was very reasonably priced t under $20 per metre. There was just enough left on the bolt for this single bed sized quilt. I drew up the woven stripe pattern and it was pieced with partial seams. It took a while to figure out how to put it together with the least mucking around and the most chain piecing, but once I had it worked out I got the top done in 2 sewing sessions. I can't say I love it I don't like that particular shade of red) but I trust Brian will like it enough to cuddle up in it.

Ugly, Ugly?

Do you ever find yourself making a quilt which seemed a good idea at the time, but when you get nearly all the way through you decide it is the most hideous thing you have ever seen? I was trying to come up with a relatively simple design for a beginner quilt using just half square triangles and a minimum amount of cutting. I came up with this:

Now, the maths of this really appealed to me. 8 fabrics of 1/2 metre each in a 'rainbow' effect. With an extra metre to do the extra strips at the top and bottom, making a total of 5 metres of fabric. Cutting was easy, with 8 triangles from a width-of-fabric strip. Piecing was easy, big triangles, not too many pieces. No border, just needs a binding after quilting. Comes out at single bed size - great size to make. Easy to quilt if you do zig zag lines. Simple huh? So simple I cut another one out of floral fabrics before I pieced this one together.

So why do I hate it? It is very bright, much brighter than this picture shows. It probably looks better on a bed than it does in the vertical plane. But it is just not 'doing it' for me. It has been hanging around my sewing area half quilted and I just can't get enthused to do any more. Mind you I am free motion quilting it fairly densely. I am considering it quilting practice. I'm doing different free-motion pattern in each of the colours. I will get there in the end. The floral one is still languishing in pieces, aaarrgh!

Great Tutorial

No picture today, but at least it is a post! I want to recommend you visit my friend, Janice's blog. She has just posted a great tutorial explaining how to make an original quilt from a photo. The thing is, I could have been watching the tutorial for real because Janice and Frances have just completed a 3 part Techniques Training at Cotton On Quilters yesterday (and for June and July) but I chose to sew instead of watching, how dumb is that? The thing I am excited about, though, is the use that Janice makes of Press and Seal. Brilliant! Check it out You will need to read some text, but it comes with pictures :-)

Yep, It's August Already!

Totally, totally slack I have been. Three months since making a post. I won't be surprised if there is no one still looking out for me, but I'm going to give it another go to stay connected to the virtual quilting world. I have just spent the last 3-4 hours updating the Cotton On Quilters blog with 3 month's worth of Show & Tell, so take a hike over there if you are in the mood for a quilt show.

I have actually been doing some quilting. My friend Rosie from school discovered at the beginning of the year she was pregnant. Remember the "I'd rather be 40 than pregnant" coffee mugs that used to be around a few years ago? Rosie is proof that the pill does not always work. Rosie and her husband have 2 children already. Daughter, aged 15, was highly disgusted when told the news and had to ask Dad if he knew about the 'birds and the bees'. I think there was also some discussion about 'the snip' :-) Never mind, the baby arrived on Wednesday. I haven't met her yet but her name is Kaylee Grace and I made this quick quilt for her: