spring sewjourn

 seriously love going to sewjourn

besides is being a sweet australian cottage

& the wonderful light filled space that is the studio work room

its about people & making together

started out way back going along with a couple of real life friends

but now i feel like i know everyone somewhat

you know its that time forged thing that carves out friendships

Lara has summed it all up perfectly

all part of my village now

 go on wear a chunky belt & some acid yellow beads with that

show your curves

 some garments were made

yay .... tops & dress finishes ... 

& a new quick and simple 3 piece top pattern that i adore

 so i sewed up x10 smocks ... about 2/3 the way

a black & white stripey quilt binding

half square triangle quilt was worked on .... wip

that means i've started on the 544 hst's that i have

that is going to be a marathon as every single

mini hst block needs to be carefully pinned so the corners line up

but you know ... i live for the journey!

 another chunky oversized scrappy stacked coin strip

ready for another double sided quilt top

and

some free form blocks for shannon

because if i lost my home & the things in it

that are special to me i'd love a quilt too

enjoyed making these alongside annie

bit of acid, spots & some stacked coins

 what did you do last night?

9pm & i was a little .... well bored really!

footy just doesn't 'do it' for me ...

my stash of scraps is a magic pudding

seriously .... i work hard on using it & it multiplies

 decided on a variation of my 'free-styling scrappy patchwork'

not sure how ... it just evolved & i quite like working that way

so thus the stacked coins element

i know where this single bed quilt is going!

.... so i wanted something really bright to go with...

found this amazing large scale print in my hoarded stash
'Wildwood' by erin mcmorris for Freespirit westminster fibres

seriously i have whole pile of neatly folded caressed beauties

that i've hoarded ... happy just to look at all lined up pretty like

a wave of corageousness swept over me

crikey!? .... it was cut into .... black & white spots were added

you can't go wrong with spots & these are a great size ...

it 'works' ... now to find a worthy backing?

maybe a b&w stripey binding but we shall see

lots of wonky curvy soft machine quilted lines i think

perhaps a few lines of perle hand quilting stitches running across the stacked coins

quilt top made in a bit under 2 hours

quite enJOYed my friday night in the end

hmmm now .... the backing & then baste ....

lets see if i can get that far in less than 24hrs?

might even get on a roll & baste the others that are still a-waiting!!

yep .... enJOYing my journey ....

wip

i have like 500 hundred thousand

works in progress

'so' did not 'need' to start another

but the whole free-styling scrappy small quilt thing

gets me every time ...

the little peaces were calling to me

started on our run-away sewing weekend

top finished the other eve when i should have been making binding ...

very 'pink' for me ... i'm liking it lots

the orange now balances it in my eye

& its so very symmetrical!!

a few tricky circus elephants for 'personal consumption only'

& some very 'last of' ... fabric scraps in there

i have a plan for this one & others ...

"... yep" going to have x1 on the end of each downstairs bunk bed

@ our cabin ... that handmade life

joining in with lots of others & their wips ...

lately ...

 there was some Wendy dress wearing

on a boat on a harbor with a bridge & opera in the background

a lovely hotel was stayed at 

adored the carpets!

there was some arcade wandering  

a most enjoyable escape treat

some wedge tree branch bites

were painted

 there was another mighty 

Pop Up Shop

 an in-house market night

with a great big tups sell-off

which was more like a party party & great fun

only a handful of little skirts remaining

 some thinking has been done

few changes are being made to the whole

hARTylittlepeaces making/selling part of what i do

not making some things & starting on some new

& now there's an 

online shop ... 

how exciting!

which will always be a work in progress 

& has already 

had great orders with happy customers

there will be lots more handmade & sewn items in the new year

including my unique ooak ... little softie

'Pocket Buddies'

now available at Shop Handmade

 they are cute little buddies

that can be used for a whole host of things

you just never know when you lose that front tooth

.... you'll need a Pocket Buddy to keep it safe

until the tooth fairy visits ....

oooh yeah .... cute huh!

as i said .... ooak & it's also my ip ....

love these whiskers

 oh & this is still a wip

but won't take me long

little humble gift

a scrappy log cabin quilt

love this free form

you've seen this style plenty from me before

its all about working those little 'peaces'

for a true friend who has been on a wonderful

interesting challenging journey of growth

with me this year xo

so a little gift when words are not enough

there is more in store for this journey i am sure

 in fact there have been lots of moments

when words have not been enough

there was a great man in my husband's life

there was a fitting goodbye

& there was a new family member introduced

baby Oscar 5 wks met our Oscar

Definitions:

 ooak = One Of A Kind

a unique, individual, often handmade item

of which there is no other the same!

 

ip = intellectual property!

 

ps - if you like these buy one

wip creative spaces

 so my creative space ...

my creative head space is brimming with ideas so much that i feel at times it is spilling over

my physical actual creative space is over taking our home

my art educator creative space has been reflective this week

my sewing & making for dollars creative space fits in whenever it can

my dreaming up 'possibilities' thinking creative head space has been working overtime lately

my dream studio creative space is constructed so far of black lines on A3 paper 

but there have been steps made ... which creative space should i refer to?

here are two works in progress

the above "rainbow i spy" which has been almost finished for a while

had its binding machine sewn on .... just need to do the hand slip stitching

have a goal to make that happen this weekend

the other is a gorgeous pink & green single bed log cabin ....ish quilt 

made by a great friend of mine .... Sam

in fact this is her first ever patchwork experience

it was pieced & sandwiched a long time ago 

... way way back one night, we had a chat .... i didn't really know her then

i told her i thought she needed to have some kind of hobby outside of what was work

think my words were more like "get a life" .... spoken with diplomacy of course!

she asked me what i did .... was when i was just getting back into sewing more often

the next week, she told me she'd bought a machine & that i had to teach her....!!

.... sounds like we were up front with each other 

but that is how we are & it works as we are great friends .... 

thank goodness she did that or we probably would have gone separate ways ... xx

& i see it as kind of my responsibility to see that this quilt is completed!

as a first effort i probably shouldn't have put Sam on such a huge unknown path

... she learned a heap but maybe i stretched her just that little too far?

she started machine quilting it but was not entirely happy with the results

then she tried perle 8 chunky stitching but it wasn't a 'happening thing' for her

so i stole it away to stitch it myself .... i've pulled it out now & then

not often enough .... but i am coming close to the finish ... yay

soon it will be done & i will wrap it with a great big bow!!!

& then she can do the binding!!!

more creative spaces going on over here today

bunker down & sew

 went away with a truly great friend on the weekend

was our chance to be without children about

hang out & just sew

had our twin machines meet up for the first time

there was lots of chatter & some fav tunes played

i worked on a long time project

the large rainbow i spy picnic quilt

got all the wavey quilting stitches done

have the intention of finishing the binding this coming weekend

its taken me an age to create this but i am almost there

i have 'enJOYed the journey' & Oscar is right into the idea right now!

so perfectly timed i'd say ...

 knuckled down & made a whole lot of little girls' skirts for my

up coming markets

& all the while my friend Sam got to & sewed

a blue & yellow

half square triangle

tonal values quilt

on the 1/4 turn ... which means that all the 'layers' of tone

are complete squares ... which means there are many many

little triangles on the end of each row to add to the mix!

a basket to machine system was applied ...

 she did an amazing job!

in fact we couldn't leave to go home until it was completely put together!

i worked with some

figgy pudding triangle 'turn overs'

now this quilt top has been a long time in the making also

from way back here

anyway no lamenting in life required

just get on with it now ... i say!

all pieced & sliced & re-pieced

& i love the scrapy look

so we will have some figgy pudding on display for this Christmas

still the quilting to happen ... maybe this weekend as well?

so nothing exactly finished ... WIPs

but nearly there!

 there were a couple of sleep-ins ... food & wine consumed

lovely relaxed wintry productive time .... away from the bustle of home

special thanks to our husbands ... C & S

joining in over here with others & their WIPs

relocated

spent the last two consecutive

sunday afternoons/early evenings

sorting

stacking

storing

moving

relocating

my sewing space

when we moved in

we set my sewing space up in the same room as our 'study'

while i love having the computer right there as a resource

its tricky as i do tend to take over 

& apparently my husband would like to have his own desk!? huh?

so apart from the fact that more than half of the 'new' sewing room

is still a storage locker for all the arty stuff that will hopefully one day move into a studio

yep - you heard right i 'need' a sewing room & a studio!

well this afternoon i used said janome in the new space & its working nicely

the space that is .... my janome needs a service!!

so i have a deadline this week

blog worthy photos of my SIT swap items

they will be ready!

as I made a start & got halfway!!

i'll tell you more about these when i'm finished ... soon!

so essentially 2 works in progress today

joining in 'freshly pieced' WIP Wednesday

NB- fabric stash you can see .... not even a 1/4 of it ... will need to be relocated

another time ....

Working on something . . .

I love the colours purple & green
... somewhere along the line you might have read that before?
I decided to add another layer to last year's blocks swap blocks
... all 104 of them!
That's 416 more strips of purple & green fabric ... all from my stash .... I only just had enough!
Now I will have x10 rows wide & high ...
= 100 which will make a King sized quilt ...
I will get to & create a layout soon!
I'll keep you posted!