Shakey Stitches

Today was a scary day to live in the Blue Mountains. Today was a scary day for anyone living in Australia really with the Catastrophic fire danger rating. Last time this happened I remember packing a small bag of my treasures and we evacuated to a family members house that was out of danger. Among those treasures I had packed some newly acquired fabric. I wish I could remember what that fabric I treasured so dearly was. Today we stayed. All day I felt unsettled waiting for the unknown. Checking fires near me every minute. I decided to see to keep my mind off the possibility of the fire. I sewed and sewed and sewed. I followed Stitched in   Color penny patch along. I had thought about this quilt for years and today was the day to make it. Unfortunately my mind being in other places I made some errors while cutting and trimming so seams don’t match up but I don’t care enough to fix it. It has served its purpose... the distraction I needed. I am very greatful that the fires...

Approximately three years ago I started making a quilt for each of my parents to give to them for their fiftieth birthdays that year. I completed Mums one last year and now I have finished my Dads just under three years late. I used a Simply Style jelly roll by V and Co. I tried to use the least floral strips and left out all the pinks and purples. I have backed it with flannel. The animals in their glasses and bow ties remind me of little animal maths teachers. My Dad is a maths teacher so I thought it was very fitting. I had a few mishaps with this quilt. I ran out of grey fabric and to make it big enough I added two black squares with a very similar grey. Then after washing it I was just checking for loose treads to trim off and I noticed a hole in a seam next to one of these plain grey blocks, so I was ironing it to make it lay flat before I hand sewed the hole shut and the fabric melted. I dont know what it was and where I found it but it had a big melted patch about ...

Each week I visit my neighbours for craft night. Usually I bring my own thing but sometimes they teach me something new and we work on a project together. I was interested in crocheting edges on tea towels, face washers etc so each week Laura would show me a new design. This was great, I learnt a lot but the problem was with no pattern I had a hard time giving them away because I had to look at them to work out how to do it again. So in an attempt to declutter I have taken photos of a couple of my favourites and will be storing them here so if I want to make these edges again I will be able to find them.

Rachel at stitched in color is doing a  vintage rainbow mosaic contest , I have always been interested in her mosaic contests and this one is open internationally so I thought why not give it a try. This is my version of vintage rainbow. Perhaps I should have added a solid but prints feel so vintage to me.

I made this quilt for a friend from high school who is due to have a baby boy any day now. It was pretty easy and I completed it over two days although it could be easily done in one day. I kept the quilting minimal. Next I want to make Hazel Hedgehog for another friend.

Earlier this year I signed up to three swaps on instagram as well as the hexie flower swap. That was before everything in my life went wrong at the same time. I have sent off and received packages for the dog mini swap and the unicorn swap. I will post photos of what I received on a later date. I forgot to take photos of the packages I sent because I was so excited. Unfortunately the dog swap never arrived and I am still waiting for the unicorn one to arrive but I am expecting it to take a while to get to Brazil. I am finally getting back into the swing of things so I will show you the fabric postcards I sent off last week. The swap was make three fabric postcards and send them to three different partners. You will then receive three postcards from three different people. Two of them are going to the UK and one is going to Canada. I was a bit worried posting them because you don't put them in an envelope you use them as an ordinary postcard. I sent them last week so t...

  Here are the flowers I have sent to my partner. She asked for flowers with pink or purple petals and neutral centres. I hope she likes them. I have yet to receive any flowers so I will show you the ones I have made myself. I have asked for pastel petals with a fussy cut centre. I haven’t been totally true to this theme as I wouldn’t count all of mine as pastel. Also some of my centres are more memory fabrics rather than fussy cut but its my quilt I can do what I like.

May was my first month in the  inchy hexagon flower swap !  I have asked for pastel petals with a fussy cut centre. My partner asked for bright solid petals with black solid centres.  I hope she likes them. My plan is to make the required two for my partner and two for myself each month. In may month I made myself three so I'm already ahead.

I gave Moony her eyes and she looks so much cuter.  I think she even looks a bit cheeky. I hide her around the house as she is a pretty nice surprise.  I still need to work on my photo editing but I hope that comes with practice.   I hope you had a nice weekend xxx ooo

Towards the end of last year I started needle felting. I don't really know how I got into it or even heard of it but I would watch videos on youtube. I found the sound so soothing and it would actually help me sleep which is a big issue for me. I made a few small items from kits but over easter I decided to make my own something without a pattern or instructions. I saw on pinterest someone had made a belted Galloway (a type of cow) and it was so cute. I used to own a few Galloways without the belts. My favourite one Moony was beautiful she was black and had long curly hair, I would brush her and walk them around and take them to shows. She was too small and would never win but I still always led her in shows and gave Muffin to other people even though she was a natural winner. When she had her first calf I got to the paddock in the morning and she was standing next to him, she saw me and started mooing, It wasn't until I got to them that she walked away from her sleeping ba...

I finished my Garden Steps quilt last year as a late fiftieth birthday present to my mum. I really didn't want to give it away because I'm mighty proud of it. I took some photos today. I followed the clover and violet  garden steps  quilt along. I started with them way back in February 2012 so it only took me two years to complete. I used two layers of bamboo batting as the mountains nights get quite cool. I also added sashing and a border to make it a bit bigger. I love the embroidered centres. They were the perfect size for doing while sitting in front of the tv. I really love this block, I feel like they got on the ombre bandwagon before it was cool. they might be the hipsters of the sewing world. The last block was a label bock but I didn't want to label my quilt at the time so I changed the embroidery  pattern a bit from Clover and Violets  Ruby market tote . Something about this block reminds me of an Australian native but I'm not sure which o...

I am back to blogging after almost two years off.  I've still been sewing and reading blogs but I've just been keeping really quiet. I've had a hard few years and a lot has happened and is still happening that I am currently processing so I have taken a break for some me time. Today I signed up for the quilted cats  dog-days-of-summer-mini-quilt-swap  sign up closes on the 15th of April so sign up quick if dogs are your thang! The postage date is in August so there is plenty of time to get it done. It is all done on instagram. This is a big thing for me because I keep my sewing completely quiet and nobody even knows I have a blog so for my sewing and real life to cross over is a little bit scary. My instagram name is fisty_muff if your interested.                                                               ...

I have finally done something with an EPP hexagon I made in Handstitched Class, original post  here  that was way back in October last year.  It was supposed to be put on a canvas as wall art but when I finished it I thought it was destined for something greater like a bag or a quilt made out of heaps of them. Since then I haven't made a single one so I don't think the quilt plan will ever happen. Then I did something a bit silly, well actually quite dumb. I took out all the basting stitches and paper templates, I think in the hopes of using them to make more blocks. So I have had this hexagon block sitting in my WIP box with its edges fraying and losing shape. I didn't know what it was going to be when I appliqued it onto some fabric and started hand quilting it, when I finished the hand quilting it sat there for a couple of weeks just waiting to be something so I ended up hand sewing on some binding so it would be finished. I am a massive self doubter, I d...

I have decided to do group posts from now on for my City Sampler blocks. I am linking them to the  sew sweetness city sampler along  so they have to be separate for each block but it was driving me nuts so I am now linking from Flickr  so I can do group posts here. So here they are Block 7 Extra time That assignment I thought was due in 2 days is actually due in a month and two days :) Block 8 Hellfire Honey  Just another roller derby bout  that I NSOed in. I was the only NSO from our league and I was penalty box captain so it was a big deal for me. Block 9 Pick Pockets and Rascals My brother organised a gig with some amazing musicians and arranged some of their songs to be played with a twenty piece orchestra, it was pretty fantastic and I was stage manager!

Procrastination I have an assignment due in two days so I made this block.                          I have almost finished my assignment I just have a couple more things to do.

Today a friend from work left, it was really sad and I am terrible with goodbyes. I managed not to cry until I got in the car. I knew I wanted to make a block for Jodie but I knew it had to be happy colours and not dark are gloomy like I really felt like making it. I think it's cheerful enough that when I see it I can feel happy for Jodie going on a new adventure, meeting new people. Change is a good thing no matter how scary we find it.

My Roller Derby league just had a home bout (the one I dressed up as a parrot  for), even though I am not able to play yet I was still expected to help out. There were heaps of roles to fill everything from selling raffle tickets and cooking the sausage sizzle. One game needs seven referees and about thirteen NSOs (Non Skating Officials) I was one of the NSOs. I was penalty box captain. I was super nervous as it's a very important job and I had three other NSOs in the box to captain. I had to remember so many tricky rules but I managed not to make any mistakes. I feel like I did a good job. I named this block "Penalty Box Captain" to help me remember not to doubt myself which is something I do way too much.

Jumanji I was at work when I could hear this drumming sound, I looked around but I couldn't work out where it was coming from. I looked at my friend Rachelle we both paused and said "Jumanji". It was kind of creepy and I was expecting a stampede of elephants or something. That is how block three was born I was on edge for the rest of the day so I really love the inspirational words in the middle square.

Here is my second block from the book Tula Pink's City Sampler. I named it 'Did I mention I'm a freakin white star' In Roller Derby we have levels before we can bout. I have just passed the first test so now I'm a white star. I never want to forget the feeling I felt when I passed so that is why I chose the name. I am totally awesome and now I can hit girls.

I love this book, it makes me feel all fuzzy inside. I love that the blocks are numbered and not named. I am using this book as a journal. I am not very good at keeping journals I always forget to write in them.  Each time I make a block I will name it after something that has happened in my life and write a little bit about it in the book. I am going to use the lines marmalade and odds and ends as well as some scraps but each block will have some of this marmalade fabric to hopefully tie it all together as I am still learning how to match colours and fabrics. I had a plan when I bought a few yards of this but I can't remember what that plan was so this is my plan to use it. Here is my first block I really like how it's turned out so far and I hope the rest look this good. I named it "If all goes to plan" because I was planning to use it as my block for the sampler bee. I really like it so I will use it. I hope all you Aussies enjoyed your long weekend,...