Taxing Times.

Tax deadline, two hour wait to have car towed, heavy showers of rain with piles of laundry waiting to be hung out and a little doll that I so need to have complete before the weekend.

She's looking very Amish at the moment. I do intend to add facial features but not sure if I'll follow pattern instructions for felt features or use fabric pens.

What do you think?

Behind the dolly's head you can see the carry basket for her. Have had so much trouble adding base to basket but got some help at my sewing class yesterday (and then got stranded when my car immobilizer immobilized me)  and now well on its way to being complete.

To the right you can see bouclé wool which I will use for hair. (Purchased at St. Vinnies).

Here's dolly with vest, pilchers, booties, quilt and pillow.

  Remember my trip to Reverse Garbage and the beautiful fabric samples I purchased?  I have used as many of this as I could to make dolly's clothes.  The fabrics are one hundred percent fine cottons from Italy.

Do you think dolly will be able to compete with Dora the Explorer Doll?

I hope so.

Dolly's pattern comes from Family Circle Treasury of Dolls & Cuddly Toys and is designed by Gwen Merrill.

Darcy The Sheep also originated from one of Gwen's designs.

Above are some fabrics I've cut out for making a HST quilt for the guest bedroom, hopefully this will be my next sewing project.

No Progress with: The long hexagons or 

French General quilt top.

Cat in a Hat #2 is (almost) ready for sandwicheding, basteding and machine quilteding. Binding is machine stitched and waiting for hand blind hemming.

Finished: English paper pieced scrappy quilt.  Waiting for label. Saving photographs until labelled.

So many projects, so little time!

Happy sewing.

I'm linking to
WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday.

1. The long hexagons are progressing slowly. Around 240 have been completed.

I'm still procrastinating about whether I should stick to only one hexagon per fabric, or just go all out and use up as many of my scraps as possible. If I take the second option, progress would be much faster.

2.  Dr Seuss Cat in a Hat cot quilt #1 has been labelled and gifted...yay!

Cat in a Hat #2 (above) is (almost) ready for sandwiching, basting and machine quilting.

3.  French General quilt top...no progress sashing cut.

4.  English paper pieced scrappy quilt is now hand quilted and awaiting purple binding. (Almost finished - phew!)

No progress on the following:

Do drop by and visit Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to this past week.

Happy Wednesday to you all.

Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday #42.

WIP Wednesday #40

Must confess, not much progress happening this week.

My main ongoing project, above, is slowly coming together.

It's frustrating because I know this Dr Seuss quilt top could be finished in no time but so many other things happening in our household at the moment that progress has been slow.

I'm sorry but that's all on the sewing front for me this week.

Be sure to check out Lee's WIP Wednesday post. It's her 40th WIP post.

For progress on other craft projects I've been working on check out today's other post here

WIP Wednesday

Mohair Sweater, finished.

With the left-over Mohair, I made Darcy.

Dr Seuss #2 is very much turning out as 

a-make-it-up-as-you-go-along quilt top!

I'm happy with how it's turning out.

Dr Seuss #1 is awaiting label (still).

Not much other progress going on this week due to health issues.

Mr Honey Pie has been very good though and re-do of study (Room #2)is at 

painting-all-finished stage, just waiting for my input now.

I have sanded back the Guest Bedroom desk,

now have to decide on a finish.

Hope you have all had a productive week.

Stop by and visit Lee @ Freshly Pieced, 

WIP Wednesday #39 and see what others have been up to this week.

Finished - Dr Seuss.

Some tying and some machine quilting.

Because it's only a cot quilt I felt comfortable machine quilting with the walking foot.

I failed at my attempt to free motion quilt so gave that up very early into the attempt, hence the tying.

Quilt Front.

Quilt Back.

Quilt Label. 

(Waiting for information to be written onto and then sewn onto quilt.)

By the way...Baby has arrived (two weeks early) but that's another post!

This quilt top was made from a panel.  

This panel is not for the faint hearted.

Don't be fooled into believing that it's a panel you can take home, cut out, add a border to and machine quilt around the frames.

It's not...for a start the panel is designed in a landscape layout.

The blocks are not equally sized...not even the ones that look they might be.

It's a challenging panel but I'm pleased with the end result.

Dr. Seuss Quilt Number Two will look quite different to Dr Seuss Quilt Number One!

Besides a birth, we've also had a loss, so things have been a little out of whack in the household.

Except for my pink mohair sweater no progress has been made on anything else.

Redecorating has stalled too and all I've managed to do on that front is empty out the study.

I'm linking this post up to Lee's WIP Wednesday # 38 at Freshly Pieced.  Do drop by and visit Lee and catch up on what she and her followers have been up to this past week.

WIP Wednesday # 37

It's been a busy week in our household.  Mostly because of this guest bedroom redecorating project. Check out the post to see what else needs doing.

I've recovered enough from my 'flu and bronchitis to finish off the front and back of my mohair sweater and have started the sleeves.

Here's a sneak peak of my second Dr Seuss Cot Quilt.  Quilt number one is being bound at present.

WIP Wednesday is hosted by Lee at Freshly pieced, check it out.

Wednesday Already Dr Seuss?

I've labelled this my "Bitza" quilt...not only is it bits of this fabric and bits of that fabric but it's got bits of every theme in it too. Dragonflies, butterflies, cats, dogs, pigs, frogs...you name it.

I'm continuing to hand quilt the border and now  putting a bit of detail into the butterflies...just couldn't resist.

Dr Seuss cot quilt number one is quilted and awaiting binding. I've machine quilted this one  as I've got a deadline (baby due in less than tree weeks).

The second Dr Seuss cot quilt top is almost done but alas no photographs yet!  Hopefully next week.

We're redecorating so I've had no choice but to make curtains for the guest room...almost done.

And I'm contemplating joining the Freshly Pieced Summer Sampler QAL. Okay, so it's already into block number five...hmmm.

French General and Japanese Dragonfly quilt tops have seen no progress!

Drop by and visit Lee at Freshly Pieced to see how everyone's progressed this week.

Managed to complete curtains before posting...here's a sneak peak at the newly painted room with curtains hung...I'm loving it so far but it was a shock to the system at first as it was a TOTAL change.  Can't wait to replace furniture etcetera.

Don't forget to drop by and visit Lee's Blog at Freshly Pieced.

Dr Seuss Quilt Top # 1 - Complete.

Couldn't help myself, purchased more Dr Seuss fabric for the two cot quilts work-in-progress.  (The yellow is not part of the Robert Kaufman Dr Seuss range.)

After careful consideration of last week's most helpful suggestions/votes/comments on my WIP post I went with Undergroundcrafter's vote for a yellow frame.  It was so much fun to read everyone's comments!

Above is a detail of one corner.

To separate the centre from the yellow frame I used LynCC's great suggestion of using a thin white line before adding the border.  This step sort of reminds me of a piece of art work and the steps taken to mount and frame it.

This space stops the yellow from butting up against the frames of some of the blocks.

Many wanted to see a red border in the quilt top so I'm using this red-on-red stripe for the binding.  I was going to use a red and white stripe but settled on this one from the Dr Seuss Range at the last moment.

Here it is all ready for basting, quilting and binding.

Thanks so much to everyone who showed so much interest last week.

Unfortunately, no progress on any of my other projects.

Although I'm over the 'flu, I think I have a mild case of bronchitis which has slowed me down again.

Thanks too, to Lee at Freshly Pieced for the opportunity to share our work.

I have linked this post to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday # 35.

Dr Seuss Quilt Top WIP

This has evolved into the above. Question is do I frame in red, yellow or blue?

My hand pieced quilt is being hand quilted and is now looking like this:

It is very much a scrappy quilt and I want it to have a cottage feel and look to it, so I've quilted the border free hand which hopefully will just give it that look.

In the middle of making two quilts for my Twin Sisters and two more for expectant nieces, I decided I really needed to start two more just for the fun of it!

The above quilt top is made from Moda French General charm pack and will be framed using a terracotta coloured sashing.  The border is yet to be decided.  The option is a French General floral or not.  That is, not if I use it to make a summer dress for my Grand Daughter (see the pattern below).

The above quilt is made from a collection of Japanese dragonfly themed fat quarters which I began collecting about five year ago.  My quarter inch seams are out even though I've been using a quarter inch foot, so each block needs to be trimmed 'cause they're not square!

I've also been knitting myself a mohair sweater, completed two pairs of newborn mittens, and thinking about knitting myself a lacy scarf. (Like I NEED another scarf.)

Half the windows in the house are screaming out for curtains or swags and I want to up-cycle some t-shirts into summer skirts for Grand Daughter.

Oh well...I'm bound to have more time to do all these things when I'm retired...but wait, I thought I was retired!!??!

I have linked this post to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday # 34 Why don't you drop by and check out Lee's fresh looking Churn-dash?

Thanks Lee for the opportunity to share.

Dr. Seuss.

My Next Major Project (Times Two)!

Having had the 'flu for the past week, and still recovering, means not much sewing or anything else for that matter, happening.  I did manage to pop out Tuesday last week to purchase the above fabric.

Two cot quilts for two boy cousins due in August and October coming up.

I spent most of the afternoon today contemplating the fabrics trying to decide what to do with them as I don't have a pattern.

The two quilts will be very similar, very simple and the machine quilting, which I aim to complete, pretty straightforward.  I am counting on the fabric itself being the attraction to these quilts.

I have linked this post to Lee's Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Final Report.

Finally, TVHC quilt that I've been making for my daughter's future God son is complete. (Except for the label).

You can see my previous posts about this quilt here and here .
I'm very happy with the way the project has turned out.
I absolutely love the backing fabric and now so want to make a primary colour quilt.

Because of time constraints, I have machine quilted the single bed quilt - still I was at risk of going overboard with my quilting and had to restrain myself from machine quilting every square centimetre of the quilt!

What are little holes chewed by a hungry caterpillar good for?  Why to free motion machine quilt of course!

As I've mentioned before this is my third TVHC quilt.  Only recently the family was informed of yet another great grandson/nephew about to join the family.  This very much welcome newcomer due in August has an older brother how has received one of the aforementioned quilts so I asked his mum if she would like one to match or would she rather a surprise for his little brother.

Our expectant niece would prefer a surprise so a quick search on the WWW revealed some wonderful surprises.  Like this Dr Suess panel.  Now I just have to source it in Australia, otherwise - it might just be an overseas purchase!
In the meantime, previously mentioned projects remain untouched.  But something to look forward to blog about next is the first of the Twins' quilts.  Because I have made progress on that.