Joseph's Coat Update

Well time for a little update on this loooooong term project.

Firstly I have to say I'm enjoying this enormously, I love sewing down all those little petals, it's great fun. The preparation, errr, not so much, but after having traced, cut out, ironed on, cut out again, and again, glued (occasionally with swear words), and glued again.... well let's just say it is at least getting quicker! And I love the satisfaction of getting 12 petals glued down on the background and they look so pretty before being pinned and stitched, and ending up all wrinkly as per the photos you see here. Sorry, but there is just no time for ironing!!


I did have some problems with the first few blocks as far as getting the petals down on the background (and making them fit in the right spot) goes. Often I would get 11 petals down with no problems, but as soon as I tried to get #12 down, no way, it just would not fit! Overhang of several millimetres - so frustrating!! Then I worked out that my stabiliser petals were all just a tiny bit too big. I hadn't bothered checking them against the template (even though Kellie had suggested doing this in her instructions), because I thought pah! I'm tracing so carefully, what could possibly be wrong?? But lo and behold, each time I ran the pencil around the template, yep, it was just a touch too large. So after cutting I'm now checking each petal against the template and giving it a little haircut. And my life is so much the better for it!

As far as gluing down the edges goes, I am still finding it a little bit hit-and-miss. Sometimes I get great pointy points, sometimes they look like they've run into a brick wall at high speed (and have a flat nose). But what works best for me is a tip I adapted from one of the other Josephs Coat participants, Shelly, early in the piece, which is to use a pin at the very point of the stabiliser and fold down the top edge over that, this helps make sure that I fold over exactly the right amount of fabric, not a bit too much or too little. And then when folding over the first side edge, I make sure that edge runs parallel to the opposite side. On the whole it's working pretty well now. (Thanks for the tip Shelly!)


Anyway, as you can see I haven't started stitching the rows together yet (despite best intentions). I had actually intended to have rows 1 and 2 done at the end of February so that I could take them to show Kellie when I did her class in Canberra, but alas, I didn't make it - and three weeks later I still haven't done it (but I have been doing lots of other stuff in the meantime!!)

I think I'm leaning towards making this a 6 x 6 block size, possibly with some borders, so I'm looking forward to seeing what Kellie suggests in that department.

The big mystery remains, who will the quilt be for? I don't really know, to be honest, I just wanted to make it because it's so beautiful, I wanted a handsewing project, and I had already collected these gorgeous pinky-oranges and they were just perfect for this project. Although I have supplemented in the process. Ahem. I think at the end of the day, there will have been so much of me put into this quilt, I just won't be able to part with it. But we'll see!

Thanks to Kellie for a fantastic project. The extra late nights of stitching are so enjoyable!!

Curls, swirls and weirdy beardy things

This is what I've been up to this weekend, slaving away over a hot sewing machine,

under the expert guidance of the very clever Kellie of Don't Look Now. OK, so my piece, yet to be finished, of course doesn't look anywhere near as exquisite as Kellie's (see below), but as a start, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with my efforts.

The genuine article. Look at those beautiful swirls! Just perfect! (She's had a lot of practice, let's face it!) And Kellie was an absolutely terrific teacher, with plenty of great tips and advice on setting out on this amazing road. I had a fantastic time, quilting a la Kellie is so much fun! I'm sure all the other ladies in the class would agree, everyone did a lovely job - I felt terribly inadequate!

I did have a few hiccups along the way. Grrr ... tension problems.... grrrr. However, there weren't any tears, even after numerous weirdy beardy things ending up on the back of my practice piece.... I won't post a photo of this, it's far too frightening. Funnily enough these seemed to diminish once I'd got the whole thing about remembering to drop the foot to the halfway mark each time I started out.... But these (unrelated to the beardy mishaps) pink eyelashes look kind of cool, don't you think??


The shell shape seemed to work better for me - but I'm determined to conquer the swirl!!! I will not be defeated!!


Oh dear - so wonky! Or should I say 'stylistic'?

So what's next? Finish the sweet little 'practice piece' and turn it into a cushion... and then move onto a slightly bigger project (European sized pillow). How many leaves in this one Kellie? About 50?? No worries!!
And after that? Maybe this...


Or perhaps this...

(Yes, I'm dreaming!!)

And other than the luxury of hours of uninterrupted sewing, the other great thing about the weekend was having my dear friend Bec join me. We hadn't seen each other for 4 years so it was wonderful to see her and she drove 8 hours to get here - poor Bec!! We're both looking forward to doing another of Kellie's classes next year - hopefully Kellie hasn't completely burnt herself out by then and is still going. Going by the number of amazing things she churns out, I'm convinced that Kellie sews in her sleep!!!

Thanks Kellie for a great weekend and for sharing your beautiful quilts and amazing skills with us!

And thanks also to Jenny and everyone at Addicted to Fabric for hosting us. Love this shop! (Of course we had to do a tiny bit of stash-building while we were there. Just a tiny bit.)

And now, it's back to this baby... (14 down, 35 to go! Loving it!)

Quilting along (slowly!)

No posting recently as I have been up to my ears in cutting out stabilisers, fabrics, pinning and stitching. I really love this Joseph's Coat Quiltalong idea, but sheesh! I am a bit bamboozled by how much time it's taking to get going. The preparation involved is really something else. As a result I have only 2 blocks stitched, whereas I think by this time, if I was keeping up with the pace, I should have about 8 done. Anyway, here they are - I have to take some better pictures and admittedly these were taken before stitching them down. But they are stitched now, I promise!!

Time for an update!

Well it has been way too long since I last posted. Excuses are many and varied and I haven't been completely idle, in a crafting sense - really, I haven't! There are some things to show for my absence, but first things first - in a moment of madness I have signed up for a quilt-along being organised by the very talented Kellie from Don't Look Now. Is there anything this girl can't do? Apart from having the most amazing designs which are so in line with my own tastes it's kind of scary, she is also super-generous and has posted incredibly detailed instructions of what to do and how to do it so that your work might have even a very good chance of looking like hers! (I wish!!)

Anyway, so here is the lovely culprit that has been swimming in my mind for the last few weeks. I am eager to get going. Unfortunately I've just realised I don't have the right kind of needles - hopefully I'll be able to rectify that tomorrow and start stitching. In the meantime I have been busily cutting out stacks of lovely petals from the fusible web.

Now off to do some more cutting!!