a cheeky quilt

Some quilts, while just lovely on the outside, are secretly scheming on the inside to throw you off kilter. Take this one, for example. Made with just 8 prints, each 2.5" strips. I sewed them together with white strips, cut those, sewed those, (one day I will show you in pictures what I mean), counted, did the maths, kept sewing. When suddenly, all sewn together, I had one very long, but beautiful strip of colourful squares. It was more the shape of a wide table or bed runner, tha a baby quilt. But I would not be deterred. I chopped off the top, sewed extra wide strips on either side and ended up with this...

 I have to say, I was fairly chuffed with myself. I had even remembered to make sure the finished top was the same as the usual width of fabric so I ddn't have to piece the back. I used a beautiful Japanese linen/cotton blend for the back, basted and hand-quilted.
After several hours of hand-quilting (ie, several hours of the West Wing), while nonchalantly snipping pearl cotton threads, I snipped a small but sinister hole in the quilt top!
I have 'patched' this up with some zig-zag stitching and you can't tell when you look at the whole quilt. But I was still devastated!

Then, while merrily sewing the binding on (in the shop, listening to Slava Grigorian. Have you heard of him? Best sewing music ever), of course, a big fat seam landed right on the 3rd corner, making it almost impossible to bind neatly. I perhaps would have been more tempted to unpick the binding and start again had I not already cut a hole in it, and if I hadn't broken my quick unpick trying to get a hook off the wall (that's a story for another day!), but I pressed on. This cheeky quilt will just have to be proudly handmade, imperfections and all.

On a happier note, I did put my very last sewing machine needle right through this baby, only 30 minutes into my day. It would have been a sad tale if that had snapped too!

A Quilt for a Rainy Day

I made this quilt for my Mum and Dad for Christmas and gave it to them on the weekend, our first chance to get together for Christmas lunch.

 I finished the top on Thursday at the shop, stood at my counter for half of Friday staring at fabric for the back (oh how I love making quilts that fit inside a normal width of fabric!). I ended up discarding most of these because a lovely lady came in, loved the look of those prints together and order a quilt for her baby due next month!



I broke quilt making rules and sewed on the binding before quilting it (and measured the binding 2 inches too short! Argh!). I finished the binding 5 minutes after our little arcade closed with the security guard waiting for me to lock up the building. 

Then Saturday, the kids and I caught the train to Sydney and I stitched and stitched. And then when I arrived, I stitched, and after dinner and then next day during breakfast and opening gifts and after lunch during Gran's visit, I stitched, all the while aware of the constant rain outside, wondering if I would get a chance to take photos in Mum's garden before we lost what little light we had.

We took these photos in the rain, quickly, mum worried about the quilt and me worried about the camera. Thankfully they worked. I just love this leafy spot for photos. I'll have to bring some more of my quilts down here!

 This was such an easy pattern to follow for such an effective result. You can find the pattern here.   Also, these process photos were taken on Instagram, my new favourite social media tool. You can follow me here to see what colour we're making day to day. :)

Bricks for Boys

Another quilt finished! These days, with my three days in the shop, I've been aiming to get a quilt pieced and basted ready to take home to quilt. Then I hand-quilt it in the evenings and rest times, hopefully done by the time I'm back at the shop the next Thursday for binding. Holding this quilt for me is the ever so lovely Janet from Cashmere and Silk, the shop next door to me. Janet has taught Fashion Design and Small Business Management at TAFE (College), and is so generous with her knowledge and experience. I feel like I have struck upon a gold mine! And, she's happy to hold quilts for me to!

This quilt actually started its life as a postage stamp quilt. I wasn't intending for the linen or brick pattern, but as usually happens with my quilts, as I was piecing the little squares together, I realised it was going to be a little small. You see, I never use maths before a quilt. Ever. And I could say it gets me every time, but I like to think that the changes I have to make as I go are all part of my creative process, and if I stopped to count or measure, I might never start cutting! I'm sure I'll regret it someday, but at the moment I'm having fun!

I used a collection of basic prints, gingham, stripes, plaid, dots and then added this Essex Linen in Flax around each rectangle (the size block I was up to when I decided it would be too small!) I backed the quilt with the same prints and added these anchors from Out to Sea.

I then hand-quilted around the bricks in green and teal. I really love the way the linen softens the quilt, but still makes it playful. After I finished, I loved it so much, I almost wished I'd made it single bed size for Tully. In the end, I decided to put it in my shop window, and in my Etsy store. Tully has a quilt that he loves and Evie is such a pink-frills-girly-girl (she didn't get that from me!) that she would snub her nose at it! She'd like the one I'm working on now. I'll show you photos of that when the weather clears up.
xx

Little Boys Chevron Quilt.

I'm loving the time being in my shop is giving me to make quilts! Especially now that the Christmas rush has died down. Here's one I actually finished a while ago, but today all the planets have aligned and I had the right computer cords and gadgets to connect to the internet and blog while in here!

I made this quilt from a mix of greys, yellow, oranges and greens. I used a mix of novelty prints, all subtle and sweet. I sewed strips together in groups of four, then cut these shapes using the 60 deg line on my ruler. (Cutting the opposite direction for half of them!)

Then I sewed them together, one above the other into long, parallel lines, and sewed these ones together.

The result, I think, is a subtle, yet warm and fun baby quilt.

I backed it with these beautiful prints from Saffron Craig and Aneela Hooey and hand quilted every other row of zigzag. Come visit me in Hunter St to wrap it around you, or it's also available here.
Hope you're well! xx

P.S. What do you think of my new blog look? 

Beautiful Cushions

A cushion for Christmas is a lovely thing, don't you agree? Especially one to grace such a beautiful chaise lounge. For me, the perfect gift is an unnecessary one, a decorative one. I like beauty for Christmas.

I made these cushions and little fabric art for Tim's mum for our family Secret Santa. (She chose the recipients, do you think it was rigged? ;)) They were made to match the wall art above, a gift a few Christmases ago. I used a mix of scraps from my stash and leftovers from the wall hanging.

Ooh! Looking at these photos again makes me want to pull my scraps out! I've really appreciated everyone's encouragement with my {new} fabric fast this year. I'm up to day 5 (only 360 to go!) and have only had about 10 or 12 major doubting episodes! I feel like a scared caterpillar ready to leave the cocoon. Too daggy a metaphor? I hope not! It's helping me to embrace the challenge and anticipate the outcome.
A Colourful New Year to you!
Jodi. xx

A New Resolve

There's nothing like a packing disaster to bring out the creative juices at Christmas! As designated Table Decorator, it was with great disappointment that I realised once I left the shop Saturday afternoon that I had forgotten to bring home my Christmas fabric which would be turned into napkins and bunting. So during our little unplanned stop over in Glen Innes, I went a-fabric-hunting, hoping for some inspiration for sewing machine-free decorations.

I ended up picking 6 colourful prints and getting 30cm (1/3yd) cuts of each. Then, while in the car, I cut roughly 1.5" wide strips, cut them again about 5" long, folded them in half length-ways and tied them together. I hadn't yet planned what I would use it for, and in the end it became a wreath around the candle in the centre of the table.

Then I cut roughly 5" strips from each of the colours, and then cut those into triangles.  I then employed Tim's brother Jesse to help me hand sew two triangles to each side of a ribbon to make this bunting.

I then started to sew fabric flowers together from strips like the one peaking out of the bunch below. Jesse, thinking he was copying me, grabbed the left over triangles and started sewing them into a posy. Thinking he was failing, he quickly whipped up over a dozen flowers in the time I made four! And don't they look great?

This experience of making something with little, of things not going to plan, but still working out beautifully, has confirmed an idea I've had in mind for sometime and finally decided to put it into action for next year.

The picture below is an example of my scrap stash. I have 5 other pillow cases-full like this one. It's inaccessible and uninspiring (though I have to say, I do like the photo!).



I don't know about you but I buy fabric when there's a sale, when there's something new, when I see something I could make, when I'm hormonal, when I'm angry at Tim, when I feel like treating myself, when I run out of a particular print, when I have a custom order... and the list goes on. I love it, and there are some amazing stores out there. But lately I've started to feel like I'm becoming more of a manufacturer than an artist, especially since opening my little shop.

A few months ago, I had the idea of having a 'new fabric fast'. I loved the idea of challenging myself to get through my scraps and use my stash, but I just let it sit for a while so I didn't jump in then regret it. When I was given the shop in town, I was glad I hadn't jumped in yet, but the idea has still been calling. You see, I'm longing for creative expression again. I'm longing to stretch myself. Added to this, I feel like my approach to fabric shopping hasn't actually fit in with my ideals of simplicity and kindness to the earth and others. And I'd like to use a period of time to think those through in light of my vocation.
So... (can I actually say it? Argh! It will make it so official! Do I really want this? Yes. Ok.) I'm officially announcing 2013 as the year of the {new} Fabric Fast! I'm not going to buy any new fabric for a whole year!
So what can I buy? I'm going to allow myself to buy wadding/batting, thread, thrifted (second hand) fabrics/clothes, and other notions. 

I'm hoping to think through things like cotton and the environment, sustainability and creativity, getting through my works-in-progress, and more personal things like what drives me to make, what it means to express who I am, and where I want to take it from here.
I'm still planning to make clothes, but with a more scrappy, colourful bent. And perhaps with more linen and denim? And I really want to give time to more quilts. I especially think my little space in this old high-end department store lends itself more unique, more colourful and more time-intensive projects.

So what do think? Feel free to join me! You could join in for as little or long as you like. And what do you think I should get before I start?? What would you buy if you knew you were going without new fabric for a year? Lots of little bits or a whole stack of white? And what are your tips for organising your scraps so that you're inspired to use them? Especially funny-shaped scraps leftover from clothes. Would you cut it all into patchwork-able pieces? or just sort them into colour and cut as you need? Ooh! I can't wait to start!

Happy New Year!
Jodi. xx

Christmas Adventures

 It was only last Christmas that I was reflecting that the Nativity story was one of things not going to plan (or at least, not our plan). An unexpected pregnancy, unexpected travel plans, unexpected accommodation. It gave me hope amidst Tim's unemployment.
I'm writing this post from Glen Innes, a lovely little town in northern country NSW. We 'should' be setting the table at Tim's parents' place, another 6 hours drive north, or drinking cider or making decorations. Instead, we had an unexpected stop over after two flat tyres, the second on a Sunday afternoon after everything was closed.

Miraculously, our spare tyre blew out in the middle of no-where where we happened to have full phone reception.
Miraculously, we had been forced to updated our roadside assistance membership last time Tim travelled and had car troubles. (Miraculously, I had decided to stay home from that trip, our yearly trek to Dubbo to see friends and family, and my folks had agreed to come up and watch the kids while I was in the shop. So we weren't all stuck on the side of the road for hours. Poor Tim though!)

Miraculously, our roadside assistance offered to pay our accommodation for the night, even though they usually don't for our level of membership or for flat tyres.
And last night, I had the best night sleep I've had in weeks.

Tully and Evie thought it was the best Christmas ever, to ride in a big truck and stay in a motel with a TV in their room!

 Before our little adventure in Glen Innes, I was thinking and journalling about my Christmas blog post. Tully lately has been trying so hard to figure out what's real, what exists. He's so sure the Octonauts (an animated TV show about animal marine biologists) really do live under sea, and that one day he will too. But he's not so convinced about snakes. Or dragons. Or The Wiggles. And I've been slow tell him what's 'real' and what's not. Afterall, what four year old doesn't want to believe there are dragons to fight, or ride, or a place waiting for him in a submarine? And while I can tell him about the things I know are real, I'm also so aware that there could be a whole world of unseen things I know only vaguely about. After all, it's been said that at the first Christmas, a bunch of of terrified shepherds witnessed a whole choir of carolling angels.

A few Christmases ago, I wrote a song about a retelling of the Christmas story, hidden at the very end of the Bible. I love it because it reminds me of something Tolkien may have written. Complete with dragons, a mother decorated with the moon and stars, and a great rescue.

Here's my version of it:

Hey woman, clothed in the sun
How do you feel now the battle's begun
The Dragon is angry, flung stars from the sky
Now waits to devour your babe as you cry

Sleep now, Sun Woman,
Sleep now.
Rest now Sun Woman
The desert awaits you
Woman clothed in the Sun

Hey woman, moon at your feet
fly away now out of his reach
the river rises to take you away
mouth open wide, earth swallows its prey

Sleep now, Sun Woman,
Sleep now.
Rest now Sun Woman
The desert awaits you
Woman clothed in the Sun

Hey woman, stars in your hair
What will you do with the child in your care
let him be taken to his throne in the sky
where his blood will hurl the dragon from light

Sleep now, Sun Woman,
Sleep now.
Rest now Sun Woman
The desert awaits you
Woman clothed in the Sun

Wishing you a Christmas, not free from adventures, but safe from dragons and full of miracles,
Jodi. xxx

Edited Christmas Day: We made it last night! Just in time for family festivities!