So tired and a shirt quilt

Even before our move to the new neighbourhood, a friend, who turned out to be my new neighbour and makes dance costumes for dance schools phoned to say how excited she was that I was about to live across the street from her.  She knew I sew (her word, quilt… my word) and from time to time needs an extra hand to help out.

I went over one morning just to check out what they were doing and by golly, she really needed help as I returned home with a bucket, containing 17 costumes, I needed to hem around all the edges and while walking out, she showed me the next batch of things I had to finish, this entailed sequence to the edges of 11 tutus. I forgot to take a picture of the first costumes but this is an example of the little tutu outfits she makes.

Still busy with the first costumes, a quilter brought a top made from shirts and denim but I thought I’d finish the costumes first.  Easier said than done as I haven’t used my sewing machines with fancy stitches in ages and I don’t think I’ve ever done anything using a twin needle.  I had to rush to our local Pfaff dealer for a crash course in twin-needle stitching and I’ve totally forgotten how to use the computerised machines, constantly forgetting to press the OK button after a selection and couldn’t understand why the darn machine would simply ignore me.

Expecting load shedding early the next morning, whilst not having the hems finished the previous day, I started sewing at 4 am as we expected load shedding at 6 am (which never happened!!). I took the costumes to her just after 8 and the tutus were handed to me with the clear understanding that they were needed before 1 pm.  Gosh I worked like never before in a long time.  I however warned her, after the tutus were done, I need to make time for my customer quilts.

With the tutus delivered in time, I loaded the quilt and what a wonderful feeling to be able to do something that didn’t entail strange needles (even the sequence on these tutus is sewn on with a slightly blunt overlocker needle) or fancy stitches and I invited the neighbour and the other ladies, who work for her, over to show how much easier it was to do quilting opposed to what they did.

At the end of the day, hubby worked out that we from 4 am worked a total of 16 hours straight, him doing the garden shed and his garage and me with the sewing, quilting, not forgetting food and cleaning as well.

On this shirt quilt I decided to do loops and leaves as even though it is made from men’s shirts, it will be gifted to a female. The quilt was fleeced backed with no batting.

Another quilt to give away

When this quilter informed me, she’ll be having one of her most recent tops made, delivered to me, and it was for a charitable cause, I tried to think back on all the quilting I’ve done for her and I could not recall one quilt made just for herself.  It was always for a family member, a colleague, a friend or their children.  This person is amazing.  I told her husband if she took the money spent on others for herself, they’d be able to eat fillet stuffed with blue cheese and mussels daily but apparently, it is her outlet.

A pretty colourful quilt to give a homey feeling to someone in need.

Grandpa’s prayer quilt

How appropriate was this quilt to work on as an Easter project?  The quilter made it for her father-in-law and requested the rays streaming out from behind the focal cross and from the centre of it.

After having marked almost a quarter of the quilt, hubby stood next to me just to inform me that it was all wrong!  Apparently rays closer to the object stay wide towards the end and those having to travel further need to be closer together and the angling has to be spaced.  Now in order for the marking to stay put while handling and rolling the top onto the frame, I had to use a panda pen (wax) and this can only be removed with heat (wash or iron).  Not prepared to wash a top, in fear of fraying, I had to iron over all my lines to get rid of it and then I left the top to the master to mark.

Now looking at it, I guess he was right, as usual, as it seems more believable than my rays that would have been equally spaced.

Easter weekend was the usual overeating family gatherings with the little one’s egg hunting on Friday, the kids over by us for Saturday lunch, Sunday over to daughter-in-law for yet more eating and then today, lunch by us again.

I have accepted I will have to live in a less neat house until the Easter weekend is over.  With plenty of rain, pets and kids with their muddy feet walking in and out, cleaning is simply a losing battle.

Sadly, due to the rain, I was unable to get enough natural light to take a proper photo of the back but here goes my attempt.

Waterfall quilt

When I officially started packing up my sewing room and quilters would still phone me for quilts to do, I said that I will only start taking in work again in mid-May, once I’ve settled after the move.  However dear hubby did so great in moving my frame, the components and the machine and my little Q’nique behaved so well after the move, that I took in my first quilt on 13 April.  I kind of regret this now, as once I have a quilt in my house, everything else will simply have to wait their turn, so cleaning, organizing and meals obviously will have to wait until the latest quilt is done.

With that said, however, I could not have wished for a prettier quilt than this first in the new house to continue my quilting journey….. just take a look at this stunning waterfall quilt (pattern available on Etsy).

Furthermore, the quilter arrived at my house with a massive bunch of flowers to make my new house feel like home and it truly does.  I am just not sure what I will put in this corner once the flowers fade and I definitely do not have money to buy bunches as big as this one.

Hubby has now fixed all the doors going outside as not a single one of these could properly open or close.  As much as I appreciate him being this handy, I am not a fan of having to clean everything AGAIN the moment he does a new improvement or repair.

As I sit here typing, he already removed a small window to create an exit for the cat who was forced to sleep indoors all night long as we had no place for him to come in or go out by himself.  Now to see how long it will take him to realise he can go out by himself.

We had the kids over for lunch this afternoon and it almost feels good to be able to find plates, table mats, serviettes and cutlery.  Hoping it will go better from here on.

On this quilt, I used an edge-to-edge design called Closed curls.

Last quilting done in the old house

A quilter recently told me she took a look at my blog to see whether I was operational after the move or not, sadly not.  This move, after 26 years in our previous house, took a lot from me.  Strangely the packing in the old house was not as terribly, neither the actual move nor the unpacking in the new (much smaller and older) house but by golly, with everything, almost packed out, I could for the life of me, not find certain (rather important) stuff or remember where I packed them.  Frustrating to say the least.

I however finished one more quilt before the move and this was such an interesting difference.  This lady prints photos or pictures on a maximum of 1.5m in width and then this can be used as quilt tops.  The two she brought to me were of woodland animals and all I had to do, was to outline the pictures.

It didn’t look all that glamorous to me until she sent me pictures of the completed quilts and what a difference it made.

I think we’ve finally packed out most, now to just get used to where to find what but we already had friends over for drinks and snacks and it can only get better from here on.