Bits and Bobs #4 - School holidays and projects!

This week has been great - I took the week off of work and the girls and I have had a nice relaxing school break. We visited the museum, caught up with a family friend for lunch, went to the movies (to see The Secret Life of Pets), visited a play cafe with a school friend, had a successful (and cheaper than expected) dentist appointment for Zoe, a trip to the zoo and a library visit. Definitely fun times! Unfortunately, it is back to work for me tomorrow - so I won't get to spend the entire holidays with them - but I am very thankful for the week we just had.

We also looked at three houses this weekend with my best friend. She is looking to buy an investment property and she would be renting it out to me. Our deadline is mid-January when my lease is up, so we have until mid-December to find something. Exciting times!

Now onto my creative endeavours. Currently I have 4 quilts on the go in various stages. First of all there is the mega quilt (EPP hexagon quilt) - which I generally work on one night a week, and realistically I need to work it on more often if I ever want to get it finished. The second quilt is for my friend Janice - she is due in November with her first baby boy. It is a simple HST quilt using the fabrics in the above photo. I will finish piecing the top tomorrow night.


My third quilt on the go is my #100days100blocks quilt - I worked ahead and have now finished the 100 blocks, now I need to add the sashing and piece the top together. So this project is currently stalled because I need to purchase black fabric for the sashing before I can move on.


And finally my fourth quilt on the go is my 9 patch quilt, which is all basted and ready for my sashiko thread and big stitch quilting. I am just waiting on some quilter's tape to ensure I get nice clean lines. I ordered some online - and may have accidentally ordered a few new pieces of fabric too.... whoops!


I have practiced my stitching on some scrap fabric and batting and I think I am ready to go. Then it will be binding and one finished quilt - hurray!


Reading: Amy Butler's Style Stitches by Amy Butler (kinda crushing on Amy Butler's style at the moment)

Listening: Crowded House and Washington. 

Watching: Gilmore Girls - finished all 7 seasons!!!

Eating: Good old Sara Lee strawberry cheesecake.

Til next time!

Bits and Bobs #3 - First step in machine piecing and fabric purchases

This week I started my little table runner quilting project, and I quickly realised how little I know! First of all - pressing. It seems like an easy enough thing to do, but I don't know if it is me or my iron - but it did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. Perhaps I need to be using starch to help? I'll see how it goes next time and go from there. Secondly - cutting. Again, seems like an easy enough thing to do, but I definitely need to work on my technique to increase my precision. Thirdly - actually sewing, I am a bit unsteady - which of course meant I went a little bit wonky. All in all though - I think I am going well. One small step on my long journey to quilty awesomeness.

I quickly realised that my seams are definitely not 1/4" (much bigger), so I ordered a 1/4" foot for my sewing machine to help me in the future. I've also ordered some Aurifil thread and some fabric online - eep! I can't wait until I get my packages - happy mail!!

I may have also bought some fabric from Spotlight. I spotted this cute bird pattern and decided to find some coordinating fabrics to go with it - yellows, corals, black, grey and teal. I'm quite excited by it!


I'm planning to use the new fabric to have a go at the #100days100blocks Instagram sew-along with Gnome Angel, Sweet Little Pretties and Sunflower Quilting. Seems like an absolutely crazy thing to do, but I'm going to try my hardest and just see what happens. I think I am actually going to make two quilts from the 100 blocks - 35 blocks will go towards a baby quilt and 65 towards a lap(ish) quilt. So I will need to find some different fabric choices for the 35 baby blocks - more fabric fun!


Reading: Tula Pink's City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks by Tula Pink

Listening: David Bowie and Prince - still so sad that two of my favourites passed away this year.

Watching: Gilmore Girls, the Masterchef finales and The Bachelor (guilty pleasure).

Eating: Home cooked meals - all week long! Yay for being organised!


Til next time!

Bits and Bobs #1 - English paper piecing, cross stitch and podcasts

Welcome to Bits and Bobs - my new weekly blog post about all of the random things that are happening in the world of The Red Deer. I have been biting my nails thinking about what I want this blog to be - making myself a nervous wreck, and then last night I had a brain wave! I said to myself "Alicia, how about you just chill out and go with the flow for once?" - and that is exactly what I am going to do! I have no grand plan at this stage - I'm just going to use this platform to share what I am doing and what is happening in my life, and hopefully make some online friends who have similar interests to me. And thus I have decided that a weekly bits and bobs post is a great way to ease me in. I'm just going to keep it casual and keep a record of what is important to me week-to-week.


So first of all I have been working on "the mega quilt" - I finished all of my hexagons that were already basted, and now I am back to basting up the next batch. Basting is definitely not my favourite part of the process, and I sometimes freak out about how many hexagons there are on this quilt (2,936 to be exact). I have completed 13 out of 57 rows of the quilt - so 670 hexagons down so 2,266 to go! Yep, it is going to be quite a few more years before this one is finished.


The other project that I am part way through is the Old Metal Roof House cross stitch. I'm planning to have this framed and then gift it to my mum for Christmas this year. I still quite enjoy cross stitching - I find it quite soothing and I love the beautiful embroidery thread. I think after I finish this pattern though I would like to start creating my own patterns and try something a little bit different. I tried to start playing around with ideas on the bus into work, but it turns out that motion sickness and cross stitch pattern design don't go well together.


So on the bus I can't draw or design or read, but I can listen to podcasts! I've been doing that every day and loving it! That is one great thing about public transport - it gives you the chance to do absolutely nothing and just sit back (or stand up) and listen to some wonderfully inspirational people. At the moment I am going through all of the Crafty Planner episodes - and I just can't get enough, I've also listened to all of the Craft-ish episodes and soon I will need to find another source to feed the addiction.


I've also decided to start another project - because you can never have enough projects on the go. I want to start machine piecing - so I am going to make a simple table runner to get me started. I chose to just keep it simple for this project - it is going to be simple squares using the blue/aqua solids and the yellow flower pattern, the backing will be the aqua with gold and the binding will be the black and white print. I am nervous about getting started, but I am building myself up to it - any moment now....

Just got to get my machine up and running - I kinda broke the needle last time I used it, and then I should really get started. Once I have that tiny project done I have a whole list of things that I would like to try. However, I need to remember to take it one step at a time. Baby steps Alicia, baby steps.

Reading: Quilting Basics - A step-by-step course for first-time quilters by Michael Caputo

Listening: Crafty Planner podcast, Craft-ish podcast and Michael Jackson (always Michael Jackson)

Watching: Gilmore Girls (season 1 and start of season 2) and Orange is the New Black (season 3)

Eating: Homemade banana cake with lemon icing mmmmmm


Til next time!

Valentine Craft Swap

Guess what I got in the mail? Yep that's right I got my crafty goodness from Ruth who I was partnered up with for the Valentine Craft Swap that was put on by Becky over at Strumpet's Crumpets. Ruth made me this extremely cute fabric basket. I really love the colours and patterns that she chose, but now I am just trying to figure out what I want to store in it. It is only a small basket - any ideas?



Thanks again Ruth for doing the swap with me - I had a lot of fun making my plush cupcake for you and I really love my fabric basket.

Yay my first craft swap was a success!