Well this week I have finally taken the plunge. After sitting on the fence for ummm probably close to ten years now… or even more I have started to learn to quilt.
I t really has been something I have always wanted to do, I’ve often picked up fabrics here and there and even a number of quilting patterns have turned up in my stash over the years. For one reason or another though I always put it off. NOt this time though, armed with a beginners course that I got for Christmas (ok got myself for Christmas) and the company of a good friend I am tackling my fears and getting started.

The first class was this week and while it was a bite strange and stressful with the idea of meeting new people and everything that goes along with that the overall experience was quite fun. There was a lot to cover in the first class with learning how to use our rotary cutters, cutting accurately and figuring out how best to get our machines set up to do nice accurate and neat seams. Patchwork by hand would be much simpler I’m sure but I’m certain the process will speed up eventually.

The first block we did was an Ohio Star and we concentrated on getting all the pieces cut and ready then on piece the triangles together. I have had to unpick a couple of the seams and redo them because I wasn’t happy with the ones I did at home after the class but I have completed the first part of my homework and finished piecing my first block *hooray* 😀

The top Left hand corner seems a little out of alignment so I may need to redo that but for now I am just happy that my points seem pointy and the seams are pretty much lined up… All in all I would say I’m pretty happy for a first effort.

With the course it is classes every two weeks with homework in between. This fortnight the homework was to complete this block and attempt one other that uses the same piecing and cutting techniques. If we want to make a queen sized quilt then we may want to make more (I am thinking about a Queen sized but we will see how I go).

I’ve looked through the patterns we were given and cam across Jacob’s ladder and clay’s choice which are high on the list of additional blocks I may try for this weeks homework.

There is also Annie’s choice although it is all triangle piecing and cutting and I feel it would be a touch more fiddly so it may be an option for when I have built up more confidence.

I know I was overseas for most of it but January just seems to have flown by. It has been super busy but loads of fun really (all except for the back to work aspect of course).
There was a night out seeing the wonderful Mr Neil Gaiman chat about his books and upcoming projects. I was rather a good fan girl and even purchased three signed books to add to my collection: Anansi Boys, Coraline and other short stories and a copy of American Gods. There was also a short excerpt of his upcoming book “The Ocean at the End of the Lane”. It was a lovely night out though it was odd to see people fixate on film adaptations of his work and his more recent episode of Dr Who (The Doctor’s wife and an upcoming cyberman episode) rather than his more prolific writing career.

Earlier this week on the 30th it was time to go see Cirque du Soleil’s latest offering in Australia “Ovo” as always it was an amazing night out and a much appreciated return of their show to the big top rather than the arena style that they used for Saltimbanco in 2012. I would say that this show is definitely up there as one of my favourites if not the top. The costumes and performances were stunning as always and the storyline blended really well with the clown acts this time. There was so much going on on stage it was hard to keep track of it all making it always interesting and surprising.

At work things have been nuts with the new building almost complete but of course we have had to move in already so there are builders, mad stressed crazy teachers and a few hundred students all busily moving about. As there always is with new builds there are a lot of things that aren’t quite right, some rooms where the power points aren’t working, network issues and the rest. We’re stumbling through though and the new space is so much nicer than the old building you can’t be too grumpy about it. I just wish I got to teach in there more, but with most of my classes in the lab areas I may get to teach in the new areas for 2 lessons a week if I’m lucky.

As you can guess with such a busy routine since getting back from the trip I haven’t had too much time for craft but there are a few things bubbling away in the background. I have done a few more repeats on my simple shawl but truth be told it hasn’t progressed far.

I cast on a new project… it was meant to be Umaro but I had a look at timings and figured the Shale baby blanket may be a bit faster… fingers crossed I was right… So I have cast that on. It will be a really hard ask to get it done by April especially with school camp approaching fast but I am going to give it a go. It is in Bendigo 10ply luxury in Ghost which is a lovely soft grey. The recipient doesn’t know if she is having a boy or a girl so I figured a soft neutral was probably the best way to go but didn’t want white or cream. So far there is 4 repeats completed of the pattern with a suggested 58 complete the blanket…. eeeep. I think I need to do a repeat a day on average which is 4 rows. It is doable but may be a tight squeeze.

There are a few other crafty plans that will keep me busy in February as well.

I have a resin jewellery workshop to attend as well as starting Quilting classes with the lovely Sharon on Thursday nights. There is a small quilting store just up the road here and I discovered late last year they offered a beginners quilting course and well jumped in feet first. Quilting is something I have been toying with for years but kept chickening out of… not anymore. The quilt design for the class is a sampler and truth be told it is probably not my style but it will be a great introduction to the different techniques and open the floodgates to starting some more complex (i.e Jinny Beyer) quilts that are more my style.

Before I headed overseas I had a bit of a shopping spree at GJ’s in Carlton and got what I thought would be my fabrics for the quilt… problem is now I can’t remember exactly what my plan was and I am not so sure about my selections. Woops. The fabrics below are the ones I picked up and of course the colours are not really representative as purples are so hard to get accurate in pictures.
I’m not sure now if I should be madly trying to get more fabric by the 14th or if I should just go with it and see how it turns out… time and effort involved will probably result in the latter option I fear.

The last great plan for this short month is to get back to Rose of Sharon. She is my focus goal for this year and I really need to make sure she keeps ticking over. So to make sure that happens I have agreed to do a SAL of sorts where I will do 100 stitches a week. It isn’t a strict SAL and really the 100 Stitches a week is my minimum goal but I need to be realistic and there are going to be weeks where even that few will be tough. The picture below is Shaz as of the beginning of Feb I’ll probably only update her once a month rather than each week so hopefully the next time you see her there will be a significantly larger portion of that left hand column completed. 🙂

So lets break it down into some formal goals:

February Goals

1. 100 stitches per week on Rose of Sharon
2. 25 repeats of Shale blanket
3. Keep up to date with all my quilting homework (this will be hard I suspect)