Category Archives: Sewing

Patchwork Prep

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Now that the last quilt has been completed and is with its new owner, it is time to show you my future patchwork plans.

I have been cutting out blocks ready for a quilt that is predominantly pink. It will be an 18th birthday gift for our elder granddaughter at the end of next year so I have plenty of time. I have about two-thirds of the total number of squares required. These all came from various pieces that were in my stash. Now that I have sorted out exactly what I have I know what I am looking for as I peruse fabrics and garments in the op shops. I am looking forward to getting started on sewing some of the blocks. However, unlike previous patchwork projects, I have decided that I am not going to actually start sewing until I have cut out all of the blocks I need.

Meanwhile, I have begun assembling some fabrics for another possible project. This is not much more than a vague idea at the moment but I am thinking of red, black and white.

Of course, my sewing is not limited to the patchwork. I am generally tackling several sewing projects concurrently. I also have socks to mend, a pair of denim shorts to modify slightly and several linen tops/dresses which I plan to refashion for summer. My other goal is to make some fabric tote bags to donate to our local community pantry for people to use when collecting groceries.

A Spot of Sewing

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Food preparation and cooking has been my main focus for the past few days as we prepare to host a birthday lunch for GMan on Sunday. There will be more details about what is on the menu in a future post.

Today I managed to do a bit of sewing in between the cooking. I had noticed that the covers on a couple of the spare pillows were looking a bit stained and generally less than ideal. So, I decided that it could not be too difficult to replace them.

The first step was to carefully slit the end of the cover and remove it. The inside of the pillow is simply no more than a compressed bundle of microfibre filling in the appropriate shape.

I used the old cover to cut a new piece of fabric from some offcuts of sheeting in my stash and stitched 3 sides before carefully replacing the pillow inside.

The end was then pinned.

Finally, I stitched and finished the seam with bias binding.

The 2 revamped pillows in their pillowcases and back on the bed.

Finished and Delivered

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I have been working furiously over the past couple of days to finish handsewing the binding on the quilt. I had set myself a deadline as we were going to visit our daughter today. It is no mean feat to hand sew tiny stitches around 8 metres of binding but it is now all done and the quilt is firmly ensconced with its new owner.

Here is the final result.

Apparently, someone else thinks it is pretty good too.

Now that I have completed that job I can turn my attention to a few other jobs around the house that need doing.

A Dog’s Day

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During the past few days my time has been consumed by some admin work I am doing for a local community group so it has not really been suitable material for a blog post.

However, today I got back to some serious mending and it was all about our dog. She is now nearly 4 years old and has lost many of her destructive tendencies but a few persist.

We bought her a small foam couch 12 months ago when we moved here and it had remained intact until a couple of days ago. She was in the sewing room in the sun when GMan discovered her latest antics. A significant piece of the fabric had been destroyed and there were several small pieces of foam being chewed off. I was not pleased at this apparent brain snap. Anyway, I have hand-stitched a decent-sized denim patch to cover the damaged area and I hope we do not have a repeat performance any time soon.

The other project was to revamp her bed which was definitely looking much the worse for wear.

That is actually the second version in almost exactly 2 years. You can read about the first one here.

It is just as well that my fabric stash includes a number of quite heavy upholstery fabric pieces so it was a simple matter of finding another suitable piece to make yet another new cover.

Here it is – ready for bedtime.

Winter Winners

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We were out and about today in a town about 40 minutes drive from home. The purpose of our visit was see 2 different exhibitions about nursing and midwifery which were of particular interest to me. One was in the local museum so we also saw other local historical memorabilia. We also caught up with some extended family at a local cafe.

Since we were walking down the street between venues I spotted an op shop so we decided to check it out. They had a lovely selection which was nicely displayed. GMan found a white tshirt which had been on his ‘to buy’ list so I was just idly waiting while he tried it on when I spied a coat. It was red. Be still my beating heart.

This vintage red duffle coat is all I could have hoped for. It is wool/cashmere blend, fully lined, made in Australia from Italian fabric. A perfect fit and cost me $20.

It has definitely been a successful week of op shopping. When we were in Bendigo on Wednesday I bought a red wool blend jumper for $6 which also appears to be a vintage piece as well as a long sleeve shirt which is white with navy spots in a soft cotton fabric for the princely sum of $2.50. It will be more suitable for spring than winter, though.

My other purchase which does not rate a photograph was a king-size doona cover for $8 which I unpicked so that I could use the back of it for the backing of the recently finished patchwork quilt. I took that to be quilted today so I should be able to show you the finished product in a week or so.

Nearly Finished & A New One

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Today I sewed all of the patchwork blocks together.

My next step is to contact a lady who has a longarm machine to do the quilting. Once that is done I will bind the edges and the quilt for our daughter will be complete. I am hoping that I will have it done in the next 2 weeks so that it is finished in time for her birthday.

I am already planning my next project which is a similar quilt for our elder granddaughter. My goal is to have it done for her 18th birthday which is at the end of 2025. I know that sounds a long way away but it does take time to source suitable fabric and cut the squares before you even start sewing the blocks. Of course, I don’t work on them consistently as there is always other sewing to do as well cooking, gardening and simply having a life.

I have made a start by finding the precut pink fabric I had on hand as well as beginning to cut some larger pieces. I need 378 5 inch squares to make a QS quilt.

Do you have any long-term craft projects that you return to from time to time?

42 Finished

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This morning I completed the last stage of the final seven blocks for the patchwork quilt I am working on for my daughter.

The pile of 42 blocks does not look particularly impressive for the amount of work that went into them

However, the work is more evident once they are all spread out. The next step was to adjust the blocks to get the best balance of colours and patterns.

I think I am happy with this layout.

An Original Design

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My sewing project today was rather different from anything I had done before.

When we left Queensland GMan sold his large mulcher which was very useful for our small acreage with plenty of vegetation but he could not see a use for it on a suburban block. Nevertheless, he found a need for a smaller version so bought this one secondhand several months ago.

It does have a minor design flaw and the mulched material tends to spray everywhere. So, he asked me to make a ‘skirt’ to direct the mulch into the collection receptacle. I have been considering this rather bizarre request for a few weeks and today I finally came up with a plan.

I found a pair of heavy denim shorts in my collection of assorted discarded fabrics and (mostly) unwearable garments. The fabric was integral to their suitability for the project and GMan’s comment was, “you could just use one leg” gave me the general idea.

This was what I ended up with. I used the waistband of the unused half of the shorts to make the straps. The straps fasten around the legs of the mulcher and are attached with 2 velcro strips.

It is not the fanciest sewing I have ever done but I think it is going to be effective.

This photo shows the new ‘skirt’ in place on the mulcher.

I am pretty happy with the end result and it cost me nothing apart from about 30 minutes of my time. We will see how it works when GMan next uses the mulcher. Some modifications my be required.

Inching Slowly Forward

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My recent sewing has been doing some paid alterations to 3 skirts. Now that they are finished I have turned my attention to my ongoing patchwork project.

I completed 2 more blocks this afternoon.

That leaves just 7 more blocks to do to have enough for the QS quilt. I need about 6 more squares but I have exhausted my supply of suitable colour fabrics so I will check out the op shop tomorrow when we are out and about.

I hope to be able to have the quilt assembled as pass it on to a contact who has a long arm machine to quilt it.

I have other sewing to work on as well as a germ of an idea for my next patchwork project but more about that another day.

Two For One

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When I decided to dress as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz in Easter Parade I was keen to not buy anything new so I started searching for some light blue gingham fabric in the op shops. GMan was with me and spotted a QS doona cover and 2 pillowcases which proved to be perfect. The linen had obviously been discarded as parts of it were significantly faded but I knew there would be plenty for what I needed. I made the pinafore dress and slightly adapted a blouse I had previously made.

Ever since our girls left home we have had a queen size bed in the spare room. For a number of years it was used as an Air BnB so the bed was always made up and ready. Since then I continued to do the same as there was often a family member visiting.

However, the bed is used much less these days and I always have plenty of notice so I can make it up as required. This means that I do not have a full set of bed linen tied up but not really being used. I did not really want the bare mattress exposed so one possibility was to cover it with a spare doona cover. The downside of this is the potential for it to fade as this room enjoys the morning sun which is very welcome in the cooler months.

I realised that I still had all of the other side of the cover I had used for my costume. So, I simply hemmed the edge and now I have a pretty cover for the bed and it doesn’t matter if it fades over time.

Sheets and doona covers from op shops are a great source of fabric for a variety of projects. There are always lots to choose from and I have been lucky enough to find a very specific item on several occasions. As well as these creations I also found white cotton sheet sets that I used to make 8 tablecloths for the film society. You can read about that here. A mint green sheet from the op shop provided enough fabric for the backing of a quilt. You can see it in this post. The possibilities are endless if you view them as large pieces of fabric rather than bed linen.