Matching Pegs

It seems that my two main projects at the moment are both worked in rings, and as they get bigger, they grow a little bit more slowly.  I am still enjoying making my rag-rug, but it was time to give my “Wheel-Of-Fortune” some love and attention.

Now that I have completed the 9th, very bright-pink ring, it is getting harder to photograph.  The colours in the top photograph are probably the most accurate.

As I have mentioned before, this bright pink is just a little outside my comfort zone, but I’m very happy with how it turned out.  Next up is a peachy ring of squares, just like the second ring, and after that, one made of the paler browns diamonds, like the centre.

Michaela might give you some idea of the scale of this beauty.

Finally, for those of you that are also a little bit like me with pegs – here is some peg-love…

“Carpets” made of pegs (not to walk on though), an ombre peg backdrop, and an Artist who makes sculpture with wooden pegs – all found via Design Sponge.

Are you doing any “circle work”*?

*the term “circle-work” in Australia generally refers to the driving maneuver that is also called a doughnut.  I’ve never done one!

I’ve been around the rug once again, and then some, with a new colour.  I really wanted something darker, and am pleased with the navy.  Jodie, who is hosting the Rug-Along, sent me a lovely prize, for getting straight into the Rag-Rug-Along, which was lovely.  I feel that the reward of turning old clothes into new items is reward enough, but Amelia has already jumped on the prize, “Three Little Maids” and matching fabric – hoping to make them up herself, so I’m not sending them back!

The navy fabric comes from a pair of size 5 pants that are covered with paint, but the beauty of this stuff is that the fabric rolls up on itself, and you can only see the surface that was once on the inside of the pants – with no paint spots.  This fabric is quite a bit thicker than tee-shirt fabric, so I am cutting a thinner strip of it.  It also looses lots more fluff as I work, so I will have to vacuum a bit more often until I am done, or make it out on the deck.

I also added a large “lazy daisy” in the centre of the rug, with a remaining scrap of purple toddler pants.  I’m pretty happy with it, but can always pull it off if I change my mind.  Here is my post about making a toothbrush rug, if you are interested.  What do you turn your old clothes into?

I have spent the last week with a boring cold/sinus infection which has really slowed down my crafting (and everything else).  Right before I got carried away with Jodie’s Rag-Rug-Along, I started making these blocks for a new quilt, using the Koala fabric that I designed and had printed by Spoonflower.  The co-ordinates are all out of my stash – I am really enjoying this colour combination!

Gosh, I even think the scraps look pretty, very restful.

This quilt is actually a commission of sorts – I am making it for my sister’s nephew, for his 1st birthday.  He lives in the country, and is from my brother-in-law’s side of the family, I have never met him.  I feel pretty safe putting progress shots here, because I doubt his family read my blog, my sister and brother-in-law do though, (I hope you like it Al and Scott).

This quilt is going to be the same design as my Fairy Tale Star Quilt, with almost all of the stars either blue or brown, with the blue koala fabric as the centre of the star.

Just one of the stars has a different coloured centre – another colour-way of my koala fabric.

And here it is, surrounded by yellow.

Hopefully I will get a bit more done now that I am feeling better, but who knows – it’s the school holidays after all.

This toothbrush rug has grown really quickly, it is now 12 1/2″ wide. Best of all, it is made of stuff that was destined to become laundry rags.  So far, the rung contains one PJ leg (the centre), and the bottom few inches of two coral coloured tees of mine.  The blue used to be a tiny t-shirt (size 2) , and the lovely purple fabric was the waist-to-crotch section of some holey, old, toddler pants that both of my girls wore all the time.

I imagine my rug is slightly more irregular than the ones that get made of sheets, or new fabric, because of the side seams on the clothing, but I don’t care.

The main limiting factor is going to be availability of old clothes to make it with.  I would like to add some darker colours to the mix, but don’t have any in my rag basket.  I don’t want to buy any clothes, (even at the op-shop) because I only want to use stuff that is no longer wearable.  I think I will start raiding other people’s rag bags, like my Mum’s.  Mum, you have been warned.

This week I have been playing with these very bright diamonds, working out a pattern for the next ring on my Wheel of Fortune Quilt.  I have just completed a ring of purple squares, like the background in this photo.  In real life the pinks are possibly brighter than they appear on your screen.

If Mainland Australia represented the colours that I am most comfortable with, then these bright babies would be Tasmania, just a little beyond my usual palette and comfort zone.  I like it.

I have assembled the colour for the next couple of rings as well.  Soft peachy colours for the next ring of squares, and cocoa-powder browns for the following ring of diamonds.  These are softer than the chocolate brown of a recent ring, and more like the diamonds in the centre of the quilt.

I fell in love with the very bright pinks of the pink, peach, purple and green of this grape fabric by Martha Negley.  I have used it in two projects on the go, with fairly similar colour schemes – this is my quilt in progress, which features large “bubbles” of fabric on it.

I am gradually hand stitching down the bubbles, which are mostly just basted in place.

So lately it has all been about handwork, with very little sewing machine action.  I think I will probably be revving it up for Christmas though.

How about you – handwork or machine work lately?

So I have switched the squares in the second ring on my quilt – replacing the yellow ones with the pale-peachy ones.  I am really happy with the result.

It is getting much harder to photograph this quilt in it’s entirety, as it grows.  I am not quite finished with the 7th ring, of green diamonds, but I am itching to get started on the next ring, which will most likely be lavender squares (a bit more blueish than the third ring).

You have to go around quite a way before you can see the effect each ring has on the whole of the quilt.  In a few more rings I will need to have another very dark brown one, I think, for balance.  I have some pretty hot-coral pinks waiting to make an appearance too, and I think they will be as punchy as the orange ring.

The back of the quilt poses quite a pressing challenge.  When I say pressing, I don’t mean urgent, I mean pressing with an iron!  There are many intersections that are made up on 6 seams.

I have pressed all the intersections like this in a circular direction, but not the ones on the edge of the quilt, because I still need the stitching lines, which disappear with the heat of the iron.  These lines are marked with a “frixion pen”, which I picked up at Officeworks.

You may not find talking about pressing seams very interesting.  Well for you I have an interesting article, titled “The secret to success is failure” from the New York Times.  The title is much more simplistic than the article, (as titles tend to be).  It is 9 pages long, but well worth a read – make a cuppa first.  It discusses how people that tend to achieve things in life often have particular character traits that are quite separate from their intelligence, and it ponders how to teach or encourage these traits in children.  Can you teach kids optimism, persistence, self control?

It will get you thinking.  Enjoy.

I have been steadily adding to my Wheel of Fortune Quilt, currently half-way around with green diamonds.

It is quite fun coming up with the patterns for each ring, and I love playing with dusty apple green fabrics.

One thing that has been bothering me has been the 2nd ring – the yellow squares.

The fabric I used was not the best quality, a bit too thin and too loosely woven, and  I have not been 100% sold on the colour.

I am not quite at the point of unpicking, but I am certainly getting closer.  I have been auditioning alternative fabrics.  These are three different pale peachy fabrics I am considering.

This is the effect I am closest to settling on.  As usual, a photo doesn’t quite capture the subtleties of colour, and the overcast conditions are making the colours of this quilt look more blah then they are in person.

If I do unpick, it will be a big step, because I have ironed away the stitching lines.  I will have to redraw them on and hope for the best, a prospect that makes me nervous.  I might just decide that the yellow is good enough, even though it is a little more see-through, a coarse than all the other fabrics.

Are you happy to unpick work that you did ages ago, just because you have changed your mind?

Spring seems to be arriving here at the house of Matching Pegs.  It is too nice to stay inside and blog.

Instead, I’m creating something tiny, while I sit outside in the sunshine.

Here is my brand new project, with a new-to-me technique, hand-piecing.

I am lucky enough to be heading off to “sewing camp” as Michaela calls it, next weekend, (also know as the annual retreat for our quilting guild).  Due to space restrictions, I thought this year I should concentrate on hand work, and let others have more space for their sewing machines.  I do plan to take my machine, to hopefully fit in sewing a skirt, but I will probably use one of the dining tables, and clear away at meal times.

The quilt I am making will be a “Wheel of Fortune Quilt” (from one of Kaffe Fasset’s books) which Cathy (Cabbage Quilting) has made twice, and single-handedly inspired me to give it a crack.  The quilt is made with alternating rings of diamonds and squares, each ring being made in a different colour.  That pile of fabric you can see (above) is made up of the fabrics I plan to use, but as the larger rings need up to 88 diamonds (if my maths in correct – I don’t have a book to follow) I may have to change my plans.  I may not have enough of the required fabrics per colour, but because I am winging it, I will only find out as I go.

Here are my homemade templates.  You may be able to see the little tag “handles” that I made for them, by sticking on a bit of sticky-tape, with the centre stuck to itself, (clear as mud huh?).  My accuracy is a bit iffy, because I was aiming to make the templates with 3″ long sides, but they are a fraction longer.  It will be okay though, because the sides on the squares and diamonds match each other.

I have been using the heat-erasable “frixion pen”, I mentioned in my previous post, to mark the sewing lines.  This means I am avoiding pressing the piecing that I have already done, as it will make the lines disappear.  I am a bit nervous about how I will eventually go pressing this quilt, because of all the tricky intersections, particularly the one in the centre.

I have one other new project to hand-sew on retreat, but I will show you that another day.

Have you been hand-piecing recently?

Over the last few days I have completed a quilt top, and co-ordinated backing for a very special person, my twin-brother’s partner, Liz.  Liz had a milestone birthday, earlier in the year, and although this is much belated, this quilt is to mark that milestone.  Actually, it is much more than that.  This quilt is to show her how much I love her, and value her place in our family.

The photos of the quilt top and backing were taken in pretty dodgy light, and so are not true representations, but they are the best I can achieve in the middle of winter.  The predominant colours of the quilt are ruby, coral and chocolate, with the addition on the back of some dusty blue.  Both ruby red, and dusty blue are colours I associate with Liz.

Quilt Particulars – The quilt is another “Disappearing-Nine-Patch” made with 108 x 8 1/2″ squares.  The finished quilt top is approximately 94″ x 71″.

It is a pretty big quilt, but I am going to attempt to quilt it myself, and have purchased some Ruby Red thread to do so.  Now I just have to baste it!  Are you wrangling any large quilts at the moment, or are some hiding in your cupboard because they are so large?