Some of my first quilts and some stuff I crocheted at about the same time.

I was actually looking for a photo of a quilt that my Mum made ... but I fell across a whole heap of other photos that I thought I should put on my blog too.


These are couple of A4 sized quilts I did for a challenge back in the year 2000:





The theme for these 2 was "Keep it simple" - so how much more simple can u get than "Eternity"? lol


... the other one, "Continuum", was meant to be the simplest way I could "draw" a representation of life, the universe and everything ...

2000 was the year that the MQ yahoogroup was started - so that a group of us on the Scquilters yahoogroup could use it to do a mystery quilt that one of the members had designed for us - a few weeks before the sewing day the person running it posted (to the yahoogroup) a list of how many fabrics and instructions about what ones had to be light/dark/medium/bright/etc and what had to contrast, or not, with what (and yes, I chose bright pink for the "medium" and a medium green for the "bright" - but it worked out well so I am glad I did it that way) ... and shortly after that - a week or so before the sewing day - she posted some cutting instructions - so we could cut the fabrics into the bits we needed to start with (so that we were ready to start sewing on the day, and so the sewing/etc would fit in one day). Then on the sewing day we got sent some instructions about every hour or so until we were supposedly finished ... of course some of us got a bit (lot? lol) behind ... I actually joined in at the last minute, signed up for the yahoogroup the instructions came on at about 11pm on the night before the sewing day (while chatting on ICQ - some of those I was chatting with were doing it too), I went out for most of the day and then started cutting out my fabric when the fast sewers were putting their blocks together! But I decided it was about time I finished a "proper" quilt, rather than A4 sized things and one other big quilt that was badly quilted in a hurry with very thick batting (it is nice and warm though ;-)


One "quilt inspector" had to make sure I was quilting it snuggly enough:





... and the other "quilt inspector" had to make sure I sewed on the binding so it was nice and sittable:





... if you look closely (click to see a larger image ;-) at the bottom of the picture you can see my needle and thread next to the cat's backside - I had the camera next to me while I was sitting and sewing so when she sat on me I picked up the camera and took the photo ...


I also did this bit of freeform crochet around the same time as the quilt (give or take a month or 3)





it was originally meant to be a necklace but I use it as a hair thingy ;-)


and, because I do both quilty stuff and crochet, I just had to put some crochet on my quilt!





so it has a little crochet flower smack bang in the middle ;-)


and yes - I even put it in the Canberra Quilters Exhibition (cat hair included ;-)

... so here is the standard "brag photo" of me and my quilt:





this is the back - showing my attempts at stipple quilting ...





That quilt was "MQ1" ... and we did it fairly early in the year. Later in that year, during the Olympics actually, we did "MQ2" (over the next 2 or 3 years we also did MQ3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10 ... I joined in for all of them, but only a few of them are actually finished - the rest are UFOs waiting to be quilted, or still waiting for me to finish sewing the blocks/etc together)


I did my sewing on the day for MQ2 ... but this is one of those I never did get around to finishing - so mine is still a UFO ... all it is so far is a top, and a few ideas:





and no - you are not seeing things - I DID choose gold lame for one of my fabrics!!! ... I wasn't sure if I was being brave or stupid, and I got laughed at when I told everyone what I was using, but I love how it turned out!


Actually it was funny when I draped it across a space in my sewing room one day - was trying to spread it out a bit while I pondered what i might do in the way of quilting ... and the middle was hanging down between whatever I had draped it over and the gold lame looked like it was lying in a pool in the bottom ... kind of like Odo (the shape shifter from Star Trek Deep Space 9) was lying in my quilt! ... so that kind of led to my quilt having the creative? title of "Changeling: from the Ole ympics to the stars" ... the "ole" bit is because they had the opening ceremony for the soccer here in Canberra and my son and I were part of it - he was one of a few hundred kids who were dancing to that "ole ole ole" song and I was one of a small group of parents who dragged out a couple of big banners that were unfurled during the dance. (the changeling bit is because of the Odo thing and because it kind of changed as it was made, and I changed the fabrics from normal to weird ;-) ... the olympics bit is because that is when it was made, and the stars bit is because the kids dancing were stars for the night, the athletes were stars and the quilt looks like a star, one of the fabrics has stars on, and I think I might put star shaped sequins (or maybe glittery beads to look like stars) on the quilt and/or quilt stars on at least some of it ... my quilt names can mean all sorts of odd things!)

I just found a photo of a crochet log cabin rug I made early in the same year ... actually I must have made it in 1999 ... because the filename says I took the photo on 1st January 2000:





It is an "Auntie Andrea" thing - I made it for one of my brother's kids ;-)


... I also made 2 more later - because he and his wife had 2 more kids ... lol


This is one of them - made late in 2000





actually that isn't an Auntie Andrea one - it is another one I made, but not for a neice or nephew.


ah - here is the 2nd one - I took a wild guess and it was in the first folder I looked in - I made it in late 2000 ... I wonder why I have that folder in with the 2001 folders though? ... I really need to sort out some of those old folders of photos ... LOL





and after much hunting around in folders of photos I found the 3rd one, made in 2003.





Hmmm ... i have found some photos of stuff that is not finished ... wasn't then, still isn't now! LOL


so ...


here are just one or 3 of my numerous UFOs :


(a UFO is an Un Finished Object)


this is really only an idea for some fabric scraps someone gave me, and some more I already had ... I will probably find this little pile somewhere in a box when i finish my sorting out ...





this lot is probably in a box somewhere too ... more scraps I got from various people/places





... they talk to me, and tell me they want to be things, but then I never seem to get around to actually making them all ... I need 50 more hours in each day ...


hmmm ... a pile of "sig scquares"





... we swap these on the scquilters yahoogroup ... I now have heaps more ... all in a nice pile or 2 in a box (and I know where that one is) ... I plan to make them into a quilt (or 2) one year ... I also have 2 piles of Scquilters ICQ sig squares to make into quilts too ... one year ... sigh ...


aaahrgh ... there is a mozzie in here (itch itch scratch scratch grrrrr)


... and I still have not found that other photo I was looking for ...


but I found this





a few years ago, group of us used to meet one evening each week and do crafty stuff ... one of the things we did was to all do blocks from someones copy of a quilting book ... not sure what the title of the book was - it was one of the ones written by Margaret Rolfe ... with lots of quilt blocks of Aussie animals etc in it ... I chose to do a kangaroo one - which is the block in the middle of this quilt ... it was supposed to be 2 colours but I couldn't decide between the green or the blue with the brown "skippy" ... so I decided to use both and have grass and sky ... then I added the black around it and then the border of furnishing fabric samples (which was what the block in the middle was made from too!) I decided that the "skipawobbly" (we give kangaroos all sorts of nick names ;-) looked like it was hopping away so I called the quilt "Oo roo" (Hooroo is one of many Aussie ways of saying goodbye/see u later/whatever)


This is something I threw together with 5 squares of fabric I got in a bag of scraps, and some black velvet!





I was going to arrange it the other way, so the black squares were not on the corners ... but my daughter was playing with the fabric and she said it looked better this way ... so I decided "why not?" and did it her way ... I think she was right ;-)

Anyway ... the mozzies are still eating me (probably means they will follow me to the bedroom too ... that or their mates are already there)


but ... I DID find that other photo I was looking for (it was in the same folder as the 3rd crochet "Auntie Andrea" rug ;-)


... I won't put it in here with this lot, because that is another story ... maybe tomorrow ... or later if I decide to blog about feather stitch first ... (that was the stitch for this week's TAST challenge).


goodnight ...