… Not to be confused with My First ABC or My First Numbers or other such books!
So, since moving to Japan just over a month ago, I’ve faced a few hurdles to overcome. Mainly the fact that while my sewing machine made it safely through all our flights, Ellie the Elna just would not work on the Japanese voltage. She’s used to much stronger juice back in Australia and she was sadly placed away in the cupboard. I was facing an unknown amount of time without a sewing machine and was honestly feeling the loss! Fortunately I was loaned a machine by one of my husband’s colleagues so I could hem new curtains. Ahem, yes, of course that was the first thing I did.
Not.
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| Artsy Instagram photo doesn’t improve it much! |
The machine was a compact and portabe Brother Sincere-L. It was operated by buttons alone and had 2 speeds – slow and half as slow. It was jolty and shuddery, but hey. It worked. So I pulled out some snaplock bags of scraps I’d brought with me to have a play with. It’s amazing what taking the pressure off does! I just had fun, made it up as I went along and experimented.
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| Finished quilt top (Amelia by Me and My Sister) |
I’ve had this fabric sitting around for a few months now. I had bought a layer cake to make a baby quilt for a friend and decided to just get over my hoarding tendencies and use it already. I managed to use up all the pre-cut/pieced scraps plus the coordinating pieces (leaving just one colourway that just didn’t seem to work for me). So this is now sitting on my WIP quilt top pile along with a lap-size Good Fortune quilt top. I just need to get around to buying batting! And I don’t know where this little pretty will end up. Maybe an Etsy store, maybe in my baby quilt stash for new, pregnant friends? We shall see.
Next in the scrappy collection comes this randomly pieced rectangle. It was my first go at a string block or even at paper piecing. I then cut it up and re-pieced randomly and added a top and bottom border. I’m thinking maybe it will become a pouch one day? Who knows. I think this can go into a UFO pile for now.
This is the remains of the scraps of a City Weekend charm pack. I had some leftover triangles, which became HSTs, which just kept on growing. It’s sitting at about 14.5″ and potentially could keep growing with coordinated scraps, but I’m not sure I want to invest that length of time in it! One option is to add a 2.5″ border and make it a pillow, but it’s not really to our house’s tastes (aka not my husband’s taste!). Or maybe buy coordinating fabrics and make a floor cushion for our tatami playroom. But for now it can join the long-term-WIP pile (not unfinished, just slow!).
The happy ending of this post is that after tossing up whether to just buy a new machine or not (which would’ve been in a couple of months’ time at least), we decided to just buy a converter transformer and an adaptor so that Ellie the Elna is now proudly back out of the cupboard and in full swing once more! Ahhh, there’s nothing like your own machine… And once I had her back, I continued work on my In Color Order Block of the Month as seen yesterday!
Joining up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Happily scrappily,
Alyce xx
Cherie says
Scrappy projects are the best. No need to cut into new fabric either. Loving the quilt top so cute! =D
AlyceB says
I’ve only just started to have enough scraps to actually work with, and I can’t wait to collect more! Thank you 🙂
quilterliz says
Love these scrappy projects!
AlyceB says
Thank you!
Kristy QP says
Oh so glad you got your machine back! I’m impressed at how much you managed on a loaner!
AlyceB says
Desperate times call for desperate measures, haha! I seriously think that taking the pressure off worrying about the technical side of seams and straightness helped me to just sew whatever came out. Know what I mean?
wannabequilter.com says
I love what you did with your Ameila fabric – I have a jelly roll of it that I’m going to do a Jelly Roll 1600 with someday…. 🙂
AlyceB says
Thank you! I love that it’s girly but with a slight edge of brightness to it. Oooh, that sounds interesting! Off to Google it!
Tracey @ The Peony Teacup says
Hi Alyce, you’ve been nominated for the Liebster Blog Award!
http://thepeonyteacup.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/and-liebster-blog-award-goes-to.html
Debbie says
I love scrappy projects! I can understand borrowing someones machine. It’s just not the same as using your own.
AlyceB says
It sure ain’t. It’s like a holiday – nice for a while to try something new out, but in the end, there’s nothing like home!