She arrived.

That's right - she!

Susannah came into the world three and a half weeks ago. Chez clutterpunk is besotted.

Our family has been enjoying a quiet 'babymoon' with the help of my wonderful parents and sister. Justin has been home, the boys have been eased into the new reality, and we've been well fed and rested!

I've enjoyed a great gift - the space to sit around drinking cups of tea, cuddling my delicious newborn girl and working with her on the breastfeeding (which was a bit bumpy to start with but is now well-established).

Tomorrow, we are heading into our first week alone as a family of five. And although I'll miss all the adult company and spare hands, I'm more excited than nervous.

But first, S and I are enjoying our first 'girly day' alone. Sensibly, she's spent most of it sleeping so far. As for me, I've finally cracked out the craft... wheeeeeee!

Life has resumed. It feels good.

My creative space...taking shape.

It feels like I've been doing a refresher in primary school geometry in my creative space recently. 

This week I've completed the piecing of these half-square-triangles for a small lap quilt on its way to a sick friend. 

So far, my short patchwork career has consisted of the scrappy, the imprecise and the mismatched. I like it like that. Nonetheless I'm really digging this classical approach to piecing, using a charm pack of French General Rural Jardin fabric and some hankie linen. Matching fabrics - gasp! I even toyed with a symmetrical design, but that was all a bit staid so I've come up with this asymmetrical suggestion-of-concentric-square thing.

Alongside the triangles-in-squares, my circles-in-hexagons are coming along:

I'm half-way through the hand quilting of my ugly hexagons and enjoying the process a whole lot more since I switched my thread from sashiko thread to Perle 8 cotton, which is gliding through the layers far more easily. Thanks go especially to Mary for the helpful suggestions on how to mark the design and reduce thread friction.

Tune in next week for rhomboids, isosceles triangles and dodecahedrons.

What's shaping up in your creative space?

My creative space... circling.

It has begun. The quilting of the ugly hexes.

I've opted for hand quilting, and decided on a simple design of intersecting circles. 

Simple in theory, anyway. I'm finding it slow going, but not really in that pleasant, lulling, meditative way I had hoped. It's taking a while to get a hang of lots of things: marking out my design; burying knots; holding an unwieldy quilt on my lap; working the needle through those layers.

And then there is the stitching itself. I started out quilting with thin cotton quilting thread and trying to do small, even stitches. After realising that I wasn't catching the backing with stitches smaller than, oh, about a metre, I decided to embrace the large stitch and go for more of a sashiko look. This looks much better to my eye, and doing a better job of actually quilting the layers together. 

But boy, am I finding it hard work. Physically hard. There is a large amount of friction going on. There must be something weird going on with my particular concoction of fabrics, batting (can't remember what sort) and sashiko thread. The three circles I've completed in sashiko-style took around half an hour each! 

Thoughts? Suggestions? Is this just part-and-parcel of doing something new?

Anyway, with all the effort being expended, I've decided I need to keep the energy levels up. This morning I made a rather large batch of cinnamon scrolls, using brioche dough from my no-knead artisan bread book.

Heavenly. What do you think - do I get one for every sashiko circle-of-pain I complete?

More creative spaces to be seen at Kirsty's place.

My creative space...where to from here?

It's been a little while since I've managed to join in with kootoyoo's creative spaces round-up. But I really, really wanted to get amongst it today, because I need your thoughts on my hexagon charm quilt.

I've pieced all the hexagons I'm going to piece, leaving me with a small cot-sized patchwork top. I either love it or hate it, but I'm not sure which it is yet!



Now I was thinking about backing the top without a border and leaving the edges tessellated. But as I've been looking at it (kind of in horror) I've realised that there is nowhere for the eye to rest. Because there is no dominant colour, no repeated pattern, no focal point to draw the eye, I've found my eyes bouncing around the quilt top. I like the effect, but I wonder if it might be better to add a plain border to tone it down a bit.

What do you think?

Can you see this with a border?
Do you think a border would tone down the quilt? Should it be toned down?
What about the edges, straight or as they are?
Do you find this quilt horrendous or fabulous? (I can't decide...)

Opinions much appreciated (although of course I will disregard them and do my own thing :))

More creative spaces at Kirsty's house.

Weekend re:cap.

I just spent a weekend away from all three of my boys - a first since I became a mother.

It was a great thing to do for my health, physical and mental. Far from being a weird experience, it felt very normal to be 'unencumbered'. Clearly I have retained some sense of self in this whole parenting caper. I didn't feel lost, fraudulent or naked without a toddler attached to my leg or someone calling me 'mummy'. I didn't go giddy with freedom either. But I did take a while to adjust to making decisions without consultation, and performing routine tasks without explanation; apologies to Sonia, my travelling companion, for my running commentary on my every thought and movement!

Of course, I didn't take photos. It was nice to be in the moment rather than observing the moment from behind a camera lens, searching for the blog-worthy. Therefore I have nothing to show you:

...of breathtakingly beautiful Daylesford
...of meeting two of its most fabulous inhabitants, Beck and Kate
...of trudging about town in my gumboots
...of breathing in fresh air at the lake
...of running into numerous Northside Makers
...of good coffees and conversations with my travelling companion
...of saving Tania's bladder from self-combustion at the Maker's Market
...of stitching, reading and reflecting in front of an open fire
...of delicious shared plates and laughter
...of a Sunday full of stitching and fun at the Daylesford Craft Experience.

I do however have three mementos of my weekend escape:
 a finished hexie quilt top
a nice warm handmade cap
and a smile.

I might like it.

Might, I said. Don't hold me to it.

I think the best description I have for how this quilt is starting to look is... compelling. The sort of thing you are drawn to, the sort of thing you want to look at. 

But of course many ugly, horrible things compel us to stare at them - like car wrecks, and hairy warts on peoples' faces. 

(And looking at that segment above, all I can think is WOW, there are some bad fabric designs around. You should see the ones that didn't make the cut!).

I think perhaps this kind of clashery should really be reserved in the future for a 1" hexagon quilt or smaller. As my hexagon-mad friend Anne recently said to me, 'if you think a fabric is ugly you're just not cutting it small enough'. There is wisdom to be had from Anne (not to mention lovely hexagonal eye-candy on her craft blog). I guess the smaller the pieces, the more blending you can do, the more the eye can be drawn elsewhere.With this large hexagon, any individual ugliness is exhibited in all its glory.

Nonetheless. I might like it.

...and so she baked.

Next time I write a somewhat heavy, warts-and-all post (and don't worry, it won't be any time soon!), I will try to time it NOT to coincide with two weeks of travelling-husband/sick-smalls/defunct-sewing-machine/torrential-rain-induced blogging coma. I'm now experiencing that kind of awkward-pause, lull-in-conversation feeling, and wondering what to say next. Quite apart from having nothing much to show and tell, I'm also still processing the massive response I received in writing about my post-natal depression. 

To the numerous people who shared their warm, wise, empathetic, thoughtful, insightful, and funny responses, and to those who emailed with personal stories and encouraging words, thank you so much. I'm still working my way through the comments and emails. Spilling my guts on the issues was of course an exercise in catharsis, but I also hoped to connect with others who have had similar experiences, so we can all remember that we are not alone. I'm not. You're not. And doesn't it feel better to know it.

Meanwhile, signs that creativity may yet exist at chez clutterpunk can be spotted, in between the nose- blowing, puddle-jumping and Daddy-shaped-hole-filling.

I've been carrying around these items hopefully:

And lo! Results!

I have completed my towers of ugly, ugly hexagons, with hearty thanks to scrap donations from blogging legends, Cam of CurlyPops and Jodie of RicRac. Now the fun begins, designing the layout of my cot-sized 2" hexagon charm quilt. I've totally embraced the concept of an quilty eyesore that will be loathed by my family for generations, and am eager to get those horrendous scraps pieced side-by-side in the most aesthetically distressing way possible.


Bringing me far more pride is my first loaf of artisan bread from these gurus (spied first at Bountifully). So, so tasty, and satisfying to make. And did you see the bit about FIVE MINUTES? 

Anyway. Awkward silence broken. Blogging resumed. Children improving. Beloved's return approaching. Hexagons towering. Grandparents visiting. Bread baking. New sewing machine awaiting. 

Life is GOOD.

Hexagon dysphoria

There is a fair amount of hexagon goodness being flashed about the interwebs at present.

You may have seen Christina's lovely grandmother's flower garden in progress, with its gorgeous subtle hues, or Jo's bright flowers which pop against their white background, or Katy's fabulous retro-looking version.

Now I'm hexing along too, but in a different way. I'm working on a 2" hexagon charm quilt, in which every hexagon is from a completely different fabric design. In doing so I've snipped a hexie from almost every fabric in my scrap bin and stash, and from some scraps others have given me.

And what a disparate bunch of fabrics they are! Some of them are fabulous, but alas, many scraps that I have in my possession (through thrifting, gifts or just plain bad purchasing choices) are butt-ugly, wouldn't-force-your-dog-to-wear-it kind of fabrics.

Then there's the weird combination of bright, modern prints and bland country hues that are making a horrible clash in my hexagon piles. The more hexies I make, the more nervous I get. Nervous about how this quilt is going to pan out. Nervous that all the scraps are actually going to look, well, DISGUSTING together. 

I've noticed over on the hexagon charm quilt piece-along Flickr group that many participants' scrap piles are really quite beautifully matched. They may all be different fabrics, but perhaps they are all of a similar vibe (or value, or tone, or whatever the actual quilting term is I'm probably supposed to be using). I guess this happens when you have a large stash, or a consistence sense of style, or patience for fabric-matching!

 I'm beginning to get cold feet, because I can't visualise this quilt at all. Part of my desire in this challenge was to work with the randomness of my scraps and somehow create a beautiful cohesion out of chaos. I didn't want to be prescriptive or selective about the fabrics I used. I didn't want to over-think it. I was hoping for the 'quirky but funky' kind of aesthetic. Instead, I think I'm producing something which will only ever turn up at a bad taste 80s party. 

I guess there is nothing for it but to press on, because I'm not going to know how it will look until I've basted all my hexagons and started piecing them together.

Now's your chance to make me feel better. Have you ever spent a lot of time making something really butt-ugly? Tell me, was it character-developing? Worth it for the learning curve? Or just a big, fat waste of creative energy?

How do you manage your scraps?

For those of you who like crafting with fabrics, I have some questions.

Do you intentionally manage your scraps?
What do you keep and how do you keep it?
When do you throw something away?

With my growing interest in patchwork and quilting, I'm realising that even the smallest of fabric scraps can be used to great effect in projects big and small, and that I should use up every last bit of fabric or preserve it for further projects down the track.

The reuser/recycler in me is in absolute agreement. The romantic/creative in me thinks of all the Depression-era women making stunning quilts out of discarded undergarments and nods her head.

The lazy, disorganised crafter in me thinks 'too hard, just bin it!' and 'I'm SO over that fabric I can't use another jot of it' and 'I could always buy scrap bundles or charm packs if I need them'. Particularly when I see something like this scrap below, which is a fabric I've never liked (I didn't buy it!), has already been hacked into and is a horrid mess:

(See below for its fate... it has not gone to waste).

SO... what am I doing about my scrap issues? Taking a challenge or two, of course, and setting myself some scrap-management ground rules which will hopefully serve me and my patchwork obsession well for the long term.

Well, here are the ground rules I'm setting myself:

1. Thou shalt not hoard. Buy fabric for specific projects and use it up with pleasure! Fabric will always be available: if I like something particular I can probably chase it down when I need it or if not, find something else I like. There is no fabric shortage at present. I will not miss out.

2. Keep anything from a fat eighth or bigger neatly folded in your cupboard, in size piles. Ha ha ha.

3. Cut and sort smaller pieces into the following categories: 

a. 5" or 6" squares and rectangles 

b. Strips (any length but no thinner than 2.5")

c. Scraps that could be used to make 1" hexagons or 2" squares (e.g. pieces approx. 3" high and wide)

d. Scraps that can be used for 1/2" hexagons (e.g. pieces at least 1.5" high and wide)

Everything else that is left is allowed to go into the bin with a clean conscience.

My scrap sorting is pretty specific, isn't it? That's because I'm joining in with this:

 

This piece-along gives me a real motivation to carefully look after my scraps. In fact, I'm kind of joining in twice. 

I'm committing to a 2" hexagon charm quilt, which will require 297 hexagons in unique fabrics (if I want to make a 50" x 60" throw). I'd like to see this pieced by the end of 2010. A 2" hex can be cut from a 5" square, and I've cut 30 so far - Kate, most of these are from the scrap pack you sent me, thanks SO much!

I've also opted to cut 1" hexagons while I'm at it. I prefer the look of 1" hexagons in a quilt, but after cutting out the 60 pieces below, I realised that I might struggle to cut, baste, piece and quilt 1,173 hexagons in unique fabrics within, say, the next decade. So I'll just add to this lot slowly. Maybe I'll end up with a charm cushion, maybe I'll throw a few on a skirt, maybe they'll be discovered by a great-granddaughter who will lovingly make them into a dolly-quilt.

And - just because I'm going a bit mad with all the scrap possibilities at this point - I'm cutting up those really little, annoying scraps of just over an inch in width and adding them to my 1/2" hexagon scrap bucket. 

Here are the scraps from that horrid pink fabric... I know they'll look great once they're blended in with other tiny hexagons in some form or other.

Maybe even in another cute Dear Fii brooch:

OK. So I have a bit of a hexagon thing going on. 

You might not be hexagon obsessed. But how do you manage your scraps? I'd love to know.