Monday, 9 July 2012

Monday Memories #17

For my classes in 2009/10, I designed and made Pic'n'Mix. Year on year I have faithful members of my classes who return to take on new projects and challenges and they mix in with others who perhaps have only completed  a beginners' course.
So, I try to come up with projects that will suit all - something that will provide enough scope and challenge for those who want to experiment a bit, but easy enough for the less experienced quilters.
There was a lot to learn in this quilt - lots of foundation piecing, how to make multiple HSTs, different ways to make flying geese, and lots of advice and tips on the actual quilting.
Here are some of the beauties that were made and shown off in 2010.


 Ooh, I enjoyed looking at them all again - hope you did too!

Friday, 6 July 2012

I'm Over It

Remember the parcels I was waiting for? I had a bad feeling and this morning it played out - the horrid card from the PO was delivered saying I had to go pick up my parcel and I had to pay too!

Normally, when I order from the US, I try to keep my spends reasonable but still "worth it" when compared to UK prices, taking into consideration shipping costs.
This time, I was waiting for a meatier than usual order - 9 yards, yes, the whole 9 yards!!
I have been watching this fabric for a wee while but it went out of stock very quickly at Hawthorne Threads & Fabricworm - the only two sources I could find. Imagine my delight when I got back from hols to find Hawthorne Threads had restocked - yippee.
So this is Sheila's tip for the top - Velocity, by Jessica Hogarth, a British designer.!!
And here is what I got -
There are other funky options in this line but I am planning a quilt for my son who is sadly quite conservative in his tastes.
As usual, it is also going to be a class sample first. Every so often I run a triple series of workshops to allow folks to make any size of quilt they desire, but to show them how to Quilt As You Go. This year I am changing it from my usual quilt pattern and opting for a strippy - it will be reversible and heavily quilted.
Don't hold your breath for a finish - the third of the three workshops isn't until January 2013!!
So - going back to the VAT & PO charges - I reviewed my whole purchase and my fabric still came in at
 £9 yd, so I am happy. And, it wasn't available in the UK when I wanted it!

I'm thinking of building an ark......

........anyone know of a good tutorial?


Wednesday, 4 July 2012

Late Bulletin


Heavy Weather

You know those days when you should be doing stuff, but you can't quite be bothered?
That's today, or at least, this morning.
I have so much sewing I could be doing but wasted invested some time instead making a new header, not before time.
Then some more time making a new button....still a wip.
In a wee burst of energy I went off into the garden and managed about half an hour's heavy weeding before the rain came on. At that point I made the stupid decision to leave the washing out - hmm, it's been rained on  so much it's going to need spun again - duh!!
Was looking forward to Andy Murray's match at Wimbledon and knew he was on later in the afternoon, so stirred myself into action and hit my sewing room..........
...............but not to sew. I started clearing shelves, and throwing out paperwork and old magazines etc.
Andy is now on court, and to keep my nerves steady, I am going through files of patterns, thinning and weeding, very satisfying.
Part of my blah feeling is my impatience - I have been waiting for a couple of parcels from the US and hoped they might have arrived by now, haven't seen a glimpse of a red van in days!
So, in order to add a couple of pics to my post I'll show you some of my holiday buys.
This first one is from Spotlight - thanks Hadley. She mentioned this store to me before I left on holiday and my sister very kindly took us straight there one day, in Cairns. It's a big chain and a bit of an Aladdin's cave. Not a dedicated quilting shop, they have homewares and furnishing fabrics by the ton too. I had seen some of this Melbourne fabric in flickr and thought I'd look out for it so was chuffed to find it there.It seems to be a cotton/linen mix.
 Believe it or not, I don't buy a lot of novelty fabrics but when we visited Port Douglas Sunday markets there was one patchwork stall selling items made by the seller - there was a really fun quilt made using this next "cartoon" print, I will have fun playing with it.
 And these two were just plain corny and I can see me making some fun item for a certain small person in my life.Both of these prints were bought at the Sydney Quilt Show.
 The show was held in three exhibition halls down at Darling Harbour and my friend Delia and I were really looking forward to our day. I would say 2/3 of the space was given over to traders, lots of traditional Japanese stands, lots of Australian folksy sort of stands and many others similar to what we see at home.
Fabric was just as expensive as it is here in the UK, if not a little more and we found only one stand selling the modern fabrics that we are getting used to seeing online.It was also very expensive but it was exciting to see rolls of Melody Miller, bales of Lottie Jansdotter, "in the flesh".
As for exhibited quilts, we were quite surprised to see just so many huge, traditional ones. I always have the impression that Australia is big on art quilts and hoped to have seen more - there was, thankfully, one Gloria Loughman on show.
And then yesterday I read this post by Shevvy and it really made me pause for thought.

Mindful of my future Zakka projects I bought a bag handle, some teeny clothes pegs, and some fun tapes, as well as a lovely Christmas kit from Annie Down's stand.
 My next purchases were from Target! Two sets of tea towels that will never see a wet dish.
The ones in the first picture are 100% cotton but feel like linen.
 This next set is also all cotton and just cute. I have plans for these tea towels but I'll share with you another day.
Well, I am surrounded by mess, Andy is now fighting to stay in the 2nd set, and I must go peel a potato or two.
C'mon Muzza!!

Monday, 2 July 2012

A Great Cause

Quilts for Siblings Together
Today, I am linking up with Lynne and her Siblings Together linky party. It was back in March when she put out a call for quilts for kids who are separated from their siblings within our UK social services system.
I had made a quilt that I termed my "first modern quilt" and it really didn't have a recipient in mind, until I read  about Siblings Together.
One of the reasons I was happy to help was because my daughter Jenny works with troubled teens in a residential facility. Some kids don't stand a chance do they?
If you pop over to Lynne's blog, you can read more about this very worthwhile cause and check out some of the fantastic quilts that were made.
                                      I really hope it helped brighten one young person's day.

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