Craft weekend photo post

Lots of photos from the recent craft weekend at Hepburn Springs. Thanks everyone for a wonderful time!

 

Winter blooms | Amanda's Block of the Month | Lounge, with the Summer Quilt | First finished project award to Bek! | Cosy slippers | Deb's quiet colours | Beautiful breakfast | Potash St | Sore eyes - Jo's hexagons!

Woodpile

Sometimes the colours in your stash just have to be put together. I spend entirely too much time 'saving' favourite fabric for some perfect as yet undesigned project. I'm trying to be bold and just cut into it. (After all, it's a certain bet there will be more gorgeous fabric along soon to woo me.)

A mini quilt is just the right size. This reminds me of being inside the summer cabin my family had when my sister and I were kids. It looks like roughly stripey cabin walls. Reminds me of red flannel pajamas and that plastic drawer lining paper that's supposed to look like wood. I love the chips of cornflour blue, almost lilac but not quite.

It's all making me happy, especially the red and white backing.

A cup of tea and sitting in front of the fire while it rains outside. Snoozing dog at my feet, I am planning the quilting pattern to go on top of these rough hewn logs.

Cuttin it up

Yesterday a crafting friend loaned me the very inspiring Prints Charming book. It's full of ideas for very simple screen printed motifs, often combined in projects with plain fabrics, like natural linen.

It's a very modern look we've come to expect from craft these days but because the screen printing has its own roughnesses and slubs, it doesn't fall over into being too clinical and cold. It looks hand made, and that, with simplicity, is its charm.

 One of the motifs from the book - done by stencil, not by screen

I haven't got any screens for printing, so I got out my trusty stash of freezer paper so kindly sent to me by Jennifer years ago, whipped the safety catch off my scalpel (i.e. removed the piece of cardboard I keep over the pointy end) and got carving.

Tonight I have heat-set the paint and they look finished. I wonder what I will use them for?

 

My own idea - trying to blend orange and yellow in the poppy petals. The faint grey line is for stitching a quilted circle around the motif in several colours of thread. Next project!

Grey

Grey but happy, I love this quilt!

See how there are patches of flowers and writing in the trucks and cars? I wonder if each vehicle was hand-appliqued or created on foundation paper and then applied.

Gorgeous. Fun but not hokey. Just right.

Another bit of gorgeousness from Luana Rubin's photos of quilts from the 

Tokyo International Quilt Festival. One of these days I've got to go!

City circle quilt

Recently, a friend asked me to teach her how to quilt. We started with some squares and we practised sewing them together. We also looked at easy patterns to get started with, and flicked through some books. Them we met at a fabric store - a really good one, and one I haven't been to in a while.

After I'd paid the hundred-dollar 'exit fee' and was heading off with a bag of new fabric, I was totally stoked about quilting again! There's been too little of it of late.

The quilt top was all ready and sitting in a drawer. I called it "City Circle" because I did the hand applique of the circles onto the blocks while riding the metro each day to work. And I remember where I was working so I have an inkling of how long it's been sitting in that drawer...

Backings, why do I hate backings? It's been Great Mount Backing Blockage that stood in my path to Finished Quilt Gloryville. All I had to do was to let the quilt fabric frenzy endorphin high carry me through making and basting the backing.

It even sustained me through a measured-the-wrong-dimension meltdown (thanks Mr. Tacc., for maths rescue assistance).

Now I'm cruising through the quilting, and loving the colours. I'd forgotten what fun it is to quilt in perle cotton, and seeing all the quilts at Amitie reminded me.

Now I'm posting this, and I found some old photos of when I started the quilt.
No, not last year.

Not even the year before.

An old picture, from BB - "Before Backing" 

The file says "City Circle Quilt, 2006-2008". Guess I thought I'd finish it almost three years ago.

Late like the trains - but at least it arrived eventually.

Hexagons growing - could it be spring?

So I went out to the old pear tree, and what did I find? Flowers everywhere, even in the cold winter sunshine!

I'm sure anyone who drove past thought I was crazy, running about in the cold, windy field, trying to get a quick picture before the wind ruffled my hexagons and sent them spinning across the paddock.

Stacks of hexagons, all ready to sew together. Do you find yourself obsessively counting them? I do.

I'd set a target of 45 hexie flowers in May, which was almost right -- I think I hit 42. It's amazing how quickly a project grows when you work on it every day, even if only for a little while (I do half an hour to one hour each day on the train). All different colours and shades. Lots of blue, plenty of red, and a little yellow and black to add excitement.

Now I'm sewing them all together and making approximately 72 billion plain white pieces to surround each of the flowers. I was sitting on the train, production-line making white pieces, and the woman next to me said, 'How many of those do you have to make?' To which I could honestly reply that I haven't calculated the total (because if I did, I'd lose heart and stop this crazy project altogether!)

Hexagon update

Pic by Mr Tacc.

End of the weekend, and I thought I'd better drop in with an update on the progress of the hexagon quilt. It's been cold and sunny, misty mornings, and there has been a lot of sewing on the train recently.

Last weekend, I laid out all the squares with Karen's help, and we decided that they would look lovely and sunny if each one was surrounded by a white or off-white ring of hexagons. In for a penny, in for a pound, or a bushel, or an eyestrain or something (if a bunch of sheet is a 'flock' and a bunch of crows is a 'murder', then a bunch of hexagons should surely be 'an eyestrain of hexagons', right?)

Well. So I'm up to number 38. And one with a nice white surround.

But I've run into a little problem. Not the eyes, not the fingers, nor the scraps of fabric falling out of my bag onto the floor of the train. I've got to check my hexagon template and probably re-cut some of my recent-est pieces. (That's a word. Trust me, I'm an editor. Ha.) It seems I may have fallen into the age-old trap of letting the paper template get a little trimmed on one corner, and now the latest pieces don;t fit together so well, not without some jiggery-poggery.

So it's back to cutting paper templates, and re-sewing the pieces onto them, and then maybe I can finish the remainder of my May target of 45 hexagons towards a little quilt.

Hexagoning, humming and hawing

So, the hexagons were unearthed from somewhere third-drawer down. We've had a few visitors, and that meant that some of the recently unpacked stuff got hurled willy-nilly into drawers and suitcases, and ignomiously shoved under beds. I think this weekend, with showers forecast, is going to be the time to sort out the front room, aka the sewing room.

I've had a little fling with the hexagons on the train, and I think I've made another six. Idly mulling while I stitched, I worked out that if I can make 2.2 hexagon flowers per train journey, that would be 92 in a month. Of course, I've got reading and proof reading to do on the train too, not to mention a few nice little naps like this morning's cosy snooze (I do like these big comfy quiet country trains) -- so let's set a reasonable challenge of 45 by the end of May. Ha. Let's see!

(Image of an antique doll's quilt from Fiber Fantasies)

This all brings to mind pleasant consideration over what sort of layout to use. I'm thinking that once I have 50 flowers I may go back and add an outer ring: I really like the double-ring flower garden patterns I see out there on the web. But then again, maybe not: I also like this antique quilt style of layout, too.

(image from article about historical quilts)

 

Mine is definitely a scrappy unplanned colour scheme. There are pinks and dusty greens, shocking orange and some wild large prints. I didn't love the look when I laid the single florets side-by-side, so maybe they need the unifying influence of a second ring to each flower in a coordinating colour. I'm thinking of choosing a soft green or two, or a petrol blue and navy. We'll see. It's a work in progress!

Thursday blue: what to do?

It's Thursday night, you've got a case of the blahs. Too much to do, too little time, stuff harassing you, things you're not getting stuck into even though you really want to.

Sometimes the blue sky seems like a steel lid: other days it's up there floating and everything is possible.

What do you do on evenings like that?

Start a new quilt. (Silly question!)

Stitch in some sunshine, pull out a length of fresh breezes, grab some fat quarters of freshly-mown grass and lazy spring picnics. Stitch together a summery sky.

There, now that's better, isn't it?

The wedding quilt is finished!

I've spent nearly every spare hour these past few weeks stitching on this quilt, which I can finally reveal to you! It's an exciting day when a quilt's done, mingled with sore fingers and pride. And I'm really, really happy with this one -- super-snuggly, just the right size for sofa sitting and curling up in style.


I made this quilt as a wedding present for a very dear friend and her husband. It was started many months ago just after they ran away to Italy to get married in a fabulously romantic rush. (A proper elopement.)

I had already decided that red would be the main colour, when she and I went for a shopping spree in Amitie one summer day. She oohed and ahhed as I oh-so-casually unrolled bolts of red fabrics across the table. 'Ohh, this one's nice! What do you think of this one?' Apparently, she didn't suspect a thing: I'd already bought half of the fabrics and had them in my bag. Little did she know that we were choosing the other accents to go with the red and large print floral. Should it be dark blue? Grey? Or even sage green?

I settled on a scheme of red and white with little bits of pale blue. Sky blue, a lovely colour.

And then the sashing: I'd been thinking very dark grey, or that sage green, even maybe a linen or linen blend, but the black with a subtle pattern, well, that just sang.

So, lots of hand quilting in sweet silver perle thread, a backing of black and white check, and a white bird appliqued on the back as a label. Red, red binding. A red, black and white quilt to go with their modern apartment and their big red and black Italian poster. Yay!

I was sewing the last stitches on the bird label today when she arrived. Oops! After the presentation, I had to take it back and set the last few stitches. But that's quilting to deadline!


Faithful to the end. >Toby thinks: Perhaps jumping on the sofa right now would be a BAD idea. Can I have a biscuit instead?<

Whew. Now I can concentrate on trying to get ready to travel halfway around the world. Only 6 more sleeps!

B

Up to the blue -- or should dad be boo?

I got eight hours of sleep last night: this is an achievement! Up and out in the regular early, not the dark and extra-early early, and these autumn days are gorgeously crisp. Lots of dog walkers. Balloons in the sky.

I took this photo at about exactly this time last year, and although I forgot my camera today, this was just what the sky looked like. Pearly clouds and the jewel-bright balloons.

Sadly, sometime in that long sleep, I seem to have caught a cold. I've been sneezing my way around the house this morning, and it's not looking good. I've got one more busy work day ahead of me, and Sewjourn's quilting bee tomorrow, and dinner out, and more catching up with friends on Sunday, and I just want to go to bed and sniffle.

So, about these quilts then...

There are so many thing whirling around in my head that every time I sit down to blog it all flies out my ears. Or something. And so I read all your posts and forget and have to dash...

I've been meaning to post about the quilt convention since last Sunday. I wasn't sure whether or not to go this year: in the past, I've been disappointed -- not by the quality of the quilts, but by the venues. (Though to be fair I might be remembering a poor Stitches show of years past -- let's hope those days are gone).

So, I had to go in the end: couldn't resist seeing the show quilts. Up off the sofa, hop on the tram and down to the the Australian Quilt Convention (AQC), in the fabulous Royal Melbourne Exhibition Building. Have I mentioned before that I love that building? I love that building, and so does Mr. Tacc.

As for those quilts. Well, they fit right in to their lovely surroundings. Wonderful and awe-inspiring, zany (those doughnuts!) and zingy -- there was lots to see. Sadly, I left my camera at home, but what I did write in the sketchbook gets my ideas going again. This is what I wrote:

• palest green border and high-contrast applique swirls -- Berneice Sayer's Magical Medallion with Loops - All I can say is: 'Whoar!'
  
• quilting grids of black and yellow (there were close-together lines, and ochre dyed textiles: it looked like burnt wood)
• Nichole Bridges' Ginko Garden quilt: lovely colours, all jewels, and fabric with calligraphy on it.
  
• Pretty octagon florals -- in the Brigitte Giblin Retrospective. And then I've written at the bottom of a rough sketch: "So that's what to do with those hexagons!" We have hexagons, we can make beauty.
  

But don't worry, that didn't stop me from buying just a leetle bit of fabric....

I want to post a link to this video and song that I have been enjoying and watched a few times this week. It's in my head!

The steady hum of activity - sewing-bee style

What a day.

Nikki, I sweep off my hat and make a deep bow to you (scrap that curtsey nonsense) - you donated your week to organising today's sewing bee, and you made it possible for so many good people to find a way to bring colour and cheer to families affected by the bushfires.

What was the best bit of the day?

Serious discussions about yo-yos was fun.


And super sewing stars ready and willing to learn new skills...

... and producing gorgeous results!

That was ace.

The hive of activity and the contented hum of concentration as bags were constructed. (Spot TinnieGirl thinking hard).

The lovely cutting shop, with slices and dices turning out the bags lickety-split, and the sorting area, with the goodies laid out by age group and gender....

...carefully observed by a sofa full of dolls, waiting to go to new owners.

Meanwhile, over in the embellishment room, zig-zags and fusing made merry!

While the first bags were being built, we got to work on yo-yo hairbands, yo-yo embellishments, fused applique animals, cowboy hats, pirate ships, flowers, ice cream cones, butterflies, matruyshkas...


...and more onto t-shirts, bag fronts, pockets, flaps and ... oops, a bag lining. Ah well. Beccasaurus kindly stitched a yo-yo over my most serious oops. It's a design feature! (But of course).

But the best two bits?

One was the way that everyone who walked into the sewing/bag construction room stopped and said "Wow!" spontaneously.


Wow for the lovely hum of many machines running together. The quiet, determined activity. And the results, oh boy.

The results! The piles of bags were stacking up as we took our weary souls home. Fresh sewing souls were still flooding in the door, so I'm sure the pile of presents grew. Notepads, pens, t-shirts and a toy in every bag - at the very least.


I'm thinking of the donors and the recipients, the families and children whose little bags of fun have so much potential for healing handiwork (drawing, making and colour), hugs -- and a reminder that we were all thinking of them with today's sewing bee.

I met so many lovely people, and it was a wonderful day.
Thanks everyone.

He's Here!

And I am an Aunty!


(If you want to goon, head over here...)

The accidental quilter

So. Have you ever felt responsible for drawing an innocent bystander into something?

There was that woman, just minding her own business peacefully in the fabric shop. While over at the cutting table, TinnieGirl and I were throwing bolts of fabric around and having a big discussion about the best colour for the sashing for a quilt.
We had about twenty bolts out, and all the blocks on the table, and it went something like this:

- Should it be luscious?
- How about dramatic?
- Mm, this is sweeter.
- Nah, that's too dull.
- Ick.
- Eek!
- Choose something totally wild and unexpected.
- No, silly, not that!
- What about - er, no.
- This one or this one?
- That one. No, this one. No, that one... No, ...

You've probably had those conversations.

That's why I invited TinnieGirl for my industrial-strength bargain fabric shopping extravaganza. To provide moral support and colour theory. Oh, and because it was lots of fun! Being a wise op-shopper, she chose a great cafe to tank up on the coffee and pancakes first, so that whilst I had a fabric rush in Rathdowne Remnants, she could run around with a nicely-timed sugar rush. (Ms. Pops, you were missed. We needed you to be the voice of reason.)

My low-carb long-distance maintenance diet of eggs got me through a massive - for me - purchase of fabrics to make a dress, a shirt, four pillowcases -- and sundry haberdashery items. Yippee!

Back at the castle, the dragon guards the loot. (Some of it)
Dragon: (Thinking) Can I come out yet? Are there biscuits in this for me?

Anyway, back to the innocent bystander in GJs. There she was, minding her own business while we haggled cheerfully over quilt choices. That is, until we dragged her into the fray.

"What do YOU think? Black.... or china blue?"

She was pretty game.

Heck, I think she'd been hovering, so perhaps she wasn't so innocent. Within moments, there was a heated discussion again, Stranger Lady and TinnieGirl gave me a (much-needed) lesson in colour and in wedding quilt etiquette (which about boils down to: Don't presume). We ummed, we debated. We settled. I paid.

As I was pulling out the plastic, our not-so innocent bystander sidled up to the assistant. "I think I need to learn quilting," she said.

Ha. Another one bitten!

(- And what was she hanging out in the quilting fabric section anyway, if she wasn't just ASKING for trouble. Right?)

Right.

Tomorrow: striking gold at savers. And a nugget regretted.

The Old House

I bet you thought I'd stopped with the old house theme, but like any obsession, once you get started it just gets rolling. Or perhaps it's because I haven't taken the time to sit and draw more of the images I'm collecting.

Check out this bike! Apparently the sign in the window advertises rice vinegar. Mm. I bet it's a food shop selling interesting, wonderful things. Can't you almost smell the musty soy-sauce aroma?

Perhaps it's time for some breakfast.

There hasn't been enough sewing going on around here recently. As if I am going to say, 'Gosh, what lucky me, I've had plenty of sewing time". No, not likely. I finally sat down and started making my Christmas presents. With most of my family in Canada, I've already missed the post, but I'm sure they'll forgive me. They're gathering for the arrival of a special baby, and I'm on important baby-quilt duty.

A backing of extreme Japanese cuteness was purchased on the weekend. The Cute-o-meter went 'bing-bing-bing-Bing!' when I shook out its lovely folds of little folktale houses, bears and squirrels and little dogs.

And I've started on one of the patterns I downloaded ages ago. Soulemama's Gratitude Wrap will be going out to lucky friends this year, with my own cards tucked inside. That is, if I get organised...

---
Blogger, what is it with you and photo credits? Photo above originally uploaded by Life in Asia (aka Life in Nanning)

Does this make you happy?

... This makes me very happy:


A wonderful morning outing yesterday, to Amitie with Bellgirl and her lovely littley, and a morning of bagels and chit-chat. Just perfect! Fabric delights at Amitie were everywhere (er, as usual), and I came home happy and full of quilting inspiration and Christmas-present ideas. Oh, and clutching a large parcel of fabric....

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go and get sewing!

Animals come out in the early morning

So, this morning at 5:15, I was lying awake, listening to the birds beginning to twitter, and thinking of my farm quilt-in-progress.

Now, don't think I do this all the time, but by 5:30 I was up, surprising the dog (who cracked some mighty yawns) and thinking of two lovely hours in which to sew and play. I started some bread dough while making coffee, and hit the machine:


If you get up really early, you can see the rabbits running around...


It was fiddlier than I thought, and I had to stitch very slowly, only a few stitches at a time before lifting the foot and adjusting the pieces. But the applique aren't that big, and there are only five of them, so that's fine. I've done the swallow and the rabbit. And now there's fresh, warm bread out of the oven for breakfast.

Let's just hope that I don't fall asleep over my desk at work today!