Pinkying

Published!!!

2012-02-01T22:25:00.000+11:00

Do you guys read Fat Quarterly?? If you don't, you really should do yourself a favour and go and check it out. It's a great e-zine featuring modern sewing projects. This month in addition to a huge number of great projects, one of my projects is in it too!

It's a really quick canvas that you can make to decorate for the holidays... The one in Issue 8 of Fat Quarterly is for Easter

But it works really well for Christmas too!

I'm super excited! This is the first time one of my projects has been published. It's a great ezine, you should all go and check it out!

Sunset +

2012-01-18T18:53:00.000+11:00

I have a new quilt to share with you all today! The squares I showed piled up last week are for this

It's a "Plus Quilt" from the tutorial by Jeni over at In Color Order and it's coming together really quickly!

I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday over at freshly pieced so here are the stats:

New Projects - 1

Completed Projects - 0

Ongoing Projects - number actually unknown!

Projects for 2012

2012-01-12T22:15:00.000+11:00

I've been doing a stocktake of the projects I want to make this year, or in some cases finish this year and I think if I record them here that perhaps I will feel more drive to finish them rather than get distracted with pretty new things!

Up first is finishing off these placemats for my mum. I managed to finish off 4 before Christmas which were given to her for her early January birthday, but I need to finish the other 4 so that she can have a full set of 8! The fabric is Bryant Park from Anthology Fabrics, paired with Kona solids.

For once I've actually saved my selvedges, and I would like to make a pouch of some kind featuring them. Hopefully that will come together quickly!

This is a bundle of Nicey Jane that recently joined my collection. My friend Jenn and I went halves in some fat quarters, so now we both have a set of fat eighths. I think we will do some kind of "challenge" with these, I already have the design in my head, but I won't start until Jenn can start too.

Late last year I showed you this stack of fabrics, which have become this neat little pile of squares. This is going to become a quilt that I'm calling Sunset Plus. As soon as I have time to layout all the squares I'll show you a sneak peek!

Also on the list for finishing this year is my Candied Hexagons. I think I have less than 10 blocks to go now, and then the little edge pieces. I doubt that I will get the top finished, the quilting and binding done, but I would be happy if I can finish the top this year.

Finally, and using my newly learnt Machine Quilting skils, I would like to quilt these two tops which have been waiting around for some time now to be finished off. I've always wanted to quilt them myself, so I think this will be the year.

That's the list to start with! What about you? What are you making this year?

Reflections and Predictions

2012-01-08T18:54:00.000+11:00

Wow, things have been quiet around here! December kind of just got away from me there. There was the usual craziness with present shopping, work, social events and also some frantic sewing too. While I have been quiet on the blog, I have been busy with some secret projects, including my very first tutorial!

I thought that to get the ball rolling again that I would start by answering the questions over at Sew Mama Sew on Reflections and Predictions.

SMS: Looking back at the 2011 sewing scene, what trends stand out in your mind?

I think that we're definitely seeing the "coming soon" fabric sneak peaks much earlier in the production process with a long wait for those of us who want to buy it retail. This can be a good thing and a bad thing, sometimes it feels like an eternity until we can get our hands on it! I'm loving the involvement of more men in the craft, as fabric designers, quilt makers and bloggers, they bring a different design aesthetic and create great products.

SMS: What were some of your favourite things related to sewing this past year?

I loved a LOT of the fabric that came out this year, it was great to see so many different ranges with different styles, really something for everyone.
On a more personal level, one of the biggest changes for me this was meeting a group of quilters my age who have become firm friends. It's a real pleasure to be able to get together for cutting, sewing, chatting, laughing and brownies!

SMS: What did you make that you're most proud of?

I'm going to pick two here because I can't separate them, but I think that's ok because one of them was for me and the other was for a dear friend.
The first is my Cosmo bag from Amy Butler's Style Stitches - In Far Far Away by Heather Ross, this was for me, and I absolutely love it. It was worth every second of angst making it!

The second is a baby quilt for a good friend of mine. She was responsible for setting me up with Sir Pinkying, and she just had her first baby this year. The only thing that was more joyful for me than their reaction when I gave it to them, is seeing lots of photos of their little guy hanging out on it!

SMS: Are there any trends you're over and done with?
Not really. I think that the thing that the quilting industry has gotten better at is appreciating that we are all different, so different things appeal to different quilters. I was a bit over the modern/traditional argument that happened in 2011, there is space for all of us in the quilting industry regardless of how and what we identify with.

SMS: Did you have a favourite fabric collection or print in 2011?

I really loved the Prince Charming range from Tula Pink, I missed out on Neptune so Prince Charming was great for me to get. For me 2011 was also the year of Sweetwater - Sunkissed, Hometown, and in 2012 Reunion!

SMS: What do you predict for 2012 in the sewing industry?

In 2012 I think we will see more involvement of international designers in the US fabric design scene, there's already Australian, English and Japanese designers and I think we will see more of that as the internet and blogs make us all "closer". I would also like to see more companies doing pre-cuts, I just love them for convenience!

SMS: Can you tell us what to expect from you in 2012? Any big projects or life-changing goals?

I've already done one exciting thing for 2012, but there will be a wait before I can tell you about it (and no, there are no little feet on the horizon!) I'm planning to re-design the blog a bit soon, it's time for a refresh. I hope there will be some other life-changing things happening too, but I can't tell you about that just yet either!

WIP Wednesday

2011-11-23T20:33:00.000+11:00

I haven't done one of these for a while, so I'm just going to cover the changes since the last one! So here we go

Finishes:
Cosmo Bag

Peanut's Playtime Quilt

Progress:
Candied Hexagons - more blocks made - 11 to go!

No Progress:
pretty much everything else!

New Projects:
A secret project for someone for Christmas
Planning for the Christmas Tree!
Renovating our Christmas wreath

Linking up with WIP Wednesday

Candied Hexgons... the ongoing project

2011-11-22T21:47:00.000+11:00

Last night I took a couple of minutes to lay out all the blocks for my Candied Hexagons. By my count I only have 11 full blocks to go, and then the side ones to square it up. I did rearrange a couple of the blocks, but for the most part I'm pretty with how it's looking.

It's going to be a riot of colour, but I really like that!

Back to School!

2011-11-20T22:35:00.000+11:00

Things have been a bit quiet around here, Sir Pinkying and I managed to sneak off for a quick break before the madness of the last 6 weeks of the year. The first stop on our tour was Canberra. I've been wanting to take a machine quilting class for a long time, and I knew that I wanted to take a class with Deb Louie, and Canberra was the best chance for me to take it.

For anyone who doesn't know who Deb is, she is a very well known quilter who used to professionally machine quilt for others on her domestic machine. Yep, that's right, you heard me. No long arm. Machine quilted for others, on her DOMESTIC machine.

The first day was focused on pin basting technique, design consideration, marking and machine quilting with a walking foot. We did quilting in the ditch, a cross hatch, stops and starts, and a cable, all with the walking foot.

Day two was all about free motion quilting. This is what I was really really excited to learn about. I haven't done much of it, and I'm getting sick of sending my quilts out to be quilted. I want to be able to do it them myself! Here is a shot of my test piece from the second day.

Deb breaks the designs down for you and demonstrates them, and then gets you to try them. Here is my first very sad attempt at a swirl

but a couple of rows later I did these two, so a definite improvement!

We also learnt flowers

and interlocking squares

flowers with stems

stars and lots more!

Deb is a fabulous teacher, and I can't recommend this class highly enough! I learnt so much, and still have more to learn. Most importantly I have to practice practice practice! I'm really looking forward to sitting down at the machine again to apply all the things that I learnt.

Shopping Spree!

2011-11-10T10:30:00.002+11:00

Anyone who quilts and lives in Sydney is probably familiar with Craft Depot at Pennant Hills. They are having a huge sale in November, and on the way home from quilting on the weekend, Kyishia and I stopped in to check out the sale. I have to admit that I might have gone a little bit over the top....

This is what I came home with

some gorgeous Ginger Blossom and a couple of prints that match quite well

Some hard to find Heather Ross - mermaids and octupuses (octupi?)

and this pile of wonderful fabrics!

it really all started with this bird print - it was just so cute and colorful that I couldn't resist..

then I saw this adorable bicycle print so I added it to the pile

Then I decided that I should pick a couple of other fabrics to 'match'

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I'm feeling something fresh with a cream and a very clean bright design. It was a great day of shopping!

Scrappy Swap

2011-11-07T11:00:00.004+11:00

I've been trying out online swaps through Flickr for the first time recently, so I'm in 1 fabric swap, 1 bee and 1 sewn goodie swap. Of these only one of them is finished which is the sewn goodie swap. We were all assigned a secret partner, and you had to send 1 hand sewn goodie, the equivalent of a fat quarter of scraps, and something from your area.

This is what I sent out to my partner:
Some pink scraps

Some cute animal scraps from Peanut's Playtime as well as some matching Kona solids

Some Christmas scraps (this is the Christmas line by Kate Spain from last year)

and some modern scraps

Finally I put in a super special piece which is a very rare Heather Ross fabric

My hand made gift was a small fabric container, made in Far Far Away II by Heather Ross, I think it will be good for collecting scraps and threads while she sews!

Finally, this is what I received back, a truly brilliant fabric container - which I've already used and I love! - a gorgeous matching pin cushion and a beautiful array of scraps tailored just for me! It really was a great swap! Something that I would recommend you all try!

Finished Project: Peanut's Playtime

2011-11-05T20:02:00.000+11:00

Hi! It's been a super long time since I blogged! It's not that I haven't been sewing, it's just that I've been sewing so much that I haven't had much time on the computer. So I'm going to start with a finish, you might remember some time ago that I showed you this stack of fabric which was for a secret project.

Well I'm all done! This is "Peanut's Playtime", it's for a very close friend of Sir Pinkying and I, in fact, she was the one who set me up with Sir Pinkying! She's about to have her first baby, and we don't know what she's having, so the quilt needed to be as unisex as possible.

There are a lot of firsts for me in this quilt... it's the first time that I've pin basted a project this size, and I have to say that I absolutely love it! So fast, and it actually held all three layers together beautifully nothing shifted at all! I love it so much!

I did a multicoloured binding, which I've done on other projects, but I love the way it ties the whole quilt together... and it's the first time that I've actually remembered to take a photo of the binding!

It's also the first time that I've machine quilted a quilt all on my "own" too. I did 3/4 of an inch out from each seam which added this great rectangles and squares pattern to the top.

It's also the first time that I've done such a heavily pieced backing. Truth is that I was running out of fabric, so I didn't really have any other choice, but I like the way it turned out. Here is the back

I'm going to leave you with this photo... I love the "quilt with legs" shot!

Colour and Fabric

2011-10-09T20:04:00.000+11:00

I'm on a bit of a colour bent at the moment. My Mum came to visit us this weekend and I had a great time rearranging the cushions and bedding at Freedom to show her my design idea for her bedroom!!

I am really enjoying daylight savings in the afternoons and we've had a couple of beautiful sunsets like this one that I managed to catch this afternoon. I love the way the pink plays across the top of the clouds on the blue sky. Of course, by the time I had gone and changed the camera lens to get a closer shot, the pink was gone.

While I had the camera out, I thought I'd show you a couple of the new arrivals at our place recently. Up first is the gorgeous "Theory" which is by Kristian A Howell for Anthology Fabrics. I've been looking at these for a long time, and was ordering some other things (not shown here just in case someone sees something that they shouldn't!) so I got a couple of fat quarters.

Another favourite designer of mine is Sweetwater and I just love their Hometown range - I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, so I got a couple of charm pack and some fat quarters of designs that I really loved.

I've also been adding to my yellow and grey collection so here are a couple of pieces that came in the envelope that the hometown was in.

Here is the full collection of yellow and greys... this is some of my stash, some prints from my LQS, and some prints from the US

I think I'll stop there for today before you all think that the only thing I do is buy fabric!! I have been sewing but I can't show the project yet. I'm trying to decide how to quilt this secret project at the moment but will show it to you soon!

Colour Makes Me Happy!

2011-09-30T21:26:00.000+10:00

I don't know about you but colour makes me happy.... super happy, it inspires me...

One of the the things that I love about quilting is the chance to use colour in a myriad of different ways, and I'm always trying improve how I work with colour. Then just recently a thing called Photo Card Boutique popped up on a blog that I read (I'm sorry, I really don't remember which blog I saw this in!!) that I wanted to share with you all.

They have an online store that appears to sell electronic stationary (??) but I really haven't spent any time looking at it. What I do love is their "Cool Colors" segment on their blog. Here is one that jumped out at me earlier this week

Given the brilliant range of colours that you can get in Kona Solids, I think that these photos and the way that they pick out inidividual highlight colours really interesting and the resulting colour schemes inspiring. They also give you the hex code for the colour if you're a digital designer.

In the second photo I really love the way they have picked out the deep purple shade from the middle of one of the tulips, it just brings a whole new layer to the colour scheme. So, if you love colour, or what to be inspired, or anything like that, then you should go and check out the blog!

I have been working away again this week, but on a slightly secret project that I will show you after its finished because its a gift for a very close friend and I don't want to spoil anything ahead of time!!

Once Upon a Time... in New York??

2011-09-18T19:19:00.000+10:00

Once again I've been awfully quiet... but I've had a really good reason!! I've been completely consumed by finishing one of my WIPs and today I finally got it done!!

This is the "Cosmo" bag from Style Stitches by Amy Butler... Thanks to Sex and the City "Cosmo" always makes me think of New York City!

It's all done in Far Far Away fabric by Heather Ross, and I used the home dec cotton/linen blend, which is a little bit heavier than standard quilting cotton. Rapunzel in her tower forms the outer pocket, with the Sleeping Beauty also on the outside of the bag

Inside is the Owl and the Pussycat, so the bag is fairy tales all over!

About the pattern itself, it's listed as "easy" in the book, and I don't know if I would agree with that. If you are an experienced sewer who is accustomed to following patterns, then provided that you follow the instructions then it is fairly easy. That said, if you're a beginner sewer, this is going to be challenging for you. My best suggestion would be to follow the instructions to the letter and pin. Pin, pin, pin, pin. Press.

I did make a couple of changes - the bag is pretty huge, so I put in a little loop that I'm going to put a hook on so that I can hang my keys and not lose them!

I also made the pocket on the front side (on the inside) slightly shorter and put in a pocket for my mobile! I LOVE the finished bag!! I made it so that I would have a bage to take things to quilting in and I'm really happy with how it turned out. It did take a fair bit of time, but it was totally worth it!

While I've been busy sewing away, Spring has finally arrived here!

The weather has been beautiful, and all the trees around our house have started to bud. Hope that you're all enjoying the new seasons too!

A finish!! ..... and another start!

2011-09-04T17:12:00.000+10:00

I've been laid up on the couch for the last week with easily the worst cold/flu bug that I've had in YEARS! You know the way there is sick, you feel off colour, and maybe don't go to work but all up its not too bad... then there is the other kind of sick, the lie in bed, can't think straight, can't see straight, stare at the wall, sleep all day (and all night) kind of sick? Well I was that second one.... I'm feeling much better now, and did manage over the weekend to get the bindings finished on our new placemats!

I'm so happy with how they came out! I love the fabrics, it's a good combo of the bright colours that I love and more masculine colours so that they can be something that both Sir Pinkying and I love having on the dining room table.

In a great act of random timing, we just finished building our brand new dining room table (don't you love Ikea?!?) so we're all set to go! I cut the strips all different random sizes, and then added the grey to either end, so none of the placemats are the same

Finally, because I've finished something, I've also started something new with these beautiful fabrics (that's "Baby Safari" from Northcott in case you're wondering, and some Kona Solids) for a very special friend of Sir Pinkying and I.

I've done all the cutting, now I've just got to sit down to do the sewing.

Melbourne!

2011-08-25T09:30:00.002+10:00

It's been a while since we last had a holiday, actually we haven't had any time off work since Christmas and it was well and truly time to take a short break. Melbourne is running the Winter Masterpieces series again this winter, so we decided to go for a short trip away.

The main reason for going was the Tutankhamun exhibition, which I have to say was just wonderful. I knew that the "death mask" hadn't come with the exhibition (it never leaves Egypt) but the artifacts that were part of the exhibition were absolutely incredible. They say that the average visiting time is about 75 minutes - we spent just over 2 hours! The items are displayed in glass cases so that you can see all the different sides, just fantastic!

There was one shop that I knew I wanted to visit, I've been seeing ads in a lot of the quilting magazines, and when I figured out that the shop was located on Lygon St, close to some of the best food in Melbourne, I convinced Sir Pinkying that we should go and check it out. We stopped for breakfast on our first morning at a place called Gingerlee - which was great - and then walked down Lygon St to GJ's Discount Fabrics.

What can I say except WOW! This is possibly one of the best patchwork shops that I've been to in Australia. As readers of blogs we all see the new fabrics coming out in the USA, and then are used to there being a wait before we can get them here. Not at GJ's!! They had fabric on the shelves that I just received notifications about from some of the big US fabric shops! Incredible!

They had a great range of patterns, and a whole bunch of pre-cuts too. The staff were friendly and nice to chat too (even when I asked if I could take some pictures!). Also, I should be clear, this isn't a sponsored post of any kind, I was just one very happy customer!

We also went walking to see the usual sites, Bourke St Mall

Flinders St Station

and had a lovely meal in the lane ways

We had a great view from our room, which was mostly of the cloudy overcast days.

Of course on our last day we woke up to this!

A Room With a..... Desk!

2011-08-22T20:25:00.000+10:00

Ever since Sir Pinkying and I moved earlier this year we've been meaning to "get around" to getting a desk for our spare room so that I can have dedicated space for quilting. There's been a couple of false starts, including a trip to Ikea where I discovered that the desk I thought I wanted was in actual fact not very sturdy, and we ended up coming home empty handed. But yesterday we tried again and finally had success!

Here is the before:

We're lucky in that we have a lot of natura; light in the apartment and there is a beautiful picture window in the middle of the wall. At the moment the trees outside are bare, but in the summer time they will be covered in beautiful pink flowers. Here is the after!

Did I mention that I share the spare room with Sir Pinkying's hobby? Did I mention that Sir Pinkying is a drummer? So we have drums on the left hand side, and quilting on the right hand side!! Now that's what I call a multi-function room!

I've already discovered one fantastic thing about my new desk: the little gaps in the storage foot are PERFECT to display fabric!

A Sew In!

2011-08-19T09:00:00.047+10:00

Last week I mentioned that I'd had two fun quilty experiences lately, but I was very slack and hadn't taken photos at either of them. This week I got a chance to have another one, and I made sure to have my camera ready!

Kyishia from PrimaNOTION came over again while Sir Pinkying was out, and we took over the living room floor! Well... actually... if I'm going to be completely honest... I was the one who really took over the floor, Kyishia sewed at the dining room table. So this is what the floor looked like as we got started

There may have been one of these....

and Kyishia brought some beautiful show and tell which I will show a small sneak peak of...a bento box quilt with Anna Marie Horner fabrics. Gorgeous!

I got a lot done this time, and finished cutting out ALL the pieces for my Cosmo bag. It was a LOT of cutting... as in a LOT of cutting. This is what all the pieces look like laid out, there's two bag pieces, two lining pieces, there's the base of the lining and the outer, there's the sides of the bag, and the lining, there's the pockets (both inside and out) AND lining for the pockets!

and the worst bit?? ALL of the pieces have to be interfaced!!! It's certainly a lot more fun to do when I have company!

Ladies and Gentleman.... I have an annoucement!

2011-08-16T20:30:00.000+10:00

Have you been inspired by all the fabulous modern quilting that you've seen online?? Here are a couple of examples that I've seen recently:

Melissa from Pink Chalk Fabrics has done a wonderful improvised pieced quilt using one of their solids fabric packs. Or this one from My Spare Time - just gorgeous!

That's just two of what could be a very very long list.

Now for the annoucement: We're starting a Sydney (Australia) chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild!

Would you like to join us?? Jump on over to our new website and give us some basic details about yourself! Then blog about it, or tweet about it, or post about it on facebook and help us get the word out. We have thousands of quilters in Sydney, help us get in touch with them!

it's oh so quiet....

2011-08-09T22:25:00.000+10:00

it's oh so still.... whoops! now I've got Bjork singing in my head!

Anyway, as I was saying, it's been awfully quiet around here, things have been a little bit busy, but I have had two great "quilty" experiences in the last couple of weeks. I see there are even a few new followers since the last time I posted - so hi to you all and welcome!

Firstly, I had a new friend over for some sewing time last week. I met Kyishia at a recently quilting group and finally had a chance to catch up again last week. As luck would have it, Sir Pinkying was out for the evening so we took over the lounge room at my place for lots of talking and laughing and a "little" bit of quilting. We had so much fun that we're going to do again next week. This time I'm determined to have more than 6 pieces cut out at the end of the night!!

I did a little work on something from this book

Using these gorgeous Heather Ross fabrics..

We went away over the weekend, which was nice. It was just good to get out of the general rat race and have some time out. As an added bonus, my Mum invited some friends over who are both quilters, so we had a lovely afternoon talking about all things fabric and quilting.

I've also been working away on a couple of secret projects, but I can't share them with you yet, but hopefully I'll be back with more news soon!

Designing Shoji

2011-07-19T20:31:00.000+10:00

I've shown these blocks before, I've been calling them "Asian Circles" and really, when I started making them, I really didn't know what I was going to do with them. I loved the fabric, and really enjoyed the way the technique works, and creates such different and varied blocks from one fabric. But even with all that, I had NO idea what I was going to do with them.

I was at work the other week when I was struck with a sudden flash of inspiration, so I whipped up this rough sketch (it's on the back of a piece of non-essential paperwork!!!)

It doesn't look like much, but it was enough for me to get it down on a piece of paper. Essentially what I want is a pieced background with the circles moving across the surface. I came home and did some quick googling to look at traditional japanese rice paper screens or shoji and based the design on that idea.

With graph paper and some proper tools I got a much better idea of the design. This is the first of the things that I'm not settled on. I had planned to make the quilt in "portrait" mode, because it would be more "useful" that way. But the more I looked at it, the more I realised that it really does need to be "landscape". I guess we'll have to hang it on a wall or something!

I've already got the colours for the background too. I went to Hobbysew, who are carrying a great range of Kona solids, and picked out two beautiful creams, Cream on the left and Bone on the right.

Originally I had planned to use a light green, a light pink and the two cream colours, but as soon as I saw the bolts I knew that even the lightest colours were going to be too much. When I've got the thin strips of Cream between the Bone sections, it should look a little like this

Very similiar to an actual Shoji screen. I'm also really happy now that this quilt has a name: "Shoji" Then the circles will be scattered across the surface like wind swept petals. The other thing that I haven't decided yet is whether I want to make them three dimensional, and more like actual flower blossoms.... what do you think?

I heart Spoonflower!

2011-07-13T22:35:00.000+10:00

I am very familiar with the red, grey-blue and white colour of the USPS International Priority Packages. I wouldn't say that they arrive for me ALL the time, but certainly frequently enough that when the first mail delivery of the day arrives on my floor that I can pick one out from about 50 paces :)

Yesterday, this mysterious package arrived on my desk. Plain white. Interesting.

Hmm... 1 yd cotton fabric printed.... Oh, wait, could this be what I've been waiting for?!?!

So, with a tiny bit of care (and no hesitation at all) I cut off the top of the package and out came this (I may or may not have reenacted this part for the camera at home!)

Yes! It's my Spoonflower order - all beautifully wrapped in tissue paper, with the cute little Spoonflower logo on a sticker on top.

and my two pieces! oh, and this super cute piece of fabric with the Spoonflower logo on it (I know you don't need to see this, but I just thought it was really cute and I wanted to share it with you)

I've always LOVED the labels that Julie over at Jaybird Quilts has for her quilts. They really nice, and it's a great idea for a permanent label for your quilts (especially for someone like me who is a bit anti-label). Just a couple of weeks ago Julie posted a second part in her tutorial about how she had labels printed by Spoonflower The second part of the tutorial includes templates for various different label layouts, so when I saw templates and then Spoonflower had a free shipping offer, I just couldn't resist! My Mum just so happens to be a fantastic web designer, who is more than a little bit handy with Photoshop and so I enlisted her help.

After much "negotiation" with Mum, we came up with a design that I really love - and decided on colours. There's an emerald green

A beautiful bright yellow

and a gorgeous pink/magenta colour.

When I looked at the colours that I often use I thought they would be colours that would easily match most quilt tops that I'm currently working on.

I also ordered this gorgeous and useful colour chart that shows 965 colours all in one yard of fabric. It also has the proper hex colour codes for each colour underneath it, so that you can order more accurately from Spoonflower.

The fabric for both the colour chart and the labels is quilting weight, and is quite nice. I would definitely use Spoonflower again, and I can't recommend enough Julie's tutorials on how to use Spoonflower to create the labels.

Winter Wonders

2011-07-11T21:55:00.000+10:00

Well Winter is certainly in full swing here in the Southern Hemisphere. We've been pretty lucky in that the last week or so has been brilliant blue skies. Unfortunately the beautiful skies have been accompanied by some of the coldest weather we've had all year! There has been gale force winds throughout most of our state and the wind chill really does make a difference to the temperatures. I do love the blue days (a cold, bright blue day is one of my favourite kinds of days) but everyone can do with some cheering up - so here are the things putting a smile on my face at the moment.

We had some friends over for dinner on Friday night - it was a lovely night of food, wine and company - and they gifted us some beautiful Sunflowers. We've positioned them so that as you walk down the hallway, I smile each time I see them :)

Despite the cold weather we've had my plants are continuing to grow. I've got mint, parsley, rosemary and thyme.

They are all still growing really well, the parsley in particular. The last two months I've taken bundles of parsley to quilting to share around because we can't possibly eat it all!

I don't do a lot of knitting, but at the moment I'm working on a gift for a friend. For a number of years I've given her a hand knitted scarf for her birthday, and she seems to love them, so I'm working on one for this year. I just finished a ball of wool and I think I'm just past half the length I'll need - so I'll be done soon!

I thought I'd leave you this shot of Sir Pinkying and I. You know that winter is here when you have to snuggle under quilts even with the heater on!!

W.I.P Wednesday

2011-07-06T21:35:00.000+10:00

Lee over at Freshly Pieced does "W.I.P. Wednesday" which is going to give me a chance to list my current WIPs. Some of them you are already familiar with - but this is a more comprehensive list - all in one post - this could be a long one!

1) Hand sewing
Up first - Candied Hexagons - English Paper Pieced - 15 or so blocks to go, then insets and borders. Feeling not at all guilty about this one!

Celtic Applique - all scroll work basted down, but in need of being appliqued into place. This is something that I tend to go back to when I'm looking for some hand work that is a little different to the hexagons!

2) Piecework
Odd Fellows March blocks - all fabric cut for this quilt, including borders. I haven't worked on them for a long time though and should probably get back to them!

Asian Circles - I've done all the cutting for these and have a vague tickling of an idea of how I want to lay them out but need to find time to sit and sketch it out. Sewed a few more of these blocks over the weekend and will hopefully get the the blocks finished this weekend.

3) Completed tops
Urban Couture - this top actually doesn't have a name yet. I've been calling it "Urban Couture" just because that is what the fabric is called... I would like to use this for free motion practice - but just not sure how to quilt it.

The "Sultry" quilt - another top with no name - other than it's fabric name! I want to free motion this too, and I have a kind of swirly flower design in mind - but just can't figure out how to get from one flower to another.

Placemats - these are going quite well - all the binding is made for them, and I've machined it on to 3 of 8 placemats. I'm hoping to get the machining of the binding finished off this weekend.

I also have two other tops that are in need of quilting - both have actually been basted but I haven't been game to get started!

Now that I look at the list, it really does seem that perhaps it is the lack of maching quilting experience that is holding me back. I'm hoping to go to a free motion class later this year, so hopefully that will help!!

Work(s) in progress

2011-07-03T19:57:00.000+10:00

I thought I would give you all a quick update on some of the many projects that are in progress here.

First up - what does 89 English Paper pieced blocks look like?? A little something like this!

I've been really enjoying watching this pile grow, especially as I've never hand sewn a whole quilt before, so there is a real sense of accomplishment with this one. I'm also quite happy that this project hasn't gotten sidelined by other projects!!

So here is a little look at all the blocks laid out. I needed to lay them all out so that I could figure out what I need to do for the remainng blocks. I'm quite happy with how this is coming together, the colours are working quite well, and I only have about 15 blocks to go before I can start stitching them all together! I'm really glad that I did lay them out, I've actually made one change to the positionings since this photo was taken, there are two blocks that are nearly identical quite close to each other... so I moved one! Can you spot it??

My second update is on the placemats that have been in progress for a while. They're all quilted, and late the other night I made 480 inches of binding (yes, that's right 480!!) and started sewing the bindings on. I've done about half of them and then I'll have to stitch them to the back. It's going to take me time but I'm getting there!

Vivid 2011

2011-06-16T22:48:00.000+10:00

Every Winter the Sydney gets a great festival called Vivid. The whole idea is for it to be a festival of light and sound and each year they choose a different curator who gets to put their own "stamp" on the festival for the year.

2011 was the 3rd year of the festival, and I've been able to go to it every year so far. My most favourite thing is the 'light' part of the festival. Artists from all over the world contribute light installations that are put up around the city that you can go and see for free.

It's a great way to try and get us Sydneysiders out of our homes in the cold of Winter, especially at this time of year when we've had so much rain.

Sir Pinkying and I headed to the city to have a look at this years displays. One of the features of this year was a show called "Firedance" which was basically flames dancing to music. It was a lot of fun, and was just under the Harbour Bridge.

As you walk around between the various pieces, you have to be sure and look all around because sometimes they are above you! I really liked this one - gorgeous colours! I wonder if there is a Kona quilt in there...

The main lighting feature each year is "Lighting the Sails" where the sails of the Opera House are lit with beautiful changing designs. I was lucky enough to borrow a tripod from a friend which meant much better photos than would have been possible otherwise

Many people don't realise that the Opera House is actually all tiled, and there is actually a very pretty pattern formed by all the tiles, which you can just catch in the photo above.

Sydney is quite a "young" city, so we don't have the same kind of grand buildings as places like London or Paris, but one that we do have is Customs House and this year it featured a great changing display that looked like the building was re-wrapping itself every few seconds, it was just beautiful!

I can't leave you without one last picture of the Opera House in full colour.

Prince Charming in the house

2011-06-08T20:26:00.000+10:00

So I have to admit that I've been sitting on the letter box of late waiting for a package from Hawthorne Threads... well, not so much sitting on the letter box as checking it obsessively every day since I could reasonably expect that my package might arrive.

Yesterday my package arrived. The first three are a bit of a mixed bag, two prints from Sugar and Spice (Riley Blake), and one from Theory (Anthology). The Sugar and Spice is to go with my growing collection of aqua and red fabrics, which I will hopefully get to cut into soon. The Theory is because I really loved the colour combination and I'm picturing some kind of quilt of Kona Solids in the same colours.

The main reason for my order was to get some Prince Charming by one of my all time favourite designers Tula Pink. I did very seriously consider getting fat quarters of the whole range, but decided to focus on the colours that I really loved instead. First up two colours from the "honey" colour range

Hawthorne Threads is one of those wonderful shops that does fat quarter bundles of some ranges, split into colour stories, so I got the "Coral" colour story in fat quarters

and finally - my absolute favourite - Indigo! I actually got yards of some of the prints in this colour story, and half yards of all the rest. LOVE THEM

This is one of those times that I bought fabric with no idea about what I'm going to do with them... but I'm sure it will come to me! :)

Baby it's Cold Outside!

2011-05-14T10:14:00.000+10:00

There is has been a decided temperature drop around here lately. It's got suddenly very cold last week and it's been a bit of a struggle to adjust. I went from cardigans to winter coat and scarf in about a week! On the bright side though, there has been a string of my very favourite kind of days, bright clear blue skies, with the sun shining. Perfect!

The tree outside our windows is still holding on to the last of its leaves, and has turned a beautiful golden colour which is really nice to gaze out on.

Despite the cold weather my little plant experiment seems to be working quite well. Everything is still alive, and they are all definitely growing - in fact it might even be time to start using the parsley before it completely smothers the thyme! I think that I am also doing well enough that I might be able to get some more plants... up next a dwarf lemon, and some mint.

Placemats in progress and a sneak peek

2011-05-03T22:43:00.000+10:00

Over the weekend I made a lot of progress with the placemats. I've now sewn all the strips together into "placemats" and I've trimmed them down to size. Well, kind of..... I actually managed to trim 3 of them SMALLER than what they are meant to be - I guess that's what happens when you're trying to watch Masterchef and trim at the same time!

To add insult to injury I also managed to cut my finger on my rotary cutter! I've never done that before, not in years and years of quilting! I'd (stupidly) locked the blade open while I repositioned something on my cutting board, and then as I went to pick it up, I pushed a finger against the open blade! whoops! Anyway, Sir Pinkying got me a band aid and I finished cutting!

Moving on to my sneak peek - don't you love it when a squashy package arrives in the mail? Even better if the package is really STUFFED full. That's what happened to me today - and here are the spoils

This is 'Far Far Away II' by Heather Ross for Kokka fabrics. It's a beautiful blend of linen and cotton and features some gorgeous designs from all your favourite fairy tales

Sleeping Beauty

The Owl and the Pussycat

Rapunzel - just gorgeous! I can't wait to get started. It's going to be used together with a pattern from this book - which also recently arrived by post!

I can't wait to get started, but I will finish the placemats first. I need to try to focus on finishing one project before starting another!

Royal Wedding Fever aka a Meal Fit for a Prince

2011-04-30T11:45:00.000+10:00

So, unless you don't read the paper or perhaps you've been on a remote island of some kind, most of you would know that yesterday (April 29th) Prince William of Wales married Catherine Middleton.

No matter which side of the republican debate you're on, I think we can all agree that the English Royal family really do know how to "do" pomp and ceremony! I have to admit that I was quite excited about the wedding, I remember when I was little that Mum would talk about watching Princess Diana's wedding, so I thought this would be my chance. Even better, the timing of the wedding meant that it fell in prime time TV viewing here in Australia.

Now Sir Pinkying is fairly tolerant when it comes to watching an assortment of shows that he isn't interested in, but I knew that 3 or more hours of royal wedding was a little extreme! I also wanted for us to be able to have a mildly English feeling to the meal, so I decided on a menu:
Roast Beef with gravy (and I NEVER make gravy), Yorkshire Puddings (that I've never made before) and Vegetables with a dessert of Apple Crumble.

I came home from work and figured out the timing of everything - hard to do when you have to take into account things like "7.51pm - the bride leaves for the church"! I was most nervous about the Yorkshire Puddings, I've never made them before and I was led to believe that they're easy to get wrong.

On the advice of my sister I used the Jamie Oliver recipe from his book "The Ministry of Food" (I also did his roast beef and gravy recipes from the same book). The instructions were very clear that you're NOT to open the oven door while they are cooking but I managed to snap this shot as I opened the door to get them out

I'm so happy that they worked! They were crisp on the outside and warm and soft in the middle - just like Jamie said they should be. I had to rest the roast for 30 minutes, and it was quite cool here last night - so a double layer of foil and a tea towel helped keep it all warm.

I don't think I've ever cooked roast beef before (pork, chicken and lamb: yes, beef: no) so very happy that the Jamie recipe made it perfectly medium.

Needless to say Sir Pinkying was very satisfied with his meal, and this morning reading some of the wedding coverage - what do I see on the menu at the royal wedding reception? Roast Beef, with Yorkshire Puddings! It really was a meal fit for a prince.

Last up was a small apple crumble from a "secret" family recipe.

The wedding was great fun to watch, complete with texts from a very special person who was my "royal correspondent" on the Mall in London. My highlights from the coverage were the carriage procession after the ceremony, the balcony appearance, and the sight of dozens of members of the royal family packed into "mini coaches" to travel to the palace!

My absolute favourite though was something I only saw this morning - William and Catherine driving from Buckingham Palace in an Aston Martin decked out by brother Harry in bunting and ballons

While I've been gone....

2011-04-27T21:00:00.000+10:00

So, I realise that it's been some time since I've posted, and it's really just that life has gotten in the way of me having some quite time on the computer to blog.

Sewing wise I've been working on my current projects, and also one more thing that I didn't share with you the other day... because we just moved house I've been wanting to do some new placemats for us to use for dinners and things like that. I absolutely LOVED the High Society range from Anthology fabrics, they have a good compromise feeling in that they are not too girly, but are quite earthy and fun.

So I've been making some placemats for us - just some little touches for our new home. I picked 5 of the prints above to be included (taking out the ones that were too flowery) and added Kona solids in Coal (I think). At the moment they look like this - stacked up waiting to be finished

But soon they will look more like this. I had lay them all out to ensure that I had a "random" enough look in the designs of each placemat. I've already bought the special thermal wadding and I'm going to use a dark brown for the binding, hopefully they'll come together!

The other thing that I've been doing is a little "gardening". We have lots of outside space here and I would really like it to be a lush green oasis - but given my brown thumb past we decided that I should start small - 3 herbs - and see how I go with these!

p.s. don't forget to keep dropping in to Chasing Cottons to follow Rebecca's great beginner's quilt class

Current Projects: Celtic Applique

2011-04-10T10:30:00.005+10:00

Another current project! When i first started quilting, I bought a LOT of books, including this one. It was at the time that all things Irish were cool, Riverdance was huge and on tour, and I got swept up in it all. So far I have cut all the pieces for the background (the patterned fabrics that sit behind the celtic lines), and I've also done ALL the bias bars for both the centre applique, and also the border.

Then I basted everything in place and have been stitching it down with a running stitch. But wait, what is that in the top right had corner? Just to the right of the golden loop...

ARGH! On pulling this out of the current projects box that it was residing in, I found a mystery splotch and I have no idea what it is. I really honestly don't know what it is or how it got there. I've tried removing it, but have had no luck so far. My plan is to finish the applique, and then wash the top to see if I can get it out that way (with some stain remover). If that doesn't work then I'm going to cut around the design and then applique it to a new background.

Laying the bias bars was interesting because they all over lap, and wind in and out of each other. It's one of the reasons why I basted everything in place, because I wasn't going to do that a second time!

What I have noticed about all my current projects is that each one of them has taught me a different technique, which makes sense because I'm self taught, so all these books have to serve a purpose!

Fabric!

2011-04-06T21:20:00.006+10:00

Rebecca over at Chasing Cottons is running a really great beginners quilting class covering everything from fabric, to design, to construction, to finishing. It will be a great resource for not just new members of our fabulous quilting community, but I'm sure the rest of us can pick up some tips too.

Rebecca's invited the rest of us to join in by blogging about the topics she's discussing in any given week, and considering that this weeks topic is FABRIC, I just couldn't resist joining in.

I LOVE fabric. I have done since I was a little girl, and I suspect that I always will :) I can remember when I was about maybe 6 or 7, sitting next to my Mum as she went through her fabric and knitting supplies, and stashing a little pile of the things she was getting rid of that I liked.

For quilting I use 100% cotton fabrics, and I make a decision about whether or not to pre-wash based on what I'm making, and with what fabrics. There is a lot of debate about the wash/don't wash issue and you can find people who passionately fall on both sides of the debate.

As an initial general rule, I either wash ALL of the fabrics in a quilt, or I wash NONE of the fabrics in a quilt. I have to admit with the increasing use of pre-cuts it's becoming less and less likely that I will pre-wash fabric. You can't pre-wash pre-cuts (at least not in any "easy" way), so if I can't wash that part of the fabric, then I won't wash any other fabrics in the quilt. This means that when you wash the quilt the first time, they should ("should") shrink evenly. The only time that I would wash the fabric would be if I'm using pieces that are all a fat quarter or larger, because then any threads pulling off the edge are not going to be a problem.

Now, for the shopping! I do a combination of online shopping (USA and Australia), physical shopping, and ebay. Rebecca has a good list of shops on her website - and I've used a number of them - mentions would go to Hawthorne Threads, Pink Chalk Fabrics, and for GORGEOUS catalogs Keepsake Quilting.

My other favourite tip is quiltshops.com :) If you know the name of a fabric designer you really love, or a fabric range then you can type it into that search engine and it will look at a whole bunch of online shops and show you who is selling it. It doesn't show ALL the shops out there, but it does show some great ones, and it's a good way to compare prices.

If you're a beginner living in Sydney, then I can't reccomend highly enough the discount fabric section at Craft Depot at Pennant Hills. They have a huge selection of fabrics at $10 per metre, so if you're not too sure of yourself, and you're nervous about spending HEAPS of money, or cutting into a special fabric, you can easily get some great things there. It's where my collection of Alhambra fabrics came from.

I completely agree with Rebecca when she says that you should buy what you love - especially if you're "stashbuilding". I read through Rebecca's post a second time, and I don't she talks about a "stash" at all so I'm going to have a go.

I think that most quilters would have a stash, don't get me wrong, I'm sure that they vary in size, I know people who only have tiny bits of left over fabric from their last quilt, and I also know people who have a stash that could literally fill a room, but almost every quilter I know has a stash. For me it started out as pieces of fabric that were left over from things that I had made. However this quickly morphed into me buying pieces of fabric that I had no specific plan for, but that I knew I HAD to have. For example, the gorgeous "Plume" by Tula Pink. I have no idea what I'm going to use it for - but I needed to have it! :) At the moment my stash spreads across about five 50 litre plastic tubs.

Deciding how much fabric to buy can be tricky too. If you know what you're making, and what you're using the fabric as (i.e. using a fabric as a border, background or binding is going to use a lot more fabric than if you're using it as the highlight colour in 20 blocks) will make it a lot easier. If you're just stash building then I would suggest no less than a fat quarter, because you'll regret it later!! A word of warning - a lot of online shops do a minimum half yard (USA) cut, which is fair enough, because if they cut a fat quarter for you, and don't sell the other half then the shop is stuck with a piece they can't sell.

The most important thing about fabric is to enjoy it! Relish the colour, dive into the patterns and designs, examine the textures and figure out what you like, what you LOVE and the things you aren't so keen about. It's one of the BEST things about being a quilter.

Current Projects: Asian Circles

2011-04-05T20:50:00.012+10:00

So I continue my adventure through projects that I'm currently working on. This next one is very much a work in progress. It all started with a piece of gorgeous Asian style fabric. It started with one of the techniques in this book. You can't quite tell, but all the blocks are slightly different sizes and what I'm planning to do is to actually cut them into circles which I'm going to applique to a background. It's just this week looking through all the blocks that I've decided that I might piece the background, out of an assortment of creams. Maybe. I'm considering it! :)

I want them to end up looking like the Japanese Temari balls, and in my head, I want them to kind of "float" across the background of the quilt, and I think that I will quilt loose kind of "wafts" of air.

The techniques in the book are great, I just love how you can get so very many....

different blocks from a single fabric! :) ... and the way the patterns seem to rotate around the centre of the block

Current Projects: Odd Fellows March

2011-04-04T21:08:00.006+10:00

Wow - that was a trial! It's taken me 45 minutes to load the photos for this post! Moving right along to today's current project, this is Odd Fellows March: This was the result of one of my very first adventures in online shopping. I loved the pattern in the book, but I didn't like the "old man" look of the prints in the pattern, and then one day I saw these beautiful pastel/bright coloured plaids in the Keepsake Quilting catalog, and I just HAD to have them! The pattern is called "Odd Fellows March" and is from "Quick Quilts from your Scrap Bag" by Leisure Arts. (sorry I would crop the photo below to get rid of the carpet background, but I'm SO not reloading it!)

It's a great book, and has lots of fantastic ideas in it. One day my Odd Fellows March will look like this

But for now a lot of it looks like this!

Current Projects: Part 1

2011-04-03T21:28:00.005+10:00

As I mentioned the other day, part of moving house has meant that I've had a chance to go through all my current projects. I've rediscovered some that I've started working on, and not completed. So this week I am going to show you a couple of them, explain where I'm up to, and what I think I will do next.

Up first is this Hydrangea.

I think that I stopped working on it because I wasn't quite sure what I should do with it once it's finished. It's about 15 inches square at the moment, and I think that it would probably make a good little wall hanging.

It comes from the brilliant book "Fabled Flowers" by Kumiko Sudo.

Each little petal starts out as a circle and then you do some folding, and you wind up with a petal.

I've always loved Hydrangeas so I do still really love this block. Now I think that I will put on a skinny border in one of the purple fabrics, and then to mirrior the petals, I might do a border of little hour glass blocks, then bind it.

I haven't really thought about quilting it yet, but I will require a fairly close amount of quilting on the background, to help hold the weight of the flowers.

wow... it's been a while!

2011-03-29T20:43:00.003+11:00

Hi there, So, it's been a while since I posted. We moved house about 2.5 weeks ago, and life has pretty much been a whirlwind of unpacking, recycling, donating, and throwing out!! :) We're much more organised than we were when we first moved in. When the removalists left, we could barely see the floor in the lounge room, and everything that didn't have a "home" got tossed in the spare room! For the first week we just kept the door to that room closed, and tried to pretend like it wasn't there, and it wasn't full of "stuff". Eventually we had to face the reality, especially considering that all my sewing things were in that room, and all Sir Pinkying's drumming stuff was also in the room! Happily, it's nearly done now, I even managed to vaccum the apartment this afternoon. Hopefully the next post will be more picture intensive!

p.s. I've been surprised (pleasantly? UNpleasantly - hard to say really) by HOW MANY unfinished quilt projects I have *GULP* I really should finish them!

We interrupt scheduled programming

2011-03-06T21:53:00.003+11:00

I don't know if I mentioned it at all last week, but I'm moving house this week. That's right, carrying boxes, packing, unpacking. It's a lot of fun... or not.

So, it will probably be a fairly quiet week on the blog. Perhaps a week or two... depending on how long it takes to get the internet put on at the new place!

So much to do!

Hope you're all having more fun and doing lots of sewing!

Gratitude: Week 5

2011-03-02T19:30:00.003+11:00

OK so this week's one is kind of a biggie - this week I am grateful that we've found a new unit! Sir Pinkying and I are moving, next week (!), to a place of our own :)

It's very exciting, although now there is the packing, and the moving.

We have a spare room, which will be half for quilting and the other half will be for Sir Pinkying's equivalent, drumming!

So, I might be a bit quiet between now and next week, as I frantically pack all the quilting projects, and everything else! :)

Gratitude: Week 4

2011-02-25T09:00:00.008+11:00

This week when I sat down to write my weekly gratitude post, I initially struggled to think of something to be grateful for. I've already told you how wonderful my Mum and sister are, and as for Sir Pinkying - that's a post for a different week :)

This week has been particularly busy in my "day" job, and we've continued the very disheartening "house hunt". But there has been one thing that has been able to put a smile on my face everyday this week. I should tell you all now that I love music, it's a part of almost every single day of my life, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

This week my gratitude is about these folks (and the ones who create them)

For anyone who has been away from the "modern" world (perhaps under a rock, or on the moon), Glee is a show by Fox in the US (which runs on Channel 10 here in Australia) about a high school Glee club. They sing a FANTASTIC mix of 80's power ballads, pop, songs from musicals and rock. All with great vocal rearrangements. In the most recent episodes they've done "Fat Bottomed Girls" by Queen, "Firework" by Katy Perry, "Sing" by My Chemical Romance.

The music is fantastic it gets my toes tapping, peps up my energy and puts a smile on my face every time. And don't even get me started on what happens when I'm listening alone in my car..... I just have to remember not to sing too loudly when I've got the windows down! :)

Here's a little sample for any of you who have missed this brilliant show. Hope it makes you happy too :)

Thoughts turn to New Zealand

2011-02-23T21:54:00.002+11:00

I'm quite sure that I'm not the only one who has been watching with horror the events unfolding in New Zealand. Sir Pinkying and I went there in September of last year, and although we didn't go to Christchurch, we did go to Kaikouri slightly north of the city.

September of last year when we were there was only about 2 weeks after they had the first significant earthquake, there were some roads that were still blocked but the people seemed to be getting on with life.

This new quake happened at the worst possible time - it was the middle of the day, office workers were out getting lunch, or at their desks and the city was busy. It is tragic and our collective Australian hearts go out to them.

As small nations at "the ends of the Earth" there is a long and abiding friendship between Australia and New Zealand, I heard someone today call them our ANZAC siblings, and that is really true. We share a common spirit, so in times like these I believe that we feel a common grief.

So tonight I'm thinking of all our New Zealand siblings, our quilting sisters and their loved ones.

Gratitude: Week 3

2011-02-17T21:45:00.003+11:00

So after a couple of weeks of fairly BIG gratitude topics, this week I want to focus on something a bit more fun.

It's been a fairly hectic week, work is busy, we're trying to get ready to move house so that means we're rushing around every weekend looking at places, and it really is just one thing after another. It doesn't leave much time for quilting, which is kind of ironic, because what I really need to do is find some time to do something relaxing, like quilting.

So, this week I am grateful for my rotary cutter! I finally found about 2 hours last night spare and I got a surprising amount of cutting done. I'm making some place mats for after we've moved, it's a good way to not have to think about the moving! :) I got all of the backgrounds cut out, and most of the individual coloured strips too. I can't imagine how long it would have taken if I'd had to do it all by hand!

In this time pressured world, I really am grateful for having tools like the rotary cutter! How about you guys, what tools do you love??

I'm a lucky girl!

2011-02-14T21:14:00.004+11:00

So, as I'm sure you're all aware, today is Valentine's Day.

I really love the sentiment of Valentine's Day, a chance to take some time out from day to day life to acknowledge how good things are. Sir Pinkying and I decided that we would celebrate over the weekend rather than cramming it into a day when we both had to work.

My present was a surprise, all I had been told was that we would be going for a drive on Sunday, that casual comfortable clothes would be fine and there was no need for a wet weather plan. I was curious to say the least, and spent two sold days trying to quiz him for more information (I really do put him in an impossible position - I like surprises, but I love trying to figure things out!)

So, Sunday morning arrives, wet and rainy, and off we go. Initially we were heading in a direction that could have been taking us anywhere but then gradually we approached an area that I was familiar with. An area where there is only ONE thing that I can think of there.... a QUILT SHOP!

That's right, Sir Pinkying drove me to my favourite quilt shop!! :) but wait, it gets better... he PAID for me to do some shopping!!!! :)

After much consideration and browsing of the aisles, this what I got (that front one is actually a light green spot on white)

They are mostly prints by Art Gallery Fabrics, it started with this print
and then I saw this one that I also really liked and after that I just added some blenders... I think I will do something fairly simple... I kind of thinking something made from horizontal lines of fabric.... different widths all randomised....
We'll see, I've already changed my mind twice since I got the fabric!

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day too

Gratitude: Week 2

2011-02-08T21:27:00.004+11:00

The beginning of 2011 has been tough for many Australians, there has been terrible flash floods in Queensland, further flooding in Victoria, then Queensland got hit by the strongest cyclone in living memory and now there are significant bush fires in Western Australia.

It has been without a doubt a very harrowing time for thousands of Australians.

This week I am grateful for the fact that we have been able, in most circumstances, give people sufficient warning of the oncoming storm. It has been really something to be grateful for that we have been able to get people out of their houses and into emergency shelters before the worst came through. The media, police, local councils, state premiers, the SES and countless others have been able to help warn people and get them to safety. We've also seen tremendous examples of "mate ship" with thousands of people volunteering to help clean up for people affected by the events that have taken place.

It is tragic that some lives were lost, and thousands of people are in temporary housing while they wait to see if they will be able to return to their homes, but Australians are strong and resilient people and we will clean up, and people will move forward with their lives, and as a country we will be better for it.

Gratitude

2011-02-02T20:52:00.004+11:00

Gratitude - n. being thankful or appreciative

I remember a number of years ago that Oprah had a program that encouraged everyone to keep a gratitude journal, the goal was to write down something, or five somethings, everyday that you were grateful for. I personally believe that taking a few moments of time to be grateful and to express that gratitude is something that everyone should do.

Often I feel grateful for things, but I never really share them, so here's the plan (and I'll be the first one to admit that it's not an original plan!) each week I am going to share one thing that I'm grateful for. It doesn't have to be a big thing, it can be something small, or at the other end of the scale, it might be something monumental! :)

Now, I'm sure that it hasn't escaped your attention that we're already in the first week of February, which means that I'm about 4 posts behind - so I'm going to try and catch those up too! I even have a beautiful button to use with the posts

TA-DA!

Today I'm going to share my first gratitude: My Mum and my sister

I come from a relatively small family, and while we (the womenfolk) of the family don't always agree on everything (we've been called "robust debaters" before!) I would not be the woman I am today if it were not for them. Over the years they have been there while I studied, they've watched over me as I prepared for exams, they've come to graduations, and quilt shows, and theatre productions, they've designed blog buttons for me (thanks!), they've travelled with me... the list really is endless. That's before you even get into the things that I've learnt from them, if not for them I wouldn't be able to cook, wouldn't be able to SEW, wouldn't be able to read... there are so many things that I love and enjoy in my life that have come straight from them! So today I'm grateful for my Mum and my sister :)

So how about you guys? What are you grateful for today? Who else wants to join me with posting a gratitude each week?

The Design Process

2011-01-18T21:20:00.005+11:00

My Mum's house has a home cinema type room. She designed it with a charcoal carpet, and a gorgeous grey, red and black patterned rug. The whole room (sorry I don't have any pics of it) is meant to feel warm and cozy, with the ability to be really dark when you want to watch a movie.

It's a great room. We definitely spend lots of time there when I visit. I would like to make some quilts for her cinema room and really want to co-ordinate them (that's right there may be up to four of them) with the colour scheme in the room, and also with each other.

I've been doing some virtual shopping (I *heart* Hawthorne Threads!) so here is what I've come up with so far:

From Robert Kaufman:

From Studio E

and finally from Alice Kennedy

At this point what I'm imagining is four quilts (one for each chair in the "cinema") all based around geometric designs and heavily featuring Kona Solids (Black, Charcaol, Med Grey, Rich Red, Red and possibly some Snow) and then small(ish) pieces of the feature fabrics to give it some interest. I think that the poppies above might be too much (too big, even in little pieces) but the "mums" are perfect!

Now - if I could only remember how to use my Electric Quilt to design what's in my head....

The Lazy Blogger

2011-01-10T22:20:00.007+11:00

So I'm clearly a very lazy blogger. I got back from my Christmas holidays (I went away and had no laptop!) and discovered there were more than 200 items in my google reader! Everyone was so busy over the holidays. I am in awe of you all!

I hardly did any sewing over the Christmas break, but I did take a couple of hours out while I was at Mum's place to lay out all the blocks that I've made so far which meant that I could figure out what blocks I still need to do.
So far I have made 83 of 103 blocks - and that is what they look like together! I'm busily working on filling in the gaps and then I will be nearly finished.

I was also a very lucky girl this christmas (I must have been on Santa's "good quilter" list last year) because I was given two beautiful books for Christmas
City Quilts by Cherri House from my Mum - full of wonderful modern quilts, and lots of fabulous ideas for using solids
Japanese Garden Quilt by Karen Kay Buckley from my sister. It's a gorgeous quilt - it will be a great challenge!

Then when I was on holidays....
I found Kaleidscope from Melly and Me which I've looked at tonnes of times - but just had to have this time! :)

I'll be back soon - I have an idea for a weekly post - but I'll get to that tomorrow :)

It's a Beautiful Day!

2010-12-15T20:58:00.002+11:00

So - to all of you who are here just for the quilting related topics - I apologise... but these are the only photos I have to show you at the moment! :)

Last night I went U2!!! They were amazing! well worth it!

the stage was unbelievable, complete with this fantastic movable HD screen that opened wide or slide into a narrow band...

they played a great mix of old and new songs and were on stage for nearly a full 2 hours

Bono was in fine form...
Anyway - for any of you who get an opportunity to go - you really should! It was absolutely a worthwhile experience

Inspiration leads to..... Frustration?

2010-12-08T19:36:00.006+11:00

Like many of you, I have become a big reader of blogs. What I love more than anything is stumbling across things that I would otherwise never have seen, especially when those things lead to a creative revelation :)

This post I would like to share with you two quilts that I have inspired me.

I will start with a very recent (as in yesterday recent) discovery. Amy's Creative Side occasionally has featured bloggers, and the featured blog yesterday was called Cut To Pieces which I soon discovered is a completely adorable blog. Beautifully designed and full of things that will make you happy just looking at them!

So, this brings me to the first quilt in question... it was part of the featured blogger post on Amy's Creative Side, but I was so struck by it, that I had to know more and went looking on Cut to Pieces to find out all about it.

Here it is (reproduced with Angela's permission)- it's called "Where Bluebirds Fly" and it is one of my favourite quilts EVER.

There are so many things that I love about this quilt - so I'm just going to run through a couple of them.

I love the references to The Wizard of Oz - it's one of my all time favourite movies - and the little nods (i.e. the rainbow, the tornado, the change from black and white to colour)

I love all the hidden little characters in the quilt like the dwarfs, mermaids, castle peep, unicorn. I love the NOT so hidden characters too especially the witches!

I love the balance in the design of the quilt.

I love the quilting on this quilt - once again the tornado, the sky, the water... all of it! :)

I LOVE the design concept - the muted side (with a glimmer of the rainbow) compared with the bright coloured side. It has sparked in my head a design idea for a 3 panel quilt, using a similar black/white, coloured design.

Most of all what I love about this quilt is Angela (the quilt maker's) explanation about why she made this quilt, and what it meant to her... you should ABSOLUTELY go and read about it on her blog.

The second quilt I would like to share with you is called "Sandstorm Over the White Desert" by an Australian quilt maker by the name of Jenny Bowker. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Jenny's work, you really are missing out. I have to admit that a quilt by Jenny is one of the reasons why I took up quilting in the first place.

Jenny has been working on the most fantastic series of quilts based on people that she met in Egypt while her husband was working there. I believe this is the most recent in the series.

Here is Sandstorm Over the White Desert (reproduced with Jenny's permission)

I have long admired Jenny's works, but this quilt really took my breath away. To give you and idea of the size of this quilt, I was at a quilt show earlier this year and as I walked between the rows, a man standing at the end of the row caught the corner of my eye and I did a double take. It wasn't actually a man, it was this quilt, hanging at the end of the row. When you stand looking at the quilt, he is basically life sized and the way the quilt was hung meant that you were looking at him in the eye.

This quilt has the most tremendous detail in it, from the pieced sky (with the sand storm rolling across) to the amazing sand stone (?) rocks in the background, to the detailing in the face and clothing of the figure and finally the quilting across the surface that provides so much depth. It really is breathtaking. For those who are interested in how this all came about, there is a post on Jenny's blog Postcards from Cairo that shows how she came up with this creation.

I should mention (again) that this is one in series of quilts, you should really go and look at more of them here. I am always so inspired by seeing the pictorial quilts that Jenny makes.

So now we get to the frustration part. I can see my quilt design in my head (actually if I'm honest I can see a number of quilt designs in my head) but I just don't seem to be able to get the design from my head to a quilt. I find it really frustrating. I always start by trying to transfer what's in my head onto paper, but even that's not such a sure thing!

That said, I do know that my quilting skills have improved since my early days, there are definitely things that I can do now, that I couldn't do last year and so on. So, while I wait for my skills to catch up with my imagination, I remain thankful for the quilters, quilts, artists, fabric designers and the world around me for their inspiration.

oh Christmas tree....

2010-12-07T20:53:00.004+11:00

Well, this post has been a while coming, the tree has been up for a while but I've been busy having a cold, and trying to get other things done before Christmas comes around.

It's quite tall (7 feet high) but there's always more than enough decorations :)

My Mum refers to the colour scheme as "bollywood" -which is probably accurate enough - but I don't mind! Pinks, purples and reds are my favourite colours - so why shouldn't I use them on the tree?

For a while I had somehow only managed to collect round baubles, with not many "other' shapes, but I've worked at changing that - so now I have stars and little tinsel sprays

and angels...

For the most part I like to tie the decorations onto the tree using ribbons in a variety of colours, I find that it adds a secondary design type feature - which I really enjoy.

We also have a wreath on the door, golden glittery poinsettas and of course the adorable Rudy, Ruby and Roby Dear from last weeks post.

How is everyone else going with their Christmas decorations?

Introducing the Dears

2010-11-29T22:48:00.003+11:00

This week over at Amy's Creative Side Amy was having a One Week, One Project Challenge - to name (last Monday) and finish in a week (today) ONE Project, and I'm very happy to say that I met my challenge!

This is a pattern by "Melly and Me" which I fell in love with sometime ago and the fabric is "12 Days of Christmas" by Kate Spain for Moda Fabrics (which I LOVE!).

Please meet Rudy - the star of the pattern and the family patriach (he's the big guy of the family)

Next up we have Ruby - Mum of the clan

and finally - Roby (pronounced Robbie)... he's the teeny tiny man of the house - and I'm sure he'll get up to all sorts of trouble!

and here they are in their first family portrait

At the beginning of the week I had a bundle of legs and bodies and antlers and ears - so this week I have stuffed all the limbs and bodies, hand stitched closed all the holes, attached the legs to the body, hand stitched the ears, antlers, bow, eyes and noses to the bodies. Phew! I think that would explain why I have a nice callous developing on my middle finger!

In that first photo you get a sneak preview of our Christmas tree - which we put up last week... and I will blog about later :)

Fa la la la FIXED!

2010-11-22T20:22:00.007+11:00

Until recently "my" sewing machine was actually my Mum's. It was a 19 year old Husqvarna that had a great straight stitch and a good zig zag.... and... well.... that was about it! But Mum wasn't using it, so it was essentially "mine"..

When Mum retired she decided that she needed the sewing machine back, so I was faced with the prospect of not having a machine at all, which was just not going to be an acceptable solution! :)

I did a whole bunch of research and time and time again heard how good the Bernina 440 was, so I decided to make an investment and bought myself one! Ever since I got it home, I've had a thread tension problem with it. The front stitching would look great

But the thread tension on the back was all over the place. I could tell that it was clearly the tension on the top thread that was the problem, but no matter what I did I couldn't get it to stop looping. I read the instruction book (over and over) and I watched the DVD, but I still couldn't get it to stop!

I finally found time to go back to the shop I bought the machine from, and they were wonderful! It wasn't just the way that I was threading the machine! One of the tension plates was too tight and they fixed it right there on the spot.

The owner of the shop commented how happy he was that I'd brought it back so that they had a chance to ensure that I had a good experience. They gave me needles and bobbins to apologise for me having to bring the machine back in. I was very happy with the service and I went home and got right down to sewing :) Here is a sneak preview of a couple of little somethings that I will show you when I finish them!

The Fa la la la of this post comes from a great new book that just arrived in the mail! It's called "Fa La La La Felt" by Amanda Carestio. It's a really adorable book of Christmas decorations all made in felt.

I should probably mention at this point that I love Christmas as in I. REALLY. LOVE. CHRISTMAS!!! The book is fanatastic - lots of great ideas for decorations for the tree

In different sizes and shapes too

It's got some really lovely ideas for decorating too... I really like the look of this "no sew" wreath
I think that the best thing about the book is that you could just as easily do them by hand or by machine and you could definitely do lots of the projects in normal quilters cottons too. You should all go and have a look at it!

Finally - a big thank you to my big sister who gave me the voucher with which allowed Fa La La La Felt to come to my house!

Squishie Squashie Packages

2010-11-09T19:55:00.007+11:00

I love squishie packages.. don't you??

With the Australian dollar doing so well against the US, it's been hard to resist doing a little bit of online shopping... I've been collecting fabrics for an aqua and red quilt - the colour scheme is all over the place at the moment and I just love it! Can't decide what I'm going to do with them, but it's never too early to collect!

These ones are all from one range - "Bliss" by Bonnie and Camille for Moda Fabrics - just perfect for the colour scheme.

These ones turned out to be a little more blue and red than aqua and red - but that's ok! I'm sure I will find a use for them!

Some time ago I got a great pair of Keds - I call them my "Tailfeathers" - they were designed by Tula Pink (who used to design for Moda - but whose new collection will be released by Free Spirit)... but I didn't have any of the fabric - UNTIL NOW! This is from Plume for Moda and is kinda hard to find these days... but it's just gorgeous! I also got a layer cake - I'm trying to decide what to make with them.

I couldn't finish this post without a shot of my assistant for these photos

Candied Hexagons continued....

2010-11-01T22:21:00.007+11:00

Hi all,

As many of you know there is something of a groundswell in Australia at the moment for a quilt called "Candied Hexagons".

I've been working on mine for just under a year now, and I'm quite pleased to give you a progress report. So far I have sewn 74 hexagons out of a total of 104 (in case anyone is counting, there are only 73 in the pile, but I finished another hexagon after I took these photos).

I really love this photo - on the left is the hexagons that I've sewn, and on the right are the "cheat" hexagons - that is the ones that are made of a single fabric (the feature floral). All you really need to do is baste them, that's why I can't help but think of them as the "cheater" blocks!

This is my favourite block to sew, which I was very surprised about - but I love the way the pieces all fit together like a puzzle. The original quilt (by Kerry Dear) was actually sewn by machine, but I was looking for a hand sewing project. A number of the women at my quilting group were doing it by hand, so I decided to give it a go. I know in myself that I don't have the discipline to sew a whole quilt with only the sem allowances marked - so I'm paper piecing it.

I've never paper pieced (or hand pieced for that matter!) before, so I did a lot of reading online first (there are a couple of really great bloggers who had step-by-step photos!) and then sewed one block, and trapsed off to the quilting group the next month to check that I'd done it properly!!

Since then I've just been sewing away - matching colours as I went along. I also asked some loved ones to choose a block design and colours for me - so there will always be a block designed by my Mum, a block designed by my sister, a block designed by Sir Pinkying... it's kind of nice to feel like I'm sewing my "family" into the quilt!
Because I'm starting to get close to "the end" of making the blocks, I put aside randomness for a while to make up the "sets" of blocks that are featured in the original pattern. These are ones like the three blocks above where the positioning of the fabrics and the designs of the blocks create a secondary pattern. LOVE them!

I already know that I want to do another hand project when I've finished this one - but I will FINISH this first!!

Where have I been?

2010-10-12T21:23:00.008+11:00

Hi all,

Once again, despite my best intentions, it has been far too long between posts... and where have I been you ask? Well, we've been away we went here:

we also saw a bit of this

spent a couple of days driving through scenery not unlike this...
enjoyed a lovely boat trip through here

and were constantly in awe of natural wonders like this

so, has anyone guessed where Sir Pinkying (he's not Mr Pinkying - but he's my knight in shining armour!) and I have been??

We went to New Zealand! All I can say is if you have never been, you really must go. We loved every single second of the trip. So many photos, so little time!

I did pick up a small bundle of Maori styled fabrics, which I will post a pic of soon.

While we were away, I had intended to sew 15 blocks for my Candied Hexagons, which I had cut out in preparation for the trip, but I only got as far as doing the basting! I have made some progress though (which I will post later too!!)

Happy Quilting!

Ta-da!

2010-06-28T20:41:00.004+10:00

So, I've been sadly absent from this blog for far too long. A combination of work, quilting and life in general has gotten in the way... not that quilting EVER gets in the way! :)

On the bright side, I've had two short trips out of town in the last 4 weeks, which has certainly made a difference!

I also managed to finish a quilt, and in time for the deadline, which was my boyfriend's birthday. I've never gifted a quilt this size before, so it's quite exciting (especially as I finished it in time!)

I haven't had a chance to get an "approved" photo of the Birthday Boy and his present, so these photos will have to satisfy for a while...

....... presenting "Paradiddles"

Raindrops on roses...

2010-05-03T23:13:00.010+10:00

....and whiskers on kittens! (Don't you love that song!)

After I started quilting, and before I prioritised quilting, I did a bit of scrapbooking. My sister still does, she makes beautiful cards for us for birthdays and Christmas and Easter. They're exquisite. Anyway, I digress! When I was a keen scrapbooker probably my favourite company was one called Basic Grey. Imagine how thrilled I was when I discovered that Moda (creators of all wonderful pre-cuts!) had teamed with Basic Grey to make FABRIC!!! Sadly, I discovered this after they had already released two of my favourite paper lines as fabric. With the help of a LOT of internet searching, I did manage to pick up some Urban Couture and some Sultry, and they are definitely a few of my favourite things!
This is the quilt using Sultry.

Displayed care of my new "design wall" (usually known as the really ugly green curtains in my unit!)

It doesn't have a name yet, although I'm open to suggestions. It's a disappearing nine patch, and went together super fast.

I really want to machine quilt it myself, as it's not huge, and it feels like it might be a managable size for my first machine quilting experience. I have visions of a large twirly flower in each of the large squares with trailing swirls to join them together, but first I have to baste it and I hate basting. I really HATE basting!

In the meantime I have 9 metres (or so) of binding to sew on to a secret project!

Back again!

2010-05-03T22:53:00.005+10:00

So I've spent the last week or so making a fancy dress costume for a Bollywood themed birthday party. For a woman it's not so bad, you get a sari, which is really just 5.5 metres of fabric that needs to be wrapped around you (and in my case very carefully safety pinned!) But for a guy, not so easy! So last week I made pants, a satin vest, a 6 metre long sash, and a very stylish blue satin turban! The party was on Saturday, and Sir Pinky-ing and I looked very theme appropriate, and had an excellent time. I will confess that I remember now a number of things:
1) I really don't like sewing satin!
2) I would much rather be quilting
3) hot glue is not always a good thing
4) did I mention that I really intensely dislike sewing satin?

Tonight I did a little something for myself. I've long been bothered by the plain boring strap that's on my camera. It's got the camera brand emblazened all over it in bright writing, and it's boring!! A quick google search revealed this tutorial by a blogger called Petchy (who I only discovered today!) I got right to it tonight and it's already done!! Here is the finished result

I really like the way it turned out. Of the whole process it took far longer to thread the strap back onto the camera than it took for me to make the strap! The only change that I made to the way Petchy did her tutorial is that I slip stitched mine closed. It will be easy enough to take it off again when (if) I get sick of the fabric. But for now I LOVE the oriental print, and it is in my favourite colour!

Candied Hexagons

2010-04-20T21:31:00.004+10:00

Today I thought I would share with you a little bit of what I'm working on at the moment. My main project at the moment is Candied Hexagons by Kerry Dear. I was inspired by a number of ladies from the Sydney Scquilters group who have made different versions of the quilt. Di over at Snippets 'n' Scraps has a great summary of the history of this quilt, and you can see fantastic close ups of Janet's version at Quiltsalott.

The design by Kerry Dear was published in Quilter's Companion magazine, but the edition is now sold out. I was lucky and Kerry herself forwarded me a copy of the original pattern. The feature fabric used for the individual flower blocks in Kerry's version is a Kaffe Fassett print called Flower Lattice, which is also no longer available (or at least I couldn't find any!!) Instead I am using a Kaffe Fassett print called Bekah in Orange.

The pattern by Kerry Dear is machine pieced, but I was really looking for a portable project that I could take with, so I decided that I would hand piece the quilt. I should 'fess up at this point that I've never hand pieced a quilt before. Never. Ever. Oh, and I decided to do it by the English Paper Piecing method!

I have to say that I'm enjoying the whole process, I really love the paper piecing, and I'm managing to do a couple of blocks a week. Here is a sample of my blocks so far

Much to my surprise, I'm enjoying the process so much that I already know what my next paper pieced project will be, but I've promised myself that I'm going to finish this quilt before I move onto another hand project. There are 104 hexagons in the quilt, and including the "whole flower" blocks, I've made about 40 so far, so I'm nearly halfway there!

Until next time... Happy Quilting!

What's a "Pinky"?

2010-04-14T22:08:00.000+10:00

I'm a Pinky! (well, it's what my sister calls me anyway)

It's one of those nicknames that started out for a silly reason, and kind of just stuck. It's been about 13 years, so I don't think I'm getting rid of the nickname any time soon!

So, this is my first post, and I'm sure that anyone out there reading is wondering what kind of things I am going to blog about. Well, mostly quilting and what I've been working on, although from time to time there may also be photography, cooking and books! I'm hoping to post at least once a week, so wish me luck!

Happy quilting!