Tuesday, December 3, 2013

So I have this thing

for Snowmen, and thought I might share some with you.  In my part of the world, Australia, it is summertime so I don't think I will get to make one (out of snow at least) over Christmas......

I found on the internet lots of images of different types of  Snowmen , snow ones, vintage prints, snowmen to eat, ones made out of all sorts and snowmen on quilts.  Here is a selection I hope you like them too,


snow-man-nail-art

image source

christmas-snowman-nail-design

image source



image source

anyone off to get their nails done now....


Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Fabric Ice Dyeing

Hi all
 
On the weekend my sister and I played around with  fabric Ice Dyeing.  We had fun.  My Mum and another sister were there also so as well as playing with fabric we had a nice day together.  Christmas decisions were made regarding food an secret santa, so a very productive day for all.
 
This is what the process looked like, we only knew enough about dyeing from the internet and You Tube, so in reality only enough to be dangerous.......


Here we are with fabric over buckets ready to be dyed. The buckets collect the water and dye as the ice melts.
 
I used two colours per fabric, as Kathy from Tamarack Shack suggested.  As the ice melts and the dyes blend you will get a surprise third colour.  This tub has Raspberry and Green
 
This one is a mix of Raspberry and Hot Pink
 
Turquoise and Orange

Cobolt Blue and Hot Pink

Now the ice has melted and the colours are revealed.  Cobolt blue and hot pink, this mixed so beautifully


turquoise and orange blending and creating a new colour, really like this mix
Raspberry and green was very surprising, I have bits of yellow in this as well


Raspberry and hot pink looked great here, you can start to see the texture being created with the subtle shade changes in the dyes.

The next day you can rinse and colour fast the fabrics.  Here is the  Blue and hot pink. This one has a purple tone to it with the mixing of colours. Happy with this mix

The turquoise and orange, love it.  Where the colours mixed there is a great burnt orange colour

Raspberry and hot pink, the texture is really cool in this one, very happy again

Green and raspberry, really cool texture and blending of colours.
 
These are all brighter than the pictures, I didn't have great success with the editing. Note to self, try to take time to learn better photo editing next year.  Along with more adventures in fabric dyeing..
 
 
Our family had a great day together and that was the bonus score of the weekend...
 
Love you family  XXOO



Monday, November 11, 2013

Lately.....

So this is some things I have been up to lately,


One of my clients, Joy, has a lot of candlewick pieces but already has a large candlewick quilt, so I am gradually turning them into cushions for her to give away as Christmas gifts for friends.  They are all lovely pieces.

Hubby and I went to a Melbourne Cup function at the local Racetrack.  These are my losing race and raffle tickets.  I did though have a couple of wins through the day and ended the day "in front".   It was a great day out with Hubby with the bonus of getting all dressed up for the fun.

This quilt belongs to Val B made for her daughter.  This is a large fun quilt with a very striking but simply pieced border. Val asked me to bind this one for her this time, there is 10.2m of binding on this quilt. whew all done and returned to Val in time for her daughters visit.


This one belongs to Sherida, a very lovely lady who does beautiful work.  This quilt is a mix of embroidery and applique.  We used wool wadding to add lots of texture to the applique.  All done and looking  beautiful.

This is part of the embroidery on Sherida's quilt.  Those French knots are very tiny. stunning.

 
We had a family lunch for my daughters birthday, this is dessert.  The cake was my second attempt.  The first cake turned out perfectly until I made a drizzle sauce with salt and not sugar and had to throw the whole cake out.  The ice cream is homemade also.  The dessert was a perfect end to a great family lunch.

 My daughter also had some friends over for her birthday, earlier than the family one,  on Halloween.  So dessert for the girls had to be something spooky.  I filled new and very clean flower pots with lime ice cream, sat a toy skeleton inside then topped with ground up oreo biscuits.  The girls were very happy with the graves. They then got all dressed up and went trick or treating and had a ball.


A couple of our Halloween decorations.  Yes the hand has fallen off but was fixed in time for the kids coming around

And finally some fabric getting cut up for a quilt I plan to teach in the new year.  It is coming together nicely and am very happy with the colours. I have used two Jelly Rolls from Moda, Happy Go Lucky and Summer House.
 
Off to the couch to stitch some hexagons together
 
take care
 

Monday, October 28, 2013

Wonky Stars Class

So last Saturday I taught my Wonky Stars class to a lovely group of ladies at The Patchwork Angel
 
My Sample is made with Moda Basic Greys Blue and lots of prints, mostly Christmas but some that are not, most of the pinks. I love my quilt, just need to wait for the earliest time I can start putting xmas decorations around the house....
 
In class we worked on learning the technique of Improv piecing the star points in the blocks and sashings. As you will see the trick is getting variety in the prints and size of the star points.  I provided instructions for 3 sizes, some girls may have changed their  plans, bigger may mean more fun. The girls did a great job and had a lot of fun.  In fact most of them stayed stitching after class, they were having a great time.  I had to go though at the end of class and was sad I could not stay and stitch also.
 
 
This is mine






 
This is Tracys block.  She is making a table runner with her blocks
 
 
 


These stunning batiks belong to Liz.  This quilt is going to sparkle. I would love to see this one when finished.


 
Yola has used a variety of Christmas prints also with a glittering gold on White background fabric.
 
 


I love Lynleys fabric choice also.  Lynley used  bright multi coloured spot for the background and pinks, purples and blacks for the prints, very striking


 
Sally has a grandson in need of a quilt and this will be just perfect.  The blue background is very bright and clean ( better than in my photo) and the prints are crisp and clean primary colours. The blocks are gorgeous.

Sandra used the same print for all the pieces in each block, with each large star being a different print.  There are Christmas cupcakes in the front star, so cute.  Sandra is then making all the sashing stars from the same fabric, a Christmas red tone on tone.

Now girls, I would love to see these quilts when you are finished, maybe in time for Christmas ( any year though).

thank you for coming to my class ladies,

 

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Afternoon delight

I had a wonderful time teaching today. The girls did a great job. Through the day I can see their minds start to tick away with ideas happening. Sooo love it. 

But now I am a little tired but don't want to stop then get going again to cook dinner. So what is a quilter to do but do some simple piecing and just enjoy pushing fabric through the machine. 

Working on snowball blocks, they have to go through four times, on my sweet Featherweight. 


Monday, October 14, 2013

So a little explanation with pictures

Hi everyone

So for many posts I have been just showing Hexagons pieced into diamonds.  So I thought I would explain and show what I am doing with them.




Each time we (the family) go in the car for any sort of road trip, my tin of cut Hexagons, papers and threads come along too.  I baste them ready to stitch together.  I don't do the glue method, I find it hard to be tidy with the glue in a moving vehicle.  I can also get a little car sick if I don't keep my eyes on the road enough.....so I baste with needle and thread, works for me....


After I have basted a whole heap (technical term for Many), I then play around with combinations for the pieced diamonds.  I bag them into little snaplock bags ready to go.  So on the nights I want to stitch but not have to think too hard I start putting them together.

Now the inspiration for this quilt is from the book "Quilts of Virginia, 1607-1899, by the Virginia Consortium of Quilters.  I love this book, and have many pages tagged of "want to make someday" quilts.



The particular quilt I am making was made by Maria Hester Monroe Gouverneur, around 1830.  Unfortunatley is was never finished, I hope to finish mine, eventually.  The orginal is made using 3/4" hexagons, mine is with 1" hexies. The orginal is still basted with newspapers of the day, amazing. Maria Hester was the daughter of President James Monroe and Maria was the first daughter of a President to be married in the White House. Maybe this heritage helped in the preserving this quilt for us too see today..



So I continue to piece the hexies into diamonds

Join the diamonds into a larger hexagon, joining with random neutrals

then join those hexies together to make a row, again with random neutrals

then I have to do several rows and then I will make some half units to fill in the spaces.

so that's what I am working on in between other stuff.  I love this quilt and really hope to finish it, as I do want to make it a big quilt, I don't do small quilts very often

I hope you like the pics.  I am teaching tomorrow so I should get some rest soon, maybe after a bit of stitching..

enjoy

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Stitching in the chair

Stitching down a fun binding for a customer. Have Liam Neeson on the TV for company. Afterwards a glass of wine as a reward


Saturday, September 28, 2013

Trimming in the chair

This is me tonight as I wait for a call from hubby. He is out watching the AFL grand final. I shod get a heap done. 

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Stitching in the chair

So tonight's effort at stitching was finish off one hexagon block and nearly finish another. I hurt my back a few days ago, so sitting in one spot for too long gets a bit painful. But it is getting better 😃. 

Good night everyone


Thursday, September 19, 2013

Stitching at quilt group

Got the block finished. Second one done, seven to go ( maybe )


Wednesday, September 18, 2013

More Students

Hi everyone

I  have been very slack again with blogging and showing you another group of ladies work who have come to my Bake @ 60degrees class at The Patchwork Angel.

This group of smart ladies accomplished all the blocks in class.  Robyn has made a whole quilt "Tiffany Diamonds" already and is dropping it to me tomorrow to be quilted.  It should be ready for our next class, then Robyn can show the girls.  We all love show and tell...

Here are their samples from class


Cat used some pretty Tilda fabrics


Maxine with William Morris Greens


Sue has the lovely William Morris fabrics also



This yellow and blue is Robyn's, this is the block for Tiffany Diamonds quilt


Pam used pinks to make the Blueberry icecream blocks

Anne come all the way from Mt Isa, and felt the cold, next class will be warmer.

Look forward to seeing the girls again shortly for the second part of the class