Relaxed, refreshed & rejuvenated!

I hope everyone has had a great Easter and the Easter Bunny brought you lots of chocolate! In Australia we have a four day holiday for Easter. Here in Perth the weather has been absolutely beautiful! I love this time of year. Cooler mornings and evenings and warm days. It makes you glad to be alive when you experience weather like this.

So many projects…not enough time…

This week has been a bit hit and miss as far as spending time in my studio is concerned. I did manage to finish the centre blocks for the charity quilt I’m working on. I just need to put the borders on and I am done. The inner border is ready to go.

On Saturday I went to Handcrafter’s House to have a one-on-one demo on the Handiquilter Amara long arm quilter and I have to say I am impressed. It ran really smoothly and has some great features. It has definitely made my mind up that this is the machine I want. Elinor from Handcrafter’s was so helpful. I really appreciated the time she spent with me. Then she helped me pick out some fabric for the outer border for the charity quilt.

Then I went up to Helena College in Glen Forrest to the Artisan’s Markets. Unfortunately, it was raining and absolutely freezing up there so there wasn’t as big a turn out as they had hoped I suspect but I’ll give them credit; they turned up and stood out in that cold selling their wares. I bought some lovely handspun wool from Dyeing For Ewe. I can’t wait to make it into a shawl and found some gorgeous earrings that I would have bought but the wind kept blowing the internet connection out. I plan on purchasing them from French Attic’s website.

I have now finished the quilting for the cushion, come wall hanging. This really is a sampler quilt full of firsts. It’s the first time I’ve made a Dresden plate, and the first time I’ve used my walking foot for something other than straight lines. I’m pleased with the result. Not too bad for first tries. I can actually imagine what I would have done if I had my long arm quilter. It’s making me so excited.

My Homespun BOM is coming along nicely, although I still have a lot to do, so it may go into the next month. I’ve nearly finished sewing all the clamshells together and then I just have to remove the papers and trim it to size. The fabrics are so gorgeous in this quilt. I love spending time with them.

At the WAQA sewing night last Wednesday, I picked up another block to do for March. This block was a star and really easy to do. I loved the colour of this block but the blue fabric was quite thin and unravelled easily. I was glad to get it together before it unravelled completely.

I’ve also been contacting wholesalers about buying wholesale should I decide to open up my business. Responses have been very positive so far. I’ve also got plenty of designs buzzing around in my head that I really need to sit down & get out. I have also been continuing to put my stash into the Quiltography app so I have my stash with me all the time. I’ve got about a sixth of it in, so quite a bit to go yet.

So this week, I want to finish the borders on the charity quilt, bind or add a back to the cushion/wall hanging and try and finish the majority of the Homespun BOM. I also want to finish my scarf and one of the socks I’m knitting. I’m so glad it’s the Easter long weekend here so I get 4 days to create rather than just two. I also want to work on a quilt I started years ago that has a Ohio Star in it. I think I’ll take it to my sewing night tomorrow and get Chris to help me with it. Oh, and I want to get some of these designs out of my head and onto paper so I can start seeing if they have any potential.

Have a great week.

Until next time…happy creating!

It’s all about the quilt

Exciting news today! My labels arrived from The Dutch Label Shop and I love them. I’m going to use them on my quilts. All I have to do is add a date to them with permanent fabric pen. I’ve also been thinking about opening an Etsy store with some of my craft items and these labels could also be used for these items. I also bought some of the tags that I can attach care instructions to. Ideas are still developing in my head but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while. I really just need to nut out what I want to sell and how much I want to sell it for.

This week has been all about the charity quilt, which I have now finished all the blocks for. I still have to sew them together and add the borders before it is ready to quilt. I have laid it out on the bed in my guest room so I can go back and look at it every now & then & see where I want to change blocks around. I’ll start sewing it all together at my sewing night at Laneway Quilts.

Apart from this quilt I haven’t done much other sewing. This evening I attached the Dresden plate I’ve been working on, to the background fabric. I love it except that you can see the ends of the plates sitting behind the centre circle. I’ve decided to embellish the centre circle to try & disguise this. I’m going to embroider little vines and maybe flowers over it. I haven’t decided whether to do it by machine or hand as yet. So I’ve learnt my lesson with this – to always use really good fabric and/or a bit of stabiliser behind it. Oh well, it’s my first go at the Dresden plate so I’m pretty pleased.

I have finished prepping for the 2nd block of the Homespun BOM and am about to start the clamshells. It’s so pretty and I’m getting to try my hand at a lot of different things. I have also been practicing my free motion quilting. I figure if I can get the hang of it on my domestic machine then I can buy the Handiquilter Sweet Sixteen but if I can’t then I’m going to have to splash out on the Amara Long Arm Quilter. So far, I’m crap but I’ve only had a couple of practices, so I’ll persevere and see how it goes.

Lastly, I’ve been fitting in a bit of knitting every morning before work and sometimes before bed. My scarf and socks are coming along nicely and I’ve done two more crochet patterns. I’m really enjoying expanding my crochet repertoire.

I don’t know what I’ll do with these practice pieces I’m making…maybe frame them and hang them on the wall or maybe make a cushion cover…

Well that’s all for now. Have a great week!

Until next time…happy creating!

Busy Bee!

This week just gone has been a busy one for all things crafty. I worked on my “Just Sew Happy” mini quilt (Tied With A Ribbon).

I also went & bought some flannel to make some baby bibs for a lady at work whose just had a baby girl (such a gorgeous little thing). These are so easy to make and so easy to tizz up if you want to with a little pocket or some appliqué or some lace trims. I love the rose bud flannel that I used as backing fabric, making the bibs reversible.

I also found a great way to use my scraps. I personally hate keeping scraps. I hardly ever use them and all they do is take up lots of valuable space, so usually I throw out the tinier scraps. However I am loathed to throw out scraps that are a bit bigger because they can be used for appliqué and such. However, my scrap box was starting to overflow and I had to think of a way to get my scrap pile down. Browsing through Facebook the other day I saw a video from the Missouri Star Quilt Company and she talked about crumb piecing, which is basically sewing your scraps together to make fabric which you can then cut up to use in blocks or in appliqué, etc. I loved this idea and started to piece together my scraps.

It is actually pretty relaxing, piecing pieces of fabric together in no particular order. And it gave me a great excuse to use my brand new tool – the Violet Craft Seam Roller. Whilst it was a little pricey at $25 I think it will pay for itself again and again, especially when doing piecing like crumb piecing. It saves you having to have the iron up. You just roll the seams flat and then at the end you can iron the seams all together. I was really impressed with it.

I also have 2 new rulers I wanted to share with you. One is a quarter inch ruler which allows you to measure a quarter inch out from your seam. This is great for foundation piecing and needleturn applique. The last one is just a normal ruler but it has one side with rough dots on it so that it doesn’t move so easily when you are cutting fabric. There is nothing more annoying then measuring up twice, only to have your ruler slip on the cut and put your measurements out. I highly recommend both rulers.

Lastly I have been working on making an iPad case for my iPad for when we go on holidays later in the year. The original design by Hatched and Patched called “Nature’s Pace IPad Case” called for a mixture of applique and stitching. This is how I started it but decided that I just wasn’t feeling it so I decided to start again and do the whole front design in embroidery. I’m using back stitch, running stitch, satin stitch and a stem stitch. It is all in Country Garden Threads Granny Bonnet that was picked by Hubble, who I must say has pretty good taste. I’m loving it so far.

Oh I almost forgot. A present arrived for me last Friday. For Christmas my niece received a Lalaloopsy doll, which are dolls that come to life when the very last stitch is sewn. She got Yuki Kimono & I fell in love with her instantly. So my gorgeous Hubble decided to buy me one for my sewing room.

I’m one very lucky girl.

Well that’s all for now. My surgery has been brought forward to this week so I may not write for a couple of weeks, depending on how well my surgery goes.

Until next time…happy creating!

Getting in the Christmas mood.

Just a quick post today. I finished the Christmas bunting that I had made too small for the WAQA Christmas party.

I’ve got the bug!

I had my first lesson today on a long arm quilting machine and I loved it! I’m addicted, hook, line & sinker. It was so much fun! I went to Southlands Fabric & Sewing Centre in Willetton and had the lesson with the store owner, Helen. Such a lovely lady. In fact all the staff are lovely. So friendly. My work was mostly swirls and stippling (very bad stippling) but towards the end of the lesson I was doing these little swirling hearts. Did I say how much fun it was. So now I want one.

Challenge Quilt Done!

Well it’s finally finished and whilst I love the design, I’m not that fussed on some of the finishes which makes me think that it most probably won’t leave the house. Hubble would say that I am a perfectionist and it’s good but I know that if I hand this quilt in, it will be scrutinised by everyone and well I think I can do better. Not that I have time to do another one but maybe next year I will feel like my work is up for the task.

Flatter…

For those of you who know me I like to give credit where credit is due, especially in relation to products and services that I feel really meet their target customer’s needs. Soak is a Canadian company that produces a laundry wash and smoothing spray that helps you keep your delicates and more importantly your quilts clean and cared for…and it’s good for the planet as well so win win as far as I’m concerned. I haven’t tried the Soak laundry wash yet but if it is anything like the Flatter then I am going to be a loyal customer.

Birthday Delights!

Just a quick post tonight to show off the birthday presents Hubble gave me. He gave me a Horn sewing chair, which I’ve wanted for ages.

Then the piece de resistance of his present was a handmade thread holder for my Cottage Garden Threads. He made it with his own hands which is what makes this present even more special. Beautifully finished, I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.

I’m a very lucky girl and feel very blessed this birthday.

Until next time…happy creating!

Wow! I did not realise it had been so long between posts. I do apologise but I have not been well and so creating, sewing and stitching has not really been high on my ‘to do’ list.