Quilt show bounty

Like many, many others, I joined the throngs at AQC in the beautiful Royal Exhibition Buildings to view quilts and NOT buy anything.

I actually drove a bus full of the wonderful ladies who come to my classes and we had a fabulous day - of course I forgot to get a photo of us all but I remembered the camera to take photos of the quilts...I especially enjoyed the twelveby12 exhibition - the artistry and work(wo)manship of the miniatures is very inspiring - I think I'd be breaching their copyright if I added photos of their quilts so I've linked to their website instead.  If you get a chance to view these beauties 'in the flesh', you should - photos really don't do them justice - especially not the way I take photos anyway :)

Another exhibition was from Korea - I had hoped to see a piece or 2 in the traditional pojagi style but unfortunately there wasn't one - but it didn't take away from the pieces on display.  I was particularly drawn to this next one...

It appears to be influenced by pojagi and the use of colour and the method of assembly is just brilliant - love it.

Given it's shaky beginning, AQC continues to get bigger and better and I really am glad I went - there was more quilts and they weren't limited to the 'traditional' - lots of 'art' quilts and different techniques displayed - something for everyone....here's a little montage of others that caught my eye...

I did take photos of the makers of these so if anyone wants info, please let me know :)

...and of course, best laid plans and all that......I bought stuff, including fabric (of which I have thousands of metres already....)

I bought fabric paint, gorgeous shot cotton applique pieces from Reece Scanell, English paper piecing templates, stamping foam, printable silk sheets, silk sari strips (to make cords from), aluminium for mixed media and some fat quarters: including Pure, Comma, Zen Chic, Urban Mod, a little Flea Market Fancy and a fabulous stencil of old London town.  I told myself that most of what I bought is for an upcoming exhibition piece, so I shouldn't feel so guilty.....

.....and now I have to go and get some work done - I've client quilts to quilt, some screen printing to do for my work-book as well as a portfolio cover to make, then after that some items for 2 upcoming markets........good job I like being busy :)

On the Friday night I attended a lecture by Judy Coates Perez, a mixed media artist from America who shared her inspirations and her works with us - lots of inspiration there - she also had a booth within the show so we could watch her work - and she is the reason I bought the aluminium sheets....

ps - Box Hill TAFE are advertising another Diploma of Textile Arts course to start mid-year - if you're interested, have a look at their website for more information.

getting busy with it....

...because getting jiggy with it sends out all the wrong messages and seems to invite offers of unwanted accoutrements from 'anonymous'........

anyhoo - have been busy stitching up a storm.....

I completed a client quilt today on the longarm - I used a pantograph pattern I haven't used before - half feathers and a leafy type of shape...

Anne pieced large stars in this gorgeous range of fabrics - Will and Lily or something - not that - but I can't remember the name, mixed with some self patterned whites and creams.  The quilt is really prettily sophisticated and the pantograph I used fits it perfectly...

I also got stuck into one of my assignments for school - we've been studying art history this semester and each of us had to give a presentation about a period in history to the rest of class.  After each class we had to update a timeline and then do a little representative free motion stitching piece......here's the Venus of Willendorf from the Prehistory presentation - noone is really sure what she represents - could be mother, grief or simply prehistoric porn......

For the final assignment, we had to create a stitched piece using mostly machine stitching.  Originally I was going to design something close to my presentation - the Vikings - but after reviewing my notes and sketches, I got thinking about women's hair-do's...

We'd been shown the Willendorf Venus' beanie style hairdo, the flowing locks of Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" and the tightly wound curls of Queen Elizabeth I, amongst others......so I played around with that (and recording development of the piece in my visual diary, just like a good student would!) and came up with this...

Each of these ladies had red hair which is why I used orange silk for the background - and then I stitched and stitched and stitched.  I added hand made cord to represent ribbons or bands worn in the hair and a few beads.  The only casualty was my finger when I didn't get it out of the way of the needle fast enough - that was fun - not - especially when I had a splinter in the thumb of my other hand...oh well, done now....now to finish the time line...oh, and the community house banner....and the ironing......and a Kris Kringle gift for sunday for my sewing group.....you get the drift....

catching up.....

It has been a little while since I posted last - there's been quite a bit going on this last couple of weeks, not least of which was a wonderful visit by one of my nephews and his gorgeous wife - Ian and Mads usually live in Manchester UK and they took time out to travel very south after a wedding in FNQ (Far North Queensland, Oz), to catch up with family - which was just brilliant - I hadn't seen Ian since he was 15 and now here he was, with a beautiful wife too - we spent a fabulous couple of days and then dropped them off to spend their last night in Melbourne before their flight home - thanks to them both for coming south, putting up with the rotten winter weather and joining in so marvellously with us lot here - it was fantastic sitting around the dinner table on saturday night and getting on with the 'craic' - they also took 'The General' home with them as it is destined for one of my sisters, who just happens to be Ian's mum (Finona, if you're reading this, make sure to remind Ian about it!!)

one of a few photos with various members of the family - I don't think I have one with us all!

I've been knitting - I've pulled it back 4 times but now it looks like this one sock will be finished soon....then onto the next (and the next pair..)

My bestie and I bought a knitting machine - and can't wait to get some time to have a decent play...

it came with wool for practice and all sorts of clever bits and pieces

I bought a new book and it's awesome..

We have some new babies (who were really cheesed off when I stuck my camera with the flash under their cover) - they're too young to go outside overnight as it's still too cold - so they're making a hell of a mess inside!

we have 5 chooks here - 2 black ones and 3 creamy yellow one - I think there's 2 roosters among them (damn - they may be destined for the pot!) - and they're at the very ugly, reptilian dinosaur stage....

...and last, but not least, some fabric I ordered in March arrived - it's called 'Garden go round' and it's really pretty - here's 3 of the bolts - there's about 9 bolts all up - and I have to get off my butt and organise selling it...

and now I have to go to bed - I spent the last couple of days quilting a quilt top for a client on the longarm - I used Aurifil thread for the first time and it broke too many times to mention - drove me absolutely insane and I spent a lot of time unpicking and or sewing ends in......don't think I'll be using it again......good job my bestie was helping me otherwise I think I would have done a Basil Fawlty and wallopped the Gammil!

rushing in.....

Catching up on stuff - and trying to be more disciplined with my time - there is so much I want to do and seemingly so little time to do it in - surely, I could apply all I learned in the corporate world to organising myself at home? - but then, if what I love doing becomes a 'job', it'd be devastating and surely counter-productive in terms of creativity? Oh, what a dilemma!

Anyway - stuff I have done.....

I made a thank you gift for a lady who gave me metres (yes, metres!!) of beautiful silk that she'd had forever and had decided to de-stash...

pink penguin's bento box bag

I finished 3 quilts for clients (no photos, forgot to get permission, again!)

Caught up with friends we hadn't see for ages - dinner and a show (Hairspray, put on by PLOS - excellent!)

I went to the Quilt Show at Jeff's shed with my bestie - no photos of quilts as there were signs everywhere saying that while we could take photos, they were not to be reproduced in any way without the express permission of the maker.....so in love with the beautiful wools, yarns and fibres available now - I bought a couple of fabulous books....

The pieces in this book are made up in all sorts of beautiful Japanese fibres - including linen - that looks and feels like raffia, and a stainless steel type that allows you to create a shape in your garment that will be 'memorised' - brilliant!!  Check out Dairing's website here - definately making the trek to Richmond....

This next one has lots of fabulous gifts to make with time frames - so given my propensity to leave things to the last minute, it's good for me to have a source book with ideas in one spot (because a 'quick' look on line for a gift idea usually ends up with blog reading for 3 or more hours..)

Bought just a little fabric - literally, a little - most unusual for me but I'm trying to use what I have in my stash before buying anything else - got this gorgeous piece from Kelani Fabrics

I could have bought the shop!!!

In between time, I went with my dil-to-be to pick up her wedding dress (gorgeous - so happy to be able to share in the motb duties because her mum lives 4 hours away) and she finagled me into making her a pair of socks - I almost had one made but so completely buggered it up I pulled it back and started again...

and now I'm going off to do the ironing before we have to start wearing our pj's out.....oh, wait a minute, I do that anyway....well not out....I just have a few pj days at home while I'm 'working'......

WIP Wednesday

It's been ages since I did a WIP wednesday - there's so much going on that I usually forget to post on the right day - but I got away from classes a little earlier today so thought I'd jump in quickly before going off to make dinner (laksa with chicken and prawns) - and before the evening classes start.

So, I had a finish, which I blogged about here and here's some close ups of the quilting...

intent was to do lovely tight spirals, but like my body, they got a little loose!

a little 3D action

looks like a ribbon

I put the 1st border on this one - and I think I'm christening it 'Ice Age' after a lovely comment...

According to my 'To Do' list there's at least 432 more things to be done and I will eventually (maybe) get to them.....

This next week I have 5 client quilts to quilt on the longarm, so best get into that, as well as starting a quilt I want to make up into a kit.....oh, and the do.good stitches blocks need to be made.....and I must finish the remaining blocks of the Farmers Wife........and.........bugger!

WIP Wednesday #11

I'm linking with Lee's WIP Wednesday

A mixed bag this week, and not a lot of crossings off on the UFO list, but some progress on current projects:

FWQA - blocks 57 (Morning) and 58 (Mother's Dream)

One hexie - and I played around with the setting of this quilt and I think I'm going to cut lots of equilateral triangles to join mine together - I've seen a few on Flickr and I like the look.

if you squint, it looks like 3 boxes

Some pouches (prototypes, plus a couple of others that have gone into my Madeit shop)

Two do.good stitches blocks, shown here

One client quilt quilted on the long-arm - it was a biggun too!

So, to summarise:

Finished:

Client long-arm quilting
5  pouches
do. good stitches blocks for november

New:

2 client quilts for long-arm quilting
1 charity quilt for long-arm quilting

Quilts in Progress:

Blanket Box Hexies - total made, 27

 FWQA - total made, 58

No action at all:

Class Sampler quilt - all blocks completed

UFOUFN's:

Psychedelic tartan - who knows??
Double diamonds - still needs something......
Which way to go - needs quilting
Dancing with the stars - needs quilting
Kimono mini - needs binding
Sashiko qayg - needs finishing!
Red and white challenge - needs properly starting

Please click on Lee's "Freshley Pieced WIP wednesday" button on the right to see what others are up to .....

Stuff and nonesense

Had a funny sort of day today - it took me ALL day to make 2 pouches - mostly due to the fact I spent an inordinate amount of time staring into space - and it was such a lovely day outside (well, before the cool change) that I could have been out there soaking up some Vitamin D - but, there you go.  I do have some stuff to show though - quite a disparate group to be sure.....

edge to edge quilting (shown from the back) for a client - finished on the long arm on friday

After I finished the client quilt, I had a scathingly good idea about sewing the heavy interfacing onto the fabrics I'm using for pouches etc. - I pinned on a long piece of interfacing onto the quilting machine, laid the fabrics on top and simply 'quilted' them to attach (no photo of that because I forgot!) - obviously iron-on interfacing would be so much easier - but I have a big roll of heavy duty stuff without the iron-on option (I got it at a really good price).  So I made some prototypes for a different shape of pouch I'm contemplating...

these can be buttoned down to keep your mug safe if you take it to class etc, your hairbrush, 3pm pick-me-ups......

....or the top rolled down for easy access - the shape means they can stand up by themselves.  My neice has already pinched taken the one on the right - it's an Echino print - good taste!

the two pouches that took me ALL day - that dog alone took at least 3 hours! - these will be listed in my Madeit shop

...and to finish off, a few pictures of the vegie patch - you know, I planted so many tomato seeds in the greenhouse back here, some sprouted, but then they carked it - I don't seem to have much luck raising tom seeds - same thing happened last year, so about a month ago, I went off to Bunnings for heirloom tomato plants - and today, what do I see popping up all over the place in the vegie patch - you guessed it - tomato plants!

Back - rhubarb and pumpkin (you can't see the pumpkin yet)
Middle - asparagus, bok choy and pak choy (we're already eating the choys)
Foreground - tiny capsicum seedlings and rogue tomato plants

Back - snow peas, sugar snap peas and beans
Middle - leeks
Foreground - carrots

Back - sweet corn
Middle - lettuce, which you can't see, and we're already harvesting
Foreground - heirloom tomatoes



The far bed - sorry, rotten photo
Back - zucchini, pumpkin
Middle - eggplant, cucumber
Foreground - spring onions and leeks

Right then - have to write my lesson plan for tomorrow nights' class and list the two pouches on Madeit - and maybe tomorrow will be a little more productive!





WIP Wednesday #10

It's that time of the week again and although I don't always make it, I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced - it's her 1 year anniversary of WIP Linky posts - thanks Lee - a sterling job!!

We have had the mother of electrical and rain storms today - flash flooding, hail and lightning all over the place - it flooded the local community centre where I teach patchwork on wednesday evenings, so those who braved the rain came to my house to sew instead - it's still raining and the pool looks like it's about to overflow - and given the pool pump has seized (the man is coming out on Friday to either fix or replace it), we may be swimming in our beds!!  I'm also just a little concerned about my vegie patch - I was very happy about how things are growing out there, but the hail may have decimated it - I'll have a look tomorrow.

But, onwards and upwards....since the last time I reported on a WIP Wednesday, there has been some progress:

I made more hexies and cut out some 'plain' ones, so now I have 26 - I think another 14 or so and I can start putting them together with sashing - then a couple of borders and the top will be ready.  The hexies are hand pieced, but everything else will be done by machine.

I started and completely finished a quilt that will go into my shop (either at Etsy or Madeit)

Made a few more FWQA blocks (blogged about here)

I'm now over half way on these so that feels pretty good.

I finished a UFO (now in my Etsy shop)

I lined some pouches with my hand dyed fabric, and listed those in my Etsy shop

...and on the Long-arm side, I've quilted one very large charity quilt, a lap size client quilt and loaded a queen size client quilt ready for quuilting tomorrow.

Phew!!

To summarise:

Finished:

Whirleygig II quilt
Nest quilt
3 pouches

Quilts in Progress:

Blanket Box Hexies - total made, 26

4 FWQA - total made, 56

No action at all:

Class Sampler quilt - all blocks completed

UFOUFN's:

Psychedelic tartan - who knows??
Double diamonds - still needs something......
Which way to go - needs quilting
Dancing with the stars - needs quilting
Kimono mini - needs binding
Sashiko qayg - needs finishing!
Red and white challenge - needs properly starting

Please click on Lee's "Freshley Pieced WIP wednesday" button on the right to see what others are up to .....

On days like this....

So last night I loaded a commission quilt on the beast and given my son and his girlfriend now sleep next to the room I have the beast in, I thought to myself that I'd get it quilted in the morning - so as not to disturb them, you understand - and then I can be a bit domesticated in the afternoon - maybe hoover up the dust wombats (they're waaaaaay past bunnies).

My client wanted an all over meander, avoiding the appliqued train - so, started quilting this morning and it's going really well....I'm meandering like a good thing and avoiding the applique...then I thought I could maybe quilt a line about 1/4" from the train to really make it pop......so started to do that and unfortunately my 1/4" line became anywhere between 1/8" - 1" from the train....oh oh, stop doing that, unpick.  Start meandering again.....

I finished a pass and noticed that the top thread was running really well, a bit too well really, and when I went to cut the threads, I put my hand underneath the quilt and it didn't feel right - felt a bit fuzzy - so eased off the tension on the quilt so I could take a good look underneath......and here's what I saw..

OMG -  the correct terms for this sort of happening is 'eyelashes' - and these eyelashes belong on the main characters in 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert', not on the back of my clients' quilt.  When I was unpicking my sort of 1/4" line, I must have inadvertently knocked the top thread out of the tension spring - aaaagh.

It was pretty easy to unpick, thank goodness, and it left a nice little pile of thread

Retensioned the top thread and off I went again - without incident this time...

gordon bennett i take a rotten photo!

here's the back - plain red and while it's not obvious, the thread i've used is variegated blues, through purple to red

 - but it totally put me off hoovering those wombats.  Instead, I gave the beast a thorough clean and oil, put in a new needle and loaded another quilt - this one is going in my Etsy shop.  Once this one's done, I have another commission quilting job, so looks like those wombats may become cows before I get to them.

Top and backing loaded and just waiting for me to attach the batting before I can pull the top up and start quilting.

I'll blog about this quilt once I've got it quilted.

WIP Wednesday #9

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshley Pieced - thanks agin Lee - great job - and I love reviewing what others have got up to - keeps us honest!!

I'm trying to remember what I did this week - it's all a bit of a blur really - I do remember cleaning out the chook shed, and doing some hand sewing - we also bought a new computer so there''s been a bit of faffing about - and I know there's more faffing to occur - it's just finding the time....

So, without further ado:

I finished one more hexie

rotten photo - *sigh*

I finished my Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap plus a couple of ornaments - just needs to wrapped and posted on the due date..

I actually quilted a top that's been together for oooh, at least a couple of years - and in my UFO tub -  it was on my Winter Summer stitching list so apart from binding and a label, it's about done - and I've even cut out the binding....

*sigh* - another rotten photo - I'll take a more decent one when it's bound

I've got a couple of charity quilt tops to quilt, a commission I received this evening and another I'm discussing on Friday - so I'm going to be very busy!

Summary then, (cos I'm soooo tired - need to go to bed...)

Finished:

MCTS - woo hoo

Quilts in Progress:

Blanket Box Hexies - made another 1

Cut out patches for Block 53 of FWQA - not together as yet

 

Whirleygig II - quilted - now needs to be bound

No action at all:

Class Sampler quilt - all blocks completed

UFOUFN's:

Psychedelic tartan - who knows??
Double diamonds - still needs something......
Which way to go - needs quilting
Dancing with the stars - needs quilting
Kimono mini - needs binding
Sashiko qayg - needs finishing!
Red and white challenge - needs properly starting

Please click on Lee's "Freshley Pieced WIP wednesday" button on the right to see what others are up to .....

WIP Wednesday #6

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced, who despite being under the pump, is hosting WIP Wednesday again - thanks Lee.

 I missed out on doing this last week, so there's a couple of weeks worth of progress (and I say that loosely!)

The Farmers Wife and do.Good Stitches got a little work out




  The last 2 blocks are the Cherish Circle's do.Good Stitches for September.  We've just got the instructions for October so they're now added to my list.

I got my 3 Quilties made - just have to post them off to the US now - and I made a birthday gift for my nephew's girlfriend,

Finished:

Quilties
4 long-arm quilting commissions (yay, we can have bacon with our beans now!)
1 birthday gift
3 birthday cards

Quilts in Progress:

7 Farmers Wife blocks completed

No action at all:

Blanket Box Hexies - need lots more - but we're going camping next week and given these are hand pieced, I think I'll get a couple done
Double wedding ring - needs binding (and all by hand, so could be a while!)


UFOUFN's:

Psychedelic tartan - who knows??
Double diamonds - still needs something......
Which way to go - needs quilting
Dancing with the stars - needs quilting
Kimono mini - needs binding
Sashiko qayg - needs finishing!
Red and white challenge - needs properly starting
Whirleygig II - needs quilting

Please click on Lee's "Freshley Pieced WIP wednesday" button on the right to see what others are up to