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.

TWO finishes.....

.....amazing what a deadline or 2 does to productivity in my house.....

I've been so focused on things to do with school and the CFA raffle quilts that another deadline snuck up on me when I wasn't looking.  Tomorrow is Crib Point Community House open day (between 10am and 2pm for those on the Peninsula tomorrow - 7 Park Road, opposite the HMAS Cerberus entrance) and given I am a tutor there, I have the opportunity to talk to interested folks to come and join my class.

The idea is to have a static display of projects completed this past year as well as some items that a potential student could make if they wished.

I'm going to include a display of some of my quilts (and maybe someone will buy one!) and I had 2 tops that I particularly wanted to show - one of which I intend to bundle up as a kit - so they had to be finished.

The following photos are rotten - it's late and I didn't get any taken in the daytime - I'm going to try and remedy that tomorrow.

The first is Ice Age...

Drunkards path, using the Tokyo Roccoco range with added solids

The back - again using fabrics from the range

The quilting is wavy, overlapping lines, representative of the fissures in glaciers and mirroring (in a fashion) the pattern in the border and on the back.

The next one, binding sewn down in the wee small hours of this morning, is mostly made with Kate Spain's Terrain (the bundle I won at the Bloggers Quilt Festival last year).  I added some white and some matching Kona solids and a stripey binding (Kumari Garden range) that I've had in my stash for a while...

the backing - pieces of left over Terrain and small flower print in grey and white

Quilting for this one is an edge-to-edge pattern called 'Stars and loops' - it's one of my favourites.

So now I just have to write up a flyer that I can hand out, as well as find something I can use as a business card (for quilting services) to promote everything I need to promote....

I'll try to get a good photo of the display tomorrow

Community projects

When I first joined the local community quilt club, we met in a tiny room - no-one could bring their sewing machines because it was too cramped, not to mention dangerous (an Occupational Health and Safety nightmare!)  So when I took over teaching, I vowed to myself that I had to find a better venue, especially as I intended to introduce Project of the Month and sewing machines were mandatory.....

A couple of times we'd used the room at the local CFA (Country Fire Authority) for making charity quilts - the room was large, well lit, lots of power points and has an accessible kitchen - perfect - so I slept with one of the Firies (it's ok, he's my husband!!) and we were able to secure their meeting room on wednesday mornings and wednesday evenings - so much better and so much more conducive to boosting creativity.

The Firies have been great - if they're in the building when we are (for call-outs and other stuff) they never fail to pop their heads through the door and say hello, so when they asked if we could make a quilt to include in their upcoming 70th birthday celebrations, we couldn't say no -  in fact, we said 'yes' twice! - and all proceeds from the raffle will go to the Burns Unit at the Royal Children's Hospital.

We've started two quilts - one that we hope will appeal to the older generation and the other, a more modern style.....neither are finished (lots more to do) but here's a little preview....

Simple nine-patches in country colours and applique created by the very clever Jan and Lynne - Somerville is known for chook farms and apple and pear orchards

This one is called 'Ladders' - appropriately - by the very clever Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson fame - out of the new 'We Love Color' book

Obviously more to do before they're finished - but well done ladies - doing a fabulous job :)

.......and here's a little montage of some of their creativity so far....

Love my ladies.....

Bee blocks.......and lots of other stuff....

It seems like forever that I posted - in reality, it's been a week, but not getting on the computer everyday makes such a difference - the 'To be read' list of posts from the uber talented I follow continue to circle the globe and I don't seem to be making any dent in it with the paltry time I'm 'allowing' myself - hopefully all will change next term (this term really has been very busy and I'm hoping it's not indicative of the rest of the course)

So, I got up early, read a couple of posts and thought I'd quickly add what's been happening around here....

A couple of Bee blocks, the first for the Australia Bee....

such a pretty block

The next couple are for do.good Stitches - Melissa sent the pink dot for the final round and the rest we contributed...

The final pink round on the second one actually matches the first for colour - so the saturation you see is a bit exagerated!

These blocks have been sent off to their respective bee mamas.

In other news, the ladies in my classes have been busily sewing away their projects of the month...

The gorgeous Barb - and it's the very first thing she has ever made - love that beaming 'I made it myself' smile..

This months project - a zipped, lined pouch - they did a fabulous job.....

A couple of days ago I dyed some fabric to use for the stitched piece for school - the brief is titled 'colours of our lives' and I'm going red....reddish.....what the??

Buster had to get himself in the photo again - this time his 'other' end

 

So, time to go......today I'm mounting samples of fabrics dyed with various dye mediums (sun dyes, RIT dyes and Landscape dyes) and I really must make a start on the reports.......arrivederci...

Stitching by hand

In between sewing by machine and putting some hand quilting on my sisters hexy quilt, I've been creating a couple of samples for my Diploma.  This term we're studying colour theory and I for one did not know there was soooo much written about colour - it's truly fascinating - so we've been cutting and pasting and painting and colouring and stitching........

Last week was red and fly stitch.......

This week was blue and french and colonial knots.....

I found out on Sunday that I've been sewing french knots incorrectly - oops - but then I was shown how to do a colonial knot which results in a larger knot, so fills in more space - scores!!!

Next week is yellow and buttonhole stitch, so that'll be interesting.

While I was faffing about today, I made up next month's project for my classes - and we're going to make a zipped, lined pouch - I stuffed up the base though - made it too wide, so will have to make it again - I also have to write the instructions - I'm supposed to be doing that right now but I got distracted ;)

I copied the stylised flower shapes and drew them on the left hand side of the pouch with fabric markers - I messed up placement a bit but I don't think I mind - I really love that floral fabric...unfortunately I now only have a piece about 4" x 11" left :(

WIP Wednesday - well it would be, but now it's Thursday and the link is closed :(

omg - I knew it had been a while since linking up with WIP Wednesday at Lee's, but just saw that the last time was 9th Feb - definately a long time between drinks!

So obviously there's a little bit of creativity going on in the meantime - most of which relates to the Textiles course I'm doing, but I got a few things done outside of that too :)

I have a finish which started about here....

Totally inspired by this

Here's the back........

there's actual sunshine in Melbourne today!

I finished up another quilt...

I'm in the process of adding hand quilting to this next one...

Completed some farmers wife and projects for school, sewing bees and my teaching classes...

I also managed to complete a few quilting commissions on the long-arm too - I'm sure there's more but it's been so long I think I'd be here forever finding all the photos!

Anyway - pop on over to Lee's and check out everyone else's awesome WIP's - huge amount of inspiration out there :)

Project of the month classes

My wonderful ladies have wowed me again with their projects - the one here is the cushion cover with the whirleygig centre.  My version is here....

......and here's a selection of theirs....

I know there's more somewhere on my pc but I can't quite find them at the minute.....

I love how everyone puts their own slant on their work - from fabric covered, fussy cut buttons to adding ribbon, frills and binding - great job ladies - excellent work :)

farmers wife-ing

In between demonstrating making market bags on the weekend, I was able to complete a few more farmers blocks..

from top left, spider legs, spider web, single wedding star
bottom, snowball and spool

I've now completed 84 of the little darlings....27 to go, 27 to go......

Then this morning I finished the next monthly project for my classes - a zipped cushion cover..

the back has a zip with a concealing flap

Don't you just love gigantor stitches!!  I used a fabulous new product that I've been told about to mark the spacing - it's an erasable felt tip called Frixion by Pilot.  I simply drew on the fabric then after I'd sewed my stitches, I quickly pressed with the iron and all the marks disappeared - just like magic.  apparently they will re-appear if the temperature gets below -20c and there's little chance of that in Oz, so we're all good :)....although Melbourne these last couple of days seems to have been hit with an icy blast from somewhere....we've had the open fire going!

Right-i-o then, back to my assignments - have a great week

really supposed to be completing a report for school....so randomly sharing instead...

....but I don't have all the information (it's a collaborative report) and I can't find the spark to get me to start the damned thing......so......to the Blog Batman...

I mentioned a little while back that my Community classes make a project of the month and this month was the Dilly Bag..

The basis of the dilly bag was from the tute kindly shared by Jeni of In Color Order and she graciously let me use it for my Community classes.  I created a small foundation pieced panel for the front so my ladies could practice the skill....and they came up with some gorgeous bags....

a couple decided not to use the panel and someone else decided to create a log cabin block for the centre instead - brill!!

I know there's more completed, which I don't have a photo of yet - but I will take one and share.  Great job ladies :)

The next project will be a zipped and pieced cushion cover - I still need to make up the sample and instructions and hopefully will have my machine back tomorrow.....

I really do need my machine for Saturday and Sunday: Crib Point Community House has a quilt show this weekend (7 Park Rd, Crib Point for those on the Mornington Peninsula this weekend) and I'm going to be demonstrating - I've decided to demonstrate a simple market/tote bag (because it's quick and hopefully won't bore the onlookers!)  and some piecing (which I can use in my sample cushion cover) so I also have to prepare for that - I really would really prefer to sew using my new machine - thank goodness the old one is still available as a back up.....and I'll have to do all the prep today as it's school all day tomorrow (when the report I'm procrastinating about is due..) and my eldest son has just invited us to dinner tomorrow night - that doesn't happen often as he's a baker and works unsocial hours, so we really jump on any chance :) 

I've just re-read that last paragraph and have to say my old english teacher would have put a large red cross through it all and told me to reconstruct according to the rules....

Speaking of large red crosses - another assignment we had for school this week was to illustrate an emotion using a limited colour palette and using chain stitches and french knots.  I am not an embroiderer by any stretch of the imagination and when I finished mine, couldn't decide whether it was anger or lust.....then thought, X marks the spot - surely lust???

I also played about with a technique I found in a book called 'Layers of Stitch' by Valerie Campbell-Harding and Maggie Grey - it's using stained newspaper and fancy machine stitches - it's also the piece I broke my machine on -  The top piece was me practicing my fancy stitches then on the bottom piece, as I changed from normal straight sewing to decorative sewing, I omitted to allow the automatic base plate to reset which allowed the needle to viciously attack the metal underneath - so I had to use the back up machine and I can see the difference - it's really obvious in the text line....love the technique though and will use it again...

Hahaha - hope you're still with me - this is a looong post - who knew I had so much to share!!

Lastly though, I played around with an idea for my folio cover that I started a week or so ago - using a very high-tech tool.......

a piece of cardboard marked in a circle with needle holes and through which you thread a 'web' which you then weave a circle with other threads/wools etc

I was shown this method at a Twisted Threads day I attended on Saturday and thought the sample I made looked like the middle of a gerbera (the flowers in the drawing I used to create the folio cover) so I used it, along with some polyester black fabric, to make a kind of flower.....not really sure about this...I'm thinking I need to FMQ them (great suggestion by Susan - thanks!)....but I'll play around with the idea before I commit either way..

close up of the woven centre.  I used black perle threads as well as a variable red/black and some strange knobbly polyester stuff I acquired at school..

the 'gerberer' on the background - I think it needs to be smaller - and obviously needs a stalk and a couple of other heads :)

Ok - enough already - getting onto that report and my prep for the weekend right now.....well, after lunch....

Class Mug Bag

I teach sewing/patchwork at 2 local Community Houses and we have a project every month - we've actually just kicked it off and the very first project was a little bag to hold your mug - it protects the mug when you take it to class.  I don't know where the pattern originated - I just rejigged the instructions (which were simply typed on a piece of A4 paper) to make them a little easier to understand.  Well, my gorgeous ladies have been beavering away at their mug bags and they've created a riot of colour...

a couple of these weren't quite finished when I took the photo - but they all are now and they're fantastic.  The blue/purple bag on the right has a beautifully embroidered cup of coffee on the front - unfortunately it's obscured by the handle - sorry Barb!

Some opted for a pieced centre - and there was a lot of vintage buttons used - sensational

One lady supersized the dimensions to make a tote bag - the original size is on the right - way to go Mary!

The ladies did a wonderful job - and we're now onto our second project.

The second project takes the dilly bag created by Jeni of In Color Order (and generously shared by her through a tute on her blog) and I've added a foundation pieced panel - the ladies wanted to have a go at foundation pieceing on a small project...

I'm really enjoying the classes - the ladies are wonderfully enthusiastic - and they're very forgiving if how I teach something doesn't work for them - I'm actually searching out all my notes made when learning all about adult education (it was soooo long ago!) so that I can incorporate new methods.  I'm loving my new life!

A project for class

I've left Berdych and Nadal fighting it out at Melbourne Park so I could share what I made today - even though it was 34c!

I'm taking over a couple of quilting groups (from next week!) and last year at the end of term, I asked the ladies via a survey, whether they'd like a project of the month and if so, what types of projects.  The answers in so far indicate it's a goer and one of the ladies gave me a pattern for mug bag that she'd like to make - and several other ladies ticked 'yes' to the question as to whether they'd like to make one too.

So I tried out the pattern (it's one of those that's gone from pillar to post, has been altered all over the place and as a consequence, hasn't been terribly well written)  Anyway, I had a crack, made copious notes (so I can re write it and change a few things myself) and produced this:

It's got pellon and wadding and it's fully lined - and not really my cup of tea (no pun intended) - the fabric has been in my stash forever and my tastes have changed -  but I'll make one more with the changes I want to make and maybe use them as a raffle prize for the classes.

.....and despite the heat, I got out a quilt that's been languishing in the UFO bin (and it's on my winter summer stitching list) and laid it on top of the long-arm ready for pinning - I don't want to pin it just yet though because I had my nails done today (first time I've had a manicure!) and I want them to stay a bit gorgeous for a bit longer..

I had a thing about batiks quite a few years ago - which was when this quilt top was put together - batiks are not so my thing these days - this is a gift for a friend and I'm sure he'll like it..

Just had a quick look at the score and Nadal leads 2 sets to 1 with a break in the 4th.......

Busy, busy, busy

As I'm sure everyone else is too - this week I've been concentrating on creating a survey for my patchwork classes next year - it's our Christmas Party today (in about an hour, I best get my skates on..) and it's hosted by the lady I'm taking over from next year.  Chris has been the tutor for around 20 years and is an absolute font of knowledge, let alone a wonderful and generous soul (she's the one who had me adopted into the Threads club - a group of multi-talented ladies who did the course I'm starting next year some time ago - and all have offered help , resources and supplies - I LOVE crafty people.  She's also the one who has encouraged me to take the next step down the teaching path and offered me her timeslots as tutor when she retired - as I say, very generous soul).

The 'classes' really are a general get together where you work on your own thing and Chris is available to help as required; sometimes the ladies don't bring any work with them, they come for the chat (and one lady brings the most divine date scones!).  I know why I joined the class and through the time I spent there this year, I was able to complete my hand pieced Doubled Wedding Ring quilt as well as get to know a group of wonderful ladies with their own stories and experience to share. 

So, I got to thinking, I really need to understand better why these women stay in the class - there really isn't much 'teaching' going on, obviously friendship is a huge part of it - and what is it that I need to do to encourage them to keep coming to class.  So I wrote a survey - I have ideas to introduce a monthly sew-along, incorporating small projects that could be finished in  1-2 sessions.  The remaining time can be spent on their own thing - or a BOM - and create a new quilt - whatever, I'm hoping for a great response rate and have been up making these little pouches as incentive to voice their needs:

I'm going to pick out a random, completed survey and the winner gets to choose one of the little bags.  I've got all bases covered - cute, bright, traditional and japanese fabrics so one of them should suit the winner.

Chris has left me gigantuan shoes to fill but I hope by tailoring a program for the class, I can continue her legacy and provide a place where these women can gather to spend time together, to learn something new and have some fun along the way.

A quick update on the chooks - we've got 5 chicks so far - mum is sitting on about 10 more eggs - we've checked and they all seem viable so we'll wait for another week before we start surreptitiously removing them if they don't hatch (she's very good at donking your hand when it strays too close!)

Here's 4 of her brood - the little blighters won't all stay in the frame at the same time!: