Things make you go "Hmmmmm"

I decided to pull out a fat 1/4 stash I've had forever - Authentic by Sweetwater - and ran up some blocks based on a quilt I'd seen recently - I added one solid, thinking the restricted palette of the range would work it's magic and morph into a sophisticated quilt....but, it didn't.....I put the blocks onto the design wall and I don't like it....it needs something....I think it's a bit blah - anyone have any suggestions??

Bee block catch up - and a new sewing group catch up

Fallen a bit behind in my Bee blocks - so made a concerted effort yesterday to catch up...

These 2 are for Nicolette's October do.Good stitches quilt - Nicolette is a very, (actually, she rates in capital letters - VERY) talented quilter and I often sigh at her work (take a look at her blog and you'll see what I mean!) and she asked for a warm and a cool bowtie block - so here they are - they'll be winging their way to  Europe when I get to the PO tomorrow.

Next one is for Shirley in our Quilt Club Australia Bee...

Shirley asked for a convergence block in black and white - Shirley is the Queen of convergence blocks and whilst making this one I can understand the allure!

...and finally, I'm the Queen Bee for November for do.Good stitches so I've asked for Converging Corners in manly greys and blues - I don't think I quite mastered the process so I'll have to make a couple more...I like them though :)

Now - as the title mentioned, there's a new Sewing Group been formed by the indomitable Sally, the Peninsula Sewshells, and the inaugural meeting is at the Frankston Library...here's the flyer:

peninsula sewshells

Are you a quilter?

A bag maker?

A clothes maker?

Embroiderer?

Crocheter?

Thread artist?

Want to meet like minded souls, with a modern twist?

Then come to Frankston Library

Friday November 16 or December 14 from 6 til 10.

Cost $5.00 per person.

BYO project, sewing machine or hand project.

This is not lessons, it is a sit and create social evening.

Parking is available under the library, and a lift is available to the rooms.

Check us out on facebook – sew shells,

or at sewshells@gmail.com,

Or just come along!

So if you're in the area - come on down - I'll see you there!

Look at what arrived at my house......

Having part of the first Mouthy Stitches Swap, I was pretty excited when Mouthy Stitches 2 was launched - and I quickly signed up.

We all had to create a mosaic of what we liked and then watch the Flickr group photos and 'ooh' and 'aaah' at the stupendous creativity.

It was really fun trying to work out who had who - the talent in the group was so great that I must say I coveted about 99% of all the totes made!  There were one or two though that I would have traded my husband for.......

......and I waited, and waited a little more and then the must wonderful thing happened - I received one of those special totes, made by the very talented Karen of Laughter in Quilts - someone I've been following for quite some time - and she N.A.I.L.E.D it!

It has texture, linen, wonderful colours and a perfectly simple appliqued flower using none other than one of my most favourite designer fabric (Lotta Jansdotter) - she even put polka dots inside!  The key fob matches beautifully and I truly couldn't be happier that this came to me.

Thank you Karen - I will treasure it always :)

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

The Vikings are coming....

Not really - but I have been looking into their arts and crafts - let me explain.....

This semester, one of our units is 'Art History and Art Theory' and in the first week, we had to choose a period in history (on a time line given to us), research and give the class a 15 minute presentation on either an artist from the period, or failing that, the style of the period - we also had to include environmental influences, ie social, political, etc etc.  and discuss their arts and crafts.

I really do not know what drew me to the Vikings - apart from their pillage and plunder of my homeland a thousand or so years ago, I didn't have a great deal of knowledge about them - and the name of a Viking artist didn't really spring to mind.  I knew they wore horned helmets and were very violent.....

Well, they were violent - some of them anyway - and they didn't wear horned helmets - and surprisingly they were quite civilised.

In the course of my research, I came across a type of weaving that Viking women were very proficient at - it's called Tablet weaving - it produces a type of braid that they sewed onto their clothes etc - there is a lot of information about it on the net and  I picked up a fabulous old weaving book from the school library - and it's very easy to do at home - so I thought I'd have a crack.

First I had to make the 'tablets' - I made mine out of playing cards but Viking women would have made theirs out of leather, wood, stone or bone.  Next was the threading of the warps, followed by the actual weaving.....

the tablet - I made 8 of these

the first attempt at threading was a bit of a disaster

threading again

all threaded and looking a little more orderly

getting the hang of it - the tablets are rotated in 4 x 1/4 turns forward, then 4 backward (otherwise the warp threads start to weave themselves - ask me how I know!)

 Here's the braid so far..

I used some crappy cotton yarn I found that I think I bought in the 80's!

By threading up different colours in the holes, adding more tablets, turning the tablets in different directions and swapping the order of the tablets as you go along creates other patterns - you can even create the alphabet and make a name braid....

So I'm going to take this practice braid off the clamps and make some more tablets - I'm thinking lots more tablets because I want to use perle thread for the warps (so I'll need heaps otherwise it's going to look like a cord, rather than a braid!), because I've had an idea about what I want to produce for the textile piece we have to hand in at the end of the semester...oh, and my BFF found a Youtube vid that shows you how to do Viking knitting with metal (jewelers will know all about Viking chains) and I want to have a crack at that too....

Sunshine and stuff

Today is absolutely glorious - we have another day of this beautiful Spring weather and then it's back to rain and cold - a couple of days ago it was freezing, all along the eastern seaboard of Oz - there was even snow in Queensland!  However, here in Melbourne today, it's glorious.

I've been out weeding the veggie patch and looking at what's popped up - there was a lone snowpea plant that self sowed from last year and there was 5 snowpeas on it - I say "was", because they're no longer there - I ate them - nothing quite like sun warmed veggies fresh from the garden.....

Picking from the garden already is lettuces (all self sown from last year's crop), pak choy, asparagus and leeks (in fact except for the lettuce, the rest is going into a veggie stir fry for dinner tonight).  Toms are going slowly, beans have been attacked by snails, a few carrots are up, zucchini and pumpkin are also slowly growing, so it's early days yet but we're getting there.

Yesterday I took the opportunity to quilt and attach binding to the two quilts that will be raffled off for our local CFA (Country Fire Authority) - all proceeds to the Burns Unit at the Royal Children's Hospital - I hope they raise millions.  One of the lovely ladies from my classes has offered to hand sew the binding down - thanks Margaret - so here they are almost complete...

The ladder quilt is about 54" x 72" and is quilted in a flame shape - well, ziggy zaggy really.  The big country style one on the right is large at 80" square - there's another couple of the appliqued blocks hanging behind on the line - otherwise it was going to land in the dirt!  This one was quilted with a large meander - didn't want anything too dense due to the applique.

ziggy zaggy flames

The ladies did a fantastic job of the piecing and Margaret, who has volunteered to sew down the binding, also put the big country one together - thanks again Margaret - great job.  Jan and Lynne created the wonderful applique blocks - Somerville has strong connections with chooks, apples and pears - and they also sewed some of the 9 patch blocks together.  Other 9 patch contributors: Jeanette, Dawn, Judy, Margaret (another one!) and  Joan.

The ladders blocks were put together by Lynne, Olivia and myself and then I stitched the blocks together.  Trimming was ably assisted by Kim.  I'm sure the CFA will be well impressed.

My eldest son celebrated his birthday last month (so did my youngest son actually!) and after a bit of tooing and froing, and a couple of wrecked windcheaters and T shirts due to 'schmutz' transfer whilst baking or cooking at home, he decided an apron would be in order - not a poncey pinny, but a MAN's apron that could save his clothes - great idea - so I found some weighty calico and drew and cut and sewed - and my big lad loves The Transformers - so for a surprise, I raw edge appliqued the Transformers logo on the front - he loved it :) I don't have a photo of him in it, but before I handed it over, my husband modelled for me...

great look with the socks and the daft smirk - "more than meets the eye"

I hope I haven't left any names out of the contributors of the CFA quilts.......

Swap tote finished

I was a lucky person indeed to be able to join a pool of very talented sewists as part of the Mouthy Stitches 2 swap.

For this round we had to create a tote, all using the same basic pattern but tricking it up in line with our secret partner's mosaic.  My partner made it super easy to understand what she likes and she's been fantastic in terms of commenting and encouraging - it's that sort of group I can't reveal who I made mine for (and I am coveting many of the totes already showing up in the Flickr group...) but I can reveal the tote......

An attempt at an arty shot!!!  This is either the front or the back of the tote - her choice - and I made a lanyard/key fob to go with it (it's the only 'extra' we're allowed to send - except maybe some chocolate too

Here's the other side....

and inside, a pocket (so it's not reversible - sorry partner!)

I really enjoyed making this - and thank you to the wonderful Swap Mamas, Cindy, Susan and Hadley.

Hope my partner likes it!