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.

Oop north

Can you guess how far oop North??

How about now?

In February this year, Jetstar had a big sale which meant I was able to snaffle return tickets to Sydney for not very much....and this meant my friend and I attended Quilt Market in Sydney to check out the latest ranges available in Oz, meet some of the distributors and pick up some very good bargains at excellent prices..........................

Terrible photo (it's as wet here in Melbourne as it was in Sydney all weekend)....but, there's Layer Cakes of 'Mama said Sew' by Sweetwater and 'Simply Color' by V and Co, jelly rolls of 'Summersville' (very excited about this one), oreo rolls (!) of Bella solids, a couple of 4m lengths by Umbrella Prints and Saffron Craig and assorted fat quarters from a number of designers.  We did very well - walked our socks off in the rain and generally had a fabulous weekend.

The Market re-invigorated my dream of selling on-line - whether it's completed items, kits or basics, or a combo of all three, and plans have been made, very basic at this stage, with actual deadlines so I can make sure I fulfill the dream (plans without deadlines and actions are simply dreams and life is too short)........June is absolutely screwed given I have school commitments as well as some consultancy work from my old life, so looking to July to really cementing my plans in place and launching wholeheartedly into this wonderfully, creative life....................

Til next time (I know it's a long time between drinks these days, but I am endeavouring to post a little more frequently than I have just lately!)

A weekend of quilty goodness

On the weekend I went to the Australian Quilting Convention - and I won a ticket to the Gala Dinner in saturday night, courtesy of the very generous (and very lovely) Cecile of Unique Stitching - so my weekend was filled with lots of quilty goodness!

Now despite me telling myself I really DON'T need any more fabric (especially as the Tokyo Rococo range arrived and I have to make up some quilt kits...), I simply couldn't resist this little bundle...

Some Transfer Artist Paper for my arty farty endeavours, a jelly roll of Half Moon Modern, a layer cake of Malka Dubrawsky's Metro and a little assortment of fat quarters that caught my eye...

Gawd knows when I'll get a chance to make any of these up - I've still to finish an Occupational Health and Safety report (almost there), an autumnal hand stitcheries for a mini exhibition at school (almost there), a bowl of lucious fabric lemons (only just started) as well as organise a family get-together to celebrate my eldest son getting engaged - CONGRATULATIONS ADAM AND DANA  :)

....oh, and my husband and I (with a Queenly wave) are celebrating 30 years of wedded bliss (??!!?) today - happy anniversary dear!

I'll do a seperate post on some of the photos I took of the AQC - gordon bennett there is a lot of talent out there.

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....

Melbourne Quilt and Craft Fair excursion

Yesterday, my bff and I met my SIL at the Melbourne Quilt and Craft Fair to indulge in our collective love of all things quilty and fabricky.

No photo's (as this would be 'evidence' according to our respective spouses!) and we had a fabulous time:

• we met the super talented and truly lovely Nicole Mallalieu and had a chat - my bff and SIL bought her book (You sew, girl) which Nicole kindly signed.  We also bought patterns, and bag bits, and interfacing - both Nicole and her sister were soooo helpful - it such a pleasure to spend time there
• we visited The Scissor Man for templates - looking forward to playing with these
• bought a curve master sewing foot from Punch with Judy - when I've had a play I'll blog about this (I'm going to make a Drunkards path block quilt for one of nieces who is expecting her first baby)
• bought fabric from here and here and here and here and .........best stop now.......
• stopped for a bit of lunch
• shopped a bit more
• ogled the quilts

Bit pooped by time we got home - my bff stayed for dinner and my gorgeous husband made us Sate beef with rice and bok choy which we ate in front of the telly - a fantastic day all round really. 

Inspired to try some new things we saw - and some old things we haven't tried before.

Next year my bff and I have decided we'll do some of the workshops, maybe get a 2 day pass and stay in the City - what an excursion THAT will be!