Meetup - Quilt Club Australia SA Members

I'm in a lovely group on Facebook for Australian quilters, called Quilt Club Australia.  Late last year some of the South Australian members decided to get together when one of the Victorian members was passing through town on holiday and it was such a lovely day, we decided to meetup on a semi-regular basis.

So yesterday we all met up again at Sheila's lovely home on the Esplanade at Semaphore South.  It was very hot here in Adelaide today (again!) - 37 degrees so not as conducive to sitting outside and enjoying Sheila's lovely backyard.  We did however check out some projects Sheila is working on in her brilliant sewing room!  We had some lovely scones with our morning coffee and some of the girls shared some of their projects and I apologise for not having photos, I think I may have been enjoying Sheila's scones at the time!

Afterwards we moved inside for lunch in the airconditioning and had a lovely shared lunch, with three different types of quiche (all yummy - as I made sure to test each one!), some mini savoury muffins, a meat pie and delicious salad.  We followed those up with some delicious sweet goodies - some deliciously tart lemon tarts, a lovely choccie mudcake and scrummy Rolo brownies.

Full to bursting, we then were invited to Jenny's nearby quilt shop, The Mallee Tree, where she opened up just for us!  Oh the joy of a quilt shop all to yourselves!  She generously offered us all a discount on our purchases and we had a lovely time!  I wish I had thought to take my camera but alas, I left it behind!  She has recently apparently expanded the shop and there were four rooms full to the brim of fabric, all beautifully displayed.  I will definitely be back next time I need some fabric love!

So what did I buy?

The two on the left are Lark by Amy Butler - Sparkle and Treasure Box.  The other is Australiana - Spot Gooloo by Nutex which I plan, believe it or not, to make into a Union Jack!  Watch this space!
I already have some of the Treasure Box but I really love it and have recently cut into it for my And Sew On blocks.  When I saw it sitting there on the shelf, I thought 'Right, better get more while I still can!'

Anyway, I was very restrained.  When we got back (those of us who returned to Sheila's - a couple of the girls left from the shop) we put all our purchases out on the table together!

I might point out the large collection of fabric on the right is all one person's!  Once Margaret started, she couldn't stop!  Makes my little pile look very restrained indeed!

We all had a fabulous day and look forward to doing it all again.  We had loose plans to discuss future get togethers but we're not that organised, although Pip has offered to host at her place next time.  We're even talking about organising a bus trip to the Barossa to combine some quilt shop visits and winery tastings, along with lunch as well.  Love that idea!

Thanks again to Sheila for being such a lovely host. Hopefully it won't be so hot next time around!

Something New Sampler - Last Ones!

So our last blocks for the Something New Sampler!

Our first block this week was Improv Pinless Curves and comes to us from Alyssa at Pile O' Fabric!  I can't say I loved doing this one but it does turn out when you're done!  I did find it quite hard to keep track of my 1/4" seam and not have more of one of the fabrics than the other under the needle but I got there in the end!

The next, and last, block this week was machine applique, by Becky at My Fabric Obsession.

I've done plenty of applique over the years but I haven't done much with curves and I haven't used this particular method of stitching the pieces down using clear thread so I was happy to try a new technique.

I pressed my applique shapes using a template but next time I would definitely use the method Amy from The Cute Life did with her shapes which you can see here.  It uses fusible interfacing and would be easier!

I did also make some modifications to one of my earlier blocks which I thought looked a bit bland.  Here is it as it looked when I first made it:

and here it is after adding some sashiko stitching!

I'm much happier with it now!

Here the blocks are all together, in a couple of different layouts.  Ignore the green blanket I've laid them out on!  Not sure if I'm going to make some small projects or one large one yet but we'll see!

 So step one done, the blocks are finished! Now to work out how to use them!

Something New Sampler Week 4

Week 4 for the Something New Sampler was actually last week but the two blocks were a little more complex than some of the other blocks and so took a little longer!

Firstly we had Trapunto over at Quilt Matters and for this one I needed to buy some water soluble thread, so that delayed starting that one.  I chose to only do the first part of the block and hold off on the second lot of quilting until I put everything together so this block doesn't look too interesting yet but here it is:

The second block was Cathedral Windows by Heidi at Fabric Mutt.  Now this one was a lot slower process!  Also resulted in some slightly steamed finger tips but we suffer for our art don't we?!

I'd also recommend you don't look too closely at this one as its not my best work but I have learned a lot by doing it.  I thought machine stitching the blocks down might be too fiddly so I chose to hand stitch but I think next time I will definitely use the machine.

It got a bit grubby while I was handstitching but hopefully you can't see it!  I love the way this one came out!  The pink strips on the ends are an added bonus as my block came out a bit short, so I decided to go with an added pink strip and I love it! Happy accident there!

Also an update on my earlier post about my Sashiko block.

I decided it looked a bit bland compared to the other blocks, although I love the design itself so I added a bit of  fabric to each end:

This has been a great sampler to sew along with and I've learnt some new techniques. Now I'm nearly at the point of needing to think about how they're all going to go together.

Not quite yet though as I still have one more block to do and another adjustment to one of my earlier blocks.  Stay tuned for further updates!

February UFO Finish (Well 2 Actually!)

Well, the lucky number for February in the 13 in 2013 UFO Challenge with Marti over at 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks was:

4

So after fossicking around in my UFO box I finally found project No. 4:

Not a great photo but you can just see the 4 in pen on the bag! No 4 project is a bag I was going to sew for a friend for Christmas last year but found something else to give her and so decided it could wait for this year.

I don't make many bags but this was impressively easy.  I changed it slightly as I didn't have any thin lightweight stiff wadding so used an offcut of cotton wadding and I chose to add some iron on pellon interfacing (because I had some) to the other pocket. (Reminder to myself that I need to get more of that as I'm thinking I may make a couple more of these!)

The pattern was one I found a year or two ago on a website:

It wasn't until I looked at the close up I took that I realised this was designed by Monica at Happy Zombie and I already follow her blog, so there you go!

Anyway deciding the final layout of the fabric took me longer I think than the whole bag - well maybe not but it was ridiculously fast to make.  Here is the finished product:

I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I might just put a clasp of some sort on it though.  The pockets are all on the outside so nothing fiddly inside.

I'm planning to make a matching loyalty card wallet to go with it and, who knows, maybe something else like a keyholder or something.

Anyway because it was so quick I decided to pull out the bag project I planned for my other girlfriend for Christmas (which I had bagged up as No. 3 in the UFO challenge) and do that this month as well.  It took a little longer than the first bag as I played around with my placement a bit (and got interrupted a lot) but here it is.  This one is a little larger!

My girlfriend is a childcare worker and is always carting stuff to work so hers is a tote.  She loves butterflies and purple so I tried to work those colours in.  Might be a bit busy but I'm pretty happy with it.

On this one I did a nice bright yellow inside (with butterflies of course) and also added an interior double pocket for keys and iphone.

I found the pattern on the Fat Quarter Gang blog for Art Gallery Fabrics here.

So there you have it, 2 projects done in one month! Yay!  Bring on the March UFO project I say!



Fabric - Oops I did it again!

Well I did make one last purchase before the US postal prices rose and this week my fabric fix arrived.

One of my two preferred online stores is Pink Chalk Fabrics.

Every purchase comes with a handy little card which has suggested quilt sizes on the back (I keep one near my sewing machine) and the picture on this one is of these cute little pyramid bags.  There is a downloadable pattern available at You Sew, Girl!

Last time I ordered, I purchased some of the Notting Hill range (the two in the centre below)

and then I decided I should buy a couple of others from the range before they weren't around anymore.

No real plans for these, just wanted them!  On the left is some City Gate from the Cuzco range and on the right is Mind's Eye Jazz from Anna Maria Horner Field Study.  Every time I looked at the fabrics on Pink Chalk I would come back to this one so I decided I'd better have it, it obviously was calling my name!

My niece Vanessa is a bit of a world traveller and is currently living and working in London and I thought these next two might well get used in a couple of items for her. I just love the suitcases!

Anyway, once again I succumbed but from now on fabric will have to be EXTREMELY cheap for me to buy online as when you add $24.50 to the order for postage, that is about $3.50 extra a yard.  So now I'm trying not to even look at the websites!

I'm linking up with Sunday Stash at Finding Fifth!



Oh and as she has received it now I thought I would share my block for February that I made for Karen in Victoria as part of the Quilting Block Swap Australia blog.

Karen was after the Plaited Block in complementary bright colours on white.  I had just bought the orange and pink fabric (it is much brighter than this photo shows it) and I thought it would be perfect! I think this block design is great and I'll be interested to see how the whole quilt looks once its done.  Might just end up on my one day list!

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

And Sew On - February - You Little Ripper!

I was itching to see which block would be next in the And Sew On series at Quiet Play and this month it was the most important sewing tool (well most often used at my house) - the stitch ripper!

Woohoo!  I can't believe I have finished February's block already!  This seriously has to be some kind of record for me - miraculous even.  I had planned on making it on Wednesday, my day off and usual sewing day but I managed to squeeze in some bonus sewing time this afternoon and got stuck into it.  I had already played around last night trying to work out what fabrics to use so I was ready to start!

I was surprised how quickly I managed to make this one. It looks more complicated than it is and only one section has very small pieces.  I do recommend writing which fabric you are going to put in each section on the actual pattern pieces as its very easy to get confused when you're in the middle of it.  I had to go back and unpick a section when I put green fabric where my pink floral should have been but that was my own silly fault as I had written it on the pattern and didn't check!  Doofus!

Anyway here it is:

The only thing I would change is that I ended up with a light section of my green fabric near a seam against a darker section so it shows up more than it needs to around the points of the stitch ripper - a minor issue.  The trickiest decision was what colour to use for the background.  I was worried the yellow daisy print was too patterned and the joins would look wrong but I think because its quite pale, its not a problem.

If you missed it, here is my version of last month's block, Measure Twice:

If you'd like to make this block, head over to Kristy's blog for the link.  The pattern is available free for this month only in her Craftsy shop!

Thanks for visiting my blog today,