Quilt Market in Sydney

17 Monday Jun 2013

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Yesterday I went to Quilt Market with Kate of Kate Quilts and Erica of Creative Dabbling. I’ve never been before and it was interesting to see the new fabric lines.

The threads at the Aurifil stand were luscious and very cutely and cleverly packaged to make you want them ALL! You can see photos of them on Eric’s blog  Creative Dabbling.

The Leutenegger stand was my very favourite. Remember all the trouble I had with quilting minky and how it came through to the front when I used it as a backing for The Gaz Quilt  Well this minky almost had me thinking that it might be worth another go. What do you think?

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But that’s not all they had. Take a look at these two stunning quilts and then I’ll show you the fabric line they’re made from.

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And look at the back of this one…

P1060272I did ask for, and received permission to take photos for my blog of these quilts but you can see much better photos on the maker and fabric designer, Carrie Bloomston’s, blog here. She also has a pattern available as a PDF download for the Nest quilt that you can purchase there too. What a talented lady! You can also see an online flip book of great projects to sew with this line here.

The fabric line is called Collage by Carrie Bloomston, Such Designs for Windham Fabrics and it consists of 20 fabrics. Here they are:

P1060267 P1060269 P1060271You can see better photos on Windham’s website here.

Just to be clear – I have no affiliation with any of the designers, manufacturers or distributors associated with this line. I just really liked it and I can’t wait till it arrives in the Kate Quilts shop.

 

 

Less than perfect

09 Sunday Jun 2013

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You remember the disastrous day I had a week or so ago? Well I salvaged what I could of the makings of the zippered pouch, altered the design and this is what I came up with. Of course I had to scorch in the corner to add to its imperfections.

Pouch 2 Pouch 1I also managed to finish a cashmere scarf for my husband and I’m pleased with that and so is he. I made a little carry pouch for his two ipad nanos and earbuds too.

EnsembleSo while I haven’t had unqualified success with my crafty efforts recently, things are improving… I think.

 

 

A day of failures and minor injuries

30 Thursday May 2013

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Failure and injury number one:

I had a day of failures and minor injuries today. First of all I tried to make a zippered pouch. It was a very cute one that came with a free pattern and tutorial. Another friend had made one and as I have to make a zippered pouch for the Greater Western Sydney Modern Quilt Guild’s Zippered Pouch Challenge/Swap, I thought I would try it.

P1060070I have to say that while I acknowledge fully my shortcomings as a machinist I still think the instructions for this particular pouch left a lot to be desired. Several times I couldn’t understand what I was supposed to do and, of course, did the wrong thing… 5 seams unpicked later and re-sewn still wrong and I gave up but not before I dropped a pin on the floor, bent to pick it up and bashed my head on the sharp corner of my long plastic cutting ruler. I now have an unattractive red mark right above my nose. :(

Failure and injury number two:

I decided I would wash and blow-dry my hair. The metal part of my large round brush got super hot and when I accidentally touched my neck with it, I burnt myself! Ouch! Another nice red weal to add to the collection I’m starting. Then before I could make it out of the bathroom to safety I knocked all the bottles and spray cans off the shelf and had to hunt for which top matched which perfume bottle etc. Fortunately nothing was broken.

Once out of the bathroom I decided to resort to a peaceful hour or two knitting the scarf I started for my husband. Half-way through I noticed an unfixable mistake and had to undo the entire thing. :(

I hope your day has been better. :)

 

A misty Sydney morning

29 Wednesday May 2013

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Yesterday and today have been very misty. I laughed at a newsreader who called it a “real pea-souper”. As someone who experienced the impenetrable fogs in England caused by coal smoke pollution in the mid 20th century I can tell you this bears no resemblance whatsoever to a “pea-souper”. We used to walk to school with scarves over our noses and mouths and when we arrived the places where we had breathed in would be black with the pollution particles! Here’s a look at an autumn misty morning in my Sydney garden.

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Not airing my dirty laundry…

29 Wednesday May 2013

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I don’t know about you but when I travel I hate having dirty laundry floating around my suitcase. I usually put it in a plastic bag till I can find a washing machine. Anyway I decided to make a travelling laundry bag for my husband.

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I used self-binding seams as per this Craftsy tutorial, both for strength and for looks. I divided it so the laundry could be sorted into lights and darks and I added coloured tabs to denote which side was which. Then I cut some of my First of Infinity black and white print to make a cute label.

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The girly cushion covers arrived safely

28 Tuesday May 2013

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The girly cushion covers I made for my daughter’s birthday arrived safely and have been “stuffed” and are now adorning a new day bed.

CushionsNow I just have to finish the quilt that goes with them. Trouble is I’m almost frightened to start in case I wreck my wrists again. Wish me luck!

 

My bag adventures

23 Thursday May 2013

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Recently I’ve tried my hand at some rudimentary bags. I showed them to you in a previous post here and here. Then I saw this great pattern on the Sew Serendipity website. I bought the pattern and thought about it for a while. Then I was sidelined from hand quilting because I hurt my hands/wrists so I decided this was the perfect time to try to make the bag using my machine.

There are learning curves and then there are LEARNING CURVES! This one was an Everest for me. To begin with all went smoothly but then as I started sewing through 10 thicknesses of fabric, 9 thicknesses of interfacing plus one thickness of Peltex, I realised two things – 1. Manhandling all that fabric and a sewing machine is not good for sore hands and 2. I need an industrial strength sewing machine just to get that much fabric under the presser foot!

I persevered and finished the bag. Some bits I had to do by hand because they physically would not go under the presser foot of my machine. Other bits I did but not to my satisfaction as it was too difficult to manhandle a whole, stiff, inside out bag and sew several very thick pieces at the same time.

I’m happy with the end result but IF I ever made another I wouldn’t make it so stiff. It’s just too hard with an ordinary domestic sewing machine. Anyway here it is. What do you think?

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A cautionary tale

12 Sunday May 2013

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Do you remember this quilt?

That purple fabric is quilter’s lamé. I sewed it with a 1/4″ seam as we quilters usually do and after a few washes this is the result…

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Looks to me like 5/8″ seams would have been in order here. Sigh…

The ideal sewing machine

I was really interested to get all of your comments and Annette I agree that your bobbin arrangement sounds exactly what I’m after, consider it included as an explanatory note to the list. Kate has added a knee presser foot lifter when she commented on Facebook too.  I wonder if Singer or Janome or Juki or Bernina is listening. It’d be nice wouldn’t it?

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