Tag Archives: blogs

Around the blogosphere

23 Tuesday Nov 2010

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There are so many interesting blogs around and one could spend many hours reading them. I have some of my regular ones in the blogroll at the bottom of the sidebar on the right but I thought I’d show some others that I read on a regular basis.

First up is the blog of Californian of designer Monaluna. She has some really lovely designs and it’s always interesting to see what her latest inspiration is.

Then there’s Nova at a cuppa and a catch up. She’s showing a really fabulous daisy cushion she made at the moment.


And just in case you thought it’s only women who quilt and blog here are two males of the species who do both. Ryan Walsh at I’m just a guy who quilts and Quilt Dad, John Cary.

I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading these blogs. If you visit please tell them that Munaiba at Sewjournal says “hi”.

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6 months of blogging and a give-away

12 Tuesday Oct 2010

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Yesterday was my 6 month bloggiversary! More than 30,500 views! Thank you so much for your interest and support. I really enjoy your comments, your advice and your support.

To celebrate I’m going to have a give-away. I’ve been racking my brains to come up with something nice but not too heavy for international/national postage. As you know my fabric favourites are Japanese and bright and whacky fabrics. I know these aren’t to everyone’s taste so I’ve come up with two fat quarters from the Memories of Osaka Range by Betty Wang for South Sea Imports. They are Japanese style fabrics but in muted colours which I think many of you will like. I’m also adding a pattern for a Stitcher’s bag that folds out to reveal storage for just about anything a stitcher could need. I hope you like the prize.

How to enter the give-away

Now, you have two chances to enter. First just leave a comment on this post. I’ll leave comments open until Saturday Aussie time. The second chance to win is yours if you add the Sewjournal Blog (http://sewjournal.com) to your blogroll and then let me know that you’ve done it and leave a link to where I can find it. Simple! (If you’ve already added me to your blogroll then thank you 🙂 and just let me know in your comment and you’ll get a second chance to win.) [Edit: I forgot to say international entries are welcome.]

Good luck and thanks again for your support.

Playing with images

18 Friday Jun 2010

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I was looking at Nola’s InchTextiles blog yesterday and she had written a great piece about playing with photos.

This tied in with some quilts I saw at the Qulit Show yesterday. There were several small quilts that had been made based on different treatments of the same image. They were really fascinating.

I was intrigued and decided to have ago myself. My image software wouldn’t do many of the things that Nola’s did but it did have some different options and I had fun playing with a couple of flower images I had taken.

Take a look:

Original

Original

Tessellated

Tessellated

Original

Original

Kaleidoscope treatment

Kaleidoscope treatment

Posterized

Posterized

Interesting sites…

15 Tuesday Jun 2010

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Interesting sites…

The internet is like a large candy shop for quilters isn’t it? There are so many different fabric collections. One thing I find interesting is that just having nice fabric isn’t enough to entice me to spend time browsing. I need the site itself to be attractive. There are, unfortunately, so many ugly, clunky “websites from a box” out there that all look the same, are not user friendly and that don’t display their wares to best effect. I thought I would show you some of the sites that I really like to spend time browsing.

Art Gallery Fabrics

Art Gallery Fabrics

Art Gallery Fabrics

I still haven’t worked out how to buy their fabrics as I haven’t seen an”Add To Cart Button” even though there is a “View Cart Button” but I still like browsing their collections. [Editor’s correction: I have since found out that Art Gallery Fabrics are a wholesaler and you can find which stores stock their fabrics by using their store locator.] I think the practice of having a grey background has something to do with it. It makes the fabric designs stand out. One of my other favourite sites – Hawthorne Threads, also employs a grey background.

The Creative Blog

The Creative Blog

They also have an interesting blog. This entry caught my imagination. It’s about someone who decided to make funky hospital gowns for people who are going into hospital to add some beauty into their day and make them feel a bit better. Their site is called Feel Good Gowns. Take a look. I think it’s such a great idea!

Hawthorne Threads

Hawthorne Threads

Hawthorne Threads

I love the collections Hawthorne Threads has and also their way of presenting them. That grey background again really makes the fabrics pop.

You can sign up for their weekly newsletter here and go into their weekly give-away draw.

Ink & Spindle

Ink & Spindle

Ink & Spindle

This Australian site features Australian designers and hand-printed fabrics.

The fabrics are very expensive ($22 per .25 metre!) but beautiful nonetheless. Perhaps you could justify the expense for something really special but I just window (screen?) shop this site. Hopefully sometime in the future I’ll be able to speak to these wonderful designers. In the meantime you can read their blog.

Kelani – a material obsession

Kelani

Kelani

Another interesting Australian site is Kelani – a material obsession. It has a variety of products including fabrics by Australian designers. These fabrics appear to be less expensive than those on Ink & Spindle, probably because they are not hand- printed.

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Last minute entry in the Bloggers Quilt festival

28 Friday May 2010

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I just found out about this great idea. You can see a list of participating blogs here. The quilt I’m going to enter is the second quilt I ever made. I made it for my daughter and I hand-pieced the front and then I designed and machine-pieced the back and then hand-quilted it. What was I thinking? But then when you’re ignorant you think you can do anything! The front is called Kool Kats Kwilt (sorry abut the “K”s but not my name) by Patti Carey. You can download the free pattern here:

Front - intertwined cats

Front - intertwined cats

Back with cat label

Back with cat label

The three big lessons I learned from this making this quilt are:

1. Don’t make quilts to a deadline it takes all the fun out of it.

2. Having a geometric pattern front and back makes sandwiching and aligning the front and back of the quilt a nightmare.

3. Sandwiching using the Sharon Schamber boards method is harder in practice with an actual large quilt than it looks in her video.

Quilters share their tips… and some lessons

27 Thursday May 2010

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Sewing tips

Two days ago I shared some sewing tips with you for the Sew Mama Sew Tip-Fest. There have been some great tips added by many experienced sewers and you can find them here and here. I’m tickled pink because they chose to feature my blog in their post along with several others! So if you’re looking for some smart ways to do things take a look at what’s on offer.

Sewing lessons on the Janome 3160QDC

Today I had my first lesson on my new Janome. Rose from Sewrite Seven Hills was so friendly and helpful. I got to see the new quilting stitches which are very cute and mimic free motion quilting for small areas. And I learnt all the little tricks you need to know to make full use of the machine. I’m off to take up my trousers and use the blind hem foot. Wish me luck!

If you’re looking for the Jinny Beyer Give Away? It’s here… You’ve got till Friday Australian time to enter.

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Jinny Beyer Give Away

22 Saturday May 2010

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As promised yesterday, here is my give away to celebrate the 5,000 visitor milestone.

Signed Jinny Beyer Pattern Give Away

Last year I was fortunate enough to visit the US and to meet Fran, a hand quilting, email list buddy. She was so kind and took me wherever I wanted to go and of course we had to go to Jinny Beyer’s Studio.

Jinny Beyer's Studio

Jinny Beyer's Studio

The view from the back porch of Jinny's Studio

The view from the back porch of Jinny's Studio

We spent hours in there and Jinny actually came in while we there. She was so friendly and helpful and she autographed the patterns I bought. So, to celebrate passing the 5,000 visitor mark I’m going to give away one these signed Jinny Beyer patterns. The one I have chosen is called “Sumatra” and is suitable for even beginner quilters and yet it looks stunning. I will ship internationally so wherever you are feel free to join in.

Front of pattern with Jinny's autograph

Front of pattern with Jinny's autograph

Back of the pattern

Back of the pattern

All you have to do to enter is to grab the RSS feed of the blog (the button at the top on the left sidebar) and leave a comment saying what colours or fabrics you would use if you made this quilt and I will choose a winner. The give away will be open for a week so that gives you plenty of time to enter.

Another give away in blogland

Janet from Quiltsalott is also having a give away to celebrate passing 500 followers! Well done Janet. So when you have finished here why not go over to her blog and enter her give away too? Her blog is really interesting and she does some stunning work. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

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Fat Quarter Give Away!

17 Monday May 2010

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My Sewjournal blog has been up now for only 5 weeks and so far I’ve had more than 3,000 visitors which is very exciting. Thank you all for supporting my blog. To celebrate and to participate in the Sew mama, sew! May 17th Give Away Day, I’ve decided to host my first give away.

Because it’s Autumn here in the Antipodes I’ve decided to give away three Fat Quarters in Autumn tonings. (That phrase – Autumn tonings reminds me of the 70s when just about everything came in Autumn tonings – lol) The colour of the photo doesn’t do them justice as they are more rust coloured than they look here. Anyway here they are:

Fat quarters

Fat quarters

How to enter

To win one of the fat quarters all you have to do is to leave a comment on this post between now and May 20 2010. I’ll pick three winners at random and post their names on the blog. Good luck! If you think of the fat quarters as being labelled 1, 2 and 3 with the top one being 1 and the bottom 3, then you can state which one you would prefer if you win and I’ll try to accommodate you. However if the three winners all want the same I’ll pick at random.

International entries welcome

I will post these internationally so it doesn’t matter if you don’t live Australia, please feel free to enter but make sure there is someway I can contact you for your address.

[Edited note: If this the first time you have commented on my blog your comment will not appear until it has been moderated. Due to the time difference between the US and Australia some comments won’t appear for several hours. Don’t worry. All comments will be read and moderated. Good luck!]

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Unbinding, camellias and ‘uglies’ looking for a new home

14 Friday May 2010

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Well today I didn’t get much sewing done as I spent the morning reading sewing blogs and then went and got a new hair do which I’m quite happy with. Then when I was going through images on my camera I found these that I took in park over the road. One of them looks like a carpet of camellias.

A camellia carpet

A camellia carpet

Camellia

Camellia

This afternoon I baked some cookies and started the binding on the prayer quilt. I’d sewn about 1/3 of it when I realised I had sewn it the wrong way round! With the folded edge up against the edge of the quilt! So I spent the next half hour undoing it. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish it over the weekend.

The shelving of the ‘uglies’

I decided that life really is too short to work with fabric you don’t like so I have shelved the project. I have 12 ‘ugly’ hexagons looking for a home if anyone wants to adopt them. Just leave me a comment and I’ll be in touch.

Blog give-aways and tumbling blocks!

12 Wednesday May 2010

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May seems to be the month for blog give-aways. On the 17th May the Sew Mama, Sew! blog is coordinating give-aways from all blogs that register. To find out more take a look here. Check back here on that day as I’m participating in the give-away and you’ll have a chance to win one of three fat quarters.

What’s more, today they’re having a give-away to win a copy of “Whip up mini quilts”. All you have to do is comment on the post. Take a look.

Hawthorne Threads also has a great give-away. They’re offering an Art Journal design roll if you register for their newsletter. (Gosh they have gorgeous fabrics!) What’s more if you comment on their new blog Behind the Seams you’ll have another chance to win!

Elizabeth Hartman of the Oh Franson! blog is offering a Mingle and Groove scrap bundle (see pic) if you leave a comment as to how she should use some shirtings she found tucked away in her closet. Be quick as it ends in a few hours.

Good luck! Please le me know if you win anything.

What I’ve been up to…

Yesterday I went to a Sit and Sew and decided to use up some fabric I don’t like. I’m tempted to call them ugly because I find them depressing but others ladies at the sit and sew liked them so I’ll just call them “less pleasing” than the rest of my stash. They are 10″ squares I bought off the internet and the colours are not as they appeared on my monitor. Anyway I bought some 3″ diamond templates and started making tumbling blocks. Here are some that I have done so far.

Tumbling blocks

Tumbling blocks

Not sure what I’ll do with them. There will eventually be 8 like these and then I have some other squares in the range that will make similar but different ones. I’ll try to post some pics when I’ve done some more. Any suggestions as to what to do with them would be welcome.