Quilting continued...

Only 2 more meetings before we have to have this quilt finished.

We've all been so busy studying, working, mothering...

Handquilting the hexagons is getting easier but I still don't like the feel of the fabric grain being all over the place. The edges are particularly difficult.

Not long to go on this one. Then I can focus on my entry for next year. M made some gorgeous blocks for me as a surprise reward for all the handquilting :-) I'll have to scan and add them tomorrow, it's been a long day.

PS. This is a link to last year's quilt featured in Down Under Quilts, pg 13

Pin Cushions

I'm officially over my magnetic pin cushions, it's so hard to grab a pin quickly and everything gets wrapped in threads. So I decided to use some scraps and make myself a nice solid one to sit next to the machine. As I had run out of fibre fill I cut up pieces of wool wadding and used that instead. It works like a charm, the wool has plenty of body and enough weight to stop it from sliding about... Now I can keep all my pins and needles sorted so I can always find the right one for the job :-)



Fia made me this cute coffee cup pin cushion earlier this year.
I topped up the filling with some wool wadding and it is now nice and solid too.
This is the one I'll use next to me when I'm hand quilting... I love the button she bought secretly for me whilst on holidays!

Another Zipper Mouth

They're breeding, but they're so cute no one's complaining!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Patchwork Class, Week 3

I love week three of my patchwork and quilting class! The penny seems to drop and we are no longer discussing seam allowances and the best tools for a job. The Dresden Plate block is an excellent teaching block. It combines the use of templates, chain piecing and applique. Quite a simple block but very effective. Depending on the fabric choices it can be modern or a very retro 30s feel.

Never ending hand quilting...

Callouses are good. They protect the soft finger tips from the repetitive stabbing of the quilting needle. Having made the decision to quilt this by hand means we get to keep the lovely zig zag edges. Machine quilting would have obliterated the quirky ends so hand quilting it is. One stitch at a time... not that there's any pressure. Drop off date is 1 month away, aghhh!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

We celebrated Mother's Day with a delicious lunch at Indo Rasa in Kingsford. It was superb, possibly the best Indonesian food I've had in Sydney. All the sauces and dressings tasted very authentic and fresh. The biggest surprise was the bill, we ordered plenty of food and often these big family meals can run up to $350. Here it was $15/ head. Amazing, it's like being on holidays!



Today, I received my little squishy parcel from Etsy containing a layer cake of the new Denyse Schmidt fabrics, Picnic and Fairground. I've seen plenty of photos of this range but I wasn't sure if I'd love it in real life. Now that I've put a few of them together in pairs and auditioned them with some other fabrics I can attest to the buzz out there in the quilting world. They are gorgeous and very good quality. Much better than fabric I've previously purchased from JoAnn's. In today's Spotlight flyer they had some pretty cute "feedsacks" and "retro vintage cottons". May have to pop in and take a look...

Bye Bye Miss Wendy :~(

Today tastes bittersweet. The kids have been practicing hard for their piano exams for the past month or so. There were times I wasn't sure they would pass...
Miss Wendy pulled out all stops to get them across the line. The only downside is that she is now moving overseas next week. Sniff .
After 4 years with one piano teacher it's a pretty big occasion. A little break and then we'll think about a replacement.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

blogging, take 2

It's become painfully obvious that I need to streamline my online presence. The Facebook Recipe page is going well (just over 200 followers) but using the Notes as a recipe book isn't really working well. It has been great for connecting with my students and for sharing other recipes elsewhere on the net. I am a complete novice on Flickr, I can see the attraction of photo sharing but I find the experience confusing and not very intuitive. Yet there are some wonderful communities sharing via Flickr and I hate to miss out on such a rich source of visual inspiration.

Which brings me back to Blogging. Such a steep learning curve; setting the tone, a purpose and then fine tuning a design. This all takes so long, which I feel bites into my precious sewing and crafting hours. Suppose that's why I've stuck with Facebook so far, there are no design decisions to make, just post your thoughts and in my case photos, the recipes and be done with it... And everything is there in one site: news feeds, friends and family, photos etc.
Well, I am determined to find a solution. Maybe post to Facebook, the blog and flickr all at once. Now there's a thought!

Things I've learnt thanks to Flickr: there are great file sharing sites that don't require you to fill in a million forms and sign up for endless spam. Scribd is fantastic for sharing a whole range of documents like PDF, Word, Excel.
Denyse Schmidt has released a new fabric range, reminiscent of her successful Flea Market Fancy line.
Reasons why I could never give up on Facebook: The wonderful friends and family; the environmental and social activism; music and video sharing. My vegetarian recipe page...