Wednesday, December 26, 2012

SSCS 2012 Received

These are the lovely items that Karol-Ann made for me for
Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap (SSCS) 2012.

This bag is sturdy and roomy and has a magnetic snap closure.
 

 The needle case is charming with lots of felt pages.







And this great Christmas stocking - always good to tuck those little surprises in and not just at Christmas! At least that's what I'm hoping...
 
This is the delightful hand-made flower on the bag.
I thought it worthy of a close-up.







All the loot. Thanks so much Karol-Ann!


And a big thanks to Chookyblue for another great SSCS.

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Sunday, December 23, 2012

Yellow HST and Christmas Ornament

My groups' HST swap continues with the colour for January being yellow, which also encompasses shades of gold, brown and orange. I've pulled these fabrics from my stash. Not too sure about some of them, but I will cut my charms and proceed. I'm sure it will all work out. Gotta love scrap quilts!

This is the ornament I made for my SSCS lady, Michelle. She adores gingerbread men. 
If you visit her she is currently doing a tour of all her amazing Christmas decorations. 

Here the gingerbread man is modelling next to a broken iPad.
Mr Fixit is putting on a new glass screen for DD #1.


I've got a turkey to get in to the oven, I think. Gotta check if it's thawed.
My days have been pretty tightly scheduled to fit it* all in.
Still, all good here.

* The day job. The housework. The shopping. The wrapping. The laundry. More day job. More housework. More shopping. Bout of gastro. More day job. More wrapping. More shopping. More laundry. And so on and so forth. Still, gotta' love Christmas! - and catching up with all the rellies is definitely worth it!
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Monday, December 10, 2012

Flower-filled meadows with dainty streams...

I have finished the little quilt I started at this retreat.
I won the fabrics in a give-away that I blogged about here.


It's nice to make something to keep.

To make the blocks I stacked the six pieces of fabric.
I then made five cuts through the layers at various slight angles.
This gave me six stacks of six fabrics.
I carefully shuffled the fabrics.
Stack one was left alone.
Stack two had the top piece moved to the bottom.
Stack three had the top two pieces moved to the bottom.
Stack four had the top three pieces moved to the bottom.
Stack five had the top four pieces moved to the bottom.
Stack six had the top five pieces moved to the bottom.
The blocks were then re-sewn and carefully pressed.
I took my stack of six new blocks and turned it 90 degrees.
I then re-did the steps above.
After they were sewn and carefully pressed,
the blocks were trimmed to the largest block possible.
I played with the layout until I was happy.
Added the white border and found the striped binding in my stash.
I used wavy quilting using my walking foot.

This quilt makes me think of soft green meadows full of flowers
with dainty streams flowing through.
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Saturday, December 8, 2012

It must be nearly Christmas because...

I have received my first Christmas present!! I joined Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap (SSCS) and the lovely Karol-Ann from sewkalico has sent me these presents!!

 Look at these gorgeous hand-made birds - complete with their own keeping-safe pouch (wish I'd thought of that.)

Today is the day I put the tree up. 
Can you guess which ornaments will go on first?

Thank you Karol-Ann!!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Is it December already?

I know I've been pretty quiet on the old blog lately. Too much of saying yes to things. So other than over-committing my time and thus needing to be committed, life is pretty good. Although we did discover a leaking water pipe this afternoon. Fortunately it's on the water corp's side of the metre. But they will still dig a really big hole to fix it. I'm currently procrastinating paperwork duties, but I feel I do owe my lovely quilting friends a word or two.

In quilty news, I did finish my secret Christmas sewing and it is winging it's way across the sea (and I'm not divulging which one). My spell check doesn't like the word quilty - honestly - we all know it's a real word! Right click, add to dictionary - much better. So a rambling post needs a photo or two. Will have to browse my albums to see what's happening.

These are kangaroo paws on a lovely rooftop garden in the city of Perth.

 This is the new Perth Arena. It's a concert/sport venue - very cool inside too.

We had the opportunity to traipse (great Scrabble work BTW) through some old City buildings last month. This old tiled floor caught my eye. Don't know if it will be saved or not. Hopefully.

This cornice is amazing. It is in the process of being restored.

What can I say? It's an old stairwell. I loved it.

And of course we've had a bit of this lately. Wind and rain last week. Hot this week.

So I'm off to do something so I won't keep getting emails from my fellow guild volunteers wondering where my data is. They're all lovely and we all work hard - running a state guild is not easy. I can only hope the members appreciate that we are volunteers and fit these responsibilities in around the day job, the family and other commitments. And we do actually like to sew sometimes.

I'll just pop back to my photos and see if I can actually find one that's quilting related. Back in a tick...
Are you still here? Wow, I was totally lost in there. Anyway - not really quilty but very cool.
Buttons sewn on to a straw hat and worn by the cutest 7 year old young miss.

My next HST colour is yellow/gold/orange/brown. I'm off to shop my stash. Although there may have been a little retail therapy today when I had to go to this particular shop where I had to pick up something for Mr Fixit. It's my civic duty to support my LQS - right?

I know it's incredible, but I do not yet have my tree up. How can that be? And it's December and everything.  All is not right if the tree is not up. But it soon will be on the weekend.

Is that the time!!! Gotta Go! Take care until next time.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Charity Blocks

Michelle at Quilting Gallery is hosting a drive to collect blocks to make quilts for people affected by Hurricane Sandy. I blogged about this a few weeks ago. You can read more about it here.

These are my two blocks, plus my signature block.
 
 


In other news, way behind on my secret Christmas sewing, but will get caught up and out the door in the next few days. I'm also now the membership secretary for my state guild. Whew! If I knew the job was this big, I would have thought twice. Still, it's an administrative challenge instead of a sewing challenge, but so far it's taking too much time. The big push for renewals has eased off so will get back in to the bat cave and allocate time for each task, without either taking over. And of course, the family expect some time. Honestly, what can one do?
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Sunday, November 18, 2012

Green HST

Here are the green HST I received in the swap.
There certainly is quite a variety!
I also enjoyed the company of my friends.
Life is busy, but good.
 
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Sunday, November 11, 2012

Michelle at the Quilting Gallery is hosting a block and/or quilt drive for people affected by Hurricane Sandy.


Although there's not much I can do to help from Australia, I can contribute a quilt block or two. The blocks will be wonky log cabin and posting them to the US won't break the budget. 
Here is a sample of the requested block. 
A tutorial is supplied.


Here is how the blocks will be made up.


It's such a modest contribution - but combined with others it can become like a river of love to people who need it right now. It's more than a blanket for warmth - it lets them know the world out there really cares about them and what happens to them.


Thursday, November 8, 2012

Rainbow HST Swap

These are the reds I received in the swap.
There are some really sweet prints in there and will look great mixed in with mine.

These are the green blocks I've prepared for the swap next week.
I'm not sure if we are swapping next month, or what colour.
 
These sweet charity teddies were knitted by the
85 y.o. mum of a dear friend.
 
Look at these adorable faces!
They will go to the Royal Flying Doctor Service as comfort teddies.
 
A photo from my mother-in-law's garden.
Summer is definitely around the corner!

Secret Christmas Sewing is still going on.
Maybe a sneak peak next week.
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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween


Alas, no candy corn in Oz.
Eat some for me.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Blogger's Quilt Festival


Instead of typing the minutes from a recent meeting, I've been enjoying Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival. At the time of writing this, there are over 400 entries. I'm sure you will find plenty to look at and enjoy. Grab a cuppa and head on over before it's too late.



Sunday, October 21, 2012

RED HST

I'm meeting with the girls on Tuesday to swap 30 of these lovelies.
It will be interesting to see the fabrics that the other girls have used.

We've had lovely weather this weekend.
I'm finally warming up.
Still need a sweater in the evenings - and blankets at night.
Secret Christmas sewing is progressing nicely.
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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Stitchery Workshop

I took a day off work last week to attend a stitchery workshop
with the lovely Helen Stubbings of Hugs'n Kisses.

We had a large, airy room to work in.
The bottom right picture shows our project.
This is the class sample.
I will eventually show you what I got up to.
Helen is a good teacher.
I may just learn to stitch yet.
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Saturday, October 6, 2012

What is a Quilt?


My guild is proposing a new exhibition category called Abstract Art Quilts. They are going to be allowing entries with only two layers in this category only. I'm curious as to how other people/guilds view 'two-layer' quilts.

In my time on the exhibition committee the emphasis was always on the traditional definition. Under the Conditions of Entry published in the handbook, No.5 states "A quilt is defined as three layers of material held together by stitching at regular intervals, or by being tied at regular intervals." Is it proper to change that definition for one special-interest category? Can two-layer and three-layer items be properly judged next to each other? Can quilters entering in other categories make the case that they should be allowed two-layered items? Can a traditional quilt compete with an abstract art quilt for 'Best of Show'? Should they be in competition?

My Grandmother made this queen size quilt.
1quilt
 noun \ˈkwilt\
Definition of QUILT
1
a : a bed coverlet of two layers of cloth filled with padding (as down or batting) held in place by ties or stitched designs
b : patchwork quilt 1
2
: something that is quilted or resembles a quilt quilt
 of houses and parks>
Origin of QUILT
Middle English quilte mattress, quilt, from Anglo-Frenchcoilte, from Latin culcita mattress
First Known Use: 14th century



My Great Grandmother made this double bed quilt.
2quilt
 verb
Definition of QUILT
transitive verb
1
a : to fill, pad, or line like a quilt
(1) : to stitch, sew, or cover with lines or patterns like those used in quilts (2) : to stitch (designs) through layers of cloth
c : to fasten between two pieces of material
2
: to stitch or sew in layers with padding in between
intransitive verb
1
: to make quilts
2
: to do quilted work
 quilt·er noun
First Known Use of QUILT
1555

Quilting has been moving in exciting directions in recent years. We have seen the rise of new quilting styles like the Modern Quilt movement. Quilts are being recognised as great works of art and being sold for sums of money reflecting their true worth. There are new embellishing techniques and media other than textiles being used (i.e. pencils and paint). This is a great era to be a quilter. There are no bounds to what can be done.
Small quilt I made.
But at what point does a quilt stop being a quilt and become textile art? How does a guild dedicated to promoting the "quilt" deal with members who fit more properly in to the textile art category? Do they simply change the definition of quilt to pander? Or do you think they change the definition of quilt because how we quilt is truly evolving? There are certainly many historical examples of two-layer patchwork 'coverlets' that were viewed as quilts in their day. In our warm Australian climate does every quilt need to have wadding?

8" Art (?) Quilt made by me.
Purists will always have difficulties with change. But are we "throwing the baby out with the bathwater?" (i.e. too quick to discard something valuable.)

These are all interesting ideas and questions. I would love to have some feedback with your opinions.

From Wikipedia - Making Quilt Art:

A quilted work of art is generally defined as two layers of cloth held together by stitching. In most cases, a middle batting layer made of polyester, cotton, wool or silk is also incorporated.
Although quilt art originated in traditional quilting techniques, quilt artists now may use many different processes to create their artwork, including paintingdyeing, stamping, piecing, collage, printing (often incorporating a photograph printed onto fabric), appliqué, and other complex cloth processes.
Addendum: I had tea with a lovely non-quilting friend last night and briefly explained the issues. She stated that it would water down the essence of what a quilt is. What do you think?

Perth Royal Show 2012

We had a lovely day at the Show with great weather and no rushing about.
The first order of business was to see who got what in the cooking section.
This year my dear mother-in-law came first while my brother-in-law came second.
The other photo is an example of the other entries.

We checked out the quilts.
 
And the other amazing creations in the cakes/biscuits. 
 
Scarecrows were a theme this year so here are a few those items.
 
And then the amazing embroidery on this box.
The photo does not do it justice.

Hope you've been able to do something interesting!
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