Happy Quilter's Day

Happy International Quilter's Day everyone!
Time to celebrate quilting with your quilting friends, fondle fabric, play with your sewing machine or thimble, and celebrate the making of quilts and those clever enough to construct them.

 Detail of a reproduction sterling silver thimble from my collection. Although it fits, this one is a bit thin for use, but is pretty.  The person who sold it to me thought it was a Dutch reproduction design.  On the other side is a windmill.

I have been out with Canberra Quilter's at a fabric feeding frenzy that benefits the community through the sale of excess fabric. With so much donated lately,  there is not space to store it, so older fabric was weeded out and sold in  bundles.  The money is used to buy more needed batting and blender fabric to allow the varied donation fabrics to be used attractively for quilts for others.  Earlier in the week, I bought a couple of bundles  and a couple more today.  A great way to fill gaps in the stash and at little cost.  5 tables worth of bundled fabric was stripped out and bought within the first 10 minutes of the sale opening.  By the time I got there ten minutes into the sale day most of it was gone!!  Luckily I had found a couple of great packs earlier in the week that yielded these goodies, each in a zip lock baggie.



 If some are not to my taste (there are some of those!)  they can be painted or printed over, or sliced up into small pieces and be useful. Even to line tote bags with.  It is all in a good cause, lol!!

After the sale the Canberra contingent of SCQuilters met for a shared lunch and quilting time, so I stayed for a while and met some members of that group.
Today's find of mixed pinks small bundles have already been party way sliced up to make an Aussie Hero quilt at the President's suggestion.  There is a distribution point to get the quilts over to those servicemen and women posted to Afghanistan. Australia Post pays for the shipping, and all you need to do is make a quilt, send it to Sydney to the collection point, and pay for the cost of the satchel. Too easy, and what a great cause.  Nights are cold there as well as the quilt is a reminder that Australians care about those who serve overseas.  I am making it using a simple brick and will fiddle with the layout later on.   There are loads of ways to play with bricks and make interesting tiled designs. The quilts aren't needed till much later in the year for Christmas so I have plenty of time to squeeze making the quilt in around other commitments.

Now its time to get to the machine and work further on the machine quilting of an exhibition quilt underway.  Here's what the studio looks like now.  Room for a handful of machines, embroidery unit, overlocker and coverstitch.  All I need do is roll my chair to where I want to sit and plug in the machine.  If I want to cut or baste, I roll the cutting table to one side of the room or fold down the flap on one of the cabinets to make room for the cutting mat in the centre between the cabinets.  Its a tight but workable space with a little shuffling around.

How are you celebrating the day?

Happy Quilting!
Stephanie

Road Trip

I'm back from a fun day out at Goulburn for a country quilt show!   I love these small shows held in unusual buildings.  The show featured Beth Miller and Wendy Keegan's work with extra work on dispaly as well, in historic Mandelsons.  It is a wonderful B and B in Goulburn dating to the 1800's and is full of antiques, wonderful wallpapers, beautifully proportioned rooms with lovely fat doowways and high ceilings.
 
 Goulburn was the first inland city and has a population of 24, 000 according to a street sign we saw. The show featured a mix of quilt styles, both art quilts and more traditional quilts to see, including elephants and emu quilts that were a big hit with my children.  The emu especially appealed, as our children  were convinced had eyes that were following them around the room!
On the landing and in one downstairs room, there were displayed on dressforms the most stunning gowns from the mid 1800's.  Excerpts from  1859 from newspapers were on display that displayed the language of the day regarding social events and the sale of the property back then.  Interesting reading...
The gowns were stunning with a lot of bead work, some sequins, pleating, pin tucking, folded 3D textured trims on hemlines, beautiful fabrics, and all were tiny in size and stature. Women were made a whole lot smaller in the mid 1800's!!  Not much taller than my own children.  After viewing the quilts you could have a very civilised afternoon tea with silver serving platters could be had with a choice of yummy cakes and fresh brewed tea.  All good!

And in one room were a small number of traders with their wares, Claire's wonderful and well priced Batiks that she imports direct from Bali, Indonesia and personally chooses on trips over there.

 There was a great store at nearby Bungendore run by Sheryl Ann and her daughter.  Beth and her daughter who were featured quilters at the exhibit were selling patterns for their various quilts.  And Julie from Julie's Superior Threads was there with thread that looked like eye candy.  There were some wonderful fabric bargains to be had, Batiks at $15 a metre and end bolts and a deal on buying FQ to be had from Sherilyn Ann.

 
 Those rolls are 1 metre each at $12 each.  Nice!  So I  bought a few basics that are useful being neutrals or colours that can work in a Christmas quilt or make good starts to a pieced quilt backing.

We decided to have lunch at the award winning Trapper's Bakery near the Big Merino.  The ram is very big as you can see compared to buildings next to it.  The buildings are full sized.

 The ram is simply big, and as you can see, anatomically correct!

Lunch was delicious with a choice of bakery fare.   Acquired after lining up in long lines of people.  Its a popular spot with locals clearly.   We did indulge in a little desert as well, I had a dense coconut caramel tart with berry topping and melt in the mouth buttery pastry.  Small, and delicious!  I highly recommend their pies and tarts, and the salad sandwiches looked lovely too.

Whilst eating lunch,  I received a panicked phone call from Sheryl Ann's daughter. She was calling all the customers she could get  phone numbers to through the quilter's network,  desperately hoping that one of us would find her iphone in our shopping bags. Back at the car, and very luckily for her, we found it lurking with the fat quarters!  I am glad we did not find it when we got home, a bit more than an hour's drive away!  She thought she may have knocked it into my bag as she was packing it on her side of the counter as it had been sitting on a shelf nearby.  It was totally her lucky day.

The drive in and out from Canberra to Goulburn is pretty.  These photos were snapped as we drove along so may be a bit fuzzy here or there as well as having some reflections from the window.
 
There have been heavy rains and flooding a week to fortnight ago and Lake George showed just how full it had been with water pooled along the plains right up to the highway.

Other sections of the road showed on signage how high the water can get when that area floods- higher than the top of our SUV easily, and some.  So before we left we checked the latest information on the government weather site that shows flood and other alerts and is kept up to date. 

 

Beyond the edge of the plains are nice hill and further back, mountains.  Many of which are peppered with wind turbines for farming wind.  Click on the image to enlarge for a closer view.     We have seen quite a few here and there of these on the mainland.

On the return leg we saw a great old car with timber trim, beautifully restored. Of the Minor breed. There were a few grand old cars out on the road on what is one of the nicest days for weather we have had in a fortnight. Also in Canberra the trees are beginning to change colour now we are into Autumn.  Really pretty shades of green and yellows, aren' they?

 
Yesterday was nice, and we got busy in our garden. The heavy rains and wind had pulled our potato plant half out of the ground so just less than half of the potatoes were green and inedible.  But, we harvested a good feed and half, scoffing them for dinner last night and tonight.  We roasted them up with chicken thighs, chorizo and beef sausages with spanish onion, rosemary and olive oil  A tweaked version of a Nigella Lawson recipe.  They were sweet, creamy and delicious potatoes.

 
Soon. once our pumpkins die back. we should be able to cut and store our pumpkins.  On advice from my Mum I am resisting cutting them now.

 We have 5 huge pumpkins to enjoy from two plants. One plant with one pumpkin, the other four ones are on the super sized pumpkin that has grown out of all proportion.   Many more formed on the runners but not all have progressed to a good pumpkin, some rotted in all the rain and some were eaten by hungry birds! We're looking forward to Pumpkin Fest, whatever variety of pumpkin these turn out to be. 

In the sewing room I have been busy sorting out toward the end of this week and am ready to finish machine quilting a piece for show in Tasmania.  I have had help moving furniture around to set up for quilting and think once I position enough lamps over my work surface it should work well.   It is an older quilt in a style I would not probably make now, all hand appliqued, very traditional but lovely. It will be great to have finally finished it, but there is plenty left  to do.  I have wound a pile of bobbins, cleaned out my machine and am ready to continue working on it tomorrow.  We may visit the National Zoo as well, as it is Canberra Day- a public holiday here.  Lucky for us!

Happy Quilting,
Stephanie

Feeling tropical?

I've been far from idle with little time to blog, with a variety of work and "stuff" going on behind the scenes.  With pouring rain making me feel less bad about being chained to my ergo chair.
 
Something I can share is a recreating of my own design, Tropical Lilies II in a new colourway as an additional sample and to show how different colours change the mood of the quilt.  I  like these hot and spicy colours contrasting with the cooler plums  together!
 
I have a bit more shading to do on the stamens then quilting and a facing or binding job.  These photos do not show all the applique that has been stitched.


I also delivered two quilts recently to the Canberra Quilters to donate to their Quilts for Others program.

 
 These are both old, old tops. As in  more than 10 years old easily, if not 14 or more years old.  It was fun to see the old fabrics though, some of which were the first I bought over 16 years ago for my quilting stash.   What a blast from the past!  See, even back then I liked the lily flower.  Those are needle turned with hand embroidered stamen.  My drawing has improved dramatically since then as well as my sense of colour, lol!!!
 
  The one with the purple border has a lot of fabric I was given as well, in there, in a time when I was just out of Uni and had little funds for fabric acquisitions. Friends gave me bits and pieces to help the quilt along, as quilters so often do. It seems right that it can now go out and help someone else. I am very happy to see them go and cannot for the life of me think why they were in the house so long.  I put it down to forgetting about them!

Have entered three quilts into the Tas Quilt Guild show.  Two are finished but one has a LOT of quilting remaining to do.   I have to factor in shipping time as I can no longer pop around the corner to the local depot for a last minute drop off!  Good thing I can quilt well at speed!

 
And writing...  consuming  most of my time this and last week.  Researching and writing.  Three interesting large articles nearly finished.  Within a week or so the letters on the almost new keyboard were worn off.  Lots of writing yes, but cheap keyboard supplied by some computer company or other that built our desktop to order.  I prefer my old keyboard, its more comfortable. Some letters on it are entirely missing!!

I've also been invited a while back to be a guest blogger on a popular  international quilting blog, to contribute a tutorial.  Won't say more now but it will be in the next couple of months and I will key you in with a link at the appropriate juncture in time,  so you can check it out.  It will be fun, and educational.   Just wait!!  

Taking a break, I  tripped across this amazing link, to a baby polar bear live in Denmark that is being filmed and uploaded, with  recorded antics for the times when the camera is not uploading live images.  Isn't he totally adorable?  His name is Siku which means Sea Ice.
Siku Cam
Somehow all that white fluff and playful rolling around reminds me quite a lot of Bella my white British Shorthair.  I love the way he lollops along on those baby furry legs.  VERY cute.  Very distracting.

In other big news on the fun front, I have registered for the Australian Sewing Guild's  national convention down in Adelaide in September!  Its a fair hike across the country and back,  but I cannot wait, four days of classes and one day for a tour of either fabric shops of Adelaide or wine and chocolate tasting in the Scottish and German quarters of Adelaide.  I'm living in at the boarding school (never thought I'd be back at boarding school again!)  but others can go as day attendants and do only  as many days of classes as you like.
And what will I learn?  I've been confirmed for both my first choice of classes with Martyn Smith who writes excellent articles for Stitches magazine, has run a couture label, worked with at least two commercial pattern companies,  lectured in fashion and knows his stuff well.  His classes are  learning to adjust and fit a tailored jacket pattern, with pattern and toiles,  and then the last two days is a Jacket Tailoring Masterclass where we make a half jacket sample with nifty methods of construction.
I think this will be a great stretch for ky brain and is certainly a different sort of sewing that will rapidly build some new skills.  And why did I enrol in these classes?   Well,  apart from being able to make a great looking and fitting jacket,  I want to make a lined, interlined, and nice warm winter coat for next winter so by the time I have learnt to make a jacket I will have the skills I need to attempt a coat.
There were a lot of really interesting class options and so the choice was not an easy one.

Last weekend my neighbourhood ASG group had a workshop on overlockers.  I had lots of fun learning new tricks, and playing with thick decorative yarns in the looper of my overlocker making imitation pintucks.  Really fun! And learning to tame sewing lining together with my overlocker, which sometimes has not gone well depending on the lining's temperament.  We had a guest visitor, a young girl who won the first prize in the Canberra Show in dressmaking. She had made the most beautiful satin blouse!  Another lady came with bundles of ex custom dressmaking business fabric and bags upon bags of buttons.  Oh la la!  I wish I had remembered she was coming, I would have had taken along more cash!

 I did pick up a 1m length of beautiful cool wool and some nice buttons.  The  pistachio green is the wool.  Next to it is a remnant of a stretch knit evening fabric I picked up elsewhere as a $9 remnant piece.  Easily enough for an evening top!

I may not have had much actual sewing time but that does not mean I have not had fabric fun!
I bought 2m of the most stunning crushed silk for the ASG desert colours challenge, with the best of intent.
 
 And a lovely piece of viscose lycra knit in the multi coloured print for a Kwik Sew top I have and like that is road tested. 
 
Aaaah,  for some personal time to get into these fun projects! And to sew up a Vogue knit top toile that the pattern is cut out for but I have not got further with yet to cut the fabric.  I will probably do it after my writing is in for the next bit as a break from quilting sessions.

Sok life is busy, but it is also good!  I hope you are getting time to stick a needle into fabric and sew. even if I am not as much as I would like.

Happy stitching!
Stephanie

Holidays!

Last weekend we had a short family holiday  to Melbourne to see all hubby's brothers and sisters, their children, and his parents.  Lots of al fresco dining, a special dinner out alone with DH, and time to enjoy the Melbourne Aquarium with a little cousin and DH's parents.

The penguins are King Penguins with the bright yellow accents,
 
and Gentoo- shedding some feathers.

 
Both were incredibly curious and happy to come right up to the glass and stare at the people staring in at them.
 
 And they are extemely fast in the water, making catching them in the act very difficult!  Some were having fun jumping out of the water at the top and then sliding down a icy slippery side at great speed!  At the end of the day we noticed they did one of two things: Either stood still with their neck tucked over to one side, or flat out on their tummies, asleep.

There were beautiful silver fish that looked like they were made of liquid silver with graceful fins that streamed out behind.
 



Wonderful rays with a variety of patterns as well as solids.
 
 
A fantastic octopus that writhed and squirmed displaying its curvaceous form, nearby to tanks of various jelly fish...all beautifully lit so that you could take a decent snap without flash.


 

 
And some wonderful long necked turtles at different stages of maturity,
 
 and a Sea Turtle swimming with the sharks, rays and multitudes of other fish,


There are also  reptiles, amphibians and crustaceans and more to see, so if you go there allow several hours.
 
 And the very clever poison dart frog, deadly only when they get a particular insect that they metabolise and generate toxins from eating, otherwise harmless and very pretty!

There were many more to see and enjoy, but the penguins were totally absorbing.  I think I could easily watch them all day and not be bored.

Had a great time today at a class (as in being a student) learning to use the embroidery module for my Aurora 440.  It just arrived last week but I couldn't start with it until my embroidery machine was updated to work with it.
 
We learned not only about threads and stabilisers, and needles, but also how to use the Art  Design or Art Link software and to use EC to PC to drive the sewing machine, whilst in embroidery mode. I have Art Design V1 which lets me use any of the windows based fonts to create text or symbols and has some other features the free Art Link does not include.
 I stitched out this lovely design that is included in Art Design V1 and combined it with some letters learning to change the height, width, and angle it stitches out, and combine with embroidery designs. It was surprisingly easy to do and I am hugely impressed by the stitch quality.  The bottom thread is from Outback and the top thread is Sulky viscose 40 weight embroidery thread.
 
Back View.  Using a fusible stabiliser on homespun.
 
Since I already own the 440 all I needed to add on was the little software pack and the module.
I had to have my 440 updated to talk to the module which was just a matter of dropping it off with my mechanic for a short time.
I can see the process of re-labelling my quilts after the move will be much more fun than it would otherwise have been, and far  faster.
There are at least 40 designs included in the software.  And I can reformat the software designs I already own to sew out, and rescale easily by clicking and dragging within the program.  It recalculates stitches to maintain the correct density as that occurs.  So easy!!  There is quite a bit of control possible with a relatively inexpensive bit of software, and short of digitising, it does everything I could ever need.  Class was really good fun!


I've also had a day off this week and worked on a donation quilt from the dark ages (i.e. the bottom drawer where I store incompleted projects I have moved on from, or lost interest in the style of.  I added the various width strips top and bottom, and two borders to bring the quilt top interior up to a size that Canberra Quilter's Quilts for Others like.  Chaucer is sitting on it!
It will get machine quilted sooner than later with a simple pattern I will quilt quickly before binding and sending it on its way.  There is another top I will donate which may simply be put in the pile for someone else to quilt, there are armies of workers who donate time and skills to this project, so whilst I do not have time to do this regularly,  it is nice to contribute and to empty out a drawer at the same time, putting the quilt top to better use than languishing unloved in a drawer!
Chaucer has discovered he enjoys sitting on my work as I stitch, or the moment I hop up to make tea,  keeping a watchful eye on progress.

On our return trip home we were welcomed by a rampant garden.  Potato on the right, pumkin just about everywhere else!
 
 These photos of the pumpkin (its only one plant!!) shwo how it has grown out of, and down from the raised garden bed, across the side yard, and now rounded the corner of the house!  Where will it all end?  Pumpkin soup, scones, and roast pumpkin, if I have my way with it!

  It funny how it has sent out great long tentacles covered in leaves, most beginning to bear pumpkins of various sizes.  The large ones were only small about a fortnight ago.A smaller one is in the front garden as well.  I am entertained by the enthusiasm and size of the pumpkin.

This week its all about machine applique for me, and some freemotion machine quilting as well.
Happy Stitching!
Stephanie.