Saturday, 26 November 2011

A long time between posts


It has been a while since my last post.  So many things have been going on that I have found it hard to stop and write it down.  My Mum went into hospital for a routine back op and has spent the last month still in there as things have gone wrong, it has been very scary for us and for her.  She is alot better now, even though she is still in hospital and fingers crossed she will be home by Friday.

So on to my projects....  Here is some pictures of my Around the World quilt up on the design wall in class.
All thats left to do now is the outer dog tooth border, I am 3/4 way through that and hope to have it all together for class on Thursday.  I have bought the wadding and the fabric for my backing, I am going to get my lovely friend Carolynne to quilt this beauty for me.  Here is a picture of Michelle Marvig's orginal design showing her quilting, there is a bit of trupunto (is that how you spell it??) on it.  I am not sure exactly how I am going to have it quilted yet .....we'll see.
Alas the Tail feathers quilt hasn't had any more quilting done by me yet, but definately soon I promise.

Another project under construction is my Vignette Mystery quilt.  I am using the Monica Solorio-Snow "Happy Mochi Yum Yum" fabric.  It's a 16 block quilt designed by Leanne from Leanne's House, the patterns are released through her Vignette Magazines.  I have only just started so although the magazine is up to Issue 4 and eight block patterns, I have only sewn together Block 1 and am still completing the embroidery.  Here are a few pictures.
Here is block 1 traced out and started to be completed.
A close up of my embroidery.
I have just removed the hoop(which you can see, to take this one to show my progress now.
In the quilt there are 60 shoo-fly blocks.  I can report that these have been all sewn together.  I hope to have the next two blocks together by the end of the week also. 

All going well that is ... fingers crossed.

Happy Sewing

Caroline

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

A bit more show and tell

Ok so I have taken a few more shots of the tail feathers quilt and once I saw it lying there on the bed all sad and unfinished I felt sad. :-(  (Note to self - find time to do a bit of quilting)(Note from self - Yeah right... time there is not enough minutes in the day)

So here is a couple of full shots - Well as much as I can get in whilst cramped inside at 10 o'clock at night.

I have completed all the ditch quilting, I've done a lovely zig zag across the 1 inch block strips, and half completed some curves on the log cabin blocks.  Here are some close ups.

I'm only a real beginner with the quilting so at the moment I haven't ventured past stitching straight and curved lines with my open toe walking foot.  I need to do a class to do some free motion quilting because I do need to outline the features in the stitcheries and add a bit of texture I think.

So as I said on my last post I do a class on a Thursday afternoon with Michelle Marvig, and once I had begun quilting my Tail feathers I started on my next project "World Traveller"one of Michelle's patterns.  I decided to do this as a wall hanging for my lounge room and chose to do it in chocolates and aqua.  I have just about completed the quilt top, I only have to do the foundation piecing of the dog tooth border.  Here are some shots.

This is one quarther of the quilt and the last dog tooth border with face in towards the other. I couldn't open it right out as there wasn't enough space. I will use the design wall in class tomorrow to try to get a full shot.

There are two different backgrounds : a tiny spot (above) and a bigger spot (below)


In the centre of the dresden I still have applique an aqua circle and then the brown medalion on top of that the same as between the points.   I learned a lot of new techniques.  I love foundation piecing, the preciseness is lovely.

Anyway that's enough for now... gotta get ready for class tomorrow.  I have also just posted on the Vignette in Stitches Blog ...... because yes I have yet another project on the go.... LOL.

Have fun

Caz

Saturday, 8 October 2011

In the Beginning

Wow where to start..

I have always loved to sew, any type of sewing.  Dressmaking, embroidery, tapestry, cross stitch... dabbled in a little business making bridesmaid dresses for a while. I love to try any type of creative activity out there - Scrapbooking, Cardmaking, this list could go on and on.   But I could never really settle on one thing til.....

January this year there were terrible floods in QLD and whilst surfing the net reading blog after blog then looking at this link.... going to that link.  I stumbled accross a blog belonging to Natalie Lymer of  Cinderberry Stitches . I was in love with her designs and whats that......patchwork & stitching together mmmmmm I want to do that !!

The quilting online community had started a QLD flood relief auctions, where by bloggers would donate things which would be auctioned to the highest bidder and that bidder would donate the winning amount to the QLD flood relief.  

So this was for me and I bid and bid until it was mine... A full set of fabric and patterns for Natalie's Tail Feather's quilt design.  Wow what a beaut package that was when it arrived.

Now what do I do??? OK so I looked at the instructions and started on my way... Ummm excuse me I need help... So I set out about finding a class or someone to help me make this beautiful quilt.  I stumbled into a shop called "The Patchwork Heart" and into the wonderful hands of Michelle Marvig. 

The adventure continued every Thursday for 3 hours and after a few months I finally had the whole lot of the lovely stitcheries done and all the blocks sewn together... Here are a few piccys of the progress..



The quilt is all together and I have started to quilt in on my domestic machine it's coming along nicely... even though it is now OCTOBER and it is not fully completed. So yes my first project is I must admit officially a U F O !!

Please people this craft should come with a warning !  You can't stop at one quilt, You can't stop with a few pieces of fabric.  Every bit of yummy pattern, fabric, magazine, goodness, toy, or new fandangled tool must be bought !!!! AHHH I need it all.

Well by the end of sewing the tail feathers quilt I had enough fabric and patterns to last me OOOHHH I don't know 2 years.

So began the journey...  stay tuned for the next installment

XX Caz