Bloggy catch up!

The winner of my recent giveaway was Claire of Matching Pegs.

Rather than send her winnings to her in the post, we agreed to catch up in person for some coffee and fabric shopping.

It's so nice to make new bloggy friends.

Check out Claire's post to find out more about our catch up. (Thanks for the photo Claire!)

Andi :-)

Leonie, I love you!!

A while back, Leonie wrote a fabulous post about making a skirt ... without an over-locker!!! Oh joy!!!!!
(Note the link to the adjustments for adult sized skirts)

She called it "Simple wrap skirt from scraps".
Well, I have to say, Leonie, you weren't talking about patchwork scraps.
I needed some LARGE pieces (especially to fit over my large bum!)

But the end result is fabulous ... if I do say so myself ...

It has 2 front panel options, depending on how you tie it ...

And the other panel peeps out the side to add a bit of interest ...

Thanks Leonie. You rock!!!

Andi :-)

A little help please

My values quilt has moved from my design floor to being a pieced top ....hanging on my clothes line.

Inspired by this gorgeous quilt top, I have gone for an asymmetrical design.

My question to you guys is ..... should I keep adding to make it bigger?

It is currently 55 inches squared which makes for a smallish couch quilt or a perfectly sized wall hanging.
But I have plenty of HSTs left over to make it bigger for a more generous couch quilt or even a quilt for our bed.

What would you do? Would you keep adding? Would you keep the asymmetry?

Andi :-)

Thank you!

When we first met Ros, the swimming teacher, Jake refused to put his face anywhere near the water.
2 lessons later, she had him diving in happily.

She is a miracle worker with all kinds of kids who need that extra bit of help and support in the pool.
In a country like Australia, learning to swim is essential.
Ros helped Jake achieve this, while having fun and ending up a confident little person in the water.

Jake has now 'graduated' to the next stage (lessons in a big pool with a larger group of kids).
Thank you Ros for all you have done!!

A little token of our appreciation ...

A linen scarf with Little Folks voile on the ends.

Andi :-)

Flannelly softness

I love flannel for babies!
So soft and comforting.

The fabrics used are Valori Wells' Urban Flannels line which I purchased over a year ago and haven't had the perfect project to use it for ... until today.

This flannel cushion is for a new baby girl.
A commission from my in-laws!!

Thanks guys!!!


Andi :-)

Have you voted?

The Feeling Stitchy 'Rainbow of Stitches' competition has opened voting for the grand prize.

There is a stunning selection of finalists including this one from the lovely Cath of Chunky Chooky ...

Isn't it amazing?

Have fun voting!!

Andi :-)

Good Lord!!

I'm not a particularly religious person but I'm a big fan of culture, tradition and community.
I think these are wonderful elements to incorporate into one's family life and for us, that means bringing our children up within the Jewish community.

We went away on a weekend retreat with our local synagogue community last year and I (perhaps stupidly) volunteered to run a "quilting workshop".

Well, that turned into a massively popular workshop where participants (young and old) used various materials to make blocks to be incorporated into a Bimah cover (and made by me).

I gave the theme "nature" so as to give some direction to those who would struggle with a totally open slate.

Materials / techniques used included:

• Fabric markers
• Applique using fusible webbing (and in some cases ... basic craft glue)
• Machine piecing (some people learned to make pinwheels)

It was a challenge to bring more than 40 blocks together in some sort of harmonious way but I think I managed OK ...

The blocks became part of 4 panels hanging down from the table / Bimah with a plain fabric on the top so as not to distract from the reading of the Torah.

Here are some details of the many and varied blocks I had to work with:

When I said earlier that volunteering for this project may have been stupid, I don't think I really knew how much time and effort would go into putting it all together.

It has been such a challenge that it has sat untouched for months at a time in my WIP pile, as I have been too daunted to get stuck into it.

The final nudge came from a friend who's daughter is having her Bat-Mitzvah next week and asked if it could be ready for her ceremony. That was exactly the nudge I needed.

I think it will be well loved by the community.

Personally, I think it's wonderful but I'll be VERY glad to hand it over and not have to worry about it any more!!


Andi :-)

Beehive block for Amy

Amy asked for a mathematical themed block using pluses, minuses and equals signs.

I love the fabrics she chose. Beautifully offset by the Kona Ash.

Next month is my month.
Better start working on my fabrics!!!

Andi :-)

Slow craft

Last October, I posted about this quilt top being finished.

Well now it is all quilted, bound and ready to be snuggled under.

Eight months is a very long time for me to have a quilt in progress.
My usual motto is "A fast quilt is a good quilt". (For example ...)

But there is something very peaceful about having a slow project.
Taking your time to enjoy the process.

Having a warm quilt to throw over your knees and quilt at Perle 8's on cold nights.

Undoing and re-doing the bits that don't seem to work with the overall style of the quilt.

When I posted about this quilt that I hand quilted back in July last year, I was asked about my hand quilting technique and how I achieve such "perfect stitches".

Well, I am here to tell you that my stitches are far from perfection.

Unevenly spaced and rather wonky.

But I kind of love that aspect of it.
It's NOT perfect. It's rough and 'naive'.

For those of you looking for a good tutorial on hand quilting, a far greater crafter has beaten me to it.
Check out Anna Maria's tutorial here.

This quilt has a wide variety of fabric designers represented including:

• Kaffe Fassett
• Jennifer Paganelli
• Anna Maria Horner
• Amy Butler
• Lizzy House
• Prints Charming
• Sandi Henderson

 
The backing is a Michael Miller dot in my favourite colours: pink and red.

Thank you to Judy at Amitie for helping me find the perfect binding fabric.
It is from a range called 'Crazy for Dots & Stripes'.

Judy was my original quilting teacher who gave me a love for hand quilting.
I will always be thankful to her for that.

My husband is also thankful to Judy for slowing me down ("Are you trying to cover every inch of this house with fabric?") and saving us an awful lot of money on professional quilting services.

So how about you?
Do you craft slow or fast?
Or maybe a combination of the two, like me.

Andi :-)

The patchwork kitchen is finished!!!

It's been a loooong 2 months.
Most of it without use of a kitchen at all because we completely demolished the old kitchen as you can see here:

(Click to enlarge)

And here is what we ended up with:

A patchwork kitchen:

So VERY me!!!!!

All that's left to do is attach the new pin-board to the wall:

I'm a very happy person today!!!

Hope you are too.

Andi :-)