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Tuesday 31 January 2012

Waverley Patchworkers Raffle Quilt




The Waverley Patchworkers Raffle Quilt is quilted, bound and ready for our quilt show.  The quilt is named A William Morris Garden and was made by members of Waverley Patchworkers and quilted by Desley Maisano of Addicted to Quilts.





We were very lucky that Desley agreed to quilt this for us because she is much in demand and very busy. You can see why when you look at her wonderful quilting.





We used a pattern by MicheleHill who generously gave us permission to make the quilt for our raffle. The pattern is not available for sale at the moment, so we are very lucky. Michele specialises in William Morris designs.




The Waverley Patchworkers Quilt Show will be held at the Mount Waverley Community Centre in Mount Waverley, Victoria on 26th and 27th May 2012.

Tickets for the raffle quilt will be sold for $2 each.

I am sure that we will sell plenty of tickets for this beautiful quilt.

Bye for now,
Linda

Wednesday 25 January 2012

CQJP 2012 January Block


The Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012 (CQJP) is up and running.



The rules were that you had to register before December 2011. You must make a block every month during 2012 that must measure at least 6". You are supposed to try and improve your skills by trying something new as well.



I have chosen a theme of Christmas and my colour scheme will be red, green and blue.



I have decided to use mainly silk fabrics because of their shine that lends itself to the Christmas theme. To stretch myself I am going to try a stitch that I don’t regularly use and I will have to look up my Crazy Quilt books to check on how to do them.



Here is my January block.








The blocks in my quilt are going to be three different sizes. This first one is a 6" block. As you can see I put three candles in the middle and embroidered the seams with cotton and silk embroidery threads. I embroidered the candles using stem stitch.



This is what the block looked like before I had added the embroidery. I drew up the pattern on some calico and then foundation pieced it.






It looks so plain doesn’t it?


The floral fabric in the top and just under the centre is a new fabric that I had purchased at the Quilt Convention last year. To my horror it started to shred just like the silk on those antique Crazy Quilts.

I had to remove it and I lined it with a product called Dream Weave Fusible by Floriani. This product is made to protect delicate fabrics from shredding and distortion. It doesn’t change the hand of the fabric and is supposed to be good for lining silk before applique. I haven’t tried it for that yet though.



It seems to be working well and I have had no more shredding.



The stitch that I used to stretch myself was the Half Chevron.






One block down, eleven to go!



Bye for now,
Linda

Monday 16 January 2012

Thank You Present

I was lucky enough to win the Victorian Quilters Showcase, Best of Show 2010 with my quilt Eastern Elements. The award is sponsored by Bernina and my quilt along with the Best of Show from the other Australian states was touring around to all the state shows including New Zealand and the Northern Territory most of last year.


I was so glad when it finally arrived home safe and sound. It is my favourite quilt and it was good to see it again.
Bernina sent me a thank you present of a beautiful blank sketch book and a jar of lollies. The little lollies have I love Bernina written on the sides of them. The sketch book will be handy for using this year keeping in mind that my word for the year is Design.


Bye for now,
Linda

Saturday 14 January 2012

Christmas Present


Can you see what I got for Christmas? It's an Accuquilt Go cutting machine. I admit that it's a bit of a luxury item and I wasn't sure that I wanted one at first. They had a big stand at Houston when I was there in 2010 and the show price was so good that I was tempted to buy one but I had already bought too much and I knew my luggage would be too heavy.

I have bought a few of the cutting dies that I think I might use. Mostly the applique dies because I don't do many pieced quilts at the moment.

On New Years Eve when everyone was out partying, I was at home sewing. I had to cut 16 circles for some flower centres.

I opened my accuquilt box and found a half inch circle template. I was going to sew a blanket stitch around the edge of the circle so I fused some fusible web to the back of some yellow fabric and bravely tried out the cutter.

I think that it took 30 seconds and I had 16 perfectly formed circles.


I couldn't believe how easy it was. It would have usually taken me at least a couple of hours tracing the circles and then carefully cutting them out. Not to mention the ones I couldn't use because I had missed the curve as I cut.

If the price eventually goes down on the dies, I can imagine it taking over from the rotary cutter.

Bye for now,
Linda

Thursday 12 January 2012

Happy New Year

It's hard to believe that we are already into the second week of the New Year. I have enjoyed my Christmas- New year break and am ready to start afresh.

I haven't been away on holidays or anything but just having a relaxed time with no commitments is like having a holiday. I have managed to get a lot of sewing done, so that always puts a smile on my face.

I don't usually make a New Years Resolution but last year the Quiltart internet group that I belong to encouraged us to make a word to use for the year. Last year my word was Balance and that worked well for me. I didn't get upset if I missed a deadline and it helped  to keep things in perspective.

I have decided that this years word will be Design. I even made a Wordle with the word that I have printed out and will paste it in the front of my new sketch book.


My word is design but it could have easily been sketch. Like most people I am always lurching between deadlines and commitments and ideas for quilts are constantly entering my head and often leave just as quickly because I have too many other things to think about.
This year I am going to take the time to jot down the ideas for a quilt or stitching pattern in one of my design books. I have a few and will have them dotted about the house so they are easy to grab if I need them.
This idea also works well for the Waverley Art Quilters because we are going to have a sketch book component this year.

Bye for now,
Linda