Crafty mummas, Denyse Schmidt, Textile Art Festival & Featherweight love

Much of my time is being taken up with a SECRET PROJECT (which means it's something for someone who reads my blog!!). On top of this, it's been a busy few weeks since my last post...

~~~ Only those who MAKE could understand how I felt last week when the crafty stuff I made for my Lily's school fiesta ended up in the trash & treasure stall rather than the craft stall. Waaaah! On a happier note, some mummas from school and beyond are starting a fortnightly craft circle. I bought these two gorgeousnesses from the craft stall, made by one of the mummas who I'll be crafting with - I can't wait to learn how to make these and hang out with other crafty mums.



~~~ Amongst my recent delicious purchases were these fabrics from the Denyse Schmidt Picnic and Fairground line, exclusively released in Joanns (US) and Spotlight (Aust). No idea what I'll make from them (at a lower-than-usual price they were a HAD TO HAVE purchase) but there are lots of amazing projects for inspiration here on the Flickr group.





~~~ The Textile Art Festival is on right now here in Brisbane. Yesterday I was lucky enough to take part in Be Be Bold's rose purse making workshop. This little pile of ingredients magically became...



...this - ta da!



If only it had been that easy! The sewing was fine (as a Janome-girl it was fun to play with a Husqvarna) but the gluing - sheesh! I'm sure it's something that gets easier with practice but I don't think I'll be making one again in a hurry.

There was so much beautiful yarn and fantastic knitted clothing designs at the show. My favourites were Dairing and Jenny King Designs. Unfortunately I'm just not a knitter, not without my Mum constantly at my side!

I managed to inflict a bit of pain on the credit card at the show:
* Couldn't resist picking up a copy of Sarah Fielke's new book Quilting from Little Things from the Down Under Textiles stand. I started reading it last night and am feeling really inspired already!
* Since I burned my finger on our halogen floor lamp while hand sewing in the lounge a few weeks ago, I've had my eye out for a day light lamp. I managed to get a great festival price on the one I wanted from Stitch N Stuff. They had the Ott-Lite 24w Floor Lamp for almost 30% off, with a magnifier.
* I couldn't resist a pack of charm squares of Sherbet Pips by Aneela Hoey from the Quilters and Embroiders Store stand.
* I also bought a much needed sewing case to store my needles and scissors (I stabbed myself in the leg through a bag the other week!). I should have made one but it's waaaaaay down my project list.



~~~ And finally, if you're still with me....on Friday I read this blog post by Katy from i'm a ginger monkey about her beloved Singer Featherweight she got from eBay. Mmmmmmm, so shiny, so black, so beautiful! A little thought stirred in my head - the last time I saw my mother-in-law she talked about how her mother bought her a machine Brisbane in 1955. I vaguely remembered her calling it a....Singer Featherweight!!! Could it be true? I called her and - yes! It was! She was sure it was somewhere in the house, but if we came round and found it, it was mine!

So, skip to today. Now, my husband's parents have lots of STUFF. My MIL and I balked at the wall of boxes in the area of the garage where she thought it was. But my husband dove in, moving stuff out of the way. Ten minutes later, right at the back, we hit gold!!! Black gold!!



My MIL thinks she barely used it at the time and the table it's set in hadn't been opened for 40 years. Which makes the dead daddy-long-leg spiders scattered throughout practically fossils. But isn't she a beauty?!



Note daddy-long-legs:





We couldn't find the attachments but she's going to look for them before we go back tomorrow to pick it up with our 4WD. I am one grateful daughter-in-law! Meanwhile I am going to go trawling restoration websites to find out how to make it as shiny as new and in good working order. Yippee!!

A bit of Cath Kidston gorgeousness

I recently sewed & gifted this cute little bag to a dear friend. The fabric (already cut out), button and little Cath Kidston label came with a copy of the book Sew!: Exclusive Cath Kidston Designs for Over 40 Simple Sewing Projects. Thank you to my friend M for the Avid voucher!





I just love everything by Cath Kidston - lucky for my credit card they don't have a store in Oz!

Some birthday love for Aunty Lib Lib

After my recent mammoth effort on this quilt and still looking for a distraction from the pain of shingles, it was nice to whip up a quick project for a very dear friend. Having met in our teens on a dance floor on London, Liberty and I have worked together in tv, lived together and shared life's ups and downs (thankfully mostly ups!). She is now married to a fabulous fella and studying midwifery in New Zealand. She is going to make an AMAZING midwife. An all round inspiring gal, Aunty Lib Lib is well and truly part of our family.

So it was great timing with her being in Oz to be able to show her a bit of love and make her something bewdiful for her birthday (albeit belatedly - anyone sensing a theme here?!). I used the Ruthie Clutch pattern by the talented Anna Maria Horner:



Fortune from Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks line from Brusselsprouts and some gifted purple fabric for the lining (thank you Sheryn & Bec!) matched perfectly with a vintage leather covered button from my stash.





Love ya Lib, happy birfday!

Rocket Nephew

Well thank goodness for the internet - for initial self-diagnosis and distraction. It turns out I have shingles, blech. I'm not even going to post a hyperlink for that, the images (and the reality) are just too gross.

The pain is awful but I am keeping myself distracted with ancestry.com (I'm obsessed!), reading quilt blogs and sewing my next project.

I am also excited to blog about my most recent quilt! I just LOVED making it, even though it took me much longer than I'd planned (there's just no way to hurry up hand quilting!). It is now warming it's new owner, my 8 year old nephew (who hopefully doesn't mind that it was a few weeks late!).

I used the Rocket Man pattern in the first Material Obsession book.

Starting with this pile of washed and ironed scraps from my stash, in warms and cools...



...and these navy fabrics from Sewco:



...I created lots of these units:



Hand basting for the first time, on the advice of Stacey from Peppermint Stiches I used a poly thread to sew large stitches across the whole quilt. Using the white lead on my new Sewline Trio pen I drew swirly patterns and designs on the navy blue areas.



I hand quilted in DMC white perle cotton size 12. I really, really enjoyed this part even though it took me WEEKS!



I also used some space embroidery designs from a gorgeous book Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection by Aimee Ray.




I did buy the Prints Charming rocket panel used in the book but ended up embroidering Lily's own rocket design onto a piece of white homespun:



Ta da! All finished!



Cousins getting in on the act!




Ready to post off! Twas the first quilt I've ever posted so I sent it Express Platinum!



To finish off, this was on the selvedge of one of the navy fabrics. Very apt! Am off to structure some more magic (and get better)!

Foray into hand quilting - Material Obsession's Avalon quilt

Realising I had only two weeks to whip up a present for Mia's best friend Saskia's 4th birthday, I decided to make her a simple quilt. I decided on a smaller version of the Avalon quilt from the wonderful book Material Obsession by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke.

Funnily enough, I think this will end up being the first in a series of three quilts I will have made from this book - as soon as I finish this post I'm starting one for my nephew's 9th birthday and then want to finish off another I started last year!



I decided on a palette of pinks, greens and purples, many of which I've used in other things I've made for their family...



Cream floral sashing to make the colours pop. I used it wrong side up to mute the pattern. Pinned and ready to go (you can see I am not a huge pinner!)...



With a week to go, I decided to have my first ever go at hand quilting. Thanks a million to my friend Sarah from Kit Bik Quilts for her invaluable advice! I used two different shades of the variegated 12 weight Sulky Blendable threads to go round each block and then in a cross or diamond shape over each one. I used a Clover Chaco Liner and my ruler to mark the quilt lines. Am not sure what I'd use for freehand quilt markings - advice welcome for next time! I didn't use a hoop. I started off using band aids instead of a thimble (thanks for the tip Sar!) but then found it easier to use this thimble which belonged to my grandmother - very special.

I love hand quilting! If I hadn't have had a deadline I would have kept on quilting and quilting!



This double gauze Japanese fabric is SO soft in quilt. Think I will have to make a whole quilt out of it!



Sass and her mama with the quilt...



Perfect showcase for Tula Pink's Parisville's gorgeous Topiary print...



This shot is very Kaffe, don't you think?!!



Hope the quilt gives much warmth and love to a very special girl! xx

Flea Market Fancy sewing machine cover by Bloom

Another week, another project!

This week I completed this wonderful sewing machine cover called "Beyond Measure" designed by Roslyn Mirrington of Bloom. It was featured in the 10th Birthday Celebration Edition of Australian Homespun magazine (No. 90, Vol 11.11). You can also now buy the pattern here from Roslyn's website.

Roslyn featured Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley, but I used Denyse's Flea Market Fancy fabrics. (I think I'll have to make a second for a special someone who gifted me some Hope Valley fabric! You know who you are!).



I really like it when I fall in love with a project, and that desire to make it compels me to master new techniques! I LOVED making this project, not only because I adore the design and the fabrics, or because I really needed a cover for my sewing machine - but because I learnt lots of new things. I enjoyed quilt as you go, loved doing the hand embroidery (using cotton that used to belong to my Grandmother, so special) and was thrilled to successfully make piping cord by using my zipper foot for the first time. Satisfaction and beauty!

Selvedge reading glasses case

I made this quick project one afternoon last week, for my dear friend from The Woolly Tree. She has recently started wearing glasses and is studying again. I wanted to give her a present to say good luck and congratulations!

I used the template from Betz White's caterpillar eyeglass case tutorial and foundation pieced the selvedge strips onto interfacing.



I padded it using bamboo batting and chose a happy yellow spot for the lining.



Voila!



I secured it by sewing on a press stud, to stop the glasses sliding out.



I was thrilled to finally make a selvedge project! I have been saving them ever since I read this issue of Down Under Quilts. It featured lots of amazing projects using selvedges, including the work of Karen Griska, author of "Quilts from from the Selvege Edge" (you can check out her Selvage Blog) and Jodie Carleton. Check out Jodie's INCREDIBLE Selvedge Dress that was featured in DUQ. Her blog has more photos of this incredible work of art plus lots of other cute project tutorials.