Showing posts with label fabric. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fabric. Show all posts

Monday, April 24, 2023

April Bits and Pieces

More than 2 weeks since my last post. Here's a bit of what has been happening in that time.

These tubs of someone's unwanted fabric arrived at my place:

And a cardboard box of thread cones. Now I have the fun task of sorting through them to see if there is anything useful, and disposing of all of it appropriately. And then the donor wants the tubs back. 

Early one morning I looked out and saw two wallabies munching grass shoulder to shoulder. One noticed and looked at me:

And then her big baby noticed she had stopped eating and stood up to see what was going on:

Too cute!

I assembled this top:

The pattern is called "Simply Woven". I made a couple of blocks some time during a lockdown, then put it aside and forgot about it until I was doing some tidying up a few months ago. Now it is on my list of tops to be quilted.

I went to the Australasian Quilt Convention, which was back in Melbourne this year. The trip to Melbourne involved buses for part of the way due to track works, but was cheap because the regional fares have been reduced since my last trip a few weeks ago. I had been asked to buy some fabric for a friend, but when I found the retailer's stall they hadn't brought the particular line of fabric with them. For myself I bought a spool of thread and an irresistible panel from New Zealand.

I got my 5th covid vaccination.

I've managed to break both my hearing aids this month, although not both at once, and not in the same way. At the moment the left one is off being fixed.

As my sister was packing up her house to move last year, she asked me to rescue a dahlia plant which was dormant at the time, but which had some sentimental importance, (I don't remember now what that was so must ask her again):

Well when I dug it up I thought, that's not a dahlia, there was no tuber. But I potted it, and it grew, and is now flowering (as well as being covered in aphids I see), and it is a chrysanthemum. So maybe it was a Mother's day gift one year? It is a beautiful colour, anyway. I'll have to find a good spot for it in the garden for next year.

We had the opening of our miniature quilt exhibition. Here's a taste of what that was like:

It is on at the Mercure Hotel and Convention Centre, 613 Main Rd, Ballarat until 14th May if you are in the area.

I've been making these blocks, now I have to work out how to sew them together. Which arrangement do you prefer?


The pattern is "Pickle Dish Variation". I made the first components last November, and have been making one or two every so often since. Do you like them all facing the same way, or alternating?



Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Surprise Birds

This bird surprised us when it showed up at our place last week: It was quite a surprise when it jumped on someone's shoulder as they walked across the back yard!

It isn't a native parrot. It was obviously someone's escaped pet, as it wasn't fussed by people. One of our neighbours has an aviary full of exotic birds, but it didn't belong to him. He posted a "Found pet bird" message with no description on the local area Facebook group, and the owner of the bird got in touch very quickly. She lives only a kilometre or so away, and came straight away to take her bird home.
 
The next day we had another bird surprise, when we looked out during quite heavy rain and saw this:
A pair of Australian wood ducks, with 12 ducklings! I have no idea where they suddenly appeared from. There is a pair who hang around our garden all the time, but they have no ducklings. These ones didn't stay long. They walked off into the rain, perhaps heading for a neighbour's dam.

A couple of days ago I discovered our resident kookaburras have a baby:

The bird on the right is the baby. It has a much shorter bill, and different colouring to the adult who had just given it a feed before I took the photo.

The final bird surprise is this panel I never ordered:

Late in January I ordered a template for cutting the diamonds for the EPP project I wrote about in my last post. The next day, before I had received any notification or acknowledgement of the order, I realised I already owned a template I could use. It was one that had belonged to my mother. So I sent the seller a message asking them to please cancel my order. I never got a response to that request. Instead, 2 days later (so 3 days after I placed the order) I got a message saying my order had been dispatched. That was disappointing, but my own fault I suppose for not keeping better track of what is in my sewing room! When the package arrived, this panel was included in it. I don't know if it was an accident and someone else is annoyed because their order was incomplete, or a gift because they didn't cancel my order, or what. But it is one (or two) more bird surprise for the month.
 

Friday, February 18, 2022

Sorting Scraps

I had small scraps of fabric stored in several messy containers around my sewing room. Every time I searched through them looking for particular colours, they got more messy and tangled and frayed. When I decided to join in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year, I quickly realised that sorting the scraps by colour was going to make life a lot easier. So that's what I've been doing.

Here's an "in progress" shot of a bunch of scraps sorted into piles.

Working with one colour at a time, I press the pieces and trim off fraying threads. I also take the opportunity to throw out anything that is too small for the scrappy hearts I'm making, or any fabric I really don't like and will never use. Then I pop the neat pieces in zip-lock bags:

My intention is to store the bags in the tubs that hold my larger fabric pieces. Then when I generate more small off-cuts, I can pop them in the relevant bag straight away. 

You might notice a bag of red scraps in the previous photo. I thought I had used up all the red making hearts last month, but it turns out I had more red bits and pieces than I thought I had. So with some of the larger pieces I started another rainbow scrap project:

The Scrappy Sprouts pattern instructions I'm following came from here: Traceyjay Quilts Scrappy Sprouts. However I have reduced the size of the squares to fit the sizes of scraps I have. Mine will end up about 75% of the original size. I haven't decided yet what thickness the centre stalk will be.

Making these two red leaves alerted me to a pressing problem. If you press the seams in alternate directions for each row, they are not going to nest when you join the leaves one above the other. So I think in future I will make the top row from random width background pieces, so the seams are not in line with the leaf seams. 


Thursday, April 19, 2018

Marimekko

I went to Bendigo, and I ate some of this:
Chips and gravy! Central Victoria's signature dish. The slightly orange cast is due to the orange umbrella we were sitting under.

Of course the chips and gravy wasn't the main reason for the trip to Bendigo. Really I was there to meet up with some friends and see the Marimekko exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery. It is on until 11th June.

You will have to imagine my two friends in that photo. One was taking a photo of the facade. The other was taking a photo of the first one taking her photo. I tried to take a photo of the second one taking a photo of the first one taking a photo of the gallery, but stupidly announced what I was doing so they both jumped out of shot!

I swapped to my phone for the photos inside the exhibition, as it handles ambient light better.

As well as the expected swathes of fabric:


And shift dresses:


The exhibition includes lots of "behind the scenes" pieces such as original artwork, fabric swatches and designer notebooks. There are also accessories, magazine articles from the early days of the company, and homewares.

I didn't know this existed:
The Finnish name of this glassware translates as "Socks Falling Down".

The exhibition was first shown in Japan, so there is quite an emphasis on Japanese designers who worked for Marimekko. But the last room of the exhibit is new for Australia - it shows the most recent designs, including how the classic prints have been re-sized and re-coloured for new uses.
Such as this bag and dress based on the "Strawberry Mountains" furnishing fabric on the wall. Fabric from 1969, dress from 2001.

In this room was the one garment I could see myself wearing:
The dress closest to the camera - Reima - designed in 2018, from fabric designed in 1968. Wonder if I could find a pattern to make something similar for next summer?

Here are links to the blog posts of the two friends who I went to the exhibition with:
Jacaranda
Skipping Stitches
It is interesting to see the different things we each focussed on.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Little Pieces

Last Thursday at the CBD meeting I was talking to a couple of people about my temperature quilt, and mentioned my dearth of red fabric. One of them offered to send me a few pieces - and look what I have now!
I think that might be enough red to take me through to the end of summer. Thank you, Sharon!

A couple of days ago I bought this:
My first fabric purchase of the year. I'm not sure what they call these packs - but it has 42 pieces of 2.5" square fabric. I've never bought something like this before. I'm not sure what people usually use them for. But the squares are big enough for my temperature hexagons, and just about every colour I'm using is included:
There are 2 of each of these. Plus there is black as well, in case we have any days over 45!

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Almost, Cicero

Quote printed on a tea-towel I was given today:
"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."

I guess Cicero wasn't a quilter, because he failed to mention another important requirement: fabric! However, the lovely person who gave me this gift is a quilter, so she wrapped it in SIX layers of fabric rather than paper.

Thank you, Jeanette, for the wonderful gift!

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Other Projects

This fat quarter arrived yesterday from Spoonflower:
The circle design is about 30cms across, and is destined to be the centre of a quilt on my "to do" list some time soon. I haven't bought anything from Spoonflower before, although I've spent many hours browsing their offerings. This one was designed by Sharon Turner, an artist from the UK.

My "Out of Africa" challenge piece is taking shape:
I'm using my shweshwe fabrics and Jodie Carleton's Trunk Show pattern to make an elephant.

Friday, March 17, 2017

Shweshwe

The challenge for one of my quilting groups this year is "Out of Africa". I wanted to use some African fabric in mine, so with the help of the internet I purchased some South African shweshwe fabric:
Shweshwe fabric is traditionally starched stiff, and has to be washed before use. Here's my collection on the line today:

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Lucky Me!

A couple of weeks ago, Jodie Ric-Rac had a week of give-aways on her blog to celebrate the release of her latest collection of fabric, Sewing School.

Last week, Jodie advised me I had won one of the prizes, but I had to wait until it arrived to know which one. And today it arrived!

Fat quarters of each colour of the little girl prints:
 Plus her super-cute Spanner pattern:
Hooray! I will have to see if there is some way I can make Spanner to match Dot's colours, because it reminds me of her a bit.

 This was the original give-away. Thank you Jodie for your generosity!

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Mystery Window

Today I attended a meeting in a room with these beautiful windows:
I was struck by the colour scheme - it's a lot like Bonnie's mystery quilt this year. Purples, green, yellow and magenta. And the clear glass becomes the neutrals.

Speaking of neutrals, after the meeting I popped into a quilt shop, and found where they "hide" them. In a corner that I normally just walk past because nothing reaches out and grabs me:
So a few little pieces came home with me to be added to my mystery quilt.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Found My Magenta

The constant fabric in En Provence, Bonnie Hunter's mystery this year, is magenta. Until today I didn't have any single piece of the right colour. Somewhat appropriately, I found this at Eureka Patchwork:
The lighter paint chip on the left is Bonnie's original suggestion. She said that the fabric should really be darker but her hardware store didn't have a dark enough paint chip. She showed her magenta fabric, and someone else who had the same fabric posted that it was closer to the two paints on the right. So I think this one should be just right.

I wasn't necessarily going to make my quilt the full size, but I bought the full amount of this fabric just in case. So here's my fabric sorted out for the mystery:
I probably will need a bit more dark purple, and perhaps some yellow. But I have plenty of all the other colours. The mystery starts in about nine days, and I'm ready for it!

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Making the Australian Quilt 1800 - 1950

Trip to Melbourne to see a fantastic exhibition
at the National Gallery Victoria - Federation Square, until 6th November.
Wonder what they do with these banners after the exhibition?

The exhibition is marvellous! Wonderful quilts, fascinating history, displayed so that you can get a good view of everything. The gallery wasn't very busy, so I could spend as long as I wanted looking at each piece. And for some, that was quilt a while! I enjoyed examining the details, seeing the choices the maker had made when there wasn't enough of a particular fabric to complete a design, or how a maker had assembled patterned fabrics to make a unique design. 

I bought the book:
which is packed full of photos and info. It includes a few things that weren't on display, like this fabric on the back of one of the quilts:

I love the shapes, which would make an interesting quilt in themselves. Then I wonder why there is no Welsh symbol around Queen Victoria?

The gallery is selling a couple of silk scarves with images of quilts, but they were a little out of my price range. But I consoled myself with this remnant of patchwork-themed silk/cotton fabric from Tessuti, which I will turn into a scarf:

Also at the gallery another exhibition, Glenn Murcutt: Architecture of Faith, opened today. It is a fascinating inside look at the design of a new mosque under construction in Newport. It looks like a beautiful building, so I hope I can go and see it in person once it opens.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Coincidence

Today I met up with some quilting friends. As we were showing each other the projects we were working on, we found this:
Three colourways of the same fabric. The blue and yellow fabrics are mine, the purple one is Fran's. That might not be unusual if this was a current fabric. But this design was produced 16 years ago, and we have both had it in our stashes since 2001!

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Boro

Popped in to the city to see an exhibition of antique Japanese rags ("boro").

Futon covers:
 Child's kimono:
Exhibition at Kimono House in Melbourne until 20th February.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Old Fabric

Today I cut the first pieces from some fabric I have had in my stash for a while:

I have pieces of eight fabrics from this range, which I purchased very cheaply at Lincraft in Northland's closing-down sale in 2001. Someone asked me at the time what I was planning to do with them. I didn't know, but I've finally found the perfect project.

And I know there is a Lincraft at Northland, but that's a "new" one that opened a few years after the original one closed.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Fabric Gift


Today I received in the mail these two beautiful "Fabric Patches", a lovely gift from Maria at "The Next Stage". Because I didn't take them out of their cellophane wrapping, there's a bit of reflection in my photos which is detracting from their beauty. In real life they are stunning!

From the label:
"Artwork by Australian artist Gerhard Hillmann. Ideal for Patchwork, Quilting, Clothing and other creative projects." They are 15cm square photographic prints on organic cotton fabric, with 1cm of white around the edges. That is a nice touch, as it means the image won't get swallowed up in a seam.  Gerhard's website is here: http://www.naturesface.com.au/  He has some amazing designs!

Thank you, Maria, for your generous gift.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Stash Augmentation

Last month I posted about my dilemma regarding Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion mystery. Buy more green fabric, or change the colour scheme?

I bought fabric.
I visited four different shops and picked up some pretty greens. It was interesting to compare the shops' cutting techniques. I won't name the shops I wasn't happy with, but my best experience was at Patchworks Unlimited in Pascoe Vale. Their "quarter metre" cut was generously nearly 2cm longer. So even though I overlock all my fabrics before pre-washing them, the pieces from this shop still have more than 25cms of usable fabric.

At one of the other shops, the fabric was measured and snipped at exactly 25cms, then torn across. The result was a loss of at least a centimetre of fabric due to the distortion of the fabric at each edge, even before I overlocked it. I probably won't go back to that shop.

At another I purchased a couple of pre-cut pieces, but was surprised to discover later that they were not quarter-metre pieces, but quarter-yards. They weren't labelled as such, so that was disappointing. However I also purchased one piece off the bolt, which was cut nicely at just over a centimetre beyond what I asked for, so I don't know why the pre-cut pieces weren't metric (or at least labelled).

So with all these, plus the blacks and whites, I have plenty of fabric ready for the mystery. But there's still nearly four weeks until it kicks off.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Shot Cottons

This selection of Kaffe Fassett shot cottons arrived in the post today:
Colours look better in real life! It is a kit sold by Craftsy to make a quilt for their "Continuous Line Quilting" class. I was intending to just use fabric I had, but then they marked the kit down by 60% a couple of weeks ago. That was a bit irresistible! The postage was a bit steep, but even so it was a pretty good deal. Sixteen different fat quarters (US size), 2.75 yds (2.5m) for backing, and .5yd (45cm) for binding, making a total of 7.25 yards or 6.6m of these lovely fabrics. The shot-ness (different colours depending on how the light hits it) should really come to life when they are quilted.