I did get the quilt finished.!! But it has taken me a while to find the time to take a few photos on a nice sunny day and upload them. I have entered it to the Sydney Quilt Show and am waiting to hear whether or not it will be accepted... I took a class with Michel Higgins at Sydney Sewing Centre, Hornsby NSW, in February last year (2010) to learn how to make a bargello quilt. Sunflower yellow is my favourite colour. So, I chose the fabric with little bright yellow flowers and green leaves print for the middle row first, then, other colours of fabrics to 'mix and match' for the rest of the quilt top and the backing. The strips sizes and cutting were Michel's measurement. I designed the border, the size and the finish (of the quilt). I quilted the quilt using my beloved Bernina 440QE. It wasn't that easy to try to manoeuvre the quilt through the small space but it did come out the other end and I got the whole quilt quilted nicely (to me, anyway).!! It certainly has been a very good learning process for me and, more importantly, keeping me grounded during this very busy time at work. I will see how it goes with the competition or if it ever will....AND....yes, the quilt has been accepted. The news has just arrived this afternoon (30/04/2011), just in time as my birthday present tomorrow....AND yes, I'm a 'May' flower.... :-)
The day before I left for Seattle, WA, I kept thinking that I wasn't ready to go to GHME 2011 Conference because then, I was still waiting for the results from DISMOD analysis before I could put together slides for the meeting after the conference. And waiting for DISMOD to process the data, sometimes, it seemed to take forever... Staying cool while waiting, I decided to retreat to my sewing room and made this nifty sewing bag from scraps (left over fabrics from quilt backing) with my own little touch by adding the orange star shape buttons to it. I have got the pattern from Handmade Vol 28 No 11. I finished the project the night before I left (for Seattle). It ended up being a multipurpose bag. It was my toiletry bag for the trip, my tatting tools bag for last Sunday, 3rd April, at the Castle Hill Show, and for now, I'm using it to keep bits and pieces of my English paper piecing project. It is, indeed, a very 'nifty bag' and I love it. :-) [I did finish the slide presentation of DISMOD results at 2am the morning I had the meeting...just in time...].
I'm practicing 'being practical'.!!... Last Sunday, 3rd April, I volunteered to be a demonstrator for tatting at the Castle Hill Show. I thought to myself '...Right, I will get the doily that I have promised to make for a vase on Marijke's dinning table finished'. While working on the piece, I was also using it as an example to demonstrate tatting. To be sitting down tatting all day long, I couldn't not finish it.!! So, here is the finished doily for my dear friend, Marijke's vase. it's now packed away with other things that I will take with me on the trip to Europe next month.
Life seems to be rushing me along....Trying to get away on time, remembering to take tablets for the persistive headache and all the tatting tools I needed, and of course, forgetting about the daylight saving, I made it to the Castle Hill Show an hour early last Sunday, 3rd April. It took me a while to work out the fact after thinking about when I left home (9am) and got to the Show (8.50am), and I was glad to realise that I wasn't mad.!! I was at the Show as a tatting demonstrator for the day and was quite busy all day. During the day, I was asked to help with taking photos of the tatted pieces for the NSW Tatters' Guild newsletter... There was a rush of mixed feelings when I saw my name next to the pieces with the prizes. I couldn't say that I wasn't pleased with the outcome. :-)
I thought many of the NSW Tatters' Guild members would be entering their tatted pieces to the 125th Castle Hill Show
in April this year. But I was wrong.!! As a member, I haven't been
contributing much to the Guild mostly because of my commitments to
both work and home.
So, I have decided to take this opportunity to contribute and have
been madly tatting up a storm in my spared time during the past
week. I needed to hand the tatted pieces to the Guild's Show
Director this afternoon, so have finished the sixth piece this
morning and I'm tatted 'out'.!! In total, I have tatted 3 small
doilies and 3 bookmarks. I have mixed and matched the designs to
make them my own and have given each piece a name to make it easy to
refer to. In the process, I have found myself enjoying tatting with
beads. They add dimensions to the pieces, I think. I'm now getting
on with my quilt and hope to finish it in time to enter to the Sydney Quilt Show.
The Show is in June but the closing date for entries is in 2 weeks
(11th March 2011), the day before I fly to Seattle, WA, for GHME 2011 Conference.
My toes are tightly crossed, my fingers are very busy sewing, my
brain is sorting through the tasks to be done for work, and I'm loving
it all.
Everyone in my household loves Charlie and Lola. We went to 'Charlie and Lola's Best Bestest Play' at the Sydney Opera House in the middle of last month (January 2011). After the show finished, we collected some 'Charlie and Lola's butterflies' from the floor of the Play House to come home with us for scrapbooking. I took the opportunity to make a template of the butterfly. I then appliqued different colours of the shape on my black apron that I have made from the thick material, mixed between hem and linen, left over from when I was re-covering our dining chairs at home. I wear the apron when I'm in my sewing room. It helps to keep loose threads and sharp pins from catching onto my clothes and, subsequently, scattering around my home, everywhere I go. It is acutally absolutely definitely my favourite apron - I'm starting to sound like Lola.....!!
After returning from France at the end of 2010 and wanting to get back into my sewing room as quick as I could, I have decided to piece this quilt top using a jelly roll from Moda Birdie range by Me and My Sister. I have got a pattern from a book called Jelly Roll Inspirations by Pam and Nicky Lintott. I was careful with the cutting and so was able to make the quilt top a little larger than the published size. I have also chosen to do the border slightly different, so the quilt top is a modified version of the one in the book. I then took the quilt top to get quilted by a computerised quilting machine hired out at Thimblelady (Liuxin Newman) shop in Thornleigh, Sydney. Liuxin was very helpful and patient with me (thanks very much, Liuxin). I was able to complete the quilt soon after I came home with the quilted quilt. It was a good learning process for me to experince the machine quilting. I have placed an order for a computerised Gammill Statler Stitcher Optimum (30-12) Model and am looking forward to having a 'play' with it after I return from France in July this year - yes I'm going back to France again in a couple of months.!! I'm now one of the Statler siblings, and am proud to be one. :-)
