class show & tell

Well what a day we've had! Up bright & early and out to 'all things patchwork' to take part in the Modern Wedge class with Kathy Doughty from Material Obsession. It was an excellent day, lots to see, and lots to learn, and lots of time to play with fabric... exactly my sort of day!

Here's a few pics of the examples Kathy showed us today

From the 'how-we-used-to do-it' pile (which I actually still love!) ...

... to the all so easily do-able endless possibilities  - now we know how! 

Large prints, small prints, pastels, jewel colours, 'modern' fabrics, vintage, dark fabrics 

- it all went into the eclectic mix and all totally perfect! 

And she brought lots of quilts to show us too, here's two that caught my eye... 

a recent version of 'vintage spin' using solids too & with borders

and a recent version of 'Garden Party' 

And just what did I get up to all day?

Well, some of you may remember my attempts at this - 'Vintage Spin' from Kathy's book "Adding Layers". I drew up my own template & made a few blocks using my 'old-looking' fabrics, but somehow they just never seemed quite right! So I was really glad of the opportunity to attend this workshop today. I decided early on that I was going to give 'Vintage Spin' another go, but this time doing it a bit differently!  I wanted vintage and I wanted pretty, but first I needed to sort my scrappy selection of fabrics into warm & cool colour piles...

... and then the fun began! 
Matching up the pairs, cutting out & sewing, time just flew!
 Kathy's comment about my choices - "right out of granny's linen cupboard" - that'll do me just fine! 

I can see now that 'contrast' is the key
and how the color of a fabric is not really known until it is actually playing beside it's neighbour! 

I can see how fussy cutting really adds an extra dimension!

I can certainly see how easy it is to use these templates, and it's a lot of fun experimenting too!

my favorite so far

 Oh, and I can see that I'm going to be v.busy over the next week or so getting this all together!

For more pics of today pop on over to millymadeit 

scattered petals {update}

This week I layered up my 'scattered petals' quilt, did a bit of machine quilting to secure the whole quilt, and am now adding some hand quilting. I've been combining my hand & machine quilting lately, practicality plus some obvious big stitch quilting is a pleasing 'hand made' mix for some quilts I think. I'm using no. 8 perle thread in a soft green.

close up of backing, an old chintz

Hopefully it shouldn't take too long to hand quilt around those pretty petals
- happy sewing!

I wasn't going to...

I wasn't going to make another free form quilt...

 but the temperatures are getting warmer, the trees are blossoming,
and I'm thinking it'd be nice to whip up something fun & pretty in pastels 
- like this 'scattered petals' quilt

trial free form block

using up every last piece of those lovely silky fabrics

Quilt Stats:

 Inspired by the colour scheme in one Sujata's latest quilts 

and based on the 'windmills' pattern from her book, Cultural Fusion Quilts. 

Made from a scrappy selection of stash fabrics 

including Amy Butler, assorted solids, along with a little bit of Kaffe. 

I quite like the idea of those petals continuing to cascade over the edge 

-so I may just add a border!

and a bit more #34
for all our overseas quilty enthusiasts -
here's a little peep at our Monday Modern quilt show, 'new quilts for Alberton beds'
happening right now in Auckland, NZ

  just follow this link to Monday Modern flickr pool to see more
Enjoy!

Linking up with 'oh scrap' here

Cultural Fusions over here

and WiP Wednesday here at freshlypieced 

WiP Wednesday

Lots of little bits & pieces in the WiP line this week.

First up, two 'urgent' baby quilts. The babies have now been born, so I needed to get these little quilts finished asap! Luckily, I had two quilt tops here waiting in the "finish-it-up" queue, both at the quilting & binding stage, so I've been busy this week finishing them off.

This 1st little one is a "Squares & Bricks" quilt, something along the lines of what Rita from red pepper quilts makes. I did some simple quilting & made up a binding in a pretty yellow Kaffe floral to match the yellow gingham backing.

backing & binding close up

And the 2nd one is, I guess, almost a vintage! {hm-m-m- I must tell Kerry this, the mum of one of the babies. Not too sure re how durable it will be with constant washing!} I started this quilt way, way back, using a pattern from Alex Anderson's book, and all these fabrics are very dated believe me! I found a cute circus print by Nancy Wolff for the backing, used a variegated blues fabric for the binding, and again, did simple but functional straight line quilting.

backing & binding close up

... and voila, two quilts all ready to go to their new homes, to be used & loved.

I also have a little update from Glenys this week -  

She sent through a pic of her "small world" progress, lots of lovely scrappy goodness! 

and there's lots of versions out there of course just now

I really like Cindy's one too which she has based on her family visit to Disneyland! 

In the mail today I received my copy of "Emperor's Wheel" a pattern by Chris Jurd

I'm not that keen on paper piecing, 

but I'm toying with the idea of maybe substituting a few 'modern wedges' instead!

And, you know how we all play a little before we decide if something is worth pursuing or not, yes?
Well, my '15 minutes of play' turned into an hour yesterday
while I drew up templates and made a few trial blocks!
Not too sure what it's called, sort of drunkard's path version or snake trail?
More about details & inspiration next time if I decide to keep going with this.
Ha-ha, Mr D. not at all happy with the random-ness of this, but what do you all think?

Linking up with WiP Wednesday here

a taste sensation!

Yes, yes I have been sewing, 

but first let me tell you about where Glenys & I went this weekend

... to Banus cooking class.

We were made very welcome in Banu's home and it was such a great evening! We had entrees first, then stirred & tasted our way through a selection of yummy vegetarian mains, finishing up with Mango Mousse. There were eight of us, and we all had a go making Masala Dosa - that's me cooking in the 1st pic - a light pancake that was filled with potato curry and crispy on the outside. A delightful evening! And a lovely way to learn, all seated together around the dining table, guessing which spices were which, with candles & music! Thank you Banu, you and your daughter were wonderful!

... and sewing?

Well, I seem to be kinda stuck on dealing to my scraps lately!

This scrappy Tumbler quilt was started many years ago, in my pre-blogging days. And I can't even remember the initial inspiration for it, apart from wanting to try and use a few 'brown' fabrics! However, the recent focus on tumbler quilts as a Leaders & Enders project certainly re-sparked my interest in this long neglected WiP!
I started to hand quilt it, but months would go by, and I hadn't done a stitch! So this weekend I made the 'big decision' and switched over to lots of large stitch machine quilting.

I love this scrappy mix of fabrics, and I'm sure some of you will recognise many little bits here.
The backing was a scrappy stash-busting mixture too!
The batting is all wool, it will be a really snuggily buggily warm quilt.

And I even had the binding all ready, so it was simply a matter of just getting on with it! 

Linking up with 'oh scrap' here 

- follow the link to see lots of quilty inspiration! 

new quilts for Alberton beds

It's almost time for our 2nd Monday Modern group show! 
 "new quilts for alberton beds" is an exhibition of modern quilts 
in the historic setting of Mt Albert's Alberton House, built in 1863.

Our quilts will be on display throughout the house, 

well worth a visit to see not only the quilts but the lovely old home too! 

See you there! 

this week...

This week I've got two finishes to share, one quilt & one quilt top. 

 I made a pieced backing & stitched up some scrappy blue binding for my HST quilt...

I did some straight line quilting along the diagonals, simple & functional
then spent an evening stitching down the binding, and voila -
  #2 ticked off my  FAL list, the finish-a-long hosted by Adrianne at On the Windy Side
and this quilt has gone off to a new home already!

... and I've also just finished putting together my 'rediscovered'  'Greenfields' quilt top
It took sometime I must admit as I didn't have the book anymore,
just my very rough drawing of how it was to all go together.

But I got there in the end.
very vintage - all ready now for basting, quilting & binding. 

and in the garden... friendly Mr Tui getting nectar from the last of the camellias
Can you spot him?

Linking up to Needle & Thread Thursday here @ myquiltinfatuation
such a nice surprise to see one of my quilts featured over there!

Also linking up to tgiff over here this week
- follow the links for lots more quilty inspiration!