Tuesday 17 June 2008

You Quilt, You Learn.....

Well, at the time it always seems worth it.....you plan, you start...you end up spending your nights in an effort to finish your quilt. Of course YOU love it, because it's yours.....and then you post it off. Finally, you're finished.

Then, you walk past your quilt at the show, and its crinkled, and its nothing like you remember....what was I thinking? Where did all the gold go? It just looks beige! Is it the lighting? Is it the surrounds? Am I colourblind?

This quilt looked so beautiful at home. It glowed and had a real old fashioned beauty about it. But now, I'm wondering what all the fuss was about.


I am beginning to question my designing skills and this quilt fell very short of what I had planned. On the positive side of things, we do finally have a quilt to throw over the sofa..... it's not gonna make it to the wall, or 'important quilt' cupboard. It's disappointing when this happens, expecially when you have high hopes, but....you quilt ....and you learn.


I have learnt my lesson, when you have a lot of gold fabrics in your stash - leave them there, dont try to use them all up in a quilt just because you love gold.

I wonder how many other quilters experience this, is it just me?

It's a Winner !

Waltzing Pinks!
Well, I never thought I'd win anything with this quilt, but there you have it!
You can make this quilt yourself in an upcoming edition of Australian Patchwork and Quilting Magazine.

To see the full list of Sydney Quilt Soow's 2008 winners, click here....

www.quiltersguildnsw.com/quiltshow

Wednesday 4 June 2008

I'll never use varigated threat EVER again

Ah, finishing touches, and its only 2am!









Morning Photo....






Quilting detail photo



Thought for the day:


Variagated thread looks beautiful on the cone. But not on my work!. It appears to be a perfect colour match. However once you start stitching, it looks inconsistent....and you cant go back, because unpicking the stitches will disintegrate into little tears on the fabric (on a domestic machine).... this quilt taught me a lot about last minute disasters and late nights. At least for my work and style of quilting, this thread does nothing to assist!


Also, I DO NOT recommend Glad press and seal...it stuck so heavily to the fabric that I had to tear it away and then pick at the stubborn strands with tweesers. I never mark anything, but for once I wanted to try a quick tip I'd been let in on....and it was a disaster. I finished (and will now stick to) freehand, like I always have. Thank goodness I only commited this technique to 1 border.


Well, now that I've highlighted all the positive experiences of quilting I will finish by saying that I am greatly relieved that Manor House is packaged and travelling as I type. In fact, it's probably already in Sydney. I just hope that when I see it at the Show that it will be the way I remembered and that I wont be too embaressed. I always like to let quilts sit a few weeks so I can view them with fresh eyes....and with my late night finishing marathon I didnt get the chance.


I will put all this down to 'experience' and move on....


Stencils at the ready!




Monday 2 June 2008

Still Stitching Away.....


She's given up trying to sit on my quilting as I'm stitching, but I started so early this morning (5am!) that I forgot to put on the heating....and I hadnt noticed how chilly the house was until I just stopped to have a coffee.....and I just had to snap a pic of Mooshi, waiting patiently (and hopefully) for me to remember to heat the house! Her look says it all......
Well, back to work.....

Rose Lewis

A highlight of yesterday's show was my daughter asking me when I'd managed to make another table runner???!

On second inspection she noticed that it wasnt my table runner at all....it was a student's! She loved it, and so do I !


Thank you Rose for allowing me to post your beautiful work. I love the trapunto and butterfly quilting, you've really made this design unique.


It's always really interesting to see what students end up making after a workshop, in fact, that's one of my favourite things about teaching - seeing the end results filtered through the creativity of so many talented women!

Stencilling allows individuality to shine
through, so if you're a quilter and you've been thinking of doing a workshop that's a little different, why not try a stencil workshop? The results are
definitely worth your time!



Sunday 1 June 2008

9:15 on Sunday Night



Making up for lost time, here is a very quick progress update

While I Should Have Been Working.....




While my quilt in progress waited at home....and although I'm behind schedule and really didnt have the time......I went ahead and had a lovely morning out at the Waverley Patchworker's show.....and I'm so glad I did. It seems that everything I do on my quilt is one step forward - three steps back. It's just one of those quilts that has a mind of it's own and wont budge! It's very frustrating, so by this morning I really needed to get away from my machine and just relax a little...so onto the show!
I quilted the raffle quilt (above) on my domestic sewing machine and my daughter was hoping to win it back in the raffle...she fell in love with it when it was at home and didnt want me to part with it after I had done my quilting duty! Unfortunatley she didnt win but congratulations to whoever did...it's a beautiful quilt.
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