I got published !

This week has been a very eventful week...

Some things I could have done without but others like buying a longarm quilting machine (see yesterday's post) has made up for it all.

 

And to top it up, one of my projects was published in a british magazine this week.

It was their first issue and it promises it to be quite a success judging by it's contents.

 

 

They did a great job with the project and even used my own photos.



The magazine has at least 30 projects, many using fabrics. There is a wide variety of crafty projects from using paper, buttons, beads, crochet, recycle, gardening, cooking and much more.
It's visually appealing and even the adds are a great source of inspiration to get ideas or purchase fabrics/supplies from the UK.

Take a look at their website Homemade with Love to see what projects they showcase. You won't be dissappointed.

A long awaited dream !!!

After many years of dreaming and saving not to mention accummulating tops I purchased a longarm quilting machine.  It's the Handi Quilter HQ18 Avante.

It arrived yesterday and I have already spent a few hours playing with it.  

It took about four hours to be assembled and after a quick demo by the dealer I got some calico and had a bit of a practice.

It's very smooth to move and only requires the lightest touch to stitch.

My daughter (12 years old) also had a play and found it quick easy to use it.

There was no time like the present, so I took the plunge and loaded a 'real' top which I recently completed using my scraps.

It quilted through the many seams without any effort and it looks quite acceptable given the limited experience I have.  But I am under no illusions that many more hours of practice will be required to reach an acceptable level of workmanship. 
I need to increase my thread stock, watch some tutorials, buy some rulers and other gadgets to expand the designs, get to know all the features of the machine and at some stage do a class to pick up experience from other people.

The best thing so far is that I now only have 13 tops to quilt instead of 14 !!!

Keep tuned for more interesting blogposts soon.

Scrapmania and Swoon Quilt Top completed

Love or hate them, scraps can make your imagination go wild if you just love fabric (like we all do !). 
A couple of years ago I managed to reduce my scraps to 50% but last year with all the projects I did and some (well, perhaps many !) fabric purchases, the scrap bin is back to what it was in terms of size.
So after recently buying a couple of books that use scraps, I got very inspired and made this top.

 

It doesn't look like a lot of work, but it takes  a lot of time and thread to 'make fabric'.  I used the smallest pieces from the scrap bin to give more variety but I still wanted to have some kind of order by making the non-star blocks in one colour. The star blocks are quick to make but lots of seams to sew through.

I haven't quite decided if I should keep going making more fabrics and more stars and a bigger quilt but I needed a break, so I completed the top of the Swoon Quilt last night.

 I haven't pressed it properly but here is a close-up of one of the blocks.

 And another... 
I like the way the quilt turned out and this one will be quilted sooner rather than later.

 And this is the reason my scrap bin continues to grow... I am trying to buy fabrics different from my usual style and away from the reproduction designs  but in the end I have to admit that I love all fabrics !! 

And now for some inspiring music....
Apart from Smooth Jazz I also love Classical music. This is Nicola Benedetti playing the violin with the composition "Meditation from Thai's"  by Jules Massenet.

Table Runner, books and Scraps

Made for my daughter's bedroom this simple table runner using some fabric from a charm pack.  Quick project and quite useful.

 

Received a belated Xmas present I gave myself that arrived this week from Amazon.
Two of the books are purely to use scraps and the other is on pre-cuts.

I particularly like the "15 Minutes of Play" concept, which Victoria Findlay Wolfe shares in this book as well as on her blog.  The only  'downside' for me, is that it never ends as 15 minutes but hours of creativity ! Where can one spend hours doing something this much
fun that is not bad for you and having something to show for that time? 

Here is what I did !
The scrap bins are once again overflowing, so no shortage of fabrics; with the help of the Accuquilt machine saved time cutting the large tumbler blocks.

I'm going to continue having fun with my scraps in the forthcoming months.... not expecting a huge dent in the stash.

PS - Victoria is holding a workshop at  Material Obsession (Sydney) in March 2013. Check out more information on their website under "Special Events".

Sewing Machine Cover and Mat

Until I reviewed my blog today I had not realised how many projects I completed in 2012. 
I knew I had done a few for gifts and others for me, but this many ??? Around 42 and these include various sizes of quilts and bags.
I guess it goes to show when you have a passion no matter what other responsabilities you have to attend to (full time job, mother of a young daughter and love to keep a nice garden) inspiration gets you there !

I have made a photo collage with all these projects (saved as a html, tried to add it to the posting but did not work). So any feedback is appreciated so I can share these projects on the blog.

Here is something fun I did to kick start 2013. I was going over my novelty prints stash and found some fabrics to use.

It's always handy to have a mat under your machine, but one with a pocked is even better, so the essential gadgets are at hand...

 

Since I had enough fabrics available I made a cover for the sewing machine.  It has different fabrics for the front and the back and they make me laugh.

See below this amazing quilting done ? I wish I could have said I did it, but it's the work of  very talented artist ... Victor.
Please check out his recent quilting blog as well as the other blog that he produces on tattoos... I just love it .