Weekend Report

Posted on April 26, 2009 by Quiltobsession

We went to the Creativ Festival on Saturday. My impression was that there were more quilt-related vendors than at the past 2 or 3 Festivals and there were definitely lots of lovely kits, charm packs and wonderful patterns.

However, I had a very definite list of things I wanted to find. First up was a couple of pairs of thread snips — one to keep by the sewing machine for those few times I do use it (and I even bought some new machine needles) and another to have in my hand stitching kit. Look what I found!

The pink and green thread snips are great. Not only do they work fabulously, I love the colours! The little scissors are just a tiny bit curved. They’re made with titanium blades and are listed as an embroidery scissor. However, they work like a charm when cutting out curved pieces of fabric! I had a few Drunkard’s Path blocks printed, ready to cut and it was as though the scissors knew, on their own, to follow the curve. They’re not great for straight cutting but with my love of curved piecing, these are a great tool for me.

Then there was YLI thread. I saw these two spools of quilting thread that I know I’ll use. I also topped up on some YLI Heirloom in pink, which seems to be the colour that works best with almost everything.

I’m saving the best for the end. Batik charm packs were on my list. While I didn’t find the standard charm packs, I did find these 7″ pieces of batiks. They’re not quite what I had in mind for the pattern I’m thinking of, but they’re going to be absolutely perfect for another pattern I have in mind. The funny thing? I got these batik squares at Sew Sisters‘ booth — Sew Sisters being my favourite quilt shop.

And the topper to the weekend? Late Friday afternoon, this arrived in the mail. The new Jane Austen Patchwork Mystery book by Linda Franz. It has some absolutely gorgeous photos of the Jane Austen Patchwork, wonderful instructions for making a Jane Austen Patchwork quilt and is a real joy to read.

It also has the pattern for this smaller version of a Jane Austen Patchwork.

There was a rather violent thunderstorm here late Saturday afternoon. It took us ages to get home from the Festival. The wind was a bit fierce, the rain came down in buckets, the lightning was incredible and there were some huge claps of thunder. Although we weren’t affected, there were apparently a lot of people without electricity as a result of the storm. I’m grateful neither of the kitties find storms frightening. In fact, it’s not unusual for them to be on the windowsill watching a storm.

Lester snoozing.
Half of a Smudge face. Sometimes he’s quite insistent on getting close to the camera. This sort of shot is the result.

A Little Stash Enhancement

Posted on April 11, 2009 by Quiltobsession

We made the trip to my favourite quilt store, Sew Sisters, today as they had an Easter egg hunt on and I was looking for a few specific items. I came home with, first of all, these two fabrics for a basket block project I have planned. The pale fabric is a batik that has the faintest tints of blue and yellow. I got enough of it for the basket block project and for the sky quilt background.

Then, because I have decided to start collecting more batiks, thanks to the inspiration I get every time I look at Wanda’s blog, these 3 batik FQ’s jumped into my hands as well as the green Oriental FQ which I couldn’t resist and which is being added to the fabrics set aside for my Jane Austen patchwork quilt.

As part of the Easter egg hunt, when one was checking out, one opened a plastic egg and got whatever prize the slip inside indicated. I won these two pretty FQ’s.

The big find of the day was this! The perfect green batik for the Tropical Punch blocks! Somehow I knew I’d find the perfect green at Sew Sisters, and I did. Now to make the decision on how to set them.

‘Tis migraine season for me. Friday I could barely look at the computer screen and I know I deleted some unread e-mails by accident. If I haven’t responded to something, please e-mail me again. Today I thought it was pretty well gone but it has started to increase again. It’s also become rather windy in the last half hour or so, and I know that the intensity of a migraine seems to increase with wind.

Smudge doing a modified lounge lizard pose/look on the windowsill.

Planning a New Quilt

Posted on March 4, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Lucy Boston’s Patchwork of the Crosses is a quilt that I have loved ever since I saw a picture ages ago in an issue of Australian Patchwork & Quilting. There’s a wonderful article about Lucy Boston and her quilts here as well as some pictures. I’ve been setting aside fabrics for it for a while. So far, they include this grouping:

And this set of Seaside Rose fabrics. I know I’ll be adding some darker shabby chic fabrics when I start it, but I love these two groupings as a start.

There’s going to be an Inklingo collection just for the POTC sometime this year, I believe. Before it comes out, I want to get the fabrics I’ve picked out for the Jane Austen quilt all printed. I’m still debating whether to try stitching the centre of it by machine and hand piece the borders with all those wonderful little diamonds or to hand piece the whole thing. I’m tempted to hand piece it, as I enjoy that so much but I know there is no way I’ll machine piece the POTC and the goal is to finish both this year, so …

The baby quilt is slowly getting worked on. The ’30s prints in it are not prints I’m finding appealing at this point at all. It’s odd — I love them when I start something like this but they quickly lose their appeal altogether. I love the effect and this baby quilt will be exactly what I pictured, but I just wish it was finished!!

This picture is a classic Smudge pose. Had us laughing for sure. It’s a “find the kitty’s head” type of picture. 🙂

Stars, Stars and a Christmas Frog

Posted on January 2, 2009 by Quiltobsession

These little stars are multiplying at a rapid pace! I love how quickly they go together thanks to the perfect stitching lines of Inklingo! The Christmas Frog, who will feature in a teddy bear story soon, just had to get in the picture.

While I’m stitching the little stars, plans for at least one large quilt this year are swimming through my mind. I’m definitely going to make the Jane Austen quilt and am debating now whether to do it in shabby chic with a faded mint green dot on white fabric for the sashing or in Orientals.

I have a piece of an absolutely gorgeous Oriental print that would be perfect for the centre medallion and oodles of this fabric that I would be tempted to use for the sashing with all sorts of other Oriental prints.

This fabric has the most glorious feel and is an absolute joy to hand piece. I would like to make the JA quilt by hand so that is an important consideration as many of the Oriental prints have a metallic element to them which can make them a bit more difficult to stitch.

This is a picture of the sashing fabric with a couple of pieces of Oriental prints that were on my sewing table. I really love the richness of this. It will be busy, no question, but there’s something about it that really appeals to me.

We had a lovely quiet New Year’s at home. What did the cats do? Snooze! Smudge snoozing:

Lester snoozing:

The Jane Austen Quilt

Posted on December 10, 2008 by Quiltobsession

I got the most fantastic, fabulous, wonderful Inklingo collection today — the new one with all the measurements and templates to make an exact replica of the Jane Austen quilt. All the odd-sized diamonds and the sashing, all the tiny border diamonds, the centre medallion diamond, the whole thing!!

I’ve often looked at the various patterns that have come out over the years that were replicas, to one degree or another, of the original Jane Austen quilt but never saw one that I wanted to make other than Quilted Diamonds — until now, that is. All the information to make this by hand or machine or a hybrid of both techniques, all the templates for the exact-sized diamonds and sashing; everything I need.
The wealth of knowledge in this collection is incredible. If you’re a Jane Austen fan, you will love this! Lots of detail about the quilt and its construction. The collection is on sale — and there are gift certificates available if you want to drop a hint to Santa.

Now I’m thinking a variety of pinks of different intensities for the diamonds and, if I can find it, a white fabric with very small black pin dots for the sashing. I have visions of stitching this with either the Pride & Prejudice or Sense & Sensibility movie playing.

The boys, given that this is about something related to Jane Austen, are doing their bookend imitation. First Smudge at one end of the windowsill:

Then Lester at the other end: