...a quilt for K

It is a strange thing. Over the Christmas/New Year 2011/12 break we had in Perth I blogged a lot. The most recent break - hardly at all. 

Which means that although I took (sometimes pretty ordinary pictures) of all of the gifts that I made they have't made it here. In the last few days I have been cleaning out my camera and temporary image folders and come across them again so I think there may be a few catch-up posts!

I have a group of friends that have been friends since high school. Since then we have remained friends through extended international trips, interstate moves, weddings, children - pretty much the events of life that can lead a friendship from teen years to fizzle. Because we are all origionally from pretty much the same place we all tend to end up back in Perth at the same time for big events, like Christmas with some additions since high-school of partners and children. 

In the last few years we have implemented a 'not-so-secret-Santa' gift swap over lunch in the week between Christmas and New Year. This year K was to be my gift recipient. She had mentioned earlier in the year that she might like a quilt for Christmas and I have a sneaking suspicion the Santa drawing was not so random this year. 

The inspiration for this quilt came from a shopping center floor - I was sitting having something to eat in IKEA and looking down at the floor below and snapped this image. 

After a couple of different design options were tossed about in my mind (all squares on point or 9 rectangle blocks?) I made a decision and went about choosing fabrics that were true-ish to the image and would match K's couch. 

Once the top was complete I quilted the 'tiles' into the background with cross hatch squares and hand quilted inside each of the 'pattern tiles' in perle thread.

Because it was a gift I thought is also needed a gift bag. This is from Melody Miller's Ruby Star Wrapping - with a few variations.

Because I used batting scraps rather than the fusible fleece in the pattern I quilted the outer and batting layers. On the top I used the spots as star centres and quilted the petals in.

On the base and the bottom of the sides I quilted squares around each of the circles.

Pressed into service immediately! Later discovered to be 'fully machine washable' and with proper pre-wash prep strawberry doesn't stain!

SMS Rec'd: Quilt down, Quilt down!

...current affairs

At one of the recent Sit and Sew evenings Chris was talking about dating quilts and said that antique quilts are dated from the most recent fabric included in their construction.

When I thought about it later I wondered what happened with the quilts made many years after the fabric for them was purchased but that is a different story.

I was reminded of this bit of information recently when I was ironing some new newsprint fabric picked up from Spotlight.

Some headlines and story content caught my eye....the print is made up of 'clippings' of actual articles that have appeared in the Australian press in recent times.

This one will date on only a quilt but also the fabric that was included in the construction. And will the quilts that this end up in be akin to finding an old newspaper under the lino when renovating.

...Japanese crafty gifts

Last year when I turned 30 I went to Bali for a celebratory trip with some friends. This year it was N's turn and he went to Japan with some of his friends.

Naturally I gave him some crafty gift ideas I might appreciate on his return.

As some background he is really supportive of the time I spend sewing but he hates visiting Spotlight and quilt shops. I have been know to be given time limits when we have stopped somewhere in trips out together. And he always waits in the car.

So after a few days he went on a trip to 'Tokyo Spotlight' and let me know later in the day that he hadn't been able to find anything from the list and 'it was not more fun visiting there just because it was in Japan'. A few days later he took a train out to one of the other stores I mentioned - to find it shut and shuttered. At that point he said my gift was coming from the airport.

 As luck would have it a few days later he happened upon a gift shop outside of Tokyo and found some of the books I had mentioned - but they weren't for sale. Eventually, apparently, the language barrier was difficult to overcome, with many apologies from the girl in the shop a map was drawn and directions were provided to a store in town for some books and fabrics purchased.

The fabric - minimal as I'm trying to use up what I have - consisted of two napkins from Echino (at least I think that is what they are, they have finished edges)...

...and these two that seem to be cut from the length of the bolt. I especially love the cranes.

It's all great, all the more because he chose them himself and I know this was not the most fun he had on the trip. Apparently that goes to eating pig guts and bee larvae - and no, there is no sarcasism in that comment Seriously.

I wanted to see if this was a real thing - I think it might stay just like this!

And I think he has earned a few passes when it comes to fabric shop visits!

...Green Tea and Sweet Beans

So yesterday I went to pick up my pattern and 'starter' pack from Amitie.

I am really really looking forward to starting this one but I am thinking of completing it by hand so I am making myself finish a few things first to free up a project box.

I don't know about starter - there sure is a lot of fabulous fabric in there! 

Can't wait!

...printing

A few weeks ago I joined the second round of the Handprinted fabric swap, I also participated in the first round of the swap but I don't think I have ever shared the packages I received so take this as thanks now!

On both occasions I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to have an excuse to print some things. After first learning screen printing at high school and then refreshing my skills in a class from Louise Snook at the Craft Show last year I think I should keep using the skills so I don't lose them.

The inspiration for the prints came from the (old and needing to be replaced!) ironing board cover.

I couldn't work out how to cleanly cut such small spots so mine are a little larger - cut with this great little craft  knife with a turning blade. I was really surprise how neat the edge of the circles were and how close I could get to staying on my drawn line.

Each fat quarter required two stencils - one for each colour printed on it. There are a few technical changes I would make on a future printing adventure but generally I'm pretty happy!

And I came up with these!

And in case you are interested this is what I have received in turn from Alli, Brandi, Katie and Kelley.

Thanks so much to them, and to Leslie for running it again.

...Beach Blanket Bundle

For the Sew Mama Sew Fat Quarter Idol

...solids at Spotlight

Have you seen the Homespun solids at Spotlight lately?

I ducked in during my lunchbreak at work yesterday to make use of a 10% off voucher and didn't find what I was looking for but did come across some solids that I picked up to complete a quick project.

And I was really pleasently surprised by the quality and what seems to be a new range of colours. And all for only $6:95 per metre locally.

The feel of them is so much better than they used to be and when I prewashed, as I do all fabric they didn't really run - even the red only gave the hot water a very pinkish tinge.

I still can't quite believe it!

Note: Colours featured Prima Homespun Crimson, Brima Homespun Bonnie Blue, Prima Homespun Apple, Prima Homespun Slate

...the pirate quilt

I finished this last weekend...finally. 


I say finally because this was cut out about the time I made my first two deliberate quilts almost two years ago. An earlier version of this quilt was the first I cut out and the first top I finished but the second quilt I finished. 

The fabric is a collection from Spotlight, the find that was featured in the catalogue and had a pattern sheet that went with it. The solids are all the Homespun range. It really is just a twin size square within square design. 

I made the original as a practice quilt before I started a baby quilt to give to a friend for her unborn child. The second, this one was made with the scraps (plus a few centimetres extra of one or two of the fabrics). That is right I had almost enough scraps to make another quilt. 

I machine quilted Mark II .25" each side of the seam lines of the larger block and the Xs in the smaller squares and rectangles. The original was quilted in much the same way, but by hand. 

The backing is one of the wide backings in a mottled grey, also from Spotlight. 

Now I just have to work out what to do with it. We don't need two the same in this house and I don't know any pirate mad little boys at the moment. Ideas?

... this hypothetical quilt may become reality.

Since I moved to Melbourne I have been thinking about taking a quilting class but have yet to find a curriculum that grabs me.


And as so often happens I stumbled across two things in close enough proximity that I thought...maybe?

Image from Ballarat Patchwork

This quilt is the content of a of a one day class at Ballarat Patchwork in August. Could a day trip to the country, maybe on the train be fun?


I love the idea of making it in a stack of colours a little like this, with the solid maybe being Bella Solids Feather?  

Image from Fabricworm

So I am wondering, have you ever taken a class? How was it? Did you learn anything? Was it fun? What is a train trip to Ballarat like? Any ideas about how I would get from the train station to the train and back again?

Fabric and this = a cool quilt

In the fast few weeks an uncomfortable realisation has dawned on me and taken hold in my brain, despite my fervent wishing that it wouldn't. That it simply wasn't true. But it is,  I know it is and there simply isn't anything I can do about it. 

I do feel a little silly lamenting on it in such dramatic fashion because there are so many other more serious things to worry about in the world but make me sad it does.

And this truth? I will never be able to make all the quilts I want to or design in my mind each day. I'll never try all the techniques and crafts that interest me and I will certainly never master even of the fraction of the ones I do. Not even if I learn to live forever and stop eating, sleeping, cooking, cleaning, working, talking to other people, living life basically.

None of which I am going to do by the way. And that is to say nothing about the cost of all that fabric and batting and thread (and that is just the one craft).

So I have put my mind to how I might reconcile myself with this truth. 

And this is what I have come up with. Every now and again, mostly when I have the pictures, time and inclination all at the same time I'll post a little inspiration, a virtual quilt. With a focus on published or publicly available patterns in case anyone has more time than I do and can turn it into a real quilt. 

Depending on the inspiration I might talk about the fabric, how I imagine I would quilt it and even the size or use I imagine for it. In short all the things I would do when making a real quilt except for the cutting and sewing. 

So without further ado my first virtual quilt. 

The Porthole

When I saw this pattern in Quilts Made Modern that I got on sale recently from Spotlight  

I could help but think of it made in this fabric from Robert Kaufman. 

Urban Zoologie by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman
image collated from Robert Kaufman

I would use the whales as the circles, a dark grey as the outlines and then different Poseidon Kona colour solids as the backgrounds from the colours in the whales. I would hand quilt it in perle cotton and echo each of the circles to reflect a ripple on the waters surface.  

I think it would make a great quilt for a young boy or girl or in the a summer holiday house on the bunk beds. A slightly different colourway for each of the brothers, sisters or cousins...


NB: I have spotted the fabric still available at The Oz Material Girls and Funky Fabrix in Australia.

Of prewashing and soap

Do you pre-wash?

Do you purchase and stack in your fabric storage area only to be removed for cutting then sewing?

Do you wash then starch?

Do you treat different fabrics differently based on the use (or stashing) you have in mind for it?

For the record I once washed and now I soak (using hot-ish water with no liquids or soaps so no need to rinse) except I don't do this for pre-cuts. But I do do it for batting. 

I line dry and then iron and store.

I feel a little guilty about all the water - but that is one of the reasons I now go down the soaking route.  

Why do I go to all this trouble? I want to remove as much of the manufacturing chemicals as possible. I want to test for colourfastness (and sometimes am extremely glad I did) . I want to preshrink - the crinkly look is not for me. It shocks me how grey the soaking water comes out after a soak (or how yellow for the batting). I don't know if it is normal chemicals or it is dust accumulated over the manufacturing, shipping and sitting on shelf . I do know I don't want it stitched into my sewing.   

The reason I don't go and add the starch back in is that I don't like the idea of adding back in a chemical after I have just gone to all the trouble and time of removing them. And if I iron it and cut carefully I can still get accurate pieces.

This is not the only way to to treat (or pre-treat) your fabric but it is the way I use right now.
What do you do? Why?

Fabric Shopping - Bali style

When I was in Bali recently I had a pretty minimal shopping list. Some Bali coffee and some batik tools.

I first learnt to batik in craft class at school and then developed them further when I was on exchange in an Indonesian school when I was fifteen. In the last year or so I have really been wanting to give it another try.

I already had a couple of  tjanting tools but I also wanted some with different sized tips and some stamps. I failed on the stamps but I did get the tools.

Also for good measure and because I am never likely to have the skill to make some of these designs I got some completed batik. These first three are from the markets in Ubud and are actually sarongs but are 100% cotton in a weight that approximates quilting weight and equal about two yards worth each.

 I also went to a standard local fabric store in the capital Denpasar.The journey there was interesting - we knew we were heading into the 'non-touristy' areas when all the billboards ceased to be printed in English and I was please to realise that I could still translate the majority of them. All those years in Indonesian class seem not to have been in vein!

I was able to stock up on 2-3 yards of each of the batik stamped fabrics below for about $3 per yard as well as 5 yards of linen with a great drape for the same price per yard.

All in all I would call that a successful fabric trip.

Although I am not at all sure what it will all become...