A Trio of Baby Quilts

At the beginning of this year my very good friend Claire and her husband Terry volunteered to paint the cladding on my house - wow, a fantastic offer which, of course, I accepted with alacrity. They refused to take any recompense for their efforts so when Claire told me they were expecting their very first grandchild I offered to make them a baby quilt. Claire's late Mum was a quilter and had made a quilt for each of her existing grandchildren so I knew the offer would be appreciated.

Claire told me they expectant parents were hoping for a boy so I started making a quilt using some of the patterns from the book "A Boy's Story" by Anni Downs. While that quilt was in progress Claire announced that another grandchild was in production (not twins, one daughter and one daughter in law). So I started on a girl's quilt using some printed fabric I have had for ages, on the assumption that it is more likely one might be a boy and the other a girl. Then Claire announce she thought they were both having girls - no scans mind you, just the gut feeling of the parents involved. Thus a third quilt was started, another for a girl adapted from a pattern publish in American Patchwork and Quilting's magazine Quilts and More.

I had plenty of time to make these quilts as the babies were not due until December and January and I finished both the girl's quilts. Then Claire told me the first grandchild had been born early and was a boy! Back to finishing the boy's quilt, which is why I have made a trio of baby quilts.Let's hope the January baby is a girl. Claire says she is fairly sure it is. I will let her choose which of the girl's quilts she wants. The first is called "A Bit of a Boy's Story", the second is "Little People" and the third is "Woven Marshmallow"

Thanks, Leah

The following post was supposed to appear last week, but blogger had a hissy fit and wouldn't let me load the picture. So here it is, finally!



I had a busy weekend and didn't get round to clearing my emaill until today. The following was in my inbox:


Congratulations!  I'm so excited to announce that you are a winner of the 9 by 12
Transformation Challenge!

Make sure to check out the Free Motion Quilting Project tomorrow (Sept 30th) to see your
quilt and description posted online, as well as news about a special package you can expect
in the mail in the next 2-3 weeks.

I hope you've enjoyed participating in this contest and I'm so happy to now include your quilt
in the Transformation Show Quilt that I will construct this fall and winter.  You really have
helped to make this contest a wonderful success and I sincerely thank you for entering and
participating!

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day

Wow! Thanks, Leah :-)

Crumbs, It's a Quilt!

I've been thinking about how to reduce my vast collection of scrap fabrics so I have been working on some scrap quilts. This is the first I have finished. It is made from crumb blocks and I have made so many of these I have another top pieced in exactly the same way ready to add borders to, and enough blocks for a third top. As you may guess, the stack of scraps doesn't look any smaller.

I had a terrible time quilting this. I used some cheaper thread on my Pffaf and it didn't like it at all. I got very cross at all the shredding that was going on. I stopped and re-threaded so many times I lost count. I tried everything, new needle, re-threading, change tension, clean the machine. It just didn't like it. The same thread worked fine on my Elna, which is okay but the Elna has a small throat space and that's why I bought the Pffaf. The good news is that the cause is probably a burr in the hook. The bad news is the cost of freight to get it fixed. The good news is that I quilted another quilt after this one with some Madeira Polyneon thread  using the Pffaf and I didn't have one breakage. So I guess it is quality thread for the quality machine!

The quilt is actually a bit darker than the photo suggests. The flash has washed it out a bit. I'm calling it "Broken Glass" I guess the others will be called Broken Glass II and III. Do you think this what they mean by 'working in a series'?

The Ribbon

After hearing of my prize win I decided I needed to travel to Hamilton to collect it in person and, of course, view the other quilts on show. They were of a very high standard and I am pleased to be in good company. Congratulations to all the other prize winners and to all those who had quilts selected. Heart-felt thanks also go to the AQNANZ (Aotearoa Quilters National Association of New Zealand) committee who all worked very hard to mount a great looking exhibition despite noen of them being resident in Hamilton.Thank you also to Anne Scott of New Zealand Quilter for the very generous prize book voucher to use in the Minerva bookshop. I am planning a trip to Wellington soon! My quilt looks great on a black background, don't you think?

Quilts Aotearoa was part of the Hamilton Craft and Quilt Show run by Expertise Events. We arrived about 15 minutes after the opening time on Saturday morning and there was only a small, fast moving, queue for tickets. I headed straight for the quilts (of course!) and there was hardly anybody looking at them at that time. It made it easy to really study the quilts and get photos. The crowds did grow later in the day but I am sure the $14 entry fee was a bit of a discouragement for some people.

Along with the quilt exhibition there was a fantastic Creative Fibre exhibition. This shawl made me want to get out my long unused knitting sticks. It was made by Pamela Strode of Te Awamutu and she spun the wool and knitted the shawl. It won Most Outstanding entry using more than 70 % merino. If it hadn't already sold I would have been very tempted to buy it myself. I guess I'll have to hunt out those sticks :-)

Exciting News

I've just had a call to tell me my quilt "Urban Stripe" has won Best Use of Colour at Quilts Aotearoa in Hamilton. Yippee!. This quilt was made for my son, Jacob, who has generously allowed me to 'keep' it for a while. It was exhibited at Symposium in Queenstown and was recently published as a pattern in the NZ Quilter magazine. I have a big smile on my face :-)

Well, this is a nice surprise :-)

Earlier in the year, spurred on by my friend Jo, I made this little quilt to enter The 9 by 12 Transformation Challenge on Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project blog. I was thrilled today to find I am one of the finalists of the competition and my little quilt (more pictures of the construction here) will be winging its way all the way to NC in USA.
 

I noticed that there are at least 2 other finalists from New Zealand (unfortunately, not all the links on The Transformation page are working) Congratulations to Rona Keith (from Auckland, I think) and Erilyn from the Manawatu and to all the other finalists, where ever you are.

Update: Congratulations also go to Catherine Parkinson from Auckland. Wow, Catherine has an awesome blog.

Treasures From Afar

I have a new homestay student, recently arrived from Germany. His mother sent me a wonderful gift parcel and look what is in it:

10 sweet pieces of fabric sourced in Germany, a retractable measuring tape key ring, a very dinky pincushion with attached scissors (I love it - the point of the scissors slides into the flap on the pincushion) and a card with a photo of some beautiful windows - great quilt inspiration. I also got a lovely book with photos of Hamburg. The fabrics are tied with the cutest ribbons. Thank you, Amke.

That Was Quick!

The Sunday before last I had a baby shower to attend. As usual I left it very late to start a quilt but on the Thursday evening I started this quilt and I finished sewing the binding on in the early hours of Sunday morning. I think that is a record for me (well it was a fairly simple construction, inspired by this quilt). The parents to be were thrilled to bits. I used some lovely flannel fabrics I had stashed away.

The 9 by 12 Transformation Challenge

My friend Jo encouraged me to join in on this on-line challenge being run by Leah Day of 365 Days of Free-motion Quilting blog. I think the blog has now been re-named as The Free Motion Quilting Project. The challenge is to make a small quilt (9" by 12") using a minimum of 5 of Leah's designs from the project, using the theme "Transformation".

I chose to use Radio Static, Chain of Pearls, Matrix Flow, Bed of Roses and Bubble Wand. Let me tell you I found it quite a challenge to get that many different designs into such a small space and still have them look recognizable.

I decided to combine the quilting I wanted to use with the Darned Quilts technique I learned in Dena Crain's class at Wellington Symposium.
These are the fabrics I chose:

I curvy strip pieced them:

Then I quilted the whole piece:

This is what the back looks like so you can see clearly the quilting designs I used:

Closeups of the back:
In the first from the bottom up I have used  Bubble Wand, a square meander, Matrix Flow, a mini Greek key and Radio Static

This next one shows, from bottom up, Bed of Roses, Chain of Pearls and some straight lines:

Continuing from the bottom up I then used a flower motif that was printed on the fabric, a leaf design I made up myself and I finished with Matrix at the top:

Here are some closeups of the front:
This section has Chain of Pearls, Bed of Roses and Radio Static

This has Matrix and the leaf I designed myself

 These ones are not Leah's designs. The flowers were just outlining the print of the fabric and on the stripe fabric I chose to do straight lines in the opposite direction

And what does the finished quilt look like?

It is called "Changes"

Our Local Exhibition

We had our local exhibition last weekend. I am feeling a bit 'pooped' and would love a sleep in. Roll on Saturday! For me it was a very successful weekend. I sold 3 quilts, two of them bed-sized:

The first one is called "A Mellow Tone". I won 12 fat quarters in the club raffle last year and, although they weren't really my colours, decided to make a quilt with them. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the finished quilt. Here is is layered ready for quilting:

 The second bed quilt I sold is called 'Whizzbang 2'. This was adapted from a pattern by Deanna Harris. I made it using my own hand dyed fabrics, the only fabric dying I have ever done. I quilted it all over with a greek key pattern which varied greatly in size as I progressed!

The third quilt I sold was the wall hanging I started in my last Symposium class with Dena Crain. I called it 'A Passionate Space'. This is the second quilt I have sold that was made using Dena's "darned quilts' technique.

 The nicest thing that happened was winning Judge's Choice for 'Poetry in Motion'. I made this quilt for Wellington Symposium. It didn't win any ribbons there but was hung beautifully. It was also accepted for the NANZQ show at the Hamilton Craft Fair in 2009. Here it is hanging in our club exhibition with its ribbon

 

Acceptances

I got home from work today to find 3 envelopes from the Queenstown Symposium committee. All 3 were acceptances for the quilts I entered for exhibition. Yippee! These are the 3 quilts I have entered. I have posted about the first before, but the other 2 have been hiding!

Leftover Tabasco Sauce


Urban Stripe



A Remarkable Impression

Remember this?

This quilt top had been hanging around for a long time. I had tried quilting it 3 times only to end up with puckering. We had a Chris Kenna workshop at our club last year and I was talking with her about the problem I was having. She suggested grid-basting it with soluble thread. So I did and it worked a treat. I was able to free-motion the whole thing with no puckering at all. It is weird, though how it looks so rippled when only parts of it are quilted. It is not until the quilting is finished that it lies flat. It is now called Left Over Tabasco Sauce
 

Here is a a close-up of the quilting:

I haven't been totally Idle . . .

I haven't really been totally idle over the 6 months since I last blogged. Really!

I had a lovely quilting time at my friend, Lorraine's place last weekend. I sewed a few crumb blocks together into this top and spent the rest of the time making more!

I love to sew crumb blocks when my brain won't cope with anything more demanding. I don't worry about matching or exact 1/4" seams or which way seams get pressed. I just sew. I find it really soothing and it usually warms me up to go onto something more demanding. This top, when it has had an accent border and a final border on it, is destined to become a community quilt. Pretty busy quilt top, eh?

A Memory of NZ

During the holidays one of my home stay boys returned home to Germany. He had been with me for six months and had been a real joy to have. Very outgoing and good company. He wanted something quilted to take home so, while he was on a 3 day holiday in Auckland before he left NZ, I made him this:

Needless to say he was visiting the sky tower on the day I made the quilt. It is from Gail Lawther's book "Glimpses of New Zealand". I bought this book when it first came out but this is the first time I have made anything from it. I started at 4 am (sleepless night in the middle of the holidays!!) drawing the pattern to full size. Then I went back to bed for a bit more shut-eye. I got up at about 8.30am, selected fabrics and started sewing it. It was finished and the binding was on, ready for hand stitching down, by 10pm that night! That is a pretty quick quilt - but I admit I had 3 days to myself so there was boiled eggs and toast soldiers for dinner that night.Altogether a perfect quilting day.

I highly recommend Gail's book. Apart from the subject matter, of which I am undoubtedly biased, the book is a sampler of many different quilting techniques in a manageable format. It would make a great series of tutorials for a group of newish quilters looking to learn non traditional techniques.

Press and Seal

Hi
Long time, no blog, no real excuse except life has been really busy.

I had a lovely 'day in the country' sewing day with Janice yesterday. I took along "Tabasco Sauce", the top I made oh, was it a couple of years ago?, from the left-over blocks I made for the Cotton On Quilters Banner Janice and I made for our Club. I finally got around to basting it up and was trying to decide how to quilt it. Janice recommended using Press and Seal to cover the quilt. I could then draw all over the Press and Seal to get an idea of how I want to section the quilting:

This is a way cool idea to audition quilting designs. Janice says NOT to sew through the Press and Seal. She says to just cut it apart to reveal the section to be worked on. Here are some close-ups:

 

Janice also gave me a quick lesson on zentangle quilting and here is her quick plan for quilting "Tabasco Sauce":

Now I am too late!

You may remember I blogged a wee while ago how I went to Stratford to see the National Association of New Zealand Quilters Illumination exhibition. This weekend was the first chance in February to get to see it. According to the literature it was on until 28 Feb. Alas the exhibition was taken down 3 days ago. Fortunately (I guess) I had telephoned the gallery to see if it was still on and they gave me the news that I had just missed it. Oh well, never mind.

I did still go through Stratford today because I had already decided to take my German international home stay student, along with 3 of his friends to New Plymouth (the idea was I would stop at the gallery on the way there - we stopped in Hawera instead for an ice cream).  We were going to visit a buthers shop we had heard about that sold German sausages. Alas, that shop had closed suddenly just before Christmas.

We weren't going to let that get us down either. The weather was perfect and the place was abuzz with the theme of Americana, classic cars and the Cliff Richards concert. I visited my friend Judy along with the fabric shops and the New Plymouth library. The kids went clothes shopping and loved it, way better than Wanganui according to them. They instantly demanded I rent a house so they could live there :-)  Yeah, right!

On the way back I had a good laugh as we passed a farm whose cows had very recently wandered to the milking shed which was close to the road, and another farm making sileage. The kids all pulled their tee shirts over their noses. Good rural smells I told them.

Off it goes - without the label!

I did finish quilting this quilt a couple of weeks ago but since school started I have had little time to sit at the computer to make a post (well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). He, of Honey Bunch fame, moved on Sunday to his new flat for his second year at Uni.This quilt was supposed to be finished a whole year ago, ready fall the Halls of Residence. Well, only a year late. At least I got it done for the new flat:-)
It is called 'City Slicker'

The only trouble was I forgot to sew a label on it and when I remembered I ran out of time.I hope he looks after it!

The colour above isn't quite true. This close up of the quilting is better:

I must have been on holiday for too long!

Yesterday I took Frances to Stratford to see the NANZQ Illumination Quilts exhibition in the Percy Thompson Gallery. You may remember I had a this quilt accepted into this touring exhibition and it has sold.
We had a nice stop in Hawera where we visited the Cinnamon Lodge quilt shop (hope I got the name right) where I found some delicious fabric that just had to come home with me. We had a lovely morning tea at the Little Grans cafe that was open. Well I had coffee of course, and so did Frances so I guess it was morning coffee, not morning tea. I spied some lovely home-made looking custard squares and was ready to put one on my plate when I glanced along the cabinet and saw they also had Eccles cakes. What does a girl choose when there are two old fashioned favourites vying for her attention?*

Why have I been on holiday for too long? Because when we got to the gallery in Stratford there were no quilts! The gallery assistant didn't know anything about any quilts. Huh? I must have got it wrong. Off I go to find a magazine shop so I can check the entry in NZ Quilter. The exhibition doesn't start until 29 January. Well doh, I know it is January but I have no idea what the actual date is, I'm on holiday!

I'm not sure why the gallery assistant didn't know the exhibition is starting in a week's time. I will have to phone the gallery to check that it is actually going to be on.

To save a bit on the disappointed feeling we found the shop in Stratford which sells quilting fabric, quite a bit of it. I didn't know Stratford had a quilt shop. It is called In Stitches. Well, they sell other sewing supplies as well but they had a good selection of fabric and I got some great bargain priced fat quarters and some lovely paisley fabric in a dark green and red with caramel combination. Maudette, the owner, was very friendly and helpful, especially considering we were there right at closing time and stayed for about half and hour or so!


*She gets both and eats half of each one so that she can take the other half of each cake for a picnic lunch at school the next day, where she is going to start preparing for the new school year. By the way, what ever happened to Battenburg cake, no one makes that old fashioned cake any more do they?

My New Best Friend

Hello, My name is Helen and I am a Blogger. It has been 36 days since my last blog . . . Oh dear, I think I should rename myself as the Monthly Blogger!

During the summer holidays I have been having a nice and relaxed time. I have been spring cleaning and sewing and quilting and spring cleaning and moving furniture around and spring cleaning and sorting the stash and cleaning and tidying and cleaning and . . . you get the picture.

Anyway, I wanted to show you my new best friend (which I have had since May of last year but have only just got around to blog about) and it is my new Sew Ezi table. These little tables are just fantastic and I wish I had bought one years ago. I had seen them at the first Hamilton Quilt and Craft Fair but didn't think they looked all that sturdy and the price seemed expensive for a small table. Was I wrong? Way wrong!

You have to understand that I have an Elna 6005 which does not come with any kind of flat bed, just a little box that slips over the free- arm which holds attachments for the machine. For most purposes this is okay, except not for quilting. It is definitely not a flat surface. At Wellington Symposium last year I was in Gloria Loughman's class and she was using one. To see it being used as opposed to just looking at it convinced me to get one. Using the Symposium Special I got my Sew Ezi table with a free accessory tray.

Let me tell you it has been a life-defining moment sewing with this table. Now that I have my machine flush with the table the quilting is so much easier, and no, the table does not rock. It is very sturdy, very portable and worth every penny. It has even made piecing so much easier having more room at the sewing level. I love the clear perspex insert and I have put the accessories I use most often into a little box which sits underneath the insert. Because I can see it I am not loosing the quarter inch foot, the free motion foot, the walking foot or the screw driver (most important, that bit.) The little circular indent on the front right hand side holds a glass of wine perfectly (vbg) There is plenty of room underneath for my legs and feet and I can sit directly in front of the needle. You couldn't give me a Horn cabinet now if you tried (well, hang on a minute, I might have to think that one through.) But seriously, these tables are so great I bought my friend Frances one for Christmas. She had bought me my Featherweight machine and I thought a substantial gift in return seemed appropriate at some stage.

UPDATE: I forgot to say that the price compares very favourably with any Horn cabinet I have seen advertised, about a quarter of the price There are no doors to get in the way when hefting a quilt around and the table is light and easy to move if I need to pull it out to get to the stuff that is stored in underneath.

Here is my machine nestled in its new home. Look how much flat surface I have:
You know the best thing I like about this table? See the hole which is the carry handle on the left hand side? It is the perfect distance, an arm's length away, for dropping cut-off threads into*. So I put a plastic bucket underneath to catch the threads. Now I have a lot less mess to clean up.

In the next picture I'm quilting a quilt for my son to take flatting next month. I hope to have it finished by the end of the week. You can see the yellow bucket underneath. Way to go!



* these threads are called 'orts' according the Southern Cross Quilters Yahoo group postings, a word I have never heard of. So I looked it up in my trusty old Concise Oxford Dictionary. The word ort, usually used in the plural orts, means refuse or scraps or leavings and dates back to the 15th century. You learn something new every day.

Twins!

My friend Ruth turned up the other night with this little baby (on the left) which is exactly like my little baby (on the right). We think they are the exact same model since both have the light switch in the exact same position and both have the Singer 50th commemoration plaque on the front. The code number on the bottom starts with different letter though. Ruth hadn't had time to search on the net for the year of her machine. Of my Friday night group 5 of us now have these little Featherweights. We shall have to have a light-as-air sew-in!