"Oh Beehave" - October Block

I am participating in my first ever quilting bee; "Oh Beehave" through the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild. Making the blocks is a little nervewracking, but here's my block for October, which is for Esther:

Esther asked for a 10.5" block with a 6 inch central square made of geometrical shapes, then a solid brown border and then an outside scrappy border of a width of your choosing.

Festival of Quilts: Quilt as you go talk

The second talk I attended at the festival of quilts was about quilting your quilt in sections by Marti Michell. I decided to attend this talk because although I've heard of some of the methods and even read about some of them. I was still a little confused about how exactly it works and the different ways to do it. So, I thought attending a talk and seeing examples in person would hopefully make it all a bit clearer. Thankfully that was the case, and I learnt about a number of different methods to quilt in sections.

The first method was a "7 layer seam" method, where you join the quilted sections together adding in an additional 'joining strip', which is kind of like a binding that covers the join on the back of the quilt.

The second method was a "5 layer seam", which you can use if one of the edges you're joining has no quilting past the 1/4 inch seam allowance. This kind of join leaves you with a single seam line on the back (rather than a strip like in the previous method) which could just look like a pieced back.

The third method we learnt about was one you could use if you quilt has a large centre panel and then borders around the edge. Basically you make the centre panel and quilt it, and then she showed us a method to attach the borders and the batting for the Borders at the same time in a way so you can hardly tell that it wasn't all done as one big quilt. She called this method "border control"

The last method we learnt about was a "low fat" method, which you can use to quilt a quilt where you've already assembled the entire quilt top but don't want to have to try and fit the whole thing under the throat of the machine. Basically in this method you lay out the whole quilt to baste it but you only baste a strip down the middle (she used the middle third as an example but I guess you could do more strips than that depending on the size of your quilt). After basting the middle you cut off the batting from the un-basted sections and quilt the middle. This means you're only having to fit the top and back fabric in the machine throat and not the batting as well, which should make it more manageable. She then told us some ways of re-joining the batting so you can quilt the outside sections.

If you want to learn more about these methods Marti talked about, they're all detailed in her book.

MMQG members: I'm planning on having a go at little versions of these techniques before I forget what she told us so if there's interest I can try and show you at a future sit and sew day.

Festival of Quilts: Favourite Quilts: Part 1

I have uploaded photos from the festival of quilts and added the information about them in the captions. You can look through them here. I will also be posting some of my favourite quilts from the festival here on my blog (click for bigger pictures and more info about the quilts).

First up: impressive piecing.

Striated Stars by Rebecca Collins:

Audaciously Embedded (in spite of my better judgement) by Alison Davies:

Life in a Kaleidoscopic World by Solvi Lorentzen Krokeide:

Punto Optico by Manoli Lozano:

Winter Reflection by Susan Carr:

I'll post some more of my favourites later.

Festival of Quilts: Amy Butler Talk

The first of the talks I attended at the festival of quilts was "Inspirations with Amy Butler". I really enjoyed this session. I didn't know much about her background before the talk, so it was interesting to learn about the structure of her company and how the different things she makes come about.

Her company only has a few employees, which seems amazing considering how much exposure she has within the sewing world. She also has creative control over all of her designs, with all the fabrics and patterns etc being her design, and her staff being there to provide technical support to get things done.

She also works very closely with her husband, who is heavily involved with the business and by the sounds of it is the driving force behind most of not all of the photo shoots of her stuff.

She also gave us a sneak peek at some photos and videos of her newest stuff that will be released later this year.

While I didn't come out of this talk with any knowledge of any new skills or anything like that, it was a very enjoyable and informative hour and if you're somewhere and Amy butler is speaking I highly recommend attending as shes a fantastic speaker.

New York Fabric

When I posted about my fabric shopping trip in New York before, I promised that I would post what I bought once I got home - well now I'm home and I'm delivering on that promise. I only bought three pieces of fabric, and all from the same store - Metro Fabrics (Suite 908, 265 West 37th St).

The first piece is a printed cotton, which I will probably make into a flared gored skirt (the same pattern as this one)

The second is slightly stretchy, but I don't know exactly what the type of fabric is called. It's the same kind of fabric as this dress.

And the last I saw and just couldn't resist, the patches you can see are actually pieced together bits of fabric - ready made patchwork! I have no idea what I'm going to make out of it - most likely a "cheater quilt", but if inspiration strikes maybe something else

While I was there, the delightful Kashi was very patient with me just looking around, and very helpful suggesting things to look at that he thought I would like, so we snapped a quick pic before I left!

New York state of mind

I have discovered that fabric shopping in Melbourne and fabric shopping in New York require two completely different mindsets. (this is fabric shopping for garments that I'm talking about, i haven't done any quilt fabric shopping in New York)

Fabric shopping in Melbourne requires having a vague idea of what patterns are available, then going to the fabric store(s) and looking at what's there and deciding what to make once you see what fabric is available.

Fabric shopping in New York on the other hand is the exact opposite. You need to decide exactly what you want before you go and then when you get to the store you tell them exactly what you're looking for and chances are they'll have it. Or if the first store you try doesn't one of the six thousand other stores will!

The problem with my fabric shopping last week in New York was that I didn't think of this and started my day in a Melbourne fabric shopping state of mind, which I quickly discovered wasn't compatible with New York fabric stores!

Thankfully I got over that problem pretty quickly and bought some fabric and some other bits and pieces. Sadly as I'm posting this from my iPhone I can't upload pictures of what I got, but I will once I get home to Melbourne the end of next week.

Hexy Progress

My trip is advancing at a scary speed, the main holiday part is over and I'm flying to the US today for a conference (and then three more days of holiday in New York). Since leaving my Gran's house last week I've been having a great time catching up with friends; one night in Bristol and then a week in Birmingham.

I haven't forgotten that I promised you updates from the festival of quilts, and you will get them once I have more reliable computer access and thus the means to post photos. However, something I have been plodding along with (aided by my new pouch for them) is my hexagons. A fair few done on train and coach journeys, and some more done quietly in front of the tv, I'm amassing quite a few hexagon flowers now. 25 down and a hundred or so to go, and then I need to get some pale green solid to add borders around the flowers. It's a good job that I'm still enjoying the process!!

Hexagon Holder Pouch

I've been working my paper pieced hexagons on my travels and decided that I needed something better to store it all in than the zip-lock bags that I've been using. So, while I was staying with my Gran I made a pouch to hold them all in.

I used some lovely japanese fabric and some matching silk for a bit of luxury. I added a closure of two buttons and some ribbon, a la Aneela's pouch

On the inside I have a few different sized smaller pockets to hold papers, fabric and basted hexes, two big pockets the size of the pouch to hold completed flowers or other bits, a pocket for my snippers, and some felt for storing pins and needles.

I've used it a couple of times so far and so far it's great! I just need to get some smaller rolls of thread, or try using thread on bobbins that I saw suggested somewhere (I can't remember where, sorry) so that I can store thread in there too.

New Fabric - Thankyou Granny!

My gran is incredibly generous, and while I was staying with her she instructed me to choose some fabric that I like and that she would give it to me. And so, here is the fabric that I chose:

Some lovely navy blue japanese fabric (the third one along has a heap of different prints on the same piece of fabric):

Some gorgeous japanese prints, and some coordinating silks:

Also, not pictured, I have some lovely pink/purple/blue japanese charm squares.

These three pieces of Liberty fabric. These will become two dresses. The two blue ones are big enough pieces for dresses, so I will be thinking of what pattern to use for this. Any suggestions pattern more than welcome:

And some smaller pieces of these Liberty Fabrics which will be made into a quilt:

Lastly, this piece of fabric, which has more drape than quilting fabric and i'm not sure exactly what it is. It's going to become an elastic waisted skirt:

So thanks again for your generosity Granny! I look forward to sewing with it all!

Incase what I already showed you wasn't enough...

I'm sure you'll remember the Liberty fabric that I showed you the other day. Well we have a confession to make... we found some more!

Above is what more we found, below is all of it:

And all of it laid out:

And yeah, I know you're all turning green with envy, that's why I'm posting it ;) We all love a little bit of fabric pron don't we! Sadly the fabric's not mine so I'm green with the rest of you... well that's a lie, a little bit of it is now mine :) hehe! I also have had some inspiration about what to do with it, so stay tuned!!!