Archive of ‘Party’ category
If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen a few photos on the weekend of the Modern Quilt Show in Berry, New South Wales (check out #modernquiltshowau) It was an amazing day out!! Prepare yourself for gushiness 
My quilt, “Hues of the South Pacific” hanging at the Modern Quilt Show in Berry.
This is only the second time I have had my work on display and was the first time that this show had run. It was AMAZING to see so many beautiful, modern quilts all together in one place. The place was buzzing, or at least I was (car sickness induced!) and I nearly peed my pants when I turned around and nearly ran into MolliSparkles (who won best in show) and the lovely Mr Sparkles.
Me and Molli
Penny Poppleton snuck around the corner a moment later and there I found myself with a bunch of amazing modern, Aussie quilters. Seriously, check out my hysterical grin, I was on cloud nine! Meeting Penny was surreal, finally she is a three dimensional person in my memory, rather than an online friend that I think I connect well with. I really wish we had days together rather than minutes, I look forward to meeting again, I’m keen to check out her frame and talk more about it and all things quilty!
L-R: MolliSparkles, Penny Poppleton, Procrasticraft, Me and Scrappy Quilts.
I was lucky enough to travel down to the show with a group of awesome Canberra quilters and spend the day with them. Our youngest road tripper won Best in Show in the Children’s category which was fantastic and possible made up for the constant talking from the old ladies in the car. (I did tell her that all quilters talk that much, not just us!)
Canberra Modern Quilters hit the road!
Berry itself is a lovely town, but I didn’t get any pics of that! I can share with you some gorgeous fabric I bought though… I had a ball chatting to the lovely Kate of Kate Quilts, her fabric selection was divine and had Molli and I completely distracted from a very meaningful conversation. I’m not sure what happened but we went from, “must pursue happiness, quilting and greater meaning in life” to complete silence for at least five minutes whilst we put together our bundles. I’m thinking of making a triangle quilt with mine <3
From Kate Quilts
I also met the lovely Kim of Simpson and Scarlett (her website is under construction but she has a FB page here) who had a great selection of fabric and totally tempted me with her bundles of Modern Domestic. She saw me coming and offered to break her bundle which was very kind and I ended up with these pretties. I went for fat eights as I have lots of pinks, but seriously, her stall was wonderful!
From Simpson and Scarlett
The very funky and talented Kathy of Material Obsession gave away a number of her books as lucky door prizes and this little red hen scored some candy! To be honest I don’t buy quilting books anymore, I’m on too tight a budget and I don’t make quilts to a pattern, so it was WONDERFUL to be given a beautiful quilt book. I would love to paw over her earlier books and encourage you to check them out if you have a chance, she has a great eye for design and colour. She also has great hair! (One notices these things when one is desperate for a haircut…)
I’m so glad that I made it to the Modern Quilt Show and met so many inspiring people and kindred spirits! It has left me really excited about QuiltCon (yes, I’ll be there! I’ve booked my flights) and looking forward to the second Australian Modern Quilt Show.
***August is a month of celebrations for Pretty Bobbins. It is my two year blogiversary and two of my children have birthdays this month. There will be a giveaway for each of these events, you will find the first giveaway at the bottom of this post.***
Back in April I was Queen Bee for Wombat Stew, a paper piecing bee. I struggled with a theme from the beginning, I really wasn’t sure that ‘celebrate’ would work. I put together an inspiration board and by the time my month rolled around I hadn’t thought of anything better so I decided to go for it. I asked the girls to make blocks of any size to fit the theme ‘celebrate’. I planned to make a wall quilt to hang every time we have a family celebration. I also like the challenge of making a quilt from different sized blocks. I asked the girls to stick to fun, bright and relatively gender neutral colours (so pink is OK but not all pink). You can see some progress shots here. Today it’s all about the big reveal! (And if you really like the patterns you should keep reading right to the end *HINT HINT*)
Celebrate – a paper pieced quilt
I LOVE this quilt! My kids love this quilt and August is a month of celebrations so as soon as I buy some dowel it is going on the wall I quilted the heck out of the quilt and had soooo much fun doing so! You can see the quilting better on the back. It measures 37″ x 37″ and was put together and quilted with Aurifil threads by me on my Bernina 440. Full credit to each of the bee members below <3
Celebrate – quilting details on back
I had my own little party quilting with a rainbow of Aurifil 50 wt threads (really, what’s a party without Aurifil? Alex seems to be everywhere if you follow him on Facebook LOL). I used 2000 on the cream/off white areas and I love how they sparkle. Can you see the word PARTY popping out in Kristy’s party hat blocks (Kristy of Quiet Play designed most of these blocks, isn’t she AMAZING???)?
Party hats by Kristy
Marieka baked me a delicious cake. I was really unsure of how to quilt this block but really happy with how it turned out. My icing is never that neat LOL There is enough cake here for everyone, LOVE!
Tiered cake by Marieka
I had a lot of fun playing with Alyce’s pom poms (and I’m sorry, I had to make that joke LOL). She very cleverly used a flying geese pattern, you can see her tutorial here. I’m still considering adding a few beads to the pom poms but for now I’m sticking to the star in the middle (and yes, more micro-stippling there). Aren’t they fun?!
Pom Poms by Alyce
Jane’s block is immediately apparent to Australian’s but some of my readers may be wondering what it is. This is an absolute classic and staple of children’s birthday parties. Known as “fairy bread” it is sliced white bread, spread with butter and then covered in sprinkles. Jane obviously took a bite out whilst piecing and left her party blower behind as evidence 
Fairybread by Jane
Fiona’s cups (pattern by Ayumi of Pink Penguin fame) had a real retro feel so I quilted the wall paper to enhance this vibe. Possibly better seen from the back, but aren’t they the cutest drinks ever? (There is a fourth block, you can see it in the larger photos)
Paper Pieced cups by Fiona (pattern by Ayumi Mills)
What party would be complete without bunting? The adorable Lara (she is completely adorable, you should check out her instagram – luellabella) made me rainbow bunting. LOVE! I went a little nuts and quilted pebbles with each dot being inside a pebble.
Rainbow bunting by Lara
Whilst the wonderful Ms Midge wasn’t in round one of Wombat Stew she decided to join the party early and brought the candles. Can you believe she tried to tell us she was a novice paper piece-er when we asked her to join us????
Candles by Ms Midge
And whilst we’re on the topic of Ms Midge, she sent me the cutest scrap EVER! I LOVE this fairy and I quilted her in a micro version of the the FMQ design that I used on my daughter’s quilt. I’ve saved the last skerrik of this scrap and plan to make my daughter a cushion with it. Thank you Midge xx
Cutest fairy scrap EVER complete with micro quilting
I totally got my FMQ on and micro-stippled this fantastic cupcake print (did I mention the girls sent the most amazing scraps with their blocks?!).
scrap love from the Wombats
I think every block/print features a different FMQ design. I must admit I went a little crazy quilting around each candle (print in the bottom right of the above photo) this scrap is only 1.5″ x 4.25″. I was so impressed with the affect that I then quilted around the jellybeans and balloons too LOL
Celebrate paper pieced quilt
I added in some three dimensional bunting down the side (left over from another project) and at the suggestion from a friend quilted words underneath (sing, dance, encore, cake, secret, surprise, kiss). The idea being that the birthday person must choose an activity to complete
You gotta dance! (then shout hooray)
Well done if you’ve read this far! Possibly my favourite part of quilting this beast is the words in the border. I used 12wt Aurifil (2250) for top thread and the same colour in 50wt on my bobbin. The stitches are perfect (I suggest going slow and smoothly and dropping your top tension a few notches). Can you believe that I didn’t mark the words first? It was all done free hand and I’m so pleased that it filled the borders perfectly and looks rather neat YAY for machine quilting with Aurifil 12wt. I will be doing this again and again and again <3
FMQ writing in 12wt Aurifil in the border, woohoo!
Did I mention that it was worth reading to the end? Well, the fabulous Kristy of Quiet Play who designed most of these patterns has come to the party with a giveaway of most of the patterns seen in this quilt! Thank you Kristy xx I highly recommend that you give her patterns a go if you’re thinking of trying out paper piecing. I’ve made quite a few of them and they’re always easy to follow and very well designed. You can find her shop here on Craftsy.
Pattern giveaway thanks to Quiet Play
All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment letting me know that you follow both Pretty Bobbins and Quiet Play blogs. (Head over to Quiet Play and follow Kristy here.) You can have an additional entry if you follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Flickr, just leave me a comment letting me know You have a chance to win a bundle of paper pieced patterns by Kristy of Quiet Play as seen in the collage above (bunting, candles, hat and cupcake). The giveaway will close at midnight 18th August Australian Eastern Standard time (google Sydney time).
***This giveaway is closed***
Bravo if you made it to the end. What a mammoth post! I’m taking my celebration to the Paper Piecing Party at Quiet Play and TGIFF at Bedtime Quilting.
My main work in progress this week has been my “Celebrate” quilt made from blocks put together by the wonderful wombat stew girls (Fiona, Midge, Alyce, Kristy, Jane, Lara, Marieka). I was the last Queen in the first round of our paper piecing bee and I really wasn’t sure if my theme would work. I selected “celebrate” and asked the girls to make a block of any size that met this theme. I put together a pinterest board to inspire them and explained that I wanted to turn their blocks into a wall quilt that would hang in our home whenever we had cause to celebrate. The girls outdid themselves! This week I put all of the blocks on the design wall.
Paper Pieced Celebrate blocks on my design wall
I had asked the girls to please send me some scraps of the prints that they used in their blocks. They are such generous friends and they sent me a stack of scrap love including some wonderful novelty prints that were just perfect!
The Rainbow I Spy quilt was my first go at putting together random sized blocks. I’m much better at it now. I’ve learnt to work in sections, building up blocks until the sections match in either width or height and then joining them together
Turning different shaped blocks into sections
I was so excited with the finished top. I LOVE it and my kids do too!
Paper Pieced Celebrate Quilt top
I was having so much fun that I found it really hard to stop and auditioned a range of borders including these great FQs that Jane sent.
Trialing borders
I asked the girls for honest feedback and they told me it was too busy (they were right!) so I auditioned every low value print in my stash to create a scrappy border.
Possible low value border
Thankfully my brain kicked in and I realised that a pale sketch border would be perfect and allow me to have some fun quilting.
Celebrate quilt basted
So now all I have to do is find the time to quilt this beauty. August is birthday month in our house and I really wanted to have it ready to hang for the month. I’m guessing it will be a day or two late
I’m linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
First up, I have to mention that Quokka Quilts are having an AMAZING giveaway and you have to go over and enter. (And yes, this blog post counts as an entry for me, but dammit, that fabric is AH MAZE ING *yells Oprah style*.) Run over there right now, you won’t regret it! Once you’ve put yourself in the running for some Storyboek II (I know! EXCITING!) don’t forget about my modest giveaway of six of my favourite fat quarters, you still have a couple of days to enter Spread the word, only 27 entries so far, so still a great chance at winning! My giveaway is now closed.
The giveaways don’t stop there! It’s like Christmas has come early this year! Make sure you pop over and visit Fiona at Finding Fifth, she is giving away a charm pack of Summersville. The lovely Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts is giving away some gorgeous Kokka Matrushka fabric and a gift voucher to her etsy shop (yummy Japanese fabrics!). Kristy at Quiet Play (I love the name of her blog by the way!) is giving away a moda Pure charm pack and 4 of her paper pieced patterns.
Moving right along… What have I been up to this week?
Birthday celebrations.
My middle Mr turned four and Little Miss turned two. Mr 4 got two cakes and the most elaborate gift to date. He got two cakes as his party was on a week day so we had a second evening celebration on the weekend. Ah look, I’ll tell you the truth, it’s been a tough year and I just wanted my kid to be happy, so I threw him two parties and bought him a ridiculously expensive gift. Mother guilt *sigh*. He has been playing with the castle non-stop and we haven’t had a request for TV since he got it, so that is money well spent in my opinion (so far!)
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| All tuckered out from partying |
After all the partying I finally got back into sewing on Monday this week (let’s not discuss Mr 4′s birthday quilt WIP, it is still unbound…) I decided instead to try my hand at some improv piecing.
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| Got too focused on those pretty owls. How I want to use them! |
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| Take 2, some bits here are just laid on not pieced. |
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| Slightly different, still not quite right. |
It has been two days of love-hate with this wall quilt. It was destined to for a brand new baby girl and as much as I still love it (at this point in time) I am not sure that it is right for a baby. So the baby girl will get something much more baby-like and Mr Husband will get this for his office wall (he has been bugging me for a wall quilt since he saw my Colour Therapy quilt). It all works out beautifully, Father’s Day is this weekend in Australia so I can aim (and most likely miss) for that. This way I don’t feel like I’ve wasted two days of sewing time (and when I say 2 days, that is mixed in with looking after a grumpy, sick two year old along with the usual school runs, sick Husband, providing food, etc). Win-win This is where I’m currently at.
That sun has been a right pain. I like it now but gee I have spent some time cutting, sewing and unpicking. To add in the extra rays I had to do some total fudging, but hey, I’m making it up as I go along and learning on the way, so that’s OK In fact, I find myself moving more and more toward quilting and away from dressmaking as I love the challenges that quilting can present.
So there you go, one stubborn WIP that is slowly coming together, one that I’m not going to talk about and one that I need to start as this beautiful baby girl will be a week old tomorrow.
I’m linking up with Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
Am I the only person who falls in love with every single thing they make? I have two items for sale in an online market night tonight and I am so proud of what I’ve made. What do you think?
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| Perfect for a slumber party with your favourite dolly! |
The theme of the market night is “Celebrate/Party” as it is part of the first birthday celebrations for The Sewing Library (TSL), an online Facebook group that is all about sewing. I’ve mentioned TSL before and I really do enjoy being part of the group, if you sew I recommend you head on over, you can find TSL here on Facebook and their new blog here.
My second item for the market night is just as cute, perfect for baking birthday cakes
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| Who could resist cupcake potholders? |
I’m not going to go all advertorial on you, but if you’re interested in these items or any of the other gorgeous handmade goodies on offer, head on over to The Sewing Library Noticeboard. The market starts at 7pm AEST tonight, 2 May and all details are in the Market Album.
Mr 2 recently turned 3. Like a lot of kids he spent most of the last twelve months perusing my birthday cake books trying to select the cake that he wanted for his third birthday. He chose a sword cake and we had the following conversation countless times in the lead up to his party:
“I’m having a sword party!”
“You can’t have a sword party, you can have a sword cake. How about a pirate party? Pirate’s have swords.”
“… … …”
“Mummy can make you some really cool pirate things!”
“… I want a sword cake.”
“OK, let’s have a pirate party with a sword cake.”
Ah, clever Mummy I hear you say. Well, true to my word I planned a pirate party complete with a sword cake
pirate ninja-breadmen
pirate vests for the boys and gold skirts for the girls (I ran out of maroon fabric and got creative with some gold satin pillow cases that I have been wanting to upcycle) along with pirate hats and telescopes (which turned into swords within the first five minutes!).
We had planned a treasure hunt complete with pirate maps in the garden, but it rained all day, so instead we played a fishing game. We held up a sheet across a doorway and the kids had to go fishing asking, “Mr Fishy, Mr Fishy what do you have for me?”. Mr Fishy would give them a funny surprise (anything you can hook on a plastic fishing rod; think whisk, socks, baby toys) but they all ended up with their bag party favours. The kids LOVED this game and I highly recommend it. We also played the classic “Musical Statues” and I set out a load of craft supplies and pirate themed pictures which allowed the kids to have some quiet time when needed.
The party was a sucess and I really enjoyed making the kid’s outfits. The pirate vests were based on a size 5 t-shirt, with a gold sash attached at the waist (slightly gathered to give shape), gold buttons (I LURVE making my own buttons!) and a pirate skull and crossed swords appliqued on. The hats and telescopes were made from black cardboard with pirate skull and crossed swords glued on. Let me know if you want more details on the costumes, they were really quick and easy to make. My enthusiasm was only slightly dampened when the birthday boy refused to put his costume on because he was having a sword party, not a pirate party! Nothing like being outsmarted by a three year old!
