Archive of ‘Sewing Online’ category
It’s Thursday and it’s time to get your quilt on! Quite literally, it’s FREEZING here in Canberra!!
Thank you to those of you who noticed that I’ve been quiet. I have a thyroid anti-immune disease and it is playing up at the moment. Whilst I’m mostly fine, the last couple of weeks I had a good day followed by a bad day. Thankfully the fatigue and general unwellness that my mean old thyroid brings, seems to be on the way out 
I’m off to a Guild meeting tonight (yay!) unlike last Thursday when I was half comatose on the sofa and the FABULOUS Ms Midge offered to step in at the last minute and host I Quilt for me. Yay for awesome, quilty friends!! Thank you Midge xxx
This week I’m featuring another fabulous quilty lady, Karen of Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals.
Image used with permission by Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals
Karen wrote the most marvelous post last week full of FANTASTIC quilting tips! She quilts on a Janome Horizon with Aurifil thread and has some advice specific to her machine as well as some really good, general quilting advice. Karen doesn’t drop her feed-dogs, rather she covers them, she also uses a bobbin genie and supreme slider. With my Bernina I feel the extension table is smooth enough for quilting but I’ve heard great things about supreme sliders. Karen also uses Machinger gloves which I find to be excellent for quilting on the domestic machine. Thanks for the tips Karen!!
Image used with permission by Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals
While you’re over there make sure you check out her work, she is a really talented quilter and I love that she shared her top tips with us last week. That’s what I wanted I Quilt to be all about; sharing the process so that we can all improve our quilting <3
Image used with permission from Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals
Speaking of sharing the quilty love, this evening on Instagram I happened across an awesome hashtag: #machinequiltingtips
This advice is aimed at longarmers and there is some FANTASTIC advice there!!! Check it out if you’re a longarm quilter, please share your tips and support the wonderful online community that we have <3 My top tip for both longarm and domestic quilting is to relax and not worry about perfection. Closely followed by my second top tip which is to never sew/quilt when tired! 
Speaking of this online community… I reached a big milestone on Instagram this week and will be celebrating with a giveaway over the next few days. If you’re not on Instagram, head on over, if you are, keep your eyes peeled The giveaway will be limited to Instagram (don’t worry, I’ll have an awesome August giveaway here on the blog) because it’s all about celebrating the great IG community I’ve pulled out some fabric and I’m thinking of doing a stripy, binding bundle <3 As much as we all love fat quarter bundles, I was thinking of some WoF stripey prints that can be used for binding. Sound good?
Now it’s your turn to get quilty! Link up your quilting process, visit three other linkers and share the quilt love <3
An InLinkz Link-up
It’s Thursday, yay! It’s almost the weekend 
I hope you’ve got your quilt on and you’re ready to link up to this week’s I Quilt party. This week I’m talking about how I quilt online. But before I get started I want to feature the amazingly talented Christa of Christa Quilts!
“Spiraling Out of Control” image used with permission by Christa Quilts
Christa has her own fabric shop so I’m terribly jealous from the outset She is also a talented and successful quilter and her blog is the place to go if you’re seeking inspiration, insights and how-tos. I’m sure you all know Christa, but if you don’t, please pop over and check out her work and say hi!
“Modern X” image used with permission by Christa Quilts
Last week Christa shared some binding tips (and y’all know how much I love that part of the process!). I love Christa’s modern Christmas trees series, you can find the main post here, but definitely check out the posts on the quilting, it’s super impressive!!
“Modern Trees“, image used with permission by Christa Quilts
I love the crisp, sharp lines that she tends to favour and I adore her quilting, especially as she is a real sharer of process, something that this linky party is ALL about!
This week I wanted to talk about being an online quilter. You may be aware of the Blogger’s Quilt Festival run by Amy of Amy’s Creative Side. If you haven’t participated before or you’re nervous about being “good enough” I strongly encourage you to throw caution to the wind and just jump in! I’ve found some of my favourite bloggers through the festival (I’m looking at you Susan of Canadian Abroad) and aside from anything else, it is such a visual feast!
You’d be surprised to hear that I don’t spend as much time online as I used to but I still LOVE all the fun, creative blogger things happening out there. This week I came across “me made May” on Instagram (check out #mmm14 and #memademay) which is all about wearing clothing in May that you’ve made yourself. Inspired to join in and make myself a fabulous outfit (I firmly believe that if you feel good in what you’re wearing and love how you look, you can conquer the world) I got busy last night and stitched up a tova tunic. I’ll post about it later in the week, but you can see a sneak peek
Pink and yellow giraffes! Love my new tova tunic!
Some of my other favourite online quilting activities are Work in Progress Wednesday, Fresh Sewing Day and TGIFF. Please, please, please add your favourite online quilty/creative/stitchy link ups/activities below. If a hashtag inspired me to sew a fabulous dress then I think we need to share more of them!
Now let’s get linky! Share your quilting process and don’t forget to visit three other linkers, we all love comments!!
An InLinkz Link-up
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.
It’s Thursday and it’s time to come link up your quilty process here at Pretty Bobbins!
This week I’m featuring the lovely Marelize from Stitch by Stitch. Marelize’s quilting is beautiful. If you haven’t visited her blog then you must head over now. I’ll wait while you do How AMAZING are her feather samples??? (below) It is no surprise that Marelize was asked to do a demonstration. Seriously beautiful stuff!
Marelize also wrote last week about Instagram taking over her life and her blog getting less attention. I think most of us have been bitten by that bug! Instagram is such a great place to be inspired, share and interact with other quilters. I think the immediacy of instagram and the ease of interaction is a big drawcard. If you’re on instagram, let me know your name in the comments so I can follow your creative journey
Marelize is definitely a source of inspiration for me on instagram and as I’m writing this I’m thinking you might like to check out some of the other talented quilters on instagram. Again, please feel free to mention people in the comments, I happily follow over 700 people LOL
– amazing longarm/freemotion quilting. AMAZING!
– beautiful, beautiful work! Another talented longarm quilter <3
– lots of colourful projects and lovely quilting!
– Jess has a beautiful sense of style and palette and her quilting is GORGEOUS!
– her current project is stunning! LOVE!
– not only is she a font of information, but her quilting is specatular!
The list could go on forever really One thing I would like to say is, if you’re on instagram, please use hashtags. It increases your exposure and it helps instagram addicts like me find you. I often scroll through the hastags of #quilting #midcenturymodern #quilt #interiors Help a girl out and go hashtag crazy
This week I wanted to talk about quilting locally. When I was living in Nouméa all of my quilty interaction was online. Over the course of the past three months I have joined three local quilt guilds and I’m loving it! I find the meetings are a great way to socialise with people who share the same passion, a great place to get inspired whilst ooohing and aaaahing over quilts and, if I’m being honest, a great escape. It’s the only “me time” I take and I really enjoy it!
This evening at the Canberra Modern Quilt Guild we will be swapping nametags. It’s a secret swap so I’m going to post this when I get home with some photos. I shared a sneak peek on instagram the other day when I was selecting binding and typically went with the unusual choice I hope my swap partner likes it! I think the purple brings out the warmth of the orange and is a nice surprise. The blue was the safer choice and I like to live life on the edge I did improv curves with some favourite scraps and Essex linen and hand-stitched with Aurifil 12wt. A little FMQ on my Bernina with a lovely King Tut variegated thread. Lots of modern techniques in there
Here are all of the secret name tags from the swap at the meeting this evening. I love the feeling of belonging in this guild and I love the different aspects and personalities of all three guilds that I attend. One of them meets EVERY Friday night! I only go to every second or third meeting, we’re just too busy for me to be out every Friday.
I’m much quieter at guild meetings than I am on the blog, but I’m trying my best to be more outgoing. It’s that whole new people/situation anxiety thing, which is another reason I love instagram, I can feel confident in my studio and online at the same time I’d love to hear how you build your confidence and get to know local quilters
So that’s it, let’s get linky. Please remember to visit three other linkers and add a link to my blog or the linky button to your post or sidebar Thanks for linking up!
An InLinkz Link-up
Put your hand up if sewing is your therapy This week is selfish sewing week and I totally needed to make myself some pretties to feel better. Yesterday I turned my quilt as you go (QAYG) mini into a cushion. I didn’t quilt it at all as I just wanted the colours to show. Isn’t she pretty?
QAYG selfish cushion
Because it’s selfish sewing week I decided to use one of my favourite prints on the back. I’m worth it dammit.
Because it’s Selfish Sewing Week I used a special print just for me!
As much as my daughter loves this cushion I managed to snaffle it for myself and I love how it looks on my bed.
I used some favourite scraps and LOVE how it turned out!
This morning I really needed some sewing therapy; look good, feel good, right? I pulled out the last of my Nottinghill voile yardage and grabbed a dress that I love but is a little too small. I managed to kind of figure out the measurements and set about making myself a dress.
Nottinghill voile halterneck dress
Big love to the folk on IG who gave me some honest feedback that the boobs were baggy so I spent a good hour adding darts and trimming. In hindsight I think the issue is probably that I joined the skirt to the bodice too low. I think the dress would have a better shape if the elastic casing was just below the bust rather than at waist height. Anyway, I got on with it, hemmed her (I love a good blind hem!), added a contrasting sash and decided that if it feels good it looks good
You will notice there is one spot and one spot only in my yard suitable for photos LOL
I’m not generally one for a halterneck and I actually prefer this dress with the straps hanging long rather than tied in a bow. It will be nice and cool on our hot summer days anyway
Summer here I come!
And the all important details I use Aurifil 50wt for dressmaking, in fact I use it for everything! I do need to start growing my Aurifil stash again, at the moment I’m getting by with about 20 spools. The cushion is 20″ square with wool wadding, has a concealed zipper closure in the bottom seam and is backed with an old Alexander Henry print, African Butterflies. I bought the Nottinghill voile at Pink Chalk fabrics and 3 yards got me both a Washi dress and this halterneck dress (I’m stingy LOL).
I’m linking up to TGIFF over at Cherry Valley Designs for my cushion (it’s a mini quilt!) and Selfish Sewing Week because this week it’s all about me!
If you’ve read this far you probably already know, but don’t forget that I’m starting my quilty linky party here at Pretty Bobbins from next Thursday. You can read more about it here.
If you’re like me and you read blogs in a reader you won’t have noticed, but I spent the better part of today updating my blog I’m so happy with how it’s looking!
I updated the header which was wayyyy overdue!!
I put in some pretty new buttons for Flickr, Instagram and the rest.
I updated the boring (but important!) stuff like copyright and disclosure.
I update the About page
I got all brave and added some information for potential sponsors (now that is nerve wracking!!)
So not much sewing but it is very satisfying to have the blog looking much nicer and better reflecting who I am, where I’m at and where I want to go
In addition to making the blog all pretty I’ve spent a lot of time this week working on paper pieced patterns (thank you volunteer testers! And please let me know if anyone else is interested.) and a couple of tutorials. Watch this space
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| This pattern will be available for free download on Craftsy VERY soon! |
I also became a Craftsy affiliate and added their banner to my sidebar and will use their affiliate link in my posts when relevant
So on that note I’m going to log off and go enjoy dinner with my family. The big boys are out at a sleepover, so Little Miss, Mr Husband and I are off to enjoy a meal cooked by someone else. Ah, it’ll be almost romantic with only one child at the restaurant with us
How often do you take the time to update your blog? Do you like the new look of mine? Thanks for stopping by!
I’ve pieced the colour wheel top that I’m making as part of the Curves Class at Stitched in Color. I’m loving it and not sure whether to forge ahead or set it aside. My mind is wandering to another bundle that I pulled together recently and I think it needs my attention… But before I disappear into musing the next quilt design here are some photos
I use a digital SLR (Nikon D40X) of which I am fairly ignorant. I recently thought it was broken and returned it to factory settings. Which kind of sucks because I can’t remember exactly how I had it set before. I am overjoyed that the camera isn’t broken though!
Until recently I always photographed my quilts in the yard, in the early afternoon out of the direct sun but with lots of natural light. Then I took this photo:
The above photo of my Hues of the Pacific aka rainbow road quilt made me appreciate that sometimes direct sunlight can really bring out the best in a quilt. So now I play around and photograph quilts and flimsys in the shade:
In the direct sun:
And even with the sun behind which creates that gorgeous stained glass effect:
The stained glass effect can be terribly difficult when there is a breeze and clothes on the line LOL Can you make out the washing and clothes line in the top corners of this photo?
After taking about fifty bazillion photos I then select the best. Which are sometimes appalling LOL I’d love to hear how you photograph your quilts or any tips you have!
Happy sewing! It’s Thursday here which is almost Friday – yippee!
It’s been rather quiet around here the past week. It’s four days since I sewed but I have been swimming at the beach the last three days in a row. My Dad is here (all the way from Hong Kong!) for a week, it’s 18 months since we last saw him and we’re totally focused on Poppy time.
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| Great snorkeling at l’ile aux canard. We even saw two turtles on the way over! |
The first few days Mr 6 woke at 6am asking if he could wake up Poppy. Cute. Well kind of, also somewhat annoying to be woken at 6am when I could have been sleeping in. The kids are all over Dad and he is loving it. I have pointed out to him that he certainly wasn’t this cool when I was a kid, but I guess that happens
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Watching Mulan after a big day of swimming and snorkeling at the beach
(sorry for the dodgy iPad pic) |
Dad is a teacher, one of those teachers that live for the job. He is incredibly passionate about educating children and I’ve asked him to spend some time with Mr 6 encouraging his literacy. It’s a joy to see and I only wish he could spend more time with us.
But back to sewing. Not much No sewing has occurred over the past few days, but I do have a few new things to share.
I made this orange peel block as part of the Curves Class. I don’t know what to do with it, Dad likes it so I might try and find the time to whip it into something for him before he leaves. I’m frustrated that the points aren’t perfect in the middle and next time I will pick a smaller print for the “windows” as the charm of this gorgeous print is lost. I do love the block though. It was time consuming but worth it.
I finished my February bee block for QCA Bee 1 (we need a better name LOL). Fiona will use our blocks to make a gender neutral Polaroid quilt to be donated to a 9-12 year old child who went through the recent Tasmanian bushfires.
I also completed a little pattern testing for Kristy. Her patterns are always easy to put together and look great. This one is no exception, there are however some fiddly pieces (these blocks are 5″ finished) and I could not make an entire quilt from these blocks. Happiness is about as far as I could get. This will be sent to Kristy to put together into another charity quilt for the victims of the Tasmanian Bushfires.
The last bloggy thing I managed before Dad arrived was playing with a new App called SimpleBooklet. I want to play around with it a bit more before I go into the details, but I think it will be great for crafty/quilty/sewing bloggers. If you look up in the top of the right hand side bar you will see a Photo slider that I put together in about ten minutes (pasted below for the benefit of those reading in a reader). It doesn’t have many photos in it yet, I just wanted to have a play, but I’m really pleased with it.
simplebooklet.com
Now I better get back to it. Dad is up and we need to go and buy Mr 6 some flippers today to capitalise on all the snorkeling he has been doing. I feel like I’m on a summer holiday!
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| Living on a small tropical island means everything gets shipped in. The view is only spoilt momentarily. |
Today I am participating in the Dare to Dresden blog hop. Welcome to everyone stopping by from the hopt! *waves* (I hope I’ve got the time right, you should be seeing this as the clock ticks over to 12.01am US EST, working out what time that is in Nouméa is somewhat confusing!)
I have wanted to try a Dresden plate for awhile so I just could not resist getting involved in this blog hop. Make sure you stop by and visit the other participants. There have been some amazing Dresdens shared in the first two days. You can find the full schedule here.
If you’re a regular reading you know that we recently purchased a new house but we won’t move in for another 12 months. This year I am trying to make one to two items a month for our new house. Our current sofa is SUPER uncomfortable so I am starting with cushions for the sofa I’m dreaming of quilting comfortable goodness
So without further faffing (I could spend all day dreaming about our new house!) here is my very first dresden plate.
I used this free tutorial (including template) which was super easy. So easy that you can just print the templates, scroll down taking a quick peek at the photos and you’re on your way The only slightly tricky bit (which I had to redo) is making sure that your center circle covers the ends of your points (is that what they’re called?) I used some scrap wadding and echoed the dresden shape first in grey and then in teal with Aurifil 50wt (2605 and 2810).
So what’s a girl to do with her first Dresden? Turn it into a cushion cover of course! (which I think some of you in the northern hemisphere call it a pillow, here we have pillows on our beds and cushions on the sofa.)
I LOVE the text fabric that I used for the centre. You may remember I used it for an iPad cover for a teacher gift last year, I’m slowly eating through that fat quarter… It has lots of lovely sayings such as “The purpose of life is to grow”, “The spice of life is to befriend” and “The secret of life is to dare”.
The points of the dresden are made up of some favourite prints and reflect the colour palate that I am using for all of the cushions. Don’t they look cute together (the one on the right is an ikea cover that lives on my bed, I love the bright colours and it kind of goes)?
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L-R: Curves cushion, Dresden cushion, Ikea cover
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Incidentally I’ve tried to make both cushions reversible using fabric covered buttons. I think the backs are almost as lovely
I used a favourite print for the back (washi) and decided to bind the cover. I like how it frames the dresden plate but it does add a little time making the binding. I opted to machine sew down the binding as I always stall when hand sewing is required.
The only bad thing about making this dresden was having to wait until now to reveal it LOL And now I’m off to check out all the other hoppers and so should you Here they are:
January 28th, 2013
A Reformed Heath’n
Meadowbrook
Rosemary B @ “that Other Blog”
Stitch Duchess’ Crazy & Sane Quilting World
Grammie Q’s
Bumbleberry Stitches
Sunshine Girl
Spiral
Butjenter Quilter
Blooming Where I am Planted
Quilting Lodge
The Tilted Quilt
Life in the Scrapatch
Pretty Bobbins
In The Boon Docks
Sew Much and More
Threading My Way
Pink Ribbon Quilts
What an exciting weekend it’s been! First Aurifil threads featured my Flying Geese cushion cover on facebook and twitter, then, if that wasn’t enough! Pink Castle Fabrics featured my Triangle Quilt on both their blog and Facebook as their very first feature. What a total buzz! I am very proud, I love quilting, I love playing with colour and thread and fabric. I love that being creative is part of me, something I can share with my children and with so many wonderful people online. Receiving positive feedback is just the cherry on top of the pie! Thank you for your support
In the last twelve months I have discovered Flickr, pinterest, twitter (you can find me ), and finally today I signed up for Instagram. I really have no idea what I’m doing but I figure its just more opportunities to drool over quilt candy Please share any tips or hints that you have and feel free to comment below with your name/linky/thingy so I can find you and follow you
Today I have been having a heap of fun quilting Mr 6′s Rainbow I Spy quilt. I’m so excited with how it is coming together! A few months back I invested in a rainbow of Aurifil thread from Kate Quilts in preparation for this project.
Can I tell you how exciting it is to be finally matching the threads to the rainbow border and getting my quilt on? Seriously cool! (If you’re a total quilt dork that is…)
More recently I purchased two large 5,000m cones of Aurifil thread, 2024 in both 40 and 50wt from Want it, Need it, Quilt. I had a whole heap of trouble with my tension and it soon became obvious that I needed a large cone stand. Would you believe it, that the one sewing shop here in Nouméa had ONE stand left? At approximately $8 I snapped up that baby (remember that this is a small island and everything costs a premium) and was overjoyed to try it out. Et voila! Tension issues no more
Have you made any additions to your stash this week? Do you enjoy matching threads to fabrics and seeing it all come together? (Who am I kidding? Of course you do!)
I’m linking up with Sunday Stash hosting by the lovely Fiona at Finding Fifth.
