Embroiderers Guild Annual Exhibition.

Yesterday I delivered two of my finished projects to the Embroiderers Guild, to be displayed in the annual exhibition of EGV members' work.  I entered Ken's Retirement Quilt (the motorcycle quilted throw) and "Time For Tea", the table runner I made for Ken's cousin.  Poor Rosemary hasn't seen this yet; in fact she doesn't even know of its existence!  I want to put it in the Lilydale Show in November too, so she might get it by Christmas, lol!

Ken's cousin D. and his wife Yaso came over here for afternoon tea yesterday.  Yaso was keen to see the baby quilts that have been donated to me for her, and she had a close look at each one, delighted by all the work put into them, and very touched to think that so many people would do this for the babies of the PNG tribes she helps.  She told me more about the background of her work (she is a lecturer on International Development at RMIT) and travels to third world countries with her students to teach them how to help disadvantaged people there.  She is going to Africa for three weeks later this year, and back to PNG in January.  She promised to provide more background information for me to post on my blog, so all the people who are making baby quilts for the PNG babies will understand more about her work. 
Yaso asked me if it would be possible to obtain a photograph of each person who has made one or more quilts for her, as she plans to put on an exhibition next year at RMIT (University) about her work in PNG, and she wants to include photos of the native people accepting our quilts, as well as photos of the people who made the quilts.  I will be emailing all the donors direct in the future about this, but if you are one of them, and reading this now, please feel free to email me a photo of yourself any time!   (It would be nice if you are photographed holding any quilt that you have made).

Apologies to NOTY members.

I was invited by NOTY (North Of The Yarra Quilters) to give a show and tell talk on my linens today, but I had to back out at the last minute.  Ken has been quite ill this past week with a cold (with COPD it becomes more than 'just a cold'), but I usually manage to avoid catching viruses from him.  This time I was out of luck.  On Friday night I was feeling a bit tight in the chest, but I determinedly selected the linens I planned to show, and packed them in my car ready for the morning.  I woke up feeling awful, to put it plainly, and took two cold and flu tablets, which usually see me through a few hours.   But after phoning Christine from NOTY and telling her I would be late, I had to call her again and say I wouldn't be able to come at all, as I ended up feeling quite sick, and as well as that my throat was on fire, so I knew I wouldn't be able to do much speaking.

I've NEVER had to back out of a speaking engagement before, and I feel very bad about letting down the organisers and members who were looking forward to seeing me.  Still, apart from that, it would not have done the NOTY ladies any good to be exposed to my germs if I had to cough and sneeze my way through a presentation, so I am hoping they will understand, and perhaps invite me back again at a later date.

Fabric journal.

I have read a lot of books on making journals, both paper and textile.  I've even bought a book or two on the subject, but until now I've not done much from them - a couple of small projects, but not a journal.  Like most craft lovers, I've got bits and pieces that are experiments with fabric and paper that I've seen in books and online, and thought "I must try that!"  So I tried, maybe liked the result, maybe not, but either way, it ends up in a container of some kind with all the other experiments - not good enough to do anything with, but too good to discard, because 'you might do it again one day'.

A few months ago I was reading Mary Mac's blog, and she mentioned a project she was intending to do, something called "Travellers' Blanket".  When I read about this, I thought it was a kind of rug or blanket with individual textile pieces fastened to it.  That was not really correct, but it  got me thinking about my fabric experiments, and what I could do with them.  Then at the Quilt Convention this year,  one of our Guild members showed me something she had made, and there it was - perfect solution for my bits!  I feel such a fool because I can't remember this lady's name, and she is quite well known in the Guild for her innovative sewing style.  She had made up a large book from calico, and sewn various experimental pieces on each page.
So when I was looking for something completely unrelated to the above, I discovered my little learning projects in a basket of stuff, and decided that I had to do something with them TODAY, otherwise they'd get lost in the depths of my stash again.  I have a huge stash of calico and a tin full of bias binding, and lots of buttons, so I got everything out on to my work table....

Cut the calico into 12" x 24" pieces, used the bias binding to neaten the edges of each piece, and made this journal by laying the pieces on top of each other and machining a line of stitching down the centre to make this:

Above: The front is a layered collage of patchwork fabric, laces, ric rac, buttons, etc.

Above:  On the top left is a trial 'reverse applique'.  I had never heard of it before I saw it described in a book, and wanted to try it.   The green piece is Aida with stitching in ribbon and thread, with sequins.  This  was a challenge project in an online forum many years ago.  The item below these was in a library book and had to be done before the book was due back, otherwise I would forget it.  It involved laying ribbons out in a grid on top of a sheet of water soluble foundation, machining them to same, then soaking the whole piece in water until the backing dissolved.  I loved this idea!
On the right hand side is a completed cross stitch piece.  I saw this in a magazine and was inspired to make it because I love playing with colours, and this design is simply layers of coloured thread blended and matched in layers of cross stitch on Aida to make this gorgeous pattern. It isn't something you would frame and hang on a wall, so what else do you do with such a thing?  Experiments journal!

Above:  These pages are little patchwork samples that I made to see how they would look in a bigger project.  The one on the left is a 'brick wall' pattern, and the right hand side is my first attempt at joining triangles together to make a block.  I had a lot to learn before I got that technique right!

 Above: this is calico with fabric paint applied by various means.  The piece on the right has a stitchery of a mermaid started but I doubt if it will ever be finished.  Just another experiment.

 Above: These stitches in perle cotton on homespun were done in a series of workshops at the Embroiderers Guild.  Most of the other students were much neater and ended up displaying their work in nice books, but my learning attempts are always messy.

 Above: This was slightly less messy.  Sharon Boggon's TAST lessons on her blog were great fun to follow and I learnt a great deal, working on Aida with mostly stranded cotton, but using other items such as ribbon or cord as required.

 Above:  Another project seen in a book borrowed from the library, which had to be done before the book was due back.  Pieces of fabric sewn together at random over a length of calico, then ribbon, lace, ric rac, or any other trim is machined all the way across the whole thing.  You can then make something out of it, or decorate a tote bag, whatever.  As you can see, I didn't use mine for anything, but I liked doing it and keeping a sample to remind me of the technique.

Above: There are more blank 'pages' waiting for my future experiments!

Two quilts for PNG babies.

Ken stayed in bed all day today because he has caught a head cold and doesn't want it to get worse.  At least he doesn't have to go to work now, so he can stay in bed all week if he wants to!  It leaves me free to do my thing without him distracting me with requests for this and that..
The weather in Melbourne was very unpleasant, to put it mildly - extreme wind, rain and cold.  So it was a good day to stay indoors and get some sewing done.  I've nearly finished these baby quilts now - the first one has been quilted and just has to have the binding done.

I've used a different technique with this quilt - the 'envelope technique', so it doesn't need binding.  All I have to do is quilt it, and sew the last side up.  I love that fish fabric; it was an offcut from somewhere, maybe the opshop,  I can't remember.  But I knew I'd find a use for it one day!

Hexies and half square triangles.

I have been admiring hexagons on blogs by Wendy, Mel and others, and last night I finally got around to starting my own collection.  I've been cutting all my scraps into various size squares for a while now, and decided to use up the 2.5" squares for my hexies.  It is the first time I've used the little rotary cutter and mat that I bought at a craft show a few years ago, and I had fun doing this!  I printed off two sheets of the paper piecing hexagons - what a time saver!

While I had the boxes of fabric squares out over the past few days, I cut the 5" squares into half diagonally and made lots of little half square triangle (is that what these are called?  It doesn't sound right) to be made up into a quilt.  I laid them all out together first...

Then I figured I could make two small quilts by splitting up this group into two lots, and using sashing and borders to get the size I want.

Yep, that's what I'll do.

Another baby quilt, and one half finished.

This lovely quilt arrived today from Sue W. in NSW, who emailed me to say she is not an expert quilter.  Hey!  Did I say I only wanted expert quilters to donate??  No - this is for anyone who is kind enough to use up some of their stash for a good cause!  I think Sue's quilt is just as charming as all the others that have been donated so far.

Talking of inexperienced quilters, this is one of two quilts that I'm working on.  I had these strips all stitched up ready to make a scrappy Chinese Coins design quilt, but I'd forgotten all about them until I was poking around in a corner yesterday and discovered them.  I didn't have to do anything except combine the strips with sashing and a border to get to this stage.  It is still a tad small, so I'll add another wider border before I put the filling and backing on. 

The other quilt I'm working on is all pinned up ready to stitch, so it can wait until that's done before I post a photo.
Tomorrow I'm off to the Guild with my Peacock cross stitch sampler which has been neglected over the past month.

PNG Quilt drive update.

I have been emailing photos to Yaso every time I receive a donation of quilts, and today I received an email from her, part of which I am reproducing here so you can all see how much your work is appreciated:

The quilts encourage me constantly to carry with my work.  I am organizing to have the quilts and other things transported to PNG  end of year. This will work with me going there Jan 2014. The tribe is already so thrilled with knowing about the response to your quilts call. They are so overcome that so many people care and you are coordinating all this because of your own enormous care for them.  

So, thank you all again for your donations.  I know of many more that are on the way here, so by January, Yaso will have a veritable shipload!!

Five more quilts for PNG babies, and my table runner finished.

Maddy in Qld has made five beautiful little quilts for our PNG babies.   Here they are pegged out on my clothesline today.

 Being a fine sunny day, I took the opportunity of re-photographing most of the others because the first pics were taken inside due to poor lighting outside.  So I've replaced the original photos on those posts with better ones.  Well, a bit better.  I can't seem to get my camera to focus clearly on some things....

I finished one of my own projects today - the tea time table runner.  Again the photo doesn't show it up as well as I'd like.  Maybe I should have taken this outside to photograph too.   I've attached two novelty buttons - one is a teapot in the top row of stitching, and the other is a teacup in the bottom row, but all you can see are little blurs!  You'll just have to take my word for it.  Ken thinks his cousin will adore this; she always 'has the kettle on', and she loves handmade things.  Fingers crossed!

So what is next on my agenda?  Well, I'm being shamed by all the ladies who have sent cot quilts for PNG babies, so I'm going to get a few of my own done!  I've got the fabric ready for the first one, and it shouldn't take long.   My lovely Janome speeds things up.  And for those Quilt Police out there, I'm being very good, and replacing the machine needles after finished a project ;-)  I have to admit, it does make a difference, the sewing is much smoother. 

Craft And Quilt Fair.

Just a quick post to tell Melbourne/Victorian readers to visit the Craft show if they can - this year's show is a good one! There were five of us ladies from the Embroiderers Guild manning our information stand today, so we took turns to have time out for coffee and shopping. We'd all brought our current stitching project, but none of us got a lot done, as there was a steady stream of people coming up to chat or ask questions about the Guild. (Only one person I knew (see below) came up to say hello - sniff..) There were a lot of Guilds at the Show this year - more than I remember seeing at previous shows, but I might be wrong. We were all lined up at one end of the exhibition area - facing the cafe/coffee area and not far from the loos ;-) So we had a lot of people wandering by who had stopped for coffee or whatever, and came over to have a look at the Guilds, which they might not have if they'd been somewhere less conspicuous.

When my turn came for a break, I headed for the Quilts show, and it was well worth looking at. I said to somebody else that some years, the quilts didn't appeal to me all, but other times I could happily photograph the whole lot, and look at the photos for weeks after. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera today, as I wasn't sure if I'd have time to look at the quilts. I wish I had. Fellow blogger and Guild member Linda Steele and her friends at Waverley Patchworkers had their own display and that alone was excellent. Linda won a prize (or was it more than one prize?) for her fabulous Crazy patchwork Christmas quilt. If you visit her blog at the link here, she may have by now posted details of her win and photos of the other quilts there. Congratulations Linda!

Some of you will be wondering how much I spent. I can tell you exactly - $44. $4 for a coffee and $40 for parking - YIKES! Isn't that disgraceful? When I saw the read-out on the parking ticket machine I yelped, and the lady standing next to me nodded sympathetically. She said "I said to the machine I hope you choke on that" which made me smile. Just as well I didn't spend my cash on anything else at the show!

Table runner, and Craft Show this week.

I've nearly completed the top for this runner, but still have to stitch around the appliqued teapot and cups. This will be another 'first' for my new machine, as it does blanket stitch, and I am looking forward to trying it out, to save my fingers from aching after hours of blanket stitch!
When that's done, I'll quilt the three layers and bind it with the same dark green as in the middle section.

If any of my readers in Victoria are going to the Craft Show at Jeff's Shed on Thursday, come over to the aisle where all the Guilds are situated - I'll be on duty at the Embroiderers Guild stand for most of the day, and I'd love to say hi to any bloggers that might cruise by!

Table runner.

Between making quilts and cross stitching  peacocks, I wanted to make a couple of quick gifts for deserving people.  This table runner pattern has been sitting in my 'to do' folder for some years, and when I was given some matching fat quarters a while ago, I knew exactly what I wanted to use them for.  

My runner is a bit different from the original pattern.  Instead of sewing 90 2" squares together for the background blocks, I took a short cut and sewed three strips together from my chosen fabrics and cross cut them into little blocks.  Also, I didn't use the pattern to trace and cut the cups and teapot to applique.  Instead, I fussy cut them from printed fabric.  Much faster and prettier!

This was taken last night - there is more to the runner than the above.  I was laying out what I'd done so far to get an idea of size.  I've done a lot more since then, and hope to finish it tomorrow.

Photos as promised.

I had a very productive day today despite all the noise overhead while the workers were ripping the old roof off our house!   (I've posted photos here if you are curious).  I spent much of the afternoon hand sewing the binding of Ken's quilt, and once finished, hung it out in the sun to take this photo.

This is my Janome with it's hard case, and underneath, the cover I made using some printed denim fabric that I found in an opshop for a few dollars.  It is rather cute with those handkies looking almost real, and hard wearing fabric, so it is perfect as a protective cover for the machine.

And this is where I am up to with the Peacock sampler.  Now that I have a closer look at this, there isn't a lot more done since the last photo!  But every stitch counts...;-)

What I've been doing.

My dear friend Connie did come over on Tuesday as planned, and showed me how to put the walking foot on my sewing machine.  She took a few minutes to figure it out, but once she had it in place, she showed me how to do it, and suggested I take some closeup photos with my camera to look back on if I forget.  Once the foot was on, I got going on Ken's quilt, with advice and encouragement from Connie.  We had  lots of other things to talk about on the day, but I got most of the quilting done, and now only have to finish the binding.

Photo will be on here as soon as  that's done - and it has to be done very soon, Ken instructed me.  It is soooo cold at night lately and he has been sitting up watching the Tour de France thing, and even with the gas fire on, it is still chilly just sitting around.  I'm dreading the next few days when our roof is replaced - the whole roof has to be taken off, new insulation put in, and the new roof put on.  It can't possibly be done in one day, and although they tell us the areas without roofing will be covered in case it rains....brrrrrr!!!

I was looking at patterns in magazines to make a cover for my machine (even though it's got a hard case, the handle at the top is an open area and dust will get in there if I leave it as it is), and not being able to find anything that looked relatively easy, I googled the topic, and found dozens of You Tube tutorials.  One in  particular looked very easy, and I made up my cover (lined and padded!) in a couple of hours!  I'll post a photo of that when I finish Ken's quilt.

Finally, I've done some more cross stitch on my Peacock sampler and again, will take a photo soon.
That's my week's sewing!

Patchwork hand towels.

I've been playing with my scraps stash again.  I've done all I can with Ken's bike quilt, and am looking forward to Connie coming over on Tuesday and showing me how to quilt it!   In the meantime, I was surfing through Blogland (really now, who needs Facebook?) and I discovered on somebody's side bar a blog called Diary Of A Quilt Maven  I can't remember what else there was about this blog name to attract my attention, but I popped over there and found a cute tutorial on adding a patchwork embellishment to plain towels.  I have a heap of tea towels and hand towels in my stash - huckabuck, linen, cotton, etc. so I pulled out the huckabucks and followed Monica's instructions.  Aren't they nice?  Great way to use up some of those 2" squares in the box of scraps.

Happy 4th July!

Happy Independence Day to all my American blogger friends!

 

Five more baby quilts.

Two lovely bunny rugs from Sue in South Australia:

Three from Ida, in Texas, USA. These cost Ida US$60 to post by air. This is more than generous - I can't find the best word to describe what I felt when I saw how much she had paid to send quilts to Australia for babies in P.N.G. Ken said we should email President Obama and let him know about the big hearted people in the biggest state :-)

Thank you Sue and Ida - I've also thanked them by direct email.

Quilts, quilts and more quilts.

I received an email from Yaso tonight in response to mine yesterday, showing her the first batch of quilts to arrive here.
Hi Gina,

could the quilt makers embroider their name, town & country on the side?? It would be so good for the recipients to know who they are and to have that on their quilts as well.

What I will attempt to do is also get the recipient's name - and also photo - and we can start to have a file of all these - for an exhibition/story down the track.

Yaso

 I suggested to Yaso that I could make up labels on my computer, using a template so they are all the same, except for the individual's details.  This would be quick and easy for me to do, printing the labels onto fabric, and stitching them on to each quilt.  That way, they would all be easily identified as being made by this group of quilters from my blog, for whatever exhibition or story Yaso is thinking of doing.

I have been working on Ken's retirement (motorcycles pattern) quilt and the layers are all tacked together now, ready to be quilted and bound.  My friend Connie is coming over next Tuesday to help me set up the machine with its walking foot, and show me how to use it.  I was going to post progress photos here, but decided to wait until it was finished.  Then I'll get stuck into making some baby quilts!  It's been busy around here with other stuff holding me back from doing more sewing (have a look at my other blog for the Wilson household report, lol).  As well as all that going on, I've been doing more art than stitching over the past few months, but I hope to balance that out over the coming months.  Don't know how, but I'll try!  Ken says I have far too many hobbies and he can't see how I keep up with them all.  The answer to that is that I don't!

First lot of baby quilts have arrived.

Today I received a large Aust Post Satchel from Maria in Western Australia, stuffed with four beautiful baby quilts!  Ken was very touched when he saw them - he couldn't believe that somebody so far away would go to all that effort for people she had never met and probably never will meet.  I said that's what quilters do :-)
Here they are on the clothes line:

Selling hand made craft items - read the advice on Joanne's blog.

I've noticed quite a few blog writers asking their readers for their opinions on selling their finished craft items.
It has been suggested to me that I sell some of mine, because they are 'cute' and would have wide appeal at a market stall.  Well, my answer is no - I don't want to sell any of my creations.   I made them for me because I think they are cute too!  I have given away a few things that I've made, and while not regretting it, I wished I could do them again, but I know I won't, because there are so many others I want to make.

Joanne over at Quilting Collecting And More has written a very informative post about the pros and cons of selling hand made crafts, either online or at markets.  If you are wondering whether or not to sell, and how to go about it if you decide to go ahead, do yourself a favour and read this post!

Quilt donations for babies in PNG.

Yaso and I are overwhelmed with the generosity of quilters far and wide who have offered to send us quilts for the babies in PNG.  So far there are seven donors in Australia, two in the USA and two more that I've had emails from, but I don't know yet where they live.  A few details for anybody wishing to donate quilts: the dimensions are not important.  These people do not have cots or beds, so all they need is a small quilt to wrap up a newborn baby for the first year or so.   I am holding the donations at my home until Yaso is ready to either ship them over to PNG or take them with her on her next trip, which may not be for a few months (see below).  I am keeping a record of everyone who donates - name, town, state (country) and email address, and as the quilts arrive, I'll photograph them and keep the details of the donor with the pictures, so Yaso will know exactly where they come from.  If you need my postal address, email me from here (my email address is on my profile details) and I will get back to you.

The following is an email to me from Yaso which she has suggested that I post here, to give my readers an insight into her work.  I think I stated on a previous post that she worked for the government.  I got that wrong!  Her work is partially funded by the government.  Anyway, this will explain it:

Hello Gina, thanks. if the quilts can collect at your place, that would be great.  I am still working out how I transport etc. And it won't be anytime soon - possibly nearer end of October. Thank you for your contributions and the others you so easily draw in such a practical and useful way.

Please find below two paragraphs which might be useful for your blog.  (We are writing a book together - and in spite of their remoteness and simple practical needs, their knowledge and capacity to work through many issues and questions of the modern world humbles me). 

The Patea (Kukukuku) Tribal Community, which has an approximate population of 98,000 people, stretches from Kaintiba District in the Gulf Province, Menyamya District and part of Bulolo/Wau District in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. This tribal community has been working with researcher Yaso Nadarajah and team on developing an innovative remote sustainability model called the Patea Eco-Enterprise. This Enterprise has its genesis from the several community mobilization activities that began in 2009 together with the  researcher and her team at RMIT University; and activities such as the Patea Theater group have enriched efforts to revive, as well as create stories important to the Patea community culture and wellbeing. 

In 2012, a small seed funding grant awarded to RMIT University’s work with the Patea Tribe, enabled us (Patea and RMIT) to commence ground work towards establishing this shared idea of a Patea Eco-Enterprise. Amounts from this seed funding was given directly to ideas that the Patea groups came forward with. This also meant that community members had the chance to work on their ideas, build at their pace, invest their own resources and knowledge; and in time, identify the skills, partners and research they needed to establish these ideas as viable business and trade. Members of the tribe have shown that they can create useful projects and relevant projects with even the smallest collaboration. Within a year, several ideas have taken root; many now thinking about the next stage of production and trading.  As the project develops, it is vital that new and trusted partnerships and relationships that mutually benefit both partners grow in combination with the project. This can also serve to deepen understanding of different cultures, ways of lives and the way combined efforts enrich the lives of everyone involved