Sunday Stash

Dilemma - what is one to do when faced with a 20% off special on a line that you have been coveting but trying to bravely resist because you do not need any more fabric and have no more room in which to hide store it?  Answer - nothing, give in.  After all, it was on sale after and it's not what you spend but what you save.  Welcome to a selection from Caroline Friedlander's Botanics and Architextures ranges.  I bought 8 in total but these beautiful low volume fabrics lose their impact en masse, so I have just posted a picture of my favourites.

Once the current lot of baby quilts are out of the way, I'll be looking for a very special project to showcase them, although maybe that's the wrong way to think about low volume!

Modern Quilt Guild challenge piece - finished

Finally done and posted on both the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild Inc. Flickr page and on the Modern Quilt Guild community page a day before the deadline.  I finished hand stitching the binding down last night while re-commencing a 'Mad Men' marathon.  I do love the cosiness of having a quilt on my lap on a winter's night and rhythmically stitching - it's very Little House on the Prairie (except the Ingalls didn't have television, but let's not spoil the image.

What was concerning me was getting a decent photo to post given that the weather has been gloomy but low and behold, the sun came out this afternoon, so the dogs and I raced out to snap away - well, I took pictures and they curled up in the garden.  I convinced Penny to take part in the photo shoot, but she didn't want to sit still.

The front of the quilt is inspired by the half log cabin quilts by the Gee's Bend Quilters and the back is a few wonky stars.  They were going to be crazy, foundation- pieced stars but it was going to take too long, so I'll save that idea for another project.  After seeing the amazing creations on both sites, I'm know I'm not going to win a prize but I met the deadline and have made a quilt that will look really good on my couch.

Sunday Stash

For this week's Sunday Stash, I thought I would share our Guild fabric.  The Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild has been in existence for four years now but last year we moved to an incorporated structure, reflecting the size and nature of the guild.  The formal membership applications opened in December 2013.  One of the things that we wanted to do as part of this change was commission a logo that was very 'Melbourne', but not a local icon that is typically associated with our city, such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground or the Arts Centre Spire.  The very talented Shannon Lamden (also know as Auntie Cookie) came up with a very fabulous and modern design based on the much maligned Melbourne sculpture Vault (more commonly known as the Yellow Peril).  We decided that we would have this made up into a fabric that would form part of our members' welcome pack, together with some coordinating Kona solids.  These things take a bit of time to organise and I finally got my pack two weeks ago.  I love it.  Already some of our clever members have put this to good use, so the pressure is on.

MQG fabric challenge

There is nothing like a deadline to get a girl going and what a deadline this is.  For someone whose craft output is maybe 2 or 3 items a year, having a month to produce something quilted is a bit of a stretch.  However with free fabric on offer from Michael Miller, via the Modern Quilt Guild challenge, I really wanted to have a go at this.  The problem is that the Guilds outside America receive their allocation later and the fabric arrived and was being divvied up after I left for holidays.  So by the time I got back, there was a month remaining until the deadline.  On top of that, I have just had surgery on my feet, right when I should be basting this baby which has to be done and dusted by Friday 25 July! So after taking on board some suggestions from the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild Inc. members, I used the kitchen bench and sticky tape to get this done and as my quilt is only lap sized, it was fairly quick.  Now to get it quilted, bound and photographed within a week.....

Sunday Stash

Here goes, the first entry in Sunday Stash under the leadership of Molli Sparkles.

Last weekend was the most recent Super Sewing Saturday for the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild Inc and what a great day it was.  Twelve hours of sewing, eating and chatting with a group of wonderful ladies.  We all had a lot to discuss, including progress on the Modern Quilt Guild's Michael Miller Fabric Challenge , but the highlight of the day was our guest speaker Emma Jean Jansen, who talked about her career in fabric design and shared her wonderful quilts with us.  It was fascinating hearing about her design process and seeing the beautiful fabrics that she has created.  Her current range is called Terra Australis and Terra Australis II is being released later this year.  I have to say that I am not normally a fan of any sort of .....ana fabrics but even though you see the Australian themes in the prints, they aren't in your face and in some cases, you really had to look for the theme. The Harbour Bridge design looked more like fans to me and I thought the waratah print was just a fabulously bold print (as wallpaper, wouldn't it make a great feature wall?).  As usual, we got a goodie pack for the day and, GJ's did not let us down!  This time we received a gorgeous pair of Terra Australis fat quarters, a coordinating Kona solid FQ and thread.  I managed to score some of my favourite teal and then had to run downstairs to pick up a couple of extra FQs from the range.  Here are my awesome foursome from the Terra Australia range, which I will be looking to add to soon.

A new hobby

All I need is another hobby.  Yes, more equipment to be stored in the spare wardrobe and new UFOs to leave in my wake.  But I have to say that I love the look of hand printed fabric and over the years have done a couple of screen printing courses and really enjoyed them.  But I've never got around to buying any equipment and the time required to set up and clean up seemed a bit daunting to do any printing at home.  So when the opportunity came up to do a hand printing workshop using carved stamps with Leslie from Maze & Vale textiles, I thought that this would be a more viable option and was very quick to sign up.  So with 7 lovely ladies from Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild Inc. we carved stamps, printed on fabric and had a wonderful time.  This is really quick, easy and effective way to get a gorgeous result and the girls really came up with some great designs.  Now I'm looking forward to getting my supplies in so that I can continue on with this addictive, simple and portable hobby.  Thank you Leslie for a fun and instructive session.