Marally workshop

I had the pleasure (yes, pleasure!) of teaching my first ever workshop yesterday at Marally Craft.

As you all assured me, there was absolutely nothing to worry about, the girls were all just lovely and we had a great day.

Here we all are with the day's creations; from left, Wendy, Val, Kate, Susan and me.

It was such a thrill to see these women work with my pattern and come up with such beautiful and unique versions.

Susan was working with pretty and subtle shades of green and pink. Love that striped piping! Despite arriving with the declaration that she was an embroiderer, not a patchworker, Susan coped brilliantly!

It was very exciting to finally meet 'Show and Tell' Kate. I had heard many lovely things about her, but somehow we had never crossed paths.

Kate was working with Anni Downs' gorgeous new fabric line 'My Favourite Things'. That little peep of red piping really made these fabrics pop. Kate is a prolific stitcher, and works meticulously - her blog is a 'must-see'.

Val created this very cheerful version with 'Happy Campers' by American Jane. I love how the yellow and black measuring tape works with this range. Oooh, and more striped piping - lovely!

Wendy went 'fun and funky' with her stunning lime green and purple fabrics. The measuring tape simply looked silly with these fabrics, and was quickly replaced with some perfect lime ric-rac.

 

Wendy had us all impressed with her choice of fabrics. She had noticed some wonderful spotty sewing baskets at Marally, and decided to purchase one each for her daughter and daughter-in-law for Christmas. 

She plans to make up the mat, thread keeper and pincushion to match the baskets, for the most wonderful Christmas gift, so thoughtful and generous!

Thank you ladies for making my debut workshop such a positive experience, and to the girls at Marally who took care of our every need. I had the best time. Let's do it again soon :)

I ♥ my quilter

My Strawberry Fields quilt is back, and as usual Belinda (Eucalypt Ridge Quilting) has magically transformed it. She adds a beauty to my designs that is impossible for me to achieve.

As I was picking up my quilt, we got to talking about the concept of losing ownership of a quilt if you outsource the quilting. I confess to once feeling that I was 'cheating' to get someone else to quilt my work. I'm over it. Life's too short. These days, it is an enormous relief to hand my quilt tops over to Belinda, in complete trust that she will do something beautiful with them. If not for her, I would have completed the top, and it would have languished in the corner incomplete because quilting with my domestic machine frustrates me. I still quilt small pieces myself, but at 93" square, this baby was way too big to wrestle with.

We decided to use Anne Bright's 'Strawberries' design for my quilt, to link with the strawberry theme of the Fig Tree fabrics.

Can I take a moment to sing Belinda's praises? You won't hear it from her as she's not a 'blow-your-own-trumpet' sorta gal! She turned my quilt around in 10 days, despite my telling her that there was no particular hurry for it! My quilts don't challenge Belinda much because they are usually edge-to-edge designs, but I can tell you, this woman is an unbelievable quilter. She has won awards at major quilting festivals, both national and international, for her spectacular work. I have pinched these examples from her blog, to prove my point:

The precision and detail in her exhibition quilts are extraordinary. And when I get to occasionally see them in real life they take my breath away!

Belinda is also regularly called upon to quilt collaborative charity projects for Australian Homespun.

There are countless more examples of Belinda's exquisite quilting on her blog and at her website gallery.

As for my simple little quilt, all that remains to do is the bind. Pure pleasure!

Turning can'ts into cans

I have been asked by the lovely girls at Marally Craft in Orange to teach a workshop. Yep, quietly terrified about that prospect, but I've stepped out of my comfort zone and accepted!

We will be working through my 'Beyond Measure' pattern for a sewing mat, thread catcher & pincushion.

The workshop is on this Thursday 17th November. If you are nearby and would like to bear testament as to how terrified Bloom can be join us, please contact Marally Craft on 

ph: 02 6362 3860 or email: info@marallycraft.com.au

I have put together a slideshow of some of your versions of my 'Beyond Measure' patterns to inspire the girls who are coming to the workshop. I thought you might enjoy it too.

Make a slideshow

My thanks to all the lovely women who have purchased my patterns and made them up. And to these ladies in particular for the use of their photographs:

Melissa @ Quilting for Happiness

One for a Wish

Cherie @ Sew & So Quilts

Tilly, a friend of Josie @ Dilly Dimple

Wendy @ Sugarlane Quilts

Jess @ The Elven Garden

Katie @ Sew Katie Did

And because I know you'll ask about the stunning Australian designed fabrics used by Jess, the 'Mikko' fabric is by Surface Art, available here,

and Saffron Craig's designs are available here.

Think of me on Thursday! Despite the fear, I am really looking forward to it and know it will be lots of fun :)

Daybook entry #11

Outside my window ... not today exactly, but recently, the first blossoms of our new crabapple, Malus 'Mattom' (Tom Matthews).

I am thankful for ... the many positive comments about my Strawberry Fields quilt of my last post. Your encouragement keeps me motivated! Yes, it is my own pattern which I am writing up at the moment. Can't wait to see what Belinda does with the quilting. Itching to get this quilt bound and finished :)


From the kitchen ... I am eating leftover rhubarb & apple pudding with my morning coffee. Ooooh yeah!

I am stitching ... repairs to Miss 16's Year 10 formal dress. It is brand new, unworn, and needs fixing - hate that! Whether detachable straps of said dress will be worn on the big night is a matter still under negotiation! 

I am reading ... 'One Day' by David Nicholls. A very readable book, about the exasperating relationship between two friends who just can't seem to get it together. I suspect it will end annoyingly unfulfilled. I am enjoying this book, but I just want to slap the characters around the head at the same time!

I am hoping ... to spend some time reading 'A Field Guide to Fabric Design' which arrived today. I have no intentions of designing fabric, I just love to learn :)

I am listening to ... the new Coldplay album, Mylo Xyloto. Youtube link enthusiastically provided by Miss 16 who is studying graffiti art at school right now, and thinks this is very cool.

I am learning ... about Banksy from Miss 16. Banksy is a controversial and anonymous British street artist whose works split the world into those who think his work is 'art' and those who dismiss it as graffiti. 

'Sweeping it under the carpet' in London (source)

The Melbourne City Council caused outrage when they inadvertently removed one of his works from its streets in 2010 - this video link is an excellent summary of what Banksy is all about. 

'Flower' (source)

His works are thoughtful, political, cynical and often funny. They are always painted in a location which will provoke reaction. You can see more of his works here.

'Flowerchucker' in Palestine (source)

Does Banksy's work constitute art? Does a woman giving birth in a public gallery constitute art? The day we can define 'art', we will perhaps be able to answer these questions! 

Here endeth the art lesson for today! Have a creative weekend. Bloom x

Strawberry Fields quilt

I love the muted, softly washed vintage colours of many of Joanna Figueroa's fabric ranges. Her Figtree & Co fabrics and patterns are amongst my all-time favourites. When she recently released her 'Strawberry Fields' range, I was in love all over again! 

I finished my 'Strawberry Fields' quilt top this week, which is now with Belinda-the-weaver-of-quilting-magic.

You may remember this solitary little block a few months ago.

Thankfully, it found some friends and they finally got their act together to produce this:

Sorry, the photos are awful as it was a very windy day and this quilt is very big - the biggest I've made to date.

I am thankful Belinda is quilting it and not me! I will post some nicer photos when it is quilted, bound and more photo worthy.

In the meantime, I will endeavour to resist Joanna's newest line, 'California Girl'. It will be a tough ask!

A murmuration

Perhaps you'll know about my thing for birds. This lovely film only intensifies it!

Fabric storage regime #173,905

A regime of a different sort for this post. I have embarked on a new storage system for the larger cuts in my stash. This was necessitated by a frustrating search of my fabric mountain for a piece sufficiently large to back my most recent quilt.

The system? I intend to fold any cuts larger than one metre, to stack them immaculately, and label with ducky little tags detailing the meterage. I will then be able see, at a glance, what I have. Easy peasy!

That's the plan. Could take some time to accomplish. No appreciable dent in the mountain as yet :)

Regime #5032

As a mother, I am continuously reviewing the lifestyle of my family, and coming up with new and improved means for ensuring that my three children somehow emerge from their upbringing as well rounded individuals. Concerned with the increasingly excessive time spent by my three in front of the computer (Facebook, online games etc) or on their iPods (more games), I have imposed a new regime: one half hour ONLY of techno gadgets per child per day. Homework related use is exempted. Of course, it takes a whole lot more energy on my part to impose this regime than to give in to their pleading, but that's parenting huh?!

On the upside, I witnessed the first fruits of the new regime this week:

My eldest daughter and her friends love to exchange birthday presents. My eldest daughter is usually skint, spending her pocket money with abandon (mostly on her friends, I have to admit). 

I told her she could have free reign with my fabric stash if she wanted to sew gifts for her friends. And so her 'Love' pillows were born.

They are a simple, but sweet design - a single heart, raw-edge appliqued onto linen and finished with running stitch. They are a hit with her friends as she carefully colour coordinates them to her friends' bedrooms - important when you're sixteen :)


These pillows exist only because of my new 'get-off-Facebook-and-do-something-productive' regime. So proud!

A brief distraction

I have a thousand things to do, but have been briefly distracted by this clever little clip - a fantastic journey in 90 seconds of fashion, music and dance in the last 100 years.


So at the risk of distracting you too, I thought I'd share it :)


I could also distract you with this ...

... but that would be bordering on irresponsible. Have a great day!

Feeding the fabric fetish

Since moving to town four years ago, I would guess I have visited my local quilt shop at least once a week. Yet in four years, I've not managed to spot this treasure ... until today! It is a rare piece of 'Up Town' Paint by Number by Erin Michael for Moda, and incorporates two of my favourite things, birds AND blooms. If your heart misses a beat at the sight of this fabric too, I'm sure the girls at Marally can help: their email is info@marallycraft.com.au

In other fabric news, I picked up these pieces over the holidays. I am loving using grey just at the moment, and I have these ear-tagged to make up a boy's version of my Little Abracadabra. They are mostly Michael Miller fabrics ('Zoology', 'Play Dot'  and 'Play Stripe' in sea, 'Dumb Dot' in grey, 'Feeling Groovy' in charcoal) with a little bit of Jenean Morrison's 'Silent Cinema' thrown in.

Before the holidays, I had the enormous pleasure of playing with some pre-release fabrics from Amy Butler's new line, 'Lark'. This line is everything you've come to expect from Amy - dynamic, bold, large-scale, colour-saturated gorgeousness.

This is another one of those annoying 'secret projects', I can't reveal too much just now. But I can tell you that there was some applique involved ... 

 

 ... and that there is much excitement afoot for next year's issues of Australian Homespun. Just sayin' :)