Spider Web Quilt

My spider web quilt is still in the making, but it will be finished by the time Penny and I have our Scrap Quilt Day.  Penny's quilt is called a Cobweb, so we are working on a theme.  The main difference is that Penny's is structured scraps and mine is random scraps. Yes, you get to empty out the scrap basket and use it!!

Come and join us in August 31st, at St Paul's Lutheran Church, at McLaren Vale, South Australia, 9.30am to 3pm.  The cost is $40 for the day, which includes morning and afternoon teas.  Please bring along your own lunch, or you can buy something at one of the gourmet shops along the main road.
Email me Wendy@legendandlace.com to book your spot.

If you have never been to the beautiful McLaren Vale wine region of SA, this is an ideal opportunity.  Come for the day or the weekend.  It is less than an hour's drive from the centre of Adelaide, and worth every moment on the drive.

Playing with UFO's

I must be feeling better, and it is not as if I don't have things I "have to" do, but I started going through my boxes of UFO's today, trying to see what I might actually be able to finish.

These blocks are not actually UFO's, they are swap blocks.  Is that almost the same thing?  Over a 12 month period my quilting group SewJanes swapped these 6" Ohio Star Blocks.  Each month we had to make one block for each member of the group.  I think it was 14 to start with, and one girl decided that she had enough blocks, and not to make any more for her.  So I have a heap of them.  I used some as a border on a Medalion quilt a couple of years ago, and put them aside again.  Basically I decided that I would make a strippy quilt. and found this old purple/grey fabric for the triangles.  They are all attached.  Now I just have to decided on the strippy part.  I want to do red, as there is a little red in the setting fabric.  I have this red and black zig zag fabric.  Not sure it is really long enough, but I expect it won't matter that much if I have to join it some place.  There are 45 blocks in total - so 5 strips of 9 blocks is still a pretty big quilt.  Maybe I will make a few more and it could be 6 strips of 8........might change that sashing yet.....

Baskets in Hand

I have been laid up this week with a nasty virus, and could do very little without getting tired.  Perfect time to start something new!  Just needed to be able to stand for a few minutes while I cut some fabric. 

Last week I told you about the new BOM - Baskets for You - that starts in September.  There are 120 little baskets in this quilt.  The BOM goes for 12 months, so I figured I would need to make on the average 3 a week to get them all made.  I made my 3 in a day!  They are so easy.

 I do my applique by the Back Basting method and drew the design on the back of the fabric.

Don't you just loves this red stripe!

 I then do a tacking stitch on the drawn line through the design fabric as well.  You can see the basket outlined here.  If you can't see it properly, then run a while line over the tacking stitches.  They will come out later

.
Cut around the shape of the basket.  Clip the inner curves, and every 3rd tacking stitch.  Remove the stitches as you start to turn the seam under.

You can also do it this way if you like, by drawing on the design fabric, and cutting out the shape.  You will need to glue or pin the shape to the background fabric, before you start the needle-turn applique.

These are my first 3 baskets.  For my own quilt I am using up scraps of shirting and red prints.  If you join into the BOM, you get new fabrics for the baskets and background every month.  You can either the red quilt, or you can have assorted colours each month - a scrappy quilt.

These are someof the goodies with the BOM - a sandpaper board, thread, glue, needles, template, and the Sewline Trio pen.

Complete Quilt - Baskets for You

We are starting in September, and the cost is $25 per month, plus postage.

No birth without the pain

Yes, we had a few teething problems!  My first 2 customers could not download the pattern.  I tried and sent the link again, and it still did not work.  When I went "in" the works to see what the problem was, I had the coding all about face.......dah!..........no one said I was a website guru, just a quilter with some skills.

Anyway, all fixed now as my patient customer Sharon assures me.

So, then I got on a role and uploaded the Prairie Star pattern you see above, and a little Rail Fence that is used as the heading of this blog.  Both these patterns I had requests in the past to have in digital form.

Now that I have got the hang of it I will do more as I get some free time.

Today was suppose to be my free day, and I woke in the night with severe abdominal cramps.......hoping they would go away.  The DH took me to the Doc and he said it was a virus.  Sent me home with water and dry crackers.  Not much fun that!

New and exciting!

I did it!  This block is now on my website to download as a Digital Block of the Month.  There were some minor birthing pains, but all is good, with the help of my wonderful website designer, Christine Abella, of Gecko Gully.  She is always there when I need her.  Christine told me what to do, and I did myself - myself!

Stop bragging and get on with it.........I have been teaching this hand pieced 9 block quilt around the traps for about 2 years now, and have been asked if I was going to produce the pattern......er........too hard, too much work, lots of pages - about 40 pages in all.  Got put on the back-burner.  Now, I recon this is the perfect way to do it.  It will cost you $7.95 for each pattern, which has a photo of the quilt and the one block, plus my hand piecing "workshop", instructions to make this particular block, and full sized templates.  If you decide to take the plunge and buy the block, you will get an email with a link, and you can then download the pattern.   Please, please, please let me know if it does not work properly, as I want to know and make any changes necessary.

Baskets for You

I have been thinking about a new Block of the Month, and have decided to do two over the next 12 months.  The first is pattern, template, and fabrics for the "Baskets for You" from Sue Daley.

It is shown here in red!  My favourite colour.  However, I will also offer it in multi-colours - scrappy - for those of you who just love scrap quilts.  Each month I will surprise you with what you get.  Some will be from "the private collection".  The background fabrics are shirtings - lots of different prints.

My last two BOM's are just about finished.  They were the Antique Sampler, and This Goes with That.  So, I will be ready to start this one in September.  Go to the Legend and Lace website to register, so that you do not miss out, but you credit card will not be charged until the first one is posted in September.

The other BOM I am working on will be a website "download" pattern only.  One of the options is my "Pieces of the Past" 9 block sampler.

I have to get some website modifications happening before I can start this one, as presently I am not geared up for "download" patterns

Flinders Craft Retreat

View from the work room - hard to take?

Every year for 20 years the Flinders Fibre school has been held in Melrose, in the Flinders Ranges, in South Australia.  Last year was declared the final year.  There were many sad people.  A couple of the girls got hold of the emails of a few of us and asked if we would like to come for a retreat only, and work on the future of the school.  About 20 of us went, and it was really a great time.  The retreat went from Saturday afternoon, until after lunch on the Tuesday.  I did some sewing blocks, some hand quilting, and some knitting.  Others did similar things, plus felting and beading, and teddy-bear making.  I took lots of photos - mostly of the beautiful landscape.  The top photo was from out workroom.

another view from the work room

Some of the people stitching up a storm

We went for a lunch time walk

Mount Remarkable in the background as we go for a walk

the view back behind us as we walk up the hill

Marilyn and Jill trying to keep warm

Car parked out of the front of the Mt Remarkable Hotel in Melrose.

We were staying at  Camp Willochra, which is only a short drive to the town of Melrose.  Marilyn, Jill and I decided to support the local economy and headed out to the local pub for a 2 hour "Happy Hour".  We sat there until the sun went down over the mountain, and it got really cold.

Kookaburra - our lunch time companion

common room - lunch and coffee breaks

On the last day we woke to fog.  It look beautiful!

fog amongst the gum trees

There really is a "town" called Stone Hut

Stone Hutt bakery - where they make the best pies in Australia

Coffee, and cake time.  The man in the background is the owner - the
"pie man".  He gave us all cakes to take home.  Must have been our charm and good looks!

Looking a bit tired on the drive home

There are lots of photos, and we had a great time.  I have taken on the task of looking  after a mailing list for future retreats.  If you would like to know more about the retreat in the future, please email me, and I will send out further information later in the year.  It will start on 6th July next year

There is a bit of progress

with my Block of the Month from Cabbage Rose quilts in Texas.  Regular readers will recall that I joined into this BOM in order to do Kim McLeans "Flower Pots" quilt.  The BOM is sent already lazer cut, with flisofix on the back - ready to stick in place.  I tried a little bit of hand blanket stitch, and decided I did not like it.  It looks like it was time to learn how to do machine applique!  eek!  Have never done it before, but I have managed to teach myself how to.  The advertising blurb with the BOM says "ready to applique using your preferred method".  My preferred method is needle turn, but there is no way you can do this appilque in anyway except with buttonhole.

I just finished the large block, which is actually 2 months worth.  They sent bits last month, and some more this month.  I held onto the lot and did it all in one go.  It is about 1 full days work really.

Being a basically lazy person, hate wasting time, I worked out a really fast way to put the pieces in place.  I am sure I did not invent it, but no one showed me how.  I laid the pattern sheet on top of the lightbox, then on top of that I put this brown applique sheet that you get from the quilt shops, then the background fabric, and finally the cut out pieces.  I put them where I wanted them, and pressed very lightly with the iron.  When they were in place, and just stuck down a bit, I then took them to the ironing board, and gave them a good press in place.  The applique sheet is to protect the surface of the light box.  You can see all the layers through using the light box, and no need to mark the lines on the background fabric.

I am really liking this machine applique.  Not sure how I much I will like it if I have to do all the hard part myself, but time will tell with that.

1st of July - and the winner is.......

Merrilyn!   Lucky you!  I wrote all the names on papers, folded them and did the blind draw.

I took a couple of photos of the one I drew, but neither showed up properly, so you have to trust me.

Merrilyn - email me your address and I will post the stems and ovals to you.

Thanks for the support girls!  I have a couple of things to tell you and show you but I have been hibernating a bit with the horrid winter weather.

Next weekend I am off to a retreat at Melrose in the Flinders Ranges, and I have to go through my UFO's and see what I would like to work on.  Also have to look at all my really warm clothes as it is a bunk-house style accommodation, and it is very cold there.