I am a quilter

but a dressmaker as well.  I use to make every scrap of clothes for my family, including undies!  Since I started serious quilting, I have hardly made a scrap of clothing, and almost forgot some of the basics.

I had an idea about making a shirt of patchwork fabrics, and teamed up 5 different prints from Moda.  The fabric is beautiful to work with, and it drapes really nicely.

Do you think I like paisley?

It is not totally finished yet.  I need to sew down the collar stand, and work on the button holes.  In the past I have made button holes manually on my old Bernina machine.  I have not done any serious dressmaking since I have had the new Bernina 230.  According to the instruction book there are about 3 different ways to do them, and there is a fancy attachment as well.  I will have to do lots of practice I think to see how it all works.

Bright, isn't it?  You will see me coming in it.  I just chose fabrics I liked, not bothering about where they would be placed.  Nearly forgot - there is a pocket to go on LHS as well, so that might break it up a bit.

I am half way there

with these little Hexagon blocks, for the BOM, This Goes with That.  There are 8 months to the programme, with 2 different patterns each month.  As a sample, I have decided to make 3 of each block.

As you can see, I am having fun with the prints, and I LOVE big colours.  There are lots of different ways to set the blocks.  That is an entirely personal choice, but I plan to scatter amongst the pieced blocks, just some single hexagons with interesting prints

 I bet we all have a few of these types of prints, that you had stashed away, and knew that one day they would be useful.  This is the day!

In the packs each month you get these nifty perspex templates.  You can place these over your fabrics to see what they will look like once cut.  I either draw around them if I am sitting watching TV, and cut out by hand, or if you are in your sewing room, then you can use the rotary cutter.

Ok, this is the "advertisement" part.  The programme starts mid-February, so if you are kind of thinking you might want to join in, you have a couple of weeks (to the end of January) to register, after than there will be no extra names taken.  The cost is $38 per month, plus postage, which is about $3 in Australia, and $10 for the USA and Europe.  Other countries, please email me for a quote.

Back to playing with fabrics......

My New Job

For the past few years I have been a great fan of Karen Kay Buckley products, since discovering her Perfect Circles.  Then last year she brought out the Perfect Scissor, which are fabulous.  Now I have a new job - I am the Australian and New Zealand Distributor for KKB products!

In addition to the Perfect Circles, large and small, there are also Perfect Stems.  These are a bit of a treat, they help you make stems as thin as 1/8th" wide.

The scissors come in large and small - 7 1/2" and 4 1/2" .  The small ones I use for applique as they have  a slightly serrated cutting edge, so that it helps prevent fraying, and they cut right to the very point.   The large scissors also have the serrated edge, and you can cut up to 5 layers at a time.  Handy if you are cutting multiple shapes for applique.

All items are still available for retail customers on my website.  If you are a shop owner in Australia, or New Zealand , or have an online shop, you can now buy wholesale from me. 

Over the next couple of months there will be promotions in some Australian patchwork and craft magazines. I am a bit excited about it all.  When I "retired" from work last year, I never thought something like this would come my way.

Sometimes they find us

When you are thinking about what next to make, don't you think that sometimes they just find us, instead of us finding them?

I was out at my local op shop yesterday with the DH.  He looks for books, and I look for other treasures.  He called me to show me a heap of quilting magazines he had just found in a box.  I stopped him in time as he was loading his arms up, as they were mostly recent Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazines, most of which I already have.  However, there were a few treasures near the bottom of the box.  I always look out for old Lady's Circles and Quilt magazines.  They have old quilts often shown in historic homes.  I flipped through the pages and found something that took my eye!

this is dated 1988

I know the quilt shown is not exactly what I made but it gave me the idea.  Guess this is where "inspired by" comes in :-)

Last night I traced off the templates, and went through the scrap boxes - yes "boxes" - I have several and bags.

Before I went to bed I had the circle made, and settled on the cheddar background.  This was in the bottom of the cupboard.  I bought it for another project on the "to do" list, but that can wait a bit longer.  It is Moda Bella and the colour is Cheddar.

Today I dug out the collection of solids I had stashed for an Amish kind of project that never happened, and cut out the circles around the edge

The two circles are hand pieced together, then the outer circle appliqued in place.

I used my Larger Perfect Circles to make the centre ring from the background fabric.

Then I removed the circle template, pressed the circle, and appliqued that in place

Finally I could make the centre circle with one of the small Perfect Circles, and applique that in place.

Don;t you just love starting something new?  I do, and it inspires me to use up some of these treasured old fabrics I have laying about.  I plan to make each of the 20 blocks from a different set of fabrics, and the featured outer and inner rings will be a mixture of darker solids