Last night...

Last night I fulfilled a long-held dream of becoming a professional (i.e. paid) quilting teacher.

I have a small class running at QuiltWorks (Their facebook page) in Lower Hutt. It is a small group in a small space, but they are lovely ladies and all left smiling, pleased with themselves having already made great progress on their Going Dotty quilt.

Now I have to kick myself into gear to get the three new patterns I've been working on finished and onto Etsy.

No more excuses!

What do you do when it is all packed?

I feel all out of sorts at the moment. All of my sewing and quilting gear is packed away in boxes in preparation for our move. So not only do I not have the results of my creative energy in piles around me, but what do I do in the evenings now until the weekend?

I know it is for the best, and in the new place I will have a DEDICATED SEWING SPACE {swoon} but in the meantime... Giving me free time can be dangerous... But before I packed everything away I took a couple of happy snaps:

 

Table dreaming finished, and ready to quilt

Home is where the heart is - wall hanging, currently being quilted

New idea - RAWRRR!

Wee bit M.I.A.

I know I have been very slack in the last month or two keeping this blog updated - I'm really sorry!

Things have been haywire with lots of big things happening.

Both little things in the house have been sick too which makes getting progress on the big things just that little bit harder too.  So what is news that I can share?

Well, in a word - LOTS!

One of the most important to me is a project I hoped to start a long time ago. I finally got my clearance to join a fabulous group of ladies that I have respected and admired for a long time. Our mighty leader even appeared in the local rag recently: Stitched-up inmates quilty as charged

I can't wait to get back in there to see what the ladies have managed to achieve since my last visit. I would dearly love to be able to go weekly, but that is not going to happen with a young family and other commitments .

Remember this?

Going Dotty 1 - Now living with her new owner in Auckland

Well it has been the main reason I have been missing in action here.

A new quilt shop opened recently reasonably close by. This is a branch of a gorgeous shop in Levin that I LOVE, so I decided to be a bit cheeky. I have been chatting with the lovely Ms L and now have my first proper paid teaching job. I had to re-create my dotty quilt as a store sample. So next month I will be teaching a 4-week class.

Going Dotty #2, mmmm love Japanese Indigos!

Going Dotty is for confident beginner/intermediate level quilters, Starting Monday 7th October for 4 weeks, held at QuiltWorks in Lower Hutt.

I have now finished my entry for the Wellington Quilting Guild challenge, but still can't show that until after out October meeting, and now that the big project is finished I can get back to doing things for me.

Next time I should have lots of photos of bits and pieces to share, instead of bits and pieces to right after Helper #2 has been at them!

But this is how they belong Mum!

Cheerio!

Progress report for July

I got very little done during June - It is the middle of the coldest wettest windiest winter that Wellington has had in years and you know what that means - Flu season!! Add to that critic #1 breaking their arm and critic #2 having a birthday, I was a busy little housework bunny (BOO HISS).

Not many pictures this month either as a couple of projects are a bit secret squirrel at the moment.

Finishes (3)

Greek Candy Pops Throw. Done. Just stitching down the binding.  I can't post pics of this yet as I need to bind it, then get the pattern finished. It is soooo close to being up for sale and then I can get stuck into the next pattern...

Colour Me Dotty QAYG lap quilt with my stitchy Saturday ladies.  I had a fantastic reaction to this one when I took it to guild.  I had a collective "oooh" from the ladies and was fair mobbed by curious quilters afterwards. A couple would really like me to teach them properly how to make it after symposium which I am quite excited about. Hopefully that will add another little notch to my bow. I am considering trying to convince a local quilt shop to let me at their students to teach it too, just have to check a few wee details first. I can't post a finished picture yet as it will be going to a new home soon. But that does mean I must remake the pattern (like, yesterday) so I can keep one for me - hopefully as a class sample.

2013 Guild challenge. All done and dusted! Weehee I'm ahead of the game for this one, just need to get the entry form filled out and I have a month and a half to do that. Again, shhhh secret squirrel so no final pics yet :(

WIPs (3)
Home is Where the Heart is wall hanging. I'm back with little squares. I have half of this one pieced now. It will be the next pattern for my Etsy store after the throw.

Table dreams. One setting block done, one to go. Then I can get it all pieced together. Can't wait to start quilting this baby.


AQS Competition. Just need to get a good photo of me to send off for the entry form and that one is in the machine, gears turning.

New Projects and ideas (1)

I have been doing lots of doodling and have pulled some back-of-the-mind-percolating ideas out for ideas. The time has come for a few of them to become a reality, and then become a pattern.

To make up for a lack of stitchy photos, have one of opening presents birthday chaos:

Oooooh Shinies!

Papercut Shadows

So, the world ended for me on Saturday - My sewing machine broke.  And my back up sewing machine has a faulty foot pedal. So no sewing this week. Which is kind of a good thing. I've been organising my to do list and writing the patterns for the next patterns to go up on Etsy (hopefully in the next 3 weeks if I get my machine back quick).


I have been following a fantastic romanian quilter by the name of Geta Grama for a while now. She does fantastic shadow trapunto work and handbags.  Last year I was delighted to learn that she put out a book for her shadow trapunto technique and bought my copy as soon as it came out!

Shadow Trapunto Quilts, Geta Grama

For an experienced quilter, her technique is remarkably easy to do and gives such spectacular results! Rather than jump straight in to one of her big projects I decided to make one of my own designs on a smaller scale to practice. I made a paper-cut snowflake and used that for my design.

This is the second one I did:

A bit more complicated and looks gorgeous.

This now has a happy home with S in Auckland.

I love the book, nice and clear instructions, great photography and some stunning quilts to try. It is was first time in a long long time that I was interested in making someone else's design as is. I usually can't bring myself to do more than the general idea of the pattern and adapt to fit my own style. But these are so lovely. I think the next time I'll still do my own design but...I'll also add one of her original designs to the to do list too!

In the meantime I'll just pore over the book a few more times

The wheels grind slowly

What feels like a long time ago now, I joined my Quilters Guild. I wanted to reach out to my own "kind" and learn from peers.  But I also wanted to find a way to use my skills to help others and I know the guild is very active in charity work.

I looked around at the work they did and saw the big group of ladies that work on quilts for the neo-natal ward of the hospital, and the ones that make quilts for Women's refuge and they are awesome causes, but are already well staffed.

One that wasn't and was crying out for more volunteers was the dedicated group of ladies that work in the local women's prison teaching the ladies there how to quilt.

Well after a long time waiting for the volunteer co-ordinators to sort the paperwork out, I finally did my induction course on the weekend. As soon as my ID is done, I can start helping.

Going through the metal detectors was no different from catching a flight, but walking through the "sally port" where one gate slams behind you and you wait for the next to open in front of you takes the cake as one of the most surreal experiences in my life.

Progress Report for June

Progress report for May

Wow May was a busy month, but I didn't get nearly as much sewing as I would have liked done.

Finishes (2)
Libby's blanket.  Finished, bound and given to a happy little girl for her birthday.  Even better, her mum loves it too.

Happy 2nd birthday little lady

Greek Candy Pops.  3 cushions completed, and (available individually or as a set) for sale on Etsy.com

Hehehe Mum's couch is famous!

WIPs (5)
Greek Candy Pops Throw. Unstitching to be done. I got careless with the last panel of the throw quilt and now have some seams to unpick and re-do as that panel ended up nearly an inch bigger along the side than the other panels (DOH).  I also had a lovely volunteer sew the final cushion for me and I have just received it back.  Unfortunately one row of the pattern of that one has been stitched wrong so I need to do a quick fix up for that too.  Having a wee break from piles of tiny squares though. On the plus side, I have the instructions for the throw written, just waiting on me to quilt the dratted thing and get the last few photos.

QAYG lap quilt with my stitchy Saturday ladies (no name yet). 4 blocks completed, 12 blocks pieced, remainder waiting on yet more binding. This is fun! But man does it chew through the binding.  I have to keep stopping and making more.  I'm really glad that it is a bright scrappy coloured quilt so I can just throw in another colour and keep going.  If you cut your curves carefully it pieces back together really well.  I had been experimenting with a random layout, but I think that with the riot of colours it needs the quietness of a more orderly layout.  What do you think?

Random?

Or more orderly?

Table dreams. No progress this month. This is still up on my hallway wall to walk past every day.  I will get back to this one soon.


Colour me Dotty.  No progress this month. I have cut one of the squares, but the template I was given by one of the ladies has some of the curves a bit uneven.  I need to remake it before I do any more cutting.


2013 Guild challenge. No progress this month. Have to make more bias for the outside edge.  Really really sick of making bias at the moment!


New Projects and ideas (1.5)


I am going to make my first attempt and fulfilling a long-held ambition - entering an American quilt show/competition.  Of course I'm not going by half measures.  The American Quilting Society is having a "modern quilting" section of it's Des Moines quilt week.  Steamy Dreams appears to fit the entry criteria so I'm going to submit it for consideration.  No guarantee that it will even be accepted for the competition and even less likelyhood it will win anything, but I'm going to give it a go.

Not quite new project, but I'm finally going on my prison teacher induction course this weekend!  I'll finally be able to join my guild's group that teaches quilting at the local women's prison.