From Little Things Bigs Things Grow

Once again Paul Kelly has come to my rescue and got me of my bum and into my sewing room.  I am always waiting until I have "time" to sew, lets face it this never happens.  So I will use the odd 1/2 hour or whatever and do a little of a project, one day it will finally be finished, instead of staying in my head

Some photos for the previous post

Christmas in July

Hello again, it seems like a long time since I last posted, but you can see from the photos that everyone has been busy.  The donations have landed safely in Christchurch and Sue will distribute them as soon as possible, they have had some really cold  days so they will be really useful.  Thanks again to everyone who has helped, your time, effect and financial help is really appreciated.  I am still trying to come to grips with blogging, I only wish I could have posted a photo of all your great work, oh well you live and learn.

I must admit I am thrilled to see my article in the latest Dressmaking with Stitches.  It is Vol.20 No 7 -Jacket Secrets and has a picture of a model wearing a red jacket.  The ASG asked me to write an article on the earthquake appeal, my original article was twice as long as was printed, so my apologies to anyone who didn't get mentioned.  You can read it on pages 76/77 if you are interested.

Take five minutes to go with the flow

As a beginner quilter I like the easy relaxed method of Lisa Walton.  I decided to sew curvy lines following the outside of the fern.  This was fun but a little difficult due to the large size of the quilt (150 X200cm).  I had just about finished when I realised the importance of laying the quilt on a large surface and seeing if I could notice any interesting shapes I could sew.  So take five minutes and see if there are any shapes that appeal.           

Tips on stretch applique

As I reflect on the quality of my work, I reckon this is a good time to write down tips for future projects.
When quilting stretch fabric it is helpful to make a small zigzag, say 0.5 wide X 3 long. This still looks straight but allows the fabric to remain stretchable and helps stop puckering.  The needle was a size 14 stetch needle as a ball point needle didn't work for some reason.  Don't worry about small mistakes, if it is not for show, just get on with it and enjoy yourself

Sewing to Paul Kelly

I love sewing to the music of Paul Kelly.  I listening to the A-Z collection as I applique the fern on, with a short break after each CD.  It makes the whole thing so much more enjoyable.

One Year on...

It's been one year, but the people of Christchurch are not forgotten by the Australians, we are thinking of you and wishing you all the best.
I'm busy making a quilt to send to Christchurch. I am new at making quilts so  I am kind of making it up as I go along, the quilt police will have a fit.  It is made of two layers of fleece, I have glued them togeather, then  a fern is appliqued on top.  I have made the bottom layer red as this seems to be the Christchurch colour, and the top piece is black for the All Blacks, the fern will be white naturally.  At art class I made a giant fern out of cardboard as similar as the real thing as I could. I applied iron-on adhesive  to the back of the white fabric and   traced the reverse image of the fern onto the backing paper. I then cut it out and ironed it to the top of the black polar fleece.  I am currently zigzagging around the outside.