Saturday, November 15, 2008

Crafty 'To-do' list

Projects "on-the-go" or with specific deadlines:
  1. Final preparations for Ella's party
  2. Label for Ella's quilt
  3. End of year gifts for kinder & creche staff
  4. Shirley's birthday presents
  5. Finish mum's birthday quilt
  6. Finish quilting, binding and label for Jake's quilt
  7. Ruby's bat-mitzvah quilt
  8. Quilt for Johnny (no rush on this one)
  9. Our chuppah
Ideas for other projects I've been thinking about doing:
  1. Fabric / canvases for our bedroom
  2. New cushion covers for the living room
  3. Roman blind for our room
  4. Flying geese quilt for our bed
  5. Denise Schmidt style quilt in plains
Just one or two things to keep me busy.
Andi :-)

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Fun online time wasters.

I have just read this post telling about this service where you can search for images on flickr according to colour.

Well, that was fun!!

But then I used this site to make this gorgeous collage.


Thinking about turning it into a proper quilt using these.

Andi :-)

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Trains, travel and some horse racing fun!!

What a crazy busy weekend we had!!!

My son, the train fanatic couldn't believe his luck when his grandparents (all 4 of them!!) suggested a trip (on a train) to Castlemaine, followed by a steam train journey to Maldon and back again, and then a train journey back to Melbourne. All over a 3 day period.

He was in little boy heaven!!

The kids had a lovely time and were rather adorable ....



The local flora just had to be photographed ......




The steam train was fun and very beautiful .....




But my main interest was visiting the local patchwork shops for a bit of fabric indulgence.
At this shop I bought some gorgeous vintage 1930's reproduction fabrics ....



... and some white fabrics from this shop. The photo isn't good but I promise they are all different designs.

So that was our fabulous and exhausting journey. When we got home on Monday, Jake slept for 12 hours straight.

The next day was Melbourne Cup Day. We spent the day with a group of friends we usually only see on Melbourne Cup Day.

Inspired by this, I made some cute felt horses with lollypops for the kids ....





And I won our local version of the Fashions on the Field competition. Here I am with my trophy ....

... and to top off a great day, Jake put $7 on the winning horse and we went away with $165.

Life is good!

Happy quilting!
Andi :-)

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Breaking the drought (and also a little tutorial)

After a 3 week drought, I was very excited to get back to my Tuesday night 'Stitch and Bitch' class at Amitie.

It was lovely to see my very patient and talented teacher Judy again.
She has taught me so very much.

Numerous other happy patchers and quilters came along tonight.
(Note the empty champagne flutes).


And I got started on a new project for my mum's birthday coming up in December.

I used a technique that I learned watching the (online) Quilt Show. This technique was described in the show that you can watch for free. (I hope the episode hasn't changed).

In any case, I thought I'd show you how I do this gorgeous block.
It is a 'Flying Geese' block made (incredibly) with
only 1 seam!

Check this out .....

First, you cut your pieces.
I'll give the dimensions for a finished block that is 3 inches x 6 inches.

You need two 3.5 inch squares that will make the corners of the block. And you need to cut a rectangle 3.5 inches x 6.5 inches, which will make the central triangle of the block.

These ...

will eventually become these....

Here's how ...

Take the rectangle piece and fold it in half with the right side on the OUTSIDE.


Then make a sandwich with this folded rectangle as the 'filling', and 2 of the squares as the 'bread'. The 2 squares should have their right sides facing INTO the sandwich.


You will notice that the folded rectangle is the same width as the squares but 1/4 inch shorter. Place the fold of the rectangle at the end with the 1/4 inch gap (see above).

Then, with the sandwich in this same position, sew a 1/4 inch seam down the right hand side of the sandwich. (Once you get used to this process, you can chain piece lots of blocks in one go).




That's all the sewing. Amazing!!!

The magic happens with the ironing.
First, with the fold of the rectangle at the top of the block, iron out the right hand square.


Then, grab the bottom left hand corner of the folded rectangle and bring it over to the right hand side to make a folded triangle.




Iron this down ....

and voila!!!


You now have a block that can be joined together in any number of ways. Here's how I have joined mine ...


I'll show you how the whole quilt will come together once I've done a bit more work on it.

In the meantime, time for me to get to bed.

Sleep well and happy quilting!

Andi :-)

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Our Succah

It is nearing the end of the Jewish festival Succot

Dan and I both attended Jewish day schools and had the opportunity to experience our Jewish tradition in a very real way at school.

However, we have decided to send our children to the local state school which has a range of advantages ... but this means that we have to be very considered and deliberate about the Jewish education we give our children at home. 

It is the tradition during Succot, to build an outdoor dwelling / hut, in which the family eats for about a week  (and some people even sleep in them). They are decorated in all kinds of ways and are a great excitement for the smallest people in the house.

So, this year we built our second family Succah. Our first one was last year and was a bit of a disaster. It got blown over, taking numerous pieces of furniture and a couple of terracotta pots with it. 

This year had to be an improvement.

Here are some shots of us putting up our Succah:
 





And here are the kids making some decorations:




Our first meal:


And our various guests (It is a lovely tradition to invite guests to share in your Succah).







Andi :-)