Shopping Therapy and Sewing

I've been running at top speed this week, getting to know my new students and trying to catch up with the massive amount of paperwork that has been thrown my way. This weekend has been my chance to catch up so after typing up a few things for school I noticed that all the emails I had written in the last 2 weeks were still sitting in my Outbox! We changed internet providers during my absence and I hadn't set it up properly so I am sorry to anyone I haven't replied to. I really did say hi and the email has now been sent.

I am a girl that thrives on retail therapy but not the usual girlie therapy. I do like new things to wear but the best new things for me are in the way of textiles.

Although I probably have about 10 projects incomplete and awaiting my attention, I decided another wouldn't go astray. I just had to do it.

It's not a patchwork project that I needed but a woollen one, despite the high temperatures we are  enjoying in Melbourne at the moment. 

The wool is a gorgeous Rowan Felted Tweed and it knits up beautifully.

The thing about knitting is that it is extremely transportable.

I'm not doing the thing on the cover, just a little cardigan - I hope.

I don't want it to be another case of a half done project.

In India, my sister bought a beautiful patch worked bag, which was missing a strap.

I was lucky enough to find a woven strap from Zigu Zagu in Malvern and attached it to the bag.

If you live in Melbourne this is a 'must go to' place.

It has the most fabulous range of Japanese fabrics and lots of other interesting textile things.

The strap came from a box of oddments (treasures).

I have bought cotton kimonos from here in the past and pulled them apart and then used the fabric for some quilt backing. Cheap and easy to do.

The other thing I wanted to show you was I did manage to finish my little Malka Dubrawsky Quilt before I went overseas.

 I just machine quilted it with wavy lines and backed it with the same check fabric that I used for the border.

I was so much more organised at the end of the year than I am now.

I think I am always in a state of panic at the beginning of the school year.

Can't wait till I calm down and get back into rhythm.

Tokyo Quilt Show

The Tokyo Quilt Show has just finished. Ages ago I sent a patch to Tokyo, on the recommendation of Ayumi from Pink Penguin . It was to be added to a charity quilt and auctioned off for the tsunami victims. Great idea and easy to do. My patch went into quilt 42 and I was sent a certificate of thanks.

A few weeks ago I found a comment on my blog from Cynthia from A Quilter by Night and when I wrote back and she wrote back I discovered that she was living in Tokyo and was going to the Tokyo Quilt Show. I mentioned that I had a patch in there and she went out of her way to take a photo of the quilt and post it on her blog. I couldn't find the patch from her photo so she went back the next day (not just for me but to go again because it was massive) and she took another photo and updated her blog. How nice is that? Since I have started blogging and chatting to  quilters from around the world I have only had support and inspiration. You guys are all amazing for what you give me by sharing your craft and time and I really appreciate it. As for Cynthia, I highly recommend you visit her blog, not only because she is making fabulous things but also because the photos she took from the show are brilliant.

End of Year Prezzies

School is over for the kids and I just have 3 official days left. These days have been filled for me with a Math's professional development day with my favourite guru Michael Ymer,  an anaphylaxis course and a full day first aid course. I am not sure when they expect me to clean out the classroom so I guess I will be working for a few extra days but it's all good because in my head I am already on holiday.
I made a few end of year presents for my co workers. We are not big on giving presents at school as we would have to buy so many but as I already had a few bits and pieces made, I thought I would.

I decorated t-towels with hexies.

Put together some little Pocket Purses made from scrappy strips.

The fabulous fasteners come from Nikki at You Sew Girl .

They are really easy to put in and super strong.

Lastly I made some Xmas decorations for our amazing secretary who works for a dragon (almost) and still finds a way to do everything and have a smile on her face.

She said her tree was going to be blue and silver this year. Apparently she changes the theme every year.

Today is Sunday but that did not stop my special order from Japan arriving this morning.

It's called All my thanks and Love to Quilts by Goke Keiko.

I first saw this book at Cathy's house and just had to get my own copy.

I know it's all in Japanese but the pictures are brilliant and I do have the advantage of having a son who speaks and reads Japanese but the book seems to be mainly photos.

My camera is not the best to show off these amazing quilts. They are embroidered and quilted and totally wild. I will try to borrow my son's camera to give you some better shots.

Lastly I have been experimenting with some shot cottons. I am building on all of these blocks and will rearrange them a 1000 times but I am enjoying this new project.

Flu? It won't happen to me!

My Supplies 

"I never take time off work..

No I don't need the flu shot.."

Wrong!

Actually the flu shots were given out on Thursday at school, a week too late for me.

So I've done only a tiny bit of sewing despite being holed up at home for days. I've just been too tired. Panadol is my friend!

Under the influence of my friend's few pain free hours I sewed on the binding of this little Kimono fabric quilt.

I haven't finished all the quilting but it's moving along slowly.

On the bright side, it's just 4 more school days before holidays so if I can just get through the next few days I will have a much better time at home.

Not bad for a 19 year old

My son just returned from Japan and look what he bought home for me!

The prices were pretty similar to what you can get online. I thought he would have been able to do better but it seems the online price is the list price or pretty close. I loved the Echino and Lecien fabric the best.

Kimono No More

I am a bit excited because my son has just gone to Japan and with him is a printout of lots of fabrics I love and some cash. I really am hoping that he will bring me back something new to create from.
Meanwhile, a few months ago I went to Kazari and bought an old blue kimono and a roll of blue fabric swatches.

I forgot to photograph them first, but in the space of 4 hours I had unpicked the kimono and pieced the fabric pieces into strips and then a quilt top.

There were about 10 colours and I had a few blues that I added in to make the top.

Most of the quilt back was from the front and back of the kimono. The collar and sleeves, once unpicked, were stitched into some of the quilt top and along the sides of this piece to make it larger.

I just fell in love with the bold lines on this kimono and it was only $20!

At least now some of my guilt has been assuaged as I have made more room for my new incoming Japanese treasures.

Its not that I haven't been doing anything...

I missed my weekend blogging because I went away for a beautiful weekend to Blairgowrie. Although it rained in Melbourne we had two relatively pleasant winter days at the beach. We went on three walks with a couple of breakfast breaks on the morning walks. At night we entertained, cooked up a storm, lit the fire and played scrabble. I did finish binding one of my quilts while we were away. Thank you Lisa for letting us stay at your place.

Last week I also managed to go to Kazari to buy the fabric for my Japanese quilt and that binding is also completed now. It was so good to go there. There were so many choices and I was lucky to have a friend with me to give a second opinion. Sometimes it can be so confusing and I really believe that the binding on a quilt can make or break the final piece.

So here is my over the top Kaffe Fassett/Brandon Mably quilt. The colours are way to crazy. I contemplated pulling it apart and making the inner strips of sashing from a smaller print fabric but in the end I just let it go. It's on my son's bed already and although I still need to do some stitching in some of the larger squares it's found a home.

So I have been sewing but not blogging. Four quilts were basted too and Castle Peeps is ready to have its binding stitched down. Phew, soon I will back at school and all this fun will be over. Love holiday breaks!

Japanese Delivery and more sewing

After only a couple of weeks these gorgeous fabrics arrived from Japan via Etsy. They feel beautiful. Can't wait to use them.

I fell in love with linens after buying some packets of fabric from Amitie a while back. They were an assortment of linen, Liberty and fairytale characters. The 36 blocks made from these packs were finished this weekend so I went to buy the linen sashing at the shop. Lots more sewing happened getting the sashing on but unfortunately I was 4"of fabric short of finishing the quilt top so I'm only going to show you some of the blocks.

 The pattern is so clever because you get to use lots of scrappy bits and pieces and the colours can be anything as the background linen seems to absorb it all and let each block shine on its own. There are a couple of finished quilts like this one on A Very Fine House's blog .

Anyway, after all this beautiful fabric arriving from overseas I think I am going to attack the hubby's shirts first and I have started cutting the first few blocks today. I just need to stew on what I might make with my new stashes. It's so hard to cut sometimes.

Machine Quilting

I have been ringing around to find out how much it would cost to quilt my Japanese Kimono Fabric Quilt because I thought it might work better than the usual hand quilting I do. I've also been reading stacks of blogs and have found that lots of people just seem to manage doing the machine quilting with their ordinary home machines. I really can't decide what to do. I know $150 - $200 is reasonable because of the work involved but should I try to do it myself and risk the mess? I have a walking foot - I am just scared.

Productive Day

It been a good day for sewing. First I went to Amitie to match a backing for a quilt top I made over the holidays. I bought all these scrap pieces of kimono fabric from a reject bin at Kazari in Richmond. They smelt terrible so I had to wash them all first - they still were smelling rather different from the lovely cotton smell I am used to. They ironed well despite the dip in detergent and I spent a couple of afternoons cutting and sewing the pieces together. They were really interesting fabrics with different textures and weaves. I will definitely visit them again.

Anyway, I didn't get such a positive response from my family so I put the quilt away to think about. I decided to have another look at it today and bought a lovely chocolate brown variegated fabric to back it with. I also bought some yellow Kaffe Fassett fabric to finish another quilt. That's now complete as well.

Next job was to finish the Moonbeam baby dolls I had started at the market.

Done - sewn and ready for stuffing.

So at last I was able to work in earnest on my nieces' quilt. 28 patches made and 14 to go.

Now to clean up the mess the storm has made. The hail stones made holes in our porch roof and water poured into our family room through the doors. The volume of water was just too much for the down pipes. At least the garden looks happy.