Perth Craft and Quilt Fair 2013

Well I took myself along to the fair again this year, mainly to browse and admire the quilts. I was hoping to find some nice but affordable wool to knit but that wasn't to be so I only bought 2 fat quarters and some fish and chips for lunch! May's edition of the Australian Woman's Weekly was given for free and the train and parking were free too so it was quite a frugal treat in the end.

I pulled out my knitting on the way there and then another lady nearby did the same, we shared a smile. On the way home I did the same and ended up giving a brief knitting lesson!

Here are my photos, it was a beautiful sunny day, Perth looked gorgeous so I took a few pics outside the Convention Centre first...the deciduous trees are just losing their leaves...

the City...

the striking exterior of the Convention Centre...

Perth Busport with BHP behind in the distance, my first husband's company made the rounded arches that cover this building, they were rather special as no-one else was constructing with fibreglass reinforced concrete 20 odd years ago...the kids and I helped at weekends in the Kwinana workshop and they were transported by lorry to Perth. The Chinese Govt was considering buying some to use as bus shelters!

Into the Fair and the very first stall was a wonderful knitted tea cosy selection from Loani Prior. These two are based on the (awful) hats that Princesses Beatrix and Eugenie wore to William and Kate's wedding last year!

there was colour everywhere...quilts for children...

Bunnies always catch my eye...

an embroidered quilt...just a small piece but so detailed...

this one represents the Queensland Rain Forests...

Moroccan inspired quilt, single bed size...

 Best of Australia Quilts included this beauty...

"SA: Golden Ivory by Rachelle Denneny: I have always loved white/cream wholecloth quilts. A touch of bling was added with delicate gold free motion machine embroidery. Trapunto was used to enhance these sections and the quilting was then designed to fit around the embroidery without overpowering it. Quilted and free motion embroidered on a Brother QC 1000. Original design."

Colourful appliqué work...

This quilt would fit a king size bed and each hexy was a different pattern...it was truly a work of art...

 This may have been my favourite quilt...

oh look here's my fish and chip lunch...

Prudence Mapstone was there too with her free form crocheted and knitted pieces, the theme this year was Hearts and Flowers...

I really enjoyed my few hours there and highly recommend getting out and seeing what wonderful items and heirlooms are being created around us.

Love,
Sue 

A Simple Quilt/Patchwork Pattern, Cobblestone

This link will show you how easy this basic pattern is, you can use any size pieces and mix and match a million different fabrics

http://www.victorianaquiltdesigns.com/VictorianaQuilters/CharityQuilt/CobblestonesCharityQuilt.htm

I discovered it about 6 years ago when looking for thrifty gifts to make to take to Canada for Joe's family when we visited them....here is one of the gifted ones before it was finished...

This is the one I kept, the rather subdued tones seem to give it a sweet grace...it protects my grandparent's little folding card table...

They are not lined with any batting etc as they are intended to be used as table cloths, I just added the side sashes and backing fabric. My centre square for these measured 4 square inches as I have a template that size ...it is leftover from making this table protector or topper in 2004. I painstakingly hand stitched all the squares together and then ruined it by adding some very crude machine quilting lines!

Some of us do indeed learn by our mistakes ;)

It was 2C in Perth when I got up this morning, that's pretty cold for here. I have 3 large tomatoes on a volunteer plant so I am watching for frosts being forecast and then I suspect we'll be trying Fried Green Tomatoes!

Joe and I both have dental treatment today, I'm going to post about much money we save by going through the State Govt Dental Units,

Have a wonderful weekend,
Love from
Sue
xxx

A Patchwork Baby Cover

I suppose this is not a true quilt as it has no batting in the middle layer, this was because the cost of freight to Canada is so high. I've backed it with soft baby blue flannelette and used some embroidery thread to tie the quilt in the middle of each patch. This patchwork technique is called crumbing and is very economical as it uses up all your scraps. The red border was made from a 75cent pillowcase from the Red Cross Shop.

Austin is due in a few short weeks and is will be made a most welcome part of our family, very sadly his older brother Dominic died last year from SIDS; Austin will sleep on a monitor that will sound an alarm if he stops breathing.

I had quite a productive day in all yesterday...as well as the quilt and Christmas Cake I baked bread and some tasty little biscuits involving parmesan cheese and Smith's Crisps! I mowed the lawn in the back garden and finished my library book with a little knitting thrown in for good measure. As well as all the usual suspects like general cleaning and cooking.

Still nothing from Priscilla.

Have a Tremendous Thursday
Sue
xx

Hexagons Galore

Hallo again...I started this patchwork in my mind about 20yrs ago but only got down to brass tacks two and a half years ago! It is so very time-consuming as each hexagon is cut out of paper, pinned to the fabric and then cut out leaving a 1/4 inch overlap to prevent fraying. I wanted to use black based fabric as the centre of each 'flower' and to use floral prints as the 'petals'.

However it began to grow like Topsy and I couldn't work out how to get 'straight' edges on it. I had no plan to use it but after finding it again recently I could see it would make a lovely cushion cover and join the floral riot in the living room! This is the back of it and you see some of the papers are still in it...you leave them in for support while sewing the shapes together.

I seemed to think that the hexagons would fit together neatly in rows but they actually make rows that are diagonal so I finally realised I would have to remove several parts of hexies and fill in the caps with single pieces or a pair together....and that is what I spent yesterday morning doing. I gave it a really good press and then cut out a larger square of cotton to stitch it to. I sewed it on by hand as all the piecing here is hand-sewn but I will use the sewing machine to assemble the cushion cover later today. Once it was sewn on I trimmed up the edges of the base to ensure the patchwork was central.

Here's a couple I prepared earlier lol I mean some of the floral patchwork cushions I've made before, they're very simple but colourful and 'happy'

Auntie Joan's Butterflies and Dragonflies...some are hand embroidered

a simple star

Elizabeth's Stitchery Cushion

Auntie Jessie's Sunny Cushion

Gillian's Purple Passion Cushion!

Tumbling or Baby Blocks

As you can tell by their names most of these have been given as gifts. I have also made some using photos printed onto fabric..they were gifts too and it's always sweet to see them in photos from Phoebe and Priscilla in Canada. I'll show you them another day.

It's rained all night here, it's not cold just beautifully fresh and clean.

What are you going to do today? I need to go to the library, get prescriptions and make some soap as well as all the usual other little 'jobs'. Whatever you get up to I hope you have a Terrific Tuesday!

Love from Sue

xx

Crumb Patch-working and Others

After a few years of sewing bits and pieces for around our home and the odd pair of PJ pants now and then I had gathered a big bags of scraps that were too small for most things. Then I came across this marvellous site that teaches how to use these scraps or crumbs to make a pretty quilt.

Slowly but surely I began to patch together a set of blocks and finished this little lap quilt recently. It's backed with some pink fleecy and has a small amount of hand stitching in each square to keep the layers together.

Yesterday the weather turned cold and wet again so it was perfect sewing weather and I grabbed my second pile of 9 squares and got to work finishing the second lap quilt. However after an hour or so I realised that I had the wrong pile...this one was made of what looked to me like dowdier fabrics and it hadn't even been trimmed to make all the blocks the right size. By this time I'd invested so much effort that I pushed on regardless and here's the finished top which I will backk with some leftover blue fleecy. I know the blocks don't line up evenly but I still like the finished top...

It's fascinating to look at both of them and see bits of fabrics from long finished bags and cushions etc. And I still have another set of blocks for another quilt ;).

Next project I must get on with is my hand-pieced hexagons, started 18months ago and meandering along very, very slowly....I am going to take the bull by the horns with this one and cut it to make a cover for a my favourite big cushion on the settee...my knitting cushion!

On the back you can see why it is so time consuming, each hexagon is created by cutting out a paper hex, pinning it to the fabric, cutting around it with enough material to fold over to prevent fraying, then all the hexagons are hand-stitched to each other. 

The front shows my love of flowers. There are fabrics here from Japan, Canada and the US as well as Australia.

This lap-quilt was finished last month and is made entirely from used clothing, denim jeans and shirts, cotton shirts and even Mum's trousers lol. The back is a fleecy blanket that cost $2 in Montreal.

I tried to use as much of the fancy stitching on the shirts as possible.

Oh dear...here's something else that needs to be finished properly too...this is a lot like my dislike of sewing up completed knitting projects isn't it???

Do you enjoy sewing or quilting? I also have many patchwork cushions and shopping bags in my photos so will show you them another day.

Joe is off to Camera Group today so I'll have some lovely local photos for you tomorrow.

Hope your week is treating you well,
Love from Sue
xxx