Miss Piggy

To Market, to Market to buy a fat pig,

Home again, Home again,

Jiggity Jig.

Only I didn't have to go so far.

My husband made my Miss Piggy for me.

Do you like her?

Should I paint her pink/ flesh/ nude / naked/ natural. ?

OR

Should I just put a coat of oil on the wood?

The ears and the tail ? I think they need a bit of colour.

I tried to dye some 'roving' today but it hasn't really worked.

I had white roving and tried a brown dye and a strong yellow dye.

I have ended up with a very pale beige and creamy lemon colour.

Do I have to use a special dye? for roving.

The dye didn't go to waste as I dyed some wool [cloth] and I will felt it later.

It turned out a beautiful pale yellow.

Sue Spargo Workshop

Up bright and early this morning and down to 'Amitie' in Bentleigh. I spent the day at Sue Spargo's workshop. I did a workshop with her last year and it was wonderful. Today's was even better.
Today we were making her 'Greta' needleroll. You can see hers if you go to her website and also her blog.
We could have the background in any colour and fabric we liked, although hers had been done with velvet and silk matka. The applique is done with felted wool and embellished with beads, ribbon,velvet and thread.
Here is Sue explaining what she uses for embellishments on another project of hers.



This is a close-up of the bird on the above piece. I love the shape of her birds and although this shape seems to be used throughout her patterns no two are ever the same because of the fabric,ricrac,beads and threads that she uses.

This is another workshop. Every leaf is totally different. They all have different stitches and fabrics.

We had a delicious lunch supplied by Jenny and her husband and the day just flew past.

Here is what I achieved. This is the outside of the needleroll. It will fold into three when finished,

so the centre piece of fabric, will be the back when closed and it will have a label on it. The piece to the left- the patterned fabric on the lower half is a pocket and the piece on the right is the front of the needleroll and still has a velvet flower to be added along with threads, beads and felted roving balls for decoration. Melissa who is Sue's travelling companion on this trip showed us how to make the balls. The inside when I get to it has several pockets, scissor keep, thread holder,needlecase and a velvet bird for a pin cushion. I highly recommend ,if you get a chance ,you go to one of Sue's workshops.

It was a great day and she's coming back to Australia in 2012.

Results

I had a lovely afternoon of sewing on Saturday and traced and cut out the templates for the border pieces in the evening. On Sunday I pulled out my box of felted wools and cut out the
applique for the border. I have just finished sticking on the pieces with Roxanne's Glue.
Here is what my Scrapbook Quilt now looks like. It is lovely to sew wool applique on as it only requires a whip stitch and is soft on the hands.

A Weekend Retreat

I went to the Ballaarat Quilter retreat. It was held at a 4* Convention/Motel centre which was on several hectares of land with beautiful gardens. Unfortunately, Ballarat is one of the coldest places in Victoria at this time of the year and although it only rained now and then, there was a continuous howling wind. The room which I shared with Bev was good, having the beds made,
meals cooked and the dishes done was wonderful. Morning and afternoon tea was accompanied by homemade biscuits made by the Ballarat ladies.
Bev, Ros,Linda and I had come to do a quilt designed by Di Ford called Drayton Hall.
Janet O'Dell, who owns the original quilt was also there for the retreat and had brought the quilt along for all to see.
Here is a photo of some of the fabrics in the quilt.

This is the whole quilt. It is enormous. They were photographing the label which was hand written.

This is a photo of Di Ford's, Drayton Hall. Beautiful.

This is a photo of what I accomplished over the weekend. It seems so little. I had bought a floral fabric with these medallions on it and decided to have it in the centre with the hexagons around it instead of having the hexagon centre and floral wreath like Di's. Fussy cutting hexagons took up a lot of time and even more, to sew them together. The ones on the left have still to be stitched together. I machine stitched the edge of the centre to the background and I have a lovely chocolate coloured fabric for the scalloped edge.

On the Friday night after dinner we met all the tutors and saw a Show n Tell from them.

On Saturday night after dinner we were entertained by a female comedian, Monica Dullard. I haven't laughed so much for a long time. The tears were running down my face. We discovered there was a large number of stitchers called Pam and a lot of them owned Pphaffs, Noeline caught the comedians attention, so much so that at breakfast the next morning when our eyes met we both burst out laughing as we remember the night before. One of the tutors' was caught answering a text message on her phone, it was her 60th birthday, and as she said the next morning she will never forget it after the ribbing she got from the comedian. Those that had decided to go to bed early truly missed out on a great time.
Here is a photo of Monica during her show.

Don't you just love the size4o Bonds cottons.

Work in Progress

Before I ever discovered patchwork I spent my time doing X stitch. I made different things
or framed them but mostly I put them in a box and forgot them. Recently I got some new furniture for my craft room so I changed things around and came across my x stitches. This is one I have now made into a pincushion. Do you like how he looks? Maybe a bit of ageing is
needed.

I have slowly but surely been working my way through the blocks for the Scrapbook Quilt and now I have them all finished. Next come the setting triangles and then the border. I was going to make them in black wool but feel it would be too heavy for the centre which is mostly cotton. I will now use cotton and do the applique on the border in wool which should work well.

An Ending and a New Beginning

I spent yesterday and today sewing on a binding so I have come to the end of making a quilt.
I first saw this pattern when Corliss, Threadbear quiltshop, released it at the quiltshow in Melbourne. I have also seen a picture of the original quilt that she designed this one from. I have changed the bottom border slightly to suit me but apart from a leaf missing here and there I have copied the pattern.
Pam Hammer from Threadshed quilting, quilted it for me beautifully, she knows I like my quilts lightly quilted so they are still soft and cuddly. It will now get washed to give it the more wrinkled look I like.

This is my Civil War Bride's Quilt.
A quilt with a new beginning. This one is going on my bed.

A Wander round the Garden

We are almost into the last month of winter and the garden still has colour.
The buds on the Daphne are opening to reveal their strong perfume.




The Snowdrops are always so dainty. I must remember to thin them out later.

and the Hyacinths and Cyclamen are in full bloom.
The bowl of 'green' is minature daffodils that don't look as if they are going to flower this year.

Did they need less water or more fertilizer, I wonder. The perfume of the Hyacinths is too overpowering for indoors so I sit them on the table at the window so I can see them from inside too.

Something New

Something new.
It sat on my sewing table for a week, that great big bundle of fabric and that was long enough. I spent a few evenings cutting. Then some afternoons sewing strips. Then some more evenings cutting and then 2 afternoons sewing. I now have my 81 - 9 patch for the centre. The bundle on the right are for my 1/2 square triangles. They have the diagonal line drawn ready for sewing but that will be another day. Sorry the picture is so shiny!

We saw this quilt at the Quilt Show last week and I kept thinking, this reminds me of another.

It took me a few days to work it out but as you'll see below....

............I knew it reminded me of another quilt.

This is a Kim Diehl quilt I made in 2007.

A Day at the Quilt Show

Janine and I spent the whole day at the Show. We started with the traders. Janine is a lover of 1930's and brights, a lover of pink [ and raspberry] and I love the 1800 fabrics, darks and cheddar and greens. I didn't a lot time at the bead or scrapbook stalls, just enough time to buy a few glass beads, some bright blended thread and 1 fat quarter of Kaffe Fasset fabric for the Sue Spargo workshop I am doing next month. More on that next month.
I bought a quilt pattern at Threadbear for the Basket Quilt that Corliss has designed. It is very nice and can be seen on the shops' website. I also saw the beginnings of a new quilt and pattern by Di Ford due out in September. The centre is an applique and there are pieced blocks around the edge. It looks lovely. After wandering along and seeing all the stalls, bumping into many people we knew, we went into the quilts on show.

I think this was a challenge. They were all grouped together but they couldn't all be seen at the same time.
The same quilt pattern had been used by many people, so this was one of many. It was lovely to see what the difference colour could make to the one design.It was also amazing how each quilt changed by the placement of light and dark fabrics. This was my favourite one, after walking around the stands, this was the one I immediately came back too.

This quilt was lovely. I loved the colour, such a beautiful yellow. A simple design. Very nice.

This one was very fresh! The design - different. I liked it very much.

These 2 quilts were beautiful. This one was very bright which is so not me but very pleasing to the eye and I do like dark backgrounds.

The next one is me, I love brown fabric in quilts, don't know why, and those minature hexagons - Oh! the patience to make them. The centre was applique not a panel, like Broderie Perse, magnificent. Do you see a ribbon? No - well I thought it deserved one. They both deserved a ribbon.

We both has a wonderful day out. My legs were exhausted from all the walking around but we did get a seat on the train home. Not always guaranteed.

What I Have Been Working On.

I work on several pieces at one time. Nothing like a bit of variety. The Ann Daggs quilt was started with much enthusiasm as most of my projects are. I worked on the applique centre and now only have a couple of berries to add. The 4 borders are very full of applique and there is a lot to sew to complete each one. I am working on the second one at the moment when xstitches and other pieces don't tempt me away. Here is a picture of my centre square.

A New Sampler

I have really enjoyed finishing this X stitch off. Before I discovered Patchwork I spent a lot of time sewing xstitches. This one has been sitting in my cupboard for quite a while and I love how it has turned out. I've been considering t-dyeing it, to give it an aged look, but I would lose the delicate colours of the flowers in the border so it will remain as it is and age naturally.

I've also found another one, an Alphabet Sampler, can I fit another one in? with all my other UFO's. My title is so very right, Yes, I have a new sampler and Yes, I have found another new one to sew.

A New Start

I bought a new pattern a couple of weeks ago and decided to make a start. It is called the Scrapbook Quilt. It will be a mixture of a cotton background and felted wool applique. The centre squares are only 4" finished and if I prepare them now for sewing it will give me a hand project for on the go. Ideal!
I have been seeing an icon on several blogs 'I have taken the pledge' and the idea is for people showing there work and progress and not just finished quilts. I don't know who started it but I like the idea of it ,so here is a photo of my Start.

The Postman delivered

Today I came home to a parcel beside the front door.I had done a little shopping online but it wasn't my new fabric, it was a parcel from Amy with my Swap Bag.
I joined a bag swap with a group online. Here is a photo of my new bag. Isn't it just great.

Round Robin

I took part in a Round Robin in 2009 with Julie, Marilyn and Kathi.
We had to make a 6" square for the middle and send it on. Each following
round was 3" wide. Any special colours or dislikes you could state, but
each round was your own choice of pattern and colour but the fabrics used
had to be reproduction.

I have finally taken the time to quilt and bind it and just love what
everyone added to my centre and how it looks finished.







This years Round Robin was slightly different with Kirsten,Dawn,Kathi,Ardis
and myself. It was also smaller with a 3" centre and 1 1/2"wide rounds. If
there were too many seams a plain border could to be added. There are 2 plain
borders in mine which makes it altogether splendid. The photo was taken before
I got it framed.

Working with Wool

I finished off a little quilt I made with felted wool today, after going to a Sue Spargo workshop,

here in Aus. at Amitie quiltshop, last year.

I have now booked in to go to this years workshop in August and thought I'd better finish this one before I do the next class.

My little wallhanging is the centre block of Sue's Ginger Grove quilt, a definite favourite of mine.

The Civil War Brides Quilt

I have been working on the borders and not doing any other sewing for the last week or so.

I wanted to get my borders finished and attached to the centre blocks. To tell the truth I've been quite lazy, watching the French Open and sewing and now it is finished.

As you will see I have added a few local inhabitants to my quilt, I never do the same as a someone else's pattern or quilt.

A new Bag

While I was at the Applique Society meeting I saw a little bag for holding needle,threads & scissors . It was made with tiny log cabins with 1/4"strips. The shape came from the old "chicken" pincushions.

When I got home I got busy with some of my wool and a bird pattern of Sue Spargo's and made one for myself.

A day at Castlemaine - The TAS & Threadbear

Had a trip to Castlemaine yesterday.It was zero degrees when we left home but the sun came up and it shone all day. Castlemaine is the home of the Threadbear Quilt shop and The Applique Society. I went with two friends that were the guest speakers of the quarterly meeting of the TAS between them they had 60 quilts to show and talk about. Some were antiques, some new, some pieced and appliqued.

After lunch there was a show of work by the members of TAS. I showed my Phoebe quilt and there was a lot of other beautiful quilts to see. We all had a wonderful time.

I didn't get a photo of my quilt but have one I took at home.