Wallaroo Retreat Show and Tell

In March we (mum and I) held another quilt retreat in Wallaroo. (I am reporting on events in a very untimely manner!)  The projects this time were what we called "petite projects" and consisted of a Cushion, some journal covers, and pencil cases.  I'd love to post photos, but can't find them! Bah!

As usual the highlight of the retreat was the show and tell session on Sunday.  I absolutely love this part of the retreats, it is so inspiring to see what all of our talented ladies are capable of.  So without further ado, here are their marvelous creations.  Sit back and enjoy the show.

The following few photos are of this beauty created by Yvonne.  It is a memory quilt that Yvonne made for her grand-daughter from photographs she took on a recent European holiday.  She mitred stripey frames around all of the photos and then sashed them with Eiffel Tower and French script fabric.  It was truly magnificent and the best memory quilt I had ever seen.

 

Here is Yvonne with some matching cushion covers she made.

 

Next up we have this lovely quilt made by Pam.  It is made from one layer cake using the Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial called the Double Slice Layer cake.  You can find it here.

This is a lovely Jacob's Ladder Quilt made by MaryAnne from a kit that her son bought her.  It is so fresh.

This gorgeous quilt was made by Bridget.  Last year in July we held a retreat at Port Elliot and the project was the curved log cabin.  This was one of the many setting options available and it turned out beautifully.

This is Bridget again with a quilt made from a pattern that we taught at our Mannum retreat last November.  The pattern is called 1901 and it was featured in Homespun a couple of years ago.  The fabric Bridget used is Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie and Camille.  Again, it is so fresh and lovely.  If you like the pattern, you can purchase it here.

To be honest, I can't remember who's bed runner this is.  It is Jan holding it, but I don't think it was her creation.  It is lovely though, I really like the fabric collage hearts.

This is Tina with her creation.  She was using the scraps from this to make her house cushion from the retreat, which was just lovely, as you will see in my next post.

Speaking of Tina - just between you and me, she is very talented.  This is a little something that she's working on and she just made the whole thing up.  She started out with the Dresden in the middle and then in a one woman round robin has just been building and building on that.  As you can see, it is going to be pretty magnificent!

See you soon with some of their works in progress! 

A long time between drinks!

.................And I'm back in the room!

So where have I been?  Last year I went back to uni to complete a post-graduate qualification in teaching.  To say that it was a grueling, unforgiving year would be an understatement, but I am back now and ready to re-enter the sewing room and fluff around with fabric!

Thank you to everyone who emailed me last year to check that I was ok - it meant a lot to me.

During the year I had many requests for my Jewel Box pattern.  So here it is.  As usual it is free to download and is fully supported by my husband's fantastic CAD diagrams.  I have named the pattern 'Sparkle' and you can access it by clicking here, or by clicking on the photo of the quilt on the right of the screen.  I hope you enjoy it!

Over the coming weeks I will be adding a few more patterns for free download.  These will mostly be patterns that I have had published in magazines over the past couple of years, so keep an eye out for them.

I promise it won't be so long between posts next time!  I even have some sewing to share with you.

Until next time,

Shontelle.

Get 'em while they're young....

Happy New Year everyone!

We have been enjoying renovation hell here at England Street, so I don't have much to report from the sewing room.  Over the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas we replaced our laundry, kitchen and the floors in our hallways and main living area.  I will post some before and after photos once they have been entirely finished (just for you Kris!)  At the moment we still need to replace some lighting, put the skirting boards back on and paint.  Then phase 1 will be over and we will be girding the loins for phase 2 in March.  

On a different note, I thought I'd share what my daughter has been up to.  I was indoctrinated at an early age into the world of craft and have carried on the tradition with Scarlett.  The beauty of the Pfaff is that you don't need to use a foot control, so we just dialed the sewing speed down to low and the littlest crafter was able to control everything with her pointy little finger.

 So without further ado, I give you Scarlett's first creation - a four-patch doll's quilt, pinned, pressed and quilted by me but sewn by her.

I decided to attempt some free hand quilting on Mum's longarm - I'm not much of a quilter I tell you!  I hadn't really touched the machine for 5 years and to say that I'm a bit rusty would be a gross understatement.  I pulled some pretty serious concentration faces while doing this and I'm fairly sure that my tongue was hanging out for most of the 20 minutes it took!

Now it just needs to be bound and it will be ready for a dolly to snuggle under.  Talk soon.

WIP - On A Whim

Ok, let's blow the dust off this blog!  It's been nearly a month since I posted anything and really, despite my big talk about finishing off projects by November 20th, not much has been acheived here in the sewing room.

We are about to start major renovations Chez Stanyer and so the last month has seen me and my boy wonder side kick (son, not husband) trawl every tile supplier in Adelaide trying to find the perfect splashback tile for our new kitchen.  Really I blame Pinterest and Houzz for my obsessive search - they have set the bar very high and as most of the pictures of kitchens I have fallen in love with are from America, I can't find exactly what I want here in Australia.  But I am happy to report that my First World problem has been solved and everything is in place for the chaos of home renovations to begin from mid-December (Christmas is a great time to schedule renos, right?).  Ethan has been a little trouper visiting kitchen showrooms, Harvey Norman, plumbing suppliers, floor showrooms and curtain makers.  A more organised mother would have packed toys to keep him amused on our quest but instead I gave him paint chips and laminate samples to play with and we had a deal that he had free reign in the kitchen showrooms. We probably weren't too popular there but really, if your doors can't handle a toddler opening and shutting them repeatedly then is your work up to scratch?

The kids and I went to our shack with my dad a couple of weeks ago and I finished the blocks for my On A Whim quilt there while Ethan was napping and Scarlett was fishing with her Poppy -  can that girl wield a pink rod!

Back to On A Whim, I really like this quilt, I think it looks gorgeous and the pattern was great.  But if I were to make it again, I would do it one block at a time and really enjoy the fruits of my labour.  With this quilt I went all Henry Ford and chain-pieced like a maniac, and production lining those squares in a square and then trimming them all back was so boring!

Over the last few days I transformed the blocks into a quilt top.  Here it is dangling from my clothesline, the quilt is a whopper, even with my clothesline wound up to the super tall setting and spun around to the slopey side of the yard it was still dangling on the grass.

The light wasn't the best this afternoon when I took these photos, but we'll just pretend that the dappled light is arty.  I am going to piece a backing from some left overs and make a nice label because this quilt is for someone very special but shhhh, it's a surprise.  Here are some close ups of my favourite blocks. 

Now that this is done and all the house decisions have been made I feel like a weight has been lifted and I can't wait to get stuck into some Christmas craft because, good gravy, I love Christmas!

On a side note, today the kids and I spent the afternoon swimming at my dad's.  Now I have curly hair and chlorine isn't a friend to the curls.  When I was photographing the quilt this evening I noticed that my shadow was casting a freaky silhouette on the quilt and when I got inside I looked in the mirror and saw that I had mascara streaked all over my face.

 And I kind of looked like a blonde version of the old Liz Lemon here.  It wasn't pretty.

Source

As usual, I'm linking up with Lee

I'm going to head on over there now and check out what everyone else has been creating while I've been wrestling with paint charts.  Have a great week everyone,  hopefully I'll see you again in a few days.  Lemon out!

WIP - progress report...on a whim, butterfly quilt and the great texta disaster

Time to check in for a progress report.  The pace has been somewhat leisurely but progress has been made.  This week my mantra has been "just keep swimming"  a la Dory from Finding Nemo.

I have been working on my On A Whim blocks in Vintage Modern.  I constructed all of the components of the blocks in a chain piecing frenzy and just needed to square them up.  Even with a new blade in my rotary cutter, as I mentioned in last weeks post, it has been boring work.  So to break the monotony I decided to square up enough to allow me to complete two blocks at a time so it's been a little bit of slicing and a bit of sewing and that has been much more satisfying.

I have been pinning everything as I go in order to ease in the set in squares of the Rolling Star block because, not for love nor money could I get these babies square!  No matter what I did they were 5.5 on one side and 5.75 on the other.  Enter Clover pins and the magical potion that is Mary Ellen's Best Press and I made them bend to my iron will and here they are all straight and square and hanging on my clothes line looking pretty.

I also finished the binding on my Butterfly Quilt. 

You may remember that I pinned this beauty and shamelessly made one exactly the same with Mum's Accuquilt Go! Baby, because I loved it so much.  All I need now is for someone to have a baby girl....come on Alexis McKay - you can do it!

 

Mum quilted it for me using the Simplicity pantograph by Lorien Quilting.  This pattern is perfect for going over applique or stitcheries; it stitches out quickly and is unobtrusive.

I did a simple pieced backing, mainly because there wasn't quite enough width in a standard piece of Moda Bella Solid to go on the longarm.  Fortunately I had some Bliss by Bonnie and Camille left over from this quilt and it blended in beautifully with the colours in Marmalade.

There was a small drama with this quilt.....I had left in on my lounge suite where I was sitting binding it and this evil genius (don't be fooled by his angelic face)....

 

....took to it with a green texta!  

                                          

I stayed calm though and continued with the binding and this afternoon I hit it with the triple threat of Preen, Omo and Sard Wondersoap.  I am happy to report the texta is gone and the quilt is happily drying outside.

So, onward and upward....this week I hope to get more On A Whim blocks finished and to quilt the little tumbler top for Ethan's cushion (not that he deserves soft furnishings after the texta incident) and maybe get a border or two on a quilt.

As usual I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.  Click below to head over and see what everyone else has been up to.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Jewel Box Quilt

Well - this has caught me on the hop!  I had no idea that the Blogger's Quilt Festival was coming up until I saw an entry on another blog I follow.  For my entry, I decided to go with my Jewel Box Quilt which I finished in July.

It has no special story really, it's just a quilt I made when I set myself a challenge to see what I could make from a Jelly Roll and a Layer Cake.  In the end I came to realise that one Jelly Roll and one Layer cake go a long way!  I made this quilt, plus another that will be published in Homespun next year, a table runner for my daughter and then I gave the leftovers to a friend and she whipped up a quilt for her grand-daughter.  It felt like the neverending supply of Bliss fabric!

 

So, Stats.  I love stats.  

Size - 55" x 71"

Fabric -Bliss by Bonnie and Camille
Pattern - A traditional Jewel Box design.  I am currently writing a pattern for it which will be available for free download soon.
Quilting - As usual my amazing Mum quilted it for me using the Honeysuckle pantograph by Patricia Ritter - it is a very pretty pattern
Category - Professionally Quilted.  Throw Quilt.  Bed Quilt (twin size)

Here's a close up of the quilting.

Thanks for visiting.  You can check out all the amazing quilts in the Festival by clicking here to visit Amy's Creative Side.

Thanks to Amy for putting together this wonderful event and to all of the generous sponsors!  I am off to look at all of the quilty goodness from around the world.

WIP - 2012 Wrap it up!

2012 is skidding at an alarming speed towards its close, and although I am pretty keen to get cracking on some Christmas craft, I have had a stern talk to myself about finishing off some projects before I begin any new ones.  Had this talk with yourself before?  So here I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for a Wednesday WIP confessional.  The following projects (plus many more, I'm afraid to say) are lurking in this cupboard.....

 

And I am giving myself until the 20th of November to finish them off and then I will be able to enjoy my festive season guilt free.  So I am declaring my hand people and by the aforementioned date I will have finished......

Putting the borders on this quilt-top.  The photo just shows it laid out in blocks, but I have sewn it together now and have managed, through the power of Google, to track down and purchase some border fabric for it.

 

Making my On A Whim quilt top.  I have pieced all of the components of the blocks and am in the process of squaring them up which I am finding totally tedious.  I have completed two blocks- this one, and other that I have misplaced - things aren't looking good for that deadline!  Fortunately, I have enough fabric to whip up another block if it doesn't turn up.  

 

Putting the borders on my Dad's Carpenter's Star quilt.  You can see the quilt here.

I would also like to finish my Crystal star quilt that I have designed using a layer cake in Petite Odile by French General.  (This list is starting to seem a bit ambitious)

The list also includes finishing up Scarlett's string quilt.....

This little one has been quilted and I am currently stitching the binding down, so I may even have a wee finish by Friday.

And last but not least is this little tumbling block that I am going to quilt with some straight lines and turn into a cushion for my son's room.

Cover me.  I'm going in!