Retreat Wrap Up

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for the delay in this post. I have been incommunicado while studying for my French exam...but all of those nasty verbs are behind me now and I can concentrate on the important things - fabric and blogging!

Well, our Mannum getaway was fab! We all had a great time and everyone was super productive as you will see from the photos below. Mannum is such a gorgeous spot - not that much of it was seen by us as everyone was up early with their pedals to the metal and hard at it until about 11pm! It wasn't all hard labour though - there was plenty of wine consumed, a few dirty ditties sung and an innovative display of how to put on flanelette pj's in front of an audience without revealing anything....Barb!

Our fabulous group of ladies

Hard at it

The ditty instigator




Faye and her first block.




Jenni's finished hexagon top (minus borders)




The lovely Joanne and Jean




More lovely ladies with their creations.




Vicki! Start the car!!




Barb modelling her quilt.




The industrious Lorraine with her hexagons

So, a great time was had by all. Now we are busily planning the next one. If any of the retreaters are reading this I'd just like to thank you all for being marvellous guests and we hope to see you again next time.

Bye for now,

Shontelle.

Mannum here we come!

Hi Everyone,

The day we leave for Mannum for our retreat is finally here. Mum and I have been frantic all week, but everything is done and calm has descended.

I thought I'd post a picture of a sight rarely seen by me - the sunrise!

They say that you can't be an owl and a fowl and I am definitely an owl. This morning however, I had to unleash my inner fowl and get up early to finish the last of these:

Here they are lined up like Emperor Qin's terracotta army.

I hope you all have a great weekend - I know I will.

Happy stitching,

Shontelle

I love coming home and seeing one of these on the doorstep

Especially when I know it will contain this

Watch this space, I have great plans for these delicious fabrics....I just hope that it turns out as beautiful as it is in my head. I just love the red polka dot fabric - my fingers are itching to play with it!

Finally I just had to post this picture of my gorgeous girl having a wee (her word for swing)

I am trying not to get too distracted from frantically writing patterns, cooking and making gifts ahead of our retreat next weekend. I am looking forward to posting some photos of everyone's lovely creations.

Until next time,

Fabric Basket

Hi Everyone!

Today was a lovely day! It was sunny with a light breeze which made me feel happy and energetic. I organised my scraps and stash this afternoon while Scarlett slept for 3 hours (I tell you it was a great day!) and decided to make a fabric basket for my friend Amy's birthday. The fantastic tutorial for it can be found here. The scraps I used come from a quilt that Amy and I made for another friend's wedding - I just love the red, white and beige together - it looks so Scandinavian!

I hope that you have all had a great, creative day too.

Until next time,

The Easy Way to Mitre Borders

Hello Everyone,

I love the way mitred borders look but I used to find them fiddley to do - that is until I discovered this method of doing them.

Step 1: Cut 2 strips the width of the quilt plus twice the border width plus an extra 2" and 2 strips the length of the quilt plus twice the border width and 2" extra.

Example: width of quilt before border = 65”, width of border(s) to be added = 6”

65” + 6” + 6” +2" = strip 79” long. Cut 2 strips 79” long (width measurement)

Repeat steps for length of quilt.


NB. For multiple borders, sew strips together first and attach to quilt as one unit.


Step 2: Centre and pin border strips in place.

Step 3: Start and end seams ¼” from raw edges of the quilt top. Backstitch to secure. Press seams toward quilt top.

Mark the 1/4 inch point with a pin or a marker

Step 4: Lay quilt top right side up on ironing board and fold each border end flat back onto itself, right sides together, forming a 45 degree angle at the quilt’s corner. Press to form sharp creases.

The arrows show where you should have 45 degree angles.

Step 5: Fold quilt on diagonal, right sides together. Align border strip raw edges, border seams at the ¼” backstitched point and creases. Pin in place. Stitch along crease, backstitching at ¼” border seam.

Step 6: Press seam open. With quilt right side up, align 45 degree angle line of a square ruler on the seam line to check accuracy. If corner is flat and square, trim excess fabric to ¼” seam allowance. If you don't have a 45 degree angle just unpick and start again.

Voilà! Perfect mitred corners. Gorgeous!

It's nice having a tall husband - he comes in very handy!

Mother's Day

It's a bit late, but I thought I would share a photo of what I made Mum for Mother's Day and also share a story.....

When I was a little girl, my brother and I used to watch a movie starring Michael Keaton and Henry Winkler called Nightshift. It was about two guys who worked the nightshift at the city morgue. One of them (Winkler) was a straitlaced, nervous guy and his counterpart (Keaton) was a bit of a buffoon. Michael Keaton's character (for those of you who haven't seen this triumph of modern cinema) used to come up with all kinds of crazy schemes which he would then record into a dictaphone as inspiration struck. The ideas were usually completely stupid (for example "microwave underwear")

Anyway, in her day Mum has come up with a few crazy ideas of her own, so much so that I call her Mike (after Michael Keaton) and it has become a running joke between the two of us. So for Mother's Day I decided to follow the fantastic tutorial from Bloom and make her her very own ideas book and here is the result.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you fabulous Mummy's out there....as the saying goes "God couldn't be everywhere so he invented mothers" and what a good job that He did! I don't know what I would do without mine...crazy ideas and all.

Thread Catcher

Many thanks to the lovely Lea from 'The Stitching Room' for helping me to make this lovely little thread catcher. Her online tutorial is available here for anyone else who would like to make one.

They would make a great little gift for your stitchingly-minded friends! I will be busy with the Janome in overdrive over the next couple of weeks whipping them up for our retreat attendees.

Until next time,