A day well spent.

I spent today making a start on my Joseph's Coat Quilt with Kellie Wulfsohn from Don't Look Now.  We had a starter class at Patchwork House   in Hawthorn, Melbourne.  I've had all the bits and pieces for this quilt sitting on my sewing bench in a little pile, but I've been reluctant to actually start in case I made a mistake.  The quilt is made using a technique new to me - applique using a water soluble stabiliser. 

So far so good with this block.  You just have to love Kaffe Fassett fabric.  I think this quilt will lend itself to found time whilst waiting at swimming.  This quilt will look great on my bed.

What I got up to last night...

Well, last night was Friday Night Sew-In.  A huge thank you to Heidi and Bobbi for organising this regular night of fun.
I'm pretty happy with what I accomplished.  I finished free machine quilting around the flowers on my cushion.

I also started machine appliqueing an Easter bunny cushion which will be for a gift.

This method of applique by machine, I am finding to be most addictive.  I am usually a needle turner.  I've been using that method of hand applique for years, and am quite quick with it but machine applique leaves it for dead in the time stakes.

I'm especially loving using my stash of Kaffe Fassett fabrics for the flowers.  The fabric lends itself to this style so well, and if I fussy cut the fabric, I don't have to stitch separate centres for the flowers.

Lastly, once again I forgot to get a stash of appropriate food fit for a sewing evening.  DF  Ms. A  posted about her stash of lollies, which reminded me that I had forgotten once again!  LOL

Sooo, I did what any self respecting quilter on a night in sewing would do- I baked.

Yummmmm  I made Chocolate Brownies with chocolate and sour cream frosting.  Luckily the kids also like it so I didn't have to eat it all, but I gave it a good try!

Friday Night Sew-In.

Well, how quickly has the past month zoomed by?
Certainly doesn't seem that long since the last Friday Night Sew-in.  Not sure which project I will continue on with tonight.  Please come along and join in the fun of sewing in your pj's.
I had a class with Kellie from Don't Look Know  to finish off my cushion cover.  I've stitched around the applique and am now doing the background quilting.  I'm really enjoying the process of quilting around the applique.  Maybe one day I'll really get the hang of it!

Some very naughty words were spoken under my breath, I can tell you, when stitching in between the flowers amidst the stems.  Next time I'll stitch the stems last.

Here is some of my practice stitching, I rather like the flower shapes and the teardrops.

Do you have one of these?

Everyone needs one of these in their sewing room.  What is it I hear you ask?  Well, initially I bought a step ladder to get to my shelves.  I have shelving up to my ceiling which is 10 ft tall.  However, once I started to "tidy up" the room, I needed a little extra horizontal surface to put stuff on.  So, my step ladder became more shelves!

When I'm sewing, I like to watch something on TV.  Recently that has been old episodes of Frasier- stuff I can kind of listen to without watching.  There is just enough room to put my feet up on the second shelf whilst sewing!  Try not to look at the background in the photo, I'm taking a few days to try and clean up a bit, and it has to look worse before it looks better.  Doesn't it???

I'm on a roll here whilst without my sewing machine.  I've got several quilts in various stages of completion hanging on my quilt ladder.  Mostly tops, but a couple of quilts that I sent out to be all over quilted that just need binding.  They've been hanging, unfinished, for several years (gosh that sounds bad!).  So yesterday I got motivated and cut and pieced the binding for 2 of the quilts.  Stitched it on with my ever faithful, ancient, Pfaff, hand stitched the edges (don't talk to me about stitching black on black LOL) and voila.  Two quilts finished- actually DONE and DONE.  Yahooooooo.

The first is a strippy quilt of my design with some pieced blocks and some embroidery (old quilting patterns)  that I pieced about 5 years ago.

The next quilt is by Dianne Hundley at Planet Patchwork.  It was a mystery quilt many years ago. 

So, all in all a fantastic couple of days work.

My Bernina comes home again tomorrow, so all is good in my part of the world.

What to do when my machine is being serviced......

Well, I've stitched the hexagon centre to the background, now I need to machine stitch a 2" border around that.

Since my poor machine is having a sleep over, I need to move on to another project.  Of course, I really need to think hard on that.  I only have fabric and ideas for at least another 10 projects!!
So, on to a project that I have really wanted to start for ages.  I have everything I need to make the "Princess Feathers" quilt by Kim McLean.  The quilt is applique in Kaffe Fassett fabric.  This is a little outside my comfort zone, so I sourced a kit of fabric from Glorious Color .  The pattern called for 8 yards of background-of course everything I saw had only 2-3 meters left on the bolt.  Eventually managed to get it from 2 different local shops.  The kit contained 16 yards of Kaffe fabric- approx 12 yards of different fabrics for the applique (48 different pieces!!) , 2 3/4 yards of magenta bekah for the sashing and binding, and 3/4 yard of a lovely brown cotton shot with green and red.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  The brown for stems, and lovely spots for my background.

Here are some of the fabrics that I will be using for my feathers and the rest of the applique.

 

And the very gorgeous magenta Bekah.

 There is no way I could have accumulated all these fabrics on my own, especially when they are approx. $26- $28 metre here in Australia.  Just love mail order from the US.

Now to cut 20 metres of bias stems!  Oh my.

Oh, and what does the pattern look like?

Here it is in all its glory!

YUMMY.

A class with Kellie Wulfsohn.

Yesterday I had a whole lot of fun at a full day class with Kellie from Don't Look Now.  A very enjoyable day spent with a group of lovely fellow sewers. 
I accomplished quite a lot for me.  Of course a lot of chatting also occured.

 

Each of these flowers is stitched down very close to the edge, then stems are stitched in.  Finally , the background is heavily quilted.

Unfortunately, I need to take a break from the fun of stitching this project, as my machine needs a service badly.  

My dear Bernina 440 is now residing at the sewing machine shop for the next week.  Yes,  that's a whole week!!!

I can only stand in my sewing room and look at the empty space in the sewing table.  Sigh.

 

My DH constructed this fabulous table several years ago for me.  What a man!

Off to have a cup of tea now, and try to get ahead on some hand sewing.