Secret # 1

Can you keep a secret?  Well, I've been sitting on two of them for a couple of weeks now and I've been very, very good.  At last I can reveal one of them here and the other will have to wait until later in the day.

Images: Justine Whiting

Eleven days ago I was lucky enough to be selected as a pattern tester for a new design by Tie Dye Diva.  There were over 250 applicants, so I felt a little chuffed to be one of the 22 chosen.

The Coral Dress and Top is the first in the new Diva Collection and it's a really versatile pattern.  I made the dress length in size 9/10, using mainly Kaffe Fassett fabrics which had been sitting on my cutting table waiting for the appropriate inspiration.  I tend to drool over Kaffe fabrics and procrastinate, but their time had come to be cut.

The bodice is completely shirred, making it so easy to fit all body types.

It's the middle of winter here in Sydney, so my model (who also happens to be my granddaughter) kept in perpetual motion to ward of the chilly temperatures.

What a trouper.  Mind you, she had just returned from a week in the snow, so she considered the Sydney temperatures to be fairly mild.

I will be featuring the dress in these fabrics in my Etsy and MadeIt shops towards the end of the month.  If you would like to pre-order, details can be found on my Facebook.  

Happy Easter

I hope wherever you are the weather is as good as it is in Sydney (probably unlikely if you are reading this from Greenland).

I finally caught up with all the pre-Easter rush orders on Etsy and MadeIt and could turn my hand to making a couple of new items.  They will be photographed on models after Easter, ready to go up in my shops.

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I do love this new range of lawn fabric.  It's so soft and has wonderful draping qualities.

This little skirt is hot off the machine and is fully lined.  It comes from  Kaffe Fassett's new range of shot cottons and it is super soft and lovely to work with.

It goes beautifully with the peasant top and I only wish I was young enough to get away with wearing this combo.  Not a good look at my age.

The machine has been put to bed and I am looking forward to spending Easter with the family - at least the Sydney branch.  I wish you all a very happy and safe Easter.  I hope you are able to spend it with the people you love and who mean the most to you.

The Plan 1

There was a large cardboard envelope waiting at our post office box this morning.

It was the first of the two fabric parcels I have been anxiously waiting to arrive.  Aren't they stunning?  Fourteen delicious Kaffe Fassett fabrics all lined up and waiting for the main fabric so that I can get started on The Plan.  With any luck the other parcel will arrive tomorrow.

My only problem now is that I don't know how I can bear to cut into such beautiful pieces of fabric.  At least for the moment I can sip my coffee and take in the rich colours and designs.  Bliss.

First Saturday of the Month

2012 is racing along at a nice pace and I am struggling to keep up with it.  We celebrated our 42nd (eek!) wedding anniversary on Friday and before I knew it the next day was the first Saturday of the month.

Ah, how I love first Saturdays - it means a short drive to the local pub to meet up with the Sydney SCQuilters. This was my second visit to this local quilting group since returning to Sydney and they are such a friendly and welcoming lot of quilters.

Show & Tell produced some wonderful works in progress,

including this glorious piece of knitted patchwork.  

The beauty of meeting at a pub is that packed lunches are a thing of the past.  This delicious pumpkin salad with candied walnuts and fresh figs was perfect - so much better than a peanut butter sandwich.

Hopefully by next month my Plan will have sprung into action, as by then the Kaffe Fassett fabric which I ordered on line will have arrived (fingers crossed) and my first block will be well under way.

I have made a tentative start, but can't progress any further until the background fabric arrives.  So far all is going to Plan - what can possibly go wrong?

Legos and colour schemes

I met up with some of the foundation committee members of BrisStyle today.  It's the first chance I've had to see them since our move to Sydney in July last year and it was an absolutely delightful day.  There were six of us and four brought along their gorgeous and fast-growing children, who at first were a little wary of each other, but by the time we left were Best Friends Forever.

One of the topics discussed was how many of the children present were Lego fanatics, and to this list I could easily add our own grandchildren.  One particular boy even has his own dedicated Lego Room - surely every child's dream.

 
During the discussion, Bel of Enticing Icing produced this plastic container from her bag.  Yes, they are made of icing and were a commissioned order for a customer.  I can imagine some lucky child is in for a big surprise when the birthday cake is produced.

The week has been filled with colour, as I mentally plan the quilt I will commence on our return to Sydney next week.  My enthusiasm for quilting has returned, and some of the responsibility must go to my quilting friend whose house we are minding.  How wicked of her to combine her sewing studio with the guest room.

Look at these glorious fabrics by Kaffe Fassett - you could almost drown in the rich colours.

I was very good.  I took them out of her stash cupboard, swooned over them, and PUT THEM BACK.  You never know, the house may have concealed CCTV cameras tucked away in the ceiling.

The colour theme continued today when I read about this site - I could spend hours playing with the countless combinations.  What a brilliant colour wheel concept.  It's the perfect tool for quilters, desktop publishers or artists.  But be warned - it's extremely addictive.

It can't be 2012 - I'm not ready yet

 I pulled back the curtains on New Years Day and this glorious view was there waiting to be discovered.  We are back in Brisbane for three weeks, house sitting for friends while they are on an overseas holiday.  Can you feel the early morning subtropical warmth coming through?  We are in the most charming suburb, within easy walking distance of more restaurants than you could dine at in a year, wonderful parks and gardens, and a five minute bus trip to the city.  Bliss.

The only fly in the ointment was Bella, the resident cat who had gone AWOL on Christmas Day, thankfully not on our watch; we were not due to arrive until a couple of days later.  However, we were advised not to worry, as she quite often went walkabout and would probably return in a day or so.  On New Years Eve I texted my friend advising that there had not been any sightings of Puss and we were a wee bit concerned that she may have checked out.

The next morning, after swooning with delight at the view from our guest bedroom window, I came downstairs to see a flash of a cat tail whiz by the dining room window.  I rushed to the back door and there she was.

Well, I sure hope it's her and not some random moggy literally landing on her feet.

Because she's taken over the house.

She even chooses the TV programmes.

And sleeps at the foot of our bed, much to Mr Fudge's distress - not a cat lover, I'm afraid.

My friend is a quilter and the guest bedroom is also her studio.

I've died and gone to Heaven.

I can't show you the other cupboard with all the fabric, because I cry every time I open the doors.  I am hatching a plot to leave our dirty laundry behind, so that there's just enough room in the boot to cram in her Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

The combination of the new year and a relaxed holiday back in Brisbane have fostered a new enthusiasm for quilting.  I had been quite jaded after our move back to Sydney; a major interstate move is not something you would want to do in a hurry.  With the added stress of keeping up with sales on my Etsy and MadeIt shops in the lead-up to Christmas, I was afraid that I had lost the will to create new quilts.  Thank goodness it has returned in abundance and my resolution is to start on two major projects in the coming weeks, one long-term hand applique and the other an art quilt.  The ideas are starting to gel and I am once more excited at the prospect of creating new quilts.

I do hope your Christmas and New Year have been as happy as ours.  We are truly blessed to have wonderful friends and family and we are looking forward to the year ahead.

Library Tale

At the risk of showing my age, the previous library I belonged to was in the last century.  It had a card index system and we all spoke in whispers.

Move to 2011.  A new Council Library has opened in our area and I have a snazzy piece of plastic to process my borrowed books, and we're allowed to talk out loud - in fact, it's encouraged.

I love Kaffe Fassett's designs, both quilts and fabrics, so I was delighted to find this wonderful book which I could take home and cherish, albeit for a short time.  When I discovered a quilt in the book which I knew I just had to make, I keenly flipped to the instructions page.  In French.  Not the whole book, just the quilt I wanted to work on.  Of course. 

When the book was due to be returned, I mentioned the printing fault to the librarian, in case some future borrower equally fell in love with the quilt and would be frustrated (unless they spoke fluent French, of course).  I had taken a copy of the templates and knew I could work my way around the language barrier, so I wasn't too distraught.  I have a vision of somewhere in France where the same thing is happening in reverse.

Imagine my surprise on arriving home to receive a phone call my my new best friend, Neil the Librarian.  He had gone to the trouble to contact the Brisbane City Library Head Office and a search of all their libraries revealed several other copies with the French section.  My buddy Neil had procured the full English edition and it would be waiting for me next time I was at the library.  My - let's hear it for dedicated, modern librarians.

I've just completed a reversible dress with apples on one side ...

... and a contrasting reverse side with different coloured buttons to add interest.  Now that it's finished I can plan my lovely new quilt, which I know will take me FOREVER to complete, but hopefully it will be well worth the effort.  Stay tuned for progress!