Monday, March 25, 2013

Projects finished and the Sew Along Retreat


It has been a productive few weeks.  The Hello Kitty Liberty Fabric has been all sewn up.  Into a sweet smaller quilt made of 4 inch blocks.  This one I have sent to be quilted so I am looking forward to this one coming home to be bound and to find a new home on the end of my little one's bed.  

So in love with Liberty - it is time to cut into the stash I have been collecting for a quilt for my own bed.  I have collected 49 different prints all with pink as the underlying colour.


As I have been cutting into them I keep changing my mind as to which is my favourite.

Our Sew Along Retreat was held a couple of weeks ago and the weekend was filled to the brim with sewing, laughter, inspiration and fun.  Once again the Avalon Homestead was a wonderful venue with lovely rooms and the best home cooking.  


We started off with our Mystery Project.  With Easter this weekend we decided to make this sweet little bunny.  It has a tummy full with Chocolate Eggs for all to delight.


As the sewing got serious we made sure the ladies had special treats to keep them going.  This Lolly Bar was just the trick.


But to the sewing right - well there were many quilts that were started and finished over the course of the weekend.  So many beautiful colours and fabrics.  We held our Spring Carnival Quilt workshop and while this is a challenging quilt the blocks came together really well.  Here are some of the projects that the ladies made.


There were many other projects besides quilts being sewn with hats, cushions, bags to name just a few.  
It was a great 3 days of teaching and we hope that all who joined us enjoyed the weekend as much as Claire and I did.  Now to look forward to the July Sew Along Retreat.  



Monday, March 11, 2013

A blog post at last!

Yes long overdue I know and I am not going to bore you with any excuses!  Funnily enough my last blog post was about our October Sew Along Retreat - well we are off again this weekend for our first Sew Along Retreat this weekend at the wonderful Avalon Homestead.

I am really looking forward to spending three days up in picturesque Toodyay sewing up a storm with the 24 ladies who will be joining us for jam packed days of inspiration, fun and best of all - no cooking! It is wonderful to be with lots of creative women and see all the projects they will be getting up to.  We are running our Spring Carnival Quilt Workshop and these are such lovely quilts to see evolve in so many different colour combinations.


While I have had a big break over Christmas and into the beginning of this year - I have actually made a large sum of quilts and blankets.  I currently have 5 quilts or crochet blankets that I have finished but can't show you just yet as they have not gone to their owners.  As they head out for birthdays and gifts I will show you.  

Here is one special blanket that I had been working on for quite a while.  My mum celebrated her 60th Birthday in February and I spent most of last year trying to think of the perfect gift for such a special person in my life.  I decided that as mum quilts, I would crochet her a blanket.  Knowing that not any type of wool was going to be needed I settled on the Noro Taiyo yarn.  Well 18 balls of this beautiful silk/cotton/wool later this is the result.


This yarn is a variegated yarn -  the balls were all the same colour and I love how different each square is regardless of the ball being the same.  I settled on the Granny squares to showcase this colouring rather than going with a more complex design.  I then put a simple scallop around the border of the 16 squares.  I hope mum loves it as much as I loved making it.

On the quilting front I have firmly established my love for Liberty Fabrics - I had been collecting for a little white the Liberty Lifestyle range and had a total of 32 fabrics that were my favourite.  Wanting to make a quilt that would show  off this large assortment of fabrics I decided on this block to make the quilt.



This quilt has been named "Under the Umbrellas" and will be the feature workshop at the Sew Along July Retreat.  It has become one of my most favourite quits I have made and so worth the time spent to make it.

Still on Liberty Fabric - these Hello Kitty Liberty Tana Lawns are another fabric I have been collecting for a few months.  My youngest daughter has claimed these and I am cutting into these as we speak. I have decided to cut the fabrics into squares as I did not want to loose any of the print to a complicated design.  So far it is looking like an eye spy of Kitty's all over.





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