What the ...

On our recent holiday to the South Island's west coast, we came upon this ...

what we saw first, as we were driving towards Greymouth, was a heap of quad bikes then the Hagglund, cafe and the quilt shop sign.  

We just had to turn back and have a closer look.  Unfortunately the quilt shop was closed for another 30 minutes - I wasn't that keen to wait as we still had a long day of travel to do.  

A bit of peering through the window and there definitely was quilting fabric inside.  What was more interesting was the longarm quilting machine out the back.

Only after returning home did I do a bit of research to find out the quilt shop is called Pink Possum Quilting, the quad bikes and Hagglund are part of the adventure company Onyerbike.

Wordless Wednesday

Merry Christmas

Christmas Greetings from my corner of the world.

Pohutukawa - New Zealand's Christmas tree

Wordless Wednesday

Repurposing

My daughter has a sports singlet/tank that she enjoys wearing and has been asking for another one.  As she is quite slim it has been tricky finding singlets that fit her.  

So one day I had an a-ha moment and thought it would be quite easy to make her one.  I could use the one she has and sort of cut the pattern from that.

None of the local fabric shops stock the knit material that the bought ones use.  One day when I happened to be in The Warehouse I found a woman's XL t-shirt in just the right colour and type of fabric, a bargain at $12!  I'm definitely not an XL, I figured that the largest size I could get would increase the cutting options.

So carefully cutting around the existing singlet (who needs paper patterns!) I easily got a front and back from the larger top.  The bias strips for the arm holes and neck were abit trickier to get.

The singlet fits her and she wears it!  I didn't quite get the neckband right, when it is on it fits a bit better.

front

back

remains of orginal t-shirt

Wordless Wednesday

Finished at last

One of the largest quilts I've ever made is finished and at its new home.  (For progress see here, here, here, here, here and here.)

I enjoyed following a pattern with the right amount of fabric.  The quilting was a bit of a challenge - I'm pleased with how it looks.  So is the new owner!

Off they go

My entries for Quilt Symposium Manawatu 2015 are all done, posted and been received.  After checking the tracking details it looks like NZ Post delivered them at 6.30am!! and they were signed for - wonder how happy they were?

It seems to take ages to sew on the hanging sleeve, the velcro, the label and the bag.  

I have finally learnt to sew the velcro onto a slightly wider piece of fabric by machine and then hand stitch that on to the back of the quilt.  Certainly saves the fingers!

Now to wait until mid January to (hopefully) see them hanging in Palmerston North at the Symposium exhibition.  So no pictures until then.

Wordless Wednesday

Secret Santa

Every Christmas my stitching group make a secret santa present for one of the other members.  Each year I try and do something different and a bit me.  I have a great collection of handmade Christmas decorations. 

what I made with a tin of Whittakers chocs

what I received - checkout the beading!

 












This year my first effort was a disaster!  The more I kept going the worse it got.  So a couple of days before the Secret Santa handover I abandoned it and started something new. It had to be something achievable in a rather limited timeframe!   

I mostly followed the instructions for nesting bins here (the smallest one), adding a bit of decoration - making it a bit obvious as to who the maker was!  

One very good tip was to iron the Pellon batting to the lining and not to the front fabric.  The front is a linen mix so I wasn't confident that I'd be able get the Pellon to adhere evenly.  So if the Pellon doesn't adhere evenly or comes away, it doesn't matter as it won't really show.

 

stencil, paint and PearlEx pigments

For the pattern I used some of the elements of the lining fabric to create a freezer paper stencil.  

The paint is Pebeo Setacolor Shimmer Gold mixed with PearlEx pigments and the stitching is Madeira gold holographic thread - that just sparkles.

painted and stitched

closeup