Inspired

This week I have been inspired to sew a skirt! yes clothes..
My sons girlfriend is learning to sew garments, and a trip to a fabric shop was necessary, might  have to travel further afield next time for a bigger range, but I am happy wth my skirt fabric, and Kaylee got some lovely red with white hearts for a dress.
Garments need a little less precision than patchwork, but not much!
Its fun to wrestle with the paper patterns under the fan in summer here.

skirt fabric

bow on gift from friend, the bow was bigger than the gift!

quilt underway

The blua and cream quilt is coming along nicely, it needs some red and yellow, as blue, red and yellow ar the College colours.
Just got to find that elusive bit of time to get more blocks done.

postcards



postcard 4" x 3 "

I needed some postcards to give as gifts next week, also a small quilt for a lovely friend. Postcards are easy and can help to get some designs sorted out, colour choices sorted and are useful at the end.

A machine quilted postcard is a lovely personal gift as  a thankyou card, and I often make them instead of buying cards.

card 4" x 6 "

quilt on canvas 8" x 10"

The quilt mounted on the canvas is a lovely gift, I really like making these, there is no edge to bind and they can be hung as is, not like a cushion that everybody will sit on.
At this time of year when people are searching for that innovative gift, I feel I have found the right ones, even the small 3" x 4" cards can be used as xmas tree decorations.
Simple but effective

Design Inspiration

I have found inspiration in several odd places recently, today at Pilates while lying face down on a very old towel,( it was a wedding present 25 years ago!)I found that it had a great design, just perfect for machine quilting, the class couldn't finish fast enough for me to get home and draw it!
Then last week at a friends house I salvaged a paper napkin with a really nice pattern, my friends often covet paper napkins and would rather wipe their dirty faces/ hands on their clothes just to save the napkin to take home. In fact I think they search for the perfect napkins to buy, and just ignore the plain ones.

design from towel

paper napkin

I must admit I like walking round either looking up at old buildings or down to the footpath, a good way to trip up and fall over..... all in the search for inspiraton.

Jane

Winners and losers

I did have a little win at the Melbourne Cup luncheon, 2nd in a sweep, otherwise Tattersalls did well out of me. Here is me getting ready, with Suzannes hat, a little askew, but it was then adjusted, its hard to take photos of yourself! The colour was not quite right but the green scarf looked good with my dress. Alas, the Principal and her colleagues did not vote for me for 'best hat'!

The next picture is a postcard I am making to send to one of the sponsors of my prize last week. Its nice to send a hand made (machine quilted) card, no more trouble and a bit personal.

Just got to get rid of the champagne in my system to write straight on the back of it!

The postcard is resting on a rather fat book I am doing some research from for next years quilt show-  the theme is 'nine patch' - so many ideas,but willl need to settle to one soon.

I am determined to be ready and early with next years pieces......

Famous last words, I am the queen of the last minute.