colour swatches

Today  and yesterday my son Luke has been home sick with a cold and asthma so it seemed like a good time to get some dyeing done while he was blobbed out in front of the tv.  I have been trying to dye a particular colour orange for a while but didnt have the right colour dyes.  They finally arrived on Monday (dont get me started about Speedposts service!!!!) and today it was the right time to try them out.

While the oranges were "curing" I made some colour swatches for the rainbow fabrics that I dyed the other week.  This seems like a good was of keeping track to what I dye.

Well the oranges are washed and dried and are completely the wrong colour .  Hmm I think this learning curve is going to be bigger than expected!

Till next time....

Progress on the circles quilt

Today I managed to find some time to dive into the sewing room and get some more done on the circles quilt.  Yes I can hear you all saying "its still not finished!"

Today the pieces that I removed last time were "darned" back into place and it was time to start working on the borders.

The idea was to have "floating" bits in the borders however Im not sure if I like it and I'm not too crazy about the black border either!

Maybe I have to think some more about how I am going to do this....

Time now to practice my mandarin lessons

zai jian!

My Rainbow day

After a week of feeling jetlagged and my head in a fog, it was great to get back into the groove and I got to play with some fabric today.

I started off the day by dyeing 12 fat quarters in the clear rainbow colours.  I had already made some of these and I sold these at the beginning of the week.  Yipee!

Then with the left over dye I made a 2 half yards of rainbow fabric which turned out well. 

I did have a bit of a problem with transfer from my gloves and drips from the bottles that I was using.  Maybe it is time to invest in some better bottles!

While all this dye was curing I did some more work on my "Darned Quilt". 

Well, actually I cut lots of holes in it!

Hopefully I will have some time next week to "darn" the pieces back in.  With Christmas just around the corner it is getting busy with end of year activities so it is getting harder to find time to get into the sewing room.

It is hard to believe that it is nearly the end of the year.  Where has the time gone?

Well thats all from me

Happy Quilting

Bye Bye Holland

Today is my last day in Holland and tomorrow morning I fly back to Singapore.  It has been a busy week and my mother in law and I have been travelling all over Holland visiting friends and family.  The weather has been quite mild although there was a lot of mist yesterday.

Yesterday we had my mother in laws 70th birthday party which was nice and I managed to catch up with people that I havent seen for a while including nieces and nephews.

Here are a couple photos from the quilt show in Holland called "De Naaidoos"
This is a must see if you are visiting Holland!

On Monday I went to visit my aunt in Schiedam and met a friend of hers that is also a keen quilter.  It was great meeting her and seeing her work.  Isnt it great that no matter what country you come from, quilters are such lovely people!

Well its time to go and pack my suitcase.....see you all again in Singapore

Bon Voyage Houston, Bonjour Holland!

Our last full day in Houston was pretty relaxed and the weather was really sunny.  After breakfast Hennie and I went geocaching, this time on the other side of Houston.  These caches were hidden in the inner city parks and it was nice to see some greenery in the midst of the highrises.

The last day at the Quilt Festival was pretty quiet.  A lot of people had gone home the day before so it was nice having a last look without having to bump into others.  There were also some pretty good bargins to be had.

Then it was back to the hotel to pack.

Tuesday morning we arrived back in Amsterdam to be greeted by Jan and Hilly,  friends that had lived in Singapore and moved back to Holland in April. They took us back to my mother in laws house for coffee.  It was great to see them again.

Now I am staying at Hennies house in Schoonebeek.  Today we went to check out the local quilt shop.
What can I say but Wow!  The shop was in a converted farm house and there were just so many fabrics to choose from. It was HUGE!  They also feature the work of local quilters on their walls and coffee, tea and biscuits were available to guests.  "heel gezellig!" Check out their website:  De Naaidoos

We also had a look in Emmen (and bought some socks which I had forgotton to pack!)

Sorry no photos yet, I hope to post some soon.

Happy Quilting, tot ziens
Marianne

Howdy from Houston 2

Yesterday was a busy day for us.  After breakfast Hennie and I managed to find a couple of caches in Downtown Houston.  It was pretty windy and a bit chilly but we found two geocaches.

Then it was off to the Quilt Fesitval to check out some of the quilts and hit the market stalls.  The quilts were absolutely stunning and it never ceases to amaze me the amount of creativity people have.  There was a good variety of traditional and contemporary quilts as well as some terrific art quilts.  Something for everyone.

Then it was time to go and check out some of the vendors.  There were the usually array of beautiful fabrics to choose from as well as new tools and the latest gadgets.  We spent from 10.30 till 6.45pm looking at quilts and shopping and even then we didnt make it to the other end of the building.  This gives you an idea of the sheer size of the Festival.

I even got my photo taken with Alex Anderson the host of the "Simply Quilts"show and now co-host together with Ricky Timms from "The Quilt show".

You can tell that I come from Singapore as I was the only one wearing a thick ski jacket!

Hennie and I found most of the things that we were looking for and at reasonable prices (compared to Holland and Singapore).  The choice is also HUGE here.







Today we spent the day with Glenda, a friend from mine that lived in Singapore and is now back in Houston.
She picked up us this morning and we spent the day checking out the craft shops including our favourite "the Hobby Lobby".  There is just no shop in either Holland or Singapore that can compare to the sheer volume and choice of what can be found here.

We then went for a yummy (but HUGE) lunch at the Texas Roadhouse.

Hennie,Glenda and I

After lunch we went back to Glendas house and met up with the rest of the family including a really smart dog called Blake. This dog is so smart it even closes the door behind him!
We had a wonderful day with Glenda and it was wonderful to catch up with her again.  Thank you Glenda!

With love from Houston, Texas

Howdy everyone from Houston Texas! 

I left Singapore on Monday night to fly to Holland and was met there by my friend Hennie and my mother in law Gysje.  After a quick freshening up, we went into Barneveld to do some shopping and later that afternoon we did some geocaching around the area.  This is a great way to see some of the local sights that you normally wouldnt come across.  The weather was nice and "crisp".

The next morning it was back to the airport to fly out to Houston for the Quilt Festival.  It was raining when we arrived in Houston and it was a "balmy"15 degrees celcius.  Brrr.  After checking in at the hotel it was time for Hennie and I to check out the Festival.  It wasnt long before the jet lag set in and it was time to go home and sleep.

Today we went on the Lone star tour which visited a couple of local quiltshops and a ranch (a mere 22000 acres!)

This evening we will go back to the festival to check out the winning quilts and some more of the vendors.I will post photos soon.

Only two more sleeps......

Yes it is only two more sleeps until I go to Holland and then Houston to attend the Houston Quilt Festival and I am SOOOOOO excited!

I will be picking my friend Hennie up in Holland and then we will spend 5 days in Houston at the Quilt Festival.  We went for the first time last year and it completely "blew our minds".  The sheer size of the exhibitions and market hall was astounding.  I cant wait to go shopping.  (yes I know I hate shopping but this is different...this is quilt shopping...completely different!)

On another note, the darned quilt top is nearly done but that will have to wait until I am back from Houston.  It has been a really enjoyable course and am delighted with how the quilt has turned out so far.

Check out quilt university for more information on the courses they run.

Tonight we will be going out for dinner to celebrate my 40th birthday which was on Thursday.  What does being 40 feel like?  well its pretty much the same as 39!

happy quilting

Marianne

Darned Quilts

After 4 days of a splitting headache and most of Sunday asleep,  I finally relented and went to the doctor yesterday to get some antibiotics.

Today the head is feeling a little better and I managed to get some time in my sewing room to work on my "Darned Quilt" from Dena Crains class at Quilt University.

Today I added more embellishments and stitching to the quilt top and then proceeded to cut holes in it (literally) change them around and reinsert them into the quilt.

I am really enjoying this class and am hoping that I will have a lovely quilt at the end to show for it.
Will keep you posted....

After all that hard work its time for Misty and I to go and take a snooze before picking kids up from school.

Progress report - Darned Quilts Class

Here is a photo of the progress on the Darned Quilts Class with Dena Crain: I still need to add more embellishments such a ribbon, wool , etc.  Maybe I will get some time to do that today.

 

Bye for now

Rub a dub dub....

After nearly 5 months of having to boil water to do the dishes and having two minute luke warm showers we got a new hot water cylinder installed today!

To celebrate I decided to take a nice long hot shower before dinner.....aaaaahhhhh!

This is one happy and very squeaky clean chick!

lesson one - darned quilts

Today I started on lesson one of the "Darned Quilts" class with Dena Crain through Quilt University.  I have done a previous class through them many years ago and found it really good.  You get the lesson sent to you every week and so you can do it at your own pace.  The lessons are also very detailed and there is always the forum for asking questions or meeting the other students. This is really cool as many of them live miles away in other countries.

Today we were making gentle pieced curves.  Curves is one of those things that I generally stayed away from unless it was fused.  These curves went really well and I didn't have to unpick anything and there were no little puckers either.

Today we also had someone come and install an automatic gate opener. Yeah! Not that opening a gate is a big hardship but living in a tropical country with  tropical downpours, one tends to get soaked to the bone before the gate is even open.

Thats all from me...tomorrow is the ANZA quilt group.

Kapow! Wow wee that's bright!

Today I was supposed to be making myself a summer dress, however.....

I have long been a fan of Melody Johnsons quilts and regularly follow her blog fibermania.  Seeing my circles quilt is finished and my Quilt University course doesn't start until October, today seemed like a good day to pull out a lot of bright fabric and just "go for it".

There was no plan to follow and I found it quite liberating!

So liberating in fact that I forgot myself and cut into my large Teflon sheet with the rotary cutter.  GRRR!


Oops!

I really wasn't sure if I liked what I had made until I evened up the edges and took a look from a (safe?) distance.

Wow wee that's bright!

This was a lot of fun to make even though the jury is still out on whether it will make it to quilting stage or not.

Sometimes even big girls need a day to play!

Another one bites the dust!

The Circles quilt is finally finished!  Today I put the final touches on it and sewed the label and sleeve to the back of the quilt.

Hopefully this quilt will be entered into the exhibition at the British Club in November.

The next quilt will be in a class with Dena Crain at the Quilt University called Darned Quilts.  Yes it is circles again.....

I have done a class with them before and it is a great way to learn a new technique and its nice having other students in the class from all around the world.

Well thats all for now...
Happy Quilting.

Bags for science class

Not much sewing happened today although I did make a sample bag for my daughter Celine (12).  She has been asked to make 25 small fabric bags for one of the teachers at school.  It will be a good opportunity for her to get used to her sewing machine.

 The circle quilt is still hanging on the design wall waiting for the finishing touches.  There is a quilt show at the British Club in November with the theme "curves and circles".  Well I think it fits into that catagory.  They hold a challenge every year and all the quilt groups are able to enter.  This includes the quilters from the British club as well as the quilters from the ANZA (Aust/NZ association).  Speaking of which....I have now been to two of their meetings and am really enjoying it.  They are a great group of ladies and there are traditional and non traditional quilters. ANZA Quilters

Other than the small bag, there was lunch with my husband (always nice) and  a pedicure/manicure today.  Not something I normally do but very nice.....

(sigh) I guess the circle quilt will just have to wait until another day......

Under Covers....

Thought I would let you know about their exhibition....just in case you happen to be in Wellington, New Zealand around this time!

Circles continued

Today I added the backing to the circle quilt.  Then I actually "handbasted" it together...something I haven't done in years but seeing that this quilt will have a lot of quilting I really didn't want things to shift while quilting.

I have discovered that I cannot baste in a straight line and so had to draw lines using tailors chalk! Very sad!
Thankfully I still have some of that dutch basting thread (rijgaaren?) and that is better for basting than normal thread as it breaks easily when it comes time to remove it.

Then it was off to the machine to start the quilting...and unpicking...and quilting...and unpicking!

About a quarter of the quilt is done...still plenty more to do. I am enjoying trying out different stitches that I normally don't use.

This week I have friends staying with us from New Zealand and they are busy sightseeing around Singapore and are planning to spend a couple days in Indonesia as well.  Only a 1hour boat trip from here.

Tomorrow I am hoping to check out the ANZA quilting group here in Singapore.  Very exciting!

Happy Quilting!

Happy Birthday Misty!

Today is Misty's birthday.  Well actually it is the two year anniversary of when we picked her up from the SPCA and we couldn't have picked a sweeter dog. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISTY!!!

Today is Hari Raya in Singapore and we went to see the Presidential Palace (Istana) which held a open day today.  What a beautiful building on beautiful grounds and all in the central city district (it even has it's own golf course).  We are so glad that we went early because when we left the wait to get in was at least an hour long.

Brooke & Dad

There was also a big thunder storm brewing in the background and we left before we all got wet!

Last night I washed and dried all the fabric that I dyed yesterday and am very pleased with the outcome.

Now to think up a quilt to show off all those lovely bright colours!

Happy Quilting.....

My Go Go Day!

Today the aircon repairmen were coming to service our aircons and I figured that once they had gone I would head into the sewing room and work on the circles quilt.  What was supposed to be a half hour service turned into a 3 1/2 hour pull all the airconditioners apart and major servicing. Grrr. 

With the aircon pulled apart above my sewing machine I thought it was a good idea to try some more fabric dyeing.  I had bought Linda Johansen's book "Fabric Dyer's Dictionary" a while back and hadn't quite managed to get my head around it yet.

Well today was the day and I dyed 12 fat quarters of fabric into the colours of the rainbow.  They are now outside nicely baking in the sunshine.

I will post photos of the finished products later.

It is already after 2pm and I only managed to do two loads of washing today,

I still need to:
Go to library and pick up daughters reserve book
walk dog (x2)
pick up children from school
Go to mandarin class today
drop 1 child off on other side of singapore (& probably pick her up)
cook dinner
attend parents night at school
Figure out why my photos wont load on my blog! (server rejected...huh?)
and be pleasant to all around me........

Its just as well it's a public holiday here tomorrow !(Hari Raya)

Circles quilt

Not much to blog about today.  Had a slow start this morning....must have been the weather!  Big dark thunder storms this morning with lots of surface flooding on the roads.

My DH  (aka tall, dark, handsome) hung up my Geisha quilt in the hallway today.  Looks good but very small compared to the big white wall.

Added the batting to the circles quilt today but then found that the batting didn't want to flow smoothly through the machine and so the circles ended up wonky!

There is some unpicking to be done and then I will add the backing fabric first using the escape hatch method by Melody Johnston.  Hopefully this will then glide through the machine better.

Will keep you posted.....

Going round in Circles!

There hasn't been much opportunity to sew much the last few days as general household things have gotten in the way.  I did manage to do some sewing today and here is a photo of the progress on the circles quilt.

Today I cut away the excess fabric (light squares) from the back of the quilt and added some more circles.  This is now ready to be made into the quilt sandwich and more circle quilting added.

Its been fun trying out some of the stitches on my machine that I normally don't use.

The "Geisha" quilt is still waiting for "tall, dark, handsome" to help me hang this up in the hallway.....

I've also joined the Artful Quilters Blog Ring.  Check out the link on the top right hand side of this blog to see some more great art quilts!

Today I also had my first "conversational mandarin" lesson.  I enjoyed the class but I know that it will be a challenging  language to learn!  Lots of practicing/homework before my next lesson on Thursday.

Until next time...happy quilting

crop circles

Today I spent the day "playing" with my circle maker on my sewing machine.

I layered the light squares under the dark squares from yesterday and pinned them together trying to make sure that all the seams matched.  There are about a million pins in this and I kept pricking myself on them during the day. Ouch!  This quilt has my own hand dyed fabrics in it.

Then I made lovely circles and cut away the excess fabric to expose the lighter colours underneath.

The small picture that is hanging next to the quilt top is a quilt by Libby Lehman which is my inspiration for this quilt.  I saw  this on the Quilt show and just loved it!   Not that my stitching would come anywhere close to be as good as hers as she is an expert!

I used to religiously watch the show "Simply Quilts' in NZ and was completely gutted when they cancelled it.  Imagine my delight to find that I could subscribe to the new show "The Quilt Show" online with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims! Its shows like this that really promote our craft and I have learnt so much from these two shows!

Last night Hennie and I booked our classes for the Houston Quilt Festival.  Yippee!

Anyway thats all for now

Happy Quilting!

Just Do It!

It's time to get serious about this quilting thing!  The last week I have managed to get a couple of hours each day in the sewing room and today I was in there 9am on the dot!  All of this has paid off as I finally finished the Geisha quilt today.  The centre panel is from a Lonni Rossi pattern.

I even had time today to start on a new quilt:

Dark squares

Light squares

Whoops!  Just noticed a boo boo in the light squares.  Guess I will be starting my day tomorrow unpicking the mistake. 

Anyway for those of you who are surprised that I would be making something so traditional.... never fear, it won't stay that way!  Hint: I will be trying out my circle maker on my sewing machine.

My "Marina Bay Bridge" quilt is currently in NZ and has  been entered into the Wellington Quilters Guild exhibition which is on at the St Patricks College in Kilbirnie from 1-10 Oct. How exciting!

Marina Bay Bridge

Tonight I will be talking to my friend Hennie on Skype to try and decide what classes we will be doing at the Houston Quilt Festival.  The only problem is that there is so much to choose from!

Well thats all from me...happy quilting

Back in Singapore and back online

It has been ages since my last blog and that is not to say that I have been idling away the time.  The kids went back to school  last week and my mum in law left on Sunday night back to Holland so I am finding the house rather quiet during the day.  It's back to just me and Misty!  Misty has not been her usual bouncy self  the last couple of days and I suspect that she is missing Oma.

The last couple of weeks were busy with the kids in NZ (Brrr) and settling back into a normal routine in Singapore. While in NZ I took the girls to the bead shop in Petone and they spent a couple of hours making necklaces, bracelets and earrings.  It wasn't really Luke's thing so we went out for a drink at one of the nearby cafes. 

Making jewellery at Bead store

Celine managed to go horse riding again while we were home.  Sadly that is something that she is not able to do in Singapore so it was great for her to brush up her skills and even managed to do some jumps.

Luke spent an afternoon at the H20 pool with his friends Tim and Tim.  He also had his first ever sleep over at my sisters house and the next day she roped him into playing hockey.  He really enjoyed the game even though he wasn't really sure what to do and the other kids in the team were so supportive and encouraging!
It was great to watch him on the field although by the end of the game I couldn't feel my toes anymore due to the cold.

While in NZ I discovered the Edmonds Magic Pavlova mix.  It comes in a small plastic egg and all you have to do is add water and sugar.  Surely it couldn't be this easy?  Yep it was! and it was really yummy. I have bought a couple of them back to Singapore and I baked one up on Sunday.  Yum yum! Ok so the picture below is not actually the one I baked but I bet it tastes every bit as good!

Last week I also took Gysje to the Pottery Jungle here in Singapore.  If you are into pottery then this is the place to go. 

Today was the first time since June that I have been able to get behind the sewing machine to work on the Geisha quilt. My mum in law and I went to the quilt shop last week to pick up a new background fabric as we didn't like the one it came with. Hopefully it will get finished in the next week as I am looking forward to starting on something new. (and more exciting?!)

Well thats about all from my for now.....Happy quilting

Home sweet Home

There is no feeling like coming home!  We arrived in Auckland on Wednesday and spent a couple of days up in Northland with our friends Bert and Becky and family who run an organic egg and pig farm.  The scenery couldn't have more different from Singapore!  Rolling green hills everywhere you look and fresh air!  Simply Beautiful!

It was great to see them again and we even got to feed the chickens and the pigs.  What can I say but the pigs really lived up to their name!

We slowly meandered our way down country (after buying some chicken flavoured chips yum yum) and arrived in Wellington yesterday. The view on the desert road was stunning as there was plenty of snow on the mountains. (Mt Ruapehu)

 Our nephew came to see us just after we arrived which was nice.  We are all looking forward to catching up with friends and family.

This morning we drove in to Wellington and drove around the bays from Island Bay to Brooklyn.  There was not a cloud in the sky and you could see all the way to the Kaikoura ranges on the South Island.

What can I say but Ahhhhh! its nice to be home!

Visitors from home and our dyeing frenzy

The last two weeks have been pretty busy with my parents visiting from New Zealand and the kids having started school holidays.  It was great to be able to show my parents where we live and a little bit of Singapore.  The 9 days that they were here just flew by and there are still so many things that I want to be able to show them.  I guess they will just have to come back again!

Mum and Dad in Chinatown at the Buddah Tooth Relic Temple. Afterwards we went to the Chinese Heritage Museum and then enjoyed a lovely lunch at the local hawker centre.

My parents also bought some origami papers with them and it kept my children busy (and very quiet) the whole afternoon!

We had a lovely dinner with them at the Brazilian BBQ place before they left.  It was fantastic!

The last couple of days I have been busy dyeing more fabric.  Celine has been helping me make some of the more "interesting" pieces.  We have been laying the fabric onto a piece of plastic sheeting on the deck, then adding our colours.  We added another piece of fabric on top of the first to soak up the excess dye.  Strangely enough the top piece (which ended up yellow and green)  turned out quite a different colour from the bottom one (purple and orange)  Not sure why that happened!  Any suggestions?  We still have some resist to try out and want to try our hand at marbelling fabric with shaving cream.

Will post some photos of the finished pieces soon. 

We have also been busy stocking up on winter gear for our "summer holidays"!  Ski jackets and beanies for our trip home.  We are all soo excited about spending some time at home and catching up with old friends and family. 

On Wednesday Celine and I are going to a new painting group.  She is very excited.  Will keep you posted.....

Going orange!

Today I took a break from working on the Geisha quilt and decided to try my hand at dyeing some orange fabric.  A friend of mine had given me some samples of orange that she needed. (see below)

Orange sample

These are my results today. (top row)  A think it has too much red and not enough yellow but I will have to wait to try again until a new batch of dye arrives next week

The bottom fabrics are dyed using the same dye as the top fabrics but this was dyed on fabric that I sourced locally.  The man assured me that it was 100% cotton and that I would be able to dye it. ("yes yes can!")Well all I ended up with was 5 shades of Blah!

It was heartbreaking seeing all my lovely  (and costly) dye disappearing down the sink!  Moral of the story.....Buy from a reputable source!

Friday is a public holiday here (Vesak Day) and the kids have a day off school.   If we have time we might try our hand at marbelling fabric using shaving cream.  It will have to be yellow, blues and green as the red is all gone.  Will let you know how it goes......

On a brighter note, my parents are coming in less than two weeks! I am looking forward to spending time with them and showing them around Singapore. Im sure they could use some warm weather too!

Graceful Geisha

Today I managed to work on my Geisha quilt.  This is a pattern from Lonni Rossi that I have had sitting in the cupboard for ages.  It still needs another background and plenty of stitching.  This is to hang up in the very empty hallway of our new abode.   As much as I have enjoyed the making the horse quilt (pattern by Toni Whitney) and this one, I still feel like I want to  be doing my own designs. Finish this first and then I can get my creative juices flowing.

No More Buying Quilt Kits!!!!!

Over the weekend I also managed to make and hang a design wall in my new sewing room.

A trip to the library over the weekend with the kids also meant that I could get some books out about fabric dyeing...my new favourite hobby.  Found some interesting pages on marbelling fabrics using shaving cream, batik and  shibori dyeing.  I think that might be next weeks project!  Ohh I am just soo excited!

will keep you posted....

My apologies for the photo...not sure why it is on it's side...will have to ask the technical dept!

It's finally finished!

Today was a great day!  I got to spend the day in my new sewing room and finally finished the horse quilt for my daughter Celine. (With some helpful support from Misty!)  Celine is mad about horses and used to go horse riding in NZ but unfortunately that is not possible here in Singapore.

I even started planning my next quilt.... Watch this space....

But the best part of today was that when I finally ventured out of the sewing room, the good little elves had been around and cleaned my house.....

Yeah!

Going Green

Yesterday was "Green" day! 

The top row is the broadcloth which is only 90cm wide and the bottom ones are on the calico which is 150cm wide.  I have to say that I prefer the broadcloth to the calico with regard to texture.  There wasn't much difference in colour between the two  but my all time favourite would still be the mercerised cotton from Dharma trading. The mercerised cotton is about the same price as the others except for the shipping of course.

 This is my progress to date.....now to find some buyers.......

My Etsy shop

Before and After

We recently moved into another house and so we have spent the last few weeks making feel like "our" place.

At the back of the house was a small "rock garden".  Yesterday the builders came and transformed this area into an area that we can use.  We are planning to put the outdoor table and chairs there....with sun umbrella of course as it gets HOT HOT HOT!

                                                                    "Before"

"After"

Yesterday I went and bought some calico and some broadcloth from a local fabric supplier and will see how they go with dyeing.  I think I still prefer the weave of the mercerised cotton from Dharma Trading.  Pity they are so far away!

If anyone knows of a good supplier of mercerised cotton in the singapore region, I would love to hear from you.

I have listed my dyed fabrics on my Etsy page.....check it out.