Purple Rocks!

Today was the day for Purple - purple fabric postcards that is....

My apologies for the poor photo quality - my camera is charging (after we finally found the charger) so these were taken on my phone.

My dyes arrived from Dharma Trading today - Thanks Dharma for the super fast service!  Can't wait to dye some more fabric with my friend Jesse!

Today the girls in my Thursday class finished off their bags and we started cutting out the patterns for their new projects.

Seeing their faces when the bags were finally finished......priceless!

Happy Quilting

Black and White Fabric Postcards

Isn't it funny that when you have time on your hands it is so hard to get motivated to get into the sewing room, yet when you are busy and have to "steal" time, you get more sewing done?

In June and July two of my kids were away and so one would think I had plenty of time for sewing, yet it was so hard to get motivated.  Now that life is back to it's usual hectic pace and teaching sewing classes 3 afternoons a week, I find I have achieved more in the last two weeks than in the whole of June, July and August!

I guess that working to a deadline helps as well.  The British Club Quilt show is on the 16th of October and there is still lots to do.  Today, another 4 cards completed.....

Now to order in some more supplies......

Happy Quilting!

Bad mood blues

It's Official!

Yes, I was officially in a bad mood yesterday afternoon!

My day started off ok and then I decided to get a haircut (not my favourite thing) and then do some clothes shopping (definitely NOT my favourite thing!)

Needless to say I came home with very little (except frustration)  and forgot to buy some more ribbon which I needed.....

Solution:  Dive into the sewing room and make some more fabric postcards and Christmas Tags:

Ahh that's much better!

Fabric Postcards and Rusty fabric

Yesterday my DH took care of all the "householdy" type chores so I could spend the day in the sewing room.

The British Club Quilt Challenge is approaching fast (October 16) and there is still so much to do and make:

 I achieved 12 fabric postcards (some have duplicates) :

I have also been working on another "rusty" fabric piece

This one needed to be rusted two times as my rusty rack is not quite big enough to cover the whole fat quarter.

My aim is to make "interesting" and "different" fabrics.  I think these would look great in a wall hanging!

Found this rusty gem a while back.....I have great plans for this!

Happy Quilting!

"Today is a good day to Dye"!

After feeling like I haven't produced anything much in months - today was the day to get into some fabric dyeing.

Firstly I dyed 24 fat quarters using the clear bright colours:

Then I decided to dye some of the "onesies" that I had left over from last time.  I added some rubber bands and took dye from the bags of the above fat quarters.  I'm assuming that once  the soda ash mixture was in the bags that the dye was not as active as it should be anymore and so the colours of the onesies looked good until I washed them.   They are supposed to be bright and vibrant like the fat quarters but they looked more pastel instead.

Before washing

Oh well - lesson learned for next time!  They don't look too bad pastel either!

Lastly, I had some sickly mint coloured fabric that I had dyed last time and never liked the colour of, so......

You wrap it around a pole with string, scrunch it down and add blue and red dye.....

And the results are amazing! (and much nicer)

This week has been really great on the quilting front:
Tuesday was ANZA Quilt group
Wednesday went to my friend Jesse's house to ogle her beautiful fabric and quilts and check out her fancy Bernina machine.  Wednesday afternoon - sewing class - my student finished her first bag
Thursday was dyeing day and sewing class - my students are nearly finished their first bag

Yeah for sewing/quilting/dyeing/fabric ogling!

Happy Quilting!

Organza bags

Today I thought I would try and make some small organza bags.......

After a couple of failed attempts, I now know why I don't like to sew with the slippery stuff called organza.

So it was time to go back to the christmas coasters!

Today was also a sewing lesson day and the girls are doing really well.  All but 1 student (who was absent last week) has completed their sewing machine drivers license and have cut out and started sewing their bag.  My youngest student is doing much better now that I have placed a large dictionary under the foot pedal.

I am really enjoying teaching and it looks and sounds like the girls are enjoying it too!

Maybe I could also get them in quilting.......

Happy Quilting!

More Christmas Coasters

Friday mornings is the time that I do my grocery shopping.  Not my favourite task but I guess it's only fair that my family want food to eat!

This morning however, I nearly got side swiped by a taxi and then nearly ran a cyclist over that rode straight through a "STOP" sign.  She even gave me the "what's your problem" look as everything went flying off the front seat!

I decided it was probably safer to head off into the sewing room this afternoon and get some sewing therapy.

Yesterday I had cut lots of 4 1/2 inch squares of Christmas fabric and today it was just putting them together using the instructions on the www.anzaquilters.blogspot.com website.

Easy as!

Yep feeling much better!

Happy Quilting!

Christmas Coaster

Today I found some time to get back into the sewing room.....but what to sew?

I was given a big box of Christmas fabrics and the plan is for the ANZA Quilt Group to make Christmas Coasters for charity.

Here are my first 2 coasters:

This is a really easy pattern and can be found at www.anzaquilters.blogspot.com .

Tomorrow I have my sewing class again.....can't wait!

Happy Quilting!