Birthday blocks!

My last post was about the British Club Challenge - and for those that would like to see photos of the quilts, check out the ANZA Quilters.

This Sunday it is my birthday and the ladies from the ANZA Quilt group surprised me on Tuesday with Birthday blocks that they had made in my favourite colours.

LOVE the black white and red!

Thank you all for the lovely blocks - can't wait to put them together!

Last Saturday we had our school carnival and my friend Jesse made this gorgeous quilt for the raffles.....

and Guess Who won the raffle!!!!!!!

Isn't this fabulous!

The last couple of weeks I had been trying to do some more fabric bleaching with a clorox bleach pen without much success.  I have done this before and it worked great but this time the bleach just dried on the fabric and nothing else.

I went and bought a new bleach pen and it worked wonderfully.  Maybe the bleach was just too old?

I will do a few more and then overdye them next time I do some dyeing.

Happy Quilting!

Loving the Shibori Dyeing!

Yes Folks there is more Shibori dyeing....

Blue fabric with Grape dye

White fabric with grape dye and red/purple dye

Blue fabric with Golden Yellow dye

Green fabric with Golden Yellow dye

 Then it's on to the rusted fabric that was prepared two weeks ago and dyed today....

Fushia, Grape, Kelly Green and Golden Yellow

Fushia, Grape, Kelly Green and Golden Yellow 

Detail of rust on fabric

Fushia, Grape, Kelly Green and Golden Yellow 

Now I just need to find somewhere to buy Soda Ash in Singapore....

Time for some more rusting again.....

Happy Quilting

Whale - fabric Postcard

Here is the latest postcard:

Isnt this cute?!

http://www.mariannebos.etsy.com/

Orchids from Singapore

Here is my latest fabric postcard that I made today:

FOR SALE

Sorry about the photo - the postcard is not wonky - just my photography!

http://www.mariannebos.etsy.com/

Today was also the ANZA Quilt group .  Check out their blogsite to see what we have been up to:
http://www.anzaquilters.blogspot.com/

Happy Quilting
Marianne

Still missing something

Have added some more pieces onto the red quilt but its still missing something in the top corner.

Not much sewing happened today as I went to ANZA quilt group.

Tomorrow if the weather is nice, the plan is to do some dyeing which I haven't done in a while.  Maybe I might paint some fabric too.

Happy Quilting

Seeing Red!

Early this morning (9.30am)  I visited my local quilt store to get the red fabrics for my latest project.  Lucky for me, they were having a sale and I picked up some lovely fabrics.

I also bought my darned quilt in to show and Brigette offered to hang it on display in the shop.  Yeah!
Then, at 10.15am  it was off to Ikea to buy some more yummy Ikea meatballs.  I was so pleased to have achieved two things all before morning tea time.  Oh how I wish more shops would open early in Singapore!

This afternoon I finished my very first fabric postcard.  Not the most exciting but for my first one I thought it was a reasonable effort.  Something makes me think that this postcard thing could get rather addictive!

April is birthday month in our household.  Celine is having her birthday on Saturday, hubby next Wednesday and Brooke on the 17th.  That is not including all the brother inlaws and sisters, sister in laws and nieces that are also having birthdays in the month of April.

Happy Quilting!

The green is complete

Yesterday, I finished the green part of my new project. 

Now for the blue and the red parts and lucky for me my local quilt shop has just announced a sale!  Watch this space!

Also yesterday, one of my friends at the ANZA quilt group had a book about fabric postcards.  It was really cool and the mind just boggles with possiblities.........Hmmm I feel a new project coming up!

Happy Quilting

So much to tell.....

Last week was an incredibly busy week.  We had friends Ron and Wendy come from New Zealand to visit (for Wendys 40th birthday) and the kids had a week school holidays.

On Monday my husband, son Luke and daughter Celine and I  finally went and visited Universal studios here in Singapore on Sentosa Island.  The weather was perfect as it was not too hot.  We went on a couple of the rides but we all gave the huge rollercoasters a miss.  Brooke was at home busy making a gezillion cupcakes for a school fundraiser.

We sent Brooke off shopping with Wendy on Thursday and I went to the water treatment plant with Ron as that is his line of work.  It was really interesting and seeing I'm not much of a shopper (except for fabric) it was a good solution. During the week we ate at a couple of local hawker centers which is much much cheaper than any of the hotels.  (and pretty yummy too) Friday we all chilled out at the beach on Sentosa.  Misty came along too and is really getting the hang of swimming in the sea.

Misty at least was smart enough NOT to get sunburned....unlike the rest of us.

Friday night, Ron and Wendy took us out for dessert and drinks at the 57th floor of the Marina Bay Sands.  The view was spectucular although it was VERY VERY high.  Dessert was yummy and even more yummy was the Cloudy Bay Dessert wine that was given to us by the staff.

We sat way up at the top!

Today everything was back to normal. (what's normal?!) I started off the morning with a long walk to get rid of all those extra kilos that I accumulated last week.  Then it was back into the sewing room to work on my new project (not yet finished).  This is a project from Gloria Loughmans book. I am hoping to also do a version in red and in blue.

Well I think we are all up to date again.....happy quilting!

Nearly finished

This week I have been busy working on a "modesty cover" for the lecturn in our old church in Wellington and it is nearly finished. 

I had originally bought the larger gold trim (in top right hand corner) but this was so damaged by lying in the shop that I was not able to use it.  No amount of retwisting or ironing could fix the damage.  Why dont they just store it better!!! This new trim I was lucky enough to find a brand new roll (plastic still on it) and as soon as I had bought it I rolled it nicely onto a piece of folded up paper I had in the car.

The trim just needs to be attached and it is finished and can hopefully go back to NZ with our guests that are coming on Friday. It is made from thick velvet which was harder to sew than I thought. 

This is the last of the "must do" projects and then I want to start on a new project....problem is ....too many ideas....which one to do first?

The kids have a weeks holiday next week for spring break so it will be busy.

Today though, I am off to the ANZA quilt group and get to show off my darned quilt.  Yeah!

Happy Quilting!

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....

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

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.

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.

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.

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)