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!

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!

It's been a while.....!

Wow has it really been more than a month since my last post!  My how time flies!  Since my last post there has been a major earthquake in New Zealand.  This has taken a lot of my time and attention and our hearts and prayers go out to all those in Christchurch.  Its things like this that make me feel very far from home!

Oma has gone back to Holland and I have also finished Luke's quilt.  He has happily been sleeping under it and Im hoping he might discard the old quilt which is falling apart.  (a sign of being well loved!)

Luke's New Quilt

Luke's Baby Quilt

This week I have been trying to finish all those things that just never seemed to  get finished.  Yesterday I finished the dress I was making....Hmm I knew there was a reason why never sewed my own clothes!  Maybe I should just stick to quilting!

Today I FINALLY finsihed the darned circles quilt.



Darned Quilt

The only thing left to finish is the repairs to our bedspread.  It had handquilting on the top but over the years the stitiching has come loose.  Oma and I already repaired most of it and I just need to finish two more rows.

Then I need to make a modesty cover (the piece of fabric that hangs from the lecturn) for the pulpit for our old church in Wellington.  I already have the fabric ready to go and it will need to be made in the next two weeks so that it can travel home with our guests that are coming soon. 

sigh!  Then and only then can I move on to new and more exciting things!!!!

New year New Beginnings

First of all thank you to those that replied to my previous blog.   Dan from Findmyfabric.com has a website that you can send a photo of your fabric and it will try to match it in their database.  Brilliant!

I was still unable to find the fabric and so had to come up with another solution.  This is what we have come up with:

Actually this is a much better solution and it breaks the "busyness" of the fabric.  My mother in law is currently here in Singapore and the aim is that we will hand quilt this together.

I haven't been blogging much since before Christmas but that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy quilting.  Other than the quilt above I have also been busy making a quilt for my son Luke.  The last quilt I made for him has fallen apart due to overuse and now it is time to make a larger quilt for his bed.

Guess what his favourite colour is?
This quilt is ready to be basted and then quilted.

My mother in law is visiting us until the end of February and so last week we spent the day at the beach at Sentosa Island.  It was a lovely day and the weather was great.  I managed to get really sunburned which probably wasn't the smartest thing to do.  Next time I will wear sunscreen.

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!

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.

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.