2016 pouch swap Part 2

I signed up for the 2016 pouch swap on 19th August 2015 and it was being run through @sugarandspice77 over on Instagram. The due date for this swap wasn't until 4th March 2016  and it was a secret swap. With a time frame of about 6 months  there was plenty of time for planning, plotting and stalking our secret partners.

My partner that I was to make for was Alison . The brief that I had from her questions that she had answered on the application form was that her favourite pouch was the noodle head open wide pouch but she also showed some extra ones in her mosaic on instagram.

I chose to make her the "Oh Zipped case" from Oh so sweet. I used a natural toned linen fabric to make to pouch and accompanied it with a red cupcake fabric and a minty green with red berries for binding. I also added a strip of natural coloured cotton lace. This was a fun pouch to make and I ended up making myself one too.

 

 

I added some extra's in for her to enjoy to. Some chocolates, ribbon, zips, and hexies. I also couldn't resist in filling up the inside of the pouch too. Inside I included pins, thread, binding clips, bobbin holder and a frixion pen.

My parcel of goodness arrived and it was from the very talented Michelle. She had made for me this awesome huge pouch out of cotton and steel fabrics and  she had pieced hexies for the front of the pouch. I love how big it is and I had only been thinking about making myself a large pouch to put all my hexie stuff in for traveling and on the go.

She also included some extra's for me. Some yummy Tim tams (salted caramel one's OH YUM) some magnets which come in handy as a needle minder too, gel pens, crochet cotton (as she knows I also love to crochet), a cute fox rubber, stickers and some washi tape.

This was such a fun swap and I really enjoyed making the zippered case that I made. Swaps are so much fun and if you get the opportunity to participate in one I strongly recommend it. You will surely enjoy it.

Sydney stitches and craft show

The Sydney stitches and craft show ran from the 3rd March to the 6th March and was located at the Rosehill race course Rosehill.

As part of the Sydney modern quilt guild we had a stand at the stitches and craft show and I was one of the volunteers on the Friday the 4th March along with a couple of other ladies from our guild. We manned our stall and had lots of interest this year from new prospects. We also had a display there of some of our guild members quilts.

    On the table is Wendy's X and plus quilt and on the wall is Sandra's plus quilt

                                                           Lorena's Opal essence quilt

                                                  Our Guild charity quilt from 2015

                                                              Kathy's David bowie quilt



Once my shift at our stall was over I got to go and have a good look around at some of the other displays that were there. There was some amazing talent on display from some textiles students.  I would have loved to get some more photo's to share with you all but my camera on my phone decided it was going to play up that day and corrupt most of my photo's that I took. But I did manage to save a few to share with you.

After spending some time looking around at some of the displays it was time to go shopping. I made a few purchases, one being my first Tula pink fabric.

I also purchased some kaffe fassett fabrics for my circle game quilt and this gorgeous peacock panel.

All in all I had a fantastic day. I was exhausted by the end of it but I love going to the stitches and craft show. I wouldn't miss it.

February's "All people quilt" UFO challenge

February's "All people quilt" UFO challenge was  the lucky number 5. Number 5 on my list was my Technicolor Galaxy quilt from Pile O fabric, which is a quilt along that I joined at the beginning of last year. At this time the quilt along hadn't finished so the procrastinator in me put off working on it (as per usual) and decided to finish up a different quilt on my list.

I went ahead and finished up my smaller blue string quilt which is number 4 on my UFO list. I already had the quilt top finished on this one all I needed to do was baste it up, quilt and bind it.

There was still plenty of time left in the month after I finished that quilt off so I decided to go full steam ahead and try and finish up another quilt up off  my list. I choose to work on my Craft Gemini mystery  quilt which was number 6 on my UFO list. It had already finished up in December 2015, but I still had these 6 blocks left to make for this quilt.

Then I needed to piece the quilt top together and The usual basting, quilting and binding after that.

I was so pleased even though I didn't get to finish off my technicolour galaxy quilt in February I had a very productive month and finished up 2 other quilts from my UFO list which will free up other months to work on other UFO'S.

I love being apart of the quilting community and having things like the "All people quilt UFO challenge" are a fantastic way of keeping me focused and pushing me to finish up projects that are just laying around waiting patiently half done. I have a little bit crafters ADHD and I am brilliant at starting things and then pushing them aside to start new exciting projects that come along. So this is the year to concentrate on finishing them instead of leaving them lonely in a corner. I would like to know who else is with me on finishing up some UFO"S on there list this year?

Stay safe and have a great weekend. Happy crafting. XOXO

Sparkling star dust quilt

As part of the modern quilt guild we had the option to sign up for a fabric quilt challenge last year. We were sent the fabrics at the end of July and they were the Michael Miller Glitz fabric collection. We had until November to create something that suited the fabrics and then enter them into Quiltcon.

 

 

 

 

We were aloud to add a Michael miller solid fabric to what we were making so I choose to use the black from his collection. I went back to basics and started designing a few layouts in a normal grid book. Then later that night as I was trying to go to sleep an idea popped into my head and I knew instantly that was going to be my design.

I started by cutting a background square of 1m by 1m and I used my herra marker to draw crosshatch lines 1 and 1/2 inches apart  on my background fabric and then basted my quilt sandwich as per normal.

Once my quilt was basted I used 2 different tones of a gold embroidery thread and I quilted the crosshatch lines using a star decorative stitch that I have on my machine.

After it was all quilted I used the Michael miller glitz fabric collection and cut out a shooting star which I used a raw edge applique technique to attach to the quilted background fabric. I also cut some extra stars out of the glitz fabric and placed around the shooting star.

I added in some extra stars for a bit more bling by using some star buttons that I had and painted them with a gold textured nail polish and a top coat.

I added some gold thread hand embroidery to the star and finished it off with a 2 tone flanged binding using the star stitch in gold embroidery thread. I love how the finished product turned out and I really enjoy making these challenge quilts because it pushes me to think outside the box and create something unique.