More Aprons.....and a Selvedge Quilt

I have spent the week on and off hemming and attaching straps to aprons so that I can start the 'fun' part - making them 'pretty'.  This one is 'Apple for A Day' - the apple with a bite out of it is a pocket.

The next two are 'Asian themed' and feature my favourite animal - the Panda !

Pretty pink flowers on this one

Australia has been 'selvedged' !!

Happy Quilting !

'Decorating' Aprons

I have had a lovely couple of days 'decorating' and finishing off aprons.  The aprons will be handed out to everyone attending the International Women's Day Morning Tea next March.

Janice, my quilting friend and mentor and I are working on the project together and Janice has so far cut out and overlocked nearly 90 of the 150 aprons we anticipate we will need for the day.  Now I have a bag of 60 of them to hem, add straps and 'decorate' with bright designs and pockets.

I have tried to incorporate my designs into the pockets where I can so the big strawberry is the pocket, the flowerpot is the pocket as is the tulip.  The 'cow' apron still has a couple of pockets to be sewed on and the cow needs some markings.

I went through my 'orphan block' box and pulled out some old international swap blocks from years ago which will make ideal pockets and decorative features on some of the aprons.

Happy sewing !!

Papier Mache - my other Hobby !

Having a break from sewing today to work on a couple of my papier mache projects.  I finally got a base fitted to my 'mannequin bust' so I can add some more layers of paper.  

I am so happy with the way it now looks.  This morning I added another 3 layers of cream coloured paper all over and it is now drying in the warm winter sun streaming in through the window.  I will add at least another 6-8 layers of the cream paper before it is done.

While I have the glue mixed, I decided to add a few more layers of coloured paper to my latest piece.  This has about 20 layers of newspaper to make it firm enough to continue with coloured paper.

So in my sunny 'studio' - aka the dining room/sewing room - I have started adding layers of this yellowy/orange coloured paper.  I will do 3-4 complete layers on the outside today then let it dry before continuing to do the inside layers.  It will need at least 15-20 more layers to finish it completely.  

Fabric Scrap Bundles and Trees

This is most of the fabric I got on Monday from a local quilter who is selling her fabrics.  Lots of the smaller pieces I have already sewn into scrap blocks.

There were lots of small and larger pieces of good quality calico which will make a great background for a scrappy quilt.

Oh the joy when the postie delivers another parcel to the letterbox.  They are coming thick and fast this week and this one arrived this morning.  Lots of yummy good size pieces of good quality fabrics.

 

The upside of all this gorgeous fabric coming my way is this bundle of selvedges that I cut off and added to my already huge selvedge stash...bonus !



 

While cleaning up my sewing room (ongoing battle), I found one of my attempts at free motion quilting - and it's pretty bad hence the reason why I don't do free motion quilting on my quilts - so I thought I would try and cover it up with a tree with leaves.  It came up okay so then I decided to have a go at 'thread painting' a tree with leaves (great sewing machine practice) and then I will colour the leaves in with either crayons or fabric pens. 

 

I need to start sewing 24/7 to finish off all my UFOs and start the long list of quilts I want to make with all these fabrics.

 

Happy quilting !!



Quilts on Display

Phew, what a busy week.  Wednesday I took a few of my black/white/red smaller quilts to put on display at the local Gallery.

The Gallery opens to the public from Wednesday through to Friday so it is nice to be able to give the public a glimpse of  the work of local quilters

I love making 'quirky' wallhangings and the 'Quilt Police' and 'Think Outside the Box'  are just a couple of my favourite ones.

The 'Moody Blues' collection of small quilts are the work of a very talented quilter/artist and good friend of mine, Janice.

The snow is finally melting here in Tasmania but I think this photo truly captures the beauty of our State in winter.

Happy quilting !!

Black / White / Red - what a combination !!

My black / white / red combination 'moment' has now lasted more than 2 years.
Yesterday was such a dreary winter's day that I dug out my black / white / red scrap bag and this ongoing UFO and sewed some more black/white foundations sections.

These black/white sections are the centrepiece onto which a red dot  / white dot corner section will be hand sewn to make a cute 3-1/2 inch block.

I love sewing this block, it makes a great scrap quilt.

While I had the scrap bag out on the table, I sewed some more economy blocks to go into the quilt I posted in an earlier blogpost.

It was a fun day's sewing -  keeping warm inside while outside most of Tasmania shivered through one of it's coldest snow covered days in over 30 years, even at sea level !.

Happy quilting !!