Although I have not had much time for making anything, my whole year has been spent on designing and teaching others.  I have been brooding over the fact that the whole year has been concentration on getting the Teachers at our guild accredited and now my last workshop will be held next month.  I can then step down and give some-one else a turn.  Maybe this time next year I can finally finish something like my Rose of Sharon above.  

Another one I have been doing is the Sampler Class of which my first student has successfully completed this month.  What a good feeling.  Am so proud of her.

So, am looking forward to some stitching time in the near future.

Teaching

While I have not had time to update my blog for some-time, the good news I have my passion, dream and desires coming to fruition.  Yes I finally have the studio I always wanted, I am an accredited Teacher and I am absolutely loving designing my own quilts and teaching them.
My students are terrific and I love having them in the studio.  It is such a buzz of activity and so rewarding.

I hope to post again soon and show you what we have been making.

Anyway would love to hear from you?  What you making?

Busy busy busy

Havent posted in awhile as am SO busy teaching!  We have some new outreach ladies very keen on quilting and we started the 9 patch blocks and about to tackle the rail fence blocks with them.  What a pleasure it was to see their face when they saw how easy it was to create a 9 patch strip-pieced.  Oh wow, it was a treat.

Need to get them some basic tools as none of them have mats, rotary cutters or rulers.  Will post photos of them with their items when possible.  We are going to make them into bags as I had been making one for a gift and when they spotted this, they wanted one too.  So next month we will tackle this.

Such fun!

 What are you doing?

Heart to Heart

This is a miniature quilt wallhanging which holds special memories for me.  Do you have one of those?  Firstly the background fabric was tie-dyed with a lovely bunch of ladies at a quilting retreat held in Johannesburg.  We had so much fun learning the techniques, seeing everyone's different colours and I loved my fabric.  As it was so bright I wasnt sure what I was going to make with it.  Then when I started the Craft-Time Group meeting monthly at the Church, I launched the heart wallhanging as a first project, swapping hearts amongst us for those who wanted too.  I was the only one using the needleturn technique for my hearts so I did not swap.  I knew my bright fabric with hand-dyes would be great for this.  I added hand embroidered flowers to the hearts and I now love my bright and cheerful heart wallhanging.

What do you think?

Feeling Blue!

I haven't posted in awhile.  My time has been limited and just have not found time to do much lately.  Have been battling with glandular fever (we think) still waiting for the blood tests, but am so... tired and my lymph glands are so swollen.  Not a good feeling as I just want to sleep, sleep, sleep!

So all I have done in the last few days have been some fabric postcards by hand.  Okay it has been soothing.  I have created another page in order to show these, so click on the tab above for the latest ones.  Still one more to add. 

Love the handwork postcards and ATC's dont you?  Love to hear from you all. 

Hope you will be taking part in the crochet and knitting week?

Does anyone know how?

Hi Everyone

I would like to put up some pdf files for people to download with some quilt patterns.  How do I do this?  I do not see a way to upload them or download them?

Thanks for your help.

New Postcards and ATC's

My latest cards

Postcards and ATC's

Today I had some fun with making fabric postcards and ATC's.  I have a few swaps and challenges going at the moment, so made 3 postcards for birthdays, 1 for a swap challenge, and 1 for spare.  I also made some pink ATC cards.

Here is my "Earth" Postcard for a swap online

These 4 ATC's are also for an online swap and the theme is "Think Pink"

This is one of my birthday cards for a birthday swap overseas

Had some fun with free-motion.  Take a look at this free-hand postcard

Okay now for some house duties. Cheers for now.

Houses

Okay the last two weeks have been working on this house quilt.  I found these paper-pieced blocks in a drawer in my sewing studio and decided after 7 years having been laying there, they needed to be completed.  So almost, one UFO down for the year, just need to complete the binding.

Actually the fabric choices didnt really appeal to me anymore but now after having quilted it I am beginning to like it.  What do you think?

Postcard Tote Bag

Happy New Year to you all - after a delightful Christmas and having little time to play in the sewing room as I had my mentally handicapped son to contend with (but what a delight he was) I really needed to jump into the sewing studio and do "something".  Only I had no idea what so instead I ended up re-arranging the room and cleaning and organizing things which made me feel a whole lot better AND managed to motivate me to make something.

SO here it is - took me an hour to make this lined bag with 12 fabric postcards which are interchangeable so it is rather cool.

This is the one side and this is the other side:

Don't you just love it?  And it was quick.  Think I will be making more of these soon.

My Inchie Twinchie Tree

This is my latest project and a wallhanging I made myself while we have been swapping autumn postcards and ATC cards with many different groups all over the world.  I had such fun with this them painting the fabric, sundrying it and laying different leaves etc on it to get the effect I wanted.  Then I loved them so much I made them into this wallhanging.  I added some of my own leaves to make a tree and it hangs in my lounge now.  I love it! It consists of inchies, twinchies, trinchies, ATC's and Postcards.

My lone star

 

This was a really fun lone star to do.  Firstly I never work in pink but I like the way it has turned out. Now onto another miniature quilt - love the mini's don't you?

My king size scrappy quilt

New York Beauty and Dyeing fabric

This is some of what I made at retreat - just love the batik fabric and the bright colours.  Need more time now to make more blocks.  Have you made a NYB?  Let me know.

These are my fabrics from the dye class which was really fun too.

I hope to use them in one quilt and the reason why I used similar colours.  Dont you just love it?  Not sure what I must make with them though.

Oh and I am also going to show you what I am busy appliquing right now. Still busy with it and it is going to be some-one's christmas present.

Love applique the template-free way.

Quilting Retreat

Well tomorrow is retreat for the weekend and will be making the New York Beauty and taking a dyeing class.  Really looking forward to this.

I continue to make fabric postcards and ATC's.  Also my jewellery is really going well.  Must upload some more photo's but you can see more at http://www.nqfcup.co.za/ or http://www.craftandbusiness.co.za/ (site still under construction).

I am wanting to start an outreach group so if you have any advise regarding this please let me know.  I get lots of scraps of material and want to put them to good use.  I am looking for a venue - this is the hardest part. 

Anyway till next week - happy crafting.

Textile Art

Lately I have been dreaming about textiles, their texture's, mixing them, making my own textures, painting my fabric and creating my own background fabrics. This is really fun and am using this as a basis for my postcards and ATC's.

Here is a photo of one of my ATC's just done.

Let me know how you enjoy making your textile cards?

Fabric Postcards

I love making postcards to swap so if you would like to share your techniques and maybe even arrange a swap or two please arrange with me.

I also make ATC cards (fabric) for trade.

I am new to the blogging world so please bear with me. Alway like to read others and share but I thought it was time for my own.

Last night I awoke with an idea in my head for making a handbag with different textures and could not wait for 6am to get into the sewing room. I have completed the front now I want to embellish it with beads etc.... Watch this space.

UFO's

Presently, I am busy finishing off some of my quilts from 2008. With all the wonderful BOM's out there, my creative juices are flowing and the desire to drop all and start new ones is tempting. I don't know about you but I am trying hard to ensure I finish what I start before I step in and take on more this year. So my list is out and I am trying to hurry through them so I can join in.

How many BOM's or UFO's have you got? I counted 5 that I am busy with and hope to have 2 completed by next month.

Let me know what you working on and feel free to chat.

New Blog

Hello everyone

I have started this blog due to my love for creativity. I hope to join the Internet family of creative people out there. I hope I can share with you all in the near future some patterns, information and products.

I value your input and as I am new to blogging, your comments are appreciated.