Birmingham Festival of Quilts 2010

Hi I found these two good videos on youtube of the Birmingham Festival of Quilts, the first is video and you get to see some merchants, an interview with the overall winner and more.

The second is a slide show of quilts. It goes fast, so if you want to look at any quilt a bit longer, have your mouse ready on the pause button! There is an incredible range of quilts to see, enjoy!

The embedded videos are to wide, so to watch them on youtube (so you can see them on a larger screen or full screen) double click on them!

Don't know why they are too wide, I'm using the same size as last time, the joys of computers!

Fabric Fused, Tissue Paper Prints

In my last post I showed you the start of the wall hangings made in Hazel Foot's class. I promised to show you how we made the tissue prints so here we go.....

To re-cap here's the end result. A tissue paper print, fused to white fabric ready to be incorporated into a wall hanging. I hope you can see the texture in this photo, the wrinkles in the tissue paper give it an appearance of leather. Click on the photo for a closer look.

Now how do you do it? Cut a piece of tissue paper a little smaller than A4. Tape the tissue paper to your 'normal' piece of A4 paper, a little down from the first edge that goes through the printer. Use one long piece of tape that goes across the whole width of paper.

(I recycled the tissue paper from a shoe box, and used 'invisible' tape, not shiny sellotape)

You may have to click on the photos to see better what I mean! Below I have lifted the tissue paper so you can see better what I have done. (I hope)

Attaching the tissue like this worked for me, but you may have secure the bottom of the tissue paper too, it depends on your printer.

Next put the tissue (attached to 'normal' paper) into your printer feed tray, and print your picture.

UPDATE: The printer I'm using is an inkjet, sorry for not putting that in before, and thanks to Rusty Bird for asking. (25 Sept)

Here's the tissue print fresh from the printer, still attached to it's carrier of 'normal' paper.

I have a little smudging but thats OK I'll just crop it later.

Remove the carrier of normal paper, it was just there to help the tissue paper go through the printer and soak up any excess ink that goes through the tissue.

Trim the tissue print to size, make sure you leave a seam allowance if you are going to use the whole print.

Cut a piece of Vliesofix or Steam a Seam the size of your print.

OPPS I forgot to take a photo of using the iron to fuse the Steam a Seam to the back of the print!

But I'm sure you all know how to do that. Use your silicon appliqué sheet when you are doing the fusing so you don't mess up your iron/ironing board.

OK heres the print after I have fused Steam a Seam to the back, then peeled off the release paper and fused the print (by ironing) to white fabric. Now you just have to trim and sew it into your creation.

On the left is the print I have just fused to fabric, on the right is the one I did the other day. I have redone it because the I wanted to change the colours. If you look closely the centre of the flower is more yellow now, (was lime green) and the pinks more saturated. I changed the colours in my EQ7 quilt software by reducing the 'green' content and the increasing the saturation of all the colours.

Mixed Media Wall Hanging Workshop

Hi everyone, last weekend I went to Hazel Foot's class, 'Mixed Media Wall Hanging'. We started with 'tissue paper prints' and then made them into fabric. When I get organised I'll put a 'how to' of this on the blog, but first I thought you'd like a peek at what we did.

This is the start of Gaye's Sunflower wall hanging, below is it basted ready for quilting.

This is Jocelyn's, she used pictures from her trip to Peru.

Carol's has a Sea theme going on, below nearly ready for quilting.

Here's mine a bit of a mess, and below not much better. I need to put the hydrangea's back in!

Helen's has her cat in the middle and the most beautiful textured fabrics.

Lynne used photos from her garden.

Petra's at the start of the day, wonderful textures and later she added some greens too.

And here is Robyn's wall hanging nearly all sewn together. I love that tree fabric.

Hazel is a very talented quilter & teacher, and I learnt a lot in this class. She is teaching at Remarkable Symposium if you are going, check out her profile on their website (scroll down the page).

Club Charity Blocks

Last month at club we started making blocks to put aside to make Charity Quilts. The block to make and bring for the October meeting is a Nine Patch. Make in any shades of blue, with darker blue in the corners. Cut your squares 3 and 1/2 inches. Make as many as you like.

Here's a photo of Oscar looking after a couple I have made.

Leah Day- Section Quilting

Here's the next set of 'How Do I Quilt This?' video series by Leah Day.

I have been really enjoying these and learning heaps.

I hope you have too.

Remember to check out Leah's wonderful blog, 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs. There's heaps more to see there, and she also has written notes to go with these videos.

September Meeting and Show n Tell

This incredible quilt was made by Sandy Robinson for hers son Jeff's 21st Birthday. Sandy had friends and family write messages and advice for Jeff on fabric and then made up the quilt with photos of Jeff. My favorite message was 'Think like you have a brain, Run like you have diarrhoea, Tell no one!'

Everyone was impressed with the intensity of colour in the photos. Sandy had them put on fabric at Copy World. The photos have a rubber like texture to them, and this process is usually used on tee shirts.

Log Cabin quilt made by Rikki Going. These colours always look stunning together. Rikki used really interesting fabric there's skulls, bones roses, ferns and heaps more. Rikki's keeping this one for herself.

Donna Farmer made this sleeve for her husband's laptop. Its made out of old ties.

Kaye O'Hagan made this quilt for her 17th (!) grandchild. Kaye designed the quilt herself, she started with the animals and then went from there.

'Colours of the Outback' by Robin Halverson. A design by Caroline Sharkey from a recent 'Quilters Companion' magazine.

'Bow Tie Bears' made by Helen Barron for Hospice to sell.

Made by Yvonne Davies for 'Starship' (National Children's Hospital). It's backed with candlewick fabric to make it cosy.

These two are also by Yvonne for Starship.

This machine stitched lace was made by Petra Pilkington, using wash away, gold paint and beads.

The start of a table runner by Ross Baker. Made in Kerry Glen's class 'Circulation'.

Reversible fat quarter apron made by Sue Farrier. It was made for a lady who demonstrates cupcake decorating.

'Sunshine and Butterflies' By Lynn Watkins, quilted by Sally Smith from Warkworth

Here's Lynn Watkins (right) demonstrating how to braid bag handles to Sue Farrier (left).

Lynn's using an old CD to do this. It reminded me of the 'french knitting' that I used to do as a kid with an old wooden cotton reel. The handles of the bag in the photo below are made from the braid.

It was also 'suitcase sale' at club yesterday. Members bring items to sell. Here we have members busy filling bags with buttons. A bargain a $1 a bag.

Joining Binding Ends

I was looking about on the net the other day and found this gem. This is a really good demo for anyone who has never done this before. I always join the ends of my binding, instead of overlapping, or tucking one end into the other, so the join (seam) is not bulky. But it can be a bit tricky, opening the ends of binding and drawing 45 degree lines etc. And several times I have forgotten to add a seam allowance and trimmed the ends too short!

What is really clever about this video is that it only takes a couple of pins. No measuring, cutting (and maybe forgetting to add a seam allowance!) Just pinning, sewing and then checking seam before trimming. This is going to be my new method. Very interesting that it works using any angle too, not just 45 degrees.

for Michael Jackson fans....

I visited the 'Fabric Barn' this morning and had to take a photo of this knit fabric I found! Its so weird, not sure if its funny or scary. I suppose fans would like a top or jacket made out of this?! If you are interested it's in two colours, a black & white, and a sepia version. Not something I'd like to wear. I wonder if anyone will buy it? I'll have to check next time I go shopping.

P.S. Remember it's Quilt Club Meeting tomorrow, see you there.

Blast from the Past

I work at a Primary School, (5 year olds to 10-11 years olds) and was asked by a teacher if I could bring in some embroidery for the kids to look at next week. They have been sewing with plastic needles and threading beads etc, and the teacher would like them it see different things you can do with embroidery etc.
So as well as taking some crazy quilting samples, cross stitch etc I have dug out some stitching my eldest Son did when he was a pre-schooler (He's nearly 20 now). They are so cute (I'm not biased or anything!) I thought I would show you too.

He had a real thing for Trains. You could see the train track from the gate of our old house, so every morning at 10.45am he would be at the gate watching! Each train had its own number and I can remember him running inside to tell me when a train different than usual was running. Also he was a Thomas the Tank Engine fan. I think I may have drawn the outline for him based on Thomas.



He drew this one himself, not sure who it was supposed to be, maybe Dad with his fire helmet on, or it could have been a train driver!

So if you have little kids this is an easy & fun thing to do with them. It's very good for their fine motor skills too.

*Cut some Hessian into small square or rectangles. Then just in from the edge, zigzag around them to stop fraying. (You or the child can pull threads off the Hessian outside of the zigzag stitching to make a fringed edge.)

*Draw a simple design, or have the child draw one, on the Hessian with a marker pen.

*Thread a large blunt tapestry needle with wool. (Use a doubled thread so that the needle doesn't unthread.)

*Demo a few stitches, and then let them go for it.

*Offer help and praise