Saturday, June 30, 2012

A Material Obsession

The first quilt I ever made was a pattern made up by me. The second quilt  I made was a variation on a Sarah Fielke from Material Obsession 1. But I knew then that exact cutting and perfect 1/4 inch seams were not for me. So I went on to other things. I did have a brief encounter with a triangle ruler and the Ginger Bliss quilt but mainly I have felt that Sarah's gorgeous quilts were a bit too hard. But after a summer of simple squares, and my successful Swoon quilt- when it came time to use all my lovely Purl Soho fabrics I again turned to Sarah for inspiration.


I like a quilt that I can fathom the pattern from the picture - then I know that it will make sense to me and be within my skill level- but then I found a picture of the Stars in Her Eyes quilt and it was love at first sight. But I couldn't work it out without the pattern - kindly supplied by my star friend Theresa from Sew and Sews. So with some extra time this weekend I plunged into its intricacies . Starting by cutting all the star fabric strips. I then had a bit of a panic about how complicated it was going to be - I still wasn't sure what a 'set in' seam was, so I decided to make the first star before going any further. And I am glad I did.... It wasn't hard but it has puckered badly in the middle.

And now I don't know whether to plunge on ahead and hope that practice makes perfect - or abandon ship. Am sure there are lots I could do with 55 -2.5 inch strips.....what do you think - will they get better with each passing star or should I give up while I am ahead. Either way I am off to sleep on it. And one more thing - there is A LOT of waste in this pattern. All this from one star and there are 12 in the pattern.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Quilt wrangling

Trying unsuccessfully to get great shuts of my quilts on s sunny but windy day....

I wish I had listened to my maths teacher....

After the disastrous market experience in March I still had quite a few baby quilts to sell. So when I heard of Madeit, an Aussie version of Etsy, I thought it would be an easy thing to list my quilts and see what happens. So I was very pleased when I got a message that there was a buyer interested in my quilts. She asked if I would do a similar quilt in colours that she preferred and being so excited about a possible sale I said yes- to a custom quilt for the same price as one I had already made out of scraps ...... Well ok I thought - I have a lot of scraps in the colours she wants - and it will be a sale. First she wanted to see the fabrics choices - so far so good. And then Theresa pointed out that I had listed my quilt as being 60in x 60in. At least that was what I guessed it was....but no it was closer to 30in x 30in. And I had agreed to a custom 1.5m square quilt for $70....I had to fess up as I now needed to buy new fabric, batting and backing fabric. My customer was quite disappointed as she thought she had come across such a great bargain....she offered to pay extra and I asked for a little bit more- enough for the extra purchases - and then went ahead with the quilt. I finished it today and I think it's lovely. I hope my customer does too- and she enjoys her bargain!

PS I had another enquiry for a custom quilt and I gave her a proper price which included covering my actual costs.... And I never heard from her again

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Mrs Treasure

My recent Secret Squirrel quilt was a wedding present for a wok colleague who invited Alan and I to her lovely wedding. I hope that Sarah and Michael enjoy the quilt and have a long and happy marriage.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Yarn Bombing the Port

A sunny day spent op shopping in Port Adelaide with Marya and we came across some yarn bombing which matched my new $5 coat. Sweet....