Quiltfest weekend and Jasmine

The jasmine is blooming

A very successful weekend!  I had promised my good friend, Carolyn, to make her a memory quilt from her Mum's clothes to remember good times and what with one thing and another (8 months in hopsital didn't help), it never got done so in the intervening time, she decided she would get more fun out of it if she did it herself with a little bit of help from me as she wasn't a quilter, tho she is a crafty person.  Caro's Mum was a small person but it is surprising just how much fabric you can get out of clothes so we had more than enough for Yellow Brick Road (76" x 85").  Mum's favourite colours were pinks, reds, whites, creams and some blue and as you can see from the first block (that took until Sunday arvo to get to), it is working well.  She also loved what I call slippery synthetics so most of the fabric had to be stabilised.  Liisa from The Quilter's Corner who's a great lady always willing to help sent me some samples of Weaveline cotton stabiliser and it works like a dream, gives the fabric stability without extra thickness or stiffness -

 After a full day of rotary cutting, we ended up with the required number of strips and a very tired Caro - well, not quite a full day as we adjourned for lunch at Norths (first fish meal I've had forever and with the vegies, was just the yummiest!)  We didn't waste time, and were soon back at work.  I spent the first day destroying blouses and saving embellishments from them - we even managed to incorporate some of the beautiful embroidery into the strip sets, so nothing went to waste!

We decided we had to have something to show Alan, her better half, so quickly sewed up a block and from just that one block, it's obvious that the shine in most of the fabric and the silkiness is going to show right through and it's going to be a most beeyootiful quilt and a fitting memory of her Mum.  I was as chuffed as she was with the result!  So during the week, I'll get to and stabilise the pieces we need and next Saturday we start on the actual piecing of the blocks!

Proud new quilter - it's a start!

I had such a good weekend that when Caro had gone home last night, I sat and sewed myself - I think last time (which was back in May - life sort of intervened in the meantime!) I said I wasn't really sewing much but doing preparation work - well that continued so that now, if I finally have gotten the enthusiasm back, I have all the Xmas presents I need plus more!  But last nite I finally did the changes to Viv's polar bear tote so after teasing her with photos way back, she'll finally get that LOL - then I'll just grind through the rest - the hard work (preparation) is done so the rest should be a case of sit down and get at it!

Once Xmas is over (only 9 weeks to Xmas, can you believe it!) my next big job is my daughter's wedding dress - she surprised all of us by getting engaged and setting the date (12 August 2012) so I have the honour of making the dress - hadn't better stuff it up, had I!! The engagement party last weekend was a huge success and I have never seen her so happy - quite warms the cockles of this cynic's heart!

So there we have it - if the buzzy enthusiasm keeps going - who knows what I'll accomplish!  Get back to you ...