What Do You Think We'll Be Doing After Graduation?

This week has been far too busy for sewing, after last week's Prom we celebrated Flicky's Graduation from Dwight School at The Met Museum of Art, Manhattan.  It was a fabulous day and even the thunderstorms and flash floods couldn't spoil it!

Here's some highlights - though the photos are a little disappointing as the lighting in the auditorium didn't lend well to flash or no flash photography, hopefully the official photographer knew what he was up to far better than we did.  Check out Tatty giving Flicky her very own Grad card!

There's been several other fun things that have happened this week:

I'm a frequent visitor to the Housing Works Bookstore on Crosby Street, Soho, Manhattan, you can find me there at least twice a week as it's just the best place to grab a gluten-free wrap and a great cup of tea and at the same time supporting an incredibly worthy cause:

"OUR MISSION - Housing Works is a healing community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Our mission is to end the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain our efforts."

  I'm also a member of their International Crime Book Group and if you follow this link you can see some great photos of the store itself and a few photos of me, not looking at my best, at one of our meetups!

This week I picked up a few fabulous bargains while I was at the store:

Haven't had a chance to peruse them at leisure yet, it's been a crazy week, but I'm looking forward to it :)

Always good to get a feature or two and my Burrito Pillowcases have this week been featured by Janice @Better Off Thread and also by Q @JAQS Studio.  Thanks girls, I'm thrilled as always :)

 

And I received a gorgeous parcel in the post from my friend Sarah @Quilt Candy - she's been busy shopping at Liberty, London recently and found time to think of me!  You can read about Sarah's visit on her blog here and you can read all about my visit to Liberty last July in my 'Liberty, London' post here, with lots of gorgeous photos of the building, inside and out.

Oh and maybe you just dropped by to find out what we're doing after Graduation?  Well tomorrow Flicky and I are off to Seville, Spain to visit my eldest son Jack and to meet his girlfriend, Ana and her family.  We're very excited.

I don't have any photos of Jack and Ana to share with you yet, hopefully I can rectify that very soon so instead here's a photo by Flicky ... no cat-beard photos for us, this one's our very own dog-beard!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful week too and this shout out's for Flicky

Congratulations Flicky on completing your International Baccalaureate Diploma and on your Graduation 

We're all so proud of you and love you very much
xxx

 Want to find out about our trip to Seville? -
click here to check out My Top 3 Reasons For Visiting Seville post :)

Linking To:

Have You Ever Made A Book Cover? Here's Two I Made Earlier!

At the end of last week, Flicky announced that she wanted me to make two goodbye/thank you gifts for her Y11 & Y12 Deans at Dwight.  Thinking caps on and Flicky decided book covers were the way to go so a quick trip to The City Quilter for Flicky to chose the fabrics and then to Staples to pick up some Sustainable Earth notebooks and here they are:

Melody Miller Ruby Star Sparkle 'Phones Ring A Ling' and 'Ruby Stories Ring A Ling', 
Echino 'cycling', Pink Echino Birds And Berries Cherry 

Front/Spine/Back/Inside Cover

Comma, by Brigette Heitland for Zen Chic for Moda, New York Line by Line Night - The City Quilter, Newspaper Print - Famous Headlines! for Blank Textiles

Front/Spine/Back/Inside Cover

Let's hope Mr Dale and Mrs Aquadro like them as much as we do!


Disclaimer: 
This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.

A Week Of Features!!!

So far this week has been amazing ... 3 of my pieces have been featured on 3 fabulous blogs:

Chef's Hat & Apron

at Round To It and Threading My Way

and my Selvedge Block

 

at Freemotion By The River

A very big thank you to Jill, Pam and Connie for featuring me - ladies you have made my week :D

And then this morning my daughter, Flicky was featured in an article in The Huffington Post, speaking about the upcoming movie release Girl Rising.

Here's the article:
The Global Search for Education: Girls by C M Rubin 

The movie, narrated by 9 actresses including Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Cate Blanchett, looks at the lives of 9 young girls living in 9 countries and explores how we can change the world by providing an education to all girls everywhere, a cause that Flicky strongly supports and believes in.

You may recall that I mentioned in a post last week that Flicky works with and raises funds for the WISER charity - here's a recap of that post:

My final bit of news is to share this photo of an Eli Manning signed no 10 NY Giants' jersey.  Manning, Quarterback for the NY Giants and MVP at the 2007 & 2011 season NFL Superbowl finals, donated this jersey to Flicky to help her raise funds for her Dwight School charity WISER.  In her own words Flicky raises funds to "provide education and safety for girls in Muhuru Bay, Kenya, because those girls are usually married by 14, pregnant by 15, and if they survive childbirth they will sell themselves to the sex trade to provide for their family".  Flicky included the jersey in a successful fund raising raffle at Dwight School earlier in January.

I'm so proud of Flicky and the work she's doing.

You can see the official trailer for the movie Girl Rising here on YouTube.

Related Posts:

Quilt Twins And Other News

Selvedge Block and QAYG Quilting - The Something NEW Sampler: Week 6

A Present For Chef Mable

Quilt Twins And Other News

Way, way back, in fact all the way back to 7 October last year (wow that feels like soooo long ago!) I shared this applique block with you on my post Another Week In Manhattan

Finally I can share the full story with you.

At my Manhattan LQS staff and friends made 'animal' blocks to put together two quilts for my friend and LQS tutor, Karen on the birth of her twins, Georgia and Weston (I blogged about their birth back on 25 September).

Here's some photos of the finished quilts that Karen posted on facebook last week - spot my cow right there on Georgia's quilt :)

Karen says she's blown away by the quilts, which are awesome and especially as she knows exactly what's involved in a handmade gift  and that makes them even more special - isn't that so true?  

 

Weston and Georgia were 5 months old this week and Karen posted this gorgeous photo of them having fun on their quilt - and there it is - Weston is 'hugging' my cow - that pic makes me so happy (don't you just love his 'THUG' top?!!!).

Aren't they both just amazing with the best smiles?  

A couple of weeks ago Flicky had a day off school so we got to spend the afternoon playing with these two treasures.  Check out this photo of Weston loving his ladies (don't look at me and Flicky - there was a snow storm that day and we'd gone out dressed for that, not for a photo shoot, and my other excuse is that it's a phone photo!)

Some other hot news from Manhattan is that Victoria Findlay Wolfe, President of my NYC Metro Mod Quilt Guild has taken the 'Best In Show' award at QuiltCon, Austin, Texas this week.

I've 'borrowed' this winning image from Victoria's blog, hopefully she won't mind but why not pop over there and take a look around for yourselves?

And, as a side note, Craftsy are offering free access to their videos of 9 lessons/lectures from QuiltCon 2013

which includes:

Welcome to QuiltCon 2013!

Angela Walters: Machine Quilting for the Modern Quilt

Heather Jones: Everyday Inspiration in Modern Quilts

Lectures 4/5/6/7/8

and the Awards Ceremony

My final bit of news is to share this photo of my son, Joe, with an Eli Manning signed no 10 NY Giants' jersey.  Manning, Quarterback for the NY Giants and MVP at the 2007 & 2011 season NFL Superbowl finals, donated this jersey to Flicky to help her raise funds for her Dwight School charity WISER.  In her own words Flicky raises funds to "provide education and safety for girls in Muhuru Bay, Kenya, because those girls are usually married by 14, pregnant by 15, and if they survive childbirth they will sell themselves to the sex trade to provide for their family".  Flicky included the jersey in a successful fund raising raffle at Dwight School earlier in January.

Tutorial: Laminated Mug Rug

Made these 2 lovely little mug rugs as thank you gifts for Daughter F's College Guidance Counsellor and her History teacher at Dwight, who have been supporting us through her university application process.   

Although there's a lot of mug rug tutorials out there I've never seen one using laminated cotton which can be wiped clean so I photographed each stage and here's my quick tutorial to share.

Before we begin let's get this important informational bit out of the way :)

Care Instructions:

Before making the mug rugs I did some research into laminated cotton fabrics to see if you can machine wash them thinking that, although you can wipe the mug rug clean, at some stage you'll want to give it a quick wash.  I've discovered that these fabrics have come a long way even in just the last 12 months.  

Manufacturer instructions are that these fabrics are machine washable in cold water and additionally they can be tumble dried on low.  You may, however, prefer to line dry your mug rug to keep it away from heat in its wet state.  For anyone still wondering about these fabrics here's a great piece about machine washing with before and after photos by Kelly McCants of OilCloth Addict

Additionally, laminated cotton can be ironed on the reverse with a medium hot iron.  Once made you can happily iron these mug rugs quite firmly on the back only.

For each mug rug you'll need:

8" x 5" laminated cotton fabric for the top sheet

8" x 5" batting

8" x 5" backing fabric - I used 100% quilting cotton 

2¼" x 36" binding fabric

First cut out your fabrics (as above) and then layer just the batting and the backing fabric together and baste (as below).

WARNING:  
At this stage if you accidentally work through all 3 layers embroidering a message or name to the backing sheet then this will show in reverse on the top sheet.

Also, even if you choose to finally quilt through all 3 layers to include quilting the top sheet, don't baste through the laminated fabric as the basting pins are too big and will leave large holes.

Next, I used my machine to embroider my name through the fabrics - this stage isn't necessary so you can leave it out or embroider your own message either using your machine or by hand just be sure to have read the warnings I gave earlier in this tutorial.  

When I'd finished I knotted the thread ends and then using a hand sewing needle I drew them through to the back of the batting.

Now it's time to quilt the mug rug - IF you want to quilt through the laminated cotton too then now is the time to add it to your batting and backing sheet sandwich.  I decided not to do that so I'm just working with the 2 layers at this stage.

First, I free machined a flower chain onto the spotty pink Echino fabric in a contrasting thread

and then I did a similar free machine design on the brown stripe.

OMG! doesn't this just look awful?!!!  The quilting design works against the fabric pattern in every way possible - it's screaming at us and just looks dreadful.  There's nothing else for it ... I'm ripping the lot out and starting again.  

If you look closely at the photo below you can see that I've already started to unpick the quilting and then I thought that I should share just how bad it looks with you so you don't make a similar mistake!

Here's my second attempt at quilting the brown stripe - it's so simple and 'in keeping' that you can't even see it in the picture on the left so I thought I'd better share the back view with you as well so you can see that I really have quilted it!!!

Once you're happy with all of your quilting then it's time to add your laminated cotton to the sandwich.

TIP: Laminated cotton can be tricky to feed through your machine as it can be a bit sticky and difficult to move.  Try adding a layer of baking parchment or tissue paper between the laminated fabric and the sewing plate, this will slide easily over the plate and simply tears away afterwards.

Sew around the mug rug as close to the edge as you can just to hold the 3 layers together securely but not at the 1/4" mark or you might end up with a stitch line showing after you've added the binding.  Again that word of warning from earlier,  probably best not to baste the laminate to the sandwich and I found that the layers held together really well without basting, nothing slipped at all.

If you click on this photo below you should be able to see a larger version of it and then you can better see my sewn lines around the mug rugs - I've torn the baking parchment off the brown laminated cotton and left it on the other piece so you can see just how it was attached.

At this stage I suddenly panicked and wondered if the laminated cotton can take the heat of a hot cuppa - so I decided to conduct my own test and I can confirm that they are much hardier than one might imagine.  I tried 2 different mugs - just in case some mug bases get hotter than others - and filled them with water straight from a boiling kettle.  I left the mugs on the laminated cotton for 30 minutes, checking the condition of the laminate every 5 minutes and NOTHING!!!  Phew, that's a relief!

 

I ironed the binding strips in half lengthways

I'm going to assume here that you all know how to sew on and join binding so I'll not go into any detail.

I sewed the binding strips around the front of the sandwich using a ¼" seam and my walking foot.  I didn't use baking parchment this time as the laminated cotton is sandwiched between the binding fabric and the batting.  Then I hand sewed the binding down to the back of the mug rug - of course, you could machine sew the binding on totally if you wish.

I gave them a good press with a warm iron on the reverse and here they are complete! 

Daughter F loves them, hope her tutors agree.  We're going to make some very English Eccles cakes for F to give with them but might have to keep a few back for ourselves :)

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Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.

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