teaching sewing confidence, tip by tip
Showing posts with label Loft Creations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Loft Creations. Show all posts

Tuesday, 26 June 2012

A Weekend Full of Sunshine

This past weekend I've completed three quilts and done a six quilt photoshoot on our roof garden in crazy, hot sunshine.  Needless to say, I'm shattered but very glad to have everything finished, especially as two of the quilts, Surprise Projects I & II, are on a very tight deadline.  The third is my Sparkle Plenty Quilt, designed by Loft Creations.

The pattern is easy and fast, especially when you use the two tools I introduced you to in my tutorials, Charm Squares - An Easy Way To Cut Multiples Quickly and Using A Bloc-Loc To Cut Half-Square Triangle (HST) Squares.  What's also amazing about the pattern is how different it looks depending on the fabrics chosen.  There were 7 quilts well on their way to completion in our final class, and not one looked like another, and it was all down to the fabrics - but one thing they had in common, besides the pattern, is that they all looked great.  

And here she is; I know she's mine, but I think she's stunning, and I'm delighted with her.  I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

 

And here's a late addition to my post in response to Leo's comment - a photo of the full view from my roof garden :)



and finally, a view from my living room and, yes, we can't wait for Macy's 4th July fireworks - it's our first year here for Independence Day, and I think we've got the best seats in the house :)


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Friday, 15 June 2012

Did Thursday And Friday Sparkle? Yes, Plenty!

The Wanted performing
Can't think of many days better than yesterday.  I spent the morning cooking a huge pot of chilli, ready to feed my daughter and her friends later in the day and knowing that I was going off to spend the afternoon at my LQS (no surprise for you all there then!), didn't want to have to cook later.  You see I was going out for the evening with my daughter, F, and two of her friends, MP & SA.  Weeks ago F asked if she could go to see the English band, The Wanted, in concert at the Beacon Theatre on Broadway/72nd and my response was, of course, she could on the condition that I could go too - I've loved their music since their first English hit, All Time Low, back in July 2010.






Me with F, SA & MP
Hudson River and 1 World Trade Centre

So Thursday night, the four of us went off, and I can report back to you all that it was fantastic.  The theatre itself was spectacular, Taio Cruz, supporting, was amazing and what can I say about The Wanted, well they were nothing short of fabulous.  Later, outside the stage door, the crowd lining the street was like something from the Beatles' era.  And I was there too - by now I had grabbed the opportunity and nipped across the road to Fairway market to stock up on Cotswold cheese, chicken breasts, some fabulous chocolate-covered cherries and Maltesers with peanut butter centres, well the housewife in me couldn't keep up the teenager act all night.  And then we went home, singing the songs and taking photos of ourselves along the Hudson River waterfront.  Actually, I hobbled home - yes, my right shoulder and hip are in much pain from jumping up and down for several hours and punching my arm in the air, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything - it truly was a night full of sparkle.





What other sparkle had my Thursday held in store?  Well, at my LQS, I'd enjoyed my second class with Karen Haynes, this week making use of the LQS design walls to layout my Sparkle Plenty quilt squares.  It took me 2 hours to place out all the pieces - only having 3 fabrics in contrast to my main purple fabric meant that I needed to place them carefully as repeats and adjoining the same fabric pieces would be very obvious.

I stayed an hour after class helping Karen baste a baby quilt she's making for one of the twins she's expecting.  She's just found out she's having a boy and a girl, her first babies, and I'm really thrilled for her :)

When Friday dawned, I was up and off, time to join all those squares and get the top sheet finished for my Sparkle Plenty quilt.  I had lots of trashy TV lined up to watch while I was sewing.  I started out with the first two episodes of the new Dallas - it was good to see all the old faces again; the years have been particularly kind to Sue Ellen, but best of all was hearing that theme tune again; I'm thrilled that they kept it.  I'm not sure that I'll avidly watch every episode, but it was a good dose of nostalgia in a new format.

And here is the completed quilt top.  It took six and a half hours to sew (yes, after Dallas finished, I had to suffer what for me isn't too much of a hardship watching Gordon Ramsay in various culinary programmes; Masterchef, Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares but I drew the line at The F Word, by then even I'd had enough though I did warn you it was all trashy TV!).






Another quilt I've fallen in love with, and I'm desperate to crack on quilting it, but it'll have to wait till Sunday because tomorrow I'm off to my LQS's Bernina Day and, if I've got time, I'm going to finally pay a visit to Purl Soho as well.  Busy, busy, busy!!!

Other Related Posts:
I've Been Shopping ...
Tutorial: Charm Squares - An Easy Way To Cut Multiples Quickly
Tutorial: Using A Bloc-Loc To Cut Half-Square Triangle (HST) Squares




Saturday, 2 June 2012

I've Been Shopping ...

What's in the bag?


Had to make a trip to my LQS in Manhattan to collect supplies for 2 courses that I've got coming up over the next week and also for more Transparency Quilt fabric - note my use of 'had to' like it's a hardship!

Here's my bag of goodies - bought so much I had a brown paper carrier today instead of the smaller plastic bag and fortunately I had husband, S, with me to carry it all.









 My shopping list:
2 yards Michael Miller Hone-D and 1 yard Kona - Stone for Transparency Quilt
Heirloom Machine Quilting Book by Harriet Hargrave Spiral-bound for Free Motion class (love, love, love, spiral-bound books, they're so much easier to work with that a standard paperback)
Quilter's Dream Request batting - to fit 2 quilts 55 x 55 & 50 x 30
1 yard muslin for Free Motion class
Basting safety pins - size 1  (you can't have too many basting pins, ever!!!)
2 yards main fabric (b&w on pattern) & 2 3/4 yards backing fabric for Sparkle Plenty Quilt
2 x 5" charm packs or 1.5 yards accent fabric for Sparkle Plenty Quilt

And here's photos of the best bits - the fabric
Just look at those fabrics working together, I'm very, very excited about making the Sparkle Star Quilt

Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.  Westminster Fibers#GP108 'Rustic Floral'
Philip Jacobs for Rowan.  Westminster Fibers #PWPJ42 'Primula'

Benadictus Victoria and Albert Museum, London for Rowan Westminster Fibers #PWVA02 'Leaves'

Early Birds by Jane Sassaman for Westminster Fibers #PWJS34 'Poka Dot'

These colours just sing together and there were lots of words of admiration from staff and shoppers alike at my LQS which is always so wonderful to hear.
Sparkle Plenty Quilt pattern by Loft Creations and available at
http://www.etsy.com/listing/85808856/sparkle-plenty-quilt-pattern
The florals are for the coloured sections and I'm going to use Poka Dot (and yes it is spelt Poka and not Polka!) for the black sections and the backing.  I might do a scrappy border with the florals on the back to break up the poka dots a bit but I'll think that through a bit more over the next 2 weeks.  Now I have to get on and cut 144 squares by Thursday.  Rotary cutter anyone ... ?

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Stop Blogging; Start Making

This morning I've had a bit of a shock that has to spark me into action for the day - my June Bee Block fabric arrived in the post along with a class supply list for a course next week's LQS Free Motion Machine Quilting: Next Step and I see that there's prep-work required beforehand.  I'm starting to think that I'm a bit snowed under.

To explain, I've finished Surprise Project I but haven't labelled or photographed it yet and on Monday I planned out my top and backing sheet for Surprise Project II but I really must get on with making it now as my deadline is approaching fast, very fast.  I've not done any prep work for my Transparency Quilt course - final class tomorrow- think maybe that should become a priority today!  I've also had a class supply list for another LQS course that also starts next week, Sparkle Plenty Star Quilt by Stephanie Dunphy of Loft Creations and I need to put a bit of thought into my colourways/fabrics for that.

So why am I falling behind with all my quilting commitments - the answer is that I'm too busy pinning to Pinterest and following quilting blogs - so for the rest of today they're banned, it's the only way I'll get anything done though obviously posting to my own blog doesn't count! ;)

Here's a peep at the wonderful fabric selection that my June Queen Bee, Kim, has posted to me - batiks in stunning jewel colours.

Kim's requested two New York Beauty (NYB) blocks with the same or different patterns from a 10 pattern choice.  Here's a look at her guidelines (June Bee Block instructions) and she's also pointed us at an NYB Block Quilt Along which will be very useful.

Lots of points and curves so I'm going to get together with my friend M, who is in the same NYC Mod Bee, and we can give each other encouragement and support and put our thinking caps on.

While I've been busy swooning over fabric and quilt block patterns Tatty has achieved another puppy milestone.  After she realised only yesterday that she can jump on to the sofas all by herself, she has put her new found skills to the test and scaled the dizzy heights of the coffee table - and who can blame her for as we all know a crafty girl just can't live without her sellotape!


Related posts:
New York Beauty (June Bee Block) - Sunglasses Recommended!
Liberated Log Cabin - My August Bee Block