teaching sewing confidence, tip by tip
Showing posts with label Sparkle Plenty Star Quilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sparkle Plenty Star Quilt. Show all posts

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




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