To Boldly Go - A Trekkie's Travel Bag

Even men need travel bags, and masculine laminated cotton isn't always easy to find.  For Christmas 2013 I was on a travel/wash bag roll and everyone in my family received one as a Christmas gift, including the men.  This is the travel bag I made for my husband, Simon.

The outside laminate is NYC Subway map - on licence from MTA and available only from The City Quilter in Manhattan where I teach.  Available in 100% cotton and also as a laminate it's a really great print - I've used it for quilts 

FP's Taxi Quilt

Could You Live Here? Quilt

and gifts.

Needle Book

So the laminate was a perfect choice for Simon's travel bag...

... and inside I included some fabric from one of his all time favourite TV series - Star Trek by Camelot Cottons.

I fussy cut the fabric so The Enterprise was as visible as possible.  I've turned the wash bag inside out here so you can see just how that lining looks!

And then the co-ordinating tissue cover and yes that too has Star Trek lining.

Over the last 12 months, Simon has travelled across the world pretty much weekly and the travel bag has boldly gone with him - it's safe to say it's been a huge hit.

You might be interested in also seeing another masculine laminate fabric I've used for wash bags, I've posted about it here: A Good Snapshot Or A Total Wash Out?

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

   

     

The Colour Purple - Old Age Or Eccentricity?

Be eccentric now.  Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

                                                                                             Regina Brett

Last Thursday I was teaching a class at The City Quilter and one of the students raised the question of why woman over the age of 65 fall in love with the colour purple?  Well I have no answers, and neither did the women in the class, all I know is that my own Mum adores the colour purple, she can't get enough of it so when I saw this cowl on the Black Sheep and Ewe stand at Vogue Knitting Live in Manhattan back in January and spotted that they had it in purple I just knew I had to make it for her.

This 'Flower Cowl' pattern and yarn are available to purchase online at Black Sheep And Ewe.

Today, Sunday, 30 March is Mothering Sunday in England 

- we celebrate our Mother's Day on the 4th Sunday in Lent dating back to the 16th Century.  The rest of the world celebrate Mother's Day on several dates but the majority on the second Sunday in May as introduced by Anna Jarvis of West Virginia, USA in 1908 -

so it was a perfect gift to send off to Mum.  Fortunately Flicky was around last week to model the finished cowl for me.

 

a close up with the 'flowers' included in the yarn.

To be honest I'm disappointed with the finished shawl.  It doesn't look as good on Flicky as it did on the model at Vogue Knitting Live, maybe a different colour or outfit underneath would do it more justice and, now looking at the model I can see we haven't hung it quite the same way, it could look better with the twist off to one side.  Not one of my better projects :(

I guess what matters is whether or not Mum likes it.  I spoke with her tonight and she told me that it's her favourite colour - well who'd have known?!!!  

Something to do with her being over 65 maybe - we still haven't got to the bottom of that one ... thoughts anyone?

Update at 7.11 pm, 31 March 2014

Mum went out in her cowl tonight - she wore it over a three quarter length sleeve round neck purple top and a full length purple skirt.  People stopped her to say how glamourous she looked, friends have tried the cowl on too and now they're keen to get hold of the wool and the pattern now over the pond!  When she got home Mum skyped me so I could see how she looked, she'd read my blog post and knew I was disappointed with the cowl and wanted to tell me how much she loves it.

I asked her if she could take a selfie and send it to me and here it is

She's never taken a selfie before and quickly realised she couldn't stand far enough back from her iPad to get the whole outfit in - she even tried using a spatula to take the pic but to no avail.  After giving us both lots of giggles and scaring me with how much she's looking like my Grandma (her Mum) these days, she's gone to bed now and I've told her to check back here in the morning to see this update.

Enjoy Mum, you look fabulous and I love you so much, Happy Mother's Day xxx

A Crafty Person's Guide to Shopping In Manhattan

Ever wondered where to shop for fabric, wool, trims and notions on your trip to Manhattan, NYC?

Lots of you contact me asking for advice and I love to help so I've put together a page on my blog just for this - not a huge list, simply my favourites.  You can find it in my header tabs or you can click through to the page here

WHERE TO SHOP IN NYC

I hope you find it useful, let me know and let me know also if there's any other sections you'd like to see added to the page.

If you drop into The City Quilter be sure to ask for me and say "hi"!!!

Have You Ever Met Up With Someone You Talk To On The Internet? Today I Did!

Now if your teenage son or daughter told you that they were going out to meet someone they'd been chatting to on the internet, how would you respond?

Yep, I think we all know what we'd say to that one!

So what's so different about a middle-aged mother doing just the same?  Weird or what?  Does it make it okay just because we're both quilters and bloggers and expats with children around the same age and our life circumstances are remarkably similar even if one of us is English living in America and the other American living in Tokyo?

Well, today I did just that, for the first time I met up with one of my blogging friends, Cynthia @AQuilterbyNight.  For safety's sake, we met in a very public place in broad daylight, The City Quilter, and given that we were both remarkably normal individuals who were very pleased to finally meet each other in person we then went to Stout on 33rd Street for a tasty fish and chip lunch.

It was so great to chat with someone who knows and understands everything I've been experiencing over the last 2-3 years as a wife and mum/absentee mum living a long way from 'home' and better still that we both love to quilt - I don't think either of us stopped nattering long enough to catch our breath the whole 3 hours we were together!!!

I gave Cynthia a small gift that I'd made - a needlecase made with some of The City Quilter's exclusive NYC fabrics and a small strip of Stars & Stripes fabric that I had leftover from my 'An Actor's Life For Me' quilt.

And, Cynthia returned the favour with a fab gift of Japanese fabrics.

This is a plain navy woven cotton - in reality, it looks incredibly navy but the camera's picked up all the different shots of thread running through it.

A fab piece of Kimono fabric - that's the full width of Japanese fabric apparently - this piece is only 14.5" wide (left to right), - how amazing!

This is a large piece of Tenegui fabric, white with blue dots - I could tell you all about it but Cynthia does a much better job here on her blog :)

As we were leaving I remembered that Flicky had said I had to take a 'selfie' photo for her to see and here it is:

We were both struggling with this 'selfie' photo stuff, which part of the phone to look at and all that and fortunately Cynthia spotted that my phone was set to video or I don't know that I'd have a photo to share at all!

We had such fun and on Thursday we're meeting up again and heading over to the "Workt by Hand": Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts exhibition at Brooklyn Museum. 

So, if you've got a quilty internet friend coming into town, go for it, meet up with them, they may just become a real life friend too!

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

Another Busy Week

Trees & Bears Baby Quilt

I've spent the last week making a handful of baby quilts (four so far) and I've also started quilting my Dad's Memory Quilt, but I haven't been able to make progress with the Double Irish Chain quilt as the white batting I've ordered hasn't arrived yet.

 and here's a peep at one of the baby quilts.

Dad's Memory Quilt progress 
- usual story that all regular followers know by now:

"I can't post any photos of my Dad's Memory Quilt on my blog as it's a present for my Mum and she wants it to be a surprise so again I've posted some photos to my facebook page as my Mum doesn't have facebook and can't see it there."  

If you want to see how it's looking, just click this link :D

I can now give you an update on the July NYC Mod Bee Blocks for Queen Bee Lisa - Triangles Galore.  Lisa has now pieced the 12 blocks together and you can see her progress at The Red Haired Mermaid.  As always I love spotting the block I've made which in the photo on Lisa's blog is top right!


On Tuesday afternoon, my friend A invited me to attend a musical event held by the UN Women's Guild Manhattan Group at the UN Church Center, Manhattan.  It was a 9/11 Memorial Gala Performance to raise funds for needy children's projects around the world.  Concert pianist, Michael Fennelly and his wife, soprano Megan Weston entertained us fabulously for the afternoon and the programme was so wonderful that I've put links to the pieces here (although the links aren't by performed by Michael and Megan).

Exsultate jubilate "Alleluia" - Mozart

Sonata in C Minor, D. 958, I. Allegro - Schubert

Vier letzte Lieder "Beim Schlafengehen" - Strauss (Richard)

Etudes, Op 10: No 1 in C Major; No 3 in E-Flat Major; and No 4 in C-Sharp - Chopin

La traviata "Addio del passato" - Verdi

La sonnambula "Come per me sereno ... Sovra il sen la man mi posa" - Bellini

Reminiscences de Robert le Diable - Meyerbeer/Liszt

The Pirates of Penzance "Poor Wand'ring One" - Gilbert & Sullivan

On Saturday I'm off to Quilters Take Manhattan at FIT, Manhattan, it's going to be really great and today I had my first peek at the house shaped quilts for the 'Home Is Where the Quilt Is' exhibition on display at The City Quilter - they're looking absolutely amazing and so inspiring.  Then straight after QTM we're heading out to Sea Cliff, Long Island to stay with good friends P&L - a much needed break and a way overdue visit, can't wait :)




And finally, for my round-up of the week here's the latest posts and tutorials for you to check out as part of Plum and June's Let's Get Acquainted! Blog Hop:

Travel Makeup Case tutorial from Bethany at Make Me A Quilt
and congratulations Bethany on your wedding this weekend :)

Log Cabin Hexagon Block tutorial from Tessa at The Sewing Chick

Fat Quarter Table Runner tutorial from Anne at SpringLeaf Studios

Chelsea from Pins & Bobbins

Related Posts:
Double Irish Chain Quilt - Strips All Sliced
Will Blogging Help Me Sleep?
Two Quilts and Making Progress
Project Update And Shout Out for The Agitprop Quilter
Triangles Galore Saturday

Linking To:

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 :)

Related Posts:

Tutorial: Charm Squares - An Easy Way To Cut Multiples Quickly

Tutorial: Using a Bloc-Loc To Cut Half Square Triangle (HST) Squares 

Did Thursday and Friday Sparkle? Yes, Plenty! 

Disclaimer:

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