"The Most Incredible Gift" - A Very Successful Secret Santa

So yesterday was The City Quilter's Staff Xmas Party and the main event of the evening was the Secret Santa Gift Swap. 

I'd been really nervous about whose name I'd draw for the swap - as a first timer I wasn't sure what type of gift was expected just that it should be handmade rather than bought - well we are a bunch of crafty ladies working in a quilting supplies store!.  I dropped lucky in the name draw - my swap partner was my good friend Karen and after some deliberation I knew that I couldn't go wrong with a present that included photos of her 1-year-old twins.

I decided to make a photo album - sure we all have photos on our phones and computers but how many of us have albums these days?

Here's How I Did It

• I downloaded 28 photos from Karen's facebook page - photos just of Karen, her husband and their babies starting with a photo taken during Karen's pregnancy and over the last 15 months since the twins were born.
•   I converted them to black & white images using Photoshop and then transformed them into Polaroids using Picmonkey.  
• Next, I mounted the photos in an album with black pages, one per page using double sided tape.
• I made a fabric cover for the album using two designs of Karen's favourite fabric: 70% cotton/30% silk blends from the Liberty Art Fabrics collection - Willows Garden Portsea Place Voile (blue & red) and  June's Meadow B Portsea Place Voile

• For the front cover, I took a mini canvas and applied a photo of Karen, her husband, and their babies.
•  I added "Our Family" text to the photo. 
•  I used Diamond Glaze to create a clear protective finish over the photo/canvas surface.   
• Once the surface was dry and hardened I attached the canvas to the album cover using double sided tape.

• I included a silver DecoColor Paint Pen so Karen can add her own notes and doodles to each page.

I'm delighted to report back that Karen was thrilled with her present, yes there were even tears and in her own words, as posted on facebook last night, it was "the most incredible gift from my incredible friend".  I think we can safely say that was a very successful Secret Santa!!!

You might be wondering what I received from my Secret Santa?

Well my Secret Santa turned out to be my fellow Bernina Sales Person, Janell.  She made me the most amazing chocolate fudge along with peanut butter, chocolate and oatmeal cakes and some to die for cranberry and white chocolate chunk brownies.  The best part of that is that they're all gluten free, just for me and I'm not sharing!!!  Thanks Janell, you're such a sweetie :D

Update Tuesday, 17 December 2013 - Here's a link to The City Quilter's facebook party photo album

The City Quilter's Staff Holiday Party, 2013

Now it's your turn, spill the beans - what's the best or maybe even the worst Secret Santa gift you've ever received?


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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.

Juice Box Sofa Quilt

Time to share another quilt that I made before my blogging days began.

This is my Juice Box Sofa Quilt based on the Juice Boxes design by Cluck Cluck Sew

I made the quilt as part of a class taught by Karen Haynes at my LQS in Manhattan and that's when she introduced me to the June Tailor Shape Cut Plus ruler (I know I say this over and over but if you haven't checked out my tutorial for this then please give it a go - it really is a must-have tool for any quilter :) )

I decided to sash the quilt to make it larger and I think that and the neutral colourway have given it a very different feel to the original quilt pattern which is more suited to being a child's quilt.  My sashing is 2" finished so 2.5" strip cuts - other than adding the sashing my quilt is made exactly following the pattern sizes given.

Here are some extra photos that I've found that I took during the piecing process.

And some detail shots of the quilt - these are taken indoors so you can see the colours much better without the strong sunlight.

And finally, here's Thatcher (known as Tatty to her friends) - as you can see, she LOVES the quilt!

Quilt Size:

Finished quilt size 72" x 56"

Fabrics Used:

Top Sheet - when I made this quilt I wasn't at that time paying any attention to who designed the fabrics or even what they were called and I've used so many in it that, apart from the backing fabric, I can't list them for you.

Backing Sheet - the main fabric is Dear Stella - Doodle Paisley - Grey.

Clicking on an image will take you to a new page of crafty goodness :)

 

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My Very First Ever Quilt

That's me putting my first ever basting pin into my quilt at CQ
- the other ladies in the class then helped to baste the quilt

Before I arrived in the States in August 2011, I knew once I got here I wanted to continue my studies into Textile Arts alongside taking the opportunity to make new friends.  I searched and searched the internet but Textile Art courses, of the type that is becoming more and more available in England, just weren't happening out here.  Well, at least, they were few and far between and hard to get to when I was looking for something that I could just jump on the subway and go to for a couple of hours once a week.  A lot of the courses seemed more, what in America, you call retreats - 3-5 days in some remote location, that only a plane journey and/or car ride can get you to, oh and bring your own sewing machine!

I quickly discovered though that what you do have in America is quilting.  Quilting didn't interest me, not in the slightest - it's for frumpy old women and who wants a boring old quilt anyway (please bear with me at this point, I will be proved wrong!)?  Searching for an outlet for my love of sewing showed me that I didn't really have a choice - it was quilting or clothes making or nothing.  So with great trepidation (and my husband, S, and daughter, F, on my arm for moral support and to stop me backing out) one Sunday afternoon in August, we ventured out to The City Quilter in Manhattan.  We weren't even sure that we wanted to go in at the door, but we rang the bell and were buzzed in.

We were all looking at each other not sure that we liked this place and not knowing what to do and then a really friendly young lady (now fellow guild member and friend, Karen Haynes) asked if she could help.  I told her I was new to the country and new to quilting and wanted to sign up for a course to learn to quilt.  She told me that she'd done the same course, Introduction to Patchwork By Machine and that I'd learn so much and meet great people and she said that the instructor, Christine Janove, was amazing - by the time she'd finished I was feeling much more comfortable with the idea of learning this new skill, quilting, in what was then my strange new world, America.

At the end of the 6-week course,
I'm proudly holding up my sampler quilt for a CQ photo

By the 6 October (2011) I was eager for the class to start but who'd have thought that this day would completely change the course of my life?  The class was amazing, a great bunch of women eager to learn, to share our limited knowledge and to encourage each other.  The tutor, Christine is an absolute treasure - she knows so much and shares it all in her softly spoken, positive and encouraging way, I'm so lucky that she was my first quilting tutor.  And I did make some really good friends in this class, particularly W and D.

I quickly learned more and more about quilting and realised that it's not an old-fashioned technique for grandmas, what's gone before is an incredible passed on tradition with so much skill and artistry and now there's a whole new wave of quilters coming through taking this skill forward, learning the 'rules', following and breaking them in modern, contemporary ways that are artsy and fun.  People love quilts, and now my family and I know why - they keep you warm when you're cold, they are cool when you're hot, they're lightweight and fold up smaller and neater than you'd ever imagine, they can be customised, personalised and make great gifts, you can sit on them, lie under them, cry into them, hide inside them and snuggle up with them, they hold memories of people and places that we love and have loved and they become so personal to you that you cherish them ... it's your quilt, it's part of you to be used, hugged and treasured and eventually handed on to the next generation - who'd have thought all that about a quilt!

And here is what I made, my very first ever quilt - it's a Sampler Quilt made for my daughter, F, and from the moment she reluctantly held it, she fell in love with it - and now, at those times when the quilt starts to crawl to the washing machine all on its own, it's reached those dizzy realms of "if you're washing it, it has to be dry in time for me to go to bed tonight?", and that's true love!

 

So that's it, I'm hooked - 9 months on and I'm using quilts, making quilts, blogging about quilts and building my life around quilts - what was that I said about quilting " it's for frumpy old women and who wants a boring old quilt anyway?" - well, what did I know and WOW, wasn't I proved wrong!

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

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!!!

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