Let's Get Acquainted

Welcome to my stop on the Let's Get Acquainted New Blogger Blog Hop! Hopefully you're enjoying becoming acquainted with some other new bloggers, as I am! You can find the whole list here, or by clicking on the button in my sidebar to the right.

I struggle now to remember how it was exactly that I started quilting. I've sewed since high school, making some of my own clothes, not very well, though there was always the odd project that was good enough to inspire me to make something else; and there have been years when I haven't done anything, but when I had little kids (they're teenagers now) I enjoyed sewing a few clothes for them.

A recent finish- a Baby Cross Quilt

My mum isn't a huge sewer- really sewist is a much better word isn't it! But she has definitely sparked my interest in sewing, shown me how to follow a pattern and given me those little skills and pieces of knowledge one tends to take for granted. She has made me some lovely things over the years.  One of the most ambitious must have been my school graduation dress, an 80's confection in soft silk with ruffles and a boned bodice! And Mum and Dad gave me the sewing machine I still sew on for my 21st. Read all about that here. There's also a link to a post about the perspex extension table Dad made for my machine.

I think the quilting passion started when, for some reason out of the blue, I decided to make a quilt for my Grandmother's 90th, either that or it was when my son needed a new duvet cover and I spotted a log cabin design I liked and it turned into a quilt instead. No photos of that one, my son has it away at Uni. Actually I think he's close in the line up for a new quilt, since both of our styles have changed since then. But there's something special about those early projects, even though I don't love either of them now. In the mosaic below there's a gratuitous shot of that first quilt for my Granny...

Another significant early project, in terms of inspiration, were these very simple cushions, I saw this fabulous Marimekko fabric and just bought a little of each. They were hard to cut into I remember, but an example of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts I think! Besides, I could never have chosen just one or two! We've had these on our sofa for over ten years now I'd guess, but I still love them.

I have an American friend in NZ where we lived then and I think she has more sense of the quilting heritage, which in turn influenced me and we used to get together to sew from time to time, which was great. We also went to a weekend workshop, with different speakers and classes. That was really inspiring and although we were feeling our way into something that seemed like there more older women doing it, there was an undercurrent of freshness and some new fabrics that were the beginnings of the Modern Quilting movement. It felt like the edge of something new.

L-R Top to Bottom: HST Quilt, Improv in Pyjamas ; Gum Tree Quilt, My First Ever Quilt -for my Granny, Close up of Gum Tree Quilt, StripQuilt for my Sister, Baby Crosses, Mum's Quilt and Sophie's Vintage whole cloth Quilt

But quilting has really grown for me as a hobby in the last few years and especially since I started my blog last year. Since I've been in Australia I've loved the chance to sew regularly with my friend Liz. We were chatting at an MTB event both our sons were involved in and both said we wanted to make time to do more creative things in our life, so agreed to meet on Fridays whenever possible to carve out time for that. It's been gold. Once the machine's out at the end of our dining table;  and the cutting board and piles of fabric are erupting further along, they tend to sit there and it's easier to do a little. We do have a long table fortunately, so it can get shoved to the end half and there's still room for the family to eat! I love to sew while people are around and about, but I think the ideal solution is a room close to the action, where the door can also be shut!

L-R Camera Case, Liberty Zip Pouch, Table Mats, Table Runner, Zip Pouch, Computer Sleeve

Blogging for me is the other part of carving out a creative space; really a kind of accountability to myself for making something and a way of contributing to this amazing online world where I gain so much inspiration. If you like you can read more about my reasons for blogging and how it got its name here.

I'm off to read some of the other posts now and discover something about others' inspiration!

Camilla

A Happy Easter

With lots of nice relaxed time over Easter I've managed to nearly complete quilting of the plus/cross quilt. Annoyingly, I've run out of thread and can't easily find more of the same, so will have to look more intently when it's not a public holiday. Might just have to stop procrastinating on the straight line quilting that's taking so long!

It's been good to practice my FMQ a bit. Getting even stitches all of the time still evades me. It's all about the ratio between the speed of the pedal and the speed at which you move the quilt. I've been trying to turn down my machine speed a little and then floor my foot and try to get a rhythm with the moving of the quilt. I tend to move the quilt a bit fast and get really long stitches too easily.

 It's also been harvest time. We gleaned some figs from a local tree (on public property, I should add), which were delicious! We've had  our eye on them for some time, waiting for the right moment and hoping no-one else got them first!

On Saturday we joined our friends to help them pick their quinces, walnuts and chestnuts and prepare quince paste, quince and walnut cake. Delicious and convivial. My photos of the collected produce are on my husband's phone though, but there are some quinces left to poach.

These were my favourite Easter eggs, praline ones with a sugar shell. Aren't they beautiful? They were just as delicious!

For Christians the custom of giving eggs at Easter celebrates new life. Christians remember that Jesus, after dying on the cross, rose from the dead. They believe that, through his resurrection, Jesus defeated death and sin and offers people the promise of eternal life

Of course Easter's not complete without Hot Cross Buns and there have been several batches of those over the weekend!

On the rise

Tea and buns with English china-how civilised!

I finished my April block for the Simply Solids Bee for Sally of Salsy Safrano Quilts. Sally sent us the fabric and my central block was pale blue. You can see more from the international bee here.

What did you get up to over Easter?

Linking up with Lily's Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet.

Thanks Dad!

Actually I have to say I feel so thankful to my clever Dad every time I sit down to quilt. He custom made, in perspex, this great extension table for my machine (that he and Mum gave me for my 21st (err, ahem-more than 25 years ago now) and which is thoroughly reliable and good, thanks again Mum and Dad!). It's a Janome and it's been almost entirely trouble free. The only thing I've had fixed is the reverse, which was a bit iffy for a while. Quilting would be almost impossible without the extension table, as it gives a good firm place to put my hands, especially for FMQ (free motion quilting); and reduces the pull of the quilt through the machine.

It just slides into place once I've unclicked the little toolbox thingy that normally sits in front of the bobbin case.

It's quite hard to take photos of a shiny clear thing on a gloomy day, but hopefully you can get the idea.

I only half mentioned to Dad that this would be handy once when I was staying and he saw me doing some sewing. I think I said about how big I'd like it. I think I envisaged a utilitarian plywood something...

But Dad had better ideas.

He thought it would be handy if it fitted inside the sewing machine case. Sounded tricky to me and I was prepared to store it separately, you know, kicking around the bottom of some cupboard when not in use...

But he somehow curved the perspex to get it to fit inside the sloping sides of the case and cut slots so the handle of the sewing machine both folds up and holds it snug.

I wondered whether flat would be better, but curved is great for other reasons too. It slopes away towards the table just a bit, which eases the path of the quilt off the back of the machine and the perspex is lovely and smooth so the quilt slides easily.

All packed away-Yes it's in there-see? You can just see a corner of the perspex peeking out inside in front of the handle!

Thanks Dad!