Sue Spargo Visit

We have had a fabulous week with Sue Spargo from America teaching for us. 

She works mostly in wool fabric with touches of cotton to add interest. Then she does the most amazing embellishing with embroidery around and over the applique pieces.

We had a two day class embellishing leaves. This leaf is layered up with fabric and 

then embellished with stitches. Sue has a fantastic repertoire of stitches - most are 

traditional but not widely used these days so everyone added  to their personal 

knowledge of new stitches.

The two class was followed by a one day class embellishing circles to make the cover 

of a needle case. In this she taught her basic and most popular eight stitches and 

variations on them.

It was also great to meet her sister, Wendy, who does all the wool dyeing of Sue's fabrics.

This is Wendy with their African Quilt - they grew up in Africa before moving to America.

We were thrilled to have these two talented women visit us and hope they will return 

when their busy schedule allows.

     

Shopping at Fabric-a-Brac

Today was the first Fabric-a-Brac event in Auckland. This is an established event that raises funds for the Hospices. It has been going in Wellington for several years. It has stall holders selling pre-loved fabric. fabricabrac.wordpress.com

I went off looking original 1930s fabrics like these already in my collection.

  

I didn't find any old ones but I did find some 1930s reproduction fabrics that will sit very nicely with the old ones. I fee a new tangent coming on!!!

I hope they have another one - it was a great event - all sorts of treasures to be had.

Taking a Break ..... from Hand Quilting

The hand quilting is going well -the Yoko Saito Applique blocks are all quilted and now it is on to the sashing. I feel lots of straight lines coming on.

So I have had a few breaks while I work on a class that I am attending a the shop. I am loving being a student and the project I am working on. This is a hand embroider and embellish class so it it is right up my alley with all the handwork.

You can see the fabric that I have chosen on my 6 June post and the start of the project - now I have lots more flowers embroidered, but still lots to go. It isn't going to be finished overnight!!!!

We have learnt so many different stitches and Alison has encouraged us to combine 

them in a variety of ways.

I have always wanted to do see stitching and love the effect it has in this flower.

We are going to be rerunning this class at nights soon so I will go along to those too and keep working on my project. I have a half metre piece of fabric cut across the width to embellish!

But now back to the hand quilting - I do still love this applique quilt.

Still Quilting

I thought I had better touch base again to let you know that I am still around and still quilting - two big quilts to get done - my Yoko Saito one and the Antique Sampler in the 1800s fabric. I am doing lots on the Yoko Saito one at the moment as I want to get most of it done before the Waikato Quilt Show starting on 6 September - oh dear only about a month away!

I have also been busy creating some other new projects to release at the Waikato Show but I can't show you those yet - you will just have to be patient - sorry.

There will be lots and lots of posts after the Show or come and see them all in person there - they always look so much better in real life.