Little Taupe Pin Cushions

I have been busy making little pin cushions. These are all from my Pin Cushion Club designs.

I am off to Japan in November and I like to take some little gifts with me to give away to quilting contacts, friends and suppliers, so I thought these would be good.

My favourite one is the Tumbling Leaves - I think.

Or then again maybe my favourite is the Crazy Patch.

But I also like the sashiko one - I usually do this with ecru thread on indigo fabric which is 

more traditional for sashiko. This time it was time for a change so it was off to the hand 

dyed pink sashiko thread form Takayama in the mountains of Japan and taupe fabric 

from my favourite Japanese supplier.

This is the latest little gift from Japan - one of my suppliers made it and sent it to 

me in my last parcel from her company. It is a macaroon and is just so cute. It is just 2" 

across and opens up with the zip going almost all the way around the middle.

And inside

I'll be back in a couple of days with Taupe Owls!!!!! See you soon.

Waikato Quilt and Craft Fair

We had a great four days at the Waikato Quilt and Craft Fair.

 We set up on Wednesday – can you believe it – it took us 5 hours!!!!!

This (the quilt in the centre) was the biggest seller for us at the Show which was really 

exciting. I think it is now my all time favourite quilt. I wonder how long that thought 

will last - quite a while I suspect.

Another of our Block of the Month programmes is Magnolia Blossoms. This was  design that I picked up on a trip to Japan a few years ago.

And you will have seen this big one as I was making it - it is the1800s Antique Sampler 

designed by Sue Daley. And you can see my Jo Morton quilt beside it and just around the 

corner. 1800s Reproduction fabrics are my favourite after the Japanese Taupe ranges.

And here is Tea in Provence on a casual coffee table at the end of the stall.

If you haven't been to a Quilt and Craft Fair you really should try to get to one next year.

There will be two next year - one in Palmerston North in February and the other in Hamilton in September. See you there - or hopefully before then in the shop or at Calico Christmas - now called Auckland Festival of Quilts - at Albany Stadium over the first weekend in November.

Tea In Provence

This small quilt is a variation on our ever so popular Days in Provence pattern. You may have seen our original version which was made up in the first French General collection.

This one was inspired by the grey French food fabric that we have featured across the quilt. 

Di Partington (from the shop) quilted it for me on her domestic machine and I just love the designs she has chosen.

We have it on a low table as a table cloth at the Show and it looks great.

The original pattern is by House on the Hill designs and I have found it such a versatile pattern – I used it for a cot quilt earlier this year by adding another row of blocks.

Yoko Saito Quilt Revealed

Well my Yoko Saito quilt now called “Japanese Applique” (sorry that isn’t a very exciting name) is finished (well almost!) and hanging on the wall of our stall at the Hamilton Quilt and Craft Fair. And I must say I am very pleased with it. Now you can all see it too.

I have almost finished the quilting – I am going to cross hatch the blocks – I have only done it one way on most of them at this stage and the border is also only stitched one way and I am thinking of mixing it up a bit – some cross hatching and some parallel lines just one way.

We have cut lots of Block of the Month sets and hope to sell many of them at the Show. Or of course you can pick them up from the shop - Patchwork Passion, Onehunga, Auckland, New Zealand. We have included a copy Yoko Saito's wonderful Applique Block book within the Block of the Month Programme.

Over the next few days I will post some of the other projects I have been working on and we have just released. So you will go to hardly ever hearing from me to getting lots of 

news over the next few weeks.

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.