Studio Kit

My sewing machine and I were reunited and immediately commenced to work together on our latest project. She ran satisfyingly smoothly and well, and Zen Garden was finished in no time!]

That gorgeous Japanese silk fabric used on the back and on the squaures made me think of all things Japaense,

I was feeling better on Friday as I posted then. We had dinner plans with friends that evening, and Saturday was BSP's and my anniversary:

(I wish you could see how adorable BSP was on our wedding day, but I have promised (upon pain of death!) to never never never put BPS on the internet. )

So, no quilting was done on Saturday. But today, oh how lovely, today I finally got to go to my sewing room after such a long absence.

I happily created my new top and began quilting it, when ... DISASTER.

My usual sewing machine, Jezebel (a Singer Ingenuity) went to the hospital about ten days ago. She needed a part not on hand, so in her absence, I've been using my old sewing machine, a little Kemore I call Connie. I made all of my first quilts on Connie as well as host of clothing and home decor items, so I had no qualms about putting her to use and felt that she would be well up to the task.

Sadly, she gave up the ghost on me this afternoon. I spent nearly two hours painstakingly taking her apart, cleaning her, oiling her and putting her back together again, but she is still recalcitrant; so I finally came to the sad conclusion that there will be no more quilting today.

The good news is, when Connie stopped working, after my initial attempts to help her ended in ashes, I called the shop and found out that Jezebel is ready to roll. BSP has volunteered to pick her up tomorrow so she'll be ready to go when I get home. Hurray!

This is the backing fabric as well - I had to fuse it to give is some stability - it's a Japanese silk, but is fine and sheer like Sari-veil fabric. If you click that pic, you may be able to see a really cool detail - those grey ovals and the insides of the flowers are slightly raised and feel like caterpillar fur. So neat. I picked up several yards of this fabric at the most recent Textile Museum fabric sale and while I was standing in line with it, people kept coming up to me and touching it! It's extremely tactile - soft and smooth - it really invites stroking.

Anyway - my next post should be the finished product.

Hope you all had great weekends - and perhaps ones more productive than mine!

1. blue blood/ red blood art quilt, 2. Black and White Quilt, 3. Humble long fold 1, 4. City Park

So this is the only activity going on in my sewing room right now...

Thanks for all your well wishes...

This past Friday and Saturday I was at the Creativ Festival (yes, it drives me crazy too that they've taken the "e" off of "Creative"). Kitschy spellings aside, it was the first time I've been. I was pretty "meh" on going in the first place, even though I had booked two classes - one with Kaffe Fasset and one with a well known American art quilter.

As it turned out, I couldn't get out of work on Friday and missed both classes, only doing the first part of the Festival in the evening on the Friday, which in my feverish state wasn't very enjoyable! I missed Kaffe altogether (he was already gone from the festival by the time I arrived), but the art quilter had an exhibition up.

She does beautiful pictorial quilts, but upon examining them close up, I was really disappointed with her quilting - on the perhaps 25 pieces she had up - she never varied , not for a single stitch, from stipple, stipple, stipple! Don't get me wrong, atlhough I do appreciate that on some quilts - stippling is likely the absolutely perfect thing, but why limit yourself to those little puzzle pieces on every single quilt? And on art quilts!?! BSP said that perhaps, in Lenore's view, the quilting was just what "holds it together", and the "art" was in the top. I agreed that that must be the case, but I'm not disappointed that I missed the class. A beautiful top is a beautiful top, but, in my opinion, it can be immeasurably enhanced with quilting. I spoke to her at the exhibition however, and did learn a good trick for surface design which will show up in my quilts - probably sooner rather than later. ;)

On Saturday, by late afternoon, I was feeling a bit better, so we went back and spent 2 or 3 hours, exploring the vendors. I decided to try some (new to me) cotton flannel batting. Incredibly soft - it has a beautiful drape, so I'm anxious to see how it quilts up. I bought eight yards.

I also bought the threads picture above only more of them - 3 or 4 spools each, plus some huge cones of basic beige, black, white and grey. I also bought a huge roll of fusible web for a great price - I can't imagine that I'll be able to finish the roll in ten years, but if I have it I may use it more, y'know?

I bought some beads to experiment with embellishing quilts,

and I bought this neat bobbin saver thing, which as advertised, will keep them from rolling around and keep them neat and tidy -some basic jewellery making supplies (I've been on the hunt for the pefect-for-Kit earrings for about 3 years now with no luck, and I've decided to make them - I'll post those when they're done. )

I also bought five things which shall not be seen because they're for my advent swapee, and I bought two amazingly beautiful waxed cloth panels made by artisans in Tanzania which will also not be shown here, because they'll be part of future art quilts.

It was a great, if exhausting day, and by the time we got to the car, I was burning up again. I've been in bed all weekend, and am typing this on BSP's laptop from my bed, so I have nothing substantive to show you today.

I hope to be feeling better soon and have something fun to show you later. I just have to put binding on one thing to be able to show it to you! :)

Stay tuned...

For those here for the quilt festival - please see my entry HERE

(clicky clicky as per usual)

For a change, not much talky-talky today - I've had a recurrence of my illness from a couple of weeks ago, and I'm feverish, fretful and cranky. (Who, me?) I'm a terrible patient. (But an excellent nurse when it's your turn to be sick.)

More of that coral silk tulle, laid over a silk panel and flowers cut from coloured cotton.

That RED quilt I was working on last week which I hope to finish this weekend. It would have been done by now, except I was distracted by Paths to My Bliss, No.1 and then my sewing machine went to the hospital. It's supposed to be back today, though.

And guess what? I'm a winner, winner, chicken dinner! I won this batch of loveliness:

from a giveaway at Green Fairy Quilts! Go check her out. :) A pack of of charm squares, a layer cake, a honeybun, some already made up hourglass blocks and pattern to put them together! These are not colours I'd normally use, and as you know by now, I never use a pattern, so whatever I make with this little package will be sure to stretch me. In order to continue to pay it forward (a concept I've become thoroughly committed to); the finished product - whatever it will turn out to be - and the pattern will be a giveaway. Stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, I hope you all have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday!