Saturday 8 June 2013
Friday 7 June 2013
Shop Hop 2013 2012
For the last couple of years six quilt shops in the Wellington / Manawatu area have got together to run a "Shop Hop". You pay a small fee and select a quilt / colourway, then within a set number of days you visit each shop and pick up a kit to make two blocks towards your chosen quilt. At the end of the exercise you have 12 blocks to make up, and the option to purchase a finishing kit (borders, etc).
Basically it's an excuse to get a bunch of friends together for a bit of a road trip and some retail therapy! Last year, a couple of friends and I went and we had an absolute blast. This years dates have just been announced for October, and we are thinking of an even bigger expedition this year. Except that one of my darling friends has suggested that we not be allowed to participate unless we have finished the top (piecing it, at least), from last year. She's a cruel taskmaster!
To this end, the first project in the firing line for the Great UFO Objective, is the 2012 Shop Hop Quilt.
None of the quilts last year were particularly appealing to me, but it seemed a bit pointless doing the Shop Hop if I wasn't actually going to do one of the quilts. The one from Village Books and Crafts in Palmerston North had originally caught my eye when the photos were sent out, particularly with the applique and I've always loved blue on white....
...only the actual background fabric was not white but a very yellowy cream with blue dots that looked like someone had flicked ink onto it. Not my kind of taste at all and quite different to how it appeared in the photo!
But what the hell, the applique looked cool and if I really didn't like it finished, then I'd give it away. I made up the blocks within days of picking them up (determined even then not to have another UFO), and got the finishing kit with the fabric for the applique, setting triangles and borders. I decided to use fusible for the applique, rather than do it by hand, mostly because the quilt wasn't really pushing any buttons and I didn't want to put my 'heart and soul' into doing it by hand when I wasn't really enthusiastic about the finished quilt.
I spent several days tracing the applique shapes for the setting blocks onto fusible, fusing it to the fabrics, cutting them all out (it's sooooo boring when they're all the same shape - maybe I *do* have a short attention span) and then machine stitching around them. To get to this point....
... that's 48 applique shapes, all the same. Just the borders to go! I cut the border fabric into the right lengths, placed them neatly in a bag that said "borders" on it. And then put it all away in a box. And that was the end of that!
I remember thinking I needed a break before tackling the next lot of applique shapes for the borders - another 24 of them. So I did something else for a while. Then I did something else for a while longer. Then a bit longer still. And now it's a year later. *gulp*
So.... last night, I traced all of the border shapes onto fusible, ready to be fused and cut out tonight while watching Season 4 of Dexter. Then it's a matter of laying them out onto the borders, machining around them, and attaching the borders.
I'll post an update tomorrow....
Basically it's an excuse to get a bunch of friends together for a bit of a road trip and some retail therapy! Last year, a couple of friends and I went and we had an absolute blast. This years dates have just been announced for October, and we are thinking of an even bigger expedition this year. Except that one of my darling friends has suggested that we not be allowed to participate unless we have finished the top (piecing it, at least), from last year. She's a cruel taskmaster!
To this end, the first project in the firing line for the Great UFO Objective, is the 2012 Shop Hop Quilt.
...only the actual background fabric was not white but a very yellowy cream with blue dots that looked like someone had flicked ink onto it. Not my kind of taste at all and quite different to how it appeared in the photo!
But what the hell, the applique looked cool and if I really didn't like it finished, then I'd give it away. I made up the blocks within days of picking them up (determined even then not to have another UFO), and got the finishing kit with the fabric for the applique, setting triangles and borders. I decided to use fusible for the applique, rather than do it by hand, mostly because the quilt wasn't really pushing any buttons and I didn't want to put my 'heart and soul' into doing it by hand when I wasn't really enthusiastic about the finished quilt.
I spent several days tracing the applique shapes for the setting blocks onto fusible, fusing it to the fabrics, cutting them all out (it's sooooo boring when they're all the same shape - maybe I *do* have a short attention span) and then machine stitching around them. To get to this point....
... that's 48 applique shapes, all the same. Just the borders to go! I cut the border fabric into the right lengths, placed them neatly in a bag that said "borders" on it. And then put it all away in a box. And that was the end of that!
I remember thinking I needed a break before tackling the next lot of applique shapes for the borders - another 24 of them. So I did something else for a while. Then I did something else for a while longer. Then a bit longer still. And now it's a year later. *gulp*
So.... last night, I traced all of the border shapes onto fusible, ready to be fused and cut out tonight while watching Season 4 of Dexter. Then it's a matter of laying them out onto the borders, machining around them, and attaching the borders.
I'll post an update tomorrow....
Wednesday 5 June 2013
In the Beginning...
Most quilters will be aware of the term "UFO" - as in Un-Finished Object.
Go on, be honest, we all have a couple. Or a few. Can you count them on one hand? Or two?
I recently discovered that not only did I need to take my shoes off to count my UFOs, I needed to borrow the hands of one of my children. I stopped counting after that! How did it get so out of control?
I have vowed and declared that from today I will start finishing things, and I may have been heard to mumble about not starting anything else until a large majority of UFOs are finished. It's just that there are soooooo many awesome projects screaming my name right now!
In an effort to force myself to be disciplined and work only on projects I already have going, I am going to document my progress in this blog. Of course, if I don't tell anyone it's here and no one reads it, then no one will know if I stray a little off course and start a new project....
One of the ladies in The Remnants (a Friday night social quilting group) is making "Home Sweet Home" by Barb Adams and Alma Allen. She's making a beautiful job of her blocks, and doing them all by hand too.
I can just picture this done in brights.... houses with bright yellow spots, and blue flowers, green and orange striped roofs, pink curtains with red spots... you get the picture! I even have a name for it already.... "Funky Town".
I may have to give up sleeping.
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