Class List for end 2012

The following are the classes I have scheduled for the end of this year.

Playday Class
Sunday September 30th 2012 10am - 4pm  NZ$40
Do you want to play witha variety of different things - Stitching on Metal, Lutradur, Painted Fusibles and Discharge Dyeing. This 6 hour class gives you time to try these things without spending too much time or money. Once you've had a taste of how to use these items you may spend a lot more time creating. A kit is available

Writing On Quilts
Tuesday 9th October 7pm - 9pm NZ$15
Dianne has written on several quilts and can share the knowledge of how to achieve this. Experiment with a few different ways to write on your fabric to create names, sayings, general words etc.

Wire Mesh Flowers
Wednesday 10th October 7pm - 9pm NZ$15
Leanr how to create fabulous free form flowers with wire mesh and fabric. The flowers will stand up in a vase and can be shaped to suit. You cna choose to use a fbaric that has a flower shape on it or any fabric colour/print that appeals

Lutradur Vase
Wednesday 17 October 7pm - 9pm NZ$15
In this class you can make a vase using Lutradur, paint and fabric. You could use it to place the flowers you made above in.Be creative and try something a little different. You can place a glass jar inside to hold real flowers if wanted.

Advanced Dyeing
Sunday 28 October 9:30am - 4pm NZ40 + NZ$12 materials fee
Dye kit available for NZ$30 if you do not have your own Procion MX Dyes
Dianne will show you some more advanced techniques to use with fabric dyeing and Procion MX dyes. Create some wonderful pieces which you can use in your work. You do not need to have done the beginners dye class as Dianne will explain as we go along but a knowledge of fabric dyeing helps.

Machine Quilted Feathers
Tuesday 30th October 7pm - 9pm  NZ$15
Dianne stitched her Shop Hop Quilt using feathers and several people have asked how they can do this themselves. Dianne will run through how you can try out some of these feather quilting designs yourself.

Christmas Tree Quilt
Wednesday 7th November 7pm - 9pm  NZ$15
Have fun making this quick and easy Christmas Tree Quilt. Get 2 for 1 with the positive and negative shapes. Looks great done in only 2 colours. Dianne chose red and white.

If you'd like to join in with one of these classes please contact Dianne (06) 3555735 or email dianneandcolin@inspire.net.nz

Surface Design

I love items that I can use to create new designs on fabric.

Markal and Shiva paintstiks are a great way to add to your fabric. These are oil paint in a stick. You need to wipe off the outer skin which forms when not in use then you can draw with them, use on stencils, brush them on etc, then leave to air dry for 3-6 days for the oil to evaporate and then you can wash them and iron them no problem. I prefer the irridescent ranges as they leave a wonderful metallic sheen on your fabric. Both ranges are NZ$15 each stik
I love to play with Transfer Paints but realise this is slightly contrary to normal patchwork sewing as you require polyester content fabric for the paints to work on. I have a 65/35 polyester cotton which is nice to work with and the paints transfer beautifully. I have the I Dye Poly range, the Polysol range and now we can offer the Crayola Fabric Crayons. The Crayloa Fabric Crayons are easy to work with, you can either draw onto paper and then iron onto your fabric or you can draw directly onto your fabric. Once you iron it the colours really become quite vibrant and much more colourful than un-ironed.There are 8 colours in a pack

I love playing with zips - these ones from Indygo Junction are great because you can use them with patchwork, wearables and jewellery.

These zips are 92cm (36") long and are NZ$4.40 each. Variety of colours available.
Dianne

BigFork Bay Patterns

I love the BigFork Bay patchwork patterns. These new ones are no exception -
Check out these

Only NZ$24.50 each pattern. I love the flowers - the Poppy and the Bird of Paradise are so rich and lovely. Oh to find the time to make them.
I now have in some carry bags with William Morris designs on them. They are only NZ$17.50 each

Call in and check these out or email me
Dianne

Fabulous Fabrics

There are some gorgeous patchwork fabrics available and some have arrived in store recently.
Spice Trail from Fabric Freedom is a lovely fabric in soft warm colours.

Don't they look lovely. These are NZ$26.50 per metre. A good border with the elephants and then the allover patterns and the blenders mean you can use all of these patterns together.
The other new fabrics from Fabric Freedom are bright and vibrant designs called Happy Harlequin NZ$26.50 per metre

I love these frresh and bright colours and patterns. I recently received Jane Sassaman's latest book in and it would be wonderful to use these fabric for the patterns in that book. They are simple patterns using squares, rectangles and some half square triangles but it is the fabric that makes the block and therefore the quilt. I have sold out of this book already but have more on order.
Call in and see these wonderful fabrics or order them online
Dianne

Tote & Gloat Challenge Quilt 2012

My quilt club, Rose City Quilters, Palmerston North, New Zealand holds an event called Tote & Gloat every year in May. There is always a challenge for members to enter and I try and enter it each year. This year members were each given a fat quarter of a Jason Yenter fabric from the Camelot range. You had to use a 'recognisable' piece of fabric in the quilt and you could buy more.
I was inspired by the graphics on a christmas advert of a tree consisting of lots of swirly designs to create this. I hope Jason would be impressed with how his fabric was used.

I used a lightish green batik whihc had a very subtle pattern for the background and then using just 3 fabrics I created this quilt. As well as the challenge fabric which is around the outside edge and is used for various big circular designs I also used a tone on tone green and a lovely red fabric that had green in it that I think was a very old Nancy Crow design. It just went so well with my challenge fabric. I started by fuisng the large 'flower' design in the upper middle and then added some swirls and loops and then small dots to fill the design in. I decided to quilt it using silk thread and wool batting after reading Diane Gaudynski's book Quilt Savvy Machine Quilting. I just loved using the silk thread and now recommend that everyone try it. My quilting just went so well on the designs and the feathers looked great. At this stage I did a faced binding rather than a standard binding and then added some 'bling' by using a BeJeweller to attac hot fix crystalsall over. I am really pleased with how this design turned out and was very happy to receive Best Machine Quilting.
I also made another piece to enter into the 'Anything Goes" category -

Oops sideways, not sure how to fix that here, will have to go back to the photos and rotate it then re-select it. This is a Lutradur vase using string sewn down over the Lutradur, then painted and then heat gunned with some fusible appliques from the challenge fabric. I filled it with a glass jar so I could place something in it without it falling over. The flowers were portions of the challenge fabric cut out and sewn with metal mesh between. This mesh is wonderful to sew over - you don't even notice that there is metal under your needle. I then attached them to wire wrapped with green fabric for stems. I decided the flowers then needed a little more body and cut a few more applique shapes out which I fused onto plain fabric and cut around. Then I gathered them and attached them to the metal based appliques. The leaves are fused pieces of hand dyed fabric with a wire through the centre. I decided to give them a little more body by sewing along either side of the wire. This was great until I got a little fast and managed to break 3 needles. Going slow is better!! I am pleased to say I won First Place with this entry.
Why not have fun and try some designs that are a little out of the box like I did.
Have fun playing
Dianne

Shop Hop Quilt finished

Yay, I have finished quilting and binding my Shop Hop quilt for 2012.
Here is a photo of the finished quilt

I have used a lovely rich fabric (blue with red and metallic gold) for my feature fabric and teamed it with blue, green & metallic gold and red & metallic gold on a cream splatter painted background fabric. There are the 12 blocks that you will collect at each store and I have added a fused applique in the blue on the cream background as extra squares between and used this same applique in the border. Whilst I realise that this may not be to everyone's taste I have also got some photos of the blocks with plain fabrics between to give you an idea of what it could look like.

These are the blocks with the cream behind them.

This one features the blue between the blocks

The red makes a bigger difference between

And this last one uses the green

They look quite different don't they. These are the 12 blocks that you will get as you visit each store on the shop hop route.There are 6 patterns repeated twice, but I have tried to shift the fabrics around quite a bit so the blocks look quite different.

I decided to free motion quilt a feather design in the alternate applique blocks and then thought I may as well continue with the feather theme so have used that in all the blocks. Anyone wanting these designs can purchase a set from me. You do not have to try quilting like this, I like to use these sampler quilts as places to practice different styles of quilting. You can use very simple straight or wavy lines, quilting 1/4" in from each shape, an allover design etc.

Here are some photos close up, this is the back 

As you can see I took a risk and used a navy thread to do most of the free motion quilting with so it stands out, both on the back and front. I did most of the background quilting in metallic gold or an old gold rayon so you will be able to look closely to see what each thread does to the design.

This is a version of the basket block that doesn't look like a basket

A view along the border

One of the star blocks, shows up the beautiful feature fabric

Remember you have to be registered before 31 August 2012 to participate. Cost is only NZ$45 to receive 12 blocks in your choice of colourway. Each shop will have their quilts featured on the Shop Hop website as well as photos of all in each store so you can choose what you would like to collect.

Do come in and register with me and then advise me of which colourway you prefer.

See you

Dianne

Quilters Friend Shop Hop

The Quilters Friend Shop Hop is happening once again from 15 September to 7 October. I am one of the the shops participating in this fun event which started last year. Register before 31 August 2012 and then join with some friends, visit the 6 shops and receive your blocks at each shop.
Participating shops - Village Books & Crafts, Palmerston North
                             - Quiltworks, Waipukurau
                             - Crafty Pear, Pahiatua
                             - Quilters Lane, Masterton
                             - Sawmillers Quiltery, Te Marua, Upper Hutt
                             - Cherry Pie Bernina, Levin
Pay $45 to register, choose your colourway when we put all the photos up on the website, and collect 2 blocks at each shop. Layout kits will be offered by each shop.
I have had fun making mine. A little different this time, almost finished quilting. A photo willbe up by the weekend.
Come in and register so you can participate and have fun. Make it a girls weekend out.
Dianne