super heroes quilt
After an extremely successful market last weekend. I now have another cot quilt commissioned. So wonderful!
These little heroes by Michael Miller have been sitting on my shelf for a couple of months just waiting for a loving little fella to snuggle up to. I am very excited about bringing them to life in a new baby’s cot quilt. So much fun and colour all mixed into one.
This one will be called ‘SuperHero Playgound’…
Melissa, x
teepee for kids
I have been toying with making a teepee for awhile now. Last year I made some Indian headbands to sell at Little Red Market and when I finally stumbled across some gingham prints in KL…yes gingham in KL! I knew I had found my inspiration to make one.
This little beauty will take pride of place at Little Red Market this Sunday, along with a few others in various colours, all for sale for some little child to have fun inside. Being a teacher…many moons ago, I always find myself creating things for primary age and younger. My three girls have always indulged in make believe, and still do even at the age of 13 years old…oops am I allowed to divulge that secret girls?
My littlest hopped inside this red teepee and instantly asked for one in green so she could curl up and read a book. Even my 170cm tall 13 year old thought it was very cool and could fit inside!
There are plans a foot to make some for my niece and nephews back in Melbourne from Auntie Missy.
The teepee completely folds up as the poles are tied together. Makes for easy storage and sets up in seconds. Perfect!
Melissa
x
oakshotts…oh joy…oh colour!
I’m actually stuck for words. Where do you begin when you get a swathe of beautiful colour that makes you stop and want to drink it all in?
That’s what happened to me when Oakshott’s ColourBox designer collection arrived in the mail. Colour therapy with shot cotton is how Michael describes this bundle of joy. 100 fat 8ths divinely layered out like a rainbow in a black box, that you love almost as much as the fabric itself.
Each of these bundles of joy have an amazing texture to them. I am now in a quandary I love seeing them all lined up like this do I really want to disturb their harmonious nature? Hmmmm, well I actually have a quilt in mind so maybe. Will keep you posted.
Melissa, x
juggling way too many balls…
Oh boy oh boy!
Had a huge weekend
1} Learnt to crochet, which I am very proud of.
It finally clicked. No more crocheting away to admire and discover it looks…absolutely awful…and have to pull it all out and wonder what I did wrong. Husband and friends think I am totally mad, especially when I started talking about my crocheted egg cosy at the Malaysian Grand Prix!
I made a baby ball, egg cosy and what will be a crochet hook roll. What a better way to store my hooks than in a ‘crocheted’ roll hey! They are yet to have their finishing touches and tail ends sewn in but that will come.
2} A fabulous new community project is growing in the wings. Can’t tell yet….but very, very exciting!
3} My new blog site template is at concept design stage. Yes I am getting a blog facelift and I am over the moon.Shay Bocks is the talented lady who is doing it for me. I received my first glimpse at the new LolaJazz blog template over the weekend so my brain has been ticking over with all the things I have to do. You can check out Shay’s portfolio here. Thank you Shay, it’s all very wonderful.
4} Little Red Market is growing from strength to strength. Sally and I have some new plans and ideas for our next market on May 13th. Vendors are booking stalls and we are even being featured in two magazines in KL next month, Time Out KL and Expatriate Lifestyle. Thank you to both magazines for contacting us. It helps our community of handmade artists and designers to grow and reach out to a wider group of people. Come along on Sunday May 13th if you are in KL. More details can be found on our facebook page and blog. Pop over and Like us on Facebook.
5} I let my hair down and enjoyed the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday. Hung out with my darling hubby and friends and bumped into Owen Wilson while I was there…heehee!
Yes I can be a tad mad at times! But life is meant to be fun… Yes that is me modeling the beautiful wet weather attire supplied by our lovely hosts. Had to do something to kill the delay in the race. Wonder if Owen would like me to post him an egg cosy?
And that’s not to mention the 10ft tardis that was being painted at home by my teenagers!
Melissa, x
join me on my travels…
When in Melbourne recently I walked in to find brand new…not been touched {they still had the one inch paper band stuck around the fabric bolt}…Denyse Schmidt range for the bigger chain stores. What was there?
Daisy Mae
Aunt Eda
Sugar Creek and Winding Road
Picnic Fairground
As I live in a country where most of the fabric I love is all overseas, to have the luxury of choosing some fabrics off a shelf is quite rare. So I went a bit mad! The saleslady was happy, my mother in law was folding fabrics and I was doing laps around the store in case I had missed something…yes totally mad!
Here is about two thirds of my stash all being neatly ironed in readiness for 640 diamond cuts!
I have been staring at these lovely blues and oranges, with a few greens added in, wondering what I was going to create with them. You know how easy it is to start doing a bit of lovely blog land hopping and suddenly 2 hours have flitted by…? Well on one of those journeys I came across the Arkansas Traveler. There is a lot of talk about foundation paper piecing lately. Fat Quarterly’s current issue no.8 is dedicated to it.
The last time I paper pieced, apart from a few hexies here and there, was back in 2001 for my little girls’ baby quilt. So a need to go back and have a go was building. So when I happened upon the Arkansas Traveler at Freshly Pieced last week I knew I had found my next quilt block. I had a trial run, whipped it up quickly and decided it was a definite!
It was about 35 degrees celcius yesterday, a real stinker as we would call it back home. But I collected my iron, ironed 32 fabrics, jumped into my bathers {swimming costume} and after a quick dip in the pool to cool off I started cutting. Needed to move from my studio to the kitchen bench as that much cutting needed a high perch for my height. Bending over a cutting mat when you are 5’9″ can be a bit stiff after awhile.
Oh the joy of all that colour and pattern!
I deciced while cutting that I would document my travels with Arkansas Traveler, so over the next few days {weeks} I will put up the steps to cutting and sewing it together if you are interested in doing one too. It will be 40 blocks and I love the star shapes it creates in the negative spaces, alongside the coloured patches.
So 640 diamonds are cut, selvages bagged up for a rainy day, scrappy edge bits all ready for another ‘twisty’ project and my stash looks like it hasn’t even had a dent put into it! Woohoo!!!
All my blocks have been divided up into workable colour groups, clipped together with binder clips and ready for sewing.
How is THAT for organisation {not always the way but mighty impressed with myself}!
Melissa, x
WIP wednesday~ arkansas traveler block
I felt a little bit guilty today, when on my eldest daughter’s 16th birthday I was jumping for joy over getting a parcel in the mail…for me!
Yes I am one of the many out there who have bought up on Flea Market Fancy. A big pile of fat quarters {well two lots of fat quarters}…came my way from Hawthorne Threads and can I whisper that there are quite a few in that lovely pile that I am seriously going to re-order…shhhhhhh!
Along with that yummy stash I decided to make my next quilt out of the Arkansas Traveler block. It has been ages since I last foundation paper pieced so after trialing this little baby I am about to get cutting. Lee over at Freshly Pieced has a great link to the block from last year which you can find here.
So that is my WIP for this Wednesday. Printed off my templates and might get some cutting done when the birthday girl goes to bed. Thanks Lee.
Melissa, x
sewing machine has a liberty cover…
After many many years my darling Bernina has her own pretty cover.
I loved the Liberty Scrap Challenge droplets for February and knew straight away that it would be something I’d love to look at everyday. What better way than a cover for my machine.
The pretty florals and patterns stand out beautifully against Robert Kaufman’s Quilter’s Linen in Charcoal which I bought from Fabricworm here, although it looks navy in the photo it is a dark charcoal. The ‘linen’ look is so lovely and gives a wonderful texture to the fabric. So pleased with the results.
I also got to use my Perle 5 cotton to do a running stitch with some added sequins and beads to give a bit of sparkle to my rain droplets.
I adapted the sewing machine pattern I bought from Bloom {and have been eyeing off making for sometime} and used Nova’s Liberty Scrap challenge on the front and back of my machine cover. Come along and join the Liberty challenge…It’s fun and a lovely way to play with scraps of fabric and try a new idea. A new one for March is coming soon.
Thanks Nova for the inspiration. My sewing machine and studio thank you for prettying it up!
Thanks Roslyn for a great pattern…my machine will now stay a little less dust free as I will be inspired to cover her up each day :)
Melissa, x
hummingbirds and starflowers…2002
Recently Rita posted about her new Flea Market Fancy Quilt on Red Pepper Quilts which is absolutely divine. Her colour choices are always spot on and her talent is one many admire.
Something rang a bell when I saw her quilt top. Looking in little Laura’s room I found, inside her doll’s pram, the first quilt I ever made for her back in 2002. Paula Green from Green Mountain Quilts is where I learnt how to hand piece this beautiful quilt. If memory serves me right she was bequeathed it from an aunt. It was a just a bundle of the stars, or are they hummingbirds? The fabric was from all the way back when….
Tilt vertically or horizontally {whatever takes your fancy} rather than diagonally and you have a whole different look, with more negative space in centres. Mine is all hand pieced from 1930′s repro prints and hand quilted with lots of love and patience. I ended up reducing the size of my initial quilt as Laura’s birth was getting closer and I could see it not being finished in time. So ‘hummingbirds and starflowers’ is a small cot size. I would love to see how the paper pieced version works, as it would make the process a little quicker.
Thank you Paula, you are the teacher who started my passion and love of quilting. Nearly 12 years on it is even more a part of my life.
Thank you Rita for taking me back. Once again we are reminded of how many memories and how much love is put into our quilts. It’s why we do it…that and we love love love fabric!
The centres are all hand quilted with the starflower design.
Melissa, x
scallop quilt top…yay!
This came together very quickly. I was surprised.
Yes I did have to use my seam ripper, or ‘quick unpick’ as I have always called it, a few times. But I am very happy with my results and am looking forward to doing some hand quilting with perle cottons for this one. Measuring 40″ x 48″ that is very, very doable!
I also used one of my many tools I have picked up along my way. This nifty tool puts indents into your fabric and it made marking the convex shape for my concave template very easy to then free rotary cut, rather than follow the paper pattern.
My cut pieces in progress, not all perfect but trimming back to 8.5″ x 6.25″ made them quite acceptable.
Project No.4 nearly complete! On a roll…
So here is my quilt top, proudly blowing in the breeze outside my studio. How pretty are the palm trees in the background?
Melissa, x
drunkard’s path…
Here is my little project 3 for {curves} course. A drunkard’s Path pot holder.
I’ll be using it for my lovely Tasmania herbal tea, from Art of Tea. Yes I ship bags of it to Malaysia! My one and only is Relaxation…mmmmm yummo!
Off to keep sewing…scalloped edged quilt and more bibs for Evelyn are calling.
Ciao, Melissa. x
