another reason to try out my shiva painsticks

I bought these wooden shapes at our guild meeting last weekend. Murray coated them with a layer of polyurethane as there was a little bit of black coming off the sides of the shapes. The leaf shapes I want to stitch onto a little textile piece, but I think I'll use the other shapes to do rubbings with shiva paintsticks. They should work very well, don't you think?

Trev the Wondercat is not allowed on the beds. He never has been, and he knows this perfectly well. but for some reason he's decided he likes this quilt and tiptoes into the spare bedroom at eveery opportunity. He was so-o-o comfortable when I took this photo. He said "Mum, why don't you just make a trev-coloured quilt, then no one will notice if there is cat fur all over it!" Logical, I suppose.

using meander quilting design as applique

I've been working on my chooseday challenge this weekend. I had a heap of ideas but decided to play with this one. First I drew a meander pattern on a piece of A4 paper then coloured in part of it to make sure my idea would work.



Went over the lines with a fine black marker so I could see the line to trace it on the paper side of some fusible webbing that was also A4 size. I ironed the fusible webbing onto some plain black cotton fabric. Then the fun bit (not!) I cut out on the meander line - took ages to do. I wanted the background and the cut out bit to be whole pieces so I couldn't just cut in from the side to make it easier. Next step was to get two pieces of white homespun, also A4 size, and iron the cut-out piece of black onto one and the background piece of black onto the other.






Now I'm going to spend a day or two just looking at them while I decide what to do with them next. I really want to do heaps of embellishment, but I'm not sure what kind of embellishments I have that are black or white. I may have to introduce another colour to it.

I've been looking at some of the books on my bookshelf, and there are a few that I plan to read through again with new eyes. I'm becoming more motivated to actually choose a book and work through it (as opposed to just looking at the pictures ha ha). Here are some of them.

There are some more but I haven't taken photos of them yet. Do any of you find that you buy the most amazing books, and they just sort of languish on the shelf? Well, I think you should pick one and do something with it! (Miss Bossy Boots making an appearance there.) Maybe then I might do the same thing.

Chooseday Challenge topic for this month is...

>> OPPOSITE<<

There are many possibilities with this topic: hot and cold, big and little, happy and sad, opposite colours on the colour wheel, mirror images - the list goes on and on. I'm sure that every person who does this challenge will come up with a different interpretation of the theme. I'm looking forward to seeing what every one does with it!

chooseday challenge - part 2

Okay, here 'tis. I've made a few adjustments since I took the photo, so it hangs a bit straighter now. The pieces are connected by safety pins and silver chain at the moment, but that may change if/when I think of something else. Making this was so much fun, and has also given me a few ideas for some more pieces in the future.















Sorry some of the photos are a bit on the dark side. It's not that dark in real life!

chooseday challenge done - part 1

When I first thought about connections, I thought of people being connected to each other. Then, in that rambling way the mind has of jumping from subject to subject, I started to think about ways in which things are connected. First thought was needle and thread (obvious to a quilter lol), then hammer and nails, screws and nuts and bolts. That was when I got the idea to go shopping at the hardware shop. What an eye opener! It was full of wonderful quilt embellishment stuff, and I came home with 5 or 6 little packets of treasure. I got a couple of sizes of washers, hexagonal nuts, split pins and something Murray calls waffle nails.

Next step was to start making my quilt. I gathered some black, white and grey fabrics and cut strips from each one, 2" or 3" wide. Then trimmed them again so they were uneven. I ended up with siz of these wonky blocks. Six? That's not quite what I had in mind when I started, but I decided to run with it anyway.



Next step was to add a bit of colour. I had a heap of bias left over from a celtic table runner I made for my sister last Christmas so I stitched a bit of that on each block.



I quilted each block, but forgot to take a photo of that step. Then I added the beads and embroidery and found all sorts of ways to stitch on the stuff from the hardware shop. I left all the knots from doing that stitching on the back of the quilt sandwich, because I was going to put another back on the six little quilts. I did that using the pillowcase method. I cut the new back into two pieces and stitched them together leaving a gap of about 5-6" to turn the quilt through. In the photo, the gap between the pins is left unstitched. I made the join between the two pieces near the top of the little quilt so that I could cover some of them with a hanging sleeve.




Then I put the little quilt on top, right sides together, and stitched all the way around the quilt. Next, trim the edges of the back level with the quilt and cut a bit off the corners to get rid of some of the bulk.



Turn the quilt through the gap you left in the back. Carefully press the edges, then handstitch the gap closed. This is what you get! A little quilt with no binding. there are probably other ways to do this, but this is the method I use.



Part 2 will have photos of the finished piece.

yahoo group wins over blog ring

With the trouble we've been having with the blog ring, I've decided to create a yahoo group for the Choose-day challenge instead. The people I've talked to have never had a problem being a member of a group. I've set it so that attachments are not allowed. That way no viruses can be passed on. I'll set up a folder each month to post our photos, so there will be just one central place that we can see them.

The link to join is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/choosedaychallenge/

I invite anyone reading this to join the group, and join the fun!

By the way, did you know how much great embellishment stuff is available at your local hardware store? When you really look, it's like a treasure trove of art quilt stuff LOL.