Quilt Memories

Hi there, it has been a long time since my last blog post! My friends near and far have been asking me to start blogging again. Even though I'm posting daily on Instagram, I was told there is not enough detail in IG, sorry! Of course I have no excuse now that I'm retired! But you know, there are other priorities in life when you are retired. My first priority these days is exercise, and that's what I do most days. 

A lot has happened since my last blog post about my exhibition. As soon as I returned from the exhibition in Victoria, my husband and I left for our six weeks holiday in Central Asia, Scotland, Europe and Scandinavia. We had a fabulous trip, and some of the places we visited for the first time. We are glad now we took that trip because as you know, now we can't even plan a trip anywhere. 

Soon after our return, our beach house 'Seabird' is finally completed. There was so much to do before we could move in. We planned to build our own kitchen and cabinets using IKEA modules. But it didn't happen straightaway due to Australia's bushfires. The areas close to Seabird were badly affected by the fires. Even though our place is safe, a month was lost because of it. Soon after we finished installing the kitchen and cabinets, we were on lock-down due to the Corona virus. The rest is as you all know. We are still under restrictions, but much better than the last two months. 

Last weekend we travelled four hundred kilometres to visit a dear friend we haven't seen for a while. At my friend's house I spotted a quilt I haven't seen before, but know it so well! It was a quilt that she made using fabric we exchanged some years ago. She explained the story of this quilt on the quilt's label in the last photo below.  

 My quilt that I named
'Rags to Riches' 

Close-up of the fabric you will recognise
in my friend's quilt too. 

The pattern is called 'Trail Mixed'

I added text borders to all sides

My friend's quilt

This is the label explaining about our quilts

Two different quilts from the same pile of fabrics. As soon as I saw my friend's quilt I felt like I knew it because both quilts share the same fabrics. My quilt took me years to finish so I was familiar with the fabric.  Read the label if you want to know the whole story of these quilts. 

Until next time (hope it won't be too long)

Nat

First Post in 2018

Happy New Year all. I know that Holidays are done and dusted, but my holiday is finally about to start! Hope everyone had a relaxing and safe Holiday. Last year was the busiest year for me. Work, family and home life took most of my time. I did quite a bit on the creative front too. I only made few handmade gifts this year. I made up a few heart ornaments and one for myself to use as a brooch (see photos). 

Late in November I signed up for a textile art course online workshop with Sue Stone. I'm slowly working away on each module and loving it.

Then I finished Indigo Moon quilt and sent it away to get it machine quilted. I am looking forward to getting it back. I also finished another quilt top using blocks I made for a border of Indigo Moon quilt. I have enough blocks to make a throw sized quilt. I'm thrilled that I can use leftovers from one quilt to make another quilt. Does anyone do that? Then to wrap up 2017 leftover project, I finished piecing the heart blocks I did throughout the year, but it needed something to finish it off with. I used whatever fabric I had to piece the border for it. So, is this what they cal improv quilting? I am very pleased with myself and how it turned out.

Below are the photos of what I've mentioned above. 

Hand stitching Christmas tree as part
of my online workshop

Hearts using vintage quilt and blanket

I kelp this to use as brooch

Stitch samplers from module #1 online workshop

Sample from module #2.1

Sample for module 2.2

Playing with blocks from Indigo Moon quilt. I've also made up a few bunnies to applique around Indigo Moon quilt. I only made 4 bunnies. I don't want to waste them so I just randomly placed them in the quilt. I think I'm happy with that!

Leftover blocks

Quilt top with bunnies

Basting ready for hand quilting

Hand quilting has begun

The Love and Kisses quilt top

The most exciting project is my journal cover that I started sometime during the year. It's for our trip this January to Hong Kong and Japan. In Japan I will visit Toji Flea Market in Kyoto and the Tokyo International Quilt Festival. I have managed to combine the trip to visit both events. We will have a few extra days in Hiroshima as well. 

The travel journal front cover

Travel journal black cover

I will be posting on Instagram and Facebook. If you are my friends on Facebook please come along for a ride virtually! Some of my regular blog readers are not happy that I've been neglecting my blog lately. Living life in the fast lane can only fit so much in a day. IG and FB are must easier and faster to update than a blog format. Blogging is a journal for what I'm making. I like to print them out each year, but this year will be a very thin book!

Until next time

Nat

October or November?

When I loaded up the photos for this post it was October, but life is getting away from me lately. So by the time I got back to it again it was almost halfway through November. A lot has happening since my last blog post. One thing for sure is that I'm looking forward to the Christmas break! I get 12 days off work starting from Dec. 22nd through 2nd of Jan. 2018 - woo hoo! 

In January we taking our holiday to Japan, stopping in Hong Kong for a few days on our way. I've planed to get to Toji flea market in Kyoto on the 21st and also to the Tokyo International Quilt Festival at long last! I'm really looking forward to this trip. Apart from that, our son and his family will be joining us there too. Extra excitement to have the grandchildren coming on holiday with us!

On the creative front! A lot is happening on the creative side actually. I have finished piecing the Indigo Moon quilt top. I have enough moon blocks for a queen quilt which I'm very happy with. Next thing is to find a backing big enough for it. Guest what? I walked into my local op-shop and found exactly the fabric I need. I always feel because you love fabric, in return fabric loves you right back too. In this instance I found this gorgeous designer label blue fabric, 'R.M. Williams' just right for the backing of my indigo moon quilt. A perfect marriage between Japan and Australia. How can you beat that? 

More on the creative side. I finally finished Sashiko stitching on my denim jacket. I get lots of compliments every time I wear it. I am also working on some bits and pieces as time allows. See the captions for details. 

Indigo Moon Queen Quilt Top, done and dusted!

R.M. Williams fabric is a lucky
find for quilt backing!

Sashiko stitches on denim jacket

Cutting up old rug to re-purpose into coasters

Some coasters ready to go

The complete commissioned scarf
I did for Martha in Austria. 

The big news from me has to be about my daughter Kitiya Palaskas. I'm so proud to say Kitiya's published her first book! Pinata Party is the ultimate DIY craft book for those wanting to create their own version of this party accessory. The book has now launched in Australia. It will be launched in the US in Feb. 2018. Below are some photos of Kitiya's book launch in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago. A great gift for Christmas to those creative hands...

Bruswick Bound bookstore were
onsite at the launch.

Kitiya started the lunch
with the bank/bottle!

Lots of friends came to give support

Fun night were have by all and Pinatas!

Lovely dudes came to give helping hands

One of the pages from the book. 

Lucky find:

I haven't been shopping or looking at anything to buy lately, but last weekend I took my gym buddy to my local op-shop and I just stumbled into these two adorable stools. I sat on each one of them and I fell in love with them so, got to take them home with me!

This post ends with the update on my 12 Weeks Challenge I started almost 12 weeks ago now. This is our last week in the Challenge. Unbelievable how fast the 12 weeks have flown by. Next Friday is the presentation evening. We all get to dress-up and receive our awards or the badges of attendance. I will make sure to get a good photo of us to share with you. 

I think my next post will be a Christmas post. It's going to be a low key Christmas for us. A busy time in my family this year. Will keep you updated once it is all over.

Until next time

Nat

March 2017!

2017 comes with wings! I can't believe how fast it flew by this year. After I got over Christmas and New Year holidays I went back in my treehouse studio to pick-up and work on some of my UFOs. I got the Yellow Crumb quilt top finished which was a relief. At the same time I was hand stitching the Indigo moons block for the Quilty 365 challenge which I started in 2016. I didn't get to 365 blocks, but with a clever setting, I might get enough to make a queen size quilt. 

We have had a sad event in our family. My beloved Mother-in-law passed away in late Feb. My family and I made a short trip to the funeral in Auckland, NZ. My MIL was a lovely and supporting lady for all of us. I know we will all miss her. 

My colleagues and friends at work gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers on my return, so I decided to use them in the dye bundles in memory of my MIL. I also did more dyeing using my usual eucalyptus leaves. There lot of photos here so please enjoy...

Desert Cactus flower from my garden

Sympathy flowers into bundle 

Eucalyptus leave dyed. 

More Eucalyptus dyed

First piece from the bouquet 

Second piece of the bouquet

I read somewhere in social media about the Asia Gallery Warehouse in Auckland. On my last day there I thought I would look it up and what I found was WOW! It was an amazing hidden gem of a warehouse. I got talking to one of the ladies there and found that her husband worked most of his life in Japan. Although retired, he keeps going back there and brings all the gorgeous textiles and vintage artefacts back to Auckland. It happened that he married a lovely Thai lady so he is now importing vintage textiles from northern Thailand as well. I spent a few good hours there enjoying all the displays. I imagined I was back in Japan and Thailand! Naturally, I bought some gorgeous fabric from there! 

BORO indigo Yukatas

Silk for dyeing and indigo fabric

The stash I brought home

The two lovely ladies I met there.

The Japanese wooden doll (Kokeshi doll)
to add to my collection.

Some quilts I'm working on recently: The Indigo Moon is the Quilty 365 block challenge in 2016. It started off very well. I kept it going for most of 2016.

I completed the Yellow Crumb quilt I started with my friend Myra when she visited in October. I got really motivated and got it done over the Christmas holidays. I have just sent it off to the machine quilter and I can't wait to get it back! Out of the blue I started another quilt in January. It's a quilt from the Cultural Fusion Quilts book by Sujata. My favourite thing about starting all these quilts is, I have all the fabric I need for all of them! I'm a true quilter in the sense that I thrive on reusing and re-purposing what I have. I even go as far as getting new clothes with fabric that can be use for quilting in the future!  

Setting I've chosen for Indigo Moon Quilt

Original setting, but it will need more blocks!

Yellow Crumb Quilt

Some blocks from the Cultural Fusion Quilts book

Lucky Find: I haven't posted lucky find for awhile because everything I find these days is a lucky find! But today I'd like to share with you my lucky, lucky find. A vintage Ralph Lauren, RL Polo bag. I found it at a cool vintage store in Bangkok. It's a perfect little bag to carry a wallet and a phone around. I love love using it!

Hope everyone in North America is coping well with the cold weather you have been getting lately. You are supposed to be getting into Spring aren't you? Please keep safe and warm. 

I don't have any overseas travel planned this year, but I'm planning a big trip to the Tokyo International Quilt Festival in Jan. 2018 so I am saving everything for that. You can't just go to Japan without seeing more of the country so we will fit in Kyoto and maybe the south which we have not ventured into. For 2017 we will make mini trips to the outback or a trip to Sydney later on in the year.

My lovely friend Janet Wright is complaining that I don't update my blog enough! Sorry Janet, but I really haven't done much to blog about! I can assure you that I have been physically active exercising most days. 

Until next time

Nat 

Yellow Crumb Quilt

September and October has been busy, fun and nervous time. It started when my friend Myra Dunn from Myfluffybag visited the end of September. I had a fun packed activities awaiting her. First was Quilts in the Barn's annual exhibition. The next day was Geelong Fibre Forum, a yearly event. The last day of Myra's visited I took her to ours favourite Niko Kafe in Oakleigh. What the little time we had left. We managed to play in the Treehouse Studio creating two quilts that we got inspired from Quilts in the Barn's exhibition the vintage crumb quilt. The evening before all these activities Myra mentioned the word "crumb quilting" which we looked up in Youtube, but it wasn't until we saw a vintage crumb quilt that we were in-loved with it!

You might also want to know about my nervous time? I had a small surgery on my back to removed infected cysts. I had that done a couple of days after Myra's left. I was a nervous lack for couple of weeks prior to the operation. I'm not a fan of hospital, doctor or pain! It was over in a couple of hours while I was knocked out, phew! I'm now home on sick-leave for 2 weeks. The pain had gone with the help of strong pain killers and a course of antibiotic. I'm up and about because sitting is not the most comfortable position when you have surgery on your back! I can walks and stand though! 

Now back to the Yellow Crumb Quilt. After returned from Quilts in the Barn exhibition both Myra and I were all inspired by 100 or so vintage quilts. One quilt in particular was a yellow Crumb quilt. With tone of scraps I've accumulated from quilts such as Rags to Riches and Handkerchief Corner quilt. We started to tackled our crumb quilts. I choose yellow base and Myra chooses red for hers.

The block to be 5" finished so I cut the 'F' fabric (feature fabric), which is yellow 3" wide strip, but instead of crumb piecing the whole length of strip as per YouTube's instruction I pre-cute my 3" strip into 3.5" pieces. I chain pieced all my blocks until I finished. If you are quilters you would be able to make this quilt by looking at my photos. I will try to explain under each photo what I'm doing. Enjoy!

I will need 230 block for a single size quilt.
I will not put them together until
I finished piecing all blocks.

Myra's Red Crumb Quilt

Crumb units. Very simple and not too
many pieces.

Attach 3.5" 'F' fabric onto crumb pieces.

Crumb blocks ready to trim.

Crumb units trimmed and ready to assemble. 

Block complete, now make 229 more blocks!

Imagine using Japanese fabric!

I'm using my beloved Singer Featherweight to
pieced this quilt. I love using it for
memorable quilt.

Here are the leftover crumbs. It's time to
discarded them.

Vintage crumb quilt.

Closed up of the vintage quilt.

Even closer look!

I can't see why you can't make larger blocks or make a modern looking quilt with it. I imagine using those bright and modern fabric in a quilt like this, but I love using vintage and recycled fabric so this version is perfect for me.

I hope to piece all the blocks by the time I return to work. It's a lot of fun piecing the blocks. There are so many variations of piecing I can do. With all the scraps I pre-cut for the previous quilts. It makes the process going faster than I have to cut everything from scratch.

Until next time
Nat