Kokka past

As you may have read from my post last week, I totally love Melody Miller's super duper fabric, especially this retro beauty from Ruby Star Rising which I hope to make into a funky bag:

Now when I looked at the selvedge, I noticed that Melody's fabric is manufactured by the Japanese firm Kokka.  This rang a bell.  Where had I heard of Kokka before?  Being a terminally curious soul, I started rummaging through my fabric cupboard.

(Aside 1: it is never a good sign if you have to physically check the contents of a cupboard to know what is in your stash.  Either it means you have too much fabric, or you are very forgetful.  Neither is good.)

Then I found this:

...which I vaguely remember buying at the Festival of Quilts 2009.  I can't remember which stall had it but I saw it and thought it would make a lovely little girl's dress.  However, being at FOQ, I could only point at the fabric (whilst being jostled and squashed by the thousands of other excited fabric addicts) and when I got it home I found that it was a heavier weight of fabric and wouldn't work for a dress.

Conversely, I bought the Viewfinders fabric specifically because I wanted a heavier weight fabric so that I could make a bag, so I am thinking that maybe this bonkers cat fabric could make a bag too.  But I'm not too sure.  I am so surprised at finding it that I am at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it.  Although take a closer look at the selvedge - has there ever been a groovier selvedge?

(Aside 2:  being a bit of an admin fascist, I do have an official log of my stash at the back of my project book which I use partly to keep me on track with projects and partly to curb my fabric habit.  The fact that this fabric is missing from my log might indicate that I am more in denial than I previously suspected.)

I have about 2 metres of this stuff.  Ideas for projects (or therapy) welcome!

Gertie xxx

Another June finish ... don't get used to it

Well this certainly doesn't happen often - 2 quilt finishes in the same month?  Goodness me.  This is a simple pinwheels quilt made from 2 charm packs from Fig Tree's lovely line Breakfast At Tiffany's:

I made it for my eldest daughter's teacher who is possibly the most lovely teacher in the land.  We will miss her when we move to the next class up *sniff*.  Here's a close up so you can see the quilting - it is an all-over pattern by my trusty long-armer:

I actually finished it a couple of days before the Lily & Will quilt but I thought I would wait for a nice sunny day before photographing it - the Lily & Will photo was dismal because of the poor light, but as it was going off in the post the following day, it had to suffice.

It does seem that I am blogging about my quilts backwards - my most recent finishes first and slowly going backwards in the vein of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  I'm sure this alone is sufficient justification for a (gratuitous) picture of Mr Pitt:

I am quietly relieved that I have a (small) backlog of quilts to blog about to cover when my sewing output is too embarrassing to mention.  However I have just joined an online Bee and so I will have a stitchy deadline to meet every month which should keep me on my toes.  Kelly is our first Bee-er (Bee-ette?  Bee lady?  I am not sure of the terminology) and so I am looking forward to receiving some of these colourful goodies in the post to make into blocks with circles:

Watch this space!

Gertie xxx

These are a few of my favourite things...

How ironic that, having just read about Helen's problem of her ever-expanding stash, the very next morning what should arrive in the post but 4 metres of lovely fabric from M is for Make:

How my heart sings when a big fat fabric parcel arrives in the post!  Somehow even though I already know what's in it (unless I'm having a VERY forgetful day), I am still terribly excited to get it open to look at the fabric.

My favourite fabric is this retro-style Viewfinders fabric from Ruby Star Rising by Melody Miller, printed by Kokka fabrics:

Be still my beating heart!  This might just be the coolest fabric of all time.

I saw Kelly with a bag made of this at the Fat Quarterly Retreat and immediately wanted to steal it before concluding that making my own might be a better idea.  Given that nobody within a 50 mile radius of me actually sews, they won't know that my bag is Viewfinders bag #2.  Out of deference to Kelly, as trendsetter, I promise not to bring my bag to FQR 2013 (if indeed I get around to making it by then).

I also got a pleasant surprise at the weekend after going through my daughter's party bag, auditing it to remove small items that the baby might attempt to eat or stick up her nose.  Instead of the usual tut such as frogs that stick to windows or mini harmonicas, look what loveliness was inside:

... a Liberty print Hello Kitty!  Yay!

Blog hop shout out

Just a quick post to remind everyone to hop over to the most recent Blog Hop participants from the Plum & June Blog Hop:

June 12
    Kelly from Jeliquilts 

    Yzo from Chez Roo

June 14

    Debbie from A Quilter's Table

    Sarah from Silly Banana Sewing

June 19

    Jennifer from Sewlandia

    Nicole from Mama Love Quilts

June 21

    Suzanne from SuzClaas

    Mina from Kindaquilty

I have been checking out the blogs a couple a night and have been pleasantly surprised at all the different crafty things that everyone is making in blogland.  For example, check out Nicole's tutorial for this super cute applique house mini quilt and how to hang it by adding pockets to the corners:

Be sure to open the photo to see the fab quilting of little bricks on the yellow house - great work Nicole!

Gertie xxx

Crafty output slowdown

I have had one of those weeks where we have had lots of nonsense like children's parties and messed-up naptimes leading to late bedtimes, so my sewing output has dropped off a cliff.  The little bit of sewing I have done - hand sewing hexagons in front of the telly - whilst enjoyable and relaxing for me, would be quite dull to photograph.  One stack of hexagons is very much like another, so maybe look at this photo from the other week:

and imagine a few more stacks, very similar.  Yawn.

The reason I have been continuing with hexagons instead of starting to join them together is that I have been trying to think of something innovative to do with them.  Each time I laid them out I kept ending up back at a classic Grandmother's Garden.  However then I chanced upon this lovely piece of work:

from Quiltville - I am going to get my crayons out to see if mine could look as good as this in the Rouenneries colourway.  I think at this point it was just a WIP by Bonnie so I would love to see how it is finished.

As an aside, I sat hand sewing my hexagons in front of Series 2 of Episodes on Sky+ - it does make us chuckle.  The fight between the characters Matt and Sean at the end of Series 1 was the funniest TV fight I think I have seen.

Photo courtesy of SHO

Gertie xxx

Crazy birds

A little OT I know but we have had this happen 2 years in a row now - crazy garden birds.

Last year we had a blue tit who would come and fly up to the French window and try any which way to get in.  Fluttering around the handle and pecking at it occasionally.  He did this for a couple of weeks before he either got bored or died of malnutrition for spending too long on our door handle and not enough time foraging.

Then this week, we have had a crazy chaffinch.  He looks quite young, and pecked at 3 of our windows at the back off and on, but then settled on the side window.  I'm not sure if the photo will show it properly because I took it with my phone, but this is the mess he has made with his infernal pecking (see especially at the bottom - all of those vertical marks are peck marks):

Any ideas?  Will he just get bored and go away?  I wondered if it was that he could see his reflection, so I put the blind down, but he still carried on because I could hear him tapping.  I hope he stops soon as I daren't open the window in case he comes in!

Apologies for the random nature of this post - hopefully normal service will resume shortly.

FQ Retreat Day 2 - afternoon

At last it is time for the FQ Retreat Sunday afternoon to show & tell.  My final class was with the extraordinarily charismatic Katy - Channel 4 if you are listening, this lady needs her own show.  You need to tin Kirstie Allsopp, entertaining poppet though she may be, and launch Katy's TV career.  Your ratings will go through the roof!

Katy kindly did my name badge, which I haven't photographed yet, but I will.  Imagine, if you will, a needlework version of this:

... although not quite as big and my glasses are a bit less Timmy Mallett than that.  She also gave me a groovy little bag stuffed with goodies - including a petit fours (like a charm pack but teeny 2 1/2" squares) of Juggling Summer by Zen Chic fresh from Quilt Market in Kansas City (soooooo jealous!):

Katy's class was Frame Purses, a class that I was scared of, because I couldn't for the life of me see how on earth I would be attaching a fabric pouch to a metal frame.  Then I found out about this:

Thank you U-Handbag for this image of Gutermann HT2 seriously strong & whiffy fabric glue.  This is yet another technique that I am so glad that I did in a class.  If I had been following instructions on a page I am not sure whether I would have come out with a completed project, but when you have Ms Katy reassuring you "really ram the fabric up with your scissors, you can be more aggressive than that" - then this is what you can end up with:

I am so pleased with my purse!  It is a nice chunky one - the frame is 6" x 3" so it is much bigger than it might look here.  Check out this post on Katy's blog for a nice picture of all the purses in our class:

...mine conspicuous in its absence because I was too slow - I was still covered in glue at this point.

I then raced back down to the main room to see if I could catch the end of Lucie Summers' Portholes class but it was all but over.  Gutted.  Everyone raved about the "ah-ha!" moment in the technique and I can't guess what it is.  However I am hoping to go to the London Modern Quilt Guild's next meeting and Amy has kindly offered to give me a quick tutorial.

For those who haven't seen Lucie's award-winning Portholes quilt, here it is:

which I believe won best quilt at the Festival of Quilts 2010 (correct me if I'm wrong!).  It certainly deserved to!

Gertie xxx