A 'Rocking Community' & the Perils of Pintrest

Every Thursday morning this year myself & a team of about 10 women, plus or take a few,  have been getting crafted up ready for our school fete. Now it has to be said that this is my third school fete which happens every four years (& I am still going to be at the school for one more, I know - madness!) This fete is a big deal - the fete is bigger then Ben Hurr and raises a colossal amount of money for the school. 

There has been three of us leading it with the intention that we only had to come up with ideas every three weeks - the reality was a little different but in a good way. Last time we did this we only had craft magazines & Martha Stewart for inspiration this time there was Pintrest . . . . 

Oh my word!!

Many many a late night was spent trawling through the land of wonder that is Pinterest & our list of things to make grew and grew and grew! We almost could not be contained and the choices of clever ideas & inspiration was at times overwhelming. But eventually we couldn't squeeze anymore hours into a day & we simply ran out of time . . . never ever of ideas.

We had ladies sewing at home for us, drowning in miles of tuile, grandmas knitting, cousins, aunts, family glueing, stitching, spraying - dads fighting with eyelets, we bashed the hell out of kitchen bench tops wrestling with press studs and in the final weeks our very patient families put up with the house drowning in boxes & eating take away from the lounge room floor every night. I think the best quote of the final weeks was "I don't cook, I craft!"

. . . we made good use of street directories turning them into coasters & pictures

 

. . . there are a lots of families with dogs at our school - the dogs even have their own 'parking' area so there were fancy dog collars & bags for poo bags to clip onto dog leads!

. . . grandma craft even got a look in - don't diss them as my mother-in-law made them & they were awesome and yes, we did sell virtually all of them!

. . . christmas decs & cards, always a winner

. . . I loved these, they're 'hot bunnies' that you pop in the microwave to keep cold hands & toes warm

. . . our fab school principal knitted these!

. . . lots of stuff for babies

. . . superhero capes & masks, fairy skirts, Princess Anna & Princess Elsa capes

. . . my scrap bucket got invaded & turned into earings & hairclips

. . . Jo spent most of the year leading the team in making owl & dog cushions

. . . I even learnt how to make dream catchers!

In amongst all this chaos as you know, I launched my pattern sales across the universe & they all need tweaking, re-doing & new designs finishing. There was one very amazing lady who held it all together in the last few months & quietly sat at her sewing machine endlessly creating the most amazing things. She was a true champ & an inspiration & I love her for it.

Without getting too soppy, the thing to treasure the most from this year has been the friendship from everyone at our weekly meetings. There is nothing quite like a good old natter & a laugh while bonding over mountains of felt & sequins. I will miss my Thursday morning get togethers, my brain wont miss having to come up with what to make every week, but I will definately miss the fabulous crafty mums & Jane doing the coffee run

Big massive thanks to all those amazing ladies who came every week & the team in the organising commitee - you know who you are & you totally 100% ROCK!

x x Claire

Just so you know - it wasn't just the craft stall that was totally awesome - the jam ladies produced over 1100 jars of jam, the cake stall as well as receiving miles of home baked goodies also made their own beautifully wrapped christmas cakes, date cakes & jars of layered cookie mixture. The book stall had over 10000 donated books - 10,000 books people!!! Ladies who were running the second hand clothing stall, toy stall & bric-a-brac literally gave up ALL the space in their homes to house it all before the fete. The cup cake team baked & decorated over 600 cupcakes the day before. The food stalls were all awesome. There were bouncy castles & baby animals (which is my exhausted state described as bouncy animals & baby castles . . . slightly confused my kids!!) & even the teachers took the time to put on tea & coffee as well as being good sports & sitting up in the dunk tank - which was really funny to watch!

REWORKING MY FAVOURITES

This week sees me taking my pattern business a step further. I have recently joined the team at Creative Abundance, a company who promote & wholesale patterns from leading Australian designers . . . exciting stuff eh!

So it seemed like a fab time to rework my favourite designs, tweak the bits that annoyed me & more importantly prepare the patterns so that they are compatible with a Brother Scan n Cut machine. If you haven't come across one of these nifty little gadgets, they are a bit like a Cri-Cut machine (ones that cut paper but the Brother amazingly cuts fabric!). 

Now you might think that it is cheating, some say it takes half the fun out well I say rubbish . . . the fun part for me is the designing & I still do that the same, the second fun part is playing with colour - still the same, & the third fun part is the stitching - still the same. For me the only part that sucks is the tracing & cutting out & now I have a handy little helper to do that for me! And if you have rubbish hands like me or the shakes from a bad night out then the Scan & Cut has got that covered!

Anyhoo . . . here are a few of my reworked favourites that will (hopefully) be coming to a store near you soon

Big Pip cushion from Pip and Ellie pattern

Lots of little Pip's from Pip and Ellie pattern

NEW Poppies van cushion

Old friend, new colours . . . Slinky and the bird pattern

still need to finish this one! . . . Family of Owls cushion

All my quilt patterns will be available through Creative Abundance too & they are also sorted for the Scan and Cut . . . there are a few new ones . . . very nearly almost done!

Happy stitching

x Claire

IPAD PILLOW TUTORIAL

Most of this year I have been part of a team of girls sewing up a storm for our school fete. One of the things we have made are these handy IPad pillows. I have to admit I am one of those people that likes to retreat to my bed with my IPad to catch up on the TV drama that I have missed due to the TV being taken over by the footy or 'Horrible Histories'. . . . anyway, I love it so I thought I would share as Christmas is just around the corner & these would make great gifts from your scrap pile.

STEP 1. Take a pile of scraps, these were left over 2 1/2" scraps of Amy Butlers Hapi range.

STEP 2. Sew the scraps together to make 2 squares about 10"ish! You could just use plain squares of fabric like we did with the ones we made for the fete but I like the boho scrap option.

STEP 3. Iron the squares onto some lightweight pelon or wadding & add some quilting stitches to make it look pretty! Once the quilting has been done to both sides trim the squares back to 9 1/2".

STEP 4. To make the rest for the IPad cut a piece of fabric @ 8 3/4" x 4 1/2". I made my strip from two pieces of scraps as that's what I had. Cut a piece of iron on pellon or thin wadding to the same size & iron the fabric to the pellon.

STEP 5. Fold the strip in half & sew up the two ends making sure to back stitch at either end. Trim away the corner & turn right sides facing out.

STEP 6. Now the next bit is the only bit that might make your face crumple! Once the strip is turned with the right sides of the fabric facing out, Sew a line 1" from the fold leaving a 1 1/2" gap at one end, this makes the tube to add the rice/lentils so the IPad doesn't fall off the cushion. If you have a kitchen funnel grab it as it makes this part easier as well as a pencil. Pop the funnel into the gap & pour in some rice or lentils. Work the rice down into the tube until you have filled the tube. It is a bit fiddly as the rice doesn't like sliding along the pellon but persevere!

Using the zipper foot on your machine sew the gap closed to keep the rice in place.

STEP 7. Place the finished rest strip on top of one 9 1/2" square lining up the raw edges. Place the remaining 9 1/2" square on top so that the right sides are facing. Pin together & sew along the sides & the bottom. Take care to centre the rest strip so that you do not sew it into the sides as that will then lead to lots of unpicking!

STEP 8. Open out the top edge that you didn't sew & line up the seams. Pin in place with the seams laying in opposite directions. (It should be looking like a pyramid at this point). Sew together leaving a gap of about 3" somewhere along the edge but not over the seam or at one end. (See my picture to see what I mean)

STEP 9. Trim the corners back & turn the pillow through the gap making sure to push out the corners neatly. Now it is time to finish the pillow. I stuffed mine with Bean bag beans which work really well as the Ipad nests into it nicely but I do appreciate that you can't buy small amounts of these so you might be making quite a few to get through all the beans! You could try using ordinary hobby fill, I'm pretty sure this would work too. Once it is nicely full but not so full it is tight, hand stitch the gap closed with a ladder or whip stitch.

That's it, you are all done. Now it's time to sit back with a cuppa, your IPad & pillow and catch up with this weeks episode of Midsomer Murders!

Happy stitching

x Claire

BirdSong - new pattern

This has been many months in the making . . . many months!

It has been an idea in my head for over a year & then it lived in design form on my computer for a few more months until I took possession of my brother Scan & Cut machine. If you haven't seen one they are amaaaazing! Of all the processes in putting together an applique quilt the tracing & cutting is my least favourite. 

The designing, playing with colour and stitching I love but tracing & cutting is t-e-d-i-o-u-s!

Thats where the fancy new machine comes in. It genius, you scan the pattern, pop in the fabric & hey presto a tiny little blade cuts it all out for you. If you are familiar with a Cricut cutter for scrap booking then you know what I mean.

Anyway, it has taken me ages but this is my first pattern written especially for the Scan & cut machine as well as a traditional applique pattern.

It is a lot of pages! (but thats because it is thorough!)

It has been a labour of love. Julia Punlar of Beachside quilting in Kalaroo did an amazing job of the quilting - I'm quite specific with what I want & she did me lots of little samples until we got it right.

The pattern in now available in my Etsy shop in both the traditional applique pattern or as a Scan and Cut pattern. If you give it a go, have fun with it

x Happy stitching!

BirdSong Traditional Applique Pattern: shop here

BirdSong brother Scan and Cut Pattern: shop here

HOMESPUN AUG 2014

I was asked way back months and months ago if I could turn my Cushion Keeper pattern into something suitable for Homespun magazines Christmas in July edition . . . this is where it took me!

A super cute sleigh cushion & a little elf softie that tucks into the pocket. It is such an honour to be included in such a fantastic magazine & I hope that there are busy sewing machines across Australia making this gem ready for Christmas.

I will be putting together patterns & kits later in the year, in the meantime the magazine is available online & at all good news agencies

happy stitching

x Claire

RETREAT TIME FOR 2015

If you have ever joined us for one of our Sew-along retreats you'll know that they are a real 'treat'. One long weekend of uninterrupted sewing in amongst the beautiful tranquil setting of Toodyay WA with a group of great, great women. Jemima (of Tied with a Ribbon fame) and I have been working on next years retreats and booking will open shortly for 2015.

All the booking information can be found on Jemima's website at tiedwitharibbon.com as well as on my Sew-Along page.

. . . just a taste of what we have got up to at the last Retreat

x x Happy stitching

Exhibition over & a new bus

Its been a few weeks since the Salvedge/Selvedge exhibition finished. There were some truly inspiring pieces of work there & all in all I think everyone was impressed with the event. I know that the organising committee worked tirelessly at the event over two weeks spending time chit-chatting with the visitors and working hard to boost the auction price of each quilt.

The event raised more then enough money to buy the School of St Yared in Ethiopia a new bus which was the aim & I'm sure there is plenty of money left over to fund other well needed projects within the school.

. . . thought you might like to have a good look at some of my favourite quilts from the show.

The quilt hanging at the top was made by myself & three of my favourite people Jan, Rosie & Elaine. We have all been sewing together for years & it was nice to come together & make a quilt as a group. We called the quilt Martini Teahouse - if you follow my facebook you'll recognise that this is the quilt that taught me all about vintage fabrics, chalk & the chemical reaction between the two!

This was my absolute favourite of the show made by Lisa Repsevicius. It was a mix of wools, cord, silks & cotton fabrics - just wished i could have bid for it at the auction but no doubt it has found a happy home.

me and my big girl standing next to my horizontal stripey quilt which was the raffle prize.