Gearing up

Ahhh... A lovely clean studio and a picturesque display of the beginnings of a leisurely craft project...

Yes, well, that didn't last long. 

That photo was from the week after Christmas, when my studio was still empty, having been cleared for our family Christmas lunch, and I was embarking on my holiday quilting project.

For the last month or so, it's been looking pretty much like this...

I've been making garments and step by-step-samples of garment techniques, in preparation for my classes at Grampians Texture this year.

This year, my 2-day and 4-day classes are both about garment sewing. 

The 4-day class - The Endless Wardrobe - is about making the most of the garment patterns by changing around or adding details like pockets, button and zipper openings, collars, cuffs, pleats and gathers. A single pattern can be used as a foundation for endless designs, if you know a few clever patternmaking and garment sewing techniques. We'll be exploring a lot of those.

There have been a couple of late cancellations in the 4-day workshop, which means that there is still room in the class for late enrollments. If you feel like spontaneously treating yourself to a textiles retreat (18th-23rd March), here's your opportunity! :)

I'm looking forward to the lovely bubble of textile goodness and gorgeous Grampians landscape that Grampians Texture is. 

I'm looking forward to friendly kangaroos on my classroom doorstep.

If you want a single day of this sort of thing, I'm teaching at Cutting Cloth in Fairfield again this year.  Apart from March (when I'll be in the Grampians), I'll be there on the 3rd Sunday of each month. You can work on your own projects, and I can help with things like fitting and tweaking and lots of tricks for a faster, easier or better finish. 

And yes - the holiday quilting project was finished.  It was a quilt for my girl's bed. No guessing what she asked the design to be.

The fabric is mostly Jodie Carleton's range "The Cat's Pajamas".  I made up the cat as I went along, and the quilt blocks in the background are from Tula Pink's Modern Quilt Blocks book.  I quilted the whole thing with cat-head shapes.

This is the back of the quilt.

In other news, I have book edits coming in soon for the new book (due out in November) and I'm back at my regular fashion school job.  

It's all go. No more tidy studio.

Back to work

Well, I suppose holidays are not meant to last, or they wouldn't be holidays, would they? 

 

I've been back at work for the last couple of weeks, and so busy that until now, I haven't had time to blog the final wrap-up of the holiday projects...

 

This is the quilt that began life as a small panel for a Day Bag, way back in April. 

 

It's made from scraps of my favourite fabrics by Australian designers.  I'm lucky to know and love a lot of these gals in real life, so it's an extra buzz when I use their fabrics.  If you look closely, you'll see treasures by Pippijoe, Kristen Doran, Curlypops, Ink&Spindle, Veritas, Surface Art, Saffron Craig, Yardage, Auntie Cookie et al.

 

It's a snuggle quilt for the couch - not a single-sided bed quilt - so I tried to make the back a bit interesting as well.... without putting too much work into it.  This took a few hours, in stark contrast to the months spent working on the front.

 

 

I finished it on New Year's eve .... and celebrated with fireworks over the city of Melbourne. 

 

(Ok, so maybe someone else put on the fireworks.  I drank fancy champagne with friends on a hill just outside the city, watching fireworks and cheering in the new year.)

 

 

The ongoing saga of the couch overhaul has become.... well... an ongoing saga.  In all my re-upholstery projects, I have never seen so many staples (somebody had an awful lot of fun with a staple gun!).  The cushion covering bit was a breeze and the removal of the old coverings has become a zen practice, that I come back to from time to time. 

 ...and in the meantime, the lounge room looks like an upholstery workshop.  I don't have much time for The Zen of Staple Removal during the average working week.  It's slow-going.

We have been harvesting a lot of home-grown vegetables and herbs over the last few weeks, and looking forward to a lot more.

 

The satisfaction of sitting down to a home-grown meal never seems to wear off, and it's even nicer when it's a picnic. We plan to make time for more picnics during the working week... we picnic close to the back door.

 

I'm  not complaining about being back at work.  Last week, despite whining incessantly about the ridiculously long heatwave we had in Melbourne (temps in the low-to-mid 40's - that's hovering around 110 for you Americans - and me without air conditioning), I really enjoyed a 3-day bag-making masterclass at Kimono House.

 

You can read Kylie's post about her experience here.  And if you think you'd like to do a 2-day workshop, you can book in here.

 

The class schedule is booking up.  I have dates booked for Canberra, Healesville, CAE (Melb city), and of course, Kimono House.  I'm also running my own Zippers For Bags class in Brunswick, which you can book into here.  There is also Grampians Texture, which I'm super-excited about.... can you imagine a whole week of textile indulgence?  Heaven!  I'm teaching a 2-day Bag-Making workshop and a 4-day Pattern-Free Garment workshop. 

The next few weeks will see me writing lots of class plans and doing lots of sewing of step-by-step examples of technical processes.  I will also be throwing great swathes of fabric about the place and whipping up a new pattern-free wardrobe for myself and a few friends. ... and occasionally removing a few more inches of staples from the couch.

 

Feeling quilty

I've had this niggling quilty feeling for the last few weeks.  I keep thinking about the quilt I accidentally started (when I was making a patchwork panel for a small handbag) a few months ago.

 

I woke up on Sunday and started stitching again. I needed a day to let my brain freewheel and unwind, and this seemed like the perfect meditation.

 

Every fabric is designed by an Australian, and I'm lucky enough to call some of those talented designers my friends. These were scraps that were too precious to throw out.

 

I had visions of floating these strips in broad bands of a solid colour, but couldn't decide which colour.  After bit of experimentation, I thought a mix of red, black and grey would be interesting...

 

I started cutting up fabric and began the well-practised art (read: habit) of flying by the seat of my pants.  There was no clear plan.... just the enticing notion of a finished quilt and a strong sense of very little time in which to make it.

 

 

After I cut up all the red fabric I had, I decided that there should have been more thought put into proportions and layout, with a few much wider bands.  I didn't have enough fabric to re-cut. 

 

In came a 3-D shadow effect with grey and black.... which appears to be overwhelming the subtlety of the pieced prints.... I'm not sure about it... but it's sewn together and there's no more red and.... well... let's just see what happens, shall we...?

 

My approach to quilting appears to be of the improvised "from little things, big things grow" variety, which - as an amateur - could lead me into all sorts of unforseen  trouble.

 

My girl, on the other hand, is a planner.  She dreams big.

 

She talked about "an idea for a quilt" for a week before she suggested starting it at a time that wasn't two minutes before bed, in the middle of dinner or just as we were simultaneously brushing teeth and running out the door to get to school on time. 

 

 

  We found an appropriate moment and she started vliesofixing and sketching out shapes for applique.

 

 

There were flower petals cut and flower petals fused, and then the addition of a caterpillar... and then the retro-fitting of some caterpillar-bites out of a flower petal....

 

 ...and then the narrative of the caterpillar story was 'adjusted' to fit in with the designer's waning enthusiasm for flower-petal cutting and fusing.

 

"The caterpillar ate the rest of the petals."

 

It was quilted, "bound" and declared finished.  

 

I think that maybe, some time in the future, she'll be employing me.

More of the Making

Less of the writing, this week. 

 

I had to make new Glam Purses, because two of the samples that used to be in the showroom appear to have ended up in my wardrobe.  Oops. 

I also made a Kiss Purse in this fabulous print by Surface Art....

 

...and this Mod bag in Echino fabric.

 

This fabric is a joy to work with.  Love, love, love....

 

 

I decided last week, that since I've had a bit more patchwork practise in the last year or so, I should re-make the panel that was originally in this Day Bag(which was supposed to represent "you can put patchwork in here" but ended up just making a very dull bag).

 

I'd earmarked Saturday evening as leisure time (having taught a zipper class all day) and had a dinner date with a girlfriend.  She was suddenly swamped with work (I hang out with kindred spirits) and cancelled.  I took the opportunity to play with patchwork.

 

I used fabrics by all Australian designers - Pippijoe, Ink&Spindle, Surface Art, Veritas, Saffron Craig and Kristen Doran.

 

But before I came up with a panel that fit in the space, I accidentally made blocks and strips that inspired me to go in other directions.

 

 

I then found myself still at it at 4.30 am.... ahem.... a little obsessed with the notion of a quilt.

 

(Since I'll be missing out on our annual May Sewjourn while I'm in the USA, I figure this was in lieu of my annual dose of 4am Sewjourn sewing.) 

 

 

With a brief afternoon break in the city, having High Tea with Cam and the girls and then catching up with Lara, Karen and Tanya in the early evening, I went back to the quilt....

 

Now all I need is my super-quilting-hero Annie to give me her usual gentle guidance and encouragement as I flail about in the unfamiliar territory of quilting, trying to decide which way to go towards finishing it.

 

And now, it's back to logistics and packing for the trip to Quilt Market (....and trying to figure out Google+, and wondering if it's really worth the bother.... any thoughts?). 

 

And then I'll do some more sewing.....

If it's Saturday, it must be Canberra...

I'm off to Canberra first thing tomorrow, to teach a couple of classes.  Amid the prepping and packing today, I remembered to finish and photograph this bag, which was started weeks (or months?) ago.

I'm getting good at this mass-bird-slaughter-with-a-single-stone thing.  This bag was made to demonstrate one of  the zippers styles we'll be doing in the class on the weekend (and in other Zippers for Bags classes).

 

It's also an example of how to manage bulky fabrics, as it's made from a felted jumper, some heavy denim, leather and polypropylene webbing straps.  I'll be focusing* on this sort of troubleshooting in the workshops at Grampians Texture in February, and it will get a mention or two in the new book. 

*Shame I couldn't manage any sort of focus in the photo above... but it's the only one I took of the felted jumper side of the bag, so there it is.

I'll be in Canberra this weekend, teaching the Zippers for Bags and a class in making Hats.  Next weekend I'm back here, teaching something else (bags?) and then I'll be back in Canberra the following weekend. 

If you want to see if there are any last-minute cancellations which might allow you to jump in, or if you want to go on the waiting list for next year's classes, contact Addicted To Fabric.  Apparently the classes book up quickly, but you never know when a last-minute vacancy might appear.

Other travellers this week are the two baby quilts I started at Sewjourn and then put together in Apollo Bay.  An unannounced visit from my US-living sister prompted a quick binding and packaging.  The quilts will be winging their way to some special little girls in the USA, any day now.

I just wish that today had been anything other than a grey, rainy one, so I could have taken a decent photo of this one before it was sent off.

There has been more scheduling and phone-calling and emailing and form-filling and route-planning and networking (...!!..)  and the US trip for me is coming together a bit more clearly.  It's now looking like I might be able to stay a few weeks with family and come back via a nephew's wedding in Hawaii.  Hooray.  It'd be a great opportunity to throw in a few teaching gigs, and there has indeed been correspondence about possible classes, but nothing has been confirmed yet. 

Tonight, I'm taking it easy, eating ice-cream and considering going to bed with a good book.  I'm calling it the weekend.

Great.

I've just come back from a great weekend away.  Just me, my sewing machine and my knitting machine. 

I know.  Indulgence.

The truth is, I haven't been feeling so great lately.  Real life has been biting and my health and productivity at work have copped a battering.  The realisation struck that I hadn't had more than the odd weekend break in more than 5 years, and the last time I had more than a week's break was over ten years ago. 

It occurred to me last week that if I didn't escape for a few days to completely unwind, I may hit a VERY hard wall before the end of the next 12 weeks, which are booked solid with teaching and writing work (umm...ok... and another crafty weekend sometime mid-September.... but that seems too far away).

It felt vital to take up the offer of a friend's holiday house and escape down the Great Ocean Road immediately - child-free and work-free. I left after school drop-off on Friday and came back in time for school pick-up on Monday.

 

The quilts I started at Sewjourn in May came together over the weekend.  I'm yet to find the perfect fabric to bind one of them, but the other is finished. They made me happy and feel a bit proud of myself.  I kept looking at them all weekend.  

There was also machine-knitting and (simultaneous) Boardwalk Empire-watching, there was reading and walking and listening to audio books. 

There was no telephone, no internet and no work.  There was no having to be anywhere or do anything and there was no having to take responsibility for anything.  I needed this part, most of all.

It's more than 20 years since the last time I stayed in this part of the world but it was the place where my family always went when we were kids, often several times a year.  It was my parents first home when they were newly-weds and young parents, and is steeped in history and tradition for us.  A holiday homeland, of sorts.

As I walked along the beach yesterday, I found myself treading through memories of sandcastles and campfires, hot baked potatoes and freshly caught fish...songs and laughter.... of being a child, a teenager and a young adult in this place. 

I came up off the beach and found myself in front of the house we stayed in for most of the holidays of my teenage years.  More than 25 years absence couldn't erase my instinct for where 'our' path from beach to house is.

It felt great. Like home.

The sky and sea were so blue today, I changed my plans of driving (quickly) through the mountains to the freeway to taking the Great Ocean Road (slowly) back to Melbourne.  Stunning.

I feel recharged.  Shut down and restarted.  De-fragged.  Great.

A weekend at home.... the other one, I mean.

Ah... Sewjourn....

Each time we go to Sewjourn, it feels more like home. 

It's a haven where time and routine don't exist.  Or... at least not until about 2pm on Sunday, when the buzz of sewing machines takes on a somewhat desperate pitch as we all silently begin to realise that it's nearly time to go back to real life (... but not yet....I just want to finish this...).

Despite Lara's husband's advice, it was actually perfectly alright to stay up too late. 

And it was also perfectly normal to be up at the crack of dawn, sewing in pj's.  (Some of us were up quite a bit later, having been sewing until ridiculously close to the crack of dawn.)

 And it was absolutely bloomin' marvellous to be able to sew all day! 

There were loads of finished garments and lots of sharing of ideas and knowledge.

Lara's scrap box was the scrap box that kept on giving.....

Annie was quilting up a storm ...and a rather fetching grey knit top (not from the scrap box).

Megan was paper-piecing an amazing shades-of-red piece, which I failed to photograph adequately.

 And I somehow found myself slipping to the dark (and scrappy) side.

Oops.

Thank you - once again - to Kathryn, Rachel, Annie, Lara, Megan, Karen and Tanya - for being the remarkable women that you are.  I can't wait until November so we can do it all over again.

Lara has some lovely photos of the weekend here.