Tambani

I have just had a note from Clara Wagenmeester from Tambani up in the Northern Province about their new blogsite http://tambani.blogspot.com .


For those of you who don't know about Tambani, its an embroidery project run in conjunction with Venda people, providing them with an income so please take a look at their blog and what they are doing to help establish (mostly) Venda women in viable income generating activities.

International Quilt Association ( AKA HOUSTON!)

I have just come across the link to the IQA  summer newsletter and thought I would share it with you.
http://www.quilts.org/journal.html


Its a really well put together magazine with nice clean lines, lots of space and easy to flip pages. Added to that, its REALLY easy to read.


There are now many digital quilting magazines on the Net and as people get more experienced at net publishing so the magazines are improving.

Eish! but Topsy- She is Growing!

I have now resolved my differences with this quilt- especially the bit in the top left hand corner.
After playing with 3 or 4 different treatments of this particular piece, I settled on using the charcoal I originally had but sewed in some "skinnies" using a very dark blue with a gold splatter. Its hard to see in the photograph but it works. The gold splatter on those skinnies shows up just enough to pique the interest.


Here is a photo of what I did:

What surprised me was that each section could have been a quilt on its own.

This is"Topsy"  with three sections joined. The one on the right hand side is currently loose as I still have to construct the bottom right hand corner and sew on the two pieces of fabric right at the bottom of the quilt.


I suppose I'll have to give it a name at some stage.

Visiting Local Quilt Exhibitions

This weekend, some three friends and I paid a visit to the Meander Quilters Guild exhibit at Howick, about 1 1/2 hours drive inland from where we live.
We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather and there weren't too many idiots on the road.

The venue was a hall at the local high school which looks out  south west across the Howick area. The guild did themselves proud with dozens of well executed quilts on a variety of themes.
Here is an example of one by Mary-Anne Smith

This forms part of a triptych, the rest of which can been seen on the Tollgate Quilters Guild Blog  

 www.tollgatequiltersguild.blogspot.com

This is adaption of a pattern by "Katie Lane Quilts".













After this exhibition, we paid a visit to the Church of the Vow complex in Pietermaritzburg where an exhibition of quilts with an architectural theme was held.It was unfortunate that when we arrived there, the person on the reception hadn't a clue about the exhibition.It was also a pity that there were no names on any of the quilts.

However,OUTSIDE the building we found piles of old parquet flooring stored against a wall and they made for some wonderful  photographs.

Here is one:

I just love the lines that these tiles produce,all piled up in a corner.












If you want to find out more about this museum complex go to  http://www.voortrekkermuseum.co.za

Growing like Topsy (3)

I've progressed a bit more than I thought but equally I have hit a snag.
Here is a photo of the latest progress and I have a concern about the top left hand corner of this quilt. I don't know whether to leave it as it is and rely on the quilting to break up the rather large expanse of charcoal or to insert thin lines of perhaps the dark blue from lower down in the quilt? Or should I just leave well alone? Comments, please!

New Pattern

The pattern is now finished -and the customer is holding off until next  year so here is a sneak preview until I can get it up on my website.

Its s-o-o-o easy to make and only takes 1 colour family roll and 1.25 meters of back ground fabric. I rather like the format so I might design another quilt with different subject matter.

Growing like Topsy

In between working on "Topsy" I've been designing a new pattern for my website- but can't publish the thing until I've heard from a client who would like to use the pattern for a mystery quilt first.

This afternoon was the first time in a week, I have had the time to concentrate on "Topsy" and its growing apace again. I have almost finished the left hand side of the quilt -barring a few more strips and then I will start on the bottom right hand corner. This is the area where I want to use Alicia Merett's method of making squares.

I dug out the camera and took some more photos.  Here is what "Topsy" looks like now.

Comments anyone?

Arctic Circle Photos

I was looking through my Arctic Circle photos this morning and came across this photo of husky pups at a settlement in Greenland. They are seriously cute at this age and run free until they are about  9 months old - at which point they are chained up along with the older dogs and they begin their training as sledding dogs.