Summer in Tekapo bag

Last week I showed you the sights of Tekapo.  This week I'll show you what we did at the retreat.  

I taught 14 ladies how to make my Summer in Tekapo tote bag.  We had a great time experimenting with wool felt, Perle 8 threads and ombre fabrics. Everyone's bags are going to look so different because they applied their own artistic flair to the design. 

Tula Pink lining

It was a great weekend with good people and very good food.  And of course the scenery was gorgeous with all the snow on the mountains.  I definitely hope to return to Stitching in Tekapo again. 

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Quilt Symposium - Kawandi Class

My Kawandi is finished!

I took a one day Kawandi class with Lorena Uriarte at Quilt Symposium 2022.  We learnt to make Kawandi and here is mine.  

Kawandi are meant to be scrappy, but I used a charm pack of Koi Pond by Ruby Star Society.  I knew the colours would all work together and I'm pleased with how it turned out.  

But the process used up the fabric more quickly than I anticipated, so I ran out of Koi Pond fabrics before it was finished.  I had a Ruby Star Society panel in my stash, so I bravely cut in to it and put these lovely ladies in the centre.  

Lorena recommended Aurifil 12wt for Kawandi and I had a few spools in my stash to choose from. I chose a variegated one and I'm very happy with the outcome. 

Here's the back - I like it as much as the front.  The night before the class I quickly grabbed a fat quarter for my backing and it's worked out really well.  This is an Anna Maria Horner print, again from my stash.  

So, I've made a Kawandi piece.  I struggled a bit with sewing without a hoop, and without line markings, so I succumbed and started using masking tape to keep my lines parallel.  However, my masking tape was only 1/4", so my lines are quite close together and the whole piece took longer than I expected.  But I'm pleased with it and I learnt a new skill.  

I'll be taking it to Capital Quilters tomorrow for our Symposium Show and Tell.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Licorice Allsorts

Material Obsession in Sydney, Australia sent out the last package for the Wendy Williams Licorice Allsorts Block of the Month last week.  

 

So naturally I decided it was time that I actually started stitching this quilt before the next round of Block of the Months get released in July.  

Don't get me wrong - I love this quilt, and I'm very keen to make it, but I just had too many other things on the go at once.  Even I have a limit of how many things I can juggle at the same time. 

I love that this quilt combines hand embroidery with quilting.  Each month there was a motif to embroider, and some blocks to piece on the machine.  It's taken me 3 evenings to embroider the first month's motifs, so I imagine I can do the hand embroidery quite quickly, but some of the machine piecing looks a bit tricky, and I will have to be very careful with the cutting out.  I may even make some test blocks!!

I decided that I needed a new project bag to store my blocks for this quilt in, so I whipped this one up using a very interesting fat quarter I bought at Stitch Witches in Dunedin. 

It's got Soft and Stable in it so it will keep my blocks nice and flat.  Each time I make a bag I try to use a different quilting design, so this time I did a variation of a equilateral triangle design in Jacquie Gering's book, Walk 2.0.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter