My Creative Space

This week in my creative space I'd like to show you two projects that my girls are doing for their Textiles & Design class.
The Princess is in Yr 11 and is making....

a QUILT...with the theme 'The Four Seasons by Vivaldi'
She's DESIGNED IT HERSELF. SHE IS 16! I AM IN AWE...I am also SHOUTING it out to the World. Each tree will be decorated with leaves and motifs representing each season. I can't wait to see it finished.


Minky is making...

....AN AWESOME OWL PILLOW oops I'm shouting again. I CAN'T HELP IT...
MINKY IS 13. She is in Yr 8. She has to use 3 different techniques so there's going to be some 'stuffed feet', applique - wings & eyes and button pupils.


I am sure that the projects that the others are making are equally as exciting for their parents and their teachers. I am conviced, however, that these will be the BEST of the lot!!!!
I love to see them using their talents. I'm so grateful to their teachers for the encouragement and expertise they offer to the girls.


I love to think that they are following in my footsteps. I love that I have passed on to them a love of creating and the confidence to do it (...and the stash that is providing them with a huge amount of resources!!!)


They will let me help with the technical stuff - like seam allowance and showing them how to clip curves. I'm allowed to offer them my stash, my vliesofix, my buttons...BUT I AM NOT ALLOWED ANY CREATIVE INPUT - THEY DON'T WANT ANY SUGGESTIONS. I'm absolutely bursting with suggestions. But no, they are so happy with their own sense of creativity and achievement. They each had an idea of what they wanted to achieve and both made their own patterns...

IT BLOWS ME AWAY.

For more creative spaces, pop along to kootoyou. 
Make sure you pat another creative person on the back while you are over there!

thanks for taking a peek over the fence....

Bloggers Quilt Festival May 2010

 So here is my quilt for the 2010 Bloggers Quilt Festival.


This was the third quilt I ever attempted, and it is a mixture of a quilt-as-you-go BOM that I was doing from Dorothy's pattern at Chocolate Coated and a picture I saw in an Australian Country Craft magazine (from about 2007).
The 'quilt as you go' had to have sashing between the 12" blocks, but I wanted them butted together with the hourglass blocks. I won't go into the detail (it is still painful!), suffice to say the back was NOT neat.  
Of course as a complete beginner, my level of skill was in inverse proportion to my over-confidence and it took a lot longer to work out and complete than I thought (ok - I was on the verge of giving up several times, but Daughter no 2 claimed it as hers which was enough incentive to finish it).
There are several techniques, in addition to each sampler block, that I had to learn to do finish this quilt:

• quilt as you go without sashing,
• make my own bias binding for the 'stained glass' look,
• work out half-square and quarter-square measurements and cut (yay they fitted)

Unfortunately, I stuffed up the rotation of the two hour glass blocks in the third row left and bottom row middle, but didn't realise till too late (the painful, won't go into detail bit again...) - but that's ok cause I LEARNT something very important, check, check, check and check again before stitching permanently into place.

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Just click on this button on the left to get to Amy's blog and see the rest of the 'quilt show'.

PS all four borders are 6" wide they just look distorted because of the angle the photo was taken.

  

My Place and Yours -Yellow

Wow, not only has it been a long time between me posting anything, but it's been a long time since I joined in with 'My Place & Yours'. This week's  theme is YELLOW.


I like to look at yellow:

I like to use yellow:

I like to eat yellow:

So head on over here to Danielle and put a bit of colour into your day...

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Happy Mother's Day

from SMH Leunig 2010 Calendar

I have a big family (this isn't an 'intervention, by the way!) - 6 children ranging in ages from 21 to 10 yrs old.
Daily life is both chaotic and great fun.
It's lots of other -ic words too - hectic, dynamic, acerbic, apoplectic, catastrophic, idiotic...
I saw this article the other day and it really did make me smile and, in lots of places (like my desk at work!), laugh out loud.
There are many similarities with my family and the authors'.
I'd take a good guess that many of the observations don't apply exclusively to large families either.


So to all you Mothers out there - with families big or small...may the only competition on Mother's Day be to give you the most hugs....

 HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY 

Sunday,  May 9, 2010

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

My Creative Space

I'd just like to point out that April has sneakily disappeared from my life. There I was, minding my own business, enjoying the month and it went and disappeared. Just like that. No "thank you for visiting April, do come again." or "April is happy to be of service, would you like another day, or week?". Gone. In a blur of work, household and family duties.


Luckily there was some creativity going on amongst all the chaos...

...turning tea towels into place mats and coasters.


There's a whole lot more creating going on over here.

Thanks for taking a peek over the fence...