My First Clamshell Club Report

Well I have finally started after doing lots of research and receving some much need advice. 

I decided I would order papers from Lizard of Oz only to find that when they arrived, they were printed onto a sheet and I had to cut them all out!  I'm too lazy for that but the instructions that came with them were very informative.

I covered some papers and then decided I would join them together - that is when all the fun started.  I found it nearly impossible to keep them all straight and in line and dreaded to think how I was going to attach the following rows. 

Jean from Linen & Raspberry has been working on her own clamshell quilt that she had done in a class with Brigitte Giblin and I have been admiring her progress for some time.  In a recent post, she mentioned that Brigitte Giblin has a new website and you can buy her patterns and download them as soon as you have paid for them, so that is what I did.

Brigitte's method doesn't use papers at all and is different to everything I had previously read.  Unfortunately I can't do a tutorial on it because it is directly from her pattern, but if you are interested, I found her website to be great.  The pattern was very reasonably priced and the download worked like a charm.  If you click on her name above, it will take you to her website.

I have managed to make 33 clamshells but as yet, haven't sewn any rows.  I would like to thank Jean and Robyn from Daisy Quilts, for their advice and also a big thankyou to Cybelle for organising the Clamshell Club.

I am looking forward to visiting all the other members and see their progress and making some new cyber friends.  Cybelle has a list on her sidebar and you can click on the Clamshell Club button on my sidebar to take you to her blog.

I haven't been leaving many comments over the last couple of days as I have a very sore shoulder and I am sure it is from all this computing!!!!  I have been reading everyone's posts and please forgive me if I haven't been commenting, hopefully it will right itself soon.

Sue-Anne xxx

Shopping, Calendar Girls, Klosjes & Hexagons

I had the best day yesterday.  I spent the day in Melbourne with friends and we went to the stage show, Calendar Girls.  I have not laughed that much for a very long time, by the time the show was finished my whole face was aching.

Of course, being in the centre of Melbourne at Stocktake Sale time means only one thing - SHOPPING FOR BARGAINS.  We all saved money on our purchases and had lots of fun looking at clothing and handbags that were waaaay out of our price range.

I got this gorgeous lace scarf and a pair of Mink Denim Jeans, as well as some Mac cosmetics (my favourite). 

I have made 5 Klosjes this week bringing a total of 84.

I have also been working on hexagons and have managed another 6 for the week.

This one is my favourite for the week with the black pinstripe fabric a gift from Sarah.  It is a Yuwa treasure.

I have also been playing with clamshells but more on that later this week when I do my first monthly report for the Clamshell Club.

I have had a busy weekend, with Melbourne on Saturday and Nicholas, the prodigal son deciding to move back home today.  You can just imagine the mess I have in the house from stuff brought in and not put away yet?????  The cats are very unhappy because they are no longer allowed to sleep on the bed in his room now that he is back.  Buddy is very happy though because now he has his Bro back to play with.

Sue-Anne xxx

Small Finishes & Klosjes

Well my Klosjes report for the week is a big fat 0.  This is as far as I got, pulling all the fabric out and then putting it all away.  I don't know where the week has gone, maybe the long weekend had something to do with it because I didn't know what each day was last week.  I did know Wednesday though because I was sulking at home whilst Jan and Michelle were in Sydney.  I was ok until they sent me pics from their phones visiting Annie Downs' stand!

I have had a couple of small finishes though.  I bought this pattern in April at the Quilt convention and finally finished it.  It is stuffed with crushed walnut shells and feels divine.

I also quilted and bound this little quilt, even put a label on the back!  I made the top over Christmas and was sick of it lying around not being used.

 

I also quilted and bound this little one.  I had a bit of trouble with deciding how to quilt it but it's finished and I'm happy.

And lastly, here is my little man.  All fluffy and happy - not so tomorrow, he has a date at the groomers.

Sue-Anne xxx

Not Just Nat, Klosjes & A Good Idea

I had a very exciting morning on Friday.  I got to meet Nat!  Nat is from Not Just Nat fame and she was passing through Wodonga on her way to Canberra.

And where else should we meet but at Patchwork on Stonleigh, my local quilt shop.  Thank you Nat for stopping and visiting, it was so much fun and hopefully we will catch up again soon.

Klosjes report equals 5 again this week for a total of 79!  4 more weeks and I will reach 100!!!!  This week's Klosjes have some special fabrics in them.  Jan gave me the backgrounds for the blue one, see the butterflies, and the red one on the right with the sky rockets.  I think this quilt is going to be a real memory quilt.  I haven't bought any fabrics for this one, just using what is in my stash and each week, I remember certain quilts I have made, or trips where I got a particular fabric from or, like this week, special friendships.

I don't have too much else to report on the sewing front this week.  I am still busy with the applique on Swan Lake and have managed to applique 3 sheep on Phebe (will show when I have finished the 5).  I did go shopping yesterday and came home with this small salad bowl.  Since having the two boys move out, we don't need huge buckets of salad for dinner now and I am finding that a lot of my dishes are too big for the 3 of us.  I saw this one and fell in love with it.  That's not salad in there, just some vegies for our soup tonight.

Now onto this great idea.  I have lots of pages that have information for quilting, like how to make a continuous bias, no waste flying geese method etc.  I have several folders that I keep them in, along with patterns but whenever I need a particular one, I  can't remember which folder it is in and I end up having to pull them all out till I find the right one.

I can't take credit for this idea as I stole it from Jan, but if you laminate your sheets and punch a hole in them, you can them slip them onto a ring clip and hang them in your sewing room.

I have laminated all sorts of notes, including particular embroidery stitches that I can never remember how to do as well as cards from quilt shops that I don't want to lose.

You can purchase laminators now from just about anywhere, I got mine from Safeway and it wasn't that expensive.  You can buy the sheets from there as well. 

Well that's all from me today, hope everyone is having a great weekend.  Oops, almost forgot, Nic and I saw the Japanese spaceship that is landing in Australia.  Nic saw it first and came around last night thinking he had seen a UFO.  Howard had read about the spaceship landing at Woomera and thought maybe it was that.  Two hours later, we stood outside (in the freezing cold) and after 5 minutes I said I had had enough and was going inside and then there it was, flashing across the evening sky really fast, just like Startrek!  Now before you all laugh, it wasn't a shooting star as it didn't have any arc to it flying through the night sky.  It was heading straight out and moving heaps faster than a satellite.  All I can say is, if it wasn't the Japanese spaceship, it must have been a flying saucer!!!!

Sue-Anne xxx

"the truth is out there"

Quilting Journals, Klosjes & Swan Lake

I recently read a post on Barbara Brackman's blog about Sewing Diaries.  It was really interesting and if you haven't seen it, just click on the link.  I then saw Wilma's blog and she had done a post on Quilting Diaries too.

A couple of years ago, an issue of Homespun magazine came with a DVD from Leanne Beasely about creating a scrapbook to document our quilts.  I gave it a go and have documented several of my quilts, but after reading these posts, it got me thinking that perhaps there was more that we needed to do to document each quilt.  My journal has some interesting information about each quilt but nothing detailed, such as pieces of fabric and what range it came from.

Last year I participated in an Antique Quilt Study group and there were so many questions unanswered about the maker of each quilt, how much did she spend on fabric, how long did it take to make, what inspired her to make that particular design etc.

Anyway, it's Food for Thought.  Who knows, 100 years into the future maybe our blog archives will be found somewhere and quilters will marvel at what we did "way back when".

Klosjes report is 5 for this week, making a total of 74!

I am still obsessed with Swan Lake at the moment and have prepared my second border of hexagons, all ready to be appliqued.  Max refused to get off the quilt and every time I shooed him away and lined up another photo, he jumped back on it!

He is playing on it here, trying to attack something in his imagination!!!!

And of course, I have two more favourite hexagons for this week.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Sue-Anne xxx