St Pius X continues….

So I’ve been stitching up a storm with the St Pius X quilt. At this stage it is in 4 sections. Top, middle, bottom and borders. I am slowly piecing the sections together to make sure every blocks points match. Hence why I spent two days trimming up the blocks to make them all the same size.

Due to the number of blocks there will be some in the border – maths dictates in this case. I’ve kept everything balanced as best I can. Colours were the most important thing to balance as when you look at a quilt your eyes move to track certain colours and shapes. So when placing the blocks I made sure that the colours were balanced in the most soothing way for everyone’s eyes as this quilt will be on display for many years to come. 🙂

I’ve actually never made a quilt quite this large (I’ve spread it out over the classroom table 6ft x 9ft and then also had to put up one of my market trestle tables!) so it’s a bit of a learning curve for me in terms of size.

The quilt will be all together by (hopefully tomorrow afternoon) but more likely early next week and on the long arm ASAP. I lost some time today due to a headache and a longer visit with dad at the hospital.

 

More progress notes to come.

Off to bed now. 🙂

Marni

 

 

Works in progress…

A few days ago I started work on the St Pius X 75th Anniversary quilt. I cleared off my workbench and placed all the blocks in rows to try and get the best layout in terms of colours and patterns. There is a terrific mix of blocks as some families had theirs machine embroidered professionally and some have done blocks using mixed media. There are cross-stitched blocks, hand embroidered, appliquéd and a few patchwork ones as well. I do have a few favourites –

The quilt is coming together really nicely. I spent Wednesday trimming everything to size to ensure the accuracy. As each family was given a 24cm (9.5in) block but due to the very nature of the fabric there was some shifting, fraying and warping.  Trimming everything means that I know where I’m at with the layout and helps keep it all neat in the preparation for quilting.

The centre panels with the school’s crest, a list of the headmasters and the school prayer will be framed with yellow peepers to highlight them. Then the surrounding blocks attached with some key blocks – such as the school colour house crests – will radiate out to the border.

Quilts like this are a fabulous way to celebrate something so momentous. It is a great way to showcase the participants, with each block be so unique, but also combining with important elements that need to document the journey that the group has taken.

Many of you who know me know that I am not the religious type might think this project a strange undertaking for me, as the school is a Catholic one. But in fact this is exactly what quilting is all about – commemorating something, people coming together, sharing and having fun.

Seeing as the weather is a little on the wet side today, it will be the perfect opportunity to get stuck into joining the rows. There are 105 blocks in total plus the three central panels.

I’ll keep updating on the quilt’s progress as I go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news I’ve started the bat nappy production for the BatResearch Centre in Queensland. They put a callout on Facebook the other day looking for sewers to assist in the making of bat nappies or bat burritos to help look after the orphaned bats and flying foxes that will turn up this season. I couldn’t resist making some Halloween themed ones for the little guys and also some banana ones for the flying foxes. Dawn from Hello Dollies dropped off some that she’d made this morning and if any one else local has made some I will be collecting them up until 4pm on Wednesday the 17th of October so feel free to drop them off to me at the shop and I will send in one parcel to the centre.

Dad is doing much better and has been moved closer to home so it’s now saving us the wear and tear of travelling to Sydney to see him. We just have to get him strong enough now to get him moved to the rehab clinic so that we can get him back to normal.

The shop will be shut from 1pm on Friday the 12th of October – I have a meeting to attend that might mean a few changes in my life.  Nothing that will affect the shop just some personal things that I need to sort and Friday afternoon is the allotted time for it to happen.

The shop turns one on Monday so if you are looking to help me celebrate please go to my Facebook page – there will be some games, prizes and some other fun stuff from 8pm AEDST.

I’m still feeling the birthday fun so I’m going to make the 20%off fabric until the end of October to celebrate not only the shop turning one but also my favourite holiday Halloween.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Marni

I’m back!

Hello everyone.

After a small hiatus to get things on track with dad being in hospital I am back in the world of blogs.

Dad is ok – he’s going to be in hospital for a long time with rehab and physio but he is alive and we are very lucky to still have him around.

Seeing as this post is on the last day of September I will catch you up quickly with what happened this month.

  • Competition quilt – early this month I handed in my entry to the NSW Quilter’s Guild competition. The theme was ‘How does your garden grow?’. The quilts are still with the guild and have been on display (now closed), we get the quilts back in December so I will blog about it more then with photos and explanations.
  • Customer order – a friend of my sister’s rang and asked me to make a tree quilt so that at her mother-in-law’s 50th birthday all the members of the family could sign the leaves. There were also several photos featuring the family along the bottom of the tree.

  • Magazine projects – I’ve been working on a couple of things for the magazines. A table runner and placemats for Patchwork and Stitching and an appliqué quilt for Australian Patchwork and Quilting. These pieces will be sent down on Tuesday and then I start working on a few pieces for Handmade.
  • Customer order #2 – St Pius X, Chatswood, is celebrating their 75th anniversary. The children and teachers have made blocks featuring their names and things they like, there is also blocks with the school colour houses, a list of principals and the school prayer. I have been given the task of putting it all together ready for the celebration ceremony in November.
  • Customer #3 – a friend of mine has asked for a quilt with the images of his favourite band’s albums. I’ll achieve this by printing them onto fabric sheets or maybe doing some transfers…
  • UFOs – I have a lovely long list of these, some are a few years old from my pre-shop days. I am slowly working my way through the list. Some will be up for sale, some will go to the magazines as projects and there are a couple that will be donated to charity for fund-raising purposes later this year/early next year.

 

That pretty much covers September and into October…

Also on the cards at the moment is my favourite time of year…. Halloween. So I’m getting ready for that. 🙂

The shop turns 1 on the 15th of October.

 

It’s all very exciting to have been in business for a year. I’ll have some special things in store but you’ll have to stay tuned for that. In the mean time make sure you check out the online store as there is 20% off all fabrics until the 15th of October. The discount also applies in store so feel free to pop in and see me.

I’m off to bed now. Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend.

 

Marni 🙂

 

 

Be back later….

I won’t be writing blogs for a little while.

 

Dad’s in hospital and it’s very serious.

I’m still updating on Facebook.

 

I’ll be back later.

 

To all of you who’ve already expressed good vibes, thoughts, well wishes and prayers – Thank you <3

So many things…

Once again I have been lax in my blogging duties. I apologise profusely.

but… I have a very, very good reason….well actually maybe not considering how much of everyone’s lives seems to be sucked into the vortex that is Pinterest.

I’ve been merrily pinning my life away – collecting ideas for my Halloween party for this year, some colour combinations for some upcoming projects, cakes for my mum to get inspiration from, things I like and love and the list goes on… It’s not a Pinterest page for the business, it is my personal one. I might start a business one later.

Things have been a little chaotic around my neck of the woods lately – we had the passing away of my great uncle, a leaking rusty hot water tank, car trouble, job drama, hospital drama… hopefully things will settle shortly but the past two months have made life very stressful. When things happen in condensed chunks like this I lose a lot of sleep as my mind keeps picking away at how things could be done differently, I pull apart every aspect of my life to see if something could have been prevented etc… I become neurotic and over-analyse everything.

But in saying that sometimes this self-analysis helps. I can see my life in segments and work out where I can change things or where I can fix something. At the moment for example there are a few people in my life who are nudging me to ‘find’ someone. I’ve been on my own for quite a while and love my single life – but it is hard to maintain that outlook when you are getting hints from friends (and family) that you need someone. It wears me down a little but I still would prefer being on my own. It’s hard too when you are at an age when everyone is getting married and having babies. There is always that niggling doubt in the back of your mind that you are missing some vital human characteristic that makes you want to do these things too and follow the traditional social norms.

Sorry to disappoint folks but I have no intention of having children. Marriage is only on the cards if there is a man out there who can accept all of this craft crazy in me. 😀

People often ask me why I don’t want children, especially since I make all these quilts for them… my answer…I’m not the mother type usually gets a comment like ‘well neither was I’, but I know that I can’t be there for someone else the way a child needs its mother. That kind of obligatory love is just not in me, I think I’m far too selfish to give up my time in that way. Part of this also stems from some health problems I had 5 or 6 years ago. I won’t go into the gory details but basically the problems I had can potentially cause me issue were I to try and have kids. And yes I know that potential doesn’t mean irrevocably but it’s just something that I am not prepared to risk, nor put a partner through. So for now I am content to live vicariously through my friend’s kids, make them quilts and then hand them back the their parents. I feel no guilt for not passing on my genetic material.

 

Anyways – I will get back to blogging about craft and quilt stuff next week. I’ll be in market planning mode 🙂

 

Marni

 

SALE

Hi everyone!

Not exactly a riveting post this one and not very long either as I’m still working on a few things and don’t have time to sit and ponder life’s mysteries.

So I will get right to it….

{drum roll…}

SALE TIME!!

 

The shop turns 9 months old this coming weekend so I thought it’d be a good time for a SALE.

So head on over to my Facebook page and see all the goodies that are up for grabs. All the details are in the album description.

I’ll be adding more things over the coming week and pretty much all the way through the sale ‘month’ (eh, it’s a few days more than a month)

See you over there!

 

Marni

Rain, wood and fabric…

The past few weeks have been a little chaotic…

In the aftermath of Darling Harbour I was running around chasing orders, information, a new job (I’ll explain later), wedding stuff for my sister and a whole lot of other little bits and pieces that seem to pile up.

So…

Firstly –

Wood: The new cross stitch kits arrived this morning. Too cute. Owls and Babushkas, flowers, circles, hearts and ovals.

$15 each – in stock now

Secondly – This week has also been PANEL week. Prices range from $13.20 – $19.80per panel

 

 

Thirdly – My new job. Over the last month some things have changed and my beading magazine has been cancelled (not because things are bad, just because the company is changing certain things and moving in other directions). So I went off to look for a part time work because I’m slightly mental and like to keep busy 😀

So what I am doing is consultancy work for a mail order company – they wanted someone to advise them on craft products – so an easy kind of job for me but not too draining on my energy or time. Bonus points for the job because I don’t have to go into their office!

Everyone has been asking if I’m okay – and yes I am. Not sad or upset but kind of glad because now I have time to start writing my book… more on that later…hehehe

Fourthly – wedding stuff. No it’s not me! It’s my little sister. She became engaged at the end of last year and has started planning some of the stuff that all weddings seem to require these days. So as I am the ‘crafty one’ I got to help out with making invitations. We have just made the bases of all the invites because not all the reception/ceremony details are set in stone yet. My next task is the decorations. Papercrafting is my third crafty love so helping out my sis is no chore. 🙂

Anyways…

It’s raining here in Gosford again today, a bit chilly and my hands are numb (but currently one handed typing as the other hand is wrapped around my peach tea).

I have a whole pile of custom orders waiting for me but everything’s on hold while I wrap up the last issue of beading. After that it’s full stitch ahead with the custom orders, my collection of UFO’s and the next round of magazine projects.

Don’t forget that the class list has been updated and covers us until the last day of trading this year. Book soon to reserve your place as spots are limited in each class. Check the Classes tab for the full list.

If you are interested in a night class please email me – due to limited demand I did not schedule a full complement of night classes and will be doing these as needed when people ask. Also if no-one minds I would prefer to do night classes when Daylight Savings is back on as its cold and miserable in an industrial area at night.

There are no custom quilt spots left this year. If you would like one I am now filling places for 2013. Please email me for quotes or pop in store if you are local. One custom quilt spot per month is all I can allot at this stage – I have other commitments that I am obliged to fulfil.

If you have a small quilt order (cot quilt, playmat, wall hanging) please don’t hesitate to contact me. As these are small pieces I can usually fit them in around the big stuff. When I say one custom order per month I mean single bed size quilt and upwards.

I hope this post hasn’t done your heads in… this is more information than I have written in a long time so I hope it wasn’t too much.

Back to my instructions…

Marni

 

 

Living under a rock…

So I disappeared for a while… my apologies…

Darling Harbour was … amazing, but time and energy consuming.

The five days of trading gave me some well needed insights to what you as customers want, some really good feedback from you as well and some positive reinforcement to the things I’d been doing.

After all of that week of hustle and bustle I sent pretty much all day Monday asleep. Totally exhausted.

I’ll be releasing a few new and exciting things over the next few weeks so make sure you stay tuned.

Just a teaser…

  • Sale items
  • New classes
  • Free project per month
  • New pattern releases

Night,

Marni

Surrounded by Sparklies

Okay, okay… I know I’ve been reaaaallllly quiet the past 2 weeks.

My bad. 🙁

I’ve actually been very busy and have had very little time to sit and write a decent post for you all.

I managed to claim some time back tonight as I’ve gotten some of the work out of the way. I have tomorrow off (gasp!) and everything is ready for the Handmade Craft Market on Sunday.

So, I’ve made a cup of tea, popped my slippers on and put my lap quilt over my knees and am sitting here typing this riveting post for you. 🙂

Catch up of what’s been happening…

The 5th and 6th of May was the Wyong Quilt Show – Janette runs an excellent show, running around organising EVERYTHING including jam and scones for brekky for the stallholders each morning. We had a fabulous 2 days at the show. On one side Hans was demonstrating the Nolting and selling haberdashery and other goodies and on the other side was Down Under Quilts magazine. Deb was there selling back issues and sewing a very pretty quilt for a special little girl. There was a definite thrum of activity in that room at the show – we had demos and machines going, lots of chatter and excitement.

The following weekend (12th and 13th) I was at Hornsby Westfield for the Handmade Craft Market’s pop up market. I had a fun couple of days in the centre – I spent quite a bit of time doing quick demos of the Flip la K templates and madly stitching blocks for a display for Darling Harbour. Which at that stage was 4 weeks away…..

And so to this week – it has been cold and a bit quiet in the shop but you’ve all kept me busy with mail orders (no-one wants to go outside to shop hey? :))

But…

This week I have been busy with the sparkly goodness that is beading.

Next week we go into design for our August issue and I have been editing projects, counting beads, measuring and writing. I love doing a beading mag as it is completely different to my shop stuff. I get to sit down and plan the mag from cover to cover, adjusting things as needed, write articles about things that I find interesting, educational or important, learning more about my contributors and seeing what new and exciting products are available. It all works at a slower pace than the shop and is my mental time away from fabric….as much as I <3 fabric.

I’ve also been busy with a bit of freelance writing – click here to read the online article. The other article will be out in print later on.

We are now 24 days away from set-up for Darling Harbour. I can tell you I am a tad FREAKED out that I’m not ready with my display stuff and that I have 4 quilts to cut, sew, quilt and bind before then… but I’m cool, it’ll get done.

{cue hysterical laughter}

If anyone would like a custom made quilt – please come and see me after the 25th of June – I will be back to normal by then and have some time to give your quilt the attention it deserves. 🙂

New classes will be listed at the end of June – these will be for the second half of the year and include night classes.

This coming week after the market this Sunday I’ll be finishing off a couple of projects for the magazines – I was asked to participate in Australian Patchwork & Quilting‘s birthday challenge. Some gorgeous fabric and I’m going out on a massive limb with my project but I hope you all love it. The other project is for APQ as well but it’s using their new range of fabrics. Not my usual cup of tea but my quilt is a bit modern using this more traditional colours… you’ll see 😉

I’m catching up with the girls next week for our most favourite of foods – YUM CHA!!

 

Then I’ll be sewing madly for a week until my sister and I go to Quarantine Station for a ghost tour… my sister bought me tickets for my birthday 🙂

and then…

{drum rollllllllllll}

DARLING HARBOUR!

 

So – I’m off to make some jewellery tonight.

I’ll try to post a bit more regularly but … no promises 🙂

Night,

Marni