Here Kitty Kitty

In the hustle bustle of packing, trying to find a rental in a housing crisis, moving, cleaning two houses, we completely missed the arts and crafts deadline for the Townsville Show this year.

However, we did enter the cooking section for the first time! I won a couple of ribbons. Wow! (Especially because one lady seems to enter every single category and wins them).

And the 7yo kiddo won the Junior Cook Champion award, which was a sash, and he walked away with $69 in prize money! (Okay, I bought the ingredients and paid the entry fees, but that's a Mother's gift).

The confidence he earned from that will never be spent.

We've been organising the garden. It's a rental, so everything is in pots.

I've ordered some bare rooted trees. We will buy big pots/plastic rubbish bins and some good soil and mulch to kickstart our own produce trees. 

It's always been important to me, and with a 7yo, I feel  it's even more important to instill the feeling of growing your own.

Last update on these blocks for a while... I am starting art school next week, I don't know when I will get to pick these up again. It's going to be a busy time!

More blocks with Tabby Road and other Tula fabrics.

Made using patterns from Tula Pink's book "100 Moderen Quilt Blocks".

I so enjoy collaging colours and patterns.

I feel I will also love this in my art works.

I'm a little nervous, apart from designing some appliques, I haven't really drawn anything since year 9, 35 years ago.

 Bye by for a while, blocks.

This quilt WAS going to be a surprise for the kiddo, but it's not a surprise anymore!

Luckily he realises these things don't happen overnight.

Thinking out loud: it's his birthday in 3 months. Bit too close to have it completed and quilted by Mum (Deep Creek Quilting)....

Total of 23 blocks made. I think I will call the quilt "HereKittyKitty"

Almost end of term

School holidays is almost here, and that means I am super busy with the kiddo.

How many blocks can I squeeze in before we both go to school?

I need to get organised, apron, paintbrushes, drawing books and materials... Oh my!

I'd love to design my own fabric, really I would.

What a special gift to be able to enjoy tertiary arts study now, because it was discouraged when I was young. 

When I got to year 10 Mum said, "It's time to get serious now Lorraine, what maths and science are you going to do?"

And that was that.

 

The next blocks

I'm not sure how much longer I can be as prolific as I like with the quilt blocks.

I've been listening to podcasts and whatnot while I sew, and I won't have the time for this very soon.

I've found a fee-free Visual Arts course at TAFE, and enrolled!

I'm a little bit nervous, I haven't done drawing or painting since about year 9, 35 years ago!!

I feel like I'm going to be super, super busy! Eep!

Doesn't this boy look like a star? Literally!

And you too, kitty

More information to come!

A lovely collection created today.

 

Tabby Road begins

 

What a busy few days! 

Here we have the first blocks made with the Tabby Road and other Tula Pink fabrics I've pulled from the stash.

It's time for these fabrics to shine in their own right.

I'm creating blocks from the Tula Pink book "100 modern quilt blocks", which I feel every quilter could own and make a different version of the same blocks... in much the same way as quilting has been done for centuries of course, but it's so inviting to be different!

I am so Aquarius. I love to stand out and be different!

I really don't know quite what direction to take this in, I guess I had another think about bed quilt.

And once again, I've decided not to make it for the bed. So it can be smaller and maybe even hang in the gallery hallway if he doesn't need it in his bed.

These blocks aren't so big, but they make a big impact!

Rearranging the stash brings surprises

We are celebrating the return of our lost kitty kat! Since we moved, one of our cats went missing. He was being beaten up by local neighbourhood cats, because he's a boy.... but ours is so timid. He's been fixed, and doesn't usually wander.

So he mustve ducked down a drain and it's taken him 2 months to get back to us.... quite amazing, considering we'd only been living here less than a week when he went missing.

He returned with only one eye, and he was super thin. So he's gone through some major shizz to get home, through sheer will. And we are loving it all on him big time.

I've had this cat panel for a few years. My kiddo loves colour and cats.

I've also had this Tula Pink kitty fabric for years. Probably longer. Have you heard of the fabric range "Tabby Road"?

I think it will go very well here, and maybe some of these Tula strips and monkey wrench print.

The question is, what do I make? He's into soft textures, and uses his quilts as a cubby house.

I  think a little wallhanging again will be suitable, he really like wrapping his body in fluffy blankets. The End.

So cute!

I wonder what to make with these.... time to put thinking cap on...

 

Monkey Wrench border is on

Mum, the Monkey Wrench quilt top is complete! I will be mailing it to you along with the log cabin quilt!

The black looks so striking from here.

I always get another perspective through a photo.

Do you think green or black binding? 

 

Some finished pieces

Tula Pink's select sampler from her book "100 Modern Quilt Blocks" has been completed. Binding is on. 

Combining Devonstone and Tula Pink, it was a delight to create and to complete.

Can you see on my sewing machine a Tula jelly roll, more solids, and a very special Tula print?

And here are some altar cloths that have been mailed out so far this month.

It's been a busy time, finally, people have time to buy for themselves!

That lion and moths, oh my heart!

Magical forest tree!

What a great altar cloth!

Special unicorn piece...

These are all sold from my etsy store

SewIntuitiveByRainey.etsy.com

 

Almost show time

 It's almost local agricultural show time and Mum (Deep Creek Quilting in Vic. Australia) has express posted these quilts to me so that I can bind them in time to enter the show.

(This blue one is "Tis The Season" stitcheries by Natalie Bird, with my own quilt setting.

They often seem to end up last minute, although that's not my intention!

Why do I enter the show?

I noticed the craft and baking sections were incredibly small at the Townsville Show. I promised myself to enter at least something into baking or craft each year, so that this aspect of the show would still exist when my children are old enough to participate, and maybe my grandchildren.

If we don't enter these things, they will just drop away!

I have to get my skates on to hand stitch the binding down.

The baptist fans look beautiful on this  rendition of a selection of blocks from Tula Pink's 100 modern quilt block book.

Sashing tryouts

Er. Nope. Don't like it

Will hang up the green on the design wall for a while to see how it grows on me.

It's a beautiful green, and I did buy it for this quilt. It's a woven shot cotton, in my favourite shade of green. Oh my!

I like the cornerstone 4 patches. Let's see what develops over the next few days.

 

Gingham is trending

The blocks I am making using the vintage gingham, some from the 1950s are out again, although, really I should say they are in again. Gingham is in vogue!

 I've trashed the previous ideas I had for the Monkey Wrench blocks with a sort of colour wash, and I am back to making actual blocks with varying gingham colours in the background.

Looking for a variety of sizes in the gingham also, I am settled on this design. Time to make a few of these blocks and trial out the sashing.

But first, I think I need another can of ironing spray! The vintage ginghams really are a bit flimsy! I've used the coles brand ironing aid spray, lemon scented. It works absolutely fine.

The old fabrics have been subjected to goodness knows what, and some pieces had to be thrown away because of the mold or stains, even after washing twice. I am happy to be able to use what I can.