Sewing for charity

My friend Jackie is relentless in her efforts to help the poor, sick and destitute children in Mongolia. She works together with the Christina Noble Children's Foundation and as she is having a stall at a farmer's market in April I have made a few things for her to sell.

 1. pencil cases (tutorial here)  2. tissue covers (tutorial here) 3. coasters (tutorial here) 

And from the same Japanese fabric I made these tote bags,

  a bunch of these tissue covers using this tutorial,

a couple of Dr. Seuss book bags,

two silk bags from leftover silks

and two little cosmetic bags.

My friend Jeanette made these two string bags, also to be sold at the market. 

Wouldn't they make lovely knitting bags?

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your week is going well.

Vreni x

Around the World Quilting Bee

Although I've been quilting for almost 20 years, I've never been involved in a quilting Bee. Yes, I've made countless friendship blocks, and I also received quite a number of blocks myself (they are still languishing somewhere in a cupboard, but let's not go there). I was therefore really excited when a friend asked me to join the "Around the World Quilting Bee". We are 12 quilter from six countries on 4 different continents (hence the name) and we follow the format the book "The Modern Quilting Bee Block Party" suggests.
Susan started off the bee with her blocks and she is going to call the quilt "Stack of Books". It's one of my favorite blocks in the book as well and I love the fabrics she's chosen.

It will make its way to New Zealand tomorrow. If you would like to see more blocks, go here. My turn is in November only, which gives me ample time to contemplate  what blocks I want!

I've made a few bags with the leftovers from the leftovers from the leftovers (you get the picture?) of my silks and  I have finally used up every little scrap, phew!!  The bigger bags are for a special purpose; I will tell you about that a bit later on.

Vreni x

busy, busy, busy!

Not only am I taking a photography class at the moment but this week I also took part in two quilting workshops . Dijanne Cevall, who is a textile artist from Australia, taught three classes at the British Club and I was lucky enough to be able to attend two of them.

The first day's workshop was called "Breaking all the rules"! We had to learn not to use rulers and rotary cutter, but  cut freehand with scissors without measuring anything. Not as easy as one would think. It seems that we have an "instinct" to match seams. This is how far I got with mine. A lot of quilting still has to be done, but I'm pleased with it so far.

On the second day we learned to free machine applique and embroider. Dijanne had a few samples with her and we were all blown away with her free motion quilting.

 "Pomegranate" 

"Banksia"

(Dijanne dyes all her fabrics herself) 

We got to play with three dimensional applique as well as foil and water soluble fabric. Unfortunately I was fiddling around with my "design" for too long and didn't have enough time to get to the quilting part.  But I got the idea and now have to practice, practice, practice.

If you have a chance to attend a workshop, I recommend that you do. It really invigorates creativity and helps the juices to flow!

Happy Stitching
Vreni x