25reasons

Bravo… Paradise “Found”

19 August, 2010, at 7:22 pm

I don’t know about Paradise Lost, but Pat Bravo’s new fabrics are definitely Paradise Found! Check them out: http://www.patbravo.com/ParadiseSwatches.html (http://www NULL.patbravo NULL.com/ParadiseSwatches NULL.html)

I particularly am smitten by this top in the PA-308 Twilight Pond. Click on the image to enlarge it. I’ve emailed Pat hoping that she can direct me to where I can purchase the pattern, cos I sure can’t cut without one, like my Dad used to do. If you recognize this pattern and can tell me where you’ve seen it for sale, please let me know. I’ve got my finger ready to click on the “buy now” button to get some of this divine fabric as soon as it comes out, and need only to know how much to buy. I’m guessing that 3½ yards should do it though, yeah?

Melissa just called!

13 August, 2010, at 6:43 pm

After what could only be called a fairly mundane, innocuous day, I answered the phone at 6pm. The voice on the other end said “Hi Helene, do you know who this is?”

Remember Melissa, my champion Optus girl? She called to let me know that I was no.1 on her list, and she can now put in my order for an iPhone4. YAY! She’s the best. Apart from the fact that I’m not sure if we spend more time laughing on the phone or doing business, she’s so reliable, does what she says she’ll do, and just takes such great care of me. Brilliant customer service. I just love her.

And yeah, not only am I getting an iPhone4, just guess who else is getting an iPhone4??? And then guess who else???

Can I live in Portland, OR this Saturday?

13 August, 2010, at 1:38 pm

If I could, I’d sure go to Elizabeth Hartman (aka. Oh, Fransson!)’s class (http://moderndomestic NULL.enstore NULL.com/item/freestyle-machine-quilting-workshop-august-14th-1030am) on machine quilting! Here’s my first attempt…

front view

back view

Not so good, right?

I had my machine set correctly, I think, so what went wrong???

darning foot in place

presser foot pressure down

drop feet in

Can I live in Portland, OR this Saturday?

13 August, 2010, at 1:20 pm

Sorry folks, give me a minute! Accidentally clicked the “publish” button before I’d typed the post! Give me a few minutes and check back. Actually, I might just do a new post so you’ll know it’s the new one. Make sense? See you in 15.

What’s the worst that can happen?

12 August, 2010, at 8:47 am

Finally back into the groove with piano lessons. KF seems to think it’s not out of the question that I could pass an audition in November to qualify for a place in the B.Mus. at Monash for 2011. Amazing! I have some work to do of course. Scales, arpeggios, Brahms Op.79, No.2, Rhapsody in G minor, and Mozart’s Sonata in F, K332, 1st movement. In three months. No problem. Aaarrrrgggggghhhhhhh!!!!!! I’ve played both pieces before, albeit ten years ago. But still, I can do this, right? Figure I’ll audition. Give it a shot. Worst that can happen is I don’t pass. Then I’ll try again next time.

DEFINITELY by hand!

11 August, 2010, at 8:32 pm

Take a look at this, doesn’t it look good? Definitely going to quilt this by hand. I just love the look.

do you like the colours I've chosen in perle 8? going to quilt "snails" with these in all the circles, and diamonds in between them

And how’s this for the binding. Perfect, right?

thanks Trish, you just have such a knack for picking the perfect binding!

Ta-dah! RECQ front – check!

9 August, 2010, at 5:04 pm

the front is done! now for the back, wadding, quilting, binding...

Half-way with chain stitching

9 August, 2010, at 7:43 am

I had such a great day yesterday. I’d missed the last two sewing days of the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild because of Moshe’s illness, and it was so good to be back yesterday. Check out our Flickr Photostream (http://melbournemodernquiltguild NULL.com/gallery/) later today. I’ll upload pictures of some really awesome work the members are doing! Many thanks to Rachel, I learned the art of chain stitching – it’s fabulous – it saves so much time and so much cotton! And Rachel also helped me out of my brain freeze by putting my little squares together into sets of four to make up my blocks for my Raw Edge Circle Quilt. Remember these?

48 blocks cut into quarters, ready to be mixed and re-grouped

After months of headaches over these babies, I finally got half of the blocks sewn up, with the other half, halfway done!

24 blocks down, 24 to go

Can’t believe that after months of not being able to handle the problem of mixing up all those little squares in case I got it wrong, and now it’s just about done! Rachel of course didn’t have any of the attachment to these little devils that I did, and so for her, it was just a game, like putting together a puzzle. Fun even! For me, it’d just made my brain hurt, trying to work it out. You know what I mean. It all had to be even. Couldn’t have this one with that one because there’d be too much of this colour and not enough of that one, and these two pieces can’t really go together because that block’d have too much of that pattern. And so it went on. I’d even kinda take myself into my hands, and muster up to tackle the job once again, only to get a tenth of the way in, and my brain would just stop. Freeze really was the experience. I couldn’t think past the blockage. Have you had that before? Mostly, I’m a great problem solver, I love the challenge of working things out. I usually can think through things very quickly, work it out, get immediately into action, and bang, it’s done. This though? JUST COULDN’T DO IT! So thanks, thanks, thanks Rachel. You’re a legend! Reckon I’ll have them finished and ready and laid out and sorted into rows by the time Moshe wakes up. So cool!

Here I go!

And then some piano! Lovely start to a week, no?

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

08:44:12 am. Here are my piles of rows all ready to sew up. I’ll post as soon as they’re all done. Now, on to my piano. Ah, breakfast and Brahms!

NYC to MEL in just four (4) short days!

3 August, 2010, at 2:54 pm

I’m still in shock!

What am I talking about??? Well last May, I ordered some fabric from one of my most favourite online stores, Hawthorne Threads (http://www NULL.hawthornethreads NULL.com), and as of the middle of July, my order still hadn’t turned up. After some research, turns out it was shipped to a different person, the one who ordered just immediately before me, whose name is Helen, and she’s also from Australia (you can see why it got confused, right?). Queensland though. Now, she reckons she never received my US$87 order of MoMo’s Freebird fabrics, and the Alexander Henry 2D Zoo, and TeenyTiny Zoo, but whatever.

Charlie and Lindsay were fabulous. They immediately gave me a refund, and a nice little gift voucher, and well, what do you think I did? That’s right, ordered immediately! But not the same fabrics, because they’d sold out. Instead, I bought the absolutely beautiful-looking Alexander Henry’s Fulham Road (http://www NULL.hawthornethreads NULL.com/fabric/designer/alexander_henry_house_designer/fulham_road) I’ve been coveting, and also a couple of his Fashion for the Home fabrics for my tablecloth collection.

Now, here’s the incredible part… I just ordered those fabrics last week, on Thursday 29th, and here I am, it’s only Tuesday, and I have them in my hands! I just love, love, love it when our postal services work, don’t you?

Anyway, a word of caution too. If you’re looking at the Fulham Road fabrics, the Night Palette, which is what I bought, the colours look quit different on my screen. Particularly the Martine, Oxford Butterfly, and Regent Peacock. On screen, they’re quite turquoise/green. Not so much in real life. More muted, and more french blue/navy. They’re still magnificent, and actually I prefer who they actually are, I just thought I’d let you all know. Mind you, it could just be my computer screen settings.

Here are the images from the Hawthorne Threads website, jsut copied onto my computer, not edited at all.