magikquilter October 3rd, 2008
Today I had coffee with a young old soul and while showing her my Annah Stratton thrift find of a few weeks ago she said “you should sell this” so long story short I came home and loaded up some items to my etsy [that I have been talking about forever] store !!!!
It took forever but am hoping to get more skilled as I go along and therefore the whole experience should be quicker. Needless to say it is 8.05pm and the microwave is beeping as I try to get dinner as well as upload photos to etsy and find and iron goodies for my scrap bags of delightful designers bits and pieces. Lace, here I come and buttons, just look out! This makes me really admire people like Melissa who every week add a certain amount of stock to her store and she has two young children as well.
I finally decided on the givaway gifts …who would have thought that having too much choice would impact the prizes…sorry winners and thanks for your patience. Postage bags being sent out early next week to Sophie, Lauren and Judy. A hint of some of the sort of things which will be in there.
Tags: opened my etsy today, opened my online shop today, shopping bags in shop, supplies in shop, vintage goods in shop
magikquilter August 15th, 2008
My virtual afternoon tea today is shared with Judi of Cranberry Blossom who is freshly back from her summer holiday and well into her working week. Judi has always been supportive and inspirational as well as in tune with my blogging style. We are from the same generation although that is no reason in blogging necessarily to click…otherwise Kara and Kaylee and the Bombshell and I would not get on as well as we do! Should have bought some scones, sorry Judi….. next time! Did I mention that she is a fabulous cook and is happy to share the recipes as well? Judi’s recent fabulous thrift find would look a treat with the above set of Royal Albert Old Country Roses.
Judi sews and makes wonderful jewellery, her Etsy shop Pink Daisies can be found here.
Tags: afternoon tea, blogging friendship, friendship, Royal Albert Old Country Roses, supportive friend
magikquilter July 24th, 2008
This is a quilt I made in 2005 with upholstery fabrics. It was inspired by the Kaffe Fassett book Glorious Patchwork ….Page 115, where he had made a remarkable pair of curtains. The book may be available in libraries for people who do not have a copy. As this quilt only has 25 blocks it was quite simple to organise the fabrics. The main thing is to get fairly monotone fabrics.
I found a curtain panel remnant in spotlight which was the main influence in the choice of other fabrics. This quilt has wadding inside to make it soft and puffy and it was tied with crochet cotton and has the same fabric on the back of the quilt as the feature fabric. The quilt is quite rich in tones in real life and is now living with a friend that I met that year. When first was invited to her house I was astonished to find that her drawing room had little embroidered antique chairs in similar tones as wellas leather sofas in beige leather. After a few days I showed her the quilt and she petted and stroked it and went very quiet. Several days later I brought the quilt to her saying that it would be used in her home whereas it was simply in storage in ours. She took me shopping a few days later to buy enough fabric to make a new quilt and also treated me to lunch. The family have been told that the quilt is only for her, quite an honour as she lives in her house surrounded by quilts.
I am collecting fabric now to make the set of curtains as I love the drama and lushness of them…..dripping with fringing and positively gleaming with textures, getting excited thinking about it now.
Tags: Glorious Patchwork, hand made, monotone quilts, patchwork curtains, remnants
magikquilter July 23rd, 2008
Where do you find your inspiration? For me it is from a mixture of sources…magazines, flickr, art, fabric, pottery, china, fellow artisans, coloured glass beads, books, jewellery….yes everywhere really! I have started a group on flickr.…yes another one…..especially for all artisans to show photos of what sparks their creativity. Only today I saw on Kelly’s blog that she was inspired by Kirsten of Two Lime Leaves [they are also involved with our flickr groups] to make her wall quilt ….. thank goodness it is available for us all in this month’s Quilter’s Companion. Should think Kirsten has inspired a lot of people over the years.
Some say it is a God given gift …others that its in our DNA, what do you think? All I know is that I am becoming more inspired the older I get, and like a lot of over fifties there isn’t going to be enough time for me to do everything that I have in my head….not to mention in my storage area! Also I feel that I am much more creative now….wonder if that is because of a newfound freedom in the fifties or an inbuilt mechanism that kicks in as we age. Its fascinating and deserves some research.
I do know that my increased creativity now is a boon to me as it distracts me from nerve pain and enables me to see beyond the present circumstance. And its a great source of accomplishment to create something, makes it even more special that out of suffering comes beauty. We only have to think of the late Laurel Burch and many artists and composers over history, not that I put myself in their league. Anyway, here are some of the things that are inspiring me at present….my thrifted Calico china and some of my craft and art books. So, what is inspiring you?
Tags: Calico by Burleigh, creativity, creativity and the over fifty woman, God given creativity, is creativity in our DNA?, nerve pain, over fifties freedom
magikquilter July 7th, 2008
This is the ballroom of a friend who lives in a heritage house in Sydney. Her ballroom is filled with antiques of all kinds and a glorious Persian Rug in Navy with gold and shot through with red. A year or so before I made this I had found the fabric and bought the whole bolt in a charity shop. I had been saving it for making a bedspread or curtains but when she was preparing for a function there [she also hires it for film shoots and allows it to be used for charity events] I suddenly thought that it would look stunning, especially as she uses Willow pattern china in blue for those functions.
After asking her to measure the table ….five metres I think it was…I had a word with her husband just to make sure us girls weren’t forcing our will onto him! He genuinely liked it and he even took photographs of the room before the function so I would have a record of my work. I made the table runner and backed it with the same fabric so that it would be reversible, a square tablecloth for the side table and dozens of large dinner napkins. the fabric was Mandarin Robe by Warner Fabric UK and it carries the Royal Warrant! The other photos are here.
I still have enough offcuts of the fabric to make some throws and I also found some stunning aqua brocade which will look perfect on an ottoman or footstool with a throw. I am saving that for myself and also one of the throws. It is going to be a mix of gold and cream and turquoise with splashes of hot pink..multi textured…I have got to get it finished! It has a surprise fabric in it of Colefax and Fowler. Got you wondering?
Tags: handmade, hertitage, mansion, tablerunner, Warner Fabrics Mandarin Robe
magikquilter July 4th, 2008
Working towards having a selection of smaller articles for my shop and for the new local artisan gallery. Have completed half of the smaller items and already am more than halfway through a few quilts. It was fun and inspired me to tidy up my work area a bit and actually used up a huge pile of fabrics which has to be good. Oh by the way I am merrily uploading all these photos myself now! And they are fully optimized as well. Now that I am confident that I have not pushed these skills out of my brain by learning new ones I have been creating a gallery of quilts and also wips here on the blog…they are up the top under my header in case you missed them. [As well as a book list which is going to take a while to compile]
Tags: artisans gallery, gallery, Sewing, small artisan items, small quilts
