magikquilter August 12th, 2008
You may have noticed a new look here on this blog. I am now self hosted and able to do things that were impossible on Wordpress.com. I have more photo galleries and also will be able to link to my shop, which I am in the process of filling with fabulous fabrics and notions….watch this space craftaholics and all those who despair of finding wonderful fabric. If you have me on your blog surfer on Wordpress you will need to add me to google reader or use the email updater on my sidebar. Thanks to my son for organising all this for me…he has worked really hard on this and I really appreciate it.
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Today’s thrift find is a set of three Japanese Lustreware cup, saucer and side plate sets. About eighteen months ago a friend of a friend invited me to lunch at her house and she used various vintage china collected since she married twenty five years ago. She used white dinner plates with a cobalt blue edging around the plates which were out of this world and for dessert used her Carlton Ware dessert dishes and then for coffee she topped it off for me with what she later said were imitation Limoge style lustreware cups and saucers. I have always been on the lookout since I saw them as they were divine. Then a few weeks ago I was donating some goods to our charity shop when I saw these trios stacked carefully on a shelf in the work area. I held my breath and said “are these going to be for sale cause if so I will give the going rate” while telling myself to play it cool. The manager said that she had heard that they were donated by accident and that the grandchildren of the elderly lady who donated them were coming to get them. I naturally said that was good as they are not something that would be tossed out everyday. When I was in there today the sets were in the window so I carefully grabbed them and paid for them. Seems to have been a mix up and the children never came to get them….my lucky day today!!!
They were $10 each set and though there were five sets I left two as the lustre had worn off a little and I also knew I would use these with my presentation photography and for afternoon coffee with special friends. I adore these…they are not French but Japanese…does anyone know anything about them? I thought they looked a treat with my soft blue shabby roses tablecloth which will soon be going into my shop….its all happening!
Tags: Japanese Lustreware, thrift tuesday, trios
magikquilter August 7th, 2008
Fabulous shabby chic style tablecloth made for a friend’s newly paved outdoor room. Fabrics were based around the feature fabric of blue chintz pots of flowers. Muted shades of sage green and musky pink florals with tea dyed florals and various satins and jacquards in toning shades. The tablecloth was a gigantic three metres by two metres and was finished off by hand stitching the 10cm wide peach rose spattered border fabric to the calico backing. It looks soft and shabbily pretty and the man of the house was reported as saying “you can’t use that as a tablecloth with food on it, its too beautiful to ruin”
High praise indeed, but then he also adored the Mandarin Robe ballroom setting I made them as well.
Tags: handmade, shabby chic quilt, tablecloth
magikquilter August 7th, 2008
Been sewing madly since I bought my geisha figures. I am trying to incorporate all the colours of the geisha into a quilt top using some of the many geisha fabric I have collected over the past year. Its a little trickier than usual as I would not normally use blue with the purple and red and gold which is predominant in the geisha fabric. Have sewn five strips together out of seven and then just the contrast strips to go on top and bottom and then will have a better idea of if it is working. Stay tuned.
Tags: geisha, hand made, Japanese Design, Japanese fabric
magikquilter August 7th, 2008
Plate and ginger jar found in a charity shop. The plate is by Furstenburg of West Germany, that gives an idea of its age, and was $5 and was rattling around with the junk ….really lucky the hand painted finish did not get too scratched. The tiny ginger jar was also $5 while the evening bag was $4….so all told $14 which is a really good price I feel.
Tags: beaded evening bag, Furstenburg of West Germany
magikquilter July 28th, 2008
These blocks were started to use up some of my scraps especially as I have so many florals gathered over the years. I was inspired by a photo in one of Kaffe Fassett’s books on quilting and really need to get stuck into this quilt top. I like the chance to use yellow which I rarely use and as I have some lovely yellow florals it should be fun to incorporate them into this top.
We have had a very cold day today and I am recovevring from what appaers to be a virus which has affected my voice and swallowing ability….keep choking on drinks! We actually had snow or a hail that stayed on the ground and was soft enough for people to build snowmen in a northern suburb of Sydney today for the first time since the 1800’s so am going to make sure we are all snug tonight…all the spare blankets will be coming out.
Tags: cold in Sydney, handmade, keeping warm in Sydney, snow in Sydney
magikquilter July 26th, 2008
This is the quilt from my header, it was made to use up a lot of the squares which I had unpicked from other projects as well as scraps from other projects. Red was also featured quite heavily in each block and I used mix of light, medium and dark florals. This was the first quilt where I actually followed the rules of patchwork and quilting regarding tone in the design process. I eventually sewed all sixteen blocks and then added some sashing from a pair of vintage tablecloths I found in a thrift shop. I just had enough for the sixteen blocks so was unable to make it bigger even if I had wanted to.
I used the top as a table cover for a long time and eventually sandwiched it together …backed with some Asian style fabric which was predominantly red to highlight the reds featured in the twenty five patches and then tied the quilt. The quilt has been well used and has held up to machine washing even though a fellow quilter who follows the rules once frowned at the ties and said I had not done them the right way. It has been a very popular quilt on flickr and I am planning on making one in slightly larger squares and also some with non floral hand dyed fabrics.
Tags: handmade, scrap quilts, tied quilts
