Kunekune pig

LuAnn Kessi's blog is one of my favourite reads. Her quilt of her dog features on the Quilting Arts calendar. He's Mr February. LuAnn uses some lovely looking pencils and crayons to colour in black and white prints she prints on to fabric. I didn't get a set of Derwent Inktense blocks from Santa (he mustn't have got my letter) so I thought I would try it with fabric paint. So we went to the zoo, took lots of photos and then I printed them on to very expensive paper backed fabric. (I'm going to try out a cheaper option next). Then I thought, why not share the love. LuAnn does this as a workshop for cancer patients. They all seem to really enjoy it so I thought I would do it with my family on Christmas day. Beats watching the telly any day!

This is what my nephew produced. He called her Betsy.

And this was the process.

Kunekune pig at Auckland Zoo

Manipulated in FastStone and printed on fabric

Paint-by-numbers (without the numbers)

Details added with free motion quilting in black

I have some more that haven't been turned into quilts yet, including the most adorable meercat! Watch this space!

Messenger bag

I made my sister-in-law a messenger bag from this pattern from Quilting Arts. The flap is constructed in the same way I made the last bag; a collage of flowers and leaves on felt, then net placed on top and the whole lot quilted. I used Swirling Petals this time.




I made her a little purse (coin purse or make-up bag) to go with it. I used the same red flower fabric and this shrinking fabric on the left to make a crinkly fabric. Becky asked me how much it had shrunk. A good question and one I had wondered about too so I took some measurements. It started out as 23cm wide and went down to 17cm. As I'm relating this to her, I was about to work out the ratio... and I realised they are both prime numbers! I have to confess, I got excited about that! Oh dear, maths is turning me nutty. So it can't be simplified and the ratio is 23:17.

This is what the purse looked like finished.

Bag back showing carrying handle and large pocket

Bag front, two small pockets plus side packets and a key swivel

Now I have to make one for my sister. She's here for another couple of weeks so I have a bit more time.

Hand-dyed fabric

I've been having fun! I've been dying (pun intended) to do this for ages! You just mix up dye and pour it down the fabric. I don't have a place I can do messy things so this is my carport.

And my work bench!

The dye has to cure for at least 4 hours and not dry out in that time. I didn't want to ruin the streaky effect and hadn't thought about how to cure it until after I had dyed the fabric. Fortunately I bought a plastic drop cloth on a roll and had the brilliant idea (no modesty here!) of putting out a length of drop cloth and laying the fabric carefully on top, then covering with the drop cloth. I left the fabric until it stopped dripping so that the dye stayed put. Hopefully it will still look good tomorrow morning when I wash it out.

Journal cover

Our band leader, Camille, is going home to Trinidad for three and a half months. We wanted to get her a present to thank her for all the wonderful work she does for the band. We thought she may like a journal for her poetry. I remembered seeing an idea for a cover (link here) and suggested that I made her a covered book. She's always on at me to make her a quilt!

Camille is from Trinidad and her husband is Samoan so I thought and island inspired cover would be good. My first idea was to buy a fabric with hibiscus and then embellish it. Couldn't find any hibiscus! So I painted a beach scene instead.  I thin the fabric paint with Aloe Vera gel. It's difficult to find the clear stuff but this green one works fine and doesn't tint the paint. It smells lovely too. Bonus when ironing!

I densely quilted the cover but not the flaps.

I quilted a steelpan for Camille and Samoan tapa cloth for George.

The inside flaps. The thing I liked best about this design is that the cover is removable.

I wish I had a video of this moment. She squealed! George was engrossed in his pen. He has to share the journal but we bought them a pen each.

We wish them both a relaxing time in Trinidad.


Thank you to Ms Lottie for a great project.