Quilting Anonymous (Parody Video)

This is just too too funny for words!

AND THE AWARD FOR BEST CREATIVITY GOES TO...

Collecting my award for best creativity.  Okay it was a bit of corrugated plastic, but soon it will be a new sewing machine and THB5,000!  Yes a very big smile from me.

Thailand Great Quilt Festival 2014

In addition to the competition quilts, works from Japan and other asian countries were on display.  Anywhere else in the world, we would have had to pay to see all these quilts, but here in Bangkok, it was free!

The following two quilts are from China and have quite a distinctive style to them, which I really liked  The one below is Shanghai Ladies Sewing, by Hongyu Luo.  

Thailand Great Quilt Festival 2014: Soul Siam Quilts

I was so happy to find that my quilt Heavenly Rice, won an honorary mention award for best creativity!!!  I have never won anything for quilting before, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to hear this news AND to also be interviewed by Thai PBS television yesterday.

And yes that is Chrissy and Margie being posed as admirers!

DIGITAL CLASS REVIEW AND QUILT: PAINTED PICTORIAL QUILTS WITH ANNETTE KENNEDY, PART II

This was the first project of the class, a lily.  Luckily for me it is one of my favourite quilting themes.  

The NAF minimart

I spotted this sign in the lobby of a hotel this week, another lost in translation.  For the non Brits, naff is something that is lame.  I guess the mini mart is telling it like it is.  I also don't fancy their stationery!

DVD REVIEW: DIGITAL IMAGERY IN FIBRE ART WITH WEN REDMOND

Wen Redmond is enthusiastic about her subject matter, textured photographs, and that enthusiasm is catchy.  She talks you through various products that can be used to either lay down a textured surface for printing on fabric or to coat the finished product.  Wen also shows you how to finish your completed project.

This is a new field to me but the information was clear, interesting and I was half way to the nearest art store to buy something that sparkled or rippled before the DVD had finished.

You need access to a computer and an inkjet printer for this technique and for those who are not computer savvy, Wen talks you through how to alter your photos and set the printing options.

This 83 minute DVD is available from Interweave for $14.95.

DIGITAL CLASS REVIEW AND QUILT: PAINTED PICTORIAL QUILTS WITH ANNETTE KENNEDY, PART I

I signed up for this Craftsy course a while back, which went through the intricacies of painting on pictorial art quilts.  There were two class projects to work on and this was the second one (the first still needing quilting).

I really enjoyed this class and found it very useful as I really do not know about brush strokes, shading, ways of thickening fabric paint etc.  There are 15 lessons which total 6 hours of classes.  Annette's quilts are very inspiring when you see what a difference painting on them makes.  On the negative side, I think the class should have been edited down to a more manageable size as you do spend a lot of time literally watching paint dry!  The regular price is $39.99, but Craftsy always has classes on sale, so just wait until it is a more reasonable price of $15-20.

This is one of the two class projects I undertook, using their pattern.  This is how the project looked at the beginning. 

DVD REVIEW: PRINT, COLLAGE, QUILT WITH MELANIE TESTA

The 55 minute DVD talks you through printing on cotton and organza with dyes, layering them in collage form and then into a quilt.

I liked the idea but really did not like the presentation of the material and the dvd sorely needed some good editing.  I don't think this DVD is aimed at novices to printing with dyes, as it did not cover basic information.  It did peak my interest, so if inspiration is what you are looking for, this might suit.

The dvd is available from Interweave for $19.95.  You may however, want to wait for the sale.

Thailand Great Quilt Festival - Quilt Preview

The quilts that had passed the first stage of judging were exhibited this week at the SAHA Group Fair.  Entrants were invited to join the photo line up that would kick start the show, which takes place next month.

Soul Siam Quilt Contest - Making My Quilt

Finally my finished quilt!  It has passed the first stage of judging and I now have to present my quilt to the judges. 

I really had to laugh to myself, it is just proving impossible to get a straight on photo of my quilt!

SEWING LOVERS' MAG INTERVIEW.

Last October I was interviewed for Sewing Lovers Mag and here is the article!

Soul Siam Quilt Competition.

No photo? Does that mean I didn't finish it?  Is the rotary cutter poised to do damage?  No, I just couldn't get a proper photo of my quilt before I handed it in.  It needed two people to hold it up, actually I haven't even seen it upright myself.  A photo will arrive at some point.

Pregnant Man???

Interesting priority lane on entering Thailand.  I wonder if I can get my hubby pregnant?

With Friends Like These...

When friends texted me to say they were waiting for us in the car park, I didn't expect to open my front door and be met by this huge free standing poster in front of me!  

The three smug-os in the photo were celebrating a lunch that I hadn't attended and which they STILL go on about as though it were Babette's Feast.  Their comments are in-jokes, though the 'I love Kim's cooking' heart felt a bit sarcastic.  Hum, guess what he is getting next time he calls!

THE LONG ROAD TO THE SOUL SIAM QUILT CONTEST

On one of those 'why not?' days, I convinced myself and two friends (collectively known as Nil By Mouth) to enter the Soul Siam quilt competition.    A June deadline gave us months to come up with ideas and make the quilts, or so we thought.  I think entering this contest has been the hardest quilt related thing I have done (and judging by their moans, the other two have been struggling also).

BOTTLED WATER ANYONE?

Bottled water in our hotel in Myanmar.  I hope they washed their feet first!

On Husbands & Hotels (and why I wanted to change them both) Part 2

Normally when we travel Alan chooses good hotels, sometimes they are even great.  There have however been the duds.  The second problem hotel was recommended by Alan's colleague (and we won't be using her recommendations again!).

The room itself while dark, was okay.  It was the facilities that caused the problem.  As you can see the shower for the en-suite was actually an alcove next to the wardrobe (on the left) with a curtain pulled across.  

On Husbands and Hotels (and why I wanted to change both!).

Our first night in Myanmar was not the calm, pleasant one we had expected.  And I blame Alan for that.  

We had not expected a luxury hotel when we arrived in Mandalay, though a bit more space in the room would have been a bonus (look closely at the picture and you will see that whoever (and by that I mean Alan) slept on the far side of the bed, had to climb over the end of the bed in order to get past the mini bar.  Well at least we had a mini bar.

The electrics were also not exactly what one would have hoped for, but again, we were not expecting too much.  Little did we know however, that our (and by that read my) sanguine attitude to this would rapidly evaporate come nightfall.

SWIMMING THAI STYLE

A reasonable enough request...

CROP CIRCLES IN BANGKOK!

Something strange has been going on in our bed.  Well, I mean something stranger than normal of course!  Over the last couple of weeks, strange red makes started appearing on Alan's pillowcases and on the sheet on his side of the bed.  Initially I thought I had left some newly dyed pieces of fabric in the washing machine, but there were no rogue piece in there.  The marks were also quite regular, a sort of horseshoe shape.

Initially I blamed a rather nasty shaving gash on Alan's face, but as the marks kept reappearing, seemingly multiplying overnight, we knew that couldn't be the answer.  Also the marks wouldn't wash out, even with bleach.

I kept changing the pillowcases but the marks reappeared every morning when we got up.  Unusually it was Alan who started to get a bit creeped out by this, saying he had crop circles on his pillowcases.

However, this morning he came to me shouting "Eureka!".  Yep, Alan had solved the crop circle mystery which was threatening to become our own X-File.  Guess what it was...

WHO CARES WHAT THE REST OF THE WORLD DOES...

Ha ha, I wonder who was in charge of naming this foundation???

HOW DO DIFFERENT COTTON FABRICS EFFECT THE RESULTING DYE COLOURS?

I decided to test my usual two brands of cotton fabric, against other cotton fabrics found in the market, to see which dyes best and how big a difference the fabric actually makes to the end result.  

Into the same dye bath I put fat eighths of:

• Cotton Oxford (THB200)
• Cotton voile (THB180)
• Regular cotton (THB60)
• Cotton Sateen (THB150)
• Very cheap and loosely woven cotton (THB30 - that says it all!)
• My usual cotton (THB70)
• A heavy cotton that I also use (THB70)
• Jute (what the heck, I was interested to see how it would dye)  (THB90)
• Beige cotton with a raised texture (THB90)

All the fabric was sold to me as 100% cotton except the jute.  I also added a couple of other bits of spare cotton and linen I had, just to see how they would dye.  I can't replace the fabric, so it wasn't really part of the experiment.

The results were quite different from what I imagined.  You can see the first batch I dyed above.  They were all in the same dye bath.  I sorted them into piles that I considered had the same overall colour.

WHAT SHALL I DO TODAY?

Say it aloud, then answers on a postcard please!

Quilting Arts Magazine - huh?

I admit I have a love/hate relationship with Interweave the publishers of Quilting Arts, but come on, anyone would have to laugh at this.  How can a digital edition of a magazine be out of stock?

DVD & Book Reviews: Fabric Photo Play by Julia C. Wood & Making Faces with Maria Elkins

I got lots of great feedback on my portrait quilt of my friend John and requests for more information on the subject.

John's quilt is the third quilt I have made using the method described in the book Fabric Photo Play by Julia C Wood.  I am not sure where it is available for purchase now, but I am pretty sure if you contact the author she will be able to direct you.  It is published by AQS and at the time I purchased it, cost $20.

Text hell

HIs there anyone out there who hasn't sent stupid nonsensical texts?  Alan once told me to stop texting him unless I proof read them first as most of them made no sense at all.  For a bit of a laugh, you should check out these texts http://funkypickens.com/25-funny-auto-correct-fails/ that were not proof read by their writers before being sent to the recipient.

KANTHAS

As luck would have it, my trip to the Crafts Museum in Delhi, co-incided with an exhibition of kantha textiles from Murshidabad, West Bengal.  I had never heard of kanthas before, but it soon became clear that they were a form of quilt.