Friday 20 December 2013

MMQG is open!




Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild Inc. is now open for memberships!

This is a great friendly group of ladies (or laydees as one friend likes to pretend) who meet in the fantastic venue of GJs fabric store, in Brunswick.  T-riffic place for a guild to sew in - big, bright, roomy tables and tall cutting tables, mats, irons, and best of all - a quilting/fabric store right at our fingertips!!!

We are not super modern with our sewing - no modern quilting police here!  

We embrace lots of different styles, techniques and really just want to Sew Our Stuff!

We also embrace lots of different personalities: loud, quiet, cheeky, humble, AND we have some killer cooks in our midst - I mean 'good' :)

I have met the most lovely people here and I find every time I go to sew I learn a little bit more about those around me and that we are all the same - you know?  We all have worries, and sickness in the family and children-raising stories and problems with threading the machine or getting a block right and this group allows you to explore these things, talk about these things, bounce ideas and give suggestions, 
AND
Play With Fabric that only quilters and sewers understand.

For those who can't get to Brunswick or any sewing meet here, our Facebook page is perfect to keep in touch with how everyone is going with their quilty endeavours - lots of fun chat, photos, quilty q&a and sometimes a recipe thrown in to boot!!

The current Committee of volunteers have put a lot of blood sweat and tears into getting this group incorporated - these are people who have their own busy lives, their own jobs, family, studies, yet have spent an enormous amount of time and effort into getting this group official.  Bravo to them!

If you are interested in seeing what we are up to, visit HERE to register your interest


Thursday 12 December 2013

Turning the edges up

Okey Kokey - Chez Whippet Good has been AWOL for awhile - life has been interesting here for past two months to say the least - and not much sewing has been going on - BUT I will show you what has happened cos when you have to, you have to, even when you don't want to look at fabric, or think about someone's pattern or pick up a rotary cutter, or even look at the mess of your room.  
Some days it's been hard to get out of bed, hard to get in the car to go to work and hard to even open your mouth to say hello.  Turning the edges of the mouth up has been hard lately.  

These photos have reminded me of how much I do like my colours and fun prints and a simple block

Ausmod Bee September blocks for Jules of Procrasticraft




Ausmod Bee October Jenn of Penny Poppleton




An op-shop score to beat all others (well, that I've found) - Pyrex Aqua Snowflake





Some kiddos had birthdays!





 and saw Dr Who 3D!



A little request for a comfy back pillow in blues and I threw this together - it was fun except the end bits did my head in (follow a pattern - no way! this little black duck does things off the fly - and usually gets it wrong!) but it worked out in the end.....phew!    Loved using some Echino cockatiels and some velveteen AMH.







Some one in this house is going to be a Master Painter!




and finally, my entry for the exhibit at Full Circle - this is called Focus on Hope

 The blackened jungle of background  pieces depicted how I felt when I made it but that glimmer, that glimpse of hope ...


- the light is shining bigger and brighter now - this is good.

Monday 28 October 2013

Glimpse


 The murkiness of life is overwhelming sometimes

 Hope
: in unlikely places


A little glimpse of my entry for the Full Circle project




Monday 7 October 2013

Chuffed!




Okay my sweet Whippy readers - stuff does still happen here at Whippy Good Whippet-haus.  Freedom has arrived in the form of Uni finish for 2013 - OMG - what a weight is lifted from my thinking brain and broad shoulders hehe!

A little packet of Amy Butlers Soul Blossom charm squares has sat on my desk for a while, looking at me, wooing me over, until I could take it No More - a little or rather, big-little blankie for my sewing machine - the colours are so so so pretty, with a dash of Kaffe thrown in for good measure - the colours scream SPRING to me - maybe a garish Spring but I like that!!


DD2 overpainted a school project that she had never liked and off her own bat, 


created another masterpiece



I saw this in an Oxfam shop window - so much prettier than the photo



and this is a Great Idea for those elusive machines thrown on the side of the road, yeah right, but I do love the succulents!  I want this in my garden!






Just a 'little' montage of my just completed Staple Dress; it was a pdf download, printed out, stuck together, transfered onto interfacing as the template and sewn together!!  I am just a little bit CHUFFED! (As a side note - I like Urban Dictionary's definition no. 3   To be quite pleased with oneself in the manner of a child going potty unassisted. Yes I can go to potty unassisted AND I can sew a dress!!!  Baby, if I can sew a dress, then anyone can, Truly Truly. 






Instructions were great - except for the pockets - I didn't understand one word of it really, but just closed my eyes and crossed my fingers -yes, I did this and sewed at the same time ;)  and they came out Okay!  The shirring didn't quite work either - I decided to just do the back - I got one row to work, but couldn't get the elastic to repeat its magic again....that's fine - I'll wear it with a belt I think, which does the same thing really.










The family were Very Impressed.  "Did you buy that today?"  NO hehehe, I Made It!!  

Wow Mum, it looks Great.....ahhhhh music to a sewer's ears.  Hubbie spotted my excellence in sewing the neck and armhole facings and loved the dress, the colour, the pockets and me in it!
Love that man!!




Friday 30 August 2013

Red is the colour of today's post

Wow Wee - these are my 30 - yes 30!!!  blocks made by very clever and generous members of my Flickr bee AusMod Bee

It was super hard to get a good photo - so you have to excuse the weird and wonderful photography :)

A big cyberhug for all the people who went above and beyond what was asked for - which was everyone, by the way!

Now, what to do???  I think a thin sashing and border is needed, and THEN, how to quilt it?  Simple large quilting all over to not clash with the complexity of the blocks?  Basic crosshatch? Giant loops? Or Individual quilting custom for each block?  I so want to do this justice :)







Cat from Cat & Vee - who, by the way, is a most delightful person, (and has Really Nice stuff in her shop, so everyone has to buy from it, promo over) has chosen Word Block for her month of August for AusMod Bee.  Great Choice!!!  We could choose anything we like...uh oh.....

I am HOOKED!  I bought a book Word Play Woohoo! from her, just cos, and her lovely package of Book, fabric scraps of red and a background fabric of text, PLUS a puppy was very exciting!



Puppy?



Yes, that's right.

You know Whippet Good likes puppies.


Okay......


Cat is very clever you know.



She has puppies and birds

and foxes and pandas

and cats
and she also now has...

my Word Block!!

Geronimo (if you really can't work it out) is the catchcry of the 11th Doctor Who - a yell of adventure, taking a leap, going into the unknown.  I knew instantly that I wanted to make this word.  Don't know why...it just came into my head and there it stayed, never swaying - of course I had to have an exclaimation mark on the end - wouldn't be right without it.  My Whovian daughter LOVED it and I have promise to make it again - methinks a Word quilt is in the pipeworks!!!

Cat has also just told me that her daughter loves Geronimo Stilton - a fantastic and popular series of primary school-age books about a mouse on adventures!  Score on two accounts!!  I am really looking forward to what everyone else comes up with...so far there is Quilt..and Create...



Image belongs to Cat & Vee - My puppy!!  Pipsqueak (which is actually a pet name of our Pippi - huh? pet name of your pet?? of course...then there is Pip-o-licious, Pipstar, Pippi Longstocking (which is her full name but only gets that on special occasions....)
Screen Printed Pipsqueak Red on Flax Essex Linen Panel


EEEK!!  Hold The Phone...

****Just found a Youtube clip on TOP 10 Catchphrases for 11th Doctor ****

This is so going to get made!!