Free online classes by Craftsy

Before I leave you for a couple of days to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with your family a little something for those staying at home during the festive season.

Craftsy seems to be the place to go to when you’re in need of a online class or simply don’t belong to a group, want to do something different from your group or prefer to work in your own time.

The best part about Craftsy is that they offer a couple of courses totally FREE, so do go check these out and become familiar with how their online classes work, by clicking HERE.

Take care, be well and have a great festive season!  Talk to you again in 2013.

Stitching Drunkards Paths without pins

I think most of us were taught to use as many as possible pins when stitching Drunkards Path blocks however Kay Nickols has a video on You Tube showing you how a stiletto can make the use of pins obsolete.  Take a look at this.

To be totally honest, I struggle like crazy with the stiletto but I suppose practice makes perfect.

Terial Magic

I am not sure whether this product is already available in South Africa but I can see many a creative soul having hours of fun with this.

It simply boils down to using cotton fabric treated with Terial Magic Solution and then sculpting fabric flowers to your hearts' delight!

Read more about the product (or you can even order) over HERE.

For more information on exactly how to use this, take a look at the videos over HERE.

Have fun!

Free log cabin e-book

I hope you had a wonderful long weekend to all the South African readers and just in case your extra day at home turned into one in which you wondered what project to start next, I have just the thing for you.

Blogging friend Chris shared the link with me yesterday and this is just such a good book that I couldn't resist sharing it with you.

To download your free copy of the e-book by Fons and Porter, click HERE.

A couple of festival questions answered

I received questions regarding the 2013 National Quilt Festival as comments to the blog.  Unfortunately even though I had the names of the people asking the questions they showed up as ‘Anonymous’ therefore I am unable to reply to you individually, so I am sharing these on the blog.

What courses will be available? I am from Graaff-Reinet and am very interested.
Heather Vorster

Hi

I just downloaded the program but it is difficult to REALLY see the pictures of the quilts. Is it possible to put the pictures on your blog so that we could have a better look at them

Lizette Slabber

Heather by the time you asked the questions I honestly did not know which courses would be available but I did say on the blog the workshop program would be published and distributed mid-December so I hope you were able to find the answers you needed.

Lizette unfortunately the teachers are from different parts of the country/world and the only photos we got were via e-mail.  To be able to share these so that it won’t take forever to download the files had to be scaled which unfortunately resulted in less clear photos.  The printed program would be available at your local quilt guild soon but again all the photos used in it, were sent by e-mail.

I hope this helps.

Kathryn Harmer-Fox textile artist

Our guild had the good fortune to have Kathryn Harmer-Fox teach her textile class to some of our guild members and from the replies I received to tell me how they experienced the class, it seems everyone had a ball.

To some it was a totally new experience breaking away from the traditional and as Marietjie described it, she became almost reckless in discovering different ways of freedom to reach her end goal.  Marianne said that this was the course she enjoyed the most of all the courses she did in the past.  But on a more authoritative note, let me share with you what was published in the CUT Newsletter about Kathryn.

Kathryn Harmer Fox

Marizaane van Rensburg

I recently had the privilege of meeting the artist Kathryn Harmer Fox. What an inspirational women with an enthusiasm to share her knowledge with all. She presented a workshop to 14 of our Fashion lecturers in Fibre Art and the results within only 3 days were staggering!

After 12 years of working odd jobs and being an artist on the side, Kathryn settled down with her husband on a golf estate 20km outside East London where she now works full-time as an artist.

Kathryn believes artists are glorified problem solvers who, during their creative process in changing and combining objects, transform it into a beautiful piece of art. She finds her inspiration from all aspects of life as well as magazines, galleries, Street Art and Mr Google. Her preferred mediums are clay and mixed mediums like drift wood, canvas, sewing thread, pieces of cloth, wool, paint and even metals. She uses the sewing machine as an oversized pencil to create.

She is very passionate about non-prejudice and fresh thinking and believes that everything is an adventure and all must be investigated in order to create and grow.

It was truly an honour to meet Kathryn and we hope to see more of her.

Looking at these photos the ladies each had their own work of art to take away from the class.

More 2013 Quilt Festival news

The form for accommodation at the hostel for the 17th National Quilt Festival held in Bloemfontein, South Africa from 1 - 7 July 2013 can be obtained by clicking HERE.

The long wait is over!!!

The workshop program for the 17th National Quilt Festival held in Bloemfontein, South Africa from 1 to 7 July is available.

To ready or print your copy, click HERE.

This booklet can also be read on the top shelf on the right hand side of the blog.  Enjoy!

Four Step Flagstone Quilt Tutorail

Jera from the blog 'Quilting in the Rain' shared her super easy quilting tutorial on Monica's blog 'Bursting the Seams'.

Go check out just how easy it is to put this one together by clicking HERE.

Ruffled sunglasses casse

Another tutorial by Positively Splendid and this time for a ruffled sunglass case.  I suppose you can skip the ruffles and replace these with nice quilt blocks.

Find the tutorial over HERE.

Portable first aid kit

Now that the Christmas holidays are nearing I think we all need one of these to take along whether we’ll be driving long distances or just spend the day at a nearby dam/resort.

Positively Splendid shares the tutorial on how to make this portable first aid kit over HERE.

Striped Drawstring bag tutorial

Jeni from the website In Color Order shares a tutorial on how to make these drawstring bags.

Now if we make these in Christmas fabric or colors we'll never need Christmas wrapping again.

Take a look at how it is made over HERE.

Crocheted Merry Christmas Wreath

In our guild many quilters crochet just as hard as they quilt, so when I found this pretty wreath pattern on Lily's Sugar 'n Creams' site, I just had to share it.

To see the free pattern or to download your printer friendly PDF, click HERE.

Decorating for Christmas

I stopped doing Christmas decorations a couple of years ago when my kids turned older.  The problem I had with decorating was that everyone was keen to set up the stuff but when it became time to remove and pack these away, I was left all alone.

However with our first grandchild having her first Christmas this year, I plan to decorate again.  No proper grandma can  go without Christmas decorations in her house hey?

Sew Mama Sew has a couple of tutorials on her blog to make some of these decorations.  So take a look over HERE and get started!

Turn a bar of soap into liquid hand soap

When I read this article about the cons of using a bar of soap I agreed totally.  So today, a little off the quilting scene, I'd like to share this recipe by Savvy Housekeeping with you.

Read just how easy it is to turn an ordinary bar of soap into liquid hand soap by clicking HERE.

Simple Six-Pocket bag

The site of Better Homes and Gardens is one of my favorites to read while sipping on a glass of ice cold wine at the end of the day before DH gets home – just a little ‘me’ time and I always find something to read or worse the…. “I want to make that someday” feeling.

Yesterday was one of those late afternoons and I found this lovely 6-pocket (the more the merrier) bag I thought I’d share with you.

To see how to make this, click HERE and do spend some time on the rest of the site – you’ll find almost everything from health to pets and I’m sure you too will enjoy it.

Homemade hand lotion

Bella Online shared two recipes for homemade hand lotion and the third a scrub I often use myself, more as a relaxing treat opposed to getting rid of old skin – double the pleasure and advantage.

To read the full article and get the recipes, click HERE.

2013 Festival - Sponsors needed

We still need a couple of sponsors for the following:

R500,00 per page for the catalogue received when entering the quilt exhibition. The sponsor will be mentioned at the bottom of the page.

R500,00 for the hanging of a quilt.  Again the sponsor will be mentioned at the exhibition.

R300,00 per child attending the Outreach classes.  This will include class fees, a kit and snacks for the child.

Please contact Iessie Steenberg (082 705 5279) if you can assist with any of these.

2012 Final quarterly meeting - Part 5

Finally it was time to start with our workshops and each instructor showed what her group would be doing.

Pretty soon everyone was hard at work and what a pleasant meeting this turned out to be.  Thank you Needles and Pins.