Caturday Wisdom #138

There's nothing wrong with being matchy-matchy. Ivy

Taupata star mini quilt (a Natty collaboration)

Since I moved to my little suburb a few years ago, I've enjoyed watching it change and come to life with the addition of new shops and eateries. One of these new places is Natty, a workshop and retail space just up the road from me.

 

Cat and Fiona are the creative forces behind Natty, and together they design and make a range of lovely gifty things.  I popped in a few months ago for a chat and to scope out the shop, and fell in love with this Taupata leaf design which appears on a few products, including this tea towel.  Cat and Fiona were kind enough to print the design for me on my favourite Essex yarn dyed linen in black using beautiful gold ink.

I recently started experimenting with english paper piecing, and thought this fabric would be perfect for some fussy cutting and hand stitching.  To make these shapes, I used 60 degree diamond templates, and paired the hand printed fabric with some Carolyn Friedlander fabric with complementary gold accents.

 

Once I stitched my star together, I set it on an ivory Essex linen background and machine stitched it in place.  With a nice plain background, I thought some free motion quilted texture was in order.  I've long admired the way Jess from Elven Garden Quilts quilts her quilts, and one of the things I think she does really successfully is to use straight lines in her free motion quilting.  I used lots of straight lines in the quilting of this mini, echoing the star shape and playing with triangles and diamonds.

I'm pretty delighted with how the quilting came out on this quilt.  The lines aren't perfectly straight, but I like the organic, imperfect look.  I have a larger quilt ready for quilting and I'm planning to play with free motion quilted straight-ish lines on that one too.

If you're looking for cute, locally designed and made gifts, Natty is definitely worth a look.  If you're visiting in person, make sure you check out my local bakery, Baker Gramercy - their loaves and other treats are delicious.

Caturday Wisdom #137

Good things come to those who wait.  Ralph

I heard a very quiet rustling sound in the hallway and came out to find this.  It's been a long time since Ralph managed to get his paws on a roll of toilet paper to shred.  It's apparently hugely satisfying for him - I have to keep my toilet paper on top of the bathroom cabinet where he can't get it it, otherwise it ends up in thousands of tiny pieces.  Clearly on this day I was distracted before I put it back, much to Ralph's delight (and my chagrin).

Caturday Wisdom #136

Stay curious.  Ivy

Ivy is a very curious cat, both in the sense of being interested in the world around her, and also in the sense of being rather strange.  Jennifer is off swanning around Europe for a few weeks, so I'm back on Caturday duty.   Ivy will miss her, mostly because she is the provider of Ivy's favourite foods (eggs, and coffee), and more inclined to use the heating in the house.  No doubt I'll be getting lots of extra cat cuddles over the next couple of weeks.

Lizzy House lecture and trunk show

As part of Lizzy House's tour down under, I have organised a lecture and trunk show in Wellington so that Lizzy can share her story and work with a wider audience.

Lizzy will present the lecture and trunk show on Wednesday 14 October 2015, at Wellington SPCA's Newtown Centre, at 140 Alexandra Road, Newtown, Wellington.  Doors will open at 7:00 p.m. for a 7:30 p.m. start.

The venue isn't huge, so tickets are strictly limited to 75 in total, and cost $10 per person.  If you would like to come to the lecture, you will need to buy a ticket in advance, and you can do this by emailing me at adriannereid @ gmail dot com and I will send you my account number so you can pay me $10.

Once I have received your payment, I will put your name on the list and send you a numbered ticket which you can print out at home and bring on the night.

I'm really excited for a wider audience to be able to come and meet Lizzy and hear her story - I hope you're excited too!