Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Class one at Taupo Symposium 2013

My first class was Royal Exhibition (machine applique) with Michele Hill. Seriously I have never laughed as much in a class - ever, as I did in Michele's class. Boy is that lady funny and so down to earth, it truly was a pleasure to be in her class. I have never enjoyed a class so much. The designs are from Australia's only World Heritage listed building - Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building.

For this class we had a choice of making a cushion or a table runner. As most of you know we have recently moved cities and are living in a new house, hence I thought a new table runner for the dining room table might be a good idea.

I had chosen different colours for my table runner compared to others in the class. I love purple and thought I would use the colours that I love especially bearing in mind the amount of work involved with these labours of love. The opportunity to practice my machine applique made this choice of class an easy one. 


The fabric for my table runner.

I was not disappointed. There was definitely improvement in my machine applique throughout this class, although a did a bit of tracing on the second morning due to an ill timed headache. Luckily by lunchtime the medication had kicked in and I could get back to stitching.


Michele and I at end of class, day two.

It was fantastic seeing everyone's projects at the end of the class. Below is a photo of mine at the end of the class.


I now have all the design pieces attached to the background fabric and are slowly getting it all machine appliqued. Yesterday I decided to set up my machine as it was still packed from Symposium and the front room was freezing compared to the living room, so I thought that I would set up on the dining room table. Alas the machine bounced as I sewed, so I had no choice but to set up my sew-ezi table in the living room.

So I am going to keep chipping away at this until I get it completed. As I mentioned before I have seen improvement in my stitching and the tips that Michele gave us has really helped. I took my machine to Symposium as I wanted to use the machine that I would always be using for machine applique. I have previously hired machines at Symposium which has worked well for me for what I needed them for. As you can see from the photo I have a Janome and they have a 5 stitch blanket stitch as opposed to the Bernina which has a 3 stitch blanket stitch. This means that where I stop the machine before pivoting is different - this understanding is definitely helping - although more practice is needed still. I have got the outer curves sorted but need to focus more on the inner curves.

Anyway I will show you close ups once I have it out from under the machine.
Had better get back to the machine - break time is over for now!

Cheers
Donna-Maree



Monday, July 29, 2013

Wow .... Hello there

Well it is Monday of term three and I am enjoying the peace and tranquility of having the house to myself once again. I have to say that it is nice being home as I haven't been here much with several trips to Whangarei and Symposium in Taupo. The cats really appreciate me being home too.

Aren't they cute all curled up like that.

What a fantastic time we had in Taupo. I caught up with friends from Whangarei and also made new friends too. A group of us from Whangarei rented a house together which was lovely as there were always interesting things to discuss, exhibitions and lectures to share plus generally spending quality time together sharing what we love best - Quilting!


Here is a sample of the view enjoyed from where we were staying.

This is the third Symposium I have been to and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was very busy as I was lucky enough to get two x two day classes, plus I wanted to attend lectures. I love the lectures and seeing the tutors strut their stuff. Their personalities really do come through and I feel that the lectures are very good value for money. This was the first time that I have attended two day classes and I really enjoyed them. I felt that there was less pressure and the convenience of being able to leave everything in the classroom until the next day was awesome. The extra bonus was that I actually got something completed .... but more on that soon.

Cheers until next time
Donna-Maree