A Day With A Designer

Tomorrow I am off to the Hawkes Bay for a 'Day With A Designer'. The designer is Ellen Chester of With My Needle . It is very rare that an American designer lands on our shores to teach a course being as we are so very far away so an opportunity not to be missed.

 

 

 

My flight from Auckland to Hawkes Bay departs at 6.45am so I have to get up super early. There is a tropical storm predicted to arrive in the upper North Island later Friday/Saturday and I am just hoping like heck that it doesn't speed up as I sure want to be back on terra firma Friday evening in Auckland before it starts to blow a gale. I am only going for the day.

 

I will tell you all about the course next week. It is hosted at the Mission Estate Winery which is somewhere I have never been before. It is quite appropriate really because the piece Ellen is teaching is the 'Fruit of the Vine Sampler Huswif'.

 

You can read Ellen's blog here

 

Our darling feline patient Louis is back at the vet today. As the swelling has subsided and he has been catching it on everything the cast has slipped and so they need to recast him. His hock is still very unstable. $$$ :( but oh so glad he is still with us.

 

Despite his injuries and being a very good patient he is still as keen as ever to bolt outside. Husband's who leave doors open don't help!!!

 

The girls and I couldn't help ourselves graffiti-ing his cast

I finally and with much glee received my Cabinet of Curiosities casket form on Tuesday. I savoured the moment on my ownsome. The packaging was amazing and made the unveiling a bit like layers of paper in a game of pass the parcel only it was...unwrap a layer....take a photo...unwrap a layer....take a photo....

 

 

It is all very much in pieces at the moment as the hardware does not get attached until all the lining and stitching is done. I won't glue the wooden bun feet in either as Tricia is having metal ones made and I may well change when they are available. But I have it in front of me and I can now start to visualise my design in 3D. Woo Hoo.

 

I have been in a couple of times this week to the printer trying to get the pattern for the mirror with doors to size correctly and it is very frustratingly not being helpful. At this point I cannot just trace it onto the linen as the dimensions will not be right so I have may have to trace the outline and fit the design in. Painful but doable.

 

 

I have a huge stack of design ideas piled up in my room for both the casket and the fancy mirror. Need to organise my thoughts around all this.

 

 

I received a lovely package from The Little Quilt Store during the week. This is the beautiful studio of Lynette Andrews quilt designs. I purchased the set of Apliquik Tools. So far I have used the Perfect scissors both large and embroidery and they are brilliant. They have little serrations on the blade a bit like metal thread scissors and really grip the fabric. Of course her fabric designs are just gorgeous and I now have all the bits to make the Chateau Hexagon Quilt.

 

The Di Ford Mountmellick attempts at hand applique have been driving me crazy this week and I finally decided to be kind on myself and only do hand applique for the broderie perse. Trying to get the vase all lined up and hand pieced was difficult to say the least for a newbie to hand applique. So I reverse stitched it all and machine appliqued.  Too little time and too many projects to feel guilty over this failure. I just was not happy.

 

This is my failed hand job....so uneven and yuck

 

 

This is my moving on using stitching technology....nice and even and balanced

 

 

I have layed out the swags and diamonds and you will see that next week. The latest Quiltmania magazine came out today with the next border instalment. Need to move on with this...

 

The Needleworker's Pocketbook is still trucking along...

 

 

Oh, this week I also received a package I ordered of ETSY after seeing the work of a cool needlefelter. Sarafina Fiber Art supply the necessary supplies to make the animals she has video tutorials for on her website. I got the fox....too cute

 

Enjoy the rest of your week