August update for Welcome to the North Pole

Can you believe it is the end of August! I will have to put some serious time into my North Pole quilt to get it finished. This month I only did a bit more on the Santa block. I still want to stitch on some snowflakes and each row has some finishing to do. All the big stuff is done except for the stars and moon at the top but they should be pretty quick to do.

 

I hope everyone managed to do a bit more this month. It only takes a bit at a time to get things done. I hope none of you have packed it up as a UFO yet!

Happy Quilting,

Val

 

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Feeling good

A great big thank you to all those lovely people who voted for the cat quilt and Stumpy over at Pets on Quilts. It was also great to get so many nice comments from visitors to my March post about the cat quilt.

I have just been feeling good lately. It is important to stop and smell the roses. With some luck and lots of planning I am really enjoying my retirement. I have achieved a balance where everything is important but nothing is really important.

I love designing things to make using my Derwent pencil box that I bought at the Derwent pencil museum on the site of the original Derwent pencil factory in Keswick UK. I still have my set of Lakeland pencils in a tin that I used in high school. The box is a pleasure to use.

 

I haven't done much sewing the last few weeks but I did buy myself a second sewing machine to keep set up for free motion sewing. It is a Bernette made by Bernina. I love the one I already have. The new one is a bit more simple but it was only $149 on special at Spotlight.

New one.

Old one.

 

I have spent a lot of time playing with the glass and the kiln. I will need to do some sewing so I can use the buttons and zipper pulls I have been making.

I still get really excited about what everyone is posting about in their blogs and I have been looking and commenting on lots of blogs but I follow so many it takes ages to visit them all. I have spent some time resorting them in Bloglovin into folders like shop blogs, inspirational blogs, hobby quilters, old friends, swaps and linkies. That way I can just look at one folder at a time and it is not so overwhelming. It never ceases to amaze me how many wonderful quilty bloggers there are.

Wishing you all happy creative days,

Val

 

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Vote for my quilt and Stumpy!

We were given permission to blow our own trumpets so toot toot toot!
Pets on quilts is a wonderful display of all the things I love best. There are so many themed quilts and cute pets. I was amazed.
It is time to vote for favourites this week. Just letting you know. My pet themed quilt is #56 and my cat on a quilt is #59

The quilt.
My original blog post in March.

Stumpy on the quilt.
More photos on Flickr.

Head on over to Lily Pad Quilting to vote.


Happy Quilting,
Val

Pets on Quilts

I have enjoyed looking at all the animal quilts and wonderful pets and when I realised there was still time to enter I just had to include Stumpy and my catnip quilt.

Stumpy doesn't care what is on the quilt. He just likes to be included in every step of the process. I think he likes it when I am sewing because I stay in the one place for long periods of time.

Here is a reminder of my finished quilt.

And a couple of Stumpy helping.

An early inspection.

Is it finished yet?

Not quite enough cat fur on it yet.

Original post

Flickr set

I am linking up with Pets on Quilts 2013 at Lily Pad Quilting.
Entries close Sat 17th
Voting starts next week. Sunday Aug 18.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Comment on Facebook if you are not on Google +
or email me at valspierssews@gmail.com
or comment on a photo on flickr.

I don't need an iPad!

Yeah right.
Me and my iPad are attached at the hip :D

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

1. I save images to the camera roll then add them to an album. Some of my albums are similar to my Pinterest albums but the purpose of these images is to act as templates to trace using my Whiteboard app. I then use the line drawings to make similar designs. More about Whiteboard later.

I am just about to change my privacy setting in the iPad to say yes to pinterest accessing my photos so I can save a pinned image to my camera roll. System/privacy/photos/slide the pinterest choice to yes. You click the share icon on the top of the pin to see where you can send it.
So many companies have access to my stuff on the internet and iPad I don't suppose one more will hurt.

2. I use the camera to take pictures of designs and colour combinations that I see in magazines. I also use the camera through my Flickr app to directly upload photos of my project progress to Flickr. Using the Flickr app I can add titles, descriptions, place them in sets and decide on privacy settings.

3. The Whiteboard app allows me to upload a photo of a design. I then add a new layer. I go back to the photo layer and make it semi transparent so it is easier to trace. I then go back to my new layer and you use a finger to trace the outlines. I can then delete the photo layer and save the line diagram in my photos albums. I then use these line drawings to make drawings in my paper design notebook. I used this method to get drawings of birds and flowers for original applique patterns.

You get an option to draw, take a photo to draw on or upload a photo

I traced the photo of my teapot and cup to make an applique. You can email it to yourself to print or print straight from the iPad with a program that you install on your computer call fingerprint ($20) Our printer is not able to print from the iPad without this program.

This is what I did with it. I posted about it too.

This app costs $2.99. There is a lite version but it doesn't do much.
Get info.

4. In Photos I have several albums of cross stitch charts that I can call up and enlarge instead of printing them out.

5. I download lots of PDF patterns and open them in iBooks. (I have just realised that GoodReader is better for my patterns because I can make notes on the page) If there is a template I just print that page out then use my iPad up in the sewing room to read the instructions. I have a nifty iPad stand that I made. I posted about the pattern here.

6. For some simple design templates like stars or hearts I just place a piece of paper over the iPad and trace it. You just need to hold the paper down by pressing on the outside border of the iPad and keep your hand off the screen. Touching with the pencil is OK.

7. I sometimes make a blog post from my iPad using Blogsy. It is easy to use. You can drag photos from the iPad or Flickr make links etc. It is available in the App Store and costs $4.99.
Get info.

8. The iPad is much more portable than my laptop and I can use it anywhere in the house. I like to play on Pinterest using the Pinterest app. I also check in to Google + with the Google + app. I have just downloaded the gmail app and I use it in combination with my iPad mail app to see which accounts I am getting mail in. I now have three mail accounts to keep track of. I have added all accounts to my mail program so I can access them all from the one app.

9. Early on I realised that I needed to get things from my iPad to my laptop so I bought the Goodreader app. When free bom instalments come out I can open the PDF in Good reader then upload it to my Google drive. From there I can download it to my laptop if I want to. This way I don't miss any instalments. Since they usually have templates to print in them it is easier to save them to Google drive where I can access them with my laptop.
I have just started keeping patterns in Good Reader because I saw how I could annotate the files.

(The annotations stay with the file when I transfer it to google drive but they disappear when I try to open it on iBooks on the iPad. The pop up sticky note disappears when you transfer it to google drive.)

The only way to get files out of iBooks is to email them to myself then I can open them directly in Good Reader. I added my email server to the Connect to server section. I can now select to connect to Google drive or my mail server.

These are my folders in good reader.

I made a note of where the paper templates are stored

You can write with your finger. This one also has a pop up sticky note about the eyes.

Good Reader info. It is $4.99

I have one whole screen plus a couple more on the next screen just for me. We also have 2 screens of general use apps. There is a quilt calculator app called QuiltCalc but so far I have used patterns that give me the cutting instructions. I also have the Craftsy app for watching block of the month.

I hope you have found some inspiration here. (Speakng of...the Inspiration app has been great for us while we have been setting up our fused glass business plan. $10.49.)

Happy Quilting,
Val

valspierssews@gmail.com
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FNWF

I have been working away on my Debbie Mumm sampler trying to get it finished. Not too much to go now but those pesky little Ohio stars are becoming tedious. Only two more to go. They are the last pieces and go in the top border. I have to finish them before I can sew the border on.

You can download this design from http://www.debbiemumm.com/Projects/QuiltBlocks/2012/

I didn't work on this one Friday night but I have been getting some done on my Go Wild Garden quilt. This is from Country Cottage Quilting by Lynette Anderson. I have 8 background blocks done. There is quite a bit of applique on them.

I get the newsletter from Fort Worth Fabric Studio and they had a mid week sale a few weeks ago. I was on the verge of buying the Short and Stout range at full price then it popped up on sale. Whoo Whoo! 7 yards and a panel for $76. That is a bit more than $10 /metre including the postage. I love it.

Thanks to Cheryll at Gone Stitchn' you can visit lots of friends who all joined in with Friday Night With Friends. It is great to see what everyone is doing.

Happy Quilting,
Val

If you are not into Google+ you can contact me through:

valspierssews@gmail.com

or Facebook