Sunday, 26 January 2014

The Great Instagram Destash

Two weekends ago, I got involved with a little thing called an Instagram Destash.  Let me explain:  A whole lot of patchwork and quilting people who live in the UK and Europe all decided that on Friday night, starting at 7pm they would post photos of fabric from their stash that they'd like to part with, onto Instagram, along with the price they'd like for it.  If you followed the hashtagged group and you saw anything you liked, all you had to do was comment under the photograph with your PayPal affiliated email address!  The first to comment was the successful buyer!
Well, I am fairly new to Instagram, so I decided to plan ahead.  I typed my email address along with the words 'Yes Please' then copied it (by holding my finger down on the words until they were selected and a command box popped up asking me what I wanted to do with the words - of course I chose COPY)  Whenever I refreshed my photo stream, if there was anything that I liked all I had to do was put my finger in the space where you add a comment and hold it down for a couple of seconds to paste in my comment.  I was so pleased to have been the first to comment on eight lovely things and have been happily receiving fabric pieces in the post all week!
The Americans had one first, the previous weekend under #greatfabricdestash, but unfortunately most of the people who posted photos said shipping to US only, so the next weekend we were lucky enough to have one over here under the group name of #greatukfabricdestash.  This then made all the Australian patchworkers feel left out, as postage costs can sometimes be prohibitive, so they had their own Instagram fun last weekend under the tag #greataussiefabricdestash.  If you happen to share photos on Instagram, there are still a few things up for grabs, if you're interested.

Here are some pictures of the things I was able to buy, mostly for a green quilt I am hoping to make for my sister, the others were just because I liked them!
Hunky Dory Jelly roll from Trudi Wood  
Padstow 5" charm squares from Emma

Leafy fat quarter from Emily
ikea fat quarter from feefeefifi

Green scrap bundle from hannlib
Mendocino mermaid small pieces from Fiona
Etchings jelly roll and charm pack from Katy
I am still waiting on just one more to arrive, it is half a yard of grey with white flowers, from Sarah at duck egg threads.










This Destash was a lot of frantic fun!  Every time I clicked the refresh button, 6 or 7 photos had been added that I had to examine and see if it was something I'd like, and then the mad rush to try and be the first to add your email address in the comments.  Sometimes it looked like nobody had commented, so I thought I was the first, but then once you send the comment, the photo refreshes itself and you actually see that your comment was third in line instead of first!
It was also lovely to see some people who have big collections of fabric be prepared to part with some of their special and rare pieces.  Sometimes someone would comment that they were disappointed to miss out on something, and then another commenter would offer up a piece that they had at home!  Some people would even feel sorry for others missing out, and so offered to have their winning piece cut in half in order to share the good fortune.  It really was an experience, an outpouring of the shared love for fabric.

If you'd like to know about anymore that I hear of, I'll post a newsflash blog post to provide some advanced notice.  It seems the people with large fabric collections found it cathartic and those - like me - who have a small stash enjoyed finding new treasures and new blogs to read too!  If you joined in with one of these Instagram Destashings, what did you think of it?  

Thursday, 23 January 2014

The Easiest Quilt Top EVER

This is a patchwork quilt top using two 5" charm packs, and adding a few other bits and bobs I already had for a border.  This is a quick and easy way to make a quilt, especially if you have never done one before but have been seduced into buying some of these deliciously tempting little bundles of coordinating fabric!
  If you have bought a 10" layer cake bundle, then you will end up with a lot more diamonds, tripling  the size of your quilt!  Just cut the 10" fabric into 5" squares first and keep going til it's all gone.

1.  Split your bundles into large prints and small prints and pair the small prints up with their twin - you will have two of each fabric if you have bought two charm packs.
2.  Cut the two smaller print squares into triangles and pair them up with a contrasting large print square.
3.  Sew a pair of triangles using a quarter inch seam allowance to either side of your square and then press it open.  See the left hand side patchwork blocks in the next two photos.
4.  Sew the other pair of triangles to the other two sides of your square and press this open.  See the right hand side patchwork blocks in the next two photos.

5.  Trim off all the little dog-ear triangles that are hanging out along the outside edges, then arrange all your blocks into rows of any combination you desire!  I took a few photos of my layout so that I could check each square wasn't next to any similar squares and that all my dark colours were relatively spread out.

Yield

If you use two 5" charm packs you will probably end up with 28 blocks.  I added in some fabric squares of my own to make 7 more blocks.  If you use one 10" layer cake, and cut it up into 5" squares, this will probably give you 56 blocks.

Border

As I had a few other bits of fabric already I used these to create a border of 2" strips cut on a 45 degree angle, but you could do anything or nothing for a border and it would still look impressive!



Now to purchase some backing fabric and get it quilted!  This is going to be a gift for a very dear lady.

Garment Making Hiatus

Not much garment sewing going on over here at Nessa's Place I'm afraid.
I think this is mostly because I am not happy with my current figure and don't really want to waste fabric or time making things for a figure that I am hoping will change soon.  But I do still want to create with fabric, so have been busy with patchwork instead!  If you're only interested in garments, I won't mind at all if you skip over my upcoming non-garment posts.

Sunday, 12 January 2014

Winter Sewing Plans

There have been so many year round-ups and year-long resolution plans in my blog reader!  But I am not going to layout a whole years worth of goals as you never know what is around the corner.  So I am going to keep my goals seasonal.
Winter is the perfect month for any and all forms of stitching.  Dark and cold outside, warm and glowing inside.  I am hoping to get a few things finished before the end of March, and am linking up this list of goals with Katy's Finish-A-Long.  My goals for Winter are as follows:
1.  To turn this lovely tartan wool fabric my Mister gave me as an anniversary gift into a long skirt.  I received this pattern as a gift from Jeri.

2.  To finish all the applique blocks for the In My Garden quilt I've been working on for a long time now.  I'd be really thrilled to get the last four blocks of the patchwork top all completed by March.  As I plan to hire the use of a long-arm machine to quilt some of it, as well as some hand quilting, I will save that part of the quilt finishing until the Spring.

3.  ClaireEPoppins gifted me a Moda charm pack, so I bought another one the same and have sewn  them into 35 square-in-a-square blocks.  I would like to get these sewn together and then come up with an interesting border to make it bigger and to have it bound and quilted by the end of March.  It will be a gift for an older lady friend.


4.  I'd like to use these Sweet Life fat quarters to create a baby quilt for a dear friend who lives far away.  I'd like to try the dresden plate idea for these too.



You might like to think about linking up any jobs that need finishing too, as there are prizes up for grabs for anyone who finishes the items on their list!  For more rules and info click here.
Finish Along 2014
Click here to go to the Link-Up






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