Fun in the Owlery

Had a fun time quilting with friends this week. Thursday we were in Ballan, where many of the Friday group sat and sewed and had lunch and a lovely time. Friday was the usual get together, and on Saturday my other friendship group had a good time sewing and having afternoon tea.
I'd started on my Kim McLean quilt and finished the first block (see below). It took some re-learning and trial and error, but it was good practice. Hopefully the next few block will look more professional.  One of the challenges was finding the right thread for the needleturn, but eventually I settled on Aurifil 100wt, dark grey for the dark bits and Superior thread silver for the lighter pieces. The second block is already in production, and I'm already happier with it. Marking pens also constituted a learning curve. I used the blue Flexion pen to trace shapes, but unfortunately, the markings turned white when ironed. Then I changed to thin pencil, which was fine for lighter pieces, and bought a white Sewline pen for darker ones. Love the combination of KF and batiks, they really do compliment each other.

My friend Gabbie gave me a bundle of Kaffe Fassett precuts from Tania, which are just gorgeous. We thought Tania might have wanted to use them for a Kaffe Fassett design challenge we held a few years back, however, looking at the book, it didn't quite add up. So I played with the pieces the other day and sorted some of them into different fabric ways, and had a bit more of an idea about what to do with them. Stay tuned!

Finally, I made this Anniversary card for DH, seeing it was our 35th Anniversary yesterday. He liked the two owls, as did I. I was very spoilt, with a mushy card, chocolates, lunch at Langham's, and another little Pandora for my ever-increasing collection.
Yesterday I made two tags (or bookmarks). In the first one I used a new stamp, the moggy reading a book and sitting on a stack of books. Enjoyed using my new ink pads, a stencil, and Tim Holtz washi tape (mainly to cover up a couple of stamping ooopsies).

 The other tag was one I'd seen in Pinterest, just loved it. I got the India stamps and a flourish stamp and got going, using various backgrounds (pearls, ink pads), and a silver gel pen for highlights. The stamping is pretty iffy, and it has a couple of ooopsies, but that just adds to a weathered look. Or so I tell myself. It's quite tricky using those stamps, because they are not backed and are basically floppy. Still, I quite liked the overall effect. I just wished I could have used the Finnabair opalescent acrylics, but irritatingly, I can't for the life of me re-open the tubs! Even DH couldn't open them. They might need to re-think their packaging.

 On to the NEXT BIG THING!