Sunday Stash Report

I am delighted to be able to report another finish this week... 2 weeks running I have finished a quilt. That is exciting!

I finished off my Twilter Hash tag quilt which was a great thrill. I started to write it's own finished blog post but didn't get it completed. The blocks were from a block swap with the Twilter group, a group of quilters united initally on Twitter but now on Facebook as well. We all listen to podcasts, particularly Hip to Be a Square, Quilting for the Rest of Us, Lazy Daisy Quilts (and reads), Weezyworks, The Offkilter Quilt and Nonnie's Quilting Dream (I think I have missed one out... hmmmm) Oh Yes Quilt Cabana Corner, The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady and The Quilting Pot.

Anyway last year we decided to do a block swap and chose the hashtag or pound sign # block from Amy Gibson's free craftsy block of the month class from 2012. I got my blocks put together earlier on in the year and got the quilt pinned in March but with being away for 6 weeks over April and May I didn't get to sit down to work on it till last week. Now its done. 

Yay. I quilted a different design in each block, basing my design choice on the either the back ground fabric of the block or that of the hash tag itself. Some worked well.... other not so much. However it was fun spending the time on it.

My other finishes this week have been fabric baskets. I've made 6 of them so far. They are all for the Handmade With Love Stall at the Christmas in July craft fair next month. Some one asked me about Christmas in July after she saw a picture of my jars of savoury sugar coated peanuts with a Christmas caps on. 

In Australia Christmas occurs in the middle of our very hot summer. Now whilst some people are still sticklers for the traditional hot roasts associated with Christmas in northern countries, many of us opt for cold meats and salads. However the tradition has sprung up with many people to celebrate Christmas in winter and so be able to enjoy the hot dishes and puddings. July is our coldest month. A craft show at this time of the year is also a chance for people to stock up on some Christmas presents ahead of time.

The parent group (P&C) of a school in a near by town has been running a craft show for a few years now. Handmade with Love is going to have a stall for the first time this year. I have started to make a few extra things. As well as the baskets (some of which are made out of Christmas fabric)

 and the savoury peanuts I have made a couple of pencil pencil cases and have 6 more cut out ready to be sewn. I had better get on with them.

How is your sewing going? Hope you have made some good progress this week

Stash Usage for Week 26

Fabric used                       10.32 m
Fabric Added                     00.00m (Yay)
Weekly Net                        10.32m

YTD
Fabric Used                      60.93m
Fabric Added                    36.35m
Year Net                            24.58m

Linking up with Patchwork Times

W is for Weezy Works and Weddings

W is for Weezy Works, another podcast that I love to listen to. Tina is a multi faceted/ multi skilled crafter who talks about her life and her crafts on her podcast. As well as being a quilter and cross stitcher she also collects and restores vintage sewing machines. She shares her skills in all these areas on her blog and her podcast.

Weezy Work's podcast is available from iTunes and from Tina's website

Tina has a page on her blog about making quilts for other people - on commission. She sets out the many steps in making a quilt and the costs incurred. It is well worth looking at. I don't make quilts on commission.  If someone has ever given you a quilt it may surprise you as to just what is involved and the relative costs. It will help you realise just how generous a gift that quilt is.

I don't make quilts on commission because I doubt anyone would actually be prepared to pay me what it costs to make the quilt - especially not if they were going to pay me for my time and effort. The quilts I make are gifts for family and friends. For special occasions. Usually I make a quilt as a gift for a new baby. I have made one for all of my great nieces and nephews and for babies who have been born to close friends. My most recent one was for baby Theo, my close friend's grandson. I knew his mum when she was born too.

And at the beginning of this month I gave another close friend a quilt for a wedding present. Usually my husband makes the bride and groom a turned wood lamp but he had already made the bride, our former minister one when she moved to another church. We weren't expecting to make her one for a wedding present (she was 59 and single) but a year later she announced her engagement to another friend of ours. So... it was my turn to make the gift  - a quilt for their bed.

She loved it :)

The wedding party. I was chief bridal attendant

T is for Thank God it's Friday

TGIF - Thank God It's Friday - is an award-worthy weekly radio comedy show with 702 ABC Sydney Drive host Richard Glover.

It is broadcast live every Friday from 5pm to 6pm with music and comedy performed in front of an audience at the ABC 

Yup a podcast that is AUSTRALIAN and which has nothing to do with quilting.

I don't live in Sydney so am very pleased that the show is recorded and made available as a podcast later that same evening. It is one of only 2 shows that I don't have set to delete after I have played it. I relisten to the show many times during the week as I drift off to sleep

Its a panel show with 3 guests hosted by Richard Glover. The guests are usually raconteurs who talk laugh lie and sometimes sing as they discuss the highlights of the news over the past week. Their repartee and interplay is lively and amusing.

The podcast is available for download from the ABC Drive page or from iTunes.

TGIF is similar to a  BBC radio show that I listen to The News Quiz. As a result of listening to that show I am far more aware of Brittish news and politics than I otherwise would be. The News Quiz is part of Friday Night Comedy and is available to download from their webpage for 2 weeks after it is broadcast or through iTunes.

So for Australians who want to an amusing slant on this week's news (particularly NSW happenings) or for people from else where who want a glimpse of what Australia and Australians are like listen to TGIF. You won't be sorry.

S is for the Slightly Mad Quilt Lady

The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady is Charlotte Scott, sometimes known in the blogoshpere/ podosphere as Miss Lottie. 

As well as being a great blogger, a quilt gallery owner, an award winning quilt artist and a fabric dyer of some repute,  Charlotte also producers the only quilting podcast in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Listening to her is wonderful -  fantastic change from the undiluted American accents that otherwise constitute all my craft podcasts and many of my non craft ones as well. 

The other great thing about her podcast is that she comes from a perspective that I am more familiar with. In Australia and New Zealand (and most of the rest of the non-American quilting world) quilting fabrics and notions are not cheap. They are expensive... very expensive. Fabric shops are not prolific. We don't have a multitude of guilds within and hour or so of our home. We don't have access to a steady stream of published authors and pattern designers available to come and talk to us or provide workshops. Sheer distance makes it very expensive to get even Australian based teachers to travel to my home town. There isn't a proliferation of quilting shows and conventions with in our country.

I love my podcast community and I have become very fond of a number of the quilting podcasters and I don't mean to be casting aspersions on them. However the US centric nature of many of the quilting podcasts,  blogs and Facebook groups gets a little wearing if not frustrating and exasperating at times. (NOTE I have often made a point to comment on things from the Australian perspective on my favourite podcasts and Facebook group and to their credit the podcasters do try to be more inclusive) 

ANYWAY - I love listening to Charlotte on The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady because she gives a different perspective on quilting. 

As well as talking about her quilting projects and processes, Charlotte also talks about her family (they live on a boat!!) 

her quilt and craft gallery that she recently established (Opua Arts Studio and Gallery) and life in New Zealand. On occasion she interviews other crafters from New Zealand which is wonderful. She did a series of interviews on putting on a quilt show that was fascinating.

One of Charlotte's quilts was selected for a travelling textile art exhibition, Living Colour which came to a quilt expo in Brisbane, Australia, that I was able to attend. I was so excited to go and see the quilt and take a photo of it and tell anyone who would listen that she was my friend. 

Charlotte's podcast is available on Podbean and iTunes. Take a listen. You won't regret it.

All photos on this blog post are taken from Charlotte's blog page, The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady

Q is for Quilting for the Rest of Us

Quilting for the Rest of Us is another of my favourite podcasts. Sandy is a wonderful podcaster, another of the friendly chatty ones. She doesn't interview other people but instead talks about her own quilting adventures. As she says in her introduction she hasn't published patterns or written books. She's a regular quilter.
Currently Sandy is study for her Doctor of(in?) Ministry as well as working full time so her available time for quilting let alone podcasting is pretty restricted. She hasn't posted one for a while but she will come back to it as soon as time allows, hopefully in the summer. (the American summer - yes another podcaster from the US) Sandy is from New York state so no southern drawl on this podcast.

Each January Sandy has challenge her listeners to take part in Quilty Resolutions where, instead of making resolutions such as I'm going to loose weight or go to the gym more she encourages people to make realistic resolutions within their quilting life that will help them realise dreams and desires. She usually chooses some sort of theme around which we are encouraged to frame our resoltuions. I've found it really helpful. I have chosen 3 each year (the last 2 or is it 3 years) and have incorporated them into my monthly goals that I have set myself. She also has a quilty word for the year. My word has been the same for 2 years. Its Do. It comes from Yoda "Do or do not. There is no try."

Another place that Sandy has inspired me has been in a non quilting field. She promotes Kiva, 

Kiva Microfunds is a 501 non-profit organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to low-income entrepreneurs and students in over 80 countries. Kiva's mission is “to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.”

The Quilting for the Rest of us group on Kiva has 23 members who between them have made 256 loans worth $7775

Sandy's podcast is available from her website and on iTunes.

O is for the Off Kilter Quilt

Frances Dowell's podcast, The Off-Kilter Quilt, is another of my favourite podcasts. 

Frances has a wonderful rambley way of talking. She often gets off the track, and can take a while to finish a story but the manner is so friendly and genuine I just love it. It truly is like having a conversation with a friend. She describes her website, offkilterquilt.com as follows:

 I wanted to get all my quiltiness together in one space—the podcast and podcast show notes and quilt pix and projects and links. Secondly, I wanted to have an opportunity to write about quilts and quiltmaking, perhaps touching on topics I don’t talk about on the podcast. Finally, I’m in the process of making a home for my forthcoming quilt novel, Birds in the Air, and I thought I’d build it here. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Her podcasts come out fairly regularly every 10 days or so and are usually a series of quilt diaries as she documents her quilting progress. She also comments on her life in general including her boys (2 teenaged boys) and husband (aka The Man) her reading and her work. She is very interested in quilt history and has many interesting snippets gleaned from her research.

Frances is also a successful novelist for young readers and comments on how her writing is going and the exploits she gets up to in promoting her books, including lots of school visits and writer in residence type activities. A list of her books is featured on her web page

She is part of a Facebook group Twilters, a name coined from the words Twitter and Quilters. Originally it was a group for quilters on twitter, particularly those who listened to the podcasts and interacted with the podcasters both on their blogs and on twitter. It has now also migrated to Facebook and I mostly interact there. I have to be honest I never really got Twitter. I would get lost in conversations - it just never really came together for me. I get Facebook though and so I interact regularly with Frances and many of the other Twilters there.

Frances forthcoming novel Birds in the Air is so named because it is about a quilt featuring this block. 

The Birds in the Air block, made by Tina of Weezy Works 

I suggested on Twilters that we have a block swap featuring this block and am delighted to say that it has taken off and is a goer. I can't co-ordinate it because most Twilters are in the USA and I am in Australia. The postage would be a real kicker. Now I have to get my blocks made amongst all the craziness of the month. At least they aren't due till July 1st

M is for Modern Sewciety

Modern Sewciety is a podcast produced by Stephanie, a stay at home mum (or Mom since she's from the USA) with 2 young daughters who lives in Florida. 

She's up to episode 84 so I think she's been going about 2 years now. Hers is an interview style show.

A self confessed Instagram addict and long time blog lover she started the podcast so as to be able to get to know her favourite bloggers and instagramers. Her podcasts are pretty long as she usually has 2 -3 guests each episode. 

Stephanie is very bright and vivacious and her enthuisiasm for her craft comes across in her interviews and as she chats with the listeners before and after the interviews, revealing snippets of her life in the suburbs.

I started listening to her podcasts right from when she started. She was one I didn't have to binge listen to in order to get up to date. Its been intriguing to follow her development, both as a podcaster and as a quilter. She has become well known to  people in the industry and has been invited to test patterns, sew quilts for other designers, been given access to fabric before it is released and has started designing her own patterns.

For a while she was also doing a B side, another style of podcast that fed into her pod stream. It was much more chatty and off topic and generally it was like listening in to 2 friends yarning away... which is what it was as Stephanie talked to her friend Chris, the tattooed quilter. Unfortunately due to time constraints with Chris this has fallen away of late.

I enjoy listening to Stephanie chat away - her southern drawl is of interest to this little Aussie. Her podcasts are available on her website Modern Sewciety and on iTunes. She's also on instagram (of course) under that title too.

L is for Lazy Daisy Quilts (and Reads)

Time to drum up business for another of my favourite podcasters.

L is for Lazy Daisy Quilts (and Reads). 

I went looking for some information on Daisy to augment what I had to say and I found that she had this on her web page http://ldq.outlandishthreads.com/ and it says it all...

Lazy Daisy

I am a frugal, scrappy quilter. In this blog and podcast, I talk about my quilting projects, works in progress, and my new ventures into pattern writing and teaching. I try to offer info and tips that you can use in your own quiltmaking. I also talk about my life as a wife and mother.  I currently work in my local quilt shop, and I love helping beginners find their way into this addiction hobbyart form. Basically, I’m giving my two cents about whatever comes up. I sing a little, and I ramble a lot. They don’t call me motormouth for nuttin. This is a casual, conversational podcast. 

Daisy comes from Louisianna and I enjoy her accent. As an Australian I find the different accents on podcasts intriguiging. Most of the quilting podcasts I listen to are from the US and so I have gotten used to hearing an accent. Funny thing is when some of the podcasters interview someone from Australia I struggle to identify the accent.

I also enjoy her plain speaking. She doesn't mess around. If something annoys her she says so. She doesn't tolerate fools is probably one way of saying it. On her Facebook page she describes herself as "The friend you don't want to put on speaker phone". She doesn't swear or anything like that... but she doesn't mince her words either.

Daisy is currently designing embroideries for a stitch along. If you like the Outlander series of books and like to embroider then check them out. Her patterns are free and available to download from her website

 

Daisy has become a little haphazard in posting of late. She had some family issues (her dad got very sick) and she lost her quilting mojo so she didn't feel she had much to talk about but she still pops up occasionally. She is a member of the Twilters Group and so pops up on our Facebook page periodically too so we keep in touch there. However she has a heap of back issues of the podcast so if you haven't listened to her before there is plenty to listen to.

H is for Hip to Be a Square

Hip to be a Square  is one of my favourite podcasts. 

It is another one that when I started listening to it I went back to the beginning and listened right the way through. The good thing about Pam, the head Rhombus (ie the podcaster) is that she is super regular. She posts a new podcast every week  (well she did up till just recently. She now also produces a monthly vidcast and so the week that is released she doesn't do a podcast)

It was great to be able to be guaranteed a quilty fix via podcast. She also thanks her commenters and responds on air to questions and comments left (such a thrill to hear my name on the air.. small things amuse me).

Pam is super productive so always has things to talk about. She has been a real inspiration to me in many ways. Because of her blog and podcast I got onto WIP Wednesday (Work in progress, where you blog about quilty projects on the go - there are a few linky parties each week on various blogs) and Sunday Stash Report. (blogging about fabric purchased and used) She also developed a spreadsheet on which to record said purchases and usage, including a formula to calculate how much fabric is used in a quilt. She willingly shared these with her listeners and readers. I used her formula for my stash recording. (My 2 FGs ie Fixit Guy and Fangirl further refined the spreadsheet for my use... love having nerdy family who can do this stuff)

Hip to be a Square podcast is available to download from iTunes and Pam's blog 

The other string to Pam's bow is the video show she produces with her friend Lynn. 

Called The Stitch, it comes out monthly and is always well worth a watch (or a listen as the audio part of the show is released on Pam's Hip to be a Square podcast) Its always fun, lively, lots of chat, laughter, tips and projects to share. Find out all about it on the website The Stitch TV Show

C is for Craft Sanity and Crafty Planner

Craft Sanity is the first craft related podcast I listened to. It might even be the first podcast I listened to. 

When I started there was a huge back catalogue of podcasts and I binge listened to them till I was up to date and had to hang out for her to post her next one. Right about then she started to slow down with her posting and then went into a  hiatus of several years where she didn't post at all. Fortunately through her show I had found out some other podcasts and I had them to listen to and have been able to keep my podcast addiction well fed ever since.

The podcaster is Jennifer Ackerman Haywood and her website is www.craftsanity.com  

Jennifer. (Photo from her website)

She describes how her podcast came to be

CraftSanity History
This podcast was conceived in late 2005 when I was on my second maternity leave from my newspaper gig. My husband had become a big fan of tech podcasts and suggested that I do one about crafts. I told him he was nuts, then I started planning my first show.

And though I cringe at how awkward I was during the earliest CraftSanity episodes, the experience of fumbling my way through with the support of my husband to create this show from scratch has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. It’s been a wonderful joy to get to chat with all the creative people who have shared their stories with me and to get amazingly sweet feedback from the folks at home makes it all seem like some kind of crazy, happy dream. Producing this show has been a labor of love and really has enriched my life in ways I never imagined. I really feel blessed to get to have this experience. Thank you, dear listeners, for making it possible

Jennifer interviews a range of crafters in her show. Many of them have written books, some are local to her area (Michigan) but she speaks via computer to others all over the world. Knitters, crotcheters, quilters, shoe makers, weavers, printers, recyclers.... a huge range of people who have interesting stories to tell

CraftSanity podcast is available to download from Itunes and also her website.

Crafty Planner Podcast. Sandi Hazelwood is the Crafty Planner. As she describes herself - she is a city planner who likes to craft.

Sandi also has an interview style podcast where she speaks to a different guest each week. Most of her guests tend to be sewists - often patchwork and quilters, quilt pattern designers but also fabric designers, bag and clothing pattern designers. Her podcast has a modern bent, which isn't to be surprising given that podcasts tend to appeal to younger people and they tend to be more into the modern movement. Having said that - I love podcasts and my aesthetic is definitely a mixture... a modern traditionalist.

Sandi's podcasts are available on Itunes, Stitcher and from her website.

P is for Podcasts

For a crafter who enjoys the internet P was challenging. Not because it was too hard to find something suitable but because I was spoiled for choice. I've gone with Podcasts but Pinterest was also up there along with Patchwork sites

Podcasts
I love podcasts. I listen to a mix of them but do have a heap of crafting ones I love. One of the first I started to listen to was called Craftsanity. Jennifer Ackerman Hayward was a journalist who loved to craft. She interviewed other crafters in an reasonably indepth way (the podcasts were usually over an hour long) She covered a wide range of crafts - weaving, crotchet, knitting, quilting, paper crafts, soap makers and on and on it went. I loved them and listened to all her back catalogue before eventually catching up with her and then being in the inglorious position of having to WAIT for the next episode to come out.  I enjoyed not only the crafty content but the personal updates that Jennifer supplied us with - her journey through weight loss and into running, stories about her kids, the precariousness of employment in the print industry which eventually saw Jennifer's position at the
newspaper scaled back to contributor and then no position at all. She went into a hiatus for a few years but recently resumed podcasting again but this time its just the interviews... there are no personal titbits and to be honest... I don't like it anywhere near as much. Through Craftsanity I discovered other podcasters that I started to listen to as well. Many of the original ones have also stopped recording. Its a big commitment to record edit upload write show notes etc and sometimes people run out of things to say.

Currently my favourites are 
 , 






 Off Kilter Quilt   and The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady

Charlotte, the slightly mad quilt lady is special to me cause she is from New Zealand and is the only non North American quilting podcaster that I listen to. Its lovely to hear the different accent and someone whose heritage is not too distant to my own.

(They don't have a buttons I can grab so it has to be just their names)

The women who record these have become friends - I comment on their stuff and they occasionally come back and comment on my blog and we interact on Twitter. I enjoy the ones that tell me about their home life and adventures as well as their crafting exploits. I guess I am just a nosey parker really. It means I feel that they are friends (even if I am just one of their 1000 listeners)

Some other crafting ones I listen to and enjoy are
 

 These are both interview style podcasts. The hosts interview a range of guests from the quilting and sewing world. Stephanie who hosts the first of these is a stay at home mum (or mom since she is American) and incorporates lots of snippets from home. Pat Sloan is a professional quilter and her podcasts focus for the most part on the interviewee. It has adds through it and these are a bit annoying because they rarely change. They are the same ones every week (including the tips ones... same tip every week)


 The two hosts of this podcasts, Amy and April,  are both professional quilters in that they make their living (or supplement the family income at least) from their quilting activities. They are both pattern and fabric designers and have both written books for the quilting world. As well as talking about their work and their families (I do like a bit of the personal in the podcast.. keeps me connected) they often have a topic which they discuss and contribute ideas eg sewing for babies, how to prepare you quilt to be professionally quilted.

There are a number of other crafty podcasts which I am subscribed to but their podcasting schedule seems to be all over the place and some haven't posted for a long time. Sewing mom Podcast has a list of them here so if you would like to check out some more then I suggest that you go there.


NON Quilty crafty podcasts.


Thank God Its Friday or TGIF. A weekly show broadcast by ABC Sydney radio its a panel show where the host asks the guests, 3 comedians usually, a series of questions based on news items.

 Friday Night Comedy - BBC Radio 4 - again a weekly panel style show based on the weeks news. This time its English and as a result of listening to it I know far more about what is going on in Britain than I would otherwise. The panelists are clever and witty and its more about being entertaining and amusing than telling the truth

Conversations with Richard Fidler - ABC Australia - The host interviews a wide ranging array of people from all walks of life. Some are famous politicians or actors, others are ordinary people who have had extraordinary things happen to them. Some are amusing, others informative, heart wrenching or challenging. 

Stuff You Missed in History Class - this is heaps of fun and gives information about a huge range of topics. They are probably far more familiar to American listeners but they do venture out into the big wide world and discuss a wide range of historical happenings, most of which are off the beaten track. This show also has paid advertising on it but the two hosts do them themselves and make them as fun as possible and I have to admit.. I use the skip forward 15 secs several times to go over them. Most of the ads offer incentives and discounts to listeners to the show but most aren't applicable to me since I live outside the USA.

 I'm fairly new to this podcast but that is ok as the podcast itself is pretty new. Its an agony column on the internet. It has two hosts and they chat easily and comfortably. Their advice is rarely earth shattering stuff but it is insightful and they have an easy quality to their conversations which makes it pleasant to listen to


The Moth This is a podcast of true stories told live without notes. The story tellers are sometimes famous raconteurs and comedians who are used to telling stories but as often as not they are regular people with something to say who have been help to craft their stories into compelling presentation. The themes are wide and varied. I find them interesting and challenging. I was delighted to come across one that was taped at a Sydney event. That made it extra special for me.

I have others on my download list. But I don't always listen to them. They are all available on iTunes and I listen to them on my iPhone often whilst walking but also whilst doing house work, sewing, driving in the car and whilst going to sleep at night