J is for Japanese fabrics

Japanese fabric has become popular in quilting circles of late. At first the Japanese fabric that was to be found in shops and online featured traditional Japanese motifs. My earliest fabrics featured little girls in kimonos, parasols, temples. However with the modern quilt movement and the fresh clean aesthetic of many designs and fabrics there has been a change in the Japanese fabrics available as well. 

I have been collecting cat fabrics for a while with the intention of making a quilt for a dear friend. I was going to make it for her 60th birthday but things got busy and I had put it off. Then to our delight and surprise (hers too I might add) she met a wonderful man and in November, shortly after her birthday, they announced that they were to be married. So exciting and totally delightful. Now the planned cat quilt wasn't to be just a snuggle quilt for the loungeroom. It needed to be for a queen bed. Something really special. I needed a lot more fabric.

Massdrop was my rescue (Downfall??) They had a fat quarter bundle on offer - featuring cats...

C

It was called Neko by Hyakka Ryoran it was perfect for my friend. Her husband to be has a daughter (a very good friend of ours) who teaches Japanese.

The problem was... the cat fabrics I had already collected didn't really go with the fabric in the collection. I needed a few more fabrics for the pattern I had chosen and I felt that I needed more Japanese fabrics to complement the gorgeous nekos in the fabric (Neko is Japanese for cat) Massdrop was again my rescuer... downfall. They released another drop also by Hyakka Ryoran featuring designs inspired by traditional kimono prints.

I made an error when placing my order and accidentally ordered 2 bundles so I ended up with heaps of fabric.

The quilt made from Japanese fabrics Dash That Cat, wedding gift for my friends Suzy and Stan

I ended up making 2 quilts from the Japanese fabrics and I still have quite a few fat quarters left. 

I is for inches and other excentricities

Australia is a metric country. We started the conversion in 1966 when we changed currency. The song was very catchy and most Australians over 55 can sing it.

I was in 2nd grade when Dollars and Cents came in. When I was in Gd 3 or 4 I remember starting to be taught weights and measures in the old imperial system. We didn't get up to having to convert ounces to pounds, or inches to feet when adding them together. Then it was phased out... we didn't have to learn it because metric was coming in. We did learn to add centimetres and convert to metres, and grams to kilograms but being metric that is much easier. I was so pleased. I was intrigued when researching this topic to realise the dates that these conversions happened

Wikipedia had the following information on the metrication of Australia 

• 1971 – the Australian wool industry converted to the metric system.
• 1972 – all primary schools were teaching the metric system alone. Many had been teaching both imperial and metric and later, metric alone since Australia changed to the decimal currency system in 1966. Horse racing converted in August 1972 and air temperatures were converted in September 1972.^[5]
• 1973 – all secondary schools were now using the metric system.
• 1974 – large scale conversion across industries, including packaged grains, dairy products, eggs, building, timber, paper, printing, meteorological services, postal services,communications, road transport, travel, textiles, gas, electricity, surveying, sport, water supply, mining, metallurgy, chemicals, petroleum and automotive services. Most beverages, aside from spirits, also converted to metric units by the end of 1974. The conversion of road signs took place in July 1974. 
• 1976 – the Building and Construction industry completed its change to metric measurements (within two years) by January 1976.
• 1977 – all packaged goods were labelled in metric units, and the air transport, food, energy, machine tool, electronic, electrical engineering and appliance manufacturing industries converted.
• 1987 – The Real estate industry converted to metric.
• 1988 – Metrication completed, with the metric system becoming the only system of legal measurements in Australia.

So Australia has been metric for a long time, as has most of the rest of the world apart from the USA. As far as the quilting side of things goes all our fabric is sold in metric units. However, as a whole the Patchwork and Quilting industry is very US centric. The American market is very very influential and so most patchwork notions such as rulers, cutting mats, templates etc are marked in inches. Most patterns are written in imperial measurements. 

In Australian magazines (and usually blogs too) the measurements for fabric requirements will be given in metric but the cutting instructions will be in imperial. Its one of those crazy weird eccentricities of the quilting world.

Sunday Stash Report

If you have come here looking for the blogging from A to Z post this is not one of them... this is my regular blog posts... just click back to the previous one... or read it anyway. 


No finishes at all for me this week. In fact only a tiny bit of hand stitching. Since last Monday I have been in Yeppoon, a seaside town on the Capricorn Coast of Queensland. I was bridesmaid for my friend yesterday and came down a week or so early to help her with the final preparations. I did take up some curtains for her so did use the machine for that project.

I stopped at Spotlight on my way through town and bought some fabric for a quilt backing (some lovely lemon minky) and some fabric for the T pieces of the T Intersection quilt that I am making. I couldn't decide between the grey and the blue so yeah I bought both and I know I will find a use for the one I don't use (it can go on the back if nowhere else)

So that did a bit of damage to my statistics.

I've been keeping up with my blogging challenge having put up a new entry each day apart from Sunday (today) this week. I managed that by having all the posts pre written before I left home and scheduled to go up. I have tried to come on and do a tweet about it with a link to each days entry but they have been a bit late at times.

However the important thing is that the wedding was beautiful and hopefully everything that Suzy and Stan wanted it to be. It was Suzy's first wedding and Stan's second. He was widowed 8 years ago. His 2 adult children stood up with him and his grandson's were the page boys. The hair dresser told the other bridesmaid it was the easiest wedding party she had ever worked with - there were no egos. Mature bride and attendants helped no doubt. 

So stats for this week

Stats from Weeks 14

                 Fabric used            0.00m

                 Fabric added          8.32m

Year to Date                 

                 Fabric used         33.37m                 

                 Fabric added       27.49m

Net Used                              55.88m  

Linking up with Patchwork Times

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

G is for Google

I love Google. I know that there are other search engines but I readily admit that Google is my go to (except when a browser hijacks me to Bing but I prefer the big G)

It is great for quilters. I use it so much - searching for patterns, designers, quilting notions and supplies. I jfgi (just flippin google it).

I lost a pattern I had purchased in the UK whilst visiting Fangirl who lived there for 2 years. She had taken me to this quilting shop especially - the only such one we found open on our travels. The pattern was my only quilty souvenir of our trip. I loved it, bought it home, bought some of the fabric I needed for it and then promptly lost it.

Fangirl was able to remember the name of the shop we had visited  Puddleducks.  I googled them and found their web presence

 

 and there was the pattern. Unfortunately they were no longer stocking it but since I had found the name I was able to... you guessed it... google it and found it elsewhere and ordered it. Yay for Google. 

And yes.... before the pattern arrived in Australia I had found the copy I'd lost. 

When I decided to do this challenge again, very late in the piece, I googled A to Z blog challenge to find the sign up page. (I had deleted all the emails as I wasn't doing it again this year)

What have you used Google for?

F is for fat quarter

Just like any niche market - hobby, sect, clique, group, occupation etc Patchwork and Quilting has its own set of words that are unique to it... either unique because the words are only applicable within that niche market or because the word has its own special meaning when used within that group. The more deeply you become enmeshed within that group the more words you discover that do have specialised meanings. As you become familiar with the words they become commonplace, their meaning obvious and you forget that their meaning might not be obvious. 

The problem with these special niche words is that they can make newcomers feel at best confused and at worst excluded. It can make the group feel like an exclusive clique trying to repel all boarders. I have to say most quilters that I have met are NOT like this at all. Quilters are generally happy to see interest in their craft - delighted to welcome new enthusiasts - keen to share their addiction. However, it doesn't meant that the newcomer or the person unfamiliar with your hobby might not feel confused or excluded.

The word that I have most often had to explain to people in my circles is Fat Quarter. To the uninitiated this is totally bewidlerign. Case in point. My immediate family (ie husband and kids... on this blog known as Fixit Guy, Fangirl, The Beast, Kombi Kid(or boy) and Boyo) share Christmas hint lists to enable more thoughtful giving. I had put (surprise surprise) fabric on mine and Kombi Kid had asked for clarification and so I had said fat quarters of tone on tone cream or white fabric. He basically said HUH? I told him to just ask the lady in the shop. He did. He said he actually showed her my text message and she was able to assist. (he told me that initially he thought I was having him on.. .like telling him to get a litre of striped paint). Another friend was going to be staying for a few days whilst attending a training day and wanted to bring us a hostess gift. His wife told him to go to Spotlight and get some fat quarters. His goggle eyes made her also tell him... just ask the shop assistant. 

So what is a FAT QUARTER - this is a measure of fabric. In metric using country it is a 50cm cut of fabric (ie .5  or one half of a metre) that is then cut in half width ways So its a quarter of a metre cut of fabric. In USA its a half a yard cut in half.

A fat quarter is a rectangular piece of fabric that usually measures 56cm wide x 50cm long. Sometimes fat quarters are wider than this depending on the manufactured width of the fabric. (Note: If you're in the US, then the measurements are slightly shorter at 18” wide x 22”long.)

Most shops that sell quilting fabric will sell an array of fat quarters. The price is usually a little more than if you bought a 1/4 metre of fabric (known as a skinny quarter sometimes) but it is already cut and it means that for larger prints you get more of the pattern. Being pre cut it means it is quicker to buy as well and makes a nice little memento of a visit and a lovely gift to a fellow quilter.

Many fabric lines now sell fat quarter bundles - a fat quarter of each piece of fabric from a particular line of fabric (ie fabrics released together usually by one designer, that all co-ordinate.) These are very popular especially with on-line stores. Massdrop sell many fabric bundles and I have to admit to having purchased a number of them.

Obi by Hyakka Ryoran

Neko by Hyakka Ryoran

Andover Chambray

Chillingsworth"s Bicycle race

 

Andover Chambray

Fat quarters were probably the original pre-cut. Precut bundles are now readily available. The most popular ones are:

• 2.5" x width of fabric strips (sometimes known as jelly rolls - the name developed by one manufacturer)
• 5" squares (charm squares)
• 10" squares (layer cake)

Together with fat quarters these cuts have many patterns written especially for them. Missouri Star Quilt company has many of them featured on their You Tube channel.

WIP Wednesday

If you are visiting for the A to Z blogging challenge, this is one of my regular blogs not my alphabet post. Go back one and you will find E. You are most welcome to read anyway LOL


Currently I am not at home. I'm staying with my friend Suzy in Yeppoon, a beachside town on the Capricorn Coast in Central Queensland. Suzy is getting married on Saturday and I'm one of her bridal attendants. I've come down a few days early to help with all the last minute things that need to get done.

So the biggest work in progress for me this week has been wedding prep!

We had a mani pedi this afternoon... and a coffee. Good times

I gave them their wedding quilt when I arrived Monday and Suzy put it straight onto her bed. It looks great.

Fixit Guy and I are heading off for 7 weeks holiday a few days after we get back from Yeppoon (read about what we are doing  here) I will be taking my sewing machine with me and some projects. 

The two projects that I have prepared are theT or Intersection quilt , and a modified Squares within a Square block quilt. I'm also hoping to get the back made for my hexie quilt. 

Since I have been here with Suzy I have managed a bit of sewing. Whilst we have sat and chatted in the evening I have done some  hand stitching. I am using up the left over hexagons by piecing a strip that I will insert into the back of the quilt hexie. Suzy also asked me to take up 2 sets of curtains that were too long. I brought my sewing machine with me by accident. It was in the car already but I didn't bring my sewing box so had no pins, tape measure, scissors, bobbins etc. Suzy had some stuff (tape measure, pins and rather dodgy scissors) We bought some bobbins, thread and a decent pair of scissors. I got the curtains done this morning whilst Suzy is at work (Her last morning before she starts holidays.)

And that is it.

So what have you been working on this week?

Linking up with