WELCOME! to Sticks N Stones Gifts.

Welcome, welcome to Stick N Stones Gifts! This is a store run by sisters and they are making all sorts of different things. You've got to see them...Anyway they have decided to join this blog, Yay!, and post some interesting stuff for us in the near future. Wonderful!

Remember guys..you can post any time you like..just put your shop name in the Label space down at the bottom of your post and all your posts will be linked together.

Okay nuff said..have fun and lets boogie!
Cheers
Sylvie.

Who am I and What am I up to

Just exactly where have I sprung from...why haven't you seen me before? Yes, I realise that I seem new to you but in actual fact I have been on this earth for at least 50 years and have been involved in Fabrics for about 30 of them. It's just that I haven't tried blogging about it before.

I grew up in Africa, in Zimbabwe in fact, and am now traveling around the world on a yacht. While I'm doing this I decided to see if I could create something of interest for quilters worldwide. I used to dye fabric by the meter and sell it at quilt exhibitions local to South Africa and international too. I studied for three years at college finishing 3rd in my class and majoring in Textile Design. I've worked for many years in different factories getting experience.Thing is, the yacht is too small to hold yards and yards of fabric and frankly my partner would have a fit....so :-) I came up with the idea of Quilt Blocks. The one in my profile pic is a center piece for a quilt that is to be hung in La Paz, Mexico.

My shop is on Etsy there is an advert on the right hand side of the blog or you can click HERE.

To show you what I'm up to here are some photo's.

 The Sea Horse Block. They are all 7.5" square.

 The Butterfly Fish.

 The Swimming Crab.

The Turtle.

Oh yes.....the writing across the picture is just to protect the photo.













This is an Immature Spider Conch Shell.

 The Jelly Fish.

 (saucer)

 Moorish Idol.....such a beautiful fish. I saw my first ones in the flesh whilst snorkeling off the coast of Mexico on and island called  Isla Isabella. There were hundreds of fish there, the most I have ever seen in one place on this coastline.

Long Yellow Jelly.









I want to be able to get feedback from other quilters, who may have a request for something that they might like to see me produce. I am quite willing to add items to the pool.

So drop me a line and let me know what you think.


It was brought to my attention that I do not have any info on what can be done with these blocks that I dye and paint...I wanted to decorate the saloon on our yacht and so I made these panels and a scatter Cushion...

Butterfly fish.

I did Crazy Patch as I find this to be quick and easy, less exacting than other more rigid methods of patchwork.

Immature Spider Conch Shell..

The Long Jelly.

The Moorish Idol.

 The cream fabric is the same that I used to cover the seating in the saloon.

This is the scatter cushion cover..sitting on the seats I covered.

I also used some of the rusty coloured Faux Suede to make another cushion cover, so that the two compliment each other. All the fabrics are washable in a washing machine.

Scatter cushions on the newly sewn Saloon seating.

If you're not sure how to do Crazy Quilt Patchwork, have a look at this site.


It teaches you how to do Crazy Quilt Patchwork. I found it on the internet... happy sewing.

I hope that this gives some of you some inspiration... :-)

Work in Progress

I thought that I would share a project I'm currently working on. It's for someone on etsy who contacted me about getting two twin quilts, for two lovely girls. ( I've dubbed them "The twin twins") Up till now every quilt I have made have been unique, with the exception of my own daughters quilts. I started these quilts almost two weeks ago and have been working on them in much of my spare time.

When I start making a quilt, I first cut all the fabric into 6" X 6" squares, and the cotton batting is next. I start sandwiching them with the same pattern on the top as on the bottom. I have seen most people use one colour fabric on the back and have wondered if they do that because they get that fabric cheaper, of if they think it looks better.. I like the quilt on the underside to look like the top!

Then After I have them all sandwiched and pinned, I sew the traditional X threw every square and start to lay out my squares in the pattern I want. After I've gotten it the way I want it, I start to pin the squares together in vertical lines and take them to the machine to sew!

I start sewing the verticals lines together as I go lining up seams carefully! (because I use the same pattern on the top as bottom, sloppiness will show!) Then its on to the border! I machine stitch all the way around the blanket twice to help ensure longevity of the quilt.

Then the part that takes the longest!! The snipping! Every seam gets a snip every 1/4 inch!!

Here are some photo's of my progress so far.. there are two quilts here, one on top of the other. So that i don't get them mixed up, whatever I do to one, I do to the other!

Bottom pic is before snipping occurs!

Sorry for the bad lighting, I wish I was a better photographer!

My obsession!!

Hi there, My name is Tracey, and I am Obsessed. Yeap, I'm obsessed with the way rag quilts look, feel and are made. As soon as I seen my first one online, I HAD to learn and start to make them. Today I have a few in my etsy shop for sale. They are fuzzy and warm, like I said.. Obsessed!

I would like to thanks Sylvie For Inviting me to her wonderful blog!

As you can see, I've uploaded some pictures of some of the quilts that I've created. If you are interested in having a custom quilt made, or learning how to make these awesome quilts, please feel free to contact me @ Candianquilts@gmail.com ! Check out my shop here!!

WELCOME CANADIAN QUILTS!

I have a new guest blogger. She owns a shop at Etsy.com called Canadian Quilts. She'll tell us somethings about herself and hopefully load some photo's of various projects!
WELCOME! WELCOME! WELCOME!

We all look forward to your blogs.

A crazy quilted card of welcome :-)

Something exciting is happening!

On the Esty site is a Quilter who has a shop...I discovered her when I was browsing through various shops. She'd made this beautiful pillow cover that I just fell in love with. If you'd like to see it click here. I added her shop to mine as a favourite and then I dropped her a line telling her how I loved her pillow cover and asked her if she'd be interested in buying some of my work...make it up into something and then sell it in her shop...sending me some photo's to put up in my shop. This would help people to see how great my quilt blocks would look when they are made up into something that can be useful at the same time...

I waited for her answer and she didn't take long..so my nails are still in good repair. :-) she said YES! Cool idea! I wanted to dance around the boat with happiness...This was going to be good I thought. This is giving me a really good feeling....

So we've worked out which pieces she wants to work with and I'll be posting them off to her after the Easter holidays...and then holding my breath, thumbs and crossing my toes..all those silly things in anticipation of the final product......

No pressure MooseCarolQuilter!!! ha ha


I have posted her name "MooseCarolQuilter" under "Other sites I love" on the right  hand side of the blog. Just click on that and it will take you right to it!


So you'll have to watch the blog to see when and what happens... :-D

Making a 'T' shirt special.

Sometimes you buy a T shirt and you'd like to make it special for the person you're giving it to. I did this with a T shirt I gave to my Daughter-in-Law. It was a shirt from St Martin in the Caribbean. She says she likes it..ha ha..well anyway I hope she does. Here are some photographs for you to look at.

The Shells were screen printed with the islands name under it.

I threw some dye at it and then cut out the shapes of fish and corals from a piece of printed fabric. I appliqued them on into what I thought was a pretty design.
The seaweed is cut from some taffeta that I have on board.

A close-up of the shell printing.

I cut the fabric and inserted the dolphin. :-)

Some little fish swimming up to the top right shoulder.

The bubbles normally come from the sand or the shells....I thought that it was a nice extra touch.

A close-up of the fish and corals at the bottom of the T shirt.

Oh yes, some of the seaweed was cut from a vari-dyed fabric....perfect.
Then on the back I did something else....

I cut this image out of some fabric and appliqued it on...

You could do the same with a T shirt that has developed some holes in awkward places ...make it new again!

So there we are :-) some fun and you end up with something pretty. Have a go!
Cheers...

Looking for Inspiration

I've been spending a lot of time recently writing to all the quilt groups I can find. I really would like them to write a short blurb and send me pictures of what they are doing. Then I'll post them here. It would be great for those quilt groups who don't have a web page. I think it would be great inspiration to others who are just beginners or someone who is far away from a group and wants to be able to see what's going on. I know there are magazines around, but somehow I think that this would be more personal because people could leave comments for the people to whom the particular blurb belongs, and they could answer ...you can't do that with a magazine.

There has been one quilt group in Mexico, The La Paz Quilters, that have sent me some great photo's of things that they have been up to. They have also been involved in making bags out of fabric...I'm waiting on them for the photo's of the finished articles. It's so much fun seeing what others are creating.

Just about anything can give you inspiration. For example, here is a photo of a plate that I saw. I wondered if I could create something similar with fabric, into squares or rectangles or triangles and then make it into something.

The glass plate.

Wouldn't that be wild? I really must try it sometime..or maybe one of you can.

I painted a birthday card to my brother, but it could have been done in fabric I think. being from Africa, things like this are always popping into my head.

The Card.

Then there is the wild bird life that can inspire you. I dyed and painted this cushion cover for a customer in France..umm I think in about 1998 or 9. She recently emailed me and sent these photo's of the cover. She said that she still uses them all the time. I must admit , I'm pleased they are doing so well... :-)She has a table cloth for her dining room table as well.

The cushion cover.

The kingfishers close up.

 It is great to know that people appreciate your work. And so by putting photo's of your quilts up on the site, may get you a few comments....of course you'll have to tell everyone you know to take a look and leave a comment ha ha....

 Well that's it for today...stay well all and don't be shy!