Joyce’s Quilting Quandary

I decided that I would do some assessing for the VCE Design and Technology exam. I received an e-mail about some vacancies and decided I would have a go. So I spent ten days filling in the squares on the mark sheets with a 2B pencil.  I decided that this would be the basis of my block for this week. I did the background using PrintMaster and then printed on fabric using the computer ,then added some tulle and organza for the 2B pencil blocks and enhanced them with some hand quilting.

There is a great button shop in Buninyong, a little town on the urban fringe of Ballarat. I have been hearing great reports about their range and variety, but had not got there. I finally made the visit. Well worthwhile! Lovely buttons and thread! One slight embarrassment which happens to me often as a retired teacher is that the girl in the shop knew exactly who I was; I recognised the face but still haven’t worked out the name!!! She has a 15 year old daughter so it is a few years since I taught her. I had a wonderful time choosing the black and white buttons! I have combined them with two black and white squared fabrics which I have used on the cross. I think this toned them down somewhat! I was really pleased with the “46” which I used a machine embroidered black outline and then stitched diagonally across with a variegated grey thread with a black bobbin. I echoed the squares on the red corner fabric. i have got the first name, Collette! Working on the surname!

Michael’s birthday this week, so I had to do the final cup cake! They have been fun to do! This had to be a “boy” type cup cake which was a bit of a challenge! This time I used Camouflage fabric for the top, because Michael is in the Army Reserve. The bottom of the cup cake was a black fabric with brown writing on it and I pin tucked the alternate rows. The buttons were included because I like buttons and because I thought that they were a slightly military trim. He is also interested ( passionate ! ) about photography so I included the camera, a bit small to write NiKON on it. The cup cake was particularly appropriate for michael because he and his wife Natalie have made hundreds of mud-cake cupcakes to be wedding cakes for friends and relatives. The base fabric was a recent purchase from Clegs and I added the red corner and machine embroidered the lips across it. I confined the quilting mainly to the top sections.