Hier kiep-kiep, daar kiep-kiep......

My tafel in die kombuis het ‘n glasblad op om die kwilt op die tafel te beskerm.

‘n Glasblad kan maklik skoon gehou word, maar die lawaai is iets om op ‘n ander dag te bespreek!

Toe het ek vir my plekmatjies vir die vier sitplekke gemaak en die tema kon nie anders as hoenders wees nie, want my kombuis is omtrent iets soos ‘n hoenderhok!

Something sticky to stitch: Guinea fowl

Sometime ago, a few of my quilter-students have put in the request for me to teach them to do an Art Quilt.

I have done an Art Quilt in a class where Kathryn Harmer-Fox was the Teacher, but I think she is ‘n wonderful motivator too!  She makes you believe you CAN do it.  With that motivation in mind, I did teach an Art Quilt Class to 6 quilters.

Judie Bellingham form BellaOnline, pointed out that an Art Quilt should at least look like a quilt by the type of fabrics used and should be composed of at least two layers - the face layer and the backing layer.

It should also be quilted, to give meaning to the term: Art QUILT. Some of these stitches must be visible at the back of the quilt.

With this concept in mind, I prepared to teach my first class. 

Step 1:  Iron a layer of Vilene onto the back of a piece of fabric – something like unbleached calico.

Step 2: Trace the design on the fabric, which is now called the background.

Step 3:  Use Pritt and glue pieces of fabric (may include satin, silk, leather, organza, etc) onto the background.

Step 4:  Cover all the raw edges with stitches in a matching thread.

Step 5: Layer the top with batting and a backing – we call this a sandwich.

Step 6:  Quilt and finish off with a binding.

Step 7:  Finish off with embellishments.

82, 73 en 103!

Wat het hierdie getalle met mekaar te doen?

Ouma Cielie Prins het verjaar en 82jaar oud geword!  Ek, Gerda en tannie Magriet het haar uitgeneem vir koek en tee by Get Together langs College Crossing.  Sommer ‘n dubbele viering, want Gerda verjaar saam met Ouma op dieselfde dag.

Die vriendelike vrou daar kom vra toe wie verjaar, want sy wil vir die persoon so ‘n klein ietsie gee.  Ouma sê toe dadelik dat dit sy is en dat sy vandag 73jaar oud is!

Na ‘n lekker gelag en gekuier en gekoek & tee, het ek haar teruggevat na haar bed toe, want die ou lyf het begin voel soos 103jaar oud!

Baba wat te groot is vir 'n baba!

My baba is vandag 27 jaar oud en swerf in 'n ander land rond!
Dit se vir my dat sy nou my jongste kind is en beslis nie meer my baba nie.

Toe ons in Wisconsin gebly het, het elkeen van ons ook daar 'n verjaardag gehad.  Daar het ons begin met 'n heerlike tradisie om verjaardagkoek en roomys saam te eet.  Ons dink nou nog met wonderlike heimwee aan die lekker jaar wat ons daar deurgebring het en die wonderlike vriende wat ons daar gemaak het.

A birthday in a foreign country will always bring fond memories back to us.  The people of Spring Green, Dodgeville and Richland Center in Wisconsin, treated us with love and joy.  They kept at bay the longing for our own country and our people. 

On birthdays we always talk about our habit of eating ice cream and birthday cake together – our friends in the USA taught us this clever idea!

BOOKINGS AT COMPUTICKET!!

We have been planning for months (actually years) to be a part of this day in the history of the Oranje Kwiltersgilde (that is our name in Afrikaans)! 

Today is the day on which we can buy our tickets for registration, workshops, kits, functions and lectures from Computicket for our Quilt Festival.

The Oranje Quilters’ Guild is the host of the 17th National Quilt Festival 2013 – Kaleidoscope. 

This festival will be held at the Eunice High school in Bloemfontein.

Our guild was founded in 1989 and is a non-profitable organisation.  We have members from a wide area in the Free State, including Smithfield, Dewetsdorp and Bultfontein. These members are also affiliated to the South African Quilters’ Guild.

We are excited to be the hosts of the 17^th National Quilt Festival in 2013.  This will be our first Quilt Festival on national level.

The aim of our festival is to promote Patchwork and Quilting, as well as bringing quilters together to share, encourage and inspire each other.  We want them to have a meaningful and an inspirational experience at our festival.

This exciting event, which will take place in Bloemfontein from 1 – 7 July 2013, will offer a wide variety of workshops, demonstrations and lectures on all skill levels. 

We are inviting teachers and delegates, both national and international, to join us.

We, as the hosts of the festival, are inviting and sponsoring a group of ladies from Botshabelo, as well as a group of daughters from Ons Kinderhuis, to attend our festival.  This will give them the opportunity to learn more about Patchwork and Quilting. The aim is to encourage them enough to seek further knowledge.

We are inviting many exciting vendors to attend our festival and sell their products.  We are also looking forward to the exhibition of beautiful quilts.  This is a showcase of the best work of South African quilters.

I am greeting you today as:

Chairlady:  Kaleidoscope Quilt Festival 2013

Iessie Steenberg                    

Van Toeka tot Nou

Ouderdom kan 'n mens vang!  Dit het ek net weer die naweek gesien.

My skoonma, 'n wonderlike mens, kan nie meer onthou nie.  Dit is 'n tragedie, want wat het geword van al die dinge waarvan sy wel geweet het?

Soos die dingetjie op die foto langsaan.  Dit hoort seker eintlik in 'n museum, maar my skoonsuster het dit vir my gegee en ek kan nie genoeg daarna kyk nie.

Wat sou my skoonma se ma met dit gemaak het?  Die hekelpen in die middel kan nie uit of in beweeg nie.  Ek het aanvanklik gedink hulle kon daarmee iets doen soos vurk-brei, maar dan moet die hekelpen kan beweeg.

As jy weet, vertel vir my ook, asseblief.

Twee naamgenote - een is nog lus vir avontuur en die ander een is net dankbaar sy kan nog haar kinders onthou!

Lewe voluit en laat jou merk!

Festival Preparations:

In preparation for our Kaleidoscope Quilt Festival 2013, I went out on a search for goodie bags for the kids (who are going to attend our festival).

I ended up at Blue Valentine in Pasteur Ave and met the most pleasant person, Sue.  After picking and counting, it was my turn to pay (after given a lot of discount) with the bankcard of the Oranje Kwiltersgilde. Swipe, pin code, swipe, pin code – no success! 

I then needed to make arrangements for Karin de Villiers to pay and pick the bags up.  And this is the part of the story I actually would like to tell:  Sue gave me the till slip and the bags to take with me to Karin.  This is a wonderful trustful gesture in this corrupted world of us!

End of this story:  the bags are paid!  Karin came to my rescue. And Hettie, our Treasurer, did not kill me for the inconvenience of having to go to the bank to sort out the problems that I have created!

Even though I do not want to give you even a sneak peek of our goodie bags, I am going to share something stitchy (one of my own words) with you:

The Uile Kwilters made these bags to generate funds for their Hospitality Department on the Festival.

Step 1:  If you want to do any appliqué work on these type of bags – DO NOT IRON THE MOTIF ON IT.  We have used glue (Pritt) to glue the fabrics onto the background.  It is also advisable to stiffen the bag’s fabric with Stitch&Tear at the back of the appliqué before you do any stitching.

On the photo is my bag – I got the humongous rose button from my mother’s stuff – I live in the ROSE city!  

Step 2: To make the plastic see-through bag on the front, cut plastic about 6” wide and 8” long. Use the technique of the quilter’s binding to finish it off on the two short sides. I have used my Walking Foot, because the plastic can be sticky. 

Step 3:  We unpicked the stitches of the handles on one side of the bag.  Only the two inside rows.  Slip the plastic in and stitch it again.  And do remember to stitch the bottom part of the bag too!

This works well for storing the pattern of your knitting or other handwork that can go along with you.

To see a photo of Karin, my wonderworker, take a look at our blog :  oranjequilters.blogspot.com - Hettie interviewed us when she started the blog.