The 2019 South African National Quit Festival – Shopping and fun

I arrived at Johannesburg airport on Sunday morning at 11 am which left us with some time to have a light brunch and a glass of wine before hitting the road to the festival.  As said, previously, my family doesn’t think much of the distances they have to travel but to me, it felt like we drove to another city before getting to the venue.

My sis and her hubby did not appreciate or enjoy the vendors as much as I did and chose to sit in a quiet spot and guard my shopping.

Whenever I travel by plane, I find shopping extremely hard.  I have to constantly keep the allowed suitcase weight in mind, then it boils down to availability in my local town and lastly price.  When I cannot find something easily or locally, I don’t mind paying more but then again one doesn’t simply want to shop till you drop at the first vendor and then find the same, cheaper at another. 

Remembering where I saw what was just as arduous but BIL had much better memory and sense of direction and help with this on day 1.

Wide backing was an absolute must-have for me and nowadays one gets the most beautiful backing and I even caught myself matching backing colours as if I wanted to make a quilt…. Which is not too farfetched as I got beautiful fabric.

After being satisfied that I’ve seen what every vendor had on offer, we drove back home to get ready for a Teppanyaki reservation my sis made for the evening. While the two of us travelled to the Maldives we had Teppanyaki and it made a lasting impression on my sis but sadly trying to relive that one experience will never be possible.

My sis took me to a different restaurant for breakfast every morning and I don’t even want to think about the weight gained from this.  Luckily all good things come to an end and I will hopefully get back into my normal eating routine fast.

Apart from the wide backings I mostly focussed on stuff I will be able to use on the long arm.  I can order these fairly comfortably but saving on the courier charges cannot be discarded.  I also got two whole cloth patterns designed by Telene Jeffrey (Lady Jane quilting) and will hopefully someday muster up enough courage to actually stitch these out. I also could not resist buying a bottle of plum wine at the Japanese restaurant where we had the Tippenyaki and it is one of those things that you’d like the whole world to taste but on the other hand, not want anyone else, but you, to finish it.

Up early this morning, life goes on, after all, I had to do my laundry.  My sis’ Great Dane turned baby Chihuahua while I visited and thought nothing of it to try to sit on my lap or at least share a couch with me.  So dog hair and drool were on most of my clothes.

The 2019 South African National Quit Festival – Time to go check it out

With all my customer quilts done, not in the mood to do any piecing and my long arm in for a service, I got packing.  I will be flying this morning where my little Sis and her hubby awaits me – shame, my sis was summoned to drive me to and from the festival and sadly, we both inherited the ‘no sense of direction gene’, I think from my dad.  I believe she is not too chuffed with this venture of mine but it is about time I take revenge for all the times I had to help with homework, comb her hair and dealt with her giggling friends.  Whether we will ever get to the venue remains to be seen.

I warned her beforehand that I will pack as little as possible to allow me to shop and return with the full allowed weight in my suitcase.  Thus, I am not taking a towel, a hairdryer, basically the bare minimum and use all her stuff (except her husband).

Luckily her hubby will drive us (for the first time) to the festival from the airport and we are supposed to take in our surroundings and see how to get to and from the venue….. Wishful thinking duh!!  In the city where I live it is 13 kilometres from one side of town to the other and they tell me the festival venue is near their house….. Only 22 kilometres, where does ONLY comes into play??  Is there a guesthouse somewhere in between where we can overnight?

When I asked my sis about this, she rudely informed me that we’ll be driving next to the informal settlements and there is no stopping, pausing or pretending to be interested.  It will be ‘go and get there’ or your life!  I can’t help smiling thinking of quilting friend Karin and I travelling all over and ending up in squatter camps….. Really Port Elizabeth, which other city has the same street name in different neighbourhoods?  Driving through the taxi ranks praying just to get to the other side alive, with my nephew exclaiming “you shouldn’t be there, they would kill you”. 

Packed some quilting goodies for my Sis, who actually is more of a seamstress, but seeing that she quit work recently and now has to tag along to the festival with me, the bug might just bite her too.

All packed and ready to go!

All done by hand – except my part

I have quilted several quilts for one specific quilter and she has such a nice refreshing take on shapes, colour and placement.  Every time she brings me a new quilt, I am in awe.

Unlike most other quilts where you have X amount of blocks down and X amount across, hers just take on a life of their own.

I dare not try and custom quilt trying to create areas, shapes or blocks as I feel it would ruin the initial appearance of the quilt, so best to go with an edge to edge pattern, simply securing the three layers.

We had a different week in that granddaughter was in the hospital again and next week my machine will go in for a service while I will be shopping at the South African National Quilt Festival.  I badly wanted to finish this quilt and get it back to the quilter before leaving my house.  Fortunately, one motif edge to edge does go faster than custom quilting.  While looking at the quilt and having to spend time at the hospital I ALMOST got myself into doing something by hand but I realised it might never get done.

We did order a cake for granddaughter’s birthday, so even without a party, she had something to get excited about.

Speaking about going faster when doing one type of quilting opposed to another brought me to a point where I needed to change my tariffs.  Up until fairly recently, I had a flat rate per square inch, irrespective of what I quilted BUT one quilt would take up as little as 3 hours of my time whereas another could take up 3 weeks and I don’t think it is fair.

Then other factors come into play.  For this quilt because of the various and highly contrasting colours I opted for a greyish thread BUT I didn’t want the thread to take over the quilt on the darker colours, so I used a 60 weight thread which unfortunately costs more.  So there are so many things to consider when charging for the work you did.

Got it done though and now I can focus on what to pack for my trip.

Quilt for a dad

A quilter brought a quilt on Tuesday and wanted it done before her dad came to visit.  Fortunately, we have a public holiday today and I could get some extra quilting time in late last night and in the wee hours of this morning.

I used 5 different thread colours on this, 4 on the top and 1 for the bobbin and it just so turned out that the bobbin winder on my machine died after winding 2 bobbins.

With the bad luck some good fortune too.  I am an absolute fan of Pfaff machines and my the machine on the frame was my first ‘non-Pfaff’ purchase BUT as usual Pfaff to the rescue and I could wind my bobbins on my domestic.  It didn’t quite fill a bobbin as much as the long arm machine did but I could still carry on quilting with just more bobbin changes.

The quilt had no less than 4 borders and I did something different on each and here the first 3 thread changes can be seen.

The forth border was white and yet another thread change.

Because of the time restraint, I did not use any rulers and decided to deliberately leave some wide-open spaces to allow the quilt to have plenty of texture.

The quilt was actually way too big for my frame and it took a couple of nifty tricks to get it done, endorsing my belief that I should not take on quilts larger than my frame can handle.

Got it done though and glad it came off the frame intact.

Royal Squares – 1

Some time ago I got an e-mail, thanking me for my purchase on bluprint and asking me to rate my purchase.  I purchased something from somewhere I didn’t know???  How much wine did I have when doing this??  Took me some time to realise Craftsy had a name change, so if I bought a Royal Squares pattern it should be saved somewhere on my computer.  The search began and then I found it!

It made sense, with me wanting to work away some of my scraps, this would be a darling.  I just can’t help wondering how many other amazing patterns are hidden on my computer.  It is time to stop purchasing and start doing.  Anyway turned out this was a free pattern, so luckily no money wasted.

I guess the pattern is easy to make if you work according to it and it suggests quarter meters or a jelly roll.  I, however, need to get rid of my scraps so my cutting turned out way more tedious.

The pattern consists of only 2 blocks and said 32 of Block A.  I did not like the size and decided to start out with 40 Block A’s.  I might have to make more once I’ve finalised the layout and size.

Got 40 blocks A’s done and on the design wall.

Invited the kids for lunch yesterday and tried at least 2 new recipes and one new ingredient and I love it when everything turns out really tasty.  From now on liquid smoke too will become a standard condiment in our house.