AMAFU HAND DYED FABRICS
Stories of a Quilter’s Husband
AMAFU CQF
C O N T E M P O R A RY Q U I LT FA B R I C VOLUME1 ISSUE
March 2011
Inspiration
FROM THE DYE BUCKET
Hi All.
February has been a very busy month for us- mainly because of all the travelling we do to see customers and to go to the First Golden Rand and Jacaranda meetings of the year.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE From the Dye Bucket
1
Stories of a Quilter’s Husband 2. Off the Frame
2
Inspiratrion
3
Quilters Tips and Tricks Amafu Diary
3 4
Jacaranda Quilters Guild is going from strength to strength
And they seem to have to move to a bigger venue every two years. What was very noticable at both Golden Rand Guild and Jacaranda are the increasing
umbers of younger faces which is wonderful for quilting in general. We stopped off at a quilter’s house in Secunda this time and discovered that quilters in Secunda are alive and well and quilting madlyand that the number is growing, thanks to people like Rina and her friends.
n da e l G d n a Al
New from AMAFU We are very busy with plans for the upcomming festival in Capetown and have now started testing in earnest. There are several new Colour Families in the pipeline, coordinated to American fabric ranges that will be launched later in the year. Remember, we don't only sell in South Africa, but in the States and
several European countries as well. We are also planning a range of new special edition hand prints in meter pieces which will not be repeatable. I am currently working on some new patterns for the website which will be launched later in March and, given the interest in mug rugs, have decided to put up designs
for these. Never heard of a mug rug? Great little gifts which can be min-quilts in their own right. Watch for our new range of crackle screenprints, which tie in well with the splatter colours and work well for borders and sashings.
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March 2011
Stories of a Quilter’s Husband You want to know why Glenda hasn’t been doing much quilting lately?
the Net, ordering one- and now I hardly see her- or if I do, the Kindle is in her hand.
Apart from the summer weather which she HATES with a passion, Glenda has acquired a Kindleand I haven’t seen hide nor hair of her since- and when I do see her, her nose is stuck in a book!
Want to know what it is?
You see, Glenda loves books and reading with a passion- ANY book! When she is desperate, she will read the lables on cans.
It’s basically an electronic book. It’s about the size and weight of a paperback and you can put it into a reasonably sized handbag. There are plenty of different makes around, Glenda just happens to have the Kindle.
While we were in the U.K. Last year, there were ads all over the place for the Kindle reading device but it was from Amazon and we were unable to have it sent to our hotel because of time constraints.
What worries me is that so far she has accumulated about 300 books in her library - on the Kindle and that collection is growing daily between downloading from Amazon and a free library called Free-eBooks.net
The moment we stepped through the door at home, Glenda was on
Will I ever see a home cooked meal again?
Glenda tells me that you don't have to have a reader to be able to download books from this site. You can also download and read via your computer. Glenda says that she likes her fiction on the Kindle but that its unlikely that she will buy any nonfiction- especially books to do with art- using this method because the Kindle she has at the moment is black and white and the screen is too small. At least I can now sleep peacefully while she reads in bed!
Al
Off the Frame with Shereen The quilt is FINALLY on the frame! Remember I spoke about this custom quilt I was to quilt last month? Or at least make a start on it? The idea was that I would have time to quilt it while I watched the shop while Glenda was away for two weeks in February. The top, backing and batting was here, tucked away in a bag, all ready to put on the frame- or so we thought! When I took it out, I found to my horror that the batting was a few inches short - and then the hunt for batting began!
Just shows: - check, check and check again! The customer needed to be able to get this batting within the confines of Durban and I think we contacted every shop we could think of. All said they didn’t have any. The supplier was the most useless of the lot! When we phoned them, they couldn’t give us any of their customer’s names. It's a wonder these people are still in business! Eventually, the customer tracked down some batting, brought it to us and I have made a start.
the quilt so that when I get to actually quilting the blocks, I won’t end up with a wavy border. I have done this all with dissolving thread. There are three borders on this quilt and I have planned to feather one and put a cable design into the second. The third will have a leaf design which will echo the flower pattern I want to put into the cream blocks on the quilt.
The whole idea is to make sure The customer had provided the that the quilt is adequately batting as we don't have space quilted but remains soft and to keep the 275cm wide Once on the frame, it has taken drapey- and cuddly at the end. batting. a fair amount of time to stabilise
en e r e Sh
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March 2011
PAGE 3
Inspiration
Someone asked me the other day where I get my inspiration from, given that I don't exactly do traditional quilts or make quilts from patterns.
you cant help but see photos- and the more you wonderful quilts in everything. take, the better you will getand get that perfect shot for a The leaves and stems on my wonderful quilt. palm tree are just narrow triangles. Ok so maybe they I have My first reaction was “ have a bit of a bend to them taken Huh???” But then I thought but they are still triangles. photos of about it and realised that Depending on what the potholes possibly many of us had clouds are doing, they can be in the forgotten to simply look at the rectangles or ovals. road, old world we live in. Perhaps we rope are s-o-o busy concentrating So how about it? Try creating on just getting through each your OWN design from your day that we have forgotten own particular world instead the simple pleasure of just of copying someone else’s looking. world. The inspiration washed up When last you did take a It helps, of course, if you have on the beach, rocks look out of your bedroom some photos to use so get ( Salt Rock window early in the morning out there with your digital has some and see the sunrise? camera- you have no wonderful In my case, there is a palm excuses with these as you rocks) plants tree directly were the sun can dump the rubbish- and that have Winter’s End rises at this time of the year take photos of anything and just been watered, birds if and it creates the most everything, from sunsets to they are sitting still, old fantastic silhouette against plants to buildings. buildings- even old buckets, that early morning sun. Look for the unusual shots like buildings through a ladder bones skulls, Nature has the most instead of just the buildings, wonderful shapes and if I am closeups of a piece of old and Obviously, I cant use most of them but one thing leads to honest, everything is either a tatty rope. A sunset with a another and what I might not square, a rectangle, an oval tree on one side. be able to use this year might or a circle and if you look at well become a quilt next year. things from that point of view, Get adventurous with your
Quilting Tips and Tricks Use a knitting needle stopper on your small delicate embroidery scissors. It will save the points on them when closed. When rotary cutting many strips at a time, keep the ruler level by leaving at least one strip on the non-cutting side of the ruler. This helps to keep the ruler from shifting when you cut because it cant” flop down” to the side of the fabric edge. When you need to rip out a seam, use your seam ripper and cut a stitch about every half inch or so.
Ten pull the thread from the other side and it will pull out easily without distorting your fabric. You will have to pick out the small pieces of thread but that’s easier than trying to rip out a seam that will distort your block. When you have trouble threading your sewing machine needle or any needle, place a small piece of white paper behind the needle. Use a wooden sosatie stick to hold down the corners of fabric as you sew the seams together so they don't slip.
When making quick triangle corners (such as in making a snowball block) use a glue-stick SPARINGLY to hold the corner blocks in place. Sew and trim as usual
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March 2011
Page 4 Glenda Kirkiridis has been hand dyeing fabric since 1990 and only uses the best dyes in the world and export grade woven American weave cotton. Amafu uses a number of dyeing techniques to achieve spectacular results and a top quality product. AMAFU can be found in the U.K., USA,Australia, The Netherlands, and Germany as well as its home base, South Africa.
AMAFU HAND DYED FABRICS 36 Headingley Ave WESTVILLE 3630 Republic of South Africa Phone: 0027-031-2662823 Fax: 0027-031-2662823 Email:admin@amafu.co.za
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AMAFU DIARY 5th March 2011 Natal Quilters Guild Durban Gilrs High School Penzance Road Durban From 9.00 am till 1.00 pm
Creating with Copper Create a beautiful copper design in two lessons, using Basic Design with Electric copper foil and straight stitch on your machine Quilt R270.00 for 2 lessons Got this program and have including kit. No idea how to use it? Dates : 4th & 5th April 2011 3 lessons concentrating on Basic Layout, Basic applique from 9.00 am till 12.00 design, Basic Piecing design. before commencement of class
Licourice All Sorts Tired of producing the same old stuff? No inspiration? Leap out of the box with this non-traditional quilt. Use Learn to design your own traditional methods but create quilts with Equilt 5, 6 or 7. something totally different and originalRequirements : and change Laptop with legal copy your life! of any of the above. This is not a paint by numbers quilt! R 210.00 for three lessons. Must be paid for in full
R210.00 for 3 lessons. Must be paid for in full before commencement of class