Tutorials, Workshops, Patterns, and a Surprise!

I've been working hard on a surprise blog series....

Returning readers will have noticed there's been a few changes going on as i've been adding Pages to my blog. As mentioned below there is now a page to buy my Patterns and another to buy my Fabric Paintings (for whole cloth quilt tops).

I've now added two more; one with a full list of all the Free Tutorials I've published both on this blog and my website and another with a list of all the Workshops I'm taking this year. That leaves two more pages to put up soon - quilts for sale and fine art!

I wanted to have current pages in place before I publish some special interest posts that I'm hoping will be a big hit... as this is a teaser i'm not going to say exactly what they are (check back in about 24 hours :)!) but I will say i'm being helped by some of the most talented quilters and textile artists i've ever seen. 

Have I piqued your interest yet? 24 hours.... let the countdown begin!!!

One more Fabric Painting added.

I've added one more piece to the Hand Painted Fabric page (link on the RHS or click on the heading above). This one is done on a beautiful, purple, batik fabric I fell so in love with I had to buy the bolt and have painted it with white iridescent Shiva stick. All paintings so far are over 1m square so they maximize impact if used as a wall quilt. If you don't sew they can be stretched over canvas supports like conventional oil paintings too.

I've noticed that adding a PayPal button often puts in unexpected line spacings in different sections of the blog (often far away from where you placed the button). Have also been finding this is enormously exacerbated when I add another item for sale to an already existing page. When I paste the button code I'm also having some page text change in size visually even though the size it's been set to doesn't alter. Have googled to try and find a work around but so far nada. Would love to find one out so if you know of any work arounds please leave a comment below!

Hand Painted Fabric

Have just added two hand painted fabric pieces for sale for the very first time! (So exciting for me as i've wanted to do this for ages but wasn't sure how to do the payment buttons for unique one off items!)

They are listed in my 'Pages' menu on the RHS, and you can also get there by clicking on the heading above.

Both of these pieces have been painted this week and will look stunning as whole cloth quilt tops or with borders / panels added. They have been painted using iridescent Shiva Sticks which really glow against the black fabric. The cotton is high thread count 'Emma Louise' quilters muslin, which is wonderful to sew and the finer weave helps the colours to really pop.

To quilt you could do absolutely anything - while painting them i was imagining them being stitched with either shiny rayon or metallic threads around the painted lines and then quilted with bright swirls over the entire background. I will do one as a sample when time prevails, probably pillow cased before quilting with no binding and intensively quilted.

Over the next few weeks I'll be adding more together with a free downloadable PDF file on how to turn them into a quilt for quilting newbies. I'm thinking about offering some as kits with instructions, backing fabric and wadding too - please add in the comments below if you think that's an idea you'd be interested in!

Patterns for sale with PayPal - Pattern page up and running!

OMG i've actually managed to use HTML code! It was quite hideous, with at least a few cuffuffles (that's the technical term I'm sure!).

However I've now added a Patterns page to my blog (see it listed under the "Pages" menu on the top RHS there?). This is soon to be followed with a Fabrics page selling hand painted and dyed fabrics, and an Artwork page selling... well you can work that out. :)

 

Two of my patterns during construction - a close up of Hide and Seek ($23 PDF pattern) on the left before quilting and the Poppy from Lily and Poppy ($6 PDF pattern) before being framed. Click to enlarge.

All Patterns up right now are fused and incredibly easy to do. You don't even need to be able to sew if you're making one of these as wall art - just put it together with fusible web. If you can trace, cut, layout and iron you're good to go!

While my patterns are all up on my website www.eiloren.com.au you do need to email me to purchase them that way. On the new page you just click on the PayPal 'add to cart' button, type in the quantity (if you want one for a friend) and when you've added all you're after go through to the next section. You can pay from anywhere in the world, by credit card if you like, and best of all it's totally secure!

I will then be emailed by PayPal with your own email address so I can send out the PDF pattern the next time I'm on the computer. At this stage i've only included PDF versions, if you're after a hard copy it's easily done but you'll need to email me for that.

More patterns will be added soon!

As patterns take a long time to produce (mine are usually photo illustrated, all are at full size, feature tips and tricks and have very detailed instructions to make it easier for even beginners) the pattern price is for your own use only. Please don't make them to sell or forward the file to anyone else. Hide and Seek took me almost a year to put together. (But should only take you 3-4 days to make!) And, quite frankly, I need the dosh!

Hope you like them, would love to hear comments and see any finished versions that are out there!