Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Spotlight on Dianne


The WA branch of The Room continues to grow... and the talent they have is amazing.  Here is an introduction to the work of Dianne Betts, an experiences and talented quilter whose work always makes you look twice...

The second member of AROOOWA branch is Dianne.  She has been quilting now for 17 ½ (or so) years.  She is also the mother of the other AROOOWA branch member.  While the crafting gene has been passed down to her daughter, Dianne’s love is quilting!  She has made a lot of quilts!! Some are made exactly as the patterns and materials come, while others the colours maybe changed or even the patterns slightly altered.
Many have been kept, but more have been made as special gifts for friends and family.  Until recently Dianne lived in Warracknabeal, Victoria and her Materials, Patterns and Block Of the Months (B.O.M) are from Quilters Harvest also in Warracknabeal.  Some of Dianne’s past crafting creative loves have been knitting, smocking and clothes making.
Jimmys Quilts – Jimmy’s Quilt is for one of Dianne’s newest great nephews.  It is a mixed bag of squares.  Some square patterns that have been used before, and some, like the truck and tractor are newly made up.


This Goes with That by Sue Daly (W.I.P.)


This Goes with That’ is a pattern designed to use up left over scraps.  It is a great quilt where the quilter can stretch their imagination in designing the blocks and colour mixing.  These are just a few of the pieces yet to be attached (a W.I.P – Work In  Progress).


Creators Garden




Sunny Days Leanne Beasley – This quilt is used on the single bed in one of the bedrooms.


Sampler Of Love and Life-Rickety Stiches – This quilt (done in 2006) is used on Dianne’s bed.


Just to show that Dianne’s quilts aren’t hidden away, or are only to look at, here is one quilting piece that sits on the drawers next to Dianne’s seat containing all her sewing/appliqué/quilting bits and bobs that she does in the evening’s in front of the t.v.  Thankfully the grandkids know not to touch these things anymore! The quilt is North, South, East and West.

(** A Quilters Harvest sells more than just material.  They also sell scrapbooking/card supplies, gifts and other odds and ends.  It is a wonderful shop to visit for anyone in the area. I also used to by scrap/card supplies there anytime I visited Warracknabeal and cart them back to Perth – Jodi)
(We have done our best to recognise all the quilt designers and patterns, but as Dianne quilts so many quilts, the names and designers of older pieces are sometimes forgotten or mislaid)






Sunday, July 15, 2012

Puzzle Boxes


With school holidays, wet weather and children stuck inside, The Room, Vic continues to be quiet (too busy rotating washing on clothes horses and trying to cut off the escape routes as my cabin-fevered boys try to play in the rain).... fortunately, creativity continues on the other side of the country... 

I recently bought the kids some new puzzles.  The boxes came with 8 puzzles in each.  When I opened them up at home, I was disappointed to find that each puzzle was simply in a plastic bag with a paper picture included.  Anyone with young kids will know that this is a potential disaster for mixed up puzzle pieces and torn pictures.  What to do?  I decided to make some boxes to go inside the boxes...of course.


Using a template I already had, I traced out 16 boxes!

Then I cut out 16 boxes!  (Wasn’t too bad as I did it in front of the t.v one night after the kids were asleep...helped keep me awake.)

Scored 16 boxes!

And stuck together 16 boxes!  But I wasn’t finished there.


Each box needed the picture on the front so that you could see what you were making, but I also wrote how many pieces were in each one.  I thought of just sticking them on, but my kids are puzzle lovers (especially my son) and I thought that after awhile the paper would get torn (one already was).  So out came one of my favourite things!  ‘The Laminator’  This little baby gets a workout in our house.  Everything from laminating school certificates for posterity, to laminating pictures to go on the kids toy boxes so they can pack up easily.


So some laminating later, with a bit of adhesive and I was left with this!  The kids haven’t stopped playing with their puzzles since (and anything that isn’t tv in this house is good) and most evenings or mornings can be found sitting in front of the heater doing them.
I spread this over 2 days and it wasn’t too bad.  A little time consuming, but if I did it while watching t.v at night or when having a cuppa it went by fairly fast.