Studios Magazine

Hello All

Long time no Blog posts!...... Sorry

and Happy Thanks Giving to my American friends - I hope you all managed to get some time with your families 

Just a quick check in to show you the Latest Studios Magazine

and a story it has on my Shed

I've cheekily photographed the magazine on top of a quilt made out of Oakshott fabrics you wont see this quilt for a long long time.....

Anyway I'm off!

I'm teaching in the shed today & my students are turning up

Xx Siobhan 

THIS......

*******UPDATE Sept 2014 

Pattern available in my SHOP

siobhanrogers.com.au

Harlequin Chevron Quilt

HELLO!

I just arrived home to Sydney today - after being in New York for two weeks.

If you follow me on instagram you would have seen my millions of travel photos.....

and if your in Australia you may have seen this? in the last week.

Spotlight Australia has released a quilting book with 18 patterns in it...... One being my chevron quilt!

I still don't have my hands on a copy of the book and I'm busting to see who else is in it and what patterns they have.

My quilt is made out of the Spotlight Australia solids range and all out of fat 1/4's - including the

front/ back & binding

and just as an interesting bit of info - the knitted blanket on the bed was made by my Nana and Aunties when my eldest was born (13.5 years ago) Nana gave everyone wool and a square to knit and then put it all together. Funnily enough - I cant knit to save my life.... I obviously missed that gene. 

The quilt was long arm machine quilted by Kim Bradley in a figure 8 pattern - my go to pattern for most quilts. 

I'm off... I'm a bit jet lagged and delirious!

Take care & let me know if you have seen the book yet?

Xx Siobhan Rogers

Patchwork isnt just for quilts

lots of work to complete.....in the next week :-/

One of my not quite finished projects is this chair....... Its needs me to make some double welt cord in the matching fabrics to finish the edge and hide the staples.

I bought these two chairs on ebay earlier this year at the bargain price of $90AUD,

and I had been scouring pinterest for ideas.

In my travels I found a very cute blog (which I bet everyone except me knew about) called Mustard Seed Interiors 

well worth a look if you like painting/ redoing furniture.

Any way the chair was mentioned back here when I was painting it.

I'll do a post on all the products and techniques I used (promise)once I finish the double welt cord and hot glue gun it on.

not a bad transformation ??

Xx Siobhan R

Magazines, Books & Jam

I cant believe this month has gone by so quickly!......

I've been busily working away in my backyard shed and teaching patchwork in Sydney.

The usual family mayhem has been happening and I'm getting prepared for my trip to NYC!

I leave in a week and a bit and cant wait :)

I was in NYC around this time last year - Hopefully its not as hot and sticky this time around (first world problems).

The last week has seen lots of happy mail coming through

below are some mags & a book that I have some work in.

Australian Homespun magazine with a quilt pattern

A new UK magazine with a story on me :) 

& Erin Burke Harris's new Book with lots of pics of my quilts :) 

I also made some strawberry and vanilla jam ....... The Kids were hungry & I was too busy & running late to take a picture!

maybe over the weekend when its not so hectic I can share my jam & scones recipe....with pictures

Xx Siobhan Rogers

Polka Dot Cake

We have had another Birthday in our household!

My youngest turned seven yesterday.

Gosh time goes by so quickly......

Thanks to Pinterest I found a polka dot cake

The original recipe is here

I didn't follow all the instructions ..... for many reasons

first one was because I was running out of time and had to use the ingredients in my cupboard - the other was the recipe was written for US baking not Australian....

I had no idea what pudding mix was??

or flour baking spray etc

I think a trip out to Costco before baking would have helped me!!

Anyway my first attempt went ok,

could have been better but Ms 7 was happy enough. 

The cake pop balls took four attempts, I was ready to give up. 

The batter had to be very thick and the pan needed to be sprayed and flour coated for the cakes to come out of the pan - I made the presumption that it was a non stick pan and I could get away with just using baking spray.... and it stuck like no tomorrow.

MUST USE BAKING SPRAY & FLOUR

so after my fourth attempt I had some colourful cake pop cake balls  

My second mistake was making butter cakes as the main cake, I thought I needed a moist dense cake - I was worried about the polka dots drying out.

It did work BUT as a double layered cake it was too much cake - a lighter fluffy cake would have been better.

I iced the cake with a simple butter cream icing - I used four times the quantity in the recipe to cover the whole cake and the middle.

To keep it simple I used chocolate freckles to decorate the outside.

Not the best picture in the world, this is from my Instagram feed - as you can see the polka dots worked.... but more Polka Dots would have been good. 

I thought I packed them in pretty tight in the cake tin, I had around 15 polka dots in each layer. I think I was being a little too careful and should have crammed in a few more. 

So Voila - Ms 7's birthday cake 

I'd love to know if you have any tips or tricks? 

Xx Siobhan 

Where do you get your Inspiration from?

Sometimes things on pinterest and magazines catch my eye and they get filed in my head for a rainy day.

Reading one of my favourite French crafty magazines, Marie Claire Idees - October 2012  I saw a cute little black board map of France.

and all the vintage school maps started popping up everywhere - which I really liked too

and I cant forget to mention Pip Lincoln who made an embroidery version of an Australian Map

and then I meet Annabel Wrigley at Portland Quiltmarket this year and saw online her awesome patchwork map of the USA that she was doing with kids.....

and then I jumped on the map bandwagon and made my own Australian version!

and...

Its now happily hanging in my studio 

Xx Siobhan 



 - EDIT - NEWS - 
after lovely Florence's comment - I decided to create a flickr group

Patchwork Maps

Please Join in and make a patchwork map - I would love to see lots of Maps from all over the world :) 

Xx Siobhan 

Are you flying your flag???

...... Hello!

Just a quick drop in to tell you about a quilt along that Shannon is doing (aka Aunty Cookie)

its a new pattern called 

Fly the Flag

here is the time-line if your interested in playing along

Week 1. (Finish by 16 August 2013) Pick it! Fabric selections – in a show us your flags kind of way.

Week 2. (Finish by 23 August 2013) Cutting it! cutting out & making the flags – ideas for personalizing flags, tips on making it fancy.

Week 3. (Finish by 30 August 2013) Sewing it! yes that would be sewing it all together.

Week 4. (Finish by 6 Sept 2013) Quilt it! ideas and inspirations and techniques.

Week 5. (Finish by 13 Sept 2013) Bind it! And lets perve at your finished quilt….

Week 6. (Finish by 20 Sept 2013) QAL Wrap up & the awarding of awesomeness.

a flickr page here - http://www.flickr.com/groups/flytheflagquilt/

The pattern is available here - https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/158065442/fly-the-flag-quilt-pdf-pattern?ref=shop_home_active

&

The hashtag on instagram is #flytheflagquilt

Below is the selections of fabric I was playing with this afternoon. I am attempting to go for the crazy colour look.... I really wanted to do a natural linen as the base and coloured prints as the flags BUT I want to see what it will look like with a colourful printed fabric as a base.... we will see!

It could work or it could not....

and below are some bits and bobs of my studio

I unfortunately have far too many secret projects on the go - which is really no fun when you are blogging 

&

I'm all stocked up with Aurifil threads

and my little sideline project has been this chair - a post all of its own will come soon.

Thats me all caught up 

Xx Siobhan 

Back to working

I'm back from my travels with the family.

I love travelling and seeing new things BUT I also like getting home and having all my comforts - I'm not much of a rolling stone.

I should have written "Not a rolling stone".....

The things I do when I should be doing house work ;-/ 

This trip we went to Tasmania, Australia - absolutely beautiful and thankfully we saw snow. 

In a day or two all the kids will be back at school and I will be head down working hard on some projects and teaching a few patchwork classes around Sydney. 

This weekend I've been back in my studio for just a little bit - doing some hand stitching with lots of blue perle 8 thead. Hopefully you'll see the results of that one in print soonish. 

I'm still behind on my emails - Sorry!

I'll get around to replying etc this week when the kids are back at school :)

Take care Xx

Siobhan R

How on Earth do you

store all your quilts?

When teaching or generally talking about what I do - The number one question is

"What do you do with ALL your quilts"?

because I do have a lot of them and I do keep making more and more.....

A few have gone to friends or family but mostly they live in my house or studio and sometimes one or two are on display at places that I teach at.

BUT

most of them are in my house!

If they aren't on a bed (which we have five of in our house and most beds have two quilts on them) they are on the lounge, hanging on a chair, folded on a chair, in a basket or hanging on one of the many ladders I have collected......

I'm yet to have wall hangings although I do have box framed fabric art works

Quilts aren't just for beds!

How do you store your quilts?

and on decoration/ houses and storage etc I have been pouring over Megan Morton's (Australian based Stylist) new book - I love my room its gorgeous!

I love the book! 

& my kids have been absolutely fascinated with it.

Lots of great ideas. Which will come in very handy when we eventually start our renovation/ extension.

more room for more quilts!

I'll have to get my dad onto making more ladders for me :)

If any Sydney people are interested in a ladder (like the one pictured) 

they are 900 wide X 1800 high, raw timber

and cost $130 AUD

email me :)

I'm off - last day of school today before the winter holidays and I have a million jobs to do 

Xx Siobhan